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How's That Deflation Working Out For You?
Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform blog,
The BLS put out their monthly CPI lie last week. They issued the proclamation that inflation is dead. Did you know your costs are 0.1% lower than they were one year ago. They then used these deflation numbers to proclaim your real wages soared last month. It’s all good. The American consumer is so flush with cash, they decided to spend less money for the second month in a row. The Wall Street shysters are so happy with declining consumer spending, declining corporate profits, and a global recession, they pushed the NASDAQ up to 5,000 for the first time in 15 years. Hey!!! That was the year 2000. Things really got better after that milestone.
So we know gasoline prices have plummeted in the last year (but are up 20% in the last month), but I’m trying to think of other things I use in my everyday life that have declined in price. Maybe going through the BLS detailed list will jog my memory. Here is the link to their data:
http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpid1501.pdf
Let’s see how much deflation we’ve experienced in the last year for things we need to live our everyday lives.
- Beef and veal +22.5%
- Ground beef +21.0%
- Steaks +14.9%
- Pork +7.4%
- Ham +11.5%
- Whole Chicken +6.1%
- Fresh Fish +3.5%
- Eggs +8.2%
- Cheese +7.8%
- Fresh Vegetables +4.3%
- Lettuce +12.2%
- Tomatoes +9.6%
- Coffee +6.7%
- Butter +19.5%
- Restaurant food +3.1%
- Housing +2.9%
- Hotels +7.6%
- Owners Equivalent Rent +2.6%
- Homeowners Insurance +5.6%
- Electricity +2.5%
- Water & Sewer +5.5%
- Home Repairs +4.4%
- Footwear +2.6%
- Car Insurance +5.0%
- Parking Fees & Tolls +2.3%
- Medicinal Drugs +4.2%
- Prescription Drugs +5.6%
- Hospital Services +4.3%
- Veterinarian Services +3.2%
- Sporting Events +3.6%
- Newspapers & Magazines +4.6%
- College Tuition +3.6%
- Educational Books & Supplies +6.5%
- Grade School & High School Tuition +4.0%
- Childcare & Nursery School +3.0%
- Postage +3.6%
- Cigarettes +2.5%
- Financial Services +5.7%
- Tax Return Prep +9.3%
These figures are directly from the BLS website. These are the annual price increases of things most Americans need to purchase on a regular basis. I know most of them affect me every day. My weekly grocery bill is much higher than it was one year ago, and we don’t buy nearly as much steak or beef as we did last year.
The price of oil and gas has certainly declined by the 30% or so in the BLS figures, but it doesn’t come close to covering the price increase in food and other living expenses. The BLS declares we are experiencing deflation and our wages are expanding in real terms. It’s a bold faced lie. The other items declining in price are mostly discretionary items which might be purchased every few years. Furniture, appliances, computers and TVs are falling in price. I didn’t buy any of those items in the last year, so the lower prices had ZERO impact on me.
Apparel falls in price, but is made so cheaply in Chinese slave labor camps, you only get half the use out of it before you have to replace it. I’m guessing the BLS hasn’t factored that into their little calculation.
And now for the BIGGEST LIE in the entire report. The have the balls to tell you that health insurance only makes up 0.753% of your entire annual budget and it has FALLEN by 0.5% in the last year. This must be some cruel Obamacare joke perpetrated by these government apparatchiks. I haven’t met anyone who has seen their health insurance costs go down in the last year. My premiums went up by 20% and my annual family deductible went from $0 to $2,000. How the BLS can get away with issuing this drivel is beyond my comprehension. It’s pure and utter bullshit.
I wonder if the sheep actually believe what the government peddles. Does anyone with two brain cells think their daily living expenses are declining? Do they really think their wages are going a lot farther? Evidently not, because they have stopped spending money.
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Lower Gas prices are Fucking KILLING our Economy!!! help us obama!
Beef-It's what used to be for dinner.
And they wonder why people are snapping like pine trees in a hurricane.
Being fed this shit over and over about how good things are, only to see their paycheck buy less and less each year.
After a certain period of time, people cannot deal with why they are doing so bad when everyone is doing good.
pods
"Apparel falls in price, but is made so cheaply in Chinese slave labor camps, you only get half the use out of it before you have to replace it. I’m guessing the BLS hasn’t factored that into their little calculation."
The BLS only applies the hedonistic adjustment in one direction? Say it ain't so!
Most of the Sheep are asleep and therefore not a peep. Just watch this video from 2 days ago of them happy about Obama endorsing Carl Marx as the next President. http://youtu.be/99JdDgglMuA You can't make this up.
They were just confused.
They probably thought Karl Marx was related to Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Gummo, and Zeppo...
Mark Dice rocks. The stupidity and ignorance of average Americans is stunning to say the least.
When the proles are rioting in the streets the elites will tell them they should eat cake....
El V, maybe you have answered
the question; sales of clothing at JC Penny
and the like make up 40% of the number (even better
with a 92% off coupon).
That's true.
The Middle Class (what's left of it) tends to blame itself if it isn't doing very well. So, there is a very psychologically destructive (for individuals) aspect to the constant government and MSM lying.
How the BLS can get away with issuing this drivel is beyond my comprehension. It’s pure and utter bullshit.
The gov lying to us? OMG I am shocked..SHOCKED I tell you.
Oh and then there is this:
"we bullshitted some folks"
They aren't telling a lie, they are merely defining reality to their specification....YMMV....
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
-CNBC
Exactly, when it comes to anything required for a decent standard of living, deflation is a fucking myth.
time for a refund or retribution motherfuckers!!!
According to .gov none of us use these items. So, what diff does it make.....?
Yeah but the iPad i had for lunch was cheaper than the one I ate last year at this time when you take hedonic adjustments into consideration. At least we have that going for us.
Silicone and aluminum together gives me heartburn.
Use moar mustard, the vinegar gets rid of acid stomach.
Doesn't makes sense, but does work.Chinese mustard of course for iPhones.
The average American doesn't even know what a CPI is!
Cock pumping index?
My brother has no idea what that means. He also 'thinks' (i use that term loosely) that Obama is the best president ever and wishes that he could vote for him again. We do not get along that well, go figure...
We can't pick are family.
Is his name Reggie?
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/earth_to_power/2015/03/wpx-energy...
The only thing deflating is their credibility.
Look, you can bitch about the increasing or decreasing cost of things, but there's one thing that's NEVER in the CPI/BLS numbers: TAXES.
You want to know what's really eating my lunch? It ain't gas, it ain't beef, it ain't electricity or insurance.... it's the never-ending increase in taxes. You think taxes haven't changed because the marginal federal rates haven't moved in years? You're living in a fucking dream world. I'm paying THOUSANDS more in taxes now than I was 10 years ago. THOUSANDS. New taxes that never exisited before, old taxes that are expanded to cover more things, and "fees" which are just taxes by another name. Fuck, my home state of PA raised gas taxes 10c a gallon at the beginning of this year with more to come next January 1.
THE PROBLEM IS TAXES. And they are not included in ANY inflation calculation number. They are, for all intents and purposes, invisible.
"Look, you can bitch..."
Stop right there, "full faith and credit" motherfuckers...
Don't like the deal you are getting, stop using their fucking paper.
Actually it should be: Stop using their credit and demand their paper.
You'll bankrupt the entire system in no time.
you will pay 6 times more for taxes
You are not going to like Tom Wolf then. .....I don't like the liar, but it's not because of taxes
... and, when you get right down to it, the taxes problem is government spending... period, end of story
can't speak for others, but every time I see some dimwit out there promoting "yes" votes for bond issues I want to strangle them... it's all I can do to keep from screaming "it's not free money, motherfuckers, do you know what that means for our taxes over the next 10-20 years???"
fucking idiots
NoDebt. Are Rust Belt state has a population of 12 Million or so. 4th highest senior population. A constant drain in the SE part. That's what were paying taxes for. Shit public schools and school system. I guess you heard the latest Govs request.
Our utility Western Resources just petitioned for a 7.9% increasee due to increased REGULATORY expenses.....You mean all those government superstars are costing us more than just what we pay them? With Natty, Oil and Coal in the shitter how come our utes keep climbing so much? Oh its the government now....
This charade of the Fed(erals), Banksters, and their cabal are screwing us 24/7. If you are on the Potemkin Market ride I guess you keep turning a blind eye for everyone else its slit your throat time......
I looked at the prices of everything and I was deflated.
It’s working.
Some folks deflated themselves.
Ammo is still selling well and the prices keep going up. I'm not sure about toilet paper but it does seem expensive. How can anyone expect to survive without both of those?
dirty deflation talk - soooo DURTY
Getting fisted hurts more when the size of the hand gets bigger.
Obamacare wiped out my discresionary spending I'm sure it was added to the GDP though.
Lower gas prices? Where? In western WA regular unleaded is going for $2.89 a gallon sgain. This is less than three weeks after it was $1.99.
Was getting board lumber (to build a couple more raised garden beds) and the store was picked clean. Talked to the older guy working and asked why. He said in all his years he's never had so many people come and ask how to make raised beds so they could grow their own food... They can't keep the 8'x2"x1' planks in stock. Or cheap, toxic steer crap compost.
Inflation is dead? Yeah- right. Let me offer you my comfy deck chair here in the port side of the Titanic. The price has double since yesterday, but that's only to 'shake loose the weak hands'.
Keep stacking.
You can make rasied beds out of almost anything, so what if it rots.
Hell, beats me, man. I'm just reporting the news- I ain't trying to make it.
Twelve inches in optimal IMHO for successful raised beds. And Mrs BSG says my twelve inches is also optimal for her as well.
My raised bed are two concrete blocks high. They probably take a little more water but they are a lot nicer to work on. and will last decades. Couple of years from 60 and its really nice to plop my butt down on them to weed or harvest. Especially this time of year when lettuces and spinaches are my main crops.
But do stay away from pressure treated lumber. (The green stuff.) They treat it with arsenic. I've not seen if the stuff actually leaches out into the bed, but it just isn't worth the risk unless you know for sure.
And you don't even need barriers for raised beds, depending on how high you want to raise them. You can just pile soil up and kind of level the mounds.
However, I plant in depressions. I live in a desert, and it keeps more of the water where I want it.
The EPA did something almost rihgt and banned arsenic in treated lumber, they use copper quarternate now.
I discoved this because do contracting to install raised beds as a summer hobby.
Copper can be toxic, but not really, if you have an issue jsut line your raised beds with something.
As for raised beds .... try small containers set up on a deck or back porch or yard... a deep tub container with holes punched in the bottom works well. You can grow potatoes in a 5 gallon plastic bucket .. if you check around to say a market they sometimes gives those away ... we tried a wading pool last year . .it works.. we grew some squash ... you can grow about anything in a plastic container .. use good dirt .. chicken shit mix this guy has some of the best series on how to do gardens .. even renters can do .. my girlfriend got me started on this container gardening .. now its chickens and quail .. once you go farmer . .it never stops... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeKufjx1GZ8 growing potatoes in a 5 gallon bucket is easy... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol798DMwibQ
Logs, plain old logs, make okay sides to raised beds. They're kind of heavy but if have them in your yard anyway you can roll them into place. They are thick so they don't waste water like boards do.
agree about beef. pretty much stopped eating it. the general quality has declined while prices have soared. screw that, the value just isn't there. pork, chicken, and fish are a much better value imo.
I stopped eating it too for the most part. I live by the ocean so I catch a lot of fish. I noticed it's getting much easier to spear them at night because they all glow in the dark now.
https://wildninja.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/simpsons-three-eyed-fish-2...
You gotta know where to look, but then it might be harder to come by in your locale. The others are better for you anyway for the most part, leaner and healthier. What meat we eat is by and large chicken, some pork.
i don't know about the quality of the chicken. lately that shit has been as tough as shoe leather. we have to mash it with a tenderizer like it was a piece of really cheap beef. maybe it's the GMO's. Maybe it's type of breed. But, whatever it is, the chicken we've been getting the last few years has been awful.
"i don't know about the quality of the chicken" says "Madcows"
What's to know. I don't trust chicken ever since we started importing them from China.
NEED I SAY MORE !
I'll repeat this...(as I have multiple times in the past)
This is how I buy beef/hog/lamb.
Step 1: Buy a big deep freezer (or two).
Step 2: Wait for State Fair time in your state. Look for the 4-H livestock auction. Go and buy yourself an entire steer/hog/lamb. If you can't afford this on your own, do it with a friend/relative/whoever else likes beef.
Step 3: Bid on the steer and win. If you don't have a clue as to what is going on, sit up in the front row and ask the guy who relays the bids from the audience to the auctioneer. He can give you useful tips, and he will also tell you when to bid to pretty much guarantee you are going to take home the beef. Things to note, you will be going up against banks/businesses/people with high incomes (because they know about what I am going to tell you and have been doing it for years, see below!). Do not get caught up in any bidding war...ever... you'll spot them quickly. Do not get the Grand Champion or the Reserve Grand Champion...(ok, I did get the Reserve Grand Champion one year, but that was because the bidding price was extremely low due to the recession.
I almost forgot to mention "FREE BEER", I'll repeat that "FREE BEER"... Also there is usually a free breakfast for auction participants and a dinner for the buyers afterwards.
Step 4: You bid on a steer and won, now what? (No, you don't drive home with the steer...) Many of the local butchers need and want your business. They will have someone in attendance to explain costs for butchering. (There will be on the auction form a box you can checkmark for a local butchers to send your steer to for processing).
Step 5: If you can get the local butcher to hang the meat for 3 to 4 weeks for the marbling, all the better.
Step 6: Pick up beef. Barbecue to your heart's content, but never bitch about the high price of beef now that I have given you a method of getting it far cheaper than you would ever get it in a supermarket.
Now for the important stuff.
Winning: Since this is a 4-H auction, it is a charity event. Hence your payment is tax-deductible. <- Bingo, we have a winner!)
Winning for vegans: So you hate beef, buy the steer and then re-donate it to a local nursing home, or a charity of your choice.
Double-dip on the tax-deduction.
More winning: Excellent beef (grass/grain fed, no hormones), cost per pound varies, but my cost over the years has been between $2.25 to $3.50 a pound (remember that's not just the cost for the hamburger, but the ribs, the steaks, and everything else...)
That's the dumbest ass post ever. lmao. 4-H auctions are the last place you want to buy any kind of livestock. THE ENTIRE AUCTION IS a promotional gimmick and prices are most times 20-50% higher than retail because all the bidders are relatives,friends, or local businesses buying for advertising.
Go to the nearest sale barn where they auction off fat cattle, and you will be paying the same price as the packers....or better yet, find a REAL FARMER who raises livestock and buy it directly from him, they will gladly deliver live animal to any processor you like.
This thread is about increasing costs and you're telling folks how to spend another 20-100% price increase for a fucking tax deduction? And you call this WINNING?
How about calling it what it really is. STUPIDITY.
Fair points, but also remember that those 4-H cows were kept and tended to as a show cow. At the regular cattle auctions, you get standard fare feedlot cattle. Where it comes from and how it was raised makes a difference. We raise our own chickens, and my wife's family raises a few head of cattle on their family farm, so we have access to home-raised, grass-fed beef. But even buying feeder cattle has gotten dang expensive...
My son's health insurance under Oboma Care is 1000.00 dollars a month for his family of 4. It's more than his mortgage.
But, it's not for his family of 4, though. It's for his family plus all the non-paying illegals/medicaid folks, and the insurance companies.
What's his deductible?
There are plenty of people who believe the headlines. My parents have moved 4 times in 5 years based on the idea that some area has a low cost of living and great job opportunities. I try telling them that they're looking for a different time, not a different place. But it's hopeless because they're brainwashed.
It's sad because my father always taught me to be skeptical
And from the report I read this juicy little tidbit. Yet again proof that our money is hard at work keeping the CPI up to date./sarc
"New Estimation System Effective with this release of the January 2015 CPI on February 26, 2015, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is utilizing a new estimation system for the Consumer Price Index. The new estimation system, the first major improvement to the existing system in over 25 years, is a redesigned, state-of-the-art system with improved flexibility and review capabilities. For more information on this new system, please see http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpinewest.ht"
What an absolute.fucking.hoot
"Impoved flexibility" means they can set the CPI to what they want it to show and this whiz bang programming can spit out bullshit to fabricate the number. I am sure we only paid 600 million for this great new software. Brilliant!
Deflation IS there, and you can see the signs of the pressures it is exerting. But it is being hidden right now, in the artificially-inflated economy. The assets that would most accurately reflect this are being price-supported, and the deflationary pressures can only be seen in consumer demand.
Stock market at an all-time high, while volume in the toilet.
Houses have lost significant value in the real market, and fewer folks are shopping, but good luck BUYING one at its true price.
Prices for the things you NEED can of course go up in price regardless, because, well, they are things you NEED.
You'll never be able to spot the real trends as long as data is so blatantly manipulated. You have to look past the data.
There is no mechanism left for price discovery...no one really knows what the values of things are anymore, or what they should be.
But if they keep propping housing prices instead of allowing the market to reprice all that inventory so it can find its buyers, in about 5-6 years you're gonna have to bulldoze entire neighborhoods...modern housing has a limited shelf-life, especially when it sits vacant for long stretches.
Oh Grandma, what big prices you have...
my electric company just merged with another. my electric bill went up $20, or about a -15% deflation rate.
Saw Pippa Malgrem on Max Kieser last week and she said she talked with longtime acquaintance Paul Volker about inflation and asked if he bought into the gubmints 2.2% inflation rate and he said NO! She asked who had it right and he told her John Williams Shadow Stats still calculated inflation like they did in the 80's and that looked good to him.....John is saying inflation is running 8-9% and unemployment is 23%. Yet the lies we get ar 2.2% and 5.6%.....that 8-9% John sez means the economy is most likely declining at -5.8-7%. That maybe optimistic this year.
Yeah I posted something pretty close to this last week
Thanks John Williams for keeping it REAL!
The calculations are based on consumers replacing items they buy with less expensive items. For example if steak goes up the government says you will buy ground beef. Since ground beef is less expensive than steak you just got a raise. Whala! When ground beef goes higher still they can start figuring people will eat dog food. Probelm solved. Everything is awesome!
"When ground beef goes higher still they can start figuring people will eat dog food. Probelm solved. Everything is awesome!"
Naw, it will be even more awesome, because I'd skip the dog food step and just go straight to taking some fluflu arrows and poaching ducks, cranes and geese out of the sky when they fly over my backyard. Enough fly over that don't even need to be a good shot. I'll even make my own arrows! They could calculate the deflation rate at 100% then!
You forgot cat food.
Is this a repeat article or did a poster post something similar?
I remember seeing that list of increases recently on ZH.....
But I buy new TVs every day and so I'm very happy with my 15% rolling discount.
BLS. Hmmmmm....that stands for bullshit, right?
And Tylers__________have you or anyone else heard of this secretly proposed, ready to be passed US legislation?
http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/03/sacrifice-of-nemtsov-and-us-takeove...
Disinflation - for the moment at least - is working out much better for dollar holders than gold holders.
Deflation has been awesome.
Fuck inflation.
Lets run an economy based on decreasing wages and decreasing prices instead of bloating numbers.
The new "profit" can be "loss" the more your businesses losses the more efficient it is, you just file a tax return in which they give you the difference.... instead of paying taxes to government, government pays taxes to all of us! its genius.
Does it really matter which way the money flows? as long as everyone can afford what they want/need . . .
All in all since deflation hit, I have been doing better. . . business is good . . . prices for materials are down a bit . . . gas prices down a bit . . . wages are sticky and haven't gone down so people actually working can afford a bit more with their pay-checks.
Its all about balance.
Inflation sucks because with inflation the only ones that can keep up are governments and money counterfeiters (banks).
Also as a note:
Falling home prices are awesome also! realestate taxes went down ! fuck the value of houses! push that shit to zero so it costs nothing to own! lol if you aren't worried about your house going up in value forever so you can keep using it like an ATM home values dropping like a rock is a GREAT THING!!! if your house drops like a rock you pay less every year . . . its great!
Gime a world where everything is so abundant and worthless over a world where everything is priced out of reach and scarce ANY DAY!
Its quitre simple. If you bought a refrigerator to live in and can dine on i-pads and i-pods, you are better off.
a Bag of Chip FULL of air!
Part of the problem is that we in America have forgotten how to pull together.
I mean, look at me: My mother in-law lives in her big empty house - she even refused a recent an "out of the blue" purchase offer (a generous offer too), but nooooo, she wants to hang on to the past...
My Brother in law pays rent and lives alone (he's been on welfare the past 20 years)
My Sister in law lives with boyfriend in a house with mortage payments, in the middle of nowhere - they're forced to have 2 cars and she makes 13$/hour...
Gee, you know, I don't care for Asians but fuck do they ever know how to pull their ressources together and benefit as a whole. I mean fuck, they'll be 6 of em in a 3 1/2 (grandma, pops, the sisters and one or two kids) and their driving around in new cars (paid in cash), they wear all the newest and best knock-off clothes and shit, they eat out...
And us "exceptionals" in Amerika are talking about eating dog food and sacrificing "luxuries" like meat and real vegetrables...WTF?
Don't get me wrong, Agenda 21 has certainly blown up the nuclear family and drives wedges between the generations and the sexes.
But if we could just pull our shit together...
Shrug, yet ANOTHER USA government lies in a loooooooooooooooong string of lies streachign back decades. ANyone surpised?
Every county . nearly ever county has an auction barn where you can bid on a beef ... if you live close to a rural area you will usually find a place that processes meat, deer, cow, pig, whatever.. if you live within driving distance of a large city try one of the Asian markets for cheap cheap cheap fresh sea food or you can buy catfish by the pound cut up for a half or less of what you pay at the super market . .good deals on bags of rice.. non GMO food, organic food, fruit, and things like sauces . but I leave those to my girl friend .. the variety of stuff just is mind boggling .. these places have ALL kinds of exotic food but not so exotic you can't eat it. IF you are into survival mode.. the bags of rice usually produced overseas .. can be kept in mylar bags for the long term. Make friends with local organic producers.. if you live in a rural area there is always a family farm that is pick it yourself friendly . from berries to squash .. if you have google you can find out who and where or talk to the local feed and seed person .. you can find all sorts of deals if you are friendly and strike up some kind of regular relationship. Its a new way of thinking .. but have learned a lot .. this year its selling quail eggs to the local feed store in exchange for feed. which can add up over a period of time.