Inflation 2011:

[Ron Hill]

Bernanke says current inflation is below 2 percent. Admittedly, Bernanke's not alone in touting this fiction; it's more or less official government policy, ever since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began excluding food and energy costs from its official "core inflation" measure. Yes, you read that right: The government's inflation index excludes food and energy. (This is the same model Al Gore uses to prove his diet is working.)

So the price of your labor is holding steady. It's the price of the things you need to buy that's skyrocketing.

Here, then, are some inflation figures concurrent with his "60 Minutes" appearance that Bernanke could pretend were irrelevant to his "official" inflation measure:


Oil prices are up 21% in the last year
Corn is up 49% in the last year
Wheat is up 41% in the last year
Beef is up 28% in the last year
Sugar is up 32% in the last year
Coffee is up 40% in the last year
In other words, inflation is already raging.

Any wonder why the boat business in the U.S>A. is off by 95%!!!!

[Bunker Hill]

Can we afford/survive four more years??

[Mark75H]

It's not really inflation if wages are not also going up.

If prices are going up and not wages it is the American standard of living going down and NOT inflation. The two are not interchangeable.

This is an example of propaganda being fed by our increasingly lying government. It is so easy to see it is a lie it is amazing so many people are falling for it and the media continues to repeat it

[david bryan]

Some price increase is do to supply and demand but inflation is caused by governments printing to much money. inflation is like blowing up a balloon i.e.' inflate' I have in my hand a ten billion mark German notes that is worthless but in 1918 a five mark German note was worth about 2 dollars American

[david bryan]

now this is inflation

[Mark75H]

The germans carried those things home by the wheel barrow full. We are not in the same situation. We are not seeing real inflation

We are seeing reduction in buying power, not inflation

[david bryan]

yet

[Mark75H]

That's what I was saying last year, too.

The thing that is holding back the kind of hyperinflation is the fact that employers have no incentive to increase wages.

Inflation is a self feeding spiral.

Without increasing wages, inflation is in check.

When will I be getting the big raise?

No time soon.

Prices can only go so high without wages rising with them

No employer wants to be the one that raises their wages first
No industry can afford to be the one that kills its place in the current business model

[Powerabout]

governments love inflation as it makes their debt go away.
They create it by printing money

[Mark75H]

That is true. But we do not have real inflation at this time, only price increases; not price increases and wage increases.

Back in the 1990's we had inflation. Prices went up, but so did pay. My pay went from $9/hr to over $20/hr

[Master Oil Racing Team]

The man who handles my money says most of the money managers are concerned with deflation at this time and they don't see inflation as being a threat until a couple of years down the line. The increases in oil are fueling the other commodity price rices and since all oil is priced in dollars, the decline of the dollar is causing the prices to go up.

What we are currently in seems to be more of a Jimmy Carter phenomena, when they coined the term "stagflation". Prices are rapidly rising while incomes remain stagnant. But hold on to your hat, because with the way Obama and the Democrats have spent our money we are in for inflation down the road like you've never seen. Like David says "Yet". And Powerabout is correct when he says that inflation is how governments reduce debt. The interest on our national debt is around 25% now. I think we are sending about 100 million a day to the Chinese. Yet what is our interest rate? Currently rates are low. Just imagine how much of our debt will only go to interest alone when the rates go up.

[david bryan]

thanks wayne

[Lars Strom]

Well..this one is pretty scary..I do not know if correct or not but look like when I pumpt gas today.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

[Powerabout]

dont forget the Billion or so dollars sent overseas to buy oil every day
So which business is making 365 billion a year profit just to square that one up?

[ferv888ipba]

My wife called me to come to the kitchen the other day, funny only place in the house she calls me to. She said look at these two packages, same noodles, one 1# package, the other for 13-3/4# package, funny though, she paid the same price, only a few months apart.

75H is right, inflation is not without price/wage combination, but your purchase power is going down the crapper. If you remember Bernake testimony, they said they wanted to get inflation to about 3% which will indeed mask the debt.

Ray