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US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

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Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#261

Post by mark_l_watson »

sjsdaiuasgdia wrote: post #221
mark_l_watson wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe I am wrong to do this, but I run Gemini 2.5 Pro in ‘research mode’, ask a question I am interested in, wait usually about 2 to 4 minutes and Gemini summarizes a large number of sources for me. I think there is a lot of bias everywhere, and I thought that this sort of averages some of the noise away. I think grandparent comments about what constitutes a military base vs. a facility are interesting. I was a defen…

I've had too many lies told to me by all of these "AI" tools to trust anything I don't already know to be true without verifying the referenced sources myself. At that point, if I'm giving the information to anyone else, I might as well communicate the sources rather than an AI's impression of the sources. There's just no value add to me beyond identifying potential sources in "research mode".

OK, point taken. I will post a link in the future.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#262

Post by enraged_camel »

monkeyelite wrote: post #193
jaybrendansmith wrote: post #82

[flagged]

> 100% due to Trump's illegal tariffs This is false on its face. Inflation has been a problem for years.

Inflation was on its way down in 2024. It has now reversed course and going back up again. This is not a random occurrence.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#263

Post by mark_l_watson »

klooney wrote: post #97
mark_l_watson wrote: post #13

Over the years I have read a few articles or blogs that make the argument that if government inflation figures in the US were calculated as they do in Europe, then our reported US inflation figures would be much higher. Can anyone here verify this? Our main problems involve under the table unreported to the public military expenditures. If you look at a map of our military bases, we have many bordering China. I think…

> Eventually countries that don't spend most of their treasure on their military will win. Stipulating that they don't get eaten by their bigger neighbors. We're going to miss the Pax Americana.

We will miss the US Navy keeping most shipping routes open and safe.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#264

Post by tomrod »

Buttons840 wrote: post #151
neuroelectron wrote: post #104

Whatever the problem is, it's everything but unicorn funding. We can be sure of that on this forum.

When I was about 20 I started listening to Sean Hannity, and while I no longer agree with anything he says, I do appreciate the glimpse I got into his way of thinking. I mention this because... I can't tell you how many times I've heard the idea that success in free market capitalism comes from offering goods and services to customers with the right balance between quality and price, and that good quality and price i…

The government is the one entity with a monopoly on violence. Concerns of regulatory capture, pork, and rent-seeking stem from this one fact.

Yes, you can certainly get wealthy by being corrupt in legal ways.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#265

Post by Supermancho »

tootie wrote: post #260
Supermancho wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The basket of goods that they base the inflation rate on is created by surveying people and asking what they spent their money on. What mechanism was that done through? The census or Walmart data? I don't think anyone has seen a staffed table outside a retail store labeled "CPI Survey". This feels like an important question.

The methodology and data is all publicly available. Just go to bls.gov. https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cpi/ Every time I've seen someone talk about "real" inflation or unemployment they're just applying a different view on the same BLS data. Metrics like CPI or PPI are derived via a formula to create an indicator. A benchmark that should be apples to apples over a period of time. It's not meant to be comprehensive. But…

> Using 2010 census population data, we select the urban areas from which data on prices are collected and choose the housing units within each area that are eligible for use in the shelter component of the CPI.

> Participation in the Consumer Expenditure Survey is voluntary. However, when you participate, you are representing thousands of other households like yours. In order to be able to create quality statistics, we rely on the participation of those who are randomly selected.

i.e. Volunteer census data from self-reporters.

It is the census, but one step away from outright unreliable information. This doesn't engender confidence.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#266

Post by dgfitz »

abtinf wrote: post #184
infecto wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not wrong but the term base is click baity but probably an accepted definition from the pentagon. It’s include all facilities no matter or large or small and even those that are part of another base but not on the main campus. It’s almost like a count of buildings.

I haven’t checked, but I would guess this number even includes things like NSA outposts (since NSA is part of DoD) and embassies (which are protected by Marines).

Generally, intelligence officers/employees (such as people who work at NSA) deploy to bases, or FOBs. I'm sure there are a handful of "NSA outposts" but this isn't generally how it works.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#267

Post by JKCalhoun »

samfriedman wrote: post #236
JKCalhoun wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Picturing a future political cartoon of hobo-looking guys sitting around a winter fire burning in an old oil drum — one guy is holding up a newspaper (wut?) and saying to the rest, "Hey guys, it's fine because it says here that the employment numbers reported are the best ever!"

You mean like this one? http://emilysquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/EmilysQuo...

Timeless, ha ha.

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#268

Post by neilv »

jcranmer wrote: post #57
hiddencost wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They fired the head of the BLS because they didn't like the numbers. Explicitly. You kinda have to conclude they're going to cook the books. Like they're doing everywhere else.

Apparently, they've decided to go with "just not report the numbers." (Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trumps-bls-pick-could-p... ).

I still like the quote, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#269

Post by ffsm8 »

abtinf wrote: post #219
ffsm8 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All of it goes to people That's just straight up false. It goes to legal entities, some of which are people. Companies aren't people mate, and neither are investment funds. The money might still be managed by people, but that cannot be called salary, even if you're stretching the definition.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume everything you said is true. Would you agree if I reworded my statement to “ultimately, all money eventually flows to people, whether for their labor or due to their ownership of the entities receiving the money”?

Ownership is a legal concept, you could even call it fictional.

So yes, all transactions can be linked be back to individuals, if you ignore all details and make some gigantic leaps of faith... But what's the insight?

Are we just doing philosophy like in ancient Greece?

Re: US Wholesale Inflation Rises by Most in 3 Years

#270

Post by myrmidon »

marknutter wrote: post #233
aurareturn wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s the tariffs. You’re assuming that everyone will raise the price and have the same goals. Some businesses will see it as an opportunity to undercut and gain market share. After all, total profit = sales margin * sales volume. You can increase your profit by increasing your volume because you kept your prices unchanged while your competitors decided to increase prices.

Tariffs don't affect products that are produced locally.

Tariffs affect local product prices in a lot of ways.

1) They reduce competitive pressure so local producers can raise prices without losing market share (that is the actual point)

2) They increase local demand for production capacity and labor in general, driving up costs even in sectors that are completely unaffected by the tariffs themselves

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