There is a meme floating around social media that seems to prove greedy corporations – specifically oil companies – are the root cause of inflation.
How does this meme stack up to reality?
Short answer — it doesn’t.
Consumer sentiment plunged to record lows in June. The plummeting consumer sentiment numbers surprised mainstream analysts but they shouldn’t have given Americans are taking a pay cut month after month thanks to red-hot inflation.
Inflation wasn’t transitory.
And inflation hasn’t peaked.
It’s more like peak inflation was transitory.
The latest seasonally adjusted inflation rate for May came in scorching hot at 0.98% MoM and 8.62% YoY, beating expectations of 0.7% and 8.3% respectively. All prices rose in May with 9 of 11 categories rising faster than the 12-month trend, representing 97.5% of the total CPI.
Everybody was thrilled to get stimulus checks in the mail during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s free money!” many exclaimed. But nothing in life is free. This includes “free” things handed out by the government.
So today, you’re paying for those stimmy checks and the government pandemic spending spree.
There are a number of signals that the US economy is getting weaker even as inflation gets stronger.
In other words, we are hurtling toward stagflation.
Peter Schiff recently appeared on Tucker Carlson to talk about inflation, the economy, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s admission that she was wrong about inflation. There’s an economic hurricane on the horizon and Peter said it’s going to be a Cat 5.
Why haven’t gold and silver rallied as one would expect in such a high inflation environment? In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey delves into some of the psychology driving the markets and explains why it could be blinding people to just how serious the economic situation has become. He also reports some news that indicates some people may be starting to figure it out.
A lot of investors wonder about the lack of movement in gold and silver, especially given rampant inflation. Why haven’t we seen a big rally in precious metals as many expected? Why shouldn’t you just give up on gold and silver?
Peter Schiff answers these questions in this video.
In the spring of 2021, the Fed was still insisting spiking inflation was “transitory.” Fast forward one year. Inflation is as hot as ever. Fed Chair Jerome Powell was forced to abandon the transitory narrative last fall. In April, the CPI was up 8.3% on an annual basis. Today, Powell admits the Fed was wrong, but claims everybody else made the same mistake.
Well, not everybody, as the following clips prove.
