I would say you're ignoring another factor, the rush of covid stimulus money into the economy through various means. Think of just the last 1.9 trillion bill (remember there was 2.9 trillion before that), that was more than all the tesla stock and all the bitcoin in existence. Flowing into the economy, jacking prices and inflation through the roof. A few areas you can see this big time are housing and cars. I see 1300 sq ft new construction in my rural area going for 227k. Literally a few years ago 227k would have bought a large mcmansion around here. Every house sells almost the instant it hits the market. Been looking for a truck too, situation is almost similar. Hard to find any trucks and it seems like forget getting big incentives or a discount off MSRP. Used trucks are selling near their MSRP when they were new 5 years ago.
I think the MAJOR factor in GPU rises is pretty clearly coin mining BS. Miners are literally losing money by NOT snatching up cards at MSRP. That said Covid/Democrat stimulus inflation is a (smaller) factor as well. Price on everything is skyrocketing, all collectibles as well, you cant get any PS5/Xbox, etc.
Don't forget that wood prices are up due the government locking things down and telling people not to go anywhere. So people stop footing bills into the economy for things such as going to the movies, shopping at stores (clothing and such things) and other entertainment aspects they used to do. Now they have time because they're at home since the government told them they weren't essential and not important enough to let work....they turn their time, energy and money to personal home projects/improvements.
* 2 - 4x8 sheets of plywood (almost $100 for the 2 sheets of plywood)
* 10 - 8ft 2x4 boards (nearly $75 for 10 2x4 boards) Home Depot last weekend
* I spent around another $40 for 32ft of chain, a box 3" long screws, box of lag bolts and enough washers for the bolts.
Around $230 after taxes just to put up some hanging shelves in the garage that the wife's been bugging me to do for the past few years.
My step-dad put up some of these in his garage about 2 years prior and he said it only cost him around $150 for everything. If he only spent $150, that's a 50% markup on wood from 2 years ago.
Townhouses in my neighborhood, they originally sold for $150K+, depending on overall model and additions. They have a square footage of 1250-1600, depending on model. The housing crash back in 2008 caused townhouses to plummet down to around $90K and it wasn't until about 5 years ago that the property value returned to the original sale price. Now these units are selling for $230K+ within days after going on the market.
Wife wants us to sell, thinks we can get around $250 since we have a top line model, new flooring we had recently put in, new cabinets and such.....but she doesn't realize that finding a house she likes, they are now overpriced by a ton. Houses that were in the $300K range 4-5 years ago are now in the $500K range. Our mortgage payment would go up by 50% easily if we moved and that would be even after putting a $100k down payment on a house.
Everything right now is so f'ing blown out of proportion cost wise that it sucks. It's not going to be that the economy won't recover, but soon it's going to be a bubble burst and things will come crashing back down. The economy cannot keep this pace for an extended period of time without it snapping back like a rubber band.