There's no inflation while we peasants can still afford to eat something, even if it's beans and rice.

This is going to be tough on the red meat and potatoes guys.

There is an aversion to acknowledging a rise of any food prices in official statistics. In that sense, its similar to the housing bubble.

and when inflation didn't stop, they started to lie about it to justify depressed wages.

Check out the CPI market basket and what happened to it when Greenspan was in office.

It was the (unintentional) flare in energy prices that caused the unstable housing bubble to pop and sent the economy reeling. At first, there was *just* a small increase in the number of housing defaults, pushed by consumer fuel burden, like a pinhead is small compared to a balloon.

Both the energy and food situation are the result of a refusal to cope with resource and environmental limits.

I don't know if one can say TPTB intentionally did this to decrease wages. I think the more likely explanation is the 'D' and 'R' versions of credit-based growth mentality combined into a form of derangement that was undergirded by their indifference and antipathy to the working classes. They had no motivation to fix or avert absurd situations that would set us up for a fall; they are conditioned to head only in a direction that leads to larger bottom lines for the largest corps.

The area where a whiff of intention does come into it is their zeal for 'free trade' treaties; Skirting labor and environmental laws.

That seems likely, meat does keep the consumers happy. The whole industry of meat is super-subsidized I think. It should cost much more, considering all the water and energy it takes. People don't pay what it costs, which is part of why they have no idea, well along with the denial in the face of overwhelming evidence, but that's humanity, isn't it!?

I haven't made a habit of projecting American attitudes onto the rest of the world. That will make you crazy.