U.S. inflation rises more than forecast, hits 4.2% in April on base effect https://t.co/COWmOBzJ4u pic.twitter.com/7jPuAbuItq
— Bloomberg Markets (@markets) May 12, 2021
This would be like having my salary cut by roughly $5,000 since last year.
Fan-fucking-tastic!
Can I pay my mortgage in nice Presidential Tweets now that my money is worth less?
The collective level of stupidity and/or evil among government economists truly boggles the mind.
A good way to see how stupid modern economists are is to consider that, with near unanimity, they support the witch doctor notion that a “small amount” of inflation is not just acceptable but necessary. The correct answer is that a free economy, using real money, will on average experience a fairly steady and modest amount of deflation (falling prices). Anyone with the IQ of a turnip can understand this — it follows automatically from the progress of technology, which among other things delivers increased productivity. In other words, you can create more stuff with a given amount of work. (For a more detailed explanation, read Ludwig von Mises, who was a real economist, not a Keynesian witch doctor.)
I feel you on that. My 3% COLA went up in smoke. And I swear they’re all cooking the books on the inflation. I know there’s a formula and whatnot, but it’s the highest quality of bullshit. Based on my grocery bill alone there’s no fucking way it’s only 4%.
Fuck these people and their handlers.
Re cooked books: that became very obvious to me when I looked at TIPS — which pretend to be treasury bonds that adjust for inflation. If they really did, they’d be a nice deal. In reality they don’t. They use a fake measure of inflation that only counts some of it, so the result is that you get a tiny base interest rate plus an inadequate adjustment for inflation. No thanks, I’m sticking with classic bonds.
Ah, but inflation serves a purpose!
Not only is government debt inflated away, but private investments increase in dollar value, and the nominal “gains” are taxable. Buy an asset with 2018 dollars, sell for 2023 dollars, and see all the tax you’ll be paying!
So, yeah, we lose, but the State wins. The State always wins.
The government is lying, as always. They don’t include food or energy costs in their inflation numbers, because, “they’re too volatile.” As if it’s not a major part of our cost of living.
http://www.shadowstats.com/ tracks inflation in the same way it used to be calculated. That 4.16% annual is “a thirteen-year high of 12.1%” if you use the methods used in back in 1980.
It’s Jimmy Carter 2.0.