The CPI is not the economy, the stock market is not the economy, wages and unemployment are not the economy, there is no one measure that effectively captures what's happening with the economy.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This exactly, and the people making policy are so far out of touch that they don't even have a friend of a friend that's as impacted as we are by this insane inflation.

Worst thing is, we weren't getting cost of living increases before inflation went batshit.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I mean, they are out of touch, but don't believe for a second that they don't know what they're doing.

For example, why would a politican regulate the housing market and bolster tenants' rights when they and a bunch of their buddies are making bank?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There is the Consumer Sentiment Index which at least tries to quantify what people are feeling about the economy. According to the recent report, 48% of consumers expect bad times in the year ahead for business conditions, which is down from the high of June 2022 when 79% of consumers expected challenging times ahead for the economy.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Index of Consumer Sentiment, 1960-2024 - University of Michigan

Oof

Source

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

Oof indeed. It's hard to think back to June 2022, but I'd have to imagine some of the sentiment increases are due to supply chain shortages getting worked out.

Personally as someone in tech, it feels like with interest rates going up, a lot of investments in technology companies have dried up. Looking back, mid 2010s was low interest rates and it seemed like there was more money being invested, without the focus of immediate profit. Now it feels like the screws are being tightened and every cent they can extract out of customers is being taken advantage of, regardless if that is overall good for the product or company.