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Powerful Lords committee damns Bank of England over inflation forecasts (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Report says lack of ‘intellectual diversity’ at senior level and too wide a range of priorities led to errors and fall in public confidence

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Why aren't people taking a closer look at Japan? Their inflation rate is down 929% from last year, without adjusting the cash rate.

Why is it that the EU, UK, Canada, NZ, USA and Australia all keep trying to reach the same goal of suppressing demand until unemployment is high enough for prices to fall. It's insane.

What I was basing my observation on: https://theconversation.com/japan-has-gone-its-own-way-on-fighting-inflation-can-nz-learn-from-a-global-outlier-210618

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

For them, keeping inflation under control is merely dogwhistle for keeping the working class in line and under their thumbs. The main way this happens is a recession causes fiat to lose power while the power of capital assets increase an equal amount.

Common people are barred from increasing their collective power.

Powell and the federal reserve are the main villains in this terrible economy.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's easy to keep inflation down when your population is decreasing by 0.5% per year and accelerating downwards, with far more people aging out of the workforce than entering it. Japan is going to be in for a world of economic hurt over the next two decades.

China's population has peaked too, and it's economic outlook is going to be very dire when the big age cohort currently in their 50s starts retiring in 10-15 years.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Isn't that what people have been saying for decades? Yet the 'economic miracle of Japan' just keeps rolling.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/09/14/japan-economy-neoliberalism-east-asia-washington-consensus-imf/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Considering that their population only started decreasing about 4-5 years ago, I don't know how "decades" is possible.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Yeah, shit is NOT good over here. Prices on basic necessities have soared but wages haven’t appreciably changed in, legit, 20 years. People are sick of Kishida and hours approval rates are in the tank because he’s raised taxes while inflation has meant basic goods is up. Japan is not a good example right now.

Here’s an article I read a few days ago on the inflation over here Notice how they leave out the cost of food and energy calculating things. Plus, that talk about:

Energy prices dropped 8.7 percent, weighed down by government subsidies for lowering gasoline and other fuel costs to support households. The fall was smaller than the previous month's 11.7 percent.

sounds nice until you consider it had shot up between 24-48% depending on where you’re getting power from (I’m lucky. I’m in Osaka so prices only went up about 25%. They went up 48% in Hokkaido).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

The BoJ measures inflation to help it manage the economy. It’s not a political tool. As an individual, changes in your cost of living are personal to you. You don’t need the central bank or the government to tell you about it.

Obviously, the BoJ isn’t focused on individuals. It wants to see what’s happening across the whole economy. Through research that is freely available, it has determined that the index provides a more reliable signal when volatile fresh food prices are excluded (because the things that typically cause these prices to change, like the weather, don’t reflect a broad shift in the economy).

You’re wrong that energy isn’t included. That sentence is referring to a different (“core-core CPI”) index, which is higher at 4% because energy prices have gone down. Japan’s energy problems are as result of the post-Fukushima shift from nuclear, largely a result of public opinion.

Put simply, CPI isn’t a measure of “cost of living“. It’s a tool for central bank policy.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Oh wow that's insane to leave those essentials out of the calculation.

Shit isn't good here either, energy costs increased by 20-25% in just a quarter, homelessness rising, wages have fallen in real terms over the last two decades while company profits have soared, renting is out of reach of most young people while the older generation is retiring with multiple homes. The share of GDP that goes into people's pockets is literally the opposite of what it was in the 1950s.