S. Maturin

http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/70yearsofpricechange.html

Sure it as much fun as finance, but... well, there are a few 'thought generators' in there.

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

Yet there is no inflation, right??

I won’t draw on the food prices because of weather ...true to some degree when weather kills crops and companies increase prices but those increases one year may not be the same the next.... ~~~

buffalo Loc: Texas

Shows how the government LIES to the sheople, and helps corporations screw the sheople.

S. Maturin

I saw that the gasoline prices/gal about DOUBLED during Obama's "stewardship". Hmmmm. Who benefited from that?

I.R. Wayright

The best way to gauge buying power is to look at the price of an ounce of gold.
For years financial "experts" (who want to sell you their services) have been warning about the demise of the US dollar.
Some recent moves by China, Russia and a few others, may force us to go back to gold backed currency.
I predict that transition will be a very bumpy ride.
Our economy and markets are changing thanks to guys like Jeff Bezos. Today we learn about 63 Sam's Clubs closing and being converted into warehouses dedicated to e-commerce processing/shipping. Will we find it more economical to do most of our shopping online, including groceries, and have UPS or Fedex deliver all those items right to our door? Will that be more efficient than each of us driving to stores every week? Or, is this part of a UN plot like Agenda 21 or is it Agenda 2030 now?

S. Maturin

Oh, and aren't we seeing something interesting with the emergence of Bit Coin? It seems that no matter where we look, the USD is being assailed and bombarded.

I.R. Wayright

I would stay away from Crypto currencies. Physical gold and silver, yes. But don't purchase "paper gold." Where you buy gold but it is supposedly held for you elsewhere. There is more paper gold than there is physical gold in storage and when everybody wants to cash in those papers, guess what? Move over Bernie Madoff, you've got company.

S. Maturin

Good advice.

Frankly, the soaring of that bitcoin was something I found mildly entertaining.

bilordinary Loc: SW Washington

The more we do for ourselves, the more we will be free of big brothers thumb!

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

You are right!!

The uncertainty of the petrodollar looms every day right along with oil demand..

So much of it now they have to put it on ships floating the oceans.. The one that “ caught fire” would be a good way to get paid by the insurer instead of just letting it sit...

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

I had been watching it and mentioned it here in another thread.. Was told stay away from it so I stopped watching it..

I believe it was you who had enough doubt about it to make me question it then...Don’t want to lose what little I have..

S. Maturin

Yep, I may have been the one to warn.

Still, the bubble business and the pyramid schemes are still 'mildly entertaining' to watch from afar.

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

You aren’t just kidding... it’s like a feeding frenzy that goes from a word or two about something that causes purchase and then wait to see if it takes off..

Always looks great initially and when it really starts to move up or down you know there are some “ praying they don’t loose their wallet..” Lololol ...

It is funny to watch...

Larry the Legend Loc: Not hiding in Milton

Did you know there are two 'kinds' of inflation? One is a symptom of the other. As you rightly point out, there are a lot of factors that can cause prices to rise, weather and simple financial greed most certainly play their parts in the 'grand scheme of things'; those are temporary maladies easily 'fixed' in a free market. Weather 'changes' (climate 'change', anyone?) and greedy business owners are soon 'priced out' of the market by more competitive businesses.
Consider this; lets say there's a terrible drought one year and the corn crop is decimated. Because there is less corn on the market, the price is driven up (simple supply and demand, right?). Next year there is a bumper crop. Because there is an excess of corn on the market, the price falls until all the corn is cleared through the market. Just another day in the 'free market', right? But what if the price does not fall back to the previous level; what if it stays slightly higher, even though there is clearly a glut of corn on the market? Is this a sign of some other cause? Now we come to that other kind of inflation, currency inflation. The higher price (price inflation) is an effect of the central bank creating more money and releasing it onto the market, a deliberate devaluation known as currency inflation. When money is devalued, prices rise to reflect the new value. Cause = currency inflation. Effect = price inflation.

When you look at a graph of the price of literally anything over the last eighty years or so, it inevitably has risen, slowly but substantially. Take the average cost of 1lb of hamburger meat. In 1930, it was 12₵, in 2013, it was $4.68. The price of 1lb of hamburger meat went up by a whopping $4.56 in 83 years, a rate of increase of 3900%. Because it was slow and gradual, it is hardly noticed; just like the boiling frog analogy.

Why does the central bank devalue our currency? Because government says so, and they write the laws that perpetuate the central bank monopoly. Why does government say so? Because there is no way to finance the leviathan through honest taxation. If the government sent each taxpayer a bill for his/her share of the actual expenses of government in the previous year, there would be revolution tomorrow. Instead they 'boil the frog'. Each year, the Federal government issues the Federal Reserve a series of financial bonds that the central bank uses to create money from out of thin air. It then credits the federal government with this amount and government is financed for another year. Once this money is spent into the economy, prices rise to compensate for the excess currency in circulation.

More money, higher prices. Less money, lower prices. Guess which way it's gone since 1930...