BUY NOW TO BEAT INFLATION

According to reports from financial institutions, many Americans now have bulging bank accounts. They’re the ones who were lucky enough to keep their jobs during the pandemic. And if their household income was under $150,000, they also got thousands of dollars in stimulus money. Problem was, there was no place to spend it. Couldn’t travel or eat out. No place to go, so why buy any new clothes? The savings kept increasing, but with zero interest rates, the money is not doing much of anything while sitting in the bank. Nevertheless, prices for everything are shooting up. The Feds tell us that inflation is only 5%, but anyone who shops know it’s way more than that. As a result, you may as well buy now to beat inflation.

The carpeting we bought for one room last year doubled in price this year when we decided to upgrade another room. Double. Yes. The cost of anything to do with home improvement is sky rocketing. So my advice would be, don’t wait until next year, or the year after. Get that new roof, build a deck, screen in your porch. Maybe even buy a hot tub, if that fits your life style. Do you remember when a luxury hot tub cost about $5,000? I do. Now they’re selling for about $16,000,. Don’t even blink an eye when writing a check for thousands of dollars to fix up your home. Next year, the price of all those goods and services will increase by at least 5 or 10 percent.

Buy now to beat inflation. The inflation rate is at a 13 year high. — Buy now to beat inflation… The prices on some items will have doubled by next year.

Let’s move on to the supermarket. When shopping for favorite items, have you noticed how many shelves have “holes.” That is, empty spaces where the product you want is sold out. And when it’s finally back on the shelf, the prices have gone way up. As a result, the instinct is to hoard. Instead of buying a couple cans of certain soups, we load up on maybe 6. We’re buying anything ahead that will “keep.” Detergent, trash bags, canned goods. Our cupboards are stocked to the brim.

The feds keep telling us that this inflation is temporary. Doesn’t look that way to us. When the price of gasoline increases, transportation costs have to be added to the price of anything shipped from point A to point B. And wage increases in a tight labor market have to be passed on to the consumer.

There’s only one way to beat inflation: buy now.

December 23, 2020December 23, 2020

DID TRUMP DODGE A BULLET?

Did you ever experience a broken engagement or get turned down for a job? It was upsetting at the time, and it took awhile to stop mourning your dashed hopes. But then later–maybe much later– the lost lover turned out to be a bummer, and the company that refused to hire you went bust. Or, with a more positive outcome, you found a better job, or met the love of your life. Looking back, you realize that the loss you mourned was actually a blessing in disguise. You dodged a bullet. Now, Trump supporters are grieving the Biden win during the 2020 election. But maybe it’s not a bad thing, after all. Did Trump dodge a bullet?

The stock market is climbing on good news of the vaccine. . But at least one financial advisor is predicting a once in a lifetime crash. During this pandemic, millions of jobs were eliminated in retail, restaurant and other business. Many of these jobs aren’t coming back. How long can the government keep on printing money before we have massive inflation and higher taxes?

Instead of the robust economy everyone is looking forward to, we could have stagflation–slow economic growth, high inflation and high unemployment. They say inflation is under control, but I’m not sure what indicators they’re using. Right now, the cost of food and housing is skyrocketing.

The cyber attack last March may lead to something disastrous for the country. Who knows what a hostile power is going to do with all the information they have now. We could experience massive power outages. Suddenly, you have no telephone, internet, heat, light or running water. Nothing works. Most large organizations have generators that tide them over until the power goes back on. But what if it doesn’t? Generators can’t run indefinitely. Imagine being the president of the United States during such a disaster.

Those are just two scenarios that the next President could face. We avoided foreign wars under Trump. But the luck may run out with Biden, with so many countries desperate after being ravaged by Covid-19. Only time will tell if Trump dodged a bullet.

December 21, 2020December 21, 2020

HOW ABOUT THOSE EYEBROWS?

Anyone who been to a mall has seen the eyebrow threaders. They work in a small kiosk, and are typically staffed by young women from India. Since I am a cold-weather mall walker, I’ve watched them at work for the past several years. And I’m always amazed at the number of women who use this service. How about those eyebrows? Why would you go through such a painful process to remove a few stray hairs?

When the Covid-19 pandemic began, these places were shut down in some states. But that didn’t last long. When you’re wearing a mask, the eyes are all anyone sees of your face. Wearing makeup doesn’t help; no one sees foundation, rouge, or lipstick, but you must have beautiful eyebrows

How About Those Eyebrows? Should you pay to have them threaded? — How About Those Eyebrows? The eyebrow threading business is booming.

Eyebrow threading has become more than just a “want.” The need has become intense. Churches, bars , banks and libraries may close, but not the threaders.

I look at old pictures taken in college and later years. My eyebrows looked just fine, as most young women’s do. We did a bit of plucking with tweezers just to even things out, but the idea of going to a public place and having someone use a piece of thread to shape my brows would have seemed bizarre.

Up until last year, the clients at the kiosks were not what you would expect. Mostly, they were middle aged women who didn’t seem overly stylish in the way they dressed or wore makeup. But when they left the kiosk, they had a glow about them. The threading made them feel better about their looks. Lately, the clientele appears younger. And the business is booming. Teens and twenty-somethings stand in lines or wait in chairs to get threaded every few weeks.

You have to wonder if it’s risky during the pandemic. The technician can’t thread your eyebrows from a distance. She has to get very close to your face. Yes, you’re both wearing masks. But masks aren’t keeping doctors and nurses from getting sick. Besides that, threading can cause herpes and spread staph infections.

They say the pandemic has lots of people in bad financial straits, fearing eviction and hunger. But that doesn’t seem to affect the eye threading business. How bad can the economy be when hordes of women are incurring this needless expense? How about those eyebrows?