Thanks to rampant inflation, socialism could soon become irreversibly entrenched in the US—just as it is in Argentina, Venezuela, and other countries.
Rapidly rising food, housing, medical, and tuition prices are squeezing Americans—many of whom do not understand the true cause of their falling living standards.
The explosion in the cost of living is a predictable consequence of money printing.
Continue reading “How Inflation Destroys Civilization… and What You Can Do About It”
Earlier, we reported on the deranged, confused, false ramblings of a senile old man who is so out of his depth in running the world’s biggest economy, the catastrophic results will soon be obvious to even his most die-hard fans. Now, it’s time for his nemesis on the world scene, Russia’s Vladimir Putin to respond.
Speaking in a TV interview on Friday evening, following a meeting with African leaders in Sochi, Putin accused Western leaders of trying “to shift the responsibility for what is happening in the world food market” and said that “restrictions imposed by the US and its allies against Russia and Belarus will only exacerbate the looming global food crisis by affecting fertilizer trade and sending the food prices further up.”
Instead of looking toward Russian, Putin said that the root causes of the crisis lie with the US decision to print record amounts of money which led to an increase in global food prices, as well as Europe’s over-reliance on renewables and short-term gas contracts, which have led to price hikes and rising inflation.
“It began to take shape as early as February 2020 in the process of combating the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic,” he added.
Continue reading “Putin Says US Decision To Print Money Is Behind Soaring Food Prices”
Submitted by Hardscrabble Farmer
The most important thing we can do now to transition from rapid recovery to stable, steady growth is to bring inflation down. That is why I have made tackling inflation my top economic priority. My plan has three parts — read more about them here: https://t.co/5IUu0qbCaa
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 31, 2022
Guest Post by Eugene Ludwig
For several years now, many of us have focused on the scourge of “fake news.” But much as we may blame avaricious social platforms and conniving public figures for driving widespread cynicism, we need to consider the role played by another more innocuous reality: misleading statistics.
Flagging confidence in both government and the mainstream media tracks decades in which official economic indicators—most notably those that purport to gauge the cost of living—have fundamentally failed to mirror middle-class reality.
Perhaps “fake” is too strong a term to describe the data-driven consumer price index (CPI), which serves as the U.S. government’s proxy for inflation. But the narrative the CPI has long burnished—namely that, since 2000, ordinary expenses have been fairly manageable amid rising wages—is entirely debunked by new research.
From Peter Reagan
At this point, it has almost become cliché to say that “inflation is accelerating,” and that it’s taking a bite out of retirement savers income. But just how big is that bite?
According to this Moody’s analysis, that bite amounts to hundreds of dollars a month consumed by the tax nobody voted for:
Prices are rising on everything from energy to food to shelter, costing the average American household an additional $327 per month.
To put this into perspective, that’s the equivalent of a new car payment — except you don’t get to drive a new car. The latest release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts inflation at 8.3% annually, or the approximate equivalent of one month’s pay just to meet rising expenses.
Paychecks aren’t keeping up, either…
Real average hourly earnings decreased 2.6 percent, seasonally adjusted, from April 2021 to April 2022.
This is reality for millions of working families who are living through “Inflation Nation” right now.
Continue reading “Red-Hot Inflation Burning Up Budgets, Plans and Futures, Too…”
By Tesvetana Paraskova of OIlPrice.com
Inflation-adjusted – or real – gasoline prices in the United States heading to the Memorial Day weekend are at their highest in a decade, at a national average of $4.59 per gallon, the Energy Information Administration said on Friday.
On a nominal basis, this price is the all-time high price for gasoline recorded in EIA’s weekly Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update, which dates back to 1990.
Continue reading “Memorial Day Gasoline Prices Are At An All-Time High”
By Ron Paul
Hello, friends.
Birch Gold Group asked me to talk a little bit about inflation today.
Now, if you’re like me, you don’t pay too much attention to the monthly CPI, Consumer Price Inflation reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes. They say inflation was +8.3% in April, down just a bit from the +8.5% reported in March. To be honest, that one number just doesn’t have much of an impact on my daily life.
For example, I haven’t really been following the crazy surges in used vehicle prices (in January, they were up 67%!) On the other hand, every time I put gas in my car, I notice the price per gallon. Nationwide, it’s about $4.40/gallon (unless you’re unfortunate enough to have a diesel, then it’s closer to $5.50).
Continue reading “Ron Paul: Here’s Why the Official Inflation Reports Don’t Ring True”
by Jeffrey Tucker
This has been a week of spin, with every regime apologist assuring the public that inflation is getting better. Just look at the wonderful trend line! In the footnotes, you find the truth: it was a tiny drop and mostly for technical reasons and the main reason for the drop has already disappeared from the price trends.
The new claim: inflation will vex us for a bit more time but will settle down in a few months. It’s all Putin’s fault, plus the virus. In any case, the president is working to fix this.
Has any political propaganda on this topic ever been this ineffective?
Continue reading “The Culture of Devaluation, Destruction, and Devolution”
Guest Post by David Stockman
It is only a matter of time before Kiev surrenders to the Russians, with or without their clown-car president signing the armistice. But that deal will be so onerous from Washington’s perspective that it will not mark the end of the sanctions war, but will be an excuse for its actual intensification and indefinite prolongation.
When that becomes the reality, however, inflationary hell will break out all over the place. And the Fed’s decades-long experiment in egregious, inflationary money-pumping will splatter ignominiously all over the Eccles Building (Fed headquarters).
Continue reading “David Stockman on Inflationary Hell That’s About to Break Loose”
Guest Post by Ron Paul
The Biden administration and its allies continue to use Russian President Vladimir Putin as the convenient excuse for their economic failures. The most recent falsehood is that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused March’s 8.5 percent year-over-year increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Prices were surging long before Russian troops entered Ukraine. Furthermore, Putin did not stop exporting food and gas; it was the Biden administration and Congress that imposed sanctions, making US consumers suffer additional price increases. The blame for the economic effects lies with the US government, not Russia.
The United States has for years been meddling in Ukraine’s affairs with the explicit goal of moving US and NATO military forces ever closer to Russia. The most notorious example was the 2014 US-orchestrated coup that overthrew Ukraine’s democratically elected government.
Continue reading “Blame Powell, Not Putin or ‘Greedy’ Corporations, for Price Hikes”
Guest Post by Martin Armstrong
The Consumer Price Index soared 8.5% in March year-on-year, according to the report released by the Labor Department on Tuesday. Prices have not been this inflated since Reagan was in power in December 1981.
Former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke set the target level of inflation at 2% back in 2012. Once the Federal Reserve began pursuing a 2% level of inflation in 2012, that standard was soon set as the target for numerous central banks across the world. This all changed when the world collectively agreed to stop spinning for the coronavirus. As you can see, median inflation in the US was declining prior to 2020.
Guest Post by Kit Knightly
Did you know the economy was booming? This may come as a shock to anyone out there who a) is alive or
b) has to buy things, but it’s definitely true.
MSNBC and the New York Times said so.
Mehdi Hasan did a segment on his show:
NBC report “President Biden’s approval rating has fallen to lowest level of his presidency despite booming economy”, and Hasan just doesn’t understand why people would be “unhappy with the way Biden is handling the economy” when wages are growing and they’ve added a “record 6.4 million job” in 2021.
Now, OK, that reported 4.5% wage growth is lagging way behind inflation, meaning in real terms people are being paid less.
Continue reading “Biden’s “booming economy” is just another front in the media’s war on reality”
This is a post by the owner of a local bakery. Biden and the idiots at the Fed can talk about inflation in theoretical terms, blaming Putin and never taking responsibility for destroying the lives of millions. But this is the reality of their traitorous actions. They should pay the ultimate price for their purposely destructive inflation inducing policies. This is just the beginning. Things are going to get much worse.
I asked him if he was retiring or leaving in disgust. His answer: DISGUST!
Guest Post by Anthony Sanders
Its official! I submitted my resignation from George Mason University effective June 1, 2022. I will miss teaching the students, past and present.
But back to the US Treasury yield curve. It remains in reversion (meaning shorter-term Treasuries have higher yields than longer-term Treasuries, usually a sign of impending recession. The Fed has actually started quantitative tightening (QT) and the growth rate of Treasury note and bond purchases has slowed to a crawl.
Meanwhile, Bankrate’s 30-year mortgage rate rose slightly to 4.91%.
Guest Post by Ron Paul
President Biden’s 5.8 trillion dollars fiscal year 2023 budget increases “discretionary” spending to 1.6 trillion dollars. The remaining 4.2 trillion dollars of spending consists of “mandatory” spending, including on Social Security, Medicare, and interest on the national debt. The discretionary spending is divided between 813 billion dollars for “defense” and 769 billion dollars for the rest.
Since Biden’s budget increases military spending and does not call for major new government programs, some have described it as “centrist.” Calling a 5.8 trillion dollars tax-and-spend monstrosity “centrist” shows how far the center of American politics is from the principles of limited government.
