PING!
"Last week, I interviewed Lou Dobbs of CNN"
Now there's a creditable source! NOT!
CPI is not an accurate indication of inflation because it reflects retail or consumer goods. Many things determine the actual risk of inflation such as government spending, taxation, foriegn balance of payments, level of investment, aggregate demand, etc....and Lou Dobbs IS NOT an economist and a fairly poor journalist (if that's what you call him)
"The borrowing creates massive liquidity and a buying boom in such items as real estate, stocks, commodities, and consumer items. All these items rise in a dangerous price bubble."
There is a problem with this statement. A buying boom certainly occurred (past tense) in real estate, but that buying boom was very uneven, geographically. There has been something of a boom in commodities, but I don't believe it was purely or even largely speculative. Stocks, while turning in the best showing of the decade, are still only modestly ahead of highs early in the decade, looking at the Dow. Consumer items have generally deflated, demand aside, due to offshore sourcing.
It wouldn't take much for a deflationary scenario to re-emerge. Standing pat on interest rates makes sense right now, from what I can see, even though a case can be made that the stimulus is still excessive.
"Government figures have been “doctored” for many years, under Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter. The former President George H.W. Bush began efforts to lower the reported CPI systematically. Clinton set the stage for a new and lower inflation CPI."
This "under-reporting" is taking longer to catch up with us than the Illuminati are taking to implement their world government.
Actually, there are indications that inflation is overstated due to ignoring the effect of productivity improvements over time. Maybe it all evens out!
[laughing too hard to respond]
Personally, I don't think the govt knows either.......
Someone just made up number and everyone nodded yes.
PS And it ain't an improved quality fakeroo.
Rising prices do not cause inflation.
Crash-Protection team, anyone?
I remember a couple of times the bond market moved with breathtaking heft during the Clinton years, the kind of heft that only large sovereign nations can muster.
And it was no mistake that some of the Wall Street trading firms were handing out rock star bonuses in its wake
Seriously this should be no surprise to anyone. Even the slug at the 7-11 doesn't believe the Gvnmt numbers on inflation. A small loaf of bread here is $2.50 and it's crap. Inflation doesn't exist unless you are buying a house, paying for college, feeding a family or buying a new car.
Bump for later reading
There is another critical result, and IMO this is why inflation is underreported.
Any sane person knows the Social Security Trust Fund is a farce, and the day of reckoning for SS is around 2017, not 2042 or whenever the financial alchemists (turning debt into gold) at the SS Administration say it will run out.
So what is a way to deal with a thirty-percent projected shortfall that does not involved tar and feathers for politicians? Why, under-report inflation by a percent or so year after year so that COLAs don't keep up with the actual rate of inflation.
That has the additional benefit of negative compunding - each percent underreported builds upon previous years of underreporting. So that after 20-25 years, the shortfall is cured by boiling the frog slowly.
Don't believe me? Check out the concept of substitution. The government says if steak gets too expensive and you buy hamburger instead, well, that's not inflation, because you're still buying beef.
Of course, that "logic" can claim it's not inflationary if all you can afford to buy is beef Alpo.
I am afraid my son and the other children in the family will be sent the bill for today's consumption.
But, this isn't enough data for financial experts and economists to discount any distortion this might create. Given that all of these facts and calculations are a matter of public record. And have been for decades.
The point of this article is that the Economy couldn't possibly be booming like it is, its just a lie and its ALL BUSH's FAULT!
And, its cold outside and perhaps the Government is lying about the Temperature so that people are less concerned about Global warming.