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Posted by Pogonip on May 8, 2008, 4:39 pm
BEI Design wrote:
> Pogonip wrote:
>
>> What you say is very true, but we also are in a period in
>> which our economy is not in good shape. The dollar has
>> seriously lost value, at the same time that production
>> and jobs in this country are being cut severely. For the
>> first time, our children cannot expect to do better than
>> their parents.
>> I think what Robb is referring to is manufacturers who
>> change the packaging on products, reducing the amount of
>> contents, but keeping the same price, or even raising it.
>
> The ups and downs in the stock market are a pretty good
> refelction of the overall US economy. The "economy" is, and
> always has been, cyclical:
>
> http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=%5EDJI&t=my&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=
>
>
http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?request_action=wh&graph_name=LN_cpsbref3
>
>
http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?request_action=wh&graph_name=CU_cpibrief
>
> Right now, we have *very low* inflation, low unemployment,
> and yet everyone bellyaches about the price of
> gas/lattes/housing/whatever. Businesses, whether mom-and-pop
> or very large corporations have just a few options when
> *their* costs increase: decrease quantity and charge the
> same; increase prices; go out of business.
>
> We, in the U.S., only recently began paying a higher price,
> adjusted for inflation, for gasoline:
>
>
http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/images/charts/Oil/Gasoline_inflation_chart.htm
>
> If Robb thinks 2.6%-4% CPI is a large number he apparently
> does not remember *double digit* inflation in the 70s and
> 80s. I do:
>
>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/25/AR2005102501457.html
>
> I also vividly remember living through a couple of hellish
> years when DH never knew from one week to the next if his
> company was going to include him in (necessary for survival)
> layoffs. Fortunately we dodged the bullets, he retired
> after 42 years with the same company.
>
> I'm not saying things are perfect, but to complain about
> today's low inflation rate is silly.
>
> Beverly
>
>
Stand by, then, because inflation is coming. It has to. We owe an
extraordinary amount of money, and the only way to pay it back is to
devalue the dollar even more. According to a House committee report
dated September 2007:
> The U.S. government has a total debt of over $5 trillion owed to outside
parties. Nearly
> half of that is owed to foreign governments, primarily to Japan, China, and
the United
> Kingdom.
At that time, the total national debt was $8.9 trillion. As of May 8,
2008, it's $9,361,092,875,743.26.
--
Joanne
stitches @ singerlady.reno.nv.us.earth.milky-way.com
http://members.tripod.com/~bernardschopen/
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