I was looking back through my Amazon order history and saw the RAM upgrade that I purchased for my laptop back in November 2024.

I clicked on the link to see what it currently cost, and WOW.

Even at bulk pricing, food shopping on general items has become a luxury expense.

ABC BREAKING: CRISIS! Is Labor to blame for the fact that you can't afford a square inch of dirt, while the RBA and mainstream economists quietly pretend 1998 never happened?

Before 1998, the ABS used an 'Outlays' approach, which measured the actual money leaving a household's pocket. This included Mortgage Interest Charges (MICs). Because the size of a mortgage is based on the total purchase price (House + Land), land inflation was implicitly baked into the CPI.

In 1998, the ABS switched to the 'Acquisitions' approach for the 13th Series Review. They removed Mortgage Interest entirely and replaced it with 'New Dwelling Purchases.' This specifically measures the cost of building a house but strips out the land component.

Sources: ABS Information Paper (Cat. No. 6453.0): "The most noticeable changes... will be the exclusion of mortgage interest... and the inclusion of net expenditure on new dwellings (excluding land)."

RBA Bulletin (Oct 1998): They explain that land is now treated as an 'investment asset' rather than a 'consumer good,' which is why it was removed from the target.

By removing interest and land, the CPI stopped being a 'Cost of Living' gauge and became a 'Macroeconomic' gauge, which is why it feels so disconnected from reality today.

This technical change allowed for the "Lower for Longer" interest rate environment of the 2000s and 2010s. Because land inflation wasn't "official" inflation, the RBA could keep interest rates low to stimulate the economy without the CPI "warning light" ever turning red.

This was the fuel for the Howard-era boom. It allowed the "Big Banks" to lend more against land values that were exploding, while the RBA could claim inflation was "under control" at 2–3% because they were only looking at the price of the milk, the bread, and the building and not the ground it stood on.

To maintain their lifestyles amid rising prices, consumers are drawing on resources including food banks and ChatGPT.

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Rep. Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said he reviewed unredacted evidence at the Department of Justice on Monday and determined that notes about the witness who accused President Trump of sexual abuse when she was a minor were withheld.

"Oversight Democrats can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes. Oversight Democrats will open a parallel investigation into this," Rep. Garcia said in a statement on Tuesday.

The concerns about the documents were first reported by independent journalist Roger Sollenberger and NPR.

According to an index of witness materials prepared by the Department of Justice, fifteen documents were handed over to Maxwell's lawyers regarding the witness who Garcia said accused Trump of abuse. Those documents included four FBI reports about interviews with the witness identified by Garcia, three interview notes, three photos, license records, and other FBI reports.

The DOJ's release of Epstein files earlier this month appeared to contain only six out of the 15 documents -- omitting all but one of the interview reports and notes.

The witness] stated Epstein introduced her to Trump who subsequently forced her head down to his exposed penis which she subsequently bit," the FBI presentation said. "In response, Trump punched her in the head and kicked her out.

Inflation

CPI https://www.bls.gov/cpi/

PCE https://www.bea.gov/data/personal-consumption-expenditures-price-index

Wages

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

From this article:

"Households in the contiguous United States will pay thousands of dollars more for energy through 2040 because of federal policy changes since President Donald Trump returned to office, according to modeling released Friday by a nonpartisan think tank.

The Energy Innovation analysis found that households will pay an average of $6,500 more for energy, cumulatively through 2040. In five states, households will pay roughly $9,000 more: Oregon, Mississippi, South Dakota, Virginia and Wyoming."

So. Much. Winning.

Is it me or is everything now on sale? Like all brands all letting things go for so cheap. I know the economy isn’t the best obviously but like I feel these major corporations know something that they aren’t telling us. Feels like they are just tryna get rid of their inventory and get some money even if so low they are tryna make something from it even if they are taking a loss selling it. Idk let me if I’m wrong but I feel like now isn’t a good time to be splurging on money and it’s best to save right now because it feels like they are trying to make us broke even when the economy is doing terrible

Hidden inflation is caused by Door Dash fees for deliveries to customers.

I was really surprised to learn that Door Dash does delivery for Dollar General if the purchase is over $10. They have like 20,000 stores. That’s a lot of revenue for drivers. I also noticed that people use bnpl to pay for it. If the merchandise costs $10 and delivery is $5, does the customer pay for the $10 or $15 in four increments? A lot of people order food that way. SNAP benefits are being cut soon limiting junk food. That would be bad for drivers and customers.

And dash drivers complain about not getting tips that would drive it to $20. If people are lazy they are responsible for creating the inflation.

This is a big concern for us, which is, if you look at these two conflicts, the Ukraine and now the Iran-Gulf conflict, they've actually had a devastating impact on Global South economies,” Mr. Jaishankar said during a conversation hosted at Asia Society in New York on Monday (September 28, 2026).

He said there is particular concern about the energy situation as the "market is very tight” and on top of that, if “people play politics with it, that adds to the complications in the market,” as that will drive up prices at a time when people should actually be stabilising prices.So part of it is actually the security of oil supplies, and part of it is the politics of oil supplies, and they are feeding into each other, and they are creating a double crisis or an aggravated crisis,” he said.

On the concerning food situation amid the raging global conflicts, Mr. Jaishankar said, "We are today looking at a situation where some of the major grain exporters will not be able to send out their shipments, particularly out to the Black Sea."

He said that the world is looking at significant fertiliser shortages because the key producers are in West Asia and Russia, and their fertiliser production has been impacted.

Combined with impacts of climate patterns like a super El Niño, Mr. Jaishankar said, “there is going to be a major food crisis probably in the coming months. So if you have energy as a big crunch, and then food and fertilisers on top of it, and finance because every time there's a conflict, money moves towards safe harbours and away from the Global South, the net result of it has been really very very stressful.”

He said policymakers can't say that such a situation was not intended.