Economy So when do prices revert back to pre-pandemic levels?

[Big Nasty Edison]

Never

 

[cooks1]

Without Sleepy Joe hitting the inflation button at his desk on the Oval Office, I'm assuming this will happen pretty quickly after Trump is inaugurated!

Never. Inflation was a GLOBAL issue years in the making with ridiculously depressed interest rates for an extended period. Then COVID and the subsequent Supply Chain issues came along and racheted the whole thing up several notches. Every nation on earth has been dealing with it, and the US did far better than most. It's quite ironic that the issue that did them Dems in more than any other was actually something they handled quite well.

Prices may trickle down, but they will never get back to prepandemic levels.

 

[jx820]

As a supply chain guy, I have some insight into this stuff.

Many things won't and shouldn't go back to pre-pandemic levels. What you're looking for is pricing in line with pre-pandemic inflation models (think January 2020 pricing plus 5 years of 1.5 - 2.5% inflation) assume anything within 13% of it's 2019 price is in line with pre-pandemic pricing.

The big 2 that are effecting people's lives right now are food and housing:

• Housing will not come down in the short or medium term. If they passed every conceivable good idea into law today you wouldn't see the impacts for years.
• The more processed the food the longer it will take the price to drop. So meat and vegetables are closer to pre-pandemic levels (e.g. chicken leg quarters are $0.87 a lb and broccoli crowns are $1.50 at Walmart today). But fast food, potato chips, even bread are lagging behind.

Imported goods are likely to go up if/when tarriffs are passed, but it remains to be seen what that will entail. Expect metals, consumer electronics, and home appliances to be tariffed heavily. If you're thinking about buying a car in the next year, sometime between now and January may be a great time.

Another thing to bear in mind, if you need anything from overseas, is that people who buy stuff on an industrial scale are already looking to bring in as much as they can before any tarriffs hit, so there may be some demand based price increases, and logistical bottlenecks. Don't drag your ass on those Christmas presents.

 

[SammyPops]

You're acting like Trump didn't force Canada and Mexico to tear up NAFTA for USMCA in his previous term.

Canada and Mexico will sign whatever new trade agreement the US wants. They can't afford not to.

That really did not answer my question. If you are reffering to the 2026 reopening of USMCA I agree with you.

 

[WhiteMousse]

Inflation only accounts for some of the high prices we're seeing. A lot of this is due to companies getting some nice margins during covid and not wanting to reduce that since they always have 5+ years of forecasts predicated on that, and ever increasing, margin.

 

[WhiteMousse]

Chinese workers might be paid a quarter per hour... but I hear they're extremely happy...

This really gets to me

 

[Fedor>Cain]

Inflation is a bit of a one way street. If prices went down significantly it is kind of a sign of a serious problem. Generally the expectation is for wages to catch up. Inflation usually doesn't go negative, it just increases at a slower rate.

According to Trump, we had negative inflation during his first term.

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

They won't. Better way to look at is if your net income / total take home from all sources will grow to offset the cost of good and services. And for the top decile, it's going to probably be a sweet time

 

[The XL]

He likely won't be able to bring prices down, but hopefully he can prevent further inflation.

The COVID lockdowns and money printing were an absolute disgrace. I don't think people realize how much government fucked the country with that

 

[chardog]

Inflation is cumulative

 

[Osculater]

He likely won't be able to bring prices down, but hopefully he can prevent further inflation.

The COVID lockdowns and money printing were an absolute disgrace. I don't think people realize how much government fucked the country with that

Well Trump fvcked it all up during covid

 

[Belaya Smert]

I am still waiting on locking up Hillary and Unity. Good luck with that.

 

[Halifax]

Without Sleepy Joe hitting the inflation button at his desk on the Oval Office, I'm assuming this will happen pretty quickly after Trump is inaugurated!

They don't.

Prices rolling backwards? That's called deflation and is a very bad sign.

The best you can hope for is Inflation staying at around 2% and wages going up at a higher rate

 

[NickNick]

They don't.

Prices rolling backwards? That's called deflation and is a very bad sign.

The best you can hope for is Inflation staying at around 2% and wages going up at a higher rate

Is it still considered deflation when the prices have far exceeded inflation rates? And if prices can never return to where they were because it would be"deflation" and bad, then are all the people that voted for Trump to fix the issue just wrong?

 

[My name is]

I just got some tbone for 9.99 a pound

 

[Blayt7hh]

You have zero idea who the free market works.

If the conditions warrant price drops, then prices will drop.

And any company that doesn't compete will either have to also drop prices or go out of business.

It's amazing how fucking clueless anti-capitalists are.

He’s wrong about the reason but right about the overall effect. We live in an era of oligopolies now so there is not a lot of direct competition to drive prices down in a lot of markets these days. The problem isn’t capitalism exactly, it’s that we’ve moved away from a healthy capitalist economy

I don’t know that there’s a whole lot the president can do in the short term about that. In the long run, we need more antitrust protection but I seriously doubt Trump will push for that

 

[Fergelmince]

Under capitalism executives aren't going to cut prices. Then their shareholders lose previously established gains. All you can hope for is them waiting awhile to raise prices again.

Got suckered in to buying another 42" 480p flat screen for $7K, eh?

 

[cheesus]

They're not.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

You have zero idea who the free market works.

If the conditions warrant price drops, then prices will drop.

And any company that doesn't compete will either have to also drop prices or go out of business.

It's amazing how fucking clueless anti-capitalists are.

When was the last time you saw a meaningful drop in the price of groceries?

 

[PaddyO'malley]

10 sack of McNuggets is $1 right now fam* Trump only spent 1 day der ting usually $0.25/pc at di cheapest dats like 56% off alrdy inflation ova fam we good imagine when him start di new job in January MAGAdoubles finna be free like us <---- eagle soarin' like crypto ahlie

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