By Adam Bitely –
Severe inflation always begins at the most basic level. From food prices to base commodities, consumers will notice prices rising quickly when severe inflationary periods are upon them. So that’s why a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report on the Producer Price Index (PPI) for March 2010 is startling some who actually read this important economic indicator (clearly Congress hasn’t paid attention).
Check out this information from the National Inflation Association:
Some of the startling food price increases on a year-over-year basis include, fresh and dry vegetables up 56.1%, fresh fruits and melons up 28.8%, eggs for fresh use up 33.6%, pork up 19.1%, beef and veal up 10.7% and dairy products up 9.7%. On October 30th, 2009, NIA predicted that inflation would appear next in food and agriculture, but we never anticipated that it would spiral so far out of control this quickly.
The PPI foreshadows price increases that will later occur in the retail sector. With U-6 unemployment rising last month to 16.9%, many retailers are currently reluctant to pass along rising prices to consumers, but they will soon be forced to do so if they want to avoid reporting huge losses to shareholders.
Food stamp usage in the U.S. has now increased for 14 consecutive months. There are now 39.4 million Americans on food stamps, up 22.4% from one year ago. The U.S. government is now paying out more to Americans in benefits than it collects in taxes. As food inflation continues to surge, our country will soon have no choice but to cut back on food stamps and other entitlement programs.
Most financial experts in the mainstream media are proclaiming that the recession is over and inflation is not a problem in the U.S. Unfortunately, they fail to realize that rising food and gasoline prices accounted for 58% of February’s year-over-year 3.85% rise in retail sales. NIA believes price inflation is beginning to accelerate in many areas of the economy besides food and energy, and all increases in U.S. retail sales this year will be entirely due to inflation.
This is not good. Clearly, many in the Main Stream Media have missed this report–and are doing a disservice to millions of Americans when they play into the politicians’ line that the “recession is over.” The Washington D.C. politicians have treated this report in the same way they treat everything else they do: “move along, folks, nothing to see here.”
Severe inflation is coming, and unless the Government reverses its actions immediately, the 535 Mary Poppins’ of Congress will have created the monster that they claim they are trying to prevent.
