Lately, there has been much anguished consternation, especially among the tenured US economics professors (primarily those who make 6-digits or more per year) and of course, the Federal Reserve where as we revealed last week, at least 113 government workers make $250,000 [4](excluding bonuses) and thus all are confined within the cozy cocoon of America's "1%ers", about the so-called complete disappearance and collapse in inflation. So to help these ivory tower-confined individuals in their holy grail to rediscover the inflation that is more than felt by the rest of America, here are two simple charts.
[5]
[6]
And some observations of how this "non-existant" inflation is impacting the lives of ordinary people, those whose net worth does not rise by the same percentage as the Fed's balance sheet, and thus the S&P500, and are crushed by the inequality with the Fed's Chairmanwoman is so vocally concerned about. [7]
“Our paychecks stay the same, but the food prices keep going up,” fumed Jody O’Toole as she shopped at the Associated Supermarket at Eighth Avenue and 14th Street. “You still gotta feed your family, but meat and milk are too much.”
Colleen Vincent, who lives with her mother in Brooklyn, said she’s avoiding meat and sticking to canned goods and cabbage, which she turned into three meals last week.
“I don’t do big grocery shopping trips anymore,” said Vincent, 37. “I have to buy something that gives me more bang for my buck.
“We used to buy beef — now it’s a special treat,” she added. “There are other things I want out of life. I don’t want to spend everything on food.”
Steve Gould, 68, was picking up seltzer water, bananas and yogurt and said he refuses to buy anything unless it’s on sale.
“I want people to stick their heads out the windows like they did in the movie ‘Network,’ and say, ‘I’m mad as hell and not going it take it anymore,’ ” Gould said.
But how is it that food inflation of over 20% in some cases is so crushing to ordinary Americans and yet the people who are tasked to isolate and remedy precisely such problems are completely oblivious to its impact?
The answer is simple [8]: "Janet Yellen, the No. 2 at the Fed's Board of Governors, and her husband—Nobel Prize-winning economist George Akerlof —had assets such as stocks, bond-fund shares and bank accounts valued at roughly $4.8 million to $13.2 million in 2012, according to financial disclosures released by the Fed on Tuesday."
QE4, er D
