Thank Obama for the Ever Increasing Prices

[momeNt]

Many people need the inflation so they aren't underwater on their mortgages, and their income to rise to all the debts they entered into before the crash. The federal reserve and us government wants to avoid a deflationary spiral at all costs.

So while YOU personally may not feel the affect of the printing presses in terms of higher salary, it did work on the items in your refrigerator, stock prices, gold, gas, etc. you certainly do feel some of those, and while your pocketbook is getting squeezed with higher grocery and gas bills and you feel the need to complain, it has helped those on the tail end of their 401k contributions and those about to enter retirement by inflating their pensions. Wall street also is back into the swing of things and banks aren't on the verge of failing.

So don't wish for lower prices, think of the 401k value lost, the home value lost, the pension value lost, stock value lost, that so many depend on.

Shame on you. Are you only able to see the increasing wealth gap because inflation and monetary stimulus just so happens to help those at the top first and may or may not help those at the bottom at all? Shame on you for your selfishness.

 

[ShawnD1]

Since when does Obama control the price of gasoline, beef or pork?

Edit: CNS "news" LAWLS.

You see, some people are retarded. They think gas prices are controlled by Obama and that's why he must be executed voted out. These same people think that being born in Kenya or having Kenyan blood or whatever automatically makes someone a terrorist. Those people probably would have demanded Einstein's head on a pike back in the day since he was German and we all know Germans are all nazis who were responsible for building the most destructive bomb the world has ever seen. Julius Oppenheimer - German. Albert Einstein - German. Enrico Fermi - Italian (nazi Germany's ally). Fucking Germans and Italians. We need to make sure they never run the white house.

People who are equally retarded but on the other side of the spectrum think Obama will magically solve all problems, pay for your rent, pay for your food, etc. The black guy on the Daily Show referred to it as the Magic Negro Theory. America thought Obama was a Magic Negro.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro (I love how this is a real wiki article)

Also, Obama is responsible for this year's unusually warm winter. Edmonton had almost no snow fall and the temperatures hover near freezing. I have never in my entire life seen it that warm. I also haven't seen a black man as president before this. Maybe the two are related. Black people are usually from warm countries, so it makes sense that the earth gets warmer when they control the world. If you voted for someone from Colombia, it would snow cocaine. Trust me.

 

[Ausm]

Yes...he inherited Bush's weather machine that was used to create Katrina...

Good thing President Obama didn't inherit Brownie...

 

[tydas]

Biff, Biff, Biff...sorry but these cute little articles can't stop the implosion of the GOP party this year...here's an idea for them...drop the tea party, drop the religious right, base your economic ideas on sound principles and not Fox news...

 

[michal1980]

Biff, Biff, Biff...sorry but these cute little articles can't stop the implosion of the GOP party this year...here's an idea for them...drop the tea party, drop the religious right, base your economic ideas on sound principles and not Fox news...

so just become socialist democrats and then everything will be a-ok?

 

[etrigan420]

so just become socialist democrats and then everything will be a-ok?

Yeah...that's *exactly* what he said...

 

[ShawnD1]

Yeah...that's *exactly* what he said...

It pretty much is. The left wing groups were the ones who wanted to
-regulate banks
-separate church and state
-base the economy on the strength of the middle class (like prosperous Germany) rather than the upper class (Rome just before the empire collapsed)

Both parties become more right wing with each passing year. Cenk Uygar (sp?) once compared to Obama to Reagan, and it looks like Reagan would actually be slightly more to the left than Obama. Not surprisingly, the country seems to become more unequal while this is going on. Poor get poorer, rich get richer, class warfare is nuclear, and America is more polarized than ever.

 

[Bowfinger]

so just become socialist democrats and then everything will be a-ok?

No, become an intelligent, reasoning conservative instead of a mindless parrot for the extremist fringe of the Republican party. Educate yourself. Think for yourself. Recognize that the world is not black and white and your simple-minded, "Obama evil" mindset only marginalizes you. There's nothing wrong with conservatives per se. There's everything wrong with partisan sheep like you whose ignorance is only bounded by the few RNC bumper stickers you've managed to retain.

 

[monovillage]

Yes, yes let's ignore the state the nation is in. His knee jerk supporters would be screaming bloody murder with an R in the White House under these circumstances. But we've got our smartest President ever, our fourth best by his own humble admission in charge and it's all good because he's a Democrat.

I do understand. Your teachers taught you that Dems are good and Repubs are bad. I'm sorry but brainwashing is never good. When you can turn a blind eye to the spiraling decline our nation is experiencing and call for the re-election of the man in the top slot expecting a different outcome I'm pretty much speechless.

Do you mean that republicans aren't really evil monsters that hate everyone?

 

[ShawnD1]

No, become an intelligent, reasoning conservative instead of a mindless parrot for the extremist fringe of the Republican party.

Unfortunately, a lot of conservative fiscal policies sound silly or cold in modern times because modern wealth and prosperity make people adopt left wing social policies. Look at healthcare as an example. In modern times, it's generally accepted that nobody should be refused emergency care at a hospital. If a guy has a broken leg with his bone sticking out, he should be treated. Nobody says "fuck that guy, let him bleed out." The law says he must be treated. Now that this random guy has been treated and his leg is patched up, which we all agree was the right thing to do, who should pay for it? He's some random guy with no money, so he can't pay it. Now it gets interesting. Left wing people will want a left wing fiscal policy to match the existing left wing social policy. The government is the one who said he must be treated, so maybe the government should pay for it through progressive taxation (rich people pay more than poor people). That's called socialized medicine and it's what every other first world country has. The right wing approach is different. The right wing people can either request the left wing law to be removed (be able to deny medical treatment) or it can allow the cost to be dumped on the hospital. There's no way the law will change to allow hospitals to just let people die in the waiting room, so that's out of the question. If I'm not mistaken, the current US laws dump the cost on the hospital, which is then dumped on the patients who do have money, which means the cost is dumped on all Americans equally (because all Americans eventually get sick). Equal costs to all Americans when Americans don't all have the same income means that the lower and middle classes are hit very hard by this conservative fiscal policy. Rich people have a valid reason for wanting to keep this system - socialized medicine means they get taxed up the ass. Average Americans should look at this like "why the hell don't we have socialized medicine? I want rich people to pay for my shit, just like they do in every other country"

A lot of fiscal things the GOP does are like that. Asking for people to pay their fair share is basically asking people to vote against themselves. You've probably seen the graphs showing the tax structure. Rich people pay an overwhelming majority of the taxes. A "flat tax" (paying your fair share) would mean an enormous tax hike for most Americans and an enormous tax cut for rich Americans.

Alright so since the fiscal policies of the GOP are almost universally bad for the average American, how can they possibly get votes? Cling to things other than money. Talk about abortions, gays, invading random countries, etc. Some people straight up don't care about money. Leave me to die with no health care and don't help me pay the $10,000 annual cost of day care and I'll still vote for you as long as you hate gays as much as I do :wub:

 

[Matt1970]

It was all Bush's fault when he was in office. Everyone was blaming him. Now all of a sudden it isn't the President's fault as soon as Obama is in office.

 

[spacejamz]

It was all Bush's fault when he was in office. Everyone was blaming him. Now all of a sudden it isn't the President's fault as soon as Obama is in office.

that is pretty much the gist of it...

that doesn't change the fact that these types of threads are just as asinine now as they were back then...

 

[IronWing]

Do you mean that republicans aren't really evil monsters that hate everyone?

No, they pretty much are.

I do blame Obama for continued inflation in the health care sector. He had a once in a lifetime opportunity to dump the current, failed private health insurance scheme and replace it with an efficient single payer system. Instead, he sold out (or abdicated leadership, your choice) and we are now implementing a system that further entrenches the private insurers while shielding the health care sector from cost controls.

 

[monovillage]

No, they pretty much are.

I do blame Obama for continued inflation in the health care sector. He had a once in a lifetime opportunity to dump the current, failed private health insurance scheme and replace it with an efficient single payer system. Instead, he sold out (or abdicated leadership, your choice) and we are now implementing a system that further entrenches the private insurers while shielding the health care sector from cost controls.

Damn, i was really hoping that republicans weren't evil monsters.

 

[ShawnD1]

It was all Bush's fault when he was in office. Everyone was blaming him. Now all of a sudden it isn't the President's fault as soon as Obama is in office.

That's because Bush was directly responsible for those things. He caused instability in the middle east by invading Iraq, then holy shit look at the oil prices go up JUST AS EVERYONE SAID THEY WOULD.

 

[ultimatebob]

Umm... I thought that inflation in general has been at record lows for the past five years.

Sure, the GOP could cherry pick increased food costs to make it look worse than it is, but the Dems could easily come back with the price of many electronic goods being cut in half over the same time period.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

"The price of unleaded gasoline never reached the 10-year high of $4.09 back in July 2008 under George W. Bush’s administration."

So compared to Bush's administration, there's been a nearly 20% decrease in the price of gas. Obama rules! Or, put another way, cherry-picking random data points in commonly volatile commodities is a terrible way to judge the effectiveness of ANYONE.

 

[LumbergTech]

Uh, there's a slight difference between the Iraq war and what happened in Libya.

We didn't fight a war in Libya. Libyans did. We didn't kill the dictator in Libya. Libyans did.

Obama deserves full credit for his handling of the Libyan rebellion, but to equate it with what happened in Iraq is silly. Iraq wasn't already in a state of civil war when we attacked.

Yep, attacking Iraq was idiotic..its true

 

[tydas]

so just become socialist democrats and then everything will be a-ok?

Listen, get off the crack son! There are no big meanies coming to take your guns and such...a bunch of people talking about ideas to make our society better (or from falling apart) are not the enemy...

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Causation is important and it's not found.

 

[First]

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/und...rcent-ground-beef-24-percent-bacon-22-percent

I'm sure this is just inflation right?

lol hit-and-run troll.

 

[Fern]

It was all Bush's fault when he was in office. Everyone was blaming him. Now all of a sudden it isn't the President's fault as soon as Obama is in office.

Yep, pretty much this.

Presidents always seem to get blame (and credit too) for the things that happen under their watch. Sometimes fairly, sometimes unfairly. We could argue about which is fair or unfair, but I see no point. Perception tends to be reality in these cases and we do have a problem IMO.

I do all the grocery/food shopping for my family and prices have risen even though there's supposed to be little or no inflation. And gas prices back up to $3.50 are no help. Our economy is still down, most small business owners making substantially less than pre-recession levels. Making less while prices are rising does not a happy camper make.

Here are some examples of Dec '01 to Dec '11 price increases from the govt's website:

Beef - 11% - 12%

Pork - 8.1%

Poultry - 2.9 - 12.4%

Milk - 9.2%

Cheese - 7.8%

Fish and seafood - 6.8%

Cereal and bakery - 6.1% (The Euro-style bread I buy has risen far more dramatically than this.)

Fresh Vegetables - varies according to the site. That's my experience as well.

Red Wine, which I always have with my dinner has just recently shot up about 13%.

http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/cpifoodandexpenditures/consumerpriceindex.htm

Yet the CPI is at 3.0%

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf

(Note all amounts above are before seasonal adj.)

I note in the last site they say energy for home heating fell. That's certainly not my case. I have a fuel furnace and it's price has increased substantially along with gasoline.

It's not a good picture. I suppose the question is how much blame for this will Obama bear come election day?

Fern

 

[fskimospy]

You are noticing disparities because you are cherry picking certain items. People don't tend to notice when prices don't move or drift slightly downward, they notice increases far more. The CPI is the best measure of inflation we have, and when other sources such as the MIT Billion Price Index were used to compare to CPI, they were found to track very closely together.

Long story short: The CPI does quite a good job at measuring inflation. We simply have had very little of it over the last few years, as predicted.

 

[Fern]

You are noticing disparities because you are cherry picking certain items. People don't tend to notice when prices don't move or drift slightly downward, they notice increases far more. The CPI is the best measure of inflation we have, and when other sources such as the MIT Billion Price Index were used to compare to CPI, they were found to track very closely together.

Long story short: The CPI does quite a good job at measuring inflation. We simply have had very little of it over the last few years, as predicted.

I don't see how you can possibly say I'm cherry picking items. (I'm assuming you're referring to my post.)

Those are national averages for food items, something we all purchase all the time. I'm aware that housing prices are lower, but I haven't bought one in almost 16 yrs, nor do I expect to buy a house anytime soon.

The real question is what good is the CPI? When should it be applied?

My contention is that it has almost no relevance to the majority of people because some of the items included. I've given housing as an example, and home heating costs as another. What about clothing? That's actually gone down. But is it relevant to me? No, I purchased less than $100 of new clothing in 2011.

So, people can stand there and point to the CPI all they want, but we know what kind of price increases we are actually facing.

Fern

 

[airdata]

That he got some fwd:fwd:fwd: emails today.

: D It's not a biff thread unless he's blaming something on Obama.

Price of bacon rising is concerning though... i just get the 3lb packs @ sams club for like $8-9.