Consumer price inflation has clocked in above 8% in the latest CPI print. Consumer inflation in the US has remained near or above 8% for the entire year of 2022 so far. It reached its highest point in June, with a 12-month percentage increase above 9%.
The US government sprang into action over the persistence of rising consumer prices, increasing Social Security benefits to keep pace.
Inflation is a phenomenon with generational, demographic, and cultural effects. It is now leading to an unprecedented COLA (cost of living adjustment) to Social Security, the US pension fund program, and the largest public pension program in the world.
The soaring inflation rate has been rough on the US dollar economy. Higher prices squeeze out other expenses, and competition over profits grows more fierce. The difficulty of evaluating financial sheets with prices adjusting wildly across the economy makes valuation difficult. The S&P 500 Index is down 26% YTD.
Inflation has been rough on crypto holders as well as Social Security recipients. Higher prices of everything else in dollars haven’t led to higher crypto prices in fiat. It is retail’s turn to have the fat part of the rolling market cycle, the monetary wave of new credit.
Furthermore, the increasing federal funds rate to tame inflation is drying up liquidity for inflows to crypto. Markets have gone risk-off all the way to S&P 500 equities. Crypto’s taking its losses, as well as the NASDAQ Composite and S&P 500.
But don’t take that as the death knell for an industry that grew to a trillion dollars in under a decade. What it means is crypto prices are at value. They’re a bargain this season under the intrinsic value of many of these blockchain monies.
In fact, while their grandparents draw Social Security benefits, millennials are poised to inherit a record $73 trillion in wealth. Millennials are not sure if Social Security will be solvent by the time they retire, with an outstanding amount of unfunded liabilities outlaid over the next decades.
They will, in the meantime, inherit an unprecedented $73 trillion in wealth from Baby Boomers. And they don’t want to spend it on stocks to save. They’re into cryptocurrency.
This will lead to a generational sea change. It is bullish over the long term for cryptocurrencies. They’re not alone, their entire generation is going with them.