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Current YoY CPI inflation is at 3%, barely over the long term average, down from a peak of 8-9% before the IRA passed. It's very possible to construct an argum

by ajross 2y ago

Current YoY CPI inflation is at 3%, barely over the long term average, down from a peak of 8-9% before the IRA passed. It's very possible to construct an argument (certainly I'd believe it) that it didn't actually affect inflation per se and that the inflation burst was transient and would have subsided anyway. It's absolutely not correct to say inflation wasn't "addressed".

TylerE 2y ago
The problem is some how a large swath of the general public thinks that lower inflation means lower prices. That obviously doesn’t math.
- kelipso 2y ago
  Inflation can be addressed when my salary goes up the same ratio as perceived inflation lol. And perceived inflation over the last two years is like 50%, and that's being conservative.
  - ajross 2y ago
    > Inflation can be addressed when my salary goes up the same ratio as perceived inflation lol. Has it not? Mine has. Wages as a whole have. In fact wage growth has been historically robust for the last decade or so. Here's a FRED graph for "median usual weekly real[1] earnings", which correlates well to the kind of working class argument people usually make in this space: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q Note how it has been going inexorably upwards since 2014 or so, and in fact the inflation burst turns out to be the correction to a very rapid spike in wages (due to pandemic assistance) that only corrects downward to the upward curve. I really wish people who wanted to argue about inflation would do it with more numbers and less "lol". [1] "Real" means "inflation adjusted" in this context
    - kelipso 2y ago
      Lol. You have, what, a 12% increase in salary according to that chart (followed by around 5% dropoff lol) compared to more than 50% perceived inflation. I don't think I need to make any more arguments after that.
      - ajross 2y ago
        I called it out specifically to avoid the mistake, but I think you skipped the footnote. You're misreading the chart. The numbers there are already corrected for CPI. An upwards slope represents higher wealth, independent of inflation. Lol, indeed. This is sort of what I was complaining about. Please, please try to get stuff right before arguing about it on the internet. Economic statistics are extremely well-tabluated and easy to find.
        kelipso 2y ago
        Official numbers for inflation vs actual inflation vs perceived inflation are very different numbers lol. Actual inflation and perceived inflation are much closer together and the official numbers are basically cooked up so people don't freak out. A 10% addition to my previous comment doesn't make a big difference to how people feel about the economy and inflation.
        ajross 2y ago
        What on earth is "perceived inflation"? That's not a thing. You're literally making up a fake statistic because the real one doesn't support your incorrect-but-strongly-held intuition!
        kelipso 2y ago
        It's inflation as perceived by the average person, basically increases in daily expenditure on required goods and services like food, gas, utilities, rent or mortgage. Have you even been reading what I wrote or are you just spouting shit you copy pasted from somewhere else?

by ajross 2y ago

TylerE 2y ago

The problem is some how a large swath of the general public thinks that lower inflation means lower prices. That obviously doesn’t math.

kelipso 2y ago
Inflation can be addressed when my salary goes up the same ratio as perceived inflation lol. And perceived inflation over the last two years is like 50%, and that's being conservative.
- ajross 2y ago
  > Inflation can be addressed when my salary goes up the same ratio as perceived inflation lol. Has it not? Mine has. Wages as a whole have. In fact wage growth has been historically robust for the last decade or so. Here's a FRED graph for "median usual weekly real[1] earnings", which correlates well to the kind of working class argument people usually make in this space: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q Note how it has been going inexorably upwards since 2014 or so, and in fact the inflation burst turns out to be the correction to a very rapid spike in wages (due to pandemic assistance) that only corrects downward to the upward curve. I really wish people who wanted to argue about inflation would do it with more numbers and less "lol". [1] "Real" means "inflation adjusted" in this context
  - kelipso 2y ago
    Lol. You have, what, a 12% increase in salary according to that chart (followed by around 5% dropoff lol) compared to more than 50% perceived inflation. I don't think I need to make any more arguments after that.
    - ajross 2y ago
      I called it out specifically to avoid the mistake, but I think you skipped the footnote. You're misreading the chart. The numbers there are already corrected for CPI. An upwards slope represents higher wealth, independent of inflation. Lol, indeed. This is sort of what I was complaining about. Please, please try to get stuff right before arguing about it on the internet. Economic statistics are extremely well-tabluated and easy to find.
      - kelipso 2y ago
        Official numbers for inflation vs actual inflation vs perceived inflation are very different numbers lol. Actual inflation and perceived inflation are much closer together and the official numbers are basically cooked up so people don't freak out. A 10% addition to my previous comment doesn't make a big difference to how people feel about the economy and inflation.
        ajross 2y ago
        What on earth is "perceived inflation"? That's not a thing. You're literally making up a fake statistic because the real one doesn't support your incorrect-but-strongly-held intuition!
        kelipso 2y ago
        It's inflation as perceived by the average person, basically increases in daily expenditure on required goods and services like food, gas, utilities, rent or mortgage. Have you even been reading what I wrote or are you just spouting shit you copy pasted from somewhere else?