It has come to this...WSJ suggests skipping breakfast to save money

(AP Photo/David Goldman)

Pretty sure the suggestion was tongue in cheek, but in the days when the powers-that-be think you should be eating bugs to save the planet, it’s difficult to be sure.

Advertisement

The suggestion–sarcastic or serious–comes after the latest inflation report which was not exactly good news for your pocketbook. Despite dramatic rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and the tremendous “success” of the Inflation Reduction Act (which is, ironically, destroying your IRA), the price of breakfast foods continues to skyrocket.

Egg price increases were the worst.

Several breakfast staples saw sharp price increases due to a perfect storm of bad weather and disease outbreaks—and continued effects from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Egg prices increased 8.5% in January from a month earlier and are up 70.1% over the past year, the highest annual rate since 1973. The deadliest avian-influenza outbreak on record has devastated poultry flocks across the U.S., leading the price of eggs to rise more than any other grocery item in 2022, according to Information Resources Inc. U.S. egg inventories were 29% lower in the final week of December 2022 than at the beginning of 2022, according to the USDA.

Frozen, noncarbonated juices and drinks—a category that includes frozen orange juice—rose by 1.5% in January from a month earlier, and the 12.4% annual increase is the highest in over a decade. Florida orange growers are harvesting their smallest crop in nearly 90 years, the result of a freeze, two hurricanes and a citrus disease that is laying waste to its groves.

Advertisement

Cereal prices are up 15% YoY as well.

To add to the toxic brew, coffee prices were mixed–roasted coffee prices were down just a bit in January, but instant coffee prices rose by 3.6% in January, which is a burn-your-tongue pace of inflation.

The Biden Administration keeps trying to convince Americans that everything is hunky dory in the economy, but as we watch our savings dwindle in value and our paychecks buy less and less it’s a difficult sell. The unemployment rate is historically low, but only because a far smaller percentage of the workforce is actually working or looking for jobs.

Many people have just quit, assuming that the government will be their forever sugar daddy.

Biden backers surely curse their run of bad luck, and you have to admit that even the POTUS has no control over viruses except if he is named Donald Trump. But when the price of everything is skyrocketing all at once it can’t all be chalked up to luck. Something systemic is going on.

And the common variable is Joe Biden, who has pursued hideously inflationary policies. Anybody with half a brain knew that pouring trillions into an economy that was already experiencing a fast recovery under Trump would fuel inflation; Joe Biden rejected the advice he was given and we see the results.

Advertisement

It turns out that Milton Friedman was right, Mr. President.

Some people are skipping meals to deal with the high prices, and nearly everybody has downgraded their food choices to extend their grocery budget. I know I have. I have downgraded all my meat choices to deal with the huge increases in the price of beef. And still, my overall grocery bills are through the roof.

I suspect that most of Biden’s advisors genuinely believe that Americans’ sour mood on the economy is driven by Fox News lying about everything, but that just shows how out of touch they are. They live in an alternate reality where coffee costs $6 a cup every day and eggs are served to them by the plebs. Prices don’t matter to them, and their futures after the White House include multi-million-dollar salaries or more.

Even Karine Jean-Pierre will get a nice gig, and she is about as articulate as a 5th grader.

Inflation isn’t going away soon, unfortunately. But with any luck the Biden Administration will be.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement