\n| \n Apparently the markets are all in an uproar over the prospect that
\n inflation is about to rear its ugly head. All we can say is, it’s about
\n time. It seems clear to the Dowbrigade, from an intuitive layman’s point
\n of view, that despite the OMB’s repeated claims to the contrary,
\n the cost of living, in all senses of the word "cost" has been climbing
\n steadily for some time now. We have long suspected that the "official" US inflation
\n rate of 1.9% is more fairy tale than fact.<\/p>\n It also seems clear that the main culprit or component in the current
\n round of "invisible" inflation is the price of petroleum. Even
\n economic half-wits like the Dowbrigade understand that the
\n motor which drives the US economy runs on petroleum. Every product in
\n the entire economy that is not delivered digitally is driven to its destination
\n by gas-guzzling internal combustion engines. A component of every
\n product’s price is "transportation", and that takes oil.<\/p>\n In addition whole industries, from plastics to drugs to chemicals to
\n fertilizers are derived directly from petrochemicals. It has recently
\n been straining our credibility to accept that skyrocketing oil prices
\n have NOT been reflected in the consumer price index. Less than 6 years
\n ago, in the summer of 1998, the price of a barrel of oil was scraping
\n $10! On 9\/11\/01 oil was $21 a barrel, and as recently as a year ago it
\n was at $25. Now it is rapidly approaching $40. Call us a simpleton, but
\n we are unable to understand how a 400% increase in 6 years in such a
\n vital segment of the economy could NOT set off significant inflation,
\n without some serious smoke and mirrors.<\/p>\n Every sector of the economy is being affected by the current run up
\n in oil, and the only one which can count it as a positive is – the OIL
\n INDUSTRY. Without any need to modernize or get more efficient, and working
\n at the same percentage profit margin as always, their earnings and profits
\n should have QUADRUPLED in the past few years. Nice work if you can get
\n it,<\/p>\n Of course, the fact that the current administration is more steeped
\n in oil than the fried dough at the state fair is merely a fortuitous
\n coincidence. The Texas cartel, Bush and his buddies, obviously had nothing
\n to do with this monumental scam. Now, if they can just keep cooking
\n the country’s books for another 6 months, until after the election, they
\n can rest easy for at least several more generations. By which time
\n they will probably have invested some small but sufficient percentage
\n of their windfall in electric cars, or hydrogen fuel cells, or centrally
\n distributed
\n alternative
\n energy sources, to dominate power generation till the end of time. Ain’t
\n free enterprise great?<\/p>\n from the New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Apparently the markets are all in an uproar over the prospect that inflation is about to rear its ugly head. All we can say is, it’s about time. It seems clear to the Dowbrigade, from an intuitive layman’s point of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1443],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-esl-links"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |