Inflation is slowing. Here's why prices still aren’t going down

Americans would feel much better and stop being "stressed out" if they could realize and acknowledge that they have been living in the wealthiest country of the world with the highest standard of living ever achieved on Earth.

Alas, this is not possible at least for those, whose economic memory does not go back farther than the inception of Twitter in 2006 and thus believe that the recent two decades of unprecedentedly low interest rates were the "new normal." Yet, the average annual rate of inflation over the last 49 years since 1975 has been 3.6% ! Capish?

CPI in May 2023: 3%. CPI in March 2024: 3.5%. Slowing? How is that slowing?

Hasn't the glaring wealth division ALWAYS existed though? I'm going out on a limb here, but I am fully willing to bet it is better today than prior to the massive government overhauls in the first half of the 1900s. Equality always fails. The closest countries come is overtaxing and redistribution of wealth....which leads to a decrease in capitalism and exodus of companies (and individuals) until an equilibrium is reached.

What people don't realize (or admit) about inflation is that it always existed, will always exist, and that we WANT it to always exist because a deflationary situation would be a disaster to progress. The "2%" goal is akin to all other general rules: some years it will happen, some years it will not.

I will say, in response to Eurorally's comments, just because inflation has averaged 3.6% doesn't mean it needs to CONTINUE to average that. However, I will also state that so long as wage growth > inflation, then what's the issue. For the vast majority of the past 75 years or so, wages have vastly exceeded inflation (4.5% vs. 3.4% as of Dec 2023 for a recent history example).

How sustainable this type of increase is becomes a question. Those wages translate to higher prices and, if you are not someone attempting to either negotiate higher pay or jumping jobs to receive it, inflationary pressures do hurt those living paycheck to paycheck. Of course, the only way to curb the rate of inflation is to reduce spending..which reduces demand....thereby causing supply reductions...leading to layoffs/business closures....which makes inflation seem even MORE impactful to affected individuals.

Economics is a huge balancing act. The pendulum swings VERY slowly. It could take 10 years to know if the policies set in place now are effective.

The variety of opinions on these matters is what "makes a market" though. It is what gets people elected to office. It is what pays MANY salaries (people will always be needed to combat one another's ideas, right?!?). The hope is, while opinions on how to achieve the goals may differ, the objective to raise everyone to the best standard for their place in time guides the process.

Historically there is a very high correlation between inflation and the oil price. USA, the world's largest oil producer, needs to ramp up production to cut OPEC and Russia right out of the oil market and bring oil back to the 2020 low of around $10 per barrel. Then interest rates can come back to zero, stock indices will hit infinity and everyone long stock indices can retire. Easy.

US is not even within the top 20 countries to live in right now...let alone the best.

we are living in a fradulant system all this capitalism is an illusion
the real money is gold
in 1970 the price of 1 troy ounce of gold was at about $40 and avg price of a house is $25000
25000/40 = 625 troy ounces

in 2024 avg price of house is about half a million USD and price of gold is at $2360
500000/2360 = 211 troy ounces

now you decide where is inflation???

This is dumb. Infation slowing doesnt mean price will go down. It only means it is not going up as fast as it was. For prices to go down, inflation has to be NEGATIVE. What is certain is journalists need to get some basic math training.

Exactly. A bit of elementary calculus. The difference between the slope of a graph and its overall level.

May 2023 was 4%, March 2023 was 5%. https://www.bls.gov/charts/consumer-...line-chart.htm