The Tragedy Of Inflation Inequality (By The Numbers)
Whenever I get the feeling I've talked too much about so-called "K-shaped" inflation (the phenomenon in which rising prices affect households differently based on demographics), I remind myself that it's arguably the most important economic issue of the pandemic era.
The last time I broached the subject was -- checks watch -- seven days ago. In "The Politics Of Inflation," I noted that although the broadening out of price pressures has led to a more uniform increase in expectations across demog
Many folks pointed out the food price inflation that proceeded the Arab Spring a decade ago. What you are writing about is a rhyme to that set of events. Question is where will society and which societies will be socially disrupted from this type of distributional inflation event?
India is always vulnerable to food price surges.
The figure (above) tells the story. The richest households spent 6.1% more this year versus 2020 and 6% more than the 2019 baseline. The least well-off households, by contrast, spent almost 7% more compared to previous years.
Dunno. As with the actual overall percentage figures of consumption, I thought the similarities were a lot higher than I expected between the top 5% and the bottom 20%
1% difference isn’t going to be very noticeable, unless you get it to compound for a good little while…
It does seem immoral that the Fed/US government lowered interest rates and/or printed money (over the past 40 years), causing inflation and reducing the US debt burden in “real” dollars, without taking care of the subset of our population who were most harmed by such actions.
I am willing to admit that I would not be as wealthy as I am without the backdrop of the actions of the Federal Reserve/US government. I might not have figured out what was happening and how I could take advantage of the situation as soon as I could have- but eventually I did figure it out.
I understand “achievement- based” inequality, but inequality occurring as a direct result of the actions of elected/appointed officials is not ok.
Sigh, the rally in energy prices has yet to begin. Also, Biden is the Pres and the Dems ‘control congress’, so if deals ain’t gettin’ done, I know who to blame.
I don’t see that the Dems control much of anything. They don’t really control the Senate and control in the House is razor thin and it probably will go by the wayside in ’22, especially with the gerrymandering presently going on. There are open seats in MO and the governor will not allow them to be filled as they are likely to be supportive of dem candidates. Initially, when the vaccine became available in our state, the counties that got it first were those who went for Trump in the election. “Blue” areas were lagged by several months. I am 77 with prior conditions but I could not get vaccinated until late April because my county went for Biden and we were shorted in vaccine distribution.