nullagent
boosted
fun fact: canceling the inflation report doesn't cancel the #inflation
fun fact: canceling the inflation report doesn't cancel the #inflation
Japan’s economy shrank in the three months through September, the government confirmed, giving some justification for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s stimulus package. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/12/08/economy/japan-revised-gdp-july-september-down/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #business #economy #economicindicators #gdp #japaneseeconomy #wages #inflation #boj #sanaetakaichi
Japan's average retail rice price hit a new record high for the first time in three weeks, according to agriculture ministry data. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/12/06/average-rice-price-new-high/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #business #rice #food #inflation #agriculture #maff
Bank of Japan officials are ready to raise interest rates at a policy meeting later this month, provided there’s no major shock to the economy in the meantime, according to people familiar with the matter. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/12/05/boj-set-for-hike/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #business #boj #inflation #us #yen #dollar #sanaetakaichi #kazuoueda
gittaca
and 1 other
boosted
"Green works on Wall Street as portfolio manager for a half-billion-dollar fund. Most of the readers of his Substack were fellow wealthy finance professionals before his post about the $140,000 poverty line went viral.
He said in an interview that he started calculating the cost of raising a family when thinking about the challenges faced by his three children, who are all working adults in their 20s, and their generational peers.
“This is unfortunately very much the lived experience for people who are trapped in that valley of death,” Green said, the term he applied for when people earn too much to qualify for benefits like food stamps and Medicaid, but too little in his view to afford necessities. He sees that “valley” as being inhabited by people earning between about $40,000 and $100,000, or even more in high-cost areas, he said.
“They are not making enough to really cover the cost of full participation in the economy. An increasing fraction of people are choosing not to get married,” he said. “We’re seeing household formation pushed later and later and later. … It’s telling you the cost of having a traditional [two-parent, two-child] family: That choice is being opted out.”
Green wrote that he “felt sick” when he recently learned how HHS calculates the poverty line: three times the cost of food for a family in 1963, adjusted for inflation every year.
“He is echoing some things that poverty scholars have talked about for quite a while — the official poverty measure being antiquated,” said Christopher Wimer, co-director of Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy. “Food in budgets has become a much smaller piece. Housing has gotten much more expensive.”
An HHS spokesman did not respond to inquiries from The Washington Post. By the official measure, 10 percent of Americans were impoverished last year."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/11/29/poverty-line-green/
Cory Doctorow
boosted
Excellent piece in American Prospect today on #inflation by Kuttner, with not one but two references to @pluralistic and #enshittification https://prospect.org/2025/12/01/sources-of-americas-hidden-inflation/
gittaca
boosted
Expect even higher prices: "After Trump’s April Liberation Day tariffs schedule that shocked the world and set off months of ongoing volatility, importers ate much of the costs associated with tariff-related price hikes, and stockpiled inventory before the additional levies kicked in. Those spring and summer inventories are waning, and businesses are passing down price hikes to consumers more often":
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/five-points-government-shutdown-us-economy-bls-jobs-report
#politics #economy #affordability #inflation copy: @renewedresistance
Japan’s "oshikatsu" culture is booming despite inflation, with fans spending heavily on idols and characters in a way that now drives a multitrillion-yen market and even draws the attention of the central bank. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2025/12/02/japans-inflation-proof-economy/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #commentary #boj #inflation #japaneseeconomy #anime #manga #teenagegirls #akb48 #shoheiohtani #oshikatsu #stan #oshi
As the Korean War raged on in December 1950, Western powers vied to restore Japan as a “great Asian power” to counter global communism. In December 2000, a teenage boy bombed a video store in Kabukicho. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/12/02/japan/history/tokyo-population-communism-inflation-kabukicho-bomb-1925-1950-1975-2000/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #history #tokyo #population #taisho #coldwar #inflation #shinjukuward #kabukicho
Excellent piece in American Prospect today on #inflation by Kuttner, with not one but two references to @pluralistic and #enshittification https://prospect.org/2025/12/01/sources-of-americas-hidden-inflation/
Carlo Gubitosa :nonviolenza:
and 1 other
boosted
In 1950, median INDIVIDUAL income was $1,971. A median home cost $7,354. The nation spent about $83 per person for healthcare. A four-year college degree cost $852.
Do the math. 3.73 years of work to buy a house. One week of work for healthcare. Less than two months for a college degree.
In 2023, median personal income was $42,220. A median home costs $429,000. Healthcare runs $14,570 per person per year. A four-year degree costs nearly $40,000.
10.16 years of work to buy a house. Twelve weeks of work for healthcare. More than ten months for college.
https://www.americasundoing.com/p/it-works-if-you-work-it
#workingclass #classwar #poverty #wealthgap #capitalism #inflation
"Green works on Wall Street as portfolio manager for a half-billion-dollar fund. Most of the readers of his Substack were fellow wealthy finance professionals before his post about the $140,000 poverty line went viral.
He said in an interview that he started calculating the cost of raising a family when thinking about the challenges faced by his three children, who are all working adults in their 20s, and their generational peers.
“This is unfortunately very much the lived experience for people who are trapped in that valley of death,” Green said, the term he applied for when people earn too much to qualify for benefits like food stamps and Medicaid, but too little in his view to afford necessities. He sees that “valley” as being inhabited by people earning between about $40,000 and $100,000, or even more in high-cost areas, he said.
“They are not making enough to really cover the cost of full participation in the economy. An increasing fraction of people are choosing not to get married,” he said. “We’re seeing household formation pushed later and later and later. … It’s telling you the cost of having a traditional [two-parent, two-child] family: That choice is being opted out.”
Green wrote that he “felt sick” when he recently learned how HHS calculates the poverty line: three times the cost of food for a family in 1963, adjusted for inflation every year.
“He is echoing some things that poverty scholars have talked about for quite a while — the official poverty measure being antiquated,” said Christopher Wimer, co-director of Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy. “Food in budgets has become a much smaller piece. Housing has gotten much more expensive.”
An HHS spokesman did not respond to inquiries from The Washington Post. By the official measure, 10 percent of Americans were impoverished last year."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/11/29/poverty-line-green/
Expect even higher prices: "After Trump’s April Liberation Day tariffs schedule that shocked the world and set off months of ongoing volatility, importers ate much of the costs associated with tariff-related price hikes, and stockpiled inventory before the additional levies kicked in. Those spring and summer inventories are waning, and businesses are passing down price hikes to consumers more often":
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/five-points-government-shutdown-us-economy-bls-jobs-report
#politics #economy #affordability #inflation copy: @renewedresistance
The Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo, adopted a plan to demand a pay increase of 5% or more in annual spring wage negotiations next year. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/11/28/economy/rengo-wage-hike-shunto/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #business #economy #rengo #wages #shunto #inflation #japaneseeconomy #jobs #unions
Japan's parliament enacted legislation to scrap the provisional tax surcharges for gasoline and diesel fuel to try to curb inflation, without stating alternative sources for government funding. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/11/28/japan/politics/gasoline-bill-pass/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #politics #gas #taxes #energy #inflation #diet #budgets
Tokyo’s inflation held steady in November, keeping the Bank of Japan on track for an interest rate hike in the coming months. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/11/28/economy/tokyo-inflation-steady-november/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #business #economy #tokyo #inflation #japaneseeconomy #economicindicators
Japan’s 2026 budget should take inflation into account, private-sector advisers tell the government. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/11/27/economy/panel-budget-inflation/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #business #economy #japaneseeconomy #sanaetakaichi #taxes #cabinet #inflation #budgets