Why the cost increase?

None of this surprising. I'm not even going to get into micro economic analysis. Crazy pricing within individual markets is likely to be the new norm going into future.

I believe we are now in the beginning days of a new realization of increasingly scarce resources. We will see a coming devaluation of equity the world has never seen. Panic and reactionary thinking taking hold, division and angst clearly seen. The glass is no longer half full, better see the glass with reality eyes. Of course, there will still be winners, but many more losers. Limited short term vision always puts us in worse positions than enlightened self interest would take us. Sorry for the bad news. If someone has a reality based positive future lets hear it,  will take innovations not yet produced.

You're lucky.  The last 2x4 I saw here was $12.50.   Were you aware that there was a pandemic?  And not all those you apparently consider flunkies (loggers, saw-mill operators, truck-drivers) were able to work full-time?   Or that others, like yourself, who sadly were not able to travel overseas (O woe!) put their money into home construction?   Stop whining.

oldhvymec

You didn’t go deep enough on your research. What the government does when it appears to take money from Social Security is skim off earnings of the surplus that is invested in bond funds. Money that comes in today goes right back out tomorrow to pay benefits. Any remaining surplus is invested in bond funds. Those bond funds generate earnings and only those earnings are used by Congress on other projects. So they don’t actually "raid" the Social Security fund, they use the earnings from invested surplus. But maybe most telling in your reply was that you didn’t show even slightly how Clinton’s budgets weren’t balanced, regardless of what was done with Social Security. Instead you went off on some unrelated and pointless topics which will disappear anyway when this entire thread is deleted by the moderators.

To think I just wanted to build some speakers. Even the speakers went up, I've been using for 15 year, from 111.00 if I bought 4 or more to 174.00, I think.. Best 10" driver on the market.. 

https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-RSS265HO-44-10-Reference-HO-DVC-Subwoofer-295-463

How much of a mark up is that? 63.00 per driver? That's NUTS!!
I guess they ran out of aluminum cans or something. A shortage of CANS, really.. That driver is made of just that..

I get ticked but it is a heck of a driver even at 177.00. 12 drivers cost 800.00 MORE.. 6 per column. About 700.00 increase per column.

Worse than 9-11 by a long shot. I've never seen that much money waisted in my LIFE.. The Waste watching bridges for a year.. The nutsy Koo Koo waste of overtime payments for doing nothing.. Totally out of control.. Now setting and getting paid to NOT WORK.. NUTS.. 

Both sides and not a sane one in the bunch.. Really really broke..

Just to build a set of speakers and fix my house. My Lord..

I'm just waiting for the booster, shot LOL

My wife and I are owners of dwellstead.com

a mom and pop shop recently set up to acquire vintage homes with character or historic value, or just plain old homes, that need restoration done in a way that drives down their heating and cooling needs by up to 90%, and to set ie as a consulting service to help others do the same.

Because of COVID19, many lumber mills shut down for months to over a year. Once health restrictions on construction sites was lifted, there was a surge in demand that supply could not meet. Prices went up by as much as 400% even as quality plummeted. 

Lumber mills are coming back online, prices are dropping but are still about 225% above Pre-COVID19 levels. 

No need to talk about quantitative easing or neoliberalism etc on this one. Plain old supply and demand specific to a particular sector, lumber and anything made from wood, … especially fencing. A fence panel that once went for $25 is still up at $85.