Why is everything so expensive now ? Is it partly due to the lockdowns ?

[Lipglosser]

Seriously somethings are four/five times the price they were

just wondering why everything has got so so expensive

We’ve never recovered from ‘08 financial crash. There’s a disconnect between the traditional economy (on its knees) and the financial markets. From ‘08 >£900bn was printed out of thin air and gifted to the markets that caused the crash. Households, businesses and governments are struggling. The super-rich are better off than ever. Greece in 2015 called themselves the canary in the mine. That western governments extend and pretend loans and bail outs couldn’t go on indefinitely. UK government choosing to give billions to foreign companies for likes of unreliable energy via wind/solar (just google wind or solar company bankruptcy) so there will be no economic recovery. For ordinary people its grim. We will get less, pay more and bear the brunt. High prices just one example and make do and mend now termed ‘Sustainability on a Shoe String’ via the BBC pages.

Yes, things are only going to get more expensive & taxes can only go up with the ageing population

Governments' are using inflation to erode away high levels of debt. Those with assets will get richer as investments will increase in value. Those reliant on wages with savings in cash will get poorer.

True, so those furloughed will pay a part of the cost of repaying their own furlough through the increased cost of living aka inflation.

Those who weren't furoughed - who didn't benefit from a summer in the garden, and in fact continued to pay tax during that time - will too.

We were in the shit before covid regardless

Brexit (thank you snake oil salesman Farage)
Putin
Covid
Liz Truss

In 2020, the Bank of England conducted three rounds of quantitative easing (inflation-causing money printing) which raised the total amount of Government debt owned by the Bank from £425 billion to £875 billion (ie more than doubling it).

Note - this is just debt owned by the Bank of England (printed money, borrowed against our future unpaid work): our total debt is much higher.

Billionaire greed
Climate change - our crops failed this year.
Brexit
Brexit - a failure to tackle the disaster it was.

Again, furlough wasn't necessarily the wrong thing to do: letting all those companies go out of business - resulting in huge, long-term unemployment - would have been even worse.

But we do need to pay it back now by working without getting as much in return.

It was fully understood at the time that this would be the consequence.

The reason I think you're misunderstanding is that neither of those points - that people furloughed were taxpayers, and that they spent their furlough money - have any bearing at all on the inflationary consequences of furlough, which are a fairly large part of the current COL crisis.

I was being sarcastic given all the blame apportioned to this group of vulnerable people by people in the UK for everything negative that is happening in the UK!!!

I completely agree with @Araminta1003 - blame up, not down: corporate greed, tech billionaires, the politicians who engineered Brexit by suggesting easy solutions to complex problems.

Greed. Businesses seeing the chance to blame unfortunate events like war, pandemic, natural disasters etc to “justify” their greed.

@strawberrybubblegum I never claimed they did?
I was just correcting you that furlough and tax payers were completely different groups.

continued to be paid during furlough but weren't making anything during that time which anyone else (the taxpayers paying their furlough payment) could consume.

Pedantic. The 'anyone else' doesn't exclude other furloughed workers who are paying tax which funds the furlough payment an individual receives.

I'm pedantic 😆

You literally agreed with my upthread and are now disagreeing with me again. I'm sure it's just as boring for the other posters as it is for me.

Olive oil as just one example has had a multiple hit. Not only has the war in Ukraine hit production of ordinary vegetable oil (Ukraine being one of the world's largest producers of sunflower oil), hence the demand for olive oil going up, but millions of olive trees have been severely hit by disease and a lot of trees have had to be destroyed. Add in the increase in import & transport costs, and there you are.

So if you were in Government now, what would you do?

Curb inflation is the biggie. The usual medicine is to raise interest rates, which in turn adds to mortgages and all the rest of it. But it's the gold standard all around the world. That together with spending cuts and tax rises.

Anything else?

Instead of analysing why, the Government needs to tackle it quick. Many of the reasons are not solvable now such as Brexit, Covid and foreign wars (affecting energy supply, grain etc.) by UK alone. I doubt the EU would welcome us back tomorrow. Even if they did, it would take a lot of negotiating amongst the rest of EU and could take many many years.

I do think that basic food supplies should be subsidised in the short term. I don't know how that would affect inflation, but at least the supplier/producer would get his/her share. I know subsidies would come out of taxes, but when it's visible in the supermarket, somehow it looks different. Farmers get subsidies don't they, or at least they did when in EU, so it's not a new concept.

I am no economist, just a punter scratching my head and looking wearily at my ever increasing expenditure on basics every month. It's not very nice.

@Lipglosser agree prices have increased but I haven’t noticed five times the price

@Lipglosser although £195 for a beef wellington in Marks and Spencer’s probably is ….

Brexit started it.
Covid had a serious impact.
Russia's Ukraine war impacted energy prices and increased uncertainty.
Trump has seriously compounded it - and his impact allowing others to wage war, increasing costs and worries.

Climate change and global weather patterns changing have really not helped with food.

But also population changes (not just caused by migration - in and out - but an ageing population and a bigger wave of young people from the baby boom of the late 90s/early 2000s now needing homes…). Technology changes. Expectations of everyone changing and no longer making do with sufficient but expecting the best. Our fast fashion and throwaway society. …and so much more.

So a big combination of things.

I went to my local bakery yesterday, its not a fancy place but is independent. I got 2 cornish pasties and 2 vanilla slices to take away and it came to £14.40. I was beyond flabbergasted.