by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:
Inflation is going down! Isn’t that wonderful? When many less educated Americans hear this news, they will think that prices are going down. But that is not true at all. In fact, prices are still going up. They are just going up at a slower rate than they were before. According to the federal government, the Consumer Price Index was only 3 percent higher in June 2023 than it was in June 2022. That sounds like pretty good news, but it is imperative to realize that the formula used for the Consumer Price Index has literally been changed dozens of times over the decades. If the rate of inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, it would still be well into the double digits.
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So we should be thankful that prices have moderated a bit (for now), but anyone that believes that inflation is “under control” is just being delusional.
Month after month, the cost of living just keeps becoming more oppressive for average Americans. At this point, U.S. families are under so much financial stress that they are even “skimping on everyday items such as toothpaste and toilet paper”…
Americans are skimping on everyday items such as toothpaste and toilet paper in a troubling sign for the US economy and major manufactures, financial experts have warned.
Personal hygiene products have taken a hit – with units of toothpaste, laundry detergent and toilet paper sold down three to four percent in the year through June 24, according to data from NIQ, Bloomberg reported.
Americans are also opting for cheaper brands and budget stores to combat inflation, in a blow to manufacturing giants such as Procter & Gamble and a boost to the likes of Dollar General.
Surveys have shown that more than 60 percent of the population is living paycheck to paycheck, and the reality of the matter is that a lot of us are looking to cut back anywhere that we possibly can.
Sadly, that even includes school supplies. According to Zero Hedge, it is being projected that back-to-school spending will decline “for the first time in nine years”…
According to a Deloitte survey released on Wednesday, back-to-school (BTS) spending, the second-largest spending event for families after the holiday season, is anticipated to decline for the first time in nine years. The survey’s findings indicate that consumers are struggling amid the two-year inflation storm, raising concerns about the success of “Bidenomics.”
Inflation has been eroding our standard of living for decades, and now we are at a point where tens of millions of Americans are just barely scraping by from month to month.
Once upon a time, anyone with a middle class income could afford to buy or rent a decent home or apartment.
But now it takes more than a middle class income to even rent a “glorified dungeon” in New York City…
A tiny disused space which has been turned into a $2,300-a-month apartment has been dubbed as nothing more than a ‘glorified dungeon.’
Popular TikTok account NYC Sales & Rentals took to the video sharing platform to showcase the bizarre set-up.
It revealed how the unusual apartment in central Harlem could be found at the back of the lobby, hidden behind the laundry room.
When I see stuff like that, it makes me very angry.
I simply cannot understand how anyone can possibly believe that the cost of living is under control.
It isn’t.
And more inflation is coming. Now that the “debt ceiling crisis” is over, our politicians in Washington have added a trillion dollars to the national debt in just five weeks…
It looks like the Biden-McCarthy “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023” will rival the Inflation Reduction Act (Green New Deal) in its Orwellian meaning and outcome. Just five weeks after the deal was hatched, the Treasury has issued over $1 trillion in new debt!
This is simply astounding. It took from our founding until 1980 to accrue the amount of debt that we have now added in just over five weeks. It is truly hard to overstate the magnitude and impact of this spending.
Pumping so much money into the economy in such a short period of time is highly inflationary.
If our “leaders” in Washington were serious about getting inflation under control, they would stop borrowing and spending so much money.
But they will never do that.
So it is up to the Federal Reserve to try to do something about inflation, and it appears that they are gearing up for yet another interest rate hike…
Despite the slowdown in inflation, policymakers are widely expected to approve another quarter-percentage point hike at the conclusion of their two-day meeting. An overwhelming percentage of traders – more than 92% – anticipate the Fed will lift interest rates again at the end of the month.
Reading that makes me want to tear my hair out.
U.S. home values have already fallen by more than 100 billion dollars as the housing bubble bursts, and the commercial real estate market is coming apart like a 20 dollar suit.
As a result, small and mid-size banks all over the country are experiencing great pain, and loan losses are rising at a very frightening pace…
The major U.S. banks are set to report the biggest jump in loan losses since the COVID-19 pandemic, as rising interest rates put mounting pressure on borrowers across the country.
There is no way in the world that the Federal Reserve should be thinking about raising interest rates even higher.
But they are going to do it anyway.
Sometimes I feel like I am banging my head into a brick wall.
No matter how much we may object, our “leaders” just keep making incredibly foolish decision after incredibly foolish decision.
And it isn’t just the economy. Decades of incredibly foolish decisions in all areas have literally brought us to the brink of national suicide.
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