 Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Minor Issues Podcast. I'm Mark Thornton at the Mises Institute. Today's episode looks at the question, where's the beef? You remember the famous Wendy's ad, Where's the Beef? It was a successful product recognition advertisement that promoted the beef content of Wendy's hamburgers, while simultaneously suggesting that their competitors were skipping on the beef content of their own hamburger. In today's economy, people are asking, where's the beef in a different sense? If things are so good in the American economy in terms of GDP and unemployment and falling inflation, high stock markets, then why are Americans seeing a big economic problem in the U.S. economy, particularly with inflation? Americans do see a problem, and if you don't, you better take another look. Only one-third approve of Biden's handling of the economy. 51% think that things are actually getting worse, and most people say that wages are simply not keeping up with inflation. In fact, they use the words like, struggling, 61% of the time, uncertain, 56% of the time, unfair, 36%, punishing, 27%, and an economy rebounding only 15%. A recent Suffolk University poll found the same thing. Americans do not approve of the Democrats or the Republicans handling of the economy and are mad about the Fed's inflation, which is upsetting their lives, forcing them to do without, and necessitating that they trade down to less desirable choices. Now, on the other hand, Paul Krugman, the famous Keynesian economist who loves the taste of his own feet, says things are so really good that there is no hint of recession, that the Fed is not too far off of its targets, things are great, it's really goldilocks conditions where everything is just right. Krugman himself chalks up this disconnect as a result of partisanship in American politics and basic American stupidity in the population. Of course, Paul is a multimillionaire living in Manhattan, and I would be shocked if he oversaw grocery shopping in his household or paying his own bills. I'm going to explain where the beef is. The price of ground beef from 1985 to 2000 was about $1.50 a pound. Now it's over $5 a pound. That's a 250% increase. Bacon in the earlier period averaged around $2.50 a pound. Now it's well over $6.50 a pound, a 165% increase. Now in that earlier period, the Consumer Price Index was up 70%, and it's been up since 2000, another 70% till COVID hit. And then we've gotten probably 15% to 25% price inflation since then. That's not nearly as bad as beef and bacon prices, but that's only because of all the tech-oriented goods and services where prices have risen slower or even decreased. But those things are the result of the free market, not the Fed. From World War II to 1975, when we were on the gold standard, beef consumption in America per capita doubled. And then since the fiat dollar of 1971 was put in place, beef consumption has gone down by over a third per capita. We strongly suspect the consumption has fallen sharply in the last couple of years since COVID was introduced due to the much higher prices and even how little is on display in the shrinking meat counter in your local grocery store. So it's more chicken for everyone, just like the Chick-fil-A ad says. And by the way, Mongolians eat 100 times more goat meat than Americans. Beef consumption in many countries is tied to wealth and well-being, particularly of the middle class, which has had to resort to more chicken and pork because of higher prices. And who knows, maybe some more goat meat. One product does not make for a proper gauge of the overall Fed inflation on prices, but it does explain the anger of people because it's coming fast and forcing people to make really hard decisions of what not to buy. And other prices, home and auto insurance also took a sharp increase recently. Housing prices are now less affordable today than ever in history. Utility rates and bills are up noticeably. And I think the reprieve in energy prices has now come to an end. Think of it this way, if price inflation is low and slow, the frog in a pot of hot water will supposedly not notice and die a slow death. But if inflation is hot and fast, that same frog will poop in your pot and jump to safety. Unfortunately, most people have nowhere to jump to and are mad as hell about it. Do you understand now, Paul?