Posted on 02/15/2022 7:21:12 AM PST by Red Badger
Wholesale inflation in the United States surged again last month, rising 9.7% from a year earlier in a sign that price pressures remain high at all levels of the economy
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WASHINGTON -- Wholesale inflation in the United States surged again last month, rising 9.7% from a year earlier in a sign that price pressures remain high at all levels of the economy.
The Labor Department said Tuesday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it reaches consumers — jumped 1% from December. The year-over-year increase was down from the record 9.8% recorded in both November and December but was well above what economists had been expecting.
Excluding volatile food and energy prices, wholesale inflation rose 0.8% from December and 8.3% from January 2021.
Last week, the government reported that inflation at the consumer level soared over the past year at its highest rate in four decades, squeezing households, wiping out pay raises and reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s decision to begin raising borrowing rates. The 7.5% price surge ranged across the economy, from food and furniture to apartment rents, airline fares and electricity.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
If we could just remove all the volatile prices from this statistic, I bet we could get Inflation down to zero.
If the inflation rate were calculated the CPI using the same methodology used in 1987 or 1979 the current inflation rate would be roaring at about 12% to 15&. Mark Levin covered this a few days ago.
If the BLS is giving a number you can bet it has been politically sanitized to have the least impact to the democrats, meaning 9.7% must be extremely low.
This is the BLS who claimed after 7 million people lost their jobs within months that somehow the unemployment rate went down significantly.
And yet the market is up +400.
Some companies do well with inflation, others do not.
Remember when air at the gas station was free and now it’s $2.00?
You know why?
Inflation!
I just saw a local news report here in southern California that the price of roses for Valentine’s Day has skyrocketed, a dozen long-stemmed about $125 today.
Our local Sam’s and Tom Thumb convenience stores had ‘free air’ for a while, but somebody kept cutting the hoses and stealing them.
I suspect the owner of the pay for air machines..................
Yes, economic indices and indicators are regularly tweaked for political purposes, making it nearly impossible to compare figures across long stretches of time. I read recently that the “Foodstuffs Index” (or something like that, measuring only the cost of common foods) is up something like 43% or 47% over the past year or two. This certainly comports with what I’ve seen at my local grocery store. And now even Walmart’s prices are up sharply. There has to’ve been some serious fiddling to come up with a number like 7.3%.
Inflation worse than the Carter years, for those old enough that was a cold (literally), dark time for Americans. There was even a movie called Americathon where there was a telethon to raise money to save the United States.
That 5.9% S.S. raise didn’t last very long.
I used to live in a tiny mountain town where the only gas station had free air. Visited recently and it still does. Probably very rare these days. Their gas price was always really high though.
And with Govt limiting water supply, the cost of fertilizer skyrocketing along with all input costs, it’s not getting better for a long time.
Will inflation be higher or lower one year from now?
Two years?
Three years?
I will admit I shop there frequently, to save my wallet from wholesale hemorrhaging. The prices at the regular supermarkets are obscene. A 12-oz package of bologna for almost five bucks, a box of cereal for $6, and don't even ask about the cost of meat.
As I understand it, consumer prices often lag as an indicator of inflation. The higher prices are first absorbed at the commodity level, then the wholesale level, and then they are observed at the retail level.
Energy prices rise quickly. Groceries are much slower but they often rise faster due to the slinky effect in the markets versus gas/energy which has a faster throughput in the system.
Just a thought. I definitely see big inflation in my household budget and expect it to get worse in the coming months. Will be curious to see what happens to the housing market as interest rates rise - right now it is masked in my area because people are cashing out of deep blue coastal areas and paying cash.
“This is fine...”
Remember when W changed the basket of goods used to calculate inflation?
Things like food, energy and housing were removed to give fake numbers.
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