Twitter's co-founder Jack Dorsey has warned 'hyperinflation' could soon hit the US, stirring fears Australia could suffer.
The 44-year-old billionaire chief executive used his social media platform to warn his 5.8million followers of the kind of global price surges that historically have afflicted Germany's Weimar Republic during the 1920s and dysfunctional dictatorships like Zimbabwe and Cuba.
'Hyperinflation is going to change everything. It's happening,' he said.
'It will happen in the US soon, and so the world.'
Dorsey issued the warning about massive price surges two months after his Square group announced it would take over Australian buy now, pay later juggernaut Afterpay for $39billion.
Twitter's co-founder Jack Dorsey has warned 'hyperinflation' could soon hit the US, stirring fears Australia will suffer
Global Covid supply shortages and long port delays are at least threatening to cause double-digit inflation in the United States, which hasn't been seen since the long aftermath of the OPEC oil crisis more than four decades ago.
In 1980, American inflation hit 14.5 per cent while in Australia, it peaked at 12.4 per cent in 1982 during a prolonged drought and double-digit unemployment.
The late 1970s and early 1980s were characterised by stagflation where there was high inflation and high unemployment.
In both cases, former US president Jimmy Carter and then prime minister Malcolm Fraser went on to lose the next election.
In 2021, American headline inflation rose to 5.4 per cent in the September quarter, with the Bureau of Labour Statistics figures showing a 24.8 per cent surge in energy prices.
Australian consumer price index data for the September quarter won't be known until Wednesday, when new Australian Bureau of Statistics data is released, but during the June quarter, inflation grew by an annual pace 3.8 per cent.
This was the fastest pace since September 2008, during the height of the Global Financial Crisis, and was above the Reserve Bank of Australia's 2 to 3 per cent target for the first time in a decade.
Petrol prices are also at record highs with unleaded in Sydney selling for 172.2 cents a litre, compared with 172.8 cents in Melbourne, 175.7 cents in Brisbane and 180.5 cents in Adelaide.
The pandemic has also pushed up the price of used cars in Australia, with average prices 36 per cent above pre-Covid levels, Moody's Analytics data for September 2021 showed.
Taking to Twitter on Saturday, Dorsey wrote: 'Hyperinflation is going to change everything. It's happening'
The consumer price index rose 5.4% in September from last year, up from August's gain of 5.3% and matching the increases in June and July
In the United States, shipping ports are struggling to keep up with demand.
The Port of Los Angeles, which handles more than half of all shipping containers arriving in the U.S., has seen significant delays.
