White House: Inflation Not A Threat

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

I post this because the person making the assessment that inflation is under control is Gregory Mankiw, the same guy who in 2002 projected that the Bush Tax Cuts would have created an additional six million new jobs (he missed the bullseye by eight million jobs) and who earlier this year tried to argue that outsourcing is really "a good thing" for the U.S. economy.

All of which leads me to believe that we're in for one helluva bout with inflation.

Link

[WI_DEM]

1. heck even if they have to address the issue of inflation

means there is trouble.

[many a good man]

2. Cheney: Carter proved inflation doesn't matter

"Its our due."
:grr:

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

4. LOL!

Apparently the Geneva Convention doesn't matter, either!

[teryang]

3. Education and medical costs skyrocketing

Energy costs way up. These people just discredit themselves further with their fantasy land reports. Only the most boneheaded repukes believe this.

Of course others who push the "everything" is roses with economy propaganda, have to make a living selling financial instruments and equities. Good luck.

Wall street pundits, why is the volume so low? Gee, what could it be?

[sofa king]

5. If you go with the premise that everything these people say is a lie...

...Then I suppose I should have bought those damned gold futures like all my friends did.

[Leilani]

6. BwaaHaaa!!!

EOM

[truthisfreedom]

7. please tell them to be quiet. every time they open their mouths about

the economy it gets worse.

[Spazito]

8. The way it is going, the only thing they will base their inflation stats..

on will be the price of magazines that profile the aliens that are visiting our planet. Geez!

[denverbill]

9. It's not a threat. It's a promise.

Of course, if they keep excluding 'volatile food and energy' costs, inflation might still be somewhat tame. Of course, the cost to ship anything anywhere goes up, as do plane tickets, as do the costs of anything requiring energy to produce.

You can't devalue the dollar by 50% and expect prices to stay the same.

[On the Road]

10. I Was Just About to Post the Same Article

It's amazing -- deny, deny, deny. You can't get a straight answer out of these people. If they're doing nothing, you can bet we'll be facing either a recession or double-digit inflation by election time.

[MGKrebs]

11. My little business scenario.

My little business, selling lighting and Velcro and stuff, is experiencing price increases from all major suppliers at the same time. Anything with steel or plastic in it, which is almost everything, is going up 8-10%. Everything else is going up about 3% just because of transportation costs. Never seen anything like it.



edit: to be fair, I should say that Velcro is only going up 3%. Which is interesting because they have recently been bringing a lot of production back to the US from Mexico and Costa Rica.

[librechik]

12. watch out everybody; inflation's about to kick our asses

It's always "Opposite Day" at the White House

[lumpy]

14. Inflation has become a way of life.

I am old enough to remember the years when the price of a loaf of bread, a jug of milk remained the same. Prices and jobs were pretty much stabilized. This is the result of 'free unfettered enterprize', deregulation, obscene tax shelters and greed.

[salin]

26. yet to the media, it is almost like a tree falling in the woods scenario

so if the admin changes the formula to measure inflation - and then keeps declaring there is no inflation... even though real people are paying more for the same things... is there really any inflation?

[MGKrebs]

13. Jeez, just found out that even Visa/Mastercard

processing fees are going up for us merchants.

[Spinzonner]

15. Yeah, those electrons from the near east are getting more expensive

I guess they havent outsourced enough jobs yet.

[Jacobin]

16. WH: "Jump off that skyscraper. You will float down harmlessly"

Fucking lying ass fools.

[nolabels]

17. I really haven't noticed any inflation .

Although I am paying more than double for a gallon of gas since these lying sacks of sh*T took over squatting in that office

[MGKrebs]

18. Happening at the wholesale level right now...

But coming soon to a retail outlet near you!

[lumpy]

19. It is called 'creeping inflation'.

I certainly have noticed inflation. Been grocery shopping for many years; I use this as the index for inflated prices and, believe me, every year the price of a can of green beans goes up. Medical expenses continue to rise, insurance premiums, essential services up up and away. Ridiculous to use the price of gas as an index. Much political attention is paid to the price of gas and oil because it affects commerce in all phases and the public respounds negatively. The government is working their asses off as we speak to get OPEC to lower their crude, they don't give a rat's behind about inflated food prices or any other living essentials. Milk prices in some areas have doubled in the past year. In the last 5 years a visit to the doctor has nore than doubled; this has nothing to do with the price of gasoline. Does anyone care ? Hell no.

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

23. It won't take much...

Consider how many people have been downsized and outsourced in the past three years. They went from $60K jobs down to $40K jobs and from $40K jobs down to $20K jobs. When you've had your income slashed like that, it's only going to take a small amount of inflation to spook consumers out of the market. That's particularly true when the Administration can't pull a rabbit out of its hat through the use of another so-called tax rebate. They've gone to that well for the last time.

[nolabels]

27. I was trying to go along with the lies they keep on telling everybody

I don't know who or what people are dumb enough to beleive any of it

I would just put it simply that they are lying about their lying again.

[Yavin4]

20. When You Keep Interest Rates At 1% For Three Years

you get inflation. This is Alan Greenspan's doing. Anyone remember how quickly Uncle Alan would raise rates on Clinton at the slightest hint of inflation? So, what's Uncle Alan doing now? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Why? Because he needs to get Bush re-elected.

[indepat]

21. Luckily we can believe everything coming from the WH: absolutely everythin

g.

[hatrack]

22. Isn't this the "hamburger flipping = manufacturing" guy?

If so, at least he's consistent - a consistent dumbass.

Let's set aside the cost of gasoline. Last weekend I paid $3.79 for a pound of Best Choice butter. Almost $4 a pound for frickin' bargain rack butter? WTF?!?!?!?

[UpInArms]

30. Mankiw is the "outsourcing good!" idiot

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04041/271362.stm

Bush economic report praises 'outsourcing' jobs

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

By Warren Vieth and Edwin Chen, Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON -- The movement of U.S. factory jobs and white-collar
work to other countries is part of a positive transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over time, even if it causes short-term pain and dislocation, the Bush administration said yesterday.

The embrace of foreign "outsourcing," an accelerating trend that has contributed to U.S. job losses in recent years and become an issue in the 2004 elections, is contained in the president's annual report to Congress on the health of the U.S. economy.

"Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade," said N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisors, which prepared the report. "More things are tradable than were tradable in the past. And that's a good thing."

...more...

[abelenkpe]

24. everything costs more

except it's easier to take out a loan.

Clothes cost more. Movie tickets cost more. Gasoline costs more. Groceries cost more. Health Care plans cost more (but have had their benefits reduced.) Housing costs more. (Atleast to rent in my neighborhood.) What doesn't cost more?

Interestingly salaries have gone down or stayed about the same for everyone I know. Inflation wouldn't be such a big deal if our salaries were going up at the same time.

Anyone here had a real raise lately?

[Nay]

25. Oh, please! Like this moron knows anything? NT

[radfringe]

28. uhhhh-ohhhhh that means INFLATION

is going to be a "worry"

is it just me or do you get nervous whenever bush* inc. starts downplaying things?

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

29. Bingo!!

Cue the bad news:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Fed by escalating energy prices and a rebounding economy, inflation will pick up more this year than previously thought, economic forecasters say.

The National Association for Business Economics in its latest economic outlook estimated that inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, will rise by 2.5 percent in 2004.

Link (Free registration required)

[maddezmom]

31. Inflation to Jump 2.5 % : the spin machine will say it's good news!

Inflation Predicted to Jump 2.5 Percent

11 minutes ago Add Business - AP to My Yahoo!


By JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Fed by escalating energy prices and a rebounding economy, inflation will pick up more this year than previously thought, a group of economic forecasters says.



In its latest economic outlook, the National Association for Business Economics estimated that inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (news - web sites), will rise by 2.5 percent in 2004. The index is the government's most closely watched inflation barometer.


If the new projection being released Monday should prove accurate, it would mark a sharp jump from the index's 1.9 percent increase in 2003 and would represent its largest increase since a 3.4 percent advance in 2000.

~snip~
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=716&e=2&u=/ap/20040524/ap_on_bi_ge/economic_outlook

[SmokingJacket]

32. Don't forget prices for prescription drugs --

which are through the roof, and insurance costs, and housing, and education and child care. In my area at least, these things have all increased hugely.

I don't know how they calculate inflation, really. But it's clearly not measuring the real costs of living. Cheap plastic crap from China and Walmart clothes are even cheaper than they ever were -- maybe that's it. Frankly, I'd rather have affordable health care than a $10 toaster.

[nolabels]

33. Or course not, but other things are!

http://www.abelard.org/inflation.htm
(snip)
Understanding money - Mechanics of inflation <2> <3>

Inflation and rising prices are not the ‘same’.

“Lenin was right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”

J M Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, ch. 6.

The reality of inflation is that governments steal money from their citizens with absolutely no intention of repaying that money. They can do this to a great extent because most people cannot add up and because governments can project draconian force. You might note that economics is not taught in schools. Adolph said, “what joy it is for the leaders that the public are stupid”. In Mein Kampf, he lays out plans to ensure that the eastern nations that he intended to colonise/enslave, were kept uneducated. Economics, or the understanding of money, is one of the fundamental skills that are essential for any citizen who is to aspire to freedom. Once the public understands money, the manipulative power of government is greatly reduced.

“Suppose that by the working of natural laws individuals pursuing their own interests with enlightenment in conditions of freedom always tend to promote the general interest at the same time!”

J M Keynes, The end of laissez-faire, p. 274.

A central issue of the manner of government power is the monopolisation of overwhelming force. One of the uses of that force is the establishment of a monopoly over the control of money, and that, a money that is mere printed paper with no intrinsic exchange value.

Money is what a psychologist calls a conditioned reinforcer, which means that, if you give people these worthless pieces of paper, other humans are inclined to give you useful things in exchange. Money use depends upon the belief that others will act in like manner at a future date.

Once belief in a form of money ceases, that object (eg dollar bills) ceases to function as money, that is, it ceases to be money!
(snip)

[General Discontent]

34. Translation for the * impaired:

"Inflation actually is a big threat."

DWolfman