Inflation came in at 0% last month. ZERO. PERCENT. And look at this framing.

[bigtree]

Last edited Tue Nov 14, 2023, 11:18 AM - Edit history (1)

The Washington Post @washingtonpost
Overall inflation figures look much better than in 2022. But costs for rent, groceries and more are still much higher than before the pandemic started.

Link to tweet

David Cay Johnston @DavidCayJ
Great News:
Inflation was ZERO in October and just 3.2% above a year earlier.

And14 million new jobs in less than 3 years, more than every @GOP president starting with Ike in 1953 combined.

And real wages are up, especially for lower paid workers.

Steven Rattner @SteveRattner
Looking at the month-over-month data, headline inflation came in lower than expected in October at 0.05%.

"Core" prices (excluding food and energy) rose 0.2% month-over-month, also lower than expected.



Steven Rattner @SteveRattner
Looking at Powell's three core inflation "buckets," we see:

- goods inflation remaining muted
- services cooling
- housing inflation (which operates w/ a lag) cooling

[gab13by13]

1. I noticed on my computer's home page

a lot more anti-Biden, anti-democratic articles than normal. The push is on toward a Dictatorship.

I saw headlines for another NY Times poll where voters want Trump over Biden for our national security. SMFH.

[comradebillyboy]

2. I remember my mother telling me how bread was

five cents a loaf back during the great depression. Oh how we yearn for the good old days.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

3. Someone made that same remark to my nan

Who raised 8 kids during the Depression. Her response?

'If you knew what the price was back then, it's because you were one of the lucky ones who had the 5p to spend on bread. Not everyone could say the same.'

[comradebillyboy]

4. My grandfather was a coal miner in West Virginia

back then. A real plutocrat wasn't he?

[LiberalFighter]

5. Couldn't find the actual article to identify the writer. But apparently...

they want prices to go further up instead of at least staying the same.

[gratuitous]

6. Costs are still much higher than they were before the pandemic started

The Post can write that out on X, but somehow it doesn't quite coalesce into "Hey, things are getting better" even if they can't (or won't) try to figure out why that is.

[bigtree]

7. would be better, but for the russian/Ukraine warring driving gas prices up

Last edited Tue Nov 14, 2023, 02:42 PM - Edit history (1)

...even with the higher prices the rebound from 1 million-plus deaths and the resulting economic disruption from Trump's Covid has been remarkably successful for most Americans.

It's like a post-war economy. This one has rising wages at the same time that we have record low unemployment, and record economic growth.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/14/cpi-inflation-report-october-2023.html

The flat reading on the headline CPI came as energy prices declined 2.5% for the month, offsetting a 0.3% increase in the food index. It was the slowest monthly pace since July 2022.

Shelter costs, a key component in the index, rose 0.3% in October, half the gain in September as the year-over-year increase eased to 6.7%. Within the category, owners equivalent rent, which gauges what property owners could command for rent, increased 0.4%. A subcategory that includes hotel and motel pricing dropped 2.9%.

“This is a game changer,” Paul McCulley, former chief economist at Pimco and now an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “We’re having a day of rational exuberance, because the data clearly show what we’ve been waiting for for a long time, which is a crack in the shelter component.”

Vehicle costs, which had been a key inflation component during the spike in 2021-22, fell on the month. New vehicle prices declined 0.1%, while used vehicle prices were off 0.8% and were down 7.1% from a year ago.

Airfares, another closely watched component, declined 0.9% and are off 13.2% annually. Motor vehicle insurance, however, saw a 1.9% increase and was up 19.2% from a year ago.

...what's missing from the discussion is the sacrifices Americans have had to make didn't result from Biden's economic action, but from Trump's inaction.

Sure, the lorry driver was making good time before he took his hands off of the wheel and his eyes off the road to stuff his face.

[SYFROYH]

8. It's good news but it means no relief for those who struggled over the last few years.

In the last three years when inflation rose 7%, 6%, and 3% and those prices hurt -- they still hurt if your income hasn't grown by higher percentages.

[bigtree]

9. that's one narrrative

...the other is that Pres. Biden isn't acting in a political vacuum, but in a two-party system of government where one side has refused to lift a finger to do anything about inflation.



Not to mention that his opponent in this race is the person whose negligence put the nation on its rear in the first place.

You're either part of the progress or part of the do-nothing party.

[redqueen]

10. I agree of course, but...

we are up against the mighty Wurlitzer which it seems is already kicking into high gear to try to avoid Dems getting control again.

It should be a top priority to repeal the portions of the telecommunications act which made this ungodly amount of media concentration possible.

[SYFROYH]

11. My point is the "framing" that Michael Linden is unhappy about is accurate.

We can be cheerleaders for Biden all we want and given credit where credit it due, but on a very real level the average person is still struggling from the inflation over the last three years. I think WaPo was fair.

[bigtree]

13. first of all, the 'cheerleader' stuff is nonsense

...no one here is advocating this president, or advocating anything about this administration or party because they're interested in cheerleading.

The fact that Biden hasn't brought the nation all the way back from the lows of Trump's pandemic isn't the point in representing these economic numbers as remarkable progress.

The fact that someone might not agree that it's a strong economic performance based on their personal condition is certainly a political judgment, but it's not a sound economic one, nor is it a fair assessment of this WH's successes in the face of a completely uncooperative opposition that makes up almost half of the Senate and the majority in the House.

Moreover, the article falsely frames the economic challenge as a dilemma for the Fed which doesn't have some automatic trigger for what they do with interest rates, but makes their own arbitrary judgments about raising the cost of borrowing to slow consumer spending.

If it's about the Fed, then it's a conundrum. If it's about consumer spending it's a conundrum. If it's a political question about credit or blame it's a conundrum.

If it's an honest judgment about Pres. Biden and Democrats' management of their responsibilities then their successes should get merit.

But what Wapo and many other media geniuses thrive on is constantly saying 'yes, but' to each and every Democratic advancement, while portraying the republican opposition as omnipotent and threatening - not on the basis on anything they've achieved or want to accomplish, but on their own premise that even the faults of republicans are Democrats' responsibility.

You see what you want to see, but that's what this lead and article represent to me.

[uponit7771]

12. Need to get CPI down, MSM is ignorant and focuses on wrong number

... Core CPi is what consumers see at checkout.

Doesn't matter Obama had UE in the 4s, 2 dollar gass and no inflation but MSM amplified what Maga "felt" vs good econ news