Prices Drop by Largest Amount in 56 Years

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Consumer prices plunged by the largest amount in more than a half- century in November as gasoline prices fell by a record amount. The Labor Department reported Thursday that its closely watched Consumer Price Index dropped by 0.6 percent last month, the biggest monthly decline since a 0.9 percent fall in July 1949.

The decline was better than the 0.4 percent drop that analysts had been expecting. Outside of the volatile food and energy categories, prices were up 0.2 percent, a modest gain that should help relieve fears that this year’s surge in energy costs could evolve into more widespread inflation problems.

In other economic news, the number of people who have lost jobs because of the string of devastating Gulf Coast hurricanes climbed to 602,200 last week. That gain reflected a rise of 1,500 jobless applications linked to Katrina and Rita and an additional 1,000 claims linked to Wilma, which hit Florida in October.

…

The huge 0.6 percent fall in consumer prices last month followed a small 0.2 percent October increase which had come after a 1.2 percent surge in September, which had been the biggest monthly gain in a quarter-century.

breitbart.com/news/2005/12/15/D8EGN5I00.html
 
I don’t know who compiles these happy clappy statistics, but a visit here to the Bay Area should be mandatory for these ostriches.
Clothing - up
Food - up, up
Housing - up, up, up - WAY up!
There are now** 36,000** homeless people in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I guess we should be celebrating a few pennies less per gallon for gas. Not exactly a “plunge”. :rolleyes:
 
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catsrus:
I don’t know who compiles these happy clappy statistics, but a visit here to the Bay Area should be mandatory for these ostriches.
Clothing - up
Food - up, up
Housing - up, up, up - WAY up!
There are now** 36,000** homeless people in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I guess we should be celebrating a few pennies less per gallon for gas. Not exactly a “plunge”. :rolleyes:
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Housing is way way up because of low interest rates, not inflation. Why isn’t an 80 cent drop in gas not significant (from it’s high of nearly $3)? Whenever it rose by 10 cents, people went through the roof with complaints.

Also, the lines at Starbucks are as long as ever. Somehow, struggling Californians don’t mind paying $2-4 for a cup of coffee, mocha, etc. every day. I also notice that approx. 80% of my co-workers eat out for lunch every day.
 
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gilliam:
The huge 0.6 percent fall in consumer prices last month followed a small 0.2 percent October increase which had come after a 1.2 percent surge in September, which had been the biggest monthly gain in a quarter-century.

breitbart.com/news/2005/12/15/D8EGN5I00.html
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:hmmm: + 1.2 -. 2- .6 = .4

Three months after gas prices soared we’re still not back to where we started in August…

This is good news?

Anyone else out there bracing for what heating costs are going to do to the numbers (or do they get left out since it’s a utility - thus not qualified for ‘consumer prices’)???

And where was the number at the beginning of the Bush administration? How’s he doing overall?

What a bogus headline…the drop is significant because the surge preceding it was even moreso.
 
YinYangMom said:
:hmmm: + 1.2 -. 2- .6 = .4

Three months after gas prices soared we’re still not back to where we started in August…

This is good news?

Anyone else out there bracing for what heating costs are going to do to the numbers (or do they get left out since it’s a utility - thus not qualified for ‘consumer prices’)???

And where was the number at the beginning of the Bush administration? How’s he doing overall?

What a bogus headline…the drop is significant because the surge preceding it was even moreso.
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It’s not even officially winter yet here in the northeast, and my last bill for for gas and electric was through the roof! :eek:

I was anticipating an increase; but this really took me by surpirse. I consider myself lucky because I can afford it, but I know plenty of people who will need some help this winter.

Gee, I’m really glad that consumer prices dropped by their largest amount in 56 years. I guess my utility company didn’t get that memo.

Peace,
MSGirl ❤️
 
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rlg94086:
Housing is way way up because of low interest rates, not inflation. Why isn’t an 80 cent drop in gas not significant (from it’s high of nearly $3)? Whenever it rose by 10 cents, people went through the roof with complaints.

Also, the lines at Starbucks are as long as ever. Somehow, struggling Californians don’t mind paying $2-4 for a cup of coffee, mocha, etc. every day. I also notice that approx. 80% of my co-workers eat out for lunch every day.
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It’s not significant because it rose over almost double that in a relatively short period of time. I was very happy when prices dropped below $2, close enough to the price they were before Hurricane Katrina. However, now they are back up close to $2.20 in my area. Unfortunately I live in the Detroit area where the public transportation system is a joke, otherwise I would use it.

You’re comparing apples and oranges when talking about the price of gas and Starbucks. People will spend their money however they choose, and just because they spend $4 for cup of coffee, doesn’t mean they have no right to complain when gas prices go up $1.50 a gallon in a couple of months. If that’s allowed, you should also say that people who spend $5-6 every day on packs of cigarettes have no right to complain either.
 
For some reason, people don’t allow inflation to figure into gas prices…they are supposed to remain static over our lifetimes apparently. If you look at this graph, you will note that gas prices spiked this year to an extremely high level. Currently, it’s about where it should be, adjusted for inflation. If it drops more (as mine keeps doing locally…$2.07 today), then this is a bonus.

I do rejoice when filling my tank drops from $40 to $30. Why shouldn’t I? I should be bitter because it hasn’t dropped to $20?

My remarks on Starbucks, was in regards to the gloom-and-doom picture catsrus tried to paint of our area. Things are hummin’ along.


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Anglican77:
It’s not significant because it rose over almost double that in a relatively short period of time. I was very happy when prices dropped below $2, close enough to the price they were before Hurricane Katrina. However, now they are back up close to $2.20 in my area. Unfortunately I live in the Detroit area where the public transportation system is a joke, otherwise I would use it.

You’re comparing apples and oranges when talking about the price of gas and Starbucks. People will spend their money however they choose, and just because they spend $4 for cup of coffee, doesn’t mean they have no right to complain when gas prices go up $1.50 a gallon in a couple of months. If that’s allowed, you should also say that people who spend $5-6 every day on packs of cigarettes have no right to complain either.
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originally posted by rlg94086
My remarks on Starbucks, was in regards to the gloom-and-doom picture catsrus tried to paint of our area. Things are hummin’ along.
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“tried to paint”? I don’t think the 35,000 people sleeping in the streets (a figure courtesy of KRON 4 news) and park benches would agree with “things are hummin’ along”. And that drop in gas prices hasn’t caused them a lot of joy since they don’t own anything to put that cheaper gas into.
Obviously they’re a-hummin’ along for your eat-out alunchin’ and Starbucks adrinkin’ co-workers.
A roof over one’s head and a job could bring these two divergent “cultures” together some and maybe then I could SOMEWHAT agree that there MAY be a grain of truth in that headline the op put up.
In the meantime, there are food bags to deliver and blankets to hand out downtown.
 
catsrus said:
“tried to paint”? I don’t think the 35,000 people sleeping in the streets (a figure courtesy of KRON 4 news) and park benches would agree with “things are hummin’ along”. And that drop in gas prices hasn’t caused them a lot of joy since they don’t own anything to put that cheaper gas into.
Obviously they’re a-hummin’ along for your eat-out alunchin’ and Starbucks adrinkin’ co-workers.
A roof over one’s head and a job could bring these two divergent “cultures” together some and maybe then I could SOMEWHAT agree that there MAY be a grain of truth in that headline the op put up.
In the meantime, there are food bags to deliver and blankets to hand out downtown.
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Can you provide the back-up data for whether this is an increase or decrease. The homeless count in SF done in 2/2005 showed a 28% drop in numbers since 2002 (the last count date).

sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/02/15/MNGTKBB73I1.DTL

(The couple of counties who think they have higher numbers have a disclaimer that their previous counts were “less thorough”)

I’m not saying that I don’t care about the homeless…I do…but, please don’t overstate the poverty in the Bay Area.
 
Maybe what we should be asking is why all of those oil companies are making the biggest profits ever, and then the prices fell again. I’m not against people making an honest profit, but some of the companies were clearly scamming for a while.
 
This doesn’t sound like great news, but it is good in that it seems the economy is pretty stable. We had a spike the quarter before, and even after losing a mjor port we are able to get along just ok, without having inflation go out of control. Look at that swing, that seems why they typically don’t count energy prices, though with energy and without are both good to look at. Unless there is deflation there will always be record prices. Unless there is a depression GDP will always be at a record.
 
Semper Fi:
Maybe what we should be asking is why all of those oil companies are making the biggest profits ever, and then the prices fell again. I’m not against people making an honest profit, but some of the companies were clearly scamming for a while.
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How much profit were they making when the prices were higher?
 
YinYangMom said:
:hmmm: + 1.2 -. 2- .6 = .4

Three months after gas prices soared we’re still not back to where we started in August…

This is good news?
Click to expand...

Wow! .4% increase in 3 months!!! How can we possibly live with…let’s see, .4 … divided by 3… times 12…let’s see, carry the 1… Wow! 1.6% annual inflation! Oh, the horror!!!

Let’s be realistic folks. San Fransisco’s got problems, but try not to blame it on Bush too badly. Maybe try a little responsibility, here? If Bush’s policies are the roots of the Bay Area’s problems, wouldn’t the rest of the country be suffering identically?

You think there would be less homeless if California (and especially San Fransisco!!!) were a little bit more business friendly. Have you guys even tried to encourage any industries into your area?

Notworthy
 
Could this have anything to do with:
A) Demand for gasoline going up
B) Refineries unable to step up productions because of federal and state restrictions
C) Around 1/4 of all offshore rigs shut down during the hurricanes

All of that drove the price up, without radically affecting the cost of production. Sounds like “Economics 101” to me.

Notworthy
 
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mjdonnelly:
Please, it only takes a sec to look up, but if you can’t find any info:

consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/oil_price_probe.html

and:

nebraskademocrats.org/page/file/f6434397466460972e_yhm6bxgb4.pdf/Record_Prices%2C_Record_Profits_10-27-05.pdf
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No need to be rude.

My local oil giant is only slightly up…
media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/nys/cvx/earnings/2005_3QRelease.pdf

They have a lot of operations in the Gulf, so their higher revenues were offset by the hurricanes.

Last year’s gross profit was 30%, net profit 9.2%. Sounds like a normal, healthy company to me.
 
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rlg94086:
No need to be rude.

My local oil giant is only slightly up…
media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/nys/cvx/earnings/2005_3QRelease.pdf

They have a lot of operations in the Gulf, so their higher revenues were offset by the hurricanes.

Last year’s gross profit was 30%, net profit 9.2%. Sounds like a normal, healthy company to me.
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So, I read in your link that 2004 profits for Chevron were up 84%. That means in 2003, their net profit was 5%. Is an increase in net profit from 5% to 9.2% a bad thing?
 
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