Why you should fear inflation: The CPI understates the true nature of inflation. BLS only allocates less than 2 percent to tuition in CPI. Missing big on the biggest expense in housing.
Some people believe that inflation is simply a part of the normal economy like seeing the sunrise every day. Over time prices will rise on everything, or so the argument goes. I’m not sure if most dig into the question any deeper and question the nature of prices rising. If we look at inflation over […]
Hand-to-mouth nation: Roughly 40 percent of US households living paycheck to paycheck but two thirds of these families are not considered poor by economic definitions.
People have a hard time believing that in the wealthiest country in the world, we have close to half of our population living hand-to-mouth bouncing from one paycheck to another. A recent paper released by the Brookings Institution’s BPEA conference shows that people living hand-to-mouth are largely those with “middle class†incomes. Of course middle […]
Personal income faces first year-over-year drop since recession ended: As incomes collapse, spending via consumer credit begins to increase.
There is little doubt that our economy runs on access to debt. Not a tiny bit of debt. But Himalayan mountains of debt. The banking crisis was pitched to the public as one of liquidity but in reality, it was one of solvency. The difference? One is a temporary inability to repay debts while the […]
The shackles of consumer credit in a low rate environment – Banks would rather leverage low rates from the Fed than lend money to cash strapped American households. 15 percent average rate on credit cards and typical savings account rate near 0 percent.
In a world where debt equals the ability to purchase large items, access to debt is king. For this reason banks are the new modern day oligarchy since they have a nearly unlimited line of credit with the Federal Reserve. The public during the credit bubble days had access to nearly unlimited debt via mortgages, […]