Why is it that I can sell my car today for almost the same price I bought it for 10 years ago? A 2004 Mazda3 today is worth 19k. It was like 24k new. I had an aha moment!
We’re in a period of inflation that’s being downplayed I believe. It’s not showing up in the economic data somehow the way that we’re experiencing it. If we’re in an inflationary period, then everyone is getting out of cash and into anything and everything else. I looked a little deeper and found that economists historically distort the view of things a bit in acts of “pro-social lying” and paternalism.
The CPI data is way off of the reality of inflation I believe, and we know that already it’s not good, it’s been modified through history. That’s not okay because minimum wage is tied to that, so the minimum wage worker lost a lot of ground there. Inflation is way worse than people realize I hypothesize. I mean, we feel it, but c’mon that was not 8% y/y peak. I looked today to see if I could find someone who took the time do do an analysis and I did! Inflation is likely closer to 8% a year today, not 3%!! So why are the central banks cutting rates? Minimum wage moves with CPI. So we’re slowly making the middle class poor. Brutal. If the original CPI calculations were used, it seems that CPI would be higher based on a look around the shelves and a few different markets. Maybe 18% at peak in 2022, and is still floating around 8% a year, year on year, today, per data highlighted by Marketwatch.
Who knows, I’ve learned not to hold onto any ideas too tightly.
k-xs 
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