5 ms·

This reminds me of that old joke "In the fall of 1972 President Nixon announced that the rate of increase of inflation was decreasing. This was the first time a

This reminds me of that old joke "In the fall of 1972 President Nixon announced that the rate of increase of inflation was decreasing. This was the first time a sitting president used the third derivative to advance his case for reelection." https://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/quotations/hugo-rossi https://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/quotations...

Rebelgecko 4y ago
I feel like this is a really good opportunity to make a joke about how Richard Nixon was kind of a jerk, but I can't quite figure out the wording.
- afarrell 4y ago
  The setup is left as an exercise for the reader.
- redtexture 4y ago
  Inflation was still increasing.
  - quickthrowman 4y ago
    > In physics, jerk or jolt is the rate at which an object's acceleration changes with respect to time. > As a vector, jerk j can be expressed as the .. third time derivative of position https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerk_(physics) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerk_(physics)
- reilly3000 4y ago
  I humbly submit: Dick touts limp jerk
  - reilly3000 4y ago
    A yet cruder headline variant: ‘Dick: “jerk off”’
SilasX 4y ago
That would apply also to anyone who made a campaign issue out of some train or car being too jerky. Later examples might include the Toyota unintended acceleration?
mortenjorck 4y ago
To be clear, the article is not discussing the third derivative, but rather arguing that the standard “now versus one year ago” measure is heavily back-weighted due to factors early this past year. The second derivative is down!
- flandish 4y ago
  > due to factors early this past year Is that like how it was convenient in the 2010’s when discussing “terrorist attacks on US soul” to conveniently leave out 2001 because it was an “outlier?”
  - systoll 4y ago
    It’s more like leaving out 9/11 when discussing the effects/impacts of the PATRIOT Act. The consumer price index has been relatively flat since the Fed started raising interest rates. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/consumer-price-index-cpi https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/consumer-price-in... The generally quoted inflation rate compares now to this time last year – so until next June, it includes the increases that happened before the Fed decided there was a problem. This is useful in a lot of contexts, but if you want to know whether prices will be higher next month, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to use a lagging indicator.
    - dragonwriter 4y ago
      > The consumer price index has been relatively stable since the Fed started raising interest rates. The PCE, which the Fed uses—not the CPI—as its inflation gauge for policymaking has not been flat (historically, the PCE and CPI have generally been pretty close, but the PCE shot up much more than the CPI in the recent inflation, and did not quickly drop and stay near zero monthly % change like the CPI in response to the Fed intervention [it was low in July and November, but not the intervening months.])
- mamediz 4y ago
  Is not? The title says, Inflation (first derivative) is falling (second derivative) much faster (third derivative) than most people know.

Rebelgecko 4y ago

I feel like this is a really good opportunity to make a joke about how Richard Nixon was kind of a jerk, but I can't quite figure out the wording.

afarrell 4y ago
The setup is left as an exercise for the reader.
redtexture 4y ago
Inflation was still increasing.
- quickthrowman 4y ago
  > In physics, jerk or jolt is the rate at which an object's acceleration changes with respect to time. > As a vector, jerk j can be expressed as the .. third time derivative of position https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerk_(physics) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerk_(physics)
reilly3000 4y ago
I humbly submit: Dick touts limp jerk
- reilly3000 4y ago
  A yet cruder headline variant: ‘Dick: “jerk off”’

SilasX 4y ago

That would apply also to anyone who made a campaign issue out of some train or car being too jerky. Later examples might include the Toyota unintended acceleration?

mortenjorck 4y ago

To be clear, the article is not discussing the third derivative, but rather arguing that the standard “now versus one year ago” measure is heavily back-weighted due to factors early this past year. The second derivative is down!

flandish 4y ago
> due to factors early this past year Is that like how it was convenient in the 2010’s when discussing “terrorist attacks on US soul” to conveniently leave out 2001 because it was an “outlier?”
- systoll 4y ago
  It’s more like leaving out 9/11 when discussing the effects/impacts of the PATRIOT Act. The consumer price index has been relatively flat since the Fed started raising interest rates. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/consumer-price-index-cpi https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/consumer-price-in... The generally quoted inflation rate compares now to this time last year – so until next June, it includes the increases that happened before the Fed decided there was a problem. This is useful in a lot of contexts, but if you want to know whether prices will be higher next month, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to use a lagging indicator.
  - dragonwriter 4y ago
    > The consumer price index has been relatively stable since the Fed started raising interest rates. The PCE, which the Fed uses—not the CPI—as its inflation gauge for policymaking has not been flat (historically, the PCE and CPI have generally been pretty close, but the PCE shot up much more than the CPI in the recent inflation, and did not quickly drop and stay near zero monthly % change like the CPI in response to the Fed intervention [it was low in July and November, but not the intervening months.])
mamediz 4y ago
Is not? The title says, Inflation (first derivative) is falling (second derivative) much faster (third derivative) than most people know.