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U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

bls.gov

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Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#261

Post by latency-guy2 »

chrisfinazzo wrote: post #139
brianmcc wrote: post #13

Good. Now we can look forward to interest rate cuts to deal with the recession...

You can't grow infinitely forever. Eventually, you'll never be able to hit the target and it will distort things in really weird ways. Just look at the machinations Jinping Xi has had to pull off just to keep China going. They have had positive GDP growth above 5% since roughly 1990.

Of course you can't, but who is to say that we will not grow indefinitely until 2500? Or even 3000?

I don't think we're anywhere near the limits of human productivity, let alone all the ways we can enhance it through innovations and mechanical aids.

I think it's a fair question to ask, but then I'd say you'd have to prove we have reached a plateau.

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#262

Post by Kye »

Joel_Mckay wrote: post #199
ajoseps wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BLS releases CPI reports every month

Again, another irrelevant comment unrelated to the subject. We shall see how this trend settles out at the end of the year. Enhance your calm. =)

The BLS reports inflation. It doesn't control inflation. The Federal Reserve does affect it with the fed rate, but it's independent, and the chair was elevated to his current role by Trump, so save the insinuations about this being somehow engineered by Democrats to win the election. I'm no fan of Democrats, but this is absurd.

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#263

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

mynameishere wrote: post #167
creaghpatr wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soft drinks are a loss leader for fast food, which is why judging McDos on the price of a single item like soda or mcmuffin is a bit oversimplified. Pricing strategy fluctuates (sometimes) independently of supply costs.

Ha ha, no. That's where the money is. They have like 90 percent margins on those syrup/water mixes. ... I like discussions about inflation though because everyone brings up a particular item from their own budget. For instance, have you priced Little Debbie Zebra Cake Rolls lately? Did you even know they exist? It's like a mixture of a Swiss Roll and a Zebra Cake and they are completely awesome and I'm pretty sure th…

> They have like 90 percent margins on those syrup/water mixes.

Not really. There's this myth that it only costs a few pennies to fill a cup with soda.

I was a manager at a Subway from 2006 to 2012, so I got to see the costs of all our food. I did the math and found it cost about 1.7 cents per ounce dispensed, so a 32 oz soda cost 54.4 cents to fill assuming no ice. The cup/lid/straw cost us about 12 cents. At the time, we charged $1.69 for the soda, giving a margin of about 60%. This margin of course went up if they used ice, but went down if they refilled it.

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#265

Post by desireco42 »

upupandup wrote: post #226
desireco42 wrote: post #174

My experience is that prices went 100% - 150% up. Things I care about went double, no amount of statistics engineering can change this fact. Fuel prices along, while it came down a little, they are still way high.

Yet theres ppl, even on this thread that claims your views are conspiracy theory, that you are lying about what you saw.

Clearly I am and that is just how things are.

In general when the facts are not recognized ie. pretended that they are not happening, long term it is bad for the country as a whole.

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#266

Post by scottLobster »

Great. All I know is I'm trading a lot more time for money this year. Way less takeout, avoiding toll roads unless it saves at least 30 minutes, fewer streaming services (will renew on a show-by-show basis), and food is getting so crazy I might start going to multiple stores to try and save money instead of my one consolidated trip to Wegmans.

I'm also stuffing my freezer with meat and have a year's supply of non-perishables, not because I'm a prepper but because I know it'll be so much more expensive next year as to be worth it.

Also my rent is up 6.9%, but that's because I locked it in for two years. Would have been 10.5% for a one-year lease, and that's on top of last year's comparatively conservative 4.5% increase.

And my salary is up a mere 4.5%, and that only because I took on stretch assignments at work.

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#267

Post by ghaff »

creaghpatr wrote: post #144
judge2020 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For my closest McD’s it’s still $1 for a large soft drink at least (I know some franchises have the ability to change the cost of a large nowadays), but it is $2.49 for a sausage McMuffin.

Soft drinks are a loss leader for fast food, which is why judging McDos on the price of a single item like soda or mcmuffin is a bit oversimplified. Pricing strategy fluctuates (sometimes) independently of supply costs.

There's a reason movie theaters push supersized popcorn and sodas. The ingredients cost almost nothing. (OK, that's an exaggeration but they're certainly high margin--especially at movie theater prices.)

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#268

Post by jusonchan81 »

peteey wrote: post #101
evrydayhustling wrote: post #9

It's a relief to see actual price drops in fuel and transport services hit before the end of the Summer travel season. Barring additional oil disruption, we can hope to see other prices (e.g. food) correct -- or at least stop growing so fast -- at a lag.

Fuel cost is down in part due to releasing oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The release will stop in October. https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-issues-fifth-emergency-n...

It’s purely anecdotal but me and a bunch of people I know reduced driving quite a bit since the prices went up.

Is it possible that the demand went down? Could the recent price movements be partially attributed to the demand supply paradigm?

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#269

Post by pojzon »

ericd wrote: post #216
pojzon wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When ppl talk about EVs overtaking petrol all I can do is shake head. Infrastructure is not there and is not going to be there for EVs for a long time. Its not only gas stations but also power plants, transit cables, personel, supply chains, technology, laws and other. If we make good investments it will take around 50 years in some developed EU countries to reach appropriate infrastructure levels. In less developed…

Oh, not this again. If you have a standard household outlet accessible where you park, you probably don’t need charging stations outside of road trips, because you’ll be getting 60+ miles of charge overnight. The load at a given time is like a third that of a central air conditioner. I think we can handle it.

Please talk to any energy technician working on national grid.

We have troubles generating enough power to not force blackouts in EU and we talk about introducing hundreds of millions of EVs / to every household.

Currently it all works only because they are a novelity.

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#270

Post by silent_cal »

oblio wrote: post #168
silent_cal wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The numbers are manipulated by adjustments like substitutions and hedonics.

1. Can you give some examples for both? 2. Is this different from previous years? 3. Isn't there any criticism from reputable sources of these practices? I'd love to read some articles.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/consumerpriceindex....

https://www.bls.gov/cpi/quality-adjustment/questions-and-ans....

https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-1/consumer-price-index-d....

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