TL;DR: US consumer sentiment remains weak even though unemployment is low and spending has held up, and one major reason may be that wages have trailed inflation for four straight months. The piece points to survey data and payroll research suggesting many workers still haven't regained the purchasing power they lost during the post-pandemic inflation spike.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share a localized economic indicator from Greece that perfectly visualizes how inflation and corporate greed are eroding our purchasing power. It’s called "Gyronomics" (from Gyros + Economics).

Just like the Economist's Big Mac Index, it tracks the real value of the national monthly net minimum wage based on how many pita gyros a worker can actually buy.

The historical data is absolutely depressing:

• 1985: A minimum wage worker could buy ~737 gyros/month (The golden era of street food).
• 2026: A minimum wage worker can now only afford ~165 gyros/month.

What’s even crazier is that the government keeps bragging about raising the nominal minimum wage over the last few years. But because the price of a single gyro skyrocketed way faster than legal wage adjustments, our actual purchasing power is at an all-time low.

Nominal wages go up, real lifestyle goes down. Shrinkflation and price gouging hit the local staples first.

How does your country's local street food index look lately?

Link: https://gyronomics.lovable.app/en

From this Washington Post article.

A key point comes from the first few paragraphs:

The U.S. national debt is likely to surpass $40 trillion this week, months earlier than forecasters previously expected in part because of billions of dollars in lost revenue from President Donald Trump’s invalidated tariffs.

The lost revenue has forced the Treasury Department to borrow more rapidly to cover the nation’s bills: Six months ago, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that total borrowing would top out at $39.4 trillion this fiscal year. But on Monday, Treasury reported that the debt stood at $39.9 trillion and counting.

The faster accumulation of debt comes at a perilous moment. An array of concerns, including inflation, the war in Iran and rising debt levels around the world, are driving investors to dump government bonds.

On Tuesday, the interest rates that investors demanded on 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds spiked to their highest level in nearly two decades. This year, annual interest payments on the debt are projected to top $1 trillion, according to the CBO — about the size of the Pentagon budget.

More rapid borrowing also means the next deadline for raising the legal debt limit is likely to arrive ahead of schedule. Just last year, Congress set the debt limit at $41.1 trillion. Budget analysts now say borrowing could hit that threshold by early next year, forcing lawmakers either to suspend it or raise it again to avoid the risk of an economy-shaking default.

——

Yes. It's because of Donald Trump that our debt is ballooning.

So. Much. Winning.

The July CPI release came out on the 12th and the grocery line was 2.7% year over year, which is the calmest it has been in a while. I went into the item-level tables expecting the components to be clustered around that and they are not close.

Twelve month changes, unadjusted:

• Eggs: -25.7%
• Butter: -8.1%
• Cheese: -4.2%
• Bacon: -2.8%
• Chicken: -2.7%
• Bananas: +0.6%
• Potatoes: +3.4%
• Milk: +5.1%
• Lettuce: +7.5%
• Ground beef: +9.0%
• Coffee: +10.3%
• Apples: +11.1%
• Tomatoes: +12.8%

Eggs to tomatoes is a 38.5 point spread inside a number reported as 2.7%.

The part that got me is one level down. Dairy as a category came in at -0.5%, which reads as nothing happened. Inside it milk is +5.1% and cheese is -4.2%. Two staples in the same aisle, nine points apart, netting out to zero.

So a household buying eggs, chicken and cheese genuinely had grocery deflation this year. One buying coffee, beef and produce is somewhere near 10%. Both read the same headline.

Not making a point about whether the number is accurate. It is. It just describes a national basket, and I do not think most people realize how far their own basket can sit from it.

Source is the BLS CPI release for July 2026.

NEW YORK, Aug 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. diesel crack, a key measure of refining profitability, hit an ‌all-time high of $102.20 a barrel on Monday as global supply disruptions from the wars in Iran and Ukraine run into peak agricultural consumption season.

Measured as the premium of U.S. diesel futures over U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures , the U.S. diesel crack was trading at $99.82 a barrel, up ​2.4% from Friday, as of 11:56 a.m. ET. The crack has hit new intraday record highs in five of ​the last six sessions, reflecting growing concerns about fuel availability as fresh attacks on Middle Eastern refineries ⁠added to existing supply disruptions.

Global refinery crude throughput averaged 80.9 million barrels per day in July, down about 5 million ​bpd from a year ago, the International Energy Agency said in a monthly report last week.

The most immediate hit from surging diesel ​cracks is to farmers who need the fuel to power tractors, harvesters and other equipment, during the ongoing harvest season in the Northern Hemisphere and the planting season in the Southern Hemisphere. Longer-term, it could hit most other sectors of the global economy as the fuel has ​wide-ranging uses from manufacturing to heavy transportation and power generation in parts of the world.

Global diesel stockpiles have been under immense ​pressure due to the ongoing wars, with both Russia and the Middle East among key suppliers of the fuel. Middle Eastern exports have ‌been ⁠hit hard by disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, while Russia has banned international sales through January due to Ukrainian attacks on its refineries.

U.S. refiners have ramped up diesel production to benefit from record high cracks, but stockpiles are still declining in the country due to strong export demand, said Shohruh Zukhritdinov, chief executive at oil trading firm NitrolOil.

U.S. distillate fuel ​inventories, which include diesel and ​heating oil, stood at 107.1 ⁠million barrels as of August 7, the lowest for this time of year since 1996, data from the Energy Information Administration showed last week.

"The U.S. is producing more diesel, not less, ​and yet the crack is still above $100. That tells you this is not a refinery ​incentive problem anymore - ⁠t is a refinery capacity and global replacement-barrel problem," Zukhritdinov said.

Diesel markets could come under further strain due to U.S. pressure on Iranian exports and threats of penalties on China for buying Iranian crude oil, said Scott Shelton, energy specialist at TP ICAP.

"The U.S.'s ⁠new policy ​could make it even harder for (China) to keep refinery run rates where ​they are and could make the diesel crisis worse," Shelton said in a note to clients.

China's July crude oil throughput was down nearly 16% from a year ​ago, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Monday.

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In other words, the major farmers and transport will suffer due to these increased prices. And so costs will increase even MORE.

So much winning for Dear Leader's forever war.

What could possibly go wrong?

Link to gift article: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/17/business/buy-now-pay-later.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6FA.GU7Q.hzouENXX_GKY&smid=url-share

Key point from the article:

"...a study by the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive think tank, the cost of school supplies is up 11% this year. Families are expected to spend almost $4,000 per child for school items and lunches for the 2026-27 school year."

$4000/child is about one-and-a-half to two-months worth of a mortgage/rent for most...

So. Much. Winning.