Freight shortage?

Me too! Hey, we got something in common.

 

Of course they're lying and the federal reserve are the biggest liars of them all! Gas up 60%, food up 50%, rents up 30%, utilities up 40%, etc but inflation according to the fed is 5%. Remember when everyone was freaking out about 7% inflation in 2021? Worse inflation since 1982! What they weren't telling you was that they way inflation was calculated in 1982 is different from the way inflation is calculated now. They change the way they calculate inflation every so often in a deliberate effort to skew the numbers lower. If we used the 1978 metrics for calculating inflation in 2021 inflation would be 15%. To put that into perspective at 23% it's considered hyperinflation. Hyperinflation is the beginning of the end. Research the economic collapse of Weimar Germany, Venezuela or Guatemala. When conditions get too bad the government and central bank really only have but just one tool at their disposal and that just to print more money in hopes that it will "stimulate" the economy. Unfortunately that causes more inflation. Then again money printing is the only thing they can do. So they'll just keep printing and praying for a miracle until the end. They don't have a choice after a certain point. That's how you end up with a Weimar Germany type situation where there's billion mark bills and people need a wheelbarrow to carry enough cash to buy a loaf of bread.
Needless to say if they reported 15% inflation it would cause an absolute panic. Especially in the financial markets. So they skew the numbers and lie. They take the prices of consumer goods, remove the top 30%, remove the bottom 20% then determine the average of what's remaining. Then that's what they figure for the CPI. So when you see those articles saying that we should be making $140k a year to have the same buying power a truck driver had in 1980 that's based on the CPI inflation calculator but the CPI is skewed. In reality you'd actually need to earn about $300k a year. Things like home prices are not factored into the CPI because real estate is considered an investment asset not a consumer good. Then to figure out rents they call home owners on specifically land lines mid day on a weekday and ask them what they think they could rent their homes for. Who's picking up a landline mid day on a weekday? They're interrupting some 90 year old grandmother trying to watch Jeapordy! Do you think she has any clue about the current rental market and what units are going for? Last time she looked at the rental market was when her and her late husband first started dating in 1967 when they rented a space for $60 a month until they had enough to buy that house that she's watching Jeapordy in.