Inflation and shortages are the two big stories for the U.S. economy this week. In recent days I have done multiple articles about inflation, and so today I want to focus on the widespread shortages that we are currently witnessing. At this moment, the U.S. economy is experiencing more shortages than it did at any point during 2020. I know that statement sounds quite outlandish, but it is true. During the early stages of the pandemic, there were temporary shortages of toilet paper, hand sanitizer and other items, but now there are severe shortages throughout many sectors of the economy, and quite a few of those shortages will not be so temporary.
On Thursday, Business Insider published a list of some of the most serious shortages that we are going through at the moment…
-Computer chips
-Used cars and rental cars
-Gas
-Plastics and palm oil
-Truckers and rideshare drivers
-Homes and vacation houses
-Lumber
-Household products like toilet paper and tampons
-Furniture
-Chicken
-Bacon and hot dogs
-Imported foods like cheese, coffee, and olive oil
-Chlorine
-Corn
That is quite a list!
The COVID pandemic suppressed output for many industries for an extended period of time, and meanwhile our “leaders” have been pumping trillions and trillions of fresh dollars into the system.
So now we have way too many dollars chasing way too few goods and services, and this is causing tremendous inflation and very painful shortages.
Just look at what is happening to the steel industry. Changes in supply and demand have pushed up the price of steel to “nearly triple the 20-year average”…
After bottoming out around $460 last year, US benchmark hot-rolled coil steel prices are now sitting at around $1,500 a ton, a record high that is nearly triple the 20-year average.
Steel stocks are on fire. US Steel (X), which crashed to a record low last March amid bankruptcy fears, has skyrocketed 200% in just 12 months. Nucor (NUE) has spiked 76% this year alone.
Much more importantly for the average American, there are now chicken shortages all over the country, and prices have soared into the stratosphere…
After a year promoting takeout wings and crispy chicken sandwiches, restaurants including KFC, Wingstop Inc., and Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. say they are paying steep prices for scarce poultry. Some are running out of or limiting sales of tenders, filets, and wings, cutting into some of their most reliable sales.
Independent eateries and bars have gone weeks without wings, owners say. Chicken breast prices have more than doubled since the beginning of the year, and wing prices have hit records, according to market research firm Urner Barry.
“Weeks without wings?”
Oh, the humanity!
If we don’t get this crisis under control soon, the U.S. may not be able to set yet another all-time record for obesity in 2021.
Propane tanks and chlorine tablets are also in short supply. As a result, many Americans may not be able to enjoy their grills and their pools as they normally do this summer…
A nationwide shortage of pool products is making chlorine tablets and propane tanks hard to come by and increasing prices right as the summer months approach.
“In this heat, if you don’t take care of your pool properly algae will start growing,” said David Sarafyan, a pool supply store employee. “Your pool will pretty much become a swamp.”
Hopefully, at least some of these shortages will start to disappear in the weeks ahead.
But if we are seeing this many shortages during a “recovery”, what in the world is our economy going to look like when things start getting really bad again?
This should be a wake-up call for all of us because things are going to start getting really bad again a lot sooner than many people think.
But for now, Americans are swimming in cash thanks to the trillions and trillions of dollars that have been showered on them.
All of that money has to go somewhere, and unfortunately, it is going into some of the most ridiculous things imaginable.
My regular readers already know how I feel about Dogecoin. It is not a “currency” by any stretch of the imagination. I have been tempted to call it a “collectible”, but normally a “collectible” is something that you can hold in your hands.
At least speculators were chasing something real during “Tulipmania” in 1636 and 1637. Dogecoin is just a bunch of digital ones and zeros.
Dogecoin does not have any innate value whatsoever, but thanks to Elon Musk and a bunch of Reddit fanboys, the price of Dogecoin is up more than 100 percent this week alone.
For the year, it is up more than 14,000 percent…
That means an investor who paid $1,000 on January 1 would now have around $120,000.
This year alone it has soared over 14,000%, from $0.00468 on December 31, taking it past more widely used cryptocurrencies such as the Tether stable coin and XRP to become the fourth-largest by market capitalization.
Yesterday I wrote about something that makes me want to vomit, but now I think that I have found something that may make me want to vomit even more.
If you can believe it, Dogecoin now has a market capitalization that is greater than Moderna, Ford Motor Company, or Twitter…
A market capitalization of $78 billion puts Dogecoin, founded in 2013, ahead of other more well-established brands and companies including Sherwin-Williams which is valued at $75.8 billion; Dell Technologies, value $75 billion; Moderna, value $63.1 billion; Ford Motor Company, valued $45.2 billion; and Twitter, value $42.1 billion.
The mascot from Pets.com eventually came to symbolize the collapse of the dot-com bubble, and I think that the stupid dog on the Dogecoin logo should symbolize this current financial bubble when it finally implodes.
Tomorrow, more keyboard commandos will pour their stimulus checks into Dogecoin hoping to get rich quickly.
Those that invested early and get out in time will make a killing. But anyone that does not get out in time is going to take a major bath.
Of course, the exact same thing could be said for our financial markets as a whole. Everyone knows that a crash is inevitable, and when it happens it will be the greatest loss of paper wealth in all of U.S. history.
But for now, speculators look like geniuses, and happy days are here again on Wall Street.
Enjoy it while it lasts, because it is just a matter of time before the bubble bursts, and then the pain will begin.
Michael Snyder
To read more articles by Michael Snyder click here.