Thursday, August 14, 2008

No stagflation...Yippee?

From CNN Money:

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- With the price of practically everything jumping, you probably wouldn't mind getting a bigger paycheck.

But your employer isn't the only one who's unenthusiastic about that idea. Fed chief Ben Bernanke is counting on a weak labor market to keep employees from demanding wage hikes, which could in turn boost inflation. With unemployment rising and jobs moving overseas, you're probably not in the mood to push it anyway.

So the good news is that the Fed's probably right when it says that we're not headed for a replay of the stagflation of the 1970s, replete with its so-called wage-price spiral. Unfortunately, that means Americans are going to be feeling poorer - with no end in sight.

Ok, we should be happy to be avoiding stagflation, but which one of these is the lesser evil? Damn we need better choices. And here is the rest of it.

2 comments:

Diane J Standiford said...

We have a choice? RIGHT. My rent went up $150/month. My food bill is unbelievable, no, there is no inflation. Oh, no prob, my SSDI is going up $10/month.

brenda said...

I'm sure most of us are feeling the strain of inflation. Except for the ones who caused it, nothing new. Maybe we should all sent a copy of our bills to the White House. I doubt it would have any affect on them, but they would get the point, I think.