The broadest Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) spiked 0.9% in October from September, and by 6.2% from a year ago, the highest since November 1990 (6.3%) and since 1982, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today. Building on that, Bloomberg is reporting that U.S. consumer prices rose last month at the fastest annual pace since 1990, cementing high inflation as a hallmark of the pandemic recovery and eroding spending power even as wages surge. And to really put it into perspective, here are the actual numbers reported which tend to impact Labor the most,
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- Food up 5.3% from year ago, most since January 2009
- Gasoline rose 6.1% from September, biggest gain since March
- Electricity costs jumped 1.8%, largest monthly increase since 2014
- Fuel oil advanced 12.3% from prior month, most since 2007
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Pricing within the Mortgage Field Services has not risen in nearly three decades — for Labor, anyway. In fact, the Mortgage Field Services Industry was the only known Industry which deployed Essential Workers and did not grant a single penny in bonuses. And while the National Association of Mortgage Field Services (NAMFS) is blue skying wage hikes by paying a yet unnamed lobbyist firm $120,000 to hopefully achieve a modest return, the reality is that they would need to negotiate a nearly 80% increase — with 40% of that going direct to Labor and not middlemen — in order to make a difference. Inflation is the loss of the purchasing power of the dollar. In October, the purchasing power of the dollar dropped another 0.8%. Since January 2000, the purchasing power of $1 has dropped to 61 cents.
The CPI for meats, poultry, and fish spiked by 11.9% year-over year, with beef spiking by 20%, which defies the actual price spikes at the grocery store. Gasoline +6.1% for the month, +49.6% year-over-year.
With NAMFS members pocketing an average of 35% of all Mortgagee Letter pricing and in some cases in upwards of 60% of all overallowable bids, the reality is that it is nothing more glamorous than greed that prevents NAMFS members increasing pay to Labor. And it is that same greed which will ensure that the Industry will permanently loose qualified Labor and be ill prepared for the volumes coming in the new year.
