The cost-of-living is emerging as an enormous problem around the world, and only a relatively small part of it is generated by the war in Ukraine.

Economists and the media paint the rising cost-of-living simply as a function of a rise in prices of those goods and services included in the basket chosen to measure consumer price inflation. Interestingly, the contents of this basket differs from country to country, so international CPI comparisons are fraught, to say the least.

Even so, CPI is an incomplete measure anywhere. It ignores those other passed-on costs which go to make up a significant part of the price of our goods and services. These include elements of land prices, taxes and interest that combine to form much cost-push inflation.

Ignoring these passed-on costs is why we’re headed into the inflation-busting depression that will herald the end of this particular 18-year real estate cycle in 2026.

Once our eyes are opened to the sheer extent of this disregarded cost-push inflation, the things that really destroy world economies will become apparent to everybody.