by Kikanbase
We are dancing on the edge of a knife Jonathan. Fed is 6-12 months late on inflation and volatility is accelerating with each discussion of a policy change — much less action…
— Richard Christopher Whalen (@rcwhalen) May 30, 2022
WTI 118$
Stagflation bros t.co/0jNyIGMb9z
— 🅰🅻🅴🆂🆂🅸🅾 (@AlessioUrban) May 31, 2022
According to The Economist, in Santa Cruz, monthly mortgage payments represent 93% of income.
Am I reading this right? #housing #inflation pic.twitter.com/JNrZcWUlCH
— Michael A. Gayed, CFA (@leadlagreport) May 31, 2022
U.S. policymakers misjudged inflation threat until it was too late
Prices for just about everything Americans buy — gas, groceries, housing, cars, clothes, even TVs — have spiked in the past two years. Inflation, which had been scarcely noticeable for decades, is suddenly the top concern most people have about the economy.
And it all seemed to catch Washington by surprise.
On July 19, 2021, President Biden played down the risk of persistent inflation, telling reporters that price hikes “are expected to be temporary.” This month, Biden called reining in prices his “top domestic priority.”
What changed?
A combination of factors including surges in the coronavirus, supply chain problems, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a dramatic shift in consumer spending patterns, all made things more expensive. It didn’t help that the increases began in uneven and seemingly disconnected ways. Housing prices went up, initially, because the pandemic changed where people wanted to live. Rental car prices went up, in part, because companies sold off their fleets when tourism dipped. But eventually these one-off developments fused to create a much broader calamity, rattling the economic and political foundations of the country — making clear policymakers had failed to recognize the mounting inflationary crisis.