We've been reporting what we like to call "real time inflation" which is what you and I are paying at any given time. It's not "transitory" as the good doctor wants you to believe, but rather, a permanent fixture part of the "new normal."
As we said, all things being constant, inflation will continue to increase and this time, it's not transitory. It turns out, all things are not constant, as the recent all time record breaking droughts across much of the U.S. has shown. Expect beef prices to jump as the drought forces record sale lots of cattle in DFW. A quick napkin diagram says to expect beef prices to jump by at least 15-20% this fall. They might need to retake the above Rasmussen poll in December.
The PPI is out today, and it shows producer inflation at the core had the biggest jump since January, which already was near a record high. Eventually, those price increases will trickle up (versus trickle down like the wealth you are feeling) to the consumer as margins are protected at all costs.
Another one of our daily reads, The Burning Platform, has an interesting piece about retailer Target's "fantastic" results. It turns out, despite the MSM spewing their radioactive propaganda about how Target's results are bull...ish for the economy, TBP says it plainly - "The truth is that Target’s core retail business is making less than last year. The 3.9% sales increase is completely driven by food and clothing inflation as they have shifted their mix to groceries." Yes it is. As we've been pointing out to our readers, sales in price data is nothing but more smoke and mirrors when you have inflation rooted in 12% YoY M1.
Another "look behind the numbers," shows that yesterday's housing data, which in itself was horrid (and thus completely ignored by the MSM) was even worse than the surface data suggests. The 425k new single family starts was the worst number since they started records in 1959(!) and we're smack in the middle of the home building season. Oops.
Of course, housing analysts have to be ultimately bullish, because their business depends on retail suckers buying the bait. However, the false hope that housing demand is "pent up" has been touted since 2009 and has utterly failed. Multi-generational living is the trend and it will not change anytime soon. Housing, is dead for at least the next decade... or five.
Speaking of dead, UK unemployment data was released today and shows (surprise, surprise!) that unemployment in the Unemployed Kingdom was higher by 37k, to 7.9% - the highest single monthly increase since June 2009 - not that bad, right? The real juicy parts are deeper in the pudding. The number of people working part time jobs because they can't find a full time job is at the highest since the records began 20 years ago. That says more than all surface numbers.
Finally, we focus on Asia:
- where in China we find that aborted or stillborn human babies, are microwaved dry, ground up into powder and sold by pharmaceutical companies as "stamina booster" pills. Did you expect anything less shocking from the same country that, 1) skins dogs alive and leaves them to die a slow painful death, 2) endorses eating boiled human fetuses in rural areas, 3) produces toxic products that are passed off as safe for infants and children and 4) that treats humans like a natural resource to be used in any way they find fit? No wonder why greedy American CEO's move entire businesses to China where slavery is legal.
- where in Japan, the truth about Fukushima continues to be hidden from the public. Also here and here for recent occurrences. And those 30km evacuation zones? Try 186,000 Bq/kg 100km (one hundred kilo meters) from Fukushima. Now, what expert said Fukushima is not even as bad as Three Mile Island?