A damn quarter pounder $10

I guess Jimmy was to blame for 4.4% inf in 1988, 7.5% avg UE 1980-1988, an increase in government spending from 1980-1986 of 68%, federal spending as percent of GNP in 1980 0f 21.6%, and after six years of Reagan, 24.3%. Jimmy Carter habitually ran deficits of $40–50 billion and, by the end, up to $74 billion; but by 1984, when Reagan had promised to achieve a balanced budget, the deficit had settled down comfortably to about $200 billion.

I guess Jimmy too is to blame for:
* The budget for the Department of Education, which candidate Reagan promised to abolish along with the Department of Energy, more than doubled to $22.7 billion
* Social Security spending rose from $179 billion in 1981 to $269 billion in 1986.
* The price of farm programs went from $21.4 billion in 1981 to $51.4 billion in 1987, a 140% increase.
* Federal entitlements cost $197.1 billion in 1981—and $477 billion in 1987.
* the 1980s saw a roughly 20% increase in reg code (the Code of Federal Regulations went from a total of just over 100,000 to just over 120,000 pages)
* Under this "small-government, liberty-loving president", government spending on law enforcement, prisons, and the Drug War skyrocketed, along with incarceration rates. By 1989, the number of prisoners had doubled, and the majority of those added under Reagan’s tenure were non-violent marijuana offenders.


like I said, Nostalgia is a helluva drug

 

I mean @Contra isn't always consistent with their logic so the inconsistency makes sense

 

The fed has been trying to get inflation under control, Biden can do little on it.The FED is independent of Biden or anyone else.
The Fed Chairman was also originally appointed by Trump and then reappointed by Biden after serving at a nonpartisan think tank, so he’s not a partisan hack either.

 

Inflation Rate By Year:

1976: 4.9%
1977: 6.7%
1978: 9%
1979: 13.3%
1980: 12.5%
1981: 8.9%
1982: 3.8%
1983: 3.8%
1984: 3.9%
1985: 3.8%
1986: 1.1%
1987: 4.4%
1988: 4.4%
1989: 4.6%

Reagan got inflation back under control, inflation that got wildly out of control under a Jimmy Carter administration. So, no Reaganflation is not a conclusion that applies according to any kind of logic.

The question we should be asking is who destablized the economy so that we had to pick our poison between high interest rates or high inflation? The COVID alarmists who wanted to shut the entire economy down and shutter everyone in their houses for over a year are the one who destabalized the economy. That would be the Democrats who did that.

 

Ignoring the OP's purpose of crying about the price of a burger being biden's fault, if a person makes $3/hr more but food, gas, utilities, car insurance, gas, clothes, etc etc all cost considerably more are they doing any better? Honest question. It's not loaded as I am not making it political because inflation is a worldwide problem but when I hear about income in relation to inflation I don't see how one income stream offsets the pressure of increases from multiple expenses.

My income has increased by almost 50% in 5 years so I dont feel the inflation as much as some others but that's another story.

 

the metric that matters is how many hours of work, on avg, does it take to buy a 1/4 pounder & how has that changed over time.

 

ironically.....

Big Mac Index - Wikipedia

The Big Mac index was introduced in The Economist in September 1986 by Pam Woodall[2] as a semi-humorous illustration of PPP and has been published by that paper annually since then. Although the Big Mac Index was not intended to be a legitimate tool for exchange rate evaluation, it is now globally recognised and featured in many academic textbooks and reports.[3] The index also gave rise to the word burgernomics.[4]

The theory underpinning the Big Mac index stems from the concept of PPP, which states that the exchange rate between two currencies should equalize the prices charged for an identical basket of goods.[5] However, in reality, sourcing an identical basket of goods in every country provides a complex challenge. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), over "3,000 consumer goods and services, 30 occupations in government, 200 types of equipment goods and about 15 construction projects" are included in the current PPP calculations.[6] In an effort to simplify this important economic concept, The Economist proposed that a single McDonald's Big Mac could be used instead of a basket of goods. A McDonald's Big Mac was chosen because of the prevalence of the fast food chain worldwide, and because the sandwich remains largely the same across all countries.[7] Although a single sandwich may seem overly simplistic for PPP theory, the price of a Big Mac is derived from the culmination of "many local economic factors, such as the price of the ingredients, local wages, or how much it costs to put up billboards and buy TV ads".[8] As a result, the Big Mac index provides a "reasonable measure of real-world purchasing power".[8]

 

True, but you are not tracing the causes back far enough. The Democrats pushed hard for a total national shutdown in 2020. That is what tanked the economy. COVID alarmism created the pick your poison conditions between interest rates and inflation that Biden has had to deal with.

 

Everything shut down under Trump for the last 9 months of Trump’s presidency. It stayed shut down under Biden just like it did in every civilized country on Earth. It’s not a democrats/republicans issue. The pandemic shut down the economy. Period.

 

Okay, so just checking: you think that inflation in the mid-4% range is "under control?"

 

with a healthy UE rate to boot

 

How it started is a different discussion, and I don’t really want to get into another back door covid debate, I was only responding to your notion that Biden was working on inflation now. Once an inflationary cycle starts, short of the feds greatly cutting spending, the FED has the reins. Same reason I asked Okee what Trump would do about inflation and couldn’t get a specific answer other than “put better people in charge”. Presidents can yell a lot, but once the horse is out of the barn, they are just yelling into the wind.

 

Yep, you and the kid have about the same knowledge level.

 

Food as a share of income.

Budget share for total food increased 13 percent in 2022

 

The government's role in creating inflation is the heart and substance of the debate, though. Yes, once the government has done the damage, it is mostly up to the Fed to set the monetary policy to deal with the problem created by the government. I think we enter a new level of naivety when we think government is an innocent bystander that sat on the sidelines watching while the Inflation Ferry waved a magic wand and caused inflation. No, often times the government creates its own problems including its own inflation. Fiscal policy matters.

 

Coming from an Eco Nerd and libertarian. The money is yours until you exchange it for a good or service. If something is too expensive do not buy it. Do not exchange your money for their good. Period. I have spent $20 on a burger at a fancy place and it was badass. I got a good exchange for my money for the satisfaction (Damn good burger too).

 

Funny, I just happened to see this.