Wednesday
Yes, price inflation is now in our near future.
Too much hope and false promise has been invested in solar and wind power scams and too much exploration capital has been denied the oil companies by banks with Green shareholders. If that falling oil production meets increased demand, and there is a 40% rise in oil demand predicted for the next decade, then I would expect oil to hit at least $200 per barrel by late 2022. When fuel prices rise, then the price of all consumer goods rises because everything has to be transported.
Food will be the worst hit. On top of food shortages around the world already causing prices to rise, steeply in some places, the fuel price going up will raise prices even more. Food is the one expenditure that it is difficult to cut back on. The softest generation ever is about to find out that hunger is many degrees worse than ordering a Big Mac and then, too late, realizing that fries should have also been ordered.
Falling interest rates leading to malinvestment in over-production and more capital destruction is now moving into the past. No matter how cheap money becomes, only the worst operators would borrow to expand in this environment. They are the sort of operator who would lose money in any environment. That means that the pressure of falling interest rates forcing prices forever downwards is coming to an end. That should not be translated to mean that capital destruction has stopped. It is about to kick up a gear, just not directly caused by falling interest rates anymore.
Do I see the cyclical move from bonds to commodities accompanied by rising interest rates happening? No, not yet. Everything and anything possible will be done by central banks to keep interest rates down. In my opinion, rising interest rates will signal the end of the fiat system just as surely as Gold backwardation – and slightly earlier. Rising interest rates will mean that the debts can no longer be serviced. When the debts cannot be serviced then the debt notes will collapse to zero value. Those debt notes are what you carry around in your wallet and think of as money.