“And long before this recession hit — for a decade — middle-class families had already been expensing — experiencing a sense of declining economic security. Their paychecks were flat-lining even though the cost of everything from groceries to college educations to health care were all going up.”
President Obama, during an April 2, 2010 speech
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Although the CPI and various other cost and inflation indices have been relatively subdued for many years, it is inarguable that many costs routinely experienced by the average American have dramatically increased. Perhaps the main resultant effect of these cost increases are for the average citizen to (continually) experience a declining standard of living.
Over the last few months, many costs have been rising sharply. These cost increases are most pronounced among many commodities, as discussed in this April 23 Wall Street Journal article “High Cost of Raw Materials.”
These pervasive cost increases are also impacting many businesses in pronounced ways. I will be discussing this in a subsequent post as these impacts are little understood, yet will likely have large future effects.
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SPX at 1162.89 as this post is written
