Actually, does anyone ever gain ground. Once prices rise do you ever see them drop back down to previous lower levels when thing do get better?
Other then gasoline for your car and housing when it gets so unaffordable that people quit buying and interest rates on any money you can possibly save (and that's a big if ), I can think of nothing that ever drops!
Food, Medical expenses, Taxes, Automobiles, Insurance of all kinds, Gas and Electricity for heating, Cable bills, Phone bills, you name it. Absolutely nothing goes back down.
Then they wonder why there is no longer a Middle class, and the poor are all on the dole!
Workers "gain ground" on inflation not through falling prices but through rising wages.
During President Trump’s first term average wages rose more than inflation at the time, resulting in the first real wage gains since before the 2008 financial crisis.
Wages in the past 18 months have been rising faster than current inflation, which is how real wages have recovered very nearly to pre-2021 levels at least on an hourly basis. However, over the same time span the average work week has shrunk, which has restrained weekly real wage growth.
The issue is not whether prices are higher in nominal terms, but whether workers are compelled to exchange more of their labor for the same goods and services. So long as people are exchanging the same or less labor for the same levels of goods and services they are either gaining ground or holding steady with respect to inflation.
and put in 5 years, United States Wages and Salaries Growth shows a slight downward trend for that period starting in April 2021, unless I am not interpreting it right.
And the inflation rate for the same 5 years, although it has come down from the highs of mid-June 2022. has remained basically stable at about an average of 3% a month since June 2023 with monthly fluctuations. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/inflation-cpi
Hence I see no gaining ground over the past 2 years.
If you index nominal average wages and the consumer price index to January 2021, goods producing hourly wages have charted approximately the same amount of growth as the consumer price index.
However, the decline in hours worked per week means that average weekly wage growth is significantly less.
Service wages in real terms have not recovered to 2021 levels (unlike the BEA chart on Trading Economics I'm using the CPI as the deflator to convert nominal wages to real wages).
The real damage was of course done during the 2022 hyperinflation cycle. There has been some wage recovery since, but obviously not nearly enough.
and put in 5 years, United States Wages and Salaries Growth shows a slight downward trend for that period starting in April 2021, unless I am not interpreting it right.
And the inflation rate for the same 5 years, although it has come down from the highs of mid-June 2022. has remained basically stable at about an average of 3% a month since June 2023 with monthly fluctuations. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/inflation-cpi
Hence I see no gaining ground over the past 2 years.
Food prices are definitely increasing, even the deals on "loss leaders" to get people into the grocery stores are high. gasoline is still under $3 here.
Since the start of 2024, food price inflation month on month has been trending up. March of this year has presumably been something of a peak, but it is not yet clear from April or May that we have a trend reversal.
Food price inflation and energy price inflation would make the June CPI report significantly ugly.
in Missouri the only significant price drop I've seen this year was eggs after the Feds stopped pushing corporate CAFOs to kill off their chickens based on questionable PCR results.
they're still more expensive than before the scamdemic but only twice to three times as much instead of nine to ten times as much.
beef prices are down to about double pre-scamdemic instead of triple I guess, but it's still too expensive for me to justify spending on corporate meat at the grocery store. now I drop my money into a local farm from 30 miles away with better quality beef than I've ever had from a grocery or butcher.
oh, and the power and water monopolies ("public utilities") both raised their rates again this year. nothing new there though, they do that pretty freaking often without ever having a valid excuse.
Food and gasoline prices are still rising in Western New York, although at a reduced rate from last year. Due to increases granted by the NYS Public Service Comission, utility prices have dramatically.
Actually, does anyone ever gain ground. Once prices rise do you ever see them drop back down to previous lower levels when thing do get better?
Other then gasoline for your car and housing when it gets so unaffordable that people quit buying and interest rates on any money you can possibly save (and that's a big if ), I can think of nothing that ever drops!
Food, Medical expenses, Taxes, Automobiles, Insurance of all kinds, Gas and Electricity for heating, Cable bills, Phone bills, you name it. Absolutely nothing goes back down.
Then they wonder why there is no longer a Middle class, and the poor are all on the dole!
Workers "gain ground" on inflation not through falling prices but through rising wages.
During President Trump’s first term average wages rose more than inflation at the time, resulting in the first real wage gains since before the 2008 financial crisis.
Wages in the past 18 months have been rising faster than current inflation, which is how real wages have recovered very nearly to pre-2021 levels at least on an hourly basis. However, over the same time span the average work week has shrunk, which has restrained weekly real wage growth.
The issue is not whether prices are higher in nominal terms, but whether workers are compelled to exchange more of their labor for the same goods and services. So long as people are exchanging the same or less labor for the same levels of goods and services they are either gaining ground or holding steady with respect to inflation.
Actually if you look at United States Wages and Salaries Growth https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wage-growth
and put in 5 years, United States Wages and Salaries Growth shows a slight downward trend for that period starting in April 2021, unless I am not interpreting it right.
And the inflation rate for the same 5 years, although it has come down from the highs of mid-June 2022. has remained basically stable at about an average of 3% a month since June 2023 with monthly fluctuations. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/inflation-cpi
Hence I see no gaining ground over the past 2 years.
If you index nominal average wages and the consumer price index to January 2021, goods producing hourly wages have charted approximately the same amount of growth as the consumer price index.
https://newsletter.allfactsmatter.us/p/labor-stumbles-despite-cheery-jobs?open=false#%C2%A7backsliding-on-wages
However, the decline in hours worked per week means that average weekly wage growth is significantly less.
Service wages in real terms have not recovered to 2021 levels (unlike the BEA chart on Trading Economics I'm using the CPI as the deflator to convert nominal wages to real wages).
The real damage was of course done during the 2022 hyperinflation cycle. There has been some wage recovery since, but obviously not nearly enough.
Actually if you look at United States Wages and Salaries Growth https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wage-growth
and put in 5 years, United States Wages and Salaries Growth shows a slight downward trend for that period starting in April 2021, unless I am not interpreting it right.
And the inflation rate for the same 5 years, although it has come down from the highs of mid-June 2022. has remained basically stable at about an average of 3% a month since June 2023 with monthly fluctuations. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/inflation-cpi
Hence I see no gaining ground over the past 2 years.
Food prices are definitely increasing, even the deals on "loss leaders" to get people into the grocery stores are high. gasoline is still under $3 here.
Since the start of 2024, food price inflation month on month has been trending up. March of this year has presumably been something of a peak, but it is not yet clear from April or May that we have a trend reversal.
Food price inflation and energy price inflation would make the June CPI report significantly ugly.
in Missouri the only significant price drop I've seen this year was eggs after the Feds stopped pushing corporate CAFOs to kill off their chickens based on questionable PCR results.
they're still more expensive than before the scamdemic but only twice to three times as much instead of nine to ten times as much.
beef prices are down to about double pre-scamdemic instead of triple I guess, but it's still too expensive for me to justify spending on corporate meat at the grocery store. now I drop my money into a local farm from 30 miles away with better quality beef than I've ever had from a grocery or butcher.
oh, and the power and water monopolies ("public utilities") both raised their rates again this year. nothing new there though, they do that pretty freaking often without ever having a valid excuse.
Food and gasoline prices are still rising in Western New York, although at a reduced rate from last year. Due to increases granted by the NYS Public Service Comission, utility prices have dramatically.
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