Monday, November 14, 2022

Inflated

Ugh.  Sometimes I hate being clued into what's going on.  

As a housewife/primary budget keeper/main shopper, I pay attention to things.  Very, very close attention.  And, being a housewife to someone whose primary training was in economics, I understand what I'm seeing when I see it.  

Right now, I'm seeing the consequences of multiple decades of economic retards running the money supply, exacerbated by two or three years of dribbling morons piddling in the pile of stupid-ass decisions.  

In brief: the Federal Reserve is supposed to be keeping their thumbs on the scales to prevent stagflation like we saw in the 1970's from happening again.  It's supposed to be adjusting the interest rates on lending to prevent too much money from chasing too few goods to drive prices to where the everyday family isn't able to deal.  

It...hasn't.  It hasn't done that for years.  Decades, even.  

Holding the interest rates down was one thing.  Holding them down then printing money? 

Yeah.  Really, really bad.  

They did that.  Exactly that.  Several times.  Most recently during the fauxdemic. 

And then they decided that it was a BRILLIANT idea to go full-turnip on the green shit.  Both in STOPPING oil production, slowing refining, and in slowing/stopping reliable and relatively inexpensive electricity production.  

Which...is having a noticeable effect.  Already.  With a colder and nastier than normal winter forecast for a lot of the country.  

So.  Inflation.  It's happening.  On everything.  They're admitting around 8%.  

I'm saying that's bullshit.  

In 2020, I bought ten pounds of chicken leg quarters for $4.90.  This year, the ones I bought were around $10 (little bit over, when I bought them).  That's doubleMore than.  

In 2020, a box of 5 dozen eggs was around $5.  Now?  Close to $18.  

Lentils.  Something that a lot of people don't know exist, much less what to do with, but were a cheap staple when I was growing up.  In 2020, a bag of lentils was $0.98.  The last bag I bought was $1.48.  

Those price increases aren't 8%.  That's not even 8% per year.  

And don't get me started on how much other needed foodstuffs and materials cost.  

I was raised in a welfare/food stamps household.  Where my mom had...about the same level of understanding of economics: "They should set price ceilings on these things!  They cost too much, and people can't afford them!"*

I did not understand--not for a long time, with a lot of simple explanations of what I was seeing--how supply and demand worked to set prices.  I didn't understand how interest rates worked.  I didn't understand how fiat currency worked (here's a hint: by trust, which is not being lost so much as willfully discarded by the twat-brained waffle-heads in charge).  

I learned.  Because I don't like being poor.**  I didn't want to be poor.  

So I learned.  Slowly, because my talents don't like in those directions, but I learned.  

I am no longer poor, because I understand--now--what behaviors and choices were keeping me mired there.  

It's the same ones driving the over-educated idiots running things in DC.  "We have money; we have to spend it!  Before it disappears!"  

We are not going to be able to fix this.  We're looking at Keynesian economics in a nutshell, there.  This is what is, normally, taught in econ/finance in modern universities.  By "smart" people.  Not one of whom understands what they're actually looking at.  "The data's not supporting the hypothesis; we need to spend harder and faster, because we're not doing enough to save us all."  

Their inflated opinion of themselves and their theories have blinded them to the fact that there's a hole in the bottom of the boat, and instead of plugging it, they're drilling it bigger (and adding more, besides).  

They really ought to be beat to death with copies of Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics.  

*No, not a good idea.  That way lies full-on shortages.  

**There's a difference between being poor and being broke.  And it's all in attitudes and behaviors.

6 comments:

  1. When I retired, I had some moments wondering if all my downsizing, removing debt, and learning to live on much less would be the best thing to do. Considering how things are going, I'm wondering what would have happened if I hadn't.

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  2. I'm in the same boat as Jess, and watching my 'fixed income' become worth less and less every day... sigh

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    Replies
    1. Most of the US is screwed; some are screwed worse than others.

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    2. I'm still working, but am on a "fixed income" nonetheless. I make a certain amount per hour. I work a 40-hour week. Yeah, I get a raise once a year, but that wouldn't even compare to the COLA on Social Security! Everything I buy costs more. Even when pinching pennies I'm spending more on the essentials than I did last year. The money I DO manage to save is in a bank account losing value as I type.

      ...In short, we're ALL screwed, Old NFO... Somehow though, there are enough people in teh US who like being screwed enough to keep the existing "management" in place... if you choose to believe that...

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    3. Nope. That was fraud. Plain and simple. No matter what people try to tell you, there are only four lights, not five.

      Delete

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