Economy

Lorewarn said:
What are the biggest inflation-related mistakes we made since COVID and how could we have done better? 
Click to expand...
The excess spending on COVID relief is the main contributor because of the excessive lock downs would be the main contributor.  
 

We would also not want to spend the trillion/s on the IRA just after the excessive Covid spending.  
 

Interest rates should have changed earlier than what they did, I think we all agree on that.  
 

Fiscal policy was the main driver.  If you want to talk about small tweaks I guess we could do that but it wouldn’t make nearly as much difference as better fiscal or lockdown policy.  
 

When you can’t make goods, give people extra money they didn’t have before to spend and the service economy is pretty derailed, we get an artificially high market for those goods because people can’t spend it on services which eventually cause prices to spike.  

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Guy Chamberlin said:
Exactly. You learned what a wretched mistake you made voting for Donald Trump twice and are now doing everything possible to make sure he's not reelected. 
Click to expand...
Ehhhh, most of his policies or agenda items were great for us.   But because of Jan 6, his inability to get over 2020 I won’t be voting for him this time.  Though I’m  perfectly fine with my previous two votes.  

 
Archy1221 said:
We spend $400 or more extra a month on food :dunno alone each month
Click to expand...
I could see that. We get food out often. Prob about 50/50 between making food at home or getting it out. Grocery prices are definitely up more relative to restaurants in my experience. And when getting food out, we usually hit our favorite places on the day they’re having a special. Half price pizza on Mondays, half price calzones on Thursday, and multiple days with deals on various Mexican food items (which we eat a lot) etc. It’s just 2 of us so, while noticeably increased especially at the grocery store, it just hasn’t seemed that bad….to me anyway.  My wife would probably tell you a different story. She’s all about coupons and s#!t. I’m a little less thrifty  :lol:

 
JJ Husker said:
I could see that. We get food out often. Prob about 50/50 between making food at home or getting it out. Grocery prices are definitely up more relative to restaurants in my experience. And when getting food out, we usually hit our favorite places on the day they’re having a special. Half price pizza on Mondays, half price calzones on Thursday, and multiple days with deals on various Mexican food items (which we eat a lot) etc. It’s just 2 of us so, while noticeably increased especially at the grocery store, it just hasn’t seemed that bad….to me anyway.  My wife would probably tell you a different story. She’s all about coupons and s#!t. I’m a little less thrifty  :lol:
Click to expand...
Ya me too.  I could do a much better job at finding deals on food

 
Archy1221 said:
The excess spending on COVID relief is the main contributor because of the excessive lock downs would be the main contributor.  
Click to expand...
Excess COVID spending - which amounted to a few trillion - was not enough on its own to cause a GLOBAL spike in a worldwide economy of more than $100 trillion dollars. 

Archy1221 said:
We would also not want to spend the trillion/s on the IRA just after the excessive Covid spending.  
 

Interest rates should have changed earlier than what they did, I think we all agree on that.  
Click to expand...
The IRA was/is fully funded, no additional money is being spent. Now, it has contributed to a multi-decade high of manufacturing investment in the United States. Inflation has also fallen massively since it was signed into law. 

I agree that the FED should have started raising interest rates sooner. But hindsight is 20/20, and ultimately America avoided a massive recession while simultaneously lowering inflation back to its 100 year average.

Archy1221 said:
When you can’t make goods, give people extra money they didn’t have before to spend and the service economy is pretty derailed, we get an artificially high market for those goods because people can’t spend it on services which eventually cause prices to spike.  
Click to expand...
This is the main cause of inflation, however, avoiding demand shocks is really difficult when a vaccine allowed 320 million Americans to utilize the Services side of the economy in an extremely short period of time. 

That's unavoidable. Without mandated social distancing in certain states, it would've helped, marginally. But large numbers of Americans would've stayed home during those times with or without mandates. 

 
JJ Husker said:
I could see that. We get food out often. Prob about 50/50 between making food at home or getting it out. Grocery prices are definitely up more relative to restaurants in my experience. And when getting food out, we usually hit our favorite places on the day they’re having a special. Half price pizza on Mondays, half price calzones on Thursday, and multiple days with deals on various Mexican food items (which we eat a lot) etc. It’s just 2 of us so, while noticeably increased especially at the grocery store, it just hasn’t seemed that bad….to me anyway.  My wife would probably tell you a different story. She’s all about coupons and s#!t. I’m a little less thrifty  :lol:
Click to expand...
One of my friends left work early yesterday so that we could grab some beers...

Had about 5 beers each and it was 62 dollars...  6 dollars a beer, which was kind of expensive even for West Omaha.

 
Dr. Strangelove said:
The IRA was/is fully funded, no additional money is being spent. Now, it has contributed to a multi-decade high of manufacturing investment in the United States. Inflation has also fallen massively since it was signed into law
Click to expand...
The IRA did not help being inflation down, in fact it temporarily helped keep inflation higher than it should.  Legitimate economists agree with this.  
 

Inflation was brought down by monetary policy, supply chain fixes and oil and gas prices falling.  

 
BigRedBuster said:
If interest rates should have risen even earlier, then why did your party start complaining about high interest rates almost immediately when the feds started increasing them?
Click to expand...
Because that the political thing to do.   No politician likes having interest rates rising on their watch.   Same reason Democrats have been b!^@hing about the Fed for the past 2 years or so.  
 

Whether or not rates should have changed have nothing to do with a political party being happy or sad about.   

 
Archy1221 said:
The IRA did not help being inflation down, in fact it temporarily helped keep inflation higher than it should.  Legitimate economists agree with this.  
 

Inflation was brought down by monetary policy, supply chain fixes and oil and gas prices falling.  
Click to expand...
I didn't claim that the IRA did anything to inflation. Your contention, without evidence, is that it caused inflation to stay higher for longer or that inflation would've fell faster without it. 

I simply pointed out that inflation fell after it was signed into law and that the bill is revenue positive. Because the IRA takes in more money than it spends, it's inflation neutral.

 
teachercd said:
One of my friends left work early yesterday so that we could grab some beers...

Had about 5 beers each and it was 62 dollars...  6 dollars a beer, which was kind of expensive even for West Omaha.
Click to expand...
Stop drinking microbrew bourbon barrel aged agave sour stout IPAs then you snob. Stick with the Blue Ribbon.

BigRedBuster said:
If interest rates should have risen even earlier, then why did your party start complaining about high interest rates almost immediately when the feds started increasing them?
Click to expand...
Didn't the Orange guy want a zero percent rate?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Archy1221 said:
Because that the political thing to do.   No politician likes having interest rates rising on their watch.   Same reason Democrats have been b!^@hing about the Fed for the past 2 years or so.  
 

Whether or not rates should have changed have nothing to do with a political party being happy or sad about.   
Click to expand...
So, you’re agreeing the Republican crying about high interest rates as a bunch of BS.  
 

Glad to hear it. 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top