Reply to thread

Remove ads while supporting the Unscripted philosophy...become an INSIDER.

Message: <blockquote data-quote="monfii" data-source="post: 936490" data-attributes="member: 78083">1. Renting a room in Brussels for students (or anyone else for that matter): +22% Last year, you'd have prices averaging 450 euros per month, especially in apartments where you'd have several rooms. Now, these are priced at 550 euros a month. I have seen rooms for 680 euros - ROOMS, NOT STUDIOS - in Brussels, which is insane. I know people renting for 550+ euros rooms in a 7-bedrooms houses. The spike in prices arrived after the quarantine, in a time when the demand is actually LOWER for rooms. Go figure. When I was studying in Rotterdam, rents DOUBLED in-between 2015 and 2018, and the whole RE took 30%.I had warned my mother who was looking to invest that it was going to happen, but she hadn't believed me. Too bad for her.  2. Phones and computers: -?%Xiaomi has made an AMOLED screen phone for less than 200 euros. I feel smartphones keep on getting cheaper. Not computers, though. In 2014, I bought a Lenovo laptop, 15 inches screen, core i3 processor, HD screen for 395 euros. 7 years later, the beast is still running.I bought a new laptop in July 2020. AMD Ryzen 5 (4000 series), 13 inches screen. Price tag: 700 euros. It's a much better and faster computer, but I would have probably paid the likes of 550-600 euros for such machine in 2014. Inflation: +21%3. Food: +18% on averageAbout one year ago, my Carrefour (Walmart equivalent) ran a giant advertising campaign. DECREASE OF PRICES ON 1000 PRODUCTS. And it was true. My bacon went from 2.5 euros to 2.3 or so. No less than two weeks later, that same bacon had gone up to 2.9 euros. I don't know if you want to compute the increase from 2.5 or 2.3 onward since this strategy had been duly planned by the company, so let's do both: 16% and 26% respectively. My meat package I used to buy for 34 euros went to 39 a couple of weeks after I had noticed it to be unusually cheap (must have been November 2019). It remained steady since, but they replaced the burgers they were giving out with some other stuff I don't remember. +14%4. Bitcoin: +833%LmaoConclusion:Despite the signs, I am not convinced that inflation is here to stay. I am still persuaded we are headed for deflation long-term because we won't be able to sustain equal level of consumption as production per capita is not increasing fast enough. China is done selling stuff on the cheap which will drive prices up, preventing even more people than before from buying. WHen you produce and no one buys your stuff, you whether stop producing, which creates deflation at the beginning of the supply chain, or you decrease your prices. The RE market (in Brussels at least) will crash and the impact will be stronger than the asteroid's that killed dinosaurs. A lot of people will lose their jobs in the post-corona world (in the HORECA especially). Growth stopped a long-time ago in the western developed countries. People are not having babies to sustain/increase consumption. And they become warier and warier of conspicuous consumption.  I don't really know where we are headed, but one constant seems clear. Whether prices inflate or deflate, purchasing power of slowlaners will decrease.</blockquote>

Verification

Reply to thread

Connect With Fastlane

Fastlane Toolbox

Join A Movement

GRAB THE DAILY DIGEST