September 16, 2006

Times: US economy is in danger of “stagflation” as its severe housing market downturn undermines growth while inflation remains on the rise


Another effect of our "severe" housing downturn: Stagflation.

Man, that's an ugly word. Feels so Gerry Ford, so "WIN", doesn't it?

Well, when you have a fake five year boom fueled by massive debt and leverage, what'd you expect during the Greatest Unwinding of All Time? Tea and cookies?

THE US economy is in danger of “stagflation” as its severe housing market downturn undermines growth while inflation remains on the rise, one of America’s most senior bankers gave warning yesterday.

William Rhodes, chairman and chief executive of Citibank and senior vice-chairman of Citigroup, the US banking group, said that he was increasingly fearful of the threat posed to American prospects by the abrupt cooling of the US housing market.

Mr Rhodes, speaking in Singapore as a spokesman for the International Institute of Finance, the lobby group for the world’s leading private financial institutions, said that with US house prices already stagnating, he and colleagues expected worse to come.

13 comments:

Dogcrap Green said...

Kieth I'm writing this because I care. When I call you a moron please keep in mind I do believe there is hope for you. You just need to see the light.


COME INTO THE LIGHT

Anonymous said...

I have a lady friend, who has at least a 4 to 5 cup a day
S---bucks habit. At roughly $4 a pop, that adds up week to week, month to month!
Now she's having financial problems. She asked me to help..........by way of a loan! :/

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:11:53,

Your S...bucks should learn to adjust. Just offer to buy her coffee, if you have extra, but don't loan her any money, unless it's for (life) emergency.

Anonymous said...

"YES, WE ARE NOW IN CONSUMER RECESSION."

+++++++++++++++I think this isn't just a consumer recession--it's the beginning of a real recession. When you look at the way the government fudges its statistics (like the CPI and unemployment), I'd say America already has a 0 or negative GDP. The MSM just hasn't figured out what's going on.

"Hello Bernanke, the salary and wage has to at least double to compensate for the lost income due to real inflation. How do you propose to create the demand to make this happen?"

+++++++++Now this is a really good question. In the 1970s, as I understand it, wages rose to offset the effects of stagflation. But nowadays, our entire economy is built on keeping wages as low as possible, hence the use of foreign labor. So what's the answer? To me, it doesn't look like there is any. The American standard of living is heading down the tubes, as inflation eats up our pitiful salaries and the offshoring of production continues.

Anonymous said...

And I forgot to add "and the price of commodities--oil, metals, etc. continue to climb."

Anonymous said...

I just went to a Six Flags theme park and it would cost a family of four $235 just to enter the park, then add on a few $4 sodas, some $7 funnel cakes, $3-5 to play any of the games, a couple $30 t-shirts maybe, some $10 slices of pizza or $8 hot dogs, and bam....well over $500 just to bring a family of four to an amusememnt park for the day....yet, according to the government, we've been averaging 1-2% inflation over the last 10 years.

Stagflation? This is not even a question, we started experiencing stagflation in 2001 when wages stopped growing and inflation never slowed down at all, in fact it picked up. We are right smack dab in the middle of a stagflationary cycle right now.

It's pretty telling of our media that they are busy asking if we will experience stagflation when we've already been experiencing it for the last 5 years.

Anonymous said...

You stagflation guys will get a kick out of this website.

http://www.shadowstats.com/cgi-bin/sgs/

Anonymous said...

Forgot to say... Take a look at the Alternate Data Sources link at the top right of the page.

Anonymous said...

The Starbucks Lady needs to learn how to make her own coffee.

For about 6 dollars a pound, on sale, she can buy a pound of delicious, organic coffee.

When it's on sale, stock up and put in freezer.

Lord americans are dumber than dumb when it comes to finances.

That $6 pound of coffee will make at least a weeks worth of 4-5 cups a day.

If you go non-organic, the savings are even better.

So what'll it be? $6 for coffee a week or
$160 a week for 4 cups Starbucks/day.

If you loan this women $ you're as nuts as she is.

buy her a drip coffee pot, filters and a pound of coffee.

You know the saying: teach a man to fish...

Anonymous said...

We have been in hyper inflation for years now, next step, deflation.

I am TOTALLY looking forward to it. The system needs to be cleaned.

Spent quite a bit of time in Japan during their "horrible" deflationary period.

It was FINE.

Do not fear deflation. We NEED it. Inflation is the real nightmare.

Anonymous said...

A million dollar home that was 400 K 2 or 3 years ago is inflation.

Skyrocketing medical and college costs ARE inflation.

Now food is going up to boot.

We have gone thru inflation, deflation is the next logical step.

Anonymous said...

those used coffee grinds make seed planting soil, that by my account increases the seed production to seedlings and speeds growth by 100s of percents, especialy indoors, was able to get hundreds of orannge seedlings every year, and have at least one fruiter for winter now, wished id started earlier, id have three generations from seed

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