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people put off buying homes and other big purchases because they know it will be cheaper later
What absolute drivel. This myth was obviously formulated by some wealthy economist who had only ever worries about purchasing vacation homes.
People put off buying homes UNTIL THEY CAN AFFORD IT. How many people does the author think are currently in the streets or renting for years just so they can save a bit on their mortgage? Completely garbage.
But companies will have to lay off workers! Oh wait, they’re already doing that despite record profits.
Companies will stop giving raises! Oh wait, they’ve been doing that for decades.
The economy stopped working for the average person. It’s been going on so long now that it’s normalized. People are afraid. We need to wake up to our exploitation.
And I say this as a person who is well paid, at a company that treats its people well. I’ve worked enough other jobs to know how abnormal my situation is and will gladly fight alongside those who aren’t as lucky as me because I refuse to accept the “fuck you, I’ve got mine” mantra.
I mean - I could afford a home now, it’s just stupid expensive and I’d be leveraged up to my eyeballs. You do usually need to have the deposit in on-hand cash (though if you’re sneaky and an utter idiot you could probably find some way to borrow for the down payment).
I understand where you’re coming from but it’s accurate language to use because a lot of people technically could afford to buy homes right now they just know it’s dumb and realize the market is about to collapse and they’d end up underwater on like an 8% mortgage.
People have been saying the housing market is about to collapse since 2012.
I could make mortgage payments standing on my head considering what I pay in rent. It’s the down payment that’s the killer for me.
“Reversing some price hikes”
Thanks for all the past gaslighting how they’re not price hikes, just the market driving prices up!
Only to admit they’ve been price hikes to gaslight how the market is driving prices down.
But just ‘some’. They get to keep most of the hikes.
The contempt of consumers is just so baked into the logic of the author.
Conventional economists spinning deflation as “almost always bad” has always felt like pro-corporate voodoo bullshit to me. Especially when the inflation that proceeded it was driven by boardroom greed and pathological profit-seeking.
I’m not saying deflation is always good. But right now it would likely just be a correction back to the usual Reaganomics greed instead of the post-pandemic let’s-burn-it-all-down levels of greed.
I think most things economists say is pro-corporate voodoo bullshit. It’s a social science, they’re the priests of the ruling class.
Well said. “Just ETF harder, bro!”
Per the article deflations caused people to put off making larger purchases such as house because they’ll wait for prices to fall. As opposed to inflation when people put off large purchases such as houses because they cannot afford it with out saving longer.
It’s about protecting capital. The government literally ensures inflation so that accumulated wealth doesn’t decrease because profit is more important than you surviving.
Anyone that believes their survival relies on capitalism has been sold the narrative that benefits only those with wealth. Some are convinced that owning a billionth of a percent of the market makes them part of the game; like a younger brother handed a second controller that isn’t hooked up to the system.
Inflation and price gouging are two different things, corporations went unpunished because the rules don’t really apply to them and even when the government can be bothered to hold them accountable, it’s a laughable slap on the wrist: A fraction of how much they profited from their crimes.
Meanwhile, you or I break a law and our lives are irrevocably ruined. Corporations are valued more than people, that’s a fact.
Local drive-through coffee places here are cheaper than Starbucks and they don’t get the deals that a huge corporation that Starbucks has, meaning their profit margins are a lot lower.
This has all been about price gouging.
I’m not convinced this is deflation as I don’t think the market ever adjusted to 12$ big whoppers - I think this is just some companies that tried to really fucking exploit price increases to get a more comfortable profit margin being taken to task by low demand.
Let me know when the housing market corrects.
Sorry for the Economic pedantry
Demand never really changed other than what would be expected from population and technology growth. The supply of money did change. The Fed has been quietly right sizing the money supply.
If this continues to work, it could really mean good things for Americans in the future.
The demand curve didn’t shift - I agree. That was sort of my point - in legitimate inflation we’ll see demand curves shift as price sensitivity adjusts to the new market comprehension of purchasing power.
The actual amount of demand (or, like, buy orders if you prefer to avoid the term demand) absolutely did decrease though because we shifted the price point along that demand curve.
