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by stass 1943 days ago
CPI might not be high, but inflation can show itself in different places. Asset inflation has been increasingly high since 2019, which is clearly visible in stock market, real estate and commodity markets. Similarly, construction materials are up significantly.

It may or may not show up in consumer prices eventually.

1 comments

Sure, but this is not inflation. Inflation is an increase in the price level. When some prices are up and others down so that there is no general increase in prices, we cannot speak of inflation.
What prices are down? Big Macs? Flat screen TVs? Crap from Walmart?

How about the actual things you need: housing, groceries, college, gas, electricity, a vacation?

Due to the pressure on government to keep inflation low to avoid devaluing their dollar inflation is a gamed number and the goal posts have been moved to keep it low so things look good. Meanwhile the price on everything that I buy or want to buy is through the roof and I can’t find a job that will pay me more than my current one - guess I should have gone with software instead of hardware

In the Bay Area I've seen groceries creep up a bit but basically everything I buy(rent, fuel, consumer goods, information/entertainment services) has stayed the same over the last year or two.

Now, thanks to economic inequality, I think a lot of folks are feeling effective inflation, but the true value we define as 'inflation' has not risen much yet. Sure, some things are up, but they're not included in the calculation of 'inflation' so it makes sense to talk about them in different terms, I think.

Inflation is a general term for when the nominal price of goods increases disproportionately to the intrinsic or real value.

Inflation as represented by CPI is only one measure of inflation. Just because the Fed uses that measure to drive policy doesn't mean there isn't inflation in other areas of the economy, like housing.