I probably should be happy about this, but I really don’t care. This seems like something that’s more important to experts and academics. Regardless of what the official indicators say, something just doesn’t seem right to me. I can’t necessarily quantify it or express it through some equation, something just feels…wrong.
But is it really progress, or did the price of everything jack up an it has come down just a bit because companys are finally getting the blowback they deserve as consumers reduce spending?
While that is a better trajectory, I do kind of have the mildly pessimistic view that a large part of the costs of good going down isn’t truly a positive sign for inflation, but the market forcing prices down due to decreased spending. I’m luckily in a decent position financially (my bills are paid, rent, while not cheap, is paid on time), but the cost of pretty much everything has become so much higher with not much of an increase in earning. If the minimum wage were forced up it would probably help, but idk, every person I’ve talked (in person) about the issue with is pretty negative about the issue.
On January 1, 22 states will increase their minimum wages, raising pay for an estimated 9.9 million workers. In total, workers will receive $6.95 billion in additional wages from state minimum wage increases. In addition, 38 cities and counties will increase their minimum wages on January 1 above their state’s wage floors, adding to the number of workers likely to see increased earnings. In the absence of federal action, states and localities continue to take the lead in advancing fairer wage floors via legislation, ballot measures, and automatic inflation adjustments.
Don’t get me wrong, if these numbers are indicators that some people are going to experience less stress and that they will be less overwhelmed or that they will be made to feel more secure in their financial situation, I do think that is objectively a good thing and I’m happy for those people. It’s just that these numbers don’t make me feel any better about the economy or my personal financial situation. Maybe I should feel better, but I don’t. I generally feel pessimistic, and these numbers don’t change that.
It’s because this is a manufactured inflation (imo) that companies have created by greedy price gouging.
To imply that we should be rejoicing at the fact that companies are starting to drop prices slightly (even though the average person is struggling to afford GROCERIES) is quite frankly, disgusting.
Corporate price gouging has not been a primary driver of U.S. inflation, according to research published on Monday by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
While markups for motor vehicles and petroleum products did rise sharply during the 2021-2022 inflation surge, markups across the entire spectrum of U.S. goods and services have been relatively flat during the post-pandemic recovery, the bank’s latest Economic Letter showed.
“As such, rising markups have not been a main driver of the recent surge and subsequent decline in inflation during the current recovery,” wrote the bank’s research chief Sylvain Leduc and colleagues Huiyu Li and Zheng Liu.
Where is the research in the article? It’s basically citing one paper, and not really telling what its title is so you can’t just review it to make sure it’s valid and not missing something.
Thanks for linking, it was just suspect that it wasn’t linked in the Reuters article (I know it Reuters, but even then if it’s a claim that might be challenged they should link to the research).
The source reporting on the study should lend itself to the veracity of the information. I think there’s a bit of shooting the messenger going on. I trust Reuters as a reliable source of information, and if the study were lacking I feel it would be noted. The study was published in May, so I would hope if there were holes in the report they would have surfaced by now.
No, we should be taking this as what it is: the world's smallest W. Take it, have a beer or a smoke if you've got them, and go back to being angry tomorrow.
I could have sworn that this was the version I read, but they may have deleted it and posted a different article on the same topic.
We did it, y’all! Get the Champagne on ice and gather the townsfolk because America hath slain the beast known as inflation. (Or, at least, it’s hit a turning point.)
Huzzah! Maximum employment and price stability? Let’s party.
But wait — what’s that I hear? Not the riotous cheers of American consumers dancing in the streets. Not a chorus of workers singing about the strongest labor market of their lifetimes, and no — I can’t even pick up on the sound of what I’m sure is an army of economists demanding sainthood for Jay Powell. Instead, the single best economic news of the past decade is but a murmur of chit-chat, barely audible against a clamor of politicos shouting about President Joe Biden’s age.
So would you rather respond to that article or the posted one? Because the article you’re citing was written with a humorous bent, which I thought would bring some levity. But instead I see it’s taken seriously, so I suppose it was right to go down.
And it was the CNN article for those keeping score, not Yahoo.
Just a reminder that inflation slowing down doesn’t automatically mean the prices will drop too. It only means the prices stop increasing. You’d need deflation to make the prices come down and that would be even worse for the economy.
True, though this is considered feeding into disinflation in the article, so it may not lead to ill effects of deflation.
U.S. consumer prices fell for the first time in four years in June amid cheaper gasoline and moderating rents, firmly putting disinflation back on track and drawing the Federal Reserve another step closer to cutting interest rates in September.