via Weasel Zippers, a short clip of Little Timmy Geithner asserting that the “total energy costs” for the “average family” has gone down
After I picked my jaw off the floor, a quick peek at our household expenses easily confirms what Casa Click spends on energy — Our electric bill averages $85, our natural gas bill $32 (from low of about $15 during summer months to a high of about $68 during winter).
It costs me $52 to fill up the tank on my car. And I do it at least every two-weeks. My husband’s vehicle is $80 to fill the tank.
WTF
I like how he mummbles “because we had a very warm winter” .
So is global warming part of the administrations new energy -policy now?
You’re getting by on the cheap, Darleen. My elec. bill in summer approaches $200 (from a winter low of about $70 or so). But we do have the Southern Heat and Humidity factor going on here; and I lurves! my AC.
jdw
it’s a very small comfort here in the land of Gov Moonbeam.
Well, it depends on what the Limousine Liberals are doing… if Al Gore shuts off the top floor of his “house”, the average energy costs for the entire State of Tennessee are lowered a trifle.
I imagine Jay Leno could turn off the heat to the 200-car garage and help most of LA…
Latest numbers from Friday:
If you look at the overall numbers, unit energy prices as a whole have increased significantly more than other categories. Either consumption is down (“warm winter”) or his phrasing is his figleaf (“household”).
Reflecting on Bob Higgs’ Crisis and Leviathan, Steve Hayward hints at a possible change — an absolute flip about, in fact — of the ratchet and pawl effects of now long prevailing judicial stances toward New Deal economic legislation (following, for purposes of relevance to this thread, a logic entailed in the absurdity of the arguments of the likes of Barack Obama and his henchman Mr. Geithner).
Hints, I say, only because the questions posed by such a change of direction are still a bit sketchy as presented, and presume, I believe, a fuller account of ordinary human nature necessitating such a change.
Darleen, I’d contribute to a ‘Send Suitcases’ fund to the good people in NY, IL and CA. Those forever-Blue states need people to vote against them, with their feets. Allow the moochers to stay, then let the state fail utterly and completely, with no bailout.
How far off is California? Couple-three years or so?
Probably counting all those unheated occupy tents as households.
I didn’t even scan the earlier part of the release, just skipped ahead to excerpt the specific section. But, earlier on, we find this:
That’s fairly plain language.
No worries though. I’m sure the host of Meet the Press did his homework and immediately read from the government’s own press release in a sharp follow-up question.
jdw
I’d say 3 years at the outer most. May be sooner with Moonbeam and public union thugs “Eat the Rich” tax hikes coming on the ballot. Not that I believe they’ll pass but the locusts in Sacramento are already counting on the alleged revenue from those tax hikes in their “budget” forecasts …
Not to mention the fiasco of AB109 – the prison realignment law where tens of thousands of state prisoners are being kicked to the counties. State funding for that is “guaranteed” for only 3 years.
bh, I thought gasoline prices were not included in gubmint cost of living indices? At any rate, Tiny Tim is full of it (duh) and so are a lot of my libtard friends who can’t seem to understand that the cost of energy drives everything in our economy and is a major indicator of why everything costs more now. Just anecdotally, I was just at the supermarket and everything is up at least 18-20% since last year at the same time.
Well, you got CPI and core CPI, leigh. Core CPI drops out energy and food under the idea that they’re more likely to experience in/de-flationary volatility. Which is true, of course. Supply shocks happen. Vanilla prices are sharply up but it’s not a macro effect, it’s a vanilla supply effect.
Here’s bh’s link again, with the extraneous stuff removed.
Thanks, bh and sdferr.
There are many weasel words in there still sdferr. I don’t think these government types are trustworthy.
Could be leigh, but the extraneous stuff I was referring to was the bits of the url that prevented it from working.
I’m guessing this link will be messed up as well then. It’s an richer format because significant changes jump out at you when you look at the second to last date column.
For instance, we see that apparel is up. Look at the relevant dates. Early 90s. What’s going on there? Cotton? Increase in Chinese labor costs?
Take a look at the gasoline prices. It’s way up but the dates are very recent. Which means it’s way up and it was also recently way up. That’s not a blip.
Just something to look at if you don’t have any local sporting events on the TV.
I appreciate that.
Yes, I mean “an richer”. I pronounce “richer” in a really novel way.
It’s a Wisco pronunciation, bh. And the Penguins are playing the Flyers if you have NHL Center Ice.
It’s a little misleading to call what the Pens are doing playing. “Folding to” is a bit closer, I think.
Think I’ll maybe get my lazy ass out for a run before it starts raining instead as I’m too thick to understand hockey.
Later.
The “Distilled Spirits at Home” # is heartening. But this morning’s trip to the store greeted me with $7/lb Oscar Meyer bacon and $4/6-pack Thomas’ English Muffins. I might have to start drinking my breakfast.
And yet leftists defend this administration, no matter what.
The Pens have indeed been a disappointment in this series sdferr. Fer cryin’ out loud! They’re playing the Flyers who are staffed with oldsters like Jagr. I’ve switched over to the news for now.
Goal! I’ll keep my hopes up for a turn around.
Fuck. Flyers score.
Yes! Pens score!
Sara Lee doesn’t make this many turnovers.
I like how they are saying that there’s no inflation and yet everything costs more.
Funny, that.
Tim Geithner to entire US: ” Never trust another word I say because I’m either a ridiculously unskilled liar or a clueless idiot simply repeating whatever I’m told to say. Also unlike you sad wretched Lilliputians I don’t have to pa y MY taxes .”
As in, it may as well be inflation because money doesn’t go as far as it did a few years ago.
New social pressure based political slogan:
” I can’t take any more of this crap. If you’re still for Obama despite all he’s done and said and you think I’m a monster for being against him then you get the hell out of my house, don’t call me, don’t visit me, do talk to me. Ever. Our friendship is through. You are dead to me. “
Maybe the depressed economy of Michigan is good for something after all. Thomas english muffins $1 per 6pak, bacon $3.99 per lb, rib roast (choice) $5.99 per lb. Corned beef $2.49 per lb. Gas has been just under, to just over, $4 for quite awhile it seems.
Is that sliced corned beef brisket or is that the chopped, pressed, cooked processed luncheon meat variety?
Unsliced, uncooked, non-chopped, non-pressed, Angus corned beef brisket. Just got done cooking and eating some.
Oh, uncooked. I was thinking cured, and cooked like from the deli.
Can’t say what the deli price is as I rarely use it.
Here are some people that Tim is probably talking to.
I buy uncooked corned beef every now and then usually in the brine-cure bag, but the quality varies so much that tend to stay away from it. What I buy I usually crock pot with potatoes and then I boil some cabbage on the side if anybody is over who actually likes cabbage. I am not much of a cabbage fan myself.
I usually put brisket in the roaster and slow cook it.
Wait, there was really a ship called the Titanic?
Get outta here.
Brine cure is what it was. I usually crock-pot it too but if I have the time use my sous-vide setup. That takes three days.
Today was an experiment. Vacuum bagged it with spices and put the bag in a large pot of simmering water for 3 hours. Came out fine for my small town flyover tastes.
Heh.
My necessities here in South Texas:
Electricity–low of about $165/mo in the winter to approaching $350 in the summer. I have a 2700 square foot house, we keep the thermostat at 78 when we’re home and 83 when we are not, keep all the blinds closed like weird shutins, and have five enormous shade trees around our house. Still paying a fortune.
Combined city water/sewer/garbage/recycling/natural gas–average of $225/mo. More when it’s droughty, as it has been for a couple years now, and we have to water the foundation to keep it from shifting and cracking as the clay soil dries out under it.
Gas–We’re low down here at $3.75, but my husband drives a pickup and I drive a suburban. (Both out of necessity, I should add). We limit driving as much as we are able, but we’re still pushing $400 a month for fuel.
Food–Despite thriftiness and scratch cooking, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep to our $700 monthly budget for two adults, four kids. For the first time since our family was founded (when we married in 2001) I’ve deliberately served starchy, empty calorie meals missing the protein or dairy or fresh produce, out of necessity.
If anyone tries to downplay the risin’ cost of gettin’ by*, he’s full of shit.
Actually, the price of processed food has been pretty stable.
However, don’t check the quantity too closely.
For instance, ice cream is no longer sold in half gallons. That “half gallon” is now 1.5 quarts. Tortillas, no longer 12 to a package, it’s 10 to a package.
And so on and so forth.
But, since the price didn’t go up, I guess it doesn’t count as inflation.
Jackasses, each and every one of the current administration.
Ruby
Your electricity sounds about right for 2700 house. Ours here is only 1300, built in 1989 so pretty well-insulated.
Our gas price has slowed a bit, now about $4.22/gal.
I filled up yesterday at $3.849 a gallon, which if my 25-gallon tank had been empty would have cost me $96 and change. Since my fuel gauge doesn’t work and I have to judge when to refuel based on mileage, that last tankful I went through must have gotten a damn sight better mpg than usual.
Which means somebody at the place where I had to get a new alternator last month must have tweaked my tire pressure without asking.
Blake, manufacturers have been selling us smaller and smaller packages at the same price as the bigger packages for at least 20 years. Look at 1-pound cans of coffee. Not a chance, 12-oz cans or bags is more like it. Milk by the gallon (around here anyway) can cost anywhere from $3.58 to over $5, depending on where you buy it. Bread costs almost $4-5 a loaf for the good stuff. Deli meats and cheeses average nearly $10 a pound. Even iceberg lettuce is around $1.50 a head.
Ruby, you need to join a Sam’s Club or Costco. You should be able to meet your budget there for six people. Plus, they have great deals on diapers, formula, paper towels, detergents, pet food, individually wrapped snacks (granola bars, applesauce) that are packed for vending (T-ball and soccer snacks), cereal, etc. We usually make one big shop about four times a year and restock our freezer chest and our shelves that hold canned foods. Also, Hostess usually has outlet stores that sell day old bread for next to nothing. I buy it and toss it in the freezer. Hostess is a great place for snacks, too, like baked snack cakes and cookies. Three or four grocery bags full of breads, hamburger buns, hot dog rolls and sometimes impulse items usually costs about $25.
Ruby, where in South Texas? I live in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, when I’m not out on the road, and I can confirm the gas prices, they were about $3.69 just before I left home. Electricity I can’t confirm, though the house is near your size, it doesn’t have central air/heat, so it depends how many room AC’s are running, which is not many when I’m out on the road. Food costs HAVE been going up, but mostly meats and processed food, produce down here is still mostly the same.
Interesting data point, I’m a truck driver, and so I eat most of my meals out on the road. Restaurant prices at the truck stops are definitely going up, and they’re limiting the extras, or charging for them. Buffet prices are rising, and one of the truck stop chains, TA, are eliminating their seconds program on their regular menu. Since I am away from home most of the time, I qualify to deduct the cost of my meals on my taxes as a travel expense. The daily deduction went up year before last, but not this year, and it’s no longer really covering the expense of eating on the road anymore…
Beef Prices have been through the roof.
When we look at a basket of goods we need to also consider others like housing and durable goods.
We’re not looking at an across the board inflation party which is why it’s possible to see inflation as being far more muted than we would have predicted given the inputs.
Think of inflation as a purely monetary phenomenon. Too many tokens chasing goods Why would bacon go up and a washing machine doesn’t? You use the same tokens for both of them. You can choose options other than expensive bacon as a protein source or brand new washing machines yet one has significantly increased and the other hasn’t. (That’s not a specific question, imagine things like bacon going up and things like washing machines staying flat. It’s not all demand elasticity either.)
Just a friendly little dig here, Leigh.
Lifetime, charter Flyers fan here.
And I am abso-freakin’- lutly lovin’ this series.
LET’S GO FLYERS !
Peiople buy bacon more often than they buy washing machines; inventory therefore turns over more quickly, so that higher cost inputs make their way to retail more quickly as well. That’s not a demand elasticity thing so much as a qualitative difference in the kind of demand.
Why would bacon go up and a washing machine doesn’t?
burning up the corn crop + rising oil prices?
In my own experience, demand elasticity is more likely to affect the purchase of bacon than a washing machine, because I won’t buy a washing machine if the one I have still works without creating a river across the floor of my house.
I could — in theory, at least — refrain from ever again buying bacon.
Should have added, that once the river starts to flow however, I either buy a new washing machine or I start hoarding quarters and becoming a semi-permanent resident every weekend at a coin laundry.
mc4ever59 heh. That’s okay, you’re still stuck with the Iggles and the ’76ers.
Let me think about your thought for a moment, McG, and address newrouter’s first. Yes, exactly, that’s one great supply side issue. And you’ll find that manifested across all food costs. Long before QE1 and 2 we were talking about the tortilla riots in Latin America because of our bizarre decision to make shitty, super expensive fuel out of corn. Similarly, on the deflationary side, look at natural gas. This came out of some very smart choices. Those aren’t monetary phenomenons at all. It’s a supply issue. Corn isn’t the only place we’re doing something stupid and productivity increases in manufacturing aren’t the only places we’re doing smart things.
We get this mixed basket of goods and we’re to posit a monetary theory (runaway inflation) on the assorted movements. This isn’t to say that there isn’t monetary inflation. I think there is. That’s a different thing though than creating an econometric study showing this to be the case when we’re looking at such varied price levels.
You shut your mouth.
plus what’s the impact to food from the feds pulling the water in the central valley of ca?
If you can’t live on bacon, coffee, and chocolate, you’re doing it wrong.
Actually, Leigh, I’m pretty eclectic with favorite teams. Originally from New Jersey, late of Arizona and Texas, I can’t stand the Eagles or any New York teams. Packers and Penn State in football, flyers in hockey. Don’t love/follow baseball or basketball as much, but I root for the celtics and red sox, with the phillies 2nd.
As to the topic, some pretty big fluctuations in prices across the country, with prices going up the one thing we all have in common. For me , no matter where I’ve been I’ve usually gotten slammed pretty good on electric/utilities.
Food prices are getting a bit out of hand, though. I’ve often wondered if that might end up being the surprise cause of the 2nd American revolution. A couple works hard to pay more and more for less and less, quality and quantity. When they start coming home to kids crying from being hungry on a regular basis, enough may decide that enough is enough.
Okay, gave it a bit of thought, McG, basically just trying to translate food costs as a leading indicator using the same mechanisms that make the transport sector play this role traditionally.
I guess I’d say yes in the short term but once the differential stays out of whack like it has for awhile now we need to look towards structural issues.
And, again, newrouter, that’s exactly right. These stupid things we do are indeed stupid — they create intentional scarcity, what could be worse? — and we don’t do them uniformly across the economy.
When they start coming home to kids crying from being hungry on a regular basis, enough may decide that enough is enough.
I also think that this could happen, in fact, I’ve been thinking it is likely to happen. It’s one of the reasons I get so pissed off at this administration and at the MSM talking about how fat our kids are. Where I live, at least half of the population is retired, the other half is dirt poor or middle/upper class. Almost all of the kids at my son’s school (K-12) qualify for free or reduced lunches. Sure, there are a few fat kids, but most of them are not. I did some teaching at the high school a few years ago and there were kids there that told me honestly that they often didn’t have meals over the weekends except crap like ramen noodles. They would hunt rabbits a lot since there is no limit on them, but often the rabbits are hard to find.
Add in the fact that we have a huge drug and alcohol problem around here (our county is on the Cherokee Nation Reservation) and a lot of these kids are being cared for by relatives or foster care since their parents are in prison. To get food stamps here is not too difficult, but the amount is miniscule, about $100 for one kid. I had a very poor friend a few years back who had four children and a deadbeat husband and they got about $600 a month, and she had a kid in diapers.
and future energy prices aren’t affected by the bp thing and baracky bans, or keystone eff up, or tighter air standards for coal electricity, or the light bulb ban? hey let’s try chaos to build a functioning economy.
If their problem with food and energy as part of the CPI is that they jump around why don’t they go with a rolling average for the cost at any one time?
My take is that they want to keep the number low even if it really isn’t.
I think for many in this country , it’s hard for them to comprehend such a huge and ever increasing gap between the haves and have nots, as compared to someone with their ‘boots on the ground’, such as yourself who sees these things first hand, Leigh.
I fear that there are far too many things badly wrong for everything to turn out well.
The gap between haves and have-nots has been getting broader for more than a generation. Often on this site people talk about how a bachelor’s degree isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on or words to the effect that it is like a high school diiploma used to be. True enough, but how do we fix it? Or do we just sit around and carp about it and the lack of work ethic in the young?
I have also found that most kids are willing to work hard, but there are huge impediments to doing any work before they are 18 (and have a high school diploma). It used to be that you could wait tables, pump gas, cut grass, unload trucks and the like at sixteen, but not anymore. My son in high school tried to get a job as a caddy last summer (we have a lot of golf courses here), but he couldn’t because he was sixteen. He can’t cut grass anywhere until he’s 18, so I exploit him here.
wasn’t 16
Want? Yeah, I’d say so. Keeps the checks they send out lower. (For a different view google “overstated cpi” and you’ll see a pretty good argument that it most often works out the other way in practice.) Also, it makes it easier to fulfill the price stability mandate of the Fed. (Don’t think they use the core CPI though, they’re using a different metric.) (Reason I say “want” is because there is also the price shock issue I was talking about earlier. They’re not totally pulling this reasoning out of their asses.) (Too many parenthetical thoughts?)
Saw a paper a decade or two ago that said you could use almost any volatile element in the larger metric in if you used an individual moving average moderately weighted to the most recent time periods. Found it pretty convincing at the time but now I don’t remember enough of it to suggest any search strings.
but he couldn’t because he was sixteen
well maybe he should stay away from “the official economy” and start washing old folks cars and cut peoples grass etta al and make money the mexican way.
It’s not like the good ole days, ya know, when I was in high school and you could just lie about your age.
It’s not just higher degrees. When I was a youngster, we were taught to back ourselves up; that trades such as electrician , plumber and the like would always be in demand. Now, all of my friends who are electricians and plumbers are out of work and scramble for side jobs to get by.
Anyone remember Greg Olsen, the billionaire who paid $20 mil or so to go up in space with the Russians? He’s my 2nd ex-fiancees ex-boyfriend before me (damn, maybe I could write for a soap opera! If there’s any left.). Well, met him at a function we went to some years back and got to talking. Turns out he’s a master electrician in addition to being a scientist, and keeps up on his license. When I asked my ex (my ex; his ex; our ex. Whatever.) about it later, and said isn’t it kind of strange for a billionare to keep up his electrician creds, she replied that he believed in backing himself up, and that if something happened that he lost all of his money, he could still go out tomorrow and earn a living. Lesson relearned once and for all.
Only these days, such lessons seem to matter less and less.
you could just lie about your age.
not about lying. more about entrepreneurism. find a want and fill it. at 16 go help old folks with the chores. or couples with young kids.
The artificially lowered figure also provides better headlines for Page A-1, much as the preliminary unemployment figures do. Whereas “adjusted” unemployment numbers go in the back pages where casual readers won’t see them, “core” CPI numbers don’t even get that much correction, and you won’t see the true numbers talked about except in op-ed pieces that casual readers avoid with a will.
The trouble with the strategy is that it only works if there’s a temporary glitch in the economy that fades away before people would otherwise notice that food prices are still going up in spite of “low” inflation.
Only these days, such lessons seem to matter less and less.
you h8ter what do you have against my womyns studies degree?
I love womyns. And I loves to study ’em. It’s the figuring them out part that’s holding me back from my degree.
He’s 15. I corrected my post below the original. He can’t drive yet and we live out in the country.
Heh. You’ll never figure us out. It’s part of our plan to keep you off balance so you spend money on us.
And the plan has always worked very well on me. Must be the genius of it’s simplicity.
Or maybe the pure evil of it.
He can’t drive yet and we live out in the country.
its called the internet then. he could sell things for folks in the county. geez be creative when confronting a roadblock its the american thing to do.
my allan i wish i had this algore contraption at 15. i wouldn’t have been flipping dogs at 16 or pumping gas at 17.
Any states left that you can still get a job pumping gas? Left N.J. in ’07; they still did, but I think there were only 1 or 2 other states that weren’t self service.
Gas station jobs always came in great for me in high school.
I worked at Bob’s Big Boy after school. It was a lot of work, but you didn’t have to declare your tips back then.
When I was younger you really could get a job just by asking politely. I walked over to a work site once and asked for a construction job. Think I was 15. Had no skills and was ignorant across the board.
Ended up getting paid to clean up though. (It was cash and I didn’t get paid until I showed up on-time a couple weeks running and showed I knew how to shut up and learn something.)
That probably wouldn’t have happened during the early 80s and it probably wouldn’t happen now but do kids even do that anymore? Maybe they ought to give that a try at programming places. Through Twitter. I don’t know.
For what it’s worth, that wasn’t in the 50s. That was around ’89.
OT: Not sure if any of the guys here wear a size 8.5 shoe, but if you do, this is a fantastic deal for a great great boot from Superdry. I have the same pair — bought them from the LA store when I was out there at the end of last summer — and I believe they were around $325 new (though I got them on sale). I love mine.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130680715997
Which makes one wonder why M’chelle would surrender her law license 5 years after earning her JD.
but you didn’t have to declare your tips back then.
who pushed that amendment to the tax code? i smell schumer.
the “creative types(see ayers,bill)” suck big time see arduino projects
bh; back when I was in the work force, I’d just go in to a place, ask if they were hiring , and be interviewed right then or next day. I never went more than 2 days between jobs.
Pablo; maybe Meesh knows some things we don’t and doesn’t have to worry about such peon like concerns.
Jeff; do they have 12 wides? It’s tough to get my size sometimes, and most of the stuff I see in stores these days is pure crappola . Never heard of the company, but I’ll check them out.
You guys are great, but I gotta hit the sack.
Perchance to dream of a flyers sweep on Wednesday.
Heh, sorry Leigh. Do I get a penalty for that?
Lies, and the lying liars who lie them.
We could write a book, maybe. But the title needs just a bit of work.
To answer bh’s question (why is bacon up and washing machines aren’t) from my largely economically illiterate/ignerit p.o.v., could it be purely because of our FUBAR’d energy policies?
Food, gas, electricity are all up, so there’s less disposable income to spend on replacing durable goods that you’re bored with (like that electric blue washer and dryer set you thought looked cool —at the time).
My McCluskey hypot’isis is that rising food and energy costs are disguising deflation.
No, They’re LIEING about their record? Say it isn’t so.
Interesting that the Democrats continue like no one is calling them out on their obvious bullshit self serving propaganda and easily shooting it down each week.
Next weeks Democrat claim.: The sun doesn’t cause warmth and it rises in the West. Because the GOP are haters.
On two occasions in the vicinity of Fairbanks, Alaska I was surprised at the gas pump by someone whose job was to pump my gas for me. Different stores, different ownership, different decades.
You can’t pump your own gas in Oregon. It’s $5 a gallon and filled with make-work jobbers.
You can’t pump your own gas in New Jersey either.