I almost spat out my coffee the other day when I was reading the go-to financial news site here in Norway and saw the headline "surprise, as inflation reaches record levels in Europe". I didn't know if it was funny, or just too surreal to believe.
I mean, who is really surprised, given the stimulus packages and prolonged period of record low-interest rates? One would have to be incredibly learned, to be so wrong.
But hey, other people's failure to grasp the world we're in is also our opportunity to gain ground, isn't it?
Surprising to who?
If the past two years were not going to result in the highest inflation seen in a few decades, then what would cause it? The only thing I'm genuinely curious about is whether or not the committee's that are giving inputs to the central bank's decisions, and the fan-boy e-journalists who covers them, are living in their own bubble and thus are genuinely surprised, or if they've seen that they messed up and would then rather just describe it as "surprising" rather than admit error.
I could also not help but chuckle when a statement of theirs read that inflation was close to target if you looked away from power prices, food, and beverages. Yeah, just like my crypto portfolio is up a lot this year if you look away from the coins that are down. And who needs food and electricity anyways?
So that was the state in Europe, and admittedly, half of the price increases were due to soaring electricity prices which in Norway's case was up to 10 times greater than last year(!). So surely, that would make Europe exceptionally high on the global stage, right? But as is often the case, everything is bigger in m'erica, and if someone was going to tell the Europeans to hold their beer while they print a lot more money and accumulate more debt, it would, of course, have to be the US, setting a record 7% inflation figure today. Ouch!
And the situation isn't looking a whole lot brighter on the silly side of the Pacific either, as the FED appears to be trapped by its own doing. Raise the interest rates significantly and they will most certainly have a very negative effect on the market. Keep it low, and they could risk going further into a negative death spiral.
So where does this leave us? Judging by the markets, Bitcoin seems to have liked the news as it quickly moved up from below $42k to touch $44k earlier today. I wouldn't be surprised if this has more people looking for new ways to store their value and in that regard, it is just another good PR moment for Bitcoin.
Or what do you think? Is there anyone that you know of who is genuinely surprised by the high inflation? Or what do you think the FED and others will do now, with what effects on the market?
Make sure to leave a comment below, as I would like to hear your opinion :).