Back in 2020, a former UK central banker predicted raging post-coronapanic inflation followed by 3-4 percent annual inflation rates starting at the end of 2022 and continuing for decades (see Inflation prediction to check in 2028). Here’s the official chart of CPI, mostly fraud because it doesn’t include the actual cost of housing:
(see “Summers: Inflation Reached 18% In 2022 Using The Government’s Previous Formula” (Forbes) for a discussion of an NBER paper)
What are you all seeing? A painting contractor in Cambridge did not start a project that he’d been hired to do last year. It had been scheduled for the fall of 2023. He demanded 20 percent more to do the same work starting in the spring of 2024, an inflation rate of 40 percent.
At the Flour bakery in Harvard Square, a $72 pie:
At a McDonald’s on the Mass Pike in western Maskachusetts, $15 for a standard meal including tax:
Although we did not pony up $72 for a pie, the Flour bakery experience was worth the $40 that my friend paid for our take-out lunch (two sandwiches, a drink, a brownie, tax, and tip). The line included not only an apparently young healthy female in an N95 mask but also a woman wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh-patterned sweater. As a bonus, this high-priced establishment sports a Black Lives Matter sign in the front window:
I’m not sure how retailers decide which social justice cause to support. Patagonia, which demanded eye-popping prices before Joe Biden made them popular, doesn’t care about Black Lives and instead proudly displays its allegiance to Rainbow Flagism:
Everything has been out of stock in Calif* since the last minimum wage increase. Unfortunately, blog commenters can’t afford to eat out every day like Greenspun. There’s no doubt they’re holding off on the next interest rate move until after the election & that move is going to increasingly have to be upward. It could be another stonk market crash in October as the moratorium comes to an end & the public starts seeing reality.
Inflation is our greatest strength!
FB: A little greater with every passing day…
It’s OK, Biden has a solution, allow in more illegal migrants [1]:
“You know, one of the reasons why our economy is growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants. We look to – the reason – look, think about it – why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants,”
Does Biden differentiates between legal and illegal migrants/immigrants?
[1] https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/02/politics/biden-japan-xenophobic-us-ally/index.html
Japan should be used as a counterexample to what Biden implies. Japanese people live on average longer then Americans, have lower unemployment and average cheaper real estate, and use technology in place of low-skilled poorly paid labor. Biden growth is not a civilized world growth.real per capita GDP stagnates or even drops while people who lived for a long time in the US are priced out of labor market. US debt is growing exponentially with interest on it exceeding US defense budget. Biden also misinforms on Russia. Russia is more similar to America, menial jobs in Russia are usually done by immigrants from Central Asia.