Where is the US economy headed?

Waterboy, FYI, I was responding to Cyclo's observations. As for your ability to see higher cost in consumer items - while the dollar slips is unique in this country where people worry more about jobs and losing their homes. As demand for goods and services drop, so does prices. You just haven't noticed all the sales going on on consumer goods. That's been the biggest influence on keeping prices in check, but our country can't continue to increase the circulation of money that will be used to speculate on assets that only builds a house of cards at low interest rates. It's the wrong strategy at a time when our national debt continues to increase, trade deficit increases, and currency increases by $600 billion. The feds are crazy.

cicigirl can't see the inflation right under her nose.

Day to day recurring expenses are on the rise.

For many people who are classed as in the poverty level of income, the unemployed, and those in debt up to their eyeballs all believe prices are increasing. You included.

Show us proof that "day to day recurring expenses are on the rise?" For those who have jobs, their wage increase more than covered the cost of most purchasing of the consumer.

You are included, but I guess your bills are paid with OPM - otherwise you would get it and be in touch.

Show us that you handle your own expenses with your own money.

Inflation Is Our Friend!
Honest. Or at least that is how many (I won't say most because I can't prove it-but I believe it is most) economists believe.
It is certainly better than deflation. The Japanese economy was crippled for years by deflation. And rampant inflation is, of course, catastrophic as evidenced by Germany decades ago and more recently by Zimbabwe, for example.
I could tolerate seeing inflation come in at around 3% a year. There are caveats though. The inflation should be throughout the economy. By that I mean CPI should rise by 3% while at the same time wages should rise by an equivalent amount.
There will undoubtedly be those who will scream and pound the table, eager to blame President Obama because the price of Corn Flakes is going up.
(Corn, incidentally, is an interesting product to look at. The price has spiked recently due to, amongst other things, the drought in Russia. The price of the cereal hasn't moved too much, though, due to the raw material comprising something under 10% of the retail price. The rest is processing, packaging, shipping, advertising and (now tighter) profits. It was a horrible decision, in my mind, to divert food stuffs to the production of fuel).

Thanks, JPB, for participating. This thread had pretty much disintegrated into an ongoing spitting match. I wonder why the personal attacks need to be posted on threads when they could just as easily be sent as emails, leaving the rest of us out of it.
I am going to go hide under my bed now.

I agree; I also believe about a 3% inflation is healthy for our economy.

We aren't talking about your typical yearly inflation rates.

I do realise that social engineering [Political science] is about as a dry subject as physics, but unless people study all of the subjects that are needed to have a comprehensive understanding of how our economic and political systems work how can they speak in absolutes about them?

I study them and I can not speak in absolutes about them! So they hate the poor? Is it because of welfare? If so maybe we should bring up the welfare for the rich. You will need to pay close attention to part 6 and 7 and please share the empirical wrongs that you see so that we all can see as those who hate the poor!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaPaTtd9Ntc

There sure is a lot of corporate welfare. Golden fleece awards were highlighted by Senator Proxmire.

Oh no, not more of that kind of stuff? Did you join this forum for the primary purpose of posting ultra-socialist or Marxist propaganda, reasoning logic?

No I came to learn other view points then my own! Please continue to share yours with us on this matter, My mind is open to new ideas, what do you have that you think is wrong with what Noam was saying?

Try learning that Chomsky is an ultra socialist, and that ultra socialism taken to the extreme is otherwise known as Marxism, and that Marxism has been responsible for the deaths and suffering of hundreds of millions of people.
Regarding what Chomsky was saying in the video, sorry but my computer volume could not get it high enough to understand his words, as he seemed to slur them anyway. Add to that the fact that Chomsky has no credibility as an expert on much of anything as far as I am concerned, based upon reading some of his stuff already.

There are not plenty of signs of inflation. There was a long discussion of inflation about a month ago on NPR, which I know you consider the voice of Satan. You say things about which you know nothing.

Actually, a slight level of inflation is good for the economy. Our inflation rate is too low at 1%.

I thunk you should pay more attention to the rapid rises in commodity prices and the already rising food prices to gauge just how proximate is the danger of inflation. The Fed's pumping of hundreds of billions of circulating money into a dormant economy can only result in inflation and the debasement of our currency. Unfortunately for us all the early indicators are that it won't even achieve the lowering of the (already almost zero) interest rates: so far the markets are acting as if they are anticipating rising inflation and interest rates have actually risen since Bernake announced QE2.

As promised rjb, I am posting a budgetary suggestion for the federal government to save some money. It has to do with the Department of Education. rjb noticed that I had suggested eliminating it, so he invited me to co-host a thread that would be dedicated to that subject. I respectfully declined, not because of rjb, as I greatly respect his opinions and posts. My reasons are more along the line that the idea of eliminating the Department of Education is really pretty simple, and that it revolves around some simple principles that can be explained in one paragraph. Creating an entire thread may actually obfuscate the simplicity of the issue and principles involved. So I chose instead to post my short explanation of why it is logical to eliminate the department. Here goes.

This year, the federal government is spending 46.7 billion on education, an increase of 13% from the previous year. We could eliminate that or greatly reduce it by simply eliminating the department. My proposal is based on very simple principles.

First, I believe as a conservative that most local functions can be managed better locally than they can from Washington D.C. That is why we have local fire and police departments funded locally. Why should education be any different? Sending money to Washington for them to create a bureaucracy there and send part of it back, not only is wasteful and inefficient, but the person that holds the purse strings also makes the decisions. Does anyone honestly think a bureaucrat in D.C. can make better decisions for our children's education than we can and than our local school board and teachers can?

Secondly, when we spend about 10 grand per kid, per year, that is way too high, and it is about 15 grand in Vermont, also over 11 grand in D.C. which has some of the worst achieving schools in the country, I think. Also, the schools have become a virtual nanny operation, with breakfast served in addition to lunch. I say, if the locals want those services, let them provide them. It is time for us to face the reality that our federal government is broke, and we the people need to step up to the plate and do for ourselves what we can for ourselves. Education for our children is one of those things we can do. We did it before, and we developed the richest and most technologically advanced nation on the face of the earth. We can do it again.

I recognize some of the arguments against this idea. One is that poorer areas will not be able to fund their schools to the level needed for a good education. Two arguments against that, one being that money is not an accurate measure of the quality of education delivered, nor is the age of the building housing the classrooms. Desire to learn and parental and cultural attitudes, as well as quality of teaching are the more influential factors. Additionally, if a community places the emphasis on education, the money can be allocated to show that emphasis. We did it before, and we can do it again. Even if the money is not flowing as well, the very fact that the locals have control, that will enhance their pride and their interest in making sure their schools are performing the way they wish. And when they excel, they can have the credit.

These are simple principles. As Reagan said, there are simple answers, but not always easy answers. The easy way out is to continue the status quo, which is more failure, waste, substandard eduation, and a broken federal budget and bureaucracy. Even the Soviets had to admit that central planning did not work, and at some point we should admit that there are many things better left to the locals to do for themselves. I believe one of them is education.

So there you have it, one of my suggestions for saving the better part of 40 billion in the federal budget. Not easy, but simple, and it is entirely logical and based upon founding principles of this country and conservatism.

Obama democrats and NPR work very hard to hide the truth from the masses.

While the GOP spreads misinformation to the masses. Which is better or worse?

Death panels, anyone?

Once again, the American right is cutting of its nose to spite our face.

For many years, I have felt that the one of the worst mistakes we have made as a nation was to dismantle the national rail. Linking cities by a shared passenger service rather than by highways carrying single passengers in cars is more ecologically friendly. Moving freight by rail rather than by truck must surely save resources.

Recently, the Federal government allocated $8B to develop 10 high speed rail corridors similar to the Boston-NY-Philadelphia-DC corridor.

A plant is being built in Wisconsin to produce trains to travel in and out of CHicago in the midwestern hub and workers have been hired.

The new Know Nothings elected to Congress want to dismantle this initiative before it gets off the ground on philosophical grounds: they want government out of the picture.

The Wisconsin plant has stopped hiring and has announced it may fire those already taken on as employees.

That was bad enough. This morning, I awoke to the news on NPR which included a story about a provincial city in China's far west that has been made into an industrial center, thanks to high speed rail.

Here are the proposed corridors, according to wiki:

Southeast Corridor—Washington, Richmond, Newport News, Norfolk, Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta, Columbia, Jacksonville

California Corridor—Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Fresno, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas

Pacific Northwest Corridor—Eugene, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver

South Central Corridor—Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Texarkana, and Little Rock

Gulf Coast Corridor—Houston, New Orleans, Mobile

Chicago Hub Network—Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Toledo, Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, Kansas City, St. Louis, Louisville, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul

Florida Corridor—Tampa, Orlando, Miami

Keystone Corridor—Pittsburgh, Philadelphia

Empire Corridor—Buffalo, Albany

Northern New England Corridor—Boston, Portland/Auburn, Montreal, Springfield, New Haven


______________

The irony is that some of my colleagues have been talking about how many of us live in Western MA and work in Central MA. If the commuter rail were extended from its current Western terminus to Amherst where it could connect with Amtrak's Northern New England corridor, we would all benefit.

There has been a series of documentaries presented by National Geographic on what the world will be like when the oil runs out. Unless we can turn away from the airplane and the car, and toward the ship and the train, we will be in enormous trouble.

Ah, the American right! MAking things worse for you and me!

Show us this misinformation being spread to the masses by the GOP.

BTW, I guess you missed it or you are ignoring it, but the plan for death panels has been proven to be true.