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72% of the dollar's purchasing power was destroyed in just four episodes

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Re: 72% of the dollar's purchasing power was destroyed in just four episodes

#151

Post by phil21 »

silisili wrote: post #75
win311fwg wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both are valid, depending on perspective. The joy of English.

I'm having trouble coming up with a valid use case of the way it's written, mind sharing?

"worth" can have two meanings in this context. $100 from 1917 can be worth exactly $100 today. Or it can be worth what you can buy with it.

Some folks will see a $100 bill from the era and see an old $100 bill. Some folks will imagine what that $100 took to save back then, and what it bought.

FWIW my brain automatically went with "the goods that can be bought with $100" - such as what I could buy in a grocery store today with $100 would be about what I could buy with $3 back then.

I never considered the other reading until this thread. It was obvious to me the author meant "you can buy 97% less stuff today with the same $100".

Re: 72% of the dollar's purchasing power was destroyed in just four episodes

#152

Post by zer00eyz »

tmountain wrote: post #104
trgn wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there was wage growth

Yeah, didn't people used to make like $10/week as the median wage at the turn of the 20th century? I agree that we have big problems now, but I feel like this analysis is deeply flawed without the inclusion of wage data.

Wage data, population growth, overall consumption, credit (and guarantees against it) are all drivers of inflation.

Look at student loans vs the cost of college:

1958: Federal program to encourage science and engineering. 1976: Remove restrictions on bankruptcy dismissal of this debt. 2005: Same rules for private loans.

Today college has a (as someone here so eloquently put it) a cruise ship ascetic, and has far more "administration" than "eduction" in terms of raw staff.

Tv went from an expensive box (fixed cost) to cable (monthly fee) to on demand programing (several monthly fees, and with ad's).

A phone used to be a single item in your house with a monthly fee. It was an item so durable that you could beat a robber with it and still call the police (see old att, black rotary phone). Now its an item per person in a household, that you can easily loose, might break if you drop it, and costs any where from 200 to 1500 dollars.

None of this is inflation in the traditional sense, but it does impact the velocity of all money in the system, and puts pressure on individual spending in a way that isnt even accounted for in this chart.

I wont even get started on housing, but I will leave this chart behind and ask those who care to point to the housing crisis on it: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHORUSQ156N

Re: 72% of the dollar's purchasing power was destroyed in just four episodes

#153

Post by renewiltord »

You can pick arbitrary points and stick them on the graph. It appears that my family are the inflation stoppers. Calm periods correspond to weddings and childbirths in my family. As the first in the line to marry a Chinese person, I have broken the rule and my daughter’s arrival has triggered a dollar collapse.

The moon gods have spoken in the tea leaves and we have lost the Mandate of Heaven.

Re: 72% of the dollar's purchasing power was destroyed in just four episodes

#154

Post by vessenes »

cheema33 wrote: post #95
leche wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the goals of the Heritage Foundation is a weak dollar. They believe they can bring manufacturing back to the US this way. I don't think they're right. I do think they will continue weakening the dollar.

> One of the goals of the Heritage Foundation is a weak dollar. They believe they can bring manufacturing back to the US this way. Only cheap labor can bring manufacturing back to the US. Are Americans willing to work in factories for the same wages as the Chinese and Indians? I don't see it happening.

That is the point of cheapening the dollar, BTW. The local wages can stay 'high' dollar denominated, but the euro-denominated value of those wages drops. It was for some time the strategy of the Chinese central bank; you can keep export good costs low by controlling your currency to weaker. The trick is to do that while everyone is paying you for your stuff.

Re: 72% of the dollar's purchasing power was destroyed in just four episodes

#155

Post by triceratops »

kasey_junk wrote: post #139
maxglute wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Petro-yuan =/= reserve currency. USD reserve = print USD for everything liquidity to sustain debt financed existence where Triffin hollows out industry, and financialize everything because having stupid amount of liquidity incentivizes certain behaviors. Petro-yuan = PRC gives swap lines to trusted partners to buy oil denominated in yuan in exchange for things like resources. Hormuz ships ~1 trillion USD worth energy…

The problem with that plan is that no one wants to trade hard commodities for a currency that can’t be spent. One part of the dollars appeal is that it spends the world over. The sanctioned countries frequently have more liberal access to dollars than to unsanctioned yuan. So no one is going to take up a lot of yuan trade unless that changes or they are forced to. But that puts China in a bind. Liberalizing their cur…

> a currency that can’t be spent

You can spend it in China, right?

Re: 72% of the dollar's purchasing power was destroyed in just four episodes

#156

Post by conception »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #144
gruez wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't realize that such causes like 90+% income taxes, lower income inequality, single earner households, and high unionization rates are "conservative" too.

No one actually paid 90% income taxes. I wish that myth would go away.

Of course because that’s how marginal tax rates work.

As to how much actual money was taxed at 91%, we don’t really have records for that but certainly the top 0.01% paid significantly more in taxes as a rate than they do today.

Re: 72% of the dollar's purchasing power was destroyed in just four episodes

#157

Post by ErroneousBosh »

noboostforyou wrote: post #111
radlad wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never heard the expression "to play one's Uno card." Is this a play on "to play one's Trump card"? I can understand why this phrasing could cause confusion, but want to make sure I'm not missing something.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/uno-reverse-card Trump attacked Iran thinking that this would somehow be good for the US, except it's weakening the petrodollar because it's pushed Iran to simply accept Yuan for oil.

One of the previous times the US attacked Iran, it was because Iran wanted to accept Euros for oil.

Re: 72% of the dollar's purchasing power was destroyed in just four episodes

#158

Post by palmotea »

cheema33 wrote: post #95
leche wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the goals of the Heritage Foundation is a weak dollar. They believe they can bring manufacturing back to the US this way. I don't think they're right. I do think they will continue weakening the dollar.

> One of the goals of the Heritage Foundation is a weak dollar. They believe they can bring manufacturing back to the US this way. Only cheap labor can bring manufacturing back to the US. Are Americans willing to work in factories for the same wages as the Chinese and Indians? I don't see it happening.

> Only cheap labor can bring manufacturing back to the US. Are Americans willing to work in factories for the same wages as the Chinese and Indians? I don't see it happening.

Under conditions of free trade with low-wage countries.

Free trade with low-wage countries is a policy choice, but a lot of people confuse it for a natural law.

Re: 72% of the dollar's purchasing power was destroyed in just four episodes

#159

Post by ishouldstayaway »

roncesvalles wrote: post #117
skywhopper wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bigger question is, why is that even the primary goal?

I'll dig down 3 levels of "why". The endemic anti-intellectualism among white communities (especially rural and southern) has resulted in a steady decline of white people in well-paying professions in America. If you count the Jewish as a separate group, white people are likely a minority in corporate America. Combined with social upliftment of other groups ("wokism") and the opioid crisis (that has disproportionatel…

> white people are likely a minority in corporate America.

Oh boy am I gonna need some actual data for this claim.

Re: 72% of the dollar's purchasing power was destroyed in just four episodes

#160

Post by marcosdumay »

fmbb wrote: post #97
marcosdumay wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are right on that. What they are wrong is when they decided that is a good thing. Not every kind of "bringing manufacturing back" brings the same kind of wealth and quality of life.

Wealth is relative. And the Heritage Foundation is not in the business of improving quality of life for everyone, or even the average American.

It's not the optimal course for most billionaires either. Maybe it is for a few of them.
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