A question about prices found that firms expect average prices to edge down further in the next quarter, their deepest since August 2009.
That said, there was some question about pricing, and about not being able to estimate the cost before laundry is picked up.
These authors report that question about "prices in general" and "prices you pay" focus respondents more on personal price experience and since these may be driven by prices of different goods over time the answers may be less comparable than the ones prompted by an "inflation" formulation.
"Let's just say that this is an agency that is very sensitive these days to questions about price and supply," said a top commission official.
Inside the store on a recent evening, Jonathan Goodman, a writer in a gray trench coat, inspected a Nook e-reader and peppered a saleswoman with questions about price, book selection and service, in case the device broke down.
Martin Shkreli, the former drug executive who raised the price of a lifesaving medicine by 5,000 percent, has invoked the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination at a congressional hearing this morning, refusing to answer lawmakers' questions about price spikes.
Microsoft hasn't replied to my question asking about price drops for the Pro 2 device, but we can expect just that.
SBC Communications Inc., the nation's second-largest local telephone carrier, withdrew its application today to offer long-distance service in Missouri amid questions about prices and its support systems.
Ahaviah Glaser, director of the Prescription Access Litigation project, says that consumers are tired of waiting for legislators to make drugs more accessible, and have simply taken matters into their own hands.With waves of blockbuster drugs going off patent, and problems over getting their successors to market, tough questions about prices are the last thing drug companies want.
These question-wording effects were mediated by how much respondents thought of (extreme) personal price experiences when receiving questions about "prices in general" or "prices you pay".
Compared to questions about "inflation", questions about "prices in general" and "prices you pay" elicited expectations that were more strongly correlated to expected increases in gas prices, which were relatively large and likely salient at that time.
