Is inflation something you are concerned with?

[sage2021]

Inflation was the number one thing that Americans are most concerned about, more than COVID, more than war, more than thousands of migrants crowding our country, the boarder problem, and crime. Are you worried that you won't be able to buy the groceries you are used to buying, fill your car with gas, etc?

[Massageman]

I am more concerned with the lying about it than the actual inflation itself- so far.

The fed says that we are at an inflation rate of about 2%. Well, LOL, RITALMFAO, hogwash, fiddle-fiddle, flim-flam, poppy-cock, and just plain male bovine feces.

I was paying $1.99 a pound for ground pork. It is now $3.49 on "sale" at $2.99 a pound. Increase = 33%+. I was paying $1.00 for a 32 ounce package of fries at the Dollar Tree. Now the biggest bag of fries they have is 20 ounces! Defacto increase? 37.5%. Eggs was paying.89 a dozen. Now $1.29 . Increase? 44.94%. Our medical insurance has gone up 12% this year. Our "government mandated Medicare tax" has gone up 5.71%, but since the Fed is just taking back an "increase", that really works out to an increase of 11.42%. And we can't forget gasoline! We were paying $1.99 a gallon and now pay $3.29 a gallon, an increase of- drum roll please- 65.32%!!! All these prices are same-store comparisons.

So listen up feds: stopping pi- - ing on our legs while you are trying to convince us that it's just raining. It just isn't working!

[sage2021]

You forgot MALARKEY 😃. Terrific reply

[Massageman]

Yup - missed that one. Must be getting forgetful in my old age. ;- )

[Massageman]

Thanks for the MHO.

[exitseven]

It is very scary to thing that by the time I am ready to retire you won't be able to buy a loaf of bread with a wheelbarrow full of dollar bills.
I try to think positive and assure myself that the country has had ups and downs before but I feel like we are going past the point of no return.

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO

[nightdrot]

As a personal matter, inflation is not - at least at this stage - a matter of great concern. To the extent that I work in politics the rate of inflation is obviously of some interest insofar as it impacts the economy and thus the national mood, but at the moment it is manageable. However, it is not necessarily going to remain that way.

My memories of the late 1970s are vivid. The inflation rate in 1979 hit 14.5%. The highest inflation rate the USA ever experienced in peacetime since records began to be kept. Then in 1980, inflation hit 13.1% - the first time the USA experienced back-to-back years of double digit inflation in peacetime.

Grant that I was in high school and not taking care of myself, but I do remember having my part-time after school job and watching my paycheck go down the drain, so to speak, just to keep gas in my first car. (Which, to be sure, was a used 1973 Pontiac Catalina. A giant gas guzzler if ever there was one.) My memories of the gas lines being equally vivid.

Also, I recall watching the news the night that Frank Reynolds, then the ABC World News Tonight anchorman, announced the 14.5% inflation rate. (I even remember the graphic that ABC news used. Red in color with an upward pointing arrow with a 14.5% overlaying it.) I also recall the subsequent jump in the prime interest rate to 21.5%, with mortgage rates hitting 25%.

Suffice to say, the country is not where it was in 1979 - and given that the Federal Reserve is not apt to let things get as far as they did back then, the odds are that interest rates will rise before inflation reaches those eye popping levels. Still, to the extent that inflation concerns me, those memories are quite vivid.

Throw in the ten thumbed Biden Administration, which is beginning to make the Carter Administration of 1977 - 1981 seem like the gold standard of competence. It does not inspire confidence and there is a sinking feeling that, even if matters will not reach 1979-1980 levels, things will not be pleasant and there is little reason for optimism.

To which I must add that I got into politics as a career in the late 1980s and to this time, the Carter Administration was my personal gold standard for grotesque ineptitude. No more. In my experience going back to when I got interested in politics beginning with the 1976 election, I have never seen a more blundering inept administration as the Biden presidency.

It does not inspire confidence. Throw in that Mr. Biden seems to show little or no interest - as either a political or policy matter - in the inflation rate. His goal being to get the $3.5 trillion spending bill - a bill that looks, forget its eye popping spending, increasingly beside the point.

If inflation takes off - and it need not hit 10% to have seriously distorting economic, social, political and policy effects - and even hits the 6% to 7% level, (it currently standing at 5.4%), the implications will be serious. In that sense, at both the personal and professional levels, inflation does concern me.

At this point I cast a warry eye on the inflation rate, and I must confess that given President Biden's ten thumbed incompetence, I am not optimistic. However, the consolation prize is that, at least to my mind, inflation remains a problem. It is not yet a crisis - though how much longer that will remain the state of affairs is an open question.

[sage2021]

Hello! As I was reading your answer/opinion you took me back in time, and, I also vividly remember that inflation was very high, and interest rates as well. But I believe they were pretty high before 1979. I wanted to buy a house that year, but sadly the interest rate shattered that dream.
What I most remember was the gasoline shortage in 1972. I had just graduated from high school and living with my single mom. She was unable to buy gas to get to work, and lost her job. She never worked again and had to live in in apartment building for the less fortunate and went on disability.
I would just like to add that I am petrified everyday about what will happen next. With the sudden in flux of the migration in our country, I shutter to think about what my future will be like. I ended up just like my mother did.
You are fortunate though and won't have to worry.
Thank you so much for your time and effort you made to write such an informative answer. ☮️

[nightdrot]

Thank you for your very kind compliments and the "thumbs up."

As for your personal situation, since I do not know it I cannot reply in any detail. However, the gas shortage of the early 1970s and again in the late 70s was as much because of first the OPEC boycott in response to the Yom Kippur War. The late 70s due to the Iranian revolution.

Also, the United States was far more dependent on oil imports back in the day than it is now. Though in fairness, until the recent actions of the Biden Administration, we had attained energy independence. Suffice to say, we are not that well off this time. However, we are still a long way off from where we were in the 70s.

As to inflation, it is not likely, though not impossible, that it would reach the 1970s levels again. Unlike then, the Fed is much more likely to step in now. Grant, it will not be a pleasant ride. Inflation could hit the 7% range and interest rates as high as low double digits. However, even the Biden Administration will have learned the lessons of history, so while things may get bad, they won't get that bad.

As to immigration , again without knowing your background it is hard to say. However, it is not likely that you will find yourself in competition with migrant workers for job prospects.

Be that as it may, I wish you well and thanks again.

[OlderAndWiser]

Yes, I am concerned, but i will not worry about it. Whatever happens, it will happen to all of us, and we may need to adapt, but we will all survive.

[NaultD]

Moderate inflation is not a bad thing especially for the majority of people, who have debts. Student loans, mortgages business loans all that jazz. Now it's bad for people who are loaning to people but that's how life works.

So we have had a tight strangle hold on inflation for most of our existence as a way to buy our way out of problems. Same thing happened in 2008 with the mortgage crisis. It's a rainday fund in a weird way. So it's ok to be worried about inflation but covid19 is so dangerous that opening the emergency rainyday fund is expected.

That's how you solve the problem by throwing money at it. Once it is solved you can bank even more for the next emergency. It's more of wasted money not to use its intended purpose.

[NamerOfStars]

Of course. Covid's a glorified cold (and I have exposure-induced immunity anyway), war's inevitable, but not with any country big enough to fight back, tens of thousands of people mean little in a country of hundreds of millions, Congress won't do squat about fixing out stupid immigration laws because the Democrats need their votes and the Republicans need cheap labor, and while crime is going to skyrocket, it'll be in no small part DUE to inflation.

Couple it with the reduced levels of supply for nearly everything because of the idiotic decisions of the last nineteen months, and you've got a recipe for a horrific social collapse. Why WOULDN'T I be concerned?

[Lliam]

Yes, it's a big concern. I understand that the U. S. treasury if broke. The U. S. can't pay its bills. Plus shortages in essential things like water, food and fuel are being deliberately engineered in order to drive price up
.
One goal of the globalists is a cashless society (digital currency). That will mean that people will no longer have control over their own money. Their every transaction will be tracked and taxed. And their funds can be cut off at will.

I fear that we could be headed for a financial crisis soon. That's why some people are stocking up on tangible assets including gold and silver.

[goaded]

Where do you get that idea from?

This poll says Government and Race Relations were the top two:
https://news.gallup.com/poll/351779/sharply-fewer-cite-covid-nation-top-problem.aspx

You and I are both old enough to remember double-digit inflation, but that was self-sustaining; because prices were going to go up, I had to ask for higher wages, because wages were going up, prices went up... Not so, this time, it's a simple problem of disruption of supply.

[sage2021]

I hope somehow I will be ok 😥

[Anonymous]

The things which concern me most are the Mafia / illuminati controlling the United States and other major nations, the petrodollar which is bad enough in itself but made more pressing by Chinas efforts to destablise the situation as this could cause an extinction event in the form of nuclear war.

Assuming the atmosphere isn't burnt off or the planet otherwise unable to sustain any form of life the next coming problem is AI and or robot soliders.

Robot soliders would mean an Elysium type scenario or class genocide and AI would almost certainly be another global extinction event for humans.

[BCA6010]

What you're describing is the tip of the iceberg. Wait until people get desperate and start preying on each other.

[sage2021]

I believe it is already happening!! 😥

[tartaarsaus]

It is important to be concerned about, since low/stable inflation is essential to a functioning economy.

[worldscolide]

Considering the cost of things I buy have basically doubled yeah I'm concerned.

[DCooper]

Inflation is one thing, stagflation is another. If you haven't seen it, buckle up because it's gonna get bumpy.

[888theGreat]

Benefits me. I have a lot of silver and silver flourishes in high inflation periods. If same as 1970's. Silver will reach $575 an ounce. That would make me $3,500,000.00 richer.

[Twalli]

Inflation is a good thing. If a society doesn't have some inflation that's bad. Runaway inflation or stagflation is bad, but just inflation is what we should want.

[Browneye57]

Well, nearing retirement, yes. My money simply gets degraded from inflation.

[es20490446e]

No. As long as I do slightly better than usual, I would survive.

[ewok737]

I personally am not concerned.
But life is getting rough for a lot of people because of it.

[karaspara]

No because I have no control over it whatsoever

[Anonymous]

Not with my holdings in silver, can't wait until the depopulation and cannibalism begins

[disgustingweebtrash]

Inflation is invisible tax

[goaded]

Mostly on the wealthy, though.

[disgustingweebtrash]

No, the wealthy get money through interest and putting it into assets. You're not serious are you?

[goaded]

Yes! If inflation is higher than interest, you lose the value of money that you've saved. Only if it's in a bank as cash, of course.

[disgustingweebtrash]

Interest on mortgages and loans... who is mostly offering them and who is mostly accepting?

Banks also count as the wealthy. Do not grant immunity to them.

[goaded]

Don't get me started on banks. They get to loan out 30x what they hold in credit, at far higher rates than they pay out, so they don't give a damn about who they loan money to, there's automatically only a 1% chance that they'll lose on any bet they make.

[Amy7777]

Yes, of course.

[gag2021]

Yes, we see it has started already this year.

[anylolone]

Yes.

[Jouth]

womon don't voting?

[tartaarsaus]

You can’t vote for the body that mostly determines inflation

[Jouth]

@tartaarsaus but inflammation is local can be minimize with medical treatments