The Federal Reserve is set to launch its war on inflation. But it looks like it’s carrying a pea-shooter to a gunfight.
Or as Peter Schiff put it, a dove can’t change its feathers.
The producer price index rose at the fastest rate in the history of the data set in November. This is a runaway inflation train hurtling down the tracks toward consumers. And despite all the talk, the Fed won’t be able to stop it.
In November, the official government CPI rose by the highest annual amount since 1982. But for the most part, the mainstream media continues to sugar-coat inflation. Tucker Carlson is an exception. He’s one mainstream media figure who seems to grasp the full extent of the problem. He recently interviewed Peter Schiff on the rising cost of living.
The CPI data for November came in pretty close to expectations. Of course, expectations were sky-high as the transitory inflation narrative has faded into myth.
The CPI surged another 0.8% month-on-month in November. The consensus expectation was for a 0.7% rise. The headline year-on-year increase was 6.8%. That was right in line with expectations. It was also the highest CPI print since 1982. And as Peter Schiff talked about on his podcast, the CPI number understates the inflation problem.
The latest seasonally adjusted inflation rate for November was .76% month over month, with a non-seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.81%.
These numbers were generally in line with mainstream expectations that have finally gotten high enough to match the blistering hot inflation numbers coming out month after month.
Pretty much everybody now expects the Federal Reserve to go to war against inflation, but the central bank has a problem not many people seem to be talking about – an economy buried under debt. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey talks about consumer debt levels and their ramifications. He also discusses central bank gold-buying and breaks the November CPI data live.
You’re being squeezed by inflation. You can’t find what you’re looking for at the store due to widespread shortages. And when you do find what you need, it takes forever to check out of the store because the labor market is completely out of whack.
But really, the problem is with you. Your expectations are just too high – at least according to Washington Post columnist Micheline Maynard.
The stock market rallied early this week with receding worry about the omicron variant, but the specter of Federal Reserve monetary policy tightening remains. In his podcast, Peter Schiff talked about the anticipation of the Fed’s fight against inflation and explained why it’s a fight the central bank can’t win.
Inflation is running rampant. At first, the powers that be tried to convince us it wasn’t a problem because it was just a temporary phenomenon caused by coronavirus. (As if a virus could cause the money supply to increase.) But now, the transitory inflation narrative is dead. Jerome Powell recently admitted that it’s time to “retire” that word. The new strategy seems to be to try to convince you that rising prices are “good for you” and the broader economy. You can decide for yourself the veracity of that argument.
After President Biden announced he was reappointing Jerome Powell for a second term as Federal Reserve Chairman, Powell went hawkish, saying it’s time to retire the word “transitory” when it comes to inflation and talking about speeding up the taper. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey talks about the Powell transformation and questions whether a dove can really change his feathers.