Posted on 05/27/2014 6:08:21 AM PDT by blam
Joe Weisenthal
May 26, 2014, 11:11 AM
At the end of last year, we wrote a post titled: Pretty Soon We Need To Talk About Inflation.
The argument was not that inflation was going to be a problem, or that the Fed needed to tighten rates, or anything like that.
It simply pointed out that since the crisis, there's been no legitimate reason to even be discussing inflation, since there wasn't any. But that that was about to change.
And indeed, here in 2014, there are indeed a lot of people talking about inflation.
Morgan Stanley's Vincent Reinhart writes in a recent note:
Our analysis also suggests that we’ve passed the lows and will see a gradual inflection higher in core inflation back towards the Fed's 2% target through 2015. Since the fall of 2012, the Fed has been communicating that the appropriate timing for the first rate hike will be around mid-2015. That expectation has been predicated on the assumption that inflation will move gradually, and convincingly, toward its 2% goal. The fact that we are likely on the cusp of seeing the Fed's expectation for inflation play out should have no bearing on the FOMC's forward guidance - a forecast coming true is not a reason to change the forecast.
Last Thursday, Wells Fargo wrote:
The debate over how much slack remains in the labor market is heating up within the FOMC. Where participants’ views currently lie and how they evolve in the coming months will shape members’ outlooks for the two sides of the Fed’s mandate and, by default, the timing of when to raise interest rates. Fed Chair Janet Yellen has emphasized a range of data indicative of labor market slack beyond the traditional measure of the unemployment rate.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Anything like “shadowstats” or something that has the real inflation rate, including food and energy?
Yep, for >5 years. It certainly took its time to get here.
I gave up posting Schiff’s inflation predictions years ago.
Food prices hae risen steadily since 0 ook office but very noticeably with this second term.
I know I’m paying twice as much for groceries as I was 5 years ago.
Certainly for meat and produce. Packaging sizes have decreased resulting in less product for relatively the same amount of money.
We’re on track.
And that locomotive is right behind us, bearing down, with the whistle blasting repeatedly.
Train-dodging is a highly risky sport.
Food prices hae risen steadily since 0 ook office but very noticeably with this second term.
**********
True that. Food packages are also getting smaller, or at least their content is. Many companies are shrinking their products but maintaining the same price. Walking through the grocery store is a depressing exercise these days.
This is yet another problem that the administration and its allies in the leftist media have successfully covered up. They don’t govern; they manipulate.
Yep. If you don’t have investments that at least keep your money ‘even’ with inflation, you are continuously losing. I use banks only for my mortgage and for checking/debit card transactions. That said, I was asked recently by my bank whether I wanted to open a savings account. The annual interest return? 0.03%. Of course I declined. What a joke.
I would submit that for those of us who are debt-free and have some savings, some inflation which caused increase in wages and interest paid on savings will be a good thing.
Where I've noticed it is on the shelves of those grocery stores and discounters that cater to budget-savy customers. A lot of the quality items actually sell out in them lately.
A little trick....last day of the month, benefits start going out to pensioners and others who collect. The shelves tend to be fully stocked for that. I can always find fully stocked shelves and smaller crowds a day or two before that...Wednesday or Thursday this week are potentially good grocery shopping days.
Generally rising prices (inflation) make all dollar amounts go up, while the actual value remains the same or decreases.
This gives the ruling elite the chance to say that the economic indicators are rising. But they aren’t.
They are insulated from the effects of inflation with their automatic pay and pension increases.
stagflation, anyone?
Obama can’t take all the blame for that, he isn’t God. This is a case where supply and demand is working.
Although excessive regulation has raised the price of food, the drought in the West has overshadowed those costs.
The Western US backgrounds so many calves until they go to the feedlot and they’ve had to reduce their numbers significantly. Even if we have rain it will take years to build herds again.
The Western rivers are so depleted that farmers aren’t getting their full allotment of water and are growing fewer water, labor and input intensive vegetables and in a lot of places are making more selling their water to other farmers who are desperate to keep fruit and nut trees alive.
We have a swine disease that is killing piglets and there is some kind of problem with shrimp. The price of chicken will come up because of the high cost of other meats.
And now with the forced alternative energy legislation in some states and the EPAs war on coal, pumping water is getting ever more expensive. We need the rivers running so at least the hydroelectric plants in the West can still run.
Just in our county, one of the largest, most prolific farmers is starting their year out with a 30% loss. They had a hail storm and it was too late to replant.
We still have an abundance of food in this country. We have so much new technology but technology can’t control nature and we have to rely on God.
It’s dilution.
You can’t have inflationary policies for over a decade without eventually experiencing inflation. I used to get out of the grocery store for about $100 less than a year ago now it seems I can’t get below $150. Of course they don’t count food in the statistics. It isn’t like that is a category of consumer goods that affects anyone.
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