Inflation is here and it’s bad.
You see, inflation enters the economy in stages. It’s not as though the Fed begins to print money and poof! inflation appears. It takes time.
The first stage occurs in the manufacturing/ production segment of the economy when you see producers suddenly paying more for the raw goods and commodities they use to manufacture/ produce finished goods.
You can see this development in the chart below. The highlighted periods featured times in which Producer Prices for commodities or raw goods spiked approached record highs.
One or two months of higher Producer Prices for commodities or raw goods is no big deal, but once you’re talking 6-8 months of steadily rising Producer Prices it’s significant. At that point, manufacturers/ producers have to start raising the prices of finished goods or face shrinking profit margins
At that point, you move into the second stage of inflation: when the prices of ordinary objects begin to increase.
Bear in mind that phase 2 can happen in different ways. Management at companies doesn’t just say “raise the price now!” Instead, they can do different things such as charge the same amount for less of a finished product/ shrink the size of the container. This is called shrinkflation.
Another strategy is to start using cheaper/ lower quality raw goods (to reduce costs/ quality) while charging the SAME amount for the finished good. This too is inflation as the cost of the SAME item is MORE expensive, though it’s being masked because the QUALITY is LOWER and the price is the same.
We are now at THAT stage of inflation.
That Big Mac and Coke Now Comes With a Side Order of Inflation
U.S. companies are raising prices on everything from plane tickets to paint, passing on to customers higher costs for fuel, metal and food after years of low inflation.
– Source: Wall Street Journal
This is when things start to get REALLY ugly for the economy.
