Sorry…
 

Economics lesson over for the day. 😎

Gas prices in IL.
 

Not seeing gas prices dropping in IL. Saw a station in Joliet, IL last night with regular at $4.37/gal. Other area stations at $4.00. Compare with price at Costco in Maui - selling for $4.36 which one would expect there. You all are lucky to be living in FL and in TV even more so. We will be back soon.

And the rest of us that will not drive 5 to 10 miles to BJs ,pump prices are still at 3.50 a gallon and up around here and everywhere else. But good for you to be able to see thru those rose colored glasses and avoid reality

The cycle being, the government prints money, nice to have more money, the Government looks good for doing so. this of course causes inflation , the government then prints less, inflation goes down, the government is now a hero for fighting inflation, but you are still stuck with higher prices overall , of course its the fault of greedy businesses and evil corporations

I makeup stuff too. Actually “ U.S. average retail gasoline prices in 2019 were slightly lower than in 2018. U.S. regular retail gasoline prices averaged $2.60 per gallon (gal) in 2019, 11 cents/gal (4%) lower than in 2018.”
Although it may be considered an inferior petroleum I refuel at BJ’s $2.96 gal

Yes. If you hurry over to Beall's you can get 10% off of everything they marked up 20% yesterday!

Terrible
 

Are we missing the part about about the economy, and that it really, really, really bites right now? That seniors who budgeted for retirement may be forced to work again? That a trip to the grocery store this year is almost twice the price it was 30 months ago? That homes are now a small fortune and the middle class has never been smaller? That our national debt is at unfathomable levels? Inflation hit and the damage is huge.

3% over last year
 

That is a 3% increase over and above last years 9.1%. 3 % sounds good but it just added on the the already high prices.

Doesn't fit the narrative

Some folks will grasp at any manipulated stat to push their agenda. If inflation increased only 3% over the 9% last year, that's still 12%. Time to celebrate? So funny. Kind of like saying, only a million jobs were lost this year, when last year 12 million jobs were lost (not fact, just an example). The only people that might enjoy increased inflation are those that benefit for higher interest rates.
When I spend over $300 a week at the grocery store when I only spent $150 a couple years ago, I don't need someone telling me that it's raining when their dog is peeing on my shoes.

The pandemic was unprecedented and changed things in ways we have never seen before. There was high spending on goods during the pandemic, but then supply-chain snarls complicated things, and there were production problems that persist to this day. To expect everything to return to the way it was a couple years ago with the wave of a wand is just naive. And we have to look at the global perspective. The war on Ukraine has pushed up gas and food prices all over the globe, although we have seen a decrease in gas prices here in the US since last summer. However there are positives. The unemployment rate is the lowest its been in 50 years. And this has given laborers the leverage to demand raises. The Fed is working hard to keep inflation down. The deficit has fallen by $1.7 trillion.

Inflation Rate
 

Unfortunately, that 3% is on top of a higher cost of living.

"So - here's how it works" Really? Using your example: "Last year, you needed a widget. Last year, widgets cost $9 each.

This year, the same widget is $3."

The most recent June year-over-year inflation rate was 3%. So a widget costing $9 last June would have cost 3% more this June or $9.27...not $3.00.

It depends on how much competition there is.

I've given up all hope that either party is concerned about doing what's right for the country. When they keep putting up the same old failed choices year after year the system is definitely broken. The last two elections in a row I didn't even want to vote the choices were so noxious and I'm not feeling optimistic for 2024.

GasBuddy app is your friend. .

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.

And Sams M/C gives a 5% rebate on gas purchases

Inefficient
 

I would rather deal with the inefficiencies of a gas driven vehicle with good mileage than the more serious inefficiencies of using the electrical to battery middle man system that adds more co2 to our atmosphere.

I've never spent $150 at the grocery store. If I could afford to spend $150 a week at the supermarket, I'd never NEED to spend $300/week at a supermarket. We spend around $70/week on groceries. It's around $6 more than we spent two years ago on the same groceries.

If you can afford to spend $150 on groceries every week, you're doing just fine.

Wow, thank you for the correction! I never would've known this if you hadn't been the one to tell me. Never mind the almost-two-pages of people who offered the same correction over the past couple of days. Your post is the one that convinced me for sure.

Great job at being correct!

Glad I could help. I always like helping those who lack basic math skills.

Wow, thank you for the correction! I never would've known this if you hadn't been the one to tell me. Never mind the almost-two-pages of people who offered the same correction over the past couple of days. Your post is the one that convinced me for sure.

Great job at being correct!

CPI under Biden is up 15% and wages are up 11%. You have lost 4% of you purchasing power under Biden policies. Inflation was less than 2% throughout the previous administration. You might want to fill up your car today because oil is now at $77 a barrel up from under $70 just a few weeks ago.?

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

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."

Math scores are the lowest in decades.

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

Not Norms
 

It’s what we pay in Norwalk Connecticut.

BINGO!!!!
:BigApplause::BigApplause::BigApplause:

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.

This does seem to support the fact that inflation is slowing down. Almost to 2021 levels.:clap2:
America's retailers have a new challenge: Cooling inflation

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.

Agree
 

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Please explain.......

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.