Bring the Good Times Back!

On warm lazy summer days, one waxes nostalgic for the times when the blog used to be fun.

In Miami, Ron Shuffield, president of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors, predicted that a limited supply of land coupled with demand from baby boomers and foreigners would prolong the boom indefinitely.

"South Florida," he said, "is working off of a totally new economic model than any of us have ever experienced in the past."

Oh baby! Those were the good times. When you didn't have to work hard for a whine-fest-worthy quote. It's all doom and gloom these days.

Gotta grind harder during the Big-D, yo!

Any Fool Could See This!

People can't understand the difference between "inflation" or "deflation" because they keep focusing on the wrong things (like prices.)

Inflation in a fiat economy is the increase in credit. Deflation is default of past credit.

What do they have in common though?

Lack of purchasing power.

However, for entirely different reasons.

In, inflationary economies (US 1970's, India 2011, China 2011), you are losing purchasing power because your salary is not keeping track of the money printing machines (= prices.)

In deflationary economies (US today, Greece 2011, Spain 2011), you are losing purchasing power because your wages are collapsing relative to prices.

Yes, it can be coincidental. It's called "money flow". What's inflation for one economy is the deflation for the rest and vice-versa.

In the US, we are still very much (and shall continue to be) in the Big-D!

The Goldawn Glory (Minus the Gloworm Gleam)

We need to revisit the classics, bro.
It's not fun unless you do that, yo!
Link.

“If actions taken by the administration, the Congress, and the Federal Reserve are successful in restoring some measure of financial stability — and only if that is the case, in my view — there is a reasonable prospect that the current recession will end in 2009 and that 2010 will be a year of recovery,” Mr. Bernanke said.

Two QE's later, and the unemployment rate is larger than that of the quote (Feb 2009.)

How are those academic theories working out, professor?

That D-Word in Labor

MSNBC reports: Major grocer getting rid of self-checkout lanes.

Albertsons LLC, which operates 217 stores in seven Western and Southern states, will eliminate all self-checkout lanes in the 100 stores that have them and will replace them with standard or express lanes, a spokeswoman said.

"We just want the opportunity to talk to customers more," Albertsons spokeswoman Christine Wilcox said. "That's the driving motivation."

Wilcox said the replacement of automated checkout lanes with human-operated lanes likely would mean more hours available for employees to work.

Must call BULLSHIT on the "want to talk to customers more". Nobody does. Not even the customers!

Labor is cheaper than the machines. That's all there is to it.

Sounds like a depression to me!

SNAP

44,647,861 on food stamps. (Source.)

Sorry, it's not called food stamps any more. It's the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

You can get US population monthly estimates here. 2011 data was interpolated.


That's 14.3%. One in seven!!!

Nothing to see here folks, move along. It's not a depression.

SNAP!!!