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I hear you. It's tough out there, getting tougher all the time. Fingers crossed that the rate-racking the fed is doing helps slow it down a bit. I talk to my fa

I hear you. It's tough out there, getting tougher all the time. Fingers crossed that the rate-racking the fed is doing helps slow it down a bit. I talk to my family about it all the time -- we're very lucky where we're at. We wonder how many people are managing to keep food on the table with these prices and the inability of wages to keep up. My mom works at a donation center focused on veterans, and they give out food several weekends out of the month. They're breaking records for visitors every month now.

landemva 3y ago
> Fingers crossed that the rate-racking the fed is doing helps slow it down a bit. Along with finger crossing and hoping, we could look for causes of price increases, and then force the politicians to end the inflation-inducing military conflict in eastern Europe.
- ye-olde-sysrq 3y ago
  If this inflation is the price of liberty for Ukrainians and the price of independence from a dictator for Western Europe, then I am willing to pay that, personally. I just don't think Ukraine explains that much beyond natural gas prices going up, as far as I'm aware, and even that I suspect is limited to Europe. (I am in the US).
  - sanderjd 3y ago
    I agree with you that it would be worth it, but it's also definitely not what caused inflation.
    - landemva 3y ago
      Historical timeline of USA central bank rates and world events: March 3, 2020 -50 basis points March 14-15, 2020 -100 basis points Feb 19 2022 Zelensky speech puts in question 1994 nuclear disarmament agreement. Feb 20 2022 VP Harris in Munich encourages Ukraine entry into NATO, "So I respect President Zelensky’s desire to be a member of NATO." Feb 24 2022 Russia in to Ukraine. March 15-16 2022 rate increases begin. Federal Reserve recognized war. Zelensky nuclear ambitions speech translated: https://kyivindependent.com/zelenskys-full-speech-at-munich-security-conference/ https://kyivindependent.com/zelenskys-full-speech-at-munich-... Harris talking about Ukraine joining NATO: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/02/20/remarks-by-vice-president-harris-in-press-gaggle-2/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/20...
      - frumper 3y ago
        Something can happen in the world and not be the causation for the other. It's totally possible.
        landemva 3y ago
        It is possible. What other event caused Federal Reserve to suddenly raise rates in March 2022?
        ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
        (somewhat) interesting question, it might be worth discussing sometime anyways, do you have any evidence for the causality you suggested here? so far it hasn't been very convincing keep in mind, as you make your case, that most posters here are smart enough to not fall for a "post hoc ergo proper hoc" fallacy
        landemva 3y ago
        Federal Reserve is a private contractor to USA and sets the price of money (interest rates). Their recent statement timidly implied the war is causing inflationary pressures. As a contractor, they can't directly tell the White House to 'knock off the warmaking' so they wrote 'international developments'. https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/files/fomcminutes20230726.pdf https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/files/fomcminu... Page 9: "Members also agreed that their assessments will take into account a wide range of information, including readings on labor market conditions, inflation pressures and inflation expectations, and financial and international developments." If you like to read books, this book about Russia has amazing references including FOIA documents. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-plot-to-seize-russia-martin-armstrong/1143609009;jsessionid=BBA3B88B8BBF5602620B254B4DF7D44F.prodny_store02-atgap17?ean=9781662939648 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-plot-to-seize-russia-ma...
        ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
- ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
  unfortunately, no matter how much we want the conflict to end, it won't without the commitment of russia to end it, which means withdrawing their Ukrainian-toddler-raping troops* from Ukraine and ending their attempted 3rd russian genocide of Ukrainians** * - per a UN investigation ** - with the Holodomor and the deportation of the Crimean Tatars being at least 2 previous russian genocides of Ukrainians
bluSCALE4 3y ago
What worries me is this "we're lucky" sentiment is only temporary. In my situation, if my pay drastically changes due to emerging technologies causing future job cuts and order of magnitude competition over jobs, "we're lucky" can turn to "we're worried" in a year and "we're screwed" in 10... if "we're lucky". Compound that with property taxes: I just heard a neighbors condo's taxes go up from 8k to 18k in a single year.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  > Compound that with property taxes: I just heard a neighbors condo's taxes go up from 8k to 18k in a single year. This must be a special case of not having the correct assessed value, or an error and they are including condo association costs in their property tax. Even at a 3% property tax rate, which very few Americans have, a $10k increase means a $333k increase in assessed value for a condo. 1% to 2% property tax rates are more likely, which would mean a ~$667k increase in assessed value.
- scruple 3y ago
  In my own situation, it's gone from "we're blessed" to "our kids generation is fucked" in the span of 5 years.
taylodl 3y ago
If you think this is bad then you should have been around in the mid-70's to early 80's after Nixon unilaterally bended Bretton Woods and threw the global monetary regime into chaos. I still remember mortgage rates of 12% to 15% and lots of young families being shut out of the housing market - at the same time apartment complexes were being built everywhere. Sound familiar?
- hnhmp 3y ago
  The idea that it was worse back then has been thoroughly debunked. The unfortunate truth is that property values have soared (due to lack of supply), inflation continues as it does, and wages have totally stagnated. Those combined together mean that however bad it was for families back then (and I'm sure it was bad! Housing insecurity is something folks should never have to face, and I'm sorry you went through it too), it's just worse for people today, full stop. This isn't the oppression olympics, I don't want to tell you that you didn't have it bad, or anything like that. But it just sucks to be facing a very real problem today and have people incorrectly tell you that it was worse before. Not only does the existence of a problem 50 years ago not negate the existence of a problem today, but people in politics and on the internet want to tell us that it's not as bad as we think it is, when in reality it's much worse than they think.
  - taylodl 3y ago
    You're only looking at one aspect - housing. What's missing in this analysis is that fuel costs had risen 400% in a very short time frame, and in an economy that was much more fuel-dependent than it is today. Imagine if gasoline were to rapidly rise to over $12 per gallon? Natural gas was even worse, we had actual shortages, so you can imagine what that did to the market. I still remember the president of the United States addressing the nation from the Oval Office wearing a cardigan to set an example that it was okay to turn the thermostat down and bundle up. The speed limit on the interstate had been dropped to 55 MPH to encourage people to driver slower and conserve fuel. Housing was just yet another problem at the time. The problem with housing today is an amazing lack of foresight from our so-called leaders then. Everyone accommodated the Boomers (I'm Gen X). They didn't have enough houses for the Boomers - let alone the kids the Boomers would have (the Millennials) who would be living as adults at the same time as their parents. There was a rash of home-building in the 40's, 50's and 60's, and then it slowed way down, never to reach those levels again. Meanwhile, advances in healthcare increased people's lifetimes, exacerbating a housing shortage that all the experts were warning about even back in the 70's and yet nothing was being done about. I say all this to say I see the same thing happening with the climate "debate" today. We know what's coming. What know what the economic impacts are going to be. But we sit and equivocate and do nothing. If you think today's housing crises is bad, wait until you see what hits us in 30-40 years! Funny too how the ever-vaunted market failed to solve the housing issue...but that's a story for another time.

landemva 3y ago

> Fingers crossed that the rate-racking the fed is doing helps slow it down a bit. Along with finger crossing and hoping, we could look for causes of price increases, and then force the politicians to end the inflation-inducing military conflict in eastern Europe.

ye-olde-sysrq 3y ago
If this inflation is the price of liberty for Ukrainians and the price of independence from a dictator for Western Europe, then I am willing to pay that, personally. I just don't think Ukraine explains that much beyond natural gas prices going up, as far as I'm aware, and even that I suspect is limited to Europe. (I am in the US).
- sanderjd 3y ago
  I agree with you that it would be worth it, but it's also definitely not what caused inflation.
  - landemva 3y ago
    Historical timeline of USA central bank rates and world events: March 3, 2020 -50 basis points March 14-15, 2020 -100 basis points Feb 19 2022 Zelensky speech puts in question 1994 nuclear disarmament agreement. Feb 20 2022 VP Harris in Munich encourages Ukraine entry into NATO, "So I respect President Zelensky’s desire to be a member of NATO." Feb 24 2022 Russia in to Ukraine. March 15-16 2022 rate increases begin. Federal Reserve recognized war. Zelensky nuclear ambitions speech translated: https://kyivindependent.com/zelenskys-full-speech-at-munich-security-conference/ https://kyivindependent.com/zelenskys-full-speech-at-munich-... Harris talking about Ukraine joining NATO: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/02/20/remarks-by-vice-president-harris-in-press-gaggle-2/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/20...
    - frumper 3y ago
      Something can happen in the world and not be the causation for the other. It's totally possible.
      - landemva 3y ago
        It is possible. What other event caused Federal Reserve to suddenly raise rates in March 2022?
        ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
        (somewhat) interesting question, it might be worth discussing sometime anyways, do you have any evidence for the causality you suggested here? so far it hasn't been very convincing keep in mind, as you make your case, that most posters here are smart enough to not fall for a "post hoc ergo proper hoc" fallacy
        landemva 3y ago
        Federal Reserve is a private contractor to USA and sets the price of money (interest rates). Their recent statement timidly implied the war is causing inflationary pressures. As a contractor, they can't directly tell the White House to 'knock off the warmaking' so they wrote 'international developments'. https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/files/fomcminutes20230726.pdf https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/files/fomcminu... Page 9: "Members also agreed that their assessments will take into account a wide range of information, including readings on labor market conditions, inflation pressures and inflation expectations, and financial and international developments." If you like to read books, this book about Russia has amazing references including FOIA documents. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-plot-to-seize-russia-martin-armstrong/1143609009;jsessionid=BBA3B88B8BBF5602620B254B4DF7D44F.prodny_store02-atgap17?ean=9781662939648 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-plot-to-seize-russia-ma...
        ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
unfortunately, no matter how much we want the conflict to end, it won't without the commitment of russia to end it, which means withdrawing their Ukrainian-toddler-raping troops* from Ukraine and ending their attempted 3rd russian genocide of Ukrainians** * - per a UN investigation ** - with the Holodomor and the deportation of the Crimean Tatars being at least 2 previous russian genocides of Ukrainians

bluSCALE4 3y ago

What worries me is this "we're lucky" sentiment is only temporary. In my situation, if my pay drastically changes due to emerging technologies causing future job cuts and order of magnitude competition over jobs, "we're lucky" can turn to "we're worried" in a year and "we're screwed" in 10... if "we're lucky". Compound that with property taxes: I just heard a neighbors condo's taxes go up from 8k to 18k in a single year.

lotsofpulp 3y ago
> Compound that with property taxes: I just heard a neighbors condo's taxes go up from 8k to 18k in a single year. This must be a special case of not having the correct assessed value, or an error and they are including condo association costs in their property tax. Even at a 3% property tax rate, which very few Americans have, a $10k increase means a $333k increase in assessed value for a condo. 1% to 2% property tax rates are more likely, which would mean a ~$667k increase in assessed value.
scruple 3y ago
In my own situation, it's gone from "we're blessed" to "our kids generation is fucked" in the span of 5 years.

taylodl 3y ago

If you think this is bad then you should have been around in the mid-70's to early 80's after Nixon unilaterally bended Bretton Woods and threw the global monetary regime into chaos. I still remember mortgage rates of 12% to 15% and lots of young families being shut out of the housing market - at the same time apartment complexes were being built everywhere. Sound familiar?

hnhmp 3y ago
The idea that it was worse back then has been thoroughly debunked. The unfortunate truth is that property values have soared (due to lack of supply), inflation continues as it does, and wages have totally stagnated. Those combined together mean that however bad it was for families back then (and I'm sure it was bad! Housing insecurity is something folks should never have to face, and I'm sorry you went through it too), it's just worse for people today, full stop. This isn't the oppression olympics, I don't want to tell you that you didn't have it bad, or anything like that. But it just sucks to be facing a very real problem today and have people incorrectly tell you that it was worse before. Not only does the existence of a problem 50 years ago not negate the existence of a problem today, but people in politics and on the internet want to tell us that it's not as bad as we think it is, when in reality it's much worse than they think.
- taylodl 3y ago
  You're only looking at one aspect - housing. What's missing in this analysis is that fuel costs had risen 400% in a very short time frame, and in an economy that was much more fuel-dependent than it is today. Imagine if gasoline were to rapidly rise to over $12 per gallon? Natural gas was even worse, we had actual shortages, so you can imagine what that did to the market. I still remember the president of the United States addressing the nation from the Oval Office wearing a cardigan to set an example that it was okay to turn the thermostat down and bundle up. The speed limit on the interstate had been dropped to 55 MPH to encourage people to driver slower and conserve fuel. Housing was just yet another problem at the time. The problem with housing today is an amazing lack of foresight from our so-called leaders then. Everyone accommodated the Boomers (I'm Gen X). They didn't have enough houses for the Boomers - let alone the kids the Boomers would have (the Millennials) who would be living as adults at the same time as their parents. There was a rash of home-building in the 40's, 50's and 60's, and then it slowed way down, never to reach those levels again. Meanwhile, advances in healthcare increased people's lifetimes, exacerbating a housing shortage that all the experts were warning about even back in the 70's and yet nothing was being done about. I say all this to say I see the same thing happening with the climate "debate" today. We know what's coming. What know what the economic impacts are going to be. But we sit and equivocate and do nothing. If you think today's housing crises is bad, wait until you see what hits us in 30-40 years! Funny too how the ever-vaunted market failed to solve the housing issue...but that's a story for another time.