Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%
by dragonwriter on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @11:19AM
(#32413429)
Consumer price increases are inflation, no matter what drives them.
And energy price inflation drives inflation in other sectors, again, irrespective of what is driving the energy price inflation itself.
Re:U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%
by sangnoir on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @12:14PM
(#32414413)
> Consumer price increases are inflation, no matter what drives them.
Yes, but I never argued it's not inflation.
Most suppliers lean on the crutch that costs have gone up for them (due to supply constraints or inflation) so it can get recursive: some consumer price increases are driven by inflation - the most obvious being inflation of fuel increasing the price of shipping.
The price increases on the Texas energy market deserves a special call-out because it's a hypocritical corporate bailout with public money on a so-called open energy market, without fixing the root cause. Throw in once-a-century storms happening every decade, and you got a stew going.
Didn't ERCOT allow the Texas energy resellers to "recoup" the winterstorm losses (running into billions) from their customers over a decade? That increase was not primarily driven by inflation, but by good old socialization of losses while privatizing profits.