here comes the propaganda: Inflation is heating up

[aaron]

Re: here comes the propaganda: Inflation is heating up

They do not want hyperinflation. They want the 50% reduction in the dollar relative to debt. They can force it onto the rest of the world. They can do this because there IS a backup plan if they over-do it and destroy the dollar.

Plan Bernanke has printed a few trillion since 2008. In that time the dollar has bounced around a bit, but is at the same place as a few years ago. Real prices are probably just a bit higher than then as well. Stock market is back up too. The U.S. is even paying for an additional war (or 2, I am losing count), 20 million more food-stamps users, and all the unemployed and early social security eaters as well. Let's face it, they are doing an incredibly good job at keeping this system afloat. It SHOULD have been down the toilet a dozen times over the past 3 years. I bet the U.S. even has a lot more gold within its borders than a few years ago too.

[lektrode]

Re: here comes the propaganda: Inflation is heating up

They do not want hyperinflation. They want the 50% reduction in the dollar relative to debt. They can force it onto the rest of the world. They can do this because there IS a backup plan if they over-do it and destroy the dollar.

Plan Bernanke has printed a few trillion since 2008. In that time the dollar has bounced around a bit, but is at the same place as a few years ago. Real prices are probably just a bit higher than then as well. Stock market is back up too. The U.S. is even paying for an additional war (or 2, I am losing count), 20 million more food-stamps users, and all the unemployed and early social security eaters as well. Let's face it, they are doing an incredibly good job at keeping this system afloat. It SHOULD have been down the toilet a dozen times over the past 3 years. I bet the U.S. even has a lot more gold within its borders than a few years ago too.

3 trillion to forestall the inevitable, that not only bailed out the bankster's incredible and losing gambling streak, BUT THEN REWARDED THE BASTARDS WITH YET MORE BILLIONS IN 'bonuses' or 'profits' (delusions) allowed the over-bloated state/municipal govs (unions) to continue their drunken-sailor spending sprees (apologies to drunken sailors) for merely another year, while doing not a GD thing to boost the productive economy?

and you think this is "doing an incredibly good job at keeping this system afloat" ?
for what - another year, tops?

would hate to see your definition of FAILURE, tho methinks we're about to, anyway...

and 'they' may not _want_ hyperinflation, but where's the way out - especially if/when the EU proceeds to meltdown, as it appears they are doing what they do best, according to gonzalo: DITHERING and/or arguing who gets what deckchair, as the titanic pours on the coal, all ahead FULL:
http://gonzalolira.blogspot.com/2011...appens-to.html

and interesting the editorial we're starting to see on the wsj:

from one of krugman's buddies, alan blunder... oops, i mean blinder - another academic/keynsian cheerleader:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...187860688.html

and pimco's gross: http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2011...ht-about-this/
The past several decades have witnessed an erosion of our manufacturing base in exchange for a reliance on wealth creation via financial assets. Now, as that road approaches a dead-end cul-de-sac via interest rates that can go no lower, we are left untrained, underinvested and overindebted relative to our global competitors. The precipitating cause of our structural employment break is both internal neglect and external competition. Blame us. Blame them. There’s plenty of blame to go around.
Solutions from policymakers on the right or left, however, seem focused almost exclusively on rectifying or reducing our budget deficit as a panacea. While Democrats favor tax increases and mild adjustments to entitlements, Republicans pound the table for trillions of dollars of spending cuts and an axing of Obamacare. Both, however, somewhat mystifyingly, believe that balancing the budget will magically produce 20 million jobs over the next 10 years.
…
Both parties, in fact, are moving to anti-Keynesian policy orientations, which deny additional stimulus and make rather awkward and unsubstantiated claims that if you balance the budget, “they will come.” It is envisioned that corporations or investors will somehow overnight be attracted to the revived competitiveness of the U.S. labor market: Politicians feel that fiscal conservatism equates to job growth.

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and sure - why not borrow another bunch of TRILLIONS: and pimco gets bigger bonuses?

CAN ANYBODY TELL ME WHY WE'RE BETTER OFF THAN IF THE WHOLE DISGUSTING CHARADE HAD BEEN ALLOWED TO SIMPLY COLLAPSE?

seems to me, 3 trillion _invested_ into rebuilding OUR infrastructure, a full build-out of new-gen nuclear energy plants, along with simply repairing the interstate highway system would've created a boom that would've gone for another decade - vs what did we get?

a pop in the dow, (still 2000 pts below 2007's peak) a few more votes of the welfare class, banksters and unions, for the dems and their totally discredited legislative 'efforts' since 2007 and an even bigger number of unemployed!
and this you define as "an incredibly good job" ?

frankly, i'm dumbfounded - but hey!
what do i know, i'm just a common tradesman, who never had the benefit of a highpriced/debt-enslaved edgamacation...

[aaron]

Re: here comes the propaganda: Inflation is heating up

and you think this is "doing an incredibly good job at keeping this system afloat" ?
for what - another year, tops?

would hate to see your definition of FAILURE,

Japan kept their shit afloat for 20 years and counting. I will bet you money that the 'system' is still afloat a year from now in the U.S.

What would have been your definition of success? What was Bernanke asked to do? Save the system. He succeeded, no? It has been 3 years and counting. The US dollar is at about where it was before the crash. The interest rates are lower. And, you have got to admit, there are millions of more jobs that would have been lost by now had he not intervened. He has performed his job as best as could be expected under the circumstances since the crash.

Is it fair? Hell no.
Was the alternative better? Maybe.
Will the reckoning come? I am having my doubts. As Mike often screams "Where is my inflation!" . It has been 3.5 years. Most Americans who ignore the news and did not lose their jobs have no idea anything has changed.

Bernanke works for the system. He saved the system. The side effect is that He has given everybody 3 years to cover their asses too. He has allowed you to buy gold cheap. He has allowed millions to live rent free. He has held the shit together long enough for the military to secure more oil. He is possibly the reason why I have not had to defend myself against rioters. SUCCESS

FAILURE would be stories of soldiers in Afghanistan working in the poppy fields to pay for a boat trip back to the states. FALURE would be empty shelves like in Soviet Russia. FAILURE would be us bartering for gas with our silver eagles.

Of course, this could all change, but the system seems strong.

[c1ue]

Re: here comes the propaganda: Inflation is heating up

Japan kept their shit afloat for 20 years and counting. I will bet you money that the 'system' is still afloat a year from now in the U.S.

Japan has been borrowing its own population's savings via the Japan Post savings accounts, plus Japan is a net currency account creditor - though this last part may end this year due to Fukushima.

The US is borrowing the world's savings, and the world has better uses for it these days.

The US furthermore takes in massive imports and at some point must either provide more value or do without - either choice which will cause massive economic dislocation.

[sishya]

Re: here comes the propaganda: Inflation is heating up

I saw this image some time ago- conspiracy stuff, but interesting.
Yen at last being swallowed by something big.

[zoog]

Re: here comes the propaganda: Inflation is heating up

What we are seeing is wages stagnating or being cut on average. They are not being cut across the board. They are going up in many industries I suspect (Bankers, for example).

It is not official, but we get COLA and also have gotten raises over the past 3 years. I work for a high tech company. I could not be replaced cheaply. My "replacements" would be from China and India... and their wages are going up faster than mine.

EJ is supposed to have some article about industries and wages. I suspect his analysis will explain the lack of a drop in houses in some areas/price ranges too. Lower priced homes were crushed. They were owned by the bubble labor. So were those million + homes: They were owned by the bubble investors. I am still waiting for homes to drop where I live.

...

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CI: Where are the jobs?
EJ: Overall, the total number of job openings is almost back up to where it was at the worst part of the last recession in 2002, which is to say, terrible. Job openings are rising fastest in the largest employment sector, professional services, flat in the second largest, health care, and rising in state and local government.

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Certainly wages in some job sectors have been keeping up with or surpassing inflation. I started to dig into the BLS data at some point but the sheer volume overwhelmed me. My incomplete takeaway was that even in a large supersector like Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services which overall appears to have rising wages, most of the people employed in that sector actually have middle- or even low-wage jobs and are not keeping up with inflation. Only a relative few high-wage employees are getting raises, yet those raises are significant enough to bump the supersector average.

During the housing boom, low-end homes appreciated more than mid and high end in many cities. I attribute most of this to the unprecedented access to credit (via subprime mortgages) for millions of people who otherwise would never buy a home. Even with loans being handed out like candy, most of them were still buying at the lower end of the market. No surprise then that after the peak and lenders hitting the brakes on subprime, low end homes have dropped more than the rest.