Inflation in our inflation-free economy

by philg

We are informed that the Biden-Harris team has whipped inflation, e.g., from state-sponsored PBS, February 2024: “Inflation is nearly back to 2 percent.” (“inflation nearly conquered”)

What’s happened to prices since February?

Here’s the menu at the Orange County airport McDonald’s, March 13, 2024:

The same menu on July 31, 2024:

The pictures were taken 140 days apart, which is 0.38 years. In other words, to get an approximation of the annual price change we have to multiply the price change rate between the two photos by 365/140.

The Big Mac meal is $14.18, up from $13.08. That’s a rise of 8.4 percent, adjusted to an annual rate = 21.9 percent.

How about the Royale with Cheese (Deluxe, of course)? That’s up from $13.41 to $14.84, a lift of 10.6 percent. If we didn’t live in an inflation-free society, that would be an annual inflation rate of 27.8 percent.

Also on July 31, 2024, a friend who does some software consulting work decided to raise his hourly rate from $350 to $425 (a 21.4 percent increase).

21 thoughts on “Inflation in our inflation-free economy”

    • TS: You take issue with your California brothers, sisters, and binary-resisters leaving out the dollar signs?

    • TS: Maybe this explains why Gavin Newsom and other California Democrats spend so much and take one of the highest percentages of residents’ income for wise allocation by state and local governments. There aren’t dollar signs on the things that they’re buying so they assume that everything is free! https://taxfoundation.org/location/california/

    • I just assumed 1418 was more realistic for the amount of calories in a big mac meal. It never occurred to me that a big mac meal would cost so much. I guess like Mike I am now a dumb dumb!

  2. Official inflation is all election year baloney, Big Mac contains no baloney. What are the base cost increases that drove your friend to increase rate by 21%? Does he require big macs to code? Want to now how to put for my raise proposal.

  3. Why did the price of the Spicy Deluxe Combo Meal go down? The Spicy meal went up, and the Deluxe meal went up, and the a la carte Spicy Deluxe sandwich went up, but the Spicy Deluxe Combo costs less now. The calories on the a la carte Spicy Deluxe sandwich also went down. I suppose the Biden-Harris team did that?

    • TR, do you imply that governmental policy in heavily regulated economy does not matter? “Build back better” was not a spending plan but just for giggles? Payouts to family, friends and all interested parties which amount to trillions of $$ do not matter? Failures are noticeable on the streets. There is a huge billboard with Joe Biden multi-million funded project advertisement on the path I pass through sometimes. It has before and after pictures, before was previous construction at an angle, after picture is same construction but up-front. The difference between 2022, when it was last used by thousands of customers, and now on the ground – there is not anymore before and instead after there is a field overgrown with weed with some containers thrown in. and no activity in the past 2 years. Much worse then Obama’s cash for junkers.
      For Spicy Delight la carte price increased significantly, from $6.70 to $7.03, 5% or 15% and portion size dropped by just under 2% , based on 10 calories drop, from 540 to 530.

  4. Whatever the real inflation number is, I’m looking at no raise this October at my local government job. City commissioners just approved a 25% raise over 3-years (retroactive back to Oct. 2023) for police and fire, plus a 3% COLA. No money left for non-public safety workers’ raises. Not good for me as I will be in the last year of my “high-five” for pension calculation. This unfairness will limit my annual pension at age 62 to just $30K per year (after 20 years of dedicated service), and no COLA!

    • SE: That’s brutal. I am sympathetic. The U.S. is becoming like the Roman Empire on the TV show Caligula. There is a huge Praetorian Guard of “first responders” and U.S. military personnel who get paid 3-5X what an average citizen might and also gets showered in glory, e.g., boarding airliners prior to even the paying first class passengers. With so many resources channeled to the Praetorian Guard there are only a few crumbs left for the non-elite.

    • Philip, your analogy with Praetorian guard does not stand. Praetorian guard was relatively small force, at most a legion, which was better armed to defend from stray field legion, but which at the end failed against Goth legions after Goth were not paid by last Roman emperor (that’s why he was last). Praetorian guard did not fight in Rome’s wars and did not protect Rome’s borders. Praetorian guard may serve as not perfect analog to Secret Service.

    • @philg: “U.S. military personnel who get paid 3-5X what an average citizen might and also gets showered in glory”

      Aside from sr. management positions, my employer offers military vets 5 additional points (out of a total of 25) as a hiring preference. Nearly impossible for a non-vet to get hired. Moreover, nearly all the vets hired forego the employer-subsidized health insurance because they’re on some kind of partial or full military disability health insurance and monthly cash payment for life.

    • lion: I think that the next Fed meeting is September 17-18, 2024. That’s when they can put their technocratic stamp of approval on the Biden-Harris stewardship of our economy by cutting rates. Maybe they can have a “Pre-Election Special” in which everyone can borrow at 0% through mid-November.

    • We don’t need the a Fed meeting to cut rates to 0%. Biden already did that and is still doing so to his inner-circle, it is called “Student Loan Forgiveness”.

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