Don't go wobbly on us now, Ben Bernanke (IL is broke)

UK Telegraph ^ | 2-28-2010 | Ambrose Evan-Pritchard

[Frantzie]

Barack Obama's home state of Illinois is near the point of fiscal disintegration. "The state is in utter crisis," said Representative Suzie Bassi. "We are next to bankruptcy. We have a $13bn hole in a $28bn budget."

[NeoCaveman]

Actually Bernanke thinks he can prevent deflation. He wrote a paper and his other arguments around the Great Depression said that bank failure was the reason for its severity.

Bernanke walked back that infamous 2002 speech (about defeating deflation with a printing press and a helicopter) just last week.

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2012-Bernanke-Repudiates-Famous-2002-Speech.html

[WOBBLY BOB]

thanks. Ben’s my homey.

[grey_whiskers]

I'd agree with you for the most part, except I do all the grocery shopping and cooking for my family.

The price of eggs, cereal, and ice cream (for example) have tended to go up rather sharply in my neck of the woods -- e.g. one used to be able to buy a half-gallon of ice cream for $4.99 about the time of the Accursed One's election; now, the same brand and flavor is sold in a 1.5 quart container for $6.19.

Cereal has gone from about 9-12 cents per ounce on sale to a minimum of 15 cents per ounce.

Eggs are also up, going from 89 or 99 cents a dozen to somewhere between $1.28 an $1.58 a dozen.

I chose these examples because they represent a broad spectrum of food groups -- processed and unprocessed; dairy, grains, and protein.

And as such, they are not necessarily going to move in tandem due to price disputes (say) between the US and China over pork or chicken...

We seem to be getting scattered, semi-random inflation; at the same time that many forms of loans are impossible to get but a few are easy IF you are "well qualified"...

Cheers!

[JasonC]

The price of *houses* has gone down 40%. Housing is a rather larger part of the average person's expenses than milk and eggs. Please give me a break.

[AppyPappy]

Probably the cost of transportation in the snow. We’ve been getting hammered by the weather. Everything still costs the same here.

[grey_whiskers]

That's good if you were able to buy the house before, or after, the bubble.

As the housing bubble pops, the lower price is a liability for those who bought at higher prices, not a benefit.

Especially if they can't refi, short-sell, or garden variety "sell" to move to a job in another state in response to losing a job where they are.

And if the cost of daily consumables goes up...they're *really* caught in a vise.

Cheers!

[JasonC]

There is a buyer for every seller and vice versa.

The ongoing cost paid for housing in this country, rent and mortgage, but all concerned, is lower now than it was several years ago, and it will be lower in the next several years. That saves everyone income, net, for other things.

Next you will try to tell me that lower gas prices hurt those who filled the tank last weekend...

[grey_whiskers]

One is a sunk cost, one is a millstone which drags on for 15, 20, or 30 years.

Nice try at a strawman, though.

Cheers!