The level of financial pain Americans are facing right now is simply off the charts, and as the price of virtually everything continues to reach new record highs, they’re about to experience the most dramatic shift in the standard of living in all U.S. history. As the value of the dollar plummets, so does our purchasing power. Consumer prices are still rising much faster than people’s paychecks, and the Fed’s rate hikes seem to be doing more harm than good when it comes to taming stubborn inflation. To call it “economic malpractice” would be way too kind. The truth is that these policies are complete and utter lunacy, and we are all going to literally pay the price for such madness.
An enormous paradigm shift has begun. Out-of-control inflation is creating severe imbalances all across the economy, and U.S. consumers are seeing their buying power evaporate at a stunning pace. In June, the consumer price index, considered the official measure of inflation, soared 9.1% from a year ago. But the truth is that official numbers only show the very tip of the iceberg. Energy prices, for example, were up 41.6% from a year ago. Gasoline prices shot up 60.1% over the past twelve months. Food prices rose 10.4% year over year, with the cost of groceries jumping 12.2%, and restaurant prices climbing 7.7%. However, a new PYMNTS survey found that consumers are actually paying 20% to 30% more for retail and grocery purchases, a significantly higher rate than what official figures suggest.
“For the average consumer, reality is not shaped by how much the government tells them things cost; it’s shaped by their personal reality when they go shopping and pay their bills,” PYMNTS’ Karen Webster noted in her commentary on the survey.As food prices continue to skyrocket, the effect on consumers exceeds even that of the already dramatic increases seen in the hard data about these price changes. These impacts are compounded by consumers’ deteriorating financial situations, and while they spend less, grocers and big-box retailers push prices up even more to offset their financial losses.
This week, Walmart noted that the amount that consumers are spending on groceries and gas is compromising their ability to buy anything else, which is hurting the company’s bottom line. Many other consumer-focused companies have also been raising their prices to make up for lost sales, such as Kraft Heinz and Albertsons. Both companies recently announced another round of price increases ranging between 10 to 20%.
In other words, the cost of living squeeze is far from over. At the same time, many potential home buyers are being forced to put their plans to purchase a home on hold, as housing becomes significantly more unaffordable, and the latest mortgage rate increases make the problem even worse. A new study by online real estate brokerage Redfin found that the rise in interest rates led a good chunk of homebuyers to lose up to $165,000 in buying power on new homes in the last year.
If only our paychecks were rising as fast as the cost of living was, American families would be able to keep up with the escalating prices. But of course, that is not happening, and increasingly more Americans are falling out of the middle class with each passing day. If your income does not rise as fast as prices are going up, your standard of living will go down.
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