Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

bls.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 316 posts

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#111

Post by JumpCrisscross »

jmyeet wrote: post #104

Worse is coming and the markets seem to be in complete denial about it. Oil has only really maintained the ~$100/barrel price because of record SPR releases worldwide. Also, that $100 price is kinda fake because it's a future price. The spot prices got much higher. Well, that runway is coming to an end. If the Strait of Hormuz re-opened today , we'd still be facing an energy shock. Plus there's famine coming. Now the…

> don't know how this ends without a deep, long recession

The same way Powell ended the last one without a deep, long recession.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#113

Post by HDThoreaun »

tastyfreeze wrote: post #107
hadlock wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The FED says that 2% is good. 2% is not good. Their target of 2% per year means we have 2% compounding annually devaluation of our currency.

Why is that not good? When inflation is close to 0 real interest rates increase which causes the economy to slow down. It seems clear to me that the optimal rate of inflation is always above 0.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#114

Post by VirusNewbie »

twoodfin wrote: post #72
VirusNewbie wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What advantages does that have over taking your paycheck 100% in cash and investing in index funds?

Because I get way more money.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#116

Post by JumpCrisscross »

jazzpush2 wrote: post #109
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because people can’t internalize regional variance. So since the beginning of time, it’s not noticed when the national number is higher and fraud when it’s lower.

Ah, you're right. A broad, contrarian dismissal is exactly the way you should respond in any conversation related to CPI/inflation. By the way, that coffee is $9. Sorry, Brazil tariffs and everything else - you understand.

There are legitimate complaints with CPI. The Reddit variety is mostly statistical illiteracy.

> that coffee is $9

Lots of coffee data [1]. One I think tracks a cup in a city is up 17% YoY.

[1] https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/APU0000717311&series_id=CUUR...

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#117

Post by Terr_ »

ortusdux wrote: post #17
jghn wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regressive consumer tax due to going to war with a country for no real reason

Shipping container rates were starting to stabilize, but the issues with the Straight have caused a 80%+ increase in the last few months. https://www.drewry.co.uk/supply-chain-advisors/supply-chain-...

> Shipping container rates

With respect to those numbers, I remember this recent accusation of price-fixing across 2019-2021 [0] that might have an effect, although I also have reservations about how much to trust anything coming out of the rotting US Department of PresidentsPersonalLawyers these days.

[0] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/four-worlds-largest-container...

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#118

Post by [deleted] »

thewebguyd wrote: post #16
bluGill wrote: 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.

Not necessarily, depends on the distribution of your own expenses. If you deviate from the average urban household (lets say, you have a particularly long commute or your car isn't as fuel efficient as the average. Look at the increase on fuel prices, 40.5%!). If you're at $5,000/month, a 4.2% raise puts you at $5,210. If you're spending $600/month on gas (not unreasonable for someone that drives an SUV and lives in…

[deleted]

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#119

Post by tjwebbnorfolk »

dualvariable wrote: post #101
compumike wrote: post #21

Here are some N-year rolling total inflation charts to put this datapoint in a longer-term perspective: https://totalrealreturns.com/inflation . Zooming out always smooths the noise.

1918 isn't very relevant to modern living. And nobody wants to go back to the stagflation of the 1970s. And that scale is logarithmic. Graph it without the logarithmic scale and draw a curve through the 1982-2018 data and the recent spike will explain why people are complaining about it.

Indeed. Back then food and shelter comprised a much larger % of the average income, and so each percentage point of inflation was considerably more painful than it is now.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#120

Post by thewebguyd »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #102
embedding-shape wrote: post #75

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…

Inflation isnt as simple as good/bad. Monetary theory shows us that short term inflation is a good way to counteract spikes in unemployment. Whether you prefer stable inflation with swings in unemployment or stable unemployment with swings in inflation or something in between is a political question.

Which puts central banks in a hard place right now because the problem is supply-side. The dual mandate is a lose-lose situation.
Post reply on HN