This article was written by Michael Snyder and originally published at The Economic Collapse
If you are less than 40 years old, you have never seen inflation like this in the United States. Despite all the warnings, our politicians in Washington just kept borrowing and spending trillions upon trillions of dollars that we did not have. And despite all the warnings, the Federal Reserve just kept pumping trillions of fresh dollars into the financial system. Now we have a giant mess on our hands, and anyone that believes that this is going to be easily fixed is simply being delusional.
Of course most Americans weren’t going to start paying attention to all of this until it started to affect them personally.
Now it is affecting all of us personally, and there are millions of people out there who are becoming increasingly frustrated about the current state of affairs.
Unfortunately, this crisis appears to be just in the early stages. The following are 5 numbers that indicate that the inflation crisis in the United States continues to get even worse…
#1 The producer price index has risen at a rate of 9.7 percent over the previous 12 months. According to CNBC, that is close to a brand new record…
The producer price index, which measures final demand goods and services, increased 1% for the month, against the Dow Jones estimate for 0.5%. Over the past 12 months the gauge rose an unadjusted 9.7%, close to a record in data going back to 2010.
Last week we learned that the consumer price index has risen by 7.5 percent over the previous 12 months. Of course if the consumer price index was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, the real number would actually be more than double the official number that we were just given.
#2 Truck trailer prices in January 2022 were 29.6 percent higher than they were in January 2021…
A shortage of parts and labor has sent the prices of truck trailers through the roof.
Truck trailer prices jumped 3.1 percent in January, data from the Department of Labor showed Tuesday. That followed a 3.8 percent increase in December. Compared with 12-months ago, trailer prices are up 29.6 percent, by far the biggest one-year jump in records going back to 1980.
#3 The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is telling us that the price of used vehicles rose by an astounding 40.5 percent from January 2021 to January 2022…
According to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday, the consumer price index for used cars and trucks jumped up by 40.5% from January 2021 to January 2022. That means within a year, the average price of used cars and trucks for urban consumers has gone up by 40.5%.
#4 You may have noticed that you are paying a lot more at the pump these days. If you can believe it, the price of gasoline has actually shot up 40.8 percent since Joe Biden first entered the White House…
Between January 2021 and January 2022–President Joe Biden’s first year in office–the price of unleaded gasoline increased 40.8 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
#5 The price of lumber has really been surging once again. According to the National Association of Home Builders, this most recent surge has “added more than $18,600 to the price of a newly built home”…
That is adding to the cost of both building a new home and remodeling an older one. The National Association of Home Builders estimated the recent price jump added more than $18,600 to the price of a newly built home. It also added nearly $7,300 to the cost of the average new multifamily home, which translates into households paying $67 a month more to rent a new apartment.
Ouch.
I sure wouldn’t want to be trying to build a new home in this environment.
Pressure has been building on the Federal Reserve to take action, and it is being anticipated that the “geniuses” at the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates by 50 basis points next month…
The hot inflation readings led financial markets to price in a better-than-even chance of a 50 basis points interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve next month.
Inflation is running well above the U.S. central bank’s 2 percent target. Economists are expecting as many as seven rate hikes this year.
Just recently, a reader sent me an email which pointed out that we shouldn’t have a system where an unelected group of bureaucrats gets together and determines what our interest rates are going to be.
And he is exactly right.
In a free market system, interest rates would be determined by the free market.
But we don’t have a free market system anymore.
In fact, we haven’t had one for a long time.
Of course when it comes to the economy, the guy in the White House is going to get more of the credit or more of the blame for what is going on than anyone else.
And a brand new poll that was just released has Joe Biden’s approval rating sitting at just 34 percent…
The president’s approval rating nationally sits around 40 percent, according to several tracking averages, but a new CIVIQS poll showed it sitting at 34 percent from the 165,786 respondents surveyed.
That is a shockingly bad number, and what should alarm Democrats even more is how bad Biden’s numbers are in the most important swing states…
Unfortunately, Biden isn’t going to resign no matter how low his numbers go.
That means that we are going to have at least three more years of either Joe Biden or Kamala Harris running the country.
So we shouldn’t expect any dramatic policy shifts from Washington.
And the “geniuses” at the Fed are undoubtedly going to find even more ways to really mess things up. They are the ones that are more responsible than anyone else for getting us into this mess, and now many Americans are desperately hoping that they can get us out of it.
If you are waiting for them to fix the economy, you are going to be waiting a really, really long time.
I have been warning for years that the decisions that were being made would have severe consequences, and now those consequences have started to arrive.
We are on a road to national ruin, and those that are running things are even more blind than those that they are supposed to be leading.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Are the people running things actually “blind”, or, is an economic collapse all part of the plan? I think the central bankers know EXACTLY what they are doing. – Brandon Smith, Founder of Alt-Market
After 14 long years of ultra-loose monetary policy from the Federal Reserve, it’s no secret that inflation is primed to soar. If your IRA or 401(k) is exposed to this threat, it’s critical to act now! That’s why thousands of Americans are moving their retirement into a Gold IRA. Learn how you can too with a free info kit on gold from Birch Gold Group. It reveals the little-known IRS Tax Law to move your IRA or 401(k) into gold. Click here to get your free Info Kit on Gold.
It’s often said on ZH that Michael Snyder is a big doom and gloomer, but there’s sure no arguing with the facts he presents.
They can’t “build back better” and “go direct” with digital currency, digital ID, and social credit control systems until they finish the controlled collapse of the economy and the complete de-valuation of the existing currency. Inflation, shortages, price increases, and probably an “Event 201” style global financial system attack will all be increasing toward these ends.