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Greed seems to explain it easily enough. The macro-economy is solely for the wealthy and when they need a billion or more to see a return on a billion or more,

Greed seems to explain it easily enough. The macro-economy is solely for the wealthy and when they need a billion or more to see a return on a billion or more, shrinkflation and price increases go up; hard to make a billion back on long time scales at 2010 prices. I’m not saying they intentionally operate on that philosophy. I’m saying reliance on data trends means they prioritize responding to data regardless of the externalities to the masses. Only the rich can afford assets so assets are priced for the rich.

gamegoblin 4y ago
Are periods of low inflation thus caused by elites being less greedy?
- behaveEc0n00 4y ago
  Yes. Powell is on record saying he wants the public to save and not trade on the market. He wants bonds to go up. He wants salaries to stop going up. If everyone is flush in assets from having cash to spend it fucks up the game for establishment elites. He’s keeping the public out of the way of elites. Banks are raising savings account rates to keep cash stashed. VCs are scaling back. Prices on say, homes will crash, rates will be too high for average people, elites build property management portfolios and expand their rent seeking. The recent era of spread the wealth has been put on pause while the asset class shores up public agency that was getting away from it by creating too many elites. If everyone is an elite the current elites have no power. That’s the simple game they’re playing, leveraging technical indirection to obfuscate.
  - alexb_ 4y ago
    That's not how any of this works. Yes, the fed sometimes wants the economy to slow. This is not because of some global conspiracy to make poor people poor, it's because if they don't now they are putting it off to be much, much worse in the future. It's letting off steam so you don't explode. Interest rates rise to try and combat inflation because if you don't it leaves people starving. Rates should have gone up years ago, but a stubborn fed kept putting it off (and COVID didn't help either). The Fed does not benefit from everyone being poor. And I'm someone who thinks cynically all the time, check my post history, but this is just uninformed.
    - behaveEc0n00 4y ago
      Even Powell has said they are realizing how little they know about how inflation “works”. Claiming I am uninformed because I don’t recite the spoken traditions that even the expert in charge admits to not fully understanding is just regurgitating memes from memory; you don’t come off well informed, but like a skipping record. They don’t have an incentive to NOT keep people poor either. They don’t really care since they’re going ahead anyway with policy they admit will hurt households; deny it again, please. I need a laugh. The outcome will be one of making cars and homes harder for poorer people to buy; Powell admitted that today and at every other rate hike. He’s testing “what the market will bear”. Human biology rules us, not social principles hashed out on paper. See my comment history. The result will be clear; haves will be able to afford buying up assets as prices come down. Have nots will be priced out. Don’t forget too our Congress refuses to deviate from our social history. The Senate was described by Madison as a firewall to protect the opulent minority from the majority. You can carry on that’s “not how it works” all you want. But “on the ground” the result is clear.

gamegoblin 4y ago

Are periods of low inflation thus caused by elites being less greedy?

behaveEc0n00 4y ago
Yes. Powell is on record saying he wants the public to save and not trade on the market. He wants bonds to go up. He wants salaries to stop going up. If everyone is flush in assets from having cash to spend it fucks up the game for establishment elites. He’s keeping the public out of the way of elites. Banks are raising savings account rates to keep cash stashed. VCs are scaling back. Prices on say, homes will crash, rates will be too high for average people, elites build property management portfolios and expand their rent seeking. The recent era of spread the wealth has been put on pause while the asset class shores up public agency that was getting away from it by creating too many elites. If everyone is an elite the current elites have no power. That’s the simple game they’re playing, leveraging technical indirection to obfuscate.
- alexb_ 4y ago
  That's not how any of this works. Yes, the fed sometimes wants the economy to slow. This is not because of some global conspiracy to make poor people poor, it's because if they don't now they are putting it off to be much, much worse in the future. It's letting off steam so you don't explode. Interest rates rise to try and combat inflation because if you don't it leaves people starving. Rates should have gone up years ago, but a stubborn fed kept putting it off (and COVID didn't help either). The Fed does not benefit from everyone being poor. And I'm someone who thinks cynically all the time, check my post history, but this is just uninformed.
  - behaveEc0n00 4y ago
    Even Powell has said they are realizing how little they know about how inflation “works”. Claiming I am uninformed because I don’t recite the spoken traditions that even the expert in charge admits to not fully understanding is just regurgitating memes from memory; you don’t come off well informed, but like a skipping record. They don’t have an incentive to NOT keep people poor either. They don’t really care since they’re going ahead anyway with policy they admit will hurt households; deny it again, please. I need a laugh. The outcome will be one of making cars and homes harder for poorer people to buy; Powell admitted that today and at every other rate hike. He’s testing “what the market will bear”. Human biology rules us, not social principles hashed out on paper. See my comment history. The result will be clear; haves will be able to afford buying up assets as prices come down. Have nots will be priced out. Don’t forget too our Congress refuses to deviate from our social history. The Senate was described by Madison as a firewall to protect the opulent minority from the majority. You can carry on that’s “not how it works” all you want. But “on the ground” the result is clear.