08/07/2026
I walked outside a few months ago and the 5 year old just two doors down was yelling to their parent, “That’s not fair”. They learn that phrase early on, don’t they? I wish those who are perpetually running for office and that always want us to believe that they trying to “level the playing field” would be reminded that “fair” is also a whining preschooler’s term.
Guess what! Life isn’t fair. Scarcity makes sure life isn’t fair. And there will always be things that not everyone will be able to afford.
Prices worldwide have been going up for 80 years and the buying power of currencies everywhere have gone down. We really don’t want prices to be depressed, to drop dramatically. That’s where ‘The Depression’ got its name. The economy ceases to respond to stimuli when prices are falling. The increasing value of the currency compared to decreasing prices of goods makes it more valuable to hang onto than to spend. And that’s a problematic cycle that is hard to interrupt.
The supply of money collapsed and caused the monetary or banking crisis that we now refer to as ‘The Depression’. The only ones who came out ahead in the Depression were those who had cash or a steady income because prices of commodities and goods were collapsing. My parents said that those who worked for the US Postal Service were suddenly better off than most anyone else.
The ‘Rockefeller family ’ had cash during the Depression They secretly set up dummy corporations starting in the late 1920’s and had their agents secretly buy out all the ranchers as they were going broke in Jackson Hole. The Rockefellers then went through a process to donate the land to the government…stipulating that it would annexed as part of the Grand Teton National Park.
Jackson, Wyoming folks figured out that had been taken to the ‘proverbial cleaners’ when they found out to whom they had sold their land . They were so mad they went to Congress that then passed a law stating that the national government would no longer be able to take Wyoming land and make it non-private or public use only. Since then they have avoided what has happened in Utah, where Clinton, Obama and Biden carved up parts of Utah… announcing outside of the borders of Utah, creation of the Bear’s Ears and The Grand Staircase Monuments. Given that Trump has reversed much of what was previously done, we are probably going to be revisiting this issue again in the future.
Since the Depression there has been a bias towards inflation or higher prices over time. The Keynesian policies try to stear us away from deflationary debacles, thinking that small increases in inflation are like a guardrail to the potentially catastrophic problems of deflation. Unfortunately, it plays into the hands of politicians who would like to finance their overspending with the monetary printing press. And don’t we all like our assets to be worth more and our debts to erode over time even if it is an illusion?
Wasn’t inflation fun at the beginning? When your house and securities jumped in value, it was cause for a celebration. And then the other side of the inflation coin showed its ugly engraving. Surging prices stimulated by an aggressive Federal Reserve pushing mortgage rates down has made mobility costly.
Now, the unhedged who aren’t owners of appreciating assets, are paying a price for our previous pandemic pandering. Just another set of unintended consequences. “The future just ain’t what it used to be.”
