Has anyone noticed a very sudden, sharp increase in the price of various things within the past couple of weeks? In the past seven days, the price of a gallon of regular gasoline has risen by 30 cents here in the greater Santa Cruz area. Other things have risen more steeply, however...the cost of a meal at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants has nearly doubled in the two weeks since we last ate there, as has the average cost of a meal at a couple of other restaurants (ones we've always patronized because they were fairly reasonable). I was picking up a few groceries today and noticed that I was paying nearly a dollar more for some frozen items I keep on hand than I paid when I bought groceries two weeks ago. I kind of expect a gradual rise in prices, but this all seems to have come down within the past couple of weeks. Is this only happening in Santa Cruz, or have others here noticed it too?
Redwolf
What's with prices all of a sudden?
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Redwolf
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What's with prices all of a sudden?
...agus déanfaidh mé do mholadh ar an gcruit a Dhia, a Dhia liom!
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Darwin
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I still remember the shock when gasoline went up from 18 to 25 cents per gallon. (That's almost a 40-percent increase.)
Of course, I still can't believe that jeans and tennis shoes no longer cost $2.95.
Livin' in the past.
Fortunately, my short term memory isn't good enough to compare this week's prices with last week's, so I don't suffer as much as I might.
Of course, I still can't believe that jeans and tennis shoes no longer cost $2.95.
Livin' in the past.
Fortunately, my short term memory isn't good enough to compare this week's prices with last week's, so I don't suffer as much as I might.
Mike Wright
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"When an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place."
--Goethe
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The Weekenders
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Aside from the obvious, which is all things petroleum related, which is in fact, a lot of things, the Iraqi operation has led to some interesting prices and shortages. I was talking to a builder and he said that sheetrock is somewhat hard to come by as well as plywood and the prices of each have gone up. They use a lot of that in Iraq as well as in Florida. In fact the Florida storms may be draining a lot of products because so much was destroyed.
Our 140,000 troops abroad have bolstered the price of beef (in addition to previous Canadian mad cow scare). I am not sure how it affects dairy but I suppose they are using dairy over there too.
Those are my amateur guesses.
Our 140,000 troops abroad have bolstered the price of beef (in addition to previous Canadian mad cow scare). I am not sure how it affects dairy but I suppose they are using dairy over there too.
Those are my amateur guesses.
How do you prepare for the end of the world?
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Walden
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In the past few months, most grocery items that I was getting for $.99 have gone to $1.19 or $1.39. That is very hard to deal with.
Last edited by Walden on Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reasonable person
Walden
Walden
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s1m0n
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That's why economists are so cautious about the inflationary effects of sharp oil price increases. Oil's in nearly everything we consume. It's not just the price you pay for gas.
Oil is a major input in chemical engineering; from plastics to foodstuffs, all have ingredients which are oil derived.
As well, fuel (tractors, etc) is a significant cost for farmers, for trucking, air transportation, etc.
A runup in oil prices multiplies through the economy, increasing the cost of the unlikeliest things.
That may be what you're seeing.
Oil is a major input in chemical engineering; from plastics to foodstuffs, all have ingredients which are oil derived.
As well, fuel (tractors, etc) is a significant cost for farmers, for trucking, air transportation, etc.
A runup in oil prices multiplies through the economy, increasing the cost of the unlikeliest things.
That may be what you're seeing.
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Redwolf
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What strikes me is how abrupt it is. I would have expected an abrupt rise right after we went to war, and I certainly expected a steady rise over the past year. But what strikes me as odd about this is it's all happening in a matter of weeks. I paid $2.19/gal. to gas up just last week...yesterday I paid $2.49/gal. We paid about $25 for dinner for three at El Palomar two weeks ago...we ate there a couple of days ago, had the same meal, and it came out to $45 before the tip (I checked the receipt because I couldn't quite believe it). What I can't figure out is why are prices going up abruptly at this point in time.
Redwolf
Redwolf
...agus déanfaidh mé do mholadh ar an gcruit a Dhia, a Dhia liom!
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Redwolf
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But why suddenly? What's happened in the past two weeks to cause some things to nearly double? That's what's puzzling me...the abruptness of it.s1m0n wrote:That's why economists are so cautious about the inflationary effects of sharp oil price increases. Oil's in nearly everything we consume. It's not just the price you pay for gas.
Oil is a major input in chemical engineering; from plastics to foodstuffs, all have ingredients which are oil derived.
As well, fuel (tractors, etc) is a significant cost for farmers, for trucking, air transportation, etc.
A runup in oil prices multiplies through the economy, increasing the cost of the unlikeliest things.
That may be what you're seeing.
Redwolf
...agus déanfaidh mé do mholadh ar an gcruit a Dhia, a Dhia liom!
Render unto Caesar
Is the world catching up with you then?Redwolf wrote:Has anyone noticed a very sudden, sharp increase in the price of various things within the past couple of weeks? In the past seven days, the price of a gallon of regular gasoline has risen by 30 cents here in the greater Santa Cruz area. ............
Down under, it is between $1 and $1.20 per litre (ie. between $4.50 and $5.40 a gallon). Howzat?
qui jure suo utitur neminem laedit
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jkrazy52
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Re: Render unto Caesar
talasiga wrote:Is the world catching up with you then?Redwolf wrote:Has anyone noticed a very sudden, sharp increase in the price of various things within the past couple of weeks? In the past seven days, the price of a gallon of regular gasoline has risen by 30 cents here in the greater Santa Cruz area. ............
Down under, it is between $1 and $1.20 per litre (ie. between $4.50 and $5.40 a gallon). Howzat?
OUCH!~Judy
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The Weekenders
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Re: Render unto Caesar
What's really scary, Tal, is that there are those of the liberal persuasion here who think we SHOULD pay those prices so we'll drive less and the government will get all those yummy extra taxes.talasiga wrote:Is the world catching up with you then?Redwolf wrote:Has anyone noticed a very sudden, sharp increase in the price of various things within the past couple of weeks? In the past seven days, the price of a gallon of regular gasoline has risen by 30 cents here in the greater Santa Cruz area. ............
Down under, it is between $1 and $1.20 per litre (ie. between $4.50 and $5.40 a gallon). Howzat?
It's a view, to be sure.
How do you prepare for the end of the world?
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dubhlinn
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At the time of writing, the average price of a gallon of petrol in England is £3.96 - 68% of which is tax.This translates as $7.10 US.
This may explain why,over here,most people believe that the Invasion of Iraq was not about Terrorism but about grabbing control of the Oil supply to keep petrol prices so low in the U.S.A.
Slan,
D.
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Loved and thought himself beloved,
From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes.
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Loved and thought himself beloved,
From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes.
W.B.Yeats
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spittin_in_the_wind
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I saw the same thing happen in Massachusetts a few months ago. Can't say about the restaurants, since we don't eat out that much, but food, milk, gasoline, water (in our house), heating oil, you name it, has risen significantly. Milk is now $3.59 a gallon approximately, and that's at the cheap store. Meat has gone up by about 30-100%, depending on the type/cut.
The housing market is soaring out of sight, with houses having gone up in value by about 100% or more in the last 5 years in our area, with corresponding increases in real estate taxes to compensate for the state budget deficit. Rents in our area have more than doubled (sometimes tripled) in the last few years, with many seniors being forced out of apartments they have lived in for decades, when the house changes hands. Those fixed-income seniors who own their own homes are being forced out by soaring real-estate taxes. Much of this has happened under the watch of our "fiscally conservative" governor, Mitt Romney. Reduction in the state income tax rate results in tax increases elsewhere which hit the poor harder. Our state has seen this first hand. I see it as a premonition of what will happen if he wins his likely future run for president.
Our emergency rooms are overflowing with patients who have no health insurance and have nowhere to go for care. These are not only the chronically unemployed or people incapable of working, they are otherwise productive people who have lost their benefits and/or jobs in the recession. We used to have to go to the ER regularly when my daughter would have breathing problems at night, and the last time we went there (last year), the place was overflowing with patients. I had never before seen people spilling out onto the sidewalk, in seven years of visits. We had to wait 5 hours for her to be seen, and this was for breathing difficulty. After-hours urgent care centers (non-ER) have essentially closed down in our area, so the ER is your only alternative after 5 pm.
I had to pay $273 this year for my 8-year old daughter to be able to ride the bus to school; the alternative would have been for her to walk over a mile with no sidewalks to her after-school program. Next year I will have two bus passes to pay for, in all likelihood, especially if Mitt Romney continues to press to lower the state income tax rate in spite of the fiscal crisis. Families with more children do not get a reduction in the amount they have to pay per child for the bus. That means a family with 4 elementary school aged children would have to pay $1092 for the bus (in an area with a lot of Catholics, this is not an uncommon scenario). Our school disctrict has had to lay off teachers for two years in a row to compensate for reduced education funding from the state. We have voted to pay for it with increased real estate taxes, after multiple bitter town meeting votes (so much for a tax reduction, the money has to come from somewhere).
Maybe it's only now hitting California. Our state tends to get hit hard by these things since we don't make much difference in national elections, so politicians don't pay attention to what will affect our electoral votes. I paid $1.19 a gallon for heating oil last year, now I'm paying $1.59. Other people who didn't get into a price-protected plan early are going to be paying a LOT more. This is a state that was hit hard by the recession and has yet to recover. Many people are still out of work, and have been unemployed long enough to no longer be able to collect unemployment benefits. The job market is picking up, but not fast enough to make a difference for a lot of people who are out of work. I see people panhandling in parts of the city where they never were before. Our preschool is underenrolled due to unemployment, so they have raised the rates to compensate for the lack of children.
I guess my point is, when you have things like this going on in one part of the country, even if it is Massachusetts, it is eventually going to happen in the rest of the nation. The factors that protect other states against these things can only buffer it for so long. And the rest of the nation wonders why we tend to vote Democrat. :roll:
Robin
The housing market is soaring out of sight, with houses having gone up in value by about 100% or more in the last 5 years in our area, with corresponding increases in real estate taxes to compensate for the state budget deficit. Rents in our area have more than doubled (sometimes tripled) in the last few years, with many seniors being forced out of apartments they have lived in for decades, when the house changes hands. Those fixed-income seniors who own their own homes are being forced out by soaring real-estate taxes. Much of this has happened under the watch of our "fiscally conservative" governor, Mitt Romney. Reduction in the state income tax rate results in tax increases elsewhere which hit the poor harder. Our state has seen this first hand. I see it as a premonition of what will happen if he wins his likely future run for president.
Our emergency rooms are overflowing with patients who have no health insurance and have nowhere to go for care. These are not only the chronically unemployed or people incapable of working, they are otherwise productive people who have lost their benefits and/or jobs in the recession. We used to have to go to the ER regularly when my daughter would have breathing problems at night, and the last time we went there (last year), the place was overflowing with patients. I had never before seen people spilling out onto the sidewalk, in seven years of visits. We had to wait 5 hours for her to be seen, and this was for breathing difficulty. After-hours urgent care centers (non-ER) have essentially closed down in our area, so the ER is your only alternative after 5 pm.
I had to pay $273 this year for my 8-year old daughter to be able to ride the bus to school; the alternative would have been for her to walk over a mile with no sidewalks to her after-school program. Next year I will have two bus passes to pay for, in all likelihood, especially if Mitt Romney continues to press to lower the state income tax rate in spite of the fiscal crisis. Families with more children do not get a reduction in the amount they have to pay per child for the bus. That means a family with 4 elementary school aged children would have to pay $1092 for the bus (in an area with a lot of Catholics, this is not an uncommon scenario). Our school disctrict has had to lay off teachers for two years in a row to compensate for reduced education funding from the state. We have voted to pay for it with increased real estate taxes, after multiple bitter town meeting votes (so much for a tax reduction, the money has to come from somewhere).
Maybe it's only now hitting California. Our state tends to get hit hard by these things since we don't make much difference in national elections, so politicians don't pay attention to what will affect our electoral votes. I paid $1.19 a gallon for heating oil last year, now I'm paying $1.59. Other people who didn't get into a price-protected plan early are going to be paying a LOT more. This is a state that was hit hard by the recession and has yet to recover. Many people are still out of work, and have been unemployed long enough to no longer be able to collect unemployment benefits. The job market is picking up, but not fast enough to make a difference for a lot of people who are out of work. I see people panhandling in parts of the city where they never were before. Our preschool is underenrolled due to unemployment, so they have raised the rates to compensate for the lack of children.
I guess my point is, when you have things like this going on in one part of the country, even if it is Massachusetts, it is eventually going to happen in the rest of the nation. The factors that protect other states against these things can only buffer it for so long. And the rest of the nation wonders why we tend to vote Democrat. :roll:
Robin