Doctor Copper
Posted on 10/22/2015 10:19:33 AM PDT by blam
Tyler Durden
10/22/2015
Submitted by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,
Whenever we at the Automatic Earth explain, as we must have done at least a hundred times in our existence, that, and why, we refuse to define inflation and deflation as rising or falling prices (only), we always get a lot of comments and reactions implying that people either don’t understand why, or they think it’s silly to use a definition that nobody else seems to use.
-More or less- recent events, though, show us once more why we’re right to insist on inflation being defined in terms of the interaction of money-plus-credit supply with money velocity (aka spending). We’re right because the price rises/falls we see today are but a delayed, lagging, consequence of what deflation truly is, they are not deflation itself. Deflation itself has long begun, but because of confusing -if not conflicting- definitions, hardly a soul recognizes it for what it is.
Moreover, the role the money supply plays in that interaction gets smaller, fast, as debt, in the guise of overindebtedness, forces various players in the global economy, from consumers to companies to governments, to cut down on spending, and heavily. We are as we speak witnessing a momentous debt deleveraging, or debt deflation, in real time, even if prices don’t yet reflect that. Consumer prices truly are but lagging indicators.
The overarching problem with all this is that if you look just at -consumer- price movements to define inflation or deflation, you will find it impossible to understand what goes on.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
I know the prices have doubled in the last 6 years, and the box sizes (or at least the contents) have shrunk TOO.
You pay more than double and get less.
Caterpillar Shares Tumble After Company Misses Across The Board, Revenues Plunge 19%, Guidance Cut
That's not right.
Doctor Copper
yes I have seen it in most areas of food items.
Long article saying what I have said for a while-—we are in serious worldwide deflation.
London Broil, $7.75 / lb during labor day, double what it was 4 years ago. Levemer insulin pen, $544 per month without insurance, up 150%. Car batteries, wiper blades, minor construction material, all food in general up up and up again.
Only thing cheaper is Fuel and Oil and retail prices haven’t gone down over the last year. So excuse me if I don’t see the deflation.
only good thing about that is it has somewhat stopped people tearing out copper from unoccupied/being built houses.
While the "central banks .. may (or may not have) reached the point where they’re essentially powerless to do anything more, or else," the federal government has the means to fix this problem; but the federal government has no will to fix this problem.
Remove taxes and regulations on businesses and the people; and watch the economy take off. Taxes and regulations are killing us. The government is out of control and is suffocating us.
Or, the people can just do as Jeb Bush said, "It means that people need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families."
Hmmph, I feel Boxer in Animal Farm.
And yet commodity grain prices are at or near five-year lows.
if you look just at -consumer- price movements to define inflation or deflation, you will find it impossible to understand what goes on.
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I don’t need to “understand, “what’s going on” to know that almost everything I need is getting more costly and my dollar goes an ever shorter distance, as time goes on, no matter if you call it inflation or Cherrios.
>> Caterpillar Shares Tumble After Company Misses Across The Board, Revenues Plunge 19%, Guidance Cut
Hmmm... CAT shares have “tumbled” up 4 1/2 % (>$3.00 higher) just now on that depressing news. They’re at a 30 day high right now.
They also confirmed their whopping 4.47% dividend.
Life is good. Oh, sorry, I meant to say we’re doomed.
Care to provide any context with the graph? I mean, other than copper is going down.
Twenty minutes in a Kroger or Safeway should cure the author of this notion.
that’s probably transpiration/feul input costs?
We rarely used to pay over $40 at the grocery store. Now it’s $50 for a small trip and $80 for a normal trip.
Seems like inflation to me.
A McDonald’s breakfast sandwich now has cheese slices that are paper thin
I guess my tiny bit of CAT stock is good for something after all.
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