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I See Inflation At Crutchfield
- Thread starter Jim Creek
- Start date
DMill
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This is the smartest thing I’ve read in a long time. I don’t feel nearly as bad for the guy who can’t afford his now $10K Revel speaker purchase vs the guy who is struggling to put food on the table. But I will get off my soapbox and say we are somewhat fortunate as audio fans to have a number of “affordable” class D amps, cheap DACs and impressive speaker options that measure pretty close or better than ultra high end cost options.
MattHooper
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Even beef prices are at a historic high right now in the USA. Obviously this is due to more than tariffs. Nothing happens in a vacuum and can have multiple causes.
Source:
www.newson6.com
Thankfully I can cook some mean pork carnitas.
Source:
Oklahoma’s Own In Focus: Higher beef prices benefit agriculture, but shoppers feel the pinch
Beef prices have risen 12% from last year, impacting Oklahoma consumers but aiding agriculture. Understand the reasons, including supply, demand, and higher ranching costs.
Thankfully I can cook some mean pork carnitas.
sam_adams
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You can't eat a DAC or an amp.
Example of inflation seen on some other website—bonus Costco:
Tom C
Major Contributor
Why? What are countries composed of?
Tom C
Major Contributor
You’re right. Beef is delicious. DAC’s are not.
Since I retired and went onto a budget I started paying attention to the price of food.
A pound of minced beef at the local supermarket was £2.90 in February, it's now £3.90
And we haven't had any tariff or sales tax increases (although the beef isn't imported and there's no sales tax on non-luxury food in any case).
solderdude
Grand Contributor
I see inflation everywhere not just in audio and food ...
It seems to be by design.
www.forbes.com
It seems to be by design.
Why The Rich Get Richer And The Poor Get Poorer
The United States economy is currently exhibiting a "K-shaped" dynamic, which means that the wealthy are benefiting from asset appreciation, while middle and lower income groups are confronting higher costs and financial strains.
www.forbes.com
lol ....governments, but I get your gist .... tariffs *punish your own people*.. it's self imposed taxes and inflation...
this , exactly.... housing goes up... gold goes up, wall Street goes up... prices go up... guess who doesn't benefit? the bottom *80%* , shleps like me shining shoes at the country club and hustling tips to pay for basic needs ....I see inflation everywhere not just in audio and food ...
It seems to be by design.
Why The Rich Get Richer And The Poor Get Poorer
The United States economy is currently exhibiting a "K-shaped" dynamic, which means that the wealthy are benefiting from asset appreciation, while middle and lower income groups are confronting higher costs and financial strains.
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At least in the USA, access to the sorts of appreciating assets mentioned in the article (mostly stocks) is pretty democratic, provided that your income level allows for saving and investing.
People in the USA have many alluring options, but some are pretty much wealth-killers: Per this article, average new-car monthly payment is $735, and durations of almost 6 years have become the norm. And although attitudes towards car ownership are changing, there's still a lot of people making bad financial decisions because "they need this".
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=number+1+wealth+killer
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agreed , but I , like a lot of people would rather have a real social safety net.... most poor folks that root against their self interest do so with the thought that "taking away" stuff from others somehow gives them more .. I'd much rather pay higher taxes if it housed folks, but unfortunately it usually goes to private landowners/ bankers/ equity managers subsidized and contracted to house folks,create wealth or expand equity who then do as poor as job as possibly to justify more subsidies to "fix" the issue that's created by "for profit" safety nets( as shown in the 2008 bank/ real estate bail outs , my prediction : we're on our way to that outcome again , soon) ...
another problem is financial dysfunction created by an economy driven by "consumerism first, people second" models ... the economy is running the government here in the US and in much of the 3rd world.. my thought is we may look like China economically a lot sooner than one might hope...
to sum it up : Tariffs are a part of this model, it creates more economic hardship that creates more need for workers to work more hours at lower wages than the previous model created by FDR coming out of the depression era that included better wages and expanding safety nets .... I don't want to derail this thread , it certainly is interesting, so i'll get off the soap box and watch from the sidelines..
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Companies have been filling their warehouses since the election because of the fear of tariffs. Prices will go up after the tariffs are put into effect and old stock is depleted. Wait until late this year and early next year depending on when they make up their minds on the actual tariffs.
^^ 100%. This is generally how good manufacturing supply chains work. (Not all small audio manufacturer’s supply chain planning and execution is good though)
There’s also the elasticity of demand that limits the degree to which the price of a product can just be increased and by how much. There’s generally a shared cost where the importer eats some, the distributor eats some, the retailer eats some, and the consumer eats some. The degree to which the cost is shared is dictated by the elasticity of demand for the specific product(s) in question.
Edit: there is also a model where a company may opt to peanut butter spread the increased cost across their pre and post tariff inventory with a lower increase now. This approach has some risk, assuming they accurately predict where the final tariff(s) land.
Lots of factors and variables to be considered.
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that's a smart way to deal with short term tariffs... small companies *can't* plan that far ahead in many cases..., advantage to high $$ corporations built into the model...
OP
Jim Creek
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The USA has the third highest debt to GDP ratio in the world, only behind Japan and Italy. It has THE highest total amount of debt owed in the world by a huge margin, $36 trillion. Yet we’re the only industrialized country that doesn’t have universal healthcare. But we spend more money on our military than the next 9 nations combined.
“ with a 2024 defense budget of $997 billion, which is more than the next nine countries' spending put together.”
I believe the plan behind the tariffs is to use tariff revenue to fund our debt.
Why can’t they? This is a very broad brush stroke from an objective standpoint.
We have to ask ourselves to what degree the tariff(s) actually impacts their cost to produce and how the distribution of the tariff actually occurs within the supply chain. Are there domestic alternatives, or alternatives from other countries with a lower tariff structure. Basically, what part of their supply chain is impacted, to what degree, and what are the available alternatives. The assumption that tarrifs are absorbed 100% by the importer etc., across all industries is an incorrect assumption. Many manufacturers will offer a subsidy of some type to help offset, usually in the form of rebates, discounts, etc.
The impact will be vastly different between industries. Some industries will have little to no impact, others could be significant.
Edit: Think of it this way. If I am a small audio manufacturer and building speakers. I import my drivers from China. What % of my total cost to produce are the drivers? How much does a 10, 15, 20% increase on that % of my cost to produce impact my overall production function. Do I import direct from the manufacturer or a distributor? If a distributor, do they have the ability to order in qty? There’s just a lot of variables and it’s very difficult to paint all of them with a single brush stroke.
I would submit small businesses can absolutely plan and adapt for anticipated changes in the market place. In fact I’d argue they must.
Can you expand on this point, what is the model being referenced?
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