You have been lied to about inflation and here is the proof:Â Take a look at where we have gone since 2000 to today.
I know it might be hard to believe but the way we measure inflation understates the true devaluation of your purchasing power. You feel it by how much tighter your budget is or by your perception of the cost of items going up. Inflation is actually rather high and it has been inflamed thanks to our policy of low interest rates and a tendency to own people via debt. We will look at the actual raw numbers of inflation as they are given to us via government statistics but take a deeper look as to what the cost of certain items really is. The results may shock some of you.
Cryptocurrency Bubble or new Paradigm? When $100 billion in market cap evaporates overnight and the rise of new currencies.
The market cap of crypto currencies hit over $830 billion and seemed to be on pace to reaching $1 trillion. This week South Korea openly discussed closing down exchanges since it felt there was excessive speculation in the crypto currency markets. It is hard to argue with that when you look at the rise of certain digital coins rising 1,000% to 4,000% (or more) in a relatively short period. Are people looking for a get rich quick scheme or is this something different? Is there a bubble in the crypto currency markets or is this some sort of new financial paradigm?
Americans have no savings and with very good reason:Â housing, education, and health care have seen extraordinary inflation while wages are stagnant.
It has now become a daily ritual in which story after story of broke Americans plaster the web. Yet somehow on the mainstream press, very little is discussed about this topic. Americans are largely broke because inflation is vey real. Housing, education, and health care costs have soared out of control while wages have remained stagnant. The way Americans continue to pay for these items is by going into loan shark levels of debt. There used to be a pretense that “we†actually cared about having a middle class but that is now thrown out the window. At this point, we are in a full on sprint towards low wage capitalism. Many people live on a paycheck to paycheck diet and are berated about saving more for retirement. The reality is, the new retirement model is working until you die.
Largest employer in each U.S. state:Â In 22 states Walmart is the largest employer.
With the holiday season comes the usual mindless shopping and stampedes of people looking for that blowout sale. If you have any doubt about how far we have slid into a low wage nation just look at the largest employer data for each state. Walmart is the largest employer in 22 states. Instead of the majority creating things we now have the majority consuming things in mass. This is also one part of the complicated calculus that has hollowed out our middle class and has exported our savings out of this country and across the world to other places where manufacturing is occurring. Now this data might be known by some but watching the mainstream press you realize that people are really out of touch with how most Americans are living. People are living paycheck to paycheck and the standard of living is slowly being chipped away. Welcome to Walmart Nation.