The old saying "The only way to keep up with inflation is to make more money" Still holds true. If you are a trader, this is the time to perfect your methods. And make more money.
We are comfortable, but not wealthy, and honestly have not noticed the inflation much. Fortunately, inflation just dropped to 3% so moving in the right direction.
Inflation here in Canada is alive and well. Many Walmart food items increased in price the past week, on average 16 percent. Milk, chips, sausage, cheese, canned items, bread,... You name it. The graft and audacity of retailers is unreal. They get away with anything, especially in rural communities where there are only 2 or 3 different supermarkets within 100km. I notice the same with the other supermarkets in town as well. There is no way they are not colluding on price increases. And there is no other sensible explanation than price gouging.
other than the gas price i am fuming about, nothing much change, at least not significantly. many postponed trips and no more fancy dinners at rated restaurants since the pandemic, life can adapt. ce la vie.
There are a ton of traders / media types who seem to perpetually believe in all sorts of boogeymen all the time. When Inflation started dropping last year, they refused to believe it or even cast an objective eye on the numbers. For example, in Canada, almost the entire inflation figure for the year 2022 was in the first half of the year. A lot of the Inflation talk on here also occurred from 2009-2014, including the references to hyperinflation and that we were entering some giant bear market. To be fair, the Central Banks ( US and Canada ) seem somewhat oblivious to it too and are again overdoing their policy. I have no idea how some of these people get in these positions. 2% inflation why not 3% or even 4% these are not problems especially in a world dealing with wage gap problems and scarcity of skilled labor / resources.
The idea of 2% inflation target is not from thin air. There are lot of research suggesting that generally GDP growth causes inflation, hence inflation targeting should be at least on par with the GDP growth, in order to maintain price stability. People are mad about central banks is because they don’t like the central bankers to carve out the particulars like food and energy. Average people are smart to know once the price goes up for a sustainable period of time, it will not come down. People live on fixed incomes will riot.