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So they’re asking for their wages to roughly keep pace with inflation, and maybe get slightly ahead of inflation, knowing their raises after they accept the job

So they’re asking for their wages to roughly keep pace with inflation, and maybe get slightly ahead of inflation, knowing their raises after they accept the job may be below inflation? Seems reasonable to me. Workers want to be able to live as well as they did last year. I’m shocked.

EMM_386 3y ago
That's what I took away from this. I'm not sure I really see anything interesting here, except this: > The numbers are significant in that wages increasingly have been recognized as a driving force in inflation Rising wages aren't the driving forces of inflation. The problem is exactly the opposite it seems. The Federal Reserve and "easy money" policies put a lot of money into the system trying to deal with the pandemic. The fallout of that is inflation. The fallout of THAT is people need more money to get by. Not just to deal with the inflation, but to deal with raising interest rates and everything else that comes along with trying to "fix" that issue. So people demand higher wages.
WalterBright 3y ago
Somebody's got to pay for all that extra money Biden has been printing. Nothing is free. Inflation is how we pay the bill.
- throwaway5959 3y ago
  Could pay for government spending with taxes.
  - WalterBright 3y ago
    Yes, and if that was done, there'd be no inflation. Of course, then people would be aware of those huge costly tax increases, and the government would be unable to shift the blame.
    - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
      We could cut spending on our massively bloated military and stop with the tax cuts for rich. Republicans are hardly fiscally conservative these days, we have a choice between the “tax and spend” party and the “spend and cut taxes” party. A lot of our problems simply come from low interest rates, and our inability to raise them as the economy got better; now we are stuck with raising interest rates because we basically broke the lever. Both parties are at fault here, I guess we are just getting what we asked for.
- greenhearth 3y ago
  All of the world economically viable nations have been printing more money after the recession of the 2000s, not just "Biden." Increased liquidity has incidental effects on inflation, which comes from different factors, like resource scarcity, tariff increases and price gouging.
  - WalterBright 3y ago
    You're right that all countries switched from the gold standard to fiat money so they could inflate it, and inflate it they did. What Biden did recently, however, was a truly massive spike in deficit spending, thus spiking inflation a few months later.
    - greenhearth 3y ago
      No, they brought down inflation rate, which spiked after the pandemic and increase of international tariffs. But maybe you are the type blinded by political outrage
      - WalterBright 3y ago
        You might want to look at a chart of deficit spending: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD What do you think a $3,200,000,000,000 deficit in just one year might mean to the economy? Do you see the part where the deficit dropped to $1,300,000,000,000 and "they brought down the inflation part"?
        seanmcdirmid 3y ago
        Your chart shoes deficit spending going down since Biden took office (lower means more negative). The -$3,200,000,000,000 deficit number you quote happened in 2020, Biden was sworn in in 2021. I’m not clear about the point you are trying to make.
    - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
      Deficit spending has actually been falling under Biden when compared to Trump. But of course, that comes from a huge spike at the end of the Trump administration (the same situation for Obama after Bush).
- argentinian 3y ago
  For Argentinian citizens what you say is common sense, backed by the experience of living with inflation for more than 50 years. For a liberal HN reader living in an expensive apartment in SF, what you say is a cause for downvotes.
  - WalterBright 3y ago
    I know. But I don't care about karma points, and so feel free to speak the truth.

EMM_386 3y ago

That's what I took away from this. I'm not sure I really see anything interesting here, except this: > The numbers are significant in that wages increasingly have been recognized as a driving force in inflation Rising wages aren't the driving forces of inflation. The problem is exactly the opposite it seems. The Federal Reserve and "easy money" policies put a lot of money into the system trying to deal with the pandemic. The fallout of that is inflation. The fallout of THAT is people need more money to get by. Not just to deal with the inflation, but to deal with raising interest rates and everything else that comes along with trying to "fix" that issue. So people demand higher wages.

WalterBright 3y ago

Somebody's got to pay for all that extra money Biden has been printing. Nothing is free. Inflation is how we pay the bill.

throwaway5959 3y ago
Could pay for government spending with taxes.
- WalterBright 3y ago
  Yes, and if that was done, there'd be no inflation. Of course, then people would be aware of those huge costly tax increases, and the government would be unable to shift the blame.
  - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
    We could cut spending on our massively bloated military and stop with the tax cuts for rich. Republicans are hardly fiscally conservative these days, we have a choice between the “tax and spend” party and the “spend and cut taxes” party. A lot of our problems simply come from low interest rates, and our inability to raise them as the economy got better; now we are stuck with raising interest rates because we basically broke the lever. Both parties are at fault here, I guess we are just getting what we asked for.
greenhearth 3y ago
All of the world economically viable nations have been printing more money after the recession of the 2000s, not just "Biden." Increased liquidity has incidental effects on inflation, which comes from different factors, like resource scarcity, tariff increases and price gouging.
- WalterBright 3y ago
  You're right that all countries switched from the gold standard to fiat money so they could inflate it, and inflate it they did. What Biden did recently, however, was a truly massive spike in deficit spending, thus spiking inflation a few months later.
  - greenhearth 3y ago
    No, they brought down inflation rate, which spiked after the pandemic and increase of international tariffs. But maybe you are the type blinded by political outrage
    - WalterBright 3y ago
      You might want to look at a chart of deficit spending: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD What do you think a $3,200,000,000,000 deficit in just one year might mean to the economy? Do you see the part where the deficit dropped to $1,300,000,000,000 and "they brought down the inflation part"?
      - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
        Your chart shoes deficit spending going down since Biden took office (lower means more negative). The -$3,200,000,000,000 deficit number you quote happened in 2020, Biden was sworn in in 2021. I’m not clear about the point you are trying to make.
  - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
    Deficit spending has actually been falling under Biden when compared to Trump. But of course, that comes from a huge spike at the end of the Trump administration (the same situation for Obama after Bush).
argentinian 3y ago
For Argentinian citizens what you say is common sense, backed by the experience of living with inflation for more than 50 years. For a liberal HN reader living in an expensive apartment in SF, what you say is a cause for downvotes.
- WalterBright 3y ago
  I know. But I don't care about karma points, and so feel free to speak the truth.