On Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 12:42 AM, Mike Ballard <swillsqueal at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>> On which commodities have prices deflated in the USA, other than the prices
>> of various labour powers?
>>
>> SS recipients need to know, as their payments are tied to the CPI and they
>> won't be getting an increase again this year, zero, just like last year. I
>> can't think of one thing I purchase which has gone down in price from the
>> dreaded 'deflation' while I can think of plenty of things which have
>> increased in price.
>>
>> Just asking,
>> Mike B)
>>
>
> Alan Rudy wrote:
>
> I didn't say prices weren't going up. I did say two things: 1) that CPI
> was an outdated lame ass measure (or at least I said it in one of the
> comments I made on one of the many places I saw this meme spread - if not
> here, mea culpa) - but the fact that the CPI is a lame ass measure is not an
> excuse to tie all sorts of things not measured by the CPI to the CPI in an
> argument rooted in claims about the CPI... the point would have been better
> made had they just said that pretty much everything important to folks is
> going up but the gov't either doesn't measure, mismeasures or misunderstands
> the meaning of things (at least in part) because of the way they reify their
> own mismeasurements... and I said that 2) the Fed is NOT arguing that there
> is deflation, they are worried that there will be deflation and they say
> they are trying to forestall it.
>
> My point was that the piece was making a lousy ideological argument, not
> that the Fed and the government are doing a good or just job. And this is
> why I ended the comment with a rejection of the idea that the enemy of my
> enemy is my friend argument implicit in the willingness of folks who can't
> stand right wing anti-government libertarians spreading this right wing
> anti-government meme.
>
> Last, I guess some of a reasoned response to your question would depend on
> how deflated is operationalized... It seems pretty clear to me that auto
> company sales are being led by loss leaders, special pricing, etc., which
> they can weather because of how they've thrashed wages and benefits but
> which they probably can't withstand over the long haul... I'm no expert on
> this by any means but I'd imagine that while consumer goods deflation is a
> concern of the Feds their real concern is the deflation of capital goods and
> the multiplier effects that'd have in terms of investments, innovation, etc.
> and I think that this may be the case even if I don't agree with the Fed's
> position.
>
> *************
>
> Thanks Alan. I'm just fishing for answers. I'm no expert either. Seems
> the Keynesians are divided about whether QE is worthwhile; for example, Paul Krugman supports it as a dollar-devaluation tactic while Joseph Stiglitz worries that it will be counter-productive. Meanwhile, Krugman, Stiglitz, Dean Baker, and all the other Keynesian types agree that more stimulus spending would be preferable to QE, and more effective.
>
> A lower dollar sure doesn't help a bloke like me and I suspect this kind of cut will be a way to 'deal' with the baby boomer SS retirement hash which keeps being brought up.
>
> Like I said...just asking,
> Mike B)
>
> ***********************************************************************
> When classwide solidarity is a crime, the mask of democracy is removed to reveal the ugly face of capitalist dictatorship.
> http://wobblytimes.blogspot.com/
>
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-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com