http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local...ined_with_lower_wages_will_cause_tsunami.html Well, this is very reminescent of the Ford and Carter era, food prices went upwards rapidly along with gas shortages and wages remained stagnant. To me, this is also a kind of warning that maybe it is time to revive the Family Garden as they have in France..that would save a nice amount of money for other things..like rent..
not a lot to do about it. most of these things have inelastic demand in affluent countries. in crappy economies the masses get angry. david goldman has argued that asian affluence is what squeezed north africans out of the basic commodities our central planners, imo, by active policy and the combination of demographic factors will keep housing down. what this essentially means is that the economy will consist of two groups: those stuck with bad mortgages and those that are not. for example, (and actually my personal example) if you rent and the place you rent is nearly 400 dollars/month cheaper than it went for 4 years ago (nice place too. built in 2005), you end up about even. if, say, you bought the condo rather than rented it, you are are screwed. you have to find that $400 + / month elsewhere. almost nobody has that cushion because our economy demands that you have no savings to make up for stagnant wages with cheap credit. my god, im glad i dont have a mortgage. there is certainly a theme here of people being left behind
Spot on with the credit=poverty connection, it is my belief that some key terms have been purposely hijacked to obscure what the post Cold War economy "is". For example, "Wealth" one would think that meant "money invested".. Not so, it means items owned, no matter if effectively they are mortgaged via credit card payments, that plasma TV put on a Visa is effectively a claim against future earnings and incomes, but economists do not view them in that matter, that plasma TV is viewed as "positive economic activity". The Producer model has been abandoned for the above model and that is why when the Debt Bubble burst so many people were caught up in it. The only thing keeping the current economy from really nosediving has been the US Dollar..and that is being debased.
Good friends of mine own a taxi and shuttle service on the island. I just heard today that when gas hits $3.50, he's going to have to shut it all down and fold up shop.
GREAT!!! So this hi season, our beaches here will lose all of our imported hotties, only to be replaced with a bunch of Gravel Gerties from the midlands? Shoot me now....
