Can we talk about the other "I" word ..........

[Stinky The Clown]

Inflation.

Much as Greenspan was pretty far from the average philosophical position of, say, DU types, might we miss him? Say what you will, he was pretty good at keeping inflation in check.

I have this awful feeling that we may even see a return to the 1970's, when home mortgages, among other things, carried interest rates in the high teens to over 20% for a short time. Anyone else remeber that time? When a 17% mortgage was a bargain? Gas prices started that flap and here we are again .... gas going up and everything poised to follow.

There is simply no good news these days ..... none.

If inflation rears its ugly head, how will the junta spin it? Can they spin it? How will we get blamed for it?

I really got a baaaaaad feeling ..........

[Taverner]

1. Stagflation

I can feel it already :scared:

[SoFlaJet]

2. I rode by the gas station

this morning and it was $2.99-why isn't THAT boeing like one of the top issues being discussed.That tax on the mostly (affected by) middle class would resonate more to the average MC American IMO.I remember bitching about gas prices going up from $1.17 to $1.35 right after the 2000 stolen election ONE THIRTY FIVE!!!!

[rkc3]

6. Dick Cheney once commented --

"High energy prices are a sign of a failed presidency."

He said during that period when gasoline made it's move through $1.25/gallon near the 2000 election cycle.

To me it has become a reminder of how incompetent this administration is - a bit of foreshadowing on his part.

[SoFlaJet]

7. you know what's weird

a few minutes after I posted this Randi pretty much echoed the same sentiments about the gas prices being a mostly middle class tax-Hey RR you here?

[rkc3]

9. If she's here, she picked a good day - there's a lot of pissed of

DUers here to draw from. I might be at the top of the list.

[acmejack]

11. We need to find clips of all those smart ass comments of his and

splice them together and make an ad out of them. Contrast the crap they talked before getting in office with the reality of their accomplishments. The results of five years of their maladministration speak quite eloquently for themselves...

[rkc3]

12. I think about the same thing when I see Rick Santorum's ads here

in Pittsburgh - he touts all he has done America and Pennsylvania and asks you to call his office and express your joy and admiration.

Makes me want to hurl.

[Stinky The Clown]

13. What're the Dems saying up there?

Are they running against him or still against each other?

[rkc3]

14. There is some concern that the indpendent candidate will disrupt

Casey's campaign - a good number of women don't like Casey because of his pro-life stance. The Dems don't appear to be saying too much either way though.

One good sign is that there are a number of third party ads running in Pittsburgh that slam Santorum for the scumbag he is. Running them this early makes me wonder if they'll have any impact on the race though.

[apple_ridge]

3. How about "incarceration"?

[Ecumenist]

4. Imprisonment?

Oh, inflation.... I got carried away for a second... Well, don't you know that if this bunch says the everything is marvelous, wonderful and perfect, that's the way things are, no matter what reality is.
Reality doen't figure into this picture. Besides, they've raped this country and the planet at large so much that inflation and economic strictures are not even a fleeting worry for them..

[Warpy]

5. My pop's money guy is now repeating what I told him

back in January about stubbornly high oil prices, escalating gold prices, and inflation being hidden by the Fed and other government agencies. The guy really thinks he's telling me something new, forgets where he got all this stuff.

If you've got a very bad feeling about this, you're not alone. A lot of very big bills are about to come due and Stupid isn't going to have a clue in the world what to do about any of them.

Plus, every quarter point increase by the Fed is eventually felt when people go looking for mortgages and refinancing. It's now a buyer's market and price declines are not that far off. Since housing represents where most families have both the bulk of their investments and the bulk of their debt, the potential for disaster is a great one.

As boomers retire and find out just how many have had their pensions stolen over the years and just how inadequate that 20 years of 401K contributions will be, expect to see another big bill come due, especially since social security is 40% below what it should be with COLAs thanks to Greenspan's meddling with the CPI market basket.

We're also close to a tipping point with offshoring and the importation of cheap labor choking off what's left of the consumer market.

The dollar continues to drop and US debt is looking less and less attractive to central banks all over the world. There will come a time when those bonds are going to go wanting, and that is when we'll see the true crisis.

We're about to live in a very interesting time and there's not a whole lot any of can do about it beyond trying to pay off debts and downsize to a more rational lifestyle.

[MadMaddie]

8. Many minorities have had to pay mortgage rates in the 17% and

20% range....even if they are making big dollars....No one is really talking about it though...

[Stinky The Clown]

10. I'd talk about it ... but I am unaware of that.