The Bureau of Labor Statistics highlights some alarming inflation numbers today [Link Here] that are unfortunately, not unexpected…. unless you are a liberally trained economist (most of them) and so the results are surprisingly “unexpected”. But the actual JoeBama-nomic policy is even worse because wages increased less than inflation increased, so real wages (actual purchasing power) decreased. That spells trouble, Trouble.
Middle-class wage earners already know this problem; you are seeing it at the gas pumps and at the grocery store. Fuel prices are rapidly increasing and the amount of inflation in the ‘at home’ food industry (grocery store) is even more concerning.
Let me first walk through the data and then provide some forward analysis with tips to help you offset what is about to hit.
First, it is important to know that BLS price survey data lags actual prices as felt today. The prices you are seeing today/tommorrow at the store and gas pump will not show up in the rolled-up data for over a month…. So the data released today is unfortunately far behind what you are witnessing in real time.
Gas prices rose last month by 9.1%. The year-over-year inflation number is an alarming 2.6 percent last month. Keep in mind that retail grocery prices are not in the inflation number, and they generally follow the same price index as fuel; so it is safe to say monthly grocery store price increases are in the 8 to 10 percent range.
Part of the reason gas and food track together is fuel and energy prices are the #2 cost within the food sector. With packaging prices increasing; with fuel prices and distribution costs increasing; with energy prices increasing; all costs associated with food production, processing, delivery, warehousing and distribution, all end up in the final price at the grocery store.
This problem with inflation is only going to get worse as the FED gets more involved (that’s coming), because interest rates are already disconnected from the economic costs associated with business investment. [Note: the Fed said last year that it would hold its benchmark interest rate near zero, for some time, even if inflation were to rise above its preferred rate.] JoeBama is returning us to a “service driven economy”, and that is a problem for inflation.
President Trump’s MAGAnomic (USA First) increased wages and lowered prices (deflation) {Go Deep} but hurt Wall Street. JoeBama’s globalist policies lower U.S. wages and increase prices (inflation) but increase Wall Street (via multinationals).
Gas prices are going to keep rising because JoeBama is shutting down U.S. energy sources, blocking pipelines and using regulation to stall energy development (including refineries). We will be back to energy dependence soon. This process will continue driving up food prices which is really bad for the middle-class.
In the longer term, the impact of wages purchasing less means middle-class housing prices will drop as people struggle to afford mortgages. However, the Wall Street gains will keep the upper tier real estate market less impacted. You can see how the wealth gap is directly attributed to policy.
Trump decreased the wealth gap with policies that disproportionately (in a good way) helped the middle-class and blue-collar worker by increasing wages. JoeBama expands the wealth gap with policies that disproportionately (in a bad way) hurt the middle-class and blue-collar worker by decreasing real wages and increasing prices. Under JoeBama-nomics the rich get richer and the poor get more poor.
If you know that fuel and food prices are going to increase, you can take action now to plan out your home budget in an effort to offset or cope with the inflation. Example: buy bulk items that can last longer as ingredients. You can also save money by making your own laundry detergent, shop sales, cut coupons and be proactive in preparation for a period of large price increases at the supermarket. Use your freezer and eat out less.
Employment is going to be an issue again. While the current employment picture is good, it will not last into 2022. Make a safety net now (somehow) and start thinking about your longer term expenses and how you can take action now in preparation.
I am not a doomsayer… but I can see when supply chains start to fill up because overall demand begins to stall. We are exactly at that point.
Another bellwether – talk to any of your local contractors. The ones I know (GC, Framing, Drywall, etc.) are complaining that material prices have sky-rocketed in the last few months (and that is if they can get the desired products). When asked why, the response is either a shoulder-shrug or ‘Covid’.
$54 for a 4’x8′ sheet of flooring grade OSB. The contractors I talk to say the same thing.
I just bought a 2x6x20′ treated lumber for $35 and rising….
In The People’s Republic of Glorious Kanada, in Ontario 2 sheets of 4x8x 1/2″ Drywall- $38.00 Everything is designed to push the Great Reset. We are under House Arrest again, here. Gas – $5/ us gallon. Kids are done for the year. I hope someone targets these Marxists and does some mostly peaceful work on them.
Interesting, I did a quick check of roofing materials I used on the shop office two years ago and yup the OSB sheathing is now four times what I paid for it but, oddly, the same comp shingle brand and model is still the same price, actually within a few pennies, per square.
Inflation of prices on products also means higher sales taxes and overall costs, something I anticipated by moving from a high sales tax state to a zero sales tax state. Decades of collecting sales tax from customers sensitized me to that.
Another inflation fighting tool is learning to do things oneself, as example the construction trades aren’t rocket science, I worked as a union carpenter back in the 70’s putting myself through college and most anyone with aptitude can pick it up; I still have the leather tool belt I used back then as a reminder. Materials might be expensive but one can offset that with the value of one’s time and skill. Bonus, in a SHTF situation, no pesky government drone humans to deal with. They’ll be too busy defending their families.
More generally, I just checked the prices of the sample basket of food and sundries I’ve been tracking for the last couple years on Amazon and some are marginally higher, meat products being chief among them but some are lower, interestingly processed seafood (tuna/hearing/sardines, etc) is often lower but most are pretty static. I use that as a guide since it’s far easier to track than comparing and saving register receipts from the store, though I prefer to shop locally.
The price of getting Trump out and breaking the back of Main Street has been pretty high, I hope it doesn’t destroy the Republic. Plenty of we old-timers have been through tough times but this is IMO unprecedented in my lifetime. My parents survived the Depression and the war so I’d heard a lot about that era but had no practical experience with something that severe. I hope we don’t find out.
I waver between optimistic and not-so. Optimistic, because there is a hardy core in the American population that can when necessary gut through hardships. Pessimistic, because there is a growing abundance of worthless citizens mucking things up for no good reason (as if there were ever a good reason).
The former constitute the backbone of America and were tough times to come, they’d come through–maybe fewer in number, but the culture and the communities would survive and eventually thrive again.
The latter are a hopeless mess of humanity which would perish in a miserable spiral into a wasteland like that of a hurricane ravaged third world pit. At some point, this culture will implode when it reaches the point of unsustainability. It’s an ecosystem with the life of a bubble–at some point, it’s going to ripen and pop.
Which of the two becomes the critical mass of the nation is where I wobble.
It’s such a sad state of affairs for the human race to have to deal with head cases like communists. They destroy good things.
I agree with your entire post, but your last paragraph is the most poignant. Certainly, these tyrannical fools destroy good things, but they are all so convinced that they are right and anyone opposing their nonsense needs to be silenced, or worse. I regard them as institutional termites hell-bent on destroying everything that’s made us great. We’re going to need some very effective pest exterminators to survive.
Likely FOREIGN and POOREST of quality. Same here in NC and there are MASSIVE timberlands, uncut. Loggers on a quota, working 3 day/wk. SOUND like a shortage? OR DESIGNED? Same for oil, close our pipelines, oil fields and IMPORT and make foreign countries rich, off our backs.
Leftists love anything that fks over fly over America. Red states need to take over national guards and turn into state militias. We need protection from these out of control satanic monsters. Modern day minute men by the tens of thousands. If a mom gets arrested for being in a park with her kids, we surround the police station with 1,000 armed militia. “Let the woman go right now azzholes.” That is the only thing that will get their attention.
Don’t forget the US politicians getting rich off the kickbacks from those foreign countries American taxpayers are funding.
my husband is a lumber comodities buyer for the building trade here in ND and from what i know the price is sky high because the supply has dried up. He’s having a hard time sourcing product, and with gas going up so too is the delivery charge on truck loads. with that all said he’s hoping by mid summer supply will increase back up again (it’s a guessing game)
Not doubting anything your saying, but curious as to why the supply is not there? Has every lumber yard been out due to covid for over a year? The supply of trees doesn’t appear to be the problem. Maybe it is?
Is this another onion that we peel and figure out that China and Iran own all the lumber yards and have a monopoly or Bill Gates owns all the forests?
Commodities supplies being manipulated. Think Game Stop. Also mill workers have to “safe distance” etc., which adds to production costs, but 125% increase? I call bullshite.
Supposedly a sheet of plywood has gone from less than $20 to over $50 since braindead stole the election !!!
Remember the “good ol’ days” when contractors used to throw out lumber and plywood by the truck full? Perfectly good plywood, 2x4s, etc–tossed into landfills. Reap what you sow….I used to dumpster dive for scraps of lumber/plywood to use around my house. Glad I did and still have most of it, too.
Prices started going up about the same time they locked us down. Gotta kill main street to make up for lost profits.
Yup… the cost of many building materials has just about doubled within the past year. It’s crazy!
The ONLY prospect I can see for lower prices for lumber is that out West, there are huge numbers of salvage logs coming out of the wildfire areas of last September. The mills are buying those and building up stockpiles, so there is hope that they can more than meet demand and begin to push prices down.
Huge numbers of salvage logs from wild fires! Where did you get that information?
Uh, the entire west coast was set on fire by antifa/blm. Kate Brown even let the arsonists out of jail when they were caught by Clackamas county sheriffs. I’ve lived on the west coast all my life and never seen smoke so thick and for so long. Grape harvest smoke tainted and destroyed. Oh but the fires were caused by “global warming” not those “peaceful protestors.”
In one year Lumber futures have QUADRUPLED.
The spike in copper prices are blowing industrial budgets out of the water NOW. Wait until the “green infrastructure” wants their share of copper(wire and buss material). Chile, Peru, China, and the US(if mining is allowed in the green world here) stand to cash in on that as the top 4 producers.
Lumber has tripled in the last year. That’s because we get a lot of our building lumber from Canada and from blue states, both of which shut down the mills over COVID-19. We are about to be in an extreme housing shortage nationwide.
We already are! Expect this shortage to last into fall, maybe early next spring!
But-but-but how are we going to give free housing to all those millions of illegals flooding across the border, Mr. Xiden? I guess we’ll have to kick whitey out of their homes to house our “new Americans.”
My daughter and her family live in Allentown, PA. Fortunately, they are closing next week on a home. They live in a condo complex and are buying their unit, which has increased in price by over $30K in just the past year. Because of Covid, floods of buyers are coming into eastern Pennsylvania from New Jersey and NYC because of the ability to work remotely. Prices are being bid-up through the roof.
She has two friends trying to buy new houses who have been outbid three times now on prospective properties. We’ve all seen this scenario play out in the past and it always leads to a bubble that inevitably bursts. My wife and I are so glad she was able to lock in a decent price and low interest rate, as both are certain to skyrocket in the months ahead.
Keep in mind on the lumber prices that wide swaths of the West were on fire last summer and fall. This created huge supply disruptions even as demand surged (people building homes, remodels, other wood needs rose).
That is contributing to lumber/wood prices bigly I suspect.
From around $2.10 in December to $3.37 yesterday when I looked at the cheaper stations.
What’s your 20?
You want to know what unleaded gas and diesel prices are, less fuel taxes? You’ll never be surprised again by the rising or falling costs of commodities.
https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=NYMEX:RB1! UNLEADED GAS
https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=NYMEX:CL1! CRUDE OIL
https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=NYMEX:HO1! DIESEL
The week Trump had the election stolen from him gasoline in DFW was $1.53 and it is now topping $2.70 (87 octane regular).
I am so grateful to POTUS Trump forhis policies that allowed me to buy a home last year. My first home at age 50.
Congratulations! My homes are my biggest assets.
Congratulations!!!
My Grandparents also bought their first home in their 50’s and boy oh boy, did we celebrate!
Me too. I sold two and bought one.
The horrendous experience of having an election stolen is now being offset by the stark contrast between a great president and an atrocious one.
In a way, if The President of the United States in Exile does return for his second term, his shadow and influence over this nation will likely have reverberated for a total of sixteen years:(1) for the duration of his first term (4 yrs), (2) for the entire duration of the abysmal Biden term, which will only remind America what it lost in the stolen election of 2020 (4yrs), (3) Trump’s actual, magnificent 2 term with its return to greatness (4yrs), (4) the duration of Trump’s successor’s term, and how this term compares with the great standard set by the legendary President Trump.
No other president except in the case of Roosevelt’s nearly 4 terms cast such a long shadow of influence over the USA.
All we have to do is arrive in one piece to the year 2024!
Trump will be President within 2021
From your mouth to God’s ears. That would be justice indeed. I only wish I possessed your optimism. I’m not sure how that can happen given that the fraud perpetrated has been demonstrated, but the judicial system from bottom to top refuses to even review it.
It can’t happen. It won’t.
But Trump could be Speaker of the House in 2023.
2021? You’re dreaming. Grow up.
?????? What’s your basis for that statement? 🙂 By the way, commented on what of your entries on page 1…
Yup. I was able to buy one again under Trump for the first time since Obamao killed my industry and bankrupted me back in 2009-10. We’re drifting right back into that hellish reality once more.
I don’t have the stamina to rebuild if I lose it all again this time because of Josef Stolen.
Bought bulk rice from Delta Blues online at a good price. Family farm.
same here… 100 lbs of Royal Himalayan. The pantry is stocked to the hilt with non-perishables.
The rate of inflation is the rate of return on my purchase – unless the market crashes due to a mice infestation.
I said this yesterday, and Ill say it again. The absolute, sickest minds in the world, are right now controlling our presidency. They are feral, spiteful, and possess a maniacal hatred of all things American. They also own the congress and will continue to hastily introduce suicidal legislation that will ultimately destroy America. Every move they make is designed to undermine and destroy our society, capitalism, and the American Dream.
And wait until we get to see the outcome. By then, in the style of “1984”, the Constitution of the United States will not even exist in the form of a document and will not have ever been written according to the new history of the world. Only The People will remember, and they will be vanquished for ever uttering a word about it. Even 2+2 =5, if that is what our masters decide it is.
Barack Hussein Obama is one of them. He is currently running our Gubmint.
Warren Buffett bought $300M in lumber futures a few months ago. You can bet he doesn’t expect to make measly 10-20%. He expects to make near 100% on his investment. I have friends in the lumber business. One year ago, they bought 1x6x8 for $1 and sold for $3. Now they buy for $3 and sell for $7.
He tells folks who come in and buy lumber for building, this is the cash price today. It will be different next week/month.
Houses will be scarce simply because the lumber in them is going up by the day. And folks who buy for tear down and rebuild? Forget about it.
Warren Buffett is a major futures trader. He doesn’t want anyone to know this with his “Buy and Hold” recommendations for his followers. Futures have expiration dates and Buffett may be out of his lumber futures positions by now.
Expiration does not mean the trade is over. It means it is time to rollover into the next nearby contract.
True, rollover or cover your position. Both require a transaction.
This is a multipronged attack by the Red Lizard and thire CCP Puppet in the White House. Inflation is a form of warfare directed at the middle class ( Trump Voters). Now the Kid From Deliverance wants to flood middle class neighborhoods ( Trump Voters) with low income housing projects. If you like what’s happening in Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, Philadelphia- oh hell any city that harbors the “protected class”….your gonna love your new neighbors.
You had me with the ‘kid from Deliverance’!
We have as yet to exceed the highs in energy prices during the Trump years, but welcome back to the Bush/Obama years.
You misspelled Carter years.
Him, too.
Errr…… the Fed Reserve and Treasury can step on inflation as hard as they choose anytime. Interest rates are minimal, they have a lot of room to move. Containing runaway asset values with “no” yield in stocks is a secondary benefit. The fear is always about the massive debt servicing costs for the US as interest rates hike.
The only way the FED can move is by Printing more money to keep Bond prices down. This results in no one wanting to buy US bonds so the FED has to print more Paper money to buy our own Bonds. This will eventually result in Dollar failure and the IMF Bankers can step in with a new World currency to replace the Dollar with IMF(International Monetary Fund) crypto with all kinds of benefits for transferring US wealth to world elites. All part of the New Green Plan.
The Fed and Treasury are a unity ticket despite the niggles.
I think it will be quite nice when the price of money as expressed by interest rates gets back to the long term average. Very low interest rates often mean very bad business decisions based on vl rates being permanent.
At this point we’re like a hungover alkie trying to stave off the hangover with a little “hair of the dog that bit us”.
A chilling, yet magnificent analysis!
The cryptocurrency phenomenon is intended for one purpose only, to replace the US dollar.
By keeping the value of gold in check, cryptocurrency allows bad actor, totalitarian regimes to purchase gold at reasonable prices. Without the cryptocurrency mania, skyrocketing gold prices and nineteen seventies level inflation would already have hit the economy.
Thanks for explaining what IMF stands for. I had something else in mind…
Now comes the rider on the white horse to save the day. When people get hungry enough the devil appears as a savior.
Every month, I buy a pound of silver. In good times or in bad, at $4 or $30. It averages out. If things go south, it’ll prove to be a wise investment. I’ve been doing it for two decades.
You are a very smart and soon to be Real Money rich man with Ape like characters.
I made a big mistake not buying more ammo, reloading equipment for shooters. The price of ammo is off the charts compared to just a year ago. Price of a decent gun has gone up considerably but nothing compared to the price of ammo in any caliber. I slowed down own my own trapshooting, saving it up for use or resale at a later date.
Stock up on whiskey , useful for trading also.
I invested in precious metals too……brass and lead.
Stock up on anything you can barter. Whiskey, coffee, cigarettes….you get the picture.
Just make sure plenty of lead also, in case word get around! 😉
We are at a major crossroad (again) that will have a profound impact on the history of the world. Not that we haven’t seen that before, speaking just for us students of history, logic and philosophy.
That is just the point here. History repeats itself, simply because some people think they are better than others that came before them in the last 3000 years or so (and that’s just written history), they all fail to learn from history. They can be described in just one word – IGNORANT.
In reality, these people don’t have the knowledge, the intelligence, nor history on their side. In the last 3000 years there were a lot smarter people than they think they are.
As in past history, humble is not the word of the day. They have money and power and they believe that gives them the right to dictate to the rest of us, that’s it. It always goes that way.
And again, millions will die as result of their shortsightedness, and their lack of intellect. Yes, lack of intellect. Maybe that is by design, brainwashed as they might be. Maybe it’s a human condition, a genetic code that fights us from within.
Utopia is just a dream, which implies that we no longer have to worry about making things better. and THAT is not even close to reality and never will be.
Having lived to a ripe old age, all the while paying close attention to history and analysis (my profession), and seeing the same mistakes being made today as millennia ago, I have little hope for the future.
This time in wont be 70 million dead because of ignoramuses lust for power and wealth driven minds, it will cataclysmic worldwide as in just an eye blink in history of 70 years past, but instead the numbers will be in the hundreds of millions.
Time is short, not reacting (yes reacting) now will precipitate doom for the human race as we know it. Except for the very rich and powerful elite which will force the few of us remaining to do their bidding.
Yes. proacting is not an option. We sat on our collective asses and let that time go by.
TPTB are influenced by that little Devil on their shoulder whispering in their ears.
A deal with the Devil always ends with holding a bag of shite.
Billions will die, not millions.
In the end if the Lord doesn’t come to save the remaining few ” then no flesh shall be saved alive “.
Well, DUH! Who didn’t expect this? Only those “trained economists” and the people who Don’t read Sundance’s expert analysis!
I knew this back in March of 2020 when the lame-brained, liberals shut everything down. Treepers knew this, too.
Unfortunately, voting these cretins out of office is no longer an option. They’ve fixed that.
If the dollar is going to be worthless is it prudent to use money in pension stash to pay off mortgage and other debt while the dollar still has some value?
Especially if interest cost is greater than interest earned.
Use your current paper dollars to buy Precious metals which will go up in value caused by the rush by people to protect themselves from loss by inflation paper dollars. You can then sell later back into inflated paper to pay that mortgage which will still be at a fixed dollar rate unless you have a variable rate loan. Your plan is good if you have a variable rate loan.
It’s ALWAYS prudent to pay off debt ASAP.
Why give away the interest $$$ to the bank? Keep it yourself!
Except when you are expecting a bout of inflation. In 1962, a typical house cost $15k. By 1978, it was $45k. With a corresponding increase in salary, you could easily pay that low interest mortgage from 1962, and it would be to your advantage to pay it off as slowly as possible. I knew someone in this situation, and they were beaming ear to ear, self described geniuses. By 1992 the average was it was $100k.
With all of the increases in the money supply recently (inflation), consumer inflation is a certainty. If you have a low interest mortgage, keep it and put your cash into other solid assets, not cash.
It is not prudent! If the US government repudiates its sovereign debt by inflating the currency, you can do the same with your mortgage. Your wages may not keep up with inflation, but if you have a fixed mortgage rate, you’ll be paying it off with devalued dollars.
In the late 1970s during the Carter years, banks and mortgage companies were offering “generous” payoff plans to retire your mortgage. Generous to them because they were watching their mortgages, perhaps at 5% interest per annum, decrease in real value when the inflation rate was 10% and higher.
Hyperinflation wipes out all fixed interest debt.
Get into hard assets and forget about debts in a SHTF situation, all that ‘law’ stuff that got us into this mess will be out the window. The enemy will come for you regardless of right or wrong. Cow-towing to the oligarchy won’t buy one their life. Better to take some of them with us when going out if that’s the bargain. They can’t ‘enforce’ anything without their thugs. Regards, fellow retiree, not of my own volition.
“If the dollar is going to be worthless’.
That’s not the way it happens.
It’s a slippery thing, unquantifiable while it approaches, it’s about international confidence in the US$ as the world’s reserve currency. The US can only print dollars for the cost of the paper and receive real goods for them while that confidence remains.
The worse that happens is some sort of IMF drawing right replacement using a basket of currencies where the US$ features prominently. You might end up with existing US$ for domestic use and SDRs for international trade etc.
The US$ can’t become worthless, if can lose purchasing power through lack of demand, however.
Building costs………………try looking at a lumber or copper futures chart. Lots of free trading platforms provide the data FOC to encourage you to subscribe. Everything you want to know about equity markets, capital markets, currency markets, commodities markets and crytocurrency. You’re only in the dark if do not avail yourself of free information.
Great advice and it not need be Rocket Science.
Food is no longer being counted in the Inflation index as food cost have been removed from the CPI. Some energy products have also been removed. We all know that food (meats, produce and consumables ) prices are going up along with Gas, heating oil and propane. Inflation data is being kept down so that Real Money (Silver, Gold) can kept priced low for being purchased and used by Central Banks, Industrial use (High tech Green products) and by Commodity brokerage firms that sell Paper metals (Puts and Calls) on each ounce of the metal they hold in the Comex or FED banks. People buying Silver now for themselves are finding difficulty in obtaining the metal to keep for Inflation protection. Precious metal dealers and local coin shops around the world are sold out of most of their silver and have long delays delivering what little they have to consumers. A group wallstreetsilver on a reddit thread has been looking at the role of Precious metals as a backup for inflation and a falling economy.
Pretty sure it was the Clinton Admin. that took Food out of Inflation Index.
As. If.
That right there was one shady , crooked , move.
EVERYBODY buys/NEEDS food! Everybody!
I’m hoping for an economic collapse. It would stop the massive influx over the border, give real world consequences to lefties, and would possibly slow down the massive push to force us all to take dangerous experimental gene therapies.
Doubt it would stop the border rush.
Many are coming from countries that are just as bad, if not worse.
And it would effect the people who are NOT crazed Lefties as much as everyone else , so….. No Thanks.
I want the liberals to suffer!
And the liberals want us to suffer as well. This thinking is akin to being stuck in a lifeboat with your opponents and shooting holes in the bottom of it hoping to sink them, all the while forgetting that you are going to go down as well right along with them.
You state the dilemma. It is needed for Libtards, complacent and apathetic to get their mind right. However, we have to suffer with them. I guess it is the sacrifice and price we pay for winning the War.
There is great advice to protect ones self right here on this website.
The invaders coming over our border don’t care and the imbecile will raise taxes on us while claiming to “tax the rich.” The “rich” will get their loopholes and the rest of us will get the bill. The invaders will continue to be more important than us, get preferential treatment, not be Chinese virus tested to keep spreading it and not be coerced into taking the gene therapy, “vaccine.”
The theme is legal Americans are last and everyone else comes first. If you don’t go along with the imbecile’s agenda you will be labeled, xenophobic, racist etc. along with sob stories about them and why we need them. Remember how Obama globe trotted telling other countries we were “lazy” as unemployed soared because of his hatred of legal Americans and his policies. If it is true that Obama is steering Biden, he will get the imbecile to do what he knew he couldn’t get done and finish the job. Biden is not all there and will do anything and lie about it.
It will be the legal American citizens that will suffer and be destroyed – not the global elites or the invaders when the economic collapse occurs.
Unless we unleash hell and damnation on our oppressors and their cats’ paws first.
If the sum of the national debt plus unfounded liabilities were added up and totaled to the sum of state debt plus their unfounded liabilities the total would be mind boggling. The ultimate calamity is irreversible.
Want more proof? Go and try to buy garden seed. You’ll have a difficult time getting the basics. The suppliers are short and the demand is high. The pieces are all coming together for an ugly, ugly, collapse and there is going to be a lot of folks hurting. This country is at the edge and most likely going over….stand by!
Anecdotal: I went to an actual supermarket/grocery store for the first time since December 2019 last week. I was stunned by the total when I rang it all up – I’d say prices had increased around 25 or 30 percent. I’m not sure people see this when they go regularly.
A LOT of people just don’t pay attention.
And most don’t even notice when the package size goes down as the price goes up, either.
It’s just weird.
The package size changing with the purchase price remaining the “same” has been happening for quite some time. Every time I hear the lie that there is “no inflation” I remember the changes and now the reality that producers have recently invested in new package sizing – just enough that you might not notice that it is smaller with the same dollar value.
Started happening in the 70’s with Hershey Bars.
Never stopped.
I noticed that with cans of soup.
If folks have an Aldi nearby, they should try them out. They have limited hours, there’s no one to ask a question and they don’t have everything. One time I asked if they had tofu and the guy looked at me like I had three heads. Aldi has certain things that are consistently low in price: fruits, vegetables, rice, coffee, breads, cereals, ice cream. Not a great place to buy meat usually. Worth checking it out. Bring a quarter to unlock a cart. You get your quarter back when you return the cart.
Aldi’s is great and is my wife’s number one place to shop. You have to venture around because they always have something new showing up somewhere in the store. Great prices as you say, but not as much variations and varieties as you might like. But great prices on the staples. And great shoppers as well. It’s not unusual for my wife to find someone coming out of the store and giving her their cart to save the quarter. Kind of a pay it forward kind of thing.
That’s my exact experience with the quarters. Milk, eggs, Greek yogurt, boneless skinless chicken breast, peanuts, organic tubs of greens….the prices have always been a third lower than anywhere else. I’ve told so many people to shop there they should be paying me!
It is shocking! I can’t get out of the chain grocery store, Shop Rite, under less than $100 and I am not being extravagant in what I purchase. It’s just the staple items we always get and prices keep rising. I was looking to do some gardening and the prices of deer resistant perennials is also absurd.
If my worst nightmare comes true, they’ll “fix” this by pushing up wages artificially, which will just push more inflation.
We need Trump back before this country goes to h*ll in a handbasket.
Bring back the Winner and get the Loser out.
This part of the plan. People are starting to express the return of Trump. It has to come from the people. One has to remember the Libtard Communist Democrats are the minority.
MSM tries to make the optics otherwise. In the next several months more people will See and Feel the debacle. More people will SEE and Feel the light.
I read about this earlier today. Couple this with the record deficits we are running. 1.7 billion for 2021 and a record 660 million for March alone. We are in BIG trouble.
It will be nice if stinging inflation is the first real obvious indicator to the idiots of the future in store for them. It’s not knetically deadly on a mass numbers scale, but maybe gives the idiots a bit of a red pill before it’s really too late. For me, the higher inflation the better. Yes, it’s bad, but these idiots need to learn in a real life sort of way they aren’t protected like they thought they were.
We knew it was coming and if we aren’t keeping up with the Joneses people then we can avoid most of it and just grin. I say, let them feel the burn. They so much deserve every bit of it.
I’ve noticed a trend in grocery products of putting in less ounces-or product in the same old box for a increased price.
Product after product is skimming from the consumer.
step 1 – reduce the size to 50% while keeping price steady
step 2 – double the size and the price and call it the value size.
lather, rinse, repeat.
I went to the store today.
$4.50 each for peanut butter and jelly. $4.00 for a loaf of bread
No inflation to see here. Move along…..
I was paying $2 for my peanut butter it’s now $5 for same size and brand, my Jelly went from $2 to $4 a jar…. all since Biden Stole the Election. Did you know there are people who work for Bailout fund that Harris was promoting who are connected to Clintons? It’s the wives of old Clinton Money bundlers and Employees…. LMAO. Seems They are laundering money through the BLM bailout funds as well, no wonder Obama is always stirring up the BS.
I live in a relatively poor rural community. It has always had something of a government oblivious system of bartering and trading. Eggs, honey, maple syrup, beef, game meat, fish all produced locally and heavily bartered. Cash, alcohol, cigarettes, ammo and gas are easily bartered for labour and trades. Lately garden seed has gotten hard to get so those who save their own seed year to year have an edge. Everybody has a garden. Basically I think we all have to think of simpler ways to live. We also have to think of buying stuff now if we have money that will be useful later, and not just supplies for ourselves but items to barter. Last fall I bought some supplies I needed for a planned renovation this spring I cursed how high things had gone but buying last fall compared to now I have saved a lot. So my advice is pay off debt first thing. Second, spend now on stuff you will use eventually rather than leave money in the bank dropping in value every day. Watch some prepping and homesteading tips videos and start learning to make stuff from scratch and doing it yourself. I have a very bad feeing about where all of this is going.
Yup, subsistence living is common in Oregon rural areas like where I moved to and the bonus has been besides the underground economy one gets to know, interact with, trust and care for one’s neighbors and cohesive groups are key to survival in adversarial and tough times.
I’ve had a perfectly functional greenhouse sitting for decades, prior my mom used it to start seeds and grow vegetables, remnants of her Depression era roots, and was going to leave it for whoever bought the place since I haven’t used it. Thankfully I designed it to be taken apart because it’s heading north now. All that now expensive pressure treated lumber and shiplap redwood is exiting California and I have a perfect neighbor to donate it to, the one who’s been supplying me with fresh eggs and other food from her garden for a couple years. I’ve got skills and she’s got sun, a precious commodity in the forest for growing a garden.
It’ll work out. God will be with us.
The beginning of the end for Fed. Their legacy will be allowing a bit coin go from pennies to over $60,000. They will lie about inflation (it’s transitory) and continue buying Treasuries until their head caves in. Incidentally, they are doing away with reporting the money supply.
Did I hear someone mention “gold”?
.
Good for you for doing your homework FDR in Hell. Not many realize the Feds confiscated citizen’s gold for pennies on the dollar in the last Great Depression. It’s hard to find this mentioned anywhere on Google now. It looks like its been scrubbed. Beware of counting on your gold investments everyone.
The oligarchs like high inflation. It helps distance them from those Deplorables …
Sing it…
.
Oh – and BTW, did we mention this evening these oligarchs who want to destroy election integrity are impervious to high inflation?
Actually, it helps oligarchs when you pay higher rent on your apartment. They can buy more show horses.
“I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.”
Barack Obama 4/29/2010
Don’t forget – “you didn’t build that” and “what’s a little socialism” ?
The imbecile is Obama on steroids. It hasn’t even been 100 days yet!
There just might be a grass roots rebellion against the Democrats when gasoline hits five dollars a gallon.
It might be started by the new base of the Republican (or AMERICA FIRST) party – the blue collar workers……aka The Deplorables.
It might be supported by “whoever shops for home groceries” regardless of gender.
Reluctant support will come from those who’ll be losing their jobs.
Members of the military who are forced out because they “don’t think right” or are too white might join the ranks.
When BLM and ANTIFA makes the mistake of accosting, assaulting and depriving some of us “common peasants” who’ve lost the way of life we’ve worked all our lives to achieve – – – they may be surprised by the severe degree of brutality when we retaliate.
All the chips are on the table………….
They are weeding out white patriots as “extremists” and teaching others Critical Race Theory. Watch for an open in your face tranny to be quickly promoted to a general and praised to further demoralize them. Trannies are the next frontier to be conquered.
Bruce Jenner’s, (now called Caitlyn) – his partner, “Sophia” is also a transitioned MALE. Both want to believe they are FEMALES. Sophia Hutchkins, used to be Scott. Sophia used to identify as a gay guy prior to the transition. There is a 47 year age difference between Scott and Bruce Jenner. Bruce could be his grandfather! It’s so sick out there! All I can say is if this isn’t prophecy taking place, please tell me what this is.
Bruce – Caitlyn
Scott to Sophia
9%????? Diesel fuel in Texas went from $2 during Trumps time at the helm versus at or over $3 within a couple weeks of Obiden stumbling into office.
Last 4th of July road trip up to Taos, NM and Silverton, CO last year on my ’20 RGS…could fuel my scoot (6 gallons) for 8-9 dollars (premium).
Filled it last week and it cost me 20 dollars here in NW Texas.
I’ll tell you what, living my best life is getting expensive!
Since the Democraps can steal any election, they are no longer constrained by policies that would help middle class voters. The country has almost completely become a Collective, because middle class people no longer have sway in the political sector and must hope for Gubmint largess just to stay solvent, just like the useless people who have long been consigned to abject poverty.
The terrible part is that now we have a perfect economy to enable a Communist takeover of our political sector. Once that happens, inflation will not be our biggest worry and will be replaced by fear, violence, and hunger. I don’t see a good ending, but I do see an ending. Janis Joplin sang it best because freedom will be just be another word for nothing left to lose.
The richest Americans gave us our Constitution and now it doesn’t look like they want us to have it anymore. Truly, the members of the multinational corporate class will be the real ‘useful idiots’. Democraps are just like the hapless Trotskyites and will see it all slip through their grasp for the last time. Things will be much worse for them.
What troubles me more is God saw the election being stolen and allowed it to happen and allowed it to happen. I don’t think He is happy with our country. We are at an all time high of being anti God. Prophetic times!
God gave us free will. He let the human race decide to be apathetic and silent. We are simply reaping the seeds we as a nation planted. God endows us with strength if we are faithful to the principles that He has set in place. He gave us minds to evaluate and react to ideas and actions that destroy those principles. God gives us the ability to recognize leaders . God does not simply correct our errors and our lack of action with a wave of His all-powerful hand.
Well said, as too many of the “faithful” think they can make bargains and negotiate for worldly outcomes. They never read nor comprehend the FREE WILL part of the message delivered by Jesus in all the new testament writings (both included and excluded from the Bible) and God within the old testament on numerous occasions.
We didn’t do enough. In the Old Testament, He often used the enemies of the Jews to punish them when they strayed. He has He limits. Regardless, we will still do what is right to try and restore our country. I’d like to do more than just “preaching to the choir” or talking to people in person that I run into, who are receptive and confused at what is going on or doing my part for the latest boycott. We really need our military to get involved but I doubt they will. Opportunities have come and gone. Our D.C. politicians are useless and too busy hiding their own graft.
We really need to do some serious repenting as a nation … to have God intervene and I don’t see that happening on the scale needed. I do see more people coming to Christ in various parts of our country and the world – the people, not the leaders, in Iran and China and in certain churches in California. Those were the churches in California that stood up to their governor.
I think He checks in now and then to see how things are going. Sort of like what I do with my wife’s garden.
When the cost to transport goes up, EVERYTHING goes up.
Remember, when inflation goes up, interest rates go up. I personally miss my 6% money market account. Lots of interest, fairly liquid. CD’s used to be a good deal too. We’ve lost some of these instruments in the low-rate, anti-savings, years.
Higher rates are not awesome for all, especially new home buyers. But, existing homeowners generally benefit from inflation because it devalues their debt letting them pay it off easier.
There IS a silver lining to moderate inflation. It would force the Fed to raise rates, which would get us back to something resembling normal monetary policy, and people could get out of equities. Higher rates could also serve as a check on the obscene levels of spending in DC because debt service would become impossible. The criminals behind the barbed wire are not interested in a collapse that affects THEM.
Hyperinflation will destroy the Government Party. So they will be motivated to prevent it. That tiny little fence in DC won’t save them from the noose if they let this spiral.
Guy on YouTube called penguinsix was live streaming in DC. Looks like a new wall is being built at the White House.
They know they’re not legitimate.
The Fed keeps interest rates low to help Wall Street, because it’s the only place you can put your money to make a decent return/yield. The best 5 year CD in the country yields around 1.5%! This hurts conservative investors, savers and seniors. Powell is a globalist and he really sucks!
I think that’s why the Fed might be trapped. Their #1 job is to control inflation. But they can’t do that without raising interest rates. That is a political landline because the Realtors, Homebuilders, Universities, and especially Wall Street are the strung out junkies of cheap money.
Meanwhile someone, somewhere is attempting to”take over” the Republican Get Rich Quick Club.
That should only take about a decade or so, at which point someone, somewhere will assume full ownership of the smoking hole left over from years of unchallenged communist expansion.
Not to worry. Mao Tse Mitch assures us we’ll get em next time!
As I understand it, the CPI doesn’t include food or energy prices in it. Apparently, that 2.6% inflation rate only represents the other areas of the economy. People on fixed or flat-lining incomes are going to really feel the brunt of this. Although I’m in the former category, being debt-free and still possessing substantial un-touched financial savings at my disposal, I’m likely to be fine for the time being. But, eventually, I’m sure it’s going to catch up to me as well.
And when we ponder what the Fed is soon to come up with, along with the media chorus-line and government tyrants preparing their all-out onslaught regarding the fraudulent climate change, we are certainly in for rough seas and stormy weather. Batten down the hatches!
They are becoming more desperate as the realization the Patriots are gaining more control for everyday they are out of control. The Southern border just one example.
bye bye miss american pie
Demand isn’t falling, in fact it’s increasing as printed money, saved money from COVID restrictions, government handouts and things like rent and student loan deferrals mean people have money while the US doesn’t make anything anymore. This is where President Trump had good intentions to bring manufacturing back but it never really materialized – witness the trade deficit now at a 12 year high and a shipping container shortage to bring imported goods to the US. With continued loose monetary policy and the US dollar crash, inflation will be supercharged. It would’ve been nice if President Trump took a page out of Ronald Reagan’s playbook instead he browbeat Jerome Powell into low interest rates and signed every pile-of-crap budget that came his way. On this issue I don’t see anything MAGA about it.
It will be blamed on #45. Just as Barack Hussein blamed his 8 years of failure on Bush.
The problem isn’t the Junta’s bad policies. The problem is the Junta.
I remember reading “The Ruff Report” back in the late 1980s or early 1990s. It was written by the late Howard Ruff who way back then was warning of an impending collapse in the dollar due to the Fed’s activities. His description of the dynamics leading to this collapse remain the same today, but haven’t yet occurred. As a poster down below in the thread comments, the value of the dollar is only propped up as long as domestic and international confidence in it remains. Ultimately, at some point that confidence will dissipate and we’ll be in for a world of hurt.
When you reflect upon our true national debt, including not only the fake book value reported, but all of the unfunded liabilities to be paid out in the future, we truly are in very dire straits. (Probably in excess of $200 trillion!). Our only hope, if a faint one at that, is a robust and growing economy which we had under President Trump. With Biden, we’re going in the opposite direction which only portends further declines. I often wonder what future these globalists foresee as being in their interests when the vast majority of impoverished people can no longer afford to buy their products?
Why do you think they are so desperate to disarm us?
Just like in Joebama’s first term in 2008, every measurable facet of life in America gets demonstrably worse for everyone but the very rich and illegal aliens.
Since Jan 2020 a sheet of 3/4″ plywood has gone from $30 to $95 and desirable housing is sold in a day for 25% over asking price, yet “price index” bean counters cannot find any inflation > CPI has the DOJ, FBI myopia
They just don’t count inflation where the inflation is the worst (housing, college, stocks, etc.).
Let’s see, the fed or government if you wish creates trillions of dollars out of nothing, trillions of dollars of debt and dummies wonder why there is inflation. A high school economics course would be able to enlighten people.
Ah…no economics classes any more and evidently no civics classes either..
Lumber prices have SOARED and appear to be ‘limited’. However, contractors and others state warehouses are FULL and this is nothing more to rise, increase prices. If you are in a rural area, how much timberland do you see? MASSIVE amounts? Here in NC, we have MASSIVE timber tracts owned by Weyerhauser, Federal Paper, etc. THERE IS NO SHORTAGE or these tracts would be cut daily. Loggers I know are on a quota. Cannot work full-time. Work 3 days/wk and timber mills say no more timber this week. DOES THAT SOUND THERE IS A SHORTAGE? IF SO, loggers would be told, work 7 days/wk.
This is global economics. Local timber yards have FOREGIN lumber (stamped on the boards). Being IMPORTED..
Same for gas/fuel/oil. USA has unlimited amts and yet we have shut down our oil fields and using FOREIGN oil. MAKE FOREGIN countries RICH and MAKE USA citizens pay to make them rich.
OUR politicians, leaders, Wall St, economists HAVE DESTROYED us YET AGAIN. Same during BHO…same tactics, same issues, raising prices in all sectors and many of those supplies, raw products are HERE IN THE USA, but we use EPA, Ex Orders, policies to shut them down.
LUMBER PRICES are a result of GOVT/PRICE FIXING…
Uh, lumber is up 125%! 2.6% inflation? ROTFLMAO.