Keep in mind the things tracked in the Consumer Price Index are not static. That is, over time, there is a drift towards comparing apples to oranges. For example, if beef becomes too expensive so consumers switch to pork eventually then beef is removed and pork is tracked. That's not less inflation. That's bait and switch.
Futhermore, year by year inflation is too out of context. Instead for a given year we should also get the compounded rate for the previous 5 yrs, 10 yrs, and 15 yrs. That level of transparency would be significant.
> Price indexes are available for the U.S., the four Census regions, nine Census divisions, two size of city classes, eight cross-classifications of regions and size-classes, and for 23 local areas. Indexes are available for major groups of consumer expenditures (food and beverages, housing, apparel, transportation, medical care, recreation, education and communications, and other goods and services), for items within each group, and for special categories, such as services.
- FWIU food prices never decreased after COVID-19.
> The "Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items Less Food & Energy" is an aggregate of prices paid by urban consumers for a typical basket of goods, excluding food and energy. This measurement, known as "Core CPI," is widely used by economists because food and energy have very volatile prices.
> This measurement, known as "Core CPI," is widely used by economists because food and energy have very volatile prices.
Translation: The Core Consumer Price Index has little to do with actual citizens, and instead reflects some theoretical group of people who don't eat and don't go anywhere.
In addition, politicians recite the CCPI and The Media parrot them. Both knowing - or should know - it's deceptive and doesn't actually reflect reality.
It's not the metrics per se, it's the disconnect between what they actually represent and how they're used to misrepresent the current economic feeliings of the masses.
Take the last few months in the USA, we've been assured by the party in power that inflation is under control, etc. Yet, *no one* who goes to the super market on weekly basis has seen that and believes that. Eventually, such gaslighting leads to mistrust and pushback.
The smart thing would be to include anything practical consumers MUST purchase. To exclude food and gas might be great for academics, but for the everyone else is smells of BS.
How should the free hand of the market affect post-COVID global food prices?
Tariff spats (and firms' resultant inability to compete at global price points) or free market trade globalization with nobody else deciding the price for the contracting [fair trade] parties.
There are multiple lines that can be plotted on a chart: Core CPI, CPI Food &|| Gas, GDP, yield curve, M1 and M2, R&D focii and industry efficiency metrics
Well, you certainly don't get it under control by removing it from the key metric. You don't get it under control by pretending it hasn't been removed and then gaslighting the public by saying everything is ok, that is under control.
> Food prices have surged by more than 20% under the Biden-Harris administration, leaving many voters eager to stretch their dollars further at the grocery store.
> On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris said she has a solution: a federal ban on price gouging across the food industry.
They still haven't undone the prior administration's tariff wars of recent yore fwiu. What happened to everyone loves globalization and Free Trade and Fair Trade? Are you down with TPP?
But did prices reflect the value of the workers and their product in the first place.
There were compost shortages during COVID.
There are still fertilizer shortages FWIU. TIL about not Ed Koch trying to buy Iowa's basically state-sponsored fertilizer business which was created in direct response to the fertilizer market conditions created in significant part by said parties.
Humanoid robots in agriculture, with agrivoltaics, and sustainable no-till farming practices; how much boost in efficiency can we all watch and hope for?
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[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 51.8 ms ] threadFuthermore, year by year inflation is too out of context. Instead for a given year we should also get the compounded rate for the previous 5 yrs, 10 yrs, and 15 yrs. That level of transparency would be significant.
https://www.bls.gov/CPI
US BLS: Bureau of Labor Statistics > Consumer Price Indexes Overview: https://www.bls.gov/cpi/overview.htm :
> Price indexes are available for the U.S., the four Census regions, nine Census divisions, two size of city classes, eight cross-classifications of regions and size-classes, and for 23 local areas. Indexes are available for major groups of consumer expenditures (food and beverages, housing, apparel, transportation, medical care, recreation, education and communications, and other goods and services), for items within each group, and for special categories, such as services.
- FWIU food prices never decreased after COVID-19.
https://www.google.com/search?q=FWIU+food+prices+never+decre.... :
"Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Food and Beverages in U.S. City Average (CPIFABSL)" https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIFABSL
"Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items Less Food and Energy in U.S. City Average (CPILFESL)" https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPILFESL
> The "Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items Less Food & Energy" is an aggregate of prices paid by urban consumers for a typical basket of goods, excluding food and energy. This measurement, known as "Core CPI," is widely used by economists because food and energy have very volatile prices.
- COVID eviction moratoriums ended in 2021. How did that affect CPI rent/lease/mortgage, and new housing starts now that lumber prices have returned to normal? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_eviction_moratoriums_...
"Consumer price index (CPI) for rent of primary residence compared to CPI for all items in the United States from 2000 to 2023" https://www.statista.com/statistics/1440254/cpi-rent-primary...
- pandas-datareader > FRED, caching queries: https://pandas-datareader.readthedocs.io/en/latest/remote_da...
Translation: The Core Consumer Price Index has little to do with actual citizens, and instead reflects some theoretical group of people who don't eat and don't go anywhere.
In addition, politicians recite the CCPI and The Media parrot them. Both knowing - or should know - it's deceptive and doesn't actually reflect reality.
What could go wrong?
Is tone helpful?
Take the last few months in the USA, we've been assured by the party in power that inflation is under control, etc. Yet, *no one* who goes to the super market on weekly basis has seen that and believes that. Eventually, such gaslighting leads to mistrust and pushback.
The smart thing would be to include anything practical consumers MUST purchase. To exclude food and gas might be great for academics, but for the everyone else is smells of BS.
Tariff spats (and firms' resultant inability to compete at global price points) or free market trade globalization with nobody else deciding the price for the contracting [fair trade] parties.
There are multiple lines that can be plotted on a chart: Core CPI, CPI Food &|| Gas, GDP, yield curve, M1 and M2, R&D focii and industry efficiency metrics
I'm not trying to explain post Covid inflation, the free market, etc.
What other metrics for economic health do you suggest?
"Harris’ plan to stop [food] price gouging could create more problems than it solves" (2024) https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/16/business/harris-price-gouging... :
> Food prices have surged by more than 20% under the Biden-Harris administration, leaving many voters eager to stretch their dollars further at the grocery store.
> On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris said she has a solution: a federal ban on price gouging across the food industry.
They still haven't undone the prior administration's tariff wars of recent yore fwiu. What happened to everyone loves globalization and Free Trade and Fair Trade? Are you down with TPP?
But did prices reflect the value of the workers and their product in the first place.
There were compost shortages during COVID.
There are still fertilizer shortages FWIU. TIL about not Ed Koch trying to buy Iowa's basically state-sponsored fertilizer business which was created in direct response to the fertilizer market conditions created in significant part by said parties.
Humanoid robots in agriculture, with agrivoltaics, and sustainable no-till farming practices; how much boost in efficiency can we all watch and hope for?