From food prices to fuel, and now inflation which will change the landscape of car and home buying, we seem to be in a ‘greater recession.’ No official declaration. Jobs numbers still decent.. but we feel it brewing. We sense it’s knocking on the door. And they ain’t much great about it..
Without sounding too dim, some further abyssal news is sweeping the nation faster than rising prices of regular and diesel: A potential scaling back of emergency responder services in many locations in America!
EMERGENCY SERVICES
Some won’t respond to nonemergencies, and many have cut back on operations to save on gas. NBC NEWS reports ..
Scott Matice, captain of the Allegan County Sheriff’s Office in Michigan, said deputies won’t immediately respond to nonemergency calls and will cut back on patrols to save on gas.
“We instructed our officers to not idle their vehicles and to do stationary traffic control rather than patrol and drive all over the place just trying to find violations,” he said.
Matice said that calls where evidence doesn’t need to be collected will be taken by phone and that further gas increases could force the department to limit mileage on vehicles.
“We want officers to be smarter about their patrol but still visible,” Matice said.
In Indiana, the Honey Creek Fire Department will restrict building inspections, use smaller vehicles more frequently and won’t allow firefighters to drive to training courses to save on fuel costs, according to Chief Thomas High. He said his department has responded to 960 calls this year but projects it will get more than 2,000.
BABY FOOD
Blame for baby food shortages have been pinned on the Abbott, the company who manufactures it.. Other commentary has focused around government inability to recognize the crisis it would become.
Now the greater recession is mixing with the climate to create a further awful ‘climate’ for formula.. Abbott Laboratories said late Wednesday it has stopped production of its EleCare specialty formula after severe storms and heavy rains in southwestern Michigan flooded areas of its plant in Sturgis.
The company, which has notified the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said the incident will likely delay production and distribution of the infant formula for a few weeks. This temporary closure of the plant comes a week after Abbott reopened its Sturgis plant to alleviate an acute nationwide shortage of baby formula that sent parents scrambling for supplies.
INFLATION
The Federal Reserve raised the interest rate to .75 per cent in an attempt to rein in record high levels of inflation. That has an impact for everyone.
This hike is the biggest increase since 1994 .. Powell had warned last month that more hikes are likely in the near future.
‘It’s not going to be easy. And it may well depend, of course, on events that are not under our control. But our job is to use our tools to try to achieve that outcome, and that’s what we’re going to do,’ Powell said on May 5.
In 1994, press reports stated that things were good! Job numbers were good, and the interest rate hike was due to an caution over then fears of worker shortages (sound like now?) and a roaring economy that could lead to inflation..
In 2022, the difference is brutal: The Federal Reserve printed money like candy for 24 months. That coupled with the drive to get people to buy as much as they could to keep a pandemic-hit economy still rolling has led to issues.
This is the beginning of the middle
We are just entering into a new phase. The stage was set for the potential economic conundrum the nation–and world–will find itself in..
Cash is abundant (except those pesky change shortages in stores) .. Jobs are abundant, but potentially not the best paying.. but workers are short. People aren’t applying for the jobs they did prior to COVID lockdowns. And the economy, which fluttered along with the assistance of free money, has come to a stall.
Inflation is just absolutely insane. If you drill deep into the job stats, could we find that they are better since some are assuming more than one job in order to keep up with expenses?
Small orders at grocery stores cost what large orders would have a year ago. Filling up your tank for some has become a weekly mortgage payment. School loan payments are set to resume in the fall, and rent and homes will not get cheaper–as a matter of fact inflation rates increasing could lead to a little chill down in the intense (AND FAKE!) home buying market.
Chickens come home to roost.
And this home has become expensive to stay in..
