What Halloween Candy Reveals About Inflation | Off the Clock

Justin Wolfers (0:00)

Well, Jeffuels threw the roof. Jeffuels going bonker balls.

And as are bonker balls, just can't believe I said that.

Stacey Vanek Smith (0:07)

It's Australian term.

Justin Wolfers (0:12)

It's actually my favorite dish at the Artback Steakhouse.

The workweek may be over, but the economy never takes time off. I'm Justin Wolfers. This is Off the Clock. And I'm joined once again by my friend. And honestly, I'd normally say America's favorite economics journals, but given where she's joining us from, I'm going to say the woman that the entire Big Apple looks up to, Stacey Vanek Smith. And Stacey, you're going to help me.

Well, it's the end of a long week. Let's unwind, let's rewind and see what we can make sense of.

Stacey Vanek Smith (0:54)

Yes, I love that idea. Hi, Justin. It's so nice to see you.

I am Stacey Vanek Smith. I'm a columnist at Bloomberg Business Week and co-host of their podcast, Everybody's Business.

Justin Wolfers (1:04)

Tell me about that wonderful red background. I love seeing you on a spaceship.

Stacey Vanek Smith (1:11)

I am sort of on a spaceship. This is, I'm at Bloomberg, I'm at work. Normally, I'm at home when we record this, but I'm at work in my office. This is Bloomberg and I got one of the high floors so that I could show you a little bit of a view.

Although, I didn't realize I was going to be next to a red wall. So hopefully, this is not a harbinger of economic news to come. Oh, well done. You know how people say like in the red if you're in debt and stuff like that?

Justin Wolfers (1:36)

Yeah. So your job today, my job, our job is to try and bring the wall into the conversation as often as we can. And folks, look at this. We've got corporate Stacey today. I've never seen corporate Stacey. This, by the way, is as close to corporate Justin as you get.

Stacey and I have got a job. We're going to pick through the recent headlines and we're going to tell you what to actually be concerned about, what you can safely ignore. And because we're optimists, we're even going to look for some silver linings. So on the docket for today, I think we're going to start by talking about inflation and everything that's going on there. And then where are we going, Stacey?

Stacey Vanek Smith (2:15)

Then we're going to be talking about energy prices, which of course is sort of the star of the inflation report or I don't know, the villain of the inflation report and just how it kind of gets into everything, and why it's a particularly concerning thing to see the price go up.

Justin Wolfers (2:32)

And I will say it's caused all sorts of gossip within the inflation report. The food index is feeling neglected. It's sitting in its trailer. It's refusing to come out until it gets the star treatment as well.

Stacey Vanek Smith (2:44)

I mean, it's got enough attention with eggs for years. I just don't understand how it could possibly need more attention.

Justin Wolfers (2:51)

And then after that, we are going to jump into chart versus chart, where Stacey once again is going to be defeated, comprehensively by a better chart. And I just want folks at home to know Stacey's been an audio professional for years and years and years. And she said, I know for a podcast that's available on audio, let's show visual charts. So that's what we're going to do today.

Stacey Vanek Smith (3:12)

I enjoy the challenge, but I hope you brought, let me just ask you one question, given our last chart versus chart. How many charts did you bring this time?

Justin Wolfers (3:23)

I stripped it back.

Stacey Vanek Smith (3:25)

Okay.

Justin Wolfers (3:25)

I'm down to one chart.

Stacey Vanek Smith (3:26)

Oh my gosh.

Justin Wolfers (3:27)

The term for the day is, well, given the cost of living, I couldn't afford multiple charts. So it's an elegant sufficiency. So my chart is important, not because it got bedazzled, and not because there's a certain amount of brown nosing to the audience, but because it speaks to the most important issues of the day. I'm an economics essentialist. I wanted to boil it down and just really bring folks into the economics conversation.

Stacey Vanek Smith (3:54)

So the fact your chart is boring is a feature, not a bug.

Justin Wolfers (3:58)

Absolutely. And did you manage to outbore me this time?

Oh no.

Stacey Vanek Smith (4:06)

I stuck with my roots of exciting charts, but I think this one is pretty legit. I think you will like the substance of this chart. It was not all flash, no substance. I think there is flash and substance, like this red ball.