Has the world gone crazy expensive?

[El Presidente]

Well it has been two years and 2 months since covid put a kybosh on my International travel.  Coincidentally I did the London and Miami trip 2 years ago as well so I could make a direct comparison to pchanges that I witnessed. 

Now neither city is on the cheap side. London obviously is one of the most expensive cities in the world. 

Howver both are now nearly on par and just plain batshit expensive 

I would hazzard a guess that almost all F&B is up 20-25% in both locales (over the last 2 years). Utilities, rent, housing, accom, fuel all pile on. 

finding a steak under $40 USD or 40 pound in Miami or London is a mission. 

How is your city faring? is it much the same or are these outliers? 

 

 

[MrBirdman]

I spent the last week at the Jersey shore (Avalon) and most restaurants had ~20% higher prices than last year, breakfast alone was $60 for two. 

Languostines at a great Italian restaurant were $100 and my Tbone at Primal in Cape May was $75. $40 entrees have quickly become the norm, and the $50 steakhouse chop is now $60-80. 

[dangolf18]

Depends on where you go. I was just in France, Italy, and Germany and almost everything was dirt cheap to me aside from when I was in Paris. But yes where I live food has generally gotten way more expensive (California). Just the world we live in now I guess. If only we didn't print so much damn money!

[Shaunster]

Much better places in the UK outside of London where you don't pay the billionaires tax that you do in central London 😆

[Hollywood Ninja]

Yup same here in Seattle. There are still some cheap good eats, but yeah, likely not getting a good sub $50 steak anywhere. Grocery $$ through the roof too. It’s a small fortune to even attempt to eat somewhat healthy.

Just got back from vacation on the Big Island and everything there feels like it’s doubled in price since the last time I was there 2019, although maybe that’s to be expected.


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[anacostiakat]

Not good here in our Nation's Capital.  Gas as high as $5.10 USD per gal of regular.  Last time I looked an avocado was $3.50 a piece at a local grocery store.  Even the prices at Costco stores have gone up.  Especially meats.  Really tough on fixed income and lower income folks.

[joeypots]

   The price of real estate in my quiet little beach community on the end of Cape Cod has gone nuts. 25%, 50%, 70%, in two years and there isn't much of a slow down because there aren't any houses for sale. Consequently, business are having a terrible time getting help because housing is in such short supply. Not only are F&B prices up dramatically there are loads of restaurants that are open diminished hours or waited to the last minute to open, like this Memorial Day weekend. And don't get me started on the grocery store and gas prices. The inflationary spiral is spinning fast here. If you are comfortable, try to be grateful. The cruelest tax of all is hitting hard and may very well get worse. 

[Cigar Surgeon]

In Calgary we haven't seen a sharp rise in restaurant pricing, but we've definitely witnessed a sharp rise in the price of everything at the grocery store. Alberta is a major beef producer, and yet finding steak under $22/kg is a rare sight.  

Our utility bills are through the roof. I just did our taxes and same usage year over year both electricity and gas are up 18%.  My wages are lagging well behind the cost of inflation the past two years.

And don't even get me started on gas, again despite the fact Alberta is a major producer and refiner of gas. 

[CaptainQuintero]

Energy in the UK has gone nuts, this time last year the average annual cost for gas+elec was around £1000-1200 a year, by October it's due to be £2800. In reality a lot of households are seeing their bill triple.

The farm next to me has had their monthly energy bill go from £650 to £2500. It's not a question of how long can they last at that, they simply can't right now. From around £8k a year up to £30k just for gas+elec

 

[Corylax18]

I know you guys are marooned on your own island down there, but you still had the news during Covid, Right?

What we're seeing now (and will see for the foreseeable future) is called consequences. A decade + of soaring government debts and free money world wide followed by a roughly 40% increase in currency overnight is a terrible combination. Most currencies have drastically lost value, intentionally. When your money is worth less, everything is more expensive. Its not all that complicated. Add in the supply chain shocks from worldwide shutdowns, then the war in Ukraine and POP goes the bubble. 

It took longer than most people thought it would, but I'm surprised that anybody would be surprised by the current state of affairs. There really wasnt any other way it could go. 

[dominattorney]

9 minutes ago, Corylax18 said:

I know you guys are marooned on your own island down there, but you still had the news during Covid, Right?

What we're seeing now (and will see for the foreseeable future) is called consequences. A decade + of soaring government debts and free money world wide followed by a roughly 40% increase in currency overnight is a terrible combination. Most currencies have drastically lost value, intentionally. When your money is worth less, everything is more expensive. Its not all that complicated. Add in the supply chain shocks from worldwide shutdowns, then the war in Ukraine and POP goes the bubble. 

It took longer than most people thought it would, but I'm surprised that anybody would be surprised by the current state of affairs. There really wasnt any other way it could go. 

I dont know that most of the folks here are surprised, per se. I do know that the younger, less educated crowd is. To me that is a function of a sliding decline in educational quality in the US in particular (can't speak for the rest of the world) where rote memorization is prized above critical thinking and abstract aristotelian learning elevated above pragmatic things. I had a week long class in HS about debt management, taxation, and loans, including credit cards and mortgages. My stepdaughter isn't learning about that. I also had economics classes in HS and though I am no great believer I the field as an applied science with predictive ability, the history learned through economics is priceless. I also had a course on the labor rights movement. None of these things are taught today. Kids barely learn more about the end of WWII than "good guys won."

Add all that together and you get disillusioned young people who don't appreciate how the situation got where it is. They blame "boomers" for screwing up the world, which is true only as speciously as most policy movers are from that generation. They still want free money from "taxing the rich" but them you get 27 yesr old tech yuppies whining about paying more than 20% of their 150k a year, complaining that they're not the "rich" they were talking about a few years prior while agitating for progressive taxation. 

My 2 cents prior to starting a busy work day. 

[Cairo]

17 minutes ago, dominattorney said:

the history learned through economics is priceless.

It is also very scary, particularly the incidents of hyperinflation around the world.

We would not want to scare the precious little darlings, now would we?     😀

[dominattorney]

36 minutes ago, Cairo said:

It is also very scary, particularly the incidents of hyperinflation around the world.

We would not want to scare the precious little darlings, now would we?     😀

As tempting as it is to blame them, I cannot bring myself to engage in that way of thinking. Ignorance is bred through social programming. Ignorance is the enemy, not the individual. 

[grabow32]

Los Angeles is basically the same. Rent is soaring and harder to find, our gasoline is $6 to $7 per gallon, and we are every day running out of water. Our produce though is some of the least expensive anywhere if you go to the right stores. It's not uncommon to be able to get maybe 10 lbs of Oranges for $5. And it's still very easy to find $1 street tacos every few blocks so it could be much worse! Tacos and 350 days a year of sunshine outweigh the negatives for me. 

[Cairo]

11 minutes ago, dominattorney said:

Ignorance is the enemy, not the individual. 

Agreed.

Ignorance on inflation is widespread even among  highly educated folks.   When I was in college (many decades ago 🙂 ) I was disturbed because my Economics professor seemed to be unfamiliar with the most basic information on the topic.    When I asked him if he had ever read the writings of a well known economist who wrote a lot about inflation around the world he gave me a blank look--had never heard of the guy.     It is one thing to have disagreements over policy--but total ignorance of key writings on a topic you are teaching at a university is awful.

[TheGipper]

Uncle Milton gave us a clarifying insight: Inflation is a form of taxation.

[Corylax18]

1 hour ago, dominattorney said:

I dont know that most of the folks here are surprised, per se. I do know that the younger, less educated crowd is. To me that is a function of a sliding decline in educational quality in the US in particular (can't speak for the rest of the world) where rote memorization is prized above critical thinking and abstract aristotelian learning elevated above pragmatic things. I had a week long class in HS about debt management, taxation, and loans, including credit cards and mortgages. My stepdaughter isn't learning about that. I also had economics classes in HS and though I am no great believer I the field as an applied science with predictive ability, the history learned through economics is priceless. I also had a course on the labor rights movement. None of these things are taught today. Kids barely learn more about the end of WWII than "good guys won."

Add all that together and you get disillusioned young people who don't appreciate how the situation got where it is. They blame "boomers" for screwing up the world, which is true only as speciously as most policy movers are from that generation. They still want free money from "taxing the rich" but them you get 27 yesr old tech yuppies whining about paying more than 20% of their 150k a year, complaining that they're not the "rich" they were talking about a few years prior while agitating for progressive taxation. 

My 2 cents prior to starting a busy work day. 

Age and education don't have much connection to intelligence unfortunately. The situation we're in now is far too large to peg on one generation/demographic. But I always find it interesting when a generation complains about their kids. (not just boomers/millennials, its older than that) Who molded these kids into worse versions of themselves? 

I agree that the current education system doesn't prepare todays youth for the real world. I don't think its a new problem (l learned a lot of worthless crap as a kid too) but I do think its as bad as its ever been. 

The taxation stuff is a broken record at this point. The boomers were the original Hippies, anti establishment, tax the rich, blah blah blah. Now they make up a large(and growing) percentage of the "establishment" maintaining/exploiting the current tax system. It will be the same for this generation. I'm already building my retirements and other investments with an eye towards minimal future taxation and I'm only in my mid 30's. $150k isn't what it used to be. Especially in Silicon Valley, Austin, NYC, Etc. That being said, 20% seems more than fair to me at that level of income. Regardless of locale. 

[joeypots]

I think the supply chain problems that started when the pandemic took hold started the problem. We had crazy easy money for years and no inflation problem.  People  focus on the easy money and stimulus, especially when it goes to the people on the bottom end of the earning scale, instead of the second half of the equation, too much money chasing too few goods. Look at the prices of building products, lumber, and appliances. What you can get is more important than what you can afford.

[nav4040]

In Canada as a whole, prices are up. Travel and tourism is especially impacted due to the still present Covid restrictions. Domestic travel is booming, hotel and car rental availability is lacking which has driven rates up 2-3x.


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[Corylax18]

22 minutes ago, SCgarman said:

I have one comment to make to my fellow USA comrades regarding the hyper-inflation we are in currently. Six simple words in summation. BAD DECISIONS AT THE BALLOT BOX. 😨

We aren't anywhere near hyperinflation yet. Working towards it? Sure, but less than 10% year over year isn't hyperinflation. I would have agreed with your last line, maybe 25 years ago. But over the last 20 years both sides of the aisle have done MORE than their fair share contributing to the issue. There simply isnt a fiscally responsible party anymore, just two sets of "bogey men" that require growing billions to keep at bay. All the while things that do require and deserve real investment like education and infrastructure wither away. 

[SCgarman]

1 minute ago, Corylax18 said:

We aren't anywhere near hyperinflation yet. Working towards it? Sure, but less than 10% year over year isn't hyperinflation. I would have agreed with your last line, maybe 25 years ago. But over the last 20 years both sides of the aisle have done MORE than their fair share contributing to the issue. There simply isnt a fiscally responsible party anymore, just two sets of "bogey men" that require growing billions to keep at bay. All the while things that do require and deserve real investment like education and infrastructure wither away. 

You are only in your 30's and didn't live through the disaster of the mid-late 70's. Some of us remember those days as kids and don't want that kind of history to repeat itself. Unfortunately................

[Corylax18]

6 minutes ago, SCgarman said:

You are only in your 30's and didn't live through the disaster of the mid-late 70's. Some of us remember those days as kids and don't want that kind of history to repeat itself. Unfortunately................

I wasn't there, but I know enough about what happened to know we don't want it again. It might be too late to avoid it though. The bed has already been made for this current cycle, the only thing left now is to lay in it. Regardless of who was "at fault" 50-55 years ago, it's squarely on both parties(and their constituents) shoulders today. We've had both extremes of party control in the white house and congress and everything in between, but the structural problems leading to this continued chugging along regardless. Look at the rest of the world, all sorts of different political systems and ideologies from far left to far right. We're all in the same boat right now. 

[Greenhorn2]

A couple of gas stations near me are already rationing gas. $60 of gas is all you can get at 2 stations that I know of. 

[BoliDan]

1 hour ago, SCgarman said:

I have one comment to make to my fellow USA comrades regarding the hyper-inflation we are in currently. Six simple words in summation. BAD DECISIONS AT THE BALLOT BOX. 😨

Going to get me a vacation with this bait, but the inflation would have occurred no matter who was in office. It has to do with supply chain, increased demand,.rising production costs and swaths of stimulus and subsidies that we printed money for in the previous and current administrations. I was talking to some FOH guys over zoom when the first stimulus came, and I.said."we will be paying for this very soon". 

[tjkoala]

Charlotte NC here - Prices for housing are certainly up and dining out prices also appear to be up. Reality is that COVID brought in a new wave of high end dining that has mixed reviews from locals with a lot of these startups running themselves out of business by charging $8 for a beer and $20 for a burger and fries.

Reality is that there's a huge market for quick/cheap/casual eats and that segment is justifying doing quite well. Why go pay $7 for a beer at a brewery when I can get the same pint at the grocery store for $4 for a 16oz can? Its absurd and illogical.