As the MSM and Ben Bernanke try to convince you there is no inflation in your life, the facts speak otherwise. These are just the 1 month price changes in a few items that might be of interest to you. When the blathering CNBC pundits exclaim that gas prices have fallen and will help the consumer, consider that prices bottomed a few weeks ago and are now rising. Consider that prices are all the way back to the levels of April 1. And consider that gas prices are 51% higher than last year. Facts are very inconvenient to liars and thieves and Wall Street shysters.
The prices on these items are skyrocketing. When corn prices skyrocket, meat prices will follow with a lag. We are clearly in recession. Prices of commodities are supposed to decline in a recession. So these prices increases must be due to one of three things:
- Worldwide demand is still outstripping supply as the US becomes less meaningful in the demand supply equation.
- Ben Bernanke’s inflationary currency debasing policies are causing food prices to skyrocket and people to seek the safety of gold.
- Investors are fleeing paper assets towards real assets that they can hold and use.
It is probably some combination of all these factors. But one thing is certain, this is not deflation. This is stagflation as our real incomes decline, our home values decline, and the prices of things we need rise.
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
There is an interesting complexity theory put together by some people positing that when the price of food rises about a certain threshold, you get social unrest.
Here is the Social Unrest Triggers for Dummies version:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27083/
The mathematically gifted among us can call BS or not on their theory. You can download the entire thingey here.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.2455
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30th August 2011 at 8:45 am
Administrator says:
HZK
I believe that theory. In the poor nations of the world, food costs make up 60% of the average person’s expenses versus 8% in the US. When poor people in these countries can’t afford to eat, they get a little pissed off.
Ben Bernanke has caused these Revolutions.
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30th August 2011 at 8:55 am
DavosSherman says:
I can’t find the article but I think we are either at 13% or higher now with Ben’s QE’s….
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30th August 2011 at 9:08 am
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
There are several interesting things about this graph:
#1: The first wave of unrest in 2008 was almost exclusively countries at the very bottom of the income/capital scale AND which have central governments which are either non-existent, utterly corrupt, inept – or some combination of these factors.
#2: The second wave of unrest in 2011 started to include oil rich nations like Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, who ostensibly have large incomes/capital. Where their petrodollars buying less food? Was there a bigger disparity between the oil sheiks and their citizens?
#3: Mexico, which fits the problems of the countries of #1, is not on this list. Probably because of the relief valve called the US Southern Border.
I wonder if there is some kind of “Corrupt/Inept Central Government Index” which we could then plot against this Food Price Index.
Bet the US data point would be off the fucking chart.
Bennie must be so proud.
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30th August 2011 at 9:21 am
RT says:
Hope, sorry but the urnest in 2008 was real, whereas the unrest/revolt in 2011 was staged by our good old intelligence community. not saying bennie isn’t a douche, just that there’s a lot more than meets the eye in the middle east.
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30th August 2011 at 9:35 am
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
@RT: I’m sure there are more variables leading to unrest than food prices, and I am extremely suspicious of the “Arab Spring” (bullshit) uprisings as being some striving for “democracy”.
As to our “intelligence” community staging the 2011 uprisings, no dice. These people do not like chaos, unless they can control it 100%. I can see them staging something in the US of A, but not the ME.
More likely to be forces intent on the destruction of the US, not the absolute control of it. That is the main difference between Al-Queda and DHS that I can see.
But think about it, what a perfect cover for your “revolution”! After all, who can be against rising food prices on “poor” people?
Coming soon to a theatre near you.
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30th August 2011 at 9:46 am
Muck About says:
@HZK: Great find and a good chart.. It provides one with a different viewpoint on chaos.. Thanks..
MA
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30th August 2011 at 9:53 am
Maddie's Mom says:
It’s very easy to lie to people who don’t think.
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30th August 2011 at 10:07 am
VinnieTheShark says:
When folks are spending over 50% of their income for food, as they are in some countries, it doesn’t take much of a price increase to really affect them. A starving person just trying to get by and feed his family is much more likely to riot than one who has his belly full. Many governments in the past kept this at bay by feeding their people. The Romans called it bread and circuses. We call it the SNAP program…
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30th August 2011 at 10:20 am
Thinker says:
Inflation has been noted in other areas, as well: The 50 Richest Members of Congress (2011)
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30th August 2011 at 12:44 pm
Stucky says:
To the two people that voted thumbs down on Hope’s 2nd post ….
I have a lenticular message for you;
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30th August 2011 at 12:55 pm
Centerfield says:
Eating is so over-rated.
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30th August 2011 at 1:01 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
@Stucky: I don’t understand it. I have been witty and clever in all my posting today and some asshole is giving me a thumbs down all day! Pearls before swine, I guess.
Hey! Why is your avatar bouncing back and forth? I’m getting dizzy.
In honor of your diet, which I hope is going well, I am ordering pizza for my office staff today to boost their morale as we slog through the electronic med records transition. I found out that the PizzaHut pan pizza supreme is only about 250 cals/slice. So I’m eating two, heh.
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30th August 2011 at 1:13 pm
Stucky says:
Someone doppleganged me … I believe by accident … so now I’m “logged in” and will stay that way. Sorry about your getting dizzy. Hopefully, you won’t use that as an excuse when hubby comes home tonight. lol
There’s an asshole in every crowd. Ignore the thumbs down. I posted the pic because I wanted to use the word “lenticular”.
I had three slices of pizza on Sunday!! Ms Freud and I (she’s also on my program) decided that two Sundays per month we’re going to “reward” ourselves and eat whatever the hell we want … within reason. I still kept my caloric intake to under 3,000. I’m eating a lot of celery and cabbage soup today.
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30th August 2011 at 1:21 pm
AWD says:
HZK:
Curing cancer and teeing up chaos theory (not to mention Pizza). A good day’s work. There are some conspiracy nutjobs on today. They haven’t shown their pitiful faces yet, but when they do, to the moon. You are clever and making good presentations. Fuck ‘em.
Electronic medical records. Another nightmare requirement brought to you by the Federal government. They don’t send any K-Y with the software do they?
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30th August 2011 at 1:29 pm
Administrator says:
cabbage soup? I wouldn’t want to be in the same room with you tonight.
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30th August 2011 at 2:26 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
@AWD and Stuck: Actually I ate THREE pieces of the pizza after reading that exchange between you guys and Smokey about torture, wow!
No worries, I am walking in the evenings with my 35 pound bug out bag (on an external backpacking frame) and my hiking boots to get back into some kind of shape before TSHTF. Of course I have to wait until about 10 pm to do this as it is STILL SO FUCKING HOT here in TX. Thank goodness it is dark and I live in the boonies or DHS would probably be paying me a visit, ha.
These electronic med records are going to provoke me into a FFFF, after I bash my forehead on the keyboard for the umpteenth time. Turns out that my laptop did not have the correct video card/screen resolution/whatever to run the GD thing, so, as we rolled it out last week, I am having to use an old laptop that weighs about 10 pounds until a new one comes in. Yes, thank you, my profit margins are just SOOOO robust I can drop $1,600 a pop to comply with this fucking law, on top of the $100K the practice has already spent on servers, software, employee time, T1 lines, blah, blah, blah. Our accountant has some fancy tricks and we’re supposed to get $43K from the gov/doc so “it will save $$$ in the long run”. Yeah, when pigs fucking fly, sigh.
Today is my “well baby clinic” of long term cancer survivors so it’s more like old home week and everybody is doing great and that puts me in a good mood.
For Stuck:
There once was a poster spectacular
Who liked to use words like “lenticular”
We know him as Stuck,
And his words do not suck,
As he dazzles us with his vernacular.
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30th August 2011 at 2:26 pm
VinnieTheShark says:
Indeed. He’ll have some flatulence to go along with his lenticular.
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30th August 2011 at 2:27 pm
AWD says:
HZK:
“I can drop $1,600 a pop to comply with this fucking law, on top of the $100K the practice has already spent on servers, software, employee time, T1 lines, blah, blah, blah”
Wait until the software develops bugs and problems, then you’ll be paying some nerd $1000 per hour to come out and fix it. It’s unbelievable they can get away with it, making us spend this kind of money. EMR takes away from patient time and effort. I get the feeling sometimes I’m spending 10% of my time on patient care and 90% of my time documenting and working for the government and insurance companies. Not why I got into medicine. People should be alarmed that all their medical records are to become digitalized. HMO’s and the government will then have almost instant access to people’s medical records. Where this will lead is straight out of an Orwell Novel. Nobody seems to care though, and we have to spend a fortune to bend over and comply. That should be a new national slogan: “BEND OVER AND COMPLY”.
For Stuck:
There once was a guy named Stuck,
The police tried to put him in the pluck,
But he escaped, again to rape,
All the newbies that totally suck.
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30th August 2011 at 2:46 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
@AWD:
Remember how GM/Chrysler became health/pension/financing companies that on the side, sort-of, manufactured automobiles?
Well, drum roll please, DOCTORS ARE IN DANGER OF BECOMING ACCOUNTANTS, TAX SLAVES AND FED.GOV STOOLIES WHO, ON THE SIDE, SORT OF, TAKE CARE OF PATIENTS!!!
Okay, you made me do it.
FUCKITY FUCK FUCK FUCK!
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30th August 2011 at 2:55 pm
AWD says:
HZK:
That’s great. Feels good to commiserate doesn’t it? You forgot lawyers, we have to become amateur lawyers so we don’t end up lawsuit bait. Let us not forget Obamacare, dumping 65 million people into Medicaid. We could do this all day.
For Admin:
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30th August 2011 at 3:02 pm
Stucky says:
Lovely poem, Hope! I’m touched. You’re lucky I’m not gonna ask to to rhyme a poem with “orange”.
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30th August 2011 at 3:04 pm
Stucky says:
Yours too, AWD. I’m a bit surprised you weren’t able to incorporate “fuck” with “Stuck”. Too easy, I guess. lol
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30th August 2011 at 3:06 pm
AWD says:
There once was a guy named Stuck,
Who told the police to take a flying fuck,
He got away, again to play,
but with his massive belly he was still Stuck.
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30th August 2011 at 3:12 pm
AWD says:
Not nice. How’s about a diet update? How much ya lost?
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30th August 2011 at 3:14 pm
Dave Doe says:
Before the food inflation is all over, someone in Obama adminstration will start trying to spin it as a cure for the obesity epidemic (for poor people).
Of course ultimately, when population outstrips resources (food or energy) – somebody is going to do without. America is not really good at doing without. Plus we have a a big stick.
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30th August 2011 at 3:21 pm
Stucky says:
LMAO.
8 pounds …. about 4 pounds per week. It’s definitely not just water loss. In fact, I am drinking water in prodigious quantities.
Anyway, not sure I can, or will, be able to sustain that rate of loss. From everything I’ve been reading on reputable websites (NOT those “I lost 16 pounds in one week!!!” dipshits), they say a “healthy” weight-loss regimen is 1.5 – 2.0 pounds per week. If you have a differing opinion, lemme know.
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30th August 2011 at 3:27 pm
AWD says:
Four pounds a week is okay as long as your getting adequate nutrition. I lost 4-5lbs. a week, it’s not easy, but you have to get it off. “Healthy weight loss”, what a joke (and excuse). It’s unhealthy being huge. You are also splurging once a week, which is essential. If you feel totally deprived you will just gain in back and more. Did you make it to the gym?
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30th August 2011 at 3:44 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
@AWD: One of our best hopes for overturning Obamacare at the level of the Supremes is Clarence Thomas.
I absolutely love this guy. Have you read his book? The lefties loath this guy because he rose from dire poverty to Yale Law school to finally the Supremes with conservative values and little to no big fed.gov programs help. Which he hates and believes are destroying black America (he is correct).
Even Jeff Toobin, who used to hate him, has written an article in the New Yorker which acknowleges Thomas’ conservative and strict constitutional intrepretation bone fides. Of course, Toobin then veers off to talk about Thomas’ wife, Gimmi’s, advocacy in repealing Obamacare.
This piece, is, IMHO, the opening salvo from the left to try to discredit Thomas in before the inevitable Supreme Court Challenge. Intellectually dishonest as ever, Toobin completely fails to mention how Elena Kagan’s role as Solicitor General of the US should cause her immediate recusal from the bench on this issue, lol.
This article goes on for 10 pages, and Toobin also takes some cheap shots trying to tie Thomas to the Tea Party.
Go ahead and read all of it. It will be the new manifesto of the left going into 2012.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/29/110829fa_fact_toobin?currentPage=1
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30th August 2011 at 3:49 pm
bigargon says:
@hope
I watched his interview with 60 minutes, I thought was he (Clarence Thomas) one of the most thoughtful and intelligent people i ever heard them interview.
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30th August 2011 at 4:20 pm
King-Shat says:
Admin,
Casey is having a free online video event about the Debt Crisis. Maybe you could post it.
THE
AMERICAN DEBT CRISIS
September 14, 2011
2PM ET
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30th August 2011 at 4:42 pm
Buckhed says:
There once was an old guy named Stuck
Who loved writing and saying Ah Fuck
He said with a grin as he rubbed on his chin
I’ve got something Ole’ Smokey can suck !
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30th August 2011 at 6:41 pm