Inflation? What Inflation?

Rising food and energy prices?

So what!

So says the Federal Reserve.

Recent increases in prices of oil, grain and other commodities are "unlikely to have persistent effects on consumer inflation or to derail the economic recovery"

Ignore the higher gas prices, electric bill, subway pass, and food bill.

It's all in your mind.

I'm sure that austerity measures from Washington will so make things better.

Inflation Is Rising, Pay Isn't

From the Kaplan Test Prep Post:

Inflation is back, with higher prices for food and fuel hammering American consumers, and this time it really hurts.

It’s not just that prices are rising, it’s that wages aren’t.

Previous bouts of inflation have usually meant a wage-price spiral, as pay and prices chase each other ever upward. But now paychecks are falling farther and farther behind. In the past three months, consumer prices have been rising at a 5.7 percent annual rate while average weekly wages have barely budged, increasing at only a 1.3 percent annual rate.

And the particular prices that are rising are for products that people encounter most frequently in their daily lives and have the least flexibility to avoid. For the most part, it’s not computers and cars that are getting more expensive, it’s gasoline, which is up 19 percent in the past year, ground beef, up 10 percent, and butter, up 23 percent.

Inflation is typically the symptom of an economy overheating. Workers can’t keep up with the demand for the vast array of things they make. Abundant dollars pursue scarce goods and services, forcing prices and wages up. The solution is simple enough: Central banks, such as the Federal Reserve, hike interest rates, applying brakes to the economy.

But the current price spike is in some ways more pernicious than the last great U.S. inflation — the steep increases of the 1970s — and harder for policymakers to address. Today, raising interest rates might make a weak economy even weaker, stifling what meager growth there’s been in wages. Moreover, higher interest would make the nation’s massive budget deficits even more expensive to finance, taking an additional toll on the economy.

Few would argue that the U.S. economy, with its 8.9 percent unemployment rate, is overheating at the moment. Rather, the global economy — in particular developing nations such as China and India — is growing so rapidly that it’s straining the available supplies of all types of raw materials.

Yeah, maybe China and India are gobbling up all the available supplies of raw materials and thus causing the rise in prices.

Or maybe all the banksters Helicopter Ben has been showering with Federal Reserve largesse are creating a commodities bubble with all that cheap money.

I suspect it's number two on the menu, but either way, the vast majority of people are going to be screwed by rising prices and stagnant wages.

In the past, the oligarchs have been able to turn that anger against poor people, ethnic people and lately public employees and union members.

But that's get harder to do as it becomes clearer and clearer that the top 5%, who now own almost 64% of the country's wealth, are doing pretty swell while it's the rest of us who are suffering and falling behind.

Here Comes The Inflation

You can't print money night and day at the Federal Reserve to paper over the insolvency of the banking system, hand that money over to the banksters for 0% interest and have them speculate with that money in commodities and not bring nightmare inflation.

Here it comes:

Fresh financial pain is on the way, with price hikes expected on everything from underwear to cereal.

City merchants say they've held the line during the economic downturn, but now, because of the increased cost of cotton, wheat and other commodities, price increases are inevitable on almost everything we use.

"It's like a tsunami - when it happens, it hits you later," said Ricardo Rezk, owner of empanada maker Rico M. Panada in Mott Haven, the Bronx. "The warning siren has sounded."

Consider:

- Global wheat prices more than doubled from June to January, the World Bank says. Corn and sugar prices rose 73%. Experts say that means the price of cereals, sugary drinks and other foods have nowhere to go but up.

"[It] is a perfect storm. Food prices are going up at precisely the time when people have less money to buy food," said Joel Berg of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, who predicted that rising prices will drive more New Yorkers to food pantries and soup kitchens.

- Gasoline prices are soaring as New Yorkers struggle to pay higher bus and subway fares. Gas costs an average $3.46 for a gallon of regular in the city, up from $2.91 a year ago, AAA New York says.

"I can see gas going to $4 a gallon," said Dino Lombardi, 44, an accountant who often buys gas at the Hell's Kitchen Hess station, where it's $3.49 a gallon.

- Cotton futures have risen 44% since Jan. 1, so clothing is getting more expensive. Underwear maker Hanesbrands warned it will mark up prices throughout the year - and for some products, every three months.

Food costs are up. Clothing costs are up. Transportation costs are up. Energy costs are up. Gas prices are up.

You know what's not up?

People's wages.

Meanwhile Little Andy Cuomo insists on making cuts to programs that help working and middle class people so that he can keep taxes on rich people low and Barack "Where Are The Goldman Sachs Campaign Contributions" Obama partners with the corporate whores in both the Republican and Democratic Parties to slash food stamp programs and raise taxes on families making less than $40,000 a year while extending the Bush tax cuts for wealthy people.

I just hope when this inflation hits - and make no mistake, it will - the right people get blamed.

Obama renominated Bernanke to the Federal Reserve. Bernanke has whirled up his helicopter and pursued a monetary policy that consists of showering the banksters with free money so that they can do their evil deeds, speculating on commodities and causing food and energy prices to soar.

Both men belong in jail.

When prices soar, I suspect the demagogues in the country will try and turn the blame for this inflation to unions and public employees, just as they have tried to blame the financial fallout of the Wall Street and bankster-created financial collapse of 2007-2008 on public employees and unions.

But this will squarely be the fault of Obama and the Obama administration, Bernanke and the Federal Reserve, and the Wall Street and hedge fund criminal class.

It will behoove those of us about to be tarred with this mess to get even louder about pointing this out.

Obama caused this mess.

Bernanke caused this mess.

Wall Street caused this mess.

The banksters caused this mess.

These people belong in jail.

Why aren't they in jail?

Obama, Bernanke Inflate Commodity Bubble

Obama renominated Bernanke, Bernanke has been running the Federal Reserve printing presses night and day to bail out insolvent banks, that newly printed money is being used to speculate on commodity prices - especially food.

See here.

More change we can believe in?

Nope - same old shit as usual.

Remember the tech and real estate bubbles?

They didn't end so well.

And bet your bottom, inflated dollar that this one won't end so well either.

Unless your a bankster or hedge fund criminal like Whitney Tilson, of course.