Haven't been to the grocery store for a while, eh?
:O(
“Hence, very little apparent inflation.” “Haven’t been to the grocery store for a while, eh?”
There are several ways to view inflation. The government chooses not to count taxes, insurance, gas or other energy, and food. They do this because Congress has crafted laws indexed to the official inflation numbers. In essence, Congress has created a positive feedback mechanism that would, if government counted real inflation, cause inflation to spiral out of control.
Food, grown in the US, is subject to inflation, but I still think the price increases we’re seeing do not reflect true inflation because demand for many things is being held to a minimum by internalized panic. Where we’re not seeing any inflation is in foreign products; principally Chinese. The Chinese are footing the bill (subsidizing) our appetite for their products by keeping the US price low and by adjusting their currency against the dollar to keep us buying.
The Chinese are doing this to keep people in China employed at the expense of competitors. They are terrified of what out of work peasants will do with their free time. (Riot, I presume.)