Cost of living crisis

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Danny's Dyer Acting
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by Danny's Dyer Acting »

US focused thread but there's the odd bit that's good news for consumers everywhere. We're all still going to be continually reamed by energy/fuel prices but at least this might give breathing space in some areas.

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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by bubbles1966 »

Inflation will stay high until spring of next year before levelling off - assuming no additional major shocks.

Slashing grossly overpriced mobile/TV contracts will handle most things for those who are reasonably well off as well as curtailing extravagant entertainment spending, while house prices should start to fall and we'll see who's been swimming in the housing pool without any trunks on, as they say.

Poorer folk need looking after.
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by Shabu »

Bloody hell, things sound dire in the UK.

Is this accurate?

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/07/economy/ ... index.html
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by bubbles1966 »

Stagflation, deflation, inflation....if ain't one thing, it's another.

Almost all this is piped in inflation from covid rebound and energy prices.

It can't continue for long unless the war spreads and there's loads of convulsion graphs around showing sharp falls and sharp rises around these events.

It will probably start to settle and pass but not until next spring.

As people adjust their spend, the labour market will start to normalise as well.
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by Danny's Dyer Acting »



Based on what my bills were before the last increase that's a 2.8x jump by the time newest pricing comes in. Fortunately I'm a single person in a small 1 bed flat, god knows how anyone in even an average sized family home is coping with these changes. Let alone schools or hospitals.
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by smuts »

Said it before but some already seriously rich people are becoming even more obscenely wealthy over this.
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by -DL- »

It's ****ing horrendous. Bulb emailed me today saying that my payments are going up by 40 quid a month. I called them and they said the system will only allow them to change them down by another tenner. I asked them for how they've calculated it, and they couldn't tell me.

I know how they've calculated it - they bill me on the last day of each month, but the DD for the previous month comes out the day after on the first - so 30th May's bill came out on the 1st of this month. They've calculated my payment increase on my bill date, not taking in to account that 1) I'm in credit anyway in my account, and 2) They've not taken in to account the payment that got paid on the 1st July.

Piss taking c****, getting fed up with them - yet most suppliers are not taking new business, so I can't switch - so f*** 'em, I've cancelled the direct debit, and I'll pay my bill off monthly by debit card until someone then calls me that can speak English clearly and coherently, and I can set a DD up again.
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by mumbles87 »

Danny's Dyer Acting wrote: Fri Jul 08, 2022 7:05 pm

Based on what my bills were before the last increase that's a 2.8x jump by the time newest pricing comes in. Fortunately I'm a single person in a small 1 bed flat, god knows how anyone in even an average sized family home is coping with these changes. Let alone schools or hospitals.
I'm glad my wife and I both feel warm quickly so keep the heating to 2-3 hours a day in winter

In April I fixed for 9.1p think it was. I could have risked the price cap and been better off right now but would be risking the winter .. glad I didn't reading this!

I pay roughly £30 a month in gas ATM that's all cooking. 2 showers a day and a bath for the kids .. so least winter I should have built up a surplus from the solar to pay for the gas
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by Hammer1966 »

As well as deciding whether or not to stick or twist with passing on the price of a tin of beans supermarkets could actually use some of their obscene profits to pay all staff the real living wage.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... dApp_Other
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by Shabu »

Can anyone explain, in laymans terms, why some countries have 10% inflation while others have 3%

Serious question, I have no idea about the causes etc.

https://tradingeconomics.com/country-li ... ation-rate
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by EvilC »

You’d need to look at the specific circumstances of each country.
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by mumbles87 »

Shabu wrote: Fri Jul 15, 2022 9:48 pm Can anyone explain, in laymans terms, why some countries have 10% inflation while others have 3%

Serious question, I have no idea about the causes etc.

https://tradingeconomics.com/country-li ... ation-rate
Im sure someone will correct me but I believe a lot of it is down to the value of the pound

The inflation measures are based on food prices and consumable items .. which rising costs in energy and fuel means they go up.. we still have to buy them can't avoid it so inflation keeps rising

From what I've read our currency is devaluated due to the cost of lockdown and brexit all hitting together

I mean cutting the vat and fuel duty would reduce inflation I believe but would cost us even more money .. as everything would drop in price again (apart from energy)

But hey that's what the gov gets paid to work out
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by EvilC »

The dollar is strong right now, but energy costs have a big part to play as well.
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by mumbles87 »

The gov need to get control of inflation , and with fuel costs playing a huge part in how inflation is measured plus increases of fuel costs increases other measures like food costs etc. (appreciate energy plays a huge part aswell)

a solution to me that appears on paper simple would be to completely get rid of VAT on fuel.

I mean 52.95p is currently the tax rate per litre on fuel.. seems high enough (even though its been cut by 5p)

20% on top of that cost combined with the wholesale costs is a lot of extra money to the gov in tax whenever the wholesale goes up.. (or less when it goes down)

so why not do say a flat 60p for sake of argument at the moment .. you would see an instant reduction in fuel prices at the pumps due to the tax and would transfer to food costs and get inflation slightly under control no?

Also getting rid of vat would mean the tax to gov would be a fixed cost rather than a cost that can change week to week depending on wholesale costs.. would be a benefit in budgeting surely?

End of day we need to move away from fossil fuels long term so that income is going down not up so surely relying on the tax from it is short sighted .. so to get rid of the VAT now and reduce the cost for everyone fairly just seems to make a lot more sense
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by OFT »

But the freedom to choose supplier will keep costs down.......... yeah that's right.
Another disastrous privatisation eventually catching up with the public.

Just Re-nationalise it,
Take back control is the catchphrase is it not.
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by EvilC »

OFT wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 10:31 am But the freedom to choose supplier will keep costs down.......... yeah that's right.
Another disastrous privatisation eventually catching up with the public.

Just Re-nationalise it,
Take back control is the catchphrase is it not.
What will that solve?
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by OFT »

EvilC wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 11:19 am What will that solve?
Clearly I'm talking gas and electricity here.
The government could take proper control(OK,Iknow) of prices and suck up the huge variations at times like these instead of mucking about 'giving' money back to individuals also good old fashioned 3 price bands, industrial, commercial and domestic, instead of all this shopping around for deals and rates bollox , which we can't do anyway at the moment, that is IMO partially why we're where we are.
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by EvilC »

OFT wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 12:12 pm Clearly I'm talking gas and electricity here.
The government could take proper control(OK,Iknow) of prices and suck up the huge variations at times like these instead of mucking about 'giving' money back to individuals also good old fashioned 3 price bands, industrial, commercial and domestic, instead of all this shopping around for deals and rates bollox , which we can't do anyway at the moment, that is IMO partially why we're where we are.
We are where we are because there is an energy shortage.

Consumers had three year fixes available to them.

Buying the utilities and the grid (guessing the cost is £50bn plus) doesn’t stop you having to buy really expensive gas.

The government failed to regulate this sector, despite being told what the problems were. I see no reason why they’d be able to run it.
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by OFT »

EvilC wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 12:18 pm

Consumers had three year fixes available to them.
Exactly, it's all bollox.

Why should the public be expected to gamble on the price, it should be the job of government. If they don't want to govern they shouldn't try and get elected.
Now clearly this mob aren't capable of running anything but if you hadn't guessed, I was and remain dead against the privatisation of the utilities.
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Re: Cost of living crisis

Post by SammyLeeWasOffside »

OFT wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 12:42 pm Exactly, it's all bollox.

Why should the public be expected to gamble on the price, it should be the job of government. If they don't want to govern they shouldn't try and get elected.
Now clearly this mob aren't capable of running anything but if you hadn't guessed, I was and remain dead against the privatisation of the utilities.
When there were energy crises under nationalisation people's energy bills still went through the roof.

In the 70s and early 80s people spent as much of their household income on energy as right now.

The shock right now is we have got used to cheap and readily available energy. At least some of that is due to competition and more open markets.
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