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Hidden Dangers in Gold
Hidden Dangers in Gold
Based on an article by Dr. Paul Price in the Dec. 4, 12 issue of the Market Shadows newsletter: A Failure to Communicate: Numbers, Rates & Lies
Why isn't Paul currently buying gold bars, gold Electronically Traded Notes (ETFs), and mining companies? Wouldn't owning gold offset the (understated) inflation that we see daily and that may soon spiral out of control? While Paul argues that Washington’s Biggest Lie is its denial of real inflation, he also believes that pouring money into physical gold, gold-tracking assets, and shares of mining companies, is very risky, even if it makes logical sense. (Gold - The Biggest Risks Are The Ones You Don't See)
It makes sense because the supply of gold is limited and gold cannot be magically created by the Central Banks. Gold has also been used as a store of wealth for centuries. And of course, gold is presumed to be a good inflation hedge. But is it really?
Going back to 1980, gold peaked at about $850 per ounce. It bottomed in 2000 at about $250 per ounce. Annual inflation in 1980 and 1981 was in the double-digits. Later in the 1980s and through the 1990s, inflation fluctuated from under 2 to over 5 percent, drifting lower over those two decades.
Paul's chart below shows the nominal price of gold beginning in the 1970s. The second chart shows the nominal price of gold from 1979 to July 2012. (Click on charts to enlarge.)
Nominal Gold Prices 1979 - 2012
Chart from allaboutinflation.com
Paul notes that from 1980 to 2000, the CPI inflated by a cumulative 137% (compounded). Gold dropped to $250 during this period. But what about yearly inflation rates vs. the price of gold - is there a correlation?
The following chart shows gold prices vs. annual inflation rates. Apart from a clear correlation between inflation and the price of gold in in the 1970s, the correlation has weakened in recent years.
Gold Prices vs. Inflation Rate
Chart from Bloomberg
Describing the chart above, SymmetricInfo wrote,
It's clear that the lines seem correlated back in the 70’s and 80?s, but lose their relationship in the past decade. This makes it difficult to believe that the recent increase in price of gold has been solely due to a change in realized inflation and weakens the case for gold as a good inflation hedge... There isn’t much empirical evidence to make one believe that the decade long gold rally has exclusively to do with either realized inflation, inflation expectations or the federal reserves balance sheet. (Is gold really an inflation hedge?)
In Gold vs. Inflation, Barry Ritholtz noted that the link between gold prices and inflation is limited. The correlation between gold and inflation year over year is 0.42. On a month over month basis, it's only 0.11. According to Merrill, "Gold is not a great hedge against inflation. Investors would be better off owning TIPS if they are looking for protection against a potential rise in inflation." (Merrill Lynch via Barry Ritholtz)
Paul doubts that gold prices will soar to new heights anytime soon. He questioned the wisdom of amassing physical gold, buying gold in a custodian's care, and loading up one's portfolio with assets reflecting gold prices:
Recent history shows at least some custodians of your warehoused Gold to have been unreliable. For example, commodity brokerage firms MF Global and Peregrine Financial both failed to protect customer interests in the physical gold ‘safeguarded’ by them.
If you correctly bet on Gold going up you still may never even see your original stake returned, let alone any paper profits. Speculators were willing to risk price fluctuations. They didn’t know they were also subject to outright theft of their property.
Many traders today play Gold movements with ETNs (Electronically Traded Notes) without knowing these have bigger risks than simply the metal's price action. These ETNs are unsecured obligations of their issuing financial sponsors....
Physical delivery of Krugerrands, American Eagle gold coins and or bullion bars, and holding them in your own safe seems to avoid the custodial problems. Now, word from ZeroHedge.com confirms that Chinese companies have been actively promoting the sale of assorted counterfeit gold plated items ‘for legal purposes only’. (Gold - The Biggest Risks Are The Ones You Don't See)
Fakes and Frauds
Besides the risks that inflation won't skyrock and that custodians of your gold-based assets will go belly up, Zero Hedge noted that tungsten is being used to fill fake gold items. A firm called ChinaTungsten Online is marketing its broad 'tungsten-alloy services.' These services include "the gold plating of various tungsten formulations among them 'gold' bricks, bars and, yes, coins." The company is openly advertizing its tungsten gold-plating and precious metals replication services.
Zero Hedge also relayed a story about counterfeit gold being found in Manhattan's Jewelry District. "Myfoxny reported that a 10-ounce gold bar costing nearly $18,000 turned out to be a counterfeit. The discovery was made by the dealer Ibrahim Fadl, who bought the PAMP bar in question from a merchant who has sold him real gold before. 'But he heard counterfeit gold bars were going around, so he drilled into several of his gold bars worth $100,000 and saw gray tungsten -- not gold. The bar was filled with tungsten, which weighs nearly the same as gold but costs just over a dollar an ounce.'"
Will we soon be drilling into the cores of our shiny golden trinkets, bars and coins to test for purity? This is expensive, time-consuming, and decreases value and transferability.
The fraud in the metals market is here in the US, and not limited to physical pieces. In a Fool’s gold? CFTC says 12 firms sell phantom metals, Rob Varnon reports:
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Wednesday, it filed a civil injunctive enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against 12 firms and their executives for fraudulently marketing illegal, off exchange retail commodity contracts...
According to the CFTC complaint, the defendants claim to sell physical metals, including gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and copper, to retail customers in retail commodity transactions. Under the defendants’ retail commodity transactions investment contract, customers allegedly make a down payment on certain quantities of physical metals, usually 25 percent of the total purchase price. Defendants allegedly claim to arrange loans for the balance of the purchase price, and advise customers that their physical metals will be stored in a secure depository.
But the CFTC alleged that the defendants do not purchase any physical metals, arrange loans for their customers to purchase physical metals, or arrange for storage of physical metals for any customers participating in their retail commodity transactions. Instead, all the transactions are just paper transactions, according to the complaint. Defendants allegedly do not own or sell metals to customers; customers are charged storage and insurance fees on metals that do not exist; and are charged interest on loans, which are never made by the defendants... (Fool’s gold? CFTC says 12 firms sell phantom metals)
Mining companies may seem like viable alternative to other gold-based investments involving trusting custodians or stockpiling one's own gold supply. However, particularly for mining companies with foreign operations, forward estimates and past performance may not be good predictors of future profits.
I used to favor shares of international resource and mining companies as a safer, liquid, back-door play on rising inflation. Worldwide political forces and heavy government debt have been catalysts for repudiation of long-term contracts and unilateral nationalization of foreign assets. This puts downward pressure on the earnings power of resource companies with significant assets in less developed countries.
Argentina-based oil company YPF (YPF) lost about half it value overnight some months ago after local authorities basically seized its assets without fair compensation. Indonesia has threatened to abrogate signed contracts with FCX because it now wants bigger royalties than previously agreed to. Australia is raising taxes dramatically on BHP, which cut back on its development there in protest.
The good old days of paying contractually promised royalties to less developed nations while mining their natural resources appears to be coming to an end. This explains what look like bargain prices on industry leaders like BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto (RIO), Freeport Mc-MoRan (FCX), Newmont Mining (NEM), American Barrick (ABX) and others.
All forward estimates may be shot to hell in the political climate that looms just over the horizon... (Gold - The Biggest Risks Are The Ones You Don't See)
A Gold Bubble?
It is not easy to find financial gurus and writers who are currently bearish on gold. There is Warren Buffett, who prefers buying something that generates income. Joe Weisenthal posed the bubble question in writing about Felix Salmon's attempt to go shopping with a gold bar. "It sounds silly, but if gold is a currency, then it should be usable as a medium of exchange... Felix goes up to a guy loading wholesale beer, and the guy knows instantly (!) what a gram of gold is worth: right around $50! When the guy loading wholesale beer knows the price of a gram of gold instantly, you've just got your famous example of the taxi driver giving you stock tips. DANGER!" (This Is The Best Proof We've Ever Seen That Gold Is In A Bubble)
Safe Haven Built on China?
Jordan Weissmann at The Atlantic argues that China's problems are gold's problems.
Investors who love gold tend to think of it as a sort of bomb shelter. It's supposed to be a secure place to park your money when the rest of the financial world is blowing up...
In the past decade, much of the new demand that set gold off on a wild tear from around $300-an-ounce at the turn of the century to almost $1,900-an-ounce last year has come from two places: India and China. Combined, they account for 45 percent of the world's demand for gold jewelry and bars...
For today, let's focus on China, which passed India as the world's top gold market earlier this year. The country deregulated its gold market in 2001, and since then, it has gone from consuming about a third as much gold as the developed west to overtaking it by 2011. Let me repeat that: the Chinese buy more gold than the entire west combined...
Just as China's rich have found new places to invest, the country's economy has been slowing down frighteningly, which dropped demand for jewelry this last quarter by 9 percent from a year earlier.
Source: Why Is the Price of Gold Falling?
Updated and based on Paul's article in the latest Market Shadows newsletter: A Failure to Communicate: Numbers, Rates & Lies.
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I need very little paper money. I fashioned my life so I have have no debt and paid off assets...So why would I save in an intrinsically worthless irredeemable currency? Everything I save is for the long haul and when I make decisions they are based upon the question what would be good to leave to my heirs that I care about? Paper money does not even make this list. Yeah if your a debt slave paper money is for you and you can hustle for them all you want and get nowhere as you spin your wheels your entire life. Paper money is just not for me. I hate the stuff. I don't want it at all. I reject it. If they made a law that PM's could not be purchased any more I swear to God I would not work.
You're living' the dream, sir.
A guy walks into a bar and hand the bartender fiat currency. The bartender hands him a beer. The bartender knows the value of fiat instantly. When the taxi driver takes the guy home from the bar drunk, that's proof that fiat is in a bubble.
Sounds like this means Gold will be valued in places I want to expatriate to.
Also, seems to ignore the effect of going off the Gold standard in 1972; the U.S. may have gone off it but much of the world appears to still have an unofficial gold standard.
There is risk of devaluation in everything; I'd prefer to have a hedge and value in something tangible versus feeding the paper fiat debt Corzinable Wall Street machine.
Ilene needs a brain douche.
So let me get this straight: I'm supposed to trade my labor for little coupons, which are printed at will by the Central Scrutinizer. Then, I'm supposed to give back 1/3 of the coupons for my labor tax. Then I am supposed to take the remainder and buy a piece of paper, which pays little coupons that are based on a magical inflation formula representing the rate at which the Central Scrutinizer is printing "extra" coupons. The rate of pay for the little piece of paper is based on a number calculated by the Central Scrutinizer. Then, I am supposed to place this piece of paper and any remaining labor coupons in an account, where it will be borrowed against by the deposit company so they can lend it at interest for themselves. (Of course if they outright steal it, I have no recourse anyways.)
Or, I can trade the little labor coupons for actual gold.
What am I missing?
You forgot that no one in banking or government, the biggest sectors of the economy, actually has to work for the coupons. They get them in unlimited quantities for free. You work for small quantities of something they get in unquantifiable amounts for free.
I've got an old suitcase full of US Confederate bills. What can I buy with them? From the land of Dixie....
Confederate bills are valuable now if they are in near perfect condition.
That's the reason this article tells you to sell all your Gold and invest in Dollars. Sell all your Gold then go to the Bank and invest in freshly printed, unfolded Dollars and store them in hermetically sealed containers. 150 years from now they will be very valuable!
You make an important point here about the various values assigned to "currency". Money changers constantly deceive the trading public between these 3 basic terms, "face", "intrinsic" and "numismatic". Because individuals have difficulty keeping up with news, those with access to the latest information of events use their access to maintain "legal" control over others and their labors by manipulating these values in their favor.
This is why those in governmental positions were initially designed to be (s)elected for their ability to carry out a public "trust". Most people today it seems believe it's a popularity contest, a reality show based on ability to dance or some other such nonsense. We are actually trying to find people that will not take advantage of their access to sensitive information for personal gain and will faithfully act in the nation’s best interest.
This is what makes GS, JPM, BAC, C and fed so dangerous. Their individual owners have access to ridiculous information and have no concern with protecting the nation’s interest. These are international bankers without borders concerned with maintaining their master status over the serfs. Traceable serial numbered currency devices, accounts and insurance policies are their scourges on an otherwise free populace.
jmo.
If you want to compare charts then use the price of gold adjusted to inflation. We got a ways to go looking at that one!
http://encikwan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/gold-price-inflation-adju...
If you want to compare charts then use the price of gold adjusted to inflation. We got a ways to go looking at that one!
http://encikwan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/gold-price-inflation-adju...
Dr. Price is absolutely correct that gold is not an inflation hedge, what he forgets to mention(or figure out) is that it IS a VALUE hedge.
This is the problem with taking these cranks too seriously. They frame the argument in terms that allow them to get to a predetermined result. Paul, obviously wants people to invest in something other than gold. Heard this argument ad nauseum.
It ignores why gold owners, CB's, Nations and traders, hold gold. It ignores the concept of value.
Statistics are worthless, as they are generated with intended results from gleaned data. Charts are useless, as they are based on same data.
Why do people feel the need to convince others to not own gold? It isn't their money, unless you consider the need to finance one's own ambitions with the wealth of others.
These arguments are a dime a dozen, they all use the same arguments and charts. They all ignore the concept of value. I really don't care what the dollar or euro price of gold is. It is meaningless. Just as these currencies are valueless. They have convenience as long as people accept them. They may be turned in eventually for a new currency regime. Yet, gold perseveres and is collected and kept by the wealthiest people and entities the world over.
Someday, someone will explain why these holders of the world's wealth are so stupid and shortsighted as to hold gold. Listening to some investment smuck of limited means seems a poor compromise.
Exactly. Which is why anyone buying bullion should count their holdings in ounces (rather than in dollars or any other currency) and then FORGET ABOUT THEM. Trade your paper for bullion, and then take the bullion out of circulation.
Owning gold = ACT OF REBELLION!
Interesting article. A lot of it is easily debunked. Things like using a period where gold was manipulated and sovereign gold was dumped to suppress prices as a baseline will give bad results. But, if you want to know the historical reality, I strongly advise you to listen to this history of money over the weekend. It is multiple parts, but you have to know the cycle we are in:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8e-e9xtFWA
This has all happened over and over again. You have to know what money really "IS" and what happens to all fiat. At least listen to the first four clips that are part 1 of the book.
There is however one reason why Ilene could be correct guys, but she does not mention this reason. The fact that the ratio of Calls to Puts is very twisted on the call side.
The other reason is that the commodities index (agri ones) is going a diffferent way than Gold. Normally commodities and Gold are Joined at the hip. It might be time to shift some of your Gold to a food commodities index.
Of course I would not sell Gold to fiat, but selling a bit of Gold for soft commodities might make sense.
Soft commodties are paper promises unless you take delivery. If you take delivery storage is an issue. Take delivery of your Au and Ag, storage is a minor issue.
actually I believe that Soft commodities are a lot harder to manipulate that Gold. Silver in truth will be a big problem for the paper shorts not because of investment but likely because you can do amazing things with Silver from Solar panels (which are not dead no no no, do not believe Solyndra-Fox News Bullshit), further in Japan some attemps are made to use Silver for superconducting cables. The industry will not care much is the price doubles if the new applications are so much worth it than problem for Silver shorts and by extension Gold.
Coming back to the point of Soft commodities, if you wack the price down, the farmers do no produce and hte stock to use ratio plunge, then we have no food. And then the futures market would be in delusion while people starve. Not happening. That is why the Futures exchange have allowed all in a recent period (Hong-Kong), Europe and US to use GOld as collateral. This is in case the treasuries go south. In that situation, we need collateral so that commodities future continue to function. We can live with a stock market closed for 7 days like 9/11 but we can not live with commodities market not operating. So actually, there might be attempt of manipulations, but you can not wack soft commodities without having a decrease in production from the farmers. At that point scarcity make the soft commodities come right back. In 2009 there was some lack of financing from shipping to farming, forced liquidation of inventories and position because everyone was scrambling for cash. The stock to use ratio plunge and the soft commodities have to come right back.
I am not willing to rob your savings of Gold and telling you to sell I am heavy in PM too, but in the end Gold will be used to buy necessecities, so buying food commodity index is buying your necessities. If gold was smashed while the fed is still committed to print, that is if Gold is smashed outside of massive bankruptcies and debt restructuring, people should buy more of course.
Bottom line is. Relax even if Gold goes down 10-20% while commodities are not moving and Fed does not allow bankruptcies buy more.
Gold is money. Paul doesn't seem to grasp this truism. Even if gold was in a bubble, (which it's not) what would you rather have, gold or paper?
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value - zero" Voltaire
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value - zero" Voltaire
+1
3,800 fucking Fiats have bit the dust, they last on average of 39 years.
the problem : eventually...
Thank god for Paul, helping me buy more gold at discounted prices. When all this turns to custard Paul will probably be left with a small pile of paper that he can use to keep himself warm...while he argues that virtual assets like paper are better than real assets like property and gold.
I suppose an investment would have to have a return, for which there is none in gold versus currency. You might make a currency profit selling it for a higher price, but then you have no gold. So really, buying gold versus currency is a speculation and not an investment. A real gold investment would be where I gave you a tonne of gold as an investment and you had to give me 10 kilograms a week as a return.
The Han are now making fake gold which is titanium in the middle. So make sure the gold you are buying is gold, and that the gold ETFs you are buying actually have some gold associated with them somewhere. If you are concerned about the purity of something purporting to be gold, most companies which sell spy devices also have things which can help you check it out.
If you had a big pile of gold, you would have to worry about being Croesus if I were named Cyrus. If you were worried about a society where there is no currency (which is highly unlikely in my opinion), you would probably want little pieces of gold so you could buy small things. If you added silver however, you might be able to run for quite a while without fiat currency. Still, once you had a war, you would have no choice to go back to fiat currency.
France has had 3 currencies (old Francs, new Francs, and Euros) during my lifetime, and no one starved to death.
Not a lot of regular ZH commentors to Phil's articles. Probably don't consider him worth reading.
I gave a speech on why to own gold and silver this week. It ended with one of my reasons for owning gold and silver is to be able to use it to bribe my way to safety during the collapse and it's continual 1 to 1 track with the rise of the Federal deficit.
Nothing in this article changes that.
...it's continual 1 to 1 track with the rise of the Federal deficit.
Right. That is what the stupid prick author of this piece does not comprehend.
The inflation that is normally expected has been held in check by the trillions of dollars of excess reserves held by banks, and the trillions of dollars on the sidelines in cash, precious metals, or similar treading water instruments. Money velocity is stuck below 1.0. When the SHTF anyone with any money (electronic or paper) will want to immediately transition into a more physical form of assets. Whether that is oil in the ground, lumber in a stack, food, or PM's, the money velocity will explode. The Central Bank doesn't have a prayer of controlling that kind of exploding velocity. There will be all sorts of capital controls, new laws, restrictions on transfers, investments, etc. but it won't matter. By that time if you are not ready for the change it will be far too late. (Read Richard Duncan's "The New Depression" for a good explanation of how we arrived here.)
The great anomaly is that real inflation, though highly under-reported, has not exploded already. But when it does it will be like a great rubber band having reached it's limit for stretching, and will spring back just like Germany in the 1920's. I just finished reading "When Money Dies" and was amazed the European "leaders" didn't understand printing all that fiat currency caused the inflation. Today our American "leaders" don't understand unlimited leverage leads to the same end point - currency collapse. The children in Washington DC are not playing with fire. They are playing with (economic) plutonium.
What amazes me is that this debacle has lasted so long and continues to do so. I now fully expect ultimate disaster, but on a much more protracted timescale. What I thought might take a year could be stretched into 3,5 or maybe 7 years. China and the Middle East are as reluctant to foreclose on the USA as we are on defaulting on our domestic and foreign debts. The macro view among nations is identical to the macro view among banks and borrowers.
We live in interesting times. Who knows what I'll yet live to see in my lifetime. I truly hope I'm completely wrong and we begin to see a more rational world develop. But I live in Las Vegas, where odds are created and posted, and those odds are not in our favor.
The primary reason we aren't seeing inflation is the money being printed now was spent over the last decade. The money went into circulation by credit being given by the banks against real estate assets. Now the money is going to replenish the bad bank debts. Ironically, the money that was given out against real estate was done so to replenish money lost in the stock market bubble. Now the fed is desperate to create a bubble in anything and everything. This is why owning gold is smart. Most likely the next bubble will be in commodities.
China and the Middle East can't forclose on us. No one can. The debts are denominated in USD. We can pay it off with printed money.
"China and the Middle East can't forclose on us. No one can. The debts are denominated in USD. We can pay it off with printed money."
What if they decide not to accept USDs anymore?
Then we give them the Khaddafi/Saddam treatment.
Gosh I hadn't considered all of that best I dump my physical and go all in on sovereign bonds then I'll meet up with Krugman for a nice Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks.
Paul is an idiot.
You're too kind. I'm working on a classic email to him. Maybe an entire article like I did for Larry Summers and Edwin Trueman.
I was going to add in a few thoughts but your post covers all that needs to be said.
IMHO no evaluation of gold should fail to address the reality that the paper price of gold determines the physical price. Since the price is manipulated on a regular basis, supply and demand don't really affect the price as much as in a true free market.
People posting here have presented many examples of past gold price increases. Fine. It can and has happened.
The other thing that has to be expalined, if gold is to be considered as the inflation hedge, is how did gold sell at $400 an ounce in 1984, decline from that price, and not bet back to even until about 2005. Certainly there was some inflation during that 20 year period. Real Estate prices certainly increased over that period. Gold experienced a 40% decline in the face of continual inflation, then recovered to eventually even price. Was that a logical way to hold a Store of Value?
Twenty years is not eternity, for sure. However it does represent a good protion of a human investment period. The article simply makes the case and warns to be cautious about your assumptions.
20 years and a LOSS of more than 70% during a period of high inflation.
"Twenty years is not eternity, for sure. However it does represent a good protion of a human investment period. The article simply makes the case and warns to be cautious about your assumptions."
-1 not my take at all.
Somewhere I have an interesting study on gold YoY and what it could purchase. It helps explain a lot.
Gold at $400 would maybe have taken 12 oz to purchase that 1984 car. Gold at $400 in 2005 would have taken 40 oz to purchase a 2005 car (probably a better car though). Now it will take 15 oz or so to purchase a modest 2012 car, even after the runup in gold prices. That is one measure of purchasing power.
The piece I'm searching for doesn't use assets that were purchased with collateralized debt from buyers who shouldn't have been buying them...
If Gold is money, consider that the cars were purchased with the ounces noted. I hope we are beyond swapping chickens for apples for bear skins for salted pork for coffee for tobacco for candles.
"...consider that the cars were purchased with the ounces noted."
Take your chicken for apples sarc time and spend it looking at the car credit market. Hint, it is a lot like the $1 trillion student loan college market. Bigger hint: Credit drives up the cost of shit.
Like I said before dense Augustus: You need to look at shit that wasn't purchased on credit.
You have a point. I have asked several of my friends, "What would you be able to sell your house for today if there were no credit?"
I get a blank stare and silence in return. Mostly because they cannot comprehend life without credit, and partly because they cannot comprehend how disconnected prices are from real value.
I don't know why ZH publishes Ilene's articles. She always present a hodge-podge of factiods to support her "liberal" paradigm. I didn't see any mention of the manipulation of gold over the decades by the banksters, yet she always tries to draw you into "her" conclusion(s)..... PLZ ZH, don't publish her anymore.
I have no idea. A few guesses.
Here is one of the best all time ever Zero Hedge pieces on gold by Grant Williams. Classic.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/grant-williams-simplicity-owning-gold
Yah just can't get too mad at ZH over this ilene crap when they knock em out of the park like with Grant's incredible work.
ZH is hedging?
Journalistically speaking...
I'd be lying if I said that thought didn't cross my mind, but the more I speculate the more I come to other conclusions. ilene had a previous life in law, the second worse thing to banksters.
Showing an old chart of the gold price in dollars is meaningless. Gold was always manipulated. It was confiscated, fixed, dumped, locked, bad-mouthed, promised, not exchanged for dollars, and naked shorted for the last century. Now, at last, the gold markets worldwide that the U.S. cannot control the price singled-handed.
I read the entire article and when I finished I felt like the sucker at the table. Now that I've read the comments I feel so much better.
I would like to share some of my personal inflation experience with ilene and Dr. Paul Price. Just this week: electricity up 12%, parking meters up 140%, sewer up 105% and health insurance up 15%. That's just this fucking week! You have a lot of nerve charting that bullshit CPI data.
I hope you both get paid for spewing that bullshit, otherwise I would have to conclude that you are either evil or stupid (or both).
Stupid. Aka Gil, God, you are kind. I think the night before last she pulled the post after I really went off on this crap. I think the words I used then were you're a clueless fucking economic moron, that is all there is to it. She said I was sick.
You know what? I think pushing people and their families off economic cliffs is sick. Especially on the finest blogs. In one way, as the comments show, ZH readers are too smart to let some clueless economic fucking moronic bitch shove them off a cliff. The downside is it lends the assclowns credibility when they post articles here, then other blogs take their work more seriously.
This shit and these 2 assclowns are made for CNBS and MSNBS.