Seeking Truth in a World of Propaganda. Links do not necessarily indicate agreement with stories or perspectives.
“Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.” - Plato
Prior to 2020, to a lot of people it seemed like the irrational optimists might be right after all.
Yes, there were lots of serious problems simmering in the background, but overall life seemed to be rolling along pretty good for most of the population.
But then 2020 came along, and everything started to change.
As I write this article in April 2022, war, hunger, pestilence and relentless economic problems have all materialized. In fact, things are already so bad in Europe that rationing has now been instituted in some areas…
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has threatened the supply of critical commodities in Europe and thrown global supply chains, which were already struggling amid COVID-19, into complete chaos.
As a result, the prices of everything from wheat to oil have soared, leading to multi-decade high inflation rates in places like Germany and Spain. The supply crunch in Europe is now so bad it’s causing governments to begin laying the groundwork for rationing, with some stores already limiting supplies.
This isn’t Africa that we are talking about.
If rationing is already taking place in Europe, how bad is it going to be for the poorer nations in the months ahead?
Well, UN Secretary-General António Guterres is telling us that “the world’s most vulnerable people and countries” are heading into a “hurricane of hunger”…
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned urgently of the global consequences of the war as early as mid-March. The breadbasket is being bombed and a “hurricane of hunger” is threatening, he stated. Given Ukraine’s great importance as a food exporter, the invasion was “also an attack on the world’s most vulnerable people and countries.”
Sadly, he is not exaggerating one bit.
As I discussed yesterday, at this point even Joe Biden is admitting that the coming food shortages are “going to be real”.
But even though global leaders are openly telling us that things are going to get really bad, most people still don’t seem very alarmed.
This greatly frustrates me, because this is not a false alarm.
There are 45 different nations that normally get “at least one-third of their wheat from Ukraine or Russia”…
The world’s 45 least developed countries import at least one-third of their wheat from Ukraine or Russia, and 18 countries among them import more than 50 percent. These include Egypt, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. These are all countries that are already dependent on humanitarian aid and food supplies because millions of people are currently suffering from massive hunger.
How are all of those countries supposed to feed their people without that wheat?
I keep asking that question, and not a single person has been able to answer it.
Just look at the crisis that has erupted in Lebanon. They normally get approximately 75 percent of their wheat from either Russia or Ukraine, and so far they have been unable to procure supplies from alternate sources…
Lebanon, which obtains 75 percent of its wheat from Russia and especially Ukraine, is also desperately seeking other wheat exporters, but so far without success. The government turned to the international community with a call for help. There are now fears of rationing and sharp price increases, which will hit the already hard-pressed population hard.
Meanwhile, the global bird flu plague just continues to intensify.
Here in the United States, the total death toll is now just short of 28 million…
The new cases mean that across the nation, farmers have had to kill about 22 million egg-laying chickens, 1.8 million broiler chickens, 1.9 million pullet and other commercial chickens, and 1.9 million turkeys.
It has taken less than two months to go from the first confirmed case in the U.S. to nearly 28 million dead.
So what will the death toll look like six months from now?
And can you imagine what this will do to food prices?
It is being reported that the price of a dozen eggs has already risen 52 percent since the start of this new pandemic…
Egg prices are skyrocketing as a bird-flu outbreak ravages commercial chicken flocks in the U.S., with the price of a dozen large eggs spiking more than 52% in just under two months.
For much more on this crisis, please see the article that I posted yesterday entitled “20 Facts About The Emerging Global Food Shortage That Should Chill You To The Core”. I wish that I had sufficient words to properly convey the urgency that we should all be feeling in this hour. We are heading into a complete and total nightmare, and I wish that I could get more people to understand this.
Mike Adams is sounding the alarm too. The following comes from an article that was published a few days ago in the Epoch Times…
Food scarcity. Food vouchers. Food riots and flash mobs.
All of that’s coming—and soon, says Texas-based food scientist and “Health Ranger” podcaster Mike Adams, who sees dire events unfolding in America in the short term.
His advice: people need to get prepared now.
Of course he is right on target.
In fact, I have specifically been warning for years that all of these things were coming.
At this point, it is clear that the “great debate” is over.
The irrational optimists were wrong. There will be no golden new era of peace and prosperity for humanity.
Instead, we have entered a “perfect storm” of pain, suffering and horror.
For many years, society laughed at the “doomsday preppers”, but they were right.
And if you plan to make it through the extremely chaotic times that are coming, I would recommend that you become a “doomsday prepper” too.
***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***
About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending digital copies as gifts through Amazon to family and friends. Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today.
The post The “Doomsday Preppers” Were Right appeared first on The Economic Collapse.
One week ago, RH (the stock-buyback/short-squeeze mogul formerly known as Restoration Hardware) reported dismal earnings which sent its stock plunging, but it was the company's earnings call that shocked Wall Street: in a nutshell, the company disclosed that it had seen a sharp deceleration in customer activity over just the last several days, prompting CEO Gary Friedman to give an ominous assessment of the overall macro situation.
While first quarter sales and margin strand to remain healthy due to the ongoing relief of our backlog, we have experienced softening demand in the first quarter that coincided with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in late February and the market volatility that followed. We believe it is prudent to remain conservative until demand trends return to normal and -- we are providing the following outlook for the first quarter of 2022.”
What was remarkable about Friedman's admission is that whereas until now, management commentary had mostly lamented soaring commodity prices and supply-chain weakness, which management had then successfully passed on to consumers, this was a direct admission of tangible weakness in consumer end-demand. What was more ominous is that, unlike the Biden admin, Friedman did not blame the soaring inflation and the sudden bout of economic weakness on Putin. In fact, as the following excerpt from his earnings call commentary revealed, the CEO saw broad-based weakness in virtually every aspect of the economy.
... It's probably one of the most difficult guides since 2008 and '09, because we -- we're right in the middle of this disruption from Ukraine and Russia, which I think -- I don't think it's all Ukraine and Russia. I think it's triggered a greater awareness. It's like someone rang the bell, and everybody paid attention, and then all of a sudden, everybody started talking. All of a sudden, the Fed's off to the races and that creates concern. You've got housing prices at all-time highs. I mean, is it sustainable? I don't know for how long; doesn't make sense on what's happening in the housing sector and other places. And you've got inflation like I've never seen.
Now I was telling people, when Yellen said, we're going back to 2%, we were just signing our new freight contracts, ocean freight contracts. I just wonder if the Fed has picked up the phone and called a business person and said, hi, what do you think is happening with inflation? How is ocean rates? How is this? How is that?
I mean I don't think anybody really understands what's coming from an inflation point of view, because either businesses are going to make a lot less money or they're going to raise their prices. And I don't think anybody really understands how high prices are going to go everywhere. In restaurants, in cars and everything. And I think it's going to outrun the consumer. And I think we're going to be in some tricky space. So everything is kind of happening at once. And I think you got to prepare for war. I mean if you're going into a very difficult, unpredictable time, you just got to be super flexible, you've got to be able to improvise, adapt, overcome and kind of be ready for anything.
And I don't mean that by playing defense. I mean it's by playing offense, but it's -- I wouldn't call it happy days right now. I'd call it pensive days. Be ready. And when we play like that, we usually have our best outcome. When we get overly optimistic, we have a higher likelihood to wind up in the ditch and get ahead of ourselves. So -- but if everything, if the war in Ukraine ends and inflation slows down some miraculous way, I don't know, everybody can sign new freight contracts because, I mean, most of the world all signed new freight contracts. Two years ago, price of the container for us went from 2,400 to 4,800? I'm not going to tell you what it just went to. But just let's say that looked like a nice increase.
So either people are going to do stupid things like take quality down to make their goods look like it's better value or they're going to have to take prices up and where they won't take prices up and they'll hurt -- their margin profile is going to change. But it's not just us, it's everybody I know in every industry. And I just don't think it's like -- again, I don't want to scare everybody. But I talk about them, like there's the scene in The Big Short, where everybody is in that ballroom and the guy from Bear Stearns or someone is up there, and he's saying how they are going to buy back $1 billion of their stock, and then one guy on his BlackBerry, goes, can I ask the question, sir? In the 20 minutes that you've been talking, your stock is down like 55%. And everybody ran out of the room.
The call, which took place after the close on Wednesday, sent RH stock crashing and unleashed a pall over the broader retail sector. However, the recession blues quickly spread just 48 hours later when Craig Fuller, the CEO of Freight Waves, a supply-chain logistics expert and hardly the hyperbolic type, warned that a "freight recession is imminent", commentary which sent the transports index plummeting on Friday and which continued to depress the space on Monday as well.
... I wish the answers were different. I would prefer to say the U.S. trucking market was robust and the expansion will continue throughout 2022. But I can’t. Since I wrote the piece about the bloodbath, FreightWaves SONAR’s tender data continues to reinforce the perspective of a declining freight market.
Tender rejections are the best indicator into real-time supply/demand in the truckload sector. The data comes from actual electronic load requests – “tenders” in the truckload contract market.
A high rejection rate means that trucking companies have more options to choose from. A low rejection rate means carriers have fewer options in freight to pick from. Since this measures actual load activity and not load board posts or searches, it tells us what the market is actually doing.
And since it measures the willingness of carriers that are contracted to accept or to reject a load they have a contracted rate for, if the rejection rate declines, it suggests capacity is loosening.
And so, the yield curve inverts and we immediately get management chatter about recession hitting retail and freight (i.e., transports), two of the most critical sectors propping up the US economy. Well, we can now add the beating heart of the tech sector - semiconductors - to the list too.
Last week, the chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor said that consumer electronics demand is showing signs of slowing amid geopolitical uncertainties and COVID-related lockdowns in China, The slowdown is emerging in areas "such as smartphones, PCs, and TVs, especially in China, the biggest consumer market," TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said.
Liu also warned that the cost of components and materials are rising sharply, pushing up production costs for tech and chip companies.
"Such pressure could eventually be passed on to consumers," Liu said on the sidelines of an industry event where he was speaking in his capacity as chair of the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association.
When TSMC speaks, or worse warns, everyone pays attention: a key Apple supplier, TSMC is the world's biggest contract chipmaker and a barometer of global electronics demand. Taiwan's semiconductor industry is the world's second-largest chip economy by revenue, behind only the U.S.
"Everyone in the industry is worried about rising costs across the overall supply chain... The semiconductor industry already and directly experienced that cost increase," Liu said, adding that the industry is also concerned about macroeconomic uncertainties this year.
And yet, despite the dire warning of slowing end-demand, TSMC - like so many of its peers - refused to accept what the new reality means for its top line, and instead has chosen to assume that the chip fab giant can just keep passing on all the soaring costs to a consumer that has already been tapped out: Liu said that TSMC is not likely to change its growth target and capital expenditure this year.
"Despite the slowdown in some areas, we still see robust demand in automotive applications and high-performance computing as well as internet of things-related devices," he said. "We still cannot meet our customers' demand with our current capacity. We will reorganize and prioritize orders for those areas that still see healthy demand." At least until those areas fall into the pre-recessionary void too.
Why does all of this matter? Because with stocks still just shy of all time highs - following the recent torrid rally - we get retail, freight and semis all issuing very loud, and very troubling warnings that what is dead ahead is something, in the parlance of the RH CEO, straight our of The Big Short, a movie which we are confident he picked for obvious reasons. More importantly, it all happens within hours of the 2s10s yield curve inverting...
... which is also why Wall Street has spent so much in the past few days trying to convince anyone who still bothers to listen that a recession is not imminent... why would be lovely, if the companies themselves weren't telling us otherwise.
Influenza “vaccines” were first introduced in 1980, over 40 years ago. Since then, however, the rates of infection and death from influenza are about the same as they were back in 1960.
The following image shows flu shot uptake between 1980 and today, as provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
The next image shows monthly influenza mortality counts between 1959 and 2016:
Despite a massive rise in flu shot uptake over the past 40 years, the same number of people are dying every month from the flu, almost as if the shots are doing absolutely nothing to stop the virus. “We went from 12 million flu shots in 1980 to almost 200 million in 2020,” writes Alex Berenson on his Substack, adding that nothing has changed as far as flu deaths during that time.
“There is absolutely no relationship between the number of flu ‘vaccines’ we give and deaths from influenza,” Berenson writes.
What is not shown on the second chart is the number of flu deaths in 2017 and 2018. It turns out more people died from the flu during that season than perhaps ever, including during the 1968 Hong Kong flu outbreak. The New York Times even reported that 80,000 Americans of flu died during the winter of 2017-18, which it said was the “highest toll in years.”
What this all proves, of course, is that flu shots are just as useless as Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) “vaccines” at “saving lives.” Both injections are also dangerous and come with the risk of serious side effects, though covid injections seem to be far worse. “Instead of asking if the reason people didn’t want to get jabbed was that the shots manifestly DID NOT WORK, the authorities simply looked for ways to encourage or force people to take them,” Berenson further explains.
More Government Documents Prove COVID-19 Vaccines Are Causing AIDS
Pfizer Documents Reveal A Whole SLEW Of Side Effects From The COVID Shot
It’s almost as if what’s in these shots was never meant to be injected into human beings.
The post Since Flu Shots Were Introduced, Deaths & Infections Remain About The Same first appeared on SHTF Plan - When It Hits The Fan, Don't Say We Didn't Warn You.https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/03/technology/robert-malone-covid.html
What did the NY Times, the Gray Lady, do to each of them in its slovenly reporting?
Before I get into that, I thought I would just recycle what my friends have said about the NY Times (whose motto is, "All the news that's fit to print") over the years:
"All the news that fits, we print"-- which encapsulates the paper beautifully imho.
And old friends, now deceased, used to publish a magazine named for and focused on the "Lies of Our Times."
I also heard that Carlos Slim is the majority owner of the NY Times. Some say he is not only a crook but a drug dealer. He was worth $60 Billion and at times was Forbe's richest man in the world. Whether Carlos has anything or nothing to do with the Gray Lady's descent into scurrilous reporting, I don't know. Maybe the Sulzbergers did it to themselves.
With Bobby Kennedy, the Times selected a small number of relatives and squeezed them for any negative things they might say. After listing many superlatives: his brains, charisma, work ethic, writings (many books including the million-seller Who is Tony Fauci?) and his successful environmental activism in cleaning up America's rivers, the Times got down to the big one: his vaccine safety work. And most recently, and perhaps most challenging to the Elites who the NY Times serves, is Bobby's work to expose the falsehoods we have been subjected to nonstop regarding the pandemic. The Kennedy relatives bemoaned how their wonderful brother had gotten swept up into criticizing America's gilded vaccines and its pandemic policies. No one told them that all that shimmers isn't gold.
What did the Times do to Dr. Malone? As in their RFK Jr. portrait, they downplayed his contributions, inventions and career. Turned him into a self-aggrandizing liar. When the NY Times gives you that many column inches, and a photo, in its attempts to destroy you, you KNOW you must be over the target.
I happen to know Bobby and Robert and his wife Jill and I call them my friends. I am tremendously impressed with the brilliance of all of them.
When I discover something, it take my brain awhile to understand how it fits in and what it means.
Not these guys. They are quick studies. These are extremely capable people, with very wide-ranging knowledge. These are the people you would want on your team if you got shipwrecked, or the apocalype was coming, and it may be coming. They see right to the meat of everything, immediately.
When Malone was a grad student, many people were working with mRNA. But he was the one that discovered how it could be used as a vaccine, 30 plus years ago. He has the patents. He made other discoveries. Because he was just a young grad student, he didn't get a lot of credit then, since his mentors grabbed as much as they could. That is how the scientific hierarchy usually works. The NY Times would like to ensure he does not get the credit now.
You know what? Dr. Malone has not worked with mRNA vaccines for a long time. He was there at the beginning, and he knows a lot. The guy is one hell of a scientist. But he can't tell you everything about mRNA vaccine technology today.
He has recently worked on repurposing drugs for COVID. He knows a lot about that, about how to help you get over COVID without any nasty sequelae. And that, my dear, is what the Times wants kept secret.
Authored by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com,
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) are coming. And they’re coming much faster than most people care to think about. Are you ready?
At the moment, roughly 90 central banks – including the European Central Banks and the Federal Reserve – are either experimenting with, or are in varying stages of CBDC implementation. Moreover, these CBDC friendly central banks include all G20 economies. And together, represent more than 90 percent of global GDP.
What’s important to understand is the adoption of a CBDC in your country of residence would accompany the abolition of cash. This would be for your own good, of course. To eliminate nefarious transactions and black markets.
If you value financial privacy and the liberty to spend your money as you please, then the rapidly approaching rollout of CBDCs is a major red flag. Compulsory use of a CBDC, like a digital dollar for example, would give central planners complete oversight and control over your finances.
You see, under a CBDC regime – free of cash – all of your transactions would be subject to government surveillance. All remnants of financial freedom, privacy, and anonymity would be destroyed. But that’s not all…
CBDCs would allow control freak, power mad central planners to do much more than spy and surveil your financial transactions. CBDCs would allow them to control how and when you spend your money.
This may sound crazy to a sane person, who operates with a modicum of modesty and integrity. But, in truth, this is one of the main intents of CBDCs. In fact, several years ago Bank for International Settlements General Manager Agustin Carstens outlined the extraordinary powers CBDCs would afford central planners. Here are the particulars from Carstens himself:
“There is a huge difference [between CBDC and cash]. For example, with cash we don’t know who’s using a 100 dollar bill today. We don’t know who’s using a 1,000 peso bill today. A key difference with the CBDC is the central bank will have absolute control under rules and regulations that will determine the use of that expression of central bank liability, and we will have the technology to enforce that.”
Do you get it? The central planners want absolute control over how you spend your money. This includes the U.S. government too…
On March 9, the Biden administration released an executive order (EO) requiring several federal agencies to study digital currencies and to identify ways to regulate them. A big part of the EO is focused on blockchain based cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum.
However, within the EO, Biden also directs the federal government and Federal Reserve to lay the foundation for a potential new U.S. currency, a CBDC – perhaps, a digital dollar.
Specifically, the EO directs the U.S. Treasury, and other federal agencies, to study the development of the new CBDC and report back within 180 days of the potential risks and benefits of a digital dollar. The EO also directs the Treasury Department, Office of the Attorney General and Federal Reserve to produce a ‘legislative proposal’ to create a digital currency within 210 days, about seven months.
The digital dollar is coming, and it’s coming quick.
To be clear, the adoption of a digital dollar by the U.S. government, as Biden intends, would be one of the greatest expansions of federal power ever made. The digital dollar would be much different than a digital version of the existing U.S. dollar. It would also be much different than cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum, which are decentralized.
Digital dollars would be traceable and programmable. The Federal Reserve, or some other government agency, would have the ability to create digital dollars at whim. Moreover, the digital dollars could be programmed to have various rules and restrictions governing how and when they are spent.
Earlier this year, in Federal Reserve published report about the development of a CBDC, the Fed provided examples of possible ‘design choices’ for a digital dollar, including that “a central bank might limit the amount of CBDC an end user could hold.”
Biden’s EO plan for a digital dollar also includes design choices that will give the federal government total control over financial freedom and the economy. The EO even states the CBDC and other policies governing digital assets must mitigate “climate change and pollution” and promote “financial inclusion and equity.” This is a major focus.
From this, we can speculate that financial inclusion and equity means wealth redistribution. And climate change mitigation means restrictions to fossil-fuel use. These, and other government dictates, like the direct subtraction of taxes and fees from your account, would be programmed into the digital dollar.
Why now…
U.S. and European Union sanctions against Russia, including cutting Russian financial institutions off from SWIFT and preventing the Russian Central Banks from using its foreign currency reserves, may prove to be a strategic blunder. The blowback potential is real, and is already happening.
Europe, which depends on Russia for 40 percent of its natural gas, is now reaping the whirlwind. According to Bloomberg, Putin has signed a decree demanding payment in rubles for Russian gas supplies starting April 1 (today). Will Europe submit?
There are rumors European nations are already covertly buying rubles. The ruble’s increase on the foreign exchange market to pre-invasion levels certainly hints something is in the works.
Regardless, the U.S. is losing control over the international financial and payment system. By freezing Russia out SWIFT, Putin is being forced to look for other alternatives. Specifically, China has been developing its own Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) as an alternative to SWIFT.
Sanctions against Russia may further accelerate the use and adoption of CIPS by nations that are opposed to western influence. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology also offer banks and individuals ways to move payments without using dollars or SWIFT.
The very success of the weaponization of the legacy financial system by the U.S. and Europe is driving Russia and others into such alternatives. Hence, fewer international transactions in dollars could undermine the dollar’s reserve currency status. This would have serious implications for the U.S. economy, as the dollar would likely suffer a significant devaluation.
In the U.S. consumer price inflation (official) is already at a 40 year high. Unofficially, it’s higher than it has been in over 100 years.
Between the financial war being waged, raging consumer price inflation, a $30 trillion national debt, trillion dollar deficits, and unfunded liabilities running into the hundreds of trillions, something’s got to give…
…namely, the U.S. dollar.
The popular American myth is that the U.S. government has never defaulted on its debt.
Quite frankly, that’s unadulterated hogwash.
The U.S. government has (unofficially) defaulted on its debt twice within the last hundred years.
Executive Order 6102 of 1933, which forced all American citizens to turn in gold coins and bars, was, in fact, a default. Gold ownership in the United States, with some small limitations, was illegal for the next 40 years.
Under EO 6102, Americans were compensated $20.67 per troy ounce of gold. They were paid with paper dollars. Immediately following the government’s gold confiscation, the price of gold was raised by the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 to $35 per ounce. Just like that, American citizens were robbed of over 40 percent of their wealth.
The second default occurred in 1971, when President Nixon “temporarily” suspended the convertibility of the dollar into gold.
Prior to 1971, as determined by the Bretton Woods international monetary system, which was agreed to in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in July 1944, a foreign bank could exchange $35 with the U.S. Treasury for one troy ounce of gold. After the U.S. reneged on this established exchange rate, when foreign banks handed the U.S. Treasury $35, they received $35 in exchange.
In both instances, the U.S. government didn’t overtly default on the debt. Instead, it changed the fundamentals – the terms and conditions – of the dollar. By all honest accounts, these are defaults.
Similarly, the issuance of a digital dollar (a Fed issued CBDC), which is traceable and programmable, changes the terms and conditions of the cash dollar.
Make no mistake. This is a default…and you won’t like it.
Moreover, per Biden’s EO, this default could happen as soon as T-minus 210 days from March 9 – or as soon as October 4th.
If that doesn’t give you a warm and fuzzy, we don’t know what will.
* * *
The window to protect your wealth and financial privacy is closing. And it’s closing quick. I don’t like it one bit. But I’m not going to stand around powerless as Washington’s control freak sociopaths destroy everything I’ve worked so hard for. For this reason, I’ve dedicated the past 6-months to researching and identifying simple, practical steps everyday Americans can take to protect their wealth and financial privacy. The findings of my work are documented in the Financial First Aid Kit. If you’d like to find out more about this important and unique publication, and how to acquire a copy, stop by here today!]
Just days after Germany reported the highest inflation in generation (with February headline CPI soaring at a 7.6% annual pace and blowing away all expectations), giving locals a distinctly unpleasant deja vu feeling even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine broke what few supply chains remained and sent prices even higher into the stratosphere...
... on Monday, Germany will take one step toward a return of the dreaded Weimar hyperinflation, when according to the German Retail Association (HDE), consumers should prepare for another wave of price hikes for everyday goods and groceries with Reuters reporting that prices at German retail chains will explode between 20 and 50%!
Even before the outbreak of war in Ukraine, prices had risen by about five per cent “across the product range” as a result of increased energy prices, HDE President Josef Sanktjohanser told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung on Friday. With Russia’s invasion hitting economies and the supply chain harder, yet another series of price increases is on the horizon.
“The second wave of price increases is coming, and it will certainly be in double figures,” Sanktjohanser warned, cited by The Local.
According to the president of the trade association, the first retail chains have already started to raise their prices in Germany – and the rest are likely to follow.
“We will soon be able to see the impact of the war reflected in price labels across all the supermarkets,” said Sanktjohanser.
Recently, popular retail chains such as Aldi, Edeka and Globus announced that they would be forced to raise their prices. At Aldi, meat and butter will be “significantly more expensive” from Monday due to price hikes from its suppliers.
“Since the start of the Ukraine war, there have been jumps in purchase prices that we have not experienced before,” a spokesperson for Aldi Nord announced on Friday.
A fortnight ago, Aldi raised the prices of about 160 items, and a week later 20 more items became more expensive. Other supermarket brands quickly followed suit.
In February, Germany’s cost of living rose at the highest level since reunification, with everyday goods increasing by an average of 7.3%. The federal statistics agency Destatis said the jump from January’s figure of 5.1 percent to February’s 7.3 percent reflected the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has sent the price of oil and gas soaring.
According to a recently published survey by the Ifo Institute, almost all companies in Germany’s food retail sector are planning price increases.
Though price increases are a worry for Germany’s hard-hit consumers, industry experts don’t expect there to be a lack of products on the shelves anytime soon. Which, of course, is to be expected when prices surge so high far fewer can afford to buy products.
According to Joachim Rukwied, president of the farming association, the food supply in Germany is assured for at least another year – though after this the forecasts are less certain. With rumors of shortages swirling around, however, supermarket owners have been complaining of the sort of panic-buying not seen since the first months of pandemic.
As previously noted, German supermarkets have even started limiting the purchase of cooking oils and flour in particular to prevent a mad rush to stock up on items that customers believe will run out. In other words, limit the sale of those products which are in highest demand, also known as a "brilliant strategy."
And now that everyday food product prices are about to surge as much as 50%, it will be interesting to watch how much longer the German population will condone a NATO stance that has been seeking to stoke and perpetuate the war in Ukraine.
