High demand amid the pandemic for items such as hand sanitiser and loungewear mean they are now being used to calculate the cost of living in the UK.
Hand weights used by gym-goers who are stuck at home have also been added to the basket of goods used to measure the movement of prices.
The annual review by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also added smartwatches and electric cars.
But white chocolate and sandwiches bought at work are out.
The ONS said it decided to add men’s loungewear bottoms and women’s sweatshirts to the basket of more than 700 goods, which is used to calculate inflation, to reflect a move towards more casual clothing.
Economists are, of course, entirely unaware of substitution when calculating inflation…..
The first of these ideas says that if demand for a product rises and the supply does not then its price is going to increase. Economists would say this is so basic that no one could really argue with it. So let me do so.
First, this assumes that there are no alternative products available. The reality is that there usually are. Few things are so essential now that this is not the case.
Sigh.
The trouble is how they measure housing costs by putative rent rather than by the selling price.
What Spud presumably thinks the ‘Basket’ should consist of:
1 pint milk
1/4 lb corned beef
Sliced White Loaf
1/4 lb of loose tea
1 pint bitter
Packet of 10 Woodbines
Copy of The Daily Herald
Tram ride from Hackney Wick to Ballspond Road
That’s one of the CPI/RPI differences……
The basket will contain only what Spud believes you need, and nothing else.
OT,but for Ecksy The Deranged and our favourite pimp, BiS:
‘The economy will actually get back at the end of this year to where it was at the end of 2019’.
– Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey
Theophrastus, are you willing to put your own money down as a wager? A contribution to our host’s running costs perhaps if the prediction turns out to be false?
I’d be interested to learn how he can speak with such certainty, Theo. Heavy session on the ouija board? A new pack of tarot cards? Or is it still the goat innards?
One from the Spud’s de Beers like supply line of gems:
‘ When the state comes for women holding a vigil they can come for anyone. And that includes you, and me. We have reached the last line in that poem now. There are no excuses left. All we can do now is oppose.’
Hopefully they can come for him sooner rather than later and carry him off to a padded cell…
How did he escape?
He grew a magic money tree, climbed up and over the wall…
When was the last time his Spudness was on a protest line?
@Diogenes
Probably never. His Spudness is self-professedly a Thinker, not a mere person.
You might believe that his histrionic attack on the authorities here sits uncomfortably with his staunch support for lockdown in other contexts, but that is what Thinkers are allowed to do…
Aaaannnd crickets.
I suppose this is a nice demonstration of Theo’s revealed preferences…