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April inflation poll

Published on 14 Comments on April inflation poll

Let's test the economic mettle of my readers. Do you think inflation went up, down, or stayed the same last month? The BLS will report their results on Wednesday at 8:30 am Eastern time.

14 thoughts on “April inflation poll”

  2. middleoftheroaddem

    I would guess the level of change is small. I HOPE we get a decline in inflation: however, given China lockdowns and rising gas prices, a small increase is certainty possible.

  3. Salamander

    NPR detailed how the percentage of "inputs" to products hasn't changed much, as inflation rises, while the cost percentage of labor has actually decreased, and yet profits are dramatically up.

    This suggests that much of so-called "inflation" is profit-taking by businesses. And why not? The media howls every day about how high inflation has become and is getting worse, so why not raise one's prices and take advantage of it? It's only what everybody expects, right?

    And, as an added bonus, this reflects badly on Democratic president Joe Biden and by implication, on all Democrats. So, with an impending election, why not help assure "your side" has a big advantage and make a little extra cash, too?

    1. KenSchulz

      I suspect this is true of many products and services, other than those affected by supply or transportation issues. There is great cover right now for raising prices and having someone else get blamed, namely the Biden administration.

    2. middleoftheroaddem

      This theory 'current US inflation is primarily driven by price gouging' is not supported by most economists or economic theory. Further, if the aforementioned theory was true, then don't corporations utilize this gouging tool all the time?

      1. Salamander

        I'm not talking "economic theory"; this is analysis of recent data. Here's the NPR link for the full story:

        Are Corporations Using Inflationary Times to Raise Prices and Boost their Profits?"

        And here's the money quote (heh):

        "BIVENS: Well, if you can actually break down - it's like, how much of the cost of, like, output in the corporate sector - how much of that has risen because of higher wages, versus higher sort of non-labor input costs versus just fatter profit margins, a bigger markup on those two things. And it's the profit margins that really drive it. I mean, normally corporate profits should be about 12% of the cost of anything, whereas labor should be more like 60%. You know, since this recovery began, it's more like corporate profits accounting for 54% of the total rise in prices, whereas labor costs less than 8%. So it's not just the case that they're passing on costs given to them. They are putting on a much bigger markup than they usually do."

      2. KenSchulz

        Another chance to plug my favorite Econ paper, Asking about Prices by Alan Blinder et al. They tested eleven hypotheses by economists about how producers set prices against findings from interviews with actual business executives. All the hypotheses were wrong. All. So your assertion that ‘economic theory’ says producers aren’t taking advantage of high-profile price increases (gasoline and foods) to cover price hikes of their own can be taken with a grain of salt.

  4. golack

    I voted lower...but it may vary depending on inflation metric.
    People are spending more on services, i.e. going out, so that might ease some demand for goods.
    Gas prices are off their highs, but I'm not sure how that compares over the BLS time frame.
    Bird flu means prices for eggs and chickens will be going up.
    We'll see.

    1. JonF311

      Yes, gas prices were headed down for a while in April before abruptly shooting up again this month. I voted lower too for that reason.

  6. Zephyr

    I voted higher because of the price increases I am seeing. I bought three identical batteries the other day, and two of them were more than 10% more expensive than the other one indicating to me that the store had recently bumped the price up by that amount. Gas this week is $1 per gallon higher than last week. In my state the news is telling me it's the highest price every seen in the state. Diesel fuel is over $6 per gallon around here too, which impacts the prices of everything being delivered by truck.

    1. Spadesofgrey

      Nope. March's seasonal adjustment artificially raised inflation overall in March. These price increases already happened. April will have to pay that back.

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