What we should really worry about is the ravenous bug blatter beast of Trall, which is so mind bogglingly stupid, it believes if you can't see it, it can't see you. Which explains why the towel is vitally important. If memory serves. HHGTTG fans will correct me, please.
All the houses that have sold on my block in the last 5 years have all been cash buyers, so interest rates accounted for nothing. I might have the only mortgage on the block!
My recently deceased neighbor's condo just sold for $185,000. By contrast, I bought mine about 20 years ago for about $135K (and paid too much, as it was just before the housing market plunged). That is no lie about housing going ca-ca-coo-coo.
"Get ready for Fox News to insist that two straight months of (very slight) inflation mean Donald Trump has a lock on the 2024 election, assuming he doesn’t have an actual lock on a cell door in front of him by then."
A little historical context is always beneficial. Especially when we don't have to go back very far in history.
For the 12 months from July 2022 to July 2023, the Consumer Price Index reported a change of 3.2% in all prices.
For the period from July 2021 to July 2022, it reported a change of 6.5%.
For the period from July 2020 to July 2021, it reported a change of 5.4%.
Overall, inflation sped up a little during the previous recorded annual cycle and slowed down quite a bit in the latest recorded annual cycle.
We are very, very poorly served by broadcast news media that serve us the latest change in consumer prices. We are even more poorly served when broadcast news media mention price increases and price increase acceleration, but never price decreases (as happened with energy prices this year) and never price increase deceleration.
One almost suspects that some broadcast news media aren't interested in promoting public knowledge at all.
Wait! Is it 1973 ? Am I doing a poor ass impression of Sleeping Beauty today? Still ugly as hell.
(Yes I know the appropriate tale is Rip Van Winkle, but her dress is really pretty and I'm sure I can handle a kiss from a Prince with out being gay. (don't ask how I know this) I will chance it.)
Oh well. Sorry I digress.
Cause back then, everyone shit their pants when they found out the Arabs didn't like us too much when they lost 2 wars to the Israelis. Wars in the Middle East ? Who knew?
But they really shit 'em when they found out how a rise in the price of oil affects so much in the economy.
I am so glad we have learned so much in the last 50 years about Earl, Black Gold, Texas Tea.
Someday we may learn about energy. It's like a science thingy right?
Anyway, gotta go. I Really need a nap now. (Yawhn)
It was expected to be 3.6 but it’s 3.7!!! I have voted as a Democrat and have been worked at Planned Parenthood for the last 50 years but this report has made me decide that Trump deserves a chance.
When I was younger, I used to believe that people did research and carefully thought about choices. Boy, I was naive.. Politics made more sense when I realize it was emotional driven and very few people vote rationally
Food prices where I live are insanely high, if you can even find the products you want. We're about 250 miles from the major hubs of Los Angeles and Reno, with no rail service. Everything comes by truck, and diesel is well over $5 a gallon. Truckers aren't willing to absorb that, nor should they.
It'd be nice if we could just knock off the Saudi royal family, and keep knocking off their replacements, until we get a team in there who is willing to play ball in exchange for not getting knocked off.
Plus, tell the Iranians we'll buy their oil too, in exchange for not knocking off their leaders.
All until we harness more solar power. Then they can do whatever they want with their oil.
It's not great--3.7% is still higher than people would be comfortable with (it's hard to get your own income to increase by that much, particularly if you're on a fixed income) but this can be addressed in some painless ways:
1) Increase the number of guest workers we admit to the country. Much of inflation is fed by worker shortages and this would alleviate that (as well as having beneficial long term impacts for the economy, as immigration tends to do).
2) Undo Trump's tarriffs (many of which are still in place). Increasing more competitive products into the market will lower prices.
3) Focus regulatory reform on increasing private sector competition. Anything that alleviates supply chain clogs, and introduces more price transparency/competition, will ease inflation without harming the public.
Some painful ways to cut inflation, but more effective than increasing interest rates (which is all we got when we leave this entirely in the hands of the Fed)? Energy consumption taxes and sales taxes. It'll hurt, but it'll put downward pressure on consumption and reduce prices the hard way. Though it'd be an easier sell if you coupled it with repealing Trump's tax cuts.
Dems should at least run on 1-3 above. I wouldn't expect any politician to run on the rest.
And we all know Trump and his surrogates are making daily calls to Russia and Saudi Arabia trying to get the prices up. Gas prices have gone up over 30 percent in the last 5 months starting with Trumps first potential indictment and they are completely unmoored from oil prices which have been fairly flat overall.
This has to become a more regular part of Dem messaging--just keep playing the clip of Trump begging the Saudis to raise oil prices, keep reminding voters that the only way Trump gets back in office is to create pain for everyone.
Do the ad right and people will overwhelm the RNC with pitchforks.
Six-and-a-half years ago, back when I was commuting just shy of 100 miles/day, I bought a Prius Prime (the plug-in version) that give you the first 30-35 miles on battery power alone, depending on temperature and other driving conditions. I went from refueling my rather frugal Ford Focus every four or five working days to refueling my current car every ten days or so. Now that we've gone to permanent WFH status (except me, who has to go in every Thursday to check the mail and deposit checks), I can easily go for a month without refueling. I sincerely feel bad for all y'all who need big-ass trucks to do your business, whether it's lawnscaping or towing or whatever. I'm just glad that I went with Toyota instead of a VW TDI which I was was also considering at the time.
During bush the dumber's depression, I was routinely paying over $200 to fill my truck with diesel. It only had one tank, with 35 gallon capacity. I had a 40 mile round-trip commute, 20 MPG, not hard to see where my check was going.
"This is where I add that as part of my personal obsession with climate policy, I’m also becoming convinced that smarter housing policy is gonna be huge in getting a handle on climate change."
What we should really worry about is the ravenous bug blatter beast of Trall, which is so mind bogglingly stupid, it believes if you can't see it, it can't see you. Which explains why the towel is vitally important. If memory serves. HHGTTG fans will correct me, please.
All the houses that have sold on my block in the last 5 years have all been cash buyers, so interest rates accounted for nothing. I might have the only mortgage on the block!
My recently deceased neighbor's condo just sold for $185,000. By contrast, I bought mine about 20 years ago for about $135K (and paid too much, as it was just before the housing market plunged). That is no lie about housing going ca-ca-coo-coo.
"Get ready for Fox News to insist that two straight months of (very slight) inflation mean Donald Trump has a lock on the 2024 election, assuming he doesn’t have an actual lock on a cell door in front of him by then."
Or even if he does, probably.
A little historical context is always beneficial. Especially when we don't have to go back very far in history.
For the 12 months from July 2022 to July 2023, the Consumer Price Index reported a change of 3.2% in all prices.
For the period from July 2021 to July 2022, it reported a change of 6.5%.
For the period from July 2020 to July 2021, it reported a change of 5.4%.
Overall, inflation sped up a little during the previous recorded annual cycle and slowed down quite a bit in the latest recorded annual cycle.
We are very, very poorly served by broadcast news media that serve us the latest change in consumer prices. We are even more poorly served when broadcast news media mention price increases and price increase acceleration, but never price decreases (as happened with energy prices this year) and never price increase deceleration.
One almost suspects that some broadcast news media aren't interested in promoting public knowledge at all.
Wait! Is it 1973 ? Am I doing a poor ass impression of Sleeping Beauty today? Still ugly as hell.
(Yes I know the appropriate tale is Rip Van Winkle, but her dress is really pretty and I'm sure I can handle a kiss from a Prince with out being gay. (don't ask how I know this) I will chance it.)
Oh well. Sorry I digress.
Cause back then, everyone shit their pants when they found out the Arabs didn't like us too much when they lost 2 wars to the Israelis. Wars in the Middle East ? Who knew?
But they really shit 'em when they found out how a rise in the price of oil affects so much in the economy.
I am so glad we have learned so much in the last 50 years about Earl, Black Gold, Texas Tea.
Someday we may learn about energy. It's like a science thingy right?
Anyway, gotta go. I Really need a nap now. (Yawhn)
There can never be *just one* trump flag
It was expected to be 3.6 but it’s 3.7!!! I have voted as a Democrat and have been worked at Planned Parenthood for the last 50 years but this report has made me decide that Trump deserves a chance.
When I was younger, I used to believe that people did research and carefully thought about choices. Boy, I was naive.. Politics made more sense when I realize it was emotional driven and very few people vote rationally
Religion, politics and sports are never rational.
Only talk about the weather.
Even talking about the weather is fraught with danger. It's just a smol step to the right (or left) before you're fighting over climate change.
Everyone knows that that extra 0.1% is what it takes to get us to choose fascism over democracy.
Actually I'm chill until inflation hits 3.8%, then I go full jackboot.
So the 3 largest drivers of inflation were all oil related.
Gas prices up 11 percent
Fuel oil up 10 percent
and Airfares (due to fuel costs) up 5 percent
Almost every other factor was less than 1 percent
Won’t it be nice when we are no longer at the mercy of big oil?
Food prices where I live are insanely high, if you can even find the products you want. We're about 250 miles from the major hubs of Los Angeles and Reno, with no rail service. Everything comes by truck, and diesel is well over $5 a gallon. Truckers aren't willing to absorb that, nor should they.
It'd be nice if we could just knock off the Saudi royal family, and keep knocking off their replacements, until we get a team in there who is willing to play ball in exchange for not getting knocked off.
Plus, tell the Iranians we'll buy their oil too, in exchange for not knocking off their leaders.
All until we harness more solar power. Then they can do whatever they want with their oil.
So it’s a semi-regular comparison with the “Run by conservatives for 16 years UK”
Where inflation is 6.9%
Down from over 7% the month before
It's not great--3.7% is still higher than people would be comfortable with (it's hard to get your own income to increase by that much, particularly if you're on a fixed income) but this can be addressed in some painless ways:
1) Increase the number of guest workers we admit to the country. Much of inflation is fed by worker shortages and this would alleviate that (as well as having beneficial long term impacts for the economy, as immigration tends to do).
2) Undo Trump's tarriffs (many of which are still in place). Increasing more competitive products into the market will lower prices.
3) Focus regulatory reform on increasing private sector competition. Anything that alleviates supply chain clogs, and introduces more price transparency/competition, will ease inflation without harming the public.
Some painful ways to cut inflation, but more effective than increasing interest rates (which is all we got when we leave this entirely in the hands of the Fed)? Energy consumption taxes and sales taxes. It'll hurt, but it'll put downward pressure on consumption and reduce prices the hard way. Though it'd be an easier sell if you coupled it with repealing Trump's tax cuts.
Dems should at least run on 1-3 above. I wouldn't expect any politician to run on the rest.
I like the idea of reducing consumption. Pretty sure our national religion is Consumerism.
And we all know Trump and his surrogates are making daily calls to Russia and Saudi Arabia trying to get the prices up. Gas prices have gone up over 30 percent in the last 5 months starting with Trumps first potential indictment and they are completely unmoored from oil prices which have been fairly flat overall.
This has to become a more regular part of Dem messaging--just keep playing the clip of Trump begging the Saudis to raise oil prices, keep reminding voters that the only way Trump gets back in office is to create pain for everyone.
Do the ad right and people will overwhelm the RNC with pitchforks.
I once spent $198 to fill up my truck. TBF it had dual tanks.
Six-and-a-half years ago, back when I was commuting just shy of 100 miles/day, I bought a Prius Prime (the plug-in version) that give you the first 30-35 miles on battery power alone, depending on temperature and other driving conditions. I went from refueling my rather frugal Ford Focus every four or five working days to refueling my current car every ten days or so. Now that we've gone to permanent WFH status (except me, who has to go in every Thursday to check the mail and deposit checks), I can easily go for a month without refueling. I sincerely feel bad for all y'all who need big-ass trucks to do your business, whether it's lawnscaping or towing or whatever. I'm just glad that I went with Toyota instead of a VW TDI which I was was also considering at the time.
I sold the truck when I retired...I wanted to keep it because it was quite nice but I knew it was just too much vehicle for a retiree...
During bush the dumber's depression, I was routinely paying over $200 to fill my truck with diesel. It only had one tank, with 35 gallon capacity. I had a 40 mile round-trip commute, 20 MPG, not hard to see where my check was going.
"This is where I add that as part of my personal obsession with climate policy, I’m also becoming convinced that smarter housing policy is gonna be huge in getting a handle on climate change."
YES! Thank you!
THE SKY IS FALLING!! THE SKY IS FALLING!
Did we hear the word "inflation" mentioned once during the Putin/Turmp Reign of Terror?