You’ll be hearing a lot of spin today about how “inflation is moderating”, so a brief post on what it all means may be useful. Karl Denninger helpfully explains, since government stats are often meant to obfuscate rather than inform. The takeway is that “core inflation is smoking hot”—that’s the smell:
Isn’t fascinating how liberals like to pretend that reality doesn’t apply to them, and then when it reaches out and slaps them upside the head, it’s always “unexpected”!
And domestic oil production actually fell. Crazy that high prices would normally encourage production increases. Perhaps there are some policy problems, huh?
Couldn't also be our representatives in Washington, DC, attacking oil and energy company executives in recent hearings and accusing them of price gouging and evil profiteering, could it? ::sarc::
The other 'gorilla' in the room is that the way inflation is measured has been revised consistently since the 1980's. If* it was measured the same way, we'd be closer to 16-17% today. It's not measuring the cost of living anymore, it's measuring the cost of surviving* - and barely at that.
I first heard that in 1972 in the lyric from the Neil Young song, "The Needle and the Damage Done." With no Internet back then I had to ask an anti-drug preacher who hung out in Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley:
Hmmmm...not sure about that. I'm certainly not an economist and my knowledge base comes from people like Austin Fitts, Luongo, Denninger, charles hugh Smith and smattering of Brandon Smith. The general agreement is that inflation is always a reflection of money supply chasing goods/services. So we really can't separate out, for example, gas prices from money supply. Gas/diesel prices are a reflection of the value of the dollar-- ie, how much diesel does a dollar buy at any given time? The more dollars in the world, the lower the value of the dollar and thus the more needed to buy each gallon of fuel.
Thus the Fed's classic tool for fighting inflation has been the illusory soft landing-- hiking rates to restrict money supply, inducing what they hope to be a mild recession that brings down demand and dissipates inflation.
The only reason we don't have higher inflation is because the dollar continues to be less worse than every other currency except (surprise!) the rouble and Brazilian rial, so world demand is soaking up alot of the dollars that would otherwise be driving inflation here. But we see that changing as the BRICS continue shifting from dollar trade to alternatives.
In the meantime we're also seeing the worst of all worlds: stagflation. The Fed has no tools for that and no one knows what happens next. Historically, and without getting too Antony Sutton, governments have resorted to war as the cure all-- the great reset. Worse times ahead.
I don't drive much and, since my car is economical re fuel, I only fill up every few weeks. Today I saw the price @ $4.97, whereas a few weeks ago it was about $4.32. For people driving their big gas guzzlers and commuting, driving kids to school, etc. that's a big hit on top of what was already a big hit.
An electrician that just did some work for me in So Ca, was complaining he had to put in $150 of gas in his work truck every 2-3 days. And he passes that cost onto his customers.
His charge to just come out is $150. If he does any work $250. He figured out the problem with 30 minutes, and I was very happy paying only $250. Another electrician I called with good reviews, his minimum charge is $450.
Thank you to Nick and Mark and Ginned and all, for discussing these problems in ways that folks like me can catch on to a little. The only observation I offer is that money-printing creates character problems in a nation, which is a large, not a small, part of the supply-side problems insofar as we have been happy to drive our sky-high pickup trucks down to Costco to load up with merchandise manufactured in China for quite a while now.
Isn’t fascinating how liberals like to pretend that reality doesn’t apply to them, and then when it reaches out and slaps them upside the head, it’s always “unexpected”!
Diesel $6 a gallon in Delaware
And domestic oil production actually fell. Crazy that high prices would normally encourage production increases. Perhaps there are some policy problems, huh?
Couldn't also be our representatives in Washington, DC, attacking oil and energy company executives in recent hearings and accusing them of price gouging and evil profiteering, could it? ::sarc::
The other 'gorilla' in the room is that the way inflation is measured has been revised consistently since the 1980's. If* it was measured the same way, we'd be closer to 16-17% today. It's not measuring the cost of living anymore, it's measuring the cost of surviving* - and barely at that.
Shadowstats calculates using the older method and has inflation around 17%
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts
"You will have nothing and you will like it"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgYEuJ5u1K0
Is it possible to have less than nothing? I guess that's called being in debt and having to sell body parts to pay interest?
I first heard that in 1972 in the lyric from the Neil Young song, "The Needle and the Damage Done." With no Internet back then I had to ask an anti-drug preacher who hung out in Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley:
"Milk blood to keep from running out"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd3oqvnDKQk#t=1m35s
@nick
Hmmmm...not sure about that. I'm certainly not an economist and my knowledge base comes from people like Austin Fitts, Luongo, Denninger, charles hugh Smith and smattering of Brandon Smith. The general agreement is that inflation is always a reflection of money supply chasing goods/services. So we really can't separate out, for example, gas prices from money supply. Gas/diesel prices are a reflection of the value of the dollar-- ie, how much diesel does a dollar buy at any given time? The more dollars in the world, the lower the value of the dollar and thus the more needed to buy each gallon of fuel.
Thus the Fed's classic tool for fighting inflation has been the illusory soft landing-- hiking rates to restrict money supply, inducing what they hope to be a mild recession that brings down demand and dissipates inflation.
The only reason we don't have higher inflation is because the dollar continues to be less worse than every other currency except (surprise!) the rouble and Brazilian rial, so world demand is soaking up alot of the dollars that would otherwise be driving inflation here. But we see that changing as the BRICS continue shifting from dollar trade to alternatives.
In the meantime we're also seeing the worst of all worlds: stagflation. The Fed has no tools for that and no one knows what happens next. Historically, and without getting too Antony Sutton, governments have resorted to war as the cure all-- the great reset. Worse times ahead.
I don't drive much and, since my car is economical re fuel, I only fill up every few weeks. Today I saw the price @ $4.97, whereas a few weeks ago it was about $4.32. For people driving their big gas guzzlers and commuting, driving kids to school, etc. that's a big hit on top of what was already a big hit.
An electrician that just did some work for me in So Ca, was complaining he had to put in $150 of gas in his work truck every 2-3 days. And he passes that cost onto his customers.
His charge to just come out is $150. If he does any work $250. He figured out the problem with 30 minutes, and I was very happy paying only $250. Another electrician I called with good reviews, his minimum charge is $450.
Thank you to Nick and Mark and Ginned and all, for discussing these problems in ways that folks like me can catch on to a little. The only observation I offer is that money-printing creates character problems in a nation, which is a large, not a small, part of the supply-side problems insofar as we have been happy to drive our sky-high pickup trucks down to Costco to load up with merchandise manufactured in China for quite a while now.