Yes, but the House of Representatives has passed a Christmas resolution, so that should ease Billie Bob's pain as he fills up his pickup truck with $3 a gallon gas.

From my viewpoint on Tralfamadore all cost are ultimately labor costs. To accumulate wealth you just have to exploit many people's labor. All else is kant.

When your currency is worthless, your domestic prices inflate because of the rising costs of imports. Of course oil and clothing prices are going to rise: they are all imported and it takes more US $ to buy the same amount of foreign currency.

The US economy is so out of whack right now, largely because the Federal government has been overspending and undertaxing for too long. Imports almost double exports, and the Fed lowering interest rates only serves to stimulate purchases of imports and devalue the currency even further. The recent rate cuts were a mistake, because they are trying to avoid a correction. The US cannot hum along with 3.9% growth forever when so many fundamentals are out of whack.

Price increases can be caused by demand exceeding supply. If the overall money supply remained the same there would have to be a corresponding decrease in the price of another product or commodity and the overall cost of living would remain the same. However, the Federal Reserve creates inflation by increasing the money supply and thus there are more dollars chasing the same good and services and prices tend to increase. This feature seems to be built into the capitalist system.

What inflation? I have excluded gasoline, food, housing, and medicine from my expenses. I now live under a bridge in an empty Chinese TV box, and ride around in a Mexican made shopping cart to experience core inflation.

Simply a symptom---a degraded currency backed by less and less assets of value (including human competence)--- of gross negligence, self interest, greed and incompetence by our elected leaders and, specifically, the President of the United States.

This isn't what you would call, unexpected.

I'm almost certain, the Fed was given the whisper numbers in advance, and that's why they didn't do 1/2 point.

Most of this is oil, and the really bad harvest for wheat this year, due to drought. Add to that corn's higher price, and that ratchets up meat and milk as well.

There is other news- our industries are actually selling more overseas, and the dollar had one of the best days in years.

50/50 we have a recession, and much better than even, we get a negative growth quarter. Probably Q1 2008, not Q4 2007.

Economics:101
Economists don't know shit!

Got Rope?

Oh ! Look ! A Fix for the mess we're in !

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7613

Basically : Bring back the Government issued Greenback to deleverage our Ponzi scheme economics !

As I just came back from Mars this is real news