In Inflation 101, Puru Saxena discusses the reasons for why we get poorer each year and explains inflation in its most basic form:
In our opinion, inflation is evil and the sole reason why human beings have become modern-day slaves. Remember, money is supposed to be a store of value, however due to reckless central bank-sponsored inflation, it can no longer fulfill this critical role. This is precisely the reason why human beings are never satisfied with what they have because nobody knows what their savings will buy them in ten or twenty years time. So, rather than enjoy their lives, the vast majority of people continue with their never ending pursuit of acquiring even more money! Unfortunately, nobody questions the inexplicable loss of the purchasing power of their savings, thus, central banks get away with financial murder.
Now more than ever, if you hold cash assets (US Dollar, Long Term Treasuries, CD’s) your store of wealth is disintegrating. If you are earning 4%, and inflation sits at 9%, as suggested by John Williams at Showstats, you are losing purchasing power each and every year! President Ronald Reagan called inflation a hidden tax on the people.
The important thing to note, and Mr. Saxena does it succinctly in his article, is that inflation is not a rise in prices as the government would have us believe:
Before we delve further, we want to make it absolutely clear that inflation is defined as the increase in the quantity of money and debt within an economy. And contrary to what the governments want you to believe, inflation is certainly not an increase in the general price level within an economy. Instead, an increase in the general price level within an economy is a consequence of inflation.
I whole-heartedly agree with this statement – inflation is the root cause of our debt slavery.
I keep meticulous records of my finances and bills for the past 10 years. What I have found, which I kind of suspected all along, is nothing short of amazing.
1. My wages have not kept up with OFFICIAL inflation. I am down about 4% as measured in 2000 dollars.
This does not even take into account the astronomical rise in housing prices between 2000 and 2006, or even the dramatic rise in healthcare costs and food/energy. Anyone who understands a little something about how CPI data is calculated knows that through hedonic adjustments, geometric weighting, substitution, and using equivalent rent costs instead of house prices knows that official CPI is a joke, to say the least.
2. Knowing how official CPI is a joke, I used ShadowStats CPI data to calculate how much my real wages have gone down in 10 years. The verdict?
Over 33%. Now that explains a lot – mainly why I can’t seem to get ahead no matter how hard I tried. And with this “deflationary” period that we’re in, no one’s giving raises in my business, yet oddly prices are up still. What’s going to come as a result of all this?
If what I read is true, about the growing food shortages, then perhaps it’s about to get a whole lot uglier as even deflationary demand side of food won’t be enough to counteract the diminishing supply side and thus prices go up, up, up.
Inflation? You bet! Take the “Sweatshirt Hyperinflation Index” (all rights reserved) as an example. All sweatshirts at Wal-Mart in any color, and up to size XL, have increased in price 20% year over year. Last year that sweatshirt was $5.00 this year its $6.00.
There is no “deflationary demand for food”. I have noticed significant price increases on food items at Wal-Mart as well. And if prices are going up at Wal-Mart, they are going up even more at other grocery stores. The “value” of the dollar has dropped 20 to 30 percent in the past year, and that has raised the cost of groceries too, as many food items are imported.
Support your LOCAL farmer or Farmers Market! Local foods are produced with dollars: meaning that all things equal, products grown, produced, made, or manufactured within the USA should not reflect higher prices. If the dollar drops far enough (and it will) we will be competing with China for investment in new manufacturing plants in the United States. Actually it will be China Inc. investing our dollars into our country for their ownership of these manufacturing facilities. Thank you Federal Reserve. Thank you Goldman Sachs. That you JP Morgan Chase.
If you want a jaw dropping moment , save every purchase recipt for a few months , at the end of the month go back and look at your spending habits . What an eye opening expierence it is ! Now , I save every recipt and have done so for the last 2 years . I purchased some 9×13 size clasp envelopes to put my recipts into and mark them by month and year . Its an easy habit to get into . My envelope is in the kitchen and easy to see so that my recipts go into it .