Despite official inflation rates being reported at around 3%, many Americans feel the impact of rising costs in their daily lives. Examples include the cost of coffee, insurance premiums, and housing expenses. These underlying inflationary pressures are causing significant financial strain, particularly with high mortgage rates and increased costs in essentials like home insurance.

Transcript:

Americans think that there’s inflation.

I understand that a whole bunch of people say there isn’t inflation.

It’s 3% and maybe it’s going to be 2%.

People are worried that the election will be, the voters will say there’s too much inflation. It’ll hurt the Democrats.

What’s the story? Is there inflation or isn’t there?

Of course there is. It’s ridiculous.

I went to get coffee today because we’re moving, so we don’t have a coffee pot. It’s packed.

And I got two. I don’t go to Starbucks because I just don’t, but it’s a local place called PJ’s and two medium coffees, not even the Vente size that Starbucks are.

Two medium coffees was six dollars. $6. And what does it cost them to pour that? Not $5, but yeah, there is inflation.

It’s under the surface inflation.

And a lot of it’s been seen in insurance prices, home insurance prices, homeowners insurance has skyrocketed.

And it’s not just here on the Gulf Coast where I live. It’s all across the country because they cite reinsurance has gone up to them.

So they have to raise prices. And the average consumer is getting absolutely hammered.

Well, there are some things that you don’t think about.

But look, people are buying cars. People are buying houses. People have credit cards.

There are all these other things that cost people a huge amount of money every day.

It’s not like food where you can look at it and say, gee, it’s chocolate. I know that cocoa has gone up, so my chocolate bar costs more.

Which I think people understand. But to me, those are the things that really cost people a huge amount of money.

Absolutely.

And when you think about car financing, well, any of the big car companies, they all have financing arms. If they want to order up a 1% loan, it’s their capital anyway. So they don’t care.

And as we know well, in the car dealership business, they don’t make any money on new and used cars. They make more on used cars than new cars. It’s all made on the service set.

So they can give them a lower, you know, teaser two, two and seven eighths rate or something like that.

But, you know, you don’t get that advantage at the grocery store from the insurance company or even at the gas pump.

Now, and the housing market is still unusually slow because people don’t, people say the house is more expensive than it used to be.

Right.

And you’ve got a 7% mortgage.

Right. If you go back to mortgage rates at 3%, you buy a median home price in the United States, $425,000.

Right. The difference in the monthly insurance, the monthly mortgage payment is it’s a thousand dollars.

Absolutely.

Think about through the Gulf Coast here in Louisiana, in the Gulf Coast to Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, over the Florida coast.

Many people are in areas I don’t have to buy in here outside of New Orleans because I’m across the lake, but they have to pay flood insurance as well because regular insurance will not cover if your house is flooded.

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