Posted on 03/12/2011 3:43:20 AM PST by DeaconBenjamin
Memo to central bankers:
Best not to cite the price of the new iPad as an example of why inflation isn't a problem when you head into a working-class neighborhood.
In Queens, New York, on Friday, New York Fed President William Dudley did just that. He got an earful.
After being bombarded with questions about food inflation, Dudley attempted to reassure his audience by putting rising commodity prices into a broader economic context -- but that only made matters worse.
"When was the last time, sir, that you went grocery shopping?" one audience member asked.
Dudley tried to explain how the Fed sees things: Yes, food and energy prices may be rising, but at the same time, other prices are declining.
He then stretched for a real world example. The only problem was he chose the Apple's latest tablet computer that hit stores on Friday, which may be more popular at the New York Fed's headquarters near Wall Street than it is on the gritty streets of Queens.
"Today you can buy an iPad 2 that costs the same as an iPad 1 that is twice as powerful," he said. "You have to look at the prices of all things."
This prompted guffaws and widespread murmuring from the audience, with one audience member calling the comment "tone deaf."
"I can't eat an iPad," another said.
Queens is best known internationally for being home to New York City's two airports, the Mets baseball team and its portrayal in the television program "The King of Queens".
Misjudging your audience is hardly unusual for those in positions of power. In 2007, candidate Barack Obama asked an Iowa crowd if they had seen what Whole Foods -- an upscale supermarket more popular in big cities than in the Corn Belt -- charges for arugula.
(Excerpt) Read more at sg.finance.yahoo.com ...
Gee...inflation and deflation happening at the same time...
Do you here a canary singing?
“I can’t eat an iPad,” another said. “
Get an iCandy program and lick the screen.
—
Nope. Not anymore. They took all the canaries down into the mines in the mid-70s and none returned ...
Only crickets chirp now ....
After reading this article, I cannot help but compare today’s elitist politicoes to the political movers and shakers of the past. For example, even though John Adams was an immensely influential founding father, vice president and then President,I recall reading that he was still involved in “managing the manure spreading” at his farm. My point is that despite their obvious social standing, the Adamses and others in their position looked upon arrogance as sinful. They faced many of the same things in life that did those with less resources. While Adams was brokering the peace in Europe, his wife remained home amidst an outbreak of dysentery in Boston. This disease claimed many lives including that of Abigail’s mother who had come to help her daughter nurse the children and servants. This had a way of putting things into perspective I think. It also bears repeating that when Adams became the Vice President, and protocol demanded that Mrs. Adams sit at the right hand of President Washington’s wife, Martha, Abigail often felt embarrassed to claim that spot. Evidently others who surrounded the First Family during a dinner often sat in that chair unawares of its claimant. Because the nation’s founders did not want to look presumptuous they often backed off from the niceties that were due them. Usually, in these cases, the ever charming George made things right without in the least offending anyone, but you see where I am going. Today,the elite ,and usual liberal, in government are very far removed from their constituents and do nothing to make that gap narrower.
The point that got missed is that if I purchase an I-pad today, I’m not going to need another one in few days. I purchase a loaf of bread, either I eat it or it gets moldy in a relatively short period of time. As such it is a perishable commodity.
When the cost of that same loaf was $1.39 last week, and is now $1.69 this week. Especially, if the margins to the baker and retailer remain the same, that is inflation.
Times have changed. To be a successful politician in modern America is to be someone for whom the words “self-restraint,” “modesty,” and “shame” have no practical meaning.
>Cheeseheads - take your state back, or ride it down the toilet.
Think before you post, okay? - They already did
They elected a conservative assembly a conservative senate and a conservative governor.
How does your state stack up?
Ain't that the truth!
Remember that broad back in the 1700's somewhere -- was it in France? -- who said "Let them eat cake!" when a govenment bureaucrat told her that people were complaining about the rising price of bread?
What a stupid twit! Technology is one of the few areas of the economy that is deflationary - prices actually decrease over time.
Funny how that flub didn't get much traction outside of FR. I guess the MSM was too busy doing background work on Joe the plumber Wurzelbacher.
Agreed - it's these aren't capitalists. They are corporate and union welfare queens sucking at Uncle Ben's free money teat - except that the money isn't free, it's created via the indentured servitude, via taxes, of you and your children and your children's children...ad infinitum or ad rerum mutatio which ever comes first.
I still have enough faith in the American People to resort to the latter and hit the reset button as spelled out in our Declaration of Independence.
Consumer electronics and their early adopter premium price effect should be out-of-bounds for the CPI.
Man, did you miss the meaning of my post. Nowhere do I blame capitalism.
I was pointing out that super-capitalists will use the same argument as Dudley to convince us that we are so much better off because we have super computers, cars that run better, and DVD's, etc.
The idea that inflation, per the govt, doesn't include food and energy because it's too "volatile" is what this article is about.
And as I learned it, "cake" is not a frosted confection ... think of that beehive shaped brick opening in a typical hearth in the 1700's. To bake, one shoveled in hot coals, let it heat up and then removed the coals. In order to clean the oven of residual ash, one mixed flour with water and poured it in to bake and capture the ash. That CAKE, when removed, left a clean oven ready for the real baking. The cake contained the ash and bits of coal. Think panCAKE without the sugar but lots of crunch.
So you see, the insult was an order of magnitude worse.
New York Fed President William Dudley: “LET THEM EAT IPODS!
It looks like a “Let them eat cake” moment.
Of course this will all be forgotten in the 2012 elections and the people go back to vote for Obama.
“”Today you can buy an iPad 2 that costs the same as an iPad 1 that is twice as powerful,” he said. “You have to look at the prices of all things.”
The fed actually does this as part of its price comparisons. Because the old iPad is now $250, instead of $500 that it was last year, they will then claim the iPad has fallen by half. So, that $500 is now claimed to be $250 so if your food bill goes up by $250 they’ll claim there has been no inflation.
There is no direct costs-of-life comparisons. They won’t toss in electricity, gas, home heating, food, etc. They throw in big screen TVs, blenders, furniture, clothes, etc. They try to add up things you might not buy every year or even one every ten years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.