The Cost Of Living In The United States Is Rising To Absolutely Absurd Levels
Francesco Abbruzzino, The Uncensored Report, LLC
Most of the time, the vast majority of Americans simply do not care about economics. And it pains me to say that, because I have been running a website about economics for more than a decade. But it is true. Under normal circumstances, most hard working Americans don’t have the time or the energy to debate the finer points of economic policy. But now things have changed. Here in 2022, our leaders have messed things up so badly that suddenly just about everyone is feeling the pain. Most people just want economic conditions to “return to normal”, but that isn’t going to be so easy.
Over the past couple of years, the Federal Reserve has pumped trillions of fresh dollars into the financial system.
You just can’t “undo” that.
And our politicians in Washington have been on the biggest borrowing spree in all of human history. I think that many of them truly believed that there would never be any serious consequences, but as Forbes has aptly noted, we “are now paying a heavy price for this magical thinking”…
Unfortunately, Americans are now paying a heavy price for this magical thinking. Inflation—spurred at least in part by record government spending and inaction on other issues—is running at its highest rate since 1982. The prices for meat and eggs are up 12.2% since last year. Furniture and bedding is up 17% and used cars and trucks are up 40.5%.
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department recently reported America’s total national debt is now over $30 trillion—the highest ever. To put this in context: If you stacked $30 trillion of $100 bills you could almost reach the weather satellites orbiting the earth at over 20,000 miles above us.
Today, we have absolutely gigantic mountains of money chasing a smaller pool of goods and services because of the pandemic.
As a result, the cost of living has been soaring into the stratosphere.
For example, one new study found that 82.2 percent of new vehicle buyers actually paid above sticker price during the month of January…
A study from the online marketplace found that 82.2% of new car buyers paid over the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) in January, up from .3% in January 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic started affecting the industry
The average price paid above sticker was $728, while savvy shoppers were getting a discount of $2,648 just two years ago. Cadillac’s customers led the way by paying a $4,048 premium, followed by Land Rover’s ($2,565) and Kia ‘s ($2,289).
In my entire lifetime, I have never seen anything like this.
Years ago, I remember spending hours hammering a salesman until I was totally satisfied that the dealership would not knock off a single penny more from the price of a used vehicle that I wanted.
But now things have completely changed.
Today, just about everyone is paying above MSRP.
Of course it is becoming more expensive to fuel our vehicles as well. On Wednesday, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in California hit a brand new record high…
Gas in California hit a record high of $4.72 a gallon on average on Wednesday — and experts say a whopping $5 a gallon will likely be the norm there in a matter of months, if not sooner.
Sadly, five dollar gas is only just the beginning.
In fact, one expert that was interviewed by Yahoo Finance has actually raised the specter of seven dollar gas…