--and this latest thing w/ the PPI has been going on even longer, starting to get as bad as it was in '08:
Posted on 11/16/2015 3:19:30 AM PST by expat_panama
WASHINGTON --A gauge of U.S. business prices fell in October, the latest sign of low inflation amid cheap gasoline and a strong dollar.
The producer-price index, which measures the prices companies receive for goods and services, decreased 0.4% in October, the Labor Department said Friday. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, so-called core prices were down 0.3% from the prior month.
Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected overall prices would rise 0.2% and core prices would rise 0.1%.
Overall producer prices decreased 1.6% in October from a year earlier, the 10th straight year-over-year decline and the biggest annual fall since...
]snip]
The price index for personal consumption expenditures, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, was up only 0.2% from a year earlier in September.
Fed officials have blamed weak inflation on temporary factors, including depressed energy and import prices, and most economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal now believe the central bank will raise rates in December.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
--and this latest thing w/ the PPI has been going on even longer, starting to get as bad as it was in '08:
An honest report would call this DEFLATION.
“The price index for personal consumption expenditures, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, was up only 0.2% from a year earlier in September”
Up .2%? What if you took out health care inflation at something like 11%? Then how much would prices be down!
This is a Deflationary situation indeed
personal consumption expenditures, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, was up only 0.2%
The writer was either dishonest or confused.
The nominal PCE (total personal expenditures by consumers) was up 0.1% and the inflation adjusted PCE was up 0.2%. That means the PCE price index was in deflation. The writer must be a journalist with no understanding of money.
And the fed is going to increase the interest rate??
It’s a bifurcated market.
Items required to live: food, shelter, etc have and are seeing price increases - look at the grocery ads and bills for proof, if the price isn’t up then the size is down.
Items not required to live are seeing deflation as you indicate as people are less able to afford things and limit their purchases to a very select set of items.
You may be seeing increases but I don't know what you're looking at. This is what I see when I look at prices:
| Year | 2014 | 2015 | Change |
| 24 Pack Coke | $7.18 | $5.98 | -$1.20 |
| 5 Lb Bag Flour | $1.98 | $1.46 | -$0.52 |
| Chicken Soup | $1.35 | $1.34 | -$0.01 |
| Frozen Pizza | $2.98 | $2.50 | -$0.48 |
| Gallon Gas | $2.75 | $2.21 | -$0.54 |
| KW Hour Elec | 12.72 | 12 | -$0.72 |
| Lb Bacon | $5.48 | $5.24 | -$0.24 |
| Lb Green Grapes | $1.98 | $1.48 | -$0.50 |
| Lb Ground Beef | $5.98 | $5.26 | -$0.72 |
| Lb TasteLikeButter | $2.88 | $2.88 | $0.00 |
| Lg Cornflakes | $2.98 | $2.93 | -$0.05 |
| Loaf Bread | $1.98 | $1.98 | $0.00 |
| New House Buy | $373,500 | $364,100 | -$9,400.00 |
| Tide Soap Powder | $17.97 | $11.76 | -$6.21 |
| Toilet Paper | $3.98 | $3.98 | $0.00 |
That's what I keep asking. OK, so tomorrow the CPI comes out and in a couple weeks we get the latest PCE index. Let's see if the FED's back on the Planet Earth by then.
interesting chart - what’s the source? Does it have data going back further than just a year? Noticed some of them don’t have measurements (wts, etc)while others do.
I think you nailed it. What we have is lower costs and a higher standard of living for those with high incomes and the reverse of that for people who have working class incomes while more and more are supported by redistribution. I started telling my wife many years ago that the trend was toward lower prices for luxuries while the cost of necessities was going ever higher.
Very troubling to me is the way that houses are selling around me at very low prices while rents are higher than I ever imagined I would see.
My bad. The numbers are from this site w/ a table going back further + more info on package sizes etc.
We all know that today's prices are inflated when compared to those of say, a decade ago. What we're talking about here is what are prices doing now and how much of a trend is it. That means we compare a pile'o'prices w/ those of recent months going back to when they weren't dropping.
There are all kinds of price indexes out there and what works for one guy won't work for the next, so you or me not liking something doesn't matter. What matters is that if we're working together on public policy then we need to make sense and communicate.
understood, my point is that day-day living isn’t getting easier for the majority so the majority of the deflation is on the nice to haves and not the sustenance items. Remember ~40% of the population is outside the labor force at this point.
understood, my point is that day-day living isn’t getting easier for the majority so the majority of the deflation is on the nice to haves and not the sustenance items. Remember ~40% of the population is outside the labor force at this point.
I’ll also note that looking at that website:
2014 2015
lb Potatoes .49 .78
gal milk 3.15 3.98
doz eggs 1.98 2.77
Number of other similar numbers - so yes some commodities are down and some are up. overall of the 19 items in the shopping basket 7 are down, 3-4 are flat and the rest are up. The down items are down less than the up items in most cases.
I don’t see the cost of health insurance. You are mandated by law to purchase this . Looking at the cost of a bowl of soup or gallon of milk pales in comparison
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