How then, do we move backwards? How does a society, with most of the people having no clue of future events, move from being dependent on a vast and intertwined network of goods and services produced by the indigenous people of whereever, to a local resource and renewable energy based society, and do so in the timeframe available (20-30 years using the most liberal extimates, 10-20 with resonable estimates, 5-10 with worst case scenarios), all the while prices on everything increasing, world politics getting more militaristic, governments continuously reducing civil liberties, shortages of goods on the market and weather patterns resembling bad Hollywood movies?
Joined: Sep 25, 2004 Posts: 4358 Location: Boston, MA
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:47 am Post subject: Re: US inflation rate at 26-year high
This is why gold has rocketed up over $100 in the past month and the Euro has hit yet another all time high.
If the Federal Reserve doesn't ramp up interest rates to at LEAST 4% by the end of this year, the inflation picture is going to get out of control.
The sooner they get a handle on inflation, the better.
Instead, the Feds are repeating the mistakes of the early 1970s and are choosing to increase the money supply in response to higher energy prices...ignoring the fact that the increase in money supply is CAUSING the higher energy prices. _________________ "www.peakoil.com is the Myspace of the Apocalypse."
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:51 am Post subject: Re: US inflation rate at 26-year high
1.01112 = 14%, right?
If you're not making 14%, you're losing money?
At least we're not in a recessiontm _________________ At 1% annual growth, human bodies will incorporate every gram in the observable universe in approximately 10,170 years.
Joined: Sep 29, 2004 Posts: 2326 Location: Pennsylvania, USA
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:55 am Post subject: Re: US inflation rate at 26-year high
Real inflation is probably at a 30 year high, maybe even a 50 year high. Bernanke seems to be fixated on a certain kind of inflation; wage inflation. He seems to think that his most important duty is to keep a lid on wage inflation. He is fixated on the "wage/price spiral." A lot of commentators have noticed this theme in his utterances. It makes complete sense to me and reveals the real plan; keep the burdens on the backs of the workers. The "bail out" that Bernanke is looking for is, as always, coming from us, the workers of the world. He seems to care little that prices are rising, as long as wages don't rise. It's a carefully controlled, lowering of the typical standard of living for the average person.
Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist, but IMO, this has been the basic fed plan for the past thirty years. What the hell, it's worked well. Inflation is just fine as long as wages don't rise; that's the apparent motto. The way they look at it, there is a whole world of dirt cheap workers onto which the load of inflation can be exported to. As long as wages don't rise, the machine is working just fine. In fact, as long as wages don’t rise, the inflation is ‘good’, as it forces those at the bottom to be more efficient and increase worker productivity. I saw on the news yesterday that US worker productivity is at an all time high. Companies lay off workers and dump more work on the survivors.
The problem with this strategy is that we are now at a point where a lot of the jobs left in the US are ones that, for various reasons, can’t be exported. Anything that can be offshored is. However, world wide high energy prices throw a monkey wrench in that time proven strategy. Offshoring jobs is becoming more expensive. The money isn’t going to the foreign workers; it’s going to energy and materials costs. In fact, it’s the cause of the recent crisis; all of a sudden, real inflation does matter and it’s killing the great worldwide wealth machine. _________________ "That's the problem with mercy, kid... It just ain't professional" - Fast Eddie, The Color of Money
Joined: Sep 29, 2004 Posts: 2326 Location: Pennsylvania, USA
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 8:00 am Post subject: Re: US inflation rate at 26-year high
Tyler_JC wrote:
This is why gold has rocketed up over $100 in the past month and the Euro has hit yet another all time high.
If the Federal Reserve doesn't ramp up interest rates to at LEAST 4% by the end of this year, the inflation picture is going to get out of control.
The sooner they get a handle on inflation, the better.
Instead, the Feds are repeating the mistakes of the early 1970s and are choosing to increase the money supply in response to higher energy prices...ignoring the fact that the increase in money supply is CAUSING the higher energy prices.
I agree except that the root cause of higher energy prices is supply and demand. The increasing of the money supply is a knee jerk reaction to that and does nothing but exasperate the problem. It's like the bankers of the world saying to the oil producers; "you're going to eat this extra money without raising your prices, right?" _________________ "That's the problem with mercy, kid... It just ain't professional" - Fast Eddie, The Color of Money
Joined: Sep 16, 2004 Posts: 4230 Location: Southwest WI
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:00 am Post subject: Re: US inflation rate at 26-year high
King-
I've got to agree. I read a few days over on Marketwatch about this very thing (wage inflation) and the comments were pretty interesting. I guess i've thought about it in the past but never thought about it much.
How can the FED control this? Do they send out a text to Wall St. crooks? My wife just got her "raise" yesterday. Looks like it was around 3%, similar to last year. I know the city government (police officers) 2 years ago didn't get a raise for the one year, but had 2 raises the next, although i forget the percentages... _________________ "Oil is going up because we use too much oil, and the capacity to replace reserves is dwindling"
-President Bush 11/07/07
Joined: Apr 12, 2007 Posts: 1162 Location: Central NC
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:09 am Post subject: Re: US inflation rate at 26-year high
Good post KC, thanks. _________________ "The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences…"
Sir Winston Churchill
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:18 am Post subject: Re: US inflation rate at 26-year high
Quote:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080716/economy.html?.v=6
This increase reflected a 4.5 percent jump in airline ticket prices, the biggest one-month rise for airline fares since March 2000.
This is such a pure, unadulterated lie. Or maybe they're just manipulating the numbers. But c'mon. 4.5%???
I just bought an airline ticket and paid 100% more (almost to the penny) than I paid 12 months earlier. I wish they'd just tell us the &^$% truth. It'd make it easier to prepare for whatever lies ahead.
Joined: Dec 18, 2004 Posts: 4053 Location: One Mile From the Columbia River
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:29 am Post subject: Re: US inflation rate at 26-year high
hope_full wrote:
Quote:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080716/economy.html?.v=6
This increase reflected a 4.5 percent jump in airline ticket prices, the biggest one-month rise for airline fares since March 2000.
This is such a pure, unadulterated lie. Or maybe they're just manipulating the numbers. But c'mon. 4.5%???
I just bought an airline ticket and paid 100% more (almost to the penny) than I paid 12 months earlier. I wish they'd just tell us the &^$% truth. It'd make it easier to prepare for whatever lies ahead.
Technically it's true. The FARES are barely rising, but the fees and surcharges are making ticket prices climb. We recently flew too and the breakdown of what constitutes the total price of boarding a plane is quite remarkable. Why not skip the complex and confusing fees and surcharges and simply raise the fares? _________________ Everything is Impermanent. Shakyamuni Buddha
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:38 am Post subject: Re: US inflation rate at 26-year high
eastbay wrote:
Why not skip the complex and confusing fees and surcharges and simply raise the fares?
I was talking to my wife's cousin's husband (...who knows this guy that saw a guy at.... - j/k ) last night, who is one of the chief ATC's out at DFW, and he says the reason that fares aren't going up is primarily b/c of where that would land the carrier in your typical Expedia/Orbits/Travelocity/Sidestep, etc. search for flights. Obviously, a fare increase would put an airline at the bottom of that list. However, tacking on checked luggage/food/breathing fees allows airlines to maintain the visage of cutthroat low pricing. It's a business model that will soon have much less competition, and then we will see fares hike commensurate with fuel prices. _________________ "It's called the American Dream because you'd have to be asleep to believe it."
"wholesale prices jumped 1.8 percent last month and have increased 9.2 percent during the past 12 months, the Labor Department reported. It was the largest 12-month gain in 27 years."
1.8 x 12 = 21.6% annual rate of inflation for wholesale. How long till it hits retail?
Joined: Oct 23, 2005 Posts: 1654 Location: East of Eden
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 10:25 am Post subject: Re: US inflation rate at 26-year high
hope_full wrote:
This is such a pure, unadulterated lie. Or maybe they're just manipulating the numbers. But c'mon. 4.5%???
I just bought an airline ticket and paid 100% more (almost to the penny) than I paid 12 months earlier. I wish they'd just tell us the &^$% truth. It'd make it easier to prepare for whatever lies ahead.
4.5% per month gets a doubling time of fifteen and a half months. So that's not too far off what you're saying. Add in eastbay's fees and you're there.
I'm flying in a couple of weeks. I'm gonna ask for some peanuts and see what happens. _________________ "If a path to the better there be, it begins with a full look at the worst." — Thomas Hardy
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 10:57 am Post subject: Re: US inflation rate at 26-year high
emersonbiggins wrote:
Obviously, a fare increase would put an airline at the bottom of that list. However, tacking on checked luggage/food/breathing fees allows airlines to maintain the visage of cutthroat low pricing.
Yeah, those breathing surcharges and fees will knock the wind out of you .........
Joined: Apr 17, 2005 Posts: 2663 Location: Vancouver Island
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 11:19 am Post subject: Re: US inflation rate at 26-year high
I was looking for a flight from vancouver to edmonton a few weeks back. there was one for $19. Then add the $100 fuel surcharge and everything else it came in close to $300.
Funny thing, we added the ability to use surcharges to our software and the oil industry all looked at us like we were stupid. They don't charge fuel surcharges to anyone. The cost of fuel goes up and they up their prices.
Basically the oil guys are the only honest people I deal with about whats going on. _________________ shame on us, doomed from the start
god have mercy on our dirty little hearts
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) last night, who is one of the chief ATC's out at DFW, and he says the reason that fares aren't going up is primarily b/c of where that would land the carrier in your typical Expedia/Orbits/Travelocity/Sidestep, etc. search for flights. Obviously, a fare increase would put an airline at the bottom of that list. However, tacking on checked luggage/food/breathing fees allows airlines to maintain the visage of cutthroat low pricing. It's a business model that will soon have much less competition, and then we will see fares hike commensurate with fuel prices.
