USA - They would like us to believe that what we can see happening right in front of our eyes is not actually real. Over the past year, our politicians in Washington have gone on the largest spending binge in US history by a very wide margin, and the Federal Reserve has created the most enormous financial bubble of all time by pumping trillions upon trillions of fresh dollars into the financial markets. Of course this was going to cause very painful inflation, and prices are rising very aggressively all around us. But Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and other leaders in Washington are trying to convince us that even though they added all of this money to the system it has hardly affected the overall rate of inflation at all. They are “gaslighting” us, and it is absolutely infuriating.
If you are not familiar with the term “gaslighting”, the following is how Wikipedia defines it… “Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person or a group covertly sows seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or group, making them question their own memory, perception, or judgement.” This is precisely what they are trying to do to all of us. Everyone can see that nightmarish inflation is already here, but they are trying to manipulate us into thinking that it is not.
Just look at home prices. Everyone needs a place to live, and existing home prices have risen 23.6 percent over the past year… But Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell insists that everything is just fine and that the Fed is perfectly capable of keeping inflation around 2 percent… How can you claim that you are going to “keep us around 2% inflation” when inflation is already out of control?
As John Williams of shadowstats.com has documented, if honest numbers were being used the official rate of inflation would already be well into double digits. Of course for certain categories we are now seeing triple digit inflation. For instance, at one point in May the price of lumber was four times higher than it was at the same time last year…
To me, one of the craziest examples of inflation in our economy is what is happening to used car prices. At this point, some used vehicles are now selling for more than they sold for when they were brand new… We have never seen anything happen like this before in all of US history. But Fed officials are going to continue to tell you that everything is just fine in the months ahead even as economic conditions continue to go haywire all around us.