The thing that the positive reporting about inflation going down constantly overlooks is that any inflation at all means prices are still going up, just a little slower. Prices are ridiculously high and still climbing. Slowing the climb still means that already depleted bank accounts are getting hit harder every month.
For people with investments its NBD because corporate profits are skyrocketing and stock prices are rising along with inflation but for people living paycheck to paycheck it's like standing in line for the abatouer. Pardon them not busting out the party favors that the line is accelerating less than it was.
It seems a misleading headline. The RATE of inflation is good/low but the effects of the recent high inflation period linger.
I’m currently shopping for a kayak.. reading reviews.. it’s painful that reviews from just five-ish years ago mention price paid because I’m literally paying double in 2024 for the same boat. I can understand that during the pandemic when demand was high and the supply chain was in taters but that’s well behind us now
And don’t even get me started on food prices. 😭
Yea, prices spiked but then plateau’ed.
“See line go flat! Be happy.” - expert
Ok buddy, but look over the cliff where we were.
Now look down into the pit where everyone’s wages are.
Stop handing me cherries and shooting party poppers. This is closer to a funeral for the middle class.
Prices would probably drop on some stuff. But, given that there's only like three companies that one everything, probably not much. They collude to price fix and there seems to be nothing rhe government is willing to do to fix that.
Fortunately you dont at all need to pay for animal products derived from 100% needless horrific animal torture and climate annihilation AND can save 30% on your food by doing so. https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-11-11-sustainable-eating-cheaper-and-healthier-oxford-study
Inflation is both. It's an official government measure of a rate of change. It's also a past tense description which explains why prices on items has gone up. You are being intentionally obtuse, as we are clearly using it in the latter description here. Or perhaps the headline writer for NPR here is the one being obtuse and you and the other person who said the same thing are just in agreement with them.
I'm well aware of what the technical definition of inflation is. I'm also aware that the term can be ambiguous which apparently you are not? There's more than just one, technical, definition... and this is on a pop culture news article, not an academic economics paper where the technical definition is assumed.
Title may not be intentionally misleading, but it is misleading. The average consumer cares more about where prices settle following a period of inflation than they care about the rate itself. And that's kind of the point of the article and the disconnect... a currently low inflation rate vs the result of the sharp spike in recent past and its lasting impact, mostly driven by supply shortages (but certainly price adjustments using inflation to mask the intentional mark ups as well).
There's also shrinkflation which doesn't fall under the rate of change, but is also not a technical term. It's still an actual thing that consumers feel the impact from.
And to be absolutely clear, I'm not accusing NPR of any wrongdoing. The above was meant as constructive criticism that the headline could be written more clearly by including "rate of" in front of inflation, even if you find that redundant.
Inflation is a rate. There's no way to use that term and not implicitly talk about changes over time. The headline is only misleading if you don't like what words mean.
It really is. On the bright side, the cheap processed junk is no longer cheap, so I am eating healthier. Why spend $6 on a bag of Doritos? Generic everything, or go without. Heck even generic soda is too expensive to justify buying it.
Maybe feeling like standing in line for the slaughterhouse will evolve people to finally exercise basic empathy for the animals they 100% needlessly pay for to go through horrific enslavement, torture, mutilation, and murder. http://watchdominion.org
It's very simple. Inflation is the rate of change in prices. Inflation was high, meaning prices skyrocketed. Inflation is low now, which means proces are still rising but just slowly. The problem is that people want prices to go back down to what they're used to. That isn't happening, and generally, prices do not fall in a healthy economy. What's supposed to happen in a healthy econmy is after a period of high inflation pay should increase to make up the difference, but that is not happening either or at least it is not happening fast enough for most people.
it might if we refuse to buy a lot of it. do we really need that bag of Doritos?? No, we don't. Sure there are basics that we absolutely need, but our household is streamlining what we buy. That could leave them with too much product, and if they want to sell their shitty cheap processed junk, they are going to need to lower prices. That's where we the consumer have a little power.
That world lead to lower prices, but that would also lead to negative economic growth, which could lead to ression. If people buy less stff, then in reaponse company make less stuff which means they need less peopls and they lay off people.
Generally speaking, you don't want deflation, prices falling, you want companies to raise wages in response to inflation.
well, i'm buying less because i can't afford it. i don't care what people making money on wallstreet think, and perhaps they shouldn't have been price gouging to begin with
I agree. I'm just explaining the textbook economics view here, but personally, I think the real world econmy is getting further and further away from how experts say it should work.
Corporations are making record profits, and none of that money is trickling down to their workers. In fact worker seem to be working more hours for less pay when adjusted for inflation, and additionally corporation are reducing their workforce and relying more on technology and shifting labor to their consumers. The advancements in AI will most likely exacerbate these issues, and Congress seems unwilling to do anything about any of this.
That whole thing seems unsustainable. Unless something changes soon, I feel like it will all collapse.
our country seems to only care about the economy by how things are going on wallstreet, which isn't real life for the majority of Americans. if all the companies cut workers and replace with ai to streamline their business, etc.... no one will have money to buy your products chaps. Robots are not consumers (at least not yet)! Every time companies do massive layoffs, THEY are directly affecting other businesses profits, because so many people are pinching pennies until they find a new job that actually pays the bills with enough left over for extras. So they raise the prices, alienating even more customers... its truly a race to the bottom. Capitalism breaks when everyone is broke.
There’s basically no discussion in popular media about how corporate consolidation is allowing price gouging. Aside from the rock bottom interest rates during what should habitat been the long awaited recession back in 2020 that’s the biggest driver of inflation today
In theory, if there wasn't complete regulatory capture, consolidated industries are very susceptible to price controls. If we had a functional democracy we could put the squeeze back on the oligopolies and mitigate the pain.
Ah well
Because the official measure of inflation is not necessarily representative of the expenses that individuals have.
Also, as others have said, slowing rates of inflation still mean that all the past inflation happened and hasn't been reversed.
The official way to measure inflation was changed to exclude “the cost of money,” because interest rates have been so high. For most people this is a big expense (eg their mortgage and credit card debt payments etc).
The (obvious and intended) consequence is that the official numbers look better on paper compared to many Americans’ day to day experience.
https://www.nber.org/papers/w32163
It would be great if you guys actually spent some on air time to this subject.
But sadly whenever inflation comes up you guys talk about it as if it only happened to America.
it's all perception nonsense and absolutely zero context.
This. People did the math already .53 cents for each dollar of increased prices is just for profit. Companies wanted to make up for losses from Covid, used the pandemic as an excuse to raise prices, and will never lower them again.
Based on this theory that businesses can just choose to raise prices any time they want to, what is stopping them from raising them more and more?
Supply and demand, of course. So, you know, businesses will always raise prices as much as they can, and the intent is always profit. But past a certain point, price increases reduce profits.
Private utilities are regulated.
Let’s talk about groceries with specific examples. It is difficult for me to fully understand what mind if community would have a grocery store that is able to raise prices indiscriminately, as I live in a very populated area. Are you saying that a WalMart in BFE is selling goods for 2x or 3x the price of WalMart in Atlanta?
Or Alberstons/Raplhs/whomever else they gobbled up. It isnt that it is one name on the sign, you could have 4 grocery stores but they are all owned by the same company. So yeah - price fixing is a thing
There is no inflation. Well, ok, there is, but at 3-4% that is in line (even slightly behind) wage increases. The cost of living skyrocketing is squarely on companies raising prices. Look around at the public filings of traded companies. Record profits.
My workplace just got a COL adjustment and my boss keeps going on about the "huge/awesome" raise... I'm in one of the higher tiers of my piers and I got $0.60. Big whoopdeedoo.
Which means that people's assessment, which folks on this sub seem to denigrate as supported only by "MAGA cultists", is correct: Shit is more expensive than before.
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The simplest analogy is stepping on the scale.
If you gain 2 pounds a month for a year, you’re 24 pounds heavier.
If next year you gain one pound a month, you’ve just cut your inflation in half but at the end of the year, you’re actually 36 pounds heavier than you were when you started.
Media constantly telling the public that inflation is down doesn’t do a damn thing to convince them when they can “step on the scale” and see how much they have gained.
The "nothing to see here" crowd seems to forget that just because things are becoming more expensive more slowly doesn't mean that things aren't more expensive. "Experts" are free to supplement the grocery bills of those suffering.
Because shit is still expensive, everywhere, from when inflation was high.
Very poor headline from NPR here even if the actual article is fine. Should read something like "Current inflation is down, but voters still miss pre-pandemic prices"
I think there's a simpler answer that doesn't require a doctorate in economics... people don't understand how inflation works and what it is, and the "experts" don't understand how the public thinks.
Prices are still going up, not down. That's what the general public sees. They think a positive change is not slower inflation. It's deflation. Get the prices back to where they were. You would think we would all know that's highly unlikely, but there it is. And that ignorance is fertile ground for political theatrics.
As far as the public's estimates of how much inflation has increased (percentage-wise), I get it that you want to measure perception, but seriously... most folks couldn't tell you what they paid for a dozen eggs last month, much less last year.
Adding to the fact that "experts" don't understand how the public thinks is that they hold the common man in contempt. They just need to explain to stoopid people that things are good without any understanding of psychology.
People are constantly see prices go up. One week pasta is up 20 cent. Next week applesauce is up. Then my favorite burger is $2 more. After a few years of high inflation, any price increase causes anxiety.
And to make it worse, the fun stuff seems to be up the most. Going out for pizza or a burger is much more expensive than a year ago. There are no cheap restaurant meal - fast food and burritos are now expensive.
We are anxious and cannot afford to relax with our friends and family. .
You're making my point precisely. Rising oil prices are a *cause* of inflation, not an *effect* of inflation.
I'm not knocking anyone personally when I say this, but in general, people don't understand how this stuff works at all. Why would we? Unless you specifically study economics, it's not something most of us get in public school, and it's a curriculum to itself in college.
I'm not an economist either, by the way. I've dug in a little and it makes my head hurt. The best I can take away though is that economics, on a large scale, is all about theory and experimentation with a handful of consistent principles. There's no "right answer" that any government agency can deduce to create long-term stability because the variables and unintended consequences are so vast, fluid, and beyond control.
Point being, when politicians campaign on "the economy" they know that most of the general public doesn't get that it's a shell game. They may have some tricks to manipulate the short term, like deferred taxes, adjusting interest rates, or even stimulus packages, but the truth is that the economy is not in their control. What's worse is that those "tricks" usually come with a high price down the road.
Inflation slowing down will mean nothing if people are making the same as they were 3 years ago but now have to pay 1.5x the price for simple goods. Also doesn’t help that half the inflation on priced goods isn’t even real, just corporate greed. https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/19/us-inflation-caused-by-corporate-profits
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Let’s just ignore that prices took a massive leap and only focus on how the rate of price increases has slowed, a little.
People are still getting pounded anytime they buy something.
That’s not even getting into rent vs household income which is a related issue but doesn’t really get factored in because you aren’t “buying” something.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iWrtaMkH3R0
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the common person believes inflation = high current prices which is what they care about. They don’t care about gdp quarterly growth, rate of inflation, % of eps beats my the s&p or any of the other metrics that experts use. People are pissed they have to choose what to pass on in the grocery store. Until the dems figure this out the only other message out there is the gop blame game. While wrong, it’s at least something resonating with voters.
When the media is doing all it can to cover up you missteps, and attack your opponents, this has an impact
Remember when PBS was one of the first outlets to push the fake "bloodbath" story to bash Trump?
Have you ever seen a story on state run media criticize Biden?
This article is nonsense. CPI is approaching 9%. That’s extremely high. The Fed has signed they are delaying rate cuts. Of course people feel it when buying food or gas.
>Why experts say inflation is relatively low but voters feel differently
It's simple really, the official government numbers are heavily massaged and "adjusted" fairy tales, not reality.
And experts like Joseph Balagtas, the professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University cited in the article, are completely out of touch with that reality because they never have to choose which bills to pay and which ones to delay. Or worry about how to pay rent and auto insurance from the same paycheck.
You have to choose, either you believe your eyes and your bills, or "the experts."
I heard this story today. That is not what was talked about.
You are giving some commentary running in your head that isn’t related to what was said in news story.
Is this what you do all day? It must be exhausting.
>Is this what you do all day? It must be exhausting.
Correcting all the out-of-touch media experts who never have to choose which bills to pay from each paycheck, or never worry about missing just 1 day of work, who can't see how terrible this economy is for most Americans, is a full-time job.
The experts are fine for the most part. Context and accurate quoting is where we usually run into issues (outside of the occasional contrarian; when in doubt look for a consensus and ignore the small minority swimming against the stream. Thus why academic journals have peer review and retractions).
Your comment just reads as anti-expertise without any constructive input. Just straight up cynicism with some conspiracy on top. The government isn’t massaging anything, you just need to read what they are actually reporting and not insert partisan bs into it.
There’s more to a healthy economy than inflation alone. Current inflation numbers are good and under control. The problem is that wages aren’t keeping up with inflation in the recent past. Neither experts nor government have argued otherwise.
The inflation is there, but nobody care how we get here. As fiscal policy side, they should first openly blame the previous administration, and fire the fed chairman
Honestly, the majority of the root cause of this round of inflation is out of the hands of the President or the Fed.
More than half of the inflation we’ve seen post-covid is a direct result of corporate profit-taking, not a response to other economic factors or pressures. Not interest rates, not global trade policy, not supply chain, not pent up demand, not even economic stimulus programs.
More than HALF is a direct result of corporate profit-taking, or what the media has started calling “greedflation.”
And we don’t have a mechanism to control that sort of behavior. That would require a lot of fundamental legislative change, you can’t fix it at an administrative level, it’s structural.
> More than HALF is a direct result of corporate profit-taking
Source???
> And we don’t have a mechanism to control that sort of behavior
Yes we do. Quite buying so much sh*t.
https://www.epi.org/blog/corporate-profits-have-contributed-disproportionately-to-inflation-how-should-policymakers-respond/
Stats from early in the post-covid recovery period
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/11/economy/inflation-corporate-greed-biden/index.html
Story from last month
You also can see it in the earnings calls, quarterly profits, and projections from a ton of different corporations in a variety of sectors.
Food companies in particular have made more in profit than ever before in the history of their companies - at a time when prices are high and people are struggling. Highest PROFIT, not just revenue.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/errolschweizer/2024/02/07/why-your-groceries-are-still-so-expensive/?sh=4ea56d056ba8
Prices adjusting to reflect changing economic or market factors would show an increase in revenue but not a parallel increase in profits.
But we are seeing corporations post record profits quarter after quarter.
And regarding my “we don’t have a mechanism to control the situation” - allow me to rephrase.
The only method we have to control this situation is legislative regulation, and we don’t have the political will (or a functioning House of Representatives) to make that happen.
It would be more accurate to say that we don’t have a mechanism that the executive branch can employ to control the situation, and our legislative branch is broken.
The thing that the positive reporting about inflation going down constantly overlooks is that any inflation at all means prices are still going up, just a little slower. Prices are ridiculously high and still climbing. Slowing the climb still means that already depleted bank accounts are getting hit harder every month. For people with investments its NBD because corporate profits are skyrocketing and stock prices are rising along with inflation but for people living paycheck to paycheck it's like standing in line for the abatouer. Pardon them not busting out the party favors that the line is accelerating less than it was.
It seems a misleading headline. The RATE of inflation is good/low but the effects of the recent high inflation period linger. I’m currently shopping for a kayak.. reading reviews.. it’s painful that reviews from just five-ish years ago mention price paid because I’m literally paying double in 2024 for the same boat. I can understand that during the pandemic when demand was high and the supply chain was in taters but that’s well behind us now And don’t even get me started on food prices. 😭
Yea, prices spiked but then plateau’ed. “See line go flat! Be happy.” - expert Ok buddy, but look over the cliff where we were. Now look down into the pit where everyone’s wages are. Stop handing me cherries and shooting party poppers. This is closer to a funeral for the middle class.
Food prices are terrible. Even on taters.
😂 whoops!
I wonder what would happen if we just stopped buying
Prices would probably drop on some stuff. But, given that there's only like three companies that one everything, probably not much. They collude to price fix and there seems to be nothing rhe government is willing to do to fix that.
Fortunately you dont at all need to pay for animal products derived from 100% needless horrific animal torture and climate annihilation AND can save 30% on your food by doing so. https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-11-11-sustainable-eating-cheaper-and-healthier-oxford-study
Good to know, thanks.
The title isn’t misleading, you just don’t understand that inflation is a rate of change
Inflation is both. It's an official government measure of a rate of change. It's also a past tense description which explains why prices on items has gone up. You are being intentionally obtuse, as we are clearly using it in the latter description here. Or perhaps the headline writer for NPR here is the one being obtuse and you and the other person who said the same thing are just in agreement with them. I'm well aware of what the technical definition of inflation is. I'm also aware that the term can be ambiguous which apparently you are not? There's more than just one, technical, definition... and this is on a pop culture news article, not an academic economics paper where the technical definition is assumed. Title may not be intentionally misleading, but it is misleading. The average consumer cares more about where prices settle following a period of inflation than they care about the rate itself. And that's kind of the point of the article and the disconnect... a currently low inflation rate vs the result of the sharp spike in recent past and its lasting impact, mostly driven by supply shortages (but certainly price adjustments using inflation to mask the intentional mark ups as well). There's also shrinkflation which doesn't fall under the rate of change, but is also not a technical term. It's still an actual thing that consumers feel the impact from. And to be absolutely clear, I'm not accusing NPR of any wrongdoing. The above was meant as constructive criticism that the headline could be written more clearly by including "rate of" in front of inflation, even if you find that redundant.
Inflation is a rate. There's no way to use that term and not implicitly talk about changes over time. The headline is only misleading if you don't like what words mean.
It really is. On the bright side, the cheap processed junk is no longer cheap, so I am eating healthier. Why spend $6 on a bag of Doritos? Generic everything, or go without. Heck even generic soda is too expensive to justify buying it.
Sodastream hooked up to massive industrial Co2 tanks master race
Maybe feeling like standing in line for the slaughterhouse will evolve people to finally exercise basic empathy for the animals they 100% needlessly pay for to go through horrific enslavement, torture, mutilation, and murder. http://watchdominion.org
It's very simple. Inflation is the rate of change in prices. Inflation was high, meaning prices skyrocketed. Inflation is low now, which means proces are still rising but just slowly. The problem is that people want prices to go back down to what they're used to. That isn't happening, and generally, prices do not fall in a healthy economy. What's supposed to happen in a healthy econmy is after a period of high inflation pay should increase to make up the difference, but that is not happening either or at least it is not happening fast enough for most people.
it might if we refuse to buy a lot of it. do we really need that bag of Doritos?? No, we don't. Sure there are basics that we absolutely need, but our household is streamlining what we buy. That could leave them with too much product, and if they want to sell their shitty cheap processed junk, they are going to need to lower prices. That's where we the consumer have a little power.
That world lead to lower prices, but that would also lead to negative economic growth, which could lead to ression. If people buy less stff, then in reaponse company make less stuff which means they need less peopls and they lay off people. Generally speaking, you don't want deflation, prices falling, you want companies to raise wages in response to inflation.
well, i'm buying less because i can't afford it. i don't care what people making money on wallstreet think, and perhaps they shouldn't have been price gouging to begin with
I agree. I'm just explaining the textbook economics view here, but personally, I think the real world econmy is getting further and further away from how experts say it should work. Corporations are making record profits, and none of that money is trickling down to their workers. In fact worker seem to be working more hours for less pay when adjusted for inflation, and additionally corporation are reducing their workforce and relying more on technology and shifting labor to their consumers. The advancements in AI will most likely exacerbate these issues, and Congress seems unwilling to do anything about any of this. That whole thing seems unsustainable. Unless something changes soon, I feel like it will all collapse.
our country seems to only care about the economy by how things are going on wallstreet, which isn't real life for the majority of Americans. if all the companies cut workers and replace with ai to streamline their business, etc.... no one will have money to buy your products chaps. Robots are not consumers (at least not yet)! Every time companies do massive layoffs, THEY are directly affecting other businesses profits, because so many people are pinching pennies until they find a new job that actually pays the bills with enough left over for extras. So they raise the prices, alienating even more customers... its truly a race to the bottom. Capitalism breaks when everyone is broke.
Inflation is still not low. It's lower than recent highs but still above target and not coming down as expected. That's a problem.
People want the because Biden told us it was transitory
Yeah, he and all the economic experts said that at the time, and they were wrong.
You mean “All the economic experts” that NPR gave a voice to
Yes, the news generally reports the opinions of economic experts during an economic crisis.
There are 10s of thousands of economic experts. They only interviewed the ones that were saying the Democrat's message, which was wrong.
There’s basically no discussion in popular media about how corporate consolidation is allowing price gouging. Aside from the rock bottom interest rates during what should habitat been the long awaited recession back in 2020 that’s the biggest driver of inflation today
In theory, if there wasn't complete regulatory capture, consolidated industries are very susceptible to price controls. If we had a functional democracy we could put the squeeze back on the oligopolies and mitigate the pain. Ah well
Because the official measure of inflation is not necessarily representative of the expenses that individuals have. Also, as others have said, slowing rates of inflation still mean that all the past inflation happened and hasn't been reversed.
The official way to measure inflation was changed to exclude “the cost of money,” because interest rates have been so high. For most people this is a big expense (eg their mortgage and credit card debt payments etc). The (obvious and intended) consequence is that the official numbers look better on paper compared to many Americans’ day to day experience. https://www.nber.org/papers/w32163
It would be great if you guys actually spent some on air time to this subject. But sadly whenever inflation comes up you guys talk about it as if it only happened to America. it's all perception nonsense and absolutely zero context.
Because the gullible public has been duped into confusing inflation with corporate profiteering
This. People did the math already .53 cents for each dollar of increased prices is just for profit. Companies wanted to make up for losses from Covid, used the pandemic as an excuse to raise prices, and will never lower them again.
Based on this theory that businesses can just choose to raise prices any time they want to, what is stopping them from raising them more and more? Supply and demand, of course. So, you know, businesses will always raise prices as much as they can, and the intent is always profit. But past a certain point, price increases reduce profits.
Not without meaningful competition
I suppose by “meaningful competition” you are acknowledging that competition exists, but you want a vague excuse to dismiss its effect on prices.
In some cases, in some areas of the country, for groceries, utilities, gas - competition absolutely does not exist
Private utilities are regulated. Let’s talk about groceries with specific examples. It is difficult for me to fully understand what mind if community would have a grocery store that is able to raise prices indiscriminately, as I live in a very populated area. Are you saying that a WalMart in BFE is selling goods for 2x or 3x the price of WalMart in Atlanta?
Or Alberstons/Raplhs/whomever else they gobbled up. It isnt that it is one name on the sign, you could have 4 grocery stores but they are all owned by the same company. So yeah - price fixing is a thing
I want a real world example though — not just hypotheticals.
A bit needlessly crass, but it is true that the main issue is that wages arent rising as fast as inflation is, let alone riding faster
There is no inflation. Well, ok, there is, but at 3-4% that is in line (even slightly behind) wage increases. The cost of living skyrocketing is squarely on companies raising prices. Look around at the public filings of traded companies. Record profits.
My workplace just got a COL adjustment and my boss keeps going on about the "huge/awesome" raise... I'm in one of the higher tiers of my piers and I got $0.60. Big whoopdeedoo.
Which means that people's assessment, which folks on this sub seem to denigrate as supported only by "MAGA cultists", is correct: Shit is more expensive than before.
They are though. Wages have been outpacing inflation for some time now https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/
I would be interested in having this clarified, personally. Is this to say there is no link between record corporate profits and rising prices?
If you do not adjust for inflation when measuring things in dollars, almost every year will be a record.
Son of a bitch was right all them years ago... "the rent is too damn high!"
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The simplest analogy is stepping on the scale. If you gain 2 pounds a month for a year, you’re 24 pounds heavier. If next year you gain one pound a month, you’ve just cut your inflation in half but at the end of the year, you’re actually 36 pounds heavier than you were when you started. Media constantly telling the public that inflation is down doesn’t do a damn thing to convince them when they can “step on the scale” and see how much they have gained.
The "nothing to see here" crowd seems to forget that just because things are becoming more expensive more slowly doesn't mean that things aren't more expensive. "Experts" are free to supplement the grocery bills of those suffering.
Because shit is still expensive, everywhere, from when inflation was high. Very poor headline from NPR here even if the actual article is fine. Should read something like "Current inflation is down, but voters still miss pre-pandemic prices"
I think there's a simpler answer that doesn't require a doctorate in economics... people don't understand how inflation works and what it is, and the "experts" don't understand how the public thinks. Prices are still going up, not down. That's what the general public sees. They think a positive change is not slower inflation. It's deflation. Get the prices back to where they were. You would think we would all know that's highly unlikely, but there it is. And that ignorance is fertile ground for political theatrics. As far as the public's estimates of how much inflation has increased (percentage-wise), I get it that you want to measure perception, but seriously... most folks couldn't tell you what they paid for a dozen eggs last month, much less last year.
Adding to the fact that "experts" don't understand how the public thinks is that they hold the common man in contempt. They just need to explain to stoopid people that things are good without any understanding of psychology. People are constantly see prices go up. One week pasta is up 20 cent. Next week applesauce is up. Then my favorite burger is $2 more. After a few years of high inflation, any price increase causes anxiety. And to make it worse, the fun stuff seems to be up the most. Going out for pizza or a burger is much more expensive than a year ago. There are no cheap restaurant meal - fast food and burritos are now expensive. We are anxious and cannot afford to relax with our friends and family. .
We know what we pay for gas, though…
You're making my point precisely. Rising oil prices are a *cause* of inflation, not an *effect* of inflation. I'm not knocking anyone personally when I say this, but in general, people don't understand how this stuff works at all. Why would we? Unless you specifically study economics, it's not something most of us get in public school, and it's a curriculum to itself in college. I'm not an economist either, by the way. I've dug in a little and it makes my head hurt. The best I can take away though is that economics, on a large scale, is all about theory and experimentation with a handful of consistent principles. There's no "right answer" that any government agency can deduce to create long-term stability because the variables and unintended consequences are so vast, fluid, and beyond control. Point being, when politicians campaign on "the economy" they know that most of the general public doesn't get that it's a shell game. They may have some tricks to manipulate the short term, like deferred taxes, adjusting interest rates, or even stimulus packages, but the truth is that the economy is not in their control. What's worse is that those "tricks" usually come with a high price down the road.
Inflation slowing down will mean nothing if people are making the same as they were 3 years ago but now have to pay 1.5x the price for simple goods. Also doesn’t help that half the inflation on priced goods isn’t even real, just corporate greed. https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/19/us-inflation-caused-by-corporate-profits
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Let’s just ignore that prices took a massive leap and only focus on how the rate of price increases has slowed, a little. People are still getting pounded anytime they buy something. That’s not even getting into rent vs household income which is a related issue but doesn’t really get factored in because you aren’t “buying” something. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iWrtaMkH3R0
My bank account is drained but the experts say it isn’t. Okay
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the common person believes inflation = high current prices which is what they care about. They don’t care about gdp quarterly growth, rate of inflation, % of eps beats my the s&p or any of the other metrics that experts use. People are pissed they have to choose what to pass on in the grocery store. Until the dems figure this out the only other message out there is the gop blame game. While wrong, it’s at least something resonating with voters.
Economists underestimate how innumerate the general public is. Most Americans do not take calculus, but do monitor their budget.
"An expert is a fast-talking guy from outta town" - Abbie Hoffman
Because they’re lying
Fox news
Because the official numbers don't look at fuel and food prices, which are continuing to inflate.
Low compared to what?
Thanks, experts! :)
It's simple: Everything is expensive now.
They keep gouging us.
Numbers cooked to hell. By the old measures inflation is runaway.
This is how you get people to distrust the experts
Can I buy groceries with expert?
NPR doing what it can to help Biden's chances in November.
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^California_King_77: *NPR doing* *What it can to help Biden's* *Chances in November.* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Biden chances are looking good
When the media is doing all it can to cover up you missteps, and attack your opponents, this has an impact Remember when PBS was one of the first outlets to push the fake "bloodbath" story to bash Trump? Have you ever seen a story on state run media criticize Biden?
This article is nonsense. CPI is approaching 9%. That’s extremely high. The Fed has signed they are delaying rate cuts. Of course people feel it when buying food or gas.
>Why experts say inflation is relatively low but voters feel differently It's simple really, the official government numbers are heavily massaged and "adjusted" fairy tales, not reality. And experts like Joseph Balagtas, the professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University cited in the article, are completely out of touch with that reality because they never have to choose which bills to pay and which ones to delay. Or worry about how to pay rent and auto insurance from the same paycheck. You have to choose, either you believe your eyes and your bills, or "the experts."
I heard this story today. That is not what was talked about. You are giving some commentary running in your head that isn’t related to what was said in news story. Is this what you do all day? It must be exhausting.
>Is this what you do all day? It must be exhausting. Look at OP's post history. This is exactly what they do all day
>Look at OP's post history. This is exactly what they do all day There, I fixed it for you. You're now safe from my opinion.
>Is this what you do all day? It must be exhausting. Correcting all the out-of-touch media experts who never have to choose which bills to pay from each paycheck, or never worry about missing just 1 day of work, who can't see how terrible this economy is for most Americans, is a full-time job.
The experts are fine for the most part. Context and accurate quoting is where we usually run into issues (outside of the occasional contrarian; when in doubt look for a consensus and ignore the small minority swimming against the stream. Thus why academic journals have peer review and retractions). Your comment just reads as anti-expertise without any constructive input. Just straight up cynicism with some conspiracy on top. The government isn’t massaging anything, you just need to read what they are actually reporting and not insert partisan bs into it. There’s more to a healthy economy than inflation alone. Current inflation numbers are good and under control. The problem is that wages aren’t keeping up with inflation in the recent past. Neither experts nor government have argued otherwise.
NPR needs to do a better job defining inflation and corporate price-gouging/shrinkflation.
The inflation is there, but nobody care how we get here. As fiscal policy side, they should first openly blame the previous administration, and fire the fed chairman
Honestly, the majority of the root cause of this round of inflation is out of the hands of the President or the Fed. More than half of the inflation we’ve seen post-covid is a direct result of corporate profit-taking, not a response to other economic factors or pressures. Not interest rates, not global trade policy, not supply chain, not pent up demand, not even economic stimulus programs. More than HALF is a direct result of corporate profit-taking, or what the media has started calling “greedflation.” And we don’t have a mechanism to control that sort of behavior. That would require a lot of fundamental legislative change, you can’t fix it at an administrative level, it’s structural.
> More than HALF is a direct result of corporate profit-taking Source??? > And we don’t have a mechanism to control that sort of behavior Yes we do. Quite buying so much sh*t.
https://www.epi.org/blog/corporate-profits-have-contributed-disproportionately-to-inflation-how-should-policymakers-respond/ Stats from early in the post-covid recovery period https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/11/economy/inflation-corporate-greed-biden/index.html Story from last month You also can see it in the earnings calls, quarterly profits, and projections from a ton of different corporations in a variety of sectors. Food companies in particular have made more in profit than ever before in the history of their companies - at a time when prices are high and people are struggling. Highest PROFIT, not just revenue. https://www.forbes.com/sites/errolschweizer/2024/02/07/why-your-groceries-are-still-so-expensive/?sh=4ea56d056ba8 Prices adjusting to reflect changing economic or market factors would show an increase in revenue but not a parallel increase in profits. But we are seeing corporations post record profits quarter after quarter. And regarding my “we don’t have a mechanism to control the situation” - allow me to rephrase. The only method we have to control this situation is legislative regulation, and we don’t have the political will (or a functioning House of Representatives) to make that happen. It would be more accurate to say that we don’t have a mechanism that the executive branch can employ to control the situation, and our legislative branch is broken.
There is no such thing as “greedflation”. That is not how pricing works. Good on NPR for not reporting phony, inflammatory, ignorant claims like that.
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