The problem isn’t inflation. It’s prices.www.vox.com/money/2023/11/8/23951098/economy-inflation-prices-job-market-sticker-shock
1925 sats \ 16 comments \ @elvismercury 9 Nov 2023 bitcoin
This is really helpful context to see how normies are talking about contemporary macro events. It's interesting to feel the difference between the worldview of the author, vs one you arrive at after being in the btc space for a while. For instance:
Two things are true in the United States today: The economy is good, and people hate it. Poll after poll shows that many Americans think the economy is in the gutter and that it’s getting worse. That’s even though the labor market is robust, economic growth is strong, and many people say their personal financial situations are just fine. Not to mention that the recession many economists have been predicting for over a year hasn’t materialized. “Why do people say the economy is bad even when it’s good?” is a question dogging economists, journalists, and the White House, which would very much like to convince people otherwise.
I expect many of the people reading SN would have diverging perspectives on the nature of the "economic growth" that we're seeing, and whether people's financially situations would still seem "just fine" if you looked into them with a bit more nuance.
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437 sats \ 1 reply \ @mf 9 Nov 2023
Looking at credit card debt for example, you can immediatlly explain how not more people are not going completely broke. And then there's all the foreign "ventures" that pump the gdp numbers fairly easy...
Point is, statistic numbers can be picked apart to support nearly any narrative one wants to push. The fact is, there are more than a million variables that no single centralized entity can ever diggest.
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22 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 9 Nov 2023
I'd love to see a survey of middle class people asking them if they have had a raise in the last 12 months. If they have how much was it?
On the one hand the Fed is trying to slow the economy down to slow price inflation (or inflation as they call it) and on the other hand Biden's crew want us to believe the economy is doing great. Amazing in fact. It is fascinating to watch. I recall talking to co-workers back in 2020 when the shutdowns and money printing started that it would take years for this to work itself out. I think I underestimated it.
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639 sats \ 3 replies \ @k00b 9 Nov 2023
Empathizing with the author, I suppose they believe:
  1. the government doesn't lie
  2. economic conditions are more like a boulder than a yoyo
  3. the average person is too stupid to appreciate when their life is improving or not
It's especially sad because they explain the difference between government numbers and the public's perception using psychological glitches that we probably do have, but ignore that the effect of those are unquantifiable and thus yield a conveniently untestable hypothesis.
This article stares long at the lag between economic cause and effect:
Wage growth lagged inflation throughout much of the past couple of years, meaning that while people were getting more money in their paychecks, it didn’t feel like it because prices were going up so fast. But in 2023, that’s shifted, and wages are outpacing inflation once again. People at the lower end of the income spectrum, in particular, have made big gains on pay.
Yet somehow misses that today's cause is tomorrow's effect:
The rate of inflation really is slowing (and, if all goes well, will continue to do so), and the disorienting nature of what’s happened in the economy over the past few years will likely fade. Post-pandemic prices will eventually feel normal, and post-pandemic wages should make those prices more feasible — or at least not significantly less feasible than they were before. Sooner or later, sticker shock will feel a little less shocking.
Sideline: I hope at some point we stop expressing inflation as yearly rates and start expressing them in terms of future prices. 2% inflation per year sounds tiny relative to the effect of it compounding. If they had any desire to communicate what this means they'd add "our goal is to double the cost of goods and services in 36 years."
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417 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 9 Nov 2023
I think you nailed it. I agree with your theory on the author. In many ways you can't blame them. They have been brought up to believe all this stuff and have been pretty successful in the current system. Few people want to rip things apart and learn how they work. Few want to question the majority opinions and listen to "cranks" that are not respectable. Few are willing to be different. I know our culture likes to pretend we embrace diversity but that isn't true at all. I don't believe it has ever been true. So when the average Joe complains about the economy, of course they will side with the elite system that brought them to where they are today.
My theory is that eventually, no matter how many people believe a lie. No matter how blind people are, the truth will smack us all in the face. We can only delay it for a time. I don't pretend to be an economist but I've read enough and paid attention long enough to know we are in deep trouble. Those this author is listening to are incentivized to wave away the concerns of the plebs. The plebs are ignorant but they aren't stupid. They know their dollar isn't going as far as it did in 2019. They know they aren't making more money. They know it isn't a great time to be looking for a job. I don't care what chart they use to wave away these issue plebs aren't buying it. The more they try to wave this stuff away the more credibility they lose.
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker 9 Nov 2023
Dude, it's Vox. They're basically propaganda for corporate democrats
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71 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 9 Nov 2023
I didn't expect anything different, but I like to attempt to make sense of arguments independent of the source.
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152 sats \ 7 replies \ @Michelson_Morley 9 Nov 2023
@TomK fellow austrian, please come laugh with me at this article and everything written. The problem is prices!
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100 sats \ 6 replies \ @TomK 10 Nov 2023
Do You believe me if I tell You that I didn't get the joke that is hidden in the title at first glance?
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0 sats \ 5 replies \ @Michelson_Morley 10 Nov 2023
I would be surprised! But I still haven't started reading serfdom so my understanding is incomplete :)
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100 sats \ 4 replies \ @TomK 10 Nov 2023
It's a great work. To me it was like the Bible of freedom literature until I stumbled upon Max Stirner.
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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @Michelson_Morley 10 Nov 2023
haha i guess the rabbit hole deepens!
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100 sats \ 2 replies \ @TomK 10 Nov 2023
Ohhh yes. Try Nietzsche, too. You'll lose contact...
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Michelson_Morley 11 Nov 2023
Hm Nietzsche. fancy pants. Feel like I've heard it all though Jordan Petersons lectures, and I did start reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra but my elder brother stopped me and said its not that good. Long ago though. I'll read Nietzsche another time. As a rule, I only accept 1 book recommendation per friend. Always the answer to "if you could make me read ONE book youve read in your life, which one would it be?".
I didn't ask that from you before, but now I am. Is the answer still serfdom?
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500 sats \ 0 replies \ @TomK 11 Nov 2023
One book about freedom literature?
Max Stirner : The Unique And It's Property
But caution: after that You'll be another person
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 9 Nov 2023
The title is funny. In pop culture we really only hear about price inflation. In fact there is monetary inflation and price inflation. They are often connected but not always connected. I'm sure there are others on SN that explain it better than me.
If you inflate a supply of anything you reduce its scarcity and almost always its value. That is, if the good's value is truly understood by the market. This is my theory on why bitcoin isn't worth X on the market today. Very few understand it. But prices of good can deflate during a time of monetary inflation. The example I always think of is anything electronic. Because technological development has outpaced monetary inflation for a very long time. We do not see the level of price inflation for these goods that we would otherwise see.
What I've realized though the average Joe doesn't give a flip about monetary inflation. Only price inflation. This isn't lost on the bankers who have been robbing the public due to this ignorance.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 9 Nov 2023
As far as the economic growth we are seeing? From what I've heard from a few economists a large portion of it is funded by government debt, consumer debt, and war spending...
Here's one example:
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