https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-01/top-fertilizer-producer-sees-massive-price-surge-continuing

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      This inflation rate is tame and predicted to decline as the ports unbottleneck themselves.

      If it gets seriously out of control, we'll just do another Volcker Shock and deliberately crash the economy, like we did back in the 80s.

      Since we're the premier dominant post-war economy with no discernible competition and no serious risk of domestic insurrection, this should go smoothly and will definitely have no second-order consequences.

        • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Every new cycle degrades the authority enjoyed by the administration. Undoubtedly, the Fed Money Printers will spin and the banks will snatch up real estate and IP with a fresh influx of new currency. But consolidation ultimately degrades the legitimacy of capitalism as an institution. As fewer and fewer people own real property, the popular incentive to defend the system is lost.

          What comes next is then the open question.

        • Three_Magpies [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Gas going from $3/gallon to $5/gallon is tame? I don’t think so — I don’t get how someone could think so.

          • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago

            Gas has been bouncing between $2-5 for the last thirty years. We don't gabble on about deflation when it dips.

            • Three_Magpies [he/him]
              ·
              3 years ago

              Maybe not but when it increases 60% and the cost of everything else goes up at the same time that’s a good time to talk about inflation. The notion that I didn’t gabble about deflation is meaningless to me when facing high prices — also, even when gas prices were going down, rents were going up so inflation was still pretty annoying in those downswings.

              I’m only talking about the last decade or so.

              • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
                ·
                3 years ago

                The notion that I didn’t gabble about deflation is meaningless to me when facing high prices

                Price of Thing Go Up: "This is inflation and we have to do something about inflation!"

                Price of Thing Go Down: <crickets>

                American consumer goods are crazy under-priced and have been since Deindustrialization. Cheap consumer goods are what made wage stagnation bearable. Now even a single item with a high spoilage rate experiencing a short term price increase causes people to freak out.

                also, even when gas prices were going down, rents were going up

                Rents continue to be dirt cheap out in the boonies, as they always have. When gas prices went up, people moved into the cities to cut the cost of commuting. Now housing prices are up and rents are down, because people have been buying rather than renting. Cyclical pricing is cyclical. Zillow's about to flood the market with all the homes they gobbled up in excitement over the real estate price boom. Will we be hearing about falling housing prices in the next few months or will we focus myopically on the rising price of Next Thing?

                • Three_Magpies [he/him]
                  ·
                  3 years ago

                  People enjoy a windfall. When prices go down, that puts people in a good mood and they don't complain. Maybe it's hypocritical, but I don't see it as excusing / a rationale for being ok with inflation.

                  Seems speculative, predictions about the real estate prices dropping. I'd love to hear about falling house prices, but they'd have to fall quite a lot to undo the rises we've seen in the past decade. It's not been my perception that more people are buying instead of renting now -- I think buying is an option for fewer and fewer people each year. idk if housing prices fall but something else gets more expensive we'll probably be talking about that, yeah.

                  • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
                    ·
                    3 years ago

                    In Houston, when gas prices go up everyone complains about the price of gas. And when gas prices go down, everyone complains about unemployment.

                    I’d love to hear about falling house prices, but they’d have to fall quite a lot to undo the rises we’ve seen in the past decade.

                    People like to focus on a handful of crazy housing markets in big tech centers. But you can see the rise-and-fall happening in the wake of 2008 pretty clearly. Florida homes that were jacked up to $500k crashed back down into the low $100ks. Las Vegas and Phoenix went through the same boom-bust.

                    I doubt Zillow is going to nuke the whole market, but simply because they're not gobbling up homes with abandon that'll take air out.

      • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Since we’re the premier dominant post-war economy with no discernible competition and no serious risk of domestic insurrection, this should go smoothly and will definitely have no second-order consequences

        :side-eye-2: