Are you aware that most of the "raw price data" used by David Stockman's Contra Corner to create this table comes from the BLS, which is part of the US Dept of Labor? A bit ironic, I imagine...
lol, are you kidding? Some things the gov't cannot manipulate. That's the point of the chart and it seems to have entirely escaped you.
Erm, no I think you misunderstand... The prices of eggs, beef, electricity, coffee etc etc, both historical and current, all come from the BLS, i.e. the US government. At any rate, I've had this discussion a number of times already. Based on the data produced by the US government (some of which you believe, while some you don't), nominal median household income in the US has risen 2.05x between 1987 and 2012. During the same period the AIER Everyday Price Index (EPI), which heavily weighs the everyday consumption items in its basket, rose roughly 2.35x times. So a reasonably conservative estimate is that household incomes have lagged arnd 15% during a 25 year period which included GFC. Now all of the above comes with the usual caveat, i.e. all of this data (including the EPI) comes from the US govt and therefore is manipulated whichever way your political affiliations imply. FWIW...
Wow, this chart is truly eye opening, its funny that people still claim we are in a "low inflation environment" when this is whats going on...... CPI is a fucking joke, what do they base it on, their own diaper prices? "So long as you dont need food, heat, or housing, inflation is so low that we need more QE." Eggs may be sixty bucks a dozen, but ill get you a stellar deal on a new T.V. How the fuck do big government types not see a problem in this?
The gov't can't manipulate the inflation rate of the price of oil and other things on the chart. So they call it noise. The gov't can manipulate other things like computers through hedonics and other methods, and it does, and then it tells us that the resulting pce is the important number. iow, they base their policies off of the manipulated numbers and tell us to ignore the numbers that they cannot manipulate. I don't know any other way to explain this to you, but maybe you just don't want to get it.
I agree that directly observable market prices in the table are not produced by the US government. However, that's less than 30% of the items shown. The other 70%+ are all produced by the very same gov't that you distrust so much. Pls note that I am not stating whether your govt should be trusted or not. My point is that trusting your govt for some things but not others is not particularly consistent. As to the hedonic adjustments, I would draw your attention to the fact that they are applied to 3% of the CPI basket. Moreover, if you don't like the composition of the basket, pls refer to my previous post. On this note, over and out and I wish y'all a good w/e...
what is the disconnect? who has gathered in the all the assets... in what you might call and unfair distribution? the top .o5% right. So how that hell is taxing the other 99.5% going to improve things? what is the disconnect... The title of this thread suggests the customers are broke. The paying customers are the 99 percent or so of the tax payers not in the top .05%. You want customers to be able save some money... eliminate the income tax. Raising income taxes does improve the standard of living for anybody. You want fairness... eliminate the income tax... and provide a fair safety net that phases out in a way to allow for work. a progressive income tax and cronies in the top .05% gathering up all the assets are the problems in terms of inequality. so lets start with the income tax and eliminate it.
A reduction in food-stamp payments is harming Wal-Mart’s U.S. sales Bloomberg News | August 14, 2014 | Last Updated: Aug 14 8:09 AM ET Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, reported stagnant same-store sales and cut its earnings forecast for the year, hurt by higher health-care costs and slow traffic at its supercenters. Earnings for the year will now be US$4.90 to US$5.15 a share, down from a previous range of as much as US$5.45, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said today in a statement. Sales at U.S. Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores open at least 12 months were little changed last quarter, which ended Aug. 1. Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon, who took the post in February, is struggling to revive U.S. growth in the face of a slow economic recovery. The retailer hasn’t posted a same-store sales gain for six quarters, and customers are making fewer trips to big-box retailers. Cuts in government assistance also are leaving low-income shoppers with less money to spend. Lower-middle-income households have participated much less in the economic recovery than other groups “Lower-middle-income households have participated much less in the economic recovery than other groups,” Patrick McKeever, an analyst from MKM Partners in New York, said in a note before the earnings release. “About 20% of Wal- Mart’s customers are on government assistance,” and a reduction in food-stamp payments is harming U.S. sales, he said. http://business.financialpost.com/2...+FP_TopStories+(Financial+Post+-+Top+Stories)