---
Celente says this is no time to gamble... I agree...
Though I am as yet not sold on the value of gold personally... Certainly if you are going to buy gold you should make sure you can actually hold it in your own hands... Paper gold stands a good chance of becoming as worthless as fiat currency in my personal opinion...
However, if things REALLY do totally collapse *I* feel the best investments may still be things like food, water and guns...
Just my opinion...
---
Greg
Friday, May 7, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Audit the FED in trouble?
---
I thought this was a great video in that it clearly demonstrates what a choke hold the FED and banks, corporatist, have over the administration...
In my opinion, the actions taken, and HIDDEN, by the government and the federal reserve during the time our economy was attempting to 'correct', attempting to flush the greed and corruption out of the system in a most natural way, have been both unconstitutional and most likely criminal.
For all of Obama's rhetorically beautiful calls for transparency and change all we continue to receive is more of the same greed and corruption that we have had now for decades. The status quo is apparently so powerfully entrenched in both corporate America and Washington that it is proving extremely difficult to get even a glimmer of transparency!
It is my own personal opinion that any and all elected officials who REFUSE to allow the auditing of the federal reserve should be removed from office as soon as it is humanly possible to do so. Both parties...
Until we rid ourselves of greedy corrupt politicians and corporations we will be forever enslaved to the state and corporate America.
We have tried debt as a way of life now and it does not work... Stop the borrowing, stop the bailouts and stop the cover ups... please...
Educate yourself and please join the fight for a NEW America...
---
Greg
I thought this was a great video in that it clearly demonstrates what a choke hold the FED and banks, corporatist, have over the administration...
In my opinion, the actions taken, and HIDDEN, by the government and the federal reserve during the time our economy was attempting to 'correct', attempting to flush the greed and corruption out of the system in a most natural way, have been both unconstitutional and most likely criminal.
For all of Obama's rhetorically beautiful calls for transparency and change all we continue to receive is more of the same greed and corruption that we have had now for decades. The status quo is apparently so powerfully entrenched in both corporate America and Washington that it is proving extremely difficult to get even a glimmer of transparency!
It is my own personal opinion that any and all elected officials who REFUSE to allow the auditing of the federal reserve should be removed from office as soon as it is humanly possible to do so. Both parties...
Until we rid ourselves of greedy corrupt politicians and corporations we will be forever enslaved to the state and corporate America.
We have tried debt as a way of life now and it does not work... Stop the borrowing, stop the bailouts and stop the cover ups... please...
Educate yourself and please join the fight for a NEW America...
---
Greg
The on going drama in Neosho #MO
---
I have been following this story for awhile... Neosho is 13 miles from where I live and I suspect Neosho may be a good representation of what many towns, cities, counties and states are going through right now...
So far Neosho's proposed answers to it's financial 'problems' has been focused the most on BORROWING MORE MONEY (1.3 million dollars recently) and now they are seeking to have, you guessed it, the TAX PAYER come up with the money to bail them out!
Just as our federal government, our banking system, our insurance industry have expected the TAX PAYER to bail them out so now every mis-managed town, city, county and state in the nation is looking to raise taxes.
This "recession"/"depression" has not ended.. it has only just begun... IMO
Click here for a link to the source of this post
---
Source: The Joplin Globe | May 6, 2010
Greg Grisolano
May 5, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- NEOSHO, Mo. -- The Neosho City Council will be seeking residents' views during a special meeting tonight when it begins working toward a decision on, among other tough subjects, just how much of a property tax to ask voters to authorize.
The council faces shoring up what could be as much as a $1.3 million gap between operating revenues and expenses.
A special meeting will take place at 7:30 p.m. today at City Hall. The council is expected to take steps toward specifying the ballot language for a tax measure that would have to be approved by May 25 in order to go before voters during the primary election in August.
Mayor Richard Davidson said the meeting will be open for public comment, including a potential sunset for the property tax.
More meetings
"I don't suspect there will be final draft and first-reading vote (tonight)," Davidson said. "I suspect there will be several meetings between now and May 25 to make sure that language is the best it can be given the information we have."
That information likely will include an updated cash-flow analysis. The council on Tuesday night approved a contract with Mense, Churchwell and Mense of Joplin to review the city's finances and determine the potential difference between revenues and expenses.
"The details of the budget shortfall are going to be more clear as we work through the cash-flow analysis the council approved (Tuesday) night," Davidson said. "That will give us a true indication of the budget shortfall we can expect in the near future."
The analysis work will not start until Friday, so it will be at least next week before officials will be able to estimate just how much of a levy might be needed.
The preliminary proposal allows for the city to ask for a property tax of up to $1 per $100 of assessed valuation.
For a $100,000 home, residents would be looking at a yearly tax of $190, at a $1 levy. For a $100,000 business, owners would pay $320 per year at the $1 rate.
Officials have said the city faces three options: assessing a property tax at a level high enough to compensate for the gap between current revenues and anticipated expenses; cutting expenses enough to compensate for the gap; or compensating for the gap via a combination of a property tax of something less than $1 and some additional cuts in expenses.
Business owners
For business owners like Kathy Moore, the property tax could be another hit to the bottom line.
"It would hurt me," said Moore, the owner of Charley's Grill. "I don't live in Neosho, but I'm going to be affected by it. Right now, things are just tight."
Another business owner, Angie Clayton, said she could support a levy of less than $1.
"It would be easier to choke down," said Clayton, who owns Angelique's Perfumery. "I wouldn't vote for the dollar. But if they lowered the amount, you know, everybody's got to pitch in somewhere."
City's take
Davidson said he understands the frustration of residents, many of whom have said they blame previous city leadership for poor oversight and bad policies leading to the current financial crunch.
"I can't disagree with those opinions, but the situation we have before us is a situation that the council needs to address," he said. "We can address it with an increase of revenue, a reduction of expenses or a combination thereof. We can't undo the spending or the policies of former councils that put us in this position."
Davidson said the budget shortfall is "significant," close to what the city budgets for the police or fire departments.
"I'm not suggesting we cut the police or fire departments, but it shows you that you can't cut a few positions at City Hall or the parks department to make up that shortfall," he said. "A cut that size would be devastating to the city of Neosho."
Background
The previous City Council approved borrowing $1.3 million earlier this year to plug the gap between revenues and expenses for the current budget year, which ends Sept. 30. A table in the financial plan suggests that the city could generate about $1.26 million annually with a $1 property tax rate.
---
Simply unbelievable... God help us all...
---
Greg
I have been following this story for awhile... Neosho is 13 miles from where I live and I suspect Neosho may be a good representation of what many towns, cities, counties and states are going through right now...
So far Neosho's proposed answers to it's financial 'problems' has been focused the most on BORROWING MORE MONEY (1.3 million dollars recently) and now they are seeking to have, you guessed it, the TAX PAYER come up with the money to bail them out!
Just as our federal government, our banking system, our insurance industry have expected the TAX PAYER to bail them out so now every mis-managed town, city, county and state in the nation is looking to raise taxes.
This "recession"/"depression" has not ended.. it has only just begun... IMO
Click here for a link to the source of this post
---
Source: The Joplin Globe | May 6, 2010
Greg Grisolano
May 5, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- NEOSHO, Mo. -- The Neosho City Council will be seeking residents' views during a special meeting tonight when it begins working toward a decision on, among other tough subjects, just how much of a property tax to ask voters to authorize.
The council faces shoring up what could be as much as a $1.3 million gap between operating revenues and expenses.
A special meeting will take place at 7:30 p.m. today at City Hall. The council is expected to take steps toward specifying the ballot language for a tax measure that would have to be approved by May 25 in order to go before voters during the primary election in August.
Mayor Richard Davidson said the meeting will be open for public comment, including a potential sunset for the property tax.
More meetings
"I don't suspect there will be final draft and first-reading vote (tonight)," Davidson said. "I suspect there will be several meetings between now and May 25 to make sure that language is the best it can be given the information we have."
That information likely will include an updated cash-flow analysis. The council on Tuesday night approved a contract with Mense, Churchwell and Mense of Joplin to review the city's finances and determine the potential difference between revenues and expenses.
"The details of the budget shortfall are going to be more clear as we work through the cash-flow analysis the council approved (Tuesday) night," Davidson said. "That will give us a true indication of the budget shortfall we can expect in the near future."
The analysis work will not start until Friday, so it will be at least next week before officials will be able to estimate just how much of a levy might be needed.
The preliminary proposal allows for the city to ask for a property tax of up to $1 per $100 of assessed valuation.
For a $100,000 home, residents would be looking at a yearly tax of $190, at a $1 levy. For a $100,000 business, owners would pay $320 per year at the $1 rate.
Officials have said the city faces three options: assessing a property tax at a level high enough to compensate for the gap between current revenues and anticipated expenses; cutting expenses enough to compensate for the gap; or compensating for the gap via a combination of a property tax of something less than $1 and some additional cuts in expenses.
Business owners
For business owners like Kathy Moore, the property tax could be another hit to the bottom line.
"It would hurt me," said Moore, the owner of Charley's Grill. "I don't live in Neosho, but I'm going to be affected by it. Right now, things are just tight."
Another business owner, Angie Clayton, said she could support a levy of less than $1.
"It would be easier to choke down," said Clayton, who owns Angelique's Perfumery. "I wouldn't vote for the dollar. But if they lowered the amount, you know, everybody's got to pitch in somewhere."
City's take
Davidson said he understands the frustration of residents, many of whom have said they blame previous city leadership for poor oversight and bad policies leading to the current financial crunch.
"I can't disagree with those opinions, but the situation we have before us is a situation that the council needs to address," he said. "We can address it with an increase of revenue, a reduction of expenses or a combination thereof. We can't undo the spending or the policies of former councils that put us in this position."
Davidson said the budget shortfall is "significant," close to what the city budgets for the police or fire departments.
"I'm not suggesting we cut the police or fire departments, but it shows you that you can't cut a few positions at City Hall or the parks department to make up that shortfall," he said. "A cut that size would be devastating to the city of Neosho."
Background
The previous City Council approved borrowing $1.3 million earlier this year to plug the gap between revenues and expenses for the current budget year, which ends Sept. 30. A table in the financial plan suggests that the city could generate about $1.26 million annually with a $1 property tax rate.
---
Simply unbelievable... God help us all...
---
Greg
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Great ZeroHedge post
---
This is a partial excerpt of the ZeroHedge post
Please click here for the full post
---
When Will Tim Geithner, Who Has The "Biggest Conflict Of Interest", Recuse Himself Of Fed Audit Deliberations?
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2010 16:14 -0500
Painful common sense from Alan Grayson:
“The Fed doesn't want to be audited. Who does? Do you want to be audited? I don't want to be audited, but sometimes it's necessary,” he said. “When you're handing out a trillion dollars at a time -- a trillion dollars at a time, which works out to $3,000 for every man woman and child in this country -- don't we have a right to know what happened to it?”
Grayson added: “It's central to the bill. We've had secret bailouts from the Fed to private interests now for the past two years without any exposure whatsoever. … We need to know what happened to our money, because when the Fed hands out our money, every dollar in your pocket, every dollar in your checking account, every dollar in your 401(k) becomes that much cheaper and less in value.”
In retrospect it is really much simpler: the Fed will only retain its secrecy as long as it can keep pushing the market higher, and as long as it can force the middle class to empty out their money markets and throw their money into bankrupt retailers trading at one million P/E. Once the market tumbles, it is game over. The Fed knows it, the president knows it, and Geithner certainly knows it. Which is why we expect massive resistance by the Fed and all the "liquidty providers" and "market makers" to allowing the Ponzi formerly known as the market, to reach its true fair value (absent from endless fiscal stimuli and ZIRP insanity)... somewhere in the 400-500 S&P range.
---
Great stuff no? Be sure and read the complete ZeroHedge post by clicking here...
---
Greg
This is a partial excerpt of the ZeroHedge post
Please click here for the full post
---
When Will Tim Geithner, Who Has The "Biggest Conflict Of Interest", Recuse Himself Of Fed Audit Deliberations?
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/05/2010 16:14 -0500
Painful common sense from Alan Grayson:
“The Fed doesn't want to be audited. Who does? Do you want to be audited? I don't want to be audited, but sometimes it's necessary,” he said. “When you're handing out a trillion dollars at a time -- a trillion dollars at a time, which works out to $3,000 for every man woman and child in this country -- don't we have a right to know what happened to it?”
Grayson added: “It's central to the bill. We've had secret bailouts from the Fed to private interests now for the past two years without any exposure whatsoever. … We need to know what happened to our money, because when the Fed hands out our money, every dollar in your pocket, every dollar in your checking account, every dollar in your 401(k) becomes that much cheaper and less in value.”
In retrospect it is really much simpler: the Fed will only retain its secrecy as long as it can keep pushing the market higher, and as long as it can force the middle class to empty out their money markets and throw their money into bankrupt retailers trading at one million P/E. Once the market tumbles, it is game over. The Fed knows it, the president knows it, and Geithner certainly knows it. Which is why we expect massive resistance by the Fed and all the "liquidty providers" and "market makers" to allowing the Ponzi formerly known as the market, to reach its true fair value (absent from endless fiscal stimuli and ZIRP insanity)... somewhere in the 400-500 S&P range.
---
Great stuff no? Be sure and read the complete ZeroHedge post by clicking here...
---
Greg
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Obama's credibility crisis
---
Click here to read the original post on washingtonexaminer.com
---
Examiner Editorial
April 25, 2010
Hard on the heels of that shocking Pew Research Center survey finding that four out of five Americans don't trust government comes a blitz of new revelations about the Obama administration that amount to a full-fledged credibility crisis. The latest disclosures are especially damaging because they concern President Obama's possible misrepresentation of his relationships with former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and convicted felon Tony Rezko, his administration's misleading statements about Obamacare costs, and questions about improper manipulation of government-owned General Motors and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Blagojevich revelations were no less serious for being accidental. Blagojevich's defense attorneys filed a federal court motion to subpoena Obama concerning charges that the former governor tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat formerly occupied by the chief executive. Improper formatting of the heavily redacted public version of the motion contained evidence that Obama spoke to Blagojevich about the Senate appointment a week before telling White House reporters that he had not done so. The document also revealed that federal prosecutors are withholding from Blagojevich's attorneys documents describing what Obama told investigators about conversations with Rezko on the appointment or his financial ties to the Chicago developer who was one of his key fundraisers.
On Obamacare, the president and his appointees said repeatedly over the last year that it would reduce government health care spending. Yet now comes Kathleen Sebelius, Obama's Department of Health and Human Services secretary, confessing that "We don't know how much it's going to cost." Why is Sebelius only now saying this when her own department just made public a report obviously months in preparation that projected government health care costs overall will go up, not down? That same HHS report also said Obamacare's Medicare cuts could put 15 percent of all hospitals out of business, making treatment harder to get and more expensive, especially for seniors.
Finally, General Motors claimed in national advertisements this week that it repaid its Troubled Asset Relief Program loans, plus interest, five years early. But the TARP inspector general said GM used other TARP funds to repay its original TARP loans, so the ads were fundamentally dishonest. Recall here that White House adviser Carol Browner told GM and other automakers to "write nothing down" about their dealings last year with administration officials on fuel economy standards. So it seems entirely appropriate to ask if GM's repayment claims were "suggested" by somebody in the Obama White House. That would be the same White House that is also now suspected of improperly influencing the SEC to file fraud charges against Goldman Sachs just as Congress debates Obama's financial reform proposal. As the Obama administration will learn, plummeting public trust eats away at the fundamental credibility of government and undermines its ability to carry out even its most basic duties.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Obama_s-credibility-crisis-91958294.html#ixzz0n10GYtzk
Click here to read the original post on washingtonexaminer.com
---
Examiner Editorial
April 25, 2010
Hard on the heels of that shocking Pew Research Center survey finding that four out of five Americans don't trust government comes a blitz of new revelations about the Obama administration that amount to a full-fledged credibility crisis. The latest disclosures are especially damaging because they concern President Obama's possible misrepresentation of his relationships with former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and convicted felon Tony Rezko, his administration's misleading statements about Obamacare costs, and questions about improper manipulation of government-owned General Motors and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Blagojevich revelations were no less serious for being accidental. Blagojevich's defense attorneys filed a federal court motion to subpoena Obama concerning charges that the former governor tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat formerly occupied by the chief executive. Improper formatting of the heavily redacted public version of the motion contained evidence that Obama spoke to Blagojevich about the Senate appointment a week before telling White House reporters that he had not done so. The document also revealed that federal prosecutors are withholding from Blagojevich's attorneys documents describing what Obama told investigators about conversations with Rezko on the appointment or his financial ties to the Chicago developer who was one of his key fundraisers.
On Obamacare, the president and his appointees said repeatedly over the last year that it would reduce government health care spending. Yet now comes Kathleen Sebelius, Obama's Department of Health and Human Services secretary, confessing that "We don't know how much it's going to cost." Why is Sebelius only now saying this when her own department just made public a report obviously months in preparation that projected government health care costs overall will go up, not down? That same HHS report also said Obamacare's Medicare cuts could put 15 percent of all hospitals out of business, making treatment harder to get and more expensive, especially for seniors.
Finally, General Motors claimed in national advertisements this week that it repaid its Troubled Asset Relief Program loans, plus interest, five years early. But the TARP inspector general said GM used other TARP funds to repay its original TARP loans, so the ads were fundamentally dishonest. Recall here that White House adviser Carol Browner told GM and other automakers to "write nothing down" about their dealings last year with administration officials on fuel economy standards. So it seems entirely appropriate to ask if GM's repayment claims were "suggested" by somebody in the Obama White House. That would be the same White House that is also now suspected of improperly influencing the SEC to file fraud charges against Goldman Sachs just as Congress debates Obama's financial reform proposal. As the Obama administration will learn, plummeting public trust eats away at the fundamental credibility of government and undermines its ability to carry out even its most basic duties.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Obama_s-credibility-crisis-91958294.html#ixzz0n10GYtzk
GM Repaid Bailout Money With Bailout Money
---
Click here for the original post on rightpundits.com
---
Peter and Paul have never felt so used.
Government-owned General Motors, Inc. announced Wednesday they were repaying $8.1 billion in U.S. and Canadian government loans out of the $52 billion US and $9.5 billion Canadian and Ontario government money they received. And five years ahead of schedule.
GM repaid bailout money. Oh the elation from the Obama administration.
“This turnaround wasn’t an accident of history,” said White House economic adviser Larry Summers. “It was the result of considered and politically difficult decisions made by President Obama to provide GM and Chrysler — and indeed the auto industry — a lifeline, if they could demonstrate the will to reshape their businesses.”
Summers should recheck that result. Turns out, GM repaid taxpayer bailout money with other taxpayer bailout money.
And for their next trick, GM will pull a bunny rabbit out of their Chevy Malibu.
Neil Barofsky, the inspector general for TARP – aka the bailout – reported the money shuffle to the Senate Finance Committee. The money actually came from an escrow account from earlier TARP money.
“I think the one thing that a lot of people overlook with this is where they got the money to pay back the loan. And it isn’t from earnings. … It’s actually from another pool of TARP money that they’ve already received,” he said Wednesday. “I don’t think we should exaggerate it too much. Remember that the source of thismoney is just other TARP money.”
That isn’t how the White House or GM spun the repayment news. Vice-President Biden had praised Obama because he “took a lot of heat” for the bailout “and this has even exceeded our expectations.” It may be time to ask VP Biden to provide specifics about the administration’s expectations if this exceeded them.
GM CEO Ed Whitacre, appointed to the position by Obama, even held a press conference of the repayment at the company’s plant in Kansas where he flew in to announce the news while promoting additional investments in the factory there and in Detroit. There was no mention of themoney being a transfer from one taxpayer funded account to another.
The news has prompted Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Finance Committee, to request an explanation from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner about why GM repaid bailout money with bailout money and the administration allowed it, while promoting it as money earned.
“The bottom line seems to be that the TARP loans were ‘repaid‘ with other TARP funds in a Treasury escrow account. The TARP loans were not repaid from money GM is earning selling cars, as GM and the administration have claimed in their speeches, press releases and television commercials,” he wrote.
Click here for the original post on rightpundits.com
---
Peter and Paul have never felt so used.
Government-owned General Motors, Inc. announced Wednesday they were repaying $8.1 billion in U.S. and Canadian government loans out of the $52 billion US and $9.5 billion Canadian and Ontario government money they received. And five years ahead of schedule.
GM repaid bailout money. Oh the elation from the Obama administration.
“This turnaround wasn’t an accident of history,” said White House economic adviser Larry Summers. “It was the result of considered and politically difficult decisions made by President Obama to provide GM and Chrysler — and indeed the auto industry — a lifeline, if they could demonstrate the will to reshape their businesses.”
Summers should recheck that result. Turns out, GM repaid taxpayer bailout money with other taxpayer bailout money.
And for their next trick, GM will pull a bunny rabbit out of their Chevy Malibu.
Neil Barofsky, the inspector general for TARP – aka the bailout – reported the money shuffle to the Senate Finance Committee. The money actually came from an escrow account from earlier TARP money.
“I think the one thing that a lot of people overlook with this is where they got the money to pay back the loan. And it isn’t from earnings. … It’s actually from another pool of TARP money that they’ve already received,” he said Wednesday. “I don’t think we should exaggerate it too much. Remember that the source of thismoney is just other TARP money.”
That isn’t how the White House or GM spun the repayment news. Vice-President Biden had praised Obama because he “took a lot of heat” for the bailout “and this has even exceeded our expectations.” It may be time to ask VP Biden to provide specifics about the administration’s expectations if this exceeded them.
GM CEO Ed Whitacre, appointed to the position by Obama, even held a press conference of the repayment at the company’s plant in Kansas where he flew in to announce the news while promoting additional investments in the factory there and in Detroit. There was no mention of themoney being a transfer from one taxpayer funded account to another.
The news has prompted Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Finance Committee, to request an explanation from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner about why GM repaid bailout money with bailout money and the administration allowed it, while promoting it as money earned.
“The bottom line seems to be that the TARP loans were ‘repaid‘ with other TARP funds in a Treasury escrow account. The TARP loans were not repaid from money GM is earning selling cars, as GM and the administration have claimed in their speeches, press releases and television commercials,” he wrote.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Pork and beans, Wal-Mart and #inflation
---
Do you ever buy pork and beans?
We try to remain low carb around here as it seems to work pretty well for us...
But of course we DO have pork and beans sometimes... Mrs. Warrior makes a mean batch of baked beans for BBQs and what not... Really good...
I KNOW in the past... but not really the distant past at all... I'm talking months here, not years. But in the 'not too distant' past we have always been able to buy canned pork and beans 3 for 1.00... Sometimes, if we were real lucky, even 4 for 1.00...
We were in Wal-Mart this weekend (gasp!) and a sign caught my eye... One of Wal-Mart's wonderful 'rollback' signs over a large display of, you guessed it, pork and beans...
The sign declared loudly that we were indeed fortunate shoppers as the price on canned pork and beans had been 'rolled back' from 68 cents a can all the way to 60 cents a can...
To me, when a can of beans that cost me 33 cents a few months ago now costs me 60 cents I have a hard time considering that to be a 'rollback' and it certainly doesn't sound like deflation, which almost seems to be the goal of the false/misleading advertising going on...
Maybe it's just me, but to me it seems that inflation is on the rise in a serious way throughout our entire economy... Oh the retailers are certainly going out of their way to 'hide' it or even TRY to make it 'seem' as if prices are dropping... They're not. Trust me on this...
Of course the government / FED changed the calculations for CPI under, I believe, the Clinton administration... Just as they have done with the unemployment data... When/if economic numbers are manipulated to present a matrix like view of the economy they can no longer be trusted at all to reflect reality... That's *my* opinion anyway...
Retailers have a slew of tricks they use to obfuscate the issue... Another favorite is to reduce the size/quantity of a package while maintaining the same price as before... This is STILL inflation...
It seems, logically, that having the ability to increase prices would be a good thing for retailers... It seems, to me, that retailers feel as if they MUST increase prices right now... To increase weak profit margins as fewer people are buying their goods...
And it's NOT just retailers who are increasing prices... It's commodities/utilities everywhere... Nearly every single state in the country is looking to increase taxes to help cover budget shortfalls... The federal government has painted itself into such a revenue light corner that they too will have no choice but to dramatically increase taxes on the American people, on the middle class, on everyone who pays taxes...
Rising prices/taxes in this sort of economy seems to be a recipe for disaster to me...
But who am I?
lol
Greg
Do you ever buy pork and beans?
We try to remain low carb around here as it seems to work pretty well for us...
But of course we DO have pork and beans sometimes... Mrs. Warrior makes a mean batch of baked beans for BBQs and what not... Really good...
I KNOW in the past... but not really the distant past at all... I'm talking months here, not years. But in the 'not too distant' past we have always been able to buy canned pork and beans 3 for 1.00... Sometimes, if we were real lucky, even 4 for 1.00...
We were in Wal-Mart this weekend (gasp!) and a sign caught my eye... One of Wal-Mart's wonderful 'rollback' signs over a large display of, you guessed it, pork and beans...
The sign declared loudly that we were indeed fortunate shoppers as the price on canned pork and beans had been 'rolled back' from 68 cents a can all the way to 60 cents a can...
To me, when a can of beans that cost me 33 cents a few months ago now costs me 60 cents I have a hard time considering that to be a 'rollback' and it certainly doesn't sound like deflation, which almost seems to be the goal of the false/misleading advertising going on...
Maybe it's just me, but to me it seems that inflation is on the rise in a serious way throughout our entire economy... Oh the retailers are certainly going out of their way to 'hide' it or even TRY to make it 'seem' as if prices are dropping... They're not. Trust me on this...
Of course the government / FED changed the calculations for CPI under, I believe, the Clinton administration... Just as they have done with the unemployment data... When/if economic numbers are manipulated to present a matrix like view of the economy they can no longer be trusted at all to reflect reality... That's *my* opinion anyway...
Retailers have a slew of tricks they use to obfuscate the issue... Another favorite is to reduce the size/quantity of a package while maintaining the same price as before... This is STILL inflation...
It seems, logically, that having the ability to increase prices would be a good thing for retailers... It seems, to me, that retailers feel as if they MUST increase prices right now... To increase weak profit margins as fewer people are buying their goods...
And it's NOT just retailers who are increasing prices... It's commodities/utilities everywhere... Nearly every single state in the country is looking to increase taxes to help cover budget shortfalls... The federal government has painted itself into such a revenue light corner that they too will have no choice but to dramatically increase taxes on the American people, on the middle class, on everyone who pays taxes...
Rising prices/taxes in this sort of economy seems to be a recipe for disaster to me...
But who am I?
lol
Greg
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