Doug Casey: The Consumer Price Index (CPI) itself has been totally corrupted over the years, mainly by changing definitions of what it entails. That's why it's interesting to follow the work of a website called Shadow Statistics, where John Williams calculates the CPI and other government statistics using the parameters of 40 years ago.

He's found that if the CPI was calculated the way it was in the Reagan era, that the actual reported CPI wouldn't be 7%, but 15%. That makes intuitive sense to me. For over a year, I've asked people whether they believe their lying eyes or the government statistics regarding the CPI. The general price level is easily up 15%. That's conservative. In my view, the US CPI is only marginally more reliable than its equivalent in Argentina—a country whose index is completely political and laughably inaccurate.

I think consumer prices are going much higher. Even Powell has dropped his dishonest and idiotic use of the word "transitory" in regard to it. That's because the Fed, the US central bank, continues to monetize $120 billion a month of government deficits. The money supply is skyrocketing upwards. At the same time, the Biden regime is enforcing loads of new regulations which act to decrease production.

Meanwhile, free handouts continue to discourage millions of Americans from working. The massive drops of helicopter money during the Covid hysteria has actually crystallized a change in the culture—it now seems socially acceptable to live on the dole. In some parts of society, the ability to consume without producing has become proof not of how worthless, but of how clever you are.