Hey guys, just saw an official statement by Lowe’s Companies, who also happen to be a large customer of mine. According to their statement today, Lowe’s “is seeing unprecedented levels of price increases from suppliers, and are passing that along to consumers as (they) can.”
I also have a couple friends in the food industry, and they are doing exactly the same thing.
In my opinion, stagflation is not coming, it’s here. Fed is in a pickle, as any rate increase will further explode the housing market, but failure to do so will lead to spiraling inflation.
I’m typically a glass half full kind of guy, but I think the underlying fundamentals of our economy are facing some serious short and medium-term pressures.
What do you guys see, or what am I missing? The best opportunity for short-term easing of pain appears to be in the commodities area, especially oil. It seems that many people are more leaning toward the realization that there is a significant element of speculation in the commodities market. This has always been the case, but it does appear to be impacting the pricing more than in years past (e.g., oil demand has surged, but not sufficiently in the last 12 months to justify the price premium over that period).
