Biden's inflation economy: inflation hits 40 year high

[Seran]

Meanwhile the CEO of Exxon Mobil in January just pointed out they have no intention of increasing production and instead will support maintaining production levels to keep oil prices high. It's great to know that Republicans have no concept of governments control over the oil company's failure to release oil. That means if President Biden were to nationalize the oil and gas sector as they're clearly advocating, then we might see results.

[ClydeR]

I buy cabbage at Sam's Club. Three large heads came in a pack.

I have to ask. What do you do with so much cabbage?

And keep in mind when the US calculates inflation they just go by direct dollar numbers, they don't compare the fact that, for instance my cabbage example, that we are getting less than half the food we were before.

No don't keep that in mind! CPI numbers do take into account size and quantity changes. See https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-...the-us-cpi.htm

[ClydeR]

It's no coincidence that inflation hit a 40 year high at the same time GDP growth hit a 40 year high.

Very true, as shown by recent employment numbers..

Two years after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic caused a round of mass layoffs not seen since the Great Depression, 10 states have now set new record low unemployment rates as businesses scramble to hire new workers.

A new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows Nebraska and Utah sported the lowest unemployment rates in the nation in January, at just 2.2 percent each. In Indiana, the unemployment rate stands at 2.4 percent; in Kansas, it is at 2.6 percent.

Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma and West Virginia all set new records for the lowest unemployment rates since the BLS started keeping state-by-state track in 1976.

More...

[drumpel]

Very true, as shown by recent employment numbers..

I don't buy it.

We're still having issues finding people to fill spots at my work and the company is paying more than ever to fill these spots. Nearly all the positions have gone up anywhere from $2-5 over the past 12 months and that's just for the basic entry positions in the warehouse. They just hired a new receptionist and are paying her almost $25 an hour to handle phone calls and do some basic paperwork and data entry work.

* I see gas stations offering $15+ an hour trying to find people to fill positions.
* I see fast food joints offering $15+ an hour plus sign on bonuses of up to $1k
* The local Papa Murphy's store by me that's about a 2 minute drive has been closed for the past 6 months due to lack of employees and that place has only ever really been operated by teenagers.
* The local Target and grocery stores are having issues finding people to work, they're still understaffed. You can tell because they struggle to keep enough people on the registers and working the floor at the same time or they have their self checkouts closed because they don't have anyone to watch them.
* Other local restaurants around me constantly close their dinning rooms and only offer digital orders you can pick up at the drive thru or drive thru orders only.
* Other local sit down restaurants that offered delivery don't always have delivery due to lack of employees and sometimes they struggle to have enough people to run the kitchen and wait staff to keep the place going properly.
* Truck companies are struggling to find drivers. LTL shipments, it can take 2-3 days once a pickup request is put in before we see the trucks show up for pickups. When I ask the drivers if they're busy, they always say yes, but then they always say they can't find drivers to fill spots. One driver said as his place he works for, they have dozens of trucks and trailers just sitting in their lots because they can't get people in to work. These places aren't long haul drivers either, they're local drivers for the Twin Cities and surrounding areas. You'd come in work 8-10 hours days (some even have 4 day work weeks) and have the weekends off, you're not driving across country and away from home for days or weeks at a time.....but people don't want to do these jobs.

I don't know where all the people are going for work, but they're not all flocking back to their previous jobs, even if pay has been increased. So, it makes me wonder where did they go (Thanos didn't snap his fingers, did he?) and if they're not working, then how are they surviving? I think part of the problem was the lockdowns and forced mandates that scared people into an early retirement. For example, at my work, we have two truck drivers that are retiring early. They decided to pull the plug early instead of working a couple of more years once Biden announced the shot mandates. They said screw it and put in their retirement paperwork. One driver retired about 2 months ago and the second driver's last day is the end of this month. Even though the mandates didn't go through, they still didn't want to fuck around with the possible political bullshit and said fuck it.

[~Rocktar~]

You know, unemployment numbers are a synthetic fake right? They don't count the available to work vs working, they calculate it as the number of unemployment claims made vs some other numbers.

So, if you don't file, then you don't count. People that stop looking for work are considered having left the workforce and so the unemployment numbers don't reflect them.

Chronic unemployment is not down.

[Alfster]

You know, unemployment numbers are a synthetic fake right? They don't count the available to work vs working, they calculate it as the number of unemployment claims made vs some other numbers.

So, if you don't file, then you don't count. People that stop looking for work are considered having left the workforce and so the unemployment numbers don't reflect them.

Chronic unemployment is not down.

U so smarty

[ClydeR]

You know, unemployment numbers are a synthetic fake right? They don't count the available to work vs working, they calculate it as the number of unemployment claims made vs some other numbers.

I like the phrase "synthetic fake." According to the BLS website, that's not at all how the unemployment rate is calculated. If you follow their flowchart and read their definitions, you'll see that people who have searched for a job in the last four weeks are counted as unemployed. Check it out for yourself at https://www.bls.gov/cps/definitions.htm

So, if you don't file, then you don't count. People that stop looking for work are considered having left the workforce and so the unemployment numbers don't reflect them.

Chronic unemployment is not down.

The long-term unemployment rate skyrocketed in 2020 and has been on a downward trend since. It's easy to look up.. https://www.bls.gov/charts/employmen...unemployed.htm

[ClydeR]

I don't buy it.

We're still having issues finding people to fill spots at my work and the company is paying more than ever to fill these spots.

That's exactly what happens when the economy overheats. It gets hard to find employees, and employers have to pay more.

[ClydeR]

What do you think about the premise of this book? Although not about the Biden administration, nor even particularly about the current spate of inflation, it argues that several global factors, mostly demographics, will push world economies toward higher inflation over the next few decades.

And, no, I have not read it. I got the gist of it from the below summary.

The Great Demographic Reversal
Ageing Societies, Waning Inequality, and an Inflation Revival
By Charles Goodhart, Manoj Pradhan · 2020

This original and panoramic book proposes that the underlying forces of demography and globalisation will shortly reverse three multi-decade global trends – it will raise inflation and interest rates, but lead to a pullback in inequality. “Whatever the future holds”, the authors argue, “it will be nothing like the past”. Deflationary headwinds over the last three decades have been primarily due to an enormous surge in the world’s available labour supply, owing to very favourable demographic trends and the entry of China and Eastern Europe into the world’s trading system. This book demonstrates how these demographic trends are on the point of reversing sharply, coinciding with a retreat from globalisation. The result? Ageing can be expected to raise inflation and interest rates, bringing a slew of problems for an over-indebted world economy, but is also anticipated to increase the share of labour, so that inequality falls. Covering many social and political factors, as well as those that are more purely macroeconomic, the authors address topics including ageing, dementia, inequality, populism, retirement and debt finance, among others.

This book will be of interest and understandable to anyone with an interest on where the world’s economy may be going.

More...

You'd think if they're going to sell it in America, they could take out some of the Us and put in a few Zs. Labour? Globalisation?

[~Rocktar~]

I like the phrase "synthetic fake." According to the BLS website, that's not at all how the unemployment rate is calculated. If you follow their flowchart and read their definitions, you'll see that people who have searched for a job in the last four weeks are counted as unemployed. Check it out for yourself at https://www.bls.gov/cps/definitions.htm



The long-term unemployment rate skyrocketed in 2020 and has been on a downward trend since. It's easy to look up.. https://www.bls.gov/charts/employmen...unemployed.htm

So you just proved that I am right. It's not number of people able to work vs number employed it's based on unemployment claims. I would get more into how retarded you are but you are ClydeR and this is about all the reply you ever deserve.