8 ms·

Cars are also apprecating in value. What other economic oddities are happening at the moment?

by HenryKissinger 5y ago

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
> Cars are also apprecating in value. Depends on who's inflation estimates you're using.
- mym1990 5y ago
  I'm pretty sure you don't need to look at inflation estimates to see that car prices are actually pretty bonkers right now. But here is a graph for the sake of it: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUSR0000SETA02 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUSR0000SETA02
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    Yeah prices are crazy right now but my point is everyone seems to ignore inflation when looking at car values over time.
    - mym1990 5y ago
      Yeah I mean car depreciation is usually so much that the standard 1-2% inflation that we are used to doesn’t seem to be that much. It’s similar to getting a 3% raise until you realize that it’s really only 1%(with 2% inflation).
- jjk166 5y ago
  I was in a car accident a few weeks ago, my car was totaled. Between the insurance payout being super high and low financing rate, I was able to get a new (to me) car that has traditionally been worth twice as much as my old one while keeping my autopayments at the same rate and with the same amount of debt. I could have bought a car that was the same model year as my old one but with about half as many miles and still made about $3000 in profit. Maybe without inflation the number's smaller, but it's still way higher than zero.
- Arrath 5y ago
  Good old anecdata: I've now had three friends sell cars less than two years old for more than they paid for them. Indeed whether they turned a profit when considering inflation is up in the air but pure $-wise they did make money.
gitfan86 5y ago
Employers are dropping quality standards for employees so fast that entire businesses have to shut down, because their employees leave and no one will work at a wage that makes the business profitable
- londons_explore 5y ago
  I much prefer this way if saying it to "we can't find any staff", which so many businesses are saying. No... You can't find any staff willing to do this work for the pay you're offering. Offer more pay and you won't have an issue.
  - kiklion 5y ago
    This is kind of ignoring that we don’t have high unemployment and our labor participation rate is nearly recovered as well. So anyone who wants a job, basically has one. A company raising wages isn’t going to create new labor by hiring an unemployed person, they are going to move labor by hiring one of their competitors employees. This doesn’t reduce the markets labor shortage.
    - aksss 5y ago
      Unemployment is about where it was in 2017, which continued to drop all the way until 2020. So not as low as it was pre-pandemic, but objectively quite low, yes. Doesn't take away from your point. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate
      - s1artibartfast 5y ago
        U-3 unemployment is a garbage metric for most applications because it ignores anyone who has given up or underemployed. U-6 is a much better metric that doesn't sweep these factors under the rug.
    - s1artibartfast 5y ago
      >our labor participation rate is nearly recovered as well. I don't think this is true. Labor participation dropped a couple percent, made up about half the loss, then has been about the same since June 2020 Jan 2020 83% June 2020 81.5% OCT 2021 81.7% https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060
rossdavidh 5y ago
All of them. My wife had a problem getting studded leather belts for her goth/punk clothing store. T-shirts for old cult horror films are in short supply because the blank shirts aren't available as easily. Packages that do show up at the store are rain-soaked or dumped outside for anyone to find because the FedEx/DHL/etc delivery guy is overworked. You name it, if it involves the economy, it's weird now.
- freeflight 5y ago
  A lot of that, and over here in Germany there's even a weird bag shortage. Super markets running out of plastic and paper bags, in some places even McDonalds has started to use unbranded white paper bags. Same supermarkets are now also mentioning "inflation" as part of their weekly discount brochures, which is not something I think I've ever seen them do before.
  - VortexDream 5y ago
    Oh. I noticed that none of the supermarkets around me have had any bags for weeks. I somehow didn't connect the dots that there was a bag shortage. Odd. Why would there be a bag shortage?
    - freeflight 5y ago
      > Odd. Why would there be a bag shortage? Apparently a combination of phasing out plastic bags while there's a pandemic related supply shortage of paper. At least that's what German news are saying, no more details as I can't find anything without a paywall.
  - perl4ever 5y ago
    Right around the start of the epidemic, my state (US, not California) banned plastic bags. In the early part of it, the ban was relaxed, probably because it was felt that plastic bags might be more sanitary. But then they disappeared again. So I've gotten used to reusing the paper bags, which now cost a few cents. It's funny that you're still using plastic bags.

Cars are also apprecating in value. What other economic oddities are happening at the moment?

throwaway0a5e 5y ago

> Cars are also apprecating in value. Depends on who's inflation estimates you're using.

mym1990 5y ago
I'm pretty sure you don't need to look at inflation estimates to see that car prices are actually pretty bonkers right now. But here is a graph for the sake of it: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUSR0000SETA02 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUSR0000SETA02
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  Yeah prices are crazy right now but my point is everyone seems to ignore inflation when looking at car values over time.
  - mym1990 5y ago
    Yeah I mean car depreciation is usually so much that the standard 1-2% inflation that we are used to doesn’t seem to be that much. It’s similar to getting a 3% raise until you realize that it’s really only 1%(with 2% inflation).
jjk166 5y ago
I was in a car accident a few weeks ago, my car was totaled. Between the insurance payout being super high and low financing rate, I was able to get a new (to me) car that has traditionally been worth twice as much as my old one while keeping my autopayments at the same rate and with the same amount of debt. I could have bought a car that was the same model year as my old one but with about half as many miles and still made about $3000 in profit. Maybe without inflation the number's smaller, but it's still way higher than zero.
Arrath 5y ago
Good old anecdata: I've now had three friends sell cars less than two years old for more than they paid for them. Indeed whether they turned a profit when considering inflation is up in the air but pure $-wise they did make money.

gitfan86 5y ago

Employers are dropping quality standards for employees so fast that entire businesses have to shut down, because their employees leave and no one will work at a wage that makes the business profitable

londons_explore 5y ago
I much prefer this way if saying it to "we can't find any staff", which so many businesses are saying. No... You can't find any staff willing to do this work for the pay you're offering. Offer more pay and you won't have an issue.
- kiklion 5y ago
  This is kind of ignoring that we don’t have high unemployment and our labor participation rate is nearly recovered as well. So anyone who wants a job, basically has one. A company raising wages isn’t going to create new labor by hiring an unemployed person, they are going to move labor by hiring one of their competitors employees. This doesn’t reduce the markets labor shortage.
  - aksss 5y ago
    Unemployment is about where it was in 2017, which continued to drop all the way until 2020. So not as low as it was pre-pandemic, but objectively quite low, yes. Doesn't take away from your point. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate
    - s1artibartfast 5y ago
      U-3 unemployment is a garbage metric for most applications because it ignores anyone who has given up or underemployed. U-6 is a much better metric that doesn't sweep these factors under the rug.
  - s1artibartfast 5y ago
    >our labor participation rate is nearly recovered as well. I don't think this is true. Labor participation dropped a couple percent, made up about half the loss, then has been about the same since June 2020 Jan 2020 83% June 2020 81.5% OCT 2021 81.7% https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060

rossdavidh 5y ago

All of them. My wife had a problem getting studded leather belts for her goth/punk clothing store. T-shirts for old cult horror films are in short supply because the blank shirts aren't available as easily. Packages that do show up at the store are rain-soaked or dumped outside for anyone to find because the FedEx/DHL/etc delivery guy is overworked. You name it, if it involves the economy, it's weird now.

freeflight 5y ago
A lot of that, and over here in Germany there's even a weird bag shortage. Super markets running out of plastic and paper bags, in some places even McDonalds has started to use unbranded white paper bags. Same supermarkets are now also mentioning "inflation" as part of their weekly discount brochures, which is not something I think I've ever seen them do before.
- VortexDream 5y ago
  Oh. I noticed that none of the supermarkets around me have had any bags for weeks. I somehow didn't connect the dots that there was a bag shortage. Odd. Why would there be a bag shortage?
  - freeflight 5y ago
    > Odd. Why would there be a bag shortage? Apparently a combination of phasing out plastic bags while there's a pandemic related supply shortage of paper. At least that's what German news are saying, no more details as I can't find anything without a paywall.
- perl4ever 5y ago
  Right around the start of the epidemic, my state (US, not California) banned plastic bags. In the early part of it, the ban was relaxed, probably because it was felt that plastic bags might be more sanitary. But then they disappeared again. So I've gotten used to reusing the paper bags, which now cost a few cents. It's funny that you're still using plastic bags.