Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,
This time last year, it seemed like we were just about finished with the terrible inflation of the Biden years that had trimmed at least 25 percent from the purchasing power of the dollar.
The hope has been for a year that the massive increases in money printing over the COVID years were finally done. As some put it, the snake had finally digested the golf ball.
All along we’ve worried that the experience of the 1970s would repeat: three clean waves.
After each, monetary authorities presumed that the problem was over and that life could go on as normal.
Each time, inflation fired back up again, until it culminated in an inflation of the late seventies that changed life in America fundamentally.
After that, two household incomes were more common than not, if only to maintain living standards.
We could only hope that we would not repeat that experience. Indeed, history does not repeat but it does rhyme. Authorities tend to relax in vigilance once a crisis seems to have abated.
The 2021–2024 inflation was devastating for real wages and salaries.Official data reports that they have been mostly flat and then somewhat rising. Maybe, but I personally cannot think of anyone who earned raises that have kept up with inflation over four years. That’s anecdotal, to be sure, but you are welcome to check my intuition against your experience.
We don’t seem to see moves today from the Federal Reserve that would suggest a concerted effort in the direction of easing. Money supply has not taken off and the Fed is holding interest rates rather tight for fear of igniting inflation.
Source: ZeroHedge News
