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UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

grocerygazette.co.uk

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Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#761

Post by mattgreenrocks »

DeathArrow wrote: post #741
somenameforme wrote: post #662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US has had extremely low interest rates for a very long time, and yet effective competition is further than ever in many industries. Something I'd observe is how unreasonably difficult it can be to legally sell things in the US. For instance hitting on this topic (of food prices), why can't I simply start baking bread and selling it? You can make an amazing loaf of bread for a tiny fraction of what people pay in…

> Make it easier for people to sell stuff, and there will be more stuff. This is an excellent idea. Just lower the barrier whatever that barrier is. Some people can think that lowering the entry barrier can result in subpar products and services but in fact the higher the competition, the higher the quality will be.

> but in fact the higher the competition, the higher the quality will be.

If this were true, then appliance manufacturers who produce higher-quality goods would be rewarded. But instead, we're at a weird state where appliances are still not cheap while also not being built to last.

Competition isn't guaranteed to keep the market honest; I'd argue once a market passes a certain size the number of people who can spot lemons becomes insignificant, and then it's a race to the bottom.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#762

Post by DeathArrow »

nradov wrote: post #700
somenameforme wrote: post #662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US has had extremely low interest rates for a very long time, and yet effective competition is further than ever in many industries. Something I'd observe is how unreasonably difficult it can be to legally sell things in the US. For instance hitting on this topic (of food prices), why can't I simply start baking bread and selling it? You can make an amazing loaf of bread for a tiny fraction of what people pay in…

There is always a tension between economic growth and consumer protection. Selling bread is hard mostly due to health regulations. We used to have a lot of people die due to contaminated food. Now that's so rare that it makes the news when it happens. Food safety rules were written in blood. Some states such as California do have special exemptions for "cottage" production of low risk foods such as bread. https://www…

> Selling bread is hard mostly due to health regulations. We used to have a lot of people die due to contaminated food. Now that's so rare that it makes the news when it happens. Food safety rules were written in blood.

Bread was just an example. Just try to open a small corner shop and see how easy it is. Almost any small business has legal obstacles and a barrier as a high to entry as a large corporation. While the corporation can pass that barrier, little guys can't.

> Want to make screwdrivers and sell them to the local hardware store? Go ahead.

I doubt you can do it without having to pay attention to thousand of different regulations.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#763

Post by medion »

somenameforme wrote: post #662
theturtletalks wrote: post #590

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His argument is that the government can do 2 things: 1. Interest-free money for businesses to launch, grow, and advance. This leads to more goods in the market and thus lower prices 2. Free money straight to the people which means more money in the market and thus, inflation, empty shelves, etc. His general point is that having interest-free money keeps existing players honest since newcomers can come in and start a…

The US has had extremely low interest rates for a very long time, and yet effective competition is further than ever in many industries. Something I'd observe is how unreasonably difficult it can be to legally sell things in the US. For instance hitting on this topic (of food prices), why can't I simply start baking bread and selling it? You can make an amazing loaf of bread for a tiny fraction of what people pay in…

There has been a complete and confusing lack of deregulation talk in the inflation discussion and I don’t know why. Your example could also be taken with housing - why is construction not deregulated in smart ways to jump start residential building? Building a house is a total red tape disaster.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#764

Post by beepbooptheory »

G3rn0ti wrote: post #749
Bukhmanizer wrote: post #685

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just want to point out that pretty much every natural economic condition is beneficial for the rich. The thing about money is it’s very flexible. You can hoard it in deflationary cycles, spend it on assets in inflationary cycles, grow it in economically good times and buy cheap property and goods in economically bad times.

Correct. Being rich is always better than being poor no matter what the economic context is. Even Marxists should be able to understand that. Although, to be precise: Inflation hurts everybody maintaining their savings in some form of cash. Rich people with a large pile of cash also have a lot to lose. In the medium term current retail prices will be offset by wage increases as long as inflation does not become a gal…

In fact, Marxists understand this point most of all. Which is why the moral impetus is to remove the possibility of being individually rich, in order to bring a more beautiful wealth to all.

Individual "wealth" is so boring and flat and uninspired. Just Scrooge McDucks everywhere. Doesn't it feel like an archaic concept at this point? Such a narrow instantiation of humanity, can't die soon enough.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#765

Post by pclmulqdq »

ihaveabeardnow wrote: post #721

have consumers increased their exposure to rising costs by consuming fewer raw materials and more finished goods? instead of buying flour, eggs, butter, cocoa powder to make a chocolate cake - they just go buy the cake. and I recognize there's an entire spectrum of stages each raw material goes through to get to the final finished product. each of those stages though is an attack vector for cost increases (legit or m…

I think this is part of it. Anecdotally, I have heard from a few chefs that young people today know a lot less about how to cook than they used to, so it's harder to hire line cooks. The same goes for many other kinds of basic things, like repairing your house, sewing clothes, etc.

At the same time, a lot of these basics are getting more difficult in the name of efficiency: think about repairing a linen shirt with a loose weave and no stretch vs repairing a spandex-poly shirt with a very tight weave and a ton of stretch.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#766

Post by cwkoss »

I think summer 2023 is likely to have more protests than 2020:

- Food prices are highly correlated with societal discontent. Need bread, circuses alone insufficient.

- 2024 election cycle is starting to ramp up, society will be thinking more politically.

- We're having a warm spring - could be a hot year. Tempers flare more easily in higher temperatures.

- Looks like we're heading into a recession. As the fed fights inflation, peoples investment savings will drop in value, making the middle class feel less secure.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#767

Post by mxkopy »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #757
supernova87a wrote: post #745

On the topic of whether inflation hits the poor harder than the rich, I have been undecided/inconclusive in my mind about this. And would love some perspectives on it, along the lines of: Although day to day items that dominate the spending of a lower income person's paycheck are easily seen affected when inflation hits, for a wealthy person, whatever savings and money is accumulated eventually has to be spent on suc…

Inflation hits everybody, but it hits people with bad market timing a lot more than people with good market timing. That means the dumb rich are the biggest losers, the smart rich are the biggest winners, and the poor (who don't have the luxury of choosing how to time the market on most things) also generally lose.

Going from $30,000 to $0 is a much bigger loss than $3M to $100K...

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#768

Post by p0pcult »

WalterBright wrote: post #494
ROTMetro wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All well and good except for the fact that these companies have gone on the record in their earning calls to say this is just them squeezing the end consumer as much as they can. But go ahead and makeup some false justification to defend them against the truth of their own words.

If you believe that, are you investing in food company stocks?

Not everyone is trying to be an unethical jerkwad.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#769

Post by mech7654 »

beepbooptheory wrote: post #764
G3rn0ti wrote: post #749

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. Being rich is always better than being poor no matter what the economic context is. Even Marxists should be able to understand that. Although, to be precise: Inflation hurts everybody maintaining their savings in some form of cash. Rich people with a large pile of cash also have a lot to lose. In the medium term current retail prices will be offset by wage increases as long as inflation does not become a gal…

In fact, Marxists understand this point most of all. Which is why the moral impetus is to remove the possibility of being individually rich, in order to bring a more beautiful wealth to all. Individual "wealth" is so boring and flat and uninspired. Just Scrooge McDucks everywhere. Doesn't it feel like an archaic concept at this point? Such a narrow instantiation of humanity, can't die soon enough.

It sure is boring. We probably should eliminate all boring things from the world.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#770

Post by PathOfEclipse »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #664
PathOfEclipse wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inflation is primarily caused by governments increasing the supply of money: https://www.hoover.org/research/inflation-true-and-false . Inflation was fixed in the U.S. when Reagan became president: https://www.pacificresearch.org/beating-back-inflation-team-... Recent studies in fact show that wages and productivity are still linked: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/3.... And, finally other a…

You're quoting the outputs of a propaganda industry, not the outputs of credible independent research. These are the orgs who persistently try to sell trickle-down economics, minimal taxation, low regulation, and other discredited, disastrous, and irrational neoliberal policy arguments. Many are also enthusiastic climate change denialists.

> You're quoting the outputs of a propaganda industry, not the outputs of credible independent research.

One man's propaganda is another man's truth, and vice versa. Do you really think the EPI is credible? https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/economic-policy-in...

> These are the orgs who persistently try to sell trickle-down economics

That's ironic, given that the phrase "trickle-down" was invented by leftists as a marketing tactic: https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/thomas-sowell-on-the-trickle-...

> low regulation

Well, we can agree on that one at least.

> and other discredited, disastrous, and irrational neoliberal policy argument

Never mind. I guess we have nothing to agree on.

> Many are also enthusiastic climate change denialists.

You're clearly influenced by the outputs of a propaganda industry, not the outputs of credible independent research. See what I did there? I'll even one-up you with some links:

https://www.amazon.com/Unsettled-Climate-Science-Doesnt-Matt...

https://www.amazon.com/Apocalypse-Never-Environmental-Alarmi...

https://www.amazon.com/Fossil-Future-Flourishing-Requires-Ga...

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