If you click on 106 more rows, you'll see that 2021 is 4.7 percent. The estimate for 2022 is 8.6 percent, but it's likely that all the data hasn't come in or been analyzed yet. By definition, 2023 can't show an annual rate and Q1 isn't even done, so likely a little premature for much, if any data, being available.Even Google doesn't want to you see how bad things are right now. "The last 5 years" apparently doesn't include 2021, 2022, and YTD 2023.
But this is not how economics works. Governments can just print new money if they choose to. The idea that an economy is similar to a credit card account is not correct but has been used by many governments to justify austerity which disproportionately affects those with less to the advantage of those who have more. Covid produced many more billionaires than ever before.There are ups, there are downs, and life is normal. What matters is your attitude and how you choose to be calm in the conditions of the moment.
From NYTimes:
"Has the world ever been at peace? Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history."
War has been tightly related to inflation since Biblical Times: "“There was a great famine in the city [of Samaria]. The siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty pieces of silver, and a cup of dove’s dung sold for five pieces of silver”
As for inflation [& interest rates], my first house had a (iirc) 14% mortgage back in the 1980s. We've gotten used to inflation being lower than the historic average. This stuff goes back to Biblical times:
Book of Haggai: "Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes."
Proverbs: "Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle"
As for the banks, this [at least so far] is pretty minor, and four small to mid size banks taking risks is sure not like 2008 when Lehman and the biggest banks were failing.
We hadn't paid for our squandering money thru 25+ years of Afghan & Iraq wars (Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama) when Covid hit and debt went through the roof (Trump), then Russia led the world back to war by invading Ukraine (Biden). BOTH parties got us here and BOTH are equally guilty at blowing the budget year after year, largely because they increasingly won't compromise. The one and only way to pay down massive debt thru ALL of history has been to devalue money - meaning inflation.
So again my friend, life is normal. What matters is your attitude and how you choose to be calm in the conditions of the moment.
When it does, will you expect a pay cut in line with it?I am still waiting for the Deflation thing to hit.
Yeah, I didn't know if that was a bias comin' thru or not, but you're right, they don't want to show the next couple of years on that list.Even Google doesn't want to you see how bad things are right now. "The last 5 years" apparently doesn't include 2021, 2022, and YTD 2023.
View attachment 99898
Zombie apocalypse. (figuratively speaking of course). . . . It's different this time and it has to blow up one day. . . .
Only for we who don't look outside of our own borders or to history. Just like in those Bible passages and because of their debt catching up, in 1923 it cost 4.6 MILLION marks to buy a loaf of German bread.... It's different this time and it has to blow up one day.
I agree that polarized politics have had a huge impact. My basic challenge to a deficit hawk (which I am to a degree), is that you have to indicate which things that benefit you in some way you are willing to give up. Every bit of government spending has a constituent and it's easy to point out what you don't like that others may benefit from. But if someone isn't willing to accept a reduction in sonething that benefits themselves or increased taxes, they are just part of the problem. I have limited patience with deficit hawks that aren't willing to give up what they like, and just point to others.Balanced Budget? What a concept! As much as it pains me to say it, the last balanced budgets were in the Clinton years. What we should also be concerned about is the ratio of Debt to GDP. In 2014 it passed 100% for the first time (101%) and it peaked in 2020 at 129%. It currently stands at ~123%. Rest of the story? We have been generating debt faster than the income to pay it off.
For context, in FY 2001 the ratio stood at 55%. In FY 2009, 82% and FY 2016 105%
For the last 22 years, we have been spending govt money like we are at a BOGO sale for Booze.
IMHO, the polarizing politics of the last 30 years is the cause
Sadly, I think that is happening right now. It is looking like Brinksmanship with the debt ceiling will be the Spring time game.I agree that polarized politics have had a huge impact. My basic challenge to a deficit hawk (which I am to a degree), is that you have to indicate which things that benefit you in some way you are willing to give up. Every bit of government spending has a constituent and it's easy to point out what you don't like that others may benefit from. But if someone isn't willing to accept reduction that benefit themselves or increased taxes, they are just part of the problem. I have limited patience with deficit hawks that aren't willing to give up what they like, and just point to others.
Eville Rich
And that is what makes them the greatest generation ever. As a kid, I always thought that title was a platitude. The older I got/get, I realize that it was an understatement.. . . . How would you like to roll out of the Great Depression into World War 2.
Yep - My/Our folks really understood the effort it took as a society to have a good life. Now, WE all want what we WANT and we want it NOW....
For all our whining I say we have had it pretty good. How would you like to roll out of the Great Depression into World War 2.
Wally -Sadly, I think that is happening right now. It is looking like Brinksmanship with the debt ceiling will be the Spring time game.
Wally -
I
As we all know, it took McCarthy an unprecedented 15 votes to become Speaker and as a result a few extremists have unprecedented control. It is those few extremists who are pushing for no compromise on the debt ceiling and it's their refusal to negotiate that really can push us over a cliff.
I watched the reply and his foot was inbounds.CW, who moderates the moderator?