Remember, disinflation is not deflation, it is simply a time when inflation has reduced over the short term, though, there is a chance of deflation when it drops near zero
Inflation is cooling, but the price hikes aren’t done
In 2021, when the price of organic cotton and other raw materials spiked, the family that runs White Lotus Home, a New Jersey-based sustainable bedding company, hoped the 20% to 25% jumps were merely momentary and opted to absorb most of the costs.
But earlier this month, Marlon Pando, White Lotus Home’s chief executive, emailed customers to explain that the 42-year-old company could no longer afford to do so, and that prices would go up in 2024.
In Boulder, Colorado, restaurateur Tony Hessel spends his weekends poring over spreadsheets he’s built to wrangle ingredient costs that have been consistently erratic. While he has been able to lower prices on some dishes, he’s had no choice but to raise others.
Inflation in the United States has unquestionably cooled after hitting 40-year highs last year. However, recent inflation gauges, the actions of reticent small businesses like these, and the broad-based announced price hikes by large entities like Chipotle and Disney, reinforce what Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and others have repeated for months: Disinflation will be bumpy.
However, the longer that process drags on, consumers’ patience — and, in some cases, their pocketbooks — are wearing increasingly thin.
“When we look ahead, what we’re likely to see in the economy is slower demand,” said Lydia Boussour, EY-Parthenon’s senior economist. “And that means for businesses, the ability to pass on higher prices and higher costs to the consumer is going to be limited.”
That lower demand is already there, especially with big ticket items, even some somewhat essential like automobiles. Further, many items are gone. Lots of products went away due to COVID and/or inflation, and are not coming back, like those low cost alternatives to things you’d get at the grocery store, because they just cannot afford to have them
Prices in the United States, by and large, are still going up — just not as much as they were last year.
During the 12 months that ended in September, the Consumer Price Index rose 3.7%, versus the 41-year high of 9.1% in June 2022. Other key inflation gauges, the more comprehensive Personal Consumption Expenditures price index and the wholesale-focused Producer Price Index, have moderated as well.
However, in recent months, their descents have been choppier. A spike in gas prices and other components such as persistently high shelter costs have kept inflation elevated.
Remember, that 3.7% is on top of the previous inflation hikes. And they were going up in 2021. Basically, the entire Biden years are ones of high inflation. Interestingly, the Credentialed Media has been feeding us the line about inflation cooling for most of this year, yet, prices continue to go up. Things that could swing down do not. The cost for used cars is still way too high. Home and apartment prices are out of control. There could be slight shifts downward in some goods, mostly foods, as the price of gas fluctuates, but, not much, and not for long, as gas remains much higher.
When digging into the numbers, the picture does look rosier, economists say, noting that the monthly inflation gains are in line with the Fed’s desired 2% inflation target. (The latest reading of the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the PCE index that strips out energy and food, will be released on Friday).
I’m pretty sure that 3.7% is almost double 2%.
Yea, the economy is just doing great.
Mortgage rates in January of 2017 where 4.09%
mortgage rates in January 2021 were two point 2.77%
change minus 1.32% under Trump
mortgage rates January 2021 when the senile old fart took over 2.77%
mortgage rates today 8.49%
yes H tell me what a wonderful economy Biden has created. When will the building back better start
CarolAnn,
The economy is fine. Too robust if anything. More new jobs every month. Wages going up, too.
When inflation goes up, the Fed raises rates. Under that senile old fart, Mr Reagan, the prime rate reached 20%, which brought inflation down to 4% by the time he left office in 1988. Unemployment rate averaged 7.5% under Mr Reagan. Mr Reagan also more than doubled the national debt. Was the economy good or bad under Mr Reagan?
In our area, road and bridge renovations are ongoing, and I suspect this is nationwide, and a result of the transportation bill.
The US DOES have issues to deal with. Russia, Iran (with Hamas) and China are pushing and the “decent” nations have to respond. Our immigration system is a mess. Mr Reagan gave amnesty to many illegal immigrants. Our national debt is too large. Our working class needs more help, as the gap income/wealth gaps between the wealthy and working classes is widening.
I want to believe that Mr Trump’s devaluation of America is just a passing fling, and we’ll see. The United States of America IS the greatest nation in the history of nations. President Reagan knew it, President Obama knows it. President Trump did not believe that.
But what do I know. I’m just an old communist.
Elwood
Don’t give up, we need your stupidity on display..
In the mean time… in 2020 the breakfast special at the 8 ounce burger in the Horseshoe Casino was $8.00…. by 2021 it was $12.00…and just went up to $13.00
And that doesn’t include coffee.
And the serving size is reduced…
Yes sir, things are just peachy.
At least we agree on one thing.
We’re sorry to say that with all the complaining about America and Americans you do it is obvious you don’t believe it. If President Obama actually thought America was the greatest nation in the history of nations why was his objective to “fundamentally change” it? Once again you are either lying are just plain stupid.
And if you believed what you just said then you certainly would agree with the idea of MAGA, making America great again. You would also understand that America completely needs a redo because Democrats and communists like yourself have done unbelievable damage to the cities of our country. You have stolen an election and refused to even acknowledge that there’s a problem. You have destroyed our schools and our education system. And now you’ve turned the army and all military and do social engineering camps. You also wanna take our rights away with censorship limited speech taking away our Second Amendment rights our 4th Amendment rights our Fifth Amendment rights and our 10th Amendment rights. In fact there is no limit to the number of constitutional rights you want to eliminate. So if you think our country is so great why don’t you go by constitutional rules?
You have no respect for nor love of patriotism or nationalism. You think patriotism means white supremacy and nationalism means Nazism. Neither is true. Every single political movement you support his auntie ethical to America Christianity white people our history our society our culture and our constitution. You are the epitome of a lousy American. Current use support for Ukraine which has pro Nazi roots, he support Palestine ( but of course not the Palestine in America that has been destroyed) and Gaza and all of those anti Jewish anti Israel organizations, you support the murder of babies in utero for the purpose of birth control, the mutilation of children for the purpose of sexual changes which is impossible, grooming children for sexual perversion in schools.
Reality just doesn’t matter at all to you, does it? It’s all team sports. Facts, data, real life — none of that registers in your pointed, empty little head.
Fcking id!ot.
Fuking idiot,
Your sign off is accurate!!
You neglect to supply and facts, data or “real life”.
Old Commie
You’ve yet to even accidentally swerve into the truth in all the voluminous shitposting you’ve done around here. Every single goddamn thing you’ve said is complete nonsense driven by hatred, ignorance, and idiocy. Old communist? Yeah, you’re exactly as I said you are.
You still neglect to supply facts, data or “real life”.
One of the big problems that led to the housing crash was that people bought more house than they could really afford, but that’s been going on for a long time. People knew that with steady inflation — the Fed’s target was 2% — if they could tough out a few years, inflation would raise their wages as well as prices, but their mortgages would stay the same, at least assuming that they weren’t stupid enough to get an adjustable rate mortgage!
Thus, in real terms, their mortgage payments would drop as a percentage of their incomes, and that’s a real gain.
But inflation dropped so low that people weren’t seeing that gain, and that’s actually been a problem since the mid 1980s. The real key was: don’t buy more house than you can afford counting on inflation to help you out. Through both luck and my incredible intelligence, we’ve had three mortgages, and in no case did we buy more than we could afford. In our second mortgage, we borrowed significantly less than our one year annual income, so even if my wife or I had lost our jobs, we could still pay the mortgage. The current mortgage we have on our rental property, which is being paid by our tenant, was for roughly half of our annual income. (Our current home was bought for cash; no mortgage at all.)
Buying a home is the best way working class people can build wealth . . . if they are not stupid about what they do.
As usual, the astute one far-right of Missouri is correct!!
The big banks gambled that the US gubmint would bail them out when their corrupt practices bit them in the ass. And they were right!!
Lenders happily wrote loans to high-risk borrowers. Wall Street banks cleverly bundled these loans into financial instruments for sale as Mortgage Backed Securities and their derivatives (bets on how well they would do). The ratings agencies (Moody’s, S&P’s) rated these “instruments” as AAA! Why? If they didn’t, the customers (big banks) would go elsewhere and not pay them!!.
The Fed raised interest rates in 2004-2006 to fight inflation. When the adjustable rate mortgages and balloon payments started coming due, “homeowners” could not refinance and defaulted on their loans en masse and the bottom fell out of the Wall Street banks and the Great Recession ensued!
Huge investment banks Bear Stearns, WaMu and Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. Ostensibly to avoid a new Great Recession, the US government “injected” nearly a $trillion (TARP) into 700 or so US banks to keep the system afloat! Thousands of bank executives were arrested! Just kidding. A Muslim guy, Kareem Serageldin, was sentenced to 30 mo for misrepresenting the value of bonds, and was the only banker to go to jail. In fact, bank execs received huge (> $1 million each) bonuses from the TARP funds!!! Is this a great country or not?
In short. Unregulated banks made risky loans to unqualified borrowers. When the loans went belly-up, the “homeowners” lost their homes and the lenders received millions in taxpayer dollars!! This is America!