Why Breakfast Is Still More Expensive

Since our last look, the price of breakfast continues to climb.

Breakfast Inflation

Coffee

On again and then off, tariffs on Brazilian imports helped to nudge coffee prices up:

Orange Juice

Disease, weather, and tariffs can be blamed for orange price increases:

Bacon

Not directly tied to tariffs, bacon prices have climbed because of higher input costs and sustained demand:

Eggs

Easing somewhat, egg prices are down from 12 months ago but above lows that we can remember:

Our Bottom Line: Inflation

Many economics books would tell you that we can have demand pull, cost push, or a single cause of global inflation. Demand pull refers to too many dollars chasing too few goods while cost push focuses on land, labor, and /or capital rising in price. Meanwhile, the singular cause is one commodity going up in price and then rippling through the economy…like oil. Then, to all of this, we can add the monetarists that say it is all about the money supply and nothing else. When too many dollars circulate, prices rise.

Asked about the current causes of inflation, the BLS notes that statistics skipped October because of the shutdown. Then, with somewhat incomplete data, for now, the rate is 2.7 percent–low compared to many other nations:

My sources Washington Post

Parts of today’s Bottom Line were in a previous econlife post.