Thursday, December 25, 2014

This Is What Prices Looked Like in the 1950s...

...the decade in which Paul "I Fear Deflation' Krugman was born.


7 comments:

  1. I'd bet that 90% of the public still does not understand that inflation is a purposeful government policy, not a mysterious force of nature which the government does its best to fight.

    We should work on the "little" things first

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    1. Sure let's work on the little things. Money is created by the private fractional reserve banking system. The govt can only encourage or discourage this. So the inflation is created in the private sector when banks lend out demand deposits. If you use a credit card, take out a mortgage or car loan, you are helping to create inflation. Govt can't simply say "let's have 2% inflation this year" as you suggest.

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    2. Government backs the "private" inflationary system.

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    3. "Government backs the "private" inflationary system."

      Yup. Too bad it's not actually private. Especially since the president of the United States appoints the FED chairmen. Funny how some people refuse to see that, eh? Private my ass.

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  2. I wish mcdonalds would go back to a menu like this and improve their quality.

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  3. It must be stressed that these prices are for real farm products and not sawdust, veggie oil, and petroleum byproducts.

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  4. In 1950, employee compensation was 158.5 billion. Last quarter it was 9.238 trillion. That's growth rate of 6.6%/year. Inflation was 3.67%/year and population growth was 1.17% so after adjusting for inflation and population, compensation is 156% higher per person.

    Also worth pointing out that Krugman is worried about inflation today. What happened from 1950 to 2014 does not really matter. High inflation during the 70s doesn't preclude deflation today.

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