The Economic Theory That Explains Why Americans Are So Mad
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- Опубликовано: 6 июн 2024
- There’s something weird happening with the economy. On a personal level, most Americans say they’re doing pretty well right now. And according to the data, that’s true. Wages have gone up faster than inflation. Unemployment is low, the stock market is generally up so far this year, and people are buying more stuff.
And yet in surveys, people keep saying the economy is bad. A recent Harris poll for The Guardian found that around half of Americans think the S. & P. 500 is down this year, and that unemployment is at a 50-year high. Fifty-six percent think we’re in a recession.
There are many theories about why this gap exists. Maybe political polarization is warping how people see the economy or it’s a failure of President Biden’s messaging, or there’s just something uniquely painful about inflation. And while there’s truth in all of these, it felt like a piece of the story was missing.
And for me, that missing piece was an article I read right before the pandemic. An Atlantic story from February 2020 called “The Great Affordability Crisis Breaking America (www.theatlantic.com/ideas/arc...) .” It described how some of Americans’ biggest-ticket expenses - housing, health care, higher education and child care - which were already pricey, had been getting steadily pricier for decades.
At the time, prices weren’t the big topic in the economy; the focus was more on jobs and wages. So it was easier for this trend to slip notice, like a frog boiling in water, quietly, putting more and more strain on American budgets. But today, after years of high inflation, prices are the biggest topic in the economy. And I think that explains the anger people feel: They’re noticing the price of things all the time, and getting hammered with the reality of how expensive these things have become.
The author of that Atlantic piece is Annie Lowrey. She’s an economics reporter, the author of Give People Money (www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo...) , and also my wife. In this conversation, we discuss how the affordability crisis has collided with our post-pandemic inflationary world, the forces that shape our economic perceptions, why people keep spending as if prices aren’t a strain and what this might mean for the presidential election.
Mentioned:
“It Will Never Be a Good Time to Buy a House (www.theatlantic.com/ideas/arc...) ” by Annie Lowrey
Book Recommendations:
Franchise (wwnorton.com/books/9781631498701) by Marcia Chatelain
A Place of Greater Safety (www.google.com/books/edition/...) by Hilary Mantel
Nickel and Dimed (us.macmillan.com/books/978142...) by Barbara Ehrenreich
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast (www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-k...) . Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-... (www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-...) .
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Rollin Hu. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Efim Shapiro and Aman Sahota. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Annie Galvin, Elias Isquith and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones and Aman Sahota. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Sonia Herrero.
Things arent getting any easier. The average social security check is $2000 a month. The worst part is 22% of Americans have less than $5k saved for retirement. Start investing now! Nobody is coming to save you. better start today
i havent been playng. I’ve been diligently working, saving and contributing towards early retirement and financial freedom, but since covid outbreak, the economy so far has caused my portfolio to underperform, do you think I keep contributing to my 401k or look at alternative sectors to meet my goals?
keep contributing! I'd suggest you consider financial advisory at this point in time, you cant do this alone, remember you are in for the long haul
I've been looking to get one mate, but have been kind of relaxed about it. Could you recommend your advis0r? I'll be happy to use some help
‘’Aileen Gertrude Tippy’’ is the licensed advisor I use. Just search the name. You’d find necessary details to work with to set up an appointment.
Thank you for sharing, I must say, Aileen , appears to be quite knowledgeable. After coming across her web page, I went through her resume and it was quite impressive. I reached out and scheduled a call. thanks again
My greatest concern is how to recover from all these economic and global troubles and stay afloat especially with the political power tussle going on in US.
Inflation can have a significant impact on individuals and their cost of living. As a result, it can cause negative market sentiment. It is important for individuals and businesses to find ways to navigate and potentially mitigate the effects of inflation on their finances. The current economic climate, including underperformance of financial markets due to fear of inflation, has led to a decrease in the value of my portfolio. I would appreciate any recommendations on how to potentially increase returns during this market downturn.
Stocks are pretty unstable at the moment, but if you do the right math, you should be just fine. Bloomberg and other finance media have been recording cases of folks gaining over $250k just in a matter of weeks/couple months, so I think there are a lot of wealth transfer in this downtime if you know where to look.
Such market uncertainties are the reason I don’t base my market judgements and decisions on rumours and here-says, got the best of me 2020 and had me holding worthless position in the market, I had to revamp my entire portfolio through the aid of an advisor, before I started seeing any significant results happens in my portfolio, been using the same advisor and I’ve scaled up $450k within 2 years, whether a bullish or down market, both makes for good profit, it all depends on where you’re looking.
@@LucasBenjamin-hv7sk Impressive can you share more info?
There are a handful of experts in the field. I've experimented with a few over the past years, but I've stuck with Annette Marie Holt for about five years now, and her performance has been consistently impressive. She’s quite known in her field, look-her up.
America is currently plagued by the hydra-headed evil duo of inflation and recession. The worst part about this recession is that consumers are racking up credit card debt. In April alone, credit card debt went up 20% while rates have doubled in a year. Inflation is so high that consumers are literally taking debt for basic life necessities. Collapse has indeed begun..
Every day we have a new problem. It's the new normal. At first we thought it was a crisis, now we know it's a new normal and we have to adapt. this year will be a year of severe economic pain all over the nation.. what steps can we take to generate more income during quantitative adjustment?I can't afford my hard-earned 180k savings to turn to dust
This is precisely why I like having a portfolio coach guide my day-to-day market decisions: with their extensive knowledge of going long and short at the same time, using risk for its asymmetrical upside and laying it off as a hedge against the inevitable downward turns, their skillset makes it nearly impossible for them to underperform. I've been utilizing a portfolio coach for more than two years, and I've made over $800,000.
Mind if I ask you to recommend this particular advisor you using their service?
Vivian Jean Wilhelm a highly respected figure in her field. I suggest delving deeper into her credentials, as she possesses extensive experience and serves as a valuable resource for individuals seeking guidance in navigating the financial market.
Thank you so much for your helpful tip! I was able to verify the person and book a call session with her. She seems very proficient and I'm really grateful for your guidance
Ezra you guys know, since you studied neo classical economics, that in competitive markets businesses are not price setters but price takers. The fact that businesses are setting prices higher because they can reflects that the markets are not accepting new competitors, because there is a vision of profit, and existing businesses in the market have political or otherwise power to set prices. Home insurance market, pharmaceuticals, defense industry, Medical insurance…. The list goes on and on. We have just had 44 years of suppression of the enforcement of Anti Trust Laws.
Bingo!
100%
If it’s true, you could call it shadow cartel behaviour. But how can you prove it…
We're also not talking about the dramatic decrease in the number of players in basically every market.
...This means that people ARE correct to ultimately blame corporate greed and Washington, D.C. for these economic problems, then, right? And from what I've seen it doesn't matter much which party is in power: the corporate greed continues unabated.
"you're making more money"
"the money is worth less"
"it's weird how you're complaining about making more money"
My income doubled. My spouses too. Her friends did too
This always masks certain types of income redistribution. You need to look at relative wage increases. If you make an extra 20% and I make an extra 100% guess who will be buying the desirable house.
@@pcopeland15 opportunity cost also must be factored in. making 20% less over 18 months and then making 25% more going forward, doesn't equal out the cost of inflation. it would take X amount of time to make up the difference, meanwhile inflation is constant and your income increase is less so.
I'm an admin and my pay has definitely not even begun to keep up with the cost of anything. My purchasing power has gone done drastically and I'm not imaging it, trust me. But I see corporations posting records profits every day so they're not having any trouble paying their bills, no matter what they say.
If you have been renting and have bought a new car in the past few years your pay almost definitely didn't keep up. If you owned a house and a car as of ~2020/2021 you have likely seen wages outpace inflation.
Two entirely different experiences right now
Why do you think, Americans are so resistant to 'regulations' to prevent what you have explained?
everybody who's not dumb is doing better than before that's the point. you just suck.
@@austinduke8876 Home ownership has also risen substantially since 2016.
Part of it is the social media doom spiral.
The economic data that wages have outpaced inflation is misleading -- it is unclear what wage earners were surveyed and who was excluded. Also owning a house and a car has nothing to do with your wages outpacing inflation. House and car are wealth assets; wages and inflation have to do with cash flows. Even if you construct a theoretical basis connecting your assets to your cash flows, inflation is still independent and a measure of the decrease in purchasing power. Inflation is a tax.
Americans are facing a tough time with their finances, especially concerning housing affordability and retirement savings.
I'm getting worried about the rising housing prices. It seems like it's becoming harder to afford a home these days.
Yeah, it's a real struggle. With the rising housing prices and stagnant wages, it's becoming increasingly difficult for many to afford homes, let alone save for retirement.
Absolutely. And with the fear of not being able to retire comfortably, people might be tempted to make risky investments or neglect proper financial planning, which could spell trouble for their portfolios in the long run.
It's a vicious cycle. If people can't afford homes, they might delay retirement savings, but if they focus solely on saving for retirement without considering their housing situation, they might miss out on potential investment opportunities.
And let's not forget how the global economy plays into all of this. Economic instability, inflation, and market fluctuations can further complicate matters and add to people's financial worries.
It's not a cost-of-living crisis. It's an OMG-I-Am-Fucking-Poor crisis.
It's actually a the Fed stole most of the value of our money crisis...
Voice from the Ground here, my wife and I can't afford our two bedroom apartment let alone a house to start a new family. If our elites can't solve this for us it's time for them to go. You can build all the houses you want If they are all bought buy slum lord companies it won't solve it.
Don't need to listen to 90 minutes of Democrat propaganda when the opening paragraph in the video description tells you all you need to know. Wages have not gone up faster than actual inflation because the inflation #'s put out by the government are intentionally fake. Instead of facing reality, I'm sure this bloated video does everything it can to avoid confronting the facts that exist in actual objective reality.
Right. The slum lord corporations build the houses, then keep the rent high so rent or buy, they control the prices.
We need to demand an increase to the min. wage to $35 an hour immediately and then everyone will have enough money to afford the new economy. Anyone telling you that prices will fall is in looney bin town, inflation does NOT go backwards, our wages must go up.
I feel your pain. Median housing price to median income was 3.5 in 1984; now it is 5.5. It is even worse in the popular East & West coast cities. My mid-west state has cheap homes because we don't have good jobs, and educated young people are moving away.
@@hereigoagain5050 You reminded me of great story that went the other way. I knew a couple..total hippies..bought a totally run down shack in toronto....ten years later the city exploded and it was getting offers for a million dollars! They couldn't belive their luck..from total bums to millionaire couple. Can't you Americans buy those run down homes and fix them up!? We don't have those.
I’ll recommend a book that I think sheds light on why economists are often perplexed at people’s negative perceptions of the U.S. economy: The Growth Delusion by David Pilling. He points out that economic statistics (like GDP) are often considered the final word on how well an economy is doing without putting much thought into how those numbers are really calculated and what nuances they might be missing. I think we see this with the current emphasis on the unemployment rate (how low!) and wage growth (it’s outpaced inflation). For the former, yes, it’s easy to get a job, but maybe the unemployment rate doesn’t do a good job at capturing the underemployment of those with lower-paying jobs. For the latter, do wage growth statistics account for the stratification of wages across lower, middle, and higher income segments? Is most of the wage growth going to those already well off? What other nuances in the economic numbers might we be overlooking?
There was also a lot of discussion in this interview about how U.S. consumers have not changed their spending habits much. I think this is worth exploring more. I’m curious to know how much more reliant on credit card and installment plan purchases we’ve become.
My book recommendation i "Road to Serfdom."
@@WW3_Historian the Rpad to Serfdom is how got in this economy.
exactly!! @115atm they give the average salary in the US but wealth inequality is so significant that it skews these statistics wildly. its criminal in my opinion
@@WW3_Historian My book recommendation i "Road to Feudalism"
I agree with you that economists are not getting the full picture with their limited set of statistics. Also I'm not sure the statistics they are using are accurate and free of manipulation and bias (it's an election year with intense politics). Spending habits are changing, maybe the report data is just stale and lagging the trend, and also people will burn through savings and rack up debt before accepting reality -- I think there are indications that the economy is winding up under pressure and could buckle soon.
The lack of imagination to solve this problem is more shocking than the problem itself. If we cap prices overall this could correct it but apparently unchecked capitalism is still a thing…listening to the two of you being utterly mystified by how other countries simply offer childcare at a reasonable cost to all via capping the cost and ensuring its subsidized shows why our economic model continues to damage society. It’s not rocket science. You decide what matters and is universal to human society and support it through all its members. It’s called regulation and taxation. Any economy should serve its people, it’s not supposed to dominate us. Just wait another decade-a wave of millions who can’t save and are at the poverty line are about to become too old or too sick to work or be hired and none of them are prepared for living on social security alone. There’s your housing shortage solved as all of them lose their homes and are on the street. No other developed nations does things in such a barbaric way. The idea is to lean toward opportunity not be ripped off. Also you guys sort of stole your title for this one from Bernie and you should have taken a nod toward his recent book “it’s ok to be angry about capitalism”.
And you think there is political appetite from all Americans for German tax rates?? Come on you know better
@@Jumpinsnakes IN Germany you get something for you money. Are Americans too stupid to see that amount you pay in tuition, childcare and healthcare alone is far more over a lifetime than what you would pay in taxes at German tax rates?
I would second guess about price controls. They often do the opposite of the intention. Check out papers about rent controls or Nixon policies in the 1970's.
what matters: air water food home health education jobs safety security ...
@@Jumpinsnakes germans get 5 weeks paid vacation /year ...
The traditional unemployment rate does not capture real unemployment. You do not cite the labor participation rate which is dramatically lower than its peak in the 1990s.
A lot of us were reminded of why we ignore that system and don't show up in the figures. It just doesn't work well enough to be worth the red tape and hoop jumping.
www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2016/article/labor-force-participation-what-has-happened-since-the-peak.htm
The labor force participation rate is declining mainly because the Baby Boom is retiring.
The 1990's was also when they changed how they measure unemployment; It used to be actual people not working; then they changed it, to only reflect the number of people getting unemployment income. When you were no longer eligible for unemployment benefits, you were just assumed to have found a job because you were no longer on the unemployment lists.
Labor participation in the '90s was between 79% and 82%; today it is 81%.
The biggest line item on everyones budget (especially younger people) is their rent/mortgage. Housing prices have gone up drastically. So yeah you might have gotten a 7% raise and your 401k is doing OK but big goals like home ownership and starting a family are getting more and more out of reach.
Indeed. And these are some of the main reasons that people aren't having kids, and the birthrate is well below replacement. We'll be looking at a cratering population--just when the worst effects of climate change are hitting us, I think!
When will someone write an article that captures mortgages in 2024? Visual Capitalist took a step in the right direction by comparing median house price to median household income (the ratio by year). That's good for the third of home buyers that buy in cash (probably trading up to a nicer house).
They should compare the ratio of lifetime mortgage cost (principle + interest) to median household income. Or, annual new mortgage cost as a share of annual median household income.
and then there are tens of millions with a fixed rate mortgage like me who's housing costs remain flat.
@@MrSteeDoo Fair point.
It is also fair to say expensive housing impedes workforce mobility and makes it tough for first time homebuyers like couples.
@@MrSteeDoo Your home insurance, property taxes, utilities, and maintenance/repair costs are not flat. My house is paid off, but all other costs are going way up every year. God forbid that I need a new air conditioner or roof.
Unemployment data doesn't cover freelancers and contract workers, which are said to make up a third of the workforce. I freelance and went from working hours of almost 2 full time jobs to almost nothing. And what is out there, the rates are really low for tedious, time-consuming work
41:46 Have either of you had a real job in the last twenty years?
I don't think most people are increasing their wages unless they're changing jobs.
43:22 You can't point to a five dollar value menu as progress when a decade ago there were more options available on the value menu that were a single dollar. So if the average Americans wages have doubled in that time, the cost of food for people who are working, i.e.: not being at home and preparing their own meals, quintupled.
The fact that people have to resort to toxic fast food dollar menus for nourishment is a problem in and of itself
Agree... these podcasters are out of touch and reliant on selected biased data without real world experience.
It’s not just that they’re out of touch (though they are).
They’re just regime apologists.
100%. It's like, go back to sleep, it's just a bad dream, the economy is fine.
We're dealing with the definition of a talking head. These people have been on the payroll of the elite for a long time, as they say, since the Bush Administration and the Uni Party. I think the days of having Republican versus Democrat debates are largely over or should be over. The debates now need to be between the elites and their army of paid Stooges and the rest of us. You can no longer fool us people ! Get a real job
Economists and media keep telling us that the economy is fantastic, but we can't afford anything, so then they just tell us we're bad with money. Executives and landlords are cheering them on while raising prices and rent. You don't need a new economic theory to explain this, it's painfully obvious.
Finally an intelligent comment in a sea of delusion. Libs want to gaslight us into thinking everything is fine. Conservatives want us to blame everything on "illegals" and uppity minorities. The reality is that capitalism is working exactly as intended.
That is because most economists and media live in mansions and have two Mercedes in the driveway.
Absolutely! Every economist I see on TV sounds like one of the "Just stop buying avocado toast, Starbucks, and Funko Pops" out of touch boomers.
When everything across the board goes up in price, it is a result of inflation because of the central bank’s monetary policies and not from executives and landlords price gouging. Inflation is almost always a government made thing. Politicians and media who supports them will say it’s transitory, or call it GREEDflation to deter blame, but use some common sense. If everything across the board has gone up, odds are the landlord’s rent increase is just keeping up with inflation caused by the people you probably voted in.
@@Aubatron I often talk about how much greedflation would exist if money printer did not brrrr.
Great discussion! As someone who’s spent my career as a teacher, or in similarly poorly paid jobs that require a graduate education, I’ve always economically been somewhere between working poor and lower middle class. When I wanted a home, I bought substandard housing (abandoned for ten years) and worked my weekends to fix up those homes, and built up and sold up till I’m now in a nice home, even though my income is still moderate. We go backpacking on vacations, which costs little, we cut our own hair, don’t eat out or go to movies, I repair our cars, replace our roof, etc., etc. But house insurance costs have quadrupled, food has doubled, electricity has doubled, car insurance has doubled, medical insurance is up, a new car is a pipe dream. Yet wages are barely up. Teachers and carpenters and everyone paid like a teacher or carpenter, has been in an economic recession or depression since 2008. And it is only getting worse.
but an actor or athlete earns 25 million per year ...
In my experience (I'm 72) teaching is not poorly paid and a graduate education is not needed at any level under college. I recall a young teacher telling me that she was poorly paid. Then I told her she earned 140% of the average family income in the State. She didn't know that. Maybe she shouldn't have been teaching. The acquisition of yet another degree doesn't mean a lot in terms of performance if it's not functional in the workplace. A welder doesn't need a college degree. We need to better match talent and skills to actual needs.
@@alankwellsmsmba 140% of low is still low & poor .. what state is that ? in many districts your pay is calculated by years and college credits so more school = more pay .. many jobs don't need college so get employers to stop using that as criteria for hiring
My thoughts after the first 3 minutes:
Things that don't matter: inflation rate, S&P500, unemployment rate
The thing that matters: The answer to this question: "Can I afford my monthly bills?" That's it.
We're suffering from past inflation. Even if the inflation rate were zero, we would still be suffering from inflation from the last few years. Causing high inflation is unforgivable, even if you "fix it" later.
Fireman to homeowner: Why are you so upset? We put out the fire.
Homeowner: My house burned down.
What are the best strategies to protect my portfolio? I've heard that a downturn will devastate the financial market, so I'm concerned about my $200k stock portfolio.
There are strategies that could be put in place for solid gains regardless of economy situation, but such execution is usually carried out by an investment specialist
I've been in touch with a financial analyst ever since I started investing. Knowing today's culture The challenge is knowing when to purchase or sell when investing in trending stocks, which is pretty simple. On my portfolio, which has grown over $900k in a little over a year, my adviser chooses entry and exit orders.
Mind if I ask you to recommend this particular coach you using their service? Seems you've figured it all out.
Wow, her track record looks really good from what I found online. I'll take a chance and see how it goes. Thanks for the info
Unfortunately nobody can predict market turns. I learned the hard way. From 10/31/07 my portfolio 100k dropped 50 % to 50k by 3/3/09, by March 2011 I was up 30% from the 2007 high to 130k. Most recessions are a 30% drop, After that the next 5 yrs markets average 30% returns for 5 years or up 150%. In the 90s we were up 10 fold ,by the end of 97 people said sell ,if you sold you missed 85% in 2008 and 100% returns in 1999 if invested in the Nasdaq, 2000 to 2003 I also was down 50%.
Before listening to this podcast, I listened to the "Inside Russia" podcast where an exile Russian talked about what is happening inside Russia right now. Basically, he said that the wealth in Russia was going to the war and to the oligarchs who kept Putin in Power. This left no money for the ordinary citizens. The same thing is happening here just slower and in a less dramatic fashion. There is only so much money, and as the inequality increases -- i.e. the rich get richer, the money has to come from somewhere. Where it comes from is the ordinary citizens who gets poorer.
Good info.
the top 10% .. the 1% + 9% control 80% pf the wealth .. the atlantic told me so ....
A CEO of a hardware supply company said to me we raised prices (and our margins) significantly during the pandemic and we're not backing down. Or as an economist would say, prices are sticky and slow to adjust, meaning they do not respond quickly to changes in supply and demand. Just walk around a Home Depot or Lowes and prices haven't dropped even as the pandemic ended and supply chains recovered.
Yeah but the top of line hardware even 4 years ago is dirt cheap now and more than capable of handling a lot of use cases.
He'll back down when customers refuse to pay and look for better deals. Ultimately consumers fighting back is the only way to solve this problem.
lumber prices make me cry now. plywood is like $80 for what was $20 in 2019.
@@Jumpinsnakes You mean power tools. A top of the line 2x4 and a top of the line nail perform exactly the same as they did 70 years ago, but I can't afford them now.
@@rickr530 I'm talking about commercial electronic hardware, chips, servers etc. Lol construction has it rough.
Two wealthy liberal writers, for the NYT and the Atlantic, do their best to understand how the peasants are fairing and why they don’t just eat cake.
what numbers should they be using?
@@MayorMcC666 They shouldn't be using any numbers. They should be looking at the big picture, grant that after all this time they still cannot put their finger on Trump's popularity, and acknowledge that their narrative for what is going on in this country is as blinkered as that of the declining Reagan conservatives.
That's a little harsh.
@@stephenbonaduce7852 Why? Are these guys not coddled Upper West Side libs who have no insight into the lives of the people who serve them their lattes everyday? They sure seem that way to me. They are in the same bubble they were in when Hillary lost... they have no clue as to why the masses feel their lives are so precarious. How can people who yak for a living and who worry about the cost of private pre-K for their Harvard-track toddlers grasp what it means when your box of graham crackers costs two dollars more today than this time last year and has only 85% of the contents?
harsh but funny
FDR understood these problems when I was born in 1943 and Ezra Klein, the NYT, and The Atlantic apparently don't understand them in 2024. Why?
Journamism went from digging deep and taking risks to answer questions to generating clickbait.
they cater to their class .. the top 10% ...
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair
Nobody talks about how medical bills no longer effect your credit scores. That’s huge for mortgages, loans..ect
Which nobody can afford 😂
Probably because it hasn't been in effect long enough to affect anyone.
What is there that needs to be talked about?
It's hard to not think inflation is out of greed when you look at how much grocery store prices have hiked... and then watch the CEO's of said grocery chains constantly brag about their monster increases in profits at the end of every fiscal year!! Then you learn they gave almost half of those record profits to their investors...
Inflation always hurts the working class, while the ruling class profit greatly from it.
YES, THEIR INVESTORS DEMAND HIGH PROFITS, SAME AS THE OIL COMPANIES WHICH MADE THE HIGHEST PROFITS EVER THE LAST 4 YEARS
Problem...
It's NOT Cost Control
It's Profit Control 🤑
It doesn’t matter if everyone’s working if it cost too much to live what’s the point…..how can people be happy and feel good about what’s going on?
My homeowners insurance has doubled. My car insurance has tripled in the past two years… How the hell is that good?
I don’t have medical insurance anymore since I became an independent contractor besides, when I was in corporate America, the increases in premiums annually for my healthcare superseded my merit increase so I was actually losing money after getting a raise.
Throughout my life, I’ve seen what people have done to adjust for the growing gap between wages and prices. Once upon a Time in my life, my father worked and that was it. We had two cars that we replaced every three or four years my siblings went to college. We went on vacation. We belong to the local swim club. If we were sick, we went to our family doctor not through a fucking healthcare corporation that’s raping us.
My dad was not rich at all. That was 1970-ish. You wanna tell me the things are good today that we should be happy what I’ve seen in the last 50 years does not jive at all with reality.
I am really sick of smoke being blown up my ass when every time we take two steps back and then one step forward and told hey things are good
Mine didn't. Actually, my insurance is lower. I think you are not honest with us.
When I read a post like your, fist I agree with what your saying, and the democrats are your best bet but then when get in and try to enact policies that can help you like better, cheaper healthcare, the GOP is going to fight that tooth and nail. So then we throw the bums out the GOP gets control and they clearly aren't going to help you but they will lie to you and now we're looking a Trump fascim. Until the needs of the majority are put over the needs of now over a 1000 billionaires , I don't know how it gets better. I do know we should all be terrified of being fascists.
You must be like me, a 50 - early 60-ish in age... Corps are laying us off, and only contractor work is available... therefore, transferring the insurance and tax burden to us... Corps profits go up, and we get poorer.
Kenny, just wait to see what would happen if fascist Trump takes over. The layoffs will be much worse with bo safety net and no hope of it getter better.
@@kenny3485 Reaganomics hurt even the upper middle class. And many people still don't understand it. My husband talked to a guy who is a lawyer and this guy complained about taxes. He said he got a case settled and got good money and now he has to pay huge taxes. Well, he has to say thanks to Reagan and his 1986 reform for that. Before that, he could reduce his taxes by averaging the profit over a few years. Now this option is available only for fishermen and farmers. And in a geek economy when almost everyone is a contractor it would be a great option. But, no. Republicans are worried about cutting taxes for big corporations with consistent record profits and tax more everyone else.
Mortgages have gone up 80% in the last 3 years. That alone should be enough for people to be mad.
Property appraisals have gone up and on top of the mortgage with high interest rates going up, property taxes and insurance have sky rocketed.
I'm halfway through the podcast, and what has not been talked about is drilling into unemployment more. More specifically, UNDER-employment. Yeah sure unemployment (by the survey's limited qualifiers) is low. But... The quality of jobs has gotten worse. The gig economy and part time job economy is lowering these unemployment numbers, while screwing the workers whose total compensation is terrible (no benefits). Additionally, we have companies going more lean (see tech layoffs) to squeeze profits. We have a white collar job recession. Unemployment may be relatively low, but the quality of jobs is trash.
I agree with this completely. You're only as secure as your current job, and you can't count on keeping it, because you can be laid off at a whim. Corporate management likes to tell you that your career is under your control, but that like most of what corporate America peddles, is a lie.
That is a separate measurement and is not moving anywhere
Where did you take your figures? Did the data included the homeless and the low economic class? It sounds unreliable, all that bla bla!
Lets see here...bla bla bla...$15 per bla.. you owe us $45. Welcome to the new economy!! :)
It isn't that hard i have kept receits for the past 4 years i can clearly see my expenses have skyrocketed buying same things .
"On a personal level, most Americans say they’re doing pretty well right now" vs "And yet in surveys, people keep saying the economy is bad"
Question is, can democracy survive when people are really pissed off by something so daily as declining purchasing power? We have to vote not only for Biden, but for Congressional majorities who do not absolutely hate ordinary people.
when most of congress are very wealthy and born on 3rd base they won't change ...
Why are people unhappy with the economy? It’s obvious, right? A lot of places are having layoffs, salaries haven’t kept up with inflation, and prices are out of control. Why is it a surprise that people are unhappy?
Sorry, you're not qualified to have an opinion. Where are your fancy statistics?
Everything is fine, just make sure to keep consuming & don't forget to pay your taxes. Let the "experts" handle this 🤣they've been doing such a good job 🤣
I often joke about how the scientific method gets replaced by "The Science TM." Perhaps Economics should just be called "Line go up mean thing get gud."
Salaries are really funny. I checked..same as in the early 00s when I first started working serious 9-5 jobs. Still I like to blame gen-z and call them lazy just to get them angry. :)
@@luckyfox5627 we pledge allegiance to the top 10% ....
I know multiple people who have doubled their income over 4 years. Things are good
If you're a Harvard grad the economy is great 😃👍
Are Harvard grads the only people that take these polls?
@boringstuff1542 the numbers don't lie but liars use numbers 🤓 🖕
She is Harvard grad
They don't get it, because they ARE the elites who never lived in paycheck to paycheck life.
plus yale princeton columbia & stanford ...
One of the problems with inflation is that a person's wage increases lag monthly cost increases. At the end of the year, the company owner looks at your paycheck, says, "inflation has been 6% this year, and we'll throw in a 2% raise". Well, for 364 days of the year you've been running your household on last year's wages but prices have gone up 6%. Not only that, your savings account, which last I looked gains less than 1%/year, has lost 5% of its value.
I'm not an economist, but I hope everyone knows that a savings account isn't ideal for long term savings. Even the decades where inflation was 2 - 3% means that your stash in a savings account (or cash under the mattress) is worth less over time.
The pandemic really made it easy to see different layers of the economy. Critical workers like grocery store workers, truck drivers, gas station attendants, restaurant workers - they had higher risk of exposure to covid and they worked with no "hazard pay". Meanwhile they're not likely to own a home, not likely to have a 401k, and not likely to have personal stock market investments.
My corporate friends during the pandemic got to work from home, spent less money on vehicle maintenace, less money on gas. It's like an extra raise that covers the entire cost of the the commute. If they own a home their house value increased probably 50% since 2020. Their 401k or other market investments might track the S&P 500. (2020 - 2024 avg return was 12.3%)
The parts of the economy that are working favor these white collar corporate humans, and I'd say the higher a person's income the more they benefit. Not just in base pay but also from having larger parts of their wealth tracking the stock market - following the growth of the "strongest economy in the world" - but those with minimum wage or median wage of course they're being squeezed.
If you are spending more while your income lags then you are a fool.
You can complain all you want but for RIGHT NOW you need to cut spending. Maybe skip getting that sweet new tattoo? How about skipping the daily $7 lattes? How about learning how to make your own sandwich at home instead of eating out? How about giving plasma to build up an emergency fund?
@@MrSteeDoo Do those boots taste good when you lick them?
What's helping me is money market accounts and high-yield savings accounts. I'm getting a yield above the rate of inflation, and I'm not an outlier.
Quality of life decline.
Shitty propagandists can't admit this. NYT is a paid propagandist outlet
The widening wealth equity gap is not a new theory.
true but doesn't mean it isn't an issue NOW. Even more so, it needs to include the fiscal dominance in this talk to make sure we all see the holistic view.
No, but everybody is wise to it now vs the old "boot straps" ideology
@@johnwu7 I said it wasn't a new theory, not an invalid one. The point is even respected news sites engage in clickbait. But, you know what Hearst said.
Yes, but very interesting to non-snob me.
@@JR-pr8jb That's a very snobbish response.
The Nordic countries have been focusing on this for 60 years. Finally the US is begining to notice what is important
ROTFL... I'm not holding my breath..
You start with the premise that it's all an illusion then systematically enumerate all the ways things are getting worse and still somehow not reevaluate the conclusion. Jesus.
Ironic her reading about French Revolution while she says those things.
I guess she think some other rich person's head rolls. Say the right thing and maybe it won't happen to you.
Greedflation is a huge problem when the goods and services in question are necessary goods. I'm poor enough that I spend all of my money, living paycheck to paycheck. As prices for everything rose, I had to put the excess cost of my life on credit cards. That debt still exists even as things change for the better (not nearly fast enough)
They talked about greedflation but only a tiny bit. It's probably worth additional time in a podcast that's 90 minutes long. I agree that it's only part of the whole picture, actual inflation from actual increased prices accounts for some part of x-flation, but it's hard to tell how much is greedflation and how much is inflation. Plus it's probably different from one product to another.
Prices are going up because there is not enough competition and too much regulatory capture by companies through lobbying. The government can’t afford to spend more on social services because the defense budget sucks out about half of government receipts. America could make different choices if the political will was there. Political parties seem more interested in culture wars and manufactured problems than solving actual problems faced by ordinary people. There is a general lack of clarity on cause, effect and possible solutions.
For sanity’s sake, social equity, equity, equity, equity, equity…………………….. Why would anyone commit to a socially illegitimate society
i don't want the dumbasses to have any equity. they'll just ruin it anyway. the top 10% are better positioned to handle the majority of all the equity.
Thank you Ezra, for reminding me that I'm not struggling and my hours weren't just cut and I'm actually having an easy time paying my bills. My super subjective dumb American brain thought I was struggling.
😂 based
corporate greed
Inflation is a direct result of income inequality. Simple math, those with extra money buy assets and that raises rents and mortgages. Same with equities (as CEOs raise prices to get the P/E into less crazy territory).... Without tax there is no mechanism to remove money.
Dumbest thing ive ever heard.. NY TIMES is like listening to dumb and dumber... marxist garbage...
income inequality does not increase the total amount of assets bought, but the spread of aqusitions.
If you handover 1 billlion $ to 10,000 people rather then giving it all to one person, they will acquire more then him, and not less. Thus the prices will rise more and not less.
never assert "simple math." Your comment will be dismissed as shallow.
What in the world are you talking about? Inflation, by definition, is the direct result of excessive money printing. Every civilization since the beginning of time knew this (which was why "currency debasement" was punishable by death penalty going all the way back to the Roman Republic).
Taxes don't actually pay for our economy as much as you think. Most of the money is generated through treasury bonds and it is mainly spent on energy.
For treasury bonds, the truth is people aren't sure on where to spend massive amounts of capital in the world right now that will be a sure growth source. China has proven now to be not only a paper tiger society, but an aging and infighting one, as well. India seemed promising, but Modi's politics become increasingly unpredictable with age. Europe seems limited in future growth and America has lost credibility in many regards. With China being the historically largest treasury bond holder until Trump now fading, Japan has picked up the slack, but has to be allowed to be militarily evolved to garner real momentum for growth for the US. Its not as clear cut as it was for the previous decade with China being basically the world's NVDA.
As far as energy goes, the Shale revolution of 2014 has blown the entire energy market of the world wide open. With the "grips" of Climate Change perspective loosening, the reasoning for the crackdown ("supply/demand" wise) that held from 1980s-2014 disappeared overnight. Without resource limitation as an excuse, climate and good hearts was the only thing left, and that was never going to last on the world stage. With that 2014 revolution every major energy company started exploring known reserves for additional value and found them in droves all over. Of particular value being Ukraine to the tune of 10's of trillions of dollars of shale energy and supplementary minerals. Hence the war in Ukraine and Putin's real justification to his oligarch backers.
With Ukraine battling for the reserves in the north east and Donbas that they was originally contracted to American companies in 2013/4 under Joe Biden's stewardship as VP, With Israel trying to sure up the reserves and pipelines to those reserves off of Gaza, with China trying to ensure the Vietnam reserves are under the dashed line, with Gazprom 2 cutoff offering Norway Atlantic regions, with Cuba reserves being on the table for Russian sale in Central America, with China building infrastructure for Chile's reserves, the energy market is a wild west again. Energy is not surely sourced anywhere in the world right now so people can't surely bet on a loan to an unsure resource.
THAT is where inflation is coming from, the money supply being shrank down from lack of capital investment creating a lack of debt creation creating a lack in money creation.
It isn't complex. The news media is awful. Housing costs, Health care, education costs, cast a pall over otherwise good numbers.
and not reflected in the calculations ...
We have WORSE health outcomes than Europe. We do not have a real budget deficit. We have homelessness, poor health care, etc. because our elected officials in WA knowingly refuse to finance basic needs. We have unused economic resources and we knowingly do not use them. Modern monetary theory tells the story and apparently you guys can't afford the time or energy, despite your jobs, to learn about it.
Our evolved system has destroyed competition, and we have moved from pure competition to oligopoly to duopoly to monopoly and we are now in a condition of corporate aristocracy where the corporations are the new kings and we are the new peasants.
People said the same in the 1900’s, in the 1930’s, in the 1960’s, in the 1990’s, definitely in 2008, and there is still plenty of creative destruction in the economy. New companies and competitors will rise up.
Go start a business; even a small one. That’s the real American dream.
who remembers 'rollerball' ... ??
@CrabbyE8 it's called the American dream because you would have to be asleep to believe it
Hate for immigrants is weird. Here in Desantis's fascist Florida, even apart from agriculture, life would STOP without the quiet brown guys who build/repair our streets/sewers/bridges, construct our buildings, replace our roofs, etc. The Hispanic females who care for our children, staff our big-box stores, etc.
the brown guys get spicy in new mexico. as a white professional living there, i was regularly threatened by them. we need to keep their balls in a tight vice or else things get bad. just go to new mexico.
The backbone of the economy !
Supply and demand. Stop letting people in and the remaining people will have more wage bargaining power. It's why the "Yellow" railway workers were hated centuries ago.
Why do we let the capitalist class organize the people to serve their economic interests, rather than the people organizing capital to serve their economic interests?
Because we live in a capitalist society, not a socialist one
Every year, my Social Security check is increased. Then, my Medicare premiums go up by an amount equal to the increase in my Social Security check. So an extra $100.00 per month comes in, then it goes right back out, then I have to pay income tax on the $100.00. Thus, I end up poorer after getting a raise.
Why would anyone be surprised that I am mad?
Socialism security
they jerk you around. even in retirement. that's funny. no?
reminder .. in 1984 reagan began the taxing of social security benefits ...
Since RUclips dislikes aren't visible... Don't waste your time listening to this. Shallow interpretation of flawed unemployment statistics. Blaming consumers for not comparing prices as an explanation for what is price gouging by corporations. Aversion of the term "greedflation". Capitalism has failed the majority in this country who don't have significant participation in the stock market. I'm middle class and am fortunate enough to have savings in the market. That's the only way to prosper in this economy, and that's exactly what the 1% wants.
That's understandable. Look at what they see when they wake up. They don't understand real life in the economics of what it is to be depressed. Poor disadvantaged by governments that rely on corporations for everything. They make the deals and guess what? We get the product they get to use us. #youtube 😢
-criticizes someone for a shallow analysis
-entire analysis can be summed up by just saying “greed” 😂
A box of Kraft macaroni and cheese went up by 150% the past 3 years and there’s less in the box. It matters that Chick-Fil-A costs $15. The cluelessness of the liberal wealthy.
ok major dumbass. i've told the troops to ignore this article. awaiting next instruction.
Are you “fortunate” or wise with your money? You probably stayed out of debt, didn’t buy things you couldn’t afford, saved a portion of your wages for long term growth, upgraded your education to get a better paying job, lived below your means…..
I live in one of the most affordable apartment buildings in my city (that isn’t designated for low income). Here’s the thing, though… I’m not low income. I earn $90k or more per year. The rent is comfortable for my budget ($1,800/ month).
I have no idea how people are able to afford the average rent in my area for 2 bedroom apartments is around $2300 a month. Obviously, I could afford a higher priced unit, but I need to save for retirement and I’m over 50 so health insurance is quite expensive for my age demographic.
I seriously have no idea how people can afford rents on larger properties. Like, how many people in my region are earning more than $150,000 a year? With housing prices rising to a median of $500k and rents being about $4-5k per month for a family sized home, something isn’t adding up. 🤷♀️
Probably have significant market investments
Average wages for a software engineer is around $140k, a married couple could be double that.
my 15 year mortgage, before i paid if off, was onley 2200$ why you renting?
@@dr_flunks The average house payment in San Jose, CA was $8,581 in 2023 for a 30 year mortgage. That is $102,972 per year. You got yours before the inflation got bad and when interest rates were low.
Gosh! 40 years of tax cuts for the rich & corporations and 40 years of spending cuts of social programs. What could possibly go wrong?
Taxing the ill gotten money of the wealthy will only legitimize their theft of the money in the first place. We must stop them from taking so much of it before taxes. It isn't their money at all.
Tax receipts as % of gdp have risen from 17 to 20% in past 60 years. Deficits as % of gdp have risen from 0 to 12%. The problems are out of control spending and who is carrying the tax burden
YOUR RIGHT, TRUMP ADDED 7 TRILLON TO THE NATIONAL DEBT, THE MOST OF ANY PRESIDENT IN THE PAST
I'll slow you one stat from my county where I live that's more than makes up for any reduced inflation or even dropping in prices. Home in my county (very poor area in northern NY) went from avg of $78k to just under $200k in 3 years and mortgage rates doubled and housing inventory is down 92%. So that means the average mortgage here went from $330 a month in 2020 to $1,500 a month in 2024 and it's actually worse than that because there's no homes for sale in the market of home I would be looking at buying would would have been in the rage of $225,000 before the pandemic and now it's $600,000 even up here. So the mortgage on a house I would have got would have been about $900 a month now it's about $4,500 a month 😂 and insurance and tax's would be much higher as well. So no the lower of the gain in inflation doesn't do anything compared to that. But anyone that owns assets like a home with a 2.8% mortgage like all my older siblings they all got almost a half million dollars in equity gained in their house some even more in my home state of Massachusetts for doing nothing..
Ezra, you should have Matt Stoller on here. He has the best explanation for high prices I've heard: termites. Not literal termites, but economic termites: businesses that worm their way into some small niche of the economy and start slowly devouring it. A lot of this has been made possible by the abandonment of antitrust policy by the Reagan administration. Considering that businesses can now just buy up all their competitors, it's not surprising that prices are stubbornly high.
they infested the residential housing market ....
If you think people are angry now, wait untill people start going hungry. Thats when the torches and pitchforks come out. I think its past time for that honestly. Read or reread Grapes of Wrath. 😊
No, wait until they have to make their own coffee instead of buying their God given right to $7 Starbucks
Did anyone else notice that Ezra and his wife speak exactly the same way? Like same tone, pauses, delivery. 😅
old proverb .. when people share the same pillow .. soon they share the same head ...
At work about every other month they post a letter in the break room praising all of the employees for record monthly sales. But when you get your review, well 3% is all they can give you, sorry its the budget you know. But hey they bought us pizza on Friday 😂😂. I can think if a couple places id like to stick that pizza 😊 9:53
Milton Friedman: “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon, in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.” It's so pathetic that these economic journalists don't understand this relatively simple principle.
Perhaps they are property of the Fed?
The cost of a mortgage, the rising interest rates for loans of any kind, the cost of insurance for both homes and cars, have skyrocketed; I can't really say the same about wages. As someone on the lowest end of the wage scale I can tell you that despite what Ezra says, my wages have NOT kept pace with my rent, my car payment, my insurance, gasoline, the groceries, etc etc. I'm not young and not looking to buy a home at this point, but any thought I had of retiring has vanished along with my 401k. I'm not alone. I'm part of a growing segment of the population. And we are NOT being discussed here - it's like we don't exist or they think we're making this up. But you can't, you know. You can't make this up.
Listen to this women. The answer is always, take money from this group give money to this group. Like free market is never tried. How about, understanding that prices are way up. If you have 100% inflation one year and the next year you have 0% inflation, things still cost twice as much. You get no credit for 0% inflation last year because you are still paying 100% more than two years ago. This lady is an elitist who think you can fix the free market by making it less free. By making it a socialist economy.
You can't say that you care about housing when you let a million new people come in across our borders. You can't care about crime when you put criminals back on the street. You can't claim to care about vaccines when you get in millions of unvaccinated people. This lady wants to fix the economy just because she thinks Biden will lose the election. She does not realize that whenever you try a socialist idea to fix the economy, inevitably you break it somewhere else. Governing the economy is not a game of wack-a-mole.
Low tax rates on wealthy investors mean they search for investment opportunities like buying up housing and renting it out to you. That lowers the supply and keeps those assets up in price.
It's all about wealth inequality.
@@MrSteeDoo No, in my little town and in the big city, people bought up the homes at 0% and at 5.5%. If they could flip or rent the homes for less than the cost to own the home they do. A hard working handy man who can fix up or maintain homes will buy a second home as income and investment. He is not rich. He is merely making money on his skill. The rich guy who rents his house may chose Vegas vacations instead of saving. Nothing in the bank, but he has a high paying job. Wealth inequity will always grow because zero is flat and some people always make and have zero. With inflation, others will make and have more. So depression is the only way to cause wealth equity, everyone has zero. But as long as there are more and more government employees, they always benefit when high taxes and depression kill everyone who does not make money through the government.
@@gladyskravitz1000 I am a government employee. I do Survey work on road construction. Are you telling ;me that I am the problem? LOL
@@MrSteeDoo I'm telling you that the government controls most of the jobs in the economy now. The economy is largely socialist. And will be completely socialist in a few years. For all intents and purposes we are no longer a capitalist society. Like Russia and China we are a planned society which never works well.
If money is taken from one group and given to another then the solution should be simple. Take money from another and give it back to the other. This isnt socialism
I thought that the 2% inflation target was arrived when modelling the sheep at market in New Zealand
Summary: “The economy isn’t bad. People are just mad because they are frequently reminded that things cost way more than 4 years ago, and their wages haven’t gone up.”
Let’s talk consumer credit card debt.
The economy isn't bad because we bigshots can still puff on cigars all day.
The missing parameter is level of Trust the public has in its rulers and institutions.
Trust no one
You don't mention the purchase price of new and used cars, or the cost of maintenance/repairs. Transportation is a necessity.
I worked in auto repair and hated the experience. At one time, some guy could buy a retired cop car, then drive it for years using basic tools and a few common auto parts. Not anymore.
To say it short - rich people and government spend too much on their pleasures, wonders and ideas and pay too little for the works that are necessary.
Millennial parents up in here 👍 Childcare expense is why I stopped teaching and changed careers. All under a political regime that is supposed to help civil servants.
Do remember that since 2022, Republicans are half of "supposed to help civil servants". The Senate can only block a filibuster if 60% of the members block it.
Having at least a BA, you doubtlessly know this, right?
Some things you might be interested in looking at are historic housing prices. Look at cities. In my case, while things have levelled off, my house in Colorado Springs more than doubled in value from 2016 to 2020. Rents have followed suit. Inflation? I suggest you look at historical inflation in France, Germany, England, pick five random first-world countries.
Yeah, Biden failed in some areas. Every president fails in some ways. Maybe an autocracy would help? Look at Hungary, Turkey, other places of your choice. Ignore things like Duerted massacring homosexuals and focus on the benefits.
Keep in mind the saying, "when the Fed taps on the brakes, someone goes through the windshield". Do some research. Don't just focus on USA.
Would things be better for teachers under Trump or Biden, in your opinion? My mom was a teacher.
Americans are always caught between their belief in 'entitlement' for 'cheap goods' and their belief that Business should be deregulated and government should not interfere with Business. This produces an insane economy. 'Cheap goods' come from overseas countries with 'cheap labor' and often no environmental concerns. On the other hand, there is a belief that everything should be privatized to keep government out of our business ... so to speak. And, the business model of Business shifted to profits for shareholders and high CEO salaries and therefore, prices such as medical care, housing, and child-care all become 'for-profit' and not for wellness or affordability and therefore off the wall expensive. When everything is 'privatized' with such a business model, then expect to have your money sucked out and aggregated upwards.
Deregulation had a huge effect on 'who gets the money'. Used to be seven oil companies. now there are TWO Exxon Mobile and Texaco. Those two bought up all the others (even though the others kept their own names, to keep the illusion that there are more companies than there actually are).
@@d.e.b.b5788 Yup. Coca Cola 'owns' over 500 brands. There used to be 5,000 seed companies in the US. There are only a handful. Monstanto owns 70-90% of the global soya and feed corn and is owned by Bayer Meyers. The Global Restructuring gave away capitalism for Corporatism.
I think about how Trump made it big for saying he would tax the shit out of China for all the smog and discount labor. The establishment wouldn't dare say that.
we avoided inflation for 40+ years so this is uncharted for most people ...
@@direwolf6234 We had inflation ever since money printer went brrrrr.
Telling us what we already know. Even when inflation comes down the price of goods remain at the same higher price; example car insurance has gone up some 30% over the last few years.
the economy is booming, but the people are suffering. there's a disconnect there....
Booming literally
After listening to this couple and their real lack of awareness and cluelessness of the real suffering of struggling Americans to stay afloat is extremely enlightening.
What are you saying?
@@KK-pm7ud They're minimizing the real suffering of real people and his wife was laughing when reading some of the statistics about inflation and the unemployment rate. Totally clueless, and out of touch with what's really going on because they have money.
@@user-ix7se4lb3s Let them eat cake
top tier couple with top tier jobs ..
THEY ARE ONLY TRYING TO EXPLANE THE CURRENT SITUATION
Talking about a problem in a circle is a perfect way to not find a solution. To get to a solution you first need to define what the problem actually is. Start with actually defining what inflation actually is and not just keep saying inflation.
Education, health, housing, and child care are the difficult to globalize sectors. They increased in price relative to everything else because they could not be off-shored to China. In addition to being domestically anchored, they are the traditionally feminized sectors, which are ‘care’ services, requiring emotional ‘work’, and human connection. Until the 20th century, these social needs were met as part of household management, as gendered work. Often this was supplemented by the church delivering services to local communities. In most advanced economies, as religion declined in importance and women joined the workforce, welfare states took over responsibility for those sectors, and transformed them into modern public services.
yikes
Accurate. In America, the rearing of healthy, well socialized, educated and emotionally intelligent, emotionally stable children is devalued as are the roles around caregiving and mental health. I would like to see a change. There is too much emphasis on pure economics, not enough on well being and human flourishing.
@@arxsynchange is the only constant
Wonderful comment.
One in 3 Americans eat fast-food every day, 2 in 3 once a week? That seems an overestimation, but gives one pause.
where is the source ??
When I was working, I ate fast food for lunch every day. If I had been married, I would have taken a sack lunch.
@@Matthew_Loutner why ? cheaper or healthier ...
@direwolf6234 Convenience. I had no one to cook for me.
I find that fast food is about 3 times more expensive than cooking from scratch at home.
I do not consider it any more or less unhealthy. We make our sandwiches at home from refined bleached white bread. That is the same thing we get on a fast-food hamburger.
To be more precise, I ate breakfast at fast-food and I ate lunch at fast-food. In the evening, I either ate at a traditional restaurant or fast-food, depending.
The population in the USA has doubled since 1950. Double the people can't all live in Manhattan without the prices going up. It's impossible for everyone to live where they want to live without supply and demand being a factor.
Yeah, being lectured by these two is a bit much.
and the others at the atlantic are no better ...
We have not yet come to grips with the elephant in the housing market.
Homeowners have both the political power and the financial incentive to restrict supply and drive up prices. Universal homeownership is a chimera, and a particularly destructive one to pursue, because once a majority of people own homes, they can shut down construction for the rest. And that is exactly what has happened. The result has been a massive transfer of wealth from younger generations to the Boomers.
There is no way to keep housing affordable in the long run except to limit homeownership to about 1/3 of the population. If 2/3 of people rent, they will demand sufficient construction.
what about the hedge funds taking over entire communities outbidding regular people ....
There was so much unneeded stimulus including "the build better" (or whatever it was called) that I am surprised that inflation was just 9%. Too bad this was not mentioned as a reason for the inflation...
Well somebody got that money. They must be doing OK.
In Europe, we had ever longer lockdowns, everyone had their wages covered, and there is not the same rampant inflation as in the USA. I don't understand how inflation was caused by a couple of $1,500 checks, that doesnt even cover a month's expenses.
@gauloise6442 first of all - the check were given to everyone, and not the only those who needed it. My family got the checks even though we continued to work remotely. Then there was also money to businesses with some of these loans forgiven. So you have it..
The elephant in the room: Economic anger may lead to fascism under Trump, which would result in even worse economic anger.
The idea that greedflation is off the mark because it implies something evil about corporations only holds up if one believes that capitalism is not somewhat evil in and of itself. It might be a necessary evil-I don’t know enough economics to say whether other systems could work adequately at the scale of industrial societies-but capitalism provides considerable incentives for the people and organizations which comprise it to behave in ways that are morally repugnant. That’s why, for example, selling organs for transplant had to be outlawed, and why Medicaid provides free dialysis for people with inadequate kidney function (because otherwise survival to reach the front of the transplant queue would be determined by ability to pay). At least as presently constituted, capitalism doesn’t price in externalities like ‘people dying from circumstances imposed on them by others’, and by default punishes entities that would prefer not to create harmful externalities by making them less competitive. That’s evil, plain and simple.
Also. I will believe that the economy is “good” for ordinary Americans when poor and working-class people in my city don’t commonly live in shantytowns.
Possibly the most disgusting part of this podcast.
Wow... how dumb...
"Falling prices are bad. People stop buying things. Why buy now if you can wait two weeks and the price will be lower?" No pushback. No challenge, because we are so obsessed with the ideology of economic growth.
People will buy what they need. If people don't buy things that they don't need until two weeks or two months later, how is that a problem? It's only a problem in a world where natural wealth is not shared. [Not sharing natural wealth means that poor people get EVEN poorer, as the rich get richer due to their heightened ability to maneuver into the most advantageous positions from which to gain more wealth / exploit a free ride on the Commons. (We are not accounting for externalities, so much of the opportunity the economy provides for amassing wealth / making profit is related to instances where environmental costs are foisted onto the larger society, future generations and the larger community of life.)]
IF natural wealth were shared, people would be assured of a substantial minimum. There would be less pressure on central banks to 'juice the economy' by boosting the money supply. The system could be dynamically stable without manipulation of interest rates by government, if natural wealth were shared.
Inflation is essential in a debt-based monetary system. No one will loan money if just by holding it, it gains in purchasing power. Fix the money, fix the system
@@andrewhill1251 Maybe you can think of a counterpoint to your claim. As the inflation rate declines, the amount of interest that must be paid to induce someone to lend money declines. This suggests that the reluctance to lend money is small when inflation is low.
When inflation is very low, or when prices fall over time, people will tend to postpone purchases for things that they don't need at the moment. This has an overall dampening effect on non-essential industry. Deflation should be a primary aim of climate / environmental activists, for this reason.
Maybe a more accurate point that you could make in this context is that, if there is no inflation, or if there is deflation, people will not need inducement of bank interest rates to encourage savings. Simply holding cash is a reasonable financial strategy in that context. (People may be willing to pay a small (or large, depending) fee to someone who borrows their money, if they see that the project that is enabled by the loan improves the world in a way that pleases them, and/or if it eliminates a security challenge related to physically storing the cash.)
How many times did Donald Trump declare bankruptcy?
6 ...
For younger and/or lower income people, the situation is horrible for the upward life trajectory that they might expect. Even if the jobs/wage data is 100% as wonderful as it's made out to be, those aren't even close to making up the gap in housing costs and interest rates. The stock market also doesn't really matter unless you have tens of thousands to throw at 1 or 2 tech stocks.
This is also likely the main reason why Biden is losing lower income minority voters. It's aspirational.
An angry public is logical in a closed system that has ever increasing resource constraints, especially when the public learning of those constraints becomes easier with advancing communication technologies. The closed system is our planet. The speed of communication is unprecedented. The resource constraints grow due to how humans have chosen to live. Most politicians do not wish to mirror that self destruction on the public.
The Scandinavian Welfare System removes some concerns for people who are low-income and less educated. It is less greedy than the USA and we have simplified some aspects of daily life for the majority of people. You have still the ability to follow your dream but worries about health care, education, child care, and social events are very reduced.
So the USA is "greedy" ?
What, exactly, is the USA?
@@Matthew_Loutner It is an area with a certain set of laws and a group of people sharing some common values and with the power to influence others to adhere to those values. At the same time a large group of ignorant passive people not understanding and not caring about what the group with power actually is doing.
@@bjrnhjortshjandersen1286 Your definition fails to clarify how or what part of it is greedy. Or the whole thing? . . . or what?
@@Matthew_Loutner Sorry I just tried to define the limits of the USA. Greed is more subtle as it is a common human trait and it has different qualities. Efficiency is a form of Greed but should be considered positive as it is balanced with the saving of some unnecessary waste. The negative kind of greed is defined as the attempt to accumulate money value beyond what is necessary for survival and safety and at the same time deprive others of the ability to have a safe life and enough income to live safely and with the potential to improve their quality of life. If a society is made without protection against misfortune and your whole existence is based on an ability to collect wealth on an individual basis to pay for health, education, childcare, and insurance towards social events like sudden inability to earn a living you will have a society where greed is the ultimate driver. Such societies have high inequalities, many social problems, high crime rates, class tensions, and big pressure. So my answer is everybody in such a system has to be greedy and hoard as much money they can because money decides the future for yourself and your kids. In Europe, many countries balance this with the state collecting high taxes and distributing wealth so more people may succeed in life. This is making greed a much less important driver in life.
More pillow talk. Less economics 😆
$300 for a lousy concert ticket. It is the greed! Lack of affordable Healthcare, greed. Housing, greed.😢 Food and gas, greed!
Chicken Pilates, that's how I feel about the economy.
Ez nailed it - the housing crisis is the everything crisis. It drives up the cost of everything from policing to medical care, because the people who provide those things need a place to live too. But then they start talking about building codes and zoning - yes do this, but realize that the effects are marginal, you won't get 5 million units (I bet it's really 10m+ for 45 year olds to not need roommates to stay indoors) in the urban supermetros where people need to live to get decent jobs from zoning reform, at least not before the demand rises to a 20m unit deficit. Building in heavily populated areas is a slow process, unless you have totalitarian control and can just evict masses of people to clear areas for building. The only real solution is (1) slow national population growth to let the housing supply catch up and (2) geographically diversify economic activity to regions where housing exists or it's cheaper/easier to build, through industrial planning and incentives.
Having people live in tents or under bridges is not good. So 2 is the best answer, along with policies that bring economic development.
Note there's a huge amount of land tied up in parking in many cities. This is set by local zoning rules. Lower the minimum parking space counts and bulldoze some one-story strip shopping centers and suddenly there's significantly more space for building.
If land is truly scarce like in Boston, the parking can be integrated into the same building for a price.
property taxes are the worst. dirty teachers and cops are milking us at the local level. greatest corruption is local.
I also think about what would happen were only a place to live and absolutely not another line to go up. Break Blackrocks and Vanguards, and anything like it.
@@skylinefever To my knowledge, the lack of housing is driven mostly by self-interested NIMBYs and local zoning rules. It is supply and demand setting prices (plus alleged apartment price fixing by RealPage).
It is a government inspired crisis this time. The Treasury have to sell Bonds to cover the trade imbalance and the government spending imbalance. In order to sell them they have to raise interest rates and the old long-term, low risk, low interest, AAA investments (including Treasury Bonds), held by the banks (often due to government regulatory policy), become next to worthless. The next milestone is the 15th when the government issue a new batch of Bonds. I have approximately 350k stagnant in my portfolio that needs growth. What is the best way to take advantage of this downturn?
Indeed, you are correct! Economic downturns offer numerous prospects for ordinary individuals to create wealth from the ground up. Nevertheless, seeking guidance from an investment planner might be necessary if you desire a more assertive return.
I’m a contractor, and my job doesn’t permit me the time to properly analyze my holdings/evaluate stocks myself, so I’ve had a fiduciary actively restructuring my portfolio for the past 7 years now to match the present market condition and that’s how I’ve been able to stay afloat, knowing when to buy and sell…maybe you should do the same.
Could you kindly elaborate on the advisor's background and qualifications?
I just Googled her name and her website came up right away. It looks interesting so far. I'm going to send a mail to her and let you know how it goes.Thanks for sharing truly!
This interview fell flat for me. The overall tone felt very dismissive of the daily issues most people have to face, almost like a prolonged "shrug". I'm not sure who participated in the survey where Americans answered they're doing "pretty well" but everyone I know is doing worse than 5 years ago. And the fact that people with less money complain less about inflation... it's like this. If i can't afford a 50,000 purchase now, what difference does it make for me if that item increases to 75,000?
Anyway this entire piece felt like you guys were saying "you shouldn't be complaining and you have no reason to". And that irritated me.
I am a medical provider : we work Very hard to get into our programs & we work hard in our programs. My kid & I live in a micro mini 1 bdrm apt. No, Providers do Not get Lower wages!!!
Around an hour and 11 minutes in it was said the public feels like they're being gaslighted. That is the only thing they got correct.
Is it because the public has unrealistic expectations about how much they can consume? Households are spending record amounts on non-essentials.
@@user-qo4kb4dr1i If only these Millennials would stop buying their Starbucks they could buy a house....
@@gauloise6442 I don't think that's true, unless you're talking about a house in a rural area, then yeah. Some houses are just a few thousand dollars. If you get lunch at starbucks everyday that's probably $6000, which is like half a house in a rural area.
@@gauloise6442 maybe a better question - do you think if someone spends a $1000 less, they will have $1000 more in their bank account? Or do you think money expires if not spent by the end of the month? Americans spent $136 billion on pets. I know people who are living paycheck to paycheck BECAUSE they spend $5000 on their pets every year. That $5000 spent on an elderly dog could be spent on saving the lives of many children in a "POS country" that you think isn't worthy of your attention and empathy
It's about disposable income. The economy seems solid because of the violent increase of debt at all levels. This too shall end.
isn't that a repeat of 2008?
It’s ridiculous that “prices” don’t include housing or healthcare. Sure, “prices” are in line with wages. That doesn’t matter when basic rent and healthcare have doubled.
Builders are concentrating on building apartment units and senior multi housing units. Health care costs going up while we send billions of money to other countries. We need to take care of Americans first. One reason why Americans are pissed off. As far as food, we have too many individuals having children who can barely take care of themselves, yet they expect society to help feed their children.
It is not unreasonable for people to start families in the hopes that things will improve.
So children are a luxury accessory that only the wealthy are privileged to have?