China report inflation now 8.3%. Can't be long before we start inporting their inflation as well. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...cent_in_February_bank/articleshow/2849089.cms
Pitz, I'm glad someone else has common sense on this issue. My car has great gas mileage (affordable too). I live in a reasonable condo with very low assessments, 5 minutes away from work. My salary is increasing at around 10% a year. These people out there who claim there is mass inflation in everything, except salaries, have a really confusing view of economics and inflation. With the exception of the working poor -- minimum wage employees who are getting gang raped due to the recession, weak job market, and super high food inflation -- anyone with a skill that is in demand should be benefiting from higher salaries. At end of the day, inflation or no inflation, it's still about supply and demand. The demand for my current employment is driven by large capital projects by government, utilities, and oil and gas companies. All three are doing quiet well right now. If two of the three fail, I'll still survive. But since it's all three, I'm doing well and better than inflation salary growth. Say you're a real estate agent and the demand for your employment is strictly driven from real estate transactions of overpriced homes, I can see how that may be a problem. If Realtors were smart during the good financial years, they've would have branched out to become a licensed appraiser or home inspector to become more versatile in this economy. An appraiser has business regardless of the status of the housing market: In the good times they appraiser for banks when people want to buy, in the bad times they appraiser for banks when people are being foreclosed upon. Not to mention during divorce, bankruptcy, and refinancing. Too many Realtors were too lazy on their ass to plan for the future. Now they're paying the price.
I remember about 3 years ago a lot of us would complain about CPI inflation ignoring the cost of owning a home. It considered everyone to be renters. Now that homes are in deflation mode and renting is becoming more expensive because of all the former homeowners losing their homes, I wonder if cost of home will now go into CPI which will be used to offset everything else that's exploding in prices. If we have a really big drop in housing, we'll get a negative CPI, giving the Fed all the ammution they need to cut rates (and our dollar) to zero.
Yeah, those sneaky bastards will do exactly what you describe to play with the CPI stats. You're right on the money.