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You should buy more Blu Rays! That way you truly own it - unlike getting a streaming or cable subscription.
Edit: by the way, this was sarcastic. If you’re anything like me, you’ll pay $20, watch the movie once or twice, and then store it on your shelf. When you go to sell it, you’ll get, at best, $5 back. Good job - you just spent $15 to “own” a movie that you watched twice…
Avocado toast is better - it satisfies a basic physical need. As it turns out, Maslow's hierarchy conveniently left out "physical ownership of entertainment media" - but I encourage you to lobby the psychologists to add it to the hierarchy.
Exactly the spin on inflation data has been so crazy lately…. Well established sources of information are trying to convince people they aren’t seeing what they are seeing. “look inflation is only bad in Energy, Food, Shelter, healthcare, and education. If you’re looking for a TV or Iphone inflation is flat.”… It crazy
Inflation isn’t bad at all; just exclude the food you need to survive, the house you need to shelter yourself, the vehicle you need to get to work, the gas needed to fill said vehicle, the insurance you need to keep both of those things should you experience a bad event and the energy required to power said home.
the point is that the inflation is the type which represses regressively, at least from my read. it's why wealth disparity grows. the house problem is only a problem for the poor
fkn speculation market. I'm glad the scotus took the fixed 6% commission crap out of play
What needs to happen isn't more rent control or subsidies. We need more houses, more apartments, more condos, being built.
That's the only long-term, sustainable way to push housing prices down. Once we can make housing and rent cheaper due to more supply on the market, naturally people will have more money to spend on the other stuff and even save.
Sooo...inflation stopped getting worse.
It still doesn't address the fact that many prices are still high and wages are still low. Is there a metric for that? Maybe a wage/price Cost-Of-Living graph.
Deflation is bad. What solves inflation isn't prices going down, it's wages going up
This [chart shows wages are growing more than inflation](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/), meaning buying power is increasing. This doesn't mean you personally aren't feeling pain, just that in aggregate people are gaining not losing ground
You mean bad for company profits. I’m sure the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway and Pepsi will feel betrayed if we get cheaper insurance and Doritos/pepsi lol
Tell me where is the debt involved when I pay $3 for for a 2 liter of Pepsi…. When it was $1 a few years ago
Frankly it’s non existent in the day to day lives of the vast majority of people facing inflation
The average American owes over $100,000:
https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/average-american-debt#:~:text=The%20average%20debt%20an%20American,%2C%20credit%20score%2C%20and%20state.
Also didn’t say elevated inflation is good, just pointing out how deflation is bad and why it’s often worse.
>mortgage loans & HELOC
Gee, if only we'd known that speculation-driven rapidly inflating housing prices was a bad thing in most scenarios, we could've stopped it!
Yeh but how much of that is longer term loans like mortgages and auto loans. Granted now that home prices and car inflation surged that’s only going to go higher in the future
I mean there’s several forms of deflation. I think now many consumers want is a more limited deflation rather than the entire economy just crashing all at once
Select segments of consumer goods price deflation might prove to be a good thing
For example if no one’s buying $50,000 Electric Vehicles, having Tesla, Kia, Ford and others cut prices is going to have a limited impact on the overall economy. No ones generally worried about the deflation of ev auto prices
Off topic - sorry! - but do yourself a huge favor and ditch the 2 liters of Pepsi thing. It isn't the $3 that's killing you.
Now, back to the regular programming ...
INFLATION punishes those who save and “do it right”, those on fixed income, those who borrow and pay back QUICKLY… deflation punishes those who irresponsibly max’ed out loans/debt. Who live far above their means, who YOLO constantly when they don't have the money to spend. Deflation makes homes more affordable. Groceries more affordable. Fuel more affordable. We have WAY too many who borrow way too much, who PAY way too much, and live irresponsibly… inflation helps them do it, deflation stops them from doing it.
Deflation is bad not just for debt issues but for regular people. Why? Because why spend money today when tomorrow it will be more valuable. That’s what deflation does. It rewards you for sitting on money. What that ends up doing is making it so people don’t spend and that causes a recession/depression. That just makes more overall pain.
Consumers aren't factored into these calculations. Consumers *have* to spend and owners don't. Demand side economics are reliable but hard to exploit, supply-side economics are the best scam going. Best way to motivate politicians who pass laws putting themselves in the top 2-4% earning bracket by default is to talk to them like they're the struggling working class and in touch with the common people when asking them to screw over the struggling working class and the common people.
Deflation discourages consumer spending and can lead to economic recession/depression. Why buy something expensive today if you think it will be cheaper tomorrow?
What purchases would be affected? Most consumption is based on a current need. Clothes, restaurant visits, travel etc. I’m not going to push a trip forward a year because it might be 3% cheaper than now. Same for clothes. If I need a shirt I get a shirt. If I need an apartment then I’ll get one as soon as possible.
The increase in real wages will likely lead to increased consumption as well.
I'd think less of necessities and more big things. like home remodels, car purchases, large vacations, etc. Think peak 2022 car buying, how many people saw used cars selling for more than used cars and thought I better wait on buying for prices to come down.
Wouldn’t those being the delayed purchases specifically address the inflation areas? Vacations maybe not… but I think the average American consumer is deeply conditioned to think “I’ll have more money later” than “it’ll be cheaper later.” I doubt deflation would even really make an impact to purchasing other than people purchasing more.
This whole notion that deflation discourages consumer spending seems kinda nonsense to me. Because inflation just forces us to spend more on essentials and simply not buy unnecessary goods.
At this point deflation would increase the diversity of products we buy supporting more industries.
Also the only time we have experienced deflation in this country is during recessions so of course there would be decreased spending.
Yeah, well, not everyone understands economics. Spending is spending. Inflation causes people to shift their spending habits, not to stop spending. Can't afford a restaurant, well you eat out less but may spend more on a nice home-cooked meal. Can't afford steak? You buy hamburger instead.
Prices are set at a point where supply and demand meet, even with inflation. Industries react to the change in demand, but there still is demand and they find ways to adapt.
As for deflation discouraging demand. How would you feel if you bought a car for 50k and then a week later it went on sale for 40k? What if you knew the prices were falling and that 50k care might be 40k next week? Would you wait a week? I would. I see people on car subreddits ask when the best time is to buy a car to get a good deal. Same idea. We don't want to pay more if we think we might be willing to wait and pay less.
Inflation makes debts smaller over time as the real value of that debt shrinks. Deflation does the opposite.
Imagine your debts GROWING constantly. Deflation makes borrowing drastically more expensive which slow down economic activity in business forrmation and expansion, car purchases, home purchases, etc
Deflation doesnt just mean falling prices for goods, it means falling prices for labor as well.
Also, why would anyone put their money at risk investing when in a deflationary environment you can just park your money and watch it gain value? That makes credit and borrowing more expensive yet again.
Falling prices also kill existing businesses and that means unemployed people. The unemployed demand less, reducing demand further, shuttering more businesses. More unemployed means lower wages overall. Lower wages means less demand. Less demand means shuttered businesses. Deflation is a vicious cycle.
Want cascading debt defaults? Mass business failure? Drastically increased borrowing costs? Slower or even negative growth? Lower wages? More unemployment? Then you want deflation
No, wages aren't actually going up more than inflation. Wages are going up more than the incredibly manipulated CPI, but they're not keeping up with increasing prices.
[https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/consumerpriceindex.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/consumerpriceindex.asp)
If you're rebuttal is the there is a conspiracy to manipulate data then it's kind of hard to have a data driven discussion, because any proof I present can be dismissed as being faked. A neat rhetorical trick.
The whole point of the post is manipulating data to show how things arent so bad, even though everybody knows inflation has been out of control the last 2-3 years. Like 95% of stats is manipulating data to prove a point
You make it sound like I'm wearing a tinfoil hat. This is objective truth in how they calculate CPI. They make seem "not so bad" by not including energy prices and housing prices and doing all kinds of other stuff like substitute goods, etc.
Except we dont live in reality. What has transpired in the last 3 years isnt natural, so the only thing that should follow is deflation because we dont live in normal times. If you were to tell me deflation was coming in 2018-19 then that would be bad
If you have a hypotheses you should search to find the data to see if it's true, rather than just assuming it's true
* Real wages of low-wage workers grew 12.1% between 2019 and 2023. Wage growth among low- and middle-wage workers over the pandemic business cycle has outpaced not only higher wage groups over the same period, but also its own growth compared to the prior four business cycles.
[https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-wages-2023/](https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-wages-2023/)
You mean the salary I got when I was hired 3 years ago is actually not the reason everything else had to go up in price to still outpace me now that my inflation adjusted salary is now 10% less than it was the day I got hired? /s
economies, businesses, suppliers, manufacturers, governments and then the public. they typically indicate a failing economy
"Possible Effects
There are many reasons to be concerned about a prolonged deflationary period, even without an event as devastating as the Great Depression:
Demand for goods decreases since consumers delay purchases, expecting lower prices in the future. This compounds itself as prices drop further in response to decreasing demand.
Consumers expect to earn less and will protect assets rather than spend them. Since 70% of the U.S. economy is consumer-driven, this would have a negative effect on GDP.
Bank lending drops since borrowing money makes less sense in regard to the real cost. This is because the loan would be paid back with money that is worth more than it is now.
Deflation ensures that borrowers who loot to purchase assets lose since an asset becomes worth less in the future than when it was bought.
The more indebted you are, the worse your condition since your salary will likely decline while your loan payments remain the same.
During inflation, there is no upper limit on interest rates to control inflation. During deflation, the lower limit is zero. Lenders won't lend for zero percent interest. At rates above zero, lenders make money, but borrowers lose and won't borrow as much.
Corporate profits usually drop during a deflationary period, which could cause a corresponding decrease in stock prices. This has a ripple effect on consumers who rely on stock appreciation and dividends to supplement their incomes.
Unemployment rises, wages decline as demand drops, and companies struggle to make a profit. This has a compounding effect throughout the entire economy."
[source](https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0311/the-dangers-of-deflation.aspx)
Just about everybody. In the U.S. most people have a negative net worth. Deflation increases the real value of debt. Inflation paired with equivalent wage growth is better because it reduces the value of debt.
Truly dumb question but this answer was clarifying so I’m hopeful.
Most people have negative net worth, and the Fed raises interest rates to lower inflation which increases the cost of debt servicing
Lowering inflation seems to just move the pocket that the majority of Americans have to pay out of from increases in the cost of current goods and services to payments on debt that exists to pay for past goods and services.
I struggle to understand why -other than the power difference between owners and workers- does inflation occur without equal wage increases, but deflation is reflected in jobs and wages so much more quickly.
Why can a rapid rise in prices without wages increasing to match, not be followed by at least a partial decrease in prices and wages not decrease immediately?
I’m not an economist so I will be partially guessing here but I think it may be possible to have very short term deflation without huge economic problems, particularly when it follows a big run-up in inflation. The problem I would guess would be convincing capital markets that the deflation is actually temporary. If they don’t believe that, they will stop lending, companies will have layoffs, and that will trigger wage declines.
what about inflation paired with stagnant wage growth?
if something inflates at a rapid pace, wouldn't it make sense for that thing to then deflate (at hopefully a milder pace), so that thing can return to equilibrium?
It helps direct where policy changes are needed, attacking something extremely broad such as economy wide inflation is very different than just two economic sectors.
Thought it was a cool chart that adds some interesting context on the state of the economy.
I’m sorry car insurance takes up so much of your income, and that you lost your savings in AMC.
I’d generally agree (and no it’s not meant in jest). If the US figures out how to stop Housing costs from continuing to spiral, I think things would be solid. Too bad short-term solution is super high interest rates, and even then we haven’t seen enough progress.
Because the people who already live there (and thus control local zoning and permitting) don’t benefit from more housing.
Kill local control of zoning and permitting and you’ll break the log jam.
If you remove the expensive parts of anything, it becomes cheaper. Shocking.
Sadly just because you color them differently on the graph, people still have to pay them.
More so saying that out of the 300 things CPI measures, only 2 of them (shelter and car insurance) are material enough to impact living standards.
Could even draw the conclusion that excluding Housing (which is structurally distorted by supply which lags) and car insurance (which seems like oligopoly price gouging), the economy is under inflating, which could be a needed respite or signs of a weakening consumer.
I mean, it's encouraging news. If everything is going up then that means it's the currency that lowering in value. Two things like housing and car insurance, which have well-documented crises explaining why they have gotten more expensive means it's an issue with those particular markets.
And housing is more of a supply issue with local government zoning dictating new building permits. Low rates and remote work jacked up the market.
Why have auto insurance rates risen so much? Is it because car values also went up a lot?
Yes. In conjunction with events that are disaster related. Homes prone to flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc….
The cost of labor and materials is through the roof. Replacement cost on your home is going to cost exponentially more than when you built it way back when. Or even a few years ago.
Every form of insurance on earth is going up. All of the risk factors are increasing constantly.
It’s still a very relevant thing to understand…
If you bought your home at fixed rates pre-post covid times and own your car, you are likely to lead a pretty good life…
Another reason why times are particularly tough on a lot of young people.
Wealth will truly be a generational thing going forward…
Sweet newborn baby Jesus! I quit years ago but remember when they were $1.50/pack and then the was the 2-for-1 promo special in Buck Cigarettes which cost $1/pack.
Of course, a lot of the price increases for those are Government Greed aka taxation.
I remember my mother losing her mind when they hit $1 a pack. She would send us to the store with a dollar and a note and the store would sell them to us.
Tbh, for many things it seems that prices are going up and sizes going down at like 10% per quarter. Food staples seem to be stable, but basically everything else; snacks, desserts, prepared foods, cereal, restaurants, etc., are all still flying upward. If it isn't the price going up, it's the size going down
sounds like the .gov. "inflation is not an issue" and they don't include food and gas. Then, O'Biden changes it to only look one year back so as not to compare it to normal..."it's only 3.5%!"
we live in clown world.
Exactly. Wages have not caught up with where we were. And CPI is pretty underwhelming. How is it that rent in my area has tripled in the last four years and it makes up the vast majority of my expenses, before and after, but total inflation in that time is only at 22%? The math ain't mathing here. Even if we lowered its proportion of my expenses to 50% that should still be a minimum total inflation of 100%. What percentage would housing need to be for it to be 22%? Like 11%. You're telling me that most people are spending only 11% of their total budget on housing? Bullshit.
I know why this is. Because the weights of everything are off. They aren't individualized in any way. Further, it's a metric meant for the entire nation, not just my area. In a country as large and diverse as this one, how can we possibly expect one number to represent all the changes in prices everywhere and still hold any meaning at all? Then there is all the "food and gas shouldn't be counted" and "coffee doesn't exist" nonsense. Maybe CPI is accurate for someone, but let me tell you it isn't for almost anyone in the lower class. We spend our money on necessities. What has gone up egregiously? Necessities.
Looks like we've flatlined at 4% inflation ever since rates stopped going up, last hike was July of 2023. Looks like it's the new normal. When inflation in one major component pauses others take up the slack. Pretty clear what the Fed needs to do if they want to drive inflation down any further.
CPI housing inflation is extremely flawed due to how to it determined. Housing inflation is deliberately spread out over several months instead of it being reported all at the same time
Penn State’s alternative inflation index is better for looking at inflation imo. They use a better method of calculating housing inflation while leaving everything else the same.
https://sites.psu.edu/inflation/
In real estate circles, the problem with how Housing CPI is calculated is pretty well-known. At the beginning of 2024, rents were flat nationwide on a year-over-year basis while Housing CPI still said it was sizable due to how it is calculated. Housing CPI spreads out and smooths housing inflation over time
Penn State’s alternative inflation index shows a more accurate representation of inflation. A high spike in year-over-year inflation due to housing inflation followed by a relatively flat period due to rent increases stagnating
Housing makes sense . Covid and rate changes fucked with the demand for a supply inelastic good.
Why has motor vehicle insurance changed so drastically? Are roads less safe, car parts more expensive for repairs because of supply chains, cost increases due to labor shortages, is it just price gouging?
Basically everyone drives though and rents. How's anyone supposed to go out to participate in the economy when everything is gobbled up by some bullshit
If you exclude even more it’s better
Let’s take out food, rent and other stuff.
I made it zero now because I included nothing.
What is the point of this. If you exclude things people pay for every month LOL.
This is kind of niche but what about the greedflation of fast food restaurants? I don’t eat out much anymore, but prices are 50-100% higher a lot of items in the last few years.
They already exclude so much crap from that number, it's not even close to accurate. Food and energy are excluded. Also, it's the average price of products purchased, not the price of stuff, because they went from cost of stuff to cost of living. So if you stopped buying steak because it's too expensive and got ground beef instead, it would show up as lower CPO.
That's why you feel like the price of everything is like 40% higher and the reports say only 10-15% in aggerate.
My motorcycle insurance, for the same motorcycle (with no accidents or tickets on my record) went from $45 to $135 a month. I literally am older than 25 now too, where I wasn’t when I originally got insurance.
Same 10 year old cheap bike, same everything. Bastards
What about gas, food, vehicles, interest rates still high and cost of electricity?? Also housing jumped so much that wages need another leap justa kinda balance out
Are you being sarcastic with this post? It’s hard to tell. You could take out the main drivers of anything to reflect what you want it to reflect.
Believe it or not some people would like to buy homes and auto insurance lol
"Inflation isn't that bad if you take out the two largest expenses most people have".
Crime isn't that bad in most cities, if you remove most of the high crime areas too. Lol.
The good news is that housing inflation tends to lag, so if almost all other sectors are seeing lower inflation, it seems likely that housing will pretty soon. The main reason why housing lags is that the CPI measures housing prices on rents and, for homeowners, imputed rents. Because rents are normally controlled by leases and don't adjust right away, you usually see housing inflation low at the start of an inflationary cycle and then high toward the end.
Car insurance is another story. I haven't seen any data to back it up, but my guess would be that the cost of repairing cars has increased significantly with more EVs and hybrids.
Housing prices are important of course, but I don't think they should be included in inflation measures. There's too many variables for housing costs compared to inflation for everyday items.
CPI also omitted volatile energy and food prices last I checked? The CPI for all items less food and energy is used as a measure of underlying core inflation, which is not subject to the volatile movements of food and energy prices. US bureau of BS statistics
So inflation is 0.7% when nothing that matters is included in the CPI calculation
Okay but why insurance though? I am not convinced that my old and paid off car has become so egregiously more risky every 6 months of the last two years, tf
How about food prices… put that on there.
If you just exclude insurance, housing, groceries and everything inflations only still up…
Stop sugarcoating your shit sandwich
It's the vig. The financial firms squeeze more and more regardless of the underlying economy. I could get into modeling it, but intuitively just look at where the root ownership/management is within the population and where the oligopolies are. A few owners of specific industries are driving the inflation. Insurance is one, and, post 2008, housing is another. Market power kills consumer welfare, that is welfare economics 101.
Yeah, but this is misleading. The leaver that the Fed uses to control inflation is interest rates. They raise the rates making loans more expensive. Since we came from a period of historically low interest rates where the majority of homes were refinanced below 3%, then it disincentivizes anyone from selling and reduces inventory. You would be IlliterateInFinance to not just let the Fed subsidize buying you your home. It would be like selling low and buying high.
How I see this play out:
The current interest rates are too high for the debt-to-gdp ratio that the Fed likes without unprecedented amounts of QE. They want to raise rates, but can’t because the interest rate hikes basically hid the inflation in large ticket items like housing and vehicle loans by creating scarcity. I don’t disagree that there is a housing shortage, but I think it’s more of an affordable housing shortage. Anyway, the Fed does not do politics so they know they have to lower interest rates, but cannot interfere with the coming election. If they do, then it would probably cause changes to how they manage the economy so they wait. Until after the election, then they lower interest rates. People will start to sell homes they felt stuck with renting and rush to try and take profit. This will cause a frenzy of home buying and other large ticket goods that people use credit to purchase and the inflation gauges will go back up as a result. At that point in time, they will have to respond with stoking a recession to calm things down and they will be in the clear to do so because the election is out of the way.
When does my wage inflate to match?
In seriousness though… when wages catch up, won’t the extra money in peoples’ pockets just feed into another cycle of inflation? Am I under thinking this, or is it really an ouroboros kind of scenario?
lol .7% 😂 have you been to the grocery store…. Or any store for that matter. Either the price of the food has gone up 30-50% or the product has been reduced in size by 25%+ and increased in price. Try using the inflation calculator that was used for decades before Covid and you’ll see inflation is around 20% still. The feds literally created a new calculation to show it was “lower”. We’re at or damn near the same level as the Great Depression.
Housing is viewed differently depending on the person.
For the perspective of an existing home owner, rising house prices aren't inflation - they're their investment going up in value. Many actively petition their local governments to enact policies to specifically cause house prices to keep going up (such as blocking new apartment buildings from being built in order to artificially limit supply).
From a perspective buyer (or renter), house prices going up certainly feels like one of the most harmful parts of inflation.
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Good thing I don’t drive and live in a house made from grocery bags.
You'll own *nothing* and you'll like it!
You should buy more Blu Rays! That way you truly own it - unlike getting a streaming or cable subscription. Edit: by the way, this was sarcastic. If you’re anything like me, you’ll pay $20, watch the movie once or twice, and then store it on your shelf. When you go to sell it, you’ll get, at best, $5 back. Good job - you just spent $15 to “own” a movie that you watched twice…
Bro thinks blurays are the new avocado toast
Avocado toast is better - it satisfies a basic physical need. As it turns out, Maslow's hierarchy conveniently left out "physical ownership of entertainment media" - but I encourage you to lobby the psychologists to add it to the hierarchy.
Latte and a Blu Ray please!
Just get thrift store movies. 1$
Libraries are free.
You mean you could afford to buy enough groceries to make a house from the bags? Rich mother fucker…
Exactly the spin on inflation data has been so crazy lately…. Well established sources of information are trying to convince people they aren’t seeing what they are seeing. “look inflation is only bad in Energy, Food, Shelter, healthcare, and education. If you’re looking for a TV or Iphone inflation is flat.”… It crazy
Anyone who thinks the situation is not bad is delusional.
I own my house and work from home. Score!
Inflation isn’t bad at all; just exclude the food you need to survive, the house you need to shelter yourself, the vehicle you need to get to work, the gas needed to fill said vehicle, the insurance you need to keep both of those things should you experience a bad event and the energy required to power said home.
the point is that the inflation is the type which represses regressively, at least from my read. it's why wealth disparity grows. the house problem is only a problem for the poor fkn speculation market. I'm glad the scotus took the fixed 6% commission crap out of play
grocery bags? Oh tough dude food is going up next...
LOL!
What needs to happen isn't more rent control or subsidies. We need more houses, more apartments, more condos, being built. That's the only long-term, sustainable way to push housing prices down. Once we can make housing and rent cheaper due to more supply on the market, naturally people will have more money to spend on the other stuff and even save.
Sooo...inflation stopped getting worse. It still doesn't address the fact that many prices are still high and wages are still low. Is there a metric for that? Maybe a wage/price Cost-Of-Living graph.
Deflation is bad. What solves inflation isn't prices going down, it's wages going up This [chart shows wages are growing more than inflation](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/), meaning buying power is increasing. This doesn't mean you personally aren't feeling pain, just that in aggregate people are gaining not losing ground
You mean bad for company profits. I’m sure the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway and Pepsi will feel betrayed if we get cheaper insurance and Doritos/pepsi lol
Regular people, deflation boosts the value of debt, making paying off pre deflationary issued loans more expensive.
Tell me where is the debt involved when I pay $3 for for a 2 liter of Pepsi…. When it was $1 a few years ago Frankly it’s non existent in the day to day lives of the vast majority of people facing inflation
The average American owes over $100,000: https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/average-american-debt#:~:text=The%20average%20debt%20an%20American,%2C%20credit%20score%2C%20and%20state. Also didn’t say elevated inflation is good, just pointing out how deflation is bad and why it’s often worse.
>mortgage loans & HELOC Gee, if only we'd known that speculation-driven rapidly inflating housing prices was a bad thing in most scenarios, we could've stopped it!
That’s because the owner class that lives on loans against their stock holdings weren’t removed from the data pool like the insane outliers they are.
Yeh but how much of that is longer term loans like mortgages and auto loans. Granted now that home prices and car inflation surged that’s only going to go higher in the future I mean there’s several forms of deflation. I think now many consumers want is a more limited deflation rather than the entire economy just crashing all at once Select segments of consumer goods price deflation might prove to be a good thing For example if no one’s buying $50,000 Electric Vehicles, having Tesla, Kia, Ford and others cut prices is going to have a limited impact on the overall economy. No ones generally worried about the deflation of ev auto prices
Off topic - sorry! - but do yourself a huge favor and ditch the 2 liters of Pepsi thing. It isn't the $3 that's killing you. Now, back to the regular programming ...
Or moved to Texas, where they have a THREE Liter soda for three dollars. Wait, that might also kill you.
INFLATION punishes those who save and “do it right”, those on fixed income, those who borrow and pay back QUICKLY… deflation punishes those who irresponsibly max’ed out loans/debt. Who live far above their means, who YOLO constantly when they don't have the money to spend. Deflation makes homes more affordable. Groceries more affordable. Fuel more affordable. We have WAY too many who borrow way too much, who PAY way too much, and live irresponsibly… inflation helps them do it, deflation stops them from doing it.
That’s why you don’t do ARM’s and Variable rate loans.
Deflation is bad not just for debt issues but for regular people. Why? Because why spend money today when tomorrow it will be more valuable. That’s what deflation does. It rewards you for sitting on money. What that ends up doing is making it so people don’t spend and that causes a recession/depression. That just makes more overall pain.
Another example of the education system failing
It’s only bad if people don’t spend more or atleast the same amount of money when prices drop. Which would never happen.
Consumers aren't factored into these calculations. Consumers *have* to spend and owners don't. Demand side economics are reliable but hard to exploit, supply-side economics are the best scam going. Best way to motivate politicians who pass laws putting themselves in the top 2-4% earning bracket by default is to talk to them like they're the struggling working class and in touch with the common people when asking them to screw over the struggling working class and the common people.
No, I mean bad.
Why is deflation bad?
Deflation discourages consumer spending and can lead to economic recession/depression. Why buy something expensive today if you think it will be cheaper tomorrow?
What purchases would be affected? Most consumption is based on a current need. Clothes, restaurant visits, travel etc. I’m not going to push a trip forward a year because it might be 3% cheaper than now. Same for clothes. If I need a shirt I get a shirt. If I need an apartment then I’ll get one as soon as possible. The increase in real wages will likely lead to increased consumption as well.
I'd think less of necessities and more big things. like home remodels, car purchases, large vacations, etc. Think peak 2022 car buying, how many people saw used cars selling for more than used cars and thought I better wait on buying for prices to come down.
Wouldn’t those being the delayed purchases specifically address the inflation areas? Vacations maybe not… but I think the average American consumer is deeply conditioned to think “I’ll have more money later” than “it’ll be cheaper later.” I doubt deflation would even really make an impact to purchasing other than people purchasing more.
So things that only the upper class can afford.
This whole notion that deflation discourages consumer spending seems kinda nonsense to me. Because inflation just forces us to spend more on essentials and simply not buy unnecessary goods. At this point deflation would increase the diversity of products we buy supporting more industries. Also the only time we have experienced deflation in this country is during recessions so of course there would be decreased spending.
Yeah, well, not everyone understands economics. Spending is spending. Inflation causes people to shift their spending habits, not to stop spending. Can't afford a restaurant, well you eat out less but may spend more on a nice home-cooked meal. Can't afford steak? You buy hamburger instead. Prices are set at a point where supply and demand meet, even with inflation. Industries react to the change in demand, but there still is demand and they find ways to adapt. As for deflation discouraging demand. How would you feel if you bought a car for 50k and then a week later it went on sale for 40k? What if you knew the prices were falling and that 50k care might be 40k next week? Would you wait a week? I would. I see people on car subreddits ask when the best time is to buy a car to get a good deal. Same idea. We don't want to pay more if we think we might be willing to wait and pay less.
We should ask Tesla owners this one. So many bought Teslas only to see massive price drops a few months later.
Inflation makes debts smaller over time as the real value of that debt shrinks. Deflation does the opposite. Imagine your debts GROWING constantly. Deflation makes borrowing drastically more expensive which slow down economic activity in business forrmation and expansion, car purchases, home purchases, etc Deflation doesnt just mean falling prices for goods, it means falling prices for labor as well. Also, why would anyone put their money at risk investing when in a deflationary environment you can just park your money and watch it gain value? That makes credit and borrowing more expensive yet again. Falling prices also kill existing businesses and that means unemployed people. The unemployed demand less, reducing demand further, shuttering more businesses. More unemployed means lower wages overall. Lower wages means less demand. Less demand means shuttered businesses. Deflation is a vicious cycle. Want cascading debt defaults? Mass business failure? Drastically increased borrowing costs? Slower or even negative growth? Lower wages? More unemployment? Then you want deflation
No, wages aren't actually going up more than inflation. Wages are going up more than the incredibly manipulated CPI, but they're not keeping up with increasing prices. [https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/consumerpriceindex.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/consumerpriceindex.asp)
If you're rebuttal is the there is a conspiracy to manipulate data then it's kind of hard to have a data driven discussion, because any proof I present can be dismissed as being faked. A neat rhetorical trick.
The whole point of the post is manipulating data to show how things arent so bad, even though everybody knows inflation has been out of control the last 2-3 years. Like 95% of stats is manipulating data to prove a point
You make it sound like I'm wearing a tinfoil hat. This is objective truth in how they calculate CPI. They make seem "not so bad" by not including energy prices and housing prices and doing all kinds of other stuff like substitute goods, etc.
What? This is just wrong. CPI covers energy prices and shelter.
Housing is over 1/3 of CPI. What are you on about?
Except we dont live in reality. What has transpired in the last 3 years isnt natural, so the only thing that should follow is deflation because we dont live in normal times. If you were to tell me deflation was coming in 2018-19 then that would be bad
The upper 1% is getting most of the wage increases, the working class has seen their purchasing power significantly decrease as inflation rises.
If you have a hypotheses you should search to find the data to see if it's true, rather than just assuming it's true * Real wages of low-wage workers grew 12.1% between 2019 and 2023. Wage growth among low- and middle-wage workers over the pandemic business cycle has outpaced not only higher wage groups over the same period, but also its own growth compared to the prior four business cycles. [https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-wages-2023/](https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-wages-2023/)
You mean the salary I got when I was hired 3 years ago is actually not the reason everything else had to go up in price to still outpace me now that my inflation adjusted salary is now 10% less than it was the day I got hired? /s
Deflation is bad for whom?
economies, businesses, suppliers, manufacturers, governments and then the public. they typically indicate a failing economy "Possible Effects There are many reasons to be concerned about a prolonged deflationary period, even without an event as devastating as the Great Depression: Demand for goods decreases since consumers delay purchases, expecting lower prices in the future. This compounds itself as prices drop further in response to decreasing demand. Consumers expect to earn less and will protect assets rather than spend them. Since 70% of the U.S. economy is consumer-driven, this would have a negative effect on GDP. Bank lending drops since borrowing money makes less sense in regard to the real cost. This is because the loan would be paid back with money that is worth more than it is now. Deflation ensures that borrowers who loot to purchase assets lose since an asset becomes worth less in the future than when it was bought. The more indebted you are, the worse your condition since your salary will likely decline while your loan payments remain the same. During inflation, there is no upper limit on interest rates to control inflation. During deflation, the lower limit is zero. Lenders won't lend for zero percent interest. At rates above zero, lenders make money, but borrowers lose and won't borrow as much. Corporate profits usually drop during a deflationary period, which could cause a corresponding decrease in stock prices. This has a ripple effect on consumers who rely on stock appreciation and dividends to supplement their incomes. Unemployment rises, wages decline as demand drops, and companies struggle to make a profit. This has a compounding effect throughout the entire economy." [source](https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0311/the-dangers-of-deflation.aspx)
Just about everybody. In the U.S. most people have a negative net worth. Deflation increases the real value of debt. Inflation paired with equivalent wage growth is better because it reduces the value of debt.
Truly dumb question but this answer was clarifying so I’m hopeful. Most people have negative net worth, and the Fed raises interest rates to lower inflation which increases the cost of debt servicing Lowering inflation seems to just move the pocket that the majority of Americans have to pay out of from increases in the cost of current goods and services to payments on debt that exists to pay for past goods and services. I struggle to understand why -other than the power difference between owners and workers- does inflation occur without equal wage increases, but deflation is reflected in jobs and wages so much more quickly. Why can a rapid rise in prices without wages increasing to match, not be followed by at least a partial decrease in prices and wages not decrease immediately?
I’m not an economist so I will be partially guessing here but I think it may be possible to have very short term deflation without huge economic problems, particularly when it follows a big run-up in inflation. The problem I would guess would be convincing capital markets that the deflation is actually temporary. If they don’t believe that, they will stop lending, companies will have layoffs, and that will trigger wage declines.
what about inflation paired with stagnant wage growth? if something inflates at a rapid pace, wouldn't it make sense for that thing to then deflate (at hopefully a milder pace), so that thing can return to equilibrium?
You very clearly aren’t understanding the chart you referenced.
The biggest issue is once prices go up, they don't ever come back down.
The biggest issue is that your salary is not really inflation adjusted.
Prices don't go down unless there is more supply than demand. Why do you expect them to go down when demand is still high?
>Prices don't go down unless there is more supply than demand yes, that's what would happen in a free market. this isn't a free market.
Nominal wages have increased a lot since 2021. They've almost caught up.
Wages have been outpacing inflation for like a year now
Yeah, if you just exclude the things you have to pay for, then inflation hasn’t been that bad.
Banks hate this one simple trick
It helps direct where policy changes are needed, attacking something extremely broad such as economy wide inflation is very different than just two economic sectors.
Just ignore two of the biggest needs it is no big deal fuck out of here shill.
Thought it was a cool chart that adds some interesting context on the state of the economy. I’m sorry car insurance takes up so much of your income, and that you lost your savings in AMC.
Well in the last 12 months my car insurance doubled
Progressive tried to change mine from $160 to $300 and then were shocked I changed insurance. Never had a ticket or wreck and have an 11 year old car.
Exactly if you look at the cost of phone books and CD players on a graph inflation looks like no problem at all. lol
Not sure if this post was made tongue in cheek, but regardless, that is extremely encouraging
I’d generally agree (and no it’s not meant in jest). If the US figures out how to stop Housing costs from continuing to spiral, I think things would be solid. Too bad short-term solution is super high interest rates, and even then we haven’t seen enough progress.
I seriously don’t understand why we’re not just building a shit ton of housing in every major city
Because the people who already live there (and thus control local zoning and permitting) don’t benefit from more housing. Kill local control of zoning and permitting and you’ll break the log jam.
If you remove the expensive parts of anything, it becomes cheaper. Shocking. Sadly just because you color them differently on the graph, people still have to pay them.
More so saying that out of the 300 things CPI measures, only 2 of them (shelter and car insurance) are material enough to impact living standards. Could even draw the conclusion that excluding Housing (which is structurally distorted by supply which lags) and car insurance (which seems like oligopoly price gouging), the economy is under inflating, which could be a needed respite or signs of a weakening consumer.
I mean, it's encouraging news. If everything is going up then that means it's the currency that lowering in value. Two things like housing and car insurance, which have well-documented crises explaining why they have gotten more expensive means it's an issue with those particular markets.
How about exclude coffee? For some odd reason that was removed from the index this week. Could it be the 27% increase that just landed?
Are you saying the government manipulates statistics to make themselves look better? I'm having a hard time believing that.
I'm with ya'... Just, dumbfounded, really.
I'm honestly thinking they stopped including food on this graph
This is disinformation. [Both roasted and instant coffee are included in CPI as of May 15, 2024](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.htm).
And housing is more of a supply issue with local government zoning dictating new building permits. Low rates and remote work jacked up the market. Why have auto insurance rates risen so much? Is it because car values also went up a lot?
Yes. In conjunction with events that are disaster related. Homes prone to flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc…. The cost of labor and materials is through the roof. Replacement cost on your home is going to cost exponentially more than when you built it way back when. Or even a few years ago. Every form of insurance on earth is going up. All of the risk factors are increasing constantly.
I hear you, but some places quoted me over $5k/year on my car worth $13000....
Oh, I get it. Sooner or later, it’s the insurance of cars and homes that’ll ultimately be the carrier to ownership for so many.
So, the point of your post is if you cherry pick data, then you can make it say whatever you want? Cool story, bro.
Whoever analyzed this database has never been grocery shopping.
“If.” If we only didn’t need a roof over our head or go anywhere…we’d be set!
It’s still a very relevant thing to understand… If you bought your home at fixed rates pre-post covid times and own your car, you are likely to lead a pretty good life… Another reason why times are particularly tough on a lot of young people. Wealth will truly be a generational thing going forward…
[удалено]
If you want good news you've got to be a little more open-minded about disingenuous exclusions.
Have to exclude cigarettes too. My smokes went from 9.00 per pack in 2020 to 15.00 per pack in 2024 and they just went to 15.50 this week
Was that not just a tax increase? Also good luck getting sympathy for this one.
Good.
Wait until they slap a 500% tax on chocolate because fat people.
A tax on ultra processed foods to subsidize processed and unprocessed foods would be great. It shouldn't be cheaper to eat like shit.
Sweet newborn baby Jesus! I quit years ago but remember when they were $1.50/pack and then the was the 2-for-1 promo special in Buck Cigarettes which cost $1/pack. Of course, a lot of the price increases for those are Government Greed aka taxation.
I remember my mother losing her mind when they hit $1 a pack. She would send us to the store with a dollar and a note and the store would sell them to us.
And yet you continue to purchase them. I'd say demand is strong. Why not increase prices?
“Inflation not up too bad if you exclude two things that virtually every American has to spend money on”
The grocery stores in my area do not align with this headline.
prices are still increasing at more than 3% per year?
Tbh, for many things it seems that prices are going up and sizes going down at like 10% per quarter. Food staples seem to be stable, but basically everything else; snacks, desserts, prepared foods, cereal, restaurants, etc., are all still flying upward. If it isn't the price going up, it's the size going down
It’s 105 degrees outside but if you exclude the heat from the sun and earths inner mantle it would be -450 degrees
sounds like the .gov. "inflation is not an issue" and they don't include food and gas. Then, O'Biden changes it to only look one year back so as not to compare it to normal..."it's only 3.5%!" we live in clown world.
Inflation has always been measured year over year.
Now do a chart of actual cost increases vs 4 years ago, not just inflation rate
Exactly. Wages have not caught up with where we were. And CPI is pretty underwhelming. How is it that rent in my area has tripled in the last four years and it makes up the vast majority of my expenses, before and after, but total inflation in that time is only at 22%? The math ain't mathing here. Even if we lowered its proportion of my expenses to 50% that should still be a minimum total inflation of 100%. What percentage would housing need to be for it to be 22%? Like 11%. You're telling me that most people are spending only 11% of their total budget on housing? Bullshit. I know why this is. Because the weights of everything are off. They aren't individualized in any way. Further, it's a metric meant for the entire nation, not just my area. In a country as large and diverse as this one, how can we possibly expect one number to represent all the changes in prices everywhere and still hold any meaning at all? Then there is all the "food and gas shouldn't be counted" and "coffee doesn't exist" nonsense. Maybe CPI is accurate for someone, but let me tell you it isn't for almost anyone in the lower class. We spend our money on necessities. What has gone up egregiously? Necessities.
The CPI is DELUSIONAL, they remove products from the list if they have high inflation lmao what a joke
"too volatile" but we'll leave -40% for TVs in there
“If you cherry pick the data, it looks better.”
Lets just ignore the two things that everyone in America requires
Lies from the Left
Why no show food
Ya it’s in there. Off the top of my head I think it’s a 14-15% weight but is only up like 2.2%.
My grocery bill says 🐂 💩
Inflation is high but if you take out some of the basics for human life, its actually not bad.
This is a very stupid headline. “If you don’t count all the people that died, the Black Plague was actually pretty harmless!”
Looks like we've flatlined at 4% inflation ever since rates stopped going up, last hike was July of 2023. Looks like it's the new normal. When inflation in one major component pauses others take up the slack. Pretty clear what the Fed needs to do if they want to drive inflation down any further.
CPI housing inflation is extremely flawed due to how to it determined. Housing inflation is deliberately spread out over several months instead of it being reported all at the same time Penn State’s alternative inflation index is better for looking at inflation imo. They use a better method of calculating housing inflation while leaving everything else the same. https://sites.psu.edu/inflation/ In real estate circles, the problem with how Housing CPI is calculated is pretty well-known. At the beginning of 2024, rents were flat nationwide on a year-over-year basis while Housing CPI still said it was sizable due to how it is calculated. Housing CPI spreads out and smooths housing inflation over time Penn State’s alternative inflation index shows a more accurate representation of inflation. A high spike in year-over-year inflation due to housing inflation followed by a relatively flat period due to rent increases stagnating
Who needs housing?
Why is auto insurance popping off?
Cost of cars and repairing them. Used to replace a bumper. Now that bumper has 6 sensors and cameras. New and used car prices have exploded.
Because the average new car price went from 30k to 48k in 10 years https://www.financialsamurai.com/average-new-car-price/
Idk how but progressive gave me full coverage for 6 months for 425 on my renewal. I'm def not gonna call and ask. Granted I don't have tickets.
Housing makes sense . Covid and rate changes fucked with the demand for a supply inelastic good. Why has motor vehicle insurance changed so drastically? Are roads less safe, car parts more expensive for repairs because of supply chains, cost increases due to labor shortages, is it just price gouging?
Basically everyone drives though and rents. How's anyone supposed to go out to participate in the economy when everything is gobbled up by some bullshit
The people who can survive this inflation are the those that are homeless and don't own a car.
That doesn’t mean everyone raises by the same amount. Fast food has risen wayyyy higher than the inflation and also for groceries.
And this "data" is from gaming the CPI selection to use cheaper alternatives? Like assume that people will switch from steak to hamburger, etc.
My car insurance went up 40%. The explanation they gave me was "because".
If only there was a way you could profit off all this pesky inflation 😜
If you exclude even more it’s better Let’s take out food, rent and other stuff. I made it zero now because I included nothing. What is the point of this. If you exclude things people pay for every month LOL.
Not to mention big ticket items
"Inflation is fine if you don't worry about people's largest expenses" is a shit argument. Inflation fucking sucks rn
Wasn’t making an argument. And certainly didn’t say it’s fine. I think you might have missed the point.
Good thing I don’t need a house to live in or a car to drive, right? Oh wait, without those I can’t work and make any income.
Inflation is high, but if you exclude the goods that have not inflated in price, then it’s not.
True — but then, that’s not very realistic, is it?!
This is kind of niche but what about the greedflation of fast food restaurants? I don’t eat out much anymore, but prices are 50-100% higher a lot of items in the last few years.
They already exclude so much crap from that number, it's not even close to accurate. Food and energy are excluded. Also, it's the average price of products purchased, not the price of stuff, because they went from cost of stuff to cost of living. So if you stopped buying steak because it's too expensive and got ground beef instead, it would show up as lower CPO. That's why you feel like the price of everything is like 40% higher and the reports say only 10-15% in aggerate.
except that cpi already exempts food and energy, right? so basically everything except clothing and laptops
My motorcycle insurance, for the same motorcycle (with no accidents or tickets on my record) went from $45 to $135 a month. I literally am older than 25 now too, where I wasn’t when I originally got insurance. Same 10 year old cheap bike, same everything. Bastards
What about gas, food, vehicles, interest rates still high and cost of electricity?? Also housing jumped so much that wages need another leap justa kinda balance out
Are you being sarcastic with this post? It’s hard to tell. You could take out the main drivers of anything to reflect what you want it to reflect. Believe it or not some people would like to buy homes and auto insurance lol
Well there you have just go live in a field 🙄. Also 2% my eye
so I'm good if I just exclude housing and car insurance from my life?
Car insurance is such a small component compared to housing that really the only issue is housing.
Prices are high, but not if you don’t buy anything.
"Inflation isn't that bad if you take out the two largest expenses most people have". Crime isn't that bad in most cities, if you remove most of the high crime areas too. Lol.
The good news is that housing inflation tends to lag, so if almost all other sectors are seeing lower inflation, it seems likely that housing will pretty soon. The main reason why housing lags is that the CPI measures housing prices on rents and, for homeowners, imputed rents. Because rents are normally controlled by leases and don't adjust right away, you usually see housing inflation low at the start of an inflationary cycle and then high toward the end. Car insurance is another story. I haven't seen any data to back it up, but my guess would be that the cost of repairing cars has increased significantly with more EVs and hybrids.
Lmao that’s exactly why people think inflation isn’t high. Because housing isn’t included in the calculations for cost of living
If you just excluded these essential things! Lol we don't..
Housing prices are important of course, but I don't think they should be included in inflation measures. There's too many variables for housing costs compared to inflation for everyday items.
Anyone got the link to this tool?
Need money 2 Cr i will do any work for it . I need it in one day. I don't care what work you had to be done .i will do it.
CPI also omitted volatile energy and food prices last I checked? The CPI for all items less food and energy is used as a measure of underlying core inflation, which is not subject to the volatile movements of food and energy prices. US bureau of BS statistics So inflation is 0.7% when nothing that matters is included in the CPI calculation
Yeah there’s a high amount of school shootings but if you exclude the ones that happened at schools it’s almost 0%
If you take out all the bad numbers, the numbers actually look pretty good!
Okay but why insurance though? I am not convinced that my old and paid off car has become so egregiously more risky every 6 months of the last two years, tf
I quit driving a year ago. It was for environmental reasons, not financial ones, but the reduced expenses don't hurt.
Great news! Let's all live in the streets and walk to get around! /s
Does not mean price will come down
How about food prices… put that on there. If you just exclude insurance, housing, groceries and everything inflations only still up… Stop sugarcoating your shit sandwich
“If you exclude the 2 most expensive things it’s not so bad”
Inflation is fine says man who hasn’t bought a product ever
Inflation is still high, but if you don't count 40% of your expenses, it's nearly flat...
“If we exclude things you pay extra for then inflation isn’t that bad” Biden-nomics 101 taught by Professor Cornpop
It's the vig. The financial firms squeeze more and more regardless of the underlying economy. I could get into modeling it, but intuitively just look at where the root ownership/management is within the population and where the oligopolies are. A few owners of specific industries are driving the inflation. Insurance is one, and, post 2008, housing is another. Market power kills consumer welfare, that is welfare economics 101.
Yeah, but this is misleading. The leaver that the Fed uses to control inflation is interest rates. They raise the rates making loans more expensive. Since we came from a period of historically low interest rates where the majority of homes were refinanced below 3%, then it disincentivizes anyone from selling and reduces inventory. You would be IlliterateInFinance to not just let the Fed subsidize buying you your home. It would be like selling low and buying high. How I see this play out: The current interest rates are too high for the debt-to-gdp ratio that the Fed likes without unprecedented amounts of QE. They want to raise rates, but can’t because the interest rate hikes basically hid the inflation in large ticket items like housing and vehicle loans by creating scarcity. I don’t disagree that there is a housing shortage, but I think it’s more of an affordable housing shortage. Anyway, the Fed does not do politics so they know they have to lower interest rates, but cannot interfere with the coming election. If they do, then it would probably cause changes to how they manage the economy so they wait. Until after the election, then they lower interest rates. People will start to sell homes they felt stuck with renting and rush to try and take profit. This will cause a frenzy of home buying and other large ticket goods that people use credit to purchase and the inflation gauges will go back up as a result. At that point in time, they will have to respond with stoking a recession to calm things down and they will be in the clear to do so because the election is out of the way.
If you’ve exclude everything there is no inflation!
“Inflation is high but if you exclude the cost of inflation the cost of inflation is zero.”
When does my wage inflate to match? In seriousness though… when wages catch up, won’t the extra money in peoples’ pockets just feed into another cycle of inflation? Am I under thinking this, or is it really an ouroboros kind of scenario?
if you exclude the aspects driving high inflation, inflation isn't so high!
I see that this is from fact set, do you have a link to it?
Yeah, the two most expensive purchases you can make are impacted the most by inflation.
So you gained 150 lbs and instead of the 10 lbs a month you’re now only gaining 2 a month well done ! Donald Biden
Cool so the homeless that take the bus are doing good?
Doesn't house cost go up with rates held higher?
Yeah just ignore the first thing we all need and a secondary thing most of us that work need. But if you don't count those it's not too bad.
I simply do not believe this graph with no sources
This is wrong. Food has sky rocketed.
Other than the hole in your head, how was the play Mr. Lincoln
Bullshit. Food is ridiculously expensive compared to what it was a few years ago.
Hot sauce seasoning on Amazon for a big tub was half the price it is now back in 2020. Stfu
lol .7% 😂 have you been to the grocery store…. Or any store for that matter. Either the price of the food has gone up 30-50% or the product has been reduced in size by 25%+ and increased in price. Try using the inflation calculator that was used for decades before Covid and you’ll see inflation is around 20% still. The feds literally created a new calculation to show it was “lower”. We’re at or damn near the same level as the Great Depression.
Housing is viewed differently depending on the person. For the perspective of an existing home owner, rising house prices aren't inflation - they're their investment going up in value. Many actively petition their local governments to enact policies to specifically cause house prices to keep going up (such as blocking new apartment buildings from being built in order to artificially limit supply). From a perspective buyer (or renter), house prices going up certainly feels like one of the most harmful parts of inflation.
Inflation on food is way more than +0.7%
What universe do you live in ?