GDP GREW 5.7% IN 2021,BEST YEAR SINCE 1984

This is basically saying our economy is doing 'better' because we have to pay more money for less stuff. You're celebrating the average consumer getting screwed even harder.

"Factories, ports and freight yards were overwhelmed, and supply chains became ensnarled. Inflation began to accelerate. Over the past 12 months, consumer prices soared 7% — the fastest year-over-year inflation since 1982. Food, energy and autos were among the items whose prices soared the most.

Late last year, the economy began to show signs of fatigue. Retail sales, for instance, fell 1.9% in December. And manufacturing slowed in December to its lowest level in 11 months, according to the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index."

US economy grew 5.7% in 2021 in rebound from 2020 recession - ABC News (go.com)

 

That's not at all what the number means. Not even close.

 

And did not keep up with inflation and annuities don't necessarily go up with the stock market nor do long term withdrawal plans in the volatile stock market where smart older people limit their exposure as they get older.

 

Growth eclipsed inflation. Even after accounting for inflation, the economy grew by more than it has in decades. We've already been over this.

 

LOL what bounce back

 

What astounding is, this sort of DNC propaganda is never realized by their base. They still cling to recover is growth...

DNC arithmatricks, I had 10 peanuts but I lost 5 peanuts Then I found the 5 peanuts I lost so clearly I have a net gain of 50%..

 

And why has most of this inflation and shortages occurred??? Because during the Reagan years U.S. corporations went on a downsizing binge and shipped millions of manufacturing jobs including our entire semiconductor industry offshore to cheap labor markets. And now the chickens are coming home to roost??

 

I don't recall commenting on BEA numbers but the point being the adjustments are done by humans and more and more we see humans in those positions influencing such numbers especially from the government it seems. And BLS calculates the CPI.

For example from 2007

Fed Games and Central Banking Data Problems. Inflation will be fine, so long as the public does not catch on to there being a problem. Such was the gist of a July 10th speech given by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to fellow academics at a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) function.

Inflation expectations are key to the development of an inflation problem, he argued. If the public expects inflation, individuals are inclined to participate in inflationary actions, such as trying to get pay raises. Fortunately, noted the Fed Chairman, inflation expectations were contained at the moment.

Keep in mind that Mr. Bernanke considers himself to be an academic, and thus he does not have to deal with the real world all the time. Could Fed efforts to contain the public's inflation expectations explain the silliness of the Fed's trying to sell as the best inflation measure the concept of core inflation, based on a substitution-weighted index, such as the core personal consumption expenditure (PCE) deflator? Could the effort to obfuscate public recognition of an inflation problem have encouraged the gimmicking and underreporting of CPI inflation?
http://www.shadowstats.com/article/aa910


As I have noted previous producer prices are up 10%

 

Which numbers? I'm not talking about the overly simplistic 7%inflation-5.2%growth. Thats a propaganda figure for media headlines and means nothing.

What grew? Was it American worker's savings and investments? Was it small businesses? Did we build more houses or more factories or produce more goods?

We did none of those things. In fact most of things are less. What we did was make everything more expensive and circulate more money.

 

And the real figure is . . . ? So far we've only really seen feelings and anecdotes offered.

The US economy, after accounting for inflation.

We produced more goods and services.

Circulating more money without growing production would DECREASE real GDP. Not INCREASE. You can't increase real GDP artificially by just increasing the money supply.

 

A lot of it is just skyrocketting property values. If your home appreciates $50K more than it was a year ago, does that mean you 'produced' $50K worth of goods?

 

The figure is AFTER inflation. AFTER. Rising home prices don't account for this number any more than the money supply excuse does.

 

Your entire post is focused on blame fixing rather than solutions and does not refute my rock solid point that the sales spike that drove 2021 bounce back in GDP is not sustainable without a similar surge in payrolls.

 

It seems what Repubs are reluctant to do is give Biden any credit for 2021's expansion while pinning inflation on the stimulus bill that kept the economy going as COVID took its toll. One debatable question is.........how much of inflation is attributable to government stimulus? Let's approach the question with some rigor.

"It's certainly true that the American Rescue Plan put money in people's pockets ... and contributed to strong demand in the U.S. economy, but if you look at the amount of inflation that we have, and its causes, that is at most a small contributor," she said.

High inflation, now running at more than twice the Federal Reserve's flexible target of 2% annually, is expected to ease in the second half of 2022, Fed Chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers at Wednesday's hearing.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tr...-only-small-contributor-inflation-2021-12-01/

A regional Fed analysis suggests Biden’s stimulus is temporarily stoking inflation.

Inflation is likely getting a temporary boost from the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that the Biden administration ushered in early this year, new Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco research released on Monday suggested.

The analysis may add fuel to a hot debate in Washington over whether the administration’s policies are contributing to a spike in prices. Critics of the government spending package that was signed into law in March, including former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, have said it was poorly targeted and risked overheating the economy. Supporters of the relief program have said it provided critical aid to workers and businesses still struggling through the pandemic.

The new paper comes down somewhere in the middle, finding that the spending had some effect on inflation but suggesting that it is most likely to be temporary. The economists estimated that it would add 0.3 percentage points to the core Personal Consumption Expenditures inflation index in 2021 and “a bit more” than 0.2 percentage points in 2022. Core inflation strips out volatile items like food and fuel.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/18/business/economy/fed-inflation-stimulus-biden.html

In assigning blame for inflation we shouldn't forget Powell's mistake of keeping interest rates too low too long. Biden doesn't control what the Fed does.

 

Appreciating home values, as an example is not all from inflation. In the case of the housing market today, its largely due to increase in demand that is caused by investment firms buying up ~25% of the available 'for sale' market and turning it into rentals. This makes people who don't want to rent willing to pay more to buy. Nothing was produced or inflated. There's just less houses available to buy, which makes them more expensive, which increases the GDP figures without increasing inflation or production. And this isn't just happening in the housing market, its just the best example.

 

Amazing what happens when the economy isn't shot down due to an over-reaction to a virus.

 

Really hate the people who make the country work, don't you?

You don't profit off inflation. Some profit off bad times- but the most profit comes when things are stable and going strong- an overall thriving economy.
Some do have record profit margins. Others- many others- are bankrupt, or soon to be.
For example the largest theater chain in America told it's stockholders last month that it would not be able to pay it's bills this month, and may have to file bankruptcy.
While people are staying home, places like Amazon that deliver are seeing increased business. Store with a brick and mortar presence are dead or dying.
Many (about 40%) of those that closed due to the covid crisis are not coming back. Companies that survive benefit from picking up the customers of companies that did not- but at the same time, competition is reduced.... and prices rise because of that. The difficulty of finding reliable help is astoundingly bad- and a lot of people have been living off the trillion dollar government subsidies and protections from debts... all of which will eventually come due in one way or another. Why do you suppose Biden wants 80,000 new IRS agents?? To help recover the $2 trillion he's blown so far.... FROM THE SAME PEOPLE WHO TOOK IT. The plan right now- is to distribute money with the right hand.... Take it back with the left. Then- tell you how good things are. Like a drug addict insisting there's nothing wrong, but desperately looking for either the next fix or a painless way out. The overall economic situation currently has about the same stability as a small child on his first bicycle ride. Things are shaking, bouncing off this and that- and it's only a matter of time until it can't be propped up anymore, and IT IS being "propped up". It's unfortunate you can't recognize the effects of bad economic policies and management here; they foretell disaster at every turn- and many people are just scared to recognize it. Everyone that parrots Joe's line that everything is great just perpetuates the illusion that something will come along and save us from this nightmare. It won't. And it won't be long before it all crashes down. I wish that were wrong- but everything I know and see says it's been allowed to deteriorate to the point it's inescapable.

 

Stock market beat inflation 3 fold, so it was a very good year for 401K investors.

 

No, real estate prices are not part of GDP growth, although NEW construction is.

 

Yep, it's the value of produced goods and services. I've never seen people so desperate to bury good news.

 

Depending upon what you have your stock investments invested in, retired people not working on fixed incomes do not have 401k's, they may have IRA's and you have to take withdrawals when you reach a certain age. Those plans for the long term include highs and lows like we are seeing, you take a FIXED amount out through them just as the smart investor dollar-cost-averaged their investments. If there is more inflation you may have to increase what you are supplementing your SS with. And of course people still rely on pensions which don't automatically get increased for inflation.

Are you really trying to claim that there aren't people who live on fixed incomes in this country?

 

And for retired people? And the working person is paying more for that share of stock now, and they can't touch the money until they retire.

Inflation at this rate is NEVER good stop trying to put lipstick on it.

 

As I said, sour grapes. They'd rather see the economy crash and burn than Biden being successful. Only so they can say: I told you so.

 

Is the price of the new construction a function of current property values?

 

Can't speak for others but I'd rather see Biden use policies that would actually help the economy and then get him the accolades of being successful because he would be.