Comment by jasode | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jasode | Hacker News Reader

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Exactly. The following phenomenon are all related:

- the record-breaking auction prices of art pieces (Picasso, etc) at Christie's & Sothebys

- the vast pools of money chasing late-stage tech startups driving up late-round valuations,

- the increase in student loans for college students driving up tuition prices outpacing "official" inflation metric

There's also "shrinkflation"[1] which is a form of inflation but does not count in CPI calculations. Also, many homeowners complained that their house insurance went up 20+ percent even though they don't live in a hurricane or flood zone.

The pundits saying there's no inflation seem to only look at the flawed CPI statistic. If the Fed's quantitative easing creates $4 trillion in new money, that has to show up somewhere in the economy. (Unless _everybody_ coordinates to hide all $4 trillion in a mattress to negate its effect.) If citizens are seeing a reduction in purchasing power in real terms, you have inflation happening.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinkflation

See also, the related phenomenon of a company introducing a new, notionally superior product line at a higher price than the original, then somewhat later discontinuing the original, while never reducing the price of the new one. This results in the cheapest available product becoming more expensive, without this appearing in inflation statistics.

I have the most exposure to this in the realm of medical products. A family member has Type I diabetes, and so must continually buy insulin and blood testing supplies as an everyday expense; several times, he has been forced to switch products (between varieties of insulin, from purely chemical test strips to ones with an electronic reader, &c.) by the discontinuance of the older product. The new one is always much more expensive, and never reduces in price to match the old; this has resulted in a significant increase in his expenses for these supplies, despite nothing ever occurring that would appear in inflation statistics.

>, the related phenomenon of a company introducing a new, notionally superior product line at a higher price than the original,

Yes, and airlines charging a new extra fees for baggage when they used to be included in the base airfare is another form of inflation. This "shrouded pricing" is used to hide price increases in various industries.

This is strongly related to 'unbundling'.

Another example: products get slightly smaller but remain he same price. Often packaging can hide the change.

Correct, but the pundits are also correct, because there are really two different economies in the US:

- the "Walmart" economy - no inflation there, regular Joe Schmoes have not had a real raise in years

- the "Hamptons" economy - lots of money sloshing around (thanks to the Fed), bankers, etc spending big on luxury real-estate, etc.

Inflation is measured more by price than income. The salaries being stagnant at Walmart and co don't really have much say in the CPI.

Don't discount real estate's potential to be a sink of excess capital virtually without limit.

I'm not so sure about that. Of course they're not making land any more, but as the price of real estate increases so do rents and economic dislocation, so every rise in the cost of real estate comes with a reduction in disposable income.

False. Shrinkflation is counted in CPI calculations.

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