[karaterobot]

> Software price hikes are driven in part by inflation. The cost of living has surged post-pandemic in most economies. Higher electricity costs, chip shortages, and rising wages all increase the cost of doing business.

Not that there hasn't been inflation, but prices have gone up much more in the last year than inflation itself has. Inflation is 3.2%, lower than the 100-year average in the U.S. It was higher a year ago, but still only about 9%. All of the price increases in that article are significantly higher than that, most are multiples of that. Even if they hadn't raised their prices for a few years prior, that still doesn't add up. I don't buy inflation as a valid excuse, though I would it as an invalid excuse they're still using because people perceive it as true.

[DoughnutHole]

It’s not caused by general inflation, it’s a response to the attempts to mitigate inflation.

Increased interest rates have meant an end to cheap credit and put a damper on stock prices.

Companies are trying to shore up their valuation by signalling to investors that they are driving towards profitability rather than debt-driven growth. This means raising the price of their product and cutting costs (ie layoffs).

[zakary]

If the published inflation rate is significantly less than the increase in price of a wide variety of goods, then doesn’t that indicate that the inflation rate isn’t being calculated correctly? My understanding is the inflation rate should generally reflect how much more expensive things are getting each year

[ShadowBanThis01]

The ever-more-tiresome issue is that the textbook, accepted-by-rote relationship of interest rates to inflation hasn't held up. The Fed has raised, raised, raised rates for what, a couple of years now? To negligible effect.

That's because nobody is calling the administration to task for allowing the REAL cause of recent spiraling costs: monopoly and oligopoly. This is straight-up corporate profiteering and price-gouging. It's infuriating to see the dereliction of the press's duty in its failure to demand answers, and to regurgitate embarrassing circular "logic" by saying "higher prices are driving inflation!"

In other news: The heat is driving up temperatures around the world.

[jdsully]

It’s just been one year and this has been one of the fastest raises in history. Give it some time to work.

[ShadowBanThis01]

When the four or so meat processors whine about a "labor shortage" and then report gargantuan profit increases, I'm not really keen on waiting any more. And meat is just one example.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/blog/2021/12/10/rec....

[jefftk]

It's typical that prices change by different amounts in different areas. For example, if you go to https://www.bls.gov/cpi/ you'll see that the overall +3.2% for June is broken up into +4.9% for food, -12.5% for energy, and +4.7% for everything else. The more finely you slice, the more often you'll see something moving very differently from the rest of the economy.

[killingtime74]

It's a weighted basket of goods and services meant to represent average consumer. Not everything in the basket has to increase at the same rate.

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-...

Here is the latest quarter and each element's contribution https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-...