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Governments Start Calling For Price Controls – Rationing And CBDCs Come Next

September 21, 2023

By Brandon Smith

Last month in the middle of the surreal “Bidenomics” hype I published an article titled ‘Nothing Is Over: Inflation Is About To Come Back With A Vengeance.’  I outlined the misconceptions surrounding CPI and how it is not an accurate model for the effects of inflation.  I also noted that the index had been manipulated downwards by Joe Biden as he flooded the market with oil from the strategic reserves.  Because so many elements of the CPI are connected to energy, Biden had created an artificial drop in CPI using this strategy.

I argued that as the strategic reserves ran out and Biden lost his leverage, CPI would rise again and prices on a number of necessities would climb.  This is happening now, with the biggest jump in CPI in 14 months and gas prices clawing back towards all-time highs.

Inflation is not going away anytime soon, but the bigger issue at hand is who benefits most from inflation and rising prices? The answer might be obvious to some but many people are oblivious to the root cause of inflationary dysfunction and often see it as a consequence of random economic chaos rather than a product of clever engineering. The truth is, banking oligarchs and political authorities revel in the inflationary tidal wave because it is a perfect opportunity to institute far reaching socialist controls over resources.

In most cases central bankers are the primary culprits behind the creation of an inflationary event, and the word “creation” best applies because it is nearly impossible for overt inflation to occur without them. While money supply is not the only factor when dealing with inflation (sorry purists, but there are indeed other causes), it is the most important. More money chasing less resources triggers supply-side instability and prices go up. Central banks have a number of excuses as to why they “need” to conjure up more dollars or pesos or pounds or marks, but there is no doubt that they know what the ultimate end result will be.

It’s happened too many times for them not to know…

These inflation events trigger a predictable set of dominoes in society as well as in economy and finance. Price spikes, diminished savings, rising poverty, rising crime, and rising interest rates – This is then followed in most cases by failed rate hikes, more inflation, then more hikes, diminishing foreign investment in debt, foreign currency dumps (causing more inflation), plunging consumer spending and job losses.

This same pattern has been witnessed from 1920s Weimar Germany to 1970s America to 1990s Yugoslavia to 2000s Argentina and Venezuela and beyond. But what happens next? In each case the trend leads first to price controls on producers and distributors, which ultimately fail. Then comes government rationing and the complete takeover of necessities including the food supply.

Think it can’t happen in the US? It already has. In 1971 Richard Nixon issued Executive Order 11615, (under the Economic Stabilization Act which was established in 1970); the order demanded a 90 day freeze on wages and prices in order to counter inflation. It was an exceedingly rare action outside of a world war and conveniently took place during the election cycle. Keep in mind, the real inflationary crisis had not happened yet, but the price controls gave markets a short term boost and gave Nixon an election win.

In 1973, controls returned during the Arab Oil Embargo. They failed and resulted in long term gas price inflation. Gerald Ford then called for American businesses to institute price controls under his “Whip Inflation Now” campaign; it was the subject of ridicule and was even made fun of by a young Joe Biden (who now falsely claims to have solved his own inflation problem with his useless Inflation Reduction Act).

Finally, Jimmy Carter introduced price and wage “guidelines” (controls) which rewarded businesses that raised prices below a set percentage. Any businesses that raised prices above the percentage and made a pre-tax profit above the previous two years would be penalized. In no case could a firm increase its dollar profit by more than 6.5 percent unless the excess was attributable to increased unit sales volume. This plan, of course, also failed to stop inflation.

Ultimately, the Fed had to jack rates up to around 20% in 1980-1981 to stop exponential inflation, which led to considerable business losses and high unemployment.

The problem is simple, price controls lead to lost profit incentive which leads to less production. Less production leads to less supply and less supply leads to rising prices. This is on top of the root cancer that is fiat money creation. Politicians will rarely if ever address the actual cause of an inflationary crisis:  The government and the central banks. Instead, they try to blame free markets, “greedy” businesses and profit taking in times of distress.

Sadly, the pattern is repeating again today as it is now becoming clear to the public that central bank interest rate hikes are not having a significant effect and the public is still paying between 25%-50% more on the majority of goods they purchase compared to three years ago. As inflation grinds forward, multiple leftist governments are now openly discussing price controls.

Recently, Canada’s Justin Trudeau ordered top grocery chains in the country to cut prices while admonishing them for making higher profits, insinuating that they are the cause of inflation.  In Canada, profit margins among grocers are actually flat due to rising costs. If one looks only at raw profits without taking into account inflation in producer costs as well as transportation, distribution and wages, then it might look like these companies are pulling in the cash. There is zero evidence to support this claim.

What Trudeau is doing is pretending to be stupid while engaging in a very clever strategy of scapegoating. It’s the government and the central bankers that are the foundational cause of inflation, but by blaming individual business sectors he sets the stage for government enforced price controls. When these fail and create a crisis in supply he will then introduce rationing, and once the government has conditioned the public to accept rationing the elites then control the entire population’s access to food and necessities.

Some people may say “Well that’s Canada, what about the US?” The same agenda is in progress in America, but is being pursued at a city and state level. For example, the socialist Mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, just announced a plan for the city (using state and federal tax funds) to build government run grocery stores in “food deserts.” These are places where a combination of inflation and shoplifting has forced grocers to leave certain areas of the city.

The Chicago program would include price control measures and there’s ample opportunity for these institutions to use rationing in the future. Similar projects are also being considered in other cities across the country. In other words, leftist cities are scaring away businesses while planning to replace “essential services” with government run operations.

I wrote about the inevitability of government rationing after price controls last year in my article ‘The Stagflation Trap Will Lead To Universal Basic Income And Food Rationing.’  Rationing generally comes when price controls fail. It’s been a long time since the US has faced these kinds of conditions but we are likely to in the near future. This time around, I believe that if the establishment is given rationing power they will never let go again.

Rationing could also be used to lure the public into accepting Universal Basic Income (UBI) and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).  Government run food centers can easily restrict purchases of goods to a limited list of items, and also demand payment using specific methods (like digital currencies).  In a short period of time, cash would be removed because retailers, pressured by government, will refuse to accept it.

It’s hard to say what the future will bring in terms of politics, given that the next presidential campaign is looking like a complete circus. Historically speaking, though, both Democrat and Republican presidents have tried price controls in the past. Public pressure must be applied (at the state level at minimum) to stop this from happening. As convenient as it might seem to blame producers and distributors, the real threat is coming from governments and banks. We cannot let the people who caused the crisis also benefit from it by giving them even more power.

 

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The people in Washington are destroying your retirement account! Slowly but surely, the value of your 401(k) or IRA is being eaten away thanks to out-of-control inflation. And our elected officials in D.C. don’t care! In fact, they seem to be accelerating this trend with new legislation to print trillions of new dollars. And this is why I recommend Gold IRAs. To see how they work, Get this FREE info kit from Birch Gold Group about Gold IRAs. (Comes with NO obligation or strings attached.)

 

You can contact Brandon Smith at:

brandon@alt-market.com

You can also follow me at –

TwitterX: @AltMarket1

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Brandon Smith

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  • HJ September 21, 2023 at 3:50 pm

    What you write is true and I think that people who will suffer the most are those who live in big cities. Urbanisation made sure a big part of the population will not have access to local products, let alone not knowing where to search for it.

    Therefore the solution for me, as someone living on the countryside, would be to buy fruit, vegetables and meat in a radius of 20km around my house.

    Spend time with family, go for a walk, and live life by enjoying all the little things. That would be something the globalists hate the most.

    Greetings from the Netherlands

  • Stan Sylvester September 22, 2023 at 3:47 am

    Brilliant analysis, clearly communicated. Many thanks!

  • trainman6 September 22, 2023 at 6:00 am

    This is right from the playbook of the WEF, this is a man made event to bring about a world change to enslave people to the NWO.

  • UncommonSense September 22, 2023 at 8:04 am

    “CBDC” ~ I prefer to call it what it really will be: Central Bank Direct Control. “Digital Currency”? Yeah, but its really about control. Always has been, and always will be. Peace & safety for everyone! Right? (SIGH).

  • Rodster September 22, 2023 at 9:38 am

    Those that were awake saw this happening. I have been buying a little more the last 1.5 years.

  • Skippy September 22, 2023 at 10:13 am

    Thank you Brandon. Great article and you make it sound like a recipe or connecting the dots for what comes next. Looking down on the issues of the country and the world, could the dollar be one of or the main support in the Jenga tower of unsolved,unaddressed unresolved pieces.? The alt media, alt news writings and vids are saying a month’s worth of events are now happening in a day or days. How much more shaking can it take? And when it crumbles…are the bad guys still in control…for awhile, as in scorched earth policy? Is the survivability of the dollar the key to the ongoing corruption?skippy

  • Olde Reb September 22, 2023 at 10:29 am

    If the bank/government can control or limit what a citizen can buy with his money [as in CBDC], how does that differ from the massa in the big house controlling the finances of the cotton pickers ??

  • Olde Reb September 22, 2023 at 10:37 am

    If resources become restricted [such as gasoline] and the price goes up, that is not inflation [reduction in value] of the money.

    • Avatar photo
      Brandon Smith September 22, 2023 at 12:09 pm

      It’s price inflation none the less. Inflation is not only reduction in value of money. I don’t know why some people cling to this argument, it’s not accurate.

      • Michael Mack September 23, 2023 at 7:55 am

        When inflation is defined only as a reduction of value in money and not as a function of supply and demand, one leaves out the necessary relationship between trading a basket of goods. If you replace the basket of goods as a currency and one party is asking more for their own basket because they have a good that is limited in production, the other party may have to add to their basket of goods to make the trade. Adding to the basket of goods does not mean that those other goods in the basket are of less value, its just that you had to trade/add more to the basket for something that is limited in supply and you are willing to “pay” more. Inflation is more than just monetary.

  • Serge September 22, 2023 at 10:39 am

    Brillant article!
    Last march, you published this article: “Biden’s “Great Economic Recovery” Narrative Is Built On Deception”. RIGHT! CLEARLY!
    On economics, Democrats – not only! – lie and lie. Thus, “Joe” Biden is both Obama’s and Clinton’s “legitimate successor”.

  • J Sam September 22, 2023 at 12:11 pm

    I grew up in India and this is so reminiscent of the rationing system for food in India in the 70’s and 80’s. Our family of 5 had a ration card which would allow us to buy only certain amount of rice and oil and beans every week. The man at the store would check the box against each person on the ration card (yes it was an actual card). You could not get more than what was specified on our ration card. There was no other place to buy food than the government run stores. People didn’t know any better back then but given the internet and social media, I think it would much harder to pull it off now. But scary indeed.

  • Gauntlet33 September 22, 2023 at 12:26 pm

    Trudeau is a disgusting pig, who I’m sure has a long list of people who just can’t wait to punch him in the face. Same applies to all the other young WEF “leaders” like Jacinda Ardern.

  • Roundball Shaman September 22, 2023 at 1:19 pm

    “Inflation is not going away anytime soon, but the bigger issue at hand is who benefits most from inflation and rising prices?… banking oligarchs and political authorities revel in the inflationary tidal wave because it is a perfect opportunity to institute far reaching socialist controls over resources.”
    .
    Inflation is a great way to impoverish We the People. Every tick of the clock… The Elitist Class of Undeserved Privilege gets richer… and We the People get poorer. And as we all know… money is power. So, The Undeserving Privileged folks get more power and We get less.
    .
    And as history has repeatedly shown… this dynamic of impoverishment will go on on and until The People can’t take any more and get royally pissed about it. And then it gets real interesting.
    .
    “… the socialist Mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, just announced a plan for the city (using state and federal tax funds) to build government run grocery stores…”
    .
    He’ll start with the grocery stores. And as rampant shoplifting and no-cash-bail is allowed to continue in what used to be The City of Broad Shoulders… The City can take over the pharmacies and remaining department stores and dollar stores. Then they can take over all the medical facilities and movie houses. And whatever else might be left after the grand exit of legitimate businesses to areas less Woke and more sane.
    .
    Then Chicago can sell off O’Hare Field and Lincoln Park Zoo and The Picasso Statue and use to proceeds to buy the Chicago White Sox and Cubs and Bears and Bulls and Blackhawks. And then all the pro players must wear Number Zero to show ‘equality!’ and same-ness and lack of dangerous individuality and vitality. In short, fully drain Chicago of all Producers and Sane People and let it become overrun with Takers and Wokesters and lots of Red Flags flying on front porches overfilled with hungry and clueless people.
    .
    Chicago once WAS a great city of Broad Shoulders, big factories, hard-working people, and strong families. Now it is a failed mess of Slumping Shoulders and sagging fortunes
    and broken families of the unfortunates who remain living there — by choice or otherwise.

    There is so much Chicago traffic of cars heading down permanently to Tennessee and the Carolinas and Arizona that many interstates have been re-painted as All Going South only.
    .
    “Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin’ town, that toddlin’ town.. The town that Billy Sunday could not shut down…” the old song goes.
    .
    Maybe Billy Sunday couldn’t shut it down. But The Wokesters sure will.
    .
    And the White Sox will then be remained for reasons that won’t be mentioned here.

  • Serge September 24, 2023 at 12:36 pm

    P.S: “Gulag 3.0” seems to be rapidly taking shape in Russia.
    https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/russias-digital-transformation-come?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
    West vs East?! Who benefits? Clearly, this false paradigm benefits the globalists!

  • Gammer September 25, 2023 at 2:08 am

    Pretty much every country has a central bank that is stripping all assets by inflation and deflation.
    They have declared war on the populations yet I do not see reciprocity?

  • luke September 25, 2023 at 3:06 am

    Things certainly seem ominous at the present moment. Feels like we are approaching some sort of event horizon.

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