Inflate and die

[Bill Bonner’s Diary]( Inflate AND Die By Bill Bonner Tuesday, June 15, 2021 [Bill Bonner] YOUGHAL, IRELAND – That was fast! Already… the inflation threat is over. Bloomberg tells us more: With investors anxious to hear the Federal Reserve’s latest take on inflation after last week’s hot reading, certain corners of the market are already simmering down. Take lumber, one of the biggest gainers among commodities in the past year as stuck-at-home Americans poured money into remodeling. It’s slumped 40% since its peak in May. The booming housing market has also cooled, with an index that measures consumer plans to buy homes tumbling last month. And copper has eased from an all-time high. […] The Treasury market, for one, has shown itself unperturbed by the latest readings that highlighted the fastest year-over-year acceleration since 2008. Stocks haven’t minded either, with the S&P 500 breaking out to its first record since early May last week. Or is it? Breitbart reports: Worries About Big Ticket Item Inflation Hit Worse Level Since 1982. The University of Michigan’s survey of consumer sentiment showed U.S. consumers more concerned with higher prices of appliances, houses, and cars than anytime in 39 years, according to the survey’s chief economist Richard Curtin. Recommended Link [Could you retire right now?]( [image]( Jeff Clark: “What if I told you there was a way to boost your retirement portfolio fast? And with less risk. Imagine putting $1,000 into the market and getting $2,000 out – not just once, but over and over again. Sometimes in as little as 48 hours. That’s what’s possible when you follow my approach. I call it the “Money Multiplier.” This technique can make you $1,400… $5,420… $7,470… in a matter of weeks. So, if you’re tired of doing things the hard way…” [Click here to see the “Money Multiplier” presentation.]( -- Critical Distinction So what’s ahead? Tomorrow, the Federal Reserve will announce its latest policy move. Most recently, it has been “thinking about thinking about tapering.” What that means is that if it thinks it is already reaching its inflation target – 2% per year – it might begin to think about backing off from its [$120 billion-a-month counterfeiting program](. But it’s this money-printing itself that is the real “inflation,” not the price increases you see at the grocery store. The point of today’s Diary: While the future price of strawberries is unknowable, the future of the Fed’s inflation is unavoidable. [Featured: Watch Demo of Elon Musk’s Next Big Project]( True Prices We saw last week that prices are not a problem. It doesn’t matter that they are high or low… [as long as they are true](. A true price tells us something important – input costs, supplies, demand. A phony price misleads, confuses, and defrauds us all – investors, producers, and consumers alike. When the U.S. was flooded with imports from China, Mexico, and Vietnam, for example, prices fell. The lower prices told us that the foreign manufacturers could produce many things more cheaply than we could in the U.S. American retailers rushed to source their goods from overseas… and consumers rushed to Walmart to buy them. American labor, meanwhile, lost its bargaining power. But when Wall Street prices rose – without the additional profits to justify them – the information content was ersatz. It misled investors into supporting zombie companies, gambling on further capital gains, and wasting precious time and resources. Recommended Link [Why He Traveled 3,300 Miles To Meet One Man…]( [ad_img]( Why did 4-Time Emmy Winner John Burke just fly 3,300 miles? To meet one man… A former hedge fund manager who was voted one of the top 10 crypto experts on the planet… Who recommended Bitcoin 5 years ago… Back when it was trading for just $428 a coin. What is he recommending now? The answer might surprise you… It’s NOT bitcoin… It’s not a clean energy play… not AI… not 5G… [Check out John’s interview to see what he uncovered…]( Real Prices And it soured the social stew. Artificially low interest rates, an implicit stock market guarantee, and bond purchases (such as its current $120 billion-a-month program) shifted trillions of dollars’ worth of wealth. The elite, who own stocks and bonds, [took the Fed’s money]( even a “thank you.” The factory girls and toolbelt guys, who provide real goods and services, got nothing – leaving them, relatively, [even worse off](. Real prices – based on shifting labor and raw material costs, shipping patterns, retailing methods, consumer preferences, and innumerable other factors – are inherently unpredictable. Bad summer weather could raise the price of watermelons, for example. (The Fed’s attempt to raise prices at a steady 2% annual rate is therefore as preposterous as it is unattainable.) [Featured: The 3-Stock Retirement Blueprint]( Inflate AND Die But while we can’t know what will happen to real prices… we can make a fair guess about what’s ahead for the Fed’s inflation campaign. It’s now inevitable… deliberate… and disastrous. Dear reader H.R.E. has suggested a revision of our “[Inflate or Die]( description. It’s now “Inflate AND Die,” he says. He’s got a point. Fish gotta swim. Birds gotta fly. The feds gotta inflate. No matter when or how real prices react, the fake signals and hidden robbery in the feds’ inflation is gonna kill us all. Everybody must [get stoned](. How? When…? Woody Allen remarked, “Just tell us where… and we’ll avoid the place.” Recommended Link [Shameful! See What Biden and the Democrats Just Did To YOUR Money]( [image]( The U.S. House of Representatives voted to let the IMF circulate what could be a new elite-controlled reserve currency. Its exchange rate could effectively devalue the U.S. dollars in your pocket and your savings. It’s all part of a disturbing agenda called the “Great Reset,” endorsed by the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and radical liberals, under the guise of “equality.” How can you protect your money and all you’ve worked for from this reset? [See this briefing on what to do next]( -- No Escape But as we saw [yesterday]( there may be nowhere – at least in the G7 nations – you will be able to escape to. France, Japan, Canada, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom – all the other G7 nations are in on the caper. All G7 nations have staggering levels of debt – Japan, for example, has government debt greater than 250% of its GDP… or more than twice the U.S. level… …All have more and more old people and fewer and fewer young people to look after them. Italy’s population is expected to be cut in half by the end of the century… …All are facing huge social and political problems, since they are unable to make good on the promises they’ve made to voters… …All are caught in the “Inflate AND Die” trap… forced to finance deficits with printing-press money… …All believe they can and should switch to “green” energy, though none has the huge amount of capital that the “great transition” would require… Global Spree Yes, Dear Reader, the scam has gone global. And we are looking at the first international, coordinated inflation spree in history. Hundreds of millions of people will be ripped off… by globalized inflation, globalized taxes, and globalized claptrap. And it will be harder than ever to avoid it. Regards, [signature] Bill --------------------------------------------------------------- Like what you’re reading? Send your thoughts to [feedback@rogueeconomics.com](mailto:feedback@rogueeconomics.com?subject=Inflate and die). --------------------------------------------------------------- MAILBAG Dear readers respond to Bill's essay, "[Inflation Explained](... Can I add another aspect to your inflation explanation, s’il vous plait? When technology improves the effectiveness or useability of a product, the old product with the old technology becomes redundant. How many old, perfectly usable phones are sat in people’s drawers at home? I know I have a few myself. There is, obviously, a cost in replacing old products with new ones… and the more frequent the replacement, the greater the cost becomes. It has always seemed sensible to me that this cost is an inflationary effect, too. If you keep one phone for, say, 10 years, it might cost you a total of, say, $500. But if you replace your phone with a new one every three years, so you can get some more features or whatever, then the total cost is more like $1,500. So, the extra advantage of the new technology has cost you three times as much for adopting it and discarding your old phone. The cost of improvements is never discounted in consumer price inflation (CPI), is it? No wonder! Thank you for your wonderful Diary; I have followed you for many years – keep it up, please. – Nigel I. Robert Summers, Larry’s dad, was my major advisor and teacher in undergraduate school and he “almost” said large increases in government spending were okay to smooth out the downward-sloping shape of the business cycle. A Keynesian supporter (everyone was), I bought it, but what’s happening now is ridiculous. Even Larry says, “Whoa, gang, excess is not very good in the long run.” Glad I’m old. – Kenny G. Is it more expensive to replace older products, as Nigel believes? How does this contribute to inflation? Write us at [feedback@rogueeconomics.com](mailto:feedback@rogueeconomics.com?subject=Inflate and die). IN CASE YOU MISSED IT… [Bill Bonner: Shadow-Banned?]( Have [America’s top booksellers refused to carry Bill Bonner’s final book]( You won’t find new copies of Win-Win or Lose at Barnes & Noble… and not a single copy is floating around on eBay. In fact, the only used copy we could find was going for $79 on Amazon. Which is why Bill recently authorized us to take drastic steps to put a copy in your hands essentially free – as part of this limited time offer. [To claim yours, click here.]( [image]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Get Instant Access Click to read these free reports and automatically sign up for daily research. 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