Can’t wait to see May data.
Figure 1: PPI for furniture and household durables, n.s.a. (blue, left log scale), and CPI for furniture and household operations, s.a. (tan, right log scale). Source: BLS via FRED.
PPI rising at 7% annualized, CPI at 11.5%, in April.
While imported furniture prices may be rising due to tariffs, there are many domestic options. Among them:
https://www.allamericanmade.com/american-made-furniture/
Of course, if you are looking for inexpensive furniture made overseas, you would probably see price increases at Wayfair.
https://expertbeacon.com/where-is-wayfair-furniture-made/
My personal preference has been Ekornes for comfort and durability. Price was a tertiary consideration. Our leather furniture is about 25-years old and looks and feels like new.
https://www.ekornes.com/en
I’m not sure if the BLS data reflects an impact of tariffs or a shifting to slightly greater mix of American made furniture which tends to be a bit more expensive than Asian sourced.
there’s ~no composition shifts in the CPI: it’s a matched-model index.
And if people are substituting to domestically produced furniture, then domestically produced furniture will get more expensive.
furniture prices increased. inflation bruce. it costs more to buy furniture today than yesterday. while peoples wages stayed the same. stagflation. you will feel it in your fixed income retirement bruce. because trump wants to drop interest rates while the economy is in inflation.
Oh, just a slightly longer perspective. Looks as if the Biden era was really the issue.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUS0000SAH3
Prices took off under Trump1, the surge broke and reversed under Biden
Uh, compare the overall price index change during Trump’s administration to Biden’s. “Took off” might be a bit of a stretch… as is “reversed”.
You’re cherry picking measurements – level vs change – quibbling over language and ignoring root causes. You’re trying to divert attention from the felon-in-chief’s terrible policies, focusing on the past. Mere partisan bullplop.
Fortunately, the courts have told the felon that his tariffs aren’t legal. Who could have guessed that? Oh, yeah! Pretty much everyone but Brucie. Brucie is cheering for inflation AND a violation of the Constitution, because Brucie spews faux news and pretty much nothing else. Can’t think for himself.
bruce, if Obama were enacting this executive overreach that trump is pursuing, would you approve? are you ok if Obama behaved like a King, a la trump?
OK, so an “era” is “the issue”. Right. That’s a pretty weasely way to put it. And it happens to be the Biden era. Not the Covid era, no. The Biden era.
Why did Brucie go all weasely? To distract us from looking at how his Glorious Leader, the felon-in-chief, is messing up. Menzie’s point is about furniture prices NOW, when the felon is in charge. Brucie wants to distract us from what’s happening now. Brucie’s masters want everybody blaming Biden, so they won’t have brain space to notice how bad the felon is screwing up.
Biden had to deal with the Covid mess that the felon left for him. What’s the felon’s excuse? He inherited really low unemployment, strong growth and declining inflation from Biden. If that falls apart, it’s on the felon. Brucie? Help us out – what’s the felon’s excuse when it all falls apart?
Let’s see if the change is comparable to Biden’s “era”. So far… meh.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUS0000SAH3
Oh, yeah, I forgot… sharp as a tack. Jake agreed. C’mon, man!
Started under Trump, continued under Biden, so Biden’s fault? Starting again under Trump, so Biden’s fault? C’mon, yourself.
Whether Biden or Trump was responsible for inflation is a moot point (or a lame attempt at gotcha politics.) I was Biden (and Harris) who failed to address voters’ concerns about it. Democrats paid the price and will likely continue to pay the price for some time to come: “At least two-thirds of voters were desperate for change in the election, and nothing was more important than their desperation about the sustained high prices for everything important to their family.” https://prospect.org/politics/2025-05-29-real-original-sins-democrats-biden/
The Fed is in charge of monetary policy. The Supreme Court just affirmed that.
“Addressing voters’ concerns” is, as you say, gotcha politics. Your prognostication suggest political bias, as does the inconsistency of your “gotcha” argument. No points for you.
considering all of the trump voters are simply overlooking the inflation roaring its ugly head again under trump, dandersen, you are simply wrong in your argument. think about what you wrote, and what is currently happening in the economy, before you hit enter next time. it is inconsistent with reality.
Macroduck might read the piece I linked to. It is by Stanley Greenberg, a well-known Democratic pollster, who makes a convincing argument that Democrats intentionally ignored the inflation issue, at least when they weren’t trying to sugar-coat it. Yes, Greenberg has political bias–in favor of Democrats. Here he’s providing constructive criticism, something that is apparently anathema in this gotcha world.
It matters little who caused inflation–fiscal policy or monetary policy or a combination. Voters had the final say and voted for the candidate who articulated their concerns. Whether Trump’s concerns were genuine or not is an entirely separate discussion.
A break from felon-in-chief stuff – A new paper from Australia’s Lowy Institute finds that China is shifting from a net source of lending to developing economies to a net recipient of funds through debt repayment:
https://interactives.lowyinstitute.org/features/peak-repayment-china-global-lending/
Restructuring of that debt is widely seen as necessary, but China’s public is apparently not happy at the prospect.
Debt payments to China are not the only problem for developing nations. This new burden comes at the same time that trade with the U.S. is in jeopardy, aid from the U.S. has been cut, interest rates are high and global growth is looking sketchy. Oh, and climate change and geopolitics aren’t helping, either. Could be a rough stretch for those in developing countries.
Oooo, the “developing countries” have learned there is no free lunch with China. Paying the piper his harder than taking Uncle Sugar’s foreign aid and then calling it colonialism or some such nonsense.
What, pray tell, is the point behind this bitter little rant?
When is the last time he was being a contributor – not just a distraction?
Well, we finally had a court stand up to Trump’s lawless tariffs. It’s right there in the Constitution, Article 1 Section 8 — “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises”. The Congress, not the president, not a king.
Congress has delegated some leeway on tariffs to the president in the event of a national emergency, but a phony ginned up “fentanyl emergency” covering 160 nations, many of which Trump has never heard of, doesn’t pass muster.
Next we get to see what the Robert’s court decides. They seem to be inventing all sorts of constitutional fictions like the presidential immunity and arbitrary independence for some regulatory agencies but not others as they see fit.
right now, I do not see either the Supreme Court or congress actively enforcing their checks and balances. if the Supreme Court punts to congress, and congress simply approves the trump tariffs, then you know the country is in real trouble. more than I had expected. we will see within the next month or so, I am afraid. look to Mao and the cultural revolution for a playbook on what happens next, if that occurs.