"After a McDonald’s revenue report recently, the same post went viral again earlier this month, with at least a half-dozen news outlets — including the
Washington Examiner, the
New York Post and
Newsmax— picking up the story of Olive’s pricey patty. One
YouTube video from this month with 2 million views inaccurately describes it as 'a Big Mac meal' that cost $16. Posts on
Reddit, the
conservative site Twitchy and elsewhere tied the cost to President Biden’s economic management: Inflation, the theory went, had gotten so out of control that the price of a fast-food burger was approaching $20. These stories soon reached the White House Office of Digital Strategy, which tracked the meme as one of many exaggerated examples of the nation’s economic woes, according to a White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to reflect internal discussions. In reality, inflation
has been steadily subsiding.... The average Big Mac nationally as of this summer cost $5.58, up from $4.89... before Biden took office.... That’s up more than 10 percent, but it’s not $16...."
From
"The viral $16 McDonald’s meal that may explain voter anger at Biden/As some Democrats fear social media is exaggerating economic problems, the White House faces a crucial choice on election strategy" (WaPo).
The argument for censorship oozes between the lines: "TikTok abounds with misleading or inaccurate information about the economy.... [Some] economists fear that these exaggerated stories will ultimately lead to a worse outcome — perhaps helping Trump win reelection...."
Here's the TikTok video in question, about "a smoky double quarter pounder BLT." I guess a "double quarter pounder" is a half pound, but "quarter pounder" is sort of a McDonald's brand, so they had to say "double quarter pounder" and impose this math problem on us.
Seems like too much meat, but maybe for a large person, seeking a full dinner, a half pound is the right amount. In a steak, it would be 8 ounces, and regarded as small. Let's just say it was a large burger the size of a small burger.
MEANWHILE:
Posts
105 comments:
Most people (including myself occasionally) conflate Inflation with a Rise in the Cost of Living. It is the latter which is what is usually meant because that's what most people notice on a frequent basis.
Did anything contribute more to the explosion in the cost of living than the Biden Administration's moves to strangle U.S. domestic oil production?
The price of crude and at the pump predictably - and purposefully -shot up, impacting consumers of all products in a most regressive way.
Supply and demand, duh. And all just to virtue signal that this administration is responding to the science-settled existential threat of climate change.
"Journalists" are nothing more than writers of ad-copy. WHY should economists "fear" that Trump might be re-elected? It seems every story in the MSM just takes for granted that all normal people agree that electing Trump is the worst thing that could possibly happen for every living thing on the planet.
By the time you add fries and a drink, you are darn close to $10 for a McDonald’s meal. It seems to me I paid about $6 for a fish sandwich a few months ago. I thought it was excessive for the type of sand which it is.
Tiktok/CCP/Xi is tired of Joe Biden cleaning China's clock.
“That’s up more than 10 percent, but it’s not $16...."
14.1% to be exact.
Let’s face it. The left’s fixation with “misinformation” is merely the latest iteration of its effort to censor anything that contradicts the left’s narrative du jour.
"TikTok abounds with misleading or inaccurate information about the economy.... [Some] economists fear that these exaggerated stories will ultimately lead to a worse outcome — perhaps helping Trump win reelection...."
"Misinformation" is anything that might make Democrats look bad.
People see with their eyes every day what it's costing them to live. They see it at the grocery. At the gas pumps (some states more than others). Buying gifts this Christmas season (can I still call it the Christmas season?).
But it's not just Biden and Jerome Powell's inflation game. It's also the mandated raised hourly wages of french fry handlers to upwards of $20/hour (coming in California, while $16/hour is common now elsewhere). Margins in the restaurant biz are notoriously small. A jump in labor costs and food costs together are forcing all restaurant operators to raise their prices to abnormal levels.
To levels that will have to make families and couples rethink just how often they eat out. Or...in the case of chronic fast food eaters- eliminate something else in their lives to keep the Double Quarter Pounders coming.
Double Quarter Pounder is on the menu at McDonald’s. WaPost shows up to cover for Biden by talking about the Big Mac. Plenty of non sequitur no actual journalism. Pravda discussing Ukrainian wheat production was just as reliable.
Media has found another Uncle Joe to simp for.
It's a good thing there was never any "misleading or inaccurate information about" Trump. That might have "ultimately lead to a worse outcome" in the 2020 election.
"The average Big Mac nationally as of this summer cost $5.58, up from $4.89... before Biden took office.... That’s up more than 10 percent, but it’s not $16...."
Does Taylor Lorenz think she's being clever with this obfuscation? The $16 was for a value meal, not a burger by itself. Where I live, a Big Mac value meal costs more than $12. This summer, there was a location in Darien, CT that was charging $18 for the same thing. McDonald's just announced a 14% increase in revenue for the 3rd Quarter of 2023, and also just raised its menu prices, but let's talk about the meanies on TikTok who obviously hate Democracy.
"Let's just say it was a large burger the size of a small burger."
Excellent.
Biden keeps trying to tell us we have a large inflation the size of a small inflation.
I read the entire article. If it were written by the Democratic National Committee, not a single word would have been different. Maybe it was written by the DNC. It does include fear of the worst possible outcome in the entire universe: "...helping Trump win reelection."
You know that McDonalds prices can vary depending on location, right?
Make McDonalds lower the price of their food, and raise the wages of their workers.
See? Easy to fix.
The average Big Mac nationally as of this summer cost $5.58, up from $4.89... before Biden took office.... That’s up more than 10 percent, but it’s not $16....
Has everyone received raises commensurate with a 10% rise in prices?
And then there's the price of a McDonald's soda, which used to be $1 for any size and is now about $2 with tax (this was in the very recent past but I don't know exactly when it changed). The sodas and the french fries are the big moneymakers in fast food; they cost pennies to produce.
I know the soda price off the top of my head because they made the $1 price a big thing in ads, so I noticed the $2 price tag when I last ordered a Diet Coke a week or so ago (McDonald's chills its water before it goes into the soda dispenser so it doesn't melt so much when dispensed over ice, they have an excellent delivery system where the soda tastes like the soda it's supposed to taste like instead of some mixture of soft drinks, and then they have those big-bore straws - the soft drinks are just better from McD's). But since it was "only" $1 before, and everyone else was charging much more, when it went up to $1.89 it still wasn't that big a deal. But it's not 10%.
And then there's the rise in interest rates, meaning that people's mortgages and rents have gone up - like, a lot - and they have less money to spend on McDonald's. And then there's the part time and gig jobs that have dominated the "job growth." And then there's the rise in gasoline prices - down some now, but still, here in Texas, a good 30% higher than their low point under Trump, no matter what you chalk gas prices up to.
And then there's the fact that a slowdown in inflation is not the same as a reduction in prices. We can be glad we don't have Argentina's 140% inflation - but the rate we do have now is on top of the high-for-the-US rates we have indeed seen under Biden.
I traveled for a living before retiring in 2022. My meals were paid on company card, but I treated it like I was paying the bill. My go-to was a quick Wendy's at an offramp when I didn't buy what my wife called a "gas station sandwich" while fueling. I went to Wendy's for the first time last month and a number one single meal had gone from $6 to $10. I was shocked.
Good news is I lost 40lbs not eating out 9-12 times per week. ;-)
If inflation tuns double digits then ‘subsides’ a bit prices have still increased by double digits and continue to rise.
A couple of months ago, I re-read much of the Mueller Report, and I came to accept more of it as plausible. In particular, I now think that the Russian Government indeed did steal computer files from the Democrat Party and did leak those files to the public. I am not convinced about that, but now I think its more plausible than I thought in past years.
Nevertheless, as I re-read the Mueller Report, I still am impressed by the Report's hysteria. After all, the essential wrong-doing was to cause trouble for Hillary Clinton's supporters in their effort to defeat Bernie Sanders' supporters in the Democratic primary elections in 2016. No matter what the Russians did or did not do, Clinton still won the primary elections and did become the Democratic candidate in general election in November 2016.
I do not think the stealing and leaking of the Democrats' documents affected the election's outcome, but many Democrats think it did. They say our elections can be stolen -- or already have been stolen-- by Russians colluding with evil Donald Trump.
Our Democracy is in danger!
For example, Internet stories that the cost of a McDonald's hamburgers has soared to $16 have all the earmarks of a Russian disinformation operation!
Where is the McDonalds? In CA governor Newsome raised minimum wage to please all the unions with contracts tied to minimum wage bit as we learned in the last century minimum wages set above the market clearing rate harm marginal workers. Even Newsome doesn’t force many companies to create jobs…
Three years ago I could order a Egg menu from and a coffee, hand the clerk a $5 bill, and get change. Now, that costs me $6.09. Inflation rate +20%
it was a large burger the size of a small burger.
It took some work to get there, but you stuck the landing!
I paid $11 and change for meal number one at a McDonalds in a Cleveland, Ohio suburb last week. That would be a Big Mac, medium fries and a medium soda.
A McDonalds "double quarter pounder" is comparable in size and less calories than a Wendy's Double or a Five Guys regular hamburger both of which I would consider a basic burger for a regular meal.
"I guess a "double quarter pounder" is a half pound, but "quarter pounder" is sort of a McDonald's brand, so they had to say "double quarter pounder" and impose this math problem on us."
McDonald's actually has a burger that THEY call a Double Quarter Pounder https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/double-quarter-pounder-with-cheese.html
Seems like too much meat, but maybe for a large person, seeking a full dinner, a half pound is the right amount. In a steak, it would be 8 ounces, and regarded as small. Let's just say it was a large burger the size of a small burger.
Each patty is 4 oz, but that's pre-cooking weight. Unlike a steak, which is most commonly cooked to medium rare, MCD's patties are fully cooked, so lose much of their weight when most the fat is rendered.
> Let's just say it was a large burger the size of a small burger.
I do enjoy the payoff of being a lurker for a long time. Now this joke is from earlier this year ("a large boulder the size of a small boulder") so the wait wasn't long.
I've been following Althouse since Instapundit was sending her traffic back in the early oughts. I'd like more inside jokes from a decade (or more) ago. Althouse's posts on how often a label gets used are of particular interest to me because they spelunk the rich history of this blog.
I comment maybe once every year or two, so here I am using up my post on something banal. But it isn't banal to me. I wait for these payoffs and get a good dopamine hit from it; then I wait months for the next one. See you in 12-24 months.
For the Democrats, it's always a 'communication' problem (I.e., people looked at a misleading TikTok video.), never a 'substance' problem (I.e., people looked at their supermarket checkout slip).
It would be helpful if WaPo didn't deceptively lead with the cost of "a Big Mac Meal" and then claim it is wrong by only pricing "a Big Mac". For example, I looked online and a Big Mac Meal is priced at $10.05 locally.
In related news, Biden Administration BLS reported in its Consumer Price Index that Healthcare Insurance fell 34% year over year. They admit changing the way they calculate that particular metric (differently than other metrics and using accounting terms that don't mean what they are generally accepted to mean), but shouldn't they go back and recalculate previous years to show what actually happened to the cost of healthcare insurance this year? Isn't the cost of healthcare insurance more important to families than the cost of a Big Mac?
Or maybe we can discuss the price of eggs.
I haven’t been in a McDonald’s in decades. But I am frequently in grocery stores and Fleet Farm. Pet food has also suffered from inflated prices, especially if one is avoiding the crap from China. My eyes aren’t telling me lies.
I misread Goldenpause’s post above as “let’s fix inflation with misinformation”
Which seems to be the Biden strategy lately.
“I guess a "double quarter pounder" is a half pound, but "quarter pounder" is sort of a McDonald's brand, so they had to say "double quarter pounder" and impose this math problem on us.”
It’s two quarter pound patties not one half pound patty.
“Seems like too much meat, but maybe for a large person, seeking a full dinner, a half pound is the right amount“
It’s a 1880 calorie meal, 990 for the burger, 510 for the large fries, and 380 for the large drink. But the 8 oz of hamburger meat is only around 600 calories.
"McDonald's actually has a burger that THEY call a Double Quarter Pounder"
I know. That's why I wrote "they had to say 'double quarter pounder.'"
If I'd put my "they" in capital letters would you have seen that I was saying what you are saying? "Quarter pounder" is a McDonald's brand, I noted, which points directly at their reason for going with "double quarter pounder."
BTW, I get the feeling that the delusional Ms. Lorenz actually believes her own bullshit.
I see what you did there. The rewards of close reading and a good 'meme'ery are many but subtle. Subtle pleasures are often the best kind.
"Meat's meat, and man's gotta eat" - Farmer Vincent, Motel Hell (1980)
If you want misinformation go to Burger King. They sell Whoppers every day.
"[Some] economists fear that these exaggerated stories will ultimately lead to a worse outcome — perhaps helping Trump win reelection."
And here we come to the real story. The latest polls show voters trust Republicans more than Democrats on the issue of the economy, and this is especially true of Trump more than Biden. Voters should feel this way because they can look at their personal accounts and expenditures.
Using data from the St. Louis FED: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUR0000SA0R
The Purchasing Power of the Consumer Dollar during Trump's Presidency went from 41.1 to 38.2
The Purchasing Power of the Consumer Dollar during Biden's Presidency went from 38.2 to 32.5
This is with the BLS doing stuff like manipulating the CPI value to show a -34% drop in Health Insurance year over year, thus claiming 0 CPI increase for October. That's a rather big thumb on the scale for Biden that isn't enough to sway voters.
Soon, the Happy Meal will become know as the 'Biden With Cheese.'
Jules: Do you know why they call it that?
Brad: Because of inflation, and nobody is 'happy'?
Jules: Check out the big brain on Brad! You're a smart motherfucker. That's right... Inflation.
A McDonald's "quarter pounder patty" actually weighs 4.25 oz before cooking and 3 oz after cooking, so as delivered to the customer totals 3 oz of beef. Double the number of patties and add bacon, cheese and bun, plus large fries and large drink (i.e. what McDonald's calls a "meal"), then add sales tax and a double quarter pounder with cheese can vary in price by US location by as much as $5 - $6 each. Highest price in the Northeast due to higher labor and overhead costs and higher taxes, lowest in the South. WaPo couldn't explain that because it affected their narrative. Tough! Inflation is real and Biden's policies are primarily to blame.
"Quarter pounder" is a McDonald's brand, I noted, which points directly at their reason for going with "double quarter pounder."
That's the main reason - that it's their brand. But it's also a contributing factor that it's 2 patties, not one big one, as "half pounder" would imply.
There are also 2 slices of cheese, one atop each patty.
I worked at McDonald's at the end of high school and beginning of college, back when they were selling a burger that was as environmentally unsound as anything I've ever seen - I can't remember its name. They were losing business to people who were putting nice crisp lettuce leaves and tomatoes on their burgers, apparently, so they were trying to figure out a way to do that while still having their burgers wait in a warming bin.
So some genius invented an absolutely huge Styrofoam container for this burger, where you could have the bottom bun, burger, and cheese sit in one side and the top bun, leaves of iceberg (the only other lettuce in the place was shredded iceberg on the Big Macs), and sliced tomato in the other. Theoretically the magical powers of Styrofoam kept the hot side hot and the cold side cold for the ten minutes that any sandwich was allowed to stay in the bin before being thrown out.
Now, of course, they don't use Styrofoam at all, much less in half-acre boxes.
If the food handling at today's McDonald's is as proper as it was at the store I worked in, in a rough-ish neighborhood near McClellan AFB, I wouldn't hesitate to eat there. The ingredients are as cheap as they can make them, of course, but we were clean and careful. And even though I now prefer hand-cut double-fried fries - I mean, who wouldn't? - McDonald's fries, preferably with a little extra super-fine salt from their salt packets, not a shaker, are hard to beat sometimes.
I'm surprised that there isn't more pushback or outrage at the increase in fast food prices. Also, dining rooms are often closed. Employees are organizing with the expectation that their job should be a career capable of supporting a family. Fast food needs to go out of business for so many reasons.
I can understand a woman thinking a double is too much but there's very few hard working men I know who wouldn't order the double just to feel full.
I've been 215 my whole adult life and I eat one large and one small meal a day when I ran my stunt show and even now, as I keep up my exercise. I'd never make it on what I consider a small burger and fries. Especially once I switched out the soda for tea.
Can't see how anyone missed the meaning of your wordage, Althouse. It was pretty clear.
This sandwich is hardly a "novelty item". The Double Quarter Pounder was put on their permanent menu in 1993. McDonald's has been offering a similar burger under the 'Travis Scott' name in the US, and called a Quarter Pounder BLT in Canada, since 2020.
Jamie:
McDonald's fries took a huge dive in quality when they stopped using tallow.
Expect more articles like this, as well as Newsom’s statements basically denying inflation. Will it work? Isn’t it risky to tell people they don’t understand or know how their own wallets are impacted? Yeah, air tickets might not have gone up, but that’s not a key, daily expense for most people. I work in a local market. I see the price increases when I scan things. And people (customers and staff) talk about it. My husband goes to McDonald’s. He talks about it.
MEANWHILE:
In Joe Biden's America only plane-owning billionaires can afford to eat at McDonalds.
$5.58 for a big mac? Good grief! But then I haven't been to mickey's since they stopped selling a McChicken and small fries for $2.
Regarding the 1st comment above: "Did anything contribute more to the explosion in the cost of living than the Biden Administration's moves to strangle U.S. domestic oil production?"
US oil production hit a monthly record in August 2023. It has steadily ramped up since it dipped in May 2020. It also ramped from 2017 to 2019, levelling off at about our current level at the end of 2019. This is very much in synch with world oil production levels.
US oil exports are also at record levels, though the peak month was March 2023.
Oil is a global market and US gasoline prices follow the global market pretty closely, with a little damping due to being a huge domestic producer.
Every sports grill worthy of its name serves an 8 oz burger patty. For those of you in Rio Linda, that is a "half pound".
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
Remember this ad campaign? 2burgers,fries and a Coke.
And...
"Change back from your dollar."
https://youtu.be/4oBpdBn5GZw?si=fg8YDiGx7QKLZ3r0
John Henry
My app only shows breakfast menu now but I was shocked to see that a single side hash brown costs $3.99
Isn’t it risky to tell people they don’t understand or know how their own wallets are impacted?
Given the shit they get seemingly rational people to believe why would they see any risk at all?
Fast food is bad for you. Stop eating it and lose weight fast.
It would be nice if our fearless leaders would take some responsibility when things they go wrong, as they always sometimes will, instead blaming it on their inability to control what information the public is permitted to receive.
“In related news, Biden Administration BLS reported in its Consumer Price Index that Healthcare Insurance fell 34% year over year. They admit changing the way they calculate that particular metric (differently than other metrics and using accounting terms that don't mean what they are generally accepted to mean), but shouldn't they go back and recalculate previous years to show what actually happened to the cost of healthcare insurance this year? Isn't the cost of healthcare insurance more important to families than the cost of a Big Mac?”
The lying liars will go to any measure to keep you from believing your lying eyes. We all know that there is significant inflation. They squandered several $Trillions$ so far, since FJB was installed. It was flushed down the toilet, given to our enemies, etc. It was money we didn’t have, and the Dems pretended that they had a new way to get around the truths of monetary economics, as taught us, a half century ago, by Uncle Milty (Nobel Laurate Milton Freedman). MV=PQ. M ↑ ⇒ P ↑, with Q constant and V following Q.
So, what did the lying liars do this time, to hide their theft of $Trillion$ of our money? For one thing, They (BLS) changed the way that they calculate the Health Insurance portion of CPI. What they used to do was actually track health insurance premiums. What they do now is track Heath Insurance Retained Earnings, which is a confusingly misleading (to those with an accounting background) term for the difference between Health Insurance premiums and expenses. Yes kids, what the BLS did (probably among other things) is that they switched from tracking healthcare insurance costs, to tracking healthcare insurance company gross margins. And, with healthcare being a major expense for many families, that meant that declining margins here nicely compensated for the increasing prices of everything else. What everyone here should be able to see here, with a modicum of numeric ability, is that this decrease was very likely a result of healthcare costs rising faster than regulated (through yearly Exchange price locks) healthcare insurance costs - which isn’t the least bit surprising during inflation.
Here is an explanation at Ace of Spades: THE MORNING RANT: Garbage Inflation Data – The Government’s Official Inflation Rate Includes a Laughable 34% Reduction in Consumer Health Insurance Costs Over the Past 12 Months.
The deluxe double quarter pounder with cheese meal at the MCDonalds at State and Lake in Chicago costs $13.39. There is a 11.75% tax on fast food in Chicago. So 16 bucks isn't unreasonable.
"... a worse outcome ...Trump." The TikTok bosses at the CCP prefer QuidProJoe.
Jamie:
McDonald's fries took a huge dive in quality when they stopped using tallow.
I agree, but they're still head and shoulders ahead of, say, Burger King (blechhh).
“A couple of months ago, I re-read much of the Mueller Report, and I came to accept more of it as plausible. In particular, I now think that the Russian Government indeed did steal computer files from the Democrat Party and did leak those files to the public. I am not convinced about that, but now I think its more plausible than I thought in past years.”
“Nevertheless, as I re-read the Mueller Report, I still am impressed by the Report's hysteria…”
Of course, they were hysterical. It was written by the highly political Mueller prosecutors, led by Lawfare Buddy Andrew Weissman. Their Special Counsel witch hunt had just been pulled out from under them by just confirmed AG Barr, by forcing them to comply with DOJ rules. He told them that they couldn’t have a free standing § 1001 Obstruction investigation without an actual underlying criminal investigation, and their novel LawFare § 1001 interpretation (that read both Materiality and Intent out of the statute) violated DOJ policy. The Mueller Report was their last ditch attempt to justify their multi year assault on President Trump and his close associates.
It was almost certainly an inside job, and the likely culprit was DNC staffer Seth Rich, murdered shortly thereafter. Thanks to this Clintonesque murder, the trail conveniently went dead, and they could try to pin it indirectly on Trump. Among other things, the data was moved to a FAT formatted device, which very likely means a flash drive, and the difference in time stamps indicates a transfer rate, to almost halfway around the world, so high that the NSA would have noticed and intercepted it.
I'm just glad my chocolate ration has been increased from 30 grams to 20 grams.
“I worked at McDonald's at the end of high school and beginning of college, back when they were selling a burger that was as environmentally unsound as anything I've ever seen - I can't remember its name. They were losing business to people who were putting nice crisp lettuce leaves and tomatoes on their burgers, apparently, so they were trying to figure out a way to do that while still having their burgers wait in a warming bin.”
Ditto for my partner and her first real job. It was the only time in her life she ever had acne. Nothing on the menu that she would, or could, eat. Now on Medicare, she is proud that she has never tried a Big Mac (something that I splurge on every couple years).
"In reality, inflation has been steadily subsiding.... "
Disinformation. Falling inflation does not mean falling prices. Prices continue to rise.
"In reality, inflation has been steadily subsiding"
Want to see a real insurrection? Keep pretending there's no inflation.
My BMI is 20.5. When I eat at McDonalds (which is rarely) I order a Double Quarter Pounder. If you're eating low carb, you have no recourse other than to eat somebody's definition of "too much" meat.
Ms. Lorenz is pissing on people and telling them it is raining.
Thanks to Biden I’m down to 20 streaming services from 50 and had to settle for the iPhone 15 pro. I wanted the pro max. I also opted for the new iMac M3 with 256GB storage instead of 512GB storage.
I’m voting for the Donald in 2024 even if he’s in prison.
The burgers at fast food places are also getting smaller. I don't know if that has happened in the last 3 years, but they are definitely smaller than they were 10 years ago.
Smoky BLT Double Quarter Pounder* with Cheese
It's the Smoky Sauce that makes it special.
Some "inflation" subsidence is hidden. I just noticed yesterday that the coffee I buy, long ago a 12 oz "pound" is now 11 oz. A size deflation to hide price inflation.
I eat a 10-12 oz ground beef patty every day. But I don't eat a bun or fixings. And 16 oz is even a bit much alone. You do need to add fat. I use butter to make a sauce of the fond and also some browned butter bites.
In a burger, thickness seems to be the issue. Two patties separated are easier than a big hunk of burger to me. I used to get a double patty burger at a joint not far from me. I would then take the raw onion and stick it between the patties. It gave separation, but also the hot patties gave me a mix of raw and cooked onion taste.
I'm not a fast food afficcinado. I do swing through Hardees half dozen times a year.
I just checked on prices. ( I dont pay attention when I actually buy something there.)
Double frisco burger only is $13. I know you can double size the sides. $16 seems right in line with the prices here in Iowa.
Inflation is real. I bought a prime rib roast for Thanksgiving $300. and we almost demolished it.
Amen, Wilbur, Amen.
Increase the supply of anything and the price goes down. Assuming demand stays constant.
It applies to money every bit as much as it applies to Big Macs and fries.
Increase the amount of money in circulation and its price or value in Big Macs decreases.
Lots of ways that the amount of money in circulationcan increase. One of the most vicious is velocity. If people think there will be inflation, they will want to get rid of their money before it declines in value from inflation. This increase in velocity causes an increase in inflation which causes an increase in velocity and so on.
It doesn't really matter whether there is inflation, people are driven by perception rather than reality. (Though sometimes the 2 mesh) If Brandon can convince enough people that inflation is slowing, they will stop trying to get rid of their money, velocity will slow and the portion of inflation caused by increased velocity will slow.
Once in that spiral, as we saw in the Carter years, it is very difficult to get out of.
John Henry
, I now think that the Russian Government indeed did steal computer files from the Democrat Party and did leak those files to the public
That can't be in the report. Its not factual.
Crowd Strike testified in front of congress. Testified they NEVER found the emails left the server. The FBI testified, they NEVER did their own analysis of the hard drive copy they were given. The FBI report came directly from the DRAFT report issued by Crowd Strike.
They left always come up with these lies. They are proven wrong. But the left repeats them any way for the rest of eternity.
Blogger Oligonicella said...
McDonald's fries took a huge dive in quality when they stopped using tallow.
That may or may not be true, I like McD's fries just fine. We could also argue that the fries took a dip when they stopped peeling, slicing and cooking the potatoes in each store as they did in the early 60s.
But what about us folks that can't eat beef products? I am prone to gout and even small amounts of beef will cause an attack. I don't know specifically if tallow would but don't care to find out.
Chick-Fil-A opened up in PR last year and I went there a bunch of times. I LOVE CFA chicken sandwhiches and fries. I had been without an attack for a year or two and got one of the worst gout attacks I had ever had.
It turns out that they cook the chicken in peanut oil. I am not allergic but even very small amounts, a PBJ sandwhich, for example, will trigger an attack.
Now I just drive on by, sadly, with a tear in my eye. I really miss CFA.
John Henry
I've long heard about this mysterious dish called poutine which is a regional specialty in Canada. I'd also always heard that it was disgusting.
I was in Guelph CA the week before last. I went to lunch in Kelseys (no apostrophe because, you know, Canada) a Canadian chain of sit down restaurants. They had poutine in the menu and I figured I'd give it a try as my side with chicken.
Poutine is french fries, drowned in brown gravy with chunks of cheese. It is delicious! It may look a bit disgusting but tastes heavenly. As an entree for dinner, I had chicken poutine which adds chicken chunks. Even better.
In the 60s, in California, I used to be able to order french fries with gravy in Denny's and liked them a lot. I've not seen them on the menu in years. I wonder if they would put gravy on an order of fries if requested?
If in Canada, I can highly recommend Kelseys. Great menu in addition to the poutain
John Henry
Blogger JK Brown said...
Some "inflation" subsidence is hidden. I just noticed yesterday that the coffee I buy, long ago a 12 oz "pound" is now 11 oz. A size deflation to hide price inflation.
That has happened with other products as well and has happened in the past too.
I wonder how much money they save doing this? It seems to me that most of the cost of that coffee is in the processing, packaging, distribution marketing and so on.
I'd bet that the actual cost of the 1oz of coffee is in the 10%range as a fraction of the total cost. (Just a guess, I have no specific knowledge)
I'd like to assume that companies are smart enough to realize that the savings from 1oz less coffee may be less than the lost business from pissed off customers. I'd like to assume that but have been around long enough to know that top management sometimes/often looks at the 1oz savings but does not consider the costs of that lost oz in customer satisfaction.
John Henry
The missing McDonald's item with the hot side hot and the cold side cold was called "McDLT".
There was a McD's on the way to work so I stop about once a week for an Egg McMuffin. Sometimes I would go for lunch and get the McDLT because that was the only way to get rid of the dang onions.
I saved the containers for packing leftovers for lunch at work. Recycling!
It's just wonderful to go to McD's with friends and order a Big Mac with no onions and then wait. And wait. And when everyone was done eating, here it comes! Nice and really hot and with double onions.
That was my last Big Mac.
I haven't had an Egg McMuffin for a few years. The last one had an off flavor, a pinch of nutmeg or similar in the muffin.
"In reality, inflation has been steadily subsiding ...."
Also in reality, we can power our economy with unicorn farts. We are powering our economy with unicorn farts. There are thundering herds of unicorns, roaming the distant plains, with a vast system of fart-collection ducts shadowing their every thunder, and sucking up that good, good, rainbow colored unicorn methane! It's true! The ducts carry the methane
-- rainbow-colored, you will recall -- to an environmentally sensitive generation facility, where they are converted into electrons without releasing any life-threatening carbon dioxide. And it's all true, so very true! It's REALITY!
"In reality, inflation has been steadily subsiding ...."
Also in reality, we can power our economy with unicorn farts. We are powering our economy with unicorn farts. There are thundering herds of unicorns, roaming the distant plains, with a vast system of fart-collection ducts shadowing their every thunder, and sucking up that good, good, rainbow colored unicorn methane! It's true! The ducts carry the methane
-- rainbow-colored, you will recall -- to an environmentally sensitive generation facility, where they are converted into electrons without releasing any life-threatening carbon dioxide. And it's all true, so very true! It's REALITY!
The burger meal I used to pay $9.50 for in 2017 now costs $14.50. I'm sure it has to be Trump's fault somehow.
Oh- and this:
"These stories soon reached the White House Office of Digital Strategy, which tracked the meme as one of many exaggerated examples of the nation’s economic woes..."
If Brandon didn't insist (actually, that would be Democrats in general as Brandon doesn't insist on anything except maybe the flavor of ice cream in his cup these days) on policies that create the sort of inflation everybody knows exists, it wouldn't be necessary to pay people to track memes pointing out that inflation.
Bruce Hayden at 10:21 a.m.
Their Special Counsel witch hunt had just been pulled out from under them by just confirmed AG Barr, by forcing them to comply with DOJ rules. He told them that they couldn’t have a free standing § 1001 Obstruction investigation without an actual underlying criminal investigation, and their novel LawFare § 1001 interpretation (that read both Materiality and Intent out of the statute) violated DOJ policy. The Mueller Report was their last ditch attempt to justify their multi year assault on President Trump and his close associates.
Bruce, I appreciate your comment about these legal considerations, which are beyond my knowledge.
When I re-read much of the Mueller Report in recent months, I had two major impressions.
1) The Mueller Report's response to the theft and leaking of DNC documents was hysterical. The essential wrong-doing was an attempt to help Bernie Sanders to defeat Hillary Clinton in the Democrats primary election race. The Mueller Report did mention that consideration, but only in passing.
2) Mueller's staff reacted by trying to extort and ruin various Trump associates (e.g. Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn) into testifying against Trump. Such persecutions abused many people who had done nothing to collude in the stealing and leaking of DNC documents. Essentially, the Mueller Report even acknowledges explicitly that those people had nothing at all to do with any of it.
In regard to Set Rich, I had been convinced that he was the leaker. Now after re-reading the Mueller Report, however, I have become agnostic about that. I now am more open to the possibility that Mueller obtained some compelling evidence that was written in the report but still cannot be read by the public.
Much of the Report is blacked out. From the clues are available, I now think it's plausible that Mueller did discover the essential facts about the stealing and leaking of the DNC files. If so, then Russians indeed were the culprits, and Seth Rich might be irrelevant.
Its important to understand also that Mueller concluded that Trump and all his associates had nothing to do with the stealing and leaking of the DNC files.
On health insurance:
My plan for 2023 had an out-of-pocket limit of $600 and, with the Obamacare subsidy, cost me $252/month. That plan was ended by Blue Cross/Blue Shield and they have chosen for me (I can change the plan before the 15th of next month) a new plan with a $1800 out-of-pocket limit that costs only $162/month.
You tell me- is this inflation, or not? Now, I did reach the $600 limit this year since I had a minor surgery performed in October and, with the new plan, I would have paid an extra $1200. I don't foresee having another minor surgery in 2024, so I will save over $1000 on premiums this coming year if I keep the new plan as offerred and don't really spend any money on healthcare, like I didn't in 2020-2022.
"Poutine is french fries, drowned in brown gravy with chunks of cheese. It is delicious!"
Yes, it is. You should scratch whoever told you it was disgusting off your trusted-source list.
"Reduction in inflation" is as amusing as "spending cuts" and just as big a lie. I don't see any deflation in the future, taking us back to the pre-inflation prices. This is a big a lie as "reducing" growth rate of government spending from 10% to 6%, which still increases spending by government.
Jamie: The McDLT.
Taylor Lorenz. Isn't she the Doxxing Queen of the WAPO?
iowan2 at 12:02 p.m.
Crowd Strike testified in front of congress. Testified they NEVER found the emails left the server. The FBI testified, they NEVER did their own analysis of the hard drive copy they were given. The FBI report came directly from the DRAFT report issued by Crowd Strike.
I appreciate your opinion here.
My own opinion has softened since I re-read much of the Mueller Report in recent months. I have come to think that Mueller obtained significant information from Russians who participated in the stealing and leaking of DNC files. I am not sure, because so much of the Report is blacked out.
From that perspective, I now have the impression that Mueller seems to really know -- from some Russian participants -- how the DNC files were stolen and leaked. Read the available parts of the Report yourself, and your opinion might shift too. I might write an article about this.
Part of this insight that Mueller says also that Trump and his various associates had nothing at all to do with the stealing and leaking. Mueller seems to know what he is talking about.
In this situation, the Trump-haters ultimately had to resort to trying to pin bogus obstruction-of justice charges on Trump. Ultimately, Mueller did not go along with that gambit.
The "cheese" chunks in poutine are cheese curds. Remember Little Miss Muffett? She was eating "her curds and whey". Which is cottage cheese in its purest form. I can handle curds in poutine. I HATE cottage cheese. Someone once made a lasagna with cottage rather than ricotta cheese. "You'll never know the difference," she said. Yeahrite. I almost gagged.
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
“Part of this insight that Mueller says also that Trump and his various associates had nothing at all to do with the stealing and leaking. Mueller seems to know what he is talking about.”
It wasn’t Mueller. It was Weissman and the rest of the rabid anti-Trumper prosecutors. Mueller was asked about it in Congress, and he really didn’t have a clue about what the report said.
I just looked it up. A Big Mac Meal is $8.99, and a Double Quarter Pounder Meal is $11.19, out here in the sticks. Not hard to believe the reported price in a metropolitan area, or an airport.
The real crime is, two Apple Pies are now $2.49. Th price used to be $.79.
Pay burger flippers upwards to 20 bucks an hour and then wonder why it results in 16-dollar hamburgers?
I mean, duh.
Does the Diet Coke in front of our hero counteract the calories from the big Mac and fries?
"Did anything contribute more to the explosion in the cost of living than the Biden Administration's moves to strangle U.S. domestic oil production?"
Yes.
Artificially holding interest rates low for almost a decade.
Massive deficit spending capped by Trump's $5 trillion economic stimulus and spurred by GOP tax cuts.
The pandemic, which suppressed demand and then let it free.
Oh, and domestic production is UP since Biden took office. But keep living in your alternate universe.
The "Big Mac meal' that cost $16, and then goes on to say the average "Big Mac" cost 5.89...but not the average "Big Mac meal"
why the switcheroo on comparisons?
"Journalism"
I dont do McDonalds. Online it says 11.99 for a "Big Mac meal"
so 13
20 in NYC is a deal
I don't know the cost of a local double quarter pounder meal. I DO know how much more it costs to buy groceries, fill my car, utility bills and much more.
If only I could heat my home with all the Biden Administration's gas lighting it might help.
Telling me I can't believe my own experiences is NOT a political winner IMO.
A modest proposal using Modern Money Theory.
McDonald's total value is somewhere below $200 billion.
Mint a few thousand $1 billion coins (AOC suggested $1 TRILLION dollar cons to pay off the national debt, so billion dollar coins look far less loco.
Hand Mickey D 200 cons (keep the change). Use a handful more for operating expenses and give burgers away for free, free, free.
See. No inflation. No hunger. No unemployment.
What could go wrong?
Man this modern monetary theory is sounding better and better.
@John henry
Yeah, obviously to each and all.
@John henry
Heh, you want real problems, eat a few White Castles.
Well Ms Althouse, nobody took the bait. Everybody was triggered by overly-inflated, expensive junk food courtesy of Bidenomics, and other dyspeptic personal experiences.
But censorship was the first thing that occurred to me, too, some spokesman trying to leverage a bad-odor news story with some kind of beneficial spin. 'See??? See??? This wasn't True, and if only we could do something about it !!' The Judge in the case hasn't been impressed so far, thank God.
And now: On to Just Desserts.
Among other things, the data was moved to a FAT formatted device, which very likely means a flash drive, and the difference in time stamps indicates a transfer rate, to almost halfway around the world, so high that the NSA would have noticed and intercepted it.
I have over 20 years in the cybersecurity field.
Timestamps can be manipulated.
I always assumed that the attacker zipped the files into an archive. Then transferred off. Whether via USB or data transmission, then unzipped.
With local access to the system you could see what devices were mounted, etc, with regards to flash drives, but as far a I know that analysis was never done.
I know gateway pundit tried to use the "timestamps too fast for electronic transfer" argument, but that isn't a valid test.
Double Quarter Pounder with cheese and bacon meal in small town northern AZ comes up online at $15.99.
John Henry, many California Mexican food places, if they have fries, will offer a chile verde and fries with cheese. A close cousin to poutine. I’d also put chili cheese fries in the poutine family.
"John Henry, many California Mexican food places, if they have fries, will offer a chile verde and fries with cheese. A close cousin to poutine. I’d also put chili cheese fries in the poutine family."
Never thought of this as poutine, but yeah. It is the same sort of thing. I prefer curry chips myself.
jim said...
Regarding the 1st comment above: "Did anything contribute more to the explosion in the cost of living than the Biden Administration's moves to strangle U.S. domestic oil production?"
US oil production hit a monthly record in August 2023. It has steadily ramped up since it dipped in May 2020. It also ramped from 2017 to 2019, levelling off at about our current level at the end of 2019.
So, US oil production has supposedly just now caught up to where it was 4 years ago, and is nowhere near what it would have been if the Biden Administration had NOT driven it down.
Because absent Biden Admin evil acts, we would have had at least this level in 2021, and higher now.
Thank you for confirming what we said
As a service to the Althousian community, I stopped at a McDonald's just outside of New Haven, Connecticut today and ordered a Double Quarter Pounder with cheese meal, which included a medium fries and Coke, and the tab came to $17.17 with tax ($15.99 pre-tax). FWIW, a "regular" Quarter Pounder meal would have been $1 less. The cheapest meal on the menu was a Filet-O-Fish at $15.13 with tax.
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