Proof Inflation Isn’t Over
Andy Snyder|January 26, 2023
The fat lady hasn’t sung yet…
Oh no… Are we even allowed to say that anymore? Our apologies.
Either way…
Think inflation has peaked? Think again.
Look at the news this week from Japan. It’s dealing with – get this – an inflation rate of 4%. For a country that has dealt with deflation for decades and has had immense monetary controls in place for nearly a generation… it’s a monumental figure.
Prices in Japan are climbing at levels we haven’t seen since the 1980s.
It’s proof that the fight against rising prices isn’t local. It’s global.
And we hate to break the news to you, but we’ve seen only the first round.
Leaders in Japan are blaming high energy prices. In a familiar refrain, they say inflation will come and go. It’ll be transitory… just like we were promised it’d be in the States.
But since it takes energy to do anything, those high prices bleed into the prices of everything else. Removing the effect of energy prices, Japan’s inflation rate is still 3% – a worrisomely high figure for the country.
Subtracting energy prices is silly, though – for the reason listed above. Energy is involved in everything we do.
Oh sure, administrations can tap the strategic petroleum reserve to lower prices before an election… but that effect can’t last forever.
In fact, it hasn’t even lasted two months.
Crude reached its bottom on December 5 and has been on the rise since. And, just as we’d expect, the price of gasoline reached a nadir shortly after crude did and has also been rising ever since.
It’s bad news for the folks with their heads in the sand – the folks who listen to the prescribed narrative and take it as gospel.
They’ll get burned as consumer prices rise and risk assets fall.
It’s why we just penned an entire issue of Manward Letter about the coming commodity bull – and it’s going to be a raging bull. Investing in the companies that win because of this trend will be the only way to escape what will certainly be a drop in the standard of living for many.
History shows inflation never comes and goes. As casting a pebble sends ripples through a pond, dumping $5 trillion into an economy creates a wavy mess.
If Japan is dealing with inflation… we know the outlook is bad.
Hang on for more…
Andy Snyder
Andy Snyder is an American author, investor and serial entrepreneur. He cut his teeth at an esteemed financial firm with nearly $100 billion in assets under management. Andy and his ideas have been featured on Fox News, on countless radio stations, and in numerous print and online outlets. He’s been a keynote speaker and panelist at events all over the world, from four-star ballrooms to Capitol hearing rooms.
