Aug
21
I’ve just come back from I.O.U.S.A. the movie, which has been called the “Inconvenient Truth” for the economy. It was quite good, and was followed by a “Town Hall” meeting held in Nebraska that was simulcast to the theatre after the movie.
The movie itself definitely took a page from “An Inconvenient Truth”, all the way down to having a graph that skyrockets upward out of control. It’s unfortunate that they could do that - the numbers behind the graph were quite real, and the projections are also accurate and based on official government numbers. (That means that they’re likely actually worse than what we’re shown!) Read more for the full review.
Aug
20
Over at reuters.com, they’ve got an article detailing how the US will see the largest jump in food prices since 1990. They don’t expect it to be better next year, either.
Aug
19
I.O.U.S.A. Trailer
Filed Under US Government, Economics, Inflation | Leave a Comment
Hot on the heels of today’s news of rampant inflation, I thought I’d take the opportunity to post the trailer for “I.O.U.S.A.”. It’s being called the “Inconvenient Truth” for the economy. The movie seems to continue where David Walker’s excellent 60 Minutes interview left off - that the U.S. is broke and has been for some time, is borrowing at an incredible rate, and has trillions of unfunded government promises, and no amount of taxation will fix the problem. You can get tickets for Thursday’s showing at FathomEvents.com. It’s a one-night showing on Thursday night.
Here’s the trailer:
Aug
19
Consumer Prices Post Largest Jump In 27 Years
Filed Under US Government, Economics, Inflation | Leave a Comment
From the article at Reuters: “Wholesale prices took another unexpectedly steep jump in July and shot up at the fastest year-on-year rate in 27 years, according to a government report on Tuesday that was certain to fan fears about a potential surge in inflation.” The Yahoo! News version of the article mentions that the price rise was more than twice what was expected over all (1.2 percent rise versus 0.5 percent expected), and more than three times higher for “core prices” (ie, excluding food and energy), with that rise being 0.7 percent when 0.2 percent was expected. Economists are “now saying” that it looks like price increases are being passed along to consumers. For those of us who aren’t economists, and who actually live in the real world, this has been in evidence for some time!
Jul
28
$500,000,000,000
Filed Under US Government, Economics, Inflation | Leave a Comment
That’s the number that the US government deficit is expected to reach as Bush leaves office. That means that the government will spend half a trillion dollars more than it will take in. Keep in mind that Social Security, Medicare, and most of the Iraq war are not accounted for in the budget! Can you imagine a company that operated the same way that the government does? And just think - Obama and McCain are spending millions of dollars to inherit this mess! That’s outside of the National Debt (approximately $9.5 trillion), which is staggering in and of itself.
Jul
27
I keep harping on this subject, and there’s a reason - it’s to educate people and to let them know that we can’t sit idly by while our money becomes completely worthless. Another AP story detailing rising retail costs just hit the wires, and they put inflation at 5%. Of course, that’s the government number, while real inflation is more than double that. With oil companies expected to record record profits yet again as the price of everything goes up for Joe and Jane Consumer, we can expect a big retraction in consumer spending in the very near future, which will only exacerbate the situation. (Retailers might initially cut prices to entice consumers, but invariably they’ll also stop procuding as much, which will then drive prices higher.)
Jul
27
Over at Yahoo News, there’s an excellent opinion piece by Ted Rall that details how we’ve actually been in a recession for eight years now. (He even mentions the Russian president’s statement that we’re in a depression, one with which I tend to agree.) Of course, anyone who is familiar with how the CPI was “re-adjusted” will know that, and if you need proof, you can visit Shadow Government Statistics and get all the proof you need.
Jul
26
Six And Seventh Bank Failures Of The Year; Fed “Engineers Sales”
Filed Under US Government, Economics, Inflation | Leave a Comment
Two more banks have failed, and the FDIC has “engineered the sales” of the banks to Mutual of Omaha Bank.
Jul
25
Banks’ Fed Borrowing At Highest Levels Ever
Filed Under US Government, Economics, Inflation | Leave a Comment
From the article at cnbc.com:
“Banks stepped up their borrowing over the past week from the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending program, while Wall Street firms didn’t draw such loans.
A Fed report released Thursday said commercial banks averaged $16.4 billion in daily borrowing over the past week.
That was up from $13.9 billion in the previous week.”
The Fed is lending $80 BILLION A WEEK to banks in order to keep the economy going.
Even more interesting is this tidbit: Read more
Jul
22
The Grocery Shrink Ray
Filed Under News, Inflation | Leave a Comment
Over at The Consumerist they are doing an excellent job of keeping up with demonstrating inflation. Using their “grocery shrink ray” they are demonstrating just how products are shrinking in size and yet the prices are staying the same. They smartly bring up the likelihood that after shrinking the items the prices will then go up!