The government, Fed and MSM continue to beat the no inflation drum. Except everywhere I turn, I see inflation. It’s almost as if they are lying to us.
A few months ago the package of almonds I would buy regularly at Wal-Mart suddenly shrunk in size, while the price stayed exactly the same. A 15 ounce bag of nuts was now a 12 ounce bag of nuts for the same price. Wal-Mart had just stealthily made a 25% price increase. A few weeks ago, I noticed the Slim Jim package that always included 28 sticks, now only included 26 sticks, for the same price. Doesn’t seem like much, but that was a 7% price increase.
Retailers and manufacturers are doing this with potato chips, detergent, candy, condiments, shampoo, vitamins, and anything else they get away with. I can assure you the BLS is not picking this up in their monthly bullshit report, and Janet Yellen doesn’t give fuck all about how many Slim Jims are in a box. She doesn’t worry about it as she eats caviar and drinks champagne at swanky Washington DC dinner parties for the elite. She knows when she steps down as Fed Chairwoman, she will reap $300,000 speaking fees at luncheons given by the Wall Street banks to pay her off for doing their bidding. The hoi poloi earning 0.15% on their life savings don’t pay as well.
I’m experiencing another example of non-existent inflation today, as I received my monthly PECO Energy bill. It captures my natural gas and electric usage. Here are the known facts:
Oil was priced at $80 a barrel last October. This October it is priced around $45 per barrel. That is a 44% decrease.
Natural gas was priced at $4 last October. This October it is priced around $2.29. That is a 43% decrease.
The BLS factors these decreases into the CPI and tells me my home energy costs are falling. I keep all my expenditure data in Quicken, so it is easy for me to find last year’s October bill. It was $164. The bill I just got was for $154. Wow – a decrease!!! But wait one second. My consumption of both gas and electric was down 15% over last year.
Last year I used 20 Ccf of gas versus 17 Ccf this year. Last year I used 905 kWh versus 782 kWh this year.
On an apples to apples basis, even without the 44% decrease in oil and gas factored in, my bill should have been 15% less than last year at $139. But instead it was $154, almost 11% higher than last year.
So, even though the price of energy has plunged by over 40% and I used 15% less energy than last year, my inflation rate was almost 11%. I wonder how the BLS will pick this up in their data.
The lies, disinformation, and propaganda will continue until morale improves.
Beware of significant shrinkage.
