Why the cost increase?


I went to buy materials for a speaker project. I also priced some T-111 siding on 8" centers, 5/8 thick, Ship lap.
I hadn’t picked up any sheets or anything in over 18 months.

48" x 96 x 5/8 wood siding was 19-26.00 and on sale 15-20.00 per sheet, NOW 74-84.00 per sheet.

MDF 3/4" 48 x 96" if you can find it. 45-55.00 per sheet it was 22.00 to 27.00 per sheet.

2x4x8 DF stud grade 1.99-3.00 per. Now 4-6.00 per stud,

There is no shortage but there sure is a LOT of price gouging. NOTHING changed. Just the price..

The quality is worse. The workers aren’t paid worth a crap...Why the increase?

I’m getting ready to finish my home out. WOW.. I might have to rethink this a bit..

The price all most tripled in 12-18 months.. This kind of stuff is NOT cool at ALL.

Just my opinion of course. Any projects you’re doing get put on hold or STOPED?

YES I’m very frugal. Money never came easy, and it leaves the same way..

oldhvymec
Be patient: Covid, is correct. 

A lot of this can be put at the foot of JIT (Just In Time) and it's implementation in the early '80s. Instead of warehousing parts, supplies, sundries, etc., manufacturers discovered that, like their Japanese counterparts who did this in the '70s, they could cut down on costs by closing down those warehouses and lay off the few employees it would take to manage them and keep the money saved for themselves.

The problem was, and still is, Japan is nowhere near as large as America and can very well afford to implement such a thing. And all it took was a pandemic to bring the whole thing down. Like others have said, we have backlogs of container ships out there with some crews never seeing land for well over a year. 

JIT has been exposed for the cheap, cost cutting tactic that it always was. It very well have been the first domino to fall and the rest, as they say, is history.

All the best,
Nonoise
Post removed 
When gold was the standard, market volatility was 2.5-3 times worse than what we now have. Imagine that many more recessions and depressions. Very unstable and unpredictable. It was the fact that is was finite that appealed to some who wanted to leave others behind.

All the best,
Nonoise
@oldhvymec
I kept the rents the same for 10 years. Same renters for the last 15 years.

My income is the same. I hate to pass it on to my renters.. 
My siblings and I inherited a choice San Francisco property in Chinatown North Beach area.  My parents also didn’t raise rents.  When we tried to sell the building the value went from $2.2m to the sale price of $1.1m due to the low rents (in rent control) and the dilapidated condition of the building.  The rents weren’t even enough to cover property taxes.  Tenants never complained because their rents were so low.  I’m not bent from this reduction of price because it was my parents gift to both the tenants and us.

Bottom line- although you don’t raise rents you are actually subsidizing your tenant’s cost of living (inflation) increases in addition to your own.
Simply thank Biden for the increase in EVERYTHING you have to purchase for the next couple of years....at least.
It ain’t gonna get any better kids. Wait until the fall. (The season too!)
We have so much to overcome from the damage the former guy left in his big, fat, orange stained wake.
You did the classic "I don’t like the guy so anything good he did must have been fake" bit. Sorry, but Clinton had 4 balanced budgets and even ran a surplus. It wasn’t fake and he and Kasich deserve the credit. Just because Bush II came along and blew that out of the water by starting two wars doesn’t mean Clinton doesn’t deserve credit.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I thought that was the case too. BUT in reality Mr Nixon raided the SS fund and added it to the GDP. Never before done. Adding purely dedicated monies to the national coffers to off set the (out of control then) deficit spending. Mr Clinton money surplus and the actual (fake) unemployment figures were because Mr Reagan added the military TO the employment roles as being employed also.

Those two act alone, 1.Raiding the SS fund for every unfunded project on the books and 2. Lying about unemployment figures.

Changed the very unfavorable view of an out of control government to "THANKS for all the FREE money" SS has been turned into a slush fund for everything..

Think of the income into that department ALONE, BUT it is being given to any flake in this county. I’m not kidding I know a pair of females from MD that came to CA in their 20s. Both worked 2 years each (less for one) as security guards. Then out of the blue BOTH get their knees fixed and have been drawing SS for the last 27 years.. BTW 10-12 MORE people came on out to join the money give away.. NOW 3 more grandchildren..

The one kid that I tried to help raise a bit.. He’s the one that stole my Mac gear.. 43k and they did nothing because why.. NO IDEA.. I caught the guy with SOME of my stuff in his front yard at a yard sale.. NO $hit..

Pics, Cops, Everything.. it went no where.. It’s ok to STEAL.. Don’t you understand.. That is the only problem.. Lying and stealing is the same a KILLING.. 10 commandment the punishment was the same... Think on that..

Like I said I didn’t take pens or pencils from work. Others had totes of stuff they just STOLE. Never thinking a thing about it as they walk away blabbing away on a cell phone on company time, were 30 minutes late this morning or took a one hour brake at lunch BUT wrote in 1/2 an hour..

I see it all the time at the local Luckys.. I was a bag boy.. (one of many jobs).. I loved tips.. It’s tough just to keep the checker from blabbing with the bag person.. Neither one bagging my double price food. just blabbin’ away... Checker setting on a stool, A STOOL!!

Is it hard work? YES. NOW let’s make it honest work.. RARE these days..


Like I said, you spend from what you have. NOT what you think you MIGHT have.. That is the only problem.
Way to many people saying this is how to make money instead of working and showing how to make money..
The "I deserve" crowd.. BECAUSE I got an education..

TRADE SCHOOLS.. Biggest problem we have is the absence TRADE SCHOOL options from grade 9-12..

Separate the wheat from the chaff. Higher Schools of education, Trade school, Military, PRISON.. There are you options..

People that want to be homeless and unemployed, no problem, road clean up for a tent stay at the local WC. Work Camps.. No permit No stay.. within a boundary of a city.. County land only if they clean up and stay off private property, and county or otherwise owned land. Water to drink and somewhat bath is ok.. Rent a shower.. Truckers do it all the time..

I have never turned away a person asking me if i had work.. EVER.. I always found something..

Regards
I’m thinkin three lawn mower jobs a week is close to 3 days in the gym.. But I get paid....

I’ll mow a lawn no problem.. I think.. If the ol ticker can keep up.. Where is that nitro pill.. LOL Turn on the O2 machine for the return trip.. LOL

Get loaded on O2.. :-) Cop pulls you over and ask you to stop huffin' the O2.. Poor cop doesn't really know what to do.. You can get high on air.. LOL

Regards
In 2010 M3 was at 8.45 Trillion (cash in the economy) As of May of this year we are at 20.45 TRILLION. Since Feb of THIS YEAR, we have added 5 TRILLION into the economy.

The Fed is monetizing the debt. This is EXCEEDINGLY dangerous. No one is buying US Treasury bonds, notes, or T-bill except the FED.

For those of you who ignorantly believe that it’s trump that did this. YOU ARE WRONG. When he took office the M3 money supply was at 12.7 Trillion in DEC of 2019 it was at 15.3 in 4 years he added 2.6 Trillion to M3. The culprit is Joe Biden and his merry clown of ignoramuses running the country straight into hell. In 5 months these MORONS have added 5 TRILLION to the M3 money supply DOUBLE what the previous administration added in 4 years.

To really put that in perspective, Joe Bidens witless wonders in 5 months added more debt that was monetized than Barak Obama did in.... 8 YEARS.

It’s time that people WAKE the HELL UP before there is no America left. Consider that now the CDC is admitting that the MAJORITY of the spread of this Delta Variant is being done so by.... wait for it.... VACCINATED PEOPLE.

They are going to shut this country down by doing lockdowns AGAIN and this time, there will be no warp speed programs to get us back open. This is being done INTENTIONALLY. They want to institute a global government (based on communism) to strip you from your constitutional rights.

Those who sounded crazy when they said that the far left is trying to destroy Americans that the vaccines were designed to kill or make you very susceptible to Covid are proving to be more correct by the day.

The MsM shrilled about "cleanest election ever..." Really? 24% of all Georgia mail-in ballots have NO chain of custody. Not a break in the chain of custody... there isn’t one! In PA the US Supreme court ordered that late ballots were to be set aside and NOT counted. That was ignored and over 650,000 ballots were counted that should have NEVER been counted.

I don’t care if you are politically right, centrist, or left. If we the people can’t trust our elections then we are no longer a republic based on self-governance. We have become a banana republic. This whole vote thing is not a Trump vs Biden thing. It’s about having TRUST that WE have the say and not those engaging in political theater.

There is no 2022 let alone 2024 until we get to the bottom of what happened in 2020. If it turns out that the fraud was not an outcome-determinative fine, we fix those issues where fraud did occur so it can’t happen again. If it turns out the election was stolen then those who were doing this should be tried for TREASON and if found guilty, executed in PUBLIC.

To highlight all of this the Fed Chairman recently announced that inflation is going to be with us for the foreseeable future... WHO COULD HAVE IMAGINED.  Biden shuts down both the XL and Keystone pipelines severing American energy engine that had us just a few short months ago is the #1 exporter of energy.  Then this duplicitous TURD lifts sanctions on RUSSIA's pipelines.... are you freaking kidding me????

You think things are bad now with inflation a year longer of these absolute CLOWNS in control will make what you see now seem like a fantasy you would HAPPILY go back to...
LOL How about we hire people that can ADD and SUBTRACT.

There is so much debt flying around, EVERY one thinks DEBT is the same as money.. LOL We print money to cover our DEBT.. It has no intrinsic value when you GIVE it away. OR let people steal it away and say nothing about it.. Again It's OK TO STEAL... Everyone see it and no one does anything about it BUT take pictures...

ACTION.....

Like I said we have ONE problem. NO ONE is accountable.. ZERO! NADA!!!

Congress FIRST job is to pay the bills of the PEOPLE. It hasn’t happened sense the Eisenhower/Kennedy error..

The last president to propose an actual balanced budget was Jimmy Carter, Say what you will. Jimmy Carter tried to be honest.. It just can’t work and be a president too.

I liked Trump because he was so dishonest to tell the truth.. I knew he was a scum bag.. Just my kind of president.. I hated him at the beginning and LOVED him in the end.. BUT I got really pissed when he LOST.. Should have been paying better attention.. He will win next time.. No doubt.. No one will hire the VP for president and Joey ain’t gonna make it through the next runoff. Sorry..

Ross Perot died.. So who is left.. ME!!!

Trump needs a dog too.. Just ain’t right, maybe he know he’s not a good dog person. They are special, dogs.. Not presidents they come and go....

Regards
Takeaway-

Make sure your system is optimized and stay healthy. 

That's all  anyone can do. Maybe stockpile your favorite snacks/booze for the next round of crazy possibly around the corner.


Post removed 

I don't claim to know much about economics, but according to the St. Louis Fed data, the near vertical upward surge in the M3 money supply began in March 2020, not on Biden’s watch.  According to their data, it was 15.4T in Jan 2020, and 19.4T by Jan 2021 when Biden took office.  As of the most recent data point in May 2021 it stands at about 20.4T, up an additional 1T.  If my numbers are off, please correct me.


You beat me to it, and here’s a link to the FRED:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/
One can spout all the BS they want but when the facts don’t back them up.....

Economic output just grew by 6.5%. Reductions in child poverty exceeded expectations (-50%) by reducing it by 65% and overall poverty is down by 45%. Who is against that?

If everyone who's unvaccinated went and got their vaccine shot tomorrow, we could all open up 100% by the weekend and you'd see this economy soar. But there are those who don't want to see such success for many a stupid reason. It's hard to deal with stupidity.

Instead, we're bombarded with fact free info from the darkest and sickest of minds. What matters is the paying of the interest on the debt, which is around 1.4% of GDP, which is really good. In 10 years it's projected to be down to 1% of GDP, which is a great place to be. Back in the '90s when we were paying off Reagans massive debt interest, we were paying just over 3% of GDP, which took a toll on the economy. Were doing just fine, thank you.

By the way, if hair-on-fire hysterics are a result of the $1.9 Trillion dollar Rescue Package which benefited the commoners, just rescind the unfunded $2 Trillion tax break for the uber rich who didn't need it.

Hey, Bob is your uncle.
All the best,
Nonoise
Ok I agree with everybody. Until I don’t agree with anybody.

I hedged my investments with land.. Their not making any more that I can afford. It was the only way I’ve ever made money in the VERY long run.

Everything including gold and any of that sort of stuff is still only as good as what someone else is willing to exchange for it.. A pound of gold for a pound of rice in a famine. But an acre of land can feed a family..

My American Irish upbringing. Just plant the potatoes BOY-O and keep the powder dry...

There is a reason for my two old Victrolas, Crank um up boys, we’re havin’ a shindig!! Fire up the stills we’re in the fuel making business. Where’s them taters? Sugar beets for HIGH sugar and sorghum.

Mini Standard Oil Company.. :-)

For the record EVERY agency I’ve contacted in our Federal government is not taking face to face appointments with anyone who has a SS number. ONLY if you do NOT have SS number can you get a face to face meeting with someone. NO $hit is what the federal employee is being paid to tell you. "There are no face to face appointments or appointments over the phone UNLESS you have no SS number... Send in your paper work in, we will review it as soon as we can.. EVEN selling a house and trying to pay the FED taxes on the sale.. CLOSED to the public.. BUT getting paid to say it... NOT WORK.. They don’t even ask your name.. IT’S BROKE...my friends..

Any one test positive for Covid in the new school year they close the school for 10 days.. You have to be kidding.
There has to be a threshold, just like anything else.. Escalation in moderation.. Does Everything deserves the hammer approach.. OFF/ON geez.. No in between?

I just wanted to build some speakers, fix my house and invite everyone over to listen.. :-)
10k air fair from SoCAL to NoCAL the way prices are going..

Regards
The fact free contingent is in full cry here I see. Settle down folks the economy is back on track and inflation is largely temporary. And glad someone said this already a little inflation, and corresponding wage increases, are good both for the economy and workers. Covid is a multifaceted cluster**** but if everyone would stop whining and get vaccinated that war would be over.


Or instead sit there unvaccinated and whine about the price of corn in the 1800s and the gold standard or whatever lie you're currently believing.
Economic output just grew by 6.5%. Reductions in child poverty exceeded expectations (-50%) by reducing it by 65% and overall poverty is down by 45%. Who is against that?


Even if those numbers are correct, it's not going to last being that it's all Propped up artificially by the fed. 
Thats life don't cry.

Socialist politicians are fortunate that their supports are so exceptionally stupid. 

nonoise, I know too many people that were on it, including my brother, for a year. I also know business owners that watched their employees evaporate. Beyond that, I can't address what you've posted. Nor is it my intention to "pick on the workers". When they can make more sitting home, than they did at work, few could resist. As far as bilking the taxpayers goes, I'm in agreement with you, except my position is that it started at the government, and ran downhill from there. The hundreds of billions of dollars that have been squandered and "diverted" during the last year+ are staggering, and there's a fair chance we'll never recover from it, as a nation.
Yea nonoise EVERYONE should be vaccinated. Like I said in the early stages of Covid. Killed a very good man, a friend of mine, a family member. It breaks my heart to think he's gone.. He really got me into HO railroads. He liked air shows and chewing tobacco when we went fishing..

Most of all he use to just listen real well, no matter the problem.. The world is a lot smaller after Covid for me and a whole lot of folks..

I still have a LOT to be thankful for.. No doubt.. Still hindsight is 20/20

Regards
“Economic output just grew by 6.5%. ”

Quite a rapid decline given president Trump achieved a 34% 3rd quarter GDP growth in 2020.

D O H ! 

“The U.S. economy experienced the largest quarterly increase in history in the third quarter, according to the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow tracker.”

https://www.wnd.com/2020/10/4859354/

But no worries, Liden and Kamalatoe will ensure high inflation to compensate for the rapid decline in economic growth … it’s all going to even out.
heavy, count me in for a listen if i can pet the dog. Sure do miss ours…
i can drive the trusty but ancient GL from Socal. Tickets are $1g round trip with beveridge., radar systems operator rides for free…

You got the vaccinated part right….
i never take any wanna be Economists seriously unless they are explaining inflation to me from the Maui ( fill in the blank ) estate while we…both savor ….wait for it….. retirement….
@pauly uh, I don't know where to begin so I'll let Forbes spell it out:

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released its first estimate for the December quarter and it shows the economy growing at 2.1%. For 2019 GDP growth was 2.3%, which is down from 2.9% in 2018 and just below 2.4% in 2017, Trump’s first year in office.

Over the 12 quarters Trump has been President only four of them have had GDP growth over 3% and six of the quarter’s growth was 2.3% or lower. And for the past three quarters GDP growth has been 2.0%, 2.1% and 2.1%, respectively. This is a far cry from Trump’s claim that the economy could growth 4%, 5% or maybe even 6% when he was President.

That's a far cry from 34%!

All the best,
Nonoise
Not my problem if you lack the cognitive capacity to understand the concept of a quarter … but Liden and Kamalatoe are grateful for that..


https://www.bea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-12/qgdpstate1220_0.pdf

D O H !
It's all in the comparables.  The only reason for the 33.8% 3rd quarter 2020 increase in GDP was because it followed the -31.2% (decline) in the 2nd quarter GDP in 2020.  Ya cant just tell part of the story.
Yup dog is in the dog house. Pounced on Junior the rabbit.. Ticked me off. I never had a rabbit.. The rabbit come running up to me all beat up and the dog giving me the "Who done it?" look.

That dog, didn’t hunt at ALL.. She learned though (the dog).. Don’t mess with the family.. gets personal.. Even when it’s family doing the messin’

Me Mums (GRHS), the dog and now the rabbit.. What else is in a mans life? Kids, wife? Stereo system.. LOL

I think that’s right..
It's all in the comparables.  The only reason for the 33.8% 3rd quarter 2020 increase in GDP was because it followed the -31.2% (decline) in the 2nd quarter GDP in 2020.  Ya cant just tell part of the story.
Beaten to the punch, again!
Here, from the very same site good ol' pauly cites is the evidence of his cherry picking:
https://www.bea.gov/news/glance

It's plain for anyone who'd care to look that the MASSIVE slump of the 2nd quarter makes the 3rd quarter look so pretty, when it's not. In fact, that whole map just shows the uptick in GDP from the very poor showing of the previous month and not the overall real GDP.

Why people resort to this behavior is beyond me.

All the best,
Nonoise


The only reason for the 33.8% 3rd quarter 2020 increase in GDP was because it followed the -31.2% (decline) in the 2nd quarter GDP in 2020. Ya can’t just tell part of the story


Agreed, social arts derived economic comparisons are pure stupidity. 

However, if you had read the thread you’d have seen my post was in response to a post crowing about Liden’s 6.4% quarterly growth; which the poster compared to president Trump’s yearly GDP numbers. I was simply putting it into perspective. 
I doubt we’ll see a yearly GDP growth of > 2% under Liden, nor another 6.4% quarterly growth number. 



Post removed 

Beaten to the punch, again!
Here, from the very same site good ol’ pauly cites is the evidence of his cherry picking:
https://www.bea.gov/news/glance

Are you under the influence perhaps?

You compare Liden’s quarterly numbers against Trump’s yearly number, and I am cherry picking? Are you really too uninformed to understand that comparing quarterly numbers to yearly numbers is apples to oranges? (That’s a rhetorical question)

Until the Fed releases the GDP growth for 2021, which will probably be sometime Feb 2022, you have nothing to say sunshine. Let’s see where he ends up before you spout off …

President Trump’s 34% GDP growth in the 3rd quarter of 2020 is the most rapid growth in US history. Period. That’s just how the ball rolled, that’s how the numbers turned out. That’s what’s in the books. That’s part of US history now. Deal with it sunshine. Trump was well on track to break 3.5% GDP growth for 2020 if not for COVID. But COVID did hit, and he didn’t achieve 3.5%. That’s life.

Best leave economics to those who understand. Stick to what you know best, you know; emptying bins, busting tables and spending on that EBT card of yours.
Such a tool.

Again, the childish behavior of resorting to vitriol when not being able to argue against somebody more capable.

Tut tut. You need to grow up. 
There is about one third of one ounce of gold above ground for every man, woman and child on earth. The gold standard only works in a closed ecosystem with a limited populace. 

Your reasoning is incorrect. The amount of gold is irrelevant. The value per ounce of gold would increase to compensate for population growth. (Increase in demand)
That is how crypto currencies work. The amount of currency remains consistent, the value increases to as the demand increases. 
At least Nixon listened to someone intelligent during that dark time period in history.

That is correct. Unfortunately the intelligent people Nixon listened to are evil and self serving people and the world is much darker now.
Since we moved off the gold standard, the Fed is free to print as many USD as they please with no backing whatsoever. And they do. Each time they do, your salary, your savings and your pension loses value. 
Since we’ve gone off the gold standard, our money has been losing value faster than our incomes have risen. 
The Fed is a private organization that is never audited, and the public has no insight as to who owns the Fed. 
It's amazing to watch you unravel right before our eyes. 
By all means, keep it up.
Soon you'll be yelling at the padded walls, along with your hero, Rump.

All the best,
Nonoise
Like I said fellas we only have paper/alloy money to cover debt. It has no intrinsic value.. Corn for potatoes or sliver for gold. You can EAT corn and potatoes but you can't eat gold or silver.. 

Again who has been sold the bill of goods.. EVERYONE..

Keep your eye on the 100 year plan that is the biggest issue on this planet. LAND and FOOD.. Everything else is just a ploy to keep YOU from seeing an Economy will starve a county to death and a budget will feed the world.. 

Nothing has changed from the time of King David.. He knew there would be famine so they SAVED for the 7 years prior to the famine. Because he saved everyone in the region was able to eat.... 

Everyone came with GOLD and trade goods for the stores of FOOD.. 

Again what is paper/alloy money worth.. only a debt..

Water, Land, Food is forever.. Dry powder ain't a bad idea either..:-)

Maybe a trebuchet or two.. and for sure a Victrola.

Regards
Post removed 
" Any projects you’re doing get put on hold or STOPED?"

Yes. I put off building a house. Not only did plywood and OSB quadruple, but all the other materials (siding, shingles, copper, etc.) increased also. Simple supply/demand. The lumber mills shut down decreasing supply and the government paid people to stay at home and use up that dwindling supply. When the government spends above its means, it creates inflation. Money is not created out of thin air without ramifications. Between the pandemic payouts and the infrastructure spending, you can expect more inflation.

Lumber prices are coming down, and I expect to build the house next year, but I still expect it to cost $50,000 more than a year and a half ago, and I don't expect prices of goods - any goods - to go all the way back to what they were pre-pandemic. Which means, I won't spend more, I'll just cut back my purchases. But most people won't, thereby supporting inflation.
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For instance, 50% of those who frequent this site have illusions that they are one percenters….or they would be if the gubment would just get out of the way.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

What constitutes a 1% and who said the government was in the way?
I say money grubbin' greedy people and ZERO interest from the a government to not call a thief a thief a pretty serious issue.

If you look at fuel for an example. In ONE weekend a gouging gas station can and DOES make 40k for 3 days an someone else is pumping fuel into their own car. NOT a word said.  That's 20,000 gallons if he pumped 40,000 double that again.. 

I ask you WHO owns the gas stations? These people don't just get buy in America the become multi millionaires building brand new gas stations and mini marts. The only clean food in the store are the daily deliveries of milk. They offer ZERO in real world. They might have a car wash that cost another million or so to install. BUT LABOR.. ZERO. I can't get most of them off the phone to take the money. If you aren't family or indentured (and most of the workers are) YOU or ME CAN'T get hired..

Try to get hired to work in a gas station.

I'm tell everyone. Pay attention to the little thing that are really REALLY big. Like who owns you local fuel stations? NOT rents the land OWNS the land.. Who do you think is buying up huge lots of land in Canada, USA and any one who will sell in the Americas?

Why do you think Cuba is all in an uproar?

There are land grabs going on all over the world BECAUSE, Trump lost, not because of Biden WINNING.. One of sweetest deals on the planet right now is CUBA..

So when all the "Philosophers, lawyers, economist, politicians, (most) actors, and all nonprofit organizations are seen as the problem they are verses the problems they cause vs who actually profits from their actual existence. THEN do something about it.  Things will change.

I think it's time to have a voice that is held accountable. 

Giving away money and people getting paid to say "WE'RE CLOSED" would stop Monday morning.. Report to work and work. Or stay home and not get paid..

If manual labor is a problem in this country, then lets pull together and do the work, get the mills back up and running and PAY the workers.
Set up OUR 100 year plan..  I'm not as worried about workers from the Americas I'm very concerned about the other 3/4 of the worlds population buying AMERICA. From the top of Canada to the bottom of Brazil.

How do you think the world EATS.. Eastern blocks have reindeer. When was the last time you ate Reindeer. I know NEVER. When was the last time they ate BEEF.. Yesterday.. Do you understand..

Again gold and silver will not feed a town or a family, BUT an acre of land will. Who owns the land? Who controls the fuel? Who controls the food?
Who controls the medications, vaccines and the medical tech? Who manufactures and maintain enough Rare Earth supplies for computer gear? Who has the most satellite in orbit? GUESS who has control of the UPPER, mid and lower orbit skies? A flip of a switch.. the world is turned OFF

Think Toilet paper for just one minute. Again WE as a nation have a very short sided view.. Like two weeks if most are that SMART.. Not lucky, that smart.. I mean I read the whole thread..

Who is suspiciously absent from this conversation?

People who are in the KNOW? I think so... The bunker crowd is what all of America need to move towards. 6-10 weeks will outlast this lazy world.

You'd have to hold your nose for the next 2 years. Pigs and dogs would be a problem.. Who is hunting who?

Crank up the Victrola.. We're on the mend...

Time to feed the chickens..
This hypothetical lays the issue out pretty clearly:


"Consider a hypothetical world where the pandemic had never happened, and instead the economy kept growing as forecasters in January 2020 had expected it would, with the various segments of G.D.P. retaining a steady share of the economic pie.

Services consumption in the second quarter remained 7.4 percent below the level it would have maintained in that alternate universe, while spending on durable goods remained 34 percent higher.

Those are extraordinary shifts in what the economy is being asked to produce, and it is hardly shocking that the physical goods side of the economy would be straining at capacity in light of such an epic reallocation of demand."


None of this surprising. I'm not even going to get into micro economic analysis. Crazy pricing within individual markets is likely to be the new norm going into future.

I believe we are now in the beginning days of a new realization of increasingly scarce resources. We will see a coming devaluation of equity the world has never seen. Panic and reactionary thinking taking hold, division and angst clearly seen. The glass is no longer half full, better see the glass with reality eyes. Of course, there will still be winners, but many more losers. Limited short term vision always puts us in worse positions than enlightened self interest would take us. Sorry for the bad news. If someone has a reality based positive future lets hear it,  will take innovations not yet produced.
You're lucky.  The last 2x4 I saw here was $12.50.   Were you aware that there was a pandemic?  And not all those you apparently consider flunkies (loggers, saw-mill operators, truck-drivers) were able to work full-time?   Or that others, like yourself, who sadly were not able to travel overseas (O woe!) put their money into home construction?   Stop whining.
oldhvymec

You didn’t go deep enough on your research. What the government does when it appears to take money from Social Security is skim off earnings of the surplus that is invested in bond funds. Money that comes in today goes right back out tomorrow to pay benefits. Any remaining surplus is invested in bond funds. Those bond funds generate earnings and only those earnings are used by Congress on other projects. So they don’t actually "raid" the Social Security fund, they use the earnings from invested surplus. But maybe most telling in your reply was that you didn’t show even slightly how Clinton’s budgets weren’t balanced, regardless of what was done with Social Security. Instead you went off on some unrelated and pointless topics which will disappear anyway when this entire thread is deleted by the moderators.
To think I just wanted to build some speakers. Even the speakers went up, I've been using for 15 year, from 111.00 if I bought 4 or more to 174.00, I think.. Best 10" driver on the market.. 

https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-RSS265HO-44-10-Reference-HO-DVC-Subwoofer-295-463

How much of a mark up is that? 63.00 per driver? That's NUTS!!
I guess they ran out of aluminum cans or something. A shortage of CANS, really.. That driver is made of just that..

I get ticked but it is a heck of a driver even at 177.00. 12 drivers cost 800.00 MORE.. 6 per column. About 700.00 increase per column.

Worse than 9-11 by a long shot. I've never seen that much money waisted in my LIFE.. The Waste watching bridges for a year.. The nutsy Koo Koo waste of overtime payments for doing nothing.. Totally out of control.. Now setting and getting paid to NOT WORK.. NUTS.. 

Both sides and not a sane one in the bunch.. Really really broke..

Just to build a set of speakers and fix my house. My Lord..

I'm just waiting for the booster, shot LOL
My wife and I are owners of dwellstead.com

a mom and pop shop recently set up to acquire vintage homes with character or historic value, or just plain old homes, that need restoration done in a way that drives down their heating and cooling needs by up to 90%, and to set ie as a consulting service to help others do the same.

Because of COVID19, many lumber mills shut down for months to over a year. Once health restrictions on construction sites was lifted, there was a surge in demand that supply could not meet. Prices went up by as much as 400% even as quality plummeted. 

Lumber mills are coming back online, prices are dropping but are still about 225% above Pre-COVID19 levels. 

No need to talk about quantitative easing or neoliberalism etc on this one. Plain old supply and demand specific to a particular sector, lumber and anything made from wood, … especially fencing. A fence panel that once went for $25 is still up at $85.