Leap Day Lindtflation

I Was All Set to Declare This the First Leap Year's Day Blog I Have Committed

Which would rate a big "so-what" even if it were, but after checking, I found it isn't. Thus, a double "so-what" for today's title. Apparently one of my CES reviews intersected this calendrical anomaly, I re-read that review and was reminded of a truly remarkable motion simulator exhibited in 2020. If it existed, they would have been selling them for $50k, but it didn't exist then except as a prototype and apparently doesn't now since I don't recall seeing it in subsequent years. Probably for the best.

Lindtflation

Back when I was alive, I remember paying $.21 for a loaf of bread. It's risen a bit since then! One of the major whines about "the economy" over the past couple of years is "inflation," the increase of the price of goods over time. Chocolate, almost inarguably a good, is one of my favorites. Although this is hardly an economics blog, I have occasionally delivered myself of economics advice and comments, including: warnings against trying to profit on the shrimp trade; what I claimed (correctly as it turned out) was a good financial investment; and some incisive commentary about the price of bananas and drugs.

A two-year-old blog analyzed the variability of the price of Lindt chocolate truffles*. Since these data were compiled largely before the great increase in inflation later that year and especially in 2022 and '23, I thought it would be interesting to compare today's notionally inflated price with that before the current inflationary era.

• 350 for $104 = $.297 each
• 300 for $89 = $.296 each

In other numbers, essentially unchanged despite the worst episode of inflation in two decades! And yet, there is an anomaly in a different data set. To be sure, it's not an enormous set of data, comprising as it does one item.

Behold to the right, a box of Lindt mini pralines, photographed several days ago at the Lindt chocolate shop in Manhattan**. I noted the price because when last I purchased these as a gift, they were $13.95 or maybe $13.99. This corresponds to an increase over two years of over 23%, commensurate with the inflation rate many have observed for routine grocery and other consumer items.

One wonders why inflation has taken a toll on the mini pralines but not on the truffles. This is the sort of number that causes unrest, and one can't help noticing that unrest there be. Someone far more enterprising than I might be able to discern why the praline/truffle inflation ratio has become so high. I'll be happy to cite your research if you're that person!

Cash

Having delved into one of the great economic issues of the day albeit inconclusively, let's attack yet another: The resurgence of currency.

My personal history with money is easily summarized: I used cash most of my life. Around the year 2000 I decided that I was leaving too much on the table in terms of rewards and rebates by doing so, and started using credit cards. Between then and just recently, I've been inveighing about what I consider the credit-card tax on the economy. Credit card usage has been so prevalent that, due to credit card terms and contracts, merchants had to raise prices on pretty much all consumer goods. In effect, they've been a sales tax. Things both changed and didn't change in 2020 due to the pandemic. Even those otherwise inclined to use currency for payments migrated to credit cards to go "contactless," and to buy on-line. Presumably, aggregate CC fees rocketed. Something had to be done.

And possibly it has been. At least where I live, I have noticed an increasing number of merchants demanding a surcharge for credit card purchases. Restaurants! Random merchants! Even the dog kennel where Winston the Puppy goes when he needs a vacation from his furparents! I often exhibit ambivalence to the merchants. I whine about the inconvenience while commending them for their civil action as I extract sufficient currency from my (non-virtual) wallet to ransom the dog. During the pandemic, I went weeks or months without seeing any money at all. Today, I carry a significant amount of currency to placate the vendors, Things have changed. Paying in Bitcoin has proved impractical, and for now cost-free bank payment schemes such as Zelle are waiting for other shoe to drop. One wonders how it will eventually resolve.

Life Changes for the Web but Not For This Blog

It will not have escaped your notice that something called AI, or Artificial Intelligence, has become a thing in the past year. You are probably hoping this will be a short paragraph, and your wish is hereby granted.

The World Wide Web has settled into an ecosystem whereby individuals count on a search engine such as Google to direct them to a web site that will fulfull their need for information. Slowly, the search engines have been answering many questions themselves, depriving the web sites of traffic while using them to obtain the requested information. Since web sites depend on this traffic for their economic existence, you can see how this is problematic. I've read that AI is taking this a step further by answering search inquiries without bothering to give web links, thus depriving the sites of visitors and custom. Presumably, as AI evolves it will get worse. This will change the economics of the internet! Of course, there's quite the backlash from the web sites. Conserving phosphors from the previous heading, "One wonders how it will eventually resolve."

I'm a lucky web site owner! Although I'm sure I have thousands of millireaders out there, I don't request or derive any income from them or from this blog. Additionally, I defy search engines or AI to derive any "answers" from it nor is it easily summarized. There have been few search queries involving, for example, the inflation rate of Lindt Truffles over the past few years.

And I might add, while I'm feeling enjoyably exempt, this blog is on my own server which isn't subject to censorship by Forces for Good (or, to be sure, Evil). Take that, Mr. A.I!

Oppie

A couple nights ago we watched Oppenheimer again, this time on a streaming channel with subtitles. Even if your hearing isn't as bad as that of a life-long habitué of loud rock concerts and thousands of NYC subway miles, you will find the subtitles useful in understanding the dialog. If you're a physics fan, a cold-war fan, a history buff, or a citizen or resident of the USA, I highly recommend this film. Even if you're none-of-the-above, I recommend this film, perhaps not quite as highly.

Balloonery Buffoonery

And Speaking of Secrecy, Security, Government mis- or mal- or nonfeasance, what about those NON-Chinese balloons whose photos we never saw? May we please know more about them? I know it's a dead issue, but every once in a while I remind myself that the Chinese Balloon Episode isn't really closed until the other balloon photographs are released. Shall I put "What are they hiding" in italics just to add to the otherwise gratuitous sense of mystery? Nah

Today's NP

Rise by Herb Alpert is a song I've never heard before and am unlikely to hear again. The fact that it appears as today's Now Playing is an artifact of coincidental timing and a change in radio station ownership. The usual "station" to which I listen—Psychedelicized.com—is off the "air" due to insufficient sponsorship, and my local real radio station—KAZM—has undergone a change of ownership. KAZM brands itself "Mellow Mountain Radio" since call letters are passé. When I read in a local news bulletin about the change, I felt the least I could do as a long-time fan of broadcast radio was to check it out.

There's a lot to say about AM broadcast radio. Progress isn't always in a forwardly direction. I think this may be what they call a "stub," and it will soon lead to a shocking admission.

* If you don't want to read the item, my finding was that the variability was small, ranging from $.28 to $.30 each over many weeks and many purported sales and blandishments
** Of which there is now only one. Their Fifth Avenue location, more convenient to me, "permanently closed" a couple of years ago. They didn't even request permission!

Yesterday  |  Tomorrow