from RWAfuture
Cash-Strapped Parents Seek Back-to-School Deals as Years of Inflation Take a Toll
by Tara Deschamps
Pembina Valley Online
When August rolled around, April Hicke realized the $100 she typically gives her 13-year-old son to update his wardrobe in time for school to start was no longer enough.
“Even on the sale racks, a pair of sweatpants at SportChek, they’re still $25 a pair. You used to be able to go and buy a pair of sweatpants for $10,” said the Calgary-based mother of two. “I am shocked at the (price) increase of kids’ clothes.”
Hicke increased her son’s budget to $200, taught him about looking for deals and used an annual Patagonia sale and resale sites like Poshmark to find savings on such big-ticket items as winter coats.
While it wasn’t the first time she has taken these steps to reduce her back-to-school shopping bill, the strategies she and other parents are using come with a renewed importance this year because even as inflation has eased, Canadians aren’t seeing any meaningful relief in their expenses.
More Stagflation, Rate Cut Odds Increase, and You Are the Life Guard
If a serious market correction appears, I’d expect it to take most everything with it, except long-duration bonds. Is the “Blessed Bitcoin” coalmine canary tipping over? All this and more in Dave’s weekly round up!
by Dave Fairtex
Chris Martenson’s Peak Prosperity
I’m seeing hints of Mockingbird “disappointment” with Cackles, but not the same flood that led to Biden’s Replacement two months back. She has a tough job. She’s got a room-temperature (up-to-date?) IQ, she cannot survive even a CNN interview without a Covid-Nazi-Walz minder, and she has to pretend she’s not in office now, that “Joe Biden” isn’t senile, and there’s nothing she can do until she gets cheated into power in 2025. This is a really tough act. Is it selling? I get the sense it isn’t – not even to CNN. Will “they” stick with Cackles through November? Or will “Hitlery” come out from behind the shadows? I don’t know – Hitlery’s ego might not be able to take another loss. Might be funny to watch though. “We came, we saw, and she lost – again!” (giggle giggle)
Zuck could be a temporal marker for the “rats leaving the sinking ship.” The timing of this week’s semi-“apology” about facilitating the forced-vaxxing of the country – leading to a million dead Americans – suggests he’s trying to get ahead of something.
Kamala Harris Caused America’s Inflation Nightmare; Here’s How
by Joseph Ford Cotto
American Thinker
It’s almost November; do we want to continue the path charted by the Biden-Harris administration, or embrace a more American vision for our country’s future?
For those who have felt the sting of soaring prices and dwindling economic prospects, the choice is clear. Donald Trump, who has proven his capability to address inflation and foster economic stability, stands in stark contrast to Kamala Harris and her policies.
Two years on, it’s time we rename the Inflation Reduction Act as the Inflation Expansion Act.
The Inflation Expansion Act (IEA), passed two years ago, marks a significant turning point in the economic policy of the United States. Spearheaded by Kamala Harris, whose decisive vote in the Senate enabled the bill’s passage, it has wreaked havoc on the American economy. Its effects are palpable: inflation has surged, energy prices have skyrocketed, and the cost of living has become increasingly unaffordable.
Conservative Groups Oppose Kamala Harris’s Rent Control Proposal: ‘Most Efficient’ Policy to Destroy a City
by Sean Moran
Breitbart.com
Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), the Heritage Foundation, and more than 30 conservative groups on Tuesday announced that they oppose Vice President Kamala Harris’s rent price control proposal, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.
Harris in mid-August copied President Joe Biden’s rent price control proposal to cap rent hikes to five percent nationwide over the next two years for all landlords who own more than 50 units.
The conservatives told congressional lawmakers and state attorneys general, in a letter obtained by Breitbart News, that the rent control proposal would do much more harm than good, wiping out many cities’ supplies of affordable rental housing.
What Americans Can Learn From Venezuela’s Crackdown On ‘Price Gougers’
by Michael Munger
The American Institute for Economic Research
Things are rarely so bad that decisive action by government officials can’t make things worse.
In the current election, the Republicans are trying to outdo each other by proposing larger and more restrictive tariffs. The Democrats have just come out with a remarkably bad plan to outlaw “price gouging,” particularly for groceries.
Such proposals get more attention from politicians at election time, because to get votes you have to show you did something. The fact that the right thing is to do nothing is hard for politicians to accept, because no one can claim credit for the market.
I’m not trying to make a partisan point, because as I noted above there are ill-advised proposals on both sides of the party divide. And I’m not claiming markets are perfect. The problem is that asking voters what they want prices to be is a recipe for becoming…. well, Venezuela.
No ‘Joy’ On Labor Day: Inflation Sends Cost of Cookouts Soaring
by Hannah Knudsen
Breitbart.com
Americans are feeling less “joy” when firing up their grills and getting their marinades ready this Labor Day weekend, realizing that some of the classic barbecue staples are costing them a lot more.
It all begins with firing up the grill, which will cost more than it did three and a half years ago. According to data from the Bureau of Labor statistics, the price of propane, kerosene, and firewood has risen 16 percent from January 2021 to July 2024.
Staples of the basic all-American cookout are up too, meaning hamburgers and hotdogs are going to cost you. According to Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, the price of ground beef has risen 26 percent since January 2021, when former President Donald Trump left the White House.
Fed Favored Annual Core PCE Price Index Slightly Up, at 2.6%: Core Services Inflation 3.7%, Durable Goods Deflation -2.5%
by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
Month-to-month, core services inflation jumped while durable goods deflation deepened, and so core PCE price index hits Fed’s target.
The “Core” PCE price index, the Fed’s primary yardstick for its 2% inflation target, rose by 2.62% from a year ago in July, a hair up from the June reading of 2.58% (red in the chart below). This “core” index attempts to show underlying inflation by excluding the components of food and energy as they can be very volatile, spiking and plunging with commodity prices (red in the chart below).
The overall PCE price index, which includes the food and energy components, rose by 2.50% year-over-year in July, also a hair up from June’s 2.47% (blue). Within it, energy prices edged up year-over-year by 0.2%, and food prices rose 1.4%.
U.S. Dollar: Wave Counts of Horror
by Captain Ewave
GoldSeek
Analysis:
Within our bearish wave b triangle, we completed wave -a- at 107.05, wave -b- at 100.31, wave -c- at 106.38, and it looks like wave -d- may still be underway, although it cannot fall much further.
After wave -d- ends we still expect to move higher again in wave -e-, which cannot exceed the wave -c- high of 106.38, for the current triangle formation to still be valid.
After wave -e- and our bearish wave b triangle ends, we expect a sharp drop lower in wave c. We will update our projected endpoint for wave c, after wave b ends.
Inflation Slightly Below Target in July
by William J. Luther
The American Institute for Economic Research
The Federal Reserve’s efforts to bring down inflation appear to have worked. Indeed, the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) suggests the Fed may have reduced inflation even more than it intended. The Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCEPI), which is the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, grew at a continuously compounding annual rate of 1.9 percent in July 2024. It has averaged just 0.9 percent over the last three months.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, also came in low. Core PCEPI grew at a continuously compounding annual rate of 1.9 percent in July 2024, and 1.7 percent over the last three months.
Kamala Harris’ Affordability Agenda is a Good Idea Backed by Terrible Policies
Americans need a politician dedicated to unwinding decades of government interventions that have driven up the cost of middle-class living.
by Peter Suderman
Reason.com
If there’s one thing the last 50 years of American politics have proven, it’s that voters hate inflation. If there’s another, it’s that politicians seeking to capitalize on that hatred will propose unproductive, unworkable, and unaffordable policies to counter rising prices.
So it is with Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the weeks since she ascended to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket, Harris has come forward with a suite of policies she has cast as tools for bringing down the cost of living for middle-class Americans. Among those policies are a vague but potentially sweeping federal ban on price gouging for food and groceries, and a subsidy of up to $25,000 for qualified first-time home buyers.