Sunday, October 21, 2012

From Hero to Zero


Click to enlarge.

These jobs will never come back.

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

17 comments:

TJandTheBear said...

Naw, the home 3d printer will make everyone a manufacturer. Oh, and since they won't have real jobs and will need a garden to eat, it'll make everyone a farmer, too. Oh, and since they can't grow everything they need, they'll be slowly selling off their worldly belongings on Ebay, thus making them all retailers, too.

See! 0% employment here we come!!!

p.s.: Looks like Obamacare is causing full-timer's to be replaced by multiple part-timer's, thus also bringing down the UE rate.

Stagflationary Mark said...

TJandTheBear,

So what you are saying is that the new economy will make heroes of us all! Fantastic, lol. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com/2012/10/21/the-obamafed-misery-indices-gasoline-and-food-have-grown-faster-than-gold-since-december-2008/

More on the "flawed" CPI.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Anonymous,

I'd say the chart within the link is flawed since it has cherry picked things that have risen faster than the overall CPI (mostly food items).

I'm not suggesting there isn't pain and misery for the poor if food costs rise faster than their wages. I am suggesting that food doesn't make up a large part of my overall annual budget though, nor does it for the *average* American household.

I spend a grand total of about $2,000 per year on food. I could tell you to the penny if you like, since I've been tracking my expenses for more than a decade.

I'm seeing inflation comparable to what the government reports and so is The Billion Prices Project at MIT.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Bonus Thought

Who is paying $13 for a 10-lb bag of potatoes?

It sure as heck isn't me. Where did the data in the table actually come from?

Anonymous said...

While there is an element of cherry picking, it does focus on the non-"transitory" aspects of our daily lives. I'll bet Bennie B. doesn't spend much on food either--probably chows down at all the banquets and other very important events he speaks at :).
Lucky devil!!

Anonymous said...

http://foodcoop.com/go.php?id=90

Stagflationary Mark said...

Anonymous,

I'm still stuck on the potatoes. Perhaps Bernanke's the one paying $26 for a 20 pound bag! ;)

In all seriousness, I'm not seeing anywhere near the food inflation that's implied in that cherry picked food table (at least not yet).

This does not mean that I am bracing for tame food prices in the distant future though. I am not that optimistic. Go figure.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Anoymous,

TheSafeway deals for October 17 – October 23

Safeway Farm Russet potatoes 10 lb – $1.99 each

Stagflationary Mark said...

Lack of sleep, a head cold, and NyQuil are seemingly affecting my typing.

I'm thinking that maybe I should get some rest. I know! Crazy theory! ;)

Anonymous said...

Maybe potatoes aren't that high everywhere--of course potatoes were the means of survival for many during the 1930s depression.

The chart shows the increase from the deflationary months of late 2008 to now. We can argue about prices but it does show that Dr. Ben meant what he said about deflation in his famous chopper talk--"Deflation, making sure it doesn't happen here."

I guess he deserves ourt utmost gratitude!!

Get well soon!!!

mab said...

I'd say the chart within the link is flawed since it has cherry picked things that have risen faster than the overall CPI (mostly food items).

Stag,

Everyones situation is unique. That said, I could make a strong argument that the CPI has overstated inflation since 2007 or 2008.

Housing ownership costs are the biggest part of many family budgets.

If one factors in the monthly savings people are realizing due to drastically lower mortgage interest rates, declining real estate taxes in places like FL and the 20% to 60% drop in nominal housing prices it's hard for me to believe that CPI is understating inflation.

The Fed has been a miserable failure for the majority. The Fed let Wall St. charge people double for an effing house so that fiancial criminals could make a killing! The word treason isn't too strong - sadly it's fitting.

And where is/was the "free" press?

Anonymous said...

And where is/was the "free" press?<

Oh, do you mean Access Hollywood?

Troy said...

back to the chart, Krugman today is saying on his blog the yuan isn't that big a deal any more.

http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/top/dst/current/deficit.html

says otherwise.

AFAICT, it's not the trade, it's the deferred trade embedded in that deficit that is going to kill us.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Anonymous,

Great Famine (Ireland)

During the famine approximately 1 million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island's population to fall by between 20% and 25%. The proximate cause of famine was a potato disease commonly known as potato blight.

Let's hope we don't go back to that.

Stagflationary Mark said...

mab,

Everyones situation is unique.

Indeed. I would not claim that inflation is low for a struggling college student on a Ramen diet earning minimum wage who also happens to have health issues and a long single-occupancy commute to work and school. Ouch!

That said, I could make a strong argument that the CPI has overstated inflation since 2007 or 2008.

As could I. The unthinkable happened this year. The government actually lowered my property taxes by 9%.

Had housing prices continued to rise exponentially and my property taxes with them, I would have eventually been forced out of my house like many others before me. So as much as I would like to see the "value" of my home increase, I do have my limits.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Troy,

I have always believed that if "deficits" and "matter" are found within the same sentence, then the word "do" should be directly between them.