For those in the Biden Administration and the media who have downplayed the terrible threat of “Bidenflation” caused by the President’s penchant to spend prolifically to “help” the working classes. The results are pouring in. Read on.
Today (November 26, 2022) I read in the press of the ultimate consequences of this President’s unwise flagrant spending trillions of dollar spree—-the results layoffs, labor unrest, strikes and lost jobs. You can read today of layoffs in South Carolina and California, strikes in Amazon plants around the world, a threatened national rail road strike in the US which may paralyze the nation’s already stretched supply chain problems.
Then too a headline that caught this author’s eye— NY Post ran a headline entitled “Blindsided” in which the Post authors recorded the plight of 2,700 furniture workers in North Carolina who were summarily laid off the day before Thanksgiving Day from one of the largest furniture manufactures in the US…United Furniture industries Inc .
The firm, one of the largest in the states produces wood frame furniture such as bedroom suites, couches and dining room tables. In an economy in which workers are struggling to meet 40 year high inflation induced higher food and fuel expenses, there are fewer families in the nation who could afford to buy furniture these days. Food, fuel to heat the house and fuel to get to work are all taking a 12-20% bigger bite out of the family earnings. These folks do not have the excess to replace that sagging couch or scarred up headboard. Sales of furniture is way down. Hence United Furniture’s decision to cut back on production of product they can not sell and shed itself of labor force it can not support.
Those folks in rural South Carolina will find it difficult to find other employment immediately. Then too the lay-offs there will cause a ripple effect. Communities where these folks live will experience a drop in income formerly spent by these workers in local stores.Retail stores, service industries and others businesses which supply the needs of these communities will also feel the bite of inflation. They will have to respond as well, some stores will layoff these retail employees, some businesses may close.
The thrust of the story in the NY Post attempts to portray the corporate leaders of United Furniture Industries as the mean guys and gals who fired these poor working folks just before the holidays. But they are only co-victims of terrible economic decisions made in DC months earlier. The real meanies are those who precipitated the awful plight of inflation, then (as they continued to spend prolifically) claimed inflation was temporary, then when it persisted, blamed it on supply chain problems or (always available for a charge of malfeasance of some kind Mr. Putin) as the Democrat politicians continued to spend and spend encouraging inflation by dumping trillions of dollars into an already “cash rich” economy. The result was the highest bout of inflation (cheap money) that we have had in forty years.
It will not go away too easily. More bad times are ahead.
Now that the mid term are over—reality will have to return. The states will demand that we begin paying again the 20 to 30 cents per gallon for the highway tax that some states rescinded temporarily. Then too the millions of gallons of crude the President was removing from the strategic reserve and dumping on the market to keep prices down before the elections will end (January). Then too, US oil production is lower now or stable, while due to political machinations Russian and Iranian oil are off the market, so as people use more oil and gas over the winter..prices will necessarily climb. We are living at a time of “peak oil” production just about meets demand. Small changes in demand or production create large alterations in pricing.
Gasoline and diesel fuel are used to produce food, dry our grain crops, transport everything that you purchase in your local markets. If its price rises so does everything else. So sadly expect more inflation not less.
No comments:
Post a Comment