I have not been to the grocery store in a while. I went today and could not believe what I saw. Every single item in the store seemed to be a lot more expensive then before. I also stopped at a Wendy's and could not believe that I had to pay 7 dollars for a meal. I went to happy hour, had 1 drink and it was ten bucks. There is no doubt in my mind. Inflation is out of control, rates are going up. The price of food is going up like the price of Google. Gasoline is way over 3 bucks. How can they not raise rates at this point? Its simply out of control. Anyone who does not believe inflation is out of control must be out of their mind.
Yeah I just bought milk, and even at Wall Mart 1 gallon is 3.50, about a year ago that was 2.60. It's not going to stop me from drinking it. I think inflation is much higher than 2%, more like 8-9% with gas and all.
Count on milk to score a few more dimes per gallon this summer. MSM blames corn prices due to ethenal, but who knows.
i thought i was the only one that noticed. i have to laugh when regular name brand grocery store items cost damn near as much as the local ( way overpriced) health food store. i'll tell you who is doing well though in my neighborhood....the .99cent store has never been so busy.
and they don't even consider insurance costs in the cpi. medical insurance is spiralling up at an alarming rate. and have you checked your home owners insurance lately? and yet you hear that magic phrase "excluding food and energy" inflation is very low. i think the cpi excludes about 80% of the things that are actually going up at a rate WAY above the released cpi figures. also, have you noticed how they try to fool you with smaller packages on food items? last year i noticed that you can't buy a "gallon" of ice cream any more. they made the package smaller and kept the price the same. a "pound" of coffee is no more than 12 oz. on and on. of course the govt *has* to down play cpi because so many outlays are pegged to it: social security, etc.
This isnt the article I wanted but close enough. To go along with Mavs Big Mac Index here is Stamp price index. Price has gone up twice since this article. As long as you dont eat, heat/cool your home or drive, or have insurance there is no inflation. Trading will be the last (or first profession) to die. Its one of the few ways to make a greater percent return than inflation. http://www.swissamerica.com/article.php?=SID&art=05-2005/200505160900f.txt
well the authorities gloabally have tried to adjust/deceive the inflation figures to suit their own needs. sometimes through hedonics or sometimes through cruder methods. the good thing about the free market though is that higher prices will show up sooner or late. e.g. food , petrol , travel etc etc. these thing they cannot control. so central banks are faced with a problem the same as goldman has admitted this week. there will be no rate cuts this year at all and probably not next year. the reality is that interest rates in the us are going up because the fed now reckonizes that it has ignored key inflation growth. ( e.g. the hawkish inflation sentence continually left in the statement. the general public know that everything costs more and therefore inflation must be significantly higher. the fed is now beginning to reckonize this fact and it is not going away. goldman woke up this week and also realised. when the average joe investor and market trader realises that rates will have to go up maybe another 75 basis points the stocks will not be where they are now.