If you’re going to directly mention a user name at least get it right. It was Michael G, not Michael61 you were responding to.

Totally incorrect.
Worldwide economics ties seemingly unrelated events together. Here's the timeline of cause and effects that triggered this inflation.

Energy companies lost a huge amount of money when Biden terminated land leases for oil and natural gas wells on federal land. The billions they invested in constructing those wells was instantly lost. Plus they lost the income from the raw product those wells would have produced.

Then Biden said no more leases.
The energy companies decided to hold on to (stop spending) their well investment dollars rather than risking it being lost on the whim of the president. They did not invest budgeted money into building new wells because they were worried about the the performance of new wells on existing unused leases that had a poor potential for being productive (that's why they were unused - junk geography after analysis), and fearing a repeat of Biden's previous financial hit.
That is where the record profits came from. Holding money instead of investing it. The future energy production is also now crippled.

So Biden said, ok, we will lease some land. It was the lousy areas. And there was no promise that leases wouldn't get pulled away again. A non-solution, but it sounded good in the press. Solved nothing.

That all had a cascading effect. Now there is not enough energy for the needs of the country. So the USA suddenly became an net importer of energy. No longer energy independent as more is being imported into the country than being exported. Foreign countries (Venezuela, Arabs, etc.. think OPEC) were happy to sell us energy, but at much higher prices than previously. The USA had no choice except to buy at those inflated prices. There is the reason for higher gasoline prices. (inflation)

With no new wells coming online, the future production will drop as wells dry up. Lower supply will drive prices up even more as time passes. (inflation)

And related, Biden restricted use of coal. A plentiful, low cost, energy resource within the USA. We all need electricity - even when it's cloudy or at night, or when the wind is not blowing. What do power plants use for generating power now? Oil and natural gas. That caused demand for oil and natural to go up substantially. That drove the USA into importing even more oil and natural gas. The spiral grows bigger. (inflation)

We see gasoline has gone from $1.90 to $2.92 (or more)
What you may not notice is diesel has more than doubled. Diesel moves trucks and trains. As a result, shipping costs have gone way up. That drives up the cost of everything we buy. (inflation)
Manufacturers also have to pay more to get the raw materials. That drives prices up again, this time at the source. (inflation)
Farmers costs for fuel for their tractors, buying seeds or feed, are all up too. Their costs for providing our food are way up, so that hits everybody. (inflation)

Having every step of the process to get goods into our homes suddenly become more expensive is a direct result of Biden's energy policy. That triggered the start of record inflation. What will stop inflation? Reversing the cause would be a great start.

The 3% inflation rate year-over-year (YOY) through June 2023 (i.e., July 2022 to June 2023) is welcome overall compared to recent higher inflation. But that’s not a complete picture. The devil is in the details.

The main drivers of the slowing trend according to USA government Bureau of Labor Statistics data include much lower YOY prices of energy (includes gasoline) down 17% and used car prices down 5%.

Other prices went up much more than the headline 3%. Year-over-year, food is up 6%, housing costs up 8%, and transportation costs up 8%.

This matters depending on what items a person buys. One who is not buying used cars and lots of gasoline but is buying food, renting a home, flying and cruising may be seeing YOY price increases over the headline inflation rate of 3%.

From the BLS Access Denied

Core inflation last month was 4.8% in June. Core inflation excludes food and energy prices. This was the lowest since October 2021.

Well said, and correct, but probably too much for some non-deep thinkers to grasp. To make it simple, folks should just remember that everything starts with, and hinges upon, the cost of energy. It wasn't that long ago, think 5 years, that our country was energy independent, and a net exporter of oil. Everyone benefited during those times.

But gasoline prices fell overall 27% from July 2022 through June 2023 according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. How do you explain that? The evil managers of capitalist oil companies decided to cut their profits to help society?

Access Denied

I guess we can all cherry pick an item to prove our point. For me, I am very happy that the price of eggs are back down to where they were & that the stock market is doing well.

And I do see that many prices are lower outside of The Villages. Free enterprise at work.

The inflation can be attributed directly to Uncle Joe, this economy is fossil fuel based, his green cronies and handlers had him destroy our energy independence by destroying the coal and oil business to force his green unworkable energy program.

According to this website, gasoline is cheaper now than it was in 1976.


Gas price inflation, 1935→2023

This is OBB economics and makes no sense to me

What goes up must come down

If they don't its price gouging, like the gas companies did last year.

Read all the previous replies correcting me, and my response acknowledging that I was incorrect. There's around 1.5 pages of this. I mean unless you just want to jump on the "OB Is Wrong" bandwagon, in which case - go ahead and get your rocks off.

The drop in inflation can be attributed to uncle Joe, it seems his Inflation Reduction Act is doing just that!

1. Your thumbnail didn't show up for me so no idea what it is.
2. I haven't ever seen PCE until this post so it'll take me a couple weeks to learn what it means, its significance, and what various "people who get paid to know this stuff" have to say about it.
3. I don't know what a Chain-Type index is.
4. I don't know what DPCERG is. Sounds like the model number of a sci-fi fantasy movie robot. "Oi Dipkerg, over here!" "Bleep bloop blip bleep."
5. I'm really not interested enough in finances to bother learning. Y'know, learning the same way real students learn about accounting and finances when they're in actual school taking actual classes. Not just googling a few websites.

I saw a thing about the inflation rate dropping significantly since last year, which was pretty bad last year. And now it's more in line with the "usual" rate of inflation, historically. Not quite there yet but pretty close. I expect inflation to always exist. When we have zero inflation, it's a happy surprise for a short time - but it invariably goes back up again. The fact that it's 3% instead of 9% is a great thing. People should be happy about that, and hopeful that we can continue the trend and get it closer to 0.

As for who can afford what (the true impact of inflation): I just got my first Social Security check 2 days ago. I can afford everything I want now. The past couple of years has required a somewhat tight budget - not frugal, but not easy-going either. And now, I can afford to set aside some savings for a new (used) car next year, without having to give up dinner and drinks out at the country club every couple of months.