The Price of Beans

Adam Smith, in his book, The Wealth of Nations, goes on at length about the importance of the price of corn. His concern for the price of that particular vegetable overrides his interest even in the price of silver or gold. He tells us we can do without fancy linens or impressive equipage. Without food, particularly this food, though, Western Civilization, as we know it, would end. (In the Far East, the crop of choice is rice).

Towards the end of Bill Clinton’s second term, I began to notice that my grocery bills were increasing at an alarming rate. “Inflation,” I said. Oh no, others told me. On television, the experts said, oh there’s no inflation. Yet I was paying more money and coming home with fewer bags of groceries. The price of staples like bread and milk, that had been a lower price just a few weeks earlier, had risen astronomically.

Now, 12 years later, I’m noticing the same alarming inflationary rate. Only this time, the experts are willing to admit it. I went to buy a semi-generic brand of deodorant that had cost 99 cents only a year or so ago - retail. Now I had to pay the exorbitant sum of $2.69 to be hygienically acceptable.

The week before last, my grocery bill was an unbelievable $150. While it’s true I hadn’t stock shopped in awhile, I still couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked at the cash register LED. Nor even when I looked at the register receipt in my hands. I thought perhaps it was simply the amount of goods I purchased. I had coupons, but they didn’t make much of a dint in the bill.

This is what happens when the government starts printing paper money like it’s monopoly. Stewart Varney, talking on Fox News, said there was no going back to the gold standard now, that only chaos would ensue – and I suspect he’s right. I can’t imagine where in the world the government would find enough gold to pay the debt we’ve fallen into.

Maybe the government needs to try alchemy, because the tax-and-spend-then-print-more- money method is pure economic voodoo.