Inflation is raging and the Fed appears to be paralyzed—afraid to act decisively against inflation for fear of the consequences. As a result the Fed is talking a tough anti-inflation line, threatening interest rate hikes “at the appropriate time”, but continuing the easy money regime that was put in place with the Bush - Obama bailout of Big Money.
Here are two articles that nibble at the fringes of these issues.
The first simply presents charts relating to overall confidence in the general public that the government knows what it’s doing. Yeah, really. I don’t think this is gonna surprise you:
Buying attitudes worsened to new record lows for large household durables and vehicles and housing buying attitudes limped back lower after a modest rebound....
Source: Bloomberg
Ouch!
Inflation expectations:
Source: Bloomberg
Next up—shortages in commodities that are critical to the global economy. This comes via Michael Snyder, who specializes in catastrophe predictions, but what he’s saying appears to me to be well sourced:
As we move forward into February and beyond, there are two key global shortages that we are going to want to keep a very close eye on.
One of them is the rapidly growing fertilizer shortage. A few days ago, the Wall Street Journal ominously warned that “high fertilizer prices are weighing on farmers across the developing world”…
From South America’s avocado, corn and coffee farms to Southeast Asia’s plantations of coconuts and oil palms, high fertilizer prices are weighing on farmers across the developing world, making it much costlier to cultivate and forcing many to cut back on production.
That means grocery bills could go up even more in 2022, following a year in which global food prices rose to decade highs. An uptick would exacerbate hunger—already acute in some parts of the world because of pandemic-linked job losses—and thwart efforts by politicians and central bankers to subdue inflation.
According to the International Fertilizer Development Center, exceedingly high fertilizer prices could result in a reduction of agricultural output in Africa alone “equivalent to the food needs of 100 million people”.
So this is a really, really big deal.
And this crisis is going to deeply affect us here in the United States too. The following comes from a recent piece authored by U.S. Senator Roger Marshall…
It’s no secret farmers are faced with a fertilizer crisis. Prices for phosphorus-based and potassium-based (potash) fertilizers have more than doubled in Kansas while Nitrogen-based fertilizers have more than quadrupled. Fertilizer is vital to feeding not only the country, but the world. It contains essential nutrients for plant life, and without it, American agricultural yields will quickly suffer as well as food prices in local grocery stores.
As I discussed the other day, these crazy prices for fertilizer are going to make it impossible for many U.S. farmers to profitably plant crops this year.
That means that a lot less food is going to be grown.
That doesn’t sound good at all. On the other hand, the Climatistas assure us that these fertilizers are bad. Hmmm.
Second shortage—chips. No, not from potatoes:
The other major shortage that I want to highlight in this article is the ongoing computer chip shortage.
According to a report that was just put out by the Department of Commerce, chip inventories around the nation have become dangerously thin…
Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce released the results from the Risks in the Semiconductor Supply Chain Request for Information (RFI) issued in Sept. 2021. Key findings from the report provided data-driven information about the depths of the semiconductor shortage and underscored the need for the President’s proposed $52 billion in domestic semiconductor production.
The RFI showed that median inventory held by chips consumers (including automakers or medical device manufacturers, as examples) has fallen from 40 days in 2019 to less than 5 days in 2021. If a COVID outbreak, a natural disaster, or political instability disrupts a foreign semiconductor facility for even just a few weeks, it has the potential to shut down a manufacturing facility in the U.S., putting American workers and their families at risk.
At this point, computer chips used to produce automobiles and medical devices are particularly in short supply.
With a 45 mile long Canadian truck convoy converging on Ottawa in protest of the vax mandate and 50% of U.S. truckers refusing the vax, there can't be much being hauled across the U.S. & Canadian border at the moment... Just my thoughts.
Check the newest post.
With a 45 mile long Canadian truck convoy converging on Ottawa in protest of the vax mandate and 50% of U.S. truckers refusing the vax, there can't be much being hauled across the U.S. & Canadian border at the moment... Just my thoughts.