Shadow Stats and real inflation numbers

New Year's day...eh...a somewhat bland holiday wherein I expect many are nursing hangovers at home and abroad, watch it lass, that is a bad place to have frost bite.

I find Shadowstats a great counterpoint to the "official" inflation numbers, .Gov has every reason to underreport actual inflation whilst proclaiming the recession as being "over", which is not quite the case to be sure, if anything we are seeing demographic specific effects of inflation. 

"Demographic inflation"?

Think of it this way, with the offical inflationary stats excluding food and fuel and the cost of increased laws and regulations, inflation hits some demographics of the economy much harder than others. 

A small business owner who now has to pay a slew of additional costs for emission controls, increased minimum wage taxes in the form of FICA and SS and Medicare, is hit much harder than say a Doctor's office who does not face the effects of that particular brand of .Gov inspired inflation.

Hmm a RedDawn remake?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWnKEOJw-Ok&NR=1&feature=fvwp

A nice collage of the original film, a remake?

Not sure about the quality that a remake may possess:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oIRF4cYQ8Y

Well not surprising, a Red Dawn Remake merely shows the lack of creativity in Hollyweird...that said, media that focuses people on the Cruddy life is Always a good thing, life is not   all Pan and Roses and Butterflies.

BTW..always drove me nutz, the Original Red Dawn featured Pat Swayze and Scott Thomas discussing "no  radio" when in fact the radio in Swayze's pickup would have worked just fine..

Post Christmas...get yourself into gear..efficiently

Christmas day has arrived, they always do, on the 25th of every December.

Plenty of gifts, food, comraderie etc and so forth, perhaps even lending a hand in doing dishes or taking out the torn remnants of wrapping paper..

Enough of that, now that Christmas has passed, it is time to regift oneself from the ghosts of Christmas, Birthdays and splurges past.

The average purchaser of electronics, be they Play Stations or Laptops or even a PDA uses maybe 10% of the capacities of those devices, typically what happens is the gadget is used for one, or maybe two things, everything else is just not bothered with, at the Last Cause that is unacceptable.

We are all about increasing capacity by using what we already own, for example:

-Old Gateway laptop, 1 Ghz processor, DVD player has morphed into a 15 inch media center that can watch sports events or shows online for little to no cost in preperation for dropping Satellite Service once the cheapy intro rate expires.

-Old Palm PDA the M500 series, found a kit online for less than 40 dollars that allows it to transform into a GPS unit.

-Bread Machine, no new tricks with that, merely a schedule and Jankesque committment to a schedule, fresh bread is quite a treat, the capacity is already there, why not use it twice a week to create preservative free, tastee bread?

-Found an old Fax for Computer program that should increase capacity if I need to send a fax.

-Reformatted some old 1 gb thumb drives and installed DSL linux

-Went through the book library and found some old titles that I have not read in years, as the saying goes "If you wish to  learn something new, read a book you already have read".

-Open Office installed on the media center Gateway to create spreadsheets for the Alpha Strategy purchases that need to be made, as well as synching the laptop with the old palm pilot for penny by penny budgeting purposes.

-Cheapy digital camera that can record film, plan on going through self defense techniques with a blade in order to see where improvement can be made, most cellphones already have digital cameras in them, it does make one wonder if the camera is still good even if the service is dropped.

-Blew the dust off of old workout equipment, if 2010 is as bad as I think it can be, it will be a great time to get back into top shape, from the old Nordic Tracks to some dumbells, that equipment still works just fine and it is a positive outlet for frustrating times.

And it beats watching Oprah and wallowing in self pity.

-Langauge Course, these are  real gem, picked them up for 5 dollars on sale at Office Max, 51 langauges, coupled with "The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Foreign Languages Fast" and by Spring basal competence in 5 different languages can be mastered rather easily.

A few examples of recycling older tech and items and making them useful again, if one has ever shopped at a thrift store and found similar items keep in mind the item is not useless, the former owner just was not creative enough to find a new use for them. 

Have a Merry Christmas, save your money, be cautious, but decisive when acting. 

 

Khazad! Khazad! Christmas is Upon You!!

That time of year is here...again...and the ads are bombarding the buying public...again..Christmas must be some diabolical plot by marketers to influence feelings and drive the Consumer into debt or they are..less than caring..

From "laptop for $199" to the lastest greatest digital gadegtry, "you" will buy something..."you" know it, surrender, pull out the Credit Card...do it! 

Insert Sam Kinnison voice over.

Christmas in and of itself is not particularly Scriptural, in fact a better case could be made for Consumation over Immaculate Conception, however it is a golden chance to reconnect with family and loved ones and just enjoy some good company and have a nice meal and exchange gifts preferrably that one created themselves, that is how Christmas began and perhaps should return to being.

And times are hard, if the cooking is done oneself it reduces costs, unless of course one's time is extremely valuable, and of course cook a bit more so there are leftovers that can be given out as take home dishes for those less fortunate guests who are going through it.

It should be pointed out that the best bargains are often found in the returned items section of the local store, and items that are over purchased at the local market will be marked down in early January, a good time to stock up on wrapping paper and perhaps food items.

Unemployment to persist at high levels

Sadly, mankind never learns the big lessons, Unemployment will remain high for years.

Hundreds of billions in "stimulus" monies won't change that TARP has merely consolidated banking power at taxpayer's expense and made the Federal Government partial owners of the new conglomerates.

So while people lose their jobs, and inflation (actual inflation not the lies the .Gov is peddling this week) rises robbing money from rich and poor alike, now there will be even less employment available moving forward under the twisted Keynsian Vision that is en vogue in Babylon on the Potamic.

With a warehousing strategy in place, the loss of a job can be dealt with, at least somewhat, the problem is the 90's and 2000's housing boom created millions of mortgage holders, but far fewer actual homeowners, a lost job can see an eviction from one's home making the warehouse a burden, however that is one of the risks in America on the Decline, there is no longer Certainty only Doubt and loss moving forwards.

A one time favorite Author of mine, Boston T Party mentioned in his great "Surviving Doomsday" that Americans really should live with the thought that if their income were cot in half, it would have no effect on their day to day lives.

What a great concept, along with the rebirth of the Nuclear Family, two ideas who would allow Americans in particular to get back on their feet as a whole without living in one's car for an extended period of time.

W

Supplement table fare, a good strategy

"...The National Sporting Goods Association forecasts that spending on hunting and firearms will rise $350 million this year, even as spending declines for nearly every other sport the group monitors.

For hunters, deer meat isn't free -- there's overhead, including a deer hunting license, ammunition, gas for the car -- but it's cheap.

"You've got your loin steaks and your hindquarter steaks," Weaver said, "and the rest ground up into sausage -- comes to about 70 cents a pound."

http://www.indystar.com/article/20091019/LOCAL/910190348/In+trying+times++hunters+go+after+deer+to+put+food+on+the+table

The writer does a good job of reminding the reader that hunting "gear" often times outstrips the savings in venison going on the table.

I also would think that if savings were  really what were being sought, the Huntsmen would go out in groups and dilute the costs among several people, gas, lunch, even baits, those costs add up.

And such supplemental meat should also include smaller game animals such as Rabbits and Squirrels and Ducks (though  Ducks tend to be a "rich man's game due to the high costs involved, not always but once the dogs and the blinds and the time are  added in, as well as the custom perrazi's, it would take a lifetime of hunting to recoup  the cash layouts.

Some Venison Sausage with Rich along with some homebrewed wine and homemade bread sounds like  a great meal indeed.

Dollar begins free fall

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/dollar_loses_reserve_status_to_yen_hFyfwvpBW1YYLykSJwTTEL;jsessionid=65E301CF47ED50D15170F8D6530791C5

"After printing up trillions of new dollars and new bonds to stimulate the US economy, the Federal Reserve chief is now boxed into a corner battling two separate monsters that could devour the economy -- ravenous inflation on one hand, and a perilous recession on the other.

"He's in a crisis worse than the meltdown ever was," said Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital. "I fear that he could be the Fed chairman who brought down the whole thing."

Well, who couldn't see this one coming? 

I see there are two trends emerging, A) Denial, the DC spendthrifts simply act as if this is not a fact of life for their budgeting purposes, they will not stop spending, they will not stop issuing debt and they will continue to print money with no inherent value. 

B) The statistics for inflation will be skewed and unreliable, quite simply they will lie about the effect that inflation will have on everyday life in America.

What this means in real world terms, if one stockpiles is imported goods are going to go upwards in price, everything from plastic storage bowls to Levi's will cost more and soon, perhaps as soon as this Spring, maybe sooner.

It also means that internally produced commodities such as Sugar and Grains will rise in price as the producers can now make more money selling internationally than domestically. 

I'd recommend inventory what items you purchase the most that are produced internationally and make a decision on what you would invest in and use the most and make a decision to purchase, or do without or substitute...because they are only going to rise in price as the dollar slides in purchasing power.