Free Republic

Sarah Kaufman, Vocativ Febuary 4, 2015Thanks to the sharp decline in the ruble’s value, RBK reports that certain large packs of Procter & Gamble active baby diapers, as well as most of the company’s feminine products, men’s razors and toothpaste, will see a price hike of 50 percent. Starting March 7, Russians will have to pay around 2,650 rubles ($40) instead of the current list price of 1,767 rubles ($25) for a value pack of 186 Pampers. Considering Procter & Gamble accounted for almost 37 percent of diaper sales in Russia in 2013, that cost increase will affect hundreds of...

Elena Holodny Feburary 3, 2015Food prices are out of control in Russia. So now, Russian officials are even thinking about putting a price cap on "essential food products," reports the Moscow Times. "We will see how to efficiently place [the restrictions] into law," the deputy prime minister Arkady Dvorkovich said. He also added that the government may give "the state competition watchdog more power in enforcing existing retail market regulations," reports the Moscow Times. What exactly counts as an "essential food product" is unclear at the moment. (snip)

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) - The global economic outlook just got brighter after this week's big stimulus from the European Central Bank, leading policymakers from around the world said Saturday. In a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, they said a perkier Europe, coupled with a prolonged period of low oil prices, could help shore up the global economy following a period of underperformance that has prompted many forecasters to reduce their growth forecasts. "Lower oil prices and the big decision by ECB could further improve world economic outlook," said Haruhiko Kuroda, governor of the Bank of Japan.

Indianapolis Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson, who says he didn’t snitch on the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game, told NFL Media’s Jeff Darlington that Brady was using a Colts football at the end of the first half Sunday night. Jackson spoke to an official, who said they couldn’t locate a usable football, during a TV timeout when the Patriots had the ball. Later in the first half, Jackson noticed that the Patriots were using Colts footballs.

Myles Udland January 15, 2015 The crash in oil prices might be good for consumers, but it's terrible for inflation data. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release the consumer price index on Friday morning at 8:30 ET. The index is a measure of consumer prices, and the most popularly cited measure of inflation. Expectations are for headline inflation to fall 0.4% in December compared to the prior month, which would be the largest month-on-month decline since December 2008. Compared to last year, headline inflation is set to rise 0.7%. "Core" inflation — which strips out the...

Inflation in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, slowed to just 0.2 percent in December, its lowest level in more than five years, and averaged 0.9 percent for the whole of 2014, according to new figures released on Monday. […] Using the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP)—the yardstick used by the European Central Bank—inflation in Germany was even lower at 0.1 percent in December, way under the ECB’s annual inflation target of just below 2.0 percent. The chronically low level of inflation across the single currency bloc has fueled concern the region could slip into deflation—a sustained and widespread drop in...

Recent Price Plunge Looks Good After Years of High Costs, but Fill-Ups Were Less Expensive From 1986-2003 U.S. gasoline prices are the lowest they’ve been in five years. And they feel even cheaper because they come on the heels of the highest gas prices consumers have paid in three decades.In 2012, the national annual average for a gallon of regular unleaded gas—the yardstick for gauging prices—hit a high of $3.77, capping a series of years in which the average exceeded $3 a gallon. Before that, the last time the average was so high was in the early 1980s, when, adjusted...

January 1, 2015 Dr_Jeff_Lewis The next generation will look back at the current period with utter astonishment. The archives will be riddled with debates and all manner of euphemisms for what led to the collapse of the world’s first and last fiat reserve currency. It is a process well underway. Take a look at two seemingly unrelated, though current, economic-financial trends: Food stamps and subprime. The case of spending compared with risk. Food assistance is but a tiny tributary broken off from a massive river of denial. Subprime represents the nadir of ‘risk-on’ fueled monetary euphoria. Spending that comes from...

Venezuela confirmed on Tuesday it had entered a recession while inflation remained the highest in the Americas, and President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government blamed political foes for the dismal data. The Central Bank said gross domestic product (GDP) contracted in each of the first three quarters: 4.8 percent, 4.9 percent and 2.3 percent. Twelve-month inflation reached 63.6 percent in November.

Senior portfolio manager at NML Capital Jay Newman said that “Argentina is capable of paying all of its creditors” given its “vast natural ressources.” He blamed the government for not reaching a deal with the holdouts.

A wheelbarrow of money to buy a loaf of bread. This is what Obama, with his fiscal cliff plan, threatens us with. For many years now we have heard chilling tales about that elusive, powerful and manipulative entity conspiracy theorists have called “The New World Order”. Not only have the members of this group managed for the most part to remain anonymous, but their agenda has remained mysterious and obscure. So much so that many good people have been perfectly fine with ignoring its existence or viability. Whether or not this New World Order is in lockstep with World Communism...

Get the hot deals while they last! Whatever’s on your holiday shopping list—buy now, it may never be this cheap again! In a single day this past week, the ruble exchange rate dropped from 59 to 80 to the dollar, further eroding confidence in the Russian economy and ensuring a deep recession next year—but also briefly turning Moscow into the shopping capital of the world. Although this past week’s currency crisis marked the worst fall for the ruble since Russia defaulted on its debt in 1998, no one was waiting in bread lines or starting a run on the bank....

Sam Ro December 23, 2014America is just killing it. Q3 GDP growth was just revised up to 5.0% from last month's estimate of 3.9%. This is the fastest pace of growth since Q3 2003. This was also much stronger than the 4.3% expected by economists. "The increase in real GDP in the third quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from PCE, nonresidential fixed investment, federal government spending, exports, state and local government spending, and residential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased," the BEA said. Personal consumption growth was revised up to 3.2% from 2.2%....

Diocletian became emperor in 284. Early in his reign, he took a decidedly non-peaceful turn, purging the empire of any perceived threats to his power. He enlarged both the Empire’s military and civil forces, creating a greater threat to foreign leaders and a greater police state at home...

Russians are saying “ooh yeh” to the collapse of their currency, but it’s not as positive as it might sound to Western ears. As the value of the ruble goes into free fall, Russians are preparing for a return to the economic chaos of the ’90s. At a retail level, it means that store managers across Russia are rewriting their price tags in a currency Russians call a “conventional currency unit.” In Russian, the phrase for “conventional currency unit” is uslovnaya yedinitsa—abbreviated to an acronym pronounced ooh yeh.

Tyler Durden 12/17/2014Great news: The prices consumers pay dropped 0.3% MoM in November - the biggest deflation since Dec 2008. Of course, The Fed will be in "considerable" panic mode at this data and may choose to crush the hope of so many that rate hikes are coming in mid-2015 as definitive evidence that the US economy is well on the road to recovery. Ex-Food-and-Energy, prices rose 1.7% YoY - slightly missing expectations of +1.8%. Of course, a big driver of this 'transitory' disinflation is a 10.5% YoY drop in Gasoline and 6.6% MoM drop in November. Despite this huge...

Sub-Headlines: CPI no longer measures the cost of maintaining a constant standard of living. CPI no longer measures full inflation for out-of-pocket expenditures. With the misused cover of academic theory, politicians forced significant underreporting of official inflation, so as to cut annual cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security, etc. Politicians look to expand further the concept of artificially-suppressed cost-of-living adjustments in current budget-deficit negotiations [in 2013], through the use of the Chained-CPI (see Special C-CPI Supplement at end of this document). Use of the CPI to adjust retirement benefits, private income or to set investment goals impairs the ability of retirees,...

Merryn Somerset WebbDecember 1, 2014 Russell Napier is a financial historian and the founder of ERIC, an online research firm that aims at connecting analysts and investors. Here he talks to Merryn Somerset Webb about the next deflationary bust – why it’s coming, what it means for you, and how you can survive it. Merryn Somerset Webb: Let’s start at the beginning. You are a firm believer, as I understand it, in the idea that we live in a deflationary environment and there’s almost nothing that central banks can do to change that. So, maybe talk a little bit about...

Mike Bird November 28, 2014 Eurozone inflation figures just released put the rate at 0.3% in November, down from October's 0.4% and in line with estimates. With the recent impact of oil prices, that means deflation isn't just a possibility for the eurozone: markets are now suggesting it's the most likely outcome in a few months' time. Analysts had forecast that that the rate would come in at 0.3% again, though some suggested it could fall as low as 02% The ECB currently targets 2% inflation, but that target was last reached in the summer of 2012. These numbers increase...

(Reuters) - European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has moved closer to launching sovereign debt purchases and data this week will show just how dangerously low inflation has fallen in the $13 trillion euro zone economy. A sickly Europe has held back global economic growth for years, and now it is contributing significantly to powerful forces already dragging down inflation across the globe. A spectacular drop in crude oil prices over the past month will be the center of discussion when ministers from the world's top oil exporters meets in Vienna on Friday.