I think the massive QE and subsequent super-low interest rates during the 0bama years was definitely political. Grandma Janet couldn’t do enough to kiss 0bama’s ring.
But I believe that not only is inflation rearing its ugly head, it is far worse than is being reported. While a box/bag of a commodity may be roughly the same price at the checkout stand, the box/bag is about 40% smaller in most cases!
Problem is the US has gargantuan and growing deficits. But the effects are mitigated by an expanding Trump economy (increased tax receipts).
I saw a number of red flags in 2006-07 that precipitated the real estate collapse in 2008. The biggest one was a report I read about major real estate deals in places like Dubai where the buyers were showing up at the closings with bags of U.S. cash. The U.S. government financed much of the Iraq war through off-budget expenditures, and one of the most expensive parts of the operation was the strategy of shipping pallets of U.S. currency to Iraq to bribe tribal leaders. Many of them simply took the money, bought real estate in other more stable Middle Eastern countries, and fled the scene.
None of this was really a big secret at the time. It's no coincidence that the price of oil peaked right around that 2006-07 time frame. Between low interest rates and this kind of unreported currency printing, the U.S. dollar had effectively lost a lot of its value.
We're on track for trillion dollar deficits even with the Trump economy running flat out. What's going to happen during the inevitable downturn? The government will be powerless to help because two trillion or three trillion dollar deficits are not sustainable.