About All Of This Hand Wringing Over Inflation

[gab13by13]

Well I got my hair cut. One of the girls from the shoppe is visiting relatives in S. Korea. She told her co-workers in the shoppe that she could never afford to live there because everything is so expensive.

Jerome, maybe inflation in the US isn't so bad after all?

[unblock]

1. The historical average inflation rate in the u.s. is 3.1%. We're pretty darn close to that.

The target may be 2%, but the reality is that 3.1% is, on average, normal and typical going back over a century (back to 1913).

https://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation_Rate/Long_Term_Inflation.asp

We're slightly above that perhaps but still 3 point something.

What we have is normal and consistent with decent growth.

Whining about inflation with keeping it in perspective is ridiculous and biased in favor of the right wing.

[Ocelot II]

2. Looks like much of the world has similar or higher inflation rates.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/inflation-rate-by-country

[h2ebits]

3. Gets brushed under the carpet all the time.

Generally, when I see the information there is one sentence that will say something along the lines of the fact that inflation is lower in the United States than in other countries by a sizeable percentage. Occasionally, someone will do a chart showing the different countries and their percentages of inflation but. . . .

the inflation rate is a huge political football for the Republicans and the Democratic Party needs to do a better job of advertising the fact that we are doing really well by comparison to the rest of the world. We have lots to run on in the upcoming election besides abortion. AND, we need the American people to understand the financial aspects of what is happening to us.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Excellent point.

In reality, the US handled global inflation extremely well, especially considering we're such a huge part of the global economy. It really should be a positive for Biden how he tamed inflation when all of our peers are still struggling with it more than we are.

But the media has been relentless and has never told the whole story. Even now, 3.5% inflation shouldn't really be a negative story when the overall trend is down.

[Fiendish Thingy]

5. If rates are cut too soon, inflation will be much worse

What rate of inflation could Biden still get re-elected at? 5%? 7%? 10%?

That’s where we will be headed if rates are cut too soon.

If holding rates steady keeps inflation under 4% and moving towards the 2% target, I’m OK with that, and I don’t think that will harm Biden’s chances.

P.S. the only hand wringing over the latest inflation numbers that I see is largely by the financial/business media, aside from the little 1% tantrum investors threw after the numbers were released.

I’m not sure this is as big a deal as you seem to think it is.