As the U.S. government continues to inject further stimulus into the economy, consumer prices in several U.S. industries have skyrocketed. Economists say the price hikes are just the beginning of massive inflation to come.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported last month that the consumer price index (CPI) soared 0.6 percent in March, the largest monthly increase in nearly a decade. The cost of lumber, gasoline, steel, copper, computer chips, homes and household appliances, in particular, have increased sharply in the past few months.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (U.S. Energy Information Administration), the average price of gasoline has increased as crude oil prices have risen. On Monday (3), the national average price of retail gasoline reached $2.89 per gallon, up more than $1 per gallon compared to a year ago.
According to CNBC, U.S. billionaire and well-known investor Warren Buffett said on Saturday (2) at his company’s annual financial event, the Warren Buffett Shareholder Meeting, “We’re seeing very realistic inflation.”
“Prices are going up, up, up.” Buffett said, “The price of steel, you know, is going up every day.”
On Friday, lumber prices hit an all-time record of $1,500.50 per thousand board feet (a North American unit of lumber measurement), according to The Wall Street Journal. Lumber prices are expected to remain high in the coming months.
The high price of lumber has contributed to an increase in the price of homes across the United States. CoreLogic, a company that provides real estate information, analysis and data services, reported last Tuesday that home prices rose 11.3 percent in March, reaching the largest increase since 2006.
Buffett noted that the cost of building homes is increasing due to higher lumber and steel prices.
Economists say the price hikes are just the beginning. They add that the trillion-dollar spending plan recently signed by the government will contribute to greater inflation.
Peter Schiff, a leading U.S. economist and CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, said in an interview with U.S. media outlet The Daily Caller. “We’re going to see massive inflation.”
Schiff went on to say that people will pay higher insurance, higher property taxes, local taxes, skyrocketing utility bills, big increases in living expenses, and Americans will feel a big drop in their standard of living, “a very big drop.
“100% of the cause of inflation is the government,” Schiff said, “and every dollar the government spends amounts to a tax, because every dollar the government spends, the money has to come from the American people, some of it from higher taxes on the rich, and the rest of it from ‘inflation tax’ which hits the poor and middle class much harder than it hits the rich.”
Recent Comments