Email received earlier this month about a price increase that begins today:
We are informed that we live in an era of “disinflation” (see for example, Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman in the NYT, 2023: “How (Many) Economists Missed the Big Disinflation”). I guess disinflation doesn’t preclude disflation (inflation in the cost of whatever Disney is selling).
Now that the election is behind us, the New York Times is writing that inflation and crime are both raging in New York City. “My Restaurant Was Named One of New York City’s Best. Here’s Why It Closed.” (NYT, Dec 28, 2024): “The combination of inflation, rising crime that required us to pay for security guards and declining profits simply proved insurmountable.”
Related:
- “Inflation Is Down, Disinflation Denial Is Soaring” (New York Times, September 2023)
- “All the Good Economic News Vindicates Bidenomics” (New York Times, a month before the recent Election Nakba): A week earlier we learned that inflation has continued to decline and is now more or less at the Federal Reserve’s target of 2 percent. This success has defied the view, held by many economists just a couple of years ago, that disinflation would require years of high unemployment.
- “Biden’s Chief Economist Processes the Election With ‘Confusion, Guilt’” (New York Times, November 2024): I understand that disinflation is less satisfying to people when they want their old prices back. I get that, and I’m going to have to deal with that, but at the same time, I do not regret talking about the sharp disinflation, or the strong G.D.P. growth or the historically low unemployment rate.