About twenty years ago, I found and bought a still-sealed Mobile Fidelity copy of Rickie Lee Jones for $6 in a used record store. I saw it recently advertised here for $250. Now that’s inflation, or is it just supply and demand?
Everyone wants to pretend its one thing. If it was one thing I would have said the one thing instead of listing and explaining a few of the many important factors involved.
Inflation by the way is a monetary phenomenon. When money is created from nothing that is inflation. Whether or not monetary inflation results in higher prices depends on many, many other factors. For example, if monetary inflation is running 10%, but productivity is increasing 20%, then prices may fall even with 10% inflation. Exactly what has happened with a lot of electronics.
Or if the newly printed from nothing money flows first into banks and Wall St then it will drive interest rates down and equity prices up. Any of this starting to sound familiar?
We are now in the early stages of monetary hyperinflation, but hardly anyone notices because they were all Jedi mind-tricked into thinking inflation is rising prices.
By the time enough prices are rising fast enough to catch on to what I’m saying it will be too late.