(WSJ) Global prices for commodities such as wheat and sugar have fallen back to where they were a year ago, but consumers are still likely to feel the pinch at the checkout.
[…] Higher energy and power costs are also fueling food-price inflation. “That product on the shelf has a lot of the oil price built in,” said Kathy Kriskey, a commodity strategist at Invesco.
Costlier energy means it costs more to transport and package food, while supermarkets are paying more to power their stores. Higher gas prices also lead to increased fertilizer costs, while wage bills are also rising rapidly.
Supermarkets have more incentive to freeze than to lower prices, Ms. Kriskey added, since that gives them more flexibility if other input costs such as energy rise further in the coming months. (read more)
Now think about the inflation dynamic from a source origination position.
If the variable of abundance/scarcity is removed from the equation and yet high consumer prices remain – then what was the primary originating cost pressure on the end product?
The globalists can keep pretending, which they certainly are, and yet the answer to that question is obvious.
Our current level of inflation is not an outcome of consumer demand and/or monetary supply. The current level of inflation is a direct outcome of lowering traditional energy development, raising the cost of energy production, making oil, coal and natural gas more expensive, and then watching prices rise from the supply side origination.
The scale of inflation is a direct outcome of the scale of energy price increase. As long as energy prices remain high, regardless of the abundance of the commodity the price for the foodstuff will remain high. Food inflation has nothing to do with food scarcity and everything to do with increases in the costs to produce food.
We are in a price plateau right now, waiting to see how much further energy production will be restricted.
This is what western political leaders call “managing the transition”. Put another way, they are managing the overall decline of western civilization.