Inflation – The Economic Collapse

Why Are Food Prices Going Up So Rapidly?

Michael — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 03:25:30 +0000

For a long time I have been warning that global food prices would rise dramatically, and that is precisely what we have witnessed over the past 12 months. Unfortunately, global wages are not rising nearly as quickly as global food prices are, and so this has pushed millions and millions more people into poverty and hunger. Here in the United States, nobody is currently in danger of starving to death, but many Americans have been getting a severe case of sticker shock when they go to the grocery store. Not since the Jimmy Carter era of the 1970s have we seen prices escalate like this, and people are starting to get angry.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, global food supplies have been getting tighter and tighter. When I first started writing about this, certain individuals derisively dismissed what I had to say, but now the truth is becoming apparent to everyone.

Very tight supplies and growing demand have pushed global food prices 32.9 percent higher over the past year…

Central banks and mainstream media continue to peddle the notion that soaring food inflation is temporary and the average Joe and Jane should not worry about it. But in a new report via the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), global food prices are on the rise, once again, and back to near-decade highs.

FAO released a statement Thursday that detailed after two consecutive months of declines, world food prices in August jumped due to solid gains in sugar, vegetable oils, and cereals.

FAO’s food price index, which follows international prices of globally traded food commodities, averaged 127.4 points in August, up 3.9 points (3.1%) from July and 31.5 points (32.9%) from the same period last year.

Unfortunately, experts are telling us that food prices are going to continue to climb.

In fact, one is estimating that food prices will continue to go up like this “for the next two years or so”…

Grocery prices have been on an upward trend for most of the year, and some experts say that this will continue for at least the next several years.

“We’re going to continue to see price increases, probably for the next two years or so,” says Phil Lempert, an analyst and food trends expert perhaps best known as the Supermarket Guru.

This is really bad news.

So why is this happening?

Well, the Biden administration is blaming the greed of the meat processing industry…

During Wednesday’s press briefing, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spoke about the actions the administration was taking to help alleviate what Deese called ‘pandemic profiteering’ from the top meat processing companies.

‘One of the interesting findings of the report that we put out today, is that about half of the overall increase in grocery prices can be attributed to significant increases in prices in three products – in beef, in pork and in poultry,’ Deese said from the podium.

Certainly greed is playing a role, but as Zero Hedge has pointed out, a whole host of other factors are contributing to this crisis as well…

A combination of global droughts, volatile weather, labor shortages, and supply chain disruptions persisting from COVID, among others, have contributed to the rapid rise in food prices over the last year.

Heading into fall, soaring food inflation shows no signs of abating and may worsen. This may cause socio-economic turmoil in emerging market economies, mainly because people in those countries allocate more of their daily budgets to food.

The pandemic was supposed to be subsiding by now, and so by this time of the year prices were supposed to be starting to stabilize.

But instead the Delta variant is causing widespread panic, and this is causing more disruptions throughout our entire society…

The summer that was supposed to mark America’s independence from COVID-19 is instead drawing to a close with the U.S. more firmly under the tyranny of the virus, with deaths per day back up to where they were in March.

The delta variant is filling hospitals, sickening alarming numbers of children and driving coronavirus deaths in some places to the highest levels of the entire pandemic. School systems that reopened their classrooms are abruptly switching back to remote learning because of outbreaks. Legal disputes, threats and violence have erupted over mask and vaccine requirements.

We already had a shortage of nurses and other health care workers before this pandemic, and now all of the various mandates that have been instituted threaten to cause a meltdown of the entire system…

Fortune.com reported last week that about 39 percent of U.S. hospitals have announced vaccine mandates for staff members.

“It’s not just nurses at stake with vaccine mandates. Respiratory techs, nursing assistants, food service employees, billing staff and other health care workers are already in short supply. According to the latest KFF/The Washington Post Frontline Health Care Workers Survey, released in April, at least one-third of health care workers who assist with patient care and administrative tasks have considered leaving the workforce,” according to Fortune.

I can’t even begin to describe how foolish it is to institute mandates that could potentially force thousands upon thousands of health care workers to leave their jobs right in the middle of a pandemic.

But that is what we are now facing.

The way that we have responded to this pandemic has been a complete and total nightmare, but those running things seem entirely convinced that they are on the right track.

Moving forward, there is going to be more panic, more chaos, more shortages and more price increases.

So even though food prices are already ridiculously high, now is the time to stock up, because food prices are only going to go higher from here.

I have been doing my best to sound the alarm, but sometimes I feel like I am pounding my head into a wall.

Most people just have an absurd amount of faith in the strength and durability of our system, and so they refuse to believe that it could ever fail.

But it is failing, and what we have experienced so far is just a preview of coming attractions.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help. During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post Why Are Food Prices Going Up So Rapidly? appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

We Are Witnessing Incompetence On A Colossal Scale Throughout Our Society

Michael — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 04:07:27 +0000

These days, it is a surprise when someone actually does something competently. It is often said that if you want something done right you have got to do it yourself, and today that is more true than ever. Just think about it. How often have you had a delivery delayed or messed up? How often have you had someone supposedly “fix” something but it isn’t actually fixed? How often have you purchased something that breaks shortly thereafter? And don’t even get me started on the complete and utter incompetence that we see in the tech industry. How hard could it possibly be to release a piece of software that is not riddled with all sorts of nightmarish bugs that need to be “patched” as soon as possible?

Sadly, in our upside down society some of the most incompetent people that you can imagine end up running entire organizations, and if you are particularly corrupt and useless you may get to be a politician.

By now, you are probably thinking that I am going to talk about Joe Biden in this article, and you are right.

In this era of extreme incompetence, it somehow seems appropriate that sleepy Joe is presiding over our “idiocracy”.

Barack Obama knew that this could happen. According to Politico, he once said that nobody should “underestimate Joe’s ability to **** things up”.

Everything that Biden touches seems to turn into a failure. Just look at the crisis on the border. It is the worst that it has ever been in our entire history, and we are being told that “morale is in the toilet” among our Border Patrol agents…

“Morale is in the toilet,” Jon Anfinsen, a spokesman for the Border Patrol’s union, told the Washington Examiner. “Morale is low because agents aren’t allowed to do their job — if our job is to be out patrolling the border in between the ports of entry and actively searching for people who have crossed illegally, but we’re not allowed to go do that job, it basically creates this defeated feeling in everyone.”

Thanks to Biden’s wonderful new policies, our Border Patrol agents have their hands tied and are not able to do their jobs, and as a result many of them show up to work “sort of downtrodden, almost dead inside”…

“Everyone shows up to work sort of downtrodden, almost dead inside, for lack of a better term,” Anfinsen stated. “They’re not allowed to [do] the job, and they know that people are getting away every single day, every hour.”

Of course it isn’t just on the border where Biden is completely and utterly failing.

He is doing such a “great job” with the economy that the term “Bidenflation” has been coined less than a year into his presidency.

And his response to the COVID pandemic has been a nightmare of historic proportions. If I were to tell you how I really feel about the decisions that he has been making during this pandemic, I would get censored into oblivion by the social media companies.

Right now, what everyone is talking about is how incompetent the Biden administration has been in handling the situation in Afghanistan.

The fall of Saigon in 1975 and the Iranian hostage crisis during the Carter administration both made America look really weak, but we have never seen anything like the debacle at the airport in Kabul.

The “terrorists” that we went it to destroy in 2001 now have us surrounded and cornered in half an airport, and there are still countless numbers of people that can’t get to the evacuation planes.

In fact, staff members that worked at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul feel like they have been completely betrayed by our government at this point…

Local staff members at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul are “deeply disheartened” by U.S. evacuation efforts and have expressed a sense of betrayal and distrust in the U.S. government, according to a State Department diplomatic cable obtained by NBC News.

The cable, which was sent Saturday, said memos were sent Wednesday inviting Afghan staff members at the embassy to head to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. It told them to take food and to prepare for difficult conditions.

When staffers went to the airport in response to that cable, they quickly found themselves in the middle of a nightmare…

Staffers reported being jostled, hit, spat on and cursed at by Taliban fighters at checkpoints near the airport, it said, adding that criminals were taking advantage of the chaos while the U.S. military tried to maintain order “in an extremely physical situation.”

Some staff members reported that they were almost separated from their children, while others collapsed in a crush of people and had to be taken to hospitals with injuries, the cable said. Others said they had collapsed on the road because of heat exhaustion, it said.

British forces have been leaving the airport and bringing back people that need to be evacuated, but for some reason the U.S. hasn’t done the same thing.

There are still thousands of Americans inside the country, and time is running out, because the Taliban won’t move the August 31 deadline…

The White House repeatedly refused to address the Taliban’s August 31 deadline to get US troops out of Afghanistan on Monday, dodging questions on the subject and snapping at reporters who asked how the government planned to save the remaining Americans stuck in Kabul.

The Taliban’s spokesman issued the sternest threat yet to Biden on Monday morning, saying there will be ‘consequences’ if US troops – who are holed up at the airport in Kabul evacuating tens of thousands of people and fending off an increasingly desperate crowd – don’t leave in the next eight days.

Biden should immediately resign, but he will never do that.

Of course there are others that also should share in the blame.

Just like much of the rest of our society, the brass at the Pentagon has been getting increasingly incompetent over the years, but up until recently it hasn’t been talked about too much.

But now that our failures in Afghanistan have been exposed for the whole world to see, the mainstream media is having a field day mocking them. For example, the following comes from the New York Post…

To the surprise of only the Biden administration and its top brass, the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan last week after 20 years of frivolous American adventurism. It was a spectacular failure of American diplomacy, statecraft, intelligence and, most of all, military capability. In short, mission very much not accomplished.

But that’s pretty much standard operating procedure for the nearly useless behemoth called the Pentagon, which hasn’t won a war since the kinder, gentler American government changed its name from the War Department to the Defense Department shortly after World War II.

So why don’t any of our top military officials ever get fired?

As Darren Beattie has pointed out, NFL head coaches are held to a much higher standard than our generals and admirals are…

Is the head coach always the problem with a bad NFL team? Obviously not. But a head coach is the highly-compensated captain of a $200 million operation, and his job is to win. Coaches who don’t win get fired, because being a perpetual, complacent loser is unacceptable.

The ongoing collapse of the U.S.-backed regime in Afghanistan is the geopolitical equivalent of an NFL team going 0-16 twenty seasons in a row. Perhaps it’s worse than that, in fact. The Afghanistan disaster is the equivalent of an NFL All-Pro team taking on a Division III liberal arts college, being shut out, and then crashing the team bus into a ditch.

If we were to start holding military officials accountable for their performance, firing Mark Milley would be a really good start.

I have absolutely no idea how someone like that got to be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Personally, I would not even trust him to mop the floors of the local Dairy Queen.

What is even more tragic is that millions upon millions of Americans unquestionably accept whatever our incompetent leaders tell them to believe without taking the time and effort to think for themselves and come to their own conclusions.

The blind are truly leading the blind, and we are steamrolling down a highway that doesn’t lead anywhere good.

Every great society throughout history has crumbled eventually, and now our society is crumbling too.

I suppose that it was probably inevitable, but do we really have to look so completely and utterly incompetent in the process?

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written five others that are available on Amazon.com including “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help. During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post We Are Witnessing Incompetence On A Colossal Scale Throughout Our Society appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

I Feel Like I Am Living In Crazytown

Michael — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 01:28:28 +0000

We haven’t had an extended bout of painful inflation like this since the days of the Carter administration, and our leaders in Washington have decided that the best way forward is to rapidly create even more inflation. They keep using words like “transitory” to describe the current inflation crisis, but then they turn right around and talk about the need to create, borrow and spend even more money. It is utter madness, but at this point there is nobody that is going to stop them. We are all passengers on a “highway to Weimar”, and those that have their hands on the wheel have gone completely nuts.

On Wednesday, we learned that on a year-over-year basis inflation continues to rise at the fastest pace that we have seen since the last financial crisis…

Federal data released on Wednesday showed that for the 12 months through July, the consumer price index rose 5.4 percent, unchanged from June and at the highest level since the Great Recession in 2008.

But since the way that the rate of inflation is calculated has literally been changed dozens of times over the decades, the only way to get an apples for apples comparison is to calculate what the rate of inflation would be if it was still calculated the same way it was at some previous moment in our history.

John Williams of shadowstats.com has done just that. According to Williams, if inflation was still calculated the same way it was back in 1990, we would be at about 9 percent at this moment.

And if inflation was still calculated the same way it was back in 1980, we would be way into double digits right now.

Many Americans had assumed that we would never again see the sort of crazy inflation that we witnessed during the Carter years, but now it is here.

In particular, food prices, gas prices and vehicle prices are rapidly becoming quite painful…

New vehicle prices rose 6.4 percent on the year, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending January 1982. Gasoline was also up 42 percent.

The prices of many everyday items have jumped sharply in the past year. Bacon was up 11 percent and whole milk and beef roast were both 8 percent higher on the year.

Travel expenses jumped hugely from last summer’s depressed base level, with hotels up 24 percent and airfare up 19 percent.

Needless to say, this is having a substantial impact on our standard of living.

Even though wages are rising, they aren’t rising nearly as fast as the cost of living is…

It is getting harder and harder for American workers to make ends meet as rising inflation outpaces pay gains, pushing down inflation-adjusted compensation at a pace almost never seen before.

Adjusted for inflation, hourly compensation fell 2.7 percent in the second quarter, data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the nonfarm business sector showed Tuesday.

Inflation is a tax on all of us, and it is going to whittle down the size of the middle class with each passing month.

And this is just the beginning. In recent days, many corporate executives have been very vocal about the fact that more price hikes are ahead.

For example, Shake Shack has publicly announced that another round of price increases is incoming…

The popular burger chain Shake Shack announced it will be implementing yet another price hike in 2021 to fight inflation.

During a conference call with analysts last week, Shake Shack’s chief financial officer Katherine Fogerty said customers will be paying three to 3.5 percent more for their food in the fourth quarter of 2021.

And the CEO of Tyson Foods is warning that costs keep rising even more quickly than his company can raise prices for consumers…

Tyson Foods Inc., the top chicken producer in the U.S., confirmed in an earnings call that food inflation continues to push prices higher.

Tyson’s CEO Donnie King said higher costs are hitting the firm faster than the company can lift prices, and retail prices are set to rise on Sept. 5.

My friends, this is going to get bad.

Really bad.

So what are our leaders doing in response?

Well, they have decided to create, borrow and spend even more money.

In fact, the Senate just passed a 1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure package and then immediately began working on a 3.5 trillion dollar spending package…

The Senate on Tuesday passed a $1 trillion infrastructure package and sent it to the House for consideration. The upper chamber then started work on a second $3.5 trillion package of further government spending. President Joe Biden will have to knit his party together to pass the larger measure. Already moderates like Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, have voiced concern about the impact of the $3.5 trillion measure on the $29 trillion national debt.

I feel like I am living in Crazytown.

They know that they are causing inflation, but they just can’t help themselves.

At this point, even a top Democrat is warning that there will be “grave consequences”…

U.S. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin on Wednesday said he had “serious concerns” about Senate Democrats’ planned $3.5 trillion spending plan, potentially gumming up efforts to move ahead with President Joe Biden’s top priorities.

Manchin, in a statement, said that although he voted to move ahead and debate the plan, he was worried about the “grave consequences” of such spending on the nation’s debt as well as the country’s ability to respond to other potential crises.

But even though some of our politicians may pay lip service to fiscal responsibility once in a while, in the end most of them just keep voting for these insane spending packages.

So what can we do?

I often say that we should “hope for the best and prepare for the worst”, but in this case there is no hoping for the best.

We know what they are going to do, and we know where this road leads.

So my recommendation is to prepare for the worst, and then do some more preparing, because things will eventually get really, really bad.

Congress is going to pass wild spending package after wild spending package, and the Fed is just going to continue to pump billions upon billions of fresh dollars into the financial system.

This is the greatest financial bubble in the history of the world, and it will be fascinating to watch how long it can last before it finally implodes.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written five others that are available on Amazon.com including “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help. During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post I Feel Like I Am Living In Crazytown appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

More Cowbell! Federal Reserve Officials Decide That More Inflation Is The Answer

Michael — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 01:20:41 +0000

Someone please make the madness stop. Many years ago, when Saturday Night Live was still actually funny, comedian Will Ferrell starred in a skit that was entitled “More Cowbell”. To this day, it remains one of the most famous skits in comedy history, and that is because it was absolutely hilarious. If you have never seen it, you can find it right here. Unfortunately for all of us, the Federal Reserve is now doing their own version of “More Cowbell”, but it isn’t funny at all. At this point, Fed officials sound like a broken record, because month after month they just keep telling us that the answer to our growing economic problems is even more inflation. They have completely gone off the deep end, but since most Americans are illiterate when it comes to economics hardly anyone is objecting.

Earlier today, I received an alarming email from one of my readers. This particular reader was quite alarmed that the price of her favorite juice just went up three dollars, and I would have loved to tell her that these price increases are just “temporary” and that everything will go back to normal soon.

But I couldn’t do that, because that isn’t the truth.

On Wednesday, Fed officials once again voted to continue flooding the financial system with giant mountains of fresh cash…

The Federal Reserve open market committee has voted unanimously to continue the central bank’s easy money policies, again dismissing soaring inflation as ‘transitory’ and saying COVID-19 still poses risks to the economy.

The 11-member committee voted on Wednesday to keep the federal funds rate near zero and continue flooding the market with money through massive bond purchases ‘until substantial further progress’ is made on boosting employment.

“$120 billion a month in bond purchases” may sound boring to most Americans, but if people really understood what this was doing to our standard of living they would be protesting in the streets tomorrow morning.

On average, the Federal Reserve is pumping more than a billion dollars into our financial system every single hour.

This sort of thing is only supposed to be done during a major emergency. The very first time that “quantitative easing” was used on a large scale was during the last financial crisis, and now it has basically become something that the Fed just does all the time.

As I discussed yesterday, the size of the Fed balance sheet has roughly doubled during this pandemic. Of course this was going to cause inflation to spike.

On Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell openly admitted that “inflation could turn out to be higher and more persistent than we expected”.

Ya think?

But Powell also continued to insist that in the long-term inflation would go back down to 2 percent…

Indicators of long-term inflation expectations appear broadly consistent with our longer-run inflation goal of 2%. If we saw signs that the path of inflation or longer-term inflation expectations were moving materially and persistently beyond levels consistent with our goal, we’d be prepared to adjust the stance of policy.

What in the world is he smoking?

Does he actually believe that we can flood the system with trillions and trillions of fresh dollars and keep inflation down to about 2 percent at the same time?

If so, he should see a mental health professional immediately.

Right now, prices are skyrocketing all around us. Earlier today, I came across an article that discussed how farmers are hurting because the price of hay has gone up by about 20 percent…

Local prices for large bales of hay — small bales are significantly more expensive — are shaping up to be around $210 a ton, DeRuwe said, around 20% more than the average year.

Yesterday, I discussed the fact that home prices are up 23 percent over the past year.

Apparently home prices are not yet high enough, because Fed officials want to flood the system with even more money.

Used car prices are up more than 45 percent over the past year. In many cases, used cars are now selling for more than they were when they were brand new.

What we are now witnessing is completely and utterly insane, but the Fed is not the only one to blame.

Our politicians in Washington have been spending money like mad, and now another gigantic spending package is being discussed.

Fortunately, there is at least one Democrat in the Senate that thinks that Joe Biden’s 3.5 trillion dollar infrastructure package is just too big…

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona on Wednesday came out in opposition to Democrats’ $3.5 trillion spending blueprint, virtually ensuring her party would be forced to make substantial cuts to get her on board.

In a statement to The Arizona Republic, the moderate Democrat said while she supported efforts to bolster the country’s economic competitiveness in an infrastructure plan, she believed the bill was too large.

In the end, we may see a package that is only about a trillion dollars in size.

But that is still utter madness.

Since the start of the pandemic, we have increased the size of our national debt by five trillion dollars, and now our politicians in Washington want to borrow and spend more giant mountains of money.

Earlier today, I came across an article about a “two-headed snake”…

An incredible video captures the moment a two-headed snake called Ben and Jerry devours two mice in each of is fanged mouths.

Reptile enthusiast Brian Barczyk shared the clip to his Instagram account, which shows each of the heads slowly chomping down on a pair of dead mice.

The two-headed reptile is the result of a phenomenon known as bicephaly, which occurs from the incomplete splitting of an embryo.

When I read that, I immediately thought about our current situation.

These days, the Federal Reserve and our politicians in Washington have become a “two-headed snake” that is relentlessly devouring our financial future.

If we stay on the path that we are on, there is no future for our country.

But it has become obvious that our leaders are not going to change.

Every time a new crisis erupts, their “solution” will be to create, borrow and spend even more money.

This “More Cowbell” approach to managing the economy is literally insane, but there will be no turning back now.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written five others that are available on Amazon.com including “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help. During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post More Cowbell! Federal Reserve Officials Decide That More Inflation Is The Answer appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Let’s Compare The U.S. Economy Before The Pandemic To The U.S. Economy Today

Michael — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 03:18:59 +0000

Throughout the first half of 2021, there was a tremendous amount of optimism about the U.S. economy. Many believed that the pandemic would soon be behind us and that a new era of great prosperity would soon be upon us. But now the optimism that we witnessed is fading as Americans become increasingly concerned about inflation, shortages and rising debt levels. Our leaders created, borrowed and spent trillions upon trillions of dollars in a desperate attempt to get our economy back on track, and it turns out that all of that money didn’t really have the enormous impact that they had hoped. On the other hand, inflation is now beginning to spiral out of control, and many are comparing this time in our history to the Jimmy Carter era of the 1970s.

In this article, I would like to compare the state of the economy today to the state of the economy just before the pandemic started sweeping across the country.

As you will see, it appears that a tremendous amount of long-term damage has been done.

Let’s start by talking about employment. Just before the pandemic hit, 152 million Americans were employed, but today only 145 million Americans are currently employed.

Many economists are telling us that it will probably take a number of years for employment to return to pre-pandemic levels, but that also assumes that we will not be facing another major economic downturn in the near future.

Needless to say, I do not share that rosy assessment.

The number of Americans that are considered to be “not in the labor force” has also not returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Just before the pandemic, 95 million Americans were considered to be “not in the labor force”, but now that number is up to more than 100 million.

We are being told that unemployment is “low” in this country even though more than 100 million people do not have jobs right now.

But according to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if honest numbers were being used the unemployment rate would currently be above 25 percent.

The good news is that at least we are not at 35 percent like we were during the peak of the pandemic.

Our politicians realized that things were really, really bad in 2020, and so they started spending money at a rate that we have never seen before.

All of this spending pushed our national debt from 23 trillion dollars prior to the pandemic to more than 28 trillion dollars today.

This is complete and utter insanity, but at least our politicians have been more restrained than the Federal Reserve has been.

During this pandemic, the size of the Fed balance sheet has nearly doubled. It was sitting at about four trillion dollars just before the pandemic, and it has grown to more than eight trillion dollars today.

“Economic malpractice” is way too soft a term to describe what the Fed has been doing.

If the American people truly understood the Fed and what it has been doing to our currency, there would be wild protests in the streets tomorrow morning.

Collectively, our politicians and the Federal Reserve have pushed the size of our money supply to dizzying heights. Just before the pandemic, M2 was sitting at about 15 trillion dollars, and now it has crossed the 20 trillion dollar threshold.

Anyone that believed that we could do this without causing rip-roaring inflation was just being delusional.

Just look at what has been happening to home prices. They have been rising at the fastest pace ever recorded, and families all over America are feeling the pain.

A few days ago, I published an article in which I explained that home prices are 23 percent higher than they were at this time one year ago…

The median price for an existing home in June hit an all-time high of $363,300, up 23% over last year. That marks 112 straight months of year-over-year gains.

Needless to say, the vast majority of Americans have not had their paychecks increase by 23 percent over the past year.

The gap between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of us just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and the middle class is shrinking a little bit more with each passing month.

These days, we also have widespread shortages to deal with. Prior to the pandemic, I don’t remember ever hearing about any major shortages, but now they are all around us.

In particular, the chip shortage has been incredibly painful for a lot of Americans, and the CEO of Intel is now telling us that it could last into 2023…

One of the leading voices in the semiconductor industry sees the chip-supply problems stretching as far as 2023.

It could take one or two years to get back to a reasonable supply-and-demand balance in the semiconductor industry, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal after the company posted second-quarter earnings on Thursday. “We have a long way to go yet,” he said. “It just takes a long time to build [manufacturing] capacity.”

At first, a lot of Americans believed our leaders when they were told that wonderful days were just around the corner.

But now reality is starting to set in.

Faith in “the recovery” is fading, and at this point more than half of all Americans believe that the economy is in poor shape…

Fewer than half of Americans, 45 percent, judge the economy to be in good shape, while 54 percent say it’s in poor shape, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Views are similar to what they were in AP-NORC polls in June and in March, despite increases in vaccinations and the flow of aid from Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.

If most Americans are dissatisfied with the economy today, how will they be feeling if economic conditions are even worse six months from now?

In my opinion, we should be very thankful that economic conditions have been relatively stable in recent months, because the long-term outlook for our economy is not good at all.

Our leaders are literally in the process of committing national financial suicide, and the whole world will be affected since we produce the reserve currency that the entire planet depends upon.

So enjoy these relatively good times while you still can, because eventually they will be gone for good.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written five others that are available on Amazon.com including “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help. During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post Let’s Compare The U.S. Economy Before The Pandemic To The U.S. Economy Today appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Inflation Shock: Are You Ready To Start Paying “$40 Or $50” For A Hamburger?

Michael — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 00:19:38 +0000

After decades of living in a relatively low inflation environment, it is hard for most Americans to believe that things have gotten so bad so quickly. In fact, even though I write about this stuff almost every day, it is hard for me to believe it. We are watching prices spiral out of control all over the nation, and we know precisely who is to blame. During the pandemic, our politicians in Washington have been borrowing and spending money at an unprecedented rate, and this has pushed our national debt up to 28 trillion dollars. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve has been pumping trillions of fresh dollars into our financial system, and this has resulted in the Fed balance sheet nearly doubling over the course of this pandemic. I have used the term “economic malpractice” to describe what our leaders are doing, but it is actually far worse than that. They are literally in the process of destroying our economy, and even after so many experts have pointed out their colossal errors they still won’t stop. They just keep creating more money, and now we have a horrific inflation crisis on our hands.

Following Joe Biden’s town hall on Wednesday night, the Daily Mail spoke to a restaurant manager in Manhattan named John Stratidis. According to Stratidis, rising costs and rising wages will mean that consumers will have to pay more for their meals. In fact, he is warning that New Yorkers could end up “paying $40 or $50 for a hamburger”…

‘When minimum wage goes up, who do you think is going to pay for that? The customer. Everything is going to go up just to be able to stay in business. When we give more money, the prices go up and when the prices go up who’s going to pay for that?

‘They’re going to be crying about it, and saying “it’s too expensive”. That’s inflation. You’re going to be walking in somewhere to eat something and paying $40 or $50 for a hamburger.’

Obviously, we aren’t at that point yet.

But if we stay on the path that we are currently on, we will eventually get there.

In some tourist traps, prices for burgers are already completely insane. For example, one Las Vegas restaurant is now selling a burger that costs $100…

Located on the casino floor and a few steps from the poker lounge, Posh Burger offers seven burger choices, ranging from a $12 traditional hamburger to a $23 half-pound “super deluxe” waygyu steak burger, plus the option of a $16 vegetarian Impossible burger.

For diners looking to play out their high roller fantasies, an eye-catching $100 menu highlight is dubbed the Posh Royale Burger and created with wagyu beef, truffle, foie gras, gold dust, a garnish of lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and the secret Posh sauce.

That is crazy, but that isn’t even the most expensive burger around.

In the Netherlands, one luxury chef is actually selling a burger for $6,000.

I still remember the days when you could get a nice, thick fancy burger with all of the fixings for less than a dollar.

Sadly, those days are long gone, and food prices are now rising at a frightening pace all over the country.

The other day, billionaire John Catsimatidis made headlines when he warned that there would be a double digit spike in food prices “by October first”…

Catsimatidis said that he expects a 10 to 14% spike in food prices by October first.

FOX Business’ Ashley Webster asked Catsimatidis if he is going to be forced to pass the extra costs onto consumers.

“You have to pass it on otherwise you’re not doing your duty to guard your country, your employees and your company,” he responded.

But at least housing is still affordable, right?

Actually, CNN is reporting that home prices are 23 percent higher than they were at the same time a year ago…

The median price for an existing home in June hit an all-time high of $363,300, up 23% over last year. That marks 112 straight months of year-over-year gains.

23 percent in one year!

Has your paycheck gone up by 23 percent over the past year?

If not, you are rapidly losing ground.

Renters are not faring much better. In some of the hottest rental markets around the country, rents have risen by more than 20 percent. The following example comes from the New York Times…

Kaitlin Cindrich is facing a $200 monthly increase in rent this August if she and her husband can renew their apartment lease in Provo, Utah. That 25 percent jump is not something she expected, and the 21-year-old fears she may have to skip doctor appointments for her autoimmune disease to keep up with the payments.

Still, she acknowledges there isn’t much choice but to pay more. “We are hoping to stay because everything is so expensive right now that I would be paying the same whether I’m here or somewhere else,” Ms. Cindrich said.

Some markets are seeing more moderate increases, but overall we have seen rental prices increase by 9.2 percent up to this point in 2021…

Data from Apartment List, a listing site, confirms the trend visible in the Zillow numbers: So far in 2021, rental prices nationally have grown 9.2 percent, compared with the 2 to 3 percent that is typical from January to June. According to the most recent data available, prices were higher than economists at Apartment List would have expected had prepandemic trends persisted.

So what will the rest of 2021 look like?

Will rental prices have risen by a total of 15 or 20 percent by the time the year is through?

The Biden administration continues to insist that inflation is “low”, but hardly anyone believes them.

In fact, one recent survey found that 70 percent of Americans are “extremely or very concerned” about inflation…

A new internal poll from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) shows growing concerns about rising inflation in a number of battleground districts ahead of 2022.

Seventy percent of respondents said they were either “extremely or very concerned” about rising prices and the rising costs of living, according to the polling memo released Thursday. Additionally, 60 percent of voters said they disapproved of President Biden‘s handling of rising prices and the higher cost of living. On top of that, the poll found that 42 percent of people polled were more likely to blame Biden and congressional Democrats for rising prices. Ten percent said they were more likely to blame congressional Republicans.

If you are in the 30 percent that is not very concerned about inflation, you should be, because it is going to absolutely suck the life out of your standard of living.

Meanwhile, more shortages continue to pop up throughout our economy.

Earlier today, I was stunned to learn that a shortage of back-to-school supplies is now being projected…

Back-to-school shopping is always a nightmare. This year, expect it to be even worse.

While parents may be used to encountering shortages of items like sneakers, backpacks and gadgets later in the season -— which typically lasts from mid-July through the end of August — products are expected to be in tight supply even earlier. That means shoppers could find themselves picking over the handful of ugly backpacks and bento lunch boxes with missing pieces left at the store as early as this month.

In the new book that I just released, I have an entire chapter about hyperinflation and shortages. Everyone could see this coming from a mile away, but our leaders just couldn’t help themselves.

Whenever a major crisis comes along, their only answer is to create, borrow and spend more money.

Many are comparing this to the Jimmy Carter era of the 1970s, but the truth is that what we are facing is much worse than that.

We are literally witnessing our nation commit slow-motion economic suicide, and it is absolutely horrifying to watch.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written five others that are available on Amazon.com including “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help. During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post Inflation Shock: Are You Ready To Start Paying “$40 Or $50” For A Hamburger? appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

This Is The Worst Inflation Since The 1970s, And The Stage Is Being Set For The Total Collapse Of The U.S. Economy

Michael — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 00:22:55 +0000

How does it feel to live in a country with double-digit inflation? On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics told us that the consumer price index has risen 5.4 percent over the past 12 months, and such a high number shocked a lot of people. But in order to make a fair comparison to the past, we have to account for the fact that the way inflation is calculated has been changed literally dozens of times over the past several decades. According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1990, the official rate of inflation over the past 12 months would be about 9 percent. And if inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, the official rate of inflation over the past 12 months would be well into double-digits.

Everyone that has been warning that we could soon see inflation rise to levels that we haven’t witnessed since the the Jimmy Carter years can stop, because we are already there.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is committing fraud, because the numbers that they give us are almost meaningless. For example, U.S. home prices have risen 20 percent over the past year, but the “shelter component of inflation” makes up only a tiny fraction of the overall consumer price index…

We’ll get the latest read on inflation Tuesday, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts out its consumer price index for the month of June. As you may recall, the May report showed the biggest annual increase in consumer prices, 5%, in 13 years. But if you’re looking for the recent jump in home prices to show up in that number, you’re likely to be disappointed. The shelter component of inflation, as measured by the CPI, has stayed pretty steady, from around 2% to 3.5%, for the past decade. And some economists have a problem with that.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your mortgage payment accounted for only 3.5 percent of your overall budget each month?

Needless to say, such a figure is completely and totally unrealistic.

For most of us, housing is the single biggest expense that we face on a regular basis. And as I have documented in many previous articles, housing costs have been soaring into the stratosphere in recent months.

Car prices are also rising at an extremely alarming pace. According to CNN, the average price of a new car has shot up 12 percent over the past year…

In May, the average new car price hit a record $38,255, according to JD Power, up 12% from the same period a year ago. About two-thirds of car buyers paid within 5% of the sticker price in May, with some paying even more.

Instead of buying a new vehicle, you could purchase a used one instead, but used car prices increased 10.5 percent in just the last month…

Last month alone, average used car prices soared 10.5 percent – the largest such monthly increase since record-keeping began in January 1953. That spike accounted for about one-third of the monthly increase for the third straight month.

Renting vehicles has gotten a lot more expensive as well.

In fact, average rental rates are up a whopping 86 percent since this point in 2020…

Daily car rental rates have increased 86% compared to this time last year and 140% more than 2019, according to Julie Hall, a spokesperson for AAA.

The “5.4 percent inflation” fairly tale that the Labor Department is trying to sell us is absolutely laughable.

And as long as they keep putting out such doctored numbers, they are going to have zero credibility.

Everyone can see that prices are skyrocketing all around us. In such an environment, a restaurant in New York can charge 200 dollars for French fries and some people will actually pay that price…

Serendipity3, the iconic Upper East Side restaurant, set a Guinness World Records title for making the “Most Expensive French Fries” — just in time to celebrate National French Fry Day Tuesday!

Serendipity3’s Creative Director and Chef Joe Calderone and Corporate Executive Chef Frederick Schoen-Kiewert are the masterminds behind the “Creme de la Creme Pommes Frites,” which cost a whopping $200.

Our leaders thought that they could pump trillions upon trillions of fresh dollars into the system without any serious consequences.

Sadly, they were dead wrong.

Inflation is wildly out of control, and one economist just told Breitbart News that the U.S. is starting “to look a little bit like a Latin American country”…

Desmond Lachman, an economist and senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), told Breitbart News on Sunday that the U.S. is beginning to resemble a Latin American country given its inflation, government spending, and printing of money.

“[The U.S. is] in [a]very bad position from a long-term point of view. I don’t see how this can end well when we’re running — now — budget deficits something like 15 percent of GDP,” Lachman said on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Sunday with host Joel Pollak. “This is beginning to look a little bit like a Latin American country.”

It is actually much worse than that.

The truth is that we are in the terminal phase of the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world, and at such a critical moment U.S. officials have decided to systematically destroy the value of the reserve currency of the planet.

Prior to the pandemic, the U.S. government was stealing more than a hundred million dollars an hour from future generations of Americans, but now our politicians have upped that rate to more than 300 million dollars an hour.

And when the next major crisis comes along, they will pass even more “emergency packages”, because spending money is the only solution they have.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve continues to pump giant mountains of money into the financial system. Since September 2019, the size of the Fed balance sheet has more than doubled, and that should be considered a crime against humanity.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans don’t even know what the Federal Reserve is, and only a small fraction of the population actually understands what they are currently doing to our financial system.

Facing no significant resistance, our politicians will continue to get us into staggering amounts of debt, and the Fed will continue to transform the U.S. dollar into toilet paper.

Sadly, what they are doing is setting the stage for the collapse of the late, great U.S. economy, and the economic pain that is ahead will affect every single man, woman and child on the entire planet.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help. During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post This Is The Worst Inflation Since The 1970s, And The Stage Is Being Set For The Total Collapse Of The U.S. Economy appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

5 Specific Reasons Why You Should Stockpile Food Right Now

Michael — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 04:19:17 +0000

For decades, Americans have not needed to be concerned about food prices. Yes, prices would always go up by a little bit each year, but in general we have been extremely blessed for a very long time. Our supermarkets have always been packed with food, and we could always count on the fact that prices would be about the same a month or two down the road. Unfortunately, things are now changing, and not in a good way. A massive wave of inflation has hit agricultural commodities, and food producers have felt forced to pass those cost increases along to consumers. Unfortunately, many experts are anticipating that the price hikes that we are currently witnessing are just the beginning.

So even though food prices have already become quite painful, they are never going to be any lower than they are at this moment.

Looking forward, there are several factors that are likely to combine to cause food inflation to accelerate even more in the months ahead. The following are 5 specific reasons why you should stockpile food right now…

#1 Supermarkets are feverishly stockpiling food, and the Wall Street Journal is reporting that they are doing this in anticipation of “the highest price increases in recent memory”…

Supermarkets are stocking up on everything from sugar to frozen meat before they get more pricey, girding for what some executives anticipate will be some of the highest price increases in recent memory.

This only makes good business sense. If you can get inventory now for significantly less than you will be able to get it for later, that will help your bottom line.

The Wall Street Journal is admitting that all of this stockpiling “is driving shortages of some staples”, but it is expected that these shortages will just be temporary.

I can’t remember a time when we have seen anything quite like this. At this point, some companies are purchasing up to 25 percent more food than normal…

David Smith, CEO of the US’s largest wholesaler Associated Wholesale Grocers, told the Wall Street Journal they have been buying 15 to 20 percent more goods – particularly packaged foods with long shelf lives.

‘We’re buying a lot of everything. Our inventories are up significantly over the same period last year,’ said Smith.

At SpartanNash in Michigan, the retailer has bought up around 20 to 25 percent more than normal including frozen meat.

#2 The U.S. government is going to continue recklessly spending money, and the Federal Reserve is going to keep pumping more giant mountains of fresh cash into the financial system.

The Biden administration doesn’t seem to have an “off button”, and neither does the Fed. The U.S. national debt is moving up toward the 29 trillion dollar mark very rapidly, and the Fed’s balance sheet has more than doubled over the past year.

Unless there is some sort of a dramatic reversal, and I don’t see why there would be, this continual flow of new money will continue to push food prices even higher.

#3 Gas prices keep surging, and this is making it more expensive to transport food around the country.

According to the AAA Gas Price Index, the average price of a gallon of gasoline is up 56 percent from what it was last May…

Transport costs are also rising with gas prices rising 56 percent in May from a year ago.

On Friday, the AAA Gas Price Index pegged the national average gas price at $3.086, up from $2.171 one year ago.

#4 The endless “megadrought” in the western states just continues to intensify.

If you look at the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map, it is a horror show. We haven’t seen anything like this since the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s, and water levels are dropping dangerously low.

For example, the water level in Great Salt Lake is expected to hit the lowest level in 170 years this summer…

The lake’s levels are expected to hit a 170-year low this year. It comes as the drought has the U.S. West bracing for a brutal wildfire season and coping with already low reservoirs. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, has begged people to cut back on lawn watering and “pray for rain.”

For the Great Salt Lake, though, it is only the latest challenge. People for years have been diverting water from rivers that flow into the lake to water crops and supply homes. Because the lake is shallow — about 35 feet (11 meters) at its deepest point — less water quickly translates to receding shorelines.

Because there is not enough water, many farmers are having to dramatically reduce the amount of crops that they are growing.

Small farmer Mindy Perkovich is only growing produce on one of her seven acres at this point, and she openly admits that she doesn’t know if she will even have enough water for that…

Perkovich typically grows things like turnips, squash and tomatoes for the local market on seven acres. This season, though, she’s had to cut her crops down to less than a single acre.

“We don’t know if we’re gonna have water to keep that alive,” she says. “Financially, I can’t really even express how dramatic it’s changed in the last couple years, water-wise, because without water, we can’t grow crops without crops, we have nothing to sell to our consumers.”

Agricultural production in the western states will be lower than originally anticipated this year, and that will also put upward pressure on food prices in the coming months.

#5 On top of everything else, an enormous plague of grasshoppers is now causing massive headaches for farmers in our western states.

As I discussed on Sunday, the extremely hot and extremely dry conditions are perfect for grasshoppers, and they have been multiplying like crazy.

In some areas, the swarms are so thick that “it can appear the earth is moving”, and there are times when the swarms are so large that they are actually appearing on radar.

Seven states are being hit particularly hard, and the federal government is going to begin a large scale spraying campaign. The spraying may reduce the plague, but all of the experts agree that it will not stop it.

Grasshoppers will continue to eat our crops on a massive scale for many months to come, and this is another factor that will be driving up food prices.

So, to summarize, the outlook for the months ahead is rather bleak.

A number of factors are going to combine to push prices significantly higher, and so if you can afford to stock up you should be doing so.

Our leaders continue to insist that this bout of inflation is just “transitory”, and you can believe them if you like.

But the truth is that high inflation is here to stay, and what we have experienced so far is just the tip of the iceberg.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

The post 5 Specific Reasons Why You Should Stockpile Food Right Now appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Home Prices Just Did Something That They Have Never Done Before

Michael — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 23:46:20 +0000

Everyone knew that home prices were going crazy, and now we have some solid numbers that are simply incredible. Home prices are rising faster than they ever have before, and so if you are shopping for a home in this environment I truly feel sorry for you. In many parts of the country, average hard working American families have already been completely priced out of the market. Prior to the pandemic, the largest price bubbles were in major urban areas along both coasts, but now desirable rural and suburban communities all over the nation are red hot. In some cases, we have seen wild bidding wars that result in buyers paying more than a million dollars over asking price, and this unprecedented frenzy is pushing home prices to dizzying heights.

On Tuesday, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price data for the month of April was released, and it quickly made headlines all across America…

U.S. home prices jumped the most in more than 30 years in April.

Nationally, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index of property values climbed 14.6% from a year earlier, according to a statement Tuesday, the biggest gain in data going back to 1988. That came after 13.2% increase in March, and was the 11th straight month that price gains accelerated.

This particular series of data only goes back to 1988, and in all that time we have never seen a rise of this magnitude.

One expert that is being quoted by CNBC is calling the rise in prices “truly extraordinary”…

“April’s performance was truly extraordinary. The 14.6% gain in the National Composite is literally the highest reading in more than 30 years of S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller data,” said Craig Lazzara, managing director and global head of index investment strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Redfin has also released new numbers, and their numbers show an even faster rate of increase for home prices…

… it makes sense that home prices are also surging thanks to trillions in stimmy checks, near-record low mortgage rates and an exodus away from cities, and as we noted two last month that’s precisely what they are doing, with Redfin reporting an 18% jump in median home sale prices to an all time high…

… as a record 58% of all houses sell within two weeks of listing, of which 45% sell for more than their listing price, also a record.

But don’t worry about these numbers. Officials at the Federal Reserve insist that inflation is “low” and that they have everything under control.

If you can’t afford to buy a home, you can still try to rent a place, but rent prices are also starting to explode in many areas around the country…

Leading the trend is Boise, ID, where rents grew another 6 percent in June and are now up 39 percent since the start of the pandemic. But the fastest single-month rent growth took place in Spokane, WA, where prices shot up 8.1 percent in June and sit 31 percent above pre-pandemic levels. After that, a handful of fast-growing cities have experienced roughly 20 percent price appreciation over the last year and a half. With the exception of Virginia Beach, VA, all of them are located in the Western United States, absorbing the rental demand overflowing from nearby, pricey metros like the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles.

Those that are having their rents jacked up will be just fine as long as their paychecks are increasing at the same rate.

Oh, but that isn’t happening for most people, is it?

Vehicle prices are getting crazy too. According to the Wall Street Journal, some dealers are now selling new vehicles for “thousands of dollars” above the sticker price…

Some buyers say they have encountered dealerships asking for thousands of dollars above MSRP. And analysts and dealers say the practice is becoming more widespread and occurring on a wider range of vehicles, including more mainstream models that typically wouldn’t be targeted for such price increases.

In the old days, the goal was to negotiate a deal that was as far below sticker price as possible.

Unfortunately, these days many customers are willingly making offers that are much higher than the MSRP….

“I was shocked,” said Ken Baird, a 61-year-old Boca Raton, Fla., resident who was recently shopping for a Kia Telluride. The window sticker on the particular model he was looking at read $45,000, and he said he offered to pay $3,000 over that knowing the vehicle was in high demand.

Needless to say, food prices are getting very painful as well.

In fact, an official at one food bank in Chicago says that their food purchasing budget “has doubled” over the past 12 months…

Soaring food prices aren’t just impacting financially strapped families and the working poor. They’re also affecting the mission of US food banks who are spending a lot more on food than ever before.

“We’re already spending a lot more on food than we have in years past,” said Greg Trotter, a spokesman for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, a large food bank, who spoke with VOA News. “Our food purchasing budget has doubled this year.”

All of this has been caused by the actions of our leaders. Our politicians in Washington decided to go on the greatest spending binge in history and the Fed decided to pump trillions of fresh dollars into the financial system in order to “save the economy”, and now we have rip-roaring inflation as a result.

In addition to very painful inflation, we are also now dealing with widespread shortages. For example, as the holiday weekend approaches many locations around the nation are once again running out of gasoline…

Gas stations across the country are running out of gasoline just as 43 million Americans are preparing to hit the road for the July 4th holiday weekend.

Those that do manage to find gas are likely to find some of the highest prices in almost seven years, with gas now averaging $3.10 a gallon across the US – the highest since October 2014.

The corporate media would have us believe that extremely high inflation and widespread shortages are signs that the U.S. economy is “booming”.

But to me, it sounds way too much like a rerun of the Jimmy Carter era of the 1970s.

Sadly, this is just the start of the pain. The politicians in Washington continue to spend money like drunken sailors, and the Federal Reserve continues to pump more fresh cash into the financial system each week.

So the short-term outlook is quite bleak, and the long-term outlook is even worse.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

The post Home Prices Just Did Something That They Have Never Done Before appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

They Are Gaslighting Us! Nightmarish Inflation Is Already Here But The Fed Is Denying That It Even Exists

Michael — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 00:15:32 +0000

They would like us to believe that what we can see happening right in front of our eyes is not actually real. Over the past year, our politicians in Washington have gone on the largest spending binge in U.S. history by a very wide margin, and the Federal Reserve has created the most enormous financial bubble of all time by pumping trillions upon trillions of fresh dollars into the financial markets. Of course this was going to cause very painful inflation, and prices are rising very aggressively all around us. But Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and other leaders in Washington are trying to convince us that even though they added all of this money to the system it has hardly affected the overall rate of inflation at all. They are “gaslighting” us, and it is absolutely infuriating.

If you are not familiar with the term “gaslighting”, the following is how Wikipedia defines it…

Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person or a group covertly sows seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or group, making them question their own memory, perception, or judgement.

This is precisely what they are trying to do to all of us. Everyone can see that nightmarish inflation is already here, but they are trying to manipulate us into thinking that it is not.

Just look at home prices. Everyone needs a place to live, and existing home prices have risen 23.6 percent over the past year…

The median existing-home price rose 23.6% in May from a year earlier to $350,300, a record high, NAR said. The annual price appreciation was the strongest in data going back to 1999. Median sales prices have climbed sharply since rising above $300,000 for the first time last July.

At this point, homes are absolutely flying off the market. In fact, the average time that a home stays on the market has hit a record low…

Homes are selling quickly. The typical home that sold in May spent 17 days on the market, matching the record low reached in April, NAR said.

Buyers with limited cash for down payments are struggling the most to compete. Half of existing-home buyers in April who used mortgages put at least 20% down, according to a NAR survey.

But Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell insists that everything is just fine and that the Fed is perfectly capable of keeping inflation around 2 percent…

“When Congress spends trillions of dollars and the Fed prints money, something’s got to give,” Rep. Mark Green (R., Tenn.) said. He asked Mr. Powell whether the price increases seen in recent months are “the start of something that could be as bad as the ‘70s,” when inflation reached double digits.

Mr. Powell said such a scenario is “very, very unlikely,” in part because the central bank “is strongly prepared to use its tools to keep us around 2% inflation.”

What an insane thing to say.

How can you claim that you are going to “keep us around 2% inflation” when inflation is already out of control?

As John Williams of shadowstats.com has documented, if honest numbers were being used the official rate of inflation would already be well into double digits.

Of course for certain categories we are now seeing triple digit inflation. For instance, at one point in May the price of lumber was four times higher than it was at the same time last year…

The price of lumber, which shot up to $1,600 per thousand board feet in May from $400 early last year, is making renovations more expensive – especially projects that involve kitchens cabinets, hardwood floors and additions that require framing.

But Powell just told Congress that he is not troubled by any of this…

“If you look behind the headline and look at the categories where these prices are really going up, you’ll see that it tends to be areas that are directly affected by the reopening,” Mr. Powell said in a hearing before a House subcommittee. “That’s something that we’ll go through over a period. It will then be over. And it should not leave much of a mark on the ongoing inflation process.”

These days, Powell is definitely starting to sound a lot like Frank Drebin.

We are supposed to believe that nothing out of the ordinary is happening, but meanwhile the wholesale price of chicken wings has more than tripled…

“The [wholesale] price of wings a year ago was as low as 98 cents,” per pound, Charlie Morrison, Chairman and CEO of Wingstop Restaurants Inc., told CNN Business. “Today, it’s at $3.22. So it’s a meaningful difference.”

Our leaders insist that this is perfectly normal.

Nothing to see here.

Please move along.

To me, one of the craziest examples of inflation in our economy is what is happening to used car prices.

At this point, some used vehicles are now selling for more than they sold for when they were brand new…

When it was new, the window sticker price on a typical 2019 Toyota Tacoma SR double cab pickup was just under $29,000. Two years later, dealers are paying almost $1,000 more than that to buy the same vehicle, even though it’s used. Then they’re selling it to consumers for more than $33,000.

Welcome to the wacky world of U.S. car and truck sales, where the pandemic and a global shortage of computer chips have pushed prices to record levels.

I was absolutely floored when I first read that.

We have never seen anything happen like this before in all of U.S. history.

But Fed officials are going to continue to tell you that everything is just fine in the months ahead even as economic conditions continue to go haywire all around us.

I warned that extremely painful inflation was coming in my last book, and I will be warning about it again in the new book that I will soon be releasing.

Our leaders consciously made the decision to flood the system with new money in a desperate attempt “to save the economy”, and they should just be honest with us about the consequences of that decision.

But instead, they are just going to keep trying to spin the truth for as long as they can.

Unfortunately for them, the clock is ticking, and time is not on their side.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

The post They Are Gaslighting Us! Nightmarish Inflation Is Already Here But The Fed Is Denying That It Even Exists appeared first on The Economic Collapse.