cover of episode Grocery prices, credit card debt, and your 401K (Two Indicators)

Grocery prices, credit card debt, and your 401K (Two Indicators)

2024/4/17
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A
Adrienne
K
Karen Gardner
P
Peter Ganong
R
Randy Arsenault
T
Timothy Richards
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Adrienne和Waylon Wong观察到杂货价格上涨幅度远超整体通货膨胀，并指出消费者对价格上涨的感受比其他积极经济数据（如工资上涨）更为强烈。他们认为，持续上涨的杂货价格对消费者心理和实际生活造成了显著影响。 Peter Ganong教授分析了疫情期间消费者银行账户余额的剧烈波动，指出疫情初期储蓄大幅增加，但之后几年随着高通胀和收入增长放缓，储蓄被逐渐消耗。他认为，收入增长放缓导致消费者不得不减少支出或增加借贷，信用卡余额的持续上升便是佐证。同时，他还指出，信用卡余额上升本身并非完全负面，也可能反映出消费者对未来收入的乐观预期。 Waylon Wong和Adrian Ma报道了信用卡逾期率的上升，特别是低收入家庭的财务困境加剧。他们指出，美联储加息导致信用卡利率大幅上升，进一步加剧了还款困难。此外，他们还关注到Family Dollar销售额的下降，这与疫情期间临时增加的SNAP福利减少直接相关。Karen Gardner指出，SNAP福利的减少对低收入家庭的食品支出造成了巨大压力，迫使他们更多地依赖廉价商店购买食物。Family Dollar等廉价商店的关店潮进一步加剧了低收入家庭的困境。 Waylon Wong和Adrian Ma还报道了401K计划困难提取比例的上升，这可能反映出消费者财务压力的增加。然而，Peter Ganong教授指出，近年来401K计划的制度性变化和政策调整使得对这一数据的解读变得复杂，需要更多数据来判断其是否真正反映了消费者财务状况的恶化。 最后，Waylon Wong和Adrian Ma讨论了试图重新启用罗宾逊-帕特曼法案以应对大型零售商不公平定价的努力。Randy Arsenault和Ted Balistrieri分别代表小型杂货商和批发商，他们指出大型零售商直接与制造商谈判，获得比小型杂货商更低的批发价格，导致小型杂货商竞争力下降。Timothy Richards教授则指出，关于罗宾逊-帕特曼法案的争论涉及公平与效率之间的权衡，该法案的重新启用可能导致大型零售商价格上涨，小型杂货商价格下降，最终价格趋于中间水平。

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What's going on with consumers? This is one of the trickiest puzzles of this weird economic moment we're in. We've covered a version of this before under the term "vibecession)," but it's safe to say, the struggle is in fact real. It is not just in our heads. Sure, sure, some data is looking great. But not all of it. What's interesting, is exactly why the bad feels so much worse than the good feels good. Today on the show, we look into a few theories on why feelings are just not matching up with data. We'll break down some numbers and how to think about them. Then we look at grocery prices in particular, and an effort to combat unfair pricing using a mostly forgotten 1930's law. Will it actually help? Today's episode is adapted from episodes for Planet Money's daily show, The Indicator). Subscribe here). *Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts) or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney).*Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices)NPR Privacy Policy)