We got the May Consumer Price (CPI) Index data last week. Once again, it came in hotter than expected. In this article, we break down the data and show that this surge of inflation is anything by transitory.
In the first place, it’s important to remember that the CPI is reverse-engineered to mask inflation. It doesn’t really tell the whole story. But even half the story is pretty bad.
We got another round of hotter than expected CPI data this week. The mainstream financial media is spinning this as good news. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey digs into the CPI data without the rose-colored glasses. He also talks about an announcement by a major restaurant chain that may well be a canary in the coal mine. His conclusion – in the end, economics wins.
The Consumer Price Index came in much hotter than expected last week. The mainstream chalks rising prices to supply chain and production issues caused by the pandemic. But in a recent interview on NTD News, Peter Schiff says there’s more to it than that. Prices are rising because a surplus of printed dollars is bidding up prices.
CPI came in much hotter than expected. Fed Vice Chairman Richard Clarida actually said, “We were surprised by higher than expected inflation data.” But should we really be surprised by this? In this episode, Friday Gold Wrap host Mike Maharrey talks about inflation and suggests maybe you shouldn’t be shocked. He also discusses the whacked-out labor market.
We’ve been talking a lot about the specter of inflation. Despite the Fed’s assurances not to worry because any price increases we’re seeing are transitory, some people are indeed worried. A former JP Morgan managing director warned about inflation and echoed Peter Schiff’s view that the central bank is powerless to fight it.
And we’re seeing rising prices all over the place, from the grocery store to the gas station. Even the government numbers flash warning signs. But as Peter Schiff explains in this clip from an interview with Jay Martin, it’s probably even worse than we realize because the government cooks the numbers when it calculates CPI.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell keeps telling us not to worry about rising prices, assuring us that any increase in price inflation is “transitory.” It appears most of the mainstream is buying this hook line and sinker.
The March CPI number was expected to come in hot due to a much lower baseline. Prices tanked last March as governments locked down their economies. As a result, economists expected the year-on-year CPI comparison to show a big increase. But the increase was even bigger than expected. Peter Schiff talked about it in a recent podcast.
We have been saying that given the extraordinary level of money printing the Fed has done since the beginning of the pandemic, a wave of price inflation is coming down the pike – perhaps even hyperinflation. But many will be quick to remind us that we raised the warning flag about inflation when the Fed launched three rounds of quantitative easing in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. In fact, Paul Krugman has been doing victory laps again – reminding everybody that the inflation monster never did come out of its lair and promising it won’t this time either.
Basic economics tells us that increasing the supply of money without a corresponding increase in the number of goods and services in the economy should lead to rising prices. Is basic economics wrong? Or are there other things going on in the economy that suppressed or hid inflation in the aftermath of the great recession?
The Labor Department released February’s CPI numbers on Wednesday. The mainstream spin was “no inflation, nothing to see here.” But what will we find if we dig a little deeper into the numbers?
CPI was up 0.4% in February. That follows on the heels of a 0.3% rise in January. The rise was in line with expectations.
The consumer price index fell 0.8% in April, according to the latest Labor Department data. It was the biggest plunge in consumer prices since December 2008. year-over-year, the CPI is up 0.3.
By all indications, it appears inflation is the least of our problems despite massive Federal Reserve money-printing and unprecedented government spending. But in his podcast, Peter Schiff said you need to ignore the CPI because despite what it might indicate, inflation is a huge problem.
The powers that be insist that inflation is low. In fact, the central bankers at the Federal Reserve tell us that low inflation is one of the reasons they can keep interest rates artificially low. But everyday people who go to the store each week smell a rat. We know our dollar doesn’t stretch as far as it used to. If inflation is so low, why do prices seem to keep going up?
The only logical explanation is maybe inflation isn’t as low as the pundits keep telling us.
