Short answer: We don’t know. I know I don’t know. I know that my natural gas bill for this past year was twice as high as last year, despite running a very efficient house and putting in new insulation. For people less efficient, that increase had to have hurt.
"Clearly, they thought conservatives would be forced to become reflexive anti-Russia cheerleaders ..."
All during the Trump administration the continuous attacks on Trump/Putin confused me mightily. Did the left really think the right would be so angered by the Trump/Putin narrative that they would oust Trump?
So, yeah, I'm a paid-in-full member of your conspiracy theory.
Mark, even before 10 am you do more than justice to old Forester’s “connect, only connect”! Yes, what a novel idea, to give peace a chance! Yet Taibbi has another piece about “giving war a chance…” Each side trying to smear the other according to political calculations…I’m sure Biden, with bird on his face (or nearly!) is looking to distract us with foreign war mongering - here in France, predictably, Little Mac is accusing Le Pen of having close ties to Putin…
Being old enough to have known of the shortages, ration books for everything from foodstuffs to shoes, inflation, wage freezing, and the other home front hardships that accompanied the WWII years, I am unhappy about price increases but know they will pass at some point. . I was a child during WWII, but my parents talked in front of us so we knew what was going on. Much later the Carter years, with double digit interest rates and gasoline shortages. I remember lining up for what seemed like a mile and hoping the station would not run out before I got to the pump. And on and on. The Trump years were comforting because we were not being hauled into foreign wars and the economy was doing well. For someone who was believed by the stupid to be nothing more than a greedy businessman-TV performer with a penchant for being “blunt”, his daughter’s description of her father when asked for one word, Trump did darned well. So did we. (In my dictionary, Blunt = uncompromisingly straightforward. Not bad.)
The point of this stream of consciousness comment is sort of “This too shall pass”… I notice some prices coming down a bit. More “specials” where stores don’t have to commit to more than a few-day-long price cut. Gas prices are inching down (in California And are very competitive from station to station in our area. They have a way to go, but it is still a change in the right direction). We just got our natural gas bill for last month. A $15.45 credit balance (down from $60something the previous monh) due to something called the California Gas Credit. So-called “summer gasoline” (a weird California situation that causes gas prices to go up in summer when many are on the road) will not happen this year. There is moaning that that will cause smog. We have experienced smog. Real smog. For years it rolled west from the now-defunct Kaiser steel mill in Fontana. When the steel mill went, so did the nasty smog. What anyone calls smog today may be measurable at the Air Quality Control Board but we haven’t noticed smog in many decades.
Perspective can help. If you are not old enough to have some, try an older relative. Nothing goes on forever. And we have a major election coming.
Compare Putin's statement here with what Mearshimer was stating (see video above) as a matter of geopolitical theory back in 2018--but Mearshimer was persona non grata among the Neocons who dominate foreign policy:
Russian Embassy, UK
@RussianEmbassy
2h

President #Putin: In the modern complex world, no single country will be able to keep its total dominance. Today we are witnessing the break-up of the unipolar world that was formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Mark, we will get a deep recession this year, not next year. Inflation at these rates will crater the economy even if the Fed did absolutely nothing. People can't spend money they don't have any longer because they spent it on food and heating/cooling the house. This isn't the 1970s- in the 70s a great deal of the inflation was demographic in nature as the Baby Boomers began to enter adulthood en masse, and it crested just as the biggest bulge them passed into adulthood in the early/mid 80s and began to the most productive years of their lives. There isn't a comparable sized demography at work today. Discretionary spending is going to zero and below for a large fraction of the population, and that means deep recession.
Thx Mark. Zhou is Irish though. Did you see Treasury Secretary today doubling down on need to shift quickly away from carbon based goods?
In the comments at the Karl Denninger article this was linked, very insightful, By DAVID P. GOLDMAN article Doing without the Dollar:
https://asiatimes.com/2022/04/doing-without-the-dollar/
If peak inflation is "far off", how will people be rating the pain on a 1-10 scale? Who will they blame? I guarantee you it won't be Putin and Abbott.
Producer Prices Soar At Record Pace, 'Pipeline' Suggests Peak Inflation Far Off
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/producer-prices-soar-record-pace-pipeline-suggests-peak-inflation-far
"Clearly, they thought conservatives would be forced to become reflexive anti-Russia cheerleaders ..."
All during the Trump administration the continuous attacks on Trump/Putin confused me mightily. Did the left really think the right would be so angered by the Trump/Putin narrative that they would oust Trump?
So, yeah, I'm a paid-in-full member of your conspiracy theory.
Charlie Bilello
@charliebilello
·
1h
Commodity price changes over the last year...
Nat Gas: +161%
Nickel: +103%
Heating Oil: +92%
Coffee: +80%
Wheat: +77%
Cotton: +73%
WTI Crude: +69%
Brent Crude +66%
Gasoline: +59%
Corn: +36%
Sugar: +32%
Soybeans: +21%
Copper: +17%
Gold: +14%
US CPI: +8.5%
Silver: +3%
Lumber: -23%
Mark, even before 10 am you do more than justice to old Forester’s “connect, only connect”! Yes, what a novel idea, to give peace a chance! Yet Taibbi has another piece about “giving war a chance…” Each side trying to smear the other according to political calculations…I’m sure Biden, with bird on his face (or nearly!) is looking to distract us with foreign war mongering - here in France, predictably, Little Mac is accusing Le Pen of having close ties to Putin…
https://twitter.com/Hedgeye/status/1513863439923310593?cxt=HHwWgsCj8eOxqYIqAAAA
Being old enough to have known of the shortages, ration books for everything from foodstuffs to shoes, inflation, wage freezing, and the other home front hardships that accompanied the WWII years, I am unhappy about price increases but know they will pass at some point. . I was a child during WWII, but my parents talked in front of us so we knew what was going on. Much later the Carter years, with double digit interest rates and gasoline shortages. I remember lining up for what seemed like a mile and hoping the station would not run out before I got to the pump. And on and on. The Trump years were comforting because we were not being hauled into foreign wars and the economy was doing well. For someone who was believed by the stupid to be nothing more than a greedy businessman-TV performer with a penchant for being “blunt”, his daughter’s description of her father when asked for one word, Trump did darned well. So did we. (In my dictionary, Blunt = uncompromisingly straightforward. Not bad.)
The point of this stream of consciousness comment is sort of “This too shall pass”… I notice some prices coming down a bit. More “specials” where stores don’t have to commit to more than a few-day-long price cut. Gas prices are inching down (in California And are very competitive from station to station in our area. They have a way to go, but it is still a change in the right direction). We just got our natural gas bill for last month. A $15.45 credit balance (down from $60something the previous monh) due to something called the California Gas Credit. So-called “summer gasoline” (a weird California situation that causes gas prices to go up in summer when many are on the road) will not happen this year. There is moaning that that will cause smog. We have experienced smog. Real smog. For years it rolled west from the now-defunct Kaiser steel mill in Fontana. When the steel mill went, so did the nasty smog. What anyone calls smog today may be measurable at the Air Quality Control Board but we haven’t noticed smog in many decades.
Perspective can help. If you are not old enough to have some, try an older relative. Nothing goes on forever. And we have a major election coming.
Compare Putin's statement here with what Mearshimer was stating (see video above) as a matter of geopolitical theory back in 2018--but Mearshimer was persona non grata among the Neocons who dominate foreign policy:
Russian Embassy, UK
@RussianEmbassy
2h

President #Putin: In the modern complex world, no single country will be able to keep its total dominance. Today we are witnessing the break-up of the unipolar world that was formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Mark, we will get a deep recession this year, not next year. Inflation at these rates will crater the economy even if the Fed did absolutely nothing. People can't spend money they don't have any longer because they spent it on food and heating/cooling the house. This isn't the 1970s- in the 70s a great deal of the inflation was demographic in nature as the Baby Boomers began to enter adulthood en masse, and it crested just as the biggest bulge them passed into adulthood in the early/mid 80s and began to the most productive years of their lives. There isn't a comparable sized demography at work today. Discretionary spending is going to zero and below for a large fraction of the population, and that means deep recession.
Heather Long
@byHeatherLong
·
Apr 12
Where Americans are seeing big inflation spikes:
Fuel oil 70%
Gas 48%
Used cars 35%
Hotels 29%
Airfare 24%
Utility gas 22%
Bacon 18%
Oranges 18%
Furniture 16%
Beef 16%
New cars 13%
Chicken 13%
Milk 13%
Appliances 12%
Fish 11%
Eggs 11%
Coffee 11%
Food at home 10%
Rent (OER) 4.5%