But really. Be civil. That’s what’s important. Well, that, and a clean planet — even if that means gas at $5 a gallon, and the price of food and clothing doubling.
Energy and food costs don’t show up in inflationary stats, anyway, you see. So it’s almost like they don’t exist!
Move along. Nothing to see here.
People wouldn’t be kissing their jobs, and food wouldn’t cost so much, if Sarah Palin hadn’t put crosshairs on a map.
Damn iPod auto-correct turns “losing” into “kissing!?”
You know, as overvalued and affirmatively actioned as home mortgages were, real estate is still a hard asset. If the Demunists are hell bent on pointless “stimulus” spending, and the Fed is hell bent on “quantitiative easing”, real estate just has to come rocketing back.
it’s a hard asset what they can tax just for it existing
Full report here.
Energy is the mover for now.
Something to note when you look at these numbers is that you buy your food from food companies, not the commodity markets. Those companies have a variety of reasons (menu costs, discount competition, a variety of cheaper food alternatives) to not raise prices and just eat higher commodity prices.
That can’t go on forever, however.
“it’s a hard asset what they can tax just for it existing”
for now, it’s still a tax shelter. Of course, if the Commiecrats toy with that, all bets are off.
I would stay gold and other commodities, but those trains have already left the station.
Man, that Sarah Palin is such a dummy!
no she’s brilliant like doogie howser and the professor on gilligan’s island and elle woods
I’ve been doing the Dave Ramsey thing for about eight years now and my food budget is out of control.
I had planned on doubling the amount for food over the last four years as my older boys hit teenagerdom, but my projected v actual was so off I started tracking by reciepts. Whoo-boy. Milk and Eggs have a curve that looks like the 1999 NASDAQ. Had a few down weeks, but over all, since Dec of 2009, eggs and milk have doubled. Most in the last six months. Bread and meat too. Water softener salt? Went up a buck. And the bags lost 10 lb.
There’s the rub. A 1/2 gallon of Breyers is now 1.22 quarts. Same price.
Energy and food costs don’t show up in inflationary stats, anyway, you see
Well, for good reason – inflation stats are (despite how people use them) mostly meant to make it clear whether or not the central bank (the Fed in our case) has managed to stumble into (or deliberately enact) a markedly inflationary or deflationary policy.
Energy cost fluctuations (ie, OPEC deciding to try and be mean, or natural disaster destroying some refineries, or just an immense demand change in, say, SE Asia) make everything that uses energy more or less expensive… but have no significant bearing on monetary policy being inflationary or deflationary.
Likewise with a crop failure (or set of them) changing food prices, or other fluctuations in the worldwide food commodity market (not to mention seasonal changes depending on what foods you look at).
For inflation stats to serve their real primary purpose you pretty much have to take out energy and food.
For inflation stats to serve their real primary purpose you pretty much have to take out energy and food.
That’s fine, but inasmuch as they’re connected with (and conflated with) cost-of-living measures, it’s a real bitch to tell somebody that heating their house, feeding their children, and driving to work don’t count.
NO! THERE’S NO INFLATION!!!!
(Unless you look everywhere else in the world…..)
Inflation problems cropping up and authorities respond:
– South Korea surprised markets w/an unexpected rate hike as the country continues to take action to cap inflation.
– The big surprise was the tone change out of Trichet during the ECB’s Thurs morning press conf, where the bank president focused on rising risks to the eurozone’s inflation outlook. Trichet’s sentiments from Thurs morning are being echoed by Germany’s Axel Weber in remarks early Fri.
– In the UK, the BOE has been coming under increasing pressure for weeks now over that country’s rising inflation and while rates were left on hold Thurs morning, the upcoming minutes may reveal a greater push for tighter policy.
– Meanwhile, Indian inflation rate hotter than expected today, raising market expectations that the country will take action on the rate front. India registered a +8.5% inflation rate in Dec vs. a +7.4% November rate.
– Finally, in China this morning the PBOC hiked bank RRR again (by 50bp). China has become increasingly aggressive on bank RRRs over the last couple months (it hiked RRRs 6x in ’10, inc. 1x in Dec and 2x in Nov). A surge in bank lending during the first few weeks of ’11 (according to press reports earlier this week) has forced the PBOC’s hand in an effort to clamp down on credit creation. A report this morning indicated that China’s Dec inflation may top its Nov reading of 5.1% (China will report inflation this coming Wed night).
Yes, Sigivald, I understand all that. But when crop failure and OPEC vagaries are bolstered by onerous domestic regulatory measures and drilling moratoriums, it bears noting just the same – particularly when the MSM is using the numbers to suggest a vital economy.
But I do take your point.
STAGFLATION BABY!
– But hey, she opened her eye’s, and that’s what’s important.Now be civil!
STAGFLATION BABY!
Jesus-effing-Keerist, been there done that sounding the alarm for 2 years that O! is Jimmy Carter’s second term.
BTW … all my local gas stations are pegged at $3.31 for regular. A handful (close to freeways) for as much as $3.45.
– The MFM is playing the “how many ping pong balls can you stack on the table” game, and the clock is ticking…ticking….TICKING…
– Bumbblefuck is running out of hiding places and distractions.
you gotta have gas or the car won’t go
– …..and if you don’t go you end up with too much gas.
it’s a conundrum
Over the past year and a half, we bought two small chest freezers and completely revamped the way we shop.
Every week, we buy three or four newspapers for the coupon inserts. Any coupon for any item we might use has its details entered into a spreadsheet. Then, each week we check the grocery store sales and combine the sales and the coupons to the maximum possible effect. We also “harvest” coupons and rebate forms we find in the store for the same treatment.
Shopping weekly uses a bit more free time, but since we can stock up we save a ton of money that way.
We also make use of Walgreen’s and CVS reward programs to create extra free money that we can use to buy things like milk. Overall, it takes a lot of work and organization, but our grocery bills have gone from $250/month to more like $80/month. On rare occasions it would be higher than that, like the month we bought $100 worth of meat to get a $40 rebate.
Jimmy Carter with a tan, is how I started off describing the Good Man.
He loves him some U.S.A. — just like Bill Ayers and Jerry Wright! That is, so long as they can make it into a democratic socialist state run by a benevolent ruling class (made up largely of them. And anyone who says otherwise is just a knuckledragging, er, unhelpfulist.
Gee. If only someone was able to predict this kind of thing would happen. By, like, listening to what Obama himself had said before trading in his hard-left rhetoric for the pleasing tones of pragmatism…
$80 a month? I spend more than that on walnuts!
Our next step is going to be an inventory system. We’ll scan everything with a barcode scanner before it goes into the pantry or the freezer, scan it when it goes out, and know exactly what’s on hand at any time.
I might even scan my ammo…
It’s just the two of us, so direct comparisons may be futile…
I can get all the walnuts I want free from the tree in the front yard of the empty house across the street. I just have to fight the squirrels for them.
– A few more months of this imaginary Golden Unicorn Utopia, and Bummblefuck will need to stay on vacation permanently.
If only I could get my EBT neighbors to be that careful with “their” grocery money…
Jim in KC
err … $80/month? Wow. Is that price just food or does it include all the other items one tends to get at the store — cleaning products, hygiene products, booze, etc.
how has it changed what you do eat? Have you bypassed all processed food, like cereals and canned soups and have you refrained from items like coffee or tea?
I would ask Jim in KC how much time he spends to save that money, and could he use that time to earn money in a different way to offset the savings or even exceed them.
This is just from an economics point of view, of course. There may be inherent entertainment value in what he’s doing that one cannot put a price on easily.
– That you have to ask such questions Darleen, should be enough for the electorate to understand what the Utopia has brought us too in two short years.
– Think real hard, and given what happened in Nov., what do you imagine the mood will be like with two more years of this insanity?
Good God. I spend $80 a month just on bananas, vaseline and sugar cookie dough. What the hell do you do on Thursdays?
But whatever you do, DON’T STOCK UP ON FOOD WHILE YOU CAN STILL AFFORD IT!
That just makes you look like a Glenn Beck minion-bot with brainwashing, and We Can’t Have That.
Who needs food? I have ammunition.
I’ll get food.
Let’s face facts: ammo and whiskey are the only currencies with real intrinsic value.
I never see coupons for ammo or whisky.
ammo and whiskey are the only currencies with real intrinsic value.
I never see coupons for ammo or whisky.
Causation or correlation? Hmmm.
– The latest chapter in the “ObamaWorld little red book of Truthiness”
Chapter 17: “When you lie down with dogs you get Socialism”
– Selling your freedoms for hopey changy security you’ll never see generally doesn’t end well.
– Unexpectedly it turns out (for the true believers at any rate) that Marxism doesn’t stop at personal freedoms edge.
– But I’m sure the Golden Erkle, and his cabinet guys like Gibbs, all took that into account when carefully planning the Utopia.
More cost cutting tips:
Serve ketchup packets (stolen from McD’s) as ores doovries.
Smash two or three used filters full of coffee grounds together and run them through again. (Add whiskey to taste.)
Sweep out from behind the stove, pick out dog hair and then bring to a boil.
(just kidding Jim in KC. I’ve got a seventeen yr old who can burn through a mattress-sized box of Cheerios in an afternoon)
Another incipid surrey rider singing “Oklahoma!”
http://www.peggynoonan.com/article.php?article=554
And those are just the ones you crack while doing barbell curls.
I don’t think Peggy Noonan would recognize the difference between a president and a denizen of a faculty lounge.
Damn, my son works at Kroger so I get 10% off of Kroger brands (20% off around Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter (dirty Christers)), but 3 days worth of groceries cost me $100 easy. And that’s for 3 of us (hubby and daughter) as my son actually lives with his girlfriend in an apartment closer to school. Plus I take advantage of those 10 for $10 specials they run on other brands and some of their other advertised sales. I don’t do coupons as I can’t stand the Atlanta Urinal/Constipation and won’t give em any money.
Do you find your coupons on the net or are they newspaper ads?
Time-wise, shopping itself is pretty much a wash.
Organizing things takes some time but it doesn’t require much focus, so it can be multi-tasked.
Soaps and what-not aren’t included in the total, but those are usually free or nearly free if you shop carefully enough. I can’t remember the last time I actually paid for soap or razors, for example.
No coupons, but we do have rebates on ammo and whisky. Sometimes Cabela’s likes to save me money on ammo, too. I’ll take 20% off over retail any time.
Both, Steph. If we had better stores here, we’d spend less. Harris-Teeter *triples* coupons, but the best we can do here is double.
“Maybe he has “not come back from hell with empty hands.” Maybe he is going to be formidable.”
– Or maybe golden unicorns will start flying out of his ass soon.
– Peggy really should find some other line of gainful employment.
peggy the noonan has flaccid prose
I can’t remember the last time I paid for a razor, but probably for a different reason.
Alopecia?
I’ve got a seventeen yr old who can burn through a mattress-sized box of Cheerios in an afternoon.
I didn’t worry as much having teenaged girls in the house … except my house was the place they and their friends would hang and raid my refrigerator.
Which I left pretty much unrestricted until my gorgeous sirloin-tip rolled roast (8 pounder from Costco), that had about 7 lbs left after one meal and I was looking forward to another dinner and many happy sandwiches, was devoured one afternoon by only TWO 17 year old boys.
Well, both have gone on to careers in the Navy – one flies an F18, so I guess that was a small investment in defense of our country. ;-)
Bmoe: Have you heard from Donald? How is his wife?
Another surrey rider… but an expected one.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/14/AR2011011403871.html
I’d like to wish that damn surrey would go over a cliff, but you that would be wrong…
Americans are too fat, so they just jack up the price of food to get them to trim down and the price of gas to get them walking more.
dr O!s economy based diet
Honestly, I don’t understand all the praise for President Dipstick’s speech. It was sort of OK, in the sense that it wasn’t as bad as one might expect from him, but that’s about it. The t-shirts were tacky enough to be Clintonesque.
All the while advocating mass transit and trains… it’s kind of like they want us herded into cattle cars or something.
I’d add fattened up for the slaughter, but that would be shades of Charlton Heston and we can’t have that.
Stephanie, have you seen this? Donald posted it this morning.
Thanks, McGehee. Missed that. But then I tend to close older threads once they go about 6 hours with no additions.
That is, I won’t say good, but I will say, it is better news. It will be good news when all is healed and a done. Prayers for both of them.
– Dinosaur-John should just quit faking it and switch to the side he really belongs in.
I’m going long on tampons, Squid. I’m a big picture guy.
Pads… they work equally well for the ladies and the depends crowd. Now that’s big picture. Added bonus, they work well as tourniquets and bandages.
[…] “Jobless claims jump, wholesale food costs surge” […]
I can get all the walnuts I want free from the tree in the front yard of the empty house across the street. I just have to fight the squirrels for them.
Shelling walnuts is work. Stewing squirrels is easy.
Roof rabbit comes later.
$80 a month? I spend more than that on honey and whipped cream in a can. But then I’m old and my sex life needs all the help it can get….