Inflation

[rufus]

I think there is always a tendency in government to cook the statistics. They put all sorts of things into the shopping cart when they figure the inflation rate. I buy bread and hamburger, but I don't buy many B1 bombers.

Rufus

 

[Q9]

Quote:
Oh, yeah. Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure the main measure that they use is real estate.

They do the same with unemployment - if you've given up looking for a job, they don't count you as unemployed, even though you have no job. You've got to be in the labor market. The following video sums it up pretty well.

Rufus, that comment summed it up very nicely.

 

[GarlicEater]

We are in one heck of a "secular bear market", the kind of thing that changes the way people do things, changes personalities.

I live now on 5% of what I used to make.

Last year I made $1500. Not a month, all year.

I lived fine, since much of my "living" doesn't involve money these days. I've just told myself I used to live without much money being involved, when I was a kid/teen. During the 70s recession. Oh, OK, I can do that again ..... I mean, I'm much better off than when I was 13, I have a driver's license and still get to use a car once in a while, being a grown-up I can get along much better.

But if I start making decent money again, am I going to go out and spend like crazy again? NO. I've been changed. Frankly, if I started bringing in say $2000 a month, I'd buy silver and use a fair amount of it to help people. It'd not go for consumer goods, restaurant eating, etc. And consumer goods are restaurant eating are what makes our economy go. We're developing into a whole generation of penny-counters and string-savers, and if Ben Bernanke ever got around to dropping cash out of helicopters, most of us would pick it up and squirrel it away.

 

[Wifezilla]

This site shows inflation and unemployment calculated the way it used to be. That makes our current unemployment closer to 22% and inflation almost 10%
http://www.shadowstats.com/

 

[rufus]

Oh how the truth hurts! The first step to solving a problem is to recognize that there is a problem. Frankly, I do not see our government ever having a perestroika moment. When and if they do recognize the problem, they will probably blame it on someone else.

Rufus

 

[foweler]

Quote:
Yep.....that would be the "free" market.
As if you and I trading eggs uninhibited, untaxed, unregulated or otherwise not leached from and/or controlled could possibly ruin the world the way they have with their elitist monopolist fiat currency.

 

[rufus]

Quote:
Yep.....that would be the "free" market.
As if you and I trading eggs uninhibited, untaxed, unregulated or otherwise not leached from and/or controlled could possibly ruin the world the way they have with their elitist monopolist fiat currency.

Again the truth; government abhors anything it cannot tax or control.

Rufus

 

[annaraven]

Quote:
We switched to Costco for groceries and saved $400 the first month. I was shocked. I need to do raised bed, but am a little intimidated because I have a black thumb.

Careful of Costco. Do a price book to keep track of the prices of various items by the pound or ounce or can (whatever the standard cost unit is for that item). So that way you can compare the Costco price to say, Target or Safeway or Walmart... I've found often enough that the canned stuff, for example, isn't cheaper than the generic canned stuff I can get elsewhere (and sometimes more expensive than the brandname stuff too.)

 

[annaraven]

Quote:
Look for bakery outlet stores. I've found great deals on decent breads and grains at the Tastee or Orowheat outlets. Really cut our expense on bread a lot.

 

[bakerjw]

Gold and silver prices have gone much higher than I thought we'd ever see. A lot of that is due to high demand but I think that it is also indicative of underlying inflation and the devaluing of the dollar due to all of the QE efforts. It is a struggle to find investments that aren't being driven higher by demand such as gold and silver. So I settle on investing in food, self sufficiency, and self defense.