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Core PPI up 9.6% annualized (0.8% MoM) in May

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Re: Core PPI up 9.6% annualized (0.8% MoM) in May

#61
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem runs deeper than the current administration. Voting doesn't work. The Biden administration isn't the antidote to our problems.

Voting works fine, people just don't do it very much. People complain about their choices. Meanwhile, there's atrocious turnout in the primaries which determine those choices.

Agree. There's a direct line from Robert A Heinlein:

"When you vote, you are exercising political authority, you’re using force. And force, my friends, is violence. The supreme authority from which all other authorities are derived."

to the anonymous scholar who first said, probably as a joke:

"If violence didn't work you didn't use enough".

Whatever you think of voting and democracy, the alternatives are far more unpleasant. Vote every time, without fail.

Re: Core PPI up 9.6% annualized (0.8% MoM) in May

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Not to mention the “largest transfer of wealth” [1] to the ultra rich during covid times. 1: https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1746565358/d11org/oq...

If you look at recent data[1], this has only accelerated further. This was not attributable to one president. Attempting to point blame for complex economic systems to one person is so foolish I don't even know where to start picking it apart. Look at the actual legislation and actions by which this happens. This is done through tariff manipulation, regulatory capture, and insider trading which we literally have weekly evidence of.

[1] https://www.oxfam.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with-oxfam/fi...

Re: Core PPI up 9.6% annualized (0.8% MoM) in May

#63
post #40

CPI vs PPI, in case you’re curious like me … CPI tracks retail costs and the cost of living, whereas PPI tracks wholesale costs. As such, PPI acts as an early indicator of future consumer inflation.

More precisely, CPI tracks what you buy. Even if it’s imported. PPI tracks what’s produced here, even if for export.

There is a fun Canadian paper on how they started intensely decoupling after 2001, alongside the rise of global multi-step supply chains [1].

[1] https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/261258/1/swp2022-05....

Re: Core PPI up 9.6% annualized (0.8% MoM) in May

#64
Yes, purchasing power of USD declines with inflation.

No, that doesn't mean over a long enough time horizon what most people think it means.

USD has declined significantly since 2017 (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUR0000SA0R), but what it buys has substantively changed.

- You couldn't buy continous glucose monitors, OTC hearing aids, home heart monitors using your cellphone or watch or countless medications that didn't exist in 2017 (eg. Journavx, the first non-opiod pain med, smart insulin pens, etc.).

- You couldn't buy noise-cancelling earbuds, generative AI, somewhat affordable electric vehicles, PT and medical advice from Youtube/AI, self driving vehicles, more reliable electricity from grid-scale store, Satellite rescue from your cellphone, etc.

The retort will be daily items are about 30% more expensive since Covid. This is the result of Federal and State policies that have little to do with the White House and everything to do with Congress and State Houses. As just one example... ask yourself why so much ag is grown in Western states with water shortages and so far from the rest of the country?

Re: Core PPI up 9.6% annualized (0.8% MoM) in May

#65
post #41

Awful news for everybody, particularly those in speculative tech jobs. We may well look back at the attack on Iran as the American tipping point that caused the same kind of financial stagnation as Brexit caused for the UK.

It's crazy that now the main goal of the war is to open a strait that was already open before the war.

Re: Core PPI up 9.6% annualized (0.8% MoM) in May

#67

Yes, purchasing power of USD declines with inflation. No, that doesn't mean over a long enough time horizon what most people think it means. USD has declined significantly since 2017 ( https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUR0000SA0R ), but what it buys has substantively changed. - You couldn't buy continous glucose monitors, OTC hearing aids, home heart monitors using your cellphone or watch or countless medications…

It says exactly what it says, which is that energy prices are higher. You can read the report.

Re: Core PPI up 9.6% annualized (0.8% MoM) in May

#68
post #3

We are not at a point as a country to have a serious discussion about governance. The administration in charge (as recently as yesterday) still blames Biden for issues happening on their watch, even though he hasn’t been in officer for 16 months now. This is not an administration serious about governing, and until we have an administration serious about governing and taking responsibility for their actions, we will c…

Vote out the Republican fascists actually abdicating responsibility. Dems can't do anything when they don't control legislature. Don't end up bothsidesing the last sentene when the rest of your comment is about the iffectualness of Trump and Republicans

Re: Core PPI up 9.6% annualized (0.8% MoM) in May

#69

Yes, purchasing power of USD declines with inflation. No, that doesn't mean over a long enough time horizon what most people think it means. USD has declined significantly since 2017 ( https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUR0000SA0R ), but what it buys has substantively changed. - You couldn't buy continous glucose monitors, OTC hearing aids, home heart monitors using your cellphone or watch or countless medications…

> ask yourself why so much ag is grown in Western states with water shortages and so far from the rest of the country?

Because water is one of the cheapest inputs into agriculture. Growing almonds in California is a ~bad idea, but it's not a stupid idea.

Re: Core PPI up 9.6% annualized (0.8% MoM) in May

#70
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, voting doesn't work because to become a candidate necessarily requires backroom dealing at odds with the interests of common voters. We need sortition.

How will you get sortition without voting for a pro-sortition candidate?

I've thought a lot about this, because my state is heavily gerrymandered, and the legislature keeps voting to undermine several recently passed amendments (abortion rights, marijuana) to our state constitution. They also tried to change the threshold for passing a referendum from 50% + 1 vote to 60%, when it was clear that there was enough support to pass the abortion rights amendment.

You do it via constitutional amendment, which is a popular referendum.

Fuck what the professional politicians think of sortition; do an end run around them, because professional politicians are the problem.

Get this accomplished in enough states, and then you have a level chance of doing an amendment to the US Constitution.

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