Cost of living squeeze in 2022
Discussion
Saweep said:
I think this is happening to me.
Was only thinking this morning that we seem to be throwing away minimal stuff at the moment and shopping bills are marginally lower.
I guess all the constant hammering of the press about this makes you think a little more.
Luckily I have few financial worries, but it somehow seems wrong to just waste money when others are struggling. Focuses the mind a little.
En masse though, it really doesn't help the economy.
fWas only thinking this morning that we seem to be throwing away minimal stuff at the moment and shopping bills are marginally lower.
I guess all the constant hammering of the press about this makes you think a little more.
Luckily I have few financial worries, but it somehow seems wrong to just waste money when others are struggling. Focuses the mind a little.
En masse though, it really doesn't help the economy.
k the economy. Excessive spending of money we collectively don’t have, is exactly why we’re in this mess.We have started freezing stuff and then reusing it.
Cream is a classic example, we might only use half a carton. Used to just throw away the other half after a few days but now I use half and freeze the other half.
Same with bread. Rather than leaving half a loaf on the side for a couple of days only to have to bin it I now freeze it pretty much straight away.
I used to buy a loaf every week and now its every other week. The frozen stuff is only good for toast but its fine from the freezer.
Cream is a classic example, we might only use half a carton. Used to just throw away the other half after a few days but now I use half and freeze the other half.
Same with bread. Rather than leaving half a loaf on the side for a couple of days only to have to bin it I now freeze it pretty much straight away.
I used to buy a loaf every week and now its every other week. The frozen stuff is only good for toast but its fine from the freezer.
Sway said:
Mr Whippy said:
JagLover said:
Mr Whippy said:
The proxy/economic war against Russia is the cause of the outsized inflation in energy and food.
To blame the BofE for it is ludicrous.
.
Inflation was rising rapidly, including in energy, long before Putin's attack on the Ukraine. Ukraine has added a couple of percentage points onto already rampant inflation.
The outsized inflation is caused by Putin and Ukraine.
The rest of it was caused by demand/supply shocks.
I think up until late 2019 we were looking at doldrums approaching despite record low interest rates and decades long QE.
It's all policy driven.
Green/ESG. Energy prices go up.
Putin. Energy prices go up. Food prices go up.
Covid. Demand/supply shocks, prices go up.
Taxes. Prices go up.
UBI/free money. Prices go up.
This isn't natural market forces at work. It's inflation by design. For some reason.
Taxes haven't really increased measurably on the things that are driving inflation - other than the green energy surcharges.
As much as people like to point to the covid response causing this - much more is to do with blocks to supplies, which would have happened irrespective of lockdowns, etc.
Are they all just rolling dice?
Taxes have increased measurably. 20% VAT on fuel. 20% of the increase in fuel price is a huge amount alone. VAT on home energy prices. That's a huge amount.
Are you living in some alternate reality?
So what do you think is causing the inflation we see in the various sectors it's effecting?
Mr Whippy said:
No design? How do you correlate tens of thousands of people thinking about policy to do with Covid and Ukraine/Russia with no design?
Are they all just rolling dice?
Taxes have increased measurably. 20% VAT on fuel. 20% of the increase in fuel price is a huge amount alone. VAT on home energy prices. That's a huge amount.
Are you living in some alternate reality?
So what do you think is causing the inflation we see in the various sectors it's effecting?
No, I don't think those 'tens of thousands of people', all around the globe and with wildly differing ideologies and economic philosophies, are deliberately designing their individual responses to create massive global inflation.Are they all just rolling dice?
Taxes have increased measurably. 20% VAT on fuel. 20% of the increase in fuel price is a huge amount alone. VAT on home energy prices. That's a huge amount.
Are you living in some alternate reality?
So what do you think is causing the inflation we see in the various sectors it's effecting?
I've already said. Massive supply side shocks caused by multiple factors, combined with large scale spikes in demand that had previously been suppressed and so is hitting in a huge surge that even with normal capacities wouldn't be achievable. Combined with a fairly major war impacting some critical global supplies (exacerbating the supply side shocks).
I'm certainly not living in your world of global planning/co-ordination.
Earthdweller said:
RizzoTheRat said:
Just be glad you’re not in Sri Lanka, no fuel, no food, shortage of medical supplies and medicine, riots and they’ve just defaulted on their debt 
Looking nasty
https://news.sky.com/story/sri-lanka-violence-burn...
https://www.dailymirror.lk/latest_news/The-next-co...
The problem of a switch to organic farming destroying Sri Lanka's agriculture should be a wake up call to some about their similar poorly thought through 'green' policy, but I'm sure they'll sail on regardless.
Sad for Turkey and Sri Lanka that they're a bit f
ked, but no one else can afford to bail them out and even if they did it wouldn't fix their problems. pquinn said:
Amazing the damage governments can do through stupid policy isn't it?
The problem of a switch to organic farming destroying Sri Lanka's agriculture should be a wake up call to some about their similar poorly thought through 'green' policy, but I'm sure they'll sail on regardless.
Sad for Turkey and Sri Lanka that they're a bit fked, but no one else can afford to bail them out and even if they did it wouldn't fix their problems.
I think I saw on Newsnight that inflation in Turkey is running at over 60%!!! (Similar in Argentina).The problem of a switch to organic farming destroying Sri Lanka's agriculture should be a wake up call to some about their similar poorly thought through 'green' policy, but I'm sure they'll sail on regardless.
Sad for Turkey and Sri Lanka that they're a bit f
ked, but no one else can afford to bail them out and even if they did it wouldn't fix their problems. Now *that* will surely hurt everyone very badly....
Sway said:
Throttlebody said:
RizzoTheRat said:
The Weimar Republic. German memories are long.The UK Govt and the BOE will absolutely do everything to control inflation.
The UK base rate in 1979 was 17%.
£65 to fill my Jazz today. I guess you have to laugh. Thank fk I do a fraction of the mileage I used to! The BMWs will be over £100 now. This is really going to hit a lot of people in the pocket.
The gas guzzlers can stay at home. Besides, I like driving my Jazz on local back roads, where most of my journeys take me. I enjoy modest machinery as much as I do flashy.
k I do a fraction of the mileage I used to! The BMWs will be over £100 now. This is really going to hit a lot of people in the pocket.The gas guzzlers can stay at home. Besides, I like driving my Jazz on local back roads, where most of my journeys take me. I enjoy modest machinery as much as I do flashy.
Thankyou4calling said:
I can’t get my head around all the negativity and language being used in relation to the economy.
It doesn’t bear any relationship to what I observe at all.
We’ve just come out of a pandemic, I’d say most were really surprised at how resilient the UK economy has been.
Jobs are plentiful, wages are strong. Spending on hone extensions and improvements appears at an all time high.
Loads are upgrading there cars, booking holidays, restaurants are busy. Coffee shops packed new businesses opening all around.
Houses selling like hot cakes and all the related activity booming.
Talk of food riots and people (not a few but millions) living like church mice seem well short of the mark.
Yes, I know I’m a bit like the Mayor of Amity but is it really that bad? And if the economy dips by one or two percent it’s hardly Armageddon is it.
Basically it's going well for now, but there's pain to come. Inflation will result in lots of jobs, high salary increases etc. The issue is to stop high inflation the government will need to kill it via high interest rates, which will cause a recession. So we're doing fine now, but we know a lot worse is to come soon. You'd not want to have a big mortgage outside a fixed interest rate for say 5 years plus, given what is likely to come. People talk about the 17% interest as being bad, but given they were 6% before it's only 2.8x the amount of interest you needed to pay before. That's the equivalent of interest rates going to around 3% now. It doesn’t bear any relationship to what I observe at all.
We’ve just come out of a pandemic, I’d say most were really surprised at how resilient the UK economy has been.
Jobs are plentiful, wages are strong. Spending on hone extensions and improvements appears at an all time high.
Loads are upgrading there cars, booking holidays, restaurants are busy. Coffee shops packed new businesses opening all around.
Houses selling like hot cakes and all the related activity booming.
Talk of food riots and people (not a few but millions) living like church mice seem well short of the mark.
Yes, I know I’m a bit like the Mayor of Amity but is it really that bad? And if the economy dips by one or two percent it’s hardly Armageddon is it.
marky911 said:
Hard work but of course it’s doable.
Unfortunately though saving and more importantly “waiting” for things is too hard for a lot of young folk.
They want everything they see and instantly because a load of people they don’t even know on Instagram have it.
Rather than get stuck in and work for it, it’s easier to just moan that “old people stole my future”.
Doable with help from parents a lot of the time - either for a deposit, or free/subsidised accomodation. It takes a lot longer than it used to do, and is more risky - particularly with high interest rates looming. Instead old people like to moan about lazy young people, ignoring the far higher costs. Not to mention insist on equal or higher wage increases than the young people paying their pensions through the triple lock... if only they had worked harder before they wouldn't need it, they could also have retired at 67 instead of having a retirement as long as their work life... (this said from someone who made it, but recognises it is harder for young people now). Unfortunately though saving and more importantly “waiting” for things is too hard for a lot of young folk.
They want everything they see and instantly because a load of people they don’t even know on Instagram have it.
Rather than get stuck in and work for it, it’s easier to just moan that “old people stole my future”.
tannhauser said:
Saweep said:
I think this is happening to me.
Was only thinking this morning that we seem to be throwing away minimal stuff at the moment and shopping bills are marginally lower.
I guess all the constant hammering of the press about this makes you think a little more.
Luckily I have few financial worries, but it somehow seems wrong to just waste money when others are struggling. Focuses the mind a little.
En masse though, it really doesn't help the economy.
fWas only thinking this morning that we seem to be throwing away minimal stuff at the moment and shopping bills are marginally lower.
I guess all the constant hammering of the press about this makes you think a little more.
Luckily I have few financial worries, but it somehow seems wrong to just waste money when others are struggling. Focuses the mind a little.
En masse though, it really doesn't help the economy.
k the economy. Excessive spending of money we collectively don’t have, is exactly why we’re in this mess.Are you not concerned about your job security and your own livelihood if the economy tanks?
Throttlebody said:
RizzoTheRat said:
The Weimar Republic. German memories are long.The UK Govt and the BOE will absolutely do everything to control inflation.
The UK base rate in 1979 was 17%.
They'll be stocking up on gold and wheelbarrows.
pquinn said:
Throttlebody said:
RizzoTheRat said:
The Weimar Republic. German memories are long.The UK Govt and the BOE will absolutely do everything to control inflation.
The UK base rate in 1979 was 17%.
They'll be stocking up on gold and wheelbarrows.
The UK has got used to historically continuous low base rates. Memories are short.
A potential transition to a more normalised and not unrealistic base rate of 4-5% would shock many. Even a forecast peak at circa 3% will be significant.
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