Inflation Part 2

I’m bummed out about avocados.
https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/6783716001

…But if health inspectors are facing threats, then it’s understandable.

^^ dear Mexico, we’ll trade you SJG and Icey for 1 truckload of avocados

^ We'll throw in C.J.Kunt for free

Seafood is a long term trend and we're fucked for anything you can't farm. Between climate change and global appetites it's not gonna get better.

^ what about sustainable farming for fishsticks? I like those too.

Shailyn said "dear Mexico, we’ll trade you SJG and Icey for 1 truckload of avocados"

What you're calling a "trade," most nations would call an "attack."

Those headline inflation numbers really don't tell the tale about how bad things are with basic goods. Sure someone might have experienced an average of 7.5% if the bought a lot of shit that they didn't need, but anyone who spends most of his/her paycheck on essential goods is getting clobbered.

Pork, beef, chicken, dairy products, other food staples - all jumping by double digits and in some cases north of 30%. I've always been price conscious about food given that I grew up food insecure during the inflationary periods in the 70s and early 80s, so even as my income has risen I still pay close attention.

Now granted beef and seafood were a luxury item for some people even during good times, but now pork has become as expensive as beef was 2 years ago. Chicken is about the only remaining "affordable" meat for working class folks, so now the chicken cases in every market I go to are constantly picked apart.

I won't even get into the odd shortages in items I haven't been able to find for weeks. it's a real shit show right now.

I saw a pack of batteries at Walgreens for $39. Got the same package at the 99 center store for $2.49. I started going there more. Plus at other stores I've started sticking to items on sale. With seafood. Not much variety is available. Sprouts has good prices on fresh salmon. Target on frozen shrimp. I've cut back on meat coz the quality isn't there anymore.

Basics like yogurt and bread are ridiculously expensive. I get better deals at farmers markets and Mexicans selling shit outbof cars than at grocery stores

The apartment that I rented for X a year ago is now renting for 1.4x.

This is why I bought and am paying less than I would have renting, because I knew all the money we dumped into the economy was going to come back to haunt us.

The Dems are all like cOrpOrAtE gReEd!!!!!!111 right now, like corporations have changed their behavior in the last year. Stupid.

Large Jug of UTZ sourdough nuggets up from $8.99 to $18.98

62 oz. jar of M&M's from $8.99 to $14.98

and so on. I'm sure it's just Transitory.

Higher energy costs, hiring bonus', wage increases..... those costs are going to end up in price increases.

“Got the same package at the 99 center store for $2.49.”

You might check the expiration date on the batteries. That’s one reason the 99 cent store’s prices are lower.

I remember thinking in the seventies how things could never get any worse than high inflation, disco music and Jimmy Carter. I was wrong. Now we have high inflation, rap music and a senile version of Jimmy Carter.

Just stop buying crap! Most people don’t need to purchase what they normally do. If everybody stuck to just buying their basic needs, then inflation will correct itself. Some of the marginalized already stick to the basics cause they can’t afford extra luxury items, but so many of us are used to lifestyle creep that we don’t even know we buy stupid unnecessarily items.

Yiu don’t have to have your heat above 70 degrees in the winter or below 80 in the summer, so cut corners when you can. Yiu don’t need to make a quick run to the grocery store for that can of spam or package of ho hoes, just stay home and wait it out. As for me, I’m sticking to only one visit a Month to the strip club, and only will I part with my cash if the girl is willing to put forth some genuine effort. This inflation will force people to get back to consciously purchasing their needs instead of their wants, and then prices will level out.

It's crazy how so many of you who are outraged by things like having to ask for condiments or vaccines just passively accept this price gouging.

^^ the most non-sequitor comment of the day!

^^ post hoc ergo propter hoc

People should be rioting and demanding an end to it. But then we're fed identity politics to keep us from addressing real social problems

The explanation for your woes is my tagline.

It's all supply and demand. Sure, the supply chain crisis and production shortages caused by a global economy is part of the story. Biden and the other democrat party hacks in DC who do not understand what life is actually like in the rest of the country do not recognize nor care about what we live on a daily basis. However, there is also the supply and demand of the dollar.

Bill Clinton forced banks to give mortagage loans to people who could not afford to pay it back. Banks made these impossible loans plausible through mortgage-backed securities and ARMs. Unfortunately, these devices became so popular that there were soon too many and too little cash to back all of that credit and the whole things fell down. To prop up the banks, and give the illusion that Obama was "fixing" the economy, the Treasury just printed more money. After they had printed all the money needed to pay for the toxic debt of the mortgage collapse, they kept printing to give an illusion of increasing GDP. So yes, our GDP increased by trillions of dollars. But that did not equate to trillions of dollars more goods and services being created, that equated to more trillions of dollars being assigned to the value of the same items. Oversimplified example: you have $10,000 and want to buy a used car, you have valued that car at $10,000. You have $20,000 and want to buy the exact same car, the same product is now valued at $20,000. There is no difference in the car, but you buy less with the dollar. They kept this charade up, until the pandemic.

The pandemic is a perfect storm of unemployment, decreased GDP which cannot be hidden, massive government overspending and deficit-building, and supply chain crises. Clinton overtaxed us and called it a budget surplus. Bush cut taxes and increased spending. Obama complained about Bush's deficit spending, then spent even more and accrued more debt than every president before him combined. Trump cut taxes, gave additional refunds, and deficit spent like there was no tomorrow. Yes, he built the most inclusive labor market in American history, but he could have done it with a smaller government and less spending. Biden is spending even more, and frittering away our heritage by ignoring the crisis at the southern border and importing illegal immigrants literally by the planeload, shredding our constitutional rights, failing to manage his adminstration and hold them accountable, giving free reign to Russia, China, the Taliban, and Iran, ignoring the supply chain crises, ignoring the energy crises (solve an oil shortage by buying electric cars?!), and more.

Ask anyone who grew up in the Warsaw Pact, Soviet Union, or Cuba what is happening. They will tell you, as I have heard multiple times for Cubans, Polaks, Ukrainians, and Russian expats, that this is starting to look more and more like "home" for them. They are not happy about it.

*free rein*

TL;DR This is the socialist Utopia that the leftists have been learning for. All is going according to plan.

*yearning*

Fuck me, no more liquid lunches on my Friday off.

As Ronald Reagan said, government is not the solution, it’s the problem. Lock down society for 2 years. Spend trillions on stimulus. Ban drilling for oil. Kill pipelines. Fire millions for not accepting injections.

Then, you are shocked when inflation kicks in. So, the solution is Build Back Better ( by spending trillions more ).

Whether you are right or left I find it hard to argue with what Gam just laid out. Myself would be a great example to what he is saying. The last 3 years my company has had double digit growth not seen in almost a decade and we did it with less employees, which in turn put more money in all of the employees pockets. Doesn’t matter now because most are almost back to square one because of all these price increases. Unfortunately many still don’t realize it.

You guys complain too much - at least we are now using the right pronouns.

Let's Go Brandon

Paying people not to work plus all the government spending led to less things being produced and much more $$$ chasing after those fewer goods.

Yet senile Brandon wants to double-down and blame everyone else for it from Saudi Arabia to meat producers to "white supremacy"

^ look at they always making jokes

There may still be hope for the future - Crooked-Hillary looks like she wants to run again (sarcasm)

I say we should blame it on the “Bossa Nova”
But y’all the economists here, sounds like you guys got it completely under control.

Gammanu basically said let the private sector fuck you over and just take it. Government help is bad. Fucking moron

Dixie ignoramus. No longer pretending to be Canadian?

So….the avocado ban is over!! 🤩🥑 YAAAAYYYYYYYY
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/18/108182594…

And yes, I get it that society keeps falling apart and basic institutions aren’t able to function and all. Carry on

Quit buying shit! Buy basic needs and the inflation problem will work itself out instead of this whoah is me victims culture sentiment Americans are in love with. It’s happened before and we survived and thrived, so why can’t we figure it out again? We can, but because of the ubiquitous media we have to gripe and complain due to entitled pussies!

When was the last time the US had a production economy?

Lets call it what it is, our currency is collapsing.

The bail out money and paycheck protection money were really stupid.

Since the Work Ethic Squirrel Cage was stopped, we should have gone to Universal Basic Income, and made the mortgage lenders and land lords eat.

As it was, all that money did was prop these clowns up, while at the end leaving working people with nothing, and destroying our treasury.

Real Stupid.

SJG

Idiots abound in abundance

^ and our economic system is the work of idiots. The crisis it is becomes more serious every year. But COVID really pushed it over the edge.

SJG

Meat, we need to buy things to forestall a recession or depression. However, all of American's savings and wage gains are being eaten away at by runaway inflation. You cannot hunt or fish your own food in most population centers. The rivers and lakes in most places, like Florida, are too polluted to fish. I cannot lawfully hunt duck and deer from my backyard, even with a bow. No one can hunt fuel for their cars or gas for their furnaces.

I do not think it would be accurate to say the government does not care. They do. They care that the most basic necessities of daily living are becoming unavailable to most Americans, and soon we will all look to the government to provide everything for us. They care that this is all going according to plan.

Gammanus nickname at the bathhouse is gummer

Saying the government does not care is silly. The better we do, the more money we make, the more money we make, the more taxes the government collects.

The more $$$ we make the less we are dependent on the government and the less power they have over us which is the greatest concern for dictatorships - just look at how wealthy Chinese are constantly disappearing - the more broke you are the less power you have - dictatorships care more about power than the finances of the country and this evident all over the world abd even in the U.S. with the Dems constantly wanting to extend lockdows which by no measure is good for the economy of a country.

"... Saying the government does not care is silly. The better we do, the more money we make, the more money we make ..."

Just like defunding the police is a silly idea but here we are with record crime and record murders

The bigger the government, the smaller and weaker the private sector - the private sector can't compete with a government intent on being as big and as powerful as possible

^^
Asshole... what idiot would go to bonds with interest rates about to skyrocket?

Thanks to the pandemic I retired from work travel & work out of my home office. My club visits were nothing for 18 months, as that disposable stripper scholarship cash piled up. Now I am back to the clubs but still hold the line on VIP pricing. I have been quoted triple the price for same services. I laugh & move on until the price becomes right. I went 18 months & found out I can go 18 more if needed. Some old regular dancers now have private businesses that they developed during the COVID height. Now we avoid the club cut & both get our blo/go.

I’m putting all my stuff in mutual funds. Might be the wrong answer we’ll see but leaving the cash out just to get inflated out of it is not the right answer so let’s see.

People are going to be fucked coming down the road here. That car that they otherwise would’ve payed 20k for now it might be more like 30k. In a couple years they’ll be underwater on that car loan. How are they going to keep up between gas (keystone pipeline killed no hope on the horizon) food, housing, there’s no way this doesn’t get bad.

@Muddy, I'm standing pat right now. Invested in a combination of individual stocks, mutual funds (stock and bond), and small businesses. Only cash I'm holding is my emergency savings. My car is a make/model known for long-ass life if properly maintained, and it's less than 10 years old.

I haven't clubbed at all in a few months, and haven't gotten extras in longer than that. Overdid it, and got bored of it. Will return with my main clubbing buddy next month. We'll see on prices.

^* My read on the market is we’re in for a rough 60-90 days but 6-12 months from now the market will be higher than is was before all this shit hit the fan
And he’ll yes I’m standing pat might buy a few things during the sale period, but I believe in my portfolio and have more than enough cash to weather the storm

I've invested jn precious metals and hoes

^ what do you have to show for your investments?

I've invested a lot jn gold and my dad left me a lot. I don't touch those investments.

I touch the hoes though lulz

So nothing of value

Please stop buying shit you don’t need! People are still hoarding supplies and have overstocked their homes and Pantries. Relax, and like 25 said, by next year our markets will be higher than before this year started. It’s a buying opportunity!

You're a fucking idiot thinking Republicans make anything better by doing more for the rich and fucking everyone else over

You're retarded to spam a strip club forum with right wing extremist bs

All of you

I have no idea what is gonna happen – but heard an analyst today saying investor-sentiment is at its lowest point since early-2016 and that time it was that low mainly b/c of the Brexit drama going-on around that time that many thought/feared was gonna have severe ramifications for the overall economy – IDK how important an indicator this is and I guess it could turn on a dime but makes you wonder if people are gonna be skittish about putting $$$ in the market for the time being if not getting out at least partially.

Another thing I had been hearing for some time was how the market was being kept afloat mostly b/c of the high-flying FANG stocks but that o/w most of the other companies in the index have been mostly dogs for a while now – supposedly these high-flying FANG stocks are more susceptible to rising interest-rates and why many have been getting hammered as of late.

Doesn’t seem to be a safe-place to be right now – but history has shown that those that get out of the market in the long run end up losing more-$$$ vs riding out the tough-times – w.r.t. being in cash, someone was making the point that it’s not the terrible thing that many make it out to be – sure there is the inflation angle but this person was making the point that being in cash for a short period of time is not a huge deal – at the end of the day those pedaling stocks have an incentive to tell you to not be in cash – being in cash one has $$$ to invest when stocks are cheaper and perhaps on the rebound – but of course no-one knows when it’s the best/right time to get out and when it’s a good time to get back in and just like one can possibly get out at a good time and avoid losses, and can also miss out on good gains – if one is young enough it seems the advice is often to ride things out or keep an eye for some sectors doing a little better like value/dividend-paying-stocks or perhaps some international-funds but it seems often times when the market goes down sharply it takes everything down w/ it.

"... I’m putting all my stuff in mutual funds ..."

ETFs are pretty-much the same thing but have more flexibility - the way I understand it is that ETFs trade like stocks that one can buy/sell instantly whereas mutual-fund orders only execute at the end of the trading-day which can be a problem if the market is taking a severe dive during the trading day and one wants to get out/sell - with ETFs one can also put stop-orders to automatically get out/sell at a particular price which can help in a black-swan event during the trading day - but AFAIK 401Ks only work w/ mutual funds and not ETFs but some companies have Roth 401Ks but IDK much about those but perhaps those allow ETFs?

Saw someone mentioning the chart below which depicts the money in circulation - the graph is mostly flat thru the decades until the 2008 GFC when it starts increasing at a good clip b/f going straight up almost vertically in 2020 - kinda hard for the economy to not go out of whack w/ that much $$$ put into circulation in a compressed period of time - yet Brandon wants mo-money mo-money mo-money:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CDCAB…

Both parties have acted very inflationary for some time. Democratic spending and Republican tax cutting, and both wanted loads of cheap money.

^^ Go away, Cacaplop

^Tet, pro-growth and inflationary are two different things. You can increase the productive use of money within an economy via tax cutting without flooding the economy with cheap dollars.

But I do agree that the Dems are not solely to blame. Trump got this whole ball rolling and was advocating huge spending blowouts even as he was on his way out of office. Now sure the Dems do what they always do - triple down on it once they get the ball. But Trump started it.

For the last 140 years, the market has always bounced back. Sometimes, it takes months. Sometimes, it takes years. But, the best strategy has always been to keep your money in a diverse group of stocks and wait for the rebound.

The closest this strategy came to failing was in the 1930s when the government refused to allow market forces to bring things back to balance. Instead, it tried to legislate, regulate, and spend our way back. It wasn’t until WWII that we pulled ourselves out of it.

Maybe Biden will make the same mistake that FDR did. So far, he has. That means we’ve got 3 more years of this shit.

The simple fact is that the democrats, like all leftists are good at three things bitching, whining, and blaming others. That works when you are out of power; only. When the same whiny little bitches from failed communities take over, we get inflation, government handouts, illegal criminals flooding the country, crime, violence in the street s and inflation. If you want to fix the blame and you voted for Biden, just look in the mirror to see the fucking retard to blame for all of this.

Democrats believe in Modern Monetary Theory:

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is a heterodox macroeconomic framework that says monetarily sovereign countries like the U.S., U.K., Japan, and Canada, which spend, tax, and borrow in a fiat currency that they fully control, are not operationally constrained by revenues when it comes to federal government spending.

Put simply, such governments do not rely on taxes or borrowing for spending since they can print as much as they need and are the monopoly issuers of the currency. Since their budgets aren’t like a regular household’s, their policies should not be shaped by fears of rising national debt.

Democrats governing philosophy is a belief that government should spend as much money as possible using the printing press to pay for it. They believe this will generate prosperity and have no downside. If some of this money falls into their families pockets, so much the better.

@Mark, this current inflation should bury MMT six feet deep.

It's a post hoc justification for their desire to spend, spend, spend.

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."

- Frederic Bastiat

When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will be the end of the Republic - Benjamin Franklin. The Democrats are following socialist policy as do the Chinese, the Russians and previously the Nazis.

A weird example of inflation. We just drove from Denver to Montana and back with assorted driving to and from ski areas. I figure about 2300 miles of driving last week, in a jeep, that takes regular gas. Cost a lot. Last year we drove to Montana from the Boston area in my wrx, which takes premium. The drive was 5,000 miles and gas cost 52$ more last year. Twice the drive and 70 cents per gallon more, for only $52 more. Bidenflationm is killing America and if you're a democrat, you're an accessory.

Wait until healthcare cost soar even more than they have these past 2 decades! The left will be calling for universal health care, but it’s their own inflating policies that will price out the average consumer, as it always has. Inflation is a tax that hits primarily the marginalized.

Honestly the issue is tax cuts to billionaires and Russia. Republicans are smart they break everything, lose power then blame the Democrats who clean shit up.

See Clinton, Obama and now Biden

Sick of being the custodians cleaning up after you louts.

Lmao @ tax cuts for billionaires. Too fucking stupid for words. When you're a fucked up lefty its always someone else's fault. It's not my fault, Wah - cry of the losers.

The answer for everything is “ tax the rich”. Free college ? Tax the rich. Free healthcare ? Tax the rich. Universal Basic Income ? Tax the rich.

However, a financial analysis at the most basic level shows that you couldn’t pay for any of these freebies even if you taxed every rich person at 100%. It’s wishful thinking that a handful of people could pay for everyone else’s life.

At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child — miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, Ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.

P.J.O’Rourke

The mainstream media is now parroting the Whitehouse talking point that inflation is being caused by…….Ukraine. You see, it is completely unrelated to the Trillions of debt under Biden.

It's funny - I was thinking of this thread when I was shopping yesterday. All-in I spent about $350 for a family of 4. Now granted that included about $50 in seafood and high-end steaks and maybe $80 in certain bulk products that I could have bought less of, but I still would have needed some of the bulk stuff and would have had to replace the seafood and steak with cheaper proteins, so if I had played it tight it probably would have been closer to $250.

$250 for a single weekly maintenance trip. Imagine that. I had even split the trip between Walmart (for grocery items and steak) and Publix (other meat, dairy, produce) in order to shave some of the cost down and this is where I ended up.

Now of course I could have bought everything from Walmart and/or used generic brands instead of the ones we like, but I struggle to see how I could have made it below $200 without having to rely upon canned and processed foods. I have to imagine that Ramen and Chef Boyardi sales have spiked in recent months.

And I am someone who cooks, which is always cheaper than buying prepared foods. I can't imagine what the carts and final weekly tallies look like for those who rely upon others to do most of the cooking.

Unreal.

^ not to argue with your point but what is it you’re comparing the cost to, and tell me if you are still earning the same money as your comparison.

===> "^ not to argue with your point but what is it you’re comparing the cost to, and tell me if you are still earning the same money as your comparison."

Fair questions 25. Two years ago a typical weekly maintenance trip, without the high end frills, cost me about $160 and that was for 5, not 4. Even a year ago it was still under $200. Now I'm spending about $240-250 per week on the essentials.

My income has gone up, but not because I have been able to raise fees to existing clients. I won't get into the details, but my income bump is nether pandemic nor inflation-related.

As I indicated above, the conditions I grew up in have always made me conscious about food costs, long past the point where I needed to be. Meat, dairy and produce price spikes account for the bulk of those increases. When ground beef is $5 per pound and a chuck roast now runs per pound what a good steak did 2 years ago, shit is out of hand. Pork is getting expensive now too and even chicken is no bargain.

In order to help defray costs I used to buy good sale meats in bulk and drop them in the deep freezer but the good sales are few and far between nowadays. Look at your local Publix circular and see what's on sale in the meat section - it's thin pickings and has been that way for many months now.

I get it and inflation is a real problem for young people but truth be told I brought my house over 20 years ago, it’s worth 3.5 times what I paid for it, I brought my car a month before I sold my business in 2020 I’ve received an offer from the dealership I brought the car from for almost 11K more than I paid for it, my portfolio while I’ve dropped a substantial amount of money in the last two months is still 40% higher than it was in January of 2021, I’m not very worried about anything of consequence and if I need to spend a bit more on goods and services I’ll be fine. My point is this is a normal event considering the events of the past two years and I believe that the system will right itself eventually
I know everyone isn’t in the same circumstances as myself, but crying about being broke on a strip club website for folks that piss money away on these things is more than a bit off in my opinion

60,000 truckers are suspended right now due to federal drug testing for marijuana metabolites. An executive order to end testing puts that many more big rigs back on the road, but inflationary pressure is an intentional strategy for the democrats. Inflation equals poverty. Poverty equals government benefits. Government benefits mean an easily controlled populace spouting the party line. Easily controlled populace spouting the party line = democrats. The Ukraine is also Biden's fault, but he owes them for covering up of his kid's crimes.

Very few wealthy people think they are wealthy. If they are worth $2Million, they’d say $5 Million is wealthy. If they have $5 Million, they’d say $10 Million. Etc.

But, if you ask the proverbial man on the street, $2 Million would be a typical response.

There have been lots of studies at what makes a happy person. Generally, these are people who make enough money to meet their families’ basic needs ( $70,000 per year tends to be enough in most locations ) and are content with their life. They never express a desire, as in “ If I only had X, I’d be happy “.

But, money does play a role. If inflation prevents you from being able to provide for your family’s safety and security, it’s a big deal.

This matches up with the Buddhist belief that all suffering comes from desire. Live in the moment. Don’t condition your happiness on an external event.

Twitter suggested a tweet that read:

I don't like to brag on Twitter about my expensive trips, but I just got back from the grocery store..."

@25: One does not need to be crippled by a cost increase to care about it. As someone who grew up poor, it burns me to see food costs rising so rapidly. This also impacts some folks in my circle who can't absorb it so easily.

And what makes you think that this is temporary of that our assets are going to retain their inflated values? Inflation is showing every sign of becoming entrenched, which means that sooner or later this house of cards is going to collapse, either due to inflation smothering demand (stagflation anyone?) or the Fed aggressively pumping the brakes. You were around for the 70s and early 80s, no?

People were tougher and used to more hardship in the 70's and 80's so we fought for every fucking hour of OT or second jobs to make up for inflation. Young people of today will expect to get welfare or they won't feel safe.

^^ I don’t know, but I was just talking to my father and uncles that said in the 70’s and 80’s they got significant pay raises at their jobs to offset inflation, so they said to them it wasn’t that big of a deal. Today there are pay raises, but guaranteed it won’t be anywhere close to the rate of inflation. Again, we as a society need to stop buying so much shit! I remember growing up it was a luxury to go out to eat, and now people complain that they have to cook at home more than a few times a week.

One would assume that back in the 70s and up to a certain extent 80s, one lived simpler lives, housing wasn't thru the fucking roof, cars were more-affordable, and one just overall spent less, lived simpler lives, and it was easier to cut back often b/c one didn't have to cut back that much given they lived simpler.

Today many people are in debt and have very large mortgages and are often paying 2 (sometimes more) car loans/leases; etc - in many ways life today is a lot more expensive, there's a lot more stuff to spend $$$ on that has become part of daily life - the more you have, the more it take$ to maintain it - and sure we can all live more basic/frugal lives but modern life often requires certain expenditures; often times working professionals have little free-time and often gotta pay for things that previous generations did not; etc.

One would assume if Manchin can hold the line on more Dem spending and handing out $$$ to people, that inflation will start to taper-off and perhaps start coming down bit by bit as more people see a need to reenter the workforce and start producing and there’s less $$$ flooding the economy (part of the inflation issue is not enough goods being produced or enough workers to produce them to satisfy demand).

I think the actions of the government that in large part caused this rapid inflation, can be reversed if they stop spending so much – but some analysts fear that the fed may slam on the breaks too hard and instead of slowly decreasing inflation we may end up in a recession.

^ There is something to be said for fewer things to spend on. Big Tech has gotten good at increasing our leisure spend--everything is a subscription nowadays, there was no such thing as a cell phone (or it was the size of a brick) when I was growing up.

But real estate prices have been goosed, and fewer people have been able to take advantage of prosperity. Look at the number of people and skill levels employed by GM back in the day vs. Facebook now. Globalization has shafted the common man in the name of cheap goods, and made it easier than ever for the most talented (like 1% of 1%) to make incredible wealth. That's caused by technology, not policy.

We need to re-shore jobs for the working class. Not everyone can "learn to code." If we want to go green, we need to mine an assload of lithium (https://amp-interestingengineering-com.c… ). And a lot more like this.

@Meat & Papi: I was a kid with blue collar parents during those inflationary years and salaries most definitely did not keep up. Even if you have periodic raises tied to inflation, there is a lag. Also certain core goods that everyone had to buy (housing, food, gas) often rose faster than the broader inflation metric used in the contract formulas. Keep in mind too that food and medical assistance programs were not nearly so generous as they are today.

Those were very tough times for working class folks. They were also tough for the economy and the stock market, which is why the 70s is called the lost decade.

It never ceases to amaze me how we never seem to truly learn the lessons of the past. History always seems doomed to repeat itself.

^ This is nothing like the inflation of the 1970s which was actually caused by fed policies and part of what caused the republican party's problems during the Nixon and Ford administrations. For one thing you had Nixon trying to enforce wage and price controls which led to a decline in the earning power of wage employees and you also had constraints placed on businesses to try and contain costs, that's not happening now, neither is there a concerted effort by the fed to manipulate the money supply which is what happened back then.

Pandemic profiteering

https://youtu.be/vnvBcR5Z3lI

The Fed has been too busy making sure the profiteering wealthy make money in the stock market and should have raised rates at least 3/4% already. We could now see as many as 8 basis points over the next 2 years. If you didn't grow up in the 70s and 80s you don't get inflation, which is economic cancer. The idea this is Pandemic profiteering is stupid. The asshole in the video is one of the myriads of reasons I don't send my alma mater a goddam cent any longer. He's a fucking marxist and they are simply economic frauds. Blah, blah, blah, corporations. Yawn. Fuck off.

I bought heating oil today at $3.70 a gallon, a month ago it was $2.19 a gallon

If my pants don't inflate at the 2nd strip club its time to move on