Free Republic

CNN tried to normalize the communist idea of the government controlling the prices of food and gas as a way to combat inflation. The idea was so bonkers, CNN even admitted that economists have largely panned the suggestion. CNN’s ridiculous story was headlined, “Should the government control the price of food and gas?” The outlet spun the idea that it's “been done before, typically during times of crisis.” But, as CNN conceded: “for most mainstream economists, the answer to this question is a resounding ‘no.’” Former President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Austan Goolsbee reportedly responded in a...

While the Zimbabwe dollar has been allowed to gradually weaken from parity with the greenback in February 2019 to 112.80 to the dollar today, it trades at over 200 to the dollar on the black market, stoking inflation. The local currency slid 3.68% at the first auction of the year to 112.80 per U.S. dollar, according to data provided by the central bank. That’s the largest decline in two months.Source: BloombergThe black market ZimDollar trades at 240/USDAs Bloomberg reports, business has said it is at the receiving end of the currency rate disparity. It struggles to obtain the foreign currency...

California remains the most expensive state for gas, outpacing the national average by more than a dollar, according to AAA. However, Hawaii and Washington and Oregon are not far behind, according to AAA's latest data. Currently, the average price for a gallon of gasoline in California will cost motorists $4.65, according to AAA. It's a significant jump from the national average, which rose one cent from a week ago to $3.31, according to AAA. This increase, which marks the third week of consecutive gains in 2022, is being "driven primarily by the cost of crude oil," according to AAA. Here...

The Left - who once described every single one of President Trump’s press conferences as ‘bizarre’ – apparently doesn’t know bizarre from a hole in the ground. Not a peep when presented with the actual most bizarre presidential press conference of all time. Give them a presser in which Joey Potatoes greenlights a ‘minor incursion’into Ukraine by Russia, claims that he brought gas prices down, that Inflation has nothing to do with him and his out-of-control federal spending, that his Veep is doing a “good job” on “voting rights” (it failed in the Senate last night), yet still maintains that...

The first meal of the day may soon become more expensive for consumers as food inflation soars. A combination of citrus disease and adverse weather conditions have plagued Florida’s orange crop and may soon constrain supplies, which has already forced orange juice prices to multi-year highs as demand remains robust. “You have your classical supply-demand mismatch,” Shawn Hackett, president of Hackett Financial Advisors, which specializes in agricultural commodities analysis, told CNN Bussiness. Due to dwindling supply, “much higher prices are coming to supermarkets,” he warned. Last week, the US Agriculture Department issued a report about the state of Florida’s orange...

Republican Rand Paul released an 18-page report on inflation and the impact on small businesses and families across America, many of whom are now struggling after being unemployed, just getting back to work, and being hit by price increases on a wide-variety of items at the store. Unless your wages went up at work, then you're probably wondering where all your money is going, and it's a good bet that inflation price increases are sucking down every red cent you had left. Rand Paul's report suggests that it will only get worse before it gets better. Some key points from...

Peter Schiff discusses whether the current inflation will turn into hyperinflation and how to protect your savings and investments. The Rob Schmitt Show on Newsmax 1/11/22. Segment...

Good morning. I see that NPR is suddenly quite concerned about Biden being blamed for inflation.How insanely naïve to think shutting down domestic oil and gas production, killing the Keystone pipeline, pumping up the money supply and infusing the economy with a seemingly endless stream of COVID stimulus dollars (aka Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan) could possibly cause inflation. All the smart people know that inflation is the fault of the belligerent people who refuse to get vaccinated – and Trump, of course.So the Powerful Left has no choice but to shutdown conservative voices that are spouting misinformation in...

The cross border vaccine mandate for truckers in/out of Canada is now in effect. The U.S. vaccine mandate takes effect on January 22nd. It will take a few days to see the consequences, but there will be consequences. Keep in mind, any impact is taking place in a supply chain system that is already tenuous and unstable at best. A small disruption that may have been minimally significant against a fully operational supply chain, is more likely to be a much bigger disruption in a supply chain that is already under a severe amount of demand side stress. Somewhere in...

Well, Omicron is hitting hard. Not the virus itself, but governments’ reaction to the virus. The NY Empire Manufacturing Index has tanked into negative territory. New orders are down 5%. On the energy front, West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures are up 79% since January 1, 2021 while regular gasoline prices are up “only” 50% over the same period. How about inflation and the Treasury yield curve? Inflation has soared to 40-year highs under Biden as energy prices (WTI Crude Futures) have soared 79%. Maybe they should play the Darth Vader theme when Biden goes to the podium to stammer.

Imagine you're a White House staffer, or even Joe Biden himself. Suffering from a serious case of bad political news, you decide to tune into CNN's New Day, assured of some chicken soup for the soul. But, wait a second! They're talking of Democrats "panicked" over Biden's "abysmal, spectacular, failures." They're rolling an SNL clip mocking Biden over approval ratings so low, they're in "power-save" mode. You shake the remote: did you unintentionally tune into that horrible right-wing network? This can't be happening! But, sadly for the Biden's folks, there was no mistake. That actually was New Day, absolutely taking...

Setting aside the ever-present issue of the global supply chain crunch presently gestating in the PROC, where factories and ports are struggling with the most restrictive lockdown measures since the (Fauci-funded) “China virus” first burst forth out of Wuhan, the US is still facing serious shortages of workers and critical goods like foodstuffs and medicine. The US labor market disappointed once again in December, while November’s similarly disappointing number was revised up only slightly. Meanwhile, those who are working are struggling with the fact that inflationary price pressures are hammering real wages. And regardless of what the Fed does next,...

Mortgage Orb has the tantalizing headline: “Fannie Mae’s Financing for Multifamily Affordable Housing Grew Over 23%.” At first, this sounds amazing … until you realize how simply unaffordable housing is much of urban/suburban America. If you look at the following chart, you can see multifamily (5+ unit) starts remain elevated (pink box) which is not surprising given that home prices at growing at 19.1% YoY nationally (orange circle) and REAL hourly earnings have declined (yellow triangle) thanks to reemergence of inflation after 40 years. Then we have the humming dragon, rising mortgage rates, that will reduce housing affordability even further....

Since the 2020 Covid outbreak, the top 1% have been on the Stimulypto gravy train. The top 1% in terms of share of total net worth (blue line) is near the all-time high while the bottom 50% share of total net worth (red line) is at the all-time low. So, you thought all that Covid relief spending along with Fed monetary stimulus would help the bottom 50%?

Inflation is burning out of control. While home price growth has been off the cherts (as Jean-Ralphio would say), commercial real estate has jumped incredibly at 22% YoY. The Bloomberg charting function hasn’t updated for the Q4 NCREIF report yet so I had to manually write-in 22% on the following chart. To quote Dean Martin, “Ain’t that a kick in the head.” Commercial real estate returns are now higher than house price growth. So, what will happen IF The Fed follows through with its monetary stimulus reduction? JPMC’s Jaime Dimon warns that The Fed could hike 7 times in 2022...

Can we chat?Jimmy Carter invented the Misery Index – the combined unemployment rate plus inflation rate – in order to flog his 1976 opponent, Jerry Ford, about the head. As most often happens with Democrats, his own policies led to even more misery and he ended up beating Ford’s misery score by a full 2 percentage points, topping the misery index at 22%.Now cometh Joe Biden with his bag of magic beans. So far his official score is 10.9%. At the time he took the reins, so to speak, the misery index was under 7% and unemployment was on the...

"Other fast-food chains, including rivals to Domino’s, have also increased their prices due to rising costs. Domino's Pizza announced that they are reducing the number of wings in its $7.99 carry-out offer from ten pieces to eight because of rising food and labor costs. Additionally, wings will only be available for ordering online, no longer by phone. Domino's CEO Richard Allison told CNN Business, that the company has had to deal with "unprecedented increases" in food prices. He explained that the costs of its ingredients have increased eight to ten percent compared to last year. That is significantly higher than...

Retail sales in the U.S. declined sharply in December, indicating that the worst inflation in decades is hitting consumers harder than analysts expected. Total retail sales dropped 1.9 percent in December, typically a month of robust holiday shopping, Commerce Department data showed Friday. The figures are not adjusted for inflation, suggesting that price-adjusted purchases were even weaker. The Consumer Price Index rose 0.5 percent in December. The results were far worse than analysts expected. The median estimate by analysts was for sales to be flat to down just one-tenth of a percentage point. Retail sales were better than expected in...

That Bidenflation is really hurting Americans. Start with the UMich Buying Conditions for Houses. It “rose” to 83. Unfortunately, 100 is the baseline and any number below 100 is bad. The reason? The massive increase in US home prices since 2020. But retail sales are hurting thanks to higher prices. Retail sales less food services and auto are DOWN 3.1% MoM. Meanwhile, US industrial production fell to -0.3%. Mission accomplished?

U.S.—In a historic first, the inflation rate of the U.S. Dollar has surpassed the approval rating of the President. "Wow! My inflation is way higher than Trump's inflation! Record high! Take that, Trump!" said Biden to a bowl of oranges he had mistaken for Trump. "It's so high it even passed my really high approval rating! That's how you do it, Jack!" Biden's aides then rushed in to explain that high inflation is a bad thing. According to experts, runaway inflation is so high that it has broken the inflation meters on all the economist's inflation measuring machines. Many are...