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US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

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Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#91
post #7

Remember this next time you get your yearly review/raise. 4.2% is what you need to stay even, anything less is a pay cut.

This is why it's important to get paid in stock. I get an automatic extra 100k a year if inflation runs hot!

If inflation due to energy costs is running hot they’ll have to raise rates which will cause stock prices to fall.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#92
post #76

Remember this is the number the Government is measuring and reporting. The "real" inflation that every day people feel in their wallet is significantly higher.

Why is the government measured inflation not the same as real inflation?

Americans spend a significant portion of their income on food and fuel, which are excluded. Historically, these together accounted for about 15% of their income, probably up to 20% after recent price increases.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#93
Paradoxically, inflation has contributed to me taking a sabbatical. While I live in a LCOL area and made ~140k/year it just no longer felt worth it to work as I saw my retirement accounts start to match and exceed my salary in yearly gains. I do plan on going back to work in a part time manner, but inflation has killed any reason for me to work hard at a job for that level of salary. Furthermore, the feeling of "what's the point" around white collar work has never been more intense.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#95
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Prices are up +4.25% in the past year, and +24.49% in the past 5 years, according to the latest CPI data released Jun. 10, 2026. The price level has approximately doubled (2.01x) today compared to August 1999. Not knowing if that's good/bad, as it is without any frame of reference, so the same data for Spain looks something like this: Prices up +3.2% in the past year, up +22.4% in the past 5 years. Compared to 1999…

2% is good, anything over 3% is not good, anything over 4% is bad, 5% and higher is really bad. Hope that clears things up for you.

Can you really say that based only on the inflation? What if wages increased 6%, then 3% inflation wouldn't be as bad as if inflation raised 2% but wages only increased 0.1%? At least if you think about purchasing power I suppose. But won't claim to be an expert on this, happy to be educated by those who are :)

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much more since the numbers are cooked anyways. Car model N cost 10k, and car model N+1 costs 15k, if N+1 has 2 more airbags, one more gear, a keyless starter it will be counted way under 50% inflation, even though you pay 50% more. Most of the average joe's money is spent on housing + food + energy these things are all way above the calculated """average""" inflation

They're not necessarily "cooked," (but they certainly can be). Inflation is genuinely hard to calculate since it's different for everyone, goods and services purchased drift over time, and as you mentioned, that exact good also changes over time. CPI (and others) are more useful in a MoM or YoY context. At 10 years, it's better viewed as best guess cost of typical living rather than an economic indicator comparing ap…

No it's cooked. For high tech items, they assume that improved technology means you are getting more for your money even if the price goes up, so they discount it. It's true that you get more for your money, but it ignores threshold effects, like you just can't buy an equivalent phone for $10 even if todays phone's are 200x better.

Then there's the "owner's equivalent rent" BS and this is 25% of CPI. It answers the question "If someone were to rent your home today, how much do you think it would rent for monthly, unfurnished, and without utilities?" It assumes rental price and housing costs are somehow linked when in reality asset prices have far outstripped rent.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#97
post #70
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure what the perspective is: we aren't the same economy (there are true financial system differences between now and say, 1985) and, even if we were the same, the three other shocks that rise like this are two world wars and an oil crisis. This is some dunderding old narcissist thinking he's the toughest kid on the block. You could argue the oil crisis was a similar result of the US never, ever learning a l…

And yes I am oversimplifying: the current conditions are actually do to a number of stupid things the current administration did because they assumed everyone who came before them was stupid and woke, but this just strikes me wrong, as though the chart should be comfort to someone struggling to make rent or pay for medicine or what have you. Much of this could have been avoided.

The "stupid and woke" thing is just marketing, they know exactly what they're doing.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#98
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Prices are up +4.25% in the past year, and +24.49% in the past 5 years, according to the latest CPI data released Jun. 10, 2026. The price level has approximately doubled (2.01x) today compared to August 1999. Not knowing if that's good/bad, as it is without any frame of reference, so the same data for Spain looks something like this: Prices up +3.2% in the past year, up +22.4% in the past 5 years. Compared to 1999…

2% is good, anything over 3% is not good, anything over 4% is bad, 5% and higher is really bad. Hope that clears things up for you.

Why those arbitrary thresholds?

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#99

The Iran conflict will continue on a low flame (occasional pinpricks like now) forever. It serves the US Energy Dominance Agenda against China, Japan, India and the EU. The Trump administration does not care about "its" population. There were already rumors early in the Trump term that Trump would not mind a recession so that his real estate cronies could buy cheap foreclosures. So it is all a double win for the olig…

> It serves the US Energy Dominance Agenda

I can believe the US/UK oil companies believe that.

It may even be true, because the energy transition caps the entire future opportunity for oil/gas sales, and all the producers have been trying to capture a larger share of that pie for the last 2 years or so.

But this intervention is so heavy-handed that it is visibly destroying that future market. It looks like all oil companies will lose a lot because of it, US/UK ones included.

> The Trump administration does not care about "its" population.

Yes, he's trying to govern like an oligarch. We will see in November if this was a good choice or if the US is still too democratic for this to work. Or earlier if he tries to avoid that test.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#100
post #7

Remember this next time you get your yearly review/raise. 4.2% is what you need to stay even, anything less is a pay cut.

This is why it's important to get paid in stock. I get an automatic extra 100k a year if inflation runs hot!

I've known a few people who lost everything when the company went bankrupt. (most died of old age when I was a kid - before pension reform companies often did put your retirement in the company stocks)
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