Deatails about high inflation rate, and high debt levels

Source:

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/category/commentary/

... "I think that they (the government) were actually convinced that they could create, borrow and spend trillions upon trillions of dollars without any serious long-term consequences.  

... The people running things are very highly “educated”, and after spending decades getting to their current positions they are supposed to be “experts” that we can trust with very difficult decisions. 

... All throughout history, there have been many governments that have given in to the temptation to create money at an exponential rate, and it has ended badly every single time.

So our leaders should have known better.

But it is just so tempting, because pumping out money like crazy always seems to work out just great at first. 

For example, when the Weimar Republic first started wildly creating money it created an economic boom, but we all know how that experiment turned out in the end.

This week, the mainstream media is full of talk about inflation, and many of the talking heads seem mystified that things have gotten so bad. 

... I would like for you to take a look at how rapidly the Fed balance sheet has been rising. 

This is the sort of thing that you would expect to see in a banana republic.

I think that our leaders deceived themselves into thinking that they could get away with creating money so recklessly, but they haven’t.

... on Wednesday we learned that prices have been rising at the fastest pace in more than 30 years…

    The consumer price index, which is a basket of products ranging from gasoline and health care to groceries and rents, rose 6.2% from a year ago, the most since December 1990.

 ... On a monthly basis, the CPI increased 0.9% against the 0.6% estimate.

... I don’t actually put too much faith in the inflation numbers that the government gives us, because the way inflation is calculated has been changed more than two dozen times since 1980.

And every time the definition of inflation has been changed, the goal has been to make inflation appear to be lower.

According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if inflation was still calculated the way it was back in 1980, the official rate of inflation would be close to 15 percent right now.

... One of the factors that is driving up the overall rate of inflation is the price of gasoline. 

... Gasoline prices last month shot up nearly 50% from the same month a year ago, putting them at levels last seen in 2014.

Grocery prices climbed 5.4%,
with pork prices up 14.1% from a year ago,
the biggest increase since 1990.

 Prices for new vehicles jumped 9.8% in October, the largest rise since 1975,

while prices for furniture and bedding leapt by the most since 1951.

Prices for tires and sports equipment rose by the most since the early 1980s.

... The price of electricity in October increased 6.5% from the same month a year ago

while consumer expenses paid to utilities for gas went up 28%, according to numbers released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Fuel oil rose 59%,

and costs for propane, kerosene and firewood jumped by about 35%, the data show.

... The median price of single-family existing homes rose in nearly all  — 99% — of the 183 markets tracked by the National Association of Realtors in the third quarter, with double-digit price increases seen in 78% of the markets.

... the Labor Department’s own numbers show that real average hourly earnings are going down…

    The Labor Department reported Friday that average hourly earnings increased 0.4% in October ...

... (but) inflation for the month increased 0.9%, far more than what had been expected.

 (so) real average hourly earnings, when accounting for inflation, actually decreased 0.5% for the month.

... our standard of living is going down.

... many Americans are taking on more debt than ever before…

    American households are carrying record amounts of debt as home and auto prices surge ...

    Between July and September, US household debt climbed to a new record of $15.24 trillion, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Tuesday.

... Very shortly, the U.S. national debt will cross the 29 trillion dollar mark.

As our leaders in Washington continue to engage in the greatest debt binge in world history, the U.S. dollar will steadily lose value.

... just check out the pain that inflation is causing for one food bank in the San Francisco area…

    In the prohibitively expensive San Francisco Bay Area, the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Oakland is spending an extra $60,000 a month on food.

Combined with increased demand, it is now shelling out $1 million a month to distribute 4.5 million pounds (2 million kilograms) of food, said Michael Altfest, the Oakland food bank’s director of community engagement.

    Pre-pandemic, it was spending a quarter of the money for 2.5 million pounds (1.2 million kilograms) of food.

... The “experts” running the Fed and our politicians in Washington aren’t going to suddenly reverse direction.

In fact, Congress just passed another gigantic spending bill that Joe Biden desperately wanted. ... "