[Annie66]

Originally Posted by Michael G.

3% drop for June is good news going forward but what about all the prices that were raised
in the past to the present, will those prices drop........I think not.

If not, you have the option to vote with your feet and find other suppliers. I think the word I'm searching for is "capitalism."

[spinner1001]

Originally Posted by Pixelpups

Your math is wrong. The widget cost $1. Last year the widget was $1.09. This year the widget is $1.12. Plus, the govt. plays around with how inflation is calculated (which is why the WSJ little calculator is so handy). Often food and gas is excluded. Package shrinkage is not accounted for in any of the percentages. Any administration doesn’t want bad numbers; I don’t care which party is in power.

Math scores are the lowest in decades.

U.S. reading and math scores drop to their lowest levels in decades : NPR

[Normal]

Originally Posted by Driller703

REALLY?!! I couldn’t get lobster rolls anywhere near that price in Maine last week! Maybe 28.99 for one!

It’s what we pay in Norwalk Connecticut.

[Vermilion Villager]

Originally Posted by mbene

Search oil companies record profits and you'll know why gas prices are high.

BINGO!!!!

[KAM+6]

WOW, 8 pages of posts and no mention of the tariffs imposed by the previous administration. Oh yea, China was going to pay. WRONG

Attached is an invoice i paid for fabric with a 17% tariff added. I

Expect lumber prices to go up due to Canadian fires but of course Biden will be blamed.

[Vermilion Villager]

This does seem to support the fact that inflation is slowing down. Almost to 2021 levels.
America's retailers have a new challenge: Cooling inflation

[Andyb]

I don’t see good news. It’s down because no once can afford to buy anything. It’s smoke and mirrors. Prices are still high and not coming down, but not going up. Sorry, it was definitely caused by politics.

[Normal]

Originally Posted by Andyb

I don’t see good news. It’s down because no once can afford to buy anything. It’s smoke and mirrors. Prices are still high and not coming down, but not going up. Sorry, it was definitely caused by politics.

The current administration had everything to do with this. The damage is irreversible. I don’t think anyone believes workers will take pay cuts and prices will come back down. Prices are here to stay.

[cjrjck]

Originally Posted by Vermilion Villager

This does seem to support the fact that inflation is slowing down. Almost to 2021 levels.
America's retailers have a new challenge: Cooling inflation

If you are looking for that silver lining, you may be disappointed. Read the last two paragraphs. They paint a different picture. It is also the reason the Fed is still planning on at least one more rate hike this year and perhaps two. Sorry.

[Escape Artist]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

Inflation was as high as 9.1% nationwide a year ago. We were still recovering from global shut-downs post-pandemic, restoring jobs lost, getting manufacturers back on track, and a bunch of other stuff that's political so I won't detail it here but - politics certainly played some part.

The good news, is that the inflation rate has been in decline for the past 12 months, consecutively, and hit 3% as of the end of June.

It’s called stagflation. Prices that went sky high during the past 2-3 years never came down and wages never increased enough to offset the higher costs. I’m still shocked at the prices of basic necessities like food every time I go to the store.

[Keefelane66]

Originally Posted by Normal

It’s what we pay in Norwalk Connecticut.

Lobster roll hot or cold $18-$20 in Newport Ri.

[rsmurano]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

With very few exceptions, inflation has ALWAYS existed. There's only been a scant handful of years in the past 50 years, when the inflation rate was at a negative. Prices go up. That's just how society works. If you want to eliminate the chance of inflation, you'll need to switch to communism. I'm guessing no one here wants to do that.

Prices are currently up because companies know that you'll pay what they charge for what they're selling. They were up at a much higher rate in the past year because of supply chain issues, among other things. Most of those other things and the supply chain issues are resolved, or resolving. And so the rate has dropped back down.

If prices are still up, it's not because of inflation. It's because of greed. COSTS are down. That's why I can get my gallon of gas for $2.98, and why people getting gas on 466 are paying $3.39.

Oh and to whoever was all upset about it being $3.49 - I was just there today, it's $3.39 at the Circle K by Southern Trace. If you have their payment card thing, it's $3.29.

So wrong!!! Prices are determined by supply and demand, quality over cheap stuff, and what it takes to build this widget over another widget. Why is a Gucci purse 100x more expensive than a Kohls purse? Is it greed? How about the price of a Porsche vs a Toyota Corolla, greed again? Rolex vs times?

If the WH puts far more restrictions on drilling oil, or opec decides to cut oil drilling by millions of barrels of oil (and since we are not a oil drilling powerhouse anymore) then gas will go up.
I have seen companies set their widgets at very high costs because of r&d costs or material costs and the companies went out of business because people didn’t want to buy that widget for that price. This is why the WH is putting all the restrictions ions on drilling oil so it becomes more expensive so it forces their agenda of purchasing more ev’s.
1 more thing, when you want to pay burger flippers $20 hr, the companies will have to raise their costs. So when 1 company raises costs, costs will rise on down the line. This has added greatly to the economic conditions here. What do people think when everybody gets a 50% raise, in the long run, that same burger flippers will only be able to purchase items just like he did when making $8 hr.
Capitalism works and eventually will even everything out. You have a superior product that people want/ need, then they will pay the price. If you are overpriced and you are not a monopoly, you will have to cut prices or go out of business.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

Inflation was as high as 9.1% nationwide a year ago. We were still recovering from global shut-downs post-pandemic, restoring jobs lost, getting manufacturers back on track, and a bunch of other stuff that's political so I won't detail it here but - politics certainly played some part.

The good news, is that the inflation rate has been in decline for the past 12 months, consecutively, and hit 3% as of the end of June.

Say an item three years ago cost $100. Due to 9% inflation it went up to $109. Then inflation "dropped" to 3%. It now costs $112.27. Where's the good news here? I think I must have missed it.

[Vermilion Villager]

Originally Posted by Andyb

I don’t see good news. It’s down because no once can afford to buy anything. It’s smoke and mirrors. Prices are still high and not coming down, but not going up.

Please explain.......

[mickey100]

Originally Posted by Escape Artist

It’s called stagflation. Prices that went sky high during the past 2-3 years never came down and wages never increased enough to offset the higher costs. I’m still shocked at the prices of basic necessities like food every time I go to the store.

It's not about the wages, it's about the corporations and their profit margins. We know that prices of goods went up because of inflation, caused in part by the War in Ukraine, recovery from the pandemic, etc. Supply chain issues and other disruptions drove higher prices.

However, I read an interesting article in Business Insider that says corporations' markups - the difference between the price that they charge vs the cost that they paid to produce the item, has also hit record highs. A number of economists are saying that when we had the supply chain issues, the companies that had items to sell had a temporary monopoly on the item, and less competition from other companies so they were able to raise their prices. And in some cases, given the market in any area, the competing companies reach an agreement that they will all raise their prices. Even after supply chain issues lessened, these companies kept up their high prices, despite the fact their profits were up more than they ever were. The name for this is price gouging. Politicians could do something to make corporations pay their fair share, but congress is so divided it will never happen, so that just leaves the Federal reserve to fight inflation with interest rate changes, which is hard on everyone.