31–40 of 593 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In fairness, inflation seems largely driven by energy prices, which in turn are driven by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Not the top event I'd imagine a bank predicting well.
no one here buys the 'putin price hike' excuse
Earlier quoted context omitted.
no one here buys the 'putin price hike' excuse
I was blown away when the president claimed he "has never seen anything like Putin’s tax on both food and gas". When did Putin get the ability to raise taxes in the US??
Earlier quoted context omitted.
no one here buys the 'putin price hike' excuse
I was blown away when the president claimed he "has never seen anything like Putin’s tax on both food and gas". When did Putin get the ability to raise taxes in the US??
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Get out a calendar. Look at when the inflation started (last fall!). Then look at when the Ukraine war started. Has the Ukraine war made the inflation problem worse? Yes. Did it cause the problem? Absolutely not!
Supply chain prices have been increasing since covid as supply shut down and takes far longer to restore than demand. Just like certain parts of inflation (lumber) shot up in 2020 when demand went through the roof as everyone started working on projects (including things like outside offices for working from home)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In fairness, inflation seems largely driven by energy prices, which in turn are driven by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Not the top event I'd imagine a bank predicting well.
Agree the Russian invasion doesn't help matters... but this is not the primary cause of inflation. The amount of money that the US has simply created and spent in last couple of years in unprecedented. The amount of money inserted into the US economy dwarfs that of the TARPP and related bailouts of 2008 by a factor of 4. You just cannot create and hand out that much cash in an economy and not expect inflation.
> Seniors, should reap the benefits of higher bank savings rates after years of piddling returns. Not to any significant degree. Bank rates won't come close to offsetting the effect of inflation. The big winner will be the IRS, as intended. .
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agree the Russian invasion doesn't help matters... but this is not the primary cause of inflation. The amount of money that the US has simply created and spent in last couple of years in unprecedented. The amount of money inserted into the US economy dwarfs that of the TARPP and related bailouts of 2008 by a factor of 4. You just cannot create and hand out that much cash in an economy and not expect inflation.
If you think the dollar is worth less then no doubt that's reflected in say gold prices, which were between 1600 and 1900 from July 2011 to April 2013. They are currently 1800. If all that extra money had devalued fiat currencies globally (at roughly the same value), why hasn't gold increased?
It seems the Fed is stuck in a state of overreaction. First they overshoot on money printing, then they disregard early signs of inflation, and now they're in a panic in the opposite direction. Seeing the news this week that Bernanke said that the Fed should be able to pull off a soft-landing now in 2022 gave me an uncomfortable déjà vu -- he said the same in 2006 and 2007, right before he raised rates enough to kick…
In fairness, inflation seems largely driven by energy prices, which in turn are driven by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Not the top event I'd imagine a bank predicting well.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agree the Russian invasion doesn't help matters... but this is not the primary cause of inflation. The amount of money that the US has simply created and spent in last couple of years in unprecedented. The amount of money inserted into the US economy dwarfs that of the TARPP and related bailouts of 2008 by a factor of 4. You just cannot create and hand out that much cash in an economy and not expect inflation.
I'm not convinced. I agree that Russia/Ukraine is not the main driver of inflation (certainly isn't helping, though), but I would look more toward supply chain shortages than money-printing. Prices go up when things are hard to find but the demand is still there -- not exactly grad-level econ.
You can argue either side to this, and make a good case. My personal preference is to trigger a recession and reduce inflation. The easy cop-out solution is to say a "big f*ck off" to pensioners, lower middle class, and poor people and let inflation soar, but I believe that long term this would be more destructive to the general economy. Better take the long term view here and not kick the can down the street.
A key driver to inflation is that wages for lower-income workers was finally starting to rise. Tanking the economy will hurt these people the most. But yes, inflation would flatten.