Year-on-year picture:
Figure 1: Year-on-year growth rate of GDP, seasonally adjusted (blue), not seasonally adjusted (tan), and not seasonally adjusted GDO (green). GDO is the arithmetic average of GDP and GDI. Growth rates calculated using log differences. Source: BEA, and author’s calculations.
Anecdotal inflation report: Got me a couple chuck eye steaks last time at the grocers. $7.55 for both. So that’s $3.75 a piece/meal for pretty good quality steak. I found and can run down my last two receipts for anyone interested. (admittedly I live in a low income, low-cost of living state). Now some of you will laugh at this, but hey, I got me a nice college football preview magazine, reads well, for $12. Last year I paid around $20 for in essence the same thing under a different name. I’ll be damned if I can tell the difference other than, the $12 magazine actually has LESS adverts that I have to flip through. Now again I know some will chuckle at that example. but I got the same publication (information-wise) I did last year for $8 cheaper. I’ll take it people.
do you know how much carbon dioxide you spewed getting that chuck steak?
mealy worms are the new thing!
grow them yourself!
13,413 grams of CO2, if you must know……. no, I do not feel good about it. It’s longer than most people drive to get groceries. But I am a cheap SOB, and if that’s what it’s gotta be, that’s what it’s gotta be. When my local Wal Mart offers me lower prices, some register clerks instead of 15 people staring into space while I do the self check-out etc. then I’ll drive 2 miles to the Wal Mart. But not one day before that happens. I bag my own groceries, it’s not a laziness issue. But why am I paying Wal Mart workers to stare into space while paying more than I do at (at the least) two other major chains?? That doesn’t work for me. So I waste 45 minutes drive time and 13,413 grams roundtrip of CO2 to “commute” for groceries because Wal Mart either can’t get their Sh*t together or is under the (mostly) mistaken impression that I am an idiot..
Have you tried Beyond and/or Impossible Burgers?
They still have very high fat content, almost the same as beef burgers. So I eat Morningstar (or similar type brand) hamburgers. They are made mostly of soybean or sometimes blackbean. I have tried Beyond, they taste quite good. Of course because the high fat content and they have more moisture they are more pleasurable to most people to eat than the Morningstar or similar type soybean ones like I eat. I also like to get blackbean chalupas at Taco Bell. I’m still getting my protein but much lower fat and cholesterol with the blackbeans vs the beef. I still eat regular burgers, but I have “cut back” quite a bit. Maybe 4 out of 5 meals I would have the bean based “meat” and then 1 out of 5 times the regular beef.
If you wanna try Beyond they are quite good, the only thing you need to remember is, you’re still getting the same fat content, the only way you “win” with Beyond burgers is the cholesterol. So in my personal opinion the marketers are misleading people on the health aspects of Beyond burgers.
Quit feeling guilty and enjoy the steak.
more analysts coming out today saying inflation is not a problem, and they predict the fed will cut rates by next year. i don’t think inflation is really a longer term problem. i think the past year is simply catching up on some lost inflation from the past decade. inflation is inevitable, and you can only suppress it for so long. we will be back to 4% or 5% soon enough, and that is not high enough to be a problem. since it will raise rates some, retirees will finally get some income from their savings.