I woke up late this morning, and headed over to the Wall Street Journal to see how the economy was faring. Not so well, apparently:
They just can't help themselves, can they? The Journal is so obsessed with killer inflation that they'll find any excuse to overhype it. This time it's bicycles.
Bicycles!
This is the best they can do? Here's the price of bicycles over the past couple of years:
Prices are up only slightly more than the overall rate of inflation. There's just nothing to see here. Honestly, if the Journal is truly dedicated to its narrative of inflation hysteria, they could at least pick examples of prices that really have gone up a lot. This is just laziness.
Wait. The WSJ believes there's an "all-powerful" bicycle lobby. No wonder they are squeezing the American consumer so unmercifully.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/06/03/wsj-editorializer-the-bike-lobby-is-an-all-powerful-enterprise/
If this were true, Mary Burke would have beaten Scott Walker in the Wisconsin governor's race in 2014.
Like Taft Republicans they only feared God and inflation.
The price of bicycles is 100% because of pandemic supply chain problems, and would be the case even if inflation was plummeting. Higher end bike manufacturers are literally duct taping bikes together with whatever they can find, and wait lists for a new bike are often a year long.
Anyone who tried to buy a bike to have something to do during quarantine knows this first hand.
Not only pandemic supply chain problems, but forgot to mention a MASSIVE spike in bicycle demand since the quarantine started.
I have to assume the WSJ understands basic economics, so yea, they're full of it.
The supply of bikes had cratered by the time we were shopping for a gift for my son's graduation. Orders took months to fill. That was June 2020. The WSJ article may be an article in a newspaper, but it's not "news."
Elsewhere in the economy...
Bloomberg has a fascinating chart on business profits. The past two quarters, profit margins have been the highest they've been since 1950.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-30/fattest-profits-since-1950-debunk-inflation-story-spun-by-ceos
That indicates there is more behind today's high prices than supply hiccups and greedy wage-earners. But of course ... it's all Joe Biden's fault.
(Again I'll say, the better parallel to today's high price "reset" is what happened in the late '40s/early '50s, not the '70s-'80s. In the earlier case, inflation spiked and then fell.)
This is also due to backlogs and supply chain issues related to Covid. I remember trying to get my bike fixed last year -- my local shop was totally sold out of everything and the tech used one of his last remaining components in stock to do whatever repair it was I needed. During the lockdown's everyone went out and got a bike. The suppliers still haven't caught up and since, with the exception of some really high-end models, almost all bikes and bike parts are made in China, things are tight.
Also, Kevin's graph shows bikes and other "sport vehicles". What vehicles are those (skateboards? scooters?) and how much are they affecting prices?
Maybe we should try to help them out. Proposed headlines for December:
Hemorrhoid cream price spikes causing heartburn
Millennials not adopting dogs, inflated food prices to blame: experts
MPAA blames piracy on inflation
Child's lemonade stand forced to use HFCS to compete
Skyrocketing illegal nanny labor costs threaten women's careers
Got 2200 miles on my Tom Swift electric bike. A step through from Rad City. Price for an improved version is $100 less than my price. INFLATION!!!
IMPEACH NOW!!!
My wife's carbon street bike may have jumped in price. Gotta check current price.
Do you live in town or ride a bike?
Yet scooters and divy bike(s) are still scattered everywhere in cities...
I must admit I am puzzled by the majority of the country’s reaction to all this. I tried working during the 1991, 2001, and 2008 recessions. It was a devastating experience trying to find work when no one was hiring. (Actually I did OK in 2008.) Back then, everyone was worried about losing their jobs. People had to put their lives on hold while they took whatever jobs they could find or sat at home not working. Compared to that, this is heaven!
Yes, things aren’t perfect, but everyone I know is working. I am just floored that, apparently, many people are thinking: During the Great Recession it took 8 or 9 years to get to this level of unemployment, but gas prices were lower - so Biden and his government are terrible.
This is insane.
Even with recent fallback, stock market still way up for the year--and still at historic (bubbly?) highs.
But it's a nightmare because--you might be asked to wear a mask? Maybe have to take a life saving vaccine to avoid regular testing? I can't get what I want immediately--overnight delivery is waiting too long? Gasp--there might be a delivery fee!!!
Earth to Drum: you do know that the WSJ is a Murdoch paper. Are you going to start quoting Fox News now too?
Are they talking about actual bicycles or electric bikes, y'know, with motors?
I'm so old school that I still think "a device that you peddle to get around" when I think "bicycle." Ditto for those little scooter things that kids used to zip around the neighborhoods on, pushing with one leg. Now they're all motorized, and so are the skateboards. Toddlers cruise the neighborhood streets in miniature cars, powered by big batteries. Well, if it gets them used to electric vehicles, I guess that's not too bad, although they belong on the sidewalk.
However, it' no wonder we Americans are out of shape and overweight.
Salamander, since you’re old school, maybe youll know this…
That guy in the picture is apparently adjusting something on his bicycle. Is that the “supply chain” he’s adjusting?
Probably! As heavy duty as those tires, wheels, and other components look, I wouldn't be surprised if it was some kind of literal motorbike - aka "motorcycle." The non-lycra set always confuse "bikers" (aka motorcycle riders) with "cyclists".
Given that I bought my last bicycle in the 1980s, I'm kind of out of touch...
Wondering: Bicycle purchases are what percentage of the CPI or PCE indices?
you gotta watch this, from WSJ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khYtTOQCypg
That was amazing!
Meanwhile, in Canada, a Conservative MP was outraged and complained to the Speaker because a Liberal MP who was responding to parliament via Zoom had a bicycle on a rack on the wall of his apartment partially appearing in the picture. The Conservative bitched that this was violating the restrictions on using props for delivering a message, as this was obviously propaganda from the environmental/Big Bike lobby.
I hope ratemyskyperoom roasted that Conservative MP.
P.S. The Liberal MP was commenting on a totally unrelated topic.
So, is "regular old inflation" a problem or not? For most of 2021, Kevin was skeptical it was even here.
Forget bicycles. That chart has got to be scary for people lower down the economic scale.
Just like Donnie, everything Rupert Murdoch touches turns to shit.
The Los Angeles Dodgers. National Geographic. MySpace.
This scans.
Of course, if you keep a bike lubed and out of the rain, it'll last decades.
That's what she said... oh wait. She was talking about something else.
A bike requires tire inflation in order to work - so whats the problem?
Higher inflation = easier to peddle
I think they think they're being clever by implying a widespread agreement: "Even liberal leftist commie Un-American cyclists admit there's inflation." Gawd, these people are stoopid. And ignirnt.
If you are willing to do some assembly bikesdirect.com has a ton of perfectly fine bikes.
I have been commuting on a $370 bike for the last two years. A car would have cost 223+110*24months (lease plus insurance) = $7920. Ride a bike and retire 10 years early.