The Presidency of the Joes, part II: lol documents

This guy needs a UP invite

https://twitter.com/davidmfaris/status/1511073360968617984?s=21&t=5jWCTRsjM1LI9QvM9bgRug

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From the Media thread:

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1510783009062101003?t=P-77EGbG6DgEp8g9OIgbJg&s=19
This is also the fault of the base not talking up the Administration’s economic accomplishments on social media.

Haven’t I been saying all along that part of the problem is people bound by norms that guard against greater militancy?

Difficult to hype economic accomplishments when inflation is going bonkers.

You can only count on your base to pump you up when you do the shit you told them you would. This administration continues to be more hostile to its own voters than the opposition that is out there calling them groomers and communists.

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Working hard. Thank you!

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8% for 2 quarters after running <3% since '99 feels like a first world-problem. we’ve gotten used to something below historical norms, so even moderately above normal feels bonkers. early 80s had a period of 3 years worth of 10+% trailing inflation. and that crisis by itself isn’t as big in the collective memory as the housing crisis, if you polled republicans they’d say it was morning in america or some shit.

Except in reality for most people, it’s way worse than that. Groceries and gas are going up much faster.

gas isn’t part of core inflation. food index measured inflation at 7.9.

Yeah food is going up way more than 8% annualized. I’ve seen some food prices go up by 50-90% in a matter of 2-3 months around me. We’ve started shopping at cheaper grocery stores and comparing prices on almost everything to avoid price gouging.

Six months ago we barely noticed grocery prices, now it’s a big deal in our household financially.

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i mean, the 7.9 figure is an average. so i can accept that some items might have risen 50-90%, but it’s not useful to focus on those for the bigger picture. the bigger picture is showing that food is rising roughly in-line with everything else, except it’s exposed to gas prices more (something like 6% of cpi is gas).

Okay, sure.

But that’s still bonkers relative to the past few decades. The financial situations of a very large percentage of people are getting objectively worse. Who do you think is going to take the political hit for that?

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those who couldn’t edumacate the larger populace about independently computed maths?

i am not arguing the political hit. i am saying in reality things aren’t as bad as most people feel. they probably feel better than they did during '08 crisis, unemployment numbers and all.

The gas pricing that bothers me most now isn’t just them going up, it’s stations near me charging 22 cents more per gallon if you pay with a credit/debit card instead of cash or their company card. It used to be 10 cents/gallon, but hell I guess if prices are going up just sneak some more gouging in there while you’re at it.

It’s because credit card processing fees are a percentage of the transaction amount

Is that how they calculate it? It sure seems like it stayed 10 cents extra per gallon for a long time while the gas prices went up and down. Do gas stations pay different processing fees than convenience stores? I know some of those will add like a 30 cent fee to pay with a card and I don’t think that ever changes on the transaction amount.

The thing that sucks is that companies are not just passing on their costs increases but instead are doing what they can get away with. Some of this is just the price for historically low inflation for decades. (Of course not the federal min wage though).

Sub 4% unemployment doesn’t mean anything if more people are getting further and further behind.

People can come up with some voodoo reasons that show that inflation is only at 8% or whatever, but that’s just not what people are seeing at the store or at the gas pump or on their rent statements or on their child care bills.

I’m not going to assign a percentage of the blame that goes to Biden for this, but I don’t think this administration should be bragging about the economy right now.

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Credit card companies typically charge merchants around 4% to process transactions. The exact rate varies depending on the card and the merchant. I imagines that gas stations with credit premiums typically use a fixed premium amount that covers the transaction fee for normal price levels. But if prices get really high, the normal premium doesn’t cover the processing fee, so they jack it up.

Other types of products may not adjust their fees as much because they have higher profit margins. That means they’re willing to eat a higher fee instead of risk losing sales.

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Here’s something I assume one of you knows and I’m too lazy to look up. Why doesn’t every business have one price for credit cards and another for cash?