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[DiabloLoco]

However at this point I am planning on building a pantry and stocking it to take some of the pressure off of DH.

A wise investment!

Indeed. You gotta get your beans in order before you worry about bullion.

[Silver]

Hard to go wrong with a well-stocked pantry.  Feels good, too.

Peace,

Silver

[Silver]

Inflation (for January 2016) and unemployment figures (for February) are in at SGS:

Unemployment:  22.8% down 0.1%
Price Inflation: 9%  up another 0.6% after December's 0.6% jump.

That makes the Misery Index 31.8..

Inflation continues to increased despite the ongoing collapse in oil prices and the low prices for gasoline, heating oil, and natural gas.

The dollar continues to fall against other world currencies. That makes our imported goods more expensive.  After peaking just over 100 in early December, the dollar index fell sharply in mid-December, February, and again today.  As I write it is at 96 and falling rapidly.  That's a 4% change in less than 3 months - a red flag for a supposedly stable, reserve currency.

It's been lower, much lower.  In 2009 the USD index touched 72.  But today there is a long list of reasons to expect the USD to continue to fall, and precious few to justify a rise.

Peace,

Silver

[RVM45]

Pardon,

I know that you're using the closest approximation to the real figures—but those ain't the State's Numbers.

Just for comparison, what are their figures?

I think if the Govie admitted unemployment of 22.8% that you'd have "Chicken Little" types running rampant in the streets worse than in a low-budget Zombie Apocalypse Movie.

And yeah, while the Sky Ain't Fallin'_(yet) it is very precariously balanced—like endgame "Jenga" pieces…


…..RVM45

[DiabloLoco]

Pardon,

I know that you're using the closest approximation to the real figures—but those ain't the State's Numbers.

Just for comparison, what are their figures?

I think if the Govie admitted unemployment of 22.8% that you'd have "Chicken Little" types running rampant in the streets worse than in a low-budget Zombie Apocalypse Movie.

And yeah, while the Sky Ain't Fallin'_(yet) it is very precariously balanced—like endgame "Jenga" pieces…


…..RVM45

I think that the current government lie is 4.9%

[Silver]

The figures are from shadowstats.com.  John Williams tries to calculate unemployment, price inflation, GDP, and other economic indices the way they were calculated in the mid-1970s.

Price inflation, for example, has been systematically corrupted by "hedonic adjustments" and many other tricks.  If the price of steak goes up, but hamburger is cheap, the adjustments assume you switch to hamburger so you don't spend any more on food, and voila! there is no inflation.  After hamburger gets expensive you switch to chicken.  Once chicken gets expensive, you switch to cat food, and so forth.  If it weren't for the generous subsidies for grains and sugars, reducing the prices of processed foods, a lot more old folks would be starving.  It's cheaper and less obvious to kill them with diabetes, cancer, and heart disease from poisoned food.

This was done quite deliberately; social security payments are indexed to the CPI index.  By systematically under-reporting price inflation, the government robbed tens of millions of retirees of the money they had been promised, forcing a reduced standard of living.  The reduced payments enabled prolonging the Ponzi scheme for another decade or two.

I'm not making this up.  Williams has a large section of primers.

Consumer Price Index Has Been Reconfigured Since Early-1980s So As to Understate Inflation versus Common Experience

          *  CPI no longer measures the cost of maintaining a constant standard of living.

          *  CPI no longer measures full inflation for out-of-pocket expenditures.
           
          *  With the misused cover of academic theory, politicians forced significant underreporting of official inflation, so as to cut annual cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security, etc.
             
          *  Politicians look to expand further the concept of artificially-suppressed cost-of-living adjustments in current budget-deficit negotiations, through the use of the Chained-CPI (see Special C-CPI Supplement at end of this document).
           
          *  Use of the CPI to adjust retirement benefits, private income or to set investment goals impairs the ability of retirees, income earners and investors to stay ahead of inflation.
           
          *  Understated inflation used in estimating inflation-adjusted growth has created the illusion of recovery in reported GDP.

The understated price inflation also produces the illusion that incomes are rising.  When corrected for a more realistic measure of inflation, household incomes have been declining since 2000. In constant purchasing power dollars, household income has been $7,500 +/- $500 since 1967.  That's almost 50 years with no real economic growth for the vast majority of the population.  See the graph below.

The rich have certainly gotten richer. that's the purpose of the federal reserve and fiat money.  It is a giant pump sucking wealth from the poorest of the poor and sending it to the uber-rich.

Which explains a lot of the misery, anger, and resentment we all see and experience in this century.  The boot on our neck grows heavy.

The current government figures are U.3 at 4.9%, U.6 at 9.7%, and ShadowStats at 22.8%.  CPI-U at 1.4%, CPI-W at 1.2%, ShadowStats at 9.0%

Peace,

Silver

[RVM45]

Fascinating.

I've used this means to do my own rough and ready cost of living calculations:

In the late 70s when I started working, the minimum wage was about $2.20 something per hour.

I had a factory job that was very easy to land and the pay after four months was about $4.40 per hour.

That is a bit more than twice minimum wage.

Minimum wage today is $7.25 per hour—therefore one must make around $15 per hour to be at the same place that he was at $4.40/Hr in 1978…

$15/Hr entry level factory jobs are all but nonexistent in this area and even a lower-paying job that one does land requires far more searching and effort than in 1978.

Of course that is only the roughest sort of guide and omits many factors.

In 1978 I came home with $132/Wk. I was living with my parents and they were deeply in debt due to a failed business. I'd hand them $100 to keep the creditors at bay. With my $32 I bought my gas, enough meat to eat very well at lunch break at work, and a magazine or paperback book or two.

I got a small raise at 4 Weeks. It amounted to something like $2 week take home. While I was no means elevated to the nouveau rich, I could tell a small difference in my cash flow. $1/Hr raise would have been a big step-up back then. Today it is better to get a $1/Hr raise than not—but it is rather picayune.

By the way, I went to Purdue University for 2.5 years from 1975-1978. My folks were footing the bill but I did hear the numbers that were thrown around and ended up paying back most of the loans…

It is my non-numerical impression that one could pay back the Student debt from a 4-year State University in about HALF the years it now takes and not have to work quite so hard at it even then…

Does anyone have any inflation adjusted averages comparing then and now?


…..RVM45

[Silver]

The Federal Reserve bank of St. Louis runs an inflation calculator.

It has all the problems John Williams at Shadowstats has documented, but it is still eye opening.

The $2 an hour job I took in the early 70s would need to pay $9.60 today.  Minimum wage has not kept up with inflation.

My father bought a new car for $1999 back then.  That car today would be at least $20,000, probably more.  It would be a better car, but there are certainly no $2000 new cars today.

Peace,

Silver

[Splash22]

Measuring Misery!!!
The fact that there is an index for measurement is so sick, it's hilarious!

What exactly would the practical applications be?

Not-"what's the weather forecast today sweetheart?"

"How are you this morning dear?"
"Let me check the Misery Index , an I'll let you know....."

"That makes the Misery Index 31.8.."............hey! it's moving right along!

Silver, this feels like a comedy sketch to me, doesn't it? it's surreal!
Someone actually calculating, measuring how miserable they should be!

~S

[da gooch]

Measuring Misery!!!
The fact that there is an index for measurement is so sick, it's hilarious!

What exactly would the practical applications be?

Not-"what's the weather forecast today sweetheart?"

"How are you this morning dear?"
"Let me check the Misery Index , an I'll let you know....."

"That makes the Misery Index 31.8.."............hey! it's moving right along!

Silver, this feels like a comedy sketch to me, doesn't it? it's surreal!
Someone actually calculating, measuring how miserable they should be!

~S

Have you read the thread from its inception up to date or are you simply commenting upon the humorous (to you) wording being used?

Your last sentence (above) seems to indicate that you are not familiar with the science involved nor the effect on the economy of the combination of influences that put together ARE the Misery Index.

......

May I respectfully suggest that you read a thread (any thread) from its Original Post up through its twists and turns to the present day? There is much to be learned here at TMM IF one is interested in actually reading the material and absorbing the wisdom expressed.

[Splash22]

Measuring Misery!!!
The fact that there is an index for measurement is so sick, it's hilarious!

What exactly would the practical applications be?

Not-"what's the weather forecast today sweetheart?"

"How are you this morning dear?"
"Let me check the Misery Index , an I'll let you know....."

"That makes the Misery Index 31.8.."............hey! it's moving right along!

Silver, this feels like a comedy sketch to me, doesn't it? it's surreal!
Someone actually calculating, measuring how miserable they should be!

~S

Have you read the thread from its inception up to date or are you simply commenting upon the humorous (to you) wording being used?

Your last sentence (above) seems to indicate that you are not familiar with the science involved nor the effect on the economy of the combination of influences that put together ARE the Misery Index.

......

May I respectfully suggest that you read a thread (any thread) from its Original Post up through its twists and turns to the present day? There is much to be learned here at TMM IF one is interested in actually reading the material and absorbing the wisdom expressed.

I see the math behind it. I see the calculations, charts, indicators, ramifications.....but to me the bottomline is the same.
Struck me funny, satire maybe?

"Satire is a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule. It intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies and foibles. A writer in a satire uses fictional characters, which stand for real people, to expose and condemn their corruption."

Similar to quoting/publishing the air pollution index.."Wear your masks today people to filter out the heavier debris, won't stop the nano particulates, but it'll  make you feel like you're doing something"

No one is attempting to fix/repair/improve any of these disastrous indicators, just inventing new and more sophisticated ways to show, explain how f***** up it's all becoming.
I threw my own spin on it, as all the extensive charts, graphs, equations in the world won't change a damn thing.
Even the Titanic had a band.
~S