Wednesday, August 11, 2021

The specter of widespread price inflation is real in Western economies

Western countries are facing the possible rise of widespread price inflation for consumers, retirees, and businesses affecting many products & services, wages, home & energy prices and much more. Price inflation, once kicked in, has the historical tendency to feed on itself and to accelerate or spiral upwards and to remain high for several years or even decades to come.

Those who are younger than 30-40 years old will not even remember what price inflation means or have little experience with it. E.g. from the late 1960s through about 1983 there was above 5% annual consumer price inflation in the U.S. (see chart below) Similar inflation was also observed in Western Europe!

The Consumer Price Index (All Urban Consumers) increased by about 3.7% year to date (July) in 2021 (See chart below. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics).

For many years, reckless and artificially low interest rate monetary policies in Europe and the U.S. combined with the enormous expansion of government spending and government debt are causal factors. The idiocy of Global Warming hoax a.k.a. Climate Change religion and its significant impact on misguided energy policies etc. is also to blame! Elected politicians can live beyond an economy's means for some time, but not for very long!

As they say, no good deed goes unpunished over the long term!




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