YOU CAN’T TAKE A DEEP DIVE INTO THE SHALLOW END OF INFLATION

I was asked to do a “deep dive” into the latest inflation numbers this week during a daily television hit in the San Francisco–Oakland market. The headline figures were being celebrated: 2.7% CPI, 2.6% core. Victory laps everywhere. And my reaction was simple—you can’t take a deep dive into the shallow end of the pool without cracking your skull. 

Because that’s what these numbers are: shallow. Incomplete. Sanitized. 

We’re told inflation is “cooling,” that prices are stabilizing, that everything is trending in the right direction. But when you actually look at what matters to real people—the things you are forced to buy every single day—the story collapses. And it always does. 

I’ve covered this for decades, and I’ll say it again: the Bureau of Labor Statistics is a political instrument. Call it what you want—I’ve always called it the “BS Bureau of Labor Statistics.” Even if we assume the numbers are perfectly calculated (they aren’t), they still don’t reflect lived reality. 

The inflation that hurts isn’t airfare. It isn’t hotel rooms. It isn’t the price of a theme park ticket. Those are optional. You can skip a vacation. You can delay a trip. You can stay home. 

You cannot skip groceries. 
You cannot skip electricity. 
You cannot skip insurance. You cannot skip fuel, heating, healthcare, or housing. 

Those are the bare necessities of modern life—and that’s where inflation is crushing people. 

Here’s the inconvenient truth: since I founded Markowski Investments over 30 years ago, the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar has fallen by more than 50%. That is not stability. That is not “contained inflation.” That is systematic erosion. And yet we’re told to accept 2% inflation as the goal—as if slow destruction is somehow virtuous. 

I agree with economist Judy Shelton, who has argued—correctly—that inflation should be zero. The dollar is a unit of measure, like inches or degrees. It should not be constantly changing. But in Washington, common sense is treated like heresy. Shelton was rejected for the Federal Reserve because she made too much sense—much like Ron Paul before her. 

And let’s be honest: neither party wants discipline. Democrats want to spend. Republicans want to spend and pretend they’re fiscally responsible. Both are perfectly content dumping the bill onto future generations. We’re now paying over $1.2 trillion a year just in interest—not services, not benefits, just interest. That is insanity. 

Then you get politicians going on television demanding extensions of massive COVID-era subsidies—hundreds of billions more—without identifying a single dollar in cuts. Why? Because it buys votes. It buys headlines. It buys reelection. And it mortgages your children’s future. 

This is why I’ve warned people for years about the nonsense pushed by Wall Street: the 60/40 portfolio, “cash is trash,” blind faith in models that assume stability in a system built on debt and denial. Everything we’ve said for decades has proven accurate—not because we’re clairvoyant, but because math eventually wins. 

If you want mortgage rates lower, if you want opportunity for your kids, if you want a functioning economy, there is only one real priority: balance the budget. There are no “priorities.” There is one. 

Until that happens, don’t let anyone gaslight you with headline inflation numbers and victory speeches. What matters is what you feel every time you swipe your card for things you can’t live without. 

And on that front, nothing is getting better.