Inflation is high, and five market experts have weighed in on where prices head from here.Paul Tudor Jones ,Carl Icahn ,Jeff Gundlach ,Stanley Druckenmiller ,Alan Greenspan .
What do a tank of gas, a week's worth of groceries, your new home, a used car, and a back-to-school-outfit have in common?
They've all gotten more expensive this year.
Consumers are facing the highest prices in about a decade, and it's likely to stick around through at least the middle of next year. Many of the top market experts have begun sounding alarms over the trend.
Here's what five of them have to say as inflation continues to increase.
Paul Tudor Jones
For billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones inflation is the number one problem facing society.
"It's probably the single biggest threat to, certainly, financial
Jones, the founder and chief investment officer of Tudor Investment Corporation, said it's clear that inflationary pressures aren't "transitory," considering the economy has overheated in part thanks to unprecedented levels of fiscal and monetary stimulus.
He said equities, not fixed income assets like bonds, are much better investments in the "inflationary world."
Carl Icahn
Meanwhile, the legendary billionaire investor Carl Icahn suggests investors try bitcoin if they are looking to hedge inflation. "If inflation gets rampant, I guess it does have value," he said warily of the cryptocurrency.
Icahn said inflation is taking hold - in a bad way.
"The market is certainly going to hit the wall. I really think there will be a crisis the way we're going, the way we're printing money, the way we're going into inflation," he said in an October CNBC interview.
Jeff Gundlach
For Jeff Gundlach inflation all comes down to two factors: wages and rent.
The billionaire "bond king" and CEO of investment firm DoubleLine told CNBC in an Oct. 22 interview that those two factors are "waiting in the wings to keep things elevated." He said wages for lower salary jobs have risen to "sky high" levels, and soon, that trend will likely push up wages for supervisors as well. As for the cost of shelter, Gundlach said in the last six months, median rent has risen by more than 10%.
"We're going to get persistently high inflation thanks to the shelter component," he said, adding that inflation is likely to stay above 4% at least through 2022.
Stanley Druckenmiller
Druckenmiller, on the other hand, thinks inflation will top 4% for at least the next four years, and the
Just a year ago the billionaire investor and founder of Duquesne Family Office said inflation could reach as high as 10% with markets in a "raging mania." That party, he told CNBC at the time, will eventually end in a "hangover."
Alan Greenspan
Greenspan, the former chair of the US Federal Reserve, said "unprecedented amounts of government spending" and "burgeoning federal debt" may lead to higher inflation for a longer period of time.
On top of that, Greenspan, who is now a senior economic adviser to Advisors Capital Management, raised alarms over demand-side inflation, where "too many dollars chasing too few goods and services," and supply-side inflation, where shortages in energy, transportation, and raw materials are prevalent.