For those following along at home, core inflation vs CPI is hardly a new concept. It simply pops up when ever CPI is higher than core because morons are easy prey to this sort of manipulation.
See Economist's View: Is Core Inflation a Systematically Biased Measure of Actual Inflation? for a graph that shows how some times core is higher, and some times core is lower, with the overall trend being, “Core inflation is less than actual inflation recently due to rapidly increasing energy costs, but overall it’s difficult to detect a systematic bias in either direction.”
If the Feds were to use CPI instead of core, they’d be making massive policy swings every four weeks, instead of stepping back and taking a reasoned long term view of the economy. And it’s not as if they aren’t aware of changes in the cost of food and energy.
Somebody not no his ignore list should link to Rick Newman’s other article: 12 Ways To Stop America’s Decline:
Stop complaining
Stop waiting for Washington to solve problems.
Stop being scared.
Read a book about American history.
Learn something new.
That last one should be “learn something old” like supply and demand, the definition of unemployment, what a tariff is, and what inflation is.
The best way to fix this problem is to end the CEO-Shareholder-Speculator model that is not beneficial to the country as a whole but only their pockets.
I was having a discussion with someone recently and asked them, how could we limit the effect Wall Street would have on diving into commodities if things turned for the worse?
I mean, your talking about lives here when it comes to food.
His answer was those people will chase whatever sector of the market they can, be it housing etc to put their momey in. He said perhaps we could add more regulations.
My answer was do away with the CEO-Shareholder- Speculators and you solve the problem in one fell swoop, since its apparent their the problem.
When the shareholders are demanding more profits, and CEO has to keep growing the company, its either lay off more workers, or outsource more to make more money.
When you have people making 50 cents a day in China, you could cut all the taxes in the world in the US here and will not matter to these cockroaches.
The best thing that could happen for the country, and the worst for the cockroaches at the top, is if every American dumped their credit cards, and only paid cash for all their purchases.
This will drive demand down, where employers will have to pay better wages if they are ever going to sell anything, rather than people living on credit.
I don’t have any credit cards, nor do I have a TV that they can pump their marketing propaganda into (Why would I want to pay for their advertising?) I always keep enough saved to buy a new car in cash, and rent my own place.
No money for the banksters or cutthroats from me.
People have been saying, we need to spend within our means, so I suspect noone will have a problem with this.
Ouch. You speak heresy. You’ll make enemies REAL fast talking common sense like that. I’d go further and say we need workers on the corporate boards.
BTW I just wanted to add that what we’ve got going on here with offshoring is not comparative advantage. It’s labor arbitrage. Offshoring does nothing but fulfill the Law of Iron Wages.
These pro-offshoring goons know this. Everyone who reads this forum knows this. That’s why when I pointed out what Comparative Advantage means and challenged these economic Einsteins to show what they know of Comparative Advantage… suddenly they shut the fuck up. Because they also know it’s not about CA… it’s about the Law of Iron Wages.
Hear, hear. I’ve been doing that for ages. But I’m at a financially advantageous level where I can. I’m not going to piss on those who have to use credit… but I do look down on those who buy a brand new HDTV year after year while charging it to their fracking plastic.
Or better yet it’ll bring the entire system down and force us to start over from scratch. I’d prefer that.
Hell, if we don’t stop offshoring jobs, it will happen anyway when the dollar goes kaput. I would pay money to see the look on emacknight’s and especially hellestal’s face when that happens. (You should have been here to read hellestal’s posts about how America should be ashamed of caring for its own workers over those in China.)
Right, no clue about the financial system, do please continue to tell us what you think needs to be done about the economy.
Perhaps next you’ll tell us what the best course of action for other topics you know nothing about, no need to limit yourself to economics. How about the environment or medicine. Don’t let your obvious lack of education or information slow you down.
Incidentally, my investment account is up 98.3% in 3 years, how’s the interest on your community bank, my guess is 0.75%.
The thing about Ponzi schemes is that they pay great for those at the top.
Apparently, rancid randy and le jerkoff think the answer to our problems is to return us back to hunter-gatherer existence. No credit cards, no trade, no development, no advancement, no progress. We plow the fields by hand, we eat only what we can catch or grow.
Sounds great! I’ll follow you, as soon as you give up your tv, computer, game consoles, dishwashers, refrigerators, washing machine, cars, heaters & air conditioners, no more aspirin, hot water, or fluffy pillows and blankets.
Sure, we’ll have short, nasty, brutish lives…but we’ll all be employed, which obviously is the only thing that matters.:rolleyes:
I think you guys are missing a key point about Le Jac…he’s a ‘have my cake and eat it too’ kind of guy. He believes (key word there) that by imposing steep tariffs and forcing companies to bring back jobs to the US that will make us a wealthy and vibrant country again…and one who’s citizens will be in even better financial shape because there won’t be any credit needed (I mean, people in the past didn’t have or use credit…they just bought whatever they needed or saved up for it before purchasing it). We won’t have that ‘ponzi scheme’ stock market for the rich to make money off of the poor, either…again, they didn’t have a stock market in the past so why would we need one now. The US dollar will be the strongest currency out there (which we all know is an unalloyed Good Thing™ with no downsides) as the gods intended it to be, and everything will be right with the universe.
Heck, he’s probably a gold bug as well as an isolationist, so we’ll probably go back to the gold standard to back our currency, since in the old days you could buy a car for a thousand dollars, or a bag of popcorn for $.25 or a new washing machine for fifty bucks (and none of this stuff about how the dollar was worth more then than it is now…only economist believe that drivel. Dollars is dollars!).
Le Jac does seem to get some, um, interesting posters to agree with his proposals. First it was Gonzo. Then it was Ashelady and now it’s randy054. I can’t think of any others at this point.
Emacknight how’s your temper tantrum at randy going? I guess when you’re stupid enough to believe that offshoring is great for the economy but when you’re asked to show why and you can’t, jumping bad at anyone who comes your way is par for your course.
BTW here are some more benefits that offshoring American jobs has given us.
Emacknight how many of these 4.9 million people do you think are vacationing in Spain or living off big severance packages? I’m sure you’re saying that they’re better off with no jobs and out on the street than having a manufacturing job. Retard.
No, you can’t answer that… because you’re an idiot who defends an idiotic point of view.
And I see you’re still happy to use your offshore’d computer, router, and modem while sitting around in your Made In China pajamas. Way to lead by example.
That’s right, thanks to offshoring Americans can afford to buy things like computers, routers, and modems that let them have access to the internet. Would you rather the internet was something only available to the wealthiest elite? The cost of a given amount of computing power falls by half roughly every 18 months. Thanks in part to offshoring.
[QUOTE=Shierholz]
4.9 million Americans are left out of the Department of Labor’s official unemployment count because they are too discouraged to continue seeking
[/QUOTE]
Neither you nor Shierholz seem to realize that that 4.9million weren’t “left out.” That’s the definition of unemployment. It has a meaning, if you go to the Departmenet of Labor’s website you can see for yourself. And you’ll be shocked to see that it has nothing to do with creative destruction, offshoring, or outsoucing. It also doesn’t mean “earning zero dollars.”
For those following along at home, the unemployment rate, as measured by the Department of Labor has been around a long time, and those people are certainly not “forgotten.”
Refering back to our good friend wiki:The unemployment rate may be different from the impact of the economy on people. The unemployment figures indicate how many are not working for pay but seeking employment for pay. It is only indirectly connected with the number of people who are actually not working at all or working without pay. Therefore, critics believe that current methods of measuring unemployment are inaccurate in terms of the impact of unemployment on people as these methods do not take into account the 1.5% of the available working population incarcerated in U.S. prisons (who may or may not be working while incarcerated), those who have lost their jobs and have become discouraged over time from actively looking for work, those who are self-employed or wish to become self-employed, such as tradesmen or building contractors or IT consultants, those who have retired before the official retirement age but would still like to work (involuntary early retirees), those on disability pensions who, while not possessing full health, still wish to work in occupations suitable for their medical conditions, those who work for payment for as little as one hour per week but would like to work full-time. These people are “involuntary part-time” workers, those who are underemployed, e.g., a computer programmer who is working in a retail store until he can find a permanent job, involuntary stay-at-home mothers who would prefer to work, and graduate and Professional school students who were unable to find worthwhile jobs after they graduated with their Bachelor’s degrees.
This issue of the “forgotten unemployed” has been around long before Le Jacawhatever heard about offshoring. There are even the “forgotten employed,” but they don’t help trick idiots into voting for retarded economic policies.
To sum up: this is all very basic first year economics, nothing new. Consult your local library (or interweb) if you’d like to learn more.
The EPI does some good work, but you have to take it with a small grain of salt: The think tank is heavily influenced by unions, who fund about a third of EPI’s budget.
In case you were living on Mars the past few years, the US was in one of the worst economic downturns in living memory. Prior to 2007-2008 and the whole subprime fallout etc, the unemployment rate was under 5%. It is precisely because of our liquid labor market that will enable the US to pull out of the recession faster than places like Japan or the UK, and that will enable progress precisely because of those ‘lost jobs’. We’ll repeat it again - creative destruction is exactly what is needed for progress. In case you missed it the first time - 90% of US workers 100 years ago were in agricultural; now that figure is 5%. Do you really think that 85% of the work force is either unemployed or not looking for work? I mean, you’re stupid, but you can’t be that mind-fuckingly stupid, can you? (Well, based on your posts in this thread…yeah, I guess you can be).
Look at Spain: Even back during the economic upturn through 2007 or so, Spain’s unemployment averaged over 10% for 2003-2006. It was 14% in 2009. 18% in 2010. You know why? A protectionist, illiquid labor market is a major factor.
You’re a retard. Go blow a monkey; you’re far more suited to that task than trying to debate economics. A half-baked eggplant knows more about it than you do.
I think you are seriously dissing eggplants there, fresh, half baked or fully baked, DragonAsh. Other than that…excellent post. Totally cracked me up. All for naught though…he really just doesn’t get it. He’ll never get it. He’s just too stupid and fixed in his ways.
Yap, yap, yap. You guys have never done an honest day of work in your entire lives. You live in your mommy’s basement waiting for her to kick the bucket and cough up some inheritance.
Wait’ll the dollar collapses and all your precious offshoring dies anyway.
BTW it’s nice to see you backed down on your moronic Comparative Advantage argument which you ultimately were too scared to actually make. Did you ever get someone to help you comprehend those words ‘labor arbitrage’ or ‘law of iron wages’ yet?
