Posted on 04/27/2007 8:40:41 AM PDT by Breakfast of Champions
The price index for gross domestic purchases, which measures prices paid by U.S. residents, increased 3.6 percent in the first quarter, compared with an increase of 0.2 percent in the fourth. The Q1 increase is the highest increase in 16 years...
(Excerpt) Read more at economicpolicymonitor.com ...
Yes - it is the price of oil...
Is this an annualized number? That makes a helluva difference.
Crude was higher last year. Retail gasoline seems to be headed to a permanently higher price level. Food prices appear to be up considerably.
Think of it this way. You have a budget of $100 per week. The price of oil goes up. What do you do? You decrease your spending somewhere else, so you still spend $100 per week. that is, there is no inflation becuase whatever you stopped spending money on went down in price.
What else can you do? You can borrow money. But whoever you borrow it from spends less.
Unless, that is, the Feds print a bunch of money for the banks to lend to you. Now, you have more money and are spending more money.
That's inflation. It is caused by printing money.
Oil
Oil, and the dollar sinking like a stone, and the Bernanke printing presses all working in concert to devalue what littel you are able to save. This is the same as putting a gun between a mans’ ribs and saying, “Give me what you got.”
Usually there is no distiction between inflation and higher prices, though there should be. The Federal Reserve doesn't care one way or another.
Welcome to the forum.
PLease don’t click “Exceprt” if it isn’t.
So now we are seeing a disconnect between economic growth and inflation. That should only come as a surprise to all the experts who incorrectly think that inflation is caused by economic growth.
I may sound like a conspiracy nut but is it possible that someone in Al Queada is smart enough to be trying to do to us what we did to USSR- bleed us with proolonged military build up? Is there a way to defend ourselves with large military operations for a decade (as the president has been predicted might be the case) without suffering serious financial hardship?
I don’t know why we don’t start an anti-jihad War Bond program. The enemy would realize the resolve of the populous (despite media) if they saw we raised billions out of our own pockets.
And W's on the record saying that he doesn't believe in currency intervention. I hope he changes his mind.
Well yeah, we’re all going to die someday.
But at this rate, I’m going to die at a craphole, government run warehouse for the poor.
Seriously. At 50, I think I’ll need about $1.5 million if I retire at 60. A few hundred grand ain’t going to cut it.
They are just picking up on this NOW?
The inflation creep has been going on all the time, mostly in fits and starts, affecting one sector while seeming not to be going on elsewhere. But now, many prices are rising in tandem, like both bread and sandwich meat, and prices that should seasonally fall, like eggs, change hardly at all. Processed and fresh foods are both steadily higher, and even durable goods, like hardware and furniture, that have been at relatively modest prices (because of massive imports) are also responding to upward pressure.
The VALUE of crude oil is not rising. There are just more dollars out there held by people who are willing to exchange more dollars to get the same quantity of oil. Too many dollars chasing too few goods.
Price is not value.
No definition of inflation is complete without also including an account of the things that money can buy.
A lot of the increase were businesses increasing prices to prepare for the increase in the minimum wage expected by this congress.
“PLease don’t click “Exceprt” if it isn’t.”
Technically. It is an excerpt.
This was left out.
“The story in the GDP numbers, released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, is not the GDP number itself, but the GDP price index.”
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