from Gregory Mannarino
Inflation is Americans’ Top Financial Concern, New Survey Shows
by Jordyn Bradley
Investopedia
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Americans can’t shake their inflation fears.
Two-thirds of U.S. adults say inflation is their biggest financial concern, according to a survey released Monday by Northwestern Mutual, and more than half believe inflation will increase this year.
More than half of respondents to the survey said inflation is rising faster than their household income: Over 80% said they have experienced higher grocery bills in the last three months; nearly seven in 10 experienced elevated utility costs; and 60% have had sticker shock at the gas pump. The survey, conducted in mid-January, was taken by more than 4,600 American adults.
Another fresh reading, from the New York Fed, indicates that Americans in February anticipated inflation getting worse over the next 12 months.
Another Round of Inflation On Deck
by Nathan Lewis
Forbes
In our 2022 book Inflation: What It Is, Why It’s Bad, and How To Fix It, we said:
When the price of gold rises – in other words, when more money is needed to buy an ounce of gold – that usually means that the dollar’s value has decreased. … Daily price movements may not be significant. But, if the price goes up and stays there for an extended period, or if it fluctuates but the general trend is up, that signals a downturn in the value of the dollar. (p. 100)
When we wrote this, it took about $1800 to buy an ounce of gold. Today, it is more like $2900. That implies an $1800/$2900=0.621 or a 38% decline in dollar value over that period. Prices will eventually adjust, over a period of years, to the new, lower value of the currency, with some prices moving faster and some moving slower. “All things being equal” (they never are but it is a good principle), we should expect a $2900/$1800 or 61% rise in prices of goods and services going forward, compared even to the inflation-boosted prices that we have had to get used to in 2022-2024. Compared to prices in 2018, when it took about $1200 to buy an ounce of gold, we should expect a $2900/$1200 or 141% increase in nominal prices.
Price of Natural Gas Futures Up 140% Year-Over-Year: One More Reason for Inflation to Not Back off Easily
by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
Natural gas accounts for 42% of electricity generation. It’s feedstock for fertilizers. It’s widely used for heating. And 19% was exported in 2024.
The notoriously volatile price of US natural gas futures has been zigzagging higher since mid-2024 and overnight spiked to over $4.80 per million Btu, and currently trades at $4.52 per million Btu, up by 140% from a year ago.
Nearly 43% of electricity in the US was generated by natural-gas-fired power plants in 2024. Natural gas is widely used for heating by residential, commercial, and industrial customers. Fertilizer makers use natural gas as feedstock. Natural gas is used as fuel for city buses, drayage trucks, garbage trucks, etc. And the US has been investing in a massive export boom of natural gas, with exporters taking up 19% of US production last year.
Did Inflation Really Elect Trump? The Case for a Deeper Economic Frustration.
Under the last administration, real wage growth was lower and inflation higher. The disaffected American worker saw Trump as a potential solution.
by William J. Luther
The Daily Economy
When asked why Donald Trump won the presidency last November, most people point to inflation. That’s understandable. Prices soared under the Biden administration. In the run up to the election, voters cited inflation as a top concern — and most thought Trump would do a better job bringing inflation back down. “Nothing did more to deliver the White House to Donald Trump than inflation,” Greg Ip recently wrote in The Wall Street Journal.
It looks like an open and shut case. But I am not convinced. High inflation was salient. However, voters continued to cite high inflation even after their wages caught up and inflation declined. I suspect voters were actually disappointed in the slow real wage growth they experienced under the Biden administration. This slower real wage growth was not entirely attributable to higher inflation: real wages continued to grow more slowly than they had in the pre-pandemic period even after inflation began to fall and workers renegotiated their wages to account for the excess inflation.
Kazakh Central Bank Selling Dollars to Facilitate Gold Purchases
by Mike Maharrey
GoldSeek
The National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) recently announced plans to sell dollars to ease the inflationary pressure caused by its gold purchases.
The Kazakh central bank buys most of its gold from domestic production, growing its reserves without engaging in the world gold market.
Kazakhstan ranked sixth in the world in gold production in 2023. The central bank has a priority right to purchase gold from domestic gold miners. According to the Astana Times, the domestic gold purchases are set up “to boost international reserves and protect the economy from external shocks.”
The program has increased Kazakh official reserves to $45.8 billion, about half of that held in gold.
However, the gold purchase program has a downside. It leads to inflation.
Scott Jennings Asks Democrat Representative Point-Blank Why Americans Should Trust Party to Fix Inflation After Four Years of Biden
by Harold Hutchison
DailyCaller.com
Republican strategist Scott Jennings asked Democratic Rep. Marilyn Strickland of Washington on Thursday why Americans should trust Democrats on inflation after it rocketed up during the Biden administration.
Democrats have criticized President Donald Trump over high prices, especially the price of eggs, which has doubled since November 2023, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, fueled by the culling of tens of millions of chickens in response to a bird flu outbreak. Jennings scoffed when Strickland claimed Democrats could bring the cost of living down.
“Why would or should the American people trust Democrats to lower the cost of living after the last four years?” Jennings asked Strickland, who responded, ““We have created more jobs —”
$70,000 More a Year for Eggs: How Price Hikes Are Hurting Small Businesses
Egg prices have doubled since January 2024 due to the avian flu.
by Michael Pappano and Peter Charalambous
ABC News
For the last 130 years, four generations of Ernest Lepore’s family have baked the pastries – cream puffs, cannoli, sfogliatelle – that have come to define Manhattan’s Little Italy neighborhood, withstanding wars, economic downturns and drastic changes to the neighborhood that his family calls home.
But with the soaring cost of eggs – a staple ingredient in nearly half their products – it’s becoming increasingly difficult for Ferrara Bakery to avoid raising their prices.
“We can’t keep passing on costs to our guests,” Ferrara’s president, Ernest Lepore, told ABC News. “As you move closer to Easter, eggs are just growing exponentially in price. I can’t do anything about it.”
Egg prices have skyrocketed over the last year, reaching historic highs, and wholesale shoppers like small businesses were paying over $8 for a dozen eggs last week.
Tariffs a One-Time Price Adjustment?
by Martin Armstrong
Armstrong Economics
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is wrongly advising this administration by downplaying the role tariffs will have on overall inflation. Bessent told reporters not to be concerned over tariffs as they will simply be a “one-time price adjustment” when that is far from reality. These tariffs come with massive side effects that will ripple across the global economy.
“Look, can tariffs be a one-time price adjustment? Yes… I would hope that the failed team transitory could get back together and think that nothing is more transitory than tariffs if it’s a one-time price adjustment,” Bessent said in reference to Biden administration officials saying that the historic inflation of several years ago was “transitory.” He later added, “The economic program is a whole of government, holistic program, and I think that we could get a one-time price adjustment,” Bessent said, adding that “across the continuum, I’m not worried about inflation.”
Inflation in Center Focus Amid Tariff Fears: What to Know This Week
by Josh Schafer
Yahoo! Finance
Stocks sank last week as a lack of clarity around President Donald Trump’s tariff plans and what they could mean for the economy’s overall trajectory gripped markets.
For the week, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell more than 3%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slid more than 2%, or about 1,000 points. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) led the losses, falling almost 3.5%. The Nasdaq has now fallen more than 10% from its last record high in December and is in a correction.
In the week ahead key updates on inflation, with fresh readings on the Producer Price Index (PPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI), will be in focus as investors look for any clues on how tariffs may impact the path forward for prices. Updates on inflation expectations and consumer sentiment are also on the calendar.
China’s Inflation Problem is Not Just Going Away
The drama around US President Donald Trump and tariffs has pushed one of Beijing’s challenges to the sidelines
by Daniel Moss
Taipe Times
China has taken an important symbolic step toward addressing a persistent drag on its economy. Much attention has been focused on the cost that US President Donald Trump’s tariffs would inflict, the mounting toll of a real-estate crisis, and even the long-term impact of a shrinking labor market. It has been easy to forget that Beijing has an inflation problem.
Not the surging — and now receding — prices that just about every other economy has wrestled with. Instead, Beijing is haunted by the specter of deflation. Chinese Premier Li Qiang (??) told legislators gathered on Wednesday last week at the National People’s Congress that he would target inflation of 2 percent this year, the lowest level in more than two decades. That might not sound like a big breakthrough, given most countries aim for something in that vicinity, and Li’s ambitions to boost government and consumer spending. However, the first stage in solving any problem is acknowledging there is an issue in the first place.