Right now they seem to be getting cheap money from the Government, and then lending that money back to the Government at interest.
Or buying stocks with it.
I'm not sure the rest of us need to be involved.
That’s not inflation.
What we’ve got is deflation. Falling salaries. A stock market 40% below its peak. Falling commercial real-estate. 19 million vacant homes.
Shipping and trucking down to Carter-era levels.
Unemployment above 10%.
http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict2&Database=*&Query=inflation
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :
Inflation \In*fla”tion\, n. [L. inflatio: cf. F. inflation.]
[...]
3. Persistent expansion or increase in the general level of
prices, usually caused by overissue of currency, and
resulting in a reduced value of the currency. It is
contrasted with deflation, and is when it occurs to a
very high degree is called hyperinflation. [U.S.]
[1913 Webster +PJC]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 :
inflation
n 1: a general and progressive increase in prices; “in inflation
everything gets more valuable except money” [syn: rising
prices] [ant: deflation, disinflation]
Textbook wise, it’s inflation.
Meanwhile, my son has lived in the same apartment complex for two years now. His monthly rent is $1,100. The leasing company sent him a renewal notice saying that if he will sign a new 1 year lease, his monthly rent will go down to $800 a month.
Most people see that as deflation. They may have their labels goofed up, but a rose by any name...
I wonder if the stock rally is actually due to banks investing in it instead of directly lending. It would be like giving free money to the market and giving it a sense of optimism. It’s going to back fire if it is true.
Stealth socialism of this sort is the plague. We know that a bank deposit always gets reinvested elsewhere to higher interest rates or returns.
What is going on?
THese curves are astonishing. They look exactly like the pre-dot.com crash figures of early 2001.