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Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

theguardian.com

111–120 of 133 posts

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#111
post #3

Anyone who didn't get a 20% raise this year lost money. As the fed pumped cash, the stock market gains kept the rich from feeling the inflation that is being handed to everybody else with a bow on it. For months everyone has naysayed the idea that money printing would have a negative effect, now just Google "inflation" news articles.

> Anyone who didn't get a 20% raise this year lost money Inflation numbers that just came out measure year-over-year inflation at 5.4%. And last July we had artificially depressed demand during the pandemic.

Inflation numbers are politically controlled. Simply look at how much buying power you have today vs. a few years ago and you will get a much more accurate picture of what the reality is.

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#112
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what if we handed the printed dollars to a large number of individuals to spend immediately to cover their income shortfalls in unprecedented government largess?

Then those people largely spend it on essentials, don't lose their housing, and don't starve to death.

My point was about the money supply not ethics or morality.

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#113
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

San Diego man, only place it can truly be called a Cali Burrito. That shit in LA is gross. Most places have gone up about $3 since start of the pandemic.

Not sure why you're being downvoted but yes I am speaking about SD. As for the LA cali burrito heads: don't step dudes. Y'all got plenty of great food that kicks our asses. But we have the best calimex, hands down. "Don't ever argue with a San Diegan about Mexican food"

He's probably been paying our new price for his subpar tier burritos the entire time.

I'd almost shed a tear.

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#114
post #91
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recommend you take a look at this to see more factors involved in inflation, in a more quantitative light: https://www.lynalden.com/inflation/ . The reason CPI is a terrible metric is because measuring inflation is very difficult and somewhat arbitrary (see for example: hedonic adjustments). M2 is a significant, consistent, and logical factor. Even from 1980-1986, rapid changes in M2 consistently correspond to a chan…

Look I am aware of a host of factors that in theory influence inflation and the multiple different ways it’s measured. I am also perfectly willing to acknowledge there is a connection between M2 and inflation. But, when historical correlations are this weak you can’t suggest A predicts B when it simply hasn’t.

Not everyone has an eye for data, but this is a pretty clear correlation (time delayed, of course) as far as real world macroeconomic signals go. Contrary to your claim, significant increases in M2 have historically predicted increases in inflation with high probability for over 50 years, even without controlling for other factors. And all the people predicting decade-high inflation and asset inflation since last year have been right so far.

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#115
post #3

Anyone who didn't get a 20% raise this year lost money. As the fed pumped cash, the stock market gains kept the rich from feeling the inflation that is being handed to everybody else with a bow on it. For months everyone has naysayed the idea that money printing would have a negative effect, now just Google "inflation" news articles.

Interesting that you say that. I took a 10% raise in March and I was content with it. Last Friday, very unexpectedly, my manager (an SVP) gets me onto an ad-hoc 1:1 to tell me that I was approved for a 15% raise. Hush, hush, don't tell others -- of course, I spoke with some colleagues about it; I've worked very closely with a few of these people for over 7 years, there aren't many work secrets between us, pay included, and many of them, but not all of them, also received significant mid-year bumps this year, as well). I've never had a mid-year adjustment... Never.

This explains what occurred in a very neat and tidy package and also confirms my own suspicions.

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#116
post #89
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what if we handed the printed dollars to a large number of individuals to spend immediately to cover their income shortfalls in unprecedented government largess?

If it's covering an income shortfall, it doesn't seem like that would cause inflation. If I normally spend $2k a month, but then lose my job and get $2k from the government, that's not going to cause inflation. From what I understand, much of the stimulus money was saved. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PSAVERT

Except the money you would have been paid previously still exists somewhere and will go somewhere else.

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#117
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look I am aware of a host of factors that in theory influence inflation and the multiple different ways it’s measured. I am also perfectly willing to acknowledge there is a connection between M2 and inflation. But, when historical correlations are this weak you can’t suggest A predicts B when it simply hasn’t.

Not everyone has an eye for data, but this is a pretty clear correlation (time delayed, of course) as far as real world macroeconomic signals go. Contrary to your claim, significant increases in M2 have historically predicted increases in inflation with high probability for over 50 years, even without controlling for other factors. And all the people predicting decade-high inflation and asset inflation since last yea…

> as far as real world macroeconomic signals go

That’s some serious weasel wording right there. Either a model fits real world data or it doesn’t, ignoring all those times a model failed isn’t an eye for data it’s a delusion.

> And all the people predicting decade-high inflation and asset inflation since last year have been right so far.

That’s little different from walking into a room full of broken clocks picking those that are currently accurate and suggesting they must be working fine. If you select for people who accurately predicted the last year you then need to look at their predictions of every prior year.

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your argument consists of "it's too complicated for anyone to understand why I'm right", that might explain some of the responses you get.

It wasn't and you're mischaracterizing. You haven't seen my comments from last year. Without repeating the arguments, the Economist wrote an article about why measuring inflation is complex and you can't just look at CPI: https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2017/09/05/... Point is that HN was so gung-ho about covid stimulus package, that any comment that pointed out inflation issues that we're going to h…

Your article identifies issues with Britain's inflation basket that caused them to overestimate inflation by 0.6% a year, and you are using it as an argument that we underestimated inflation by >15%.

That is the bottom line, I'll let other readers draw their conclusions about what is reasonable.

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#119
post #3

Anyone who didn't get a 20% raise this year lost money. As the fed pumped cash, the stock market gains kept the rich from feeling the inflation that is being handed to everybody else with a bow on it. For months everyone has naysayed the idea that money printing would have a negative effect, now just Google "inflation" news articles.

where is this 20% inflation conspiracy theory coming from? it seems to be particularly common among nerds who don't know anything about finance.

Re: Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All food CPI is up 2.1% this year, housing of course is much more but that's what the article is about so where's the lie?

Food items are swapped out for lower cost 'substitutes'. I can't imagine someone cooking those numbers

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