Well, that’s not a good thing. It means people are teetering on the brink of poverty, aren’t spending on anything but bare necessities, and that’s going to cause a major recession and put a buttload more people on the street.
My partner's junk Hyundai Genesis that she loved died - the engine's timing belt failed and destroyed the whole engine in the process. No new crate engines exist for sale so It was either spend $7500 on a used engine and hope it'll last longer, or buy something else - it sucks as it was terrible timing all around.
Yup, you’re supposed to replace those timing belts every so often so that doesn’t happen. I’m seeing recently sold engines on eBay for $1.5k -$3k so the quote you got was quite high since there shouldn’t be 40 hours of labor involved.
Wrong engine block. This was the 2.0 Theta II RS T-MPi used in the Genesis Coupe. That engine has a timing chain, rated to last the lifespan of the engine - and it sure as hell did because it took the whole engine with it! haha this was a garbage engine, they discontinued it years ago.
Discretionary consumer spending, though? I’m sure consumer spending on food is plenty strong, because food prices are through the roof and eating isn’t optional, but what about nice-to-haves like TVs?
That’s what they’re saying, it just went up less compared to previous time periods. You will always have inflation unless something really bad happens.
You don't want deflation, no. I know we all want to pay less for the things we buy, especially necessities, but if your grocery prices, in general, came down in price, there's a good chance that's a reflection of worse economic conditions.
In general, it has. That doesn't mean your boss gave you a raise, personally. That doesn't happen a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. But we've measured that as people have changed jobs, average wages have increased.
Then why are only non-essentials like furniture coming down in price? Seems to me that nobody’s got any money to buy that stuff because everybody can barely afford rent and food, what with all the price gouging and wages not going up.
Interest rates are high, and large purchases like furniture and vehicles are typically bought on credit. So what may have been a lower monthly payment with hardly any money going toward interest is now significantly more interest and a high enough monthly payment to make you reconsider the purchase.
Prices go up, wages stay down; that’s how it’s supposed to work. Prices going down? My God, imagine things being more affordable!??!! It would break everything if people could afford their necessities. If people didn’t struggle for survival, they could start thinking about how things are being done, and how they could be done differently. So the answer is obvious: everything has to be made worse, continuously and iteratively worse over time. That’s the plan and it’s the best we can do, we are told. Isn’t strange how all of these market rules always favor the rich? Why do we have to do this over and over and over? Just for the rich.
If prices generally went down across the board, it would be indicative of producers being unable to sell their products, which means they produce less, which means they lay people off, which means we're all out of work, which means we have no jobs or money, which means that a rich person's incentive is to keep their money in a giant pile and not actually circulate it in the economy. With a little bit of inflation, the prices of things are stable enough for the average person to use currency without resorting to a barter system, and the rich person needs to invest their money in order to avoid the guarantee that they lose the value of that money to inflation. The report that we're reading and commenting on shows a small real wage growth, meaning wages growing faster than inflation.
If prices generally went down across the board, it would be indicative of …
This is always what gets said. The real truth is that prices can go up and down for a lot of reasons and this line gets used as an excuse for our attempt-infinite-growth economic mindset.
… shows a small real wage growth, meaning wages growing faster than inflation
This is due to the (temporary) shift of power to the workers during the pandemic. I personally believe this “inflation” we’re experiencing now is a direct reprisal for that very small and very late wage increase. Profits are soaring all over, but belts are being tightened for (seemingly unknowable reasons) coming down from C level.
I recommend you do some digging into economics as to why we avoid deflationary environments and why that is always said. Remember also that profits are measured against a currency whose value has been eroded by inflation as well. Inflation is a fact of life. No need to put it in quotes.
Whole lot of mixed messaging about the economy lately. I feel like they really cherry pick numbers sometimes. Groceries definitely don't feel cheaper to me, I don't give a shit how much a TV costs now.
yeah but we are talking on a monthly basis.3.6 compared to 2.4 over a year if the one kept up from the other and the 2.4 is more target. Granted inflation generaly exludes many necessities so even in low inflation day to day essentials like food and energy can be high.
And new trucks and cars are only bought by a select group of people who can afford them, I don’t feel it’s as direct of a health signal as they’d want you to believe.
If fewer people are buying cars and trucks, their prices fall. Everyone has to buy groceries, and those prices are rising slowly again, like they used to.
It’s less “cherry[ing] pick numbers” and more failing to understand what the numbers are saying. Nothing in this article said that we experienced deflation. In fact, specifically on groceries, from the article:
Food prices gained 0.2%. Grocery food prices increased 0.3% after being unchanged in June. They were boosted by higher prices for eggs, beef, dairy as well as fruit and vegetables. Still, grocery store prices have slowed considerably, increasing 3.6% on a year-on-year basis in July after peaking at 13.5% in August 2022. [emphasis added]
Prices still went up. It’s just the rate at which they went up was not as fast as it has been. Unfortunately, the new, higher, prices are here to stay. There may be some reductions here and there, but generally speaking, the line always goes up. Under “normal” circumstances, the US Federal Reserve Bank aims for a 2% year on year inflation. And this is usually considered a good thing for everyone. It’s just that, in the past couple years, inflation has been way above that as our economy has dealt with the shocks of the Pandemic, lockdowns and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That we seem to be settling back to a normal rate of inflation is a good thing. Though that doesn’t mean it won’t suck for most people as they are forced to adjust to the higher prices of everything.
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