I read a Reuters headline this morning: “Fed’s Goolsbee says fall in US inflation is not just a blip” and the sip of coffee I had just taken got stuck at the top of my throat. My degree in economics was largely useless, but one thing I do remember was the class on this subject because it dealt with why the price of gas I put in my 1970 Pontiac Le Mans was rising from 28 cents (!) a gallon to $.32 to $.35. (Yeah, I’m that old.)
Let’s start with the words, “fall in US inflation”. Sounds like a good thing, right? It is, except that the gaslighting is inherent in trying to create the impression that PRICES of goods and services are falling. Ain’t so. THEY ARE STILL RISING.
Inflation means RISING PRICES. It doesn’t mean HIGHER PRICES. If we are experiencing inflation, it means simply that prices are rising. To say that there is a “fall” in inflation therefore doesn’t mean that prices are coming down but that they’re NOT RISING AS FAST.
It’s a lot like the nonsense that spews forth from politicians’ mouths when they talk about REDUCING SPENDING. They’re lying. They’re not reducing spending at all…they’re reducing the RATE at which spending is increasing. How the hell else do you think we went from discussing budgets and spending levels in the BILLIONS to budgets and spending levels in the TRILLIONS!
What’s more…inflation (i.e. PRICES started rising) kicked in with a vengeance after Biden came into office. The general (rate of) inflation over the four years Trump was in office was 1-2% per year. Prices were still rising, but at a slow pace. Wages rose (you got about a 2-3% raise each of those years right?) and so you were gaining in that your income was rising faster than the cost of things and thus your standard of living was improving!
Biden comes in, whacks energy production, starts throwing money out of helicopters both to our own population as well as the mullahs, and pretty quickly gas doubles (and in some cases triples), a half-gallon of milk hits $6, a dozen eggs as much as $5 and needless to say, our standard of living starts to retract very quickly.
Meanwhile, expenses for employers go up as well leaving less to pay employees, so while INFLATION is raging close to double digits, take home pay remains stagnant. Thanks Joe.
All of this is academic of course. We all feel the effects of rising prices (aka INFLATION) whether we’re well off or just making ends meet.
So when Biden’s minions spew garbage like, paraphrasing the Reuters article, “inflation (what they want you to believe to be PRICES) is coming down”: first, it’s NOT prices that are coming down, they’re just rising at a slower rate, and second, THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PRICES HAVING RISEN TO THESE RIDICULOUS LEVELS TO START WITH!
Don’t allow ourselves to be gaslighted. Don’t believe what this administration says for a second. Believe your eyes and the fewer greenbacks in your pockets!