Market Watch

[Hay Dude]

It's the cumulative effect of inflation over the past 3 years that you're seeing issues with. Here we are seeing everything from 10 to 40% higher then it was in 2019. It just depends on the product.

Ohio has historically been a good microcosm of the rest of the US. Which is why they often use it for a test market for things.

Anyone who was already struggling to make ends meet in 2019 is really struggling now. And the old statistic that I remember hearing was 95% of the public is generally living paycheck to paycheck.

This economy does suck for about 95% of the United States. The few on here that don't believe it is sucking perhaps belong in the 5%.

Seems like the only people doing really well are millionaires and government employees.
Thats what happened in Argentina.
People eating their pets while overpaid public school teachers were on strike demanding even more money.
We aren’t there yet, but let’s not get even close to that.

Time to reel in wasteful gov___ent spending.

 

[D&D]

Time to reel in wasteful gov___ent spending.

Sounds good, how? get Chuck to get rid of his expense account, car alllowance, security or may be just get rid of the towel people at the office gym?
Fire the border czar and staff since they appear to be accomplishing nothing?
Have Joe pay the expenses for the trips to the beach?

Here is a real big one, they sent all the worker bees to work from home. All the worker bees are getting Locality pay based on where the office is. DC workers get ~32.5% extra. Now, they are staying in WV, Pa, Md, wherever working from home and 0 commute expense to boot. Don’t see anybody asking for that back.

 

[edgarrian]

I know you are replying to Scotty, but once again I have to say that your observations in the Midwest about business and freight slowdowns don’t match what we are experiencing in much of the west. I still see more trucks on the interstates than previously and the freight train traffic on the BNSF transcontinental route is also heavier than I have seen in a decade. Who knows what will happen with fuel prices, but they have been declining for the past month, and $2.50 regular gas is easy to find. Yes, prices are up for most everything, but spending is also up, so people are navigating the new prices, maybe from increased wages. It was reported that this year’s online and box store Black Friday and cyber Monday sales set new record highs. And last winter’s high natural gas prices have come down considerably.

Simplying observing trucks on the road isn't a good indicator of how the economy is doing. Freight is down, here is a copied message from smart truckings. Fuel has been high ever since B!D3N took over which is typical as it was when OB4M$ was president. IF freight doesn't pick back up id say this is a good indicator of what's coming. You can do a simple search yourself to see how bad freight has been this year. And as I said before real wages are down. So it doesn't matter if you make more. Raises are not keeping up. So naturally you r spending more. So just bc more money is being spent doesn't correlate to a good economy is you are suggesting.

The trucking business has been slow in 2023 due to several factors which includes ongoing supply chain disruptions along with an unstable economic environment. Reduced freight demand has also led to a freight downturn causing things to slow down in trucking

 

[edgarrian]

Why does the forum scratch out the presidents name? thats strange

 

[YanmarFever]

Because the moderators and the owner tend to lean to the left.
Its no secret, so don't anybody get their undies all bunched up ok?

 

[edgarrian]

Because the moderators and the owner tend to lean to the left.
Its no secret, so don't anybody get their undies all bunched up ok?

Well thats not surprising. Not that it matters. At first when I typed out his name and then posted and saw it was redacted. I thought maybe I typed something else but I was pretty sure I had not.

 

[cdaigle430]

Let me see-Biden is the current President of the United States.

 

[cdaigle430]

LMAO-friggin commies.

 

[Yander]

Thanks, I agree. That's exactly what I've been trying to say. It's an accumulation. The gov't CPI calculator site below shows what you are saying in a simple way. Maybe in a way the gov't probably never intended.

Give it a try. The math works. I think you'll see that although some years are worse than others, the problem isn't any particular year or administration. It has been going on out of control for over 25 years.

Fixing the economy it is going to take some changes in how we work. That's what I've been saying. The gov't will never fix the economy. Fixing it is up to us to change how we work, buy, keep, and repair all the things we use everyday.
rScotty

CPI Inflation Calculator

www.bls.gov

I don't trust anything with .gov behind it any longer. They lie! I don't really need a CPI calculator to tell me how things have inflated, frankly no one does. We are all consumers and we remember how much we paid for things 2 or 3 years ago. I do anyways. I know that you walk out with about 70% of the groceries that $100 would get you 3 years ago; maybe less.

That goes for most consumable items also. We don't need the government to fix our economy but perhaps they could stop trying to destroy it!

 

[jyoutz]

Simplying observing trucks on the road isn't a good indicator of how the economy is doing. Freight is down, here is a copied message from smart truckings. Fuel has been high ever since B!D3N took over which is typical as it was when OB4M$ was president. IF freight doesn't pick back up id say this is a good indicator of what's coming. You can do a simple search yourself to see how bad freight has been this year. And as I said before real wages are down. So it doesn't matter if you make more. Raises are not keeping up. So naturally you r spending more. So just bc more money is being spent doesn't correlate to a good economy is you are suggesting.

The trucking business has been slow in 2023 due to several factors which includes ongoing supply chain disruptions along with an unstable economic environment. Reduced freight demand has also led to a freight downturn causing things to slow down in trucking

This statement shows how U.S. freight transportation is changing. Last year I attended a conference focused on transportation of forest products. There was a presentation by BNSF railway. Their presentation focused on an ambitious infrastructure investment plan to become the favored transcontinental freight transport. The presenters stated that one train can transport the equivalent of 160 trucks at 20% of the fuel cost of trucks. It looks like their plan is working.

“The rail freight market share is expected to increase by USD 29.29 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 2.15%.Oct 2, 2023

https://finance.yahoo.com › news

Rail Freight Transportation Market size to grow by USD 42.88 billion ...​

 

[ultrarunner]

This statement shows how U.S. freight transportation is changing. Last year I attended a conference focused on transportation of forest products. There was a presentation by BNSF railway. Their presentation focused on an ambitious infrastructure investment plan to become the favored transcontinental freight transport. The presenters stated that one train can transport the equivalent of 160 trucks at 20% of the fuel cost of trucks. It looks like their plan is working.

“The rail freight market share is expected to increase by USD 29.29 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 2.15%.Oct 2, 2023

https://finance.yahoo.com › news

Rail Freight Transportation Market size to grow by USD 42.88 billion ...​

I’ve heard reports sales are up in terms of dollars but the questioning side of me says dollars sales up but are sales really up when inflation factored?

Some of my retail friends tell me they are up dollar for dollar over previous years but but profit is down due to higher costs across the board…

It does make for a nice headline…

 

[jyoutz]

I’ve heard reports sales are up in terms of dollars but the questioning side of me says dollars sales up but are sales really up when inflation factored?

Some of my retail friends tell me they are up dollar for dollar over previous years but but profit is down due to higher costs across the board…

It does make for a nice headline…

There’s no doubt that transcontinental rail freight is up and increasing. The main line BNSF southern CA to Chicago line is double stacking containers and according to the local office is averaging 43 trains per day, up from 29 trains 5 years ago. Another interesting fact that was presented is that a freight train can move 1 ton of cargo 500 miles on 1 gallon of diesel and can replace 160 trucks. This increase in rail traffic is one reason why trucking congestion at the west coast ports has stabilized or reduced. Obviously at the conference presentation I attended, BNSF was promoting their company, but I think their basic facts are correct.

 

[Oldstuff]

I live within 1,000 feet of BNSF rails in northeast Missouri and the traffic on these rails is increasing!

 

[Williy]

If you think that inflation is low this is wally world prices:
small pies from 50 cents to 74 cents
donuts from 54 cents to 78 cents etc

gas has come down from over $3+ t;o $2.53 but when Trump was
in office gas was $1.68 gal

Here is a site that talks about natural gas to gasoline:

Natural Gas to Gasoline

A firm claims to have a cheaper way to harness natural gas.

www.technologyreview.com

willy

 

[jyoutz]

If you think that inflation is low this is wally world prices:
small pies from 50 cents to 74 cents
donuts from 54 cents to 78 cents etc

gas has come down from over $3+ t;o $2.53 but when ***** was
in office gas was $1.68 gal

Here is a site that talks about natural gas to gasoline:

Natural Gas to Gasoline

A firm claims to have a cheaper way to harness natural gas.

www.technologyreview.com

willy

I saw gas down to $1.18 during May 2020 during the Covid shutdown period, but I can’t remember $1.68 gas before Covid, unless you’re talking about 10 years before Covid.

“U.S. regular retail gasoline prices averaged $2.60 per gallon (gal) in 2019, 11 cents/gal (4%) lower than in 2018. Gasoline prices rose steadily during the first quarter of the year, rising from $2.24 on January 7 to $2.90/gal on May 6, before gradually declining through the rest of the year.Jan 8, 2020”

Homepage - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) › detail

2019 regular gas prices were higher than they are today. I bought gas 3 days ago for $2.49.

​

 

[goeduck]

small pies from 50 cents to 74 cents
donuts from 54 cents to 78 cents etc
gas has come down from over $3+ t;o $2.53 but when ***** was in office gas was $1.68 gal

And someone says businesses are gouging if they do not set their prices today based on those 50 cent, 54 cent and $1.68/gal prices respectively. As if prices went down. Can you believe it?

 

[rScotty]

I believe the posts here; TBNers aren't making this stuff up, they post what they are experiencing.
And their posts say different areas and states are dealing with some really different economies.

It does seems like the Eastern states - north, south, and coastal - are having hard times and a far more difficult recovery in these years post covid. While the mountain and western states are doing much better, almost as good as before.

I think we all agree that economic and social problems are tightly tied to gov't policy, but since it is different in different states, doesn't it make sense that a lot of this is mostly due to differences in state and local governments?
Overall federal & administration policies are more general, and apply pretty much equally everywhere.

rScotty

 

[edgarrian]

This statement shows how U.S. freight transportation is changing. Last year I attended a conference focused on transportation of forest products. There was a presentation by BNSF railway. Their presentation focused on an ambitious infrastructure investment plan to become the favored transcontinental freight transport. The presenters stated that one train can transport the equivalent of 160 trucks at 20% of the fuel cost of trucks. It looks like their plan is working.

“The rail freight market share is expected to increase by USD 29.29 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 2.15%.Oct 2, 2023

https://finance.yahoo.com › news

Rail Freight Transportation Market size to grow by USD 42.88 billion ...​

Rail maybe growing as suggested in this article and what you have been saying. But most articles show that freight is down across the board. Its down on trucking, train, and ships for the year of 2023. Expectations is just that. Forward thinking to get investors. Thoughts on train is that derailments happen about 2000 times a year. Its down over the decade buy has increased YoY. This was hot topic when a town in Ohio was the center of attention. Rail has a problem in that each company owns the tracks or share ownership of the tracks. They are not owned by the government. So they dont get infrastructure money like so many think they do. Its why derailments happen so much. Shipping crude by train should be a no no b/c a pipeline is safer, less spills and just more efficient.

As for the economy. Prices are in fact up. Credit car debt is extremely high. Car reposession is up to 200,000 a month. Foreclsures are becoming a thing again. Groceries are higher than ever. Parts for cars and in store shopping has increased pricing as have restaurants People are falling behind. What will happen IF you ask me a recession. IF we ask you nothing. IN 2019 when the economy was "great" the federal reserve had to step in and buy up a bunch of bad debt. Repos were set to explode then. They covered it up. Maybe that happens again. They just keep printing money to keep a economy that was built on basically 2% interest. Ive always said an economy built on historically low interest rates is a weak economy.

 

[Rdrcr]

Regular gasoline is still $4.79 here in WA. I have no idea what you guys are talking about, lol.

Prices for ALL goods remain high.

Mike

 

[jyoutz]

Regular gasoline is still $4.79 here in WA. I have no idea what you guys are talking about, lol.

Prices for ALL goods remain high.

Mike

High, or a new normal? I remember 5 years ago some people asking for a $15 minimum wage. Today, no matter what the states set as a minimum wage, even fast food is paying $18+ and other wages are up as well. Prices aren’t going to decline because wages never go backwards.