We could have deflation if you like. Of course people would be losing their jobs left and right again. Is that what you want? Or would you like to continue with the recovery?
Inflation has slowed from last month. The lumber futures people around here were on about in the last doom and gloom thread, OH NOES OH NOES LUMBER INFLATION!!! Have fallen from a high of $1670 in May and now sit at $492. But there has been nary a peep from those individuals. I would have thought as much as they were worried then, they might be celebrating now. But they're not. I guess it wasn't really about lumber prices.
Of course the doom and gloom threads on employment are long gone. OH NOES, WE ONLY ADDED 250K JOBS THIS MONTH, DEPRESSION COMING!!!! I would think these folks would be celebrating the 943k jobs last month on the top of 850k the month before but.....(crickets) I guess it wasn't really about employment either.
Used auto prices fell a bit last month ($2000 on average by some sources) But not mentioned. I guess it wasn't really about that either.
And speaking of those jobs, if all these businesses were closing, and people sitting on their butts collecting government checks (no doubt buying filet mignon and live Maine lobster with them) how in the heck did we add 943,000 jobs last month and 850,000 the month before? And how come of the few states that ended the extra check prior to the last reporting period as of this posting, two of them had unemployment unchanged, two had it drop by 0.1% and 5 had it rise by 0.1%? It would seem the predictions of lazy couch potatoes running out and grabbing these jobs and instant full employment were a bit uh.... off. Clearly then, there are a lot of other things going on.
As for us, we just got Boston Butt Roasts for 99 cents a pound, boneless skinless chicken breast for 1.49 a pound. 90-10 ground sirloin $3.59 80-20 ground chuck $3.29 These prices were all what I'd consider incredibly good. 2.19 is a good price for Boston Butt, 2.49 is a good price for the breast, and 4.09 is a good price for the Sirloin. Unfortunately no steaks were on sale and well steak prices haven't been that great all Summer. A buck a pound higher on average than last summer. That's the sale prices. The regular prices stayed the same. But I'm not paying those.
But I did see brisket for 2.99 a pound a couple weeks ago. I bought 3. Gonna smoke em. I do realize that those of you in certain areas of New York and California will probably never see those prices. But that's because real estate is so expensive in those places.
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Look at this census map. Look at all that burnt Orange there. it's counties that lost population. It's actually 52% of counties in the U.S. Ironically for all the finger pointing and garbage dished out by Fox, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City all gained. The losses were most heavily in the rural areas and the small and medium hubs that service them. So for much of the country, the problem isn't getting people off their dead rumps and getting them to take widely available awesome jobs. Not enough of such were available in these areas even before the pandemic. In fact, the census shows that many in these areas got off their rumps..... And moved away. If we're busy pointing our fingers at Seattle, because we're supposed to hate them, how are we ever to understand that Pine Bluff Arkansas needs help, let alone do anything about it? And even in a place like Palm Beach County that grew quite a bit, take a visit over to the western flank of your own county. You'll find plenty of people in need there even though that area grew also.
