The formulas that measure inflation have been 'enhanced' aggressively since the mid 80's.
The blue line show inflation as it would be without those 'enhancements'.
To have price inflation, wages must rise. Hence the push for a higher minimum wage. Raise the floor and you also raise the ceiling.
That is an utter F***ing lie. I've never seen inflation so horrible as it has been between 2009-2017. I've been keeping track. Virtually everything I buy on a regular basis doubled in price. I could give you a list.
Inflation was 200% since that idiot Obama took office. He just ordered the FedGov to lie about real inflation.
There are many other reasons. Production of physical goods is much easier with modern technology. With automation, we can produce more with less effort, and with computerization, we know how much to produce.
Unaccounted for inflation. Consumer debt. Wage stagnation.
That sums it up for me.
The affects of money printing are asymmetric. Certainly, bankers were the main beneficiary, and then anyone with access to cheap money and assets.
No inflation? That’s BS. Want to rent an apt. in a big city? buy farmland? Paid for healthcare recently? How about college tuitions? Cost of running a state or local government?
Obama's recession, hard to have real inflation.
Didn’t Bill Clinton change the cost of living formula to allow substitution and thus manipulate the inflation index in 1992?
So many silly errors.
arrogance of power, stupidity, terrorism, whatever?
Yes, yes, good for you for dropping cable years ago, and for using a Cricket Wireless flip phone for $19/month. I'm talking about the average middle class family, not the average FReeper family.
A big part of the financial bailout since 2008 has been born by conservative savers who have earned next to nothing on their CDs and savings accounts for more than a decade now. This is rarely mentioned, but it is truly a case where the middle class has been royally screwed for many years.
Inflation is high. Not just the way incompetent and crooked government measures it.
What B.S. Inflation is way more than they claim. Look a the price increase in food (Velveeta cheese), car insurance, local taxes, candy bars, sodas at cashier, etc.
Inflation = BAD
> “ Using the CPI to represent inflation, ...”
After government econ wonks tinkered with CPI to remove political hot potatoes like housing, the CPI became a charade.
The M3 money supply was jettisoned because it revealed too much truth.
And GDP stats are jokes.
What the government has created is a ministry of economic propaganda.
This happened in the USSR too. The government would announce on nightly news the current ‘rosy’ econ statistics and proclaim the socialist paradise was blooming with good works while the Soviet TV viewers would spit at the tube or worse throw things at it.
If one bothers to review the US history of economic smoke and mirrors applied to statistical manipulations, the result is the same, a boatload of nonsense and double talk.
What is real is more money in worker’s paychecks due to personal and corporate tax cuts and the willingness of companies to expand in the Trump environment of reduced taxes and regulations. The fact that overly educated econojocks can’t get their politically correct equations and models to reflect the common sense on the ground is their problem, not the problem of regular Janes and Joes in the workplace.
Anyone who hears these reports knows very well how badly we're being lied to. The value of money has been destroyed by the government, so it can replay debt using "cheaper" money.
Anyone who's visited a grocery store or restaurant knows that we're being lied to. And it's all thanks to the government. I just wish President Trump would speak out on it.
Mark
Inflation is only one factor of many.
Ask yourself WHY does everything cost more today ?
Obama and the leftists Socialized medicine and Socialized energy drove prices up hugely (labor and energy being significant expense for everything else being produced/services)
So set the blame where it really belongs.
Ummmm…….QE, the Fed buying assets with new money, is why the Balance Sheet increased. Not 2 separate events.
No inflation occurs, as those investors don’t spend that money, but rather invest it in assets such as equities, real estate, other debt and art.
And there is no way the sellers of equities, real estate, art and other assets would ever spend their profits in the economy because, DERP!
Total household debt is $13.2 trillion, also a new record.
Total household net worth is $100.768 trillion, also a new record. Total household personal income is also a new record. Total household disposable income is also a new record.