And don't forget the coffee.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Texas Insider Report) — As the official inflation figures for April were released laset week, American Consumers said they expect inflation to go higher – and stay there longer. A New York Federal Reserve Survey from earlier in the month shows that consumers have "raised their expectations for price increases – both in the near and longer term – fueled by higher inflation in home prices along with fuel and energy."
And that includes their expectations for coffee – which we'll come back to in a moment.
CNBC reported earlier this month that the NY Fed's monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations showed that our expectations for inflation "increased to 3.3% – up 0.3% from March, and the highest since November 2023.""For the 5-year outlook, the expectation rose to 2.8%, up 0.2%.
"All of the readings are well ahead of the Fed’s 2% goal, and are reflective of the stubborn nature of inflation this year," read the report.
"All of the readings are well ahead of the Fed’s 2% goal, and are reflective of the stubborn nature of inflation this year," read the report.
And while Washington may be done with the so-called "stimulus" spending that injected trillions of funny money into the economy – kicking off the nasty inflation surge that began in 2021 – American consumers are correct in their darkening outlook. Washington is adding [dr_evil_voice] ONE TRILLION DOLLARS [/dr_evil_voice] in new debt about every 100 days or so.
The interest we pay on the Federal Debt has already eclipsed defense spending as a portion of the federal budget, and it's on track to eclipse Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid to become the biggest item on our ledger of shame.
It's difficult to make the necessary spending cuts when cutting the biggest item in the budger would result in a national default.
And there's no relief in sight.
Complicating things further, President Joe Biden's Big Re-Regulation Adventure and his trillion-dollar energy boondoggles are making it harder for the economy to generate the productivity gains that are needed to catch up to the endlessly growing supply of money and debt.
So yes – inflation is here to stay for the remainder of 2024.
So yes – inflation is here to stay for the remainder of 2024.
Keep all this in mind when the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases their future "official" inflation numbers – particularly when it comes to your morning cup of coffee.
BLS uses a "basket of goods" to calculate the inflation rate – which are supposed to represent what regular people buy. The problem is, they keep taking things out of the basket.
And the latest item to go is coffee.
This is unusual, says The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) of May 12th, 2024:
"The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has announced that coffee prices will no longer be factored into CPI inflation data.
"In fact, the April 2024 CPI inflation report this week will be the first to NOT include coffee price inflation."
"In fact, the April 2024 CPI inflation report this week will be the first to NOT include coffee price inflation."
If BLS still used the same basket of goods it used in 1980, the inflation rate would have peaked last year at about 18% – not their official 10% figure.
Even now, it would probably be somewhere around 8%, instead of March's "official" BLS figure of a 3.5% annual rate.
There are lies, damned lies, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
