Poll: Inflation rate

[ATCclears]

What do you feel the Inflation rate is? Please vote.

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[MissJ]

I voted for 7-9% but that might even be too optimistic. I meticulously track my actual cost of staples (rice, beans, milk) and ammo, clothing, socks, diapers, animal feed etc.

I don't apply gasoline to this because it's so volatile. yes, food CAN be volatile with drought etc. but food has been rising steadily for a while now. PAY ATTENTION to packaging...not the size of the box but the label...now they are putting less food in the same sized box for the same price. So when you go to the grocery store you'll see your favorite box of cereal is still 2.99 and the box is the same size, label looks the same etc. but it actually now has only 14 oz instead of 16 oz. Most people will NEVER notice this....

that innocuous 14 oz "trick" represents almost a 14% increase in the price of that cereal. Not all examples are as high or as obvious as food...

Something else we don't see, but we feel is products where they CANNOT raise the price or reduce the quantity due to the nature of the product, or the stiff competition...so what they do instead is reduce their QUALITY or their SERVICE.

I am in medical and we are feeling the crunch just like any other industry. Well, we can't just raise rates in the middle of the year, and we cannot refuse service...so we just give crappier service. Now, I'm not saying that as a healthcare provider that I would ever make a decision to deliver poor healthcare....but the administrators do when they cut staff, reduce support, eliminate "luxuries" for patients like soft toilet paper or proper temperature control in the building (fiddling with the thermostat to make it colder in the winter and hotter in the summer).

 

[gehrheart]

I have been noticing this as well on a lot o products....
Tricky. I try to buy most of my food in bulk. I almost never buy preprocessed food so mostly just the basics to make what ever I want.. But even the bulk bins are going up.

I meticulously track my actual cost of staples (rice, beans, milk) and ammo, clothing, diapers etc.

I don't apply gasoline to this because it's so volatile. yes, food CAN be volatile with drought etc. but food has been rising steadily for a while now. PAY ATTENTION to packaging...not the size of the box but the label...now they are putting less food in the same sized box for the same price. So when you go to the grocery store you'll see your favorite box of cereal is still 2.99 and the box is the same size, label looks the same etc. but it actually now has only 14 oz instead of 16 oz. Most people will NEVER notice this....

that innocuous 14 oz "trick" represents almost a 14% increase in the price of that cereal.

 

[trainsktg]

Expanding on what MissJ just said, my favorite example of this is packaged charcoal fish tank filters. A year or two ago, in a box of filters we would get four empty fiber filter bags and four packets of charcoal, packaged separately. You would pour the charcoal into the fiber bag, then insert the bag into the tank. Now, instead of four bags, you only get three, but now its 'New and Improved!' because they add the charcoal to the fiber bag at the factory, eliminating that difficult step for the consumer .

Keith

 

[MissJ]

In general I feel that the unemployment rate and the inflation rate are roughly double what the government tells us they are....

 

[knuckle Head]

Yep it usually is double or more they ADMITEDLY adjust the number telling us a bunch of sh!t that is seasonal adjustments and lot of other crap, did anyone hear that the last official unemployment rate put out by the BLS, was without one large state and they did not tell anyone. It was discovered by some market researchers who said the numbers had to be false.

In another words the gooberment lied to us again, big surprise right

<broken link removed>

Obama

 

[Sgt Nambu]

How do you tell if a politico is lying? His lips are moving!
Heating oil last year $870 and I was outraged!
Heating oil this year $1126! Guess I should have been pleased last year!

 

[Bigfoot]

I'd say bout 10%. Highest since Carters time. Wonder why don't hear about the Misery Index these days, not really.

The fed is digitally printing dollars again. QE3..going for 11%.

 

[knuckle Head]

Yep I have seen some item increase a litle, by little I mean 10%

I have Jack links jerky at samsclub go from $6.68 to $9.68 in less than 10 months.

Deluxe mixed nuts go from approx. $10.50 to $14.50 and now it he size of the package has gone from 40 ounces ot 34 ounces, called silent inflation.

Every business owner or manager I have talked to has said they have no choice their cost keep going up and cannot eat the cost anymore, either raise prices or go out of business, many windup doing both in time.

 

[jimwsea]

Ten to twelve percent over two years is just under five to six percent per year. I think our costs of living increases fit into that range...as a minimum.

 

[ATCclears]

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) will release the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers on October 16. I do not believe that the CPI accurately represents the hidden inflation (e.g. price held constant, but you get less for that price) that I am observing and experienced in everyday life, and it seems that many of you are getting hit by the same.

Consumer Price Index (CPI)

Peter

 

[knuckle Head]

And here I thought BLS meant Bureau of Liquified Sh!t and that CPI Meant Consumer Poisoning Index

I say this because I can never believe anything I read from them, they have so many adjustments on there, it is like reading the small print on a credit card application.

Glad you straightened me out here on this one,

 

[AlphaCoyote]

The inflation rate (however you want to measure it) is calculated and reported based on known economic data. So why ask people's opinion about it? It's like asking people's "opinion" about the population of Sweden.

Unless you are just trying flush out the uninformed (10%?!) or get people to assert that people who measure such things are all liars trying to trick us in furtherance of their calculated political subterfuges (there are some here), I'm not sure what the point of this exercise is.

 

[Guilty]

The inflation rate (however you want to measure it) is calculated and reported based on known economic data. So why ask people's opinion about it? It's like asking people's "opinion" about the population of Sweden.

Unless you are just trying flush out the uninformed (10%?!) or get people to assert that people who measure such things are all liars trying to trick us in furtherance of their calculated political subterfuges (there are some here), I'm not sure what the point of this exercise is.

My guess is that the poll is designed to show peoples ignorance on data that can easily be found.

 

[Burt Gummer]

Whatever the government says it is because the government never lies or deceives.

Weimar-like hyperinflation will never happen. We can continue to print trillions of dollars for ourselves and as gifts to unspecified foreign banks forever out of thin air, backed by nothing.

The Fed will keep interest at 0% to 1% forever and ever amen. Americans, dumb as they are, won't mind that banks get money essentially for free and then charge 15-21% on credit cards + fees, etc. Mobsters never had it so good.

There is no consequence for massive dilution of the US dollar since supply and demand do not apply.

Go back to sleep.

 

[slimmer13]

77% of all percentages posted on the internet are made up.

 

[Burt Gummer]

77% of the numbers stated by the government are made up.

 

[motoman98]

and lastly, 77% of the population is ASLEEP................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[deen_ad]

Since they removed fuel and food costs from the inflation equation it's gone way down (according to the government that is). they removed the two biggest factors so the rate would seem lower to the public.

 

[Trailboss]

The official forumula for calculation of inflation has been modified many times over the past century. At times it needed to be changed because the items in the basket didn't represent the changing times. Example, when they replaced the cost of shoeing a horse with the cost of a car tire it better reflected our current day change in cost. However, when they decided to remove gasoline because it rose too much in cost, or when they decided to remove heating fuel because it made the inflation numbers look bad, that was outright manipulation of the inflation numbers. Folks that think the government is speaking truth need to wake up.