It's the Economy, Stupid!

[Haighus]

Feb 15, 2024 11:57:31 GMT -5 herzlos said:

It's been a long time coming. What it actually means to the everyday person who's already been screwed lately I don't know.

Since I posted above, I've seen info about the GDP per person (GDPPP), which has actually shown a recession since the last quarter of 2022! Essentially the overall GDP was propped up by population growth, but individuals were getting poorer.

[Haighus]

Feb 15, 2024 12:12:11 GMT -5 easye said:

The Tory-cession?

This is entirely on the Tories.

[crispy78]

Feb 15, 2024 12:12:11 GMT -5 easye said:

The Tory-cession?

The Rishsession

[adurot]

I thought I saw a headline saying Japan as well?

[skyth]

Feb 15, 2024 15:36:24 GMT -5 adurot said:

I thought I saw a headline saying Japan as well?

www.yahoo.com/finance/news/japan-slips-worlds-fourth-largest-011039810.html

[easye]

www.salon.com/2024/02/19/how-an-18-big-mac-meal-became-a-symbol-for-economic-anxiety--and-what-that-means-for-democrats/

How an $18 Big Mac meal became a symbol for economic anxiety — and what that means for Democrats

McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski has recently come out and said the company would be focusing on affordability in the next quarter. However, in the meantime, that $18 Big Mac meal has become both a symbol of consumer anxiety — as well as an unexpected economic flashpoint with which Democrats will have to contend in the upcoming election cycle.

It’s not just McDonald’s, of course. Fast food menu prices across the industry rose consistently throughout the pandemic. As reported by CNET, data from Pricelisto, a website that tracks menu prices for United States fast food chains, shows that menu prices were up about 13% from 2021 to 2022. Wendy’s and Chick-fil-A were both on the higher end of price increases, with a respective 35% and 15.6% increase over the previous year’s prices.

In 2023, the numbers only continued to climb; a report from the National Restaurant Association shows that menu prices in September rose by 6% over the same period in 2022.

It’s worth noting that while McDonald’s franchisees set their own prices, there are a few factors underpinning the larger surge. The cost of commodity goods — including beef cattle and grain, the basic ingredients of a burger — rose globally. Supply chain disruptions during the pandemic meant that certain drive-thru staples, like paper napkins, coffee cups, straws and to-go containers, were low on the ground and even more expensive for chains to procure. Additionally, the price of minimum-wage labor, which has supported the fast-food industry for decades, is finally on the rise.

It does not look like the strong economy is "Trickling Down". This article fails to mention if these big chains have increased their dividends or what their profits have been thanks to these rising prices. It was pretty well-documented that prices were going up AS profits were also going up. This article does not make it clear if the same thing was happening in the fast food sector.

Does anyone here know?

[Disciple of Fate]

Seems that halfway through 2023 it was expected to be a profitable year.

www.reuters.com/business/us-restaurants-set-second-half-profit-boost-costs-ease-demand-stays-firm-2023-07-24/

The expectations, at least for McDonald, seem to have held true looking at their 2023 year report.

[skyth]

The record profits from these corps when they jacked up prices would make for a good Democratic talking point - Especially considering the 'tax break' from Trump's tax changes expired for the middle class...

[easye]

Feb 19, 2024 15:43:33 GMT -5 skyth said:

The record profits from these corps when they jacked up prices would make for a good Democratic talking point - Especially considering the 'tax break' from Trump's tax changes expired for the middle class...

I doubt they will even touch either of those two, critical points.

[adurot]

Feb 19, 2024 15:43:33 GMT -5 skyth said:

The record profits from these corps when they jacked up prices would make for a good Democratic talking point - Especially considering the 'tax break' from Trump's tax changes expired for the middle class...

If only the media we require to inform the general populous of these facts weren’t themselves corporate owned.

[Peregrine]

Feb 19, 2024 15:50:56 GMT -5 easye said:

Feb 19, 2024 15:43:33 GMT -5 skyth said:

The record profits from these corps when they jacked up prices would make for a good Democratic talking point - Especially considering the 'tax break' from Trump's tax changes expired for the middle class...

I doubt they will even touch either of those two, critical points.

Nope. Democrats are still puppets of the billionaire class, they're just realistic enough to understand that if you push too far and leave people with literally nothing then the guillotines come out. They won't say anything that significantly hurts their corporate owners.

[easye]

US economy added a whopping 303,000 jobs last month, far outpacing expectations

www.cnn.com/business/live-news/march-jobs-report-04-05-24/index.html

The US economy added 303,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 3.8%, according to Friday data from the Labor Department.

The headline number far surpasses expectations for 205,000 job gains, and underscores the ongoing resilience of the US labor market.
Investors expected the March jobs report to show a strong but slowing job market, with lower month-on-month growth and a steady uptick in joblessness.

The latest employment snapshot comes after 11 rate hikes from the Federal Reserve in its battle to rein in inflation.
Markets were higher Friday morning after stumbling on Thursday as fears of inflation and fewer rate cuts spooked investors.

[mdgv2]

The prospect of me, your favourite President, got yuge numbers of Americans back to work. Everyone says so.

Donald J Trump. Probably.

[Disciple of Fate]

Got to wonder how many undecided voters are left that could still care about facts like this.

Overall we had a very small recession in the Netherlands, but its surprising that the current economy is relatively resilient given the recent inflation.

[Haighus]

Apr 5, 2024 10:44:24 GMT -5 Disciple of Fate said:

Got to wonder how many undecided voters are left that could still care about facts like this.

Overall we had a very small recession in the Netherlands, but its surprising that the current economy is relatively resilient given the recent inflation.

Well, sometimes the devil is in the detail. The UK recession, for example, is much worse when considering GDP per person (as mentioned above) due to population increases. I don't know if something similar has happened in the Netherlands.

The USA is definitely doing pretty well on the whole though, much better than a lot of Europe.