2021 - Is inflation finally back in the conversation?

[Incredulity 11671]

On 4/19/2021 at 10:21 AM, Bozo_Casanova said:

Iflation will return someday. That being said, the rising consumer prices we are seeing right now is an optical illusion. 

Laymen's terms

A little deeper

From Roosevelt:
 

Key word being "modestly"
 

[Incredulity 11671]

7 minutes ago, Captainant said:

 

Lulz, well it's always a crapshoot if surlysearch works or not, but here's some that I've found:

 

And like, shit, there was a whole quarter where everyone was bigly concerned over the "fed wage price spiral". It's literally fed policy to attack wages as a means of controlling inflation. 

But sure, I'm a communist because I think companies are being overly greedy in their profit taking. Lulz.

Concern over a very real wage price spiral is not the same as, "blaming inflation solely on wage increases".  The majority of posts are actually lamenting price changes in raw materials and supplies.

[52-80 19158]

4 minutes ago, Captainant said:

 

Lulz, well it's always a crapshoot if surlysearch works or not, but here's some that I've found:

And like, shit, there was a whole quarter where everyone was bigly concerned over the "fed wage price spiral". It's literally fed policy to attack wages as a means of controlling inflation. 

But sure, I'm a communist because I think companies are being overly greedy in their profit taking. Lulz.

you might not be a communist.  but you are fucking stupid.  the two are synonymous, so its just the same.

companies arent profit takers.  theyre price takers.  the profit is a consequence of the market agreement.  thats why some make money.  and others go bankrupt.

here's corporate profits dragging up price of goods.... lmao.

 

 

[washparkhorn 9939]

This near-billionaire thinks labor is getting too uppity and needs more beatings. 
 

 

[52-80 19158]

ive heard of someone being 'too stupid to insult'.  but dude is insulting to the concept of stupidity itself.

[Captainant 27668]

2 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

companies arent profit takers.  theyre price takers.  the profit is a consequence of the market agreement.

My man, we do not operate in a free market environment. There are chosen winner firms that operate with the benefit of an effective monopoly and are protected from failure by the taxpayer. Firms can take as much fucking profit as they want, and then stick their hand out for a bailout and blame it on high prices. Exxon, Boeing, Mariott, you name em, they took billions in bailout money that they turned around and paid out massive exec bonuses and made biggest-ever stock buyback purchases - and then cut their labor costs and laid people off anyways. 

 

Profit is empirically NOT a consequence of the market agreement once you are sufficiently large and """too big to fail""". Sorry that you think that makes me stupid. 

[gsoda3 3261]

18 minutes ago, Captainant said:

And like, shit, there was a whole quarter where everyone was bigly concerned over the "fed wage price spiral". It's literally fed policy to attack wages as a means of controlling inflation. 

But sure, I'm a communist because I think companies are being overly greedy in their profit taking. Lulz.

i haven't followed this thread for a while.  too many posters unwilling to have a discussion and just flinging their talking points around. 

 

anyway those comments you quoted, including mine, don't say what you're trying to make them say.  

[Bozo_Casanova 26460]

37 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

Did you think that was a dunk? Read the post, it was mainly right about things - inflation did look scary and it declined at about the same rate it rose, IOW, it was pretty transitory.

 

I posted some other good stuff on that thread. 

 

On 4/22/2021 at 10:28 AM, Bozo_Casanova said:

For now. 

As for what tips it further, I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and stay with me because I'm still thinking this through. 
I've been very critical of MMT in the past, and still am, because it represents an observational truth and nothing more - that, essentially, a monitarily sovereign country issuing its own fiat currency literally makes the money itself, that government debt is just a form of public equity in the economy, that the only real limit the government has on spending is real resources, and thus, inflation is a symptom of too much medium and not enough to exchange, which can be controlled by using taxes to take money out of circulation. 

That can be workable, because essentially you're paying everyone not to care about the money supply. But that's transitory because it only lasts as long as the government has a monopoly on issuing currency.  The rapid adoption of both public and private blockchain protocols and or basket currencies or even competing fiats as medium of exchange to facilitate transactions challenge that directly. 

IOW - I'm a lot less worried about how government spending impacts the money supply and more worried about the demand for the dollar as a reserve currency and medium of exchange, because that's the only real brake on inflation, whether MMT is correct or not*. 





*It's Bullshit, for what it's worth

 

I said "which can be controlled by taxes" above, but also this is true with rates on the other side, which is what happened. The MMT take would be that the Fed used rates to match the money supply to real economic activity.

On 4/22/2021 at 11:39 AM, Bozo_Casanova said:

I'm not defending MMT or your point, but I disagree with your premise here, which is that monetary inflation is the same thing as prices going up. It's not. 

Money isn't really a store of value, but a medium of exchange for goods and services. To be a medium of exchange it has to be durable, fungible, portable, and widely accepted for goods and services. To be widely accepted and fungible, it has to be stable enough, but not so stable that it constrains trade or productivity, which is why we've adopted fiat.  On the other hand, if it's unstable, it loses acceptability, and at that point stops being money, which is why central banks try to maintain a sweet spot of mild inflation. 

And by the way, as long as the Government is running a deficit, raising taxes isn't "taking money from people", but rather, increasing their copay on services they are receiving at well below cost, whether they value those services or not. 
 

 

Edited September 13, 2023 by Bozo_Casanova

[Nathan Jessep 147]

1 hour ago, Captainant said:

Just like how minimal adjustments to historically stagnant wages paid to laborers was attributed by the brain trust to be the cause of inflation. Not the historically high margins being taken by firms and record stock buybacks to enrich shareholders, of course

WTF Happened In 1971?

plenty of interesting charts available there

or here's a good one from today's Twitterzzz

 

 

 

[Bozo_Casanova 26460]

34 minutes ago, washparkhorn said:

This near-billionaire thinks labor is getting too uppity and needs more beatings. 
 

 

Was he the one that said letting the 2003 Bush tax stimulus expire for top earners in 2010 to cut the deficit and fund a payroll tax cut would be "punishing success?" Oh, wait, no - that was @washparkhorn

[bernorange 8361]

42 minutes ago, Nathan Jessep said:

WTF Happened In 1971?

also

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

1 hour ago, gsoda3 said:

anyway those comments you quoted, including mine, don't say what you're trying to make them say.  

[StassneyHorn 6575]

1 hour ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Did you think that was a dunk? Read the post, it was mainly right about things - inflation did look scary and it declined at about the same rate it rose, IOW, it was pretty transitory.

 

I posted some other good stuff on that thread. 

 

I said "which can be controlled by taxes" above, but also this is true with rates on the other side, which is what happened. The MMT take would be that the Fed used rates to match the money supply to real economic activity.

 

You’re supposed to use an exclamation mark and a roll eye emoji when you say transitory. 

[washparkhorn 9939]

1 hour ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Was he the one that said letting the 2003 Bush tax stimulus expire for top earners in 2010 to cut the deficit and fund a payroll tax cut would be "punishing success?" Oh, wait, no - that was @washparkhorn

[Snake Diggity 4624]

2 hours ago, washparkhorn said:

This near-billionaire thinks labor is getting too uppity and needs more beatings. 
 

 

Fuck that dude ALL the way up his ass. (Also, he’s wrong.)

[52-80 19158]

Would a kind soul help point out when congress empowered the fed to control wages and how. Lmao

[52-80 19158]

This guy won a nobel prize in economics (the fake one)

 

[jimmyjazz 45952]

"The 'horns only averaged 2.1 ypc if you exclude those three runs for 142 yards."

[52-80 19158]

1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

"The 'horns only averaged 2.1 ypc if you exclude those three runs for 142 yards."

Nobody can explain why he still retains audience and reach.  He’s like an econ kardashian - just famous for being famous. 

[washparkhorn 9939]

Krugman is intentionally trolling the rubes on Elon’s message board  

And—somewhat technically—disinflation slowed last month, which indicates inflation slightly increased its pace  

tldr-disinflation is not deflation; disinflation requires increasing inflation, but at a slower pace. Krugman buried the lede to bait low information readers. Bad form by Krugman. 

[UT_OB1 2223]

On 9/15/2023 at 5:40 PM, 52-80 said:

This guy won a nobel prize in economics (the fake one)

 

So this chart is for 1%s and homeless people?  Interesting way to tie those 2 ends of the spectrum together. Well done krugmam. 

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

On 9/16/2023 at 1:40 PM, washparkhorn said:

Krugman is intentionally trolling the rubes on Elon’s message board  

And—somewhat technically—disinflation slowed last month, which indicates inflation slightly increased its pace  

tldr-disinflation is not deflation; disinflation requires increasing inflation, but at a slower pace. Krugman buried the lede to bait low information readers. Bad form by Krugman. 

When you don't have facts, attack your naysayers by calling them "deniers". 

This assclown is a reality denier. 

[52-80 19158]

i dont know about other people but most of my time is occupied with bombarding paul krugman

[BabaYaga 15298]

On 9/16/2023 at 1:40 PM, washparkhorn said:

Bad form Typical by Krugman. 

He learned long ago that it's much more profitable being a pollical shill 

[atomheartbevo 89668]

On 9/16/2023 at 1:10 PM, 52-80 said:

Nobody can explain why he still retains audience and reach.  He’s like an econ kardashian - just famous for being famous. 

Meanwhile, this guy, his audience is Surly:

 

[Boss Hogg 808]

18 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Meanwhile, this guy, his audience is Surly:

 

He’s a good follow. 
 

 

 

[Storm the Field 5294]

Inflation news.

 

[jimmyjazz 45952]

I had to look up the difference between CPI and PCE.

 

Quote

There are four main reasons for this difference:

• Formulas: the growth in the two indices from one time period (month, quarter, year) are computed using substantively different formulas;
• Weights: they apply different weights to their consumption categories;
• Scope: they measure the prices of somewhat different consumer items and who purchases them;
• Other reasons: A grab bag of other differences, including different price data for what is conceptually the same product. For example, both CPI and PCE measure the price of airfare, but CPI calculates it using a fixed basket of air routes, while PCE calculates it using data on airline passenger revenues and passenger miles traveled. Also, the two incorporate different patterns of seasonal adjustment.

Quote

PCE also weights items differently than CPI and the figure shows this difference to be more consequential, with PCE weights leading to lower measured inflation so far this year. This implies that the PCE gives less weight to prices that have been growing more quickly in the CPI over this period. Housing is an evergreen example of this difference: housing makes up 33 percent of the CPI basket but only 15 percent of PCE. In August specifically, the lower weight of gasoline prices in PCE explained about 0.1 percentage point—nearly half—of the growth in the PCE-CPI wedge between July and August.

 

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

CPI/PCE-- all I know is the price of Halloween candy is too damn high.

[Guest]

37 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

CPI/PCE-- all I know is the price of Halloween candy is too damn high.

Been for years. Why do you think this stuff exists:

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

2 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Why do you think this stuff exists:

So you can get your house egged? 

[fattyflattie 4639]

9 hours ago, Cheeseweasel said:

So you can get your house egged? 

Full sized bars amigo.  When they run out, they run out.  

[Storm the Field 5294]

RBOB gasoline futures have crashed about $0.60 since Labor Day. Pump prices will start trending down over the next 2 weeks. Prices starting with a 2 should be fairly easy to find in Texas by late October. 

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

Don't prices always go down after Labor Day?

[Storm the Field 5294]

Just now, Cheeseweasel said:

Don't prices always go down after Labor Day?

Typically fall with the switch to winter blend and less demand after summer, but not that drastically or quick.

[52-80 19158]

16 hours ago, Cheeseweasel said:

Don't prices always go down after Labor Day?

only on white colored apparel

[Gatorubet 30238]

2024 social Security COLA announced to be 3.2%
 

[bernorange 8361]

Krugman being a dishonest idiot again:

Quote

Paul Krugman was widely trolled on Thursday for saying that if you just ignore food, energy, housing, and used cars — unavoidable costs for many Americans — then the period of surging prices has passed.
...
The Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist faced immediate backlash to his heavily adjusted yardstick of price growth. His X post was still at the top of the popular Wall Street Bets subreddit on Friday morning.

"A totally ridiculous measure," Jim Bianco, president and macro strategist of Bianco Research, said about Krugman's chart in an X post. "It excludes 55% of the index."
...

https://www.businessinsider.com/paul-krugman-inflation-chart-food-energy-gas-housing-prices-economy-2023-10

[Incredulity 11671]

17 minutes ago, bernorange said:

Krugman being a dishonest idiot again:

shockedpikachuface.jpeg

[Trey3216 15346]

3 hours ago, bernorange said:

Krugman being a dishonest idiot again:

https://www.businessinsider.com/paul-krugman-inflation-chart-food-energy-gas-housing-prices-economy-2023-10

He's such a hack

 

[52-80 19158]

4 hours ago, bernorange said:

Krugman being a dishonest idiot again:

https://www.businessinsider.com/paul-krugman-inflation-chart-food-energy-gas-housing-prices-economy-2023-10

Remember when washparkhorn told us that krugmans merely “baiting low information readers”?

 

also, remember when krugman said he was going to quit twitter just 6 days ago, but kept on posting since then?

 

 

[jimmyjazz 45952]

Hey, he didn't say he was quitting X.  He only said he'd post elsewhere, (too).

[Armybrat 40844]

20 hours ago, Gatorubet said:

2024 social Security COLA announced to be 3.2%
 

Wonder how much my Medicare tax will increase?

[Gatorubet 30238]

1 minute ago, Armybrat said:

Wonder how much my Medicare tax will increase?

Tree-fiddy

[StassneyHorn 6575]

Ughhh

Recession celebration delayed again

[Trey3216 15346]

2 hours ago, StassneyHorn said:

Ughhh

Recession celebration delayed again

All is well.  Have no fear! 

[Storm the Field 5294]

1 hour ago, Trey3216 said:

All is well.  Have no fear! 

All is Doomed! Imminent recession! Cooked Numbers! House of Cards! Buy Gold and Ammo!

[Trey3216 15346]

1 minute ago, Storm the Field said:

All is Doomed! Imminent recession! Cooked Numbers! House of Cards! Buy Gold and Ammo!

Not what I said at all.  But shit ain't pretty right now  

[fattyflattie 4639]

6 hours ago, Storm the Field said:

Buy Gold and Ammo!

Ammo is going up 20-50% every year or so, more on the auction sites.  Pretty good to have around imo. 

[StassneyHorn 6575]

It costs more to hunt than get chick fil a