I was poking through White House press conferences from July 2021 - no particular reason! - and I came upon this gem from one Jennifer Psaki:
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Yep, that’s Jen Psaki predicting - in July, not even seven months ago! - that inflation would rise 2.2 percent for all of 2022.
She’ll be lucky if it stays under 2.2 percent through April.
They really are this stupid and overconfident.
I have tried to avoid learning about the woke idiocy that is Modern Monetary Theory - more proof that academia is now entirely divorced from the real world.
Imma tell you a secret about inflation that you don’t need a PhD to understand instead: when it reaches the levels it is now, when it stops being background noise, when the word “spiral” starts getting tossed around, the only way to get out of it is to crush demand.
That means higher interest rates and REMOVING fiscal stimulus (aka raising taxes or cutting spending). That means a recession, okay?
Recessions are awful. But inflation is worse, because inflation ultimately both distorts the economy and is most dangerous to people who are not asset holders and/or do not have the financial savvy to protect themselves from it. In other words the working class and poor.
And the longer you go allowing prices to accelerate, the harder you have to slam the brakes to stop them.
THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH. NOT FOR INFLATION, NOT FOR COVID, NOT FOR CRIME, NOT FOR CANNABIS. NOT NOW, NOT EVER. You can party all you want, but the sun always comes up the next day.
Understanding this is the first step to being an adult.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
Subscribe now! In real terms it’s only about 22 cents a month.
Trudeau is trying to force everyone in Canada to take the shots, with years of boosters pre-ordered. The trucker convoy is a grassroots peaceful protest trying to resist forced covid shots. Alex is clearly against the shots. This shouldn't be a hard thing to get behind.
Oddly enough there’s a few good videos on YouTube. Jessica Rose (substack) And thecarpenterandwalrus substack also have some good posts. Both being from somewhere around there. Oh 🇨🇦
I heard Gettr is China too but haven’t researched.
I LOVE and HATE Twitter . I love peppering the idiots with anti vax stuff. I hate the vitriol. I love the trucker videos. I’ve seen some things on Twitter you won’t see on MSM.
I think they took it down I didn’t mark or copy it. But there was an Israeli with several videos showing the lies coming from his government. Don’t think that was posted elsewhere. I was too tired to copy but it was pretty amazing what he said.
We haven’t even paid for the sins of the 2007-2008 collapse, all was papered over. Many would say we still haven’t paid for the dot com bust.
It’s now a bubble, on top of a bubble, inside of a bubble. Makes me think WW3 starting over Ukraine isn’t such an insane possibility. The only way out of this is war, and history shows us that.
Canadian trucker protest is an actually peaceful protest to fight against mandatory vaccinations. This should have the world's attention and support, and it's weird Alex hasn't really touched it. The media hides it and misrepresents it, which is to be expected. Today Trudeau claimed emergency powers for the government to break even more laws than they are with the covid shot mandates. Alex, anything on the truckers?
It seems it's covered pretty will in other Substacks. No need to add to those voices. I'll bet everyone who reads *this* is well and fully aware of the nuts and bolts of the Freedom Convoy.
What's happening in Canada is huge. One of the tactics mainstream media has used against the convoy is refusing to cover it as much as possible. Saying Alex shouldn't bother with it because enough others do seems in line with burying it.
Silence for people peacefully resisting forced shots is not right.
Silence? Everyone - probably *literally* everyone - who reads Alex' Substack is well-aware of the Freedom Convoy. His voice isn't needed for this, because it won't increase anyone's knowledge or awareness of the Convoy.
If you want to make your argument where it *would* matter - but *won't* be done, precisely because it *would* matter - implore the alphabet legacy media to cover the Convoy. THERE is where you'll find the clueless and LIVs who could stand to learn about the convoy.
And you know this, because you wrote "One of the tactics mainstream media has used against the convoy is refusing to cover it as much as possible." So take your complaint to THEM. It's the mainstream (sic) media - not Substack - where the dearth of information lives.
Alex covering it would add nothing to the breadth of knowledge and information about the Convoy.
Good pithy analysis. I have tried to explain the “no free lunch” concept to my friends and some trolls on the internet over the years. Especially when it comes to the ludicrously named “global climate change” issue; but it applies across the board to anything…obviously.
What I have discovered is that simply telling people that “what goes up, must come down” or “there is no such thing as “renewable” energy”, one can not save enough energy going down a hill to go back up the same hill” or “you can not filter out a .1-micron viral pathogen using a tee shirt you bought on sale at a thrift store” or even something as seemingly obvious as “you can not spend your way out of debt”…simply does not work. Nobody listens. Its insanity.
So I stopped engaging, canceled my facebook and twitter accounts…bought hard assets like real estate and commodities. I am just hoping to ride this out until people with half a brain are back in power. That may not be in my lifetime however…I am aware.
Miss a meal! How is it that covid hits the oldest the hardest yet none of the Octogenarians in Congress or the White House got it? While life saving medicine was denied to the rest of us
Yeah, once you devalue money, it won't matter how much you have saved. There will be 2 classes. The ruling class, and everyone else. All part of the Green New Deal strategy.
The incomprehensible reality is that these people crave power to such an extent, they believe deservedly so. However, they do not have any understanding of how to wield it for the benefit of all. Greedy, selfish, and disgusting human beings.
Amazing! This is the spirit that will get us through this. (And I really believe it could get like the 20s and 30s. The Biden-ites are just that out of touch.) A subscriber named "Renegade" just bought me a subscription because I said (to Alex) that I'd love to subscribe but am in "save every penny" mode. A kind of Valentine Day's present if you will. Thank you, Renegade!!!
So they lied about WMD in Iraq. Then they lied about spying on us - to Congress. They lied about where the virus came from. Then they lied about HCQ, and Ivermectin (horse dewormer!). And they lied about the shots - safe & effective! And then they lied about money printing, and its effects on inflation.
In our personal lives we avoid pathological liars. When it comes to government we just keep going back for more abuse from the pathological and professional liars.
Getting people on board with truly limited government is more difficult than extricating someone from a cult
Government is always trying to downplay inflation because it's the main way in which they steal the value out from under our savings and labor. And Biden wants to keep printing trillions to hand out to the politically connected. It's madness.
We tend run into huge problems when monetary inflation is increasing quickly and the number of goods and services in the economy is not. I’m guessing those of you old enough to remember the Jimmy Carter years remember stagflation.
"Stagflation is an economic event in which the inflation rate is high, economic growth rate slows, and unemployment remains steadily high."
Sound familiar? This is exactly what the government’s response to covid (not covid itself) created. They flooded the country with dollars while also shutting down places that actually create the goods needed to grow. Now even the zoned-out are noticing prices rise extremely quickly. And once the fake economy of being close to the people running the money-making machine overtakes the real economy of voluntarily providing goods and services, the wheels come off the bus.
Unfortunately for us, Joe Biden has a plan to tackle inflation. He wants to print and spent trillions MORE dollars so that you pay ‘less’ for stuff like drug prescriptions or child care! Remember how Obamacare was going to save you money on healthcare costs but you never actually saw any savings? We’re going to take that ‘efficiency’ and spread it out to MORE places! He wants to crank that wave machine up to 11, and he claims this will LOWER inflation. But it will do the opposite.
OMIGD!!!! thank you, Renegade!!! He just bought me a subscription because I said, quite truthfully, that I'm trying to save every penny!!! That's the way we'll get through this, guys. I will try to pass it along!
Higher interest rates will spell the end of many zombie companies, technically bankrupt but kept alive by free money from the Fed. Especially large banks! The cost of govt borrowing will skyrocket as well.
If the don't stop inflation, there will be rioting in the streets - far worse than the summer of 2020. Poor people who can't afford to buy food won't take kindly to starving to death.
It's possible to have both inflation and a recession -- see 1970s stagflation. Inflation has already happened via the gargantuan increase in our money supply/national debt. Now you're looking at the result "rising prices" -- which is really the value of the dollar cratering. I don't think there's a way out at this point -- Hello Venezuela.
Alex, I love you but I have to disagree on the conclusion that the only way to slow inflation is to reduce demand.
There are three fundamental causes to the current price increases. Two are supply/demand related, and one is monetary policy related:
1) Supply of goods has been constrained from the lockdowns, which caused severe labor market disruptions, which caused a labor shortage, which has led to a supply chain bottleneck. Supply curve shifts inward, all things equal this leads to higher prices
2) From forgiven PPP Loans, additional extended fiscal stimulus in the form of lots of checks for people who are not working, plus some pent up demand from being locked down, this shifts the demand curve outward, also leads to higher prices.
3) An ultra easy money monetary policy by the central bank (Fed). This is coming in two forms: quantitative easing, fancy words for the Fed using newly (digitally) printed money to buy treasury and mortgage bonds in the bond market to the tune of $60 billion per month for a long time. This effectively forces down long term rates.
Two, holding the fed funds rate near zero, they do this by creating an inelastic demand for short term bonds and suppress short term rates.
The effect is artificially low interest rates which means more borrowing, both for consumption and for investment purposes.
Basically a perfect storm.
BUT: freeing up the supply chain and resuming a healthy movement of goods of all kinds will go a long way to easing prices.
Furthermore, stopping paying people to stay home and do nothing would slow that artificial demand.
Finally, yes you are correct the Fed has to raise rates or this will indeed spiral out of control.
Well thought out and presented. I suspect companies who implemented "just in time" supply chain models will be rediscovering the advantages of inventory.
Yes, true and very insightful. Even households will move from “just in time” inventory to building inventory - if they no linger trust the supply chain.
For companies and households both, this capital tied up in inventory- represents a real opportunity cost. It can’t be allocated to more productive uses.
Turns out stopping an $80 trillion global economy is a bit like stopping and turning a super tanker on a tight river. Reversing yet again is slightly difficult (!)
"Turns out stopping an $80 trillion global economy is a bit like stopping and turning a super tanker on a tight river. Reversing yet again is slightly difficult (!)"
Ah, yes! And was it not, ironically, the grounding of the container ship Ever Given in the Suez canal in March '21 that made "supply chain disruption" a household phrase.
A good read: The Fiat Standard by Saifedean Ammous, and The Bitcoin Standard. Set any preconceived thoughts aside that you may have about Bitcoin and read what Ammous has studied thoroughly. It is a great read on the history of money, and what happens when the government is in control of it. One must fully grasp our current economy to understand why Bitcoin is the answer.
Bitcoin guru Michael Saylor describes Bitcoin as "a bank in the cloud". OK, let's pry that open a bit. As everybody knows, a bank has assets and liabilities. Bitcoin has liabilities: the network owes you the amount in your Bitcoin address. But riddle me this: where is the asset? LOL. It's a very successful pyramid scheme, that you can try to use to get your hands on more actual money: USD, or even better, gold.
ah, I recommend you reading the above mentioned books. The USD is the real pyramid scheme. No one who has studied Bitcoin would truly call it such a thing :)
Alex missed some stuff. This is a fake economy that's been pumped up on a mountain of cheap debt. Not only personal debt, but government debt. Raising interest rates to the level required to put out the looming stagflation fire would completely crash the stock markets, result in a tsunami of corporate and private bankruptcies, destroy the housing market and ....perhaps most importantly, potentially bankrupt the federal government because it would threaten it's ability to finance the $30 trilling in national debt. Just a mere "normalizing" of interest rates to around 5% (currently at 0%), would not result in a recession, it would invite a depression that would make the 1930's look like an economic boom. And remember, back in the early 80's Volker had to raise rates into the double digits to tamp down the inflation fires that crushed the Carter administration and got us Regan a return to limited government political revolution.
The Federal Reserve is completely trapped. It is faced with a choice of destroying the dollar, an actual currency crisis, by maintaining the loose fiscal policy that keeps interest rates low, stock markets high and allows the federal government to financier its debt, or it can choose to fight inflation which will result in a depression and possible federal bankruptcy. It's going to continue to try to jawbone rates higher without actually raising them and hope to walk a tightrope it can't possibly stay on between higher rates or soaring inflation. It will also ramp up efforts to hide the inflation, which it already does a good job of but it will do more. I don't think it will be able to do enough to get people to stop believing their lying eyes though.
My guess is it will ultimately choose to sacrifice the dollar, which will actually inflate the national debt away and prevent government bankruptcy and, of course, economically destroy the non-asset rich part of the population. The other option, which would destroy the government and ruling class elites by crushing asset prices and plunging the economy into a depression which would result in their removal from office isn't going to work for them.
What if anything can a "non-asset rich" part of the population do to prepare for this? If there's nothing I can do, and faced with starvation and homelessness, I guess a slow and painful death is in store for me.
If you own a home instead of rent, that's good. Whatever cash you do have put in hard assets. If you don't have much of anything, you at least won't lose much money but your battle will be trying to get wages to keep up with inflation.
"They really are this stupid and overconfident." I think the appropriate word here is "hubris." The current gang at the White House are certainly full of it,...hubris too.
Those of us old enough to remember the stagflation of the late 70's and the Volcker induced recessions of the early 80's know exactly what Alex is talking about. For instance, my parents bought a house in 1984. I believe the interest rate on the mortgage was something like 14%.
Alex is also right that the investor class and property owners (I mean investment property) will largely be protected from inflation, since those assets inflate right along with the money. Those who don't own any assets, renters and wage workers are going to be screwed by this. I remember watching an interview from about a decade ago. I wish I could remember the name of the fellow being interviewed. I believe he was Swiss or Austrian. At any rate, his assessment was that inflation is the 1 percenters' revenge on the rest of us for getting out of line. Seems about right for what we see at the moment.
I studied economics in graduate school in the early 80’s. All I really know as a result is inflation economics. Here is what I know: the real price you pay for massive public debt is inflation. If you create money, it dilutes the value of money. None of this is a surprise to me. $30 trillion in debt = inflation. No surprise, but this is big, big trouble.
I was talking to a banking bigwig the other day, he knows more than me but said that the inflation was till now tempered by steady increase in the velocity of the dollar around Asia during all the Asian growth. That velocity slowed down but we kept printing and boom.
If anyone isn’t aware of modern monetary theory is save yourself the time and just pretend it actually stands for magic money tree because that is essentially it.
All intentional it seems - purposefully let things go to Sh*t, cause chaos, implement police state, control the masses, strip us of our freedoms and liberty. Go truckers and hope those asleep and compliant wake the hell up.
That prediction by Jen Psaki - that wasn't meant to be statement of fact; it was meant as marketing and persuasion, pure and simple. The numbers were fantasy meant to persuade.
I don't think they have any concept of true or false, real or unreal anymore. It's all hype, and I think they buy their own hype.
After all, when things are going well, who has time to sit around talking about the dangers of growing government? Why should we spend time thinking about monetary policy? We’ve got real shit to worry about. Just trust that the government is looking out for you.
But sooner or later the reality of the situation is too powerful to look past. The behemoth federal government is sticking its nose in so many places you can no longer ignore them. Suddenly what the idiot politicians say can ruin your life. When this happens, the political battle shifts as well. Suddenly regular people see the need to protect free speech and start speaking out about the dangers of government directing private companies to do their bidding. (There’s a word for that!) In this way, the underlying battle lines crystalize.
"The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries, but between authoritarians and libertarians."
And as the ‘leaders’ become more authoritarian, cracking down on all dissent, the proper response is for the people to become more libertarian.
"Recessions are awful. But inflation is worse." Exactly. That's why the FR is only going to raise interest rates .25%. Yup a whopping 1/4 of 1%. These anarchists want to destroy the US economy and then remake it into a Soviet style gulag. They have no intention of fixing this economy. Pretty soon you'll need a wheelbarrow of fake US currency to buy a loaf of bread.
Even given their inflation numbers of 7.5% (which we all know are not what we are seeing in real life - the real numbers are MUCH higher), the Fed would have to raise interest rates above 8% to put a dent in inflation. If prices are rising at 7.5%, then you need to earn at least 8% on your money in order for you to want to consume less and save more. Unless you incentivize people to save more and consume less, you won't put the brakes on inflation. The bad news is that 8% interest on $30 trillion of debt is $2.4 trillion PER YEAR (and it is all short term financed at this point). To put that in perspective, in 2021, the federal government is expected to collect less than $2 trillion in income taxes. Total revenues are under $4 trillion. So if you add another $2.4 trillion onto their expenditures, where does the money come from? Cut everything except paying interest on the debt? If they choose to borrow more to pay the interest then the problem only gets worse. So they are truly between a rock and a hard place (of their own making.) The Fed will choose to let inflation run because the alternative is too unpleasant for them. And that will mean the loss of the USD as the world's reserve currency. It isn't going to be pretty. We may soon long for the days of Covid shutdowns.
Feeling inflation right now as I sit and wait for three hours for my son rather than drive 45 minutes back home after I spent $100 on this tank of gas, and that's just because that was the cut off on the debit card. But somehow I guess this is just hurting the rich.
I was trying hard to figure out in what world Trudeau, Freeland, AOC and the Biden administration thought Modern Monetary Theory was a good idea— until I realized they’re all in line with WEF’s Agenda 2030. Remove western wealth. Open the floodgates of immigration. Dilute “western” culture by giving out free lunch until we’re a communist state where nobody owns anything. The interconnectedness of these absurd policies is sickening.
No question. At a minimum some government people have to lose their jobs and credibility. Not just in the US but in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, for example.
Given the fact that the Biden administration has been dead wrong on absolutely ever issue, what would make Psaki's statement newsworthy would be that it was correct.
Elections have consequences, and stolen elections have catastrophic consequences.
The puppeteers of the Brandon regime are doing everything they can to dismantle the underpinnings of our country. The only way their corruptocracy can survive is if there's some crisis for them to declare as an emergency so they can circumvent all normal constitutional methods.
Yep! Sooner or later the fake economy of being friends with the literal money-printers overtakes the real economy of voluntary trades of goods and services. When that happens, the wheels fall off.
Everyone except for the most affluent suffer from this policy, and the fewer resources one has the more one suffers financially.
Put another way, the monetary policy favored by the LEFT, is redistributive toward the affluent and away from the lower class, away from precisely the people who can least afford it.
In exchange for this near lethal blow, they give them a few handouts, just enough to keep from rebelling and to think they are getting something.
But the wealth expropriated from the central bank dwarfs the wealth handed out to the lower class.
So the lower class votes for the people who are destroying them. And goes back for more over and over and over. It’s so cynical but it persists because it works,
When the lower class clamors for government intervention into anything, it’s the neoliberals who look at each other and laugh and give each other a high five. They duped them, they will ride the wave of political power the lower class just gave them, then use that power to shower themselves with wealth.
This inflation has little to do with the supply chain issue. The government has been doing non-stop stimulus since 2008. There is too much money chasing too few goods. The federal reserve is the one doing the stimulus. Truth be told, the government doesn’t need your taxes anymore*, they just “print” money into existence for whatever need they have. They keep taxes to “steer” the people in the direction they want. It’s crowd control, like so much else.
* that’s actually a bad thing. It’s one more way the oligarchy is disconnecting from We the People.
Reread Beardsley Ruml's "Taxes for Revenue are Obsolete". The stimulus checks were intended to stimulate inflation and demand for cocaine and meth. Do the Obiden crack pipes make more sense, now?
The thing that many people don't understand is that for all the lip service given to fighting inflation, the government LOVES inflation. It allows them to spend freely to pad their own pockets and those of all their lobbyists and best friends. It allows the debt to become less of a burden.
For all their pretense that they care about the pain that rising food and gas prices impose on average citizens, they really don't care at all as long as they are getting rich and powerful. And make no mistake, inflation is the easiest way to transfer wealth from the middle class to the rich. There is almost nothing that will stop them now.
I expect double digit inflation to be the norm very soon. I'd suggest that everyone with assets protect them asap. Buy hard assets like real estate and precious metals. Foreign, dividend paying, value stocks will likely do very well. I'd be cautious about US stocks. Even though inflation generally inflates stock prices, the US economy is likely to suffer dramatically from stagflation. That isn't a good environment for US companies.
I know it's not a popular sentiment, but Alex, thank you for mentioning cannabis. Here in Illinois they have gone hog wild with cannabis sales everywhere you look. I can't believe this is going to end well. Many years back, two family members "graduated" from cannabis to opioids. I've heard all the arguments that cannabis isn't a "gateway" drug, but my own limited experience says otherwise. I think we are making a big mistake.
And here in the state of Washington, the govt is starting a program of assisting minorities in establishing their own cannabis businesses for the sake of racial equity. Saw that in the morning paper headlines and had a "surely this isn't happening" out-of-body experience. Unbelievable.
Completely agree. As a retired teacher I knew quite a few teens who began their downward spiral with marijuana, ending up in jail, on the street, or expired. The whole “cannabis is just a harmless plant that we must legalize for medicinal purposes” is a hoax.
One of the things I realized from Covid is that States with their governments are over. We are moving irrevocably toward a one world government. Most countries in the world had the same fantastical lockstep reaction, the masks, the isolation, the vax, knowing full well this was destroying their economy and endangering their peoples. This is also reflected in our open door policy at the southern border. This refugee problem is happening in many countries. What does it matter what country you live in when Big Brother is directing your life.
The Fed will not appreciably raise rates anytime soon because they are transferring wealth. The Fed runs the government and none of our politicians will take them on. Inflation is doing their work. It's not a problem for them. They intend to crush the middle class and own everything.
Yep! When we can no longer afford to pay for our homes or businesses, they will swoop in with newly printed cash and buy up the rubble for pennies on the dollar.
The interest payment on our current debt at the current rate of .5% is over 740 billion per year. At 10% it balloons to 14.8 trillion per year without touching the principal and that also assumes no additional debt.
A rock and a hard place indeed.
Do nothing = hyperinflation.
Raise rates = domestic insolvency and collapse of world economy.
Of course, the Biden Regime is poised to start a war with Russia. When the situation keeps getting worse, just change the daily talking points and hope the people are stupid enough to rally 'round the flag just one more time. Poor Old Joe has more important things to worry about than silly little things like skyrocketing inflation.
Please cover the Canadian trucker convoy. Aside from Rebel News I can’t find much…….
Trudeau is trying to force everyone in Canada to take the shots, with years of boosters pre-ordered. The trucker convoy is a grassroots peaceful protest trying to resist forced covid shots. Alex is clearly against the shots. This shouldn't be a hard thing to get behind.
Trudeau is a petty tyrant. As this covid show goes on it is getting clearer who the bad guys are
He's actually moved on from petty. He basically declared martial law there today. Zeig Heil!
Trudeau’s family foundation owns 40% of the company that makes the nano lipids.
Sounds like 40% to the big guy.
5 years worth of Jabs already bought for the Canadian Citizens.
https://thedaily.ca/news/2021/11/03/justin-trudeau-getting-rich-injecting-canadians/
The get a kickback from every shot, proven by Dr Martin (easy to self prove too since they own the companies that own the LNP tech).
Look for Viva Frei on Rumble - he live streams almost every day.
Viva is also on Telegram. Search “Truckers” on Telegram and you will find loads
He does great work! His daily live streams from this weekend were excellent.
Love Viva Frei!
There is a Gab group called Candian Trucker Convoy. Constant updates there.
Gettr is a constant stream of info on it. Also the dot wins.
Jessica Rose on Substack, the daily Wire, Fox News and Fox Business
Sort of Fox. They are suspect but do have some decent reporting.
Yes, please do. Thanks.
Oddly enough there’s a few good videos on YouTube. Jessica Rose (substack) And thecarpenterandwalrus substack also have some good posts. Both being from somewhere around there. Oh 🇨🇦
Boriquagato substack has a few great links also.
True North News and TikTok. Search freedom convoy 2022. Also Telegram channel called Truckers for Freedom.
Stay away from TikTok.
Just don't.
I’ve heard that too but someone illuminate a newbie to social media? Why not tic toc?
I also got major spammed as soon as I signed up for Gettr.
Re: TikTok, one word: China.
I can't help with Gettr. I never had Twitter, don't intend to get Gettr. Quit Facebook six years ago.
I heard Gettr is China too but haven’t researched.
I LOVE and HATE Twitter . I love peppering the idiots with anti vax stuff. I hate the vitriol. I love the trucker videos. I’ve seen some things on Twitter you won’t see on MSM.
I think they took it down I didn’t mark or copy it. But there was an Israeli with several videos showing the lies coming from his government. Don’t think that was posted elsewhere. I was too tired to copy but it was pretty amazing what he said.
Go to Rumble.com and look for the independent journalists who are live streaming.
Viva Frei is excellent.
really is spyware for CCP
Ditto!
Look for CDMedia on Rumble, I think they are awesome!!
https://mobile.twitter.com/rupasubramanya/status/1490107246197551104
This one’s hilarious.
Guess this explains hack of GiveSendGo. I assume go fund me gave up the names without argument.
I'm old enough to remember the 70's. Looks like we're set to repeat. Buckle up.
Worse, Interest rates will NOT rise to level of the 70's &,that is by design...to usher in UBI for the starving masses.
Correct. If the fed could raise FFR to fight inflation it would have done so months ago. https://faybomb.substack.com/p/did-powell-just-admit-inflation-isnt?r=et5uj
But the government has EXPERTS!!! Don't they know everything?
Yep. Here we go again.
Yes it’s looking like that.
Add to that the possibility of a global cyber attack on the financial industry as wargamed last year in the same manner as was done for a global pandemic only months prior to the COVID outbreak. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/global-financial-war-game-simulates-potential-disruptive-impact-of-cyber-attack/
not due to Covid so much as due to unnecessary shutdowns
There was a Debt Jubilee in the 30's , can it happen again?
agree. Thank you SO MUCH for the gift subscription!!!!!!
Yeah also afraid of that.
We haven’t even paid for the sins of the 2007-2008 collapse, all was papered over. Many would say we still haven’t paid for the dot com bust.
It’s now a bubble, on top of a bubble, inside of a bubble. Makes me think WW3 starting over Ukraine isn’t such an insane possibility. The only way out of this is war, and history shows us that.
Astute!
You must listen to Gerard Celente like me
Canadian trucker protest is an actually peaceful protest to fight against mandatory vaccinations. This should have the world's attention and support, and it's weird Alex hasn't really touched it. The media hides it and misrepresents it, which is to be expected. Today Trudeau claimed emergency powers for the government to break even more laws than they are with the covid shot mandates. Alex, anything on the truckers?
It seems it's covered pretty will in other Substacks. No need to add to those voices. I'll bet everyone who reads *this* is well and fully aware of the nuts and bolts of the Freedom Convoy.
What's happening in Canada is huge. One of the tactics mainstream media has used against the convoy is refusing to cover it as much as possible. Saying Alex shouldn't bother with it because enough others do seems in line with burying it.
Silence for people peacefully resisting forced shots is not right.
Silence? Everyone - probably *literally* everyone - who reads Alex' Substack is well-aware of the Freedom Convoy. His voice isn't needed for this, because it won't increase anyone's knowledge or awareness of the Convoy.
If you want to make your argument where it *would* matter - but *won't* be done, precisely because it *would* matter - implore the alphabet legacy media to cover the Convoy. THERE is where you'll find the clueless and LIVs who could stand to learn about the convoy.
And you know this, because you wrote "One of the tactics mainstream media has used against the convoy is refusing to cover it as much as possible." So take your complaint to THEM. It's the mainstream (sic) media - not Substack - where the dearth of information lives.
Alex covering it would add nothing to the breadth of knowledge and information about the Convoy.
Good pithy analysis. I have tried to explain the “no free lunch” concept to my friends and some trolls on the internet over the years. Especially when it comes to the ludicrously named “global climate change” issue; but it applies across the board to anything…obviously.
What I have discovered is that simply telling people that “what goes up, must come down” or “there is no such thing as “renewable” energy”, one can not save enough energy going down a hill to go back up the same hill” or “you can not filter out a .1-micron viral pathogen using a tee shirt you bought on sale at a thrift store” or even something as seemingly obvious as “you can not spend your way out of debt”…simply does not work. Nobody listens. Its insanity.
So I stopped engaging, canceled my facebook and twitter accounts…bought hard assets like real estate and commodities. I am just hoping to ride this out until people with half a brain are back in power. That may not be in my lifetime however…I am aware.
Sounds like a plan. Sometimes, at the end of the day, all you can do is take care of yourself.
Don’t pretend that republican spending isn’t also fucking us… 7.8 trillion under Trump…
Absolutely. At least Trump was smart enough to ensure energy prices stayed low, which makes a big difference.
YUP. Both administrations have been spending like it's going out of style. Hopefully it does.
This is all intentional & all part of the same game.
Look at what Trudeau just did, today.
The “elites” don't give a damn about the peasants.
Inflation can destroy a nation…looking at you Venezuela.
But, don't, for one second, think that the “elites” are ever going to miss a meal.
Miss a meal! How is it that covid hits the oldest the hardest yet none of the Octogenarians in Congress or the White House got it? While life saving medicine was denied to the rest of us
Yeah, once you devalue money, it won't matter how much you have saved. There will be 2 classes. The ruling class, and everyone else. All part of the Green New Deal strategy.
Too true!!
The incomprehensible reality is that these people crave power to such an extent, they believe deservedly so. However, they do not have any understanding of how to wield it for the benefit of all. Greedy, selfish, and disgusting human beings.
Kakistocracy
Amazing! This is the spirit that will get us through this. (And I really believe it could get like the 20s and 30s. The Biden-ites are just that out of touch.) A subscriber named "Renegade" just bought me a subscription because I said (to Alex) that I'd love to subscribe but am in "save every penny" mode. A kind of Valentine Day's present if you will. Thank you, Renegade!!!
Hats off to Renegade!
The administration is just lying. Stock up and plant a garden. Happy ❤️!
Stock up on more than food and water - just sayin’.
Yep, now it is clear why so many people moved into that guard-gated / armed community near San Diego.
Weed?
So they lied about WMD in Iraq. Then they lied about spying on us - to Congress. They lied about where the virus came from. Then they lied about HCQ, and Ivermectin (horse dewormer!). And they lied about the shots - safe & effective! And then they lied about money printing, and its effects on inflation.
There's a theme here....let's see...
In our personal lives we avoid pathological liars. When it comes to government we just keep going back for more abuse from the pathological and professional liars.
Getting people on board with truly limited government is more difficult than extricating someone from a cult
Government is always trying to downplay inflation because it's the main way in which they steal the value out from under our savings and labor. And Biden wants to keep printing trillions to hand out to the politically connected. It's madness.
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https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/inflation-and-you?r=uh70u
We tend run into huge problems when monetary inflation is increasing quickly and the number of goods and services in the economy is not. I’m guessing those of you old enough to remember the Jimmy Carter years remember stagflation.
"Stagflation is an economic event in which the inflation rate is high, economic growth rate slows, and unemployment remains steadily high."
Sound familiar? This is exactly what the government’s response to covid (not covid itself) created. They flooded the country with dollars while also shutting down places that actually create the goods needed to grow. Now even the zoned-out are noticing prices rise extremely quickly. And once the fake economy of being close to the people running the money-making machine overtakes the real economy of voluntarily providing goods and services, the wheels come off the bus.
Unfortunately for us, Joe Biden has a plan to tackle inflation. He wants to print and spent trillions MORE dollars so that you pay ‘less’ for stuff like drug prescriptions or child care! Remember how Obamacare was going to save you money on healthcare costs but you never actually saw any savings? We’re going to take that ‘efficiency’ and spread it out to MORE places! He wants to crank that wave machine up to 11, and he claims this will LOWER inflation. But it will do the opposite.
The Obama year’s sucked the capital out of the middle class. He’s just back to finish the job he started ten years previously.
"I'll take unprecedented money printing for $500, Alex. Although, is that $500 now costing me $600?"
We'll know the official narrative has shitfted when tuning into Jeopardy and they have added a zero to everything.
OMIGD!!!! thank you, Renegade!!! He just bought me a subscription because I said, quite truthfully, that I'm trying to save every penny!!! That's the way we'll get through this, guys. I will try to pass it along!
Use Dave Ramsey’s free budget app. That man’s approach has been life saving
Higher interest rates will spell the end of many zombie companies, technically bankrupt but kept alive by free money from the Fed. Especially large banks! The cost of govt borrowing will skyrocket as well.
No fun!
Large banks own the Fed. Literally.
And that is bad because? The sooner the zombie companies finally die, the better.
If the don't stop inflation, there will be rioting in the streets - far worse than the summer of 2020. Poor people who can't afford to buy food won't take kindly to starving to death.
You're right.
But there's a good chance they will let it go that far first, because we are governed by truly stupid, awful, adult children.
And of course when you let it go that far, it gets a little hard to turn the ship around.
I believe you're right. I wish you weren't, but I'm afraid these people are so stupid that they won't respond until there is rioting in the streets.
It's 6 meals to a revolution.
Someone needs to DOX Jerome Powell. The next trucker convoy should go to his house, so he understands the people mean business.
He's just a puppet too.
Great Idea!!
It's possible to have both inflation and a recession -- see 1970s stagflation. Inflation has already happened via the gargantuan increase in our money supply/national debt. Now you're looking at the result "rising prices" -- which is really the value of the dollar cratering. I don't think there's a way out at this point -- Hello Venezuela.
Exactly right.
The M2 has increased to insane levels…that's inflation.
Price inflation is what we all see at the grocery store.
There are definitely ways to fix it..start with immediately lowering energy prices.
That's the quickest way to make an impact, but they won't. Climate change and blah blah blah.
It's all intentional.
People have to learn to vote better.
As soon as Trump is back in office, he’ll take care of those energy prices and right the rest of this out-of-control vessel.
Alex, I love you but I have to disagree on the conclusion that the only way to slow inflation is to reduce demand.
There are three fundamental causes to the current price increases. Two are supply/demand related, and one is monetary policy related:
1) Supply of goods has been constrained from the lockdowns, which caused severe labor market disruptions, which caused a labor shortage, which has led to a supply chain bottleneck. Supply curve shifts inward, all things equal this leads to higher prices
2) From forgiven PPP Loans, additional extended fiscal stimulus in the form of lots of checks for people who are not working, plus some pent up demand from being locked down, this shifts the demand curve outward, also leads to higher prices.
3) An ultra easy money monetary policy by the central bank (Fed). This is coming in two forms: quantitative easing, fancy words for the Fed using newly (digitally) printed money to buy treasury and mortgage bonds in the bond market to the tune of $60 billion per month for a long time. This effectively forces down long term rates.
Two, holding the fed funds rate near zero, they do this by creating an inelastic demand for short term bonds and suppress short term rates.
The effect is artificially low interest rates which means more borrowing, both for consumption and for investment purposes.
Basically a perfect storm.
BUT: freeing up the supply chain and resuming a healthy movement of goods of all kinds will go a long way to easing prices.
Furthermore, stopping paying people to stay home and do nothing would slow that artificial demand.
Finally, yes you are correct the Fed has to raise rates or this will indeed spiral out of control.
Well thought out and presented. I suspect companies who implemented "just in time" supply chain models will be rediscovering the advantages of inventory.
I’ve got my own supply chain in various closets, cupboards, and shelves throughout our home.
Yes, true and very insightful. Even households will move from “just in time” inventory to building inventory - if they no linger trust the supply chain.
For companies and households both, this capital tied up in inventory- represents a real opportunity cost. It can’t be allocated to more productive uses.
Turns out stopping an $80 trillion global economy is a bit like stopping and turning a super tanker on a tight river. Reversing yet again is slightly difficult (!)
"Turns out stopping an $80 trillion global economy is a bit like stopping and turning a super tanker on a tight river. Reversing yet again is slightly difficult (!)"
Ah, yes! And was it not, ironically, the grounding of the container ship Ever Given in the Suez canal in March '21 that made "supply chain disruption" a household phrase.
Great post!
Thanks
And the poorest suffer most. This is why the Democratic Party is NOT for the poor or the little guy or minorities.
An illegitimate election, a puppet presidency, political prisoners held without trial, soaring inflation…nothing to see here
A good read: The Fiat Standard by Saifedean Ammous, and The Bitcoin Standard. Set any preconceived thoughts aside that you may have about Bitcoin and read what Ammous has studied thoroughly. It is a great read on the history of money, and what happens when the government is in control of it. One must fully grasp our current economy to understand why Bitcoin is the answer.
Yes, but can't the government control Bitcoin too? Eventually?
https://medium.com/@alpalpalp/why-decentralization-matters-fa016a90f595
a good article if you have time to read, and have plenty more where this came from!
No, it is truly decentralized - not one person can control it. That is why they don't like it.
Sounds like Justin True-Dope believes he can control the crypto from getting to the Canadian truckers . . .
only if it's in an exchange! so I am not sure the details there.
Bitcoin guru Michael Saylor describes Bitcoin as "a bank in the cloud". OK, let's pry that open a bit. As everybody knows, a bank has assets and liabilities. Bitcoin has liabilities: the network owes you the amount in your Bitcoin address. But riddle me this: where is the asset? LOL. It's a very successful pyramid scheme, that you can try to use to get your hands on more actual money: USD, or even better, gold.
ah, I recommend you reading the above mentioned books. The USD is the real pyramid scheme. No one who has studied Bitcoin would truly call it such a thing :)
It's all in programmed code - you own the keys to the BTC - it's only 'owed' if you keep it in an exchange, like Coinbase.
Alex missed some stuff. This is a fake economy that's been pumped up on a mountain of cheap debt. Not only personal debt, but government debt. Raising interest rates to the level required to put out the looming stagflation fire would completely crash the stock markets, result in a tsunami of corporate and private bankruptcies, destroy the housing market and ....perhaps most importantly, potentially bankrupt the federal government because it would threaten it's ability to finance the $30 trilling in national debt. Just a mere "normalizing" of interest rates to around 5% (currently at 0%), would not result in a recession, it would invite a depression that would make the 1930's look like an economic boom. And remember, back in the early 80's Volker had to raise rates into the double digits to tamp down the inflation fires that crushed the Carter administration and got us Regan a return to limited government political revolution.
The Federal Reserve is completely trapped. It is faced with a choice of destroying the dollar, an actual currency crisis, by maintaining the loose fiscal policy that keeps interest rates low, stock markets high and allows the federal government to financier its debt, or it can choose to fight inflation which will result in a depression and possible federal bankruptcy. It's going to continue to try to jawbone rates higher without actually raising them and hope to walk a tightrope it can't possibly stay on between higher rates or soaring inflation. It will also ramp up efforts to hide the inflation, which it already does a good job of but it will do more. I don't think it will be able to do enough to get people to stop believing their lying eyes though.
My guess is it will ultimately choose to sacrifice the dollar, which will actually inflate the national debt away and prevent government bankruptcy and, of course, economically destroy the non-asset rich part of the population. The other option, which would destroy the government and ruling class elites by crushing asset prices and plunging the economy into a depression which would result in their removal from office isn't going to work for them.
Great post.
What if anything can a "non-asset rich" part of the population do to prepare for this? If there's nothing I can do, and faced with starvation and homelessness, I guess a slow and painful death is in store for me.
If you own a home instead of rent, that's good. Whatever cash you do have put in hard assets. If you don't have much of anything, you at least won't lose much money but your battle will be trying to get wages to keep up with inflation.
Exactly. Inflation doesn't just steal value from your savings, but also your labor.
Yep, it is the most insidious of stealth taxes.
It's easy to bet against the dollar, and nearly all your 'cash' savings should be doing that.
"They really are this stupid and overconfident." I think the appropriate word here is "hubris." The current gang at the White House are certainly full of it,...hubris too.
Those of us old enough to remember the stagflation of the late 70's and the Volcker induced recessions of the early 80's know exactly what Alex is talking about. For instance, my parents bought a house in 1984. I believe the interest rate on the mortgage was something like 14%.
Alex is also right that the investor class and property owners (I mean investment property) will largely be protected from inflation, since those assets inflate right along with the money. Those who don't own any assets, renters and wage workers are going to be screwed by this. I remember watching an interview from about a decade ago. I wish I could remember the name of the fellow being interviewed. I believe he was Swiss or Austrian. At any rate, his assessment was that inflation is the 1 percenters' revenge on the rest of us for getting out of line. Seems about right for what we see at the moment.
Yep. We when we can no longer afford our homes and businesses, they will come in and buy up the rubble for pennies on the dollar.
I studied economics in graduate school in the early 80’s. All I really know as a result is inflation economics. Here is what I know: the real price you pay for massive public debt is inflation. If you create money, it dilutes the value of money. None of this is a surprise to me. $30 trillion in debt = inflation. No surprise, but this is big, big trouble.
I was talking to a banking bigwig the other day, he knows more than me but said that the inflation was till now tempered by steady increase in the velocity of the dollar around Asia during all the Asian growth. That velocity slowed down but we kept printing and boom.
If anyone isn’t aware of modern monetary theory is save yourself the time and just pretend it actually stands for magic money tree because that is essentially it.
All intentional it seems - purposefully let things go to Sh*t, cause chaos, implement police state, control the masses, strip us of our freedoms and liberty. Go truckers and hope those asleep and compliant wake the hell up.
That prediction by Jen Psaki - that wasn't meant to be statement of fact; it was meant as marketing and persuasion, pure and simple. The numbers were fantasy meant to persuade.
I don't think they have any concept of true or false, real or unreal anymore. It's all hype, and I think they buy their own hype.
Who cares. I love Biden. I haven’t worked in 2 years. They just keep sending me money. Love it!!!
Question for Alex (and anyone who has faced the reality that government consists of pathological liars and scammers:
Has anyone converted to being Libertarian yet? Anyone? Or do you still think the government is the solution
I became a Libertarian at 24, thanks to the Great Ron Paul. The best President we never had.
RON PAUL 2024!!!!
No conversion necessary - 35+ years.
Same. Once one realizes it’s all a racket, that they’re all actors and con artists, it’s just naive to keep giving these people power.
We're all libertarians now.
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https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/were-all-libertarians-now?r=uh70u
After all, when things are going well, who has time to sit around talking about the dangers of growing government? Why should we spend time thinking about monetary policy? We’ve got real shit to worry about. Just trust that the government is looking out for you.
But sooner or later the reality of the situation is too powerful to look past. The behemoth federal government is sticking its nose in so many places you can no longer ignore them. Suddenly what the idiot politicians say can ruin your life. When this happens, the political battle shifts as well. Suddenly regular people see the need to protect free speech and start speaking out about the dangers of government directing private companies to do their bidding. (There’s a word for that!) In this way, the underlying battle lines crystalize.
"The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries, but between authoritarians and libertarians."
And as the ‘leaders’ become more authoritarian, cracking down on all dissent, the proper response is for the people to become more libertarian.
"Recessions are awful. But inflation is worse." Exactly. That's why the FR is only going to raise interest rates .25%. Yup a whopping 1/4 of 1%. These anarchists want to destroy the US economy and then remake it into a Soviet style gulag. They have no intention of fixing this economy. Pretty soon you'll need a wheelbarrow of fake US currency to buy a loaf of bread.
Of course, that .25% interest increase doesn't count when it comes to our savings accounts. They'll stay at zero.
Even given their inflation numbers of 7.5% (which we all know are not what we are seeing in real life - the real numbers are MUCH higher), the Fed would have to raise interest rates above 8% to put a dent in inflation. If prices are rising at 7.5%, then you need to earn at least 8% on your money in order for you to want to consume less and save more. Unless you incentivize people to save more and consume less, you won't put the brakes on inflation. The bad news is that 8% interest on $30 trillion of debt is $2.4 trillion PER YEAR (and it is all short term financed at this point). To put that in perspective, in 2021, the federal government is expected to collect less than $2 trillion in income taxes. Total revenues are under $4 trillion. So if you add another $2.4 trillion onto their expenditures, where does the money come from? Cut everything except paying interest on the debt? If they choose to borrow more to pay the interest then the problem only gets worse. So they are truly between a rock and a hard place (of their own making.) The Fed will choose to let inflation run because the alternative is too unpleasant for them. And that will mean the loss of the USD as the world's reserve currency. It isn't going to be pretty. We may soon long for the days of Covid shutdowns.
Feeling inflation right now as I sit and wait for three hours for my son rather than drive 45 minutes back home after I spent $100 on this tank of gas, and that's just because that was the cut off on the debit card. But somehow I guess this is just hurting the rich.
Inflation makes the rich even richer. That is why the government loves it so much.
Inflation is great for debtors. And nobody is more debt than the government.
I was trying hard to figure out in what world Trudeau, Freeland, AOC and the Biden administration thought Modern Monetary Theory was a good idea— until I realized they’re all in line with WEF’s Agenda 2030. Remove western wealth. Open the floodgates of immigration. Dilute “western” culture by giving out free lunch until we’re a communist state where nobody owns anything. The interconnectedness of these absurd policies is sickening.
1) The Federal Government always lies regardless of which party controls the Whitehouse
2) regardless of party the Federal Government always lies
3) whether it's a Republican or Democrat who is president the US Federal Government always lies and sees it as a just and noble lie
They’re all scammers. They perpetuate scams as a permanent way of life. One scam after the other.
Sometimes it's worse than other times. Like now. The power they (the government) are wielding needs to be put in check.
No question. At a minimum some government people have to lose their jobs and credibility. Not just in the US but in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, for example.
Given the fact that the Biden administration has been dead wrong on absolutely ever issue, what would make Psaki's statement newsworthy would be that it was correct.
I'd subscribe but I'm too broke. Trying to find new ways to cut costs everyday as the price of food and gas continues to rise
Inflation did not exist, now its good for you!
Alex is absolutely right
Elections have consequences, and stolen elections have catastrophic consequences.
The puppeteers of the Brandon regime are doing everything they can to dismantle the underpinnings of our country. The only way their corruptocracy can survive is if there's some crisis for them to declare as an emergency so they can circumvent all normal constitutional methods.
Yep! Sooner or later the fake economy of being friends with the literal money-printers overtakes the real economy of voluntary trades of goods and services. When that happens, the wheels fall off.
Ironically
Everyone except for the most affluent suffer from this policy, and the fewer resources one has the more one suffers financially.
Put another way, the monetary policy favored by the LEFT, is redistributive toward the affluent and away from the lower class, away from precisely the people who can least afford it.
In exchange for this near lethal blow, they give them a few handouts, just enough to keep from rebelling and to think they are getting something.
But the wealth expropriated from the central bank dwarfs the wealth handed out to the lower class.
So the lower class votes for the people who are destroying them. And goes back for more over and over and over. It’s so cynical but it persists because it works,
When the lower class clamors for government intervention into anything, it’s the neoliberals who look at each other and laugh and give each other a high five. They duped them, they will ride the wave of political power the lower class just gave them, then use that power to shower themselves with wealth.
This inflation has little to do with the supply chain issue. The government has been doing non-stop stimulus since 2008. There is too much money chasing too few goods. The federal reserve is the one doing the stimulus. Truth be told, the government doesn’t need your taxes anymore*, they just “print” money into existence for whatever need they have. They keep taxes to “steer” the people in the direction they want. It’s crowd control, like so much else.
* that’s actually a bad thing. It’s one more way the oligarchy is disconnecting from We the People.
Reread Beardsley Ruml's "Taxes for Revenue are Obsolete". The stimulus checks were intended to stimulate inflation and demand for cocaine and meth. Do the Obiden crack pipes make more sense, now?
The thing that many people don't understand is that for all the lip service given to fighting inflation, the government LOVES inflation. It allows them to spend freely to pad their own pockets and those of all their lobbyists and best friends. It allows the debt to become less of a burden.
For all their pretense that they care about the pain that rising food and gas prices impose on average citizens, they really don't care at all as long as they are getting rich and powerful. And make no mistake, inflation is the easiest way to transfer wealth from the middle class to the rich. There is almost nothing that will stop them now.
I expect double digit inflation to be the norm very soon. I'd suggest that everyone with assets protect them asap. Buy hard assets like real estate and precious metals. Foreign, dividend paying, value stocks will likely do very well. I'd be cautious about US stocks. Even though inflation generally inflates stock prices, the US economy is likely to suffer dramatically from stagflation. That isn't a good environment for US companies.
The idea foreign stocks and currencies could do better is based on the time before the entire western world took orders from the WEF and WHO.
I know it's not a popular sentiment, but Alex, thank you for mentioning cannabis. Here in Illinois they have gone hog wild with cannabis sales everywhere you look. I can't believe this is going to end well. Many years back, two family members "graduated" from cannabis to opioids. I've heard all the arguments that cannabis isn't a "gateway" drug, but my own limited experience says otherwise. I think we are making a big mistake.
And here in the state of Washington, the govt is starting a program of assisting minorities in establishing their own cannabis businesses for the sake of racial equity. Saw that in the morning paper headlines and had a "surely this isn't happening" out-of-body experience. Unbelievable.
Completely agree. As a retired teacher I knew quite a few teens who began their downward spiral with marijuana, ending up in jail, on the street, or expired. The whole “cannabis is just a harmless plant that we must legalize for medicinal purposes” is a hoax.
You are one helluva writer Alex Berenson! Keeping it real. Keep ‘em coming.
One of the things I realized from Covid is that States with their governments are over. We are moving irrevocably toward a one world government. Most countries in the world had the same fantastical lockstep reaction, the masks, the isolation, the vax, knowing full well this was destroying their economy and endangering their peoples. This is also reflected in our open door policy at the southern border. This refugee problem is happening in many countries. What does it matter what country you live in when Big Brother is directing your life.
The Fed will not appreciably raise rates anytime soon because they are transferring wealth. The Fed runs the government and none of our politicians will take them on. Inflation is doing their work. It's not a problem for them. They intend to crush the middle class and own everything.
Yep! When we can no longer afford to pay for our homes or businesses, they will swoop in with newly printed cash and buy up the rubble for pennies on the dollar.
The interest payment on our current debt at the current rate of .5% is over 740 billion per year. At 10% it balloons to 14.8 trillion per year without touching the principal and that also assumes no additional debt.
A rock and a hard place indeed.
Do nothing = hyperinflation.
Raise rates = domestic insolvency and collapse of world economy.
Hedge accordingly :)
Yep - we’re talking Weimar Republic inflation eventually. Ludwig von Mises warned about the dangers of excessive money printing over 100 years ago.
and the progressives are suggesting we print more soon
They HAVE to print more soon. The whole house of cards depends on it.
HYPERinflation and then BOOM!
Using the 1990 calculation, inflation is over 10%.
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts
Happy Valentine's Day. Thank you for reminding me daily that I'm not crazy.
Detective Berenson! Happy Velentines Day! ❤️
Where is Paul Volcker?
Of course, the Biden Regime is poised to start a war with Russia. When the situation keeps getting worse, just change the daily talking points and hope the people are stupid enough to rally 'round the flag just one more time. Poor Old Joe has more important things to worry about than silly little things like skyrocketing inflation.