Federal Reserve Chairman Powell and other members of the Fed have been using the term “transitory” to downplay the threat that the last 16 months of skyrocketing inflation would last.
But inflation has been sharply on the rise since March 2020, with only a minor pause toward the end of last year before rising even more sharply since January 2021. Two Fed officials dissented in June of this year, but Powell’s money-printing habit hasn’t slowed.
The “light at the end of the tunnel” for the Fed? A miniscule .1% (one tenth of one percent) down tick in the official monthly inflation report this August.
You can almost hear the relief in the Fed’s chatter… “See, we were right! It was only transitory inflation, and it’s already going down! There’s nothing to see here, move along, buy more stocks.”
Don’t crack open the champagne just yet.
Unfortunately for us, the Fed’s optimism seems misplaced. That 0.1% reduction in monthly official inflation leaves us with a 5.3% annual inflation rate, more than 2 1/2 times higher than the Fed’s official inflation target.
And if you think everyday folks have it rough, small businesses have taken a major hit:
Inflation for businesses reached a year-over-year rate of 8.3% — the metric’s highest level since at least 2010.
On top of that, consumers are waking up to the reality that inflation won’t be “transitory,” but instead will likely stick around for a few years.
That’s because once inflation begins to gain velocity, it’s hard to stop. Inflation has serious momentum, just like a train. A fully-loaded modern freight train weighs tens of thousands of tons and needs over a mile to make an emergency stop. A controlled, safe stop takes much longer.
That very momentum is what Jim Rickards was concerned about back in February:
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