Inflation & Shortages: What’s the Cause and Where Are We Heading?

47 thoughts on “Inflation & Shortages: What’s the Cause and Where Are We Heading?”

1. HI there Pete. Thanks for that! Your so called Ramblings was actually very helpful and illuminating.

2. Dear Pete- please keep the faith- remember our parents pulled through the wars and great depression (what would my grandma think of so many billionaires in existence now!?!). You and Hilary have good sense and know how to plan ahead. There are still many more good-hearted people in this world than greedy, controlling creeps so I am optimistic about the future. All the best to you and family!

3. Inflation caused by all the stimulus money given out due to Covid. I live in Mich where the state unemployment agency had given out millions in dollars to people that didnt qualify for it.
   One person I know received over $17k that didnt qualify and does not have to pay any back.

4. I agree with you 100% Pete. Self-sufficiency is always a good backup plan. Unfortunately, we now have a generation that is pretty much clueless on how to be self-sufficient. Instead of working with their dad's and grandparents and learning useful skills, they were handed some game that has taken all of their attention. They come away as young adults without any clue of how to change a tire on their car or change the oil. They don't know the first thing about some of the most basic aspects of life. And that is really sad for them. Someday soon, that may come back at them, and they will be the ones to suffer for it. There is no button you can push or no substitute of any kind for practical work experience.

5. Awesome analysis!

6. Centralization as in a Unipolar World doesn't work. Ask Russia what happened when the USSR was Centralized around Moscow. When Russia failed, the whole system collapsed. The same thing is happening in the European Union and "The West" as a whole. 🤔

7. you are one of kind Pete! I truly enjoyed this.

8. These things didn’t happen by itself it was caused by the Elites. —————— control

9. it's so sad that an old farmer understand the world better they every Harvard students and most Harvard professors

10. Very interesting. In my min, I combine what you've said here with what you said in an earlier (I think) video, about the government subsiding farmers…how capitalism is so far from pure, with government subsidies (and controlling interest rates) steering the economy. Another aspect of this conversation that you didn't breach is that of consumer spending. People in general are both extremely tight with their finances and extremely frivolous (result: spending money on stuff they don't need…but only if it's on sale). What would happen if people spent more money or fewer, more essential, things…like better quality food?

11. Great discussion – I agree. Brings me back to grad school talking about the newly emerging concept of Complex Systems Theory

12. Capitalism is resilient and self-healing, IF a big if, it is allowed to function.

13. Probably one of the best explanations of our present situation, whatever degree of self sufficiency we have is always important .

14. As good of an explanation of what’s going on now as I’ve heard.

15. Hello Pete, you are so right. With the fighting over sea's. Grain and wheat come from Ukraine and the beer makers are hurting. Big time shortage. Well all need to hang in there, Covid-19 screwed up everything ! Pete, Love the cat, we lost ours due to old age, she was 22 years old. Miss that cat everyday. If we got another cat it would out live the wife and I. It was a Tuxedo, best cat we ever had.

16. If the "system" isn't resilient, then you need to have your own resilience. Otherwise you just get what's coming…

17. Easy solution dont vote blue. Blue cost more money since they jack taxes and everything up so us hardworking Americans can support their lazy voters and democrats pockets. It can be changed in Nov every yr

18. one word peter its called greed!!

19. Can you show us your wood stove some day and tell us a little about it. We are thinking about getting a new one next year. We like your videos a lot….Plese keep it up…. We particularly like when you show us around how you do things…. We want to learn……Now we are interested in how to tell when a cow is getting within a week or so of birthing….Heifer differences….How to feed a steer out and what to feed them, etc…..We are interested in everything that makes ranching/farming worth while. It is definitely not the money….. Thanks for listing to the peanut gallery………By the way we learned a lot the other day…. Peanut's hay belly…..Never even heard of it….. Dan & Kathy in Tennessee

20. Love Ezra

21. As humans in a world with increasing technology we get what we want, when we want it, and lots of it. When that kind of pampering gets disrupted we perceive our way of life as being in jeopardy. We panic purchase and hoard thus the supply and demand flow breaks. Also there are many many more links in the supply chain for any given product than there were 100 years ago. Look at any manufactured/grown item around you and think about all the labor it took to bring that to you.

22. Good show

23. Yeah did u see who runs the USA, enough said from me.
    I could eat Bran cereal and honey and of course my coffee for life and im a happy mom.

24. Where to find a parts guy….. not at the dealer or the parts house….customer service and knowledge of anything is gone …

25. Really enjoying your videos. What a wonderful discovery…. Love your channel

26. Hi I love the day to day my husband loves it when your working on the tractor either one we are committed to you guys

27. Inflation is simple. Expanding the Dallar while no expansion of productivity. We can not do anything to change it. It is printing press problem. Only one place that causes it and one only. Washington DC. PERIOD. All this quantitive easement. Is sole problem. And stripping away the very fabric of America. Just so a few elitist can centralize power is the future. And when this happens and Russia and China pull the currency of America away to there choosing. Then inflation will be the least of our worries. Inflation is a hidden tax on America. Now we have Obidden and the deep State wholesaling America to The most corrupt ideology the world has ever seen. Davos. Our founding fathers would’ve shot these guys before the sun went down they are evil beyond evil.

28. Thanks Pete, I always had this feeling, I was born in the wrong era. I am a simple person who doesn’t like to fuss around. I like old worn things that still work. If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. I feel like my mother and grandmother have instilled efficiency in me, as well as the men in my family. This year, instead of growing flowers, I will be growing veggies. I have been thinking about getting some chickens too, for a supply of eggs. My pantry is well stocked and my home is always number one in keeping things repaired and updated. Thanks mom and gramma for teaching me to cook and be a survivor. My mom could do much, with very little.

29. Thank you for a concise explanation of world market and how it effects us individually.

30. Milton Friedman famously said, “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.”

31. I've been having an issue when servicing my semi getting fuel filter, as the pandemic disruption has moved on it's gotten worse so far not swing towards better availability yet. When I find a place that has all the filters, I'm getting 2 sets so that the next service I don't have to call around and find a place that has them. There isn't an area of the country that's better or worse for this, just make calls and eventually someone has all the filters in stock.

32. For 40 years margins for the farmer have been cut and cut till it is now an industry where even large scale doesn't mean a reasonable income.

    Agriculture in the Western world is closer to bankruptcy than a boom.

    See how asking China and Russia goes when the glory of the free market leads to agriculture collapsing.

33. Thank you so much for sharing your concerns. Like you I have a desire for more self sufficiency but getting older and having health issues make it more difficult to depend on my abilities to do so. Americans are blind to what true Capitalism is. The definition states "Capitalism is often thought of as an economic system in which private actors own and control property in accord with their interests, and demand and supply freely set prices in markets in a way that can serve the best interests of society. The essential feature of capitalism is the motive to make a profit."  Unfortunately, the rich look out for their interest and will sacrifice the best interests of society in doing so. We have seen this happen time after time in sending jobs overseas and exploiting other societies in the process. The millionaires of the Industrial Age for this country willingly committed murder in attempts to exploit our society. 5 % still control 75% of our country and they create problems in our society so the rest of us turn on each other rather than unite based on values we say we hold dear. Our sense of community is being tested now as it has in past depressions. Will our nation rise again or is this prophecy?

34. VIDEO IDEA – your comments about efficiency, resiliency and centralization were very interesting. You ended with brief mention of self-sufficiency. You should produce a follow-up video of the three factors of efficiency, resiliency and centralization through the lens of self-sufficiency. How would centralization be impacted by say a wider distributed energy grid? How would resiliency of our food supply change if 10% of Americans grew some portion of their own food (or even knew how to)? How in the age of internet and Amazon, can we take local production to meet local needs in an efficient system?

35. 581 comments, that is great, will anyone read this?
    Great job Pete. I enjoy many strong points being made without intentionally pouring gas on other views and lighting them on fire. This entire channel and especially this episode makes me feel like when I would be hanging out at the local machine repair shop with a mix of people who would have some wisdom if you could just listen. You couldn’t tell by looking at them but some had been around the world and built and done incredible things and no one would tell or brag of there adventures. The world is lacking in a place where conversations flow a omong all levels of people naturally in our daily life.

36. What happens overseas happens to me – that is the lie of the Russian sanctions – it will not just impact Russian citizens, but every citizen of the world

37. Consequence of going away from that local store robs a whole generation of necessary skill development – hard and soft – of entry level jobs

38. Toyota found out that their Just-In-Time supply chain management wasn't very resilient after Fukushima and then they changed it – evaluating the resiliency of each element and step of the chain

39. Oh, that was not a rant – it was a teaching discussion. We need to discuss things. Good job!

40. Hi Pete, enjoyed another of your pointed philosophical videos. I am an oldtimer who has experienced a lot. Presently I am retired and hence out of the rat race. I watch the Ukraine situation too much, so sad. What I trying to say is that I only worry about what I can control and that is little.

41. Wisdom. Thank you.

42. You didn't really explain why there is inflation. Currency is supposed to represent the value that is created in a market. That's why consumers trade their currency for goods and why producers trade their goods for currency. When currency does not represent productive value then it becomes meaningless.

    The federal government recently printed 7 trillion dollars of currency and dumped it into the market (both here and overseas in the form of foreign aid). That's more than it's ever printed before in one shot. For perspective, 7 trillion dollars is 80% of the cumulative total of all of the currency that has ever existed in the US! It nowhere near represents the productive value of the market because of prolonged government closures of so many businesses during the pandemic throughout the world. Just like with any other commodity this huge amount of new currency flooded the market and devalued the supply. Since it doesn't represent productive value it takes more of it to trade for the same amount of goods.

    In the old days our currency production was limited by the gold standard. It acted to prevent government from printing currency to paper over problems (that it almost always caused in the first place). Back then currency was redeemable for physical gold, so it couldn't print more currency than the gold supply could cover.

    Digital currencies like bitcoin, whatever your opinion of them is, are said to be DEflationary because the software it consists of is hard coded to only allow creation of 21 million "coins." This limit prevents the problem we see with fiat (which literally means "by decree") currency, as it simulates a gold standard in code.

43. Tinkering with the mechanics of supply and demand…. such as shifting our domestic oil production overseas

44. Wow, my husband and I just happened upon you. You should be teaching economics at a college campus. Well done. 👍

45. Very well put and explained. I have to agree with you. One thing I saw over the pandemic and atmospheric rivers we had in the fall on the west coast of Canada and Washington, is the resiliency of the efficient centralized system, its ability to adjust quickly to a large change in demand. Along with that, cutoff the supply routes, and doesn’t matter that say there is product in the east, and none in the west, if you can’t get it there, doesn’t help. Mind you, and hundred years ago the same was true.
    During the pandemic demand went down for a lot of things. That had a trickle down effect in all the parts and pieces that go into the demand for things, other than food. People always need to eat. That trickle down effect eventually made its way down to workers getting laid off. Then things started to open up again after the first and second wave. This resulted in a high demand for things again, but there was a shortage in supply of the parts needed to make those things, and a shortage of workers to make them, due to layoff and Covid quarantines. My question I would like to hear your thoughts on, is does efficiency and centralization, increase resiliency, or depending on circumstances they can either increase or decrease resiliency? I see the latter. I like what you do, and how you run things. Certainly your thoughts on being self reliant and self resilient are my thoughts and to my liking. There may come a day when we can not rely on the global system, or it breaks down. This breakdown mostly occurs these days due to Mother Nature, but as we have seen, one man, bent on overtaking another country can have a global effect on things. As long as everyone and every country works towards the common good for everyone the system should not break down. I wonder how much the system has to break down before people and countries will revert to looking after there own.

46. I agree with you Pete. We have all enjoyed 30 years of low inflation due to Globalisation but my view now is that the West has woken up to increased risk of supply chain disruption using that model. I think there will now be a trend for strategic commodities such as food and energy to become less Global and for that reason I see inflation going up and staying up for a long time now.

47. To quote the great philosopher Rat Martin of The Varukers, "All Systems Fail". We need to anticipate and be ready for that failure by being more self sufficient as a society.

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