It’s understandable if you’re tired of hearing about rising inflation. But it has become an economic mainstay in the Biden Administration. And each month seems to bring fresh records not experienced in decades.
For Baby Boomers who lived through the Carter years, 2021 might feel like déjà vu. That’s because inflation rose 6.8% again in November 2021, which is the highest level since June of 1982.
That’s bad enough. And that’s not the worst of it…
When we look higher up the product pipeline, inflation at the manufacturing level is even higher. U.S. producers are dealing with inflation of their own, clocking in at an incredible 9.6% in November. That means prices on all manufactured goods, from coffee mugs to SUVs, are still going up. And we haven’t even experienced the sticker shock yet. Producer prices are a forecast of rising prices just down the road.
Things have gotten so bad that Bloomberg recently published an “inflation survival guide” after interviewing a number of Argentines (who routinely struggled with 50% inflation). Those who survived Argentinian hyperinflation know paper money is worthless.
Here’s their advice, lightly edited for clarity:
- Spend your paycheck immediately (particularly on big-ticket items like houses and cars in the U.S.) – In a high-inflation economy, money that sits in the bank is losing value. Each day, those dollars on deposit buy a little, or a whole lot, less.
- Borrow as much money as you can – When we borrow money to finance those big purchases, we’re getting credit at a rate below That means all the debt we take out is actually being devalued month after month. Eventually, we can always pay it off with otherwise-useless paper money.
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