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In other news, the chocolate ration has been increased to 25 grams! Great success! /s Anybody living in the world can tell you that consumer prices are up a

In other news, the chocolate ration has been increased to 25 grams! Great success! /s Anybody living in the world can tell you that consumer prices are up a lot, lot more than 2.6%. Look even at this very thread. Food prices are way up, lumber prices are way up, restaurant prices are way up, clothing costs are up. Lots of goods literally just seem unbuyable at this point. Even in my city (nowhere near the southeast) people are now lining up to buy gas, which is also at the highest price it has been in almost 8 years. Bullshit CPI is up 2.6%. Don't give me that propaganda number. God damnit stuff like that is so insulting. People, real actual human being are suffering right now. It's practically evil to put out obviously gaslighting bullshit statistics like this as if they're crazy to notice that literally everything in their life has gotten more expensive. "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." Indeed.

gruez 5y ago
>Anybody living in the world can tell you that consumer prices are up a lot, lot more than 2.6%. Look even at this very thread. Food prices are way up, lumber prices are way up, restaurant prices are way up, clothing costs are up. who knew that if you cherrypick from a list of items rather than using a broad basket, you can get arbitrarily higher/lower averages?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- chiefalchemist 5y ago
  Yes and no. If these (e.g., food) are the things most people consume most of the time that's not cherry picking. Furthermore, consumer perception does matter. It does have impact - even if it's misperception. Gas is up. That's naturally going to increase cost of nearly everything that depends on that mode of transportation. Certainly, that's directly or indirectly just about everything.
  - gruez 5y ago
    All of that sounds like the availability heuristic in play. You buy groceries and fill up your car every week, but those two only make up 15.157% and 2.875% of the CPI respectively. If those went up 100% and everything stayed the same, you might conclude that inflation is 80-100%, even though the CPI would only be up 18%.
  - Sparkle-san 5y ago
    Oil is still under $70 a barrel though. It's gone up since being at some historical very low prices but compared to the times it's been north of $100, especially if you factor for 2021 dollars.
    - cameldrv 5y ago
      These are consumer prices though. Consumers don't buy barrels of crude oil. Meanwhile in the Bay Area, gas is $4.20/gal.
      - bradlys 5y ago
        $4.20 would be nice. I just paid $4.87 this last weekend. :(
        lumost 5y ago
        Gas in Boston is ~$2.97 a little north of where it was pre-covid. https://ycharts.com/indicators/boston_retail_price_of_gasoline#:~:text=Boston%20Retail%20Gas%20Price%20is,43.77%25%20from%20one%20year%20ago https://ycharts.com/indicators/boston_retail_price_of_gasoli.... Something is going on with California prices to push it to $4.20+ a gallon. https://ycharts.com/indicators/san_francisco_retail_price_of_gasoline https://ycharts.com/indicators/san_francisco_retail_price_of...
        ping_pong 5y ago
        Gas taxes galore
- missedthecue 5y ago
  What's less expensive right now than it was a year ago?
  - gruez 5y ago
    https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm Apparel, down -2.5% Medical care commodities, down 2.4% Motor vehicle insurance, down 2.5% Airline fares, down 15.1%
    - samspenc 5y ago
      I would reckon that airline fares are down because of the pandemic -- people don't want to fly because they are afraid of getting infected, and that's causing a "deflation" in ticket prices.
      - ping_pong 5y ago
        But by that measure, everything is up or down because of the pandemic. A lot of the inflation we are seeing is because of supply chain issues specifically caused by the pandemic. For example, lumber is only because they closed down mills, and chips are short because companies cancelled a ton of orders, etc. I myself went on a trip because plane tickets are so damn cheap right now. But I do agree that we are in a period of very high inflation.
        bradlys 5y ago
        For anyone else out there thinking of traveling, the flights are cheap until you start having to do all the associated covid testing to even enter other countries. After that, it’s actually a very expensive time to fly. (Especially if the location only allows certain test facilities - $400+ per test adds up) Tests to get on the plane, tests after you land, tests some days after you land, tests before you leave... The flights are “cheaper” but the total cost definitely isn’t.
        5y ago
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
RachelF 5y ago
There's a lot of fiddling done on the numbers. One thing they do to keep CPI low is using "equivalent items". So if the iPhone 4 cost $500 ten years ago, and you can now buy an "equivalent" cheap Android from WalMart for $50 then they measure this as deflation.
- gruez 5y ago
  And that's fine right? 13 years ago an enthusiast-class graphics card went for $300[1]. Now it costs $650[2] (more if you include scalpers). Does that mean PC gaming hardware has inflated by 2x? [1] https://www.anandtech.com/show/2556 https://www.anandtech.com/show/2556 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_RX_6000_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_RX_6000_series
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - RachelF 5y ago
    No, that's the opposite of how they work. They will say your 13 year old HD 4750 costs next to nothing these days. They compare like specs now with those last year, so technological progress is counted as deflation.
    - gruez 5y ago
      >They will say your 13 year old HD 4750 costs next to nothing these days Maybe it does? From a GFLOPS/s point of view it's outperformed by the integrated graphics in your CPU (eg. https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/uhd_graphics/630 https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/uhd_graphics/630), which essentially costs nothing.
throw0101a 5y ago
> Food prices are way up, lumber prices are way up, restaurant prices are way up, clothing costs are up. As was predicted: > So what’s going to happen in the months ahead? We’ll probably see a number of transitory price increases, not just because the economy is booming, but also because the lingering effects of the pandemic have produced some unusual disruptions — for example, a global shortage of shipping containers. > The question will be whether these price increases are a 2010-2011-type blip or something more dangerous. Smart observers will look past the headlines to measures of underlying inflation — not just the Fed’s standard “core” measure but things like the Atlanta Fed’s sticky price index as well. Anecdotal evidence, otherwise known as “talking to people,” will also be important: Are businesses actually starting to set prices and wages based on the expectation of high future inflation? > If they aren’t — and my bet is that they won’t be — then the lesson of 2010-2011 will remain: Don’t panic. > Now as then there are people eager to denounce government attempts to help the economy. And it’s certainly possible that the American Rescue Plan will turn out, in retrospect, to have been too much of a good thing. But don’t let the usual suspects seize on a few months’ inflation data as evidence of looming disaster. * https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/22/opinion/us-inflation-stimulus.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/22/opinion/us-inflation-stim... * https://archive.is/Vxj5h https://archive.is/Vxj5h I don't how old you are, but we went through the same thing ten years ago: > Well, booming economies often run into temporary bottlenecks, which show up in surging prices for selected goods. For example, the price of copper tripled between December 2008 and February 2011, even though recovery from the 2008 recession was fairly sluggish. * https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/06/opinion/us-inflation-federal-reserve.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/06/opinion/us-inflation-fede... * https://archive.is/64iz2 https://archive.is/64iz2 For a history of copper prices see: * https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCOPPUSDM https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCOPPUSDM If you look up the inflation rate 2008-2011 you'll find it was nothing to write home about. Will it actually be a problem this time around? It certainly can, and people are concerned about it. They're paying attention to it. But we had 3% inflation in the 1990s and the world didn't end.
dntrkv 5y ago
Sad to see this as the top comment. No substance, just a rant with absolutely zero data or meaningful insight. Which specific parts of the numbers do you disagree with? > clothing costs are up In what world? Clothing costs are way down > Food prices are way up Some food prices are up, some are flat > Lots of goods literally just seem unbuyable at this point Like what? > people are now lining up to buy gas Not sure how this fits in with the rest of your rant > lumber prices are way up Yeah, not many households are spending a large chunk of their income on lumber
- dsnr 5y ago
  > No substance, just a rant with absolutely zero data or meaningful insight. How is your anecdotal evidence more valuable than the GP’s?
  - dntrkv 5y ago
    Well if you look at the link at the very top of this page, you know the one we are all discussing, you can actually drill down into the categories.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
vernie 5y ago
Wow a 1984 reference; my man is learn-ed. Dazzle me with some Rand next.
megameter 5y ago
Perceptions of prices are up more than prices are. I did some grocery shopping for my parents the other day. Three tomatoes, three green peppers, a half gallon of milk, one bunch of bananas, and a soup bread. "Give me a twenty(USD)," I said. "No way, prices are higher than that," said my dad. "Take two." The bill came out to $13.60.
piva00 5y ago
> people are now lining up to buy gas Isn't this due to the pipeline cyberattack though? Completely unrelated to the other points I believe.

gruez 5y ago

>Anybody living in the world can tell you that consumer prices are up a lot, lot more than 2.6%. Look even at this very thread. Food prices are way up, lumber prices are way up, restaurant prices are way up, clothing costs are up. who knew that if you cherrypick from a list of items rather than using a broad basket, you can get arbitrarily higher/lower averages?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
chiefalchemist 5y ago
Yes and no. If these (e.g., food) are the things most people consume most of the time that's not cherry picking. Furthermore, consumer perception does matter. It does have impact - even if it's misperception. Gas is up. That's naturally going to increase cost of nearly everything that depends on that mode of transportation. Certainly, that's directly or indirectly just about everything.
- gruez 5y ago
  All of that sounds like the availability heuristic in play. You buy groceries and fill up your car every week, but those two only make up 15.157% and 2.875% of the CPI respectively. If those went up 100% and everything stayed the same, you might conclude that inflation is 80-100%, even though the CPI would only be up 18%.
- Sparkle-san 5y ago
  Oil is still under $70 a barrel though. It's gone up since being at some historical very low prices but compared to the times it's been north of $100, especially if you factor for 2021 dollars.
  - cameldrv 5y ago
    These are consumer prices though. Consumers don't buy barrels of crude oil. Meanwhile in the Bay Area, gas is $4.20/gal.
    - bradlys 5y ago
      $4.20 would be nice. I just paid $4.87 this last weekend. :(
      - lumost 5y ago
        Gas in Boston is ~$2.97 a little north of where it was pre-covid. https://ycharts.com/indicators/boston_retail_price_of_gasoline#:~:text=Boston%20Retail%20Gas%20Price%20is,43.77%25%20from%20one%20year%20ago https://ycharts.com/indicators/boston_retail_price_of_gasoli.... Something is going on with California prices to push it to $4.20+ a gallon. https://ycharts.com/indicators/san_francisco_retail_price_of_gasoline https://ycharts.com/indicators/san_francisco_retail_price_of...
        ping_pong 5y ago
        Gas taxes galore
missedthecue 5y ago
What's less expensive right now than it was a year ago?
- gruez 5y ago
  https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm Apparel, down -2.5% Medical care commodities, down 2.4% Motor vehicle insurance, down 2.5% Airline fares, down 15.1%
  - samspenc 5y ago
    I would reckon that airline fares are down because of the pandemic -- people don't want to fly because they are afraid of getting infected, and that's causing a "deflation" in ticket prices.
    - ping_pong 5y ago
      But by that measure, everything is up or down because of the pandemic. A lot of the inflation we are seeing is because of supply chain issues specifically caused by the pandemic. For example, lumber is only because they closed down mills, and chips are short because companies cancelled a ton of orders, etc. I myself went on a trip because plane tickets are so damn cheap right now. But I do agree that we are in a period of very high inflation.
      - bradlys 5y ago
        For anyone else out there thinking of traveling, the flights are cheap until you start having to do all the associated covid testing to even enter other countries. After that, it’s actually a very expensive time to fly. (Especially if the location only allows certain test facilities - $400+ per test adds up) Tests to get on the plane, tests after you land, tests some days after you land, tests before you leave... The flights are “cheaper” but the total cost definitely isn’t.
        5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

RachelF 5y ago

There's a lot of fiddling done on the numbers. One thing they do to keep CPI low is using "equivalent items". So if the iPhone 4 cost $500 ten years ago, and you can now buy an "equivalent" cheap Android from WalMart for $50 then they measure this as deflation.

gruez 5y ago
And that's fine right? 13 years ago an enthusiast-class graphics card went for $300[1]. Now it costs $650[2] (more if you include scalpers). Does that mean PC gaming hardware has inflated by 2x? [1] https://www.anandtech.com/show/2556 https://www.anandtech.com/show/2556 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_RX_6000_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_RX_6000_series
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- RachelF 5y ago
  No, that's the opposite of how they work. They will say your 13 year old HD 4750 costs next to nothing these days. They compare like specs now with those last year, so technological progress is counted as deflation.
  - gruez 5y ago
    >They will say your 13 year old HD 4750 costs next to nothing these days Maybe it does? From a GFLOPS/s point of view it's outperformed by the integrated graphics in your CPU (eg. https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/uhd_graphics/630 https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/uhd_graphics/630), which essentially costs nothing.

throw0101a 5y ago

> Food prices are way up, lumber prices are way up, restaurant prices are way up, clothing costs are up. As was predicted: > So what’s going to happen in the months ahead? We’ll probably see a number of transitory price increases, not just because the economy is booming, but also because the lingering effects of the pandemic have produced some unusual disruptions — for example, a global shortage of shipping containers. > The question will be whether these price increases are a 2010-2011-type blip or something more dangerous. Smart observers will look past the headlines to measures of underlying inflation — not just the Fed’s standard “core” measure but things like the Atlanta Fed’s sticky price index as well. Anecdotal evidence, otherwise known as “talking to people,” will also be important: Are businesses actually starting to set prices and wages based on the expectation of high future inflation? > If they aren’t — and my bet is that they won’t be — then the lesson of 2010-2011 will remain: Don’t panic. > Now as then there are people eager to denounce government attempts to help the economy. And it’s certainly possible that the American Rescue Plan will turn out, in retrospect, to have been too much of a good thing. But don’t let the usual suspects seize on a few months’ inflation data as evidence of looming disaster. * https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/22/opinion/us-inflation-stimulus.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/22/opinion/us-inflation-stim... * https://archive.is/Vxj5h https://archive.is/Vxj5h I don't how old you are, but we went through the same thing ten years ago: > Well, booming economies often run into temporary bottlenecks, which show up in surging prices for selected goods. For example, the price of copper tripled between December 2008 and February 2011, even though recovery from the 2008 recession was fairly sluggish. * https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/06/opinion/us-inflation-federal-reserve.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/06/opinion/us-inflation-fede... * https://archive.is/64iz2 https://archive.is/64iz2 For a history of copper prices see: * https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCOPPUSDM https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCOPPUSDM If you look up the inflation rate 2008-2011 you'll find it was nothing to write home about. Will it actually be a problem this time around? It certainly can, and people are concerned about it. They're paying attention to it. But we had 3% inflation in the 1990s and the world didn't end.

dntrkv 5y ago

Sad to see this as the top comment. No substance, just a rant with absolutely zero data or meaningful insight. Which specific parts of the numbers do you disagree with? > clothing costs are up In what world? Clothing costs are way down > Food prices are way up Some food prices are up, some are flat > Lots of goods literally just seem unbuyable at this point Like what? > people are now lining up to buy gas Not sure how this fits in with the rest of your rant > lumber prices are way up Yeah, not many households are spending a large chunk of their income on lumber

dsnr 5y ago
> No substance, just a rant with absolutely zero data or meaningful insight. How is your anecdotal evidence more valuable than the GP’s?
- dntrkv 5y ago
  Well if you look at the link at the very top of this page, you know the one we are all discussing, you can actually drill down into the categories.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

vernie 5y ago

Wow a 1984 reference; my man is learn-ed. Dazzle me with some Rand next.

megameter 5y ago

Perceptions of prices are up more than prices are. I did some grocery shopping for my parents the other day. Three tomatoes, three green peppers, a half gallon of milk, one bunch of bananas, and a soup bread. "Give me a twenty(USD)," I said. "No way, prices are higher than that," said my dad. "Take two." The bill came out to $13.60.

piva00 5y ago

> people are now lining up to buy gas Isn't this due to the pipeline cyberattack though? Completely unrelated to the other points I believe.