Things, Ideas & People . . .

Lumber prices have increased more than 180 percent since the spring of 2020, which has caused the price of an average new single-family home to increase by $24,386 since April 2020. This is according National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) standard estimates of lumber used to build the average home. At the same time we still have those brainiacs at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Labor Statistics telling us the inflation rate is a mere 1.2 percent. Crude oil (34%), ethanol (25%), heating oil (31%), unleaded gas (47%), copper (18%), corn (13%), cotton (11%), soybeans (8%) are all on the rise and the list just goes on and on. Talk about a bad joke! — mike

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High speed railways by ...