Why Everything is Suddenly Getting More Expensive — And Why It Won’t Stop

It's me. It could be you too. It's becoming increasingly difficult to get stuff. You might have noticed that the prices of used cars have gone up to an almost unimaginable extent. This is starting to hold true for good, from electronic to fuel. What is the story?

I have bad news and some...well, worse news. The Great Inflation is a period in economic history.

Prices will rise exponentially over the next few decades. This is because everything has been artificially priced. Since the dawn of the industrial age, the costs of everything from carbon and fascism to ecological collapse and social fracture have not been considered. This age is coming to an abrupt, climactic and explosive end. We are standing in our way.

Let me give you an example. I was searching for a microphone to use with a singer that I work with. It shocked me to learn that a German microphone manufacturer had stopped making them. All its employees were furloughed. It didn't explain why, but it didn’t have to. It is obvious why. The reason is obvious. Steel prices have been rising and will continue to rise because of rising energy prices. There's also the now-famous " chips shortage", chips they likely rely on. All of this combined, and you have a historic company that is suddenly going under.

This is just one of many stories I have heard. Companies of small or medium size are just...slowing down. They don't have the money to buy the raw materials that they need. In either case, it's over for the foreseeable future. This is not just a microphone company. Similar stories have been reported in many industries, from medical devices to automotive parts to technology. This is purely anecdotal, as it will take several years for quantitative data to reflect this. We don't need to wait so long to see the truth.

The economy is experiencing a major shock. It's likely to be the biggest economic shock in history. It's an "supply shock," as economists call it, and may be the most significant economic shock of all time. Yes, I am not exaggerating. There is no way the world can get microchips at this time.

In this instance, supply collapses suddenly. The country, city, or town of a city, or in this instance , a world's.

Let's look at the microchip shortage. What is it all about? The majority of chips in the world are produced in three factories. Each factory makes a different kind of chip. One factory in Japan was set on fire by an equipment problem. It took several hours to extinguish the flames due to the weather conditions. One in Texas was struck by a historic snowstorm that knocked off power for several days. The one in Taiwan has been affected by the worst drought for half a century. Microchips are extremely water-intensive to make.

These are all the effects of climate change. These are not the monocausal direct climate effects that American pundits and climate deniers look for, but they are still very much caused by. Living on a rapidly warming planet . It should be obvious that climate change is a direct result of factories freezing and then burning. Even if you believe that the Japan fire was unrelated to global warming, the truth is that there is no climate change. Two of the largest chip factories in the world would remain open. (

The "chip shortfall" is a problem that the entire world does not yet fully grasp in its entirety. This is the first global climate catastrophe-related shortage that has hit civilizations. If the world was stable, microchips would still be available to power cars, gadgets, and AV studios. This is because factories wouldn’t be losing power or being so dry that they don’t have enough water. They are, and this is due to climate change (aka global warming).

This is the first such disaster, but it will not be the last. The chip shortage is only one of many shockwaves that are rolling down the volcano. It's chips today. Tomorrow? Some of the most expensive things to make are steel and food. All of these things are dependent on energy and that energy is becoming more expensive.

Why is energy becoming more expensive? Covid is the short-term solution. Because Covid could cause the world to lock down again, gas producers are reluctant to turn on the taps. However, this is not the right answer. Even if they produce more gas, the real answer is that energy prices will continue to rise over time.

Why? Why? Who pays for the gas and the carbon it emits? Nobody does right now. Over the next few decades, however, someone will have to. We will need that money to rebuild all cities, towns, systems and factories destroyed by floods, fire, drought, and plague.

Who is that someone going to be? It's unlikely to be energy companies. Because they are powerful and you are powerless, it's likely to be you.

The price of everything will also rise as energy prices rise. Our civilisation is still 80% dependent upon fossil fuels, which is the ugly truth. As you might think, the problem is not with the electricity grid. The problem is that steel, cement, and glass are still made with gas. Only One coal-free steel plant has been found in the world. These are the foundations of civilisation. They are not enough. We return to medieval times. We say goodbye to all our concrete and steel skyscrapers, factories and universities, as well as the concrete skyscrapers and concrete towns.

What happens in those factories that are still made from fossil fuels, such as steel, cement, and glass? All. Everything that you can rely on. Cars, clothes and medicine. This is the stuff that feeds and clothes your children. This is the stuff you work with and have to sell. This is how deep the rabbit hole can get.

All this adds up to everythingrising. How long? For the foreseeable future. I would say at least for the next generation.

Let me now tell you a story that may help to make it clearer. I'll also explain it more formal.

Since the dawn of industrialization, our economy has had "externalized" cost. What are the costs like? Costs that are carbon-based. As the plastic that is now clogging up the oceans. The misery and despair poverty causes -- the political consequences of fascism or supremacy that can be seen in times of poverty. The ecological collapse.

Have we "externalized" these costs? To who have we "externalized" them? Economists used to say that they were being externalized to "future generation". All the people involved in restoring the ecosystems, replanting forests, and nurturing the animals back into life. All this while trying to find ways to make steel, concrete, food, and glass without destroying the earth we live on or pushing our societies towards fascism through inequality. What is a big job? Biggest in history.

Guess what? Guess what? We are the future generations. These were the ones economists used referring to, as if it was some distant future. It wasn't. There isn't much we can do. Either we clean up rivers and oceans now or wait for them to become a disaster for millennia later. This means that we kill the fish we eat, and the water we drink. We clean up the sky or don't. We decarbonise our production processes or don't have it.

That is the Great Inflation. Let's start with the last. We must figure out how we can decarbonise basic elements -- steel, cement and food, as well as how to make it without destroying the environment. We don't know the answer. We don't know how to solve it. Prices will rise for everything made in steel factories, which are largely still powered using fossil fuels. This is everything you can imagine, including cars and clothing.

It is up to us to find a way to do a Great Cleanup. This means cleaning up the skies, mountains, rivers, forests, and oceans. Next comes the Great Replenishment. The Great Replenishment is where we replant forests and bring back biotic matter (animal and plant life) to the earth. We don't know how to do this, and we aren't even starting. Prices will rise until we do. This is because nature is preparing for a mass extinction. It's the first man-made in human history.

Did you remember when I said that this was the greatest supply shock ever recorded? You should now be able understand why this is so important. It's even possible to say, "we are annihilating the nature so fast that we have caused the first man-made mass extinction." Now a supply shock: We're making nature extinct. It's no surprise that prices for everything that depends on it will skyrocket because there is a shortage of.

Let's go back to industrial production basics: decarbonising steel and cement. All that stuff will only get more expensive until we figure it all. There will be some dips, but the fundamental principle is the same: the stuff that poisons the earth at an increasing rate and costs more to produce and distribute and then sell.

This is not because carbon taxes are involved, but because there's a deeper reason.

Climate change is trying to teach us something. Climate change is made up of flood, typhoon, and fire. You see the feedback effect? See the feedback effect? Good luck when Covid-21 strikes, because we haven’t vaccinated our planet.

You can simplify it: The costs of mega floods, fires, typhoons, droughts, and plagues must now be internalized. Because the costs associated with carbon, natural extinctions, poverty, and inequality were all externalized. These are not symmetrical effects. These costs were externalized for centuries. These costs will need to be internalized for years.

Seeing the problem? What is the time difference? Since the dawn of the industrial age, we've been externalizing the carbon and natural extinction costs and inequality and ecological decline. Now we must internalise them in the coming decades or it will be too late.

Human civilisation never faced the inflationary pressures that it faces now. There is no more civilization. There are no more factories, glass, steel, cement or medicine. There is no shelter from the megafire and megaflood. Good luck with democracy.

All of this will need to be paid for by someone. This leaves three parties. The first is you and I, the average person living an average life. Megacorporations. Three, the billionaires who own them . You have to get them to pay. I don't doubt it's a worthy effort. But if you ask me realistically? There is an attempt to reduce global tax rates to 15%. LOL. They pay zero so far. This means that you and I will have to pay all the costs -- climate change, mass destruction, ecological collapse, likely while they fly off to Mars.

It's time to prepare for the most inflationary wave human history has ever seen. It will be very bad. This is only the beginning. It will be much like Covid or climate change -- more difficult, faster and far worse than anyone thinks.