According to Politico, the big Republican pushback against Bidenomics is that, sure, inflation is lower, but the price of food hasn't gone down. For the record, this hasn't happened a single time in the past 50 years:
Food prices never go down. Sometimes they only go up a little bit—as in 2010 and 2016—but never down.
Now, I get it. GDP growth is strong. Unemployment is low. Wages are rising. Inflation is under control. The prime-age labor participation rate has been above the Trump peak for four consecutive quarters. Investment has been at record highs for ten consecutive quarters. The stock market is up. Construction is booming.
So what's left to complain about? Poverty was up in 2022, but obviously Republicans don't want to talk about that. There's just nothing.
So all that's left is to invent something. And they have.
Republicans aren’t really complaining. Democrats are evil no matter if life is good or bad.
Anyway - at the grocery store today I bought some chicken and it’s been the same price for 2 years.
Well, of course SOME prices go down, but CPI goes up. Remember everyone hollering about eggs last year (ZOMG, they're $5/dozen!!!!!). Those prices went down, as expected. In fact, back in October/November, eggs were cheaper than they were pre-pandemic.
I have a friend who loves to use the argument that prices not going down is a big disqualifier since they went up so much during the inflation peak in 2022. When I pointed out that the prices of eggs is down, he claimed that they were still higher than they were when Trump was president. So I googled the price of eggs at Walmart and asked him if that was more than they were when Trump was in office. He googled that and, lo and behold! the price was lower.
Of course, that didn't change his mind at all, but at least he doesn't talk about eggs any more.
Well, when Obama was dragging America back out of W. Bush’s horrendous Great Recession, Republicans shrieked hysterically about the “labor force participation rate.”
Murdoch—the guy who wrote a billion dollar check for lying to ensure he could keep lying without telling his viewers he was lying to them—will find some inane metric that his shills will parade 24/7 for months as obvious evidence that this is the Worst Economy in American History.
His reward when Trump is reelected will be another fat corporate tax cut.
They've already got the insane metric. It's "total inflation rate" which simply adds the inflation numbers of all the years Biden has been president. Then you use that to say that his record is the WORST EVER. It isn't -- Biden's yearly average is about on par with Nixon, a little higher than Reagan (!), and quite a bit lower than Ford or Carter. (and Obama had the lowest average inflation rate since JFK).
Being pissed off that prices remain high after a period of inflation is basically an inflation hangover. It goes away eventually as people get used to the new normal.
I'd like to know how those food price numbers are adjusted for shrinkage in volume. Biden remarked on that recently, "Shrinkflation. Did you see that article about the Snickers bars?" Which was a reference to a New York Times article, "Why Are Voters So Upset? Consider the Snickers Bar".
There has been shrinkage (many containers that used to be 32 ounces are now 30 ounces) and that irritates consumers. If, later on, the price is lowered, it's unrealistic to expect consumers to remember the price/volume in the past and use that ratio to adjust the price they are paying now. Get real. They know is the volume is less. They aren't going to calculate inflation/shrinkage adjustments for their consumption pattern. They aren't going to seek out a FRED chart. The impression remains that food prices are higher.
This is a good example of how policy wonks are divorced from the reality of how people behave. Look here! The seasonally adjusted price per gram of a different mix of beans in the chili means people are spending less. Let's celebrate!
"Shrinkflation" has been a thing for years, particularly in products with commodities like cocoa and coffee, whose price have been very volitaile.
While everyone's complaining about the price of eggs or meat, you rarely see stories running with the real lede: drought and climate change are devastating agriculture not just in the US, but around the world, leading to supply chain disuptions and (esp) higher prices. Beef prices are so high right now not because Joe Biden is somehow sending magical inflation beams to Texas, but because an unprecedented drought in the Midwest last year forced ranchers to cull their herds and there are a lot fewer steers to send to market this year. A historic drought in Brazil has caused coffee and soybean prices to spike. This kind of stuff is the new normal, I'm afraid, and most voters, particularly if they don't live a drought-impacted regions, don't have a clue. So they just blame the President.
Its part of the CPI calculation.
If prices stay the same, but all the product (and service?) sizes shrink by 1%, then inflation goes up 1%.
Well you just KNOW that if they're not going up NOW then prices are just going to go through the ROOF soon!! What is Biden doing about THAT?!?
Also BORDer ... uh, wait, can't do that one now, uh ... Biden OLD!! Old old OLD!!!
They'll shriek about whatever Fox tells them to shriek about, and then they'll all belong, and that's really what matters to them. The subject, the substance, the truth or falsity of it -- that's all immaterial.
We clearly need a world when there was a chicken in every pot, families had 2.4 kinds and 2.1 cars, and Mom was an alcoholic because Dad was a misogynistic dick.
And the browns knew their place!
We need to be clear: the more processed an item is, the less likely it'll drop in price.
On the far end of that spectrum, your lettuce is about the same as it was pre-pandemic while your Oreos are insanely expensive.
Yeah, basic tomatoes only got to $3 a pound this winter, and they never did last, even though the prior five years they always went to $5 at some point.
Wait: did you adjust for inflation for the price of food?