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I'm more than onboard with the idea that recent monetary policies have put pressure on prices, I just don't see how anyone can sanely say that a 4x price increase is (was) "caused by inflation". Of course implying that all or the vast majority of the increase is directly attributable to inflation, adding "runaway" back into the discussion.

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Yeah I didn't intend it like an antagonistic answer, because actually is not a binary issue. Price takes in account many consideration, fluctuations in production and/or demand are one, monetary pressure is other, but there are many others (expectation of future behavior, for example). I would guess that, at this time, the larger the increase ratio, the more probable is that transitory elements are affecting the price.

Just a minor caveat I would have with your answer is that inflation cause price increase, when for me the price increase is just an indicator of inflation, not a cause or consequence of it.

It wasn't monetary policy that drove inflation. It was the fiscal stimulus. It didn't cause lumber prices to go up by much though, that was just a basic supply shock. I doubt that fiscal stimulus did raised lumber prices by more than 10-20%.

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