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US inflation jumps to 3.8% as energy costs surge from Iran war

bbc.com

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Re: US inflation jumps to 3.8% as energy costs surge from Iran war

#441

Post by irishcoffee »

rurp wrote: post #392
irishcoffee wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with shopping at 5 stores to save money on groceries is that with gas prices you're probably not saving money, and if you're not moving around to various stores using any type of energy but kinetic, it is a large opportunity cost that could be spent doing other things, if you even have the time at all. There is no way I could go shop at 5, or even 3 stores a week for food, I simply do not have the time. (…

What I do is rotate through 4-5 stores but only go to one per week. I stock up on paper towels or whatever when I'm at the store that has the best prices on them, and so on for other goods. I actually do know someone who regularly hits up multiple grocery stores every week chasing deals and that does seem crazy to me. The cost in gas and time doesn't at all seem worth it.

That’s a pretty good idea. At the moment my wife and I have the e same login to the Walmart app, we both add things to the same list over the week, and smash “deliver” between various weekend commitment time slots where one of us will be home.

The time saved is enormous, and the amount of money we might be saving by being more scrupulous is probably on the order of 5-10 bucks/week, which granted does add up over the course of a year. I like to think it’s a wash with the gas/car maintenance we would be spending, but who knows how accurate that is.

Works well enough for us, at this stage in life. Walmart is on the very cheap/low quality end of the spectrum, and we cook all our meals/pack lunches.

Always open to new ideas as it relates to saving money and being more efficient with time. These kiddos won’t be kiddos before we know it and we try to optimize our time with them as much as we can.

Re: US inflation jumps to 3.8% as energy costs surge from Iran war

#442

Post by zen928 »

irishcoffee wrote: post #358
runako wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I have noted during this inflationary period is that individual stores/chains are gaming pricing much more than I remember before. For example, your store might be competing for business using the headline price of eggs and making it up on milk and bread. In our city, Whole Foods was the cheapest non-warehouse place to buy eggs for a while. Anecdotally, it looks like one could save a relatively large % on v…

The problem with shopping at 5 stores to save money on groceries is that with gas prices you're probably not saving money, and if you're not moving around to various stores using any type of energy but kinetic, it is a large opportunity cost that could be spent doing other things, if you even have the time at all. There is no way I could go shop at 5, or even 3 stores a week for food, I simply do not have the time. (…

What? You could very obviously budget you or your wife's time to stop at a variety of stores in a maximum of 3 hours a week, you're just obstinately choosing not to. Why are you pretending your experience is reflective of a normal person?

Re: US inflation jumps to 3.8% as energy costs surge from Iran war

#443

Post by tehjoker »

Sabinus wrote: post #421
tehjoker wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iran has no nuclear weapons. The administration simply wishes to prevent Israel from facing opponents that also have a nuclear deterrent (Israel has nuclear landmines, briefcases, missiles, and neutron bombs according to Sy Hersh). A deterrent would radically curb Israeli aggression and maybe even end the genocide in Gaza. There is little risk Iran would use a nuclear weapon. This is pure western aggression.

How does an Iranian nuke curb Israeli aggression or change Israel's behaviour in Gaza? The vast majority of Israel's 'aggression' is against armed groups in neighbouring countries that Iran funds. If a country has a peace treaty with Israel and the monopoly on violence in their territory, they experience no Israeli aggression. Iran can't credibly threaten to nuke Israel over a threat that isn't existential to Iran. A…

America extends a nuclear umbrella, so can other nuclear powers. You say it's not credible. Would you wanna bet your life on it?

> If a country has a peace treaty with Israel and the monopoly on violence in their territory, they experience no Israeli aggression.

Doha called about the Israeli bombing of the peace talks with the Palestinian resistance.

https://imemc.org/article/israel-bombs-palestinian-negotiato...

Re: US inflation jumps to 3.8% as energy costs surge from Iran war

#444

Post by bdangubic »

rurp wrote: post #392
irishcoffee wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with shopping at 5 stores to save money on groceries is that with gas prices you're probably not saving money, and if you're not moving around to various stores using any type of energy but kinetic, it is a large opportunity cost that could be spent doing other things, if you even have the time at all. There is no way I could go shop at 5, or even 3 stores a week for food, I simply do not have the time. (…

What I do is rotate through 4-5 stores but only go to one per week. I stock up on paper towels or whatever when I'm at the store that has the best prices on them, and so on for other goods. I actually do know someone who regularly hits up multiple grocery stores every week chasing deals and that does seem crazy to me. The cost in gas and time doesn't at all seem worth it.

living in the US is more and more resembling 3rd World countries, quite fascinating to see the degradation of what is “normal” lifestyle and complete normalization that now, on HN, we are sharing algorithms of how to effectively use 8935 stores to save a few bucks

Re: US inflation jumps to 3.8% as energy costs surge from Iran war

#445

Post by opo »

runako wrote: post #364
opo wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on what you call a “war” since the last time the US declared war was in WW II.. In terms of military operations, a partial list would probably include: Democrat Presidents: Bosnia, Haiti, Iran, Kosovo, Libya, Niger, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. Republican Presidents: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Grenada, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Panama, Somalia, Syria, and Venezuela. It is outside the 50 year timeframe, but go ba…

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48109360 > go back another 10 years and you have Viet Nam Eisenhower was a Republican when he committed forces to Vietnam.

If sending military advisors to a country is starting a war, the list of wars started by each President will get MUCH larger. (For some reason most people associate the Vietnam war with the President who deliberately lied to congress to get a use of force authorization and then literally sent over half a million troops into war.)

Re: US inflation jumps to 3.8% as energy costs surge from Iran war

#446

Post by mgfist »

onlypassingthru wrote: post #435
mgfist wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And despite all that Ukraine is holding and even accelerating the attrition of Russian soldiers and is destroying vast Russian oil infrastructure. Interesting for someone you think won the cold war!

Looks like Biden got just enough javelins out the door before the puppet was in power. Phew!

Javelins have nothing to do with Ukrainian success. No single kit does. By and large their success is due to courage and local innovation.

Re: US inflation jumps to 3.8% as energy costs surge from Iran war

#447

Post by mgfist »

dh2022 wrote: post #434
mgfist wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the Iran war's been going on for nigh 2 months now. By and large the long term ramifications set in around 2 weeks after the start, and everyone was very vocal that this would happen. A president who cared about the midterms and the next election would've pulled out, but Trump stayed in. He knows how unpopular the war is, he knows the effects on gas and the market predictions on the midterms, yet he stays in. Th…

(I am not sure if you argue for the sake of arguing, or something worse. In any case, this is the last time I reply to you. Feel free to have the last word). What you wrote would make sense if Trump would be driven by rationale. But as everyone who has seen a news program in the past 12 months knows, Trump is driven by vanity and greed. Because of vanity and greed he will do whatever he can to win the midterms. Inclu…

> Trump is driven by vanity and greed.

Yes I fully agree

> Because of vanity and greed he will do whatever he can to win the midterms

I don't see how vanity and greed relate to the midterms. Trump is into insider trading and making billions off of crypto pumps and other schemes. Winning the midterms is not all that relevant.

And if he was willing to do whatever it took to win the midterms, surely stopping an incredibly unpopular war would be step 1?

Re: US inflation jumps to 3.8% as energy costs surge from Iran war

#448

Post by irishcoffee »

zen928 wrote: post #442
irishcoffee wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with shopping at 5 stores to save money on groceries is that with gas prices you're probably not saving money, and if you're not moving around to various stores using any type of energy but kinetic, it is a large opportunity cost that could be spent doing other things, if you even have the time at all. There is no way I could go shop at 5, or even 3 stores a week for food, I simply do not have the time. (…

What? You could very obviously budget you or your wife's time to stop at a variety of stores in a maximum of 3 hours a week, you're just obstinately choosing not to. Why are you pretending your experience is reflective of a normal person?

I see your outrage and raise you your own mistaken assumptions.

You have no idea, at all, how much my wife or I travel for work, among many other things about my life. You don't know about any of the myriad of health problems I would have, or my spouse, or my kids. You don't even know if I have a variety of stores at which I could "stop by for 3 hours a week." You don't know my work schedule, or my wifes.

Take a deep breath. I wasn't assuming anything about anyone. You however, are doing that.

Re: US inflation jumps to 3.8% as energy costs surge from Iran war

#449

Post by Server6 »

bix6 wrote: post #109

What I don’t understand is how the stock market can be so decoupled from reality. It’s a game at this point and completely disconnected from reality. Everything should be down 20%+ given oil is an input to everything and yet stocks are ATHing.

Look at the graph for the M2 money supply: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL

Basically there's a lot of money out there floating around, especially after we pumped with COVID. It has to go somewhere, and mostly ends up in asset appreciation (stocks and real estate).

You're right though that the reality of shortages via a missing 20% supply of oil is a problem, and with all this cash floating around will eventually show itself as stagflation. That said, oil's pass-through to the broad indexes is historically weaker than it feels, so the pain will likely hit consumer purchasing power and corporate margins before it really shows up in the headline stock numbers.

Re: US inflation jumps to 3.8% as energy costs surge from Iran war

#450

Post by irishcoffee »

AntiUSAbah wrote: post #255
b40d-48b2-979e wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are wildly overestimating your own self-worth with the "above the avg person" statement. hn is just a website. People browse and read whatever.

the context is it. it requires a certain amount of knowledge and skill. IT people earn above avg. Its not far fetched.

I contend any earnest 12-year old could ardently read this website for a month, do their own research on the side, and enjoy browsing this website. I dare say they probably make below the median income.

This place isn't a shibboleth.

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