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I really believe this is the plan. The FED likes inflation. Prices can’t go down because the economy is too dependent on high prices, right? But you’re way smarter than me so please tell us what would happen if prices for food and housing and energy were to drop substantially. Isn’t this the new normal and wages just have to catch up ?

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That's a question that could fill an entire textbook!

The crucial point is that your cost is someone else's profit.

Dropping prices means your costs go down, and that's good for you. It also means profits are reduced, and that's bad for someone else.

If we wipe out suppliers profits, we quickly run out of suppliers. That's bad for everyone.

Which is why the least disruptive means to restore equilibrium in the marketplace is for wages to rise to match the price rises. The problem is that wages are not rising to match the price rises, and thus real incomes are reduced.

The objective is market equilibrium. The debate is always about how to get there.

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You’ve got the data, Peter, and it matches my own real-world experience. Yet the MSM continues to gaslight us! Look at this headline from today’s media:

https://www.startribune.com/wholesale-inflation-remained-cool-last-month-in-latest-sign-that-price-pressures-are-slowing/601160718

Precise pressures are NOT slowing! How gullible do they think we are? As a friend of mine so colorfully and crankily puts it, “Don’t piss on my shoe and then tell me it’s raining!”

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My decent olive oil that was 9.98 last year is now $18.00. At Walmart. A small basket of our usual purchases went from $20.00 or such to $45.00 or more. This is at my granular level of spending. Airline tickets to a family member we always take are now double or more. If we go 7 miles we can get gas in Wisconsin for 40 to 60 cents cheaper a gallon. (Taxes less). We are relieved we are not raising a family now. My grandsons college fees are eye watering. A state university. That’s on the parents. Hopefully his degree (if he finishes) will support him but I doubt it.

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