I get as mad about the price of ribeye skyrocketing as the next guy, but fuel... fuel is a different beast. Fuel is what gets the ribeye onto the meat counter. The price of fuel increasing is not functionally different from the price of everything increasing.
If someone slaps you across the face enough times consecutively, it doesn't matter how much they apologize, or swear up and down that it's not on purpose, that they have the best of intentions. And big governments have been doing a lot of slapping lately.
particularly as it comprises a large portion of the costs in fertilizer and in modern farming.
fuel problems rapidly become food problems, especially when you kick off a way in one of the great wheat breadbaskets at a time when US production looks to be extremely low.
the last time the price of wheat exploded, we got arab spring and all manner of ME and african food insecurity and the political instability that comes with it.
I work in Africa. Diesel up 200%. Maize up 250%. Cooking oil up 300%. Sugar up 300%. Fertilizer up 200%. More children will die in Africa than all the Russian and Ukrainians who die in the war. And that’s before people protest and governments start to fall. Fertilizer will be up 400% by planting season in November. Without fertilizer the crop yields will fall 50%. This is in a country where 35% of children are already stunted.
And this is on top of the covid lockdowns and their economic consequences for the poorest.
Policies coming from the people who always tell us how much they care about saving lives, and how much they care about poor people and people of colour.
Almost like the wanted the world to be reset to how it was in 1950- total domination of the developing world, with ‘colonial’ arrangements across Africa, Latin America, and the ME.
I don't even know what to say or do in response to these stats. My husband and I support a few agencies that provide daily meals to the most vulnerable, but it is but a drop in the bucket. I don't know what else to do.
Thank you, Oregonian. We do what we can and try to get the word out. Thank you for your information because I am going to inject that into conversations going forward.
In the UK, food banks are struggling because they rely mostly on donated surplus or past sell-by date food from supermarkets, shops, farmers - but there’s a shortage of food supplies so there is no surplus to donate.
Yes but the people who want Green policies and war in the Ukraine ‘don’t mind paying a bit more’ to save the Planet, save Flipper and help the Plucky™️ Ukrainians against mad-monster-villain Putin, because they can afford it - let the poor eat cake.
Been saying that for a while, no one seems interested. Know farmers and have farmers in the family. They watch local and worldwide food stock supplies. It is very easy for this to slip into a catastrophe. Fertilizer and fuel prices skyrocket and farmers may decide not to plant because they are likely to lose money on their crop so they don't plant or reduce plantings and BINGO no food. This is not something to fool around with.
I have read elsewhere we shall see the full effect of this lunacy in 60 to 90 days, and it will be worst to start with in poor Countries where grains provide the basic diet.
And Biden has authorised sale of ethanol gasoline to keep gas prices down (that he is responsible for increasing) - ethanol is made from grain. So more grain to make ethanol = less grain for food = increased grain prices = hunger.
Meanwhile in Canada... "As of April 2022 the federal minimum tax is set at CA$50 per tonne of CO2 equivalent, set to increase to CA$170 in 2030" But don't worry this won't cause inflation.
No it will be the greedy profit-mongering businesses doing that.
Carbon tax is a Pigou Tax the intention of which is to be incident on the end-user to change behaviour.
It is applied to all aspects of production, so it is an aggregate, compounded tax which will raise consumer prices significantly - the intention to get us to consume less… to save the Planet.
In Germany, they passed a law saying that the fuel reserves need to remain full.
The final grasping of the Virtuals as the Real world spirals out of their control. You could almost feel bad for them, for many I think they really don't know what's going on (like the politician on the train in Atlas Shrugged).
I could almost feel sorry for them - if they weren't inhuman blood-soaked sociopathic monsters from hell sent to this planet to destroy everything good and beautiful and cause enough misery to keep Satan fulfilled for centuries.
Remember: Biden doesn’t have to pay for the gas for his 30 vehicle motorcade which takes him everywhere, or to refuel Air Farce One - so what does he care?
Russia is biggest exporter of fertiliser which makes up the bulk used in US and other Countries, now cut off because of sanctions. Russia + Ukraine produce 30% of all cereals, now cut off. India has announced it is to stop export of wheat.
It’s planting season - what do farmers use for fertiliser?
Whether or not ‘helping’ Ukraine is righteous thing to do, at what cost? Where is the cost/benefit analysis, where the line where we say that we’d like to help but just can’t afford it. What is our gain if we are impoverished and going hungry?
And what about people in poor Countries who will be hit soonest and hardest by food shortages - are they not worthy of any consideration whilst the nitwits in charge strut and preen their virtue on the geopolitical stage?
The cost of fuel is compounded throughout the economy, but so too is the price of crude oil because from that comes so much: plastics, paints, resins, adhesives, construction materials, clothing, agri-products… a long list used in production of goods and food.
And when Biden et al have stopped the use of motor fuels, the revenue from that and its contribution to costs and profits of oil/gas exploration and extraction will be gone. So that revenue contribution will have to be replaced by increasing the prices significantly of all oil/gas byproducts which will cause a huge cost of living increase including to food. They will impoverish and starve us unless stopped.
It's no different in Australia, unfortunately. Countries all over the world are falling for this economic destruction: hook, line and sinker. Got to wonder...what's in it for those at the top? They must be getting some pretty good kickbacks to willfully destroy all the world's economies....
As per Dr. Mike Yeadon, it's hard to imaging that the kickback is in a monetary form. These people are already very very very rich.
So the kickback must be something else . . . they still need food and goods and services, but maybe a kind of "weeding out" process, to get rid of excess mouths, especially those that question their authority.
Do you think any of them actually believe their climate change doom predictions or is it all just a guise to get more power? Depopulating the earth makes sense if they truly believe that climate change will doom us.
Oh I'm pretty sure that some of these kickbacks are pretty darn depraved and are too foul to be mentioned. And as others have mentioned, maybe a 'reset' is wanted to to create more favourable terms for these ridiculously rich people (who, if they really wanted to help the world, could distribute but a small part of their wealth and make living conditions more favourable for all!).
But I also wonder if maybe we're forgetting that they're still HUMAN and just making this stuff up as they go? Sure, there's probably some wacko 'reset' rulebook they're trying to follow, but humans are still humans and therefore they make mistakes.
They're not following proper science, they're like a bunch of teenagers on a crazy trip, and it's all going to come crashing down with some horrendous consequences.
And Mother Nature will still be rectifying those consequences in the millenia to come...
Sound about right? Let's take a seat in this interactive movie and watch how it plays out...for all of us...
There are several financial commentators who explain the bad situation big money has created for itself. In this view, reset plans are a way to default and reset on terms favorable to themselves. I can’t pretend to explain it clearly, but if interested try Martin Armstrong or Tom Luongo.
They delude themselves with the thought that they are doing good. It reminds me of an ambulance-chasing lawyer of my acquaintance who always talked about getting clients the money they "deserved" from a minor accident. He actually considered himself on the side of the angels, while keeping 30%-40% of the settlement for himself.
At this stage, I have resigned myself... to a future of hardship and scarcity. Time and again I have been waiting for societies and governments to come to their senses, to no avail. The pandemic has merely widened the dissonance, for the mental break needed to continue going along with the covid nonsense has the side effect of making one quite pliable to all other kinds of nonsense
Over and over I wonder what these people are thinking. But then, really, what was I expecting?
Even though I'm all good now, my family and I grew up on a shoestring budget so I know what it's like to have very little. And I survived.
So let's see how it pans out, shall we...? :-\
PS - people like you and I who actually want to make the world a better place and manage to think past the end of our noses DO wonder what these 'people' are thinking. But the answer is 'not very much' and 'not for very long'!
The same people who casually sacrificed children's quality of life in the pandemic are tasked with "leading" societies into the future. Deprivation may actually be a feature and not a bug.
Yes, I am also still 'comfortable' in my retirement (for now) but I have started watching what we spend more carefully. I drive a 20-year-old Camry and could buy something sportier and more fun, but what I have runs fine and is in good mechanical shape. No need to plunk down $25,000 and up for another car. I also look at house brands in the grocery stores now. Some are OK, some not. I guess my point is that if someone like me is cutting back, there must be millions with fewer means who have no choice and will be cutting back to the bone. That's probably the ultimate counterweight to inflation, a steep and bloody recession.
I remember sitting in lines at the gas station with my dad in 73/74 on days when our license plate number allowed us to buy some gas. At the time, it was the evil Arabs at fault, not at all the U.S government meddling in the middle east and Nixon taking the U.S. dollar off the gold standard, which lost the the oil producers a ton since they traded in dollars. Now it is the evil Russians and evil corporations at fault and not at all U.S government meddling... I guess I will go get in line at the gas station again.
Absolutely spot on. You couldn't make up this level of stupidity. However, I don't believe it is stupidity, too many countries are taking similar actions which we all know will end up in global economic carnage. This is being controlled and is a deliberate attempt to crash the global economy. It is the largest theft of money from the masses to the "elites" with the added bonus of reducing populations and making the remaining population obedient to their control and the imposition of the Great Reset and world government.
"Price gouging" is one of the most ignorant claims a politician can make.
If someone somewhere is willing to pay a specific price for an item, then that's the market price and the price is not "too high". If you want it enough, you'll pay a high price to get it. It doesn't matter what it is, it doesn't matter whether it's "essential".
Prices are a function of consumer scarcity and producer availability. If one of those things changes, the price will change. Usually during emergencies, demand goes up and supply goes down (e.g. ice and water after a hurricane). The price necessarily must increase.
This is one of those times where having an academic background in microeconomics really makes my life uncomfortable.
It's ignorant from an economic sense, but plays well to those "educated" in the public school system, taught that corporations are evil and the state is your friend and savior...
The proto-commies seem to believe that they can run an economy without incentives to produce. They seem to think those pouring blood sweat and tears into enterprises to create wealth will do the same when government takes over. Not only do the ignore basic economics, they ignore basic psychology and history. No one works hard to create value when someone else can just take it away.
One thing that really became clear to me during the Obamacare debacle 12 years ago was how the progressives seem to think the economy is the proverbial golden goose and has unlimited resources that will never go away for any reason except for corporate greed. They truly don't understand economics at all.
Well, Keynes literally claimed that the "only thing" preventing "full" (ie unlimited) production was people's "tendency to save instead of spend". Dumb then, dumb now...
savings is the fuel of capital investment, productivity increases, increased production and a higher standard of living (i.e. increased spending in the future)
you cannot spend what you do not produce. it's as simple as that
an excellent book to explain this is Economics for Real People by Gene Callahan. literally read it to my son when he was 5 or 6 years old. if he could understand then any adult can.
Exactly the case. If there's a natural disaster and water shoots up to $5/bottle, everybody with any way at all to get water to the disaster zone will be doing it. Cap the price at $1/bottle, and all those people stay home, leaving the recovery entirely up to government & charity.
There really is no such thing as "price-gouging" as you say. I had a friend bewailing and saying the price-gouging was greed by big corporations. He had just sold his house for some $200,000 more than he paid for it a few years back, so I accused him of 'price-gouging'. Of course, he said that was simply what the market was willing to pay, thus proving my point.
I was a teen in the 70s and remember all this well. My first "real" job in college was at a bank in the early 80s. One of my tasks was verifying the conversion of the manual commercial loan system to a computerized one. I distinctly remember rates in the 18-20% range. Fruits of the Volker Feds necessary contraction of credit that created the 81-82 double-dip recession, but ended the stagflation that preceded it.
And people shake their heads at me for being an anarcho-capitalist...
I went through it as well in Northern California. People stealing gas; violence at the pumps. There has been some of that but it will get worse; history repeats itself.
"Price controls" is pretty much communism. You will only be allowed to buy what we want you buy, when we want you to buy it, and at the cost we want you to buy it. Pottery.
Been there, had (bell bottoms, Gremlin) and done that (odd/even gas days). Again I ask, no, beg, let’s pool our money (what’s left) and buy an island. These people do not deserve us.
That is how narcissists think. They live in their own world, not the real world. In their world, their arrogance and delusion allows them to believe that which is not real, but which only exists in their imagination. "I was born a man, but i am really a woman" "if the rich get richer, they got rich by stealing from poor people" "Hillary had the election stolen from her, but Trump did not have the election stolen from him". I could go on and on, but the truth is, we are not dealing with sane people. Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results is not the definition of insanity (unknown source) but is in fact the definition of plain STUPIDITY. When you couple insanity with stupidity, you have a real problem that will not end well...ever.
The narcissist's world is a zero sum game. period.
Everything in the narcissist's reality can be explained if you analyze it from the viewpoint of someone that sees a zero sum game EVERYWHERE. "mommy, you are giving attention to my brother, hence you are not giving attention to me". "you make a lot of money, but that is because of me (you stole it from me)" "your free speech deprives me of my free speech, because i can't stand the fact that someone may listen to you and not ME" "prices are high because you are stealing more money from ME".
This thought process is how mentally deranged, and morally bankrupt people think.
It is also how STUPID people think.
It is nothing new (see Cain and Abel), but in the modern world it is now a dominating force.
We are witnessing proof that the Dunning Kruger effect is real, is now converging with the newly acquired modern ability of narcissists to dominate the public discourse through the use of mass media/modern technology. (this did not exist before as the lunatics were put in asylums before, not given iphones)
Throw in all of the CCP/Marxist/radical/WEF bots on twitter, to make things even more interesting, and you have a recipe for disaster.
These lunatics are actually running the place now. It is scary.
I just call it like I see it. The zero sum game theory fits with their outlook on life. Frankly, they are barely human... it's unfortunate. They are so broken, they are beyond repair. It is really sad. But i have stopped having sympathy for them. I just manage the ones i know, avoid close entanglements, and focus on being good, and being with good people.
Because those that did the same thing earlier just weren’t SMART enough to get it right…cue our illustrious 2022 geniuses that will get different results
Oh no. Now I know the economy is gonna get worse. And we haven't gotten to the carbon restrictions yet. And people will get crazier as it gets worse. Gonna be a very bumpy ride.
It does definitely feel like we are in the precipice of some very, very hard times. I'm trying to soak up the luxuries of daily life and comforts and joys while I can.
I get as mad about the price of ribeye skyrocketing as the next guy, but fuel... fuel is a different beast. Fuel is what gets the ribeye onto the meat counter. The price of fuel increasing is not functionally different from the price of everything increasing.
If someone slaps you across the face enough times consecutively, it doesn't matter how much they apologize, or swear up and down that it's not on purpose, that they have the best of intentions. And big governments have been doing a lot of slapping lately.
particularly as it comprises a large portion of the costs in fertilizer and in modern farming.
fuel problems rapidly become food problems, especially when you kick off a way in one of the great wheat breadbaskets at a time when US production looks to be extremely low.
the last time the price of wheat exploded, we got arab spring and all manner of ME and african food insecurity and the political instability that comes with it.
brace for more of the same. it's coming.
I work in Africa. Diesel up 200%. Maize up 250%. Cooking oil up 300%. Sugar up 300%. Fertilizer up 200%. More children will die in Africa than all the Russian and Ukrainians who die in the war. And that’s before people protest and governments start to fall. Fertilizer will be up 400% by planting season in November. Without fertilizer the crop yields will fall 50%. This is in a country where 35% of children are already stunted.
And this is on top of the covid lockdowns and their economic consequences for the poorest.
Policies coming from the people who always tell us how much they care about saving lives, and how much they care about poor people and people of colour.
Almost like the wanted the world to be reset to how it was in 1950- total domination of the developing world, with ‘colonial’ arrangements across Africa, Latin America, and the ME.
Yes and that includes keeping Russia as a failed nation.
I don't even know what to say or do in response to these stats. My husband and I support a few agencies that provide daily meals to the most vulnerable, but it is but a drop in the bucket. I don't know what else to do.
That is fantastic! Give where you can, it is a real child that goes to bed with food in their tummy!! You should be proud of your contribution!
Thank you, Oregonian. We do what we can and try to get the word out. Thank you for your information because I am going to inject that into conversations going forward.
In the UK, food banks are struggling because they rely mostly on donated surplus or past sell-by date food from supermarkets, shops, farmers - but there’s a shortage of food supplies so there is no surplus to donate.
In these countries, the poor spend 80-90% of income on food, and a typical monthly income is about $40. Annual income is about $500.
Yes but the people who want Green policies and war in the Ukraine ‘don’t mind paying a bit more’ to save the Planet, save Flipper and help the Plucky™️ Ukrainians against mad-monster-villain Putin, because they can afford it - let the poor eat cake.
They'll blame it on white supremacy (cos Africans tend to be black) rather than reflect on their own disgusting behaviour.
Been saying that for a while, no one seems interested. Know farmers and have farmers in the family. They watch local and worldwide food stock supplies. It is very easy for this to slip into a catastrophe. Fertilizer and fuel prices skyrocket and farmers may decide not to plant because they are likely to lose money on their crop so they don't plant or reduce plantings and BINGO no food. This is not something to fool around with.
I have read elsewhere we shall see the full effect of this lunacy in 60 to 90 days, and it will be worst to start with in poor Countries where grains provide the basic diet.
And Biden has authorised sale of ethanol gasoline to keep gas prices down (that he is responsible for increasing) - ethanol is made from grain. So more grain to make ethanol = less grain for food = increased grain prices = hunger.
Meanwhile in Canada... "As of April 2022 the federal minimum tax is set at CA$50 per tonne of CO2 equivalent, set to increase to CA$170 in 2030" But don't worry this won't cause inflation.
No it will be the greedy profit-mongering businesses doing that.
Carbon tax is a Pigou Tax the intention of which is to be incident on the end-user to change behaviour.
It is applied to all aspects of production, so it is an aggregate, compounded tax which will raise consumer prices significantly - the intention to get us to consume less… to save the Planet.
In Germany, they passed a law saying that the fuel reserves need to remain full.
The final grasping of the Virtuals as the Real world spirals out of their control. You could almost feel bad for them, for many I think they really don't know what's going on (like the politician on the train in Atlas Shrugged).
I could almost feel sorry for them - if they weren't inhuman blood-soaked sociopathic monsters from hell sent to this planet to destroy everything good and beautiful and cause enough misery to keep Satan fulfilled for centuries.
Excellent and quite accurate closing remark. 👍👍👍
Remember: Biden doesn’t have to pay for the gas for his 30 vehicle motorcade which takes him everywhere, or to refuel Air Farce One - so what does he care?
Russia is biggest exporter of fertiliser which makes up the bulk used in US and other Countries, now cut off because of sanctions. Russia + Ukraine produce 30% of all cereals, now cut off. India has announced it is to stop export of wheat.
It’s planting season - what do farmers use for fertiliser?
Whether or not ‘helping’ Ukraine is righteous thing to do, at what cost? Where is the cost/benefit analysis, where the line where we say that we’d like to help but just can’t afford it. What is our gain if we are impoverished and going hungry?
And what about people in poor Countries who will be hit soonest and hardest by food shortages - are they not worthy of any consideration whilst the nitwits in charge strut and preen their virtue on the geopolitical stage?
@el gato malo - what do you think of Fast Eddy's UEP theory? (comment on high vax high case post)
Don't be shy. They been squeezing the nuts of everyone what has 'em and torsioning the ovaries of all the rest of us.
Now there's an argument in favor of being transsexual!
Isn't there that phantom parts pain thingy?
Probably not for them. The parts they lose are the ones they don't relate to, and the phantom parts are the ones they never had.
Relating schmelating. Nerve endings don't lie...
I was thinking of the other end. If they don't reach the right parts of the head, it doesn't matter what the distal ends say.
Or rather, they do if you've abused them hard enough...
The cost of fuel is compounded throughout the economy, but so too is the price of crude oil because from that comes so much: plastics, paints, resins, adhesives, construction materials, clothing, agri-products… a long list used in production of goods and food.
And when Biden et al have stopped the use of motor fuels, the revenue from that and its contribution to costs and profits of oil/gas exploration and extraction will be gone. So that revenue contribution will have to be replaced by increasing the prices significantly of all oil/gas byproducts which will cause a huge cost of living increase including to food. They will impoverish and starve us unless stopped.
These are not “unserious” people. They are seriously trying (succeeding?) to destroy our economy and country.
It's no different in Australia, unfortunately. Countries all over the world are falling for this economic destruction: hook, line and sinker. Got to wonder...what's in it for those at the top? They must be getting some pretty good kickbacks to willfully destroy all the world's economies....
As per Dr. Mike Yeadon, it's hard to imaging that the kickback is in a monetary form. These people are already very very very rich.
So the kickback must be something else . . . they still need food and goods and services, but maybe a kind of "weeding out" process, to get rid of excess mouths, especially those that question their authority.
It’s for all the “Me”s to stay in power and reap all the bennies of that power.
Do you think any of them actually believe their climate change doom predictions or is it all just a guise to get more power? Depopulating the earth makes sense if they truly believe that climate change will doom us.
-oil running low
-AI/robot evolution
-microplastic contanimation in everything
-medical singularity
Are also reasons to depopulate.
Oh I'm pretty sure that some of these kickbacks are pretty darn depraved and are too foul to be mentioned. And as others have mentioned, maybe a 'reset' is wanted to to create more favourable terms for these ridiculously rich people (who, if they really wanted to help the world, could distribute but a small part of their wealth and make living conditions more favourable for all!).
But I also wonder if maybe we're forgetting that they're still HUMAN and just making this stuff up as they go? Sure, there's probably some wacko 'reset' rulebook they're trying to follow, but humans are still humans and therefore they make mistakes.
They're not following proper science, they're like a bunch of teenagers on a crazy trip, and it's all going to come crashing down with some horrendous consequences.
And Mother Nature will still be rectifying those consequences in the millenia to come...
Sound about right? Let's take a seat in this interactive movie and watch how it plays out...for all of us...
Or more power to implement even more of their own ideas for what’s “best”.
There are several financial commentators who explain the bad situation big money has created for itself. In this view, reset plans are a way to default and reset on terms favorable to themselves. I can’t pretend to explain it clearly, but if interested try Martin Armstrong or Tom Luongo.
They delude themselves with the thought that they are doing good. It reminds me of an ambulance-chasing lawyer of my acquaintance who always talked about getting clients the money they "deserved" from a minor accident. He actually considered himself on the side of the angels, while keeping 30%-40% of the settlement for himself.
Step 1: Govts. intervene in markets.
Step 2: Chaos
Step 2.5: Send billions to Ukraine.
Step 3: Govt. blames it on capitalism or Putin
Step 4: More govt. intervention to make things worse.
Step 4.5: Send billions more to Ukraine.
Step 5: Nationalization of markets or Guillotines return.
I vote #5
Hopefully the second part of 5
At this stage, I have resigned myself... to a future of hardship and scarcity. Time and again I have been waiting for societies and governments to come to their senses, to no avail. The pandemic has merely widened the dissonance, for the mental break needed to continue going along with the covid nonsense has the side effect of making one quite pliable to all other kinds of nonsense
Over and over I wonder what these people are thinking. But then, really, what was I expecting?
Yes, it's all a bit depressing, isn't it? :-(
Even though I'm all good now, my family and I grew up on a shoestring budget so I know what it's like to have very little. And I survived.
So let's see how it pans out, shall we...? :-\
PS - people like you and I who actually want to make the world a better place and manage to think past the end of our noses DO wonder what these 'people' are thinking. But the answer is 'not very much' and 'not for very long'!
The same people who casually sacrificed children's quality of life in the pandemic are tasked with "leading" societies into the future. Deprivation may actually be a feature and not a bug.
Yes, I am also still 'comfortable' in my retirement (for now) but I have started watching what we spend more carefully. I drive a 20-year-old Camry and could buy something sportier and more fun, but what I have runs fine and is in good mechanical shape. No need to plunk down $25,000 and up for another car. I also look at house brands in the grocery stores now. Some are OK, some not. I guess my point is that if someone like me is cutting back, there must be millions with fewer means who have no choice and will be cutting back to the bone. That's probably the ultimate counterweight to inflation, a steep and bloody recession.
LOL 25k for a car...them's early oughts prices buddy :)
At least Covid has proved that 90% of my fellow Brits are useful idiots.
Before March 2020 I only suspected it . . .
Sadly, I have reached this conclusion too.
If people like us can see it so plainly, then obviously the powers that be are doing it intentionally and either with malice or out of negligence.
As someone else said, inflation is a conscious, purposeful government policy...
Absolutely. The government needed inflation badly to effectively reduce the US debt.
I remember sitting in lines at the gas station with my dad in 73/74 on days when our license plate number allowed us to buy some gas. At the time, it was the evil Arabs at fault, not at all the U.S government meddling in the middle east and Nixon taking the U.S. dollar off the gold standard, which lost the the oil producers a ton since they traded in dollars. Now it is the evil Russians and evil corporations at fault and not at all U.S government meddling... I guess I will go get in line at the gas station again.
Been there done ot, same thoughts
I remember same--also asking moms what "impeach Nixon" meant (graffiti on wall...)
When will we get "25th amendment Biden" graffiti?
Absolutely spot on. You couldn't make up this level of stupidity. However, I don't believe it is stupidity, too many countries are taking similar actions which we all know will end up in global economic carnage. This is being controlled and is a deliberate attempt to crash the global economy. It is the largest theft of money from the masses to the "elites" with the added bonus of reducing populations and making the remaining population obedient to their control and the imposition of the Great Reset and world government.
"Price gouging" is one of the most ignorant claims a politician can make.
If someone somewhere is willing to pay a specific price for an item, then that's the market price and the price is not "too high". If you want it enough, you'll pay a high price to get it. It doesn't matter what it is, it doesn't matter whether it's "essential".
Prices are a function of consumer scarcity and producer availability. If one of those things changes, the price will change. Usually during emergencies, demand goes up and supply goes down (e.g. ice and water after a hurricane). The price necessarily must increase.
This is one of those times where having an academic background in microeconomics really makes my life uncomfortable.
It's ignorant from an economic sense, but plays well to those "educated" in the public school system, taught that corporations are evil and the state is your friend and savior...
The proto-commies seem to believe that they can run an economy without incentives to produce. They seem to think those pouring blood sweat and tears into enterprises to create wealth will do the same when government takes over. Not only do the ignore basic economics, they ignore basic psychology and history. No one works hard to create value when someone else can just take it away.
One thing that really became clear to me during the Obamacare debacle 12 years ago was how the progressives seem to think the economy is the proverbial golden goose and has unlimited resources that will never go away for any reason except for corporate greed. They truly don't understand economics at all.
They are willfully ignorant of how the economy works.
Well, Keynes literally claimed that the "only thing" preventing "full" (ie unlimited) production was people's "tendency to save instead of spend". Dumb then, dumb now...
savings is the fuel of capital investment, productivity increases, increased production and a higher standard of living (i.e. increased spending in the future)
you cannot spend what you do not produce. it's as simple as that
an excellent book to explain this is Economics for Real People by Gene Callahan. literally read it to my son when he was 5 or 6 years old. if he could understand then any adult can.
Atlas Shrugged.
Like "1984", it has become a manual.
And, of course, the increased price is the signal and incentive for greater supply, or alternative solutions, which bring the price down.
Exactly the case. If there's a natural disaster and water shoots up to $5/bottle, everybody with any way at all to get water to the disaster zone will be doing it. Cap the price at $1/bottle, and all those people stay home, leaving the recovery entirely up to government & charity.
There really is no such thing as "price-gouging" as you say. I had a friend bewailing and saying the price-gouging was greed by big corporations. He had just sold his house for some $200,000 more than he paid for it a few years back, so I accused him of 'price-gouging'. Of course, he said that was simply what the market was willing to pay, thus proving my point.
This is one of those times where I’m thankful I read Thomas Sowell’s “Basic Economics” last year and can see where this is going.
Also, it's "all the fault of Capitalism". Because...
Capitalism: gas costs $5
Communism: gas costs $1, but you can only buy it if you are a senior Party member, or if you pay a $200 bribe.
I was a teen in the 70s and remember all this well. My first "real" job in college was at a bank in the early 80s. One of my tasks was verifying the conversion of the manual commercial loan system to a computerized one. I distinctly remember rates in the 18-20% range. Fruits of the Volker Feds necessary contraction of credit that created the 81-82 double-dip recession, but ended the stagflation that preceded it.
And people shake their heads at me for being an anarcho-capitalist...
I went through it as well in Northern California. People stealing gas; violence at the pumps. There has been some of that but it will get worse; history repeats itself.
My neighbor across the street had his gas stolen a couple weeks ago. If you don’t already have one, get a locking gas cap. Might slow ‘em down a bit.
"Price controls" is pretty much communism. You will only be allowed to buy what we want you buy, when we want you to buy it, and at the cost we want you to buy it. Pottery.
Been there, had (bell bottoms, Gremlin) and done that (odd/even gas days). Again I ask, no, beg, let’s pool our money (what’s left) and buy an island. These people do not deserve us.
They will just conquer your island. I think it’s better if we’re spread out.
Interesting take 🤔
That is how narcissists think. They live in their own world, not the real world. In their world, their arrogance and delusion allows them to believe that which is not real, but which only exists in their imagination. "I was born a man, but i am really a woman" "if the rich get richer, they got rich by stealing from poor people" "Hillary had the election stolen from her, but Trump did not have the election stolen from him". I could go on and on, but the truth is, we are not dealing with sane people. Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results is not the definition of insanity (unknown source) but is in fact the definition of plain STUPIDITY. When you couple insanity with stupidity, you have a real problem that will not end well...ever.
The narcissist's world is a zero sum game. period.
Everything in the narcissist's reality can be explained if you analyze it from the viewpoint of someone that sees a zero sum game EVERYWHERE. "mommy, you are giving attention to my brother, hence you are not giving attention to me". "you make a lot of money, but that is because of me (you stole it from me)" "your free speech deprives me of my free speech, because i can't stand the fact that someone may listen to you and not ME" "prices are high because you are stealing more money from ME".
This thought process is how mentally deranged, and morally bankrupt people think.
It is also how STUPID people think.
It is nothing new (see Cain and Abel), but in the modern world it is now a dominating force.
We are witnessing proof that the Dunning Kruger effect is real, is now converging with the newly acquired modern ability of narcissists to dominate the public discourse through the use of mass media/modern technology. (this did not exist before as the lunatics were put in asylums before, not given iphones)
Throw in all of the CCP/Marxist/radical/WEF bots on twitter, to make things even more interesting, and you have a recipe for disaster.
These lunatics are actually running the place now. It is scary.
Love this post--never made the connection between zero sum thinking and narcissists but your examples fit 100% the ones I know.
I just call it like I see it. The zero sum game theory fits with their outlook on life. Frankly, they are barely human... it's unfortunate. They are so broken, they are beyond repair. It is really sad. But i have stopped having sympathy for them. I just manage the ones i know, avoid close entanglements, and focus on being good, and being with good people.
The definition of insanity is trying the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.
Funny, I was getting ready to post the same thing but figured some other astute read must have done so already. There you are
Great comrades think alike ;)
I just subscribed to your writings Yuri! I’ve seen quite a few of your interviews from years ago. You’re a very smart guy!
Agreed
Because those that did the same thing earlier just weren’t SMART enough to get it right…cue our illustrious 2022 geniuses that will get different results
I thought that was stupidity?!
But with these twits at the helm, I'm pretty sure insanity = stupidity!
Oh no. Now I know the economy is gonna get worse. And we haven't gotten to the carbon restrictions yet. And people will get crazier as it gets worse. Gonna be a very bumpy ride.
It does definitely feel like we are in the precipice of some very, very hard times. I'm trying to soak up the luxuries of daily life and comforts and joys while I can.
Fasten your seat belts. I really hate this!
Agree with all you wrote except it’s still the era of ABBA.
It will never not be.
Pretty much everything in this essay is spot on correct, except for one little implied thought. The era of ABBA never ended for some of us fans.
Maybe they could bring back Carter as a hologram to open the new Abba show. He could wear that beige cardigan and do the 'malaise' speech.