The Price You Just Paid...

4 pints of semi-skimmed milk was £1.09 earlier in the year.

It's now £1.55

Just about all the essentials in the supermarket have risen by 20% to 30% I would say.

And they try telling us inflation is "only" running at 10%.

It's much higher than that I believe.

 

Latest UK petrol and diesel prices | RAC Drive

Bacardi Carta Blanca Rum (70cl) - Compare Prices - Trolley.co.uk

 

Good posts Gal.
My big worry is that here in Rip Off Britain, BEER prices are on the way up big time.
How dare they!

 

I already told the manager of Tesco!!!!

 

Good on you Gal.
Good on YOU!

 

Gobby cow. lol

 

My theory on inflation this time is this. COVID caused the world to shut down. People stayed home and stopped driving. That caused a surplus (glut) of gasoline. OPEC cut production by request. Refineries slowed. COVID pandemic passed and the world went back to work. Reduced production of crude oil did not ramp up to meet demand. Demand was slowed by increased prices at the pump. The residual of this is packaging of food products comes from refinery waste. Since production was slowed materials for packaging became scarce. Now that the world is getting back up to speed the packaging and shipment of food products cannot keep up. Price rise slows it down. Just a theory.

 

Horseshit. We are simply being gouged for gasoline and diesel and it affects everything. There is no real shortage, it's all created. The oil companies are making profits hand over fist - look at the record high stock values of Exxon and Chevron for example....record profits....yet they pay the shareholders the same puny dividends they did three years ago. If the US is short of crude, why do we export so much? The only reason the small amount of oil is imported from the Saudis is for convenience to refinery locations. The biggest gouge is with Diesel. It has half the refining cost as gasoline and look at the price - yes, it has a lot more tax on it, but not nearly enough to make it cost 25% more than gasoline. Oh, and why oh why does this all affect the price of natural gas, which comes out of the well head here in the US ? Most of that has been in pipeline storage for a year, too..

Produce cost are ridiculous. $2+/lb for two year old storage apples.... No thanks.

 

What??? Tomatoes haven't been 50 cents a pound since 1995......

 

I'll pass on Mexico....but people don't really understand what positive affect sunshine has on your wellbeing - I didn't either until left gray-for-months winterland.

 

Unfortunately the comparison is difficult because we measure on different scales ( Kilogram is used here). But being this country the sub-champion of inflation (the champion is Venezuela) it is easy to guess. Last month's inflation was officially 6.5% (we're talking about just one month. Remember). The reality is that it is almost double of that.

 

True…in theory. In my career as an economist I saw plenty of things that get in the way of supply/demand and prices. Like monopolies and market concentration. Like lax environmental standards or none at all. Like union busting so labor is at a disadvantage when wages and working conditions are negotiated. Like passing on real environmental costs to the community. Like corruption in the political structure of the community.

I saw a KC pulp mill discharging red ugly waste into a River…visible only from the air. I heard from people in Costa Rica about a rail line to the Caribbean not being repaired after a hurricane because the President owned a trucking company. I saw the 120 miles of a Montana river polluted by heavy metals from Anaconda Co mines and ore treating facilities. And in the community where I live now we have an old utility pole treating site that is polluted be creasote and Penta. The clean up paid for by the superfund program.

It’s not a level playing field. Course the classical economists were comfortable with child labor and obscene concentrations of wealth.