Are we seeing normal or excessive inflation?

[theaustinescorts]

It's very hard to have inflation when there's so much unemployment and flat wage growth, declining property values, etc.

Some prices for a few things will increase very slightly however due to the fuel cost increases, but much of this will be absorbed into earnings and not simply passed along to consumers because prices are so competitive at this time.

The reason why Walmart is expecting some increases is because of anticipated weakness of the dollar vs. Chinese currency. This factor will drive costs up in places like Walmart where so much of their product is Chinese. But even so we haven't seen that currency change yet.

Most of the furor predicting inflation has to do with the dramatic increase in the M2 total money supply because of highly stimulative Fed policy, but none of that money is finding its way into the real economy. It's all been absorbed to cover bank losses. It's merely a paper matter.

[shaft.drive]

Not only is inflation up; the number of panhandlers is up also!!

Originally Posted by Slotgoop

While that is certainly the next first step I think that needs to happen, other countries also need to do their part too. China for instance needs to stop artificially regulating their currency value and let it float with market demand.

The Chinese policymakers are a lot smarter than the American policy makers. They are going to be the next superpower. Immigrants will now flock to China instead of the USA. We have been crying for the last 15 yrs about China regulating their currency. It ain't going to change

Originally Posted by Slotgoop

The really sad thing is that 25 years ago we started trading jobs for short term profits in the USA and moved so many industries off shore.

The US won WWII because of manufacturing capability. Manufacturing has gone or is going overseas. American corporations are still strong, but they are hiring more employees abroad & mostly losing employees in the US

Originally Posted by theaustinescorts

It's very hard to have inflation when there's so much unemployment and flat wage growth, declining property values, etc.

Some prices for a few things will increase very slightly however due to the fuel cost increases, but much of this will be absorbed into earnings and not simply passed along to consumers because prices are so competitive at this time.

Oil & commodities are up; Oil is up not only because of all the unrest in Libya & the Middle East, but also because of rising demand in China & India. Also note that we have used up over 50% of this planet's oil reserves. Oil prices will continue to go up people. Invest in scooter stock
We HAVE inflation; & its not VERY SLIGHT. You are paying almost 20% more for gas than you were last year; and public transportation in this country still SUCKS

Originally Posted by KisserSoze

Inflation. Rising prices. All commodities are seeing huge price increases, not just oil. Corn, coffee, cotton, copper, cattle. You name it, it costs significantly more than it did yesteryear.

absolutely right KisserSoze

Originally Posted by BonerJams03

Oh well, let's borrow more money from China and buy more oil from the middle east.

We are not borrowing money from China. They invest in US treasuries since that is still the most secure currrency for them to invest in/ have liquidity in. The Euro is too shaky after the recent problems & if they invest in their own treasury, their currency value will go up.
Everybody buys oil from the middle east. We are not doing enough to get away from that dependance. We need to live in higher density cities (like downtown Austin is doing) & have less sprawl (suburbs) to cut down on transportation.
As a nation we still use the most energy per capita. Its the American way baby! Fossil fuels will run out; nukes are too risky; 3 mile island; Chernobyl & now the 2 plants in tsunami hit Japan. Solar is still in its infancy; Wind is ugly to look at on a large scale.

Originally Posted by KosherCowboy

I need a new vehicle and am reducing myself to a visit to the Hyundai and KIA lots this week, ( not bad cars actually) but their sales are booming

The Koreans have arrived. Their quality is close to the Japanese & their costs have all beaten. Samsung has eaten Sony's lunch too

Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

but when you look at some of the natural disasters to staple food growing regions in recent years, coupled with a rise in indigent population worldwide, it was easy to predict that this day would come.

yssup, may he rest in peace, was correct also. The green revolution has come & gone. We are, as a planet unable to make enough food to feed the teeming millions. The population of the extremely poor continues to explode & natural calamities (I believe we are fucking up this planet) are causing havoc to agriculture. I know farmers who could predict the weather 20 yrs ago, but now are flummoxed...being in the US, it is not very visible; but go visit a third world country & you will see the effect

The Population explosion
1960 3 billion
1965 3.3 billion
1970 3.7 billion
1975 4 billion (15 years to increase 1 billion)
1980 4.5 billion
1985 4.85 billion (13 years to increase 1 billion - say 1988)
1990 5.3 billion
1995 5.7 billion
1999 6 billion (11 years to increase 1 billion)
2006 6.5 billion
2009 6.8 billion
2012 7 billion - estimated

Look at the graph; it is increasing exponentially; we will soon choke ourselves to death

[theaustinescorts]

Used up 50% of the world's oil reserves?

Does anyone still really believe that oil exists only in small pools where plants decayed millions of years ago?

If that were true how did such huge reserves of oil come to be buried over five miles underneath the surface such as the BP well that exploded in the Gulf? Is it possible that five miles of material came to cover what was once the surface? [I doubt it].

It turns out that the largest oil formation in Texas, the Austin Chaulk, has another zone of oil and gas 9,000 feet below it that no one detected until a couple of years ago...the Eagle Ford formation. No one ever thought anything could be that deep because it's not possible for any former surface to be buried so far down.

When I first started working in the diamond business the first thing I learned was that diamonds are crystals of carbon formed from very deep in the crust where there are HUGE LAYERS of carbon [graphite] where crystals were formed and occassionally pushed up diamonds to the surface. It's been well understood from diamonds that massive layers of carbon exist deep in the crust, and that this carbon has nothing to do with anything once alive - it's abiotic.

There are huge amounts of carbon, methane, etc. everywhere under the crust, and oil is in fact the product of that which seeps to the surface in places where the crust has fractured. None of these hydrocarbons were formed from living matter, as once assumed. Recent studies have demonstrated that the methane alone can be turned directly into petroleum under geologic conditions, See

www.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1986GeCoA..50.2411G


There is so much oil deeper in the crust that it may be impossible to ever run out of it so long as those deeper regions may be accessed.

[Gump42]

Originally Posted by theaustinescorts

Used up 50% of the world's oil reserves?

There is so much oil deeper in the crust that it may be impossible to ever run out of it so long as those deeper regions may be accessed.

We live on a planet with finite resources. It's simple common sense that oil can and will be depleted at some point. Do you think we're drilling a mile under the ocean surface and another three miles under the sea floor just for fun (deepwater horizon)? No, it's because we've depleted the easy to get to stuff.

Even if you don't believe in peak oil, you should at least understand peak "cheap" oil. It doesn't matter how much oil exists if it costs $400.00 per barrel to produce, or if it has a negative EROEI.

[theaustinescorts]

Believe it or not there are huge areas that are only now being surveyed for oil.
Most of Africa has never been carefully surveyed. That's why huge new fields like the Jubalee in Ghana and all the fields off Equatorial Guinea are only now beginning to come on line. Then there's the huge new finds in South America such as the offshore fields in Brazil.

But your point is well taken that eventually all the easy finds will be depleted. Time will tell how workable it is to access the deeper reserves.

But my point is that the previous assumptions that 50% of all there will ever be has been extracted was simply false...very false.

No one knows how much there may be or how workable it is to recover, but whatever it is it's much, much more than thought until recently.

As far as prices are concerned they do not reflect supply and demand. It's a highly irrational market.

Frankly I'm more concerned about scarcity of other resources like water, phosphates and other industrial minerals. I think the world would be much better if it had half the population that it does, but there's this strong urge that humans have that brings forth more and more of their kind....

[KisserSoze]

Originally Posted by theaustinescorts

... but there's this strong urge that humans have that brings forth more and more of their kind....

Ah, yes. Back to our reason for hanging around in this little part of the world. Funny how things tie together.

[theaustinescorts]

Originally Posted by KisserSoze

Ah, yes. Funny how things tie together.

If a person lives long enough and keeps their eyes open it may dawn on them that everything is connected.