You mean the people who want to do the wrong thing about the problem. It's ok for people to make the same as they did last year if prices are falling. It's only people with massive amounts of debt (and countries with it) that hate deflation. Those of us without it are just fine, so long as prices fall.
You're right. Conservatives would rather fix the problem with the right solution, not just create another problem to patch over the old one. That's the work of government and liberals. By the way...looks like you have yourself a nice little puppy dog, now, Ricter. DB seems to taken quite a liking to following you about!
"It's only people with massive amounts of debt (and countries with it) that hate deflation. Those of us without it are just fine, so long as prices fall." Lol, good grief.
U.S. Inflation Remains Tame Consumer-Price Index Ticks Up 0.1%, Likely Giving Fed Leeway on Rate Hikes By Eric Morath and Josh Mitchell Updated Oct. 22, 2014 10:46 a.m. ET ENLARGE "WASHINGTON—Consumer prices rose slightly in September, the latest sign of modest U.S. inflation pressures amid concerns of a global slowdown. "The consumer-price index, which measures how much Americans pay for everything from cars to doctor’s visits, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in September from a month earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday. When excluding volatile food and energy categories, prices also increased 0.1%. "Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 0.1% rise for both overall consumer costs and so-called core prices. From a year earlier, consumer prices were up 1.7%, matching last month’s annual reading. “There’s no denying that the inflation outlook has softened,” said Paul Dales, economist at Capital Economics, adding the overall price gains are likely to ease for the remainder of the year due to falling energy costs. "The weaker outlook “gives more ammunition” to Federal Reserve officials who would prefer to wait longer before raising rates, he said. "The mild inflation also means Social Security and disability payments will increase just 1.7% for 2015. The government uses the figures from Wednesday’s report to calculate the annual cost-of-living increase for payments made to nearly 64 million Americans. The increase the Social Security Administration announced matched an earlier Labor Department estimate." http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-consumer-prices-up-0-1-in-september-1413981110 : )
You going to debate that point or just more teenage girl "lol's" and "lmaos" with the occasional "omg" without any substance?
Precisely! 1.7% annual increase in official inflation (just don't buy meat and milk) while we've got decreasing wages in real terms. More pain. I'm glad you finally agree! Sheesh, only took how many pages? : )
Just in case you ever want to educate yourself beyond what you skim in the NYT. I understand that you have the attention span of a goldfish, so I've taken the time to highlight some particularly salient points for you. What's Wrong with the CPI? William L. Anderson One thing that has achieved Holy Writ with economists and politicians is the Consumer Price Index, or the CPI. Each month, people from Alan Greenspan to traders at the New York Stock Exchange to the economist in the Economics 101 prison await the latest announcement from the US Department of Labor that tells us the change in "consumer prices" from the previous month. Many folks make very important decisions after hearing this number, since it supposedly measures the "rate of inflation." If the change in the price index is "too high," then the Federal Reserve Board of Governors might vote to increase the Fed's discount rate. Likewise, high numbers will also trigger a giant sale of stocks on Wall Street, as traders anticipate higher interest rates, which both eat into profits and provide safer avenues of investment through interest-bearing securities. Economists depend upon the CPI when taking time-series measurements of financial instruments, since such measurements can only sense if they are expressed in "constant" money terms. For example, the 11,000-point Dow Jones Industrial Average of today is not 11 times the value of the 1,000-point Dow of 1969 because the relative value of the US dollar has declined by about fourfold in the past three decades, according to the CPI. Given that the US government has made war on money for most of the past century, one cannot blame those who make a living from financial instruments to want a consistent measure of value over time. Like most products coming from the bowels of government offices, however, the CPI should be tagged with warning labels. Furthermore, one should remember that economists and politicians often use the CPI dishonestly. The first thing to keep in mind is that the CPI is not an economic variable. It is a statistic that at best gives an inaccurate picture of an economic phenomenon: inflation. To calculate the monthly CPI, the USDepartment of Labor takes a weighted average of prices of various things that consumers purchase, and then its statisticians try to figure out the various proportions of different items in a "mythical" household budget. For example, the statisticians may hold that housing costs are 30 percent of household expenditures, food costs 20 percent, gasoline another 15 percent, and so on. Armed with the proportional spending of the "average" household, the statisticians then assign that percentage to price changes of each item. Obviously, the higher the percentage of a household budget for a certain item, the more "influential" that item may be. For example, if gasoline prices rise sharply, then those particular price increases are seen as "fueling inflation" (no pun intended). It is easy for the observer to see that the CPI can perpetuate the myth of "cost-push" inflation, in which the cause of rising prices is, well, rising prices. Indeed, many evening news broadcasts on the new CPI figures will begin with something like, "Increases in gasoline prices have helped ignite a new round of inflation, the Labor Department reported today." Furthermore, the portrayal of the "official" version of inflation as an average causes other mischief as well, the most noticeable being the classification of the prices of some goods and services as "rising faster than the rate of inflation." The implication of such a statement is that if the price of something increases at a faster rate than the increase in the CPI, then something illegitimate must be occurring. Soon afterward, politicians begin to call for price controls, and then the real damage to the economy begins. As economists and others of the Austrian School understand, inflation occurs when the value of money declines relative to the goods and services it can purchase. In other words, inflation is a monetary phenomenon, not a price phenomenon. Prices go up because inflation is happening, not the other way around. During a period of inflation, prices of some things increase more rapidly than prices of others. For example, during the last decade, money prices of gasoline and food have increased, while personal computer prices have fallen. That does not mean computers are impervious to inflation, but rather that inflation affects different items in different ways. Furthermore, without inflation, computer prices would have fallen even further. What, then, is the real rate of inflation if the CPI is inaccurate? The truth is that there is no good way to gain a true measure of inflation, especially in this era when the Federal Reserve System is flooding the economy with new dollars. All we can say for certain is that inflation, with all its evils and distortions, has become what seems to be a permanent part of our economy.
"Consumer confidence is at a new recovery high of 94.5, up from an upwardly revised 89.0 in September and surpassing the previous recovery high of 93.4 in August. The index was last this strong in October 2007, right at the beginning of the Great Recession. "October's gain is concentrated almost entirely in the expectations component, which jumped 8.6 points to 95.0 in a reading that isn't quite a recovery high but near one, next only to February 2011's 97.5. The strength in expectations reflects optimism in the outlook for both jobs and income, both of which show convincing gains in this month's report. "Showing only marginal strength is the present situation component which rose only 7 tenths to 93.7. Yet this is still a very strong reading, surpassed only once in the recovery in this year's August reading of 93.9. Looking at details, the reading on jobs-hard-to get, at only 29.1 percent vs 29.4 percent in September, hints at strength for the October jobs report. "Inflation expectations ticked 1 tenth higher to plus 5.4 percent which, however, is very quiet for this reading. Buying plans in the report are soft especially for cars in a dip that may be payback from the summer's very heavy sales. "The consumer sector has yet to kick into high gear this recovery though confidence data are beginning to hint that such a break out may be in the cards, perhaps as early as this holiday's shopping season which is certain to get a boost from low gas prices. Hard data on the consumer will come out Friday with the personal income and outlays report."