Intro
Upfront, this is a 2-parter or more post which barely scratches the surface of the topic, especially coming from someone like me, maybe the equivalent of a pre-school newbie to finance, of which inflation, currently, is a big deal – and it is!

Also, the title, including the words – A Beginner’s (re)View – harkens back to the beginnings of my blog a decade ago, where I used the phrase “A Beginner’s View” quite liberally and literally, as my wife and I were getting fitness certifications in stuff from Zumba to General and Senior Fitness to Yoga and SilverSneakers 💕

Finally, I’m using 2 or more articles to do my runnin g( article-wise; in real life – wife & I are living it! ☺️ ) leap into “inflation” 😊

One is, “Fed’s aggressive rate-hike path bolstered by new inflation, wage data” @Reuters, which I came across on Fidelity.com, written by ANN SAPHIR AND HOWARD SCHNEIDER .

The other is, “Tight U.S. labor market keeps upward pressure on wages; inflation heats up” via the same two outlets, but written by – LUCIA MUTIKANI .

My Approach
Without a doubt, I don’t know the answer to “What is Inflation?”

Really 😊

But, I have a lot of questions, and that’s what I’ll be posing here.

And I choose these 2 articles from Reuters because they carry, for me, a strong sense of fairness, wanting to present both sides, but only to the point those 2 sides are actually equal in consideration, not necessarily in true importance – though the equivocation might or might not be presented that way at 1st, as it so often is in much of the media I come across; and then distinctions pointed out. So I like Reuters’ style, both as a reader and a content devourer, lol! 😊

Tweet ( with excerpts )

Wages —

Wow, seriously, this is a heavy weight sentence worthy of carrying the story line in a novel or short story – ironically, think Elmore Leonard, who used short sentences; but here, accomplished with grammatical joiners 😊

One, the article leads with “labor costs” are what increased “strongly” in a “tight jobs market” – then adds: the cost of fuels ( record profits for related energy companies ) “with monthly prices surging by the most since 2005”.

Now, I’m not gonna show much more of this article, which goes into what I feel is super interesting data points all interacting with each other.”

Wages and costs are interacting with each other. There aren’t enough workers ( tight job market ).

Fuel and food ( rent & shelter not mentioned ) being the bigger expenses for these strongly gaining wage earners. But it’s not enough to keep up with inflation – “Inflation, however, eroded the gains. Inflation-adjusted labor costs fell ( my emphasis ) 3.6% on a year-on-year basis.”

This article is basically brutally out-front on about causal / reciprocal relationships. I really like that! ❤️ It’s meant to be, on Fidelity, I believe, a saner way to invest; but applies equally well to our everyday lives – and, for me, voting, of course! 😊

I take it a personal step further, which I firmly believe the writers very much wanted me, as a reader, and you, as a potential reader, to also do. Agreeing or disagreeing with me is irrelevant at this point; the point being – dig into the details of Reuter’s read, and see what you come out with out of all this.

I take it that immigration is probably ( as it has for hundreds of years on our country’s history ) a tried and true solution in regard to entry level paying jobs sorely needing being filled.

I take it that, yes, wages are spiraling, but not in a vacuum –
“The tug of war on consumer purse strings is slowly being won by the bad guys, high inflation, rising borrowing costs, and dismal confidence”.

Someone wants our consumer spending monies, but not many someones are also willing to keep those “spending monies” on pace with price increases. Understandable. But not feasible without an eventual collapse into recession ( my opinion ).

Two, to continue questions that come to mind as I read this ( and other articles’ ) reasonings about inflation – why don’t the percentages, like ( %’s ) of stock buy backs and CEO and other management level monies have their own highly followed, closely scrutinized category?

Something like, “Profits” – vs “Wages” ?

One for the upper financial class, and one for, well, folks like me 😏

We are, after all, like in our existential Climate Change Crisis, all in this together.

True, the big $ folks have giant cruise ships with luxury cabins pre-paid for if our world is flooded and they need to float at sea in AC comfort ( climate friendly or otherwise ). Or if they intend to live castle-like environments with peasant survivors outside the walls to grow food for them. Or robots.

But we don’t really want that, do we? Us lower 80% or so of the population?

Who trusted? Believed? Kept faith?

Not most of us in that lower economic percentile I would say.

So I say – we’re in this together….

Let’s figure this out together. Support climate change bills in the Congress & Senate. Support Democracy and universal health coverage – and be willing to pay our share, all of us, so we all know we have both the right and the will to contribute. We..are..all..in..this..together…..

My ( for now ) Economic Conclusion
Inflation, to return to my article’s purpose, is apparently a spiral with many contributing components, and, until our collective will, via our Congress & Senate, get their act together with appropriate legislation, the Federal Reserve will struggle to discourage and encourage the only way it has tools for – attempting to tame and harness inflation and deflation.

Besides defending our Democracy, there’s not much greater reason for voting November 2022….

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Stay well everyone. And as I can, I’ll do “Part 2” 😊

Tomorrow we have the oldest grandchild’s birthday party, and our oldest girl’s 1st visit to our new appt – that should be plenty 💕

Stay well everyone! We need you! 🙏

Adan

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I support passage of The Voting Rights Act 🙏❤️😊

Voting, in our democracy, is the purest form of expression.

Dissenting, affirming, protesting – 
– all flow through the form of the ballot, not, the bullet…

Stay well everyone – for oneself, and for those who need us most..the children….

Adan

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Thanks again, everyone! 😊

Adan

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