Chris Johns Why nothing works any more In one of our more popular podcasts (in terms of downloads), Jim and I recently discussed why so much of daily life is so difficult. ‘Nothing works any more’. We are all subject to ‘time taxes’. The sitting in traffic, hanging on the phone listening to a robot telling us ‘your call is important to us’, lining up at airports, sitting on planes that don’t go anywhere for hours for no obvious reason. The horror we feel if we need something from our bank, phone company, gas or electricity utility: finding the hours that we know it will take if we have to phone any of these companies.
This culture of stripping down of the cost base through similar activities described by Chris has had a deflationary pressure on prices. In my view, the deflationary effects of that culture played a role in justifying the loose monetary policy over the past decade.
Globalisation, automation, size-flation and races to the bottom with respect to quality. It effects many goods and services, but not all. For example, can we say these hit the property sector since the Great Recession? Probably not.
The basket of goods making up the inflation indices are a mixture of what has been hit by this phenomenon and what hasn’t. So in aggregate we have had deflation in some costs and inflation in others.
Lots of really cheap flights and cheap clothing to bring with you but no roof over your head when you return.
Sadly accurate😢
I agree, and the effects go further.
This culture of stripping down of the cost base through similar activities described by Chris has had a deflationary pressure on prices. In my view, the deflationary effects of that culture played a role in justifying the loose monetary policy over the past decade.
Globalisation, automation, size-flation and races to the bottom with respect to quality. It effects many goods and services, but not all. For example, can we say these hit the property sector since the Great Recession? Probably not.
The basket of goods making up the inflation indices are a mixture of what has been hit by this phenomenon and what hasn’t. So in aggregate we have had deflation in some costs and inflation in others.
Lots of really cheap flights and cheap clothing to bring with you but no roof over your head when you return.
It seems Norman is still around: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Tebbit