More Articles | Free Reports | Premium Services By Bill Bonner, Bonner Private Research “I will very quickly deflate. We are going to take inflation, and we are going to deflate it. We are going to deflate inflation. We are going to defeat inflation. We’re going to knock the hell out of inflation.” – Donald Trump, on the campaign trail “Inflation is back…I had nothing to do with it.” – Donald Trump, February 19, 2025. Today’s inflation weather report: 3% CPI… feels like 10%. (CPI is the Consumer Price Index, which measures the average change in the prices we pay for goods and services.) On the radio, a call-in show: “I went to the grocery store to buy eggs. I couldn’t believe it; they were $8 a dozen.” “That was cheap,” answered another caller. “I had to pay $12… that was a dollar an egg.“ “Heck,” began a third, “I couldn’t find any eggs. The store was out of them.” Eggs have become precious. Our chickens still produce them. But now they are all golden. This morning, we took a bag with three dozen eggs to our son who lives in the city. Street value: As much as $36 dollars. “Psst… here they are,” we said in hushed tones, opening the bag so he could see the cartons. “Not too loud, Dad… I don’t want to get robbed on the way back to the office.” Eggs are shooting up in price because of a “supply shortage.” The bird flu has cut output. The price (at $5/doz.) has gone up 238% over the last four years. Recommended Link | | It involves the next leg of the Artificial Intelligence boom, post-DeepSeek… The Trump Administration’s shocking new plan for the stock market… And an ultra-rare pattern not seen in the markets for 29 years — which sent stocks soaring thousands of percent over time, in our backtest. How can you prepare and profit? Don’t miss the details at our special briefing on Thursday, February 27th. Reserve your spot now. | |
Inflation Is On the March We saw last week that the feds’ inflation calculation substantially understates the real impact of inflation on household budgets. Everyday items – such as eggs – cost more than the official CPI suggests. This means that ordinary families, buying ordinary things, are getting ordinarily poorer. And the Producer Price Index (PPI) is rising at a 3.5% rate – the fastest in two years. (The PPI measures the changes in prices businesses experience earlier in the supply chain… before they reach consumers.) Even by the feds’ own figures, prices are edging up more quickly. Last Wednesday’s report showed the CPI rising at a 3% rate. Take out the outliers, in what economists call the “trimmed mean,” and you get a more accurate picture. It shows inflation rising at a 5% rate. Or, if you used the statistical methods of the 1980s (before the Bureau of Labor Statistics changed the formula) you’d get an inflation reading of about 10%.  “Sticky” inflation, which excludes rising food and energy costs, is stuck at around 3.6% growth, year-over-year, according to the Atlanta Fed. These “inflation” figures – whichever ones you choose – clock the decline of the U.S. dollar. Post-1971, America’s money has been unreliable. You could buy a dozen eggs in 1971… and a dozen today. Same eggs. Not noticeably better or worse. But the price has changed. They were 45 cents a dozen back then. Today, given all the innovations, tech improvements, etc… they should be much cheaper; instead, they’re at least ten times as much — in dollars. Recommended Link | | A top tech expert warns: “there’s perhaps a few hundred people in the world who realize what’s about to hit us.” Eric Fry is one of them… and he’s started a 1,000 day countdown to prepare for its launch. Click here for 3 steps to take today. | |
Different Signals Gold has historically been a more reliable measure of wealth. But it too is giving us a very different reading today, as opposed to 50 years ago. In 1971, an ounce of gold would have bought 44 dozen eggs. Today, it buys about 550 – if you can find them. Naturally, if people have a choice, they will spend the depreciating currency (the dollar) and hold onto the appreciating one (gold). And once this notion gains traction, gold rises even more (meaning, other things go down faster). Reuters: Goldman Sachs on Monday raised its year-end 2025 gold price forecast to $3,100 per ounce, up from $2,890, citing sustained central bank demand. The bank estimates that "structurally higher central bank demand will add 9% to the gold price by year-end, which combined with a gradual boost to ETF holdings as the funds rate declines." However, if policy uncertainty, including tariff concerns, remains high, Goldman sees the potential for gold to surge to $3,300 per ounce by year-end due to prolonged speculative positioning. Policy uncertainty seems like a certainty. So does more inflation. Regards, Bill Bonner Bonner Private Research |