Economic Collapse in America: Inflation/Stagflation and the Coming Economic Disaster
Written and Narrated By Ethan Hay
Inflation. The Oxford dictionary defines inflation as ‘a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money.’ According to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, (1) there are two types of inflation. Demand-pull, which occurs when there is a rapid increase in demand for goods and services that is greater than the economy’s ability to produce said goods and services. Then there is Cost-push. This type of inflation occurs when ‘when prices of production process inputs increase.’ There are other forms (2) as well such as Creeping which is when 3% inflation occurs. Walking is when inflation rises to 3-10%. Galloping sees an increase of over 10%, and Hyperinflation is when products see a price spike of over 50%. Just keep in mind that the Federal Reserve, (3) America’s central banking system, hasn’t set a hard rule as to what level of inflation is sustainable. Even so, there are those that believe that the 2% inflation is an acceptable level to maintain. The current (4) inflation rate in the US is 5.4%, a thirteen year high.
Since the introduction of the Consumer Price Index (5) back in 1913, the highest inflation level ever reached in recorded US history was 29.78% in 1778, during the American Revolutionary war. While inflation is bad enough, stagflation is worse, and it is knocking on the door of America. What is stagflation? Oxford dictionary defines it as ‘persistent high inflation combined with high unemployment and stagnant demand in a country’s economy.’ One of the biggest examples of stagflation occurred during the 1970’s. Some of the biggest contributing factors to this was the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (6) (OPEC). The Saudi Arabian led OPEC actively throttled the distribution of oil throughout the world, while also jacking up the price of the product. This, along with poor economic policies, such as overspending, put in place by governments, helped lead to unemployment (7) rising in countries like the US, due to a disruption in supply chains, and handicapping shipping around the world.
Unfortunately, the world is looking as though it is about to go through a period of stagflation yet again. A large part of that is due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to governments forcing many businesses (8) in America and around the world to close, either temporarily or even permanently. The price for food and other products is already rising. (9) Then there is the fact that the Biden administration is demanding that companies that have over one hundred employees must require said employees to be “fully vaccinated” against COVID-19. This could lead to massive layoffs and even further disruptions of supply chains. However, the government and many of the larger businesses were not expecting to see massive pushback from employees who are refusing to get the vaccine. Take for instance the pilots of Southwest Airlines. The mainstream media is trying desperately to say that the thousands of cancelled (10) flights wasn’t due to pilots refusing to get the vaccine. But when the CEO of Southwest Airlines, Gary C. Kelly, (11) comes out and says that he is against the vaccine mandates, but that team Biden has forced his hand, that’s a red herring if ever there was one.
This administration has shown that it is not merely incompetent and delusional, but rather it appears to be hellbent on bringing the country to its knees. For instance, Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg (12) has been on paternity leave for nearly two months, since he and his husband adopted fraternal twins. Never mind that his overarching responsibility as Transportation Secretary is to ensure that the ability to travel is unencumbered. He has also said that the shortage is expected to ‘continue into next year,’ (13) and is due to the fact that ‘demand is up, because income is up, because the president has successfully guided this economy out of the teeth of a terrifying recession.’ First of all, congratulations, but second, do the job you were appointed to do and don’t lie to American’s. There is no excuse for this delusional and self-destructive behavior, especially when the livelihoods of millions of Americans are at stake. We demand accountability and transparency, and our patience is coming to an end as this administration continues to lie and cover up the mess that it has created.
Sources:
1) https://www.frbsf.org/education/publications/doctor-econ/2002/october/inflation-factors-rise/
2) https://www.thebalance.com/types-of-inflation-4-different-types-plus-more-3306109
3) https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/5D58E72F066A4DBDA80BBA659C55F774.htm
4) https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/inflation-cpi
7) https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/cwc/compensation-in-the-1970s.pdf
8) https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/09/small-business-closures-tick-back-toward-covid-pandemic-highs.htmlhttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/13/prices-continue-to-riseheres-whats-getting-the-most-expensive.html
9) https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/13/prices-continue-to-riseheres-whats-getting-the-most-expensive.html
12) https://nypost.com/2021/10/15/secretary-buttigieg-stays-on-paternity-leave-amid-supply-chain-crisis/
Ethan Hay is a retired Navy veteran, who is one of the cofounders of Truth Matters. He is an author, and student at Utah Valley University, who is studying communications with the intention of furthering his career as a journalist.