Liar, Liar, Economy on Fire

[No Exit]

Sunday, January 01, 2006
LIAR, LIAR, economy on FIRE

Article after article declares that inflation has been kept in check between 2-3% annually. Shit, they even characterized Greenspan as an inflation-slayer! But here I am, paying almost twice as much for a gallon of milk this year as I did last year, not to mention all other food groups. And of course, I'm paying a large chunk of my income (debt) for the damn gasoline I put in my car, not to mention subway fares, despite the claims that energy prices have relaxed. What gives?!!

No doubt, the mainstream media often LIES. I could go over examples ad nauseum. But more often than not, they merely massage the truth. Apparently, this is why those SOBs have been singing songs of victory over inflation:

'Recent inflation data shows wholesale prices, excluding food and energy costs, have risen at a mere 2.6 percent for the last 12 months, while core consumer prices, which also exclude such volatile components, rose only 2.1 percent over the same period.'
What on earth is left of "core consumer prices" after you've "excluded food and energy costs?!!" This sounds more like an inflation index for investors not consumers!

All this says is that within the group of products where consumer demand is elastic, prices are fairly stable. You're damn right they are! Consumers would stop buying in a heartbeat if they weren't! But, for goods that consumers have no choice but to buy, consumers are being screwed, royally!

(snip)

http://wakeupfromyourslumber.blogspot.com/2006/01/liar-liar-economy-on-fire.html

(emphasis added)

We're not supposed to "hate rich people". Hell, some of you KNOW some rich people. And we think, "So what... they worked hard... yeah, so-and-so did get a boost from his father, but he's worked hard, so why would I resent HIM?"

However, let's look at the (quite rich) people who are actually "in the game" when it comes to food and energy prices. As this article said, people HAVE to buy these things. Add certain MEDICINES to that list. I believe this is called "having a captive audience".

It's one thing when a guy invents some new type of microchip or gadget or something, and then everyone wants it, and he works hard and distributes it and makes a gazillion. But when it's FOOD or ESSENTIAL MEDICINE and people are being pushed to pay through the nose, one has to ask, why?? Why are the ESSENTIALS of life the subject of price speculation and capitalist gaming?? Why can't we maybe, like, have one of those things they used to call a "government" which could assure that we actually can get food, water, winter heating, and medicine, at some price that ensures everyone can get at least a little of it? I mean, if the population frikkin' DIES, then the people who run the government will have no one left to govern. Do they really want that?? Wouldn't they be out of a job?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. the cost of diet dr pepper went up 10 cents on Jan 1

I was shocked.

[BushOut06]

5. Have you seen the price of ice cream lately?

It's outrageous!

[FloridaPat]

8. I stopped buying my favorite ice creams last summer. They're

up almost $1 in the last 2 years.

[Deja Q]

9. A new low-fat flavor (Edys special whipped whatever) rose

60 cents between one week's visit and the next.

Edys doesn't need my money anymore. I can be spared the fat content anyway. It may be 50% less, but it's still considerable (more than the fat content in cheese)

[No Exit]

13. Hey, that's an interesting handle. Are you from Florida?

Or did you miscalculate the presidential election years...?

And does it mean he has to come out of whatever dark closet he's in, or does it mean he has to leave office?

[No Exit]

12. Okay. Dammit. OKAY. That does it!!!! Grab your pitchforks, fellow peasants

We're marchin'!!

[ixion]

2. call it the Enron loophole

by excluding 'food and energy' costs, you enable speculators (like Enron) to game those markets w/o fear of political repraisal, because those sectors are 'factored-out' before the final numbers are released. :grr:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. exclude energy and food - LOL!

how true.

[Deja Q]

10. And people blindly believe it too.

People are geniuses for being led.

[BlueEyedSon]

3. Most of the mega-rich inherited their wealth. (think Paris Hilton,

the Waltons).

[RC]

4. Home base

[Double T]

6. You'll never get the truth about anything, including the economy, from....

bushco and their propaganda networks including (R)NBC and Faux News. The government cherry picks the numbers they include in economic reporting thus providing a distorted and false picture of what is really going on with the economy. bushco has been famous for reporting one set of 'rosy economic' information, only to retract and revise the information downward a few months later. More people are living paycheck to paycheck with barely enough money to pay for the basic essentials of everyday life. This is America and as long as people say 'I've got mine' they don't give a shit about the lies and deceptions about the economy put out by their government.

[Ksec]

28. Ditto/

These bastards are lying and we are being convinced that the economy is good. Thats a laugh and you wont hear the real news because the corporate run media giants are makin the money hand over fist, and paying no taxes to boot.

[SmokingJacket]

11. Yeah, it's crazy.

Everything that matters to me is increasing in price: fuel, food, insurance, medicine, housing.

It's true I can buy a toaster or a tee-shirt for almost nothing, thanks to China, but who needs piles of cheap crap?

I want my family to be healthy and warm, and that's getting harder and harder -- and it's happening so fast. I can't believe the economy can keep afloat when people are being nailed to the wall like this...

[OnionPatch]

14. You'd have to be continuously drunk or stoned not to

notice how prices have increased dramatically on food and energy. It's infuriating that so many seem to think it's perfectly reasonable to omit food and energy from these stats and say inflation "has not risen substantially". Those two things are the most basic of human needs! Food and energy are what we spend the most money on in this middle-class household except for our mortgage, and we all know what's happened to housing prices lately.

Maybe to the investor class food and energy are only a tiny fraction of what they spend their money on so it doesn't seem significant to them.

[wiggs]

15. Inflation

The government has myriad reasons for saying that inflation is low. Of course, a low inflation rate number is beneficial politically. But more than that...I've been told that MANY public and private benefit programs (pensions, raises, entitlements, contracts, etc) are tied to inflation rate. When inflation goes up, many program payouts automatically go up.

Empirically, I bet most of us would agree that costs for almost everything is up more than 2-3% each year (electronics excepted).

Again, we are being misinformed and public perception manipulated.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

17. well, technically it is NOT inflation unless the

currency is devalued. So, since there is no way they are going to do that...

[No Exit]

18. Maybe we should just call it profiteering, or price-gouging.

Or GREED.

I'm talking about, say, the price of milk.

Is there some milk shortage, or something?

And the price of hamburger. That's up, too. I don't think there's a hamburger shortage--fearmongering about "mad cow" notwithstanding.

So then why ARE the prices of these things going up so quickly and steeply? My guess: the people who sell them just decided to give themselves a raise, that's all.

[Richard Steele]

27. In a nutshell: FUEL

That milk at the grocery store burned a lot of diesel fuel to get there.
When the price of that fuel skyrockets, the cost is passed along to the consumer.

Of course, I also ASSUME there's some greed and profiteering in the mix.
With B*shCabal™ running the country, it's hard to imagine there wouldn't be.
Those folks have NEVER seen a bad situation they
and their buddies couldn't skim some $$$ off of.

[kentuck]

16. "This sounds more like an inflation index for investors not consumers!"

Yes, indeed! Most of working people's money goes to food and gas, so let's exclude those?

[BamaGirl]

19. One of the things guaranteed to piss me off

'Recent inflation data shows wholesale prices, excluding food and energy costs, have risen at a mere 2.6 percent for the last 12 months, while core consumer prices, which also exclude such volatile components, rose only 2.1 percent over the same period.'

These people do not live in reality. Either that or I live in the Twilight Zone. My grocery bill has almost doubled in the last year, and that's a big deal when you're feeding 5 people. The only bright spot is that I'm never tempted to buy any cheap plastic crap, because, well I can't afford it anymore.

[AllieB]

21. My grocery bill has doubled also

One example off the top of my head is the cost of nuts. I do a lot of Christmas baking, and the cost of a 16 oz bag of walnuts rose TWO DOLLARS from last year. It cost a small fortune to make my usual gifts.

[BamaGirl]

24. Sucks doesn't it?

Are you in the deep south? I noticed when I was home for the holidays (north Atlanta) that groceries were much cheaper than down here towards the coast. I pay $4.50/gal for milk here, but it was $2.60 there! Everything was a lot cheaper...bread, can stuff, meat. Every time I see someone around DU post a price for something I get mad all over again lol. Seems stuff is much cheaper everywhere else.

[AllieB]

29. No, I'm in the Northeast

which, according to my husband, has the most expensive food prices in the nation. I really couldn't believe how much things like butter, eggs, and other staples went up. How can a family with children afford to pay for heat and food this winter?

[bleedingheart]

25. It cost $4.99 a lb for shelled walnuts...I nearly fell over...

I always make nutroll for my family and friends....I didn't make as much this year...

[Cleita]

20. Could you call it supply side inflation? I mean the interest

rates on my credit cards are sky high, but the interest on my investments are at an all time low. Gas and food are way up there, yet the wages for the people in those industries are down. You figure it out. I can't figure it out anymore.

[PWRinNY]

22. It's disgusting

At a time when energy prices are sky high, meaning food, clothing, goods prices are on the rise as well, prescription prices jumping like crazy - to top it all off - we now have credit card minimum payments doubling. Some people could barely even afford the minimum payment as it was, but now they have to worry about even higher monthly payments when they're already freezing, starving, and sick.

I really think the Republicans have a real hatred towards us (anyone who's not one of their elite), and an agenda that really amounts to nothing less than genocide of the poor and the elderly.

[spinbaby]

23. Sure, no inflation

Assuming you don't eat or drive and don't need housing or healthcare.

[tedzbear]

26. Food and energy hits the middle class hard while core components...

...with elastic demand benefit the rich. That gallon of gas hurts you and I more than a multi-millionaire. Meanwhile that rich fat cat gets to buy a new yachet every year for the same price as the old one.

You are right on about the core inflation being a price gauge for investors (the rich) not consumers (middle-lower class).

[ProfessorGAC]

30. There Are Other Inflation Parameters

Adjusted Inflation; Total Inflation; Income Weighted Inflation.

Unfortunately, Comemrce and Treasury just reported the standard figure and that's all the news media reports.
The Professor

[MadHound]

31. Quite frankly government reporting on the economy is a shell game

And has been for years and years. Government tweaks the numbers, excluding some, including others all in order to make it look like the economy is going great on their watch, all the while it is going down the crapper. One example I remember is back in the mid eighties when unemployment numbers were starting to go back up under Reagan. All the sudden Reagan decided to include all of the members of the military in this figure, and poof! Magically unemployment went back down. There are numerous examples of this over the years, with all administrations, and most of the "official" numbers. That is why I trust very little of what the government says anymore concerning the economy. While the "official" numbers give glowing reports, those of us in the real world know that the economy is going to hell, even if one does not "include food and energy prices"