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Trump’s Inflation Fantasies
by Rick Newman
Yahoo! Finance
If Donald Trump becomes president, he’s going to wave a magic wand on his first day in office and poof! The cost of food, energy, insurance, and many other things will suddenly plunge.
This is the gist of Trump’s riff on inflation, which he used to blame on President Joe Biden and now blames on Vice President Kamala Harris. When Biden was the Democratic presidential candidate, the inflation that peaked at 9% during his second year in office was a major electoral liability. Now that Harris has replaced Biden, Trump obviously hopes voters will transfer their anger over inflation onto her.
If the president had the power to single-handedly slay inflation, you might think Biden would have done it.
‘Don’t Be Scared of Beans’: How Readers Are Handling U.S. Grocery Inflation
by Aliya Uteuova
The Guardian
Back in 2019, $100 worth of groceries may have lasted a week for a household of two. Today, that same $100 will probably only buy enough groceries to stretch for a couple of days.
In the last four years, food prices have increased a whopping 22%, and consumers are feeling the pinch.
Even though inflation has recently fallen below 3% for the first time since 2021, food prices remain stubbornly high, and are still predicted to increase. Some food companies such as General Mills are continuing to raise prices of their products 4% this year, with profits jumping to $670.1m. Kellogg’s raised the price of cereal by 12%.
The Fed’s Fiat Money is the Real Cause of Price Inflation
by Tom Mullen
Mises.org
During election years, incumbent presidents are routinely blamed for every societal ill during the previous four years. And almost nothing is riper for the picking than a significant rise in consumer prices. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), prices are currently increasing at a rate of 3 percent year over year and peaked at 8 percent during President Biden’s term in 2022.
That is significantly higher “inflation,” as the BLS defines it, than American consumers have experienced in decades. But as economically harmful as many of President Biden’s policies may have been, no president can cause prices in general to rise. Neither can Congress or “greedy corporations.”
Incidentally, “inflation” as an economic term originally meant the creation of new money and credit, not rising prices. Those wishing to confuse the public on which is the cause and which the effect has gradually redefined inflation as rising prices. Check any hard copy Merriam-Webster dictionary printed in the 20th century and see for yourself.
‘Joy’ and ‘Hope’ in Kamala Harris’s America: Car Insurance Prices Up 54%
by Hannah Knudsen
Breitbart.com
Americans are having a hard time finding the “joy” and “hope” that Democrat elites touted during their August convention, as they struggle to pay their bills while the cost of goods skyrockets. This includes car insurance prices, which, under Vice President Kamala Harris’s watch, rose 54 percent.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show a dramatic rise in car insurance since President Joe Biden and Harris, the latter of whom Democrats have coronated to face off against former President Donald Trump, took office. From January 2021 to July 2024, car insurance rose a tremendous 54 percent.
Trump’s Proposals Would Add $5.8 Trillion to the Deficit
Vice President Kamala Harris would add about $2 trillion to the deficit.
by Eric Boehm
Reason.com
The major proposals pitched by the campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump would both expand the federal budget deficit—though Trump’s plans would require significantly more borrowing over the next decade.
Trump’s proposals would add an estimated $5.8 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a fiscal policy think tank at the University of Pennsylvania (Trump’s alma mater). Most of Trump’s deficit-increasing policies result from proposed changes that would reduce Americans’ tax burden. He’s called for permanently extending the 2017 tax cuts, which would add an estimated $4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade (unless Trump comes up with offsetting spending cuts). His plan to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits will add another $1.2 trillion.
How Genghis Khan is Driving Your Grocery Bill Higher
by James Hickman
Schiff Sovereign
Over eight hundred years ago, in what is now northwestern China, the Uyghur people— long before they were carted off to internment camps by the Communist Party— ruled their own independent kingdom, known as Qocho.
Then, in the year 1209, Genghis Khan sent diplomatic emissaries to Qocho. The message was clear: the Great Khan wanted to avoid a bloody military campaign, and he proposed a peace offering instead.
Genghis Khan’s deal was simple: the Uyghur people would keep their rulers, their infrastructure, their religion, and their customs. Their soldiers would live. Their buildings would not burn. Their women would not be touched. They would even be granted a high degree of autonomy.
And in exchange, they would provide the Mongol Empire with administrative support, as the Uyghurs were famously adept in governance and literacy.
Fed Chair Powell Sends Clear Signal That More Inflation is in the Pipeline
by Mike Maharrey
GoldSeek
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell gave the clearest indication yet that more inflation is in the pipeline during his Jackson Hole Speech on Friday.
Powell indicated rate cuts are on the horizon, saying, “The time has come for policy to adjust, adding that “the direction of travel is clear.”
But Powell stopped short of saying exactly when and how quickly the central bank would trim interest rates.
“The timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks.”
Nevertheless, Powell all but declared victory over price inflation, saying, “My confidence has grown that inflation is on a sustainable path back to 2 percent.”
Only the Federal Reserve Can Cause Inflation
by Tom Mullen
Mises.org
During election years, incumbent presidents are routinely blamed for every societal ill during the previous four years. And almost nothing is riper for the picking than a significant rise in consumer prices. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), prices are currently increasing at a rate of 3 percent year over year and peaked at 8 percent during President Biden’s term in 2022.
That is significantly higher “inflation,” as the BLS defines it, than American consumers have experienced in decades. But as economically harmful as many of President Biden’s policies may have been, no president can cause prices in general to rise. Neither can Congress or “greedy corporations.”
Incidentally, “inflation” as an economic term originally meant the creation of new money and credit, not rising prices. Those wishing to confuse the public on which is the cause and which the effect has gradually redefined inflation as rising prices. Check any hard copy Merriam-Webster dictionary printed in the 20th century and see for yourself.
CNN’s Keilar: Housing Prices Had 5.4% ‘Record Jump,’ It’s a ‘Rough’ Market
by Pam Key
Breitbart.com
CNN host Brianna Keilar said on Tuesday on “News Central” that housing prices had a “record jump” of 5.4%, which is causing a “rough” market.
Keilar said, “A just-released housing index reveals just how rough the market is, especially for first-time homebuyers. It showed home prices for the nation. Its top 20 metro areas rose 5.4% from June of last year to June of this year, a record jump for that month.”
She added, “Renters, not just homebuyers, are feeling a serious squeeze, especially in New York. Moody’s found New Yorkers dedicated a whopping 58% of their income toward rent compared to 27% sent nationwide.”
CNN International host Richard Quest said, “I mean, New York, San Diego, Las Vegas, why are we not surprised when we see that? The inflation moderating, we know it is, so that is feeding through to house prices, which aren’t going up as fast, but they are still going up and that I think plays into the political season.”
Interventions, Easy Money Run Amok
by Richard Morrison
The American Institute for Economic Research
The publishing world is awash in books about how government has failed the people by shrinking. Ruchir Sharma has given us the rare book about how government failed by growing too large and doing too much. His proposed fix is compelling and persuasive, but his book’s most valuable contribution may be simply causing readers to rethink what has become a bafflingly popular narrative about neoliberalism, austerity, and the supposed triumph of free-market ideology. One of the most common theories about the last half-century of political and economic history rests on the weakest possible foundation.
The argument Sharma takes on in What Went Wrong with Capitalism will be familiar to anyone who has read any current writing on political economy. Since the New Deal, enlightened government tax-and-spend priorities protected the poor and provided for economic mobility. The US economic expansion after World War II continued this virtuous, shared prosperity. Then, starting in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan (with parallel changes under Margaret Thatcher in the UK), market fundamentalism took hold, with government budgets for social services slashed, essential services privatized, and corporate greed turbo-charged. The result, critics charge, has been an increasingly unfair society. Income inequality has exploded and only the very rich have benefitted.