Donatos has a Tuesday special, half price for a large works pizza that feeds me and the dogs for 2-3 meals: Feb 25, 2025 - DONATOS #158 HUNTSVILLE AL $14.16 Mar 04, 2025 - DONATOS #158 HUNTSVILLE AL $15.88 Bob Wilson
Of the top three things that cost P46 the election, inflation was probably #2. The Border was far and away the number one issue and Boys stealing sports scholarships from girls was probably third - although dementia was also a factor. If you're just now noticing inflation then you might want to widen your data set. Inflation isn't getting any better, and we've seen it before. P40 infamously caused inflation to spike in the first year of his FIRST term, IIRC.
That was then, this is now. We are both older than the average rabbit around here. So let's not fall into the 'old fart' habit of living in the past. <GRINS> I will buy another pizza next week or almost every week. Even at $15 for 2-3 meals, it is cheaper (and healthier) than McDonalds. I eat the toppings and the dogs love the carbs. Bob Wilson ps. My memories go back to Eisenhower and $0.05 Cokes and penny, wax-sweet candies.
That looks like roughly a 12% year-on-year inflation rate, but it's one product from one seller in one market. I can't recall hearing anyone report a number at all that high as a broad-based inflation rate for the same period. If you're not looking at a lot of products and sellers, you can see exaggerated swings just because of when a seller you happen to be looking at decided to adjust their price, for whatever reasons they did that. I had a family member a dozen years ago who was convinced by the talking heads that all the inflation numbers in official reports were falsified and it was really like 15%. I went through some actual grocery receipts with her and we came up with numbers very close (imagine that!) to the low single-digit official rates, nowhere near 15. So I am in favor of doing a bit of independent looking at local data (which may reveal to you that the official reports are lying to you or, just as usefully, reveal that they're not). But the basket being analyzed probably needs to have more in it than one product from one shop.
I could have given a link like that to my family member, only the talking heads had her convinced that reported numbers are all bogus.
The inflation rate is calculated based on a basket of goods purchased. I did a paper on it 3-4 decades ago. The list was readily available and anyone could verify it by duplicating the purchased items locally. The major impacting factor was location (local pricing), and brand name products vs generic products. If there was any manipulation of the core numbers, that's how you would do it. That and changing the list without notifying the public (hiding the data points). This was pretty transparent; though the conspiracy theorist would say otherwise. That information was readily available when I did my paper; don't know if it's still posted or that department has been eliminated. IMHO; Doing things from the shadows is a lot easier than doing it during the light of day, in public, with oversight. Hope this clarifies things......
Up until now,I trusted our agencies to publish the correct numbers. Now we have a man who is a king. He will change numbers at will.
Prices will only come down in a recession. Those with cash during the Great Depression could buy anything for almost nothing.
