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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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 Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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| JustinC wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| tideout wrote: |
I think anyone dismissing this as just another economic cycle, just another up and down may not be seeing the bigger structural problems. I guess I've found a number of writers and bloggers (also not mainstream media) who are writing about the bigger issues to be pretty credible at this point.
I've been reading Charles Hugh Smith's Of Two Minds blog as well as The Automatic Earth.org blog
The "authorities" ie. NY Times, Greenspan, the IMF, the Troika etc.. seem either unable to see what's coming or unable to stop the downward slide with any of the usual tricks in the bag. |
You might like to read http://www.zerohedge.com/ as well, then.
Personally I'm not so inclined to see the end of the World as coming this century. It's never different this time, regardless of how strong a blogger's convictions are (or how much he wants to sell his books  ). I prefer reading http://www.bespokeinvest.com/ , http://www.econbrowser.com/ and http://seekingalpha.com/
I agree inflation is a lot higher than what we're being told, but a high rate is natural with hundreds of millions more people buying stuff. Unemployment is 8%+ in the US and 10% in Europe but only 4% in China and 3.7% here in Korea. The World is booming, just not for the working and middle classes in post-industrialized nations. This is not going to get better any time soon, as the number of nations we can exploit is rapidly decreasing.
Household debt here is the same as Canada's, as a percentage of income. Not exactly a huge burden, especially with full employment. Also Korea's national (government) debt is 32% of GDP and predicted to fall. That's better than any country in Western Europe or North America. Is the KRW weaker or the USD stronger? IMO people are buying dollars just in case another shoe drops, not because it definitely will. And, if it takes a weaker won to keep markets buying Korean products and the government in revenues (and me in a job) then who am I to argue? Yes, our spending power is going down but haven't NETs here been overpaid for years? I'm not saying they have but it's another perspective to consider. |
I've seen this claim about inflation made again and again, but I've yet to see anyone provide substantive proof. Do you have any? |
BUTTER. Bloody well butter is ridiculously expensive compared to a few years ago. So is milk and bread. They've all gone up 100% or more. I don't have exact figures as I've been living overseas since 2007 but they all seem more expensive now. Butter was about �1 when I was buying in the UK when I was in my desk job, now it's over �2. Here it's �4. I could get a decent loaf for under a quid then too. No way, now. Petrol was about 70p a litre then, now it's 125p a litre in the UK and nearly $4 a gallon in the US. |
I was speaking of the U.S. Inflation is definitely on the march in SK; the weak won is a big part of that.
Oil prices are up, and they have a bit of a ripple effect on prices, but they've been trending down recently. |
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JustinC
Joined: 10 Mar 2012
Location: We Are The World!
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| Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 6:00 pm Post subject: |
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| atwood wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| tideout wrote: |
I think anyone dismissing this as just another economic cycle, just another up and down may not be seeing the bigger structural problems. I guess I've found a number of writers and bloggers (also not mainstream media) who are writing about the bigger issues to be pretty credible at this point.
I've been reading Charles Hugh Smith's Of Two Minds blog as well as The Automatic Earth.org blog
The "authorities" ie. NY Times, Greenspan, the IMF, the Troika etc.. seem either unable to see what's coming or unable to stop the downward slide with any of the usual tricks in the bag. |
You might like to read http://www.zerohedge.com/ as well, then.
Personally I'm not so inclined to see the end of the World as coming this century. It's never different this time, regardless of how strong a blogger's convictions are (or how much he wants to sell his books ). I prefer reading http://www.bespokeinvest.com/ , http://www.econbrowser.com/ and http://seekingalpha.com/
I agree inflation is a lot higher than what we're being told, but a high rate is natural with hundreds of millions more people buying stuff. Unemployment is 8%+ in the US and 10% in Europe but only 4% in China and 3.7% here in Korea. The World is booming, just not for the working and middle classes in post-industrialized nations. This is not going to get better any time soon, as the number of nations we can exploit is rapidly decreasing.
Household debt here is the same as Canada's, as a percentage of income. Not exactly a huge burden, especially with full employment. Also Korea's national (government) debt is 32% of GDP and predicted to fall. That's better than any country in Western Europe or North America. Is the KRW weaker or the USD stronger? IMO people are buying dollars just in case another shoe drops, not because it definitely will. And, if it takes a weaker won to keep markets buying Korean products and the government in revenues (and me in a job) then who am I to argue? Yes, our spending power is going down but haven't NETs here been overpaid for years? I'm not saying they have but it's another perspective to consider. |
I've seen this claim about inflation made again and again, but I've yet to see anyone provide substantive proof. Do you have any? |
BUTTER. Bloody well butter is ridiculously expensive compared to a few years ago. So is milk and bread. They've all gone up 100% or more. I don't have exact figures as I've been living overseas since 2007 but they all seem more expensive now. Butter was about �1 when I was buying in the UK when I was in my desk job, now it's over �2. Here it's �4. I could get a decent loaf for under a quid then too. No way, now. Petrol was about 70p a litre then, now it's 125p a litre in the UK and nearly $4 a gallon in the US. |
I was speaking of the U.S. Inflation is definitely on the march in SK; the weak won is a big part of that.
Oil prices are up, and they have a bit of a ripple effect on prices, but they've been trending down recently. |
OK there's no inflation in the US  |
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sojusucks
Joined: 31 May 2008
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tideout
Joined: 12 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2012 3:54 pm Post subject: |
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US Urges Korea's greater exchange rate flexibility.
http://tinyurl.com/coebrr3
News story from the Korea Times this morning.
Flexibility. Somebody gets an "A" for diplomatic wording!  |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2012 5:26 pm Post subject: |
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| JustinC wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| tideout wrote: |
I think anyone dismissing this as just another economic cycle, just another up and down may not be seeing the bigger structural problems. I guess I've found a number of writers and bloggers (also not mainstream media) who are writing about the bigger issues to be pretty credible at this point.
I've been reading Charles Hugh Smith's Of Two Minds blog as well as The Automatic Earth.org blog
The "authorities" ie. NY Times, Greenspan, the IMF, the Troika etc.. seem either unable to see what's coming or unable to stop the downward slide with any of the usual tricks in the bag. |
You might like to read http://www.zerohedge.com/ as well, then.
Personally I'm not so inclined to see the end of the World as coming this century. It's never different this time, regardless of how strong a blogger's convictions are (or how much he wants to sell his books ). I prefer reading http://www.bespokeinvest.com/ , http://www.econbrowser.com/ and http://seekingalpha.com/
I agree inflation is a lot higher than what we're being told, but a high rate is natural with hundreds of millions more people buying stuff. Unemployment is 8%+ in the US and 10% in Europe but only 4% in China and 3.7% here in Korea. The World is booming, just not for the working and middle classes in post-industrialized nations. This is not going to get better any time soon, as the number of nations we can exploit is rapidly decreasing.
Household debt here is the same as Canada's, as a percentage of income. Not exactly a huge burden, especially with full employment. Also Korea's national (government) debt is 32% of GDP and predicted to fall. That's better than any country in Western Europe or North America. Is the KRW weaker or the USD stronger? IMO people are buying dollars just in case another shoe drops, not because it definitely will. And, if it takes a weaker won to keep markets buying Korean products and the government in revenues (and me in a job) then who am I to argue? Yes, our spending power is going down but haven't NETs here been overpaid for years? I'm not saying they have but it's another perspective to consider. |
I've seen this claim about inflation made again and again, but I've yet to see anyone provide substantive proof. Do you have any? |
BUTTER. Bloody well butter is ridiculously expensive compared to a few years ago. So is milk and bread. They've all gone up 100% or more. I don't have exact figures as I've been living overseas since 2007 but they all seem more expensive now. Butter was about �1 when I was buying in the UK when I was in my desk job, now it's over �2. Here it's �4. I could get a decent loaf for under a quid then too. No way, now. Petrol was about 70p a litre then, now it's 125p a litre in the UK and nearly $4 a gallon in the US. |
I was speaking of the U.S. Inflation is definitely on the march in SK; the weak won is a big part of that.
Oil prices are up, and they have a bit of a ripple effect on prices, but they've been trending down recently. |
OK there's no inflation in the US |
Of course there's inflation--2.5%. Which is much less than the OP on inflation implied. |
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wylies99
Joined: 13 May 2006
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2012 6:35 pm Post subject: |
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Hopefully the Greek crisis will be taken care of in a positive way.
Hopefully everyone knows about the exchange rate and how it impacts teachers who intend to pay down their student loans at home.
Hopefully sleazy recruiters aren't still claiming that the exchange rate is 1,000 won to $1. It hasn't been that high for years. |
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Swampfox10mm
Joined: 24 Mar 2011
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2012 8:52 pm Post subject: |
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| wylies99 wrote: |
Hopefully the Greek crisis will be taken care of in a positive way.
Hopefully everyone knows about the exchange rate and how it impacts teachers who intend to pay down their student loans at home.
Hopefully sleazy recruiters aren't still claiming that the exchange rate is 1,000 won to $1. It hasn't been that high for years. |
This also hurts people who send their students overseas to the US to study... something which some elements of Korean society are probably happy with. |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Sun May 27, 2012 5:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Swampfox10mm wrote: |
| wylies99 wrote: |
Hopefully the Greek crisis will be taken care of in a positive way.
Hopefully everyone knows about the exchange rate and how it impacts teachers who intend to pay down their student loans at home.
Hopefully sleazy recruiters aren't still claiming that the exchange rate is 1,000 won to $1. It hasn't been that high for years. |
This also hurts people who send their students overseas to the US to study... something which some elements of Korean society are probably happy with. |
Yes, the weaker won works to keep money from leaving Korea. Fewer people will travel overseas and fewer people will buy imported goods made more expensive by a weak won.
| Quote: |
| �The Korean authorities continue to intervene in the foreign exchange market, and the won remains weak compared to its pre-crisis levels,� the Department of the Treasury said in a semiannual report to Congress on international economic and exchange rate policies. |
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JustinC
Joined: 10 Mar 2012
Location: We Are The World!
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| Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 6:27 am Post subject: |
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| atwood wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| tideout wrote: |
I think anyone dismissing this as just another economic cycle, just another up and down may not be seeing the bigger structural problems. I guess I've found a number of writers and bloggers (also not mainstream media) who are writing about the bigger issues to be pretty credible at this point.
I've been reading Charles Hugh Smith's Of Two Minds blog as well as The Automatic Earth.org blog
The "authorities" ie. NY Times, Greenspan, the IMF, the Troika etc.. seem either unable to see what's coming or unable to stop the downward slide with any of the usual tricks in the bag. |
You might like to read http://www.zerohedge.com/ as well, then.
Personally I'm not so inclined to see the end of the World as coming this century. It's never different this time, regardless of how strong a blogger's convictions are (or how much he wants to sell his books ). I prefer reading http://www.bespokeinvest.com/ , http://www.econbrowser.com/ and http://seekingalpha.com/
I agree inflation is a lot higher than what we're being told, but a high rate is natural with hundreds of millions more people buying stuff. Unemployment is 8%+ in the US and 10% in Europe but only 4% in China and 3.7% here in Korea. The World is booming, just not for the working and middle classes in post-industrialized nations. This is not going to get better any time soon, as the number of nations we can exploit is rapidly decreasing.
Household debt here is the same as Canada's, as a percentage of income. Not exactly a huge burden, especially with full employment. Also Korea's national (government) debt is 32% of GDP and predicted to fall. That's better than any country in Western Europe or North America. Is the KRW weaker or the USD stronger? IMO people are buying dollars just in case another shoe drops, not because it definitely will. And, if it takes a weaker won to keep markets buying Korean products and the government in revenues (and me in a job) then who am I to argue? Yes, our spending power is going down but haven't NETs here been overpaid for years? I'm not saying they have but it's another perspective to consider. |
I've seen this claim about inflation made again and again, but I've yet to see anyone provide substantive proof. Do you have any? |
BUTTER. Bloody well butter is ridiculously expensive compared to a few years ago. So is milk and bread. They've all gone up 100% or more. I don't have exact figures as I've been living overseas since 2007 but they all seem more expensive now. Butter was about �1 when I was buying in the UK when I was in my desk job, now it's over �2. Here it's �4. I could get a decent loaf for under a quid then too. No way, now. Petrol was about 70p a litre then, now it's 125p a litre in the UK and nearly $4 a gallon in the US. |
I was speaking of the U.S. Inflation is definitely on the march in SK; the weak won is a big part of that.
Oil prices are up, and they have a bit of a ripple effect on prices, but they've been trending down recently. |
OK there's no inflation in the US |
Of course there's inflation--2.5%. Which is much less than the OP on inflation implied. |
2.5% yes, but this figure does not include food and energy which, as I'm sure you are aware, is disingenuous at best. If you use metrics that were in use in the 80s inflation is running at 10% and unemployment at 15%. Even IF you include foods the figures are skewed as the foods that are counted are not those most often bought.
The things that really impact the cost of living are given less weight than other items that we might buy less often. By the way I don't believe this is to hide the true cost of living but because of the price volatility of certain goods that would skew the CPI when measured month to month. Fresh foods are not counted as much as tinned and frozen, which in turn are not counted as much as dvd players and laptops. Electronics are generally deflationary and fresh food is (as of now) not. |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 3:19 pm Post subject: |
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| JustinC wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| tideout wrote: |
I think anyone dismissing this as just another economic cycle, just another up and down may not be seeing the bigger structural problems. I guess I've found a number of writers and bloggers (also not mainstream media) who are writing about the bigger issues to be pretty credible at this point.
I've been reading Charles Hugh Smith's Of Two Minds blog as well as The Automatic Earth.org blog
The "authorities" ie. NY Times, Greenspan, the IMF, the Troika etc.. seem either unable to see what's coming or unable to stop the downward slide with any of the usual tricks in the bag. |
You might like to read http://www.zerohedge.com/ as well, then.
Personally I'm not so inclined to see the end of the World as coming this century. It's never different this time, regardless of how strong a blogger's convictions are (or how much he wants to sell his books ). I prefer reading http://www.bespokeinvest.com/ , http://www.econbrowser.com/ and http://seekingalpha.com/
I agree inflation is a lot higher than what we're being told, but a high rate is natural with hundreds of millions more people buying stuff. Unemployment is 8%+ in the US and 10% in Europe but only 4% in China and 3.7% here in Korea. The World is booming, just not for the working and middle classes in post-industrialized nations. This is not going to get better any time soon, as the number of nations we can exploit is rapidly decreasing.
Household debt here is the same as Canada's, as a percentage of income. Not exactly a huge burden, especially with full employment. Also Korea's national (government) debt is 32% of GDP and predicted to fall. That's better than any country in Western Europe or North America. Is the KRW weaker or the USD stronger? IMO people are buying dollars just in case another shoe drops, not because it definitely will. And, if it takes a weaker won to keep markets buying Korean products and the government in revenues (and me in a job) then who am I to argue? Yes, our spending power is going down but haven't NETs here been overpaid for years? I'm not saying they have but it's another perspective to consider. |
I've seen this claim about inflation made again and again, but I've yet to see anyone provide substantive proof. Do you have any? |
BUTTER. Bloody well butter is ridiculously expensive compared to a few years ago. So is milk and bread. They've all gone up 100% or more. I don't have exact figures as I've been living overseas since 2007 but they all seem more expensive now. Butter was about �1 when I was buying in the UK when I was in my desk job, now it's over �2. Here it's �4. I could get a decent loaf for under a quid then too. No way, now. Petrol was about 70p a litre then, now it's 125p a litre in the UK and nearly $4 a gallon in the US. |
I was speaking of the U.S. Inflation is definitely on the march in SK; the weak won is a big part of that.
Oil prices are up, and they have a bit of a ripple effect on prices, but they've been trending down recently. |
OK there's no inflation in the US |
Of course there's inflation--2.5%. Which is much less than the OP on inflation implied. |
2.5% yes, but this figure does not include food and energy which, as I'm sure you are aware, is disingenuous at best. If you use metrics that were in use in the 80s inflation is running at 10% and unemployment at 15%. Even IF you include foods the figures are skewed as the foods that are counted are not those most often bought.
The things that really impact the cost of living are given less weight than other items that we might buy less often. By the way I don't believe this is to hide the true cost of living but because of the price volatility of certain goods that would skew the CPI when measured month to month. Fresh foods are not counted as much as tinned and frozen, which in turn are not counted as much as dvd players and laptops. Electronics are generally deflationary and fresh food is (as of now) not. |
Prove the 10% figure. Prove the CPI is skewed (to favor the government, which was claimed above.)
Are you in the U.S.? If not, how do you know about fresh food prices?
Energy prices are going down: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/gas-prices-expected-to-fall-further-heading-into-summer/2012/05/28/gJQAjc9TxU_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines_Tue
A lot of people make your claims about the CPI but none of them are able to show the inflation they claim. |
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Swampfox10mm
Joined: 24 Mar 2011
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| Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 5:12 am Post subject: |
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1,189.
This sucks. Someone must know I'm about to take a vacation. |
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JustinC
Joined: 10 Mar 2012
Location: We Are The World!
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| Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 5:58 pm Post subject: |
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| atwood wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| tideout wrote: |
I think anyone dismissing this as just another economic cycle, just another up and down may not be seeing the bigger structural problems. I guess I've found a number of writers and bloggers (also not mainstream media) who are writing about the bigger issues to be pretty credible at this point.
I've been reading Charles Hugh Smith's Of Two Minds blog as well as The Automatic Earth.org blog
The "authorities" ie. NY Times, Greenspan, the IMF, the Troika etc.. seem either unable to see what's coming or unable to stop the downward slide with any of the usual tricks in the bag. |
You might like to read http://www.zerohedge.com/ as well, then.
Personally I'm not so inclined to see the end of the World as coming this century. It's never different this time, regardless of how strong a blogger's convictions are (or how much he wants to sell his books ). I prefer reading http://www.bespokeinvest.com/ , http://www.econbrowser.com/ and http://seekingalpha.com/
I agree inflation is a lot higher than what we're being told, but a high rate is natural with hundreds of millions more people buying stuff. Unemployment is 8%+ in the US and 10% in Europe but only 4% in China and 3.7% here in Korea. The World is booming, just not for the working and middle classes in post-industrialized nations. This is not going to get better any time soon, as the number of nations we can exploit is rapidly decreasing.
Household debt here is the same as Canada's, as a percentage of income. Not exactly a huge burden, especially with full employment. Also Korea's national (government) debt is 32% of GDP and predicted to fall. That's better than any country in Western Europe or North America. Is the KRW weaker or the USD stronger? IMO people are buying dollars just in case another shoe drops, not because it definitely will. And, if it takes a weaker won to keep markets buying Korean products and the government in revenues (and me in a job) then who am I to argue? Yes, our spending power is going down but haven't NETs here been overpaid for years? I'm not saying they have but it's another perspective to consider. |
I've seen this claim about inflation made again and again, but I've yet to see anyone provide substantive proof. Do you have any? |
BUTTER. Bloody well butter is ridiculously expensive compared to a few years ago. So is milk and bread. They've all gone up 100% or more. I don't have exact figures as I've been living overseas since 2007 but they all seem more expensive now. Butter was about �1 when I was buying in the UK when I was in my desk job, now it's over �2. Here it's �4. I could get a decent loaf for under a quid then too. No way, now. Petrol was about 70p a litre then, now it's 125p a litre in the UK and nearly $4 a gallon in the US. |
I was speaking of the U.S. Inflation is definitely on the march in SK; the weak won is a big part of that.
Oil prices are up, and they have a bit of a ripple effect on prices, but they've been trending down recently. |
OK there's no inflation in the US |
Of course there's inflation--2.5%. Which is much less than the OP on inflation implied. |
2.5% yes, but this figure does not include food and energy which, as I'm sure you are aware, is disingenuous at best. If you use metrics that were in use in the 80s inflation is running at 10% and unemployment at 15%. Even IF you include foods the figures are skewed as the foods that are counted are not those most often bought.
The things that really impact the cost of living are given less weight than other items that we might buy less often. By the way I don't believe this is to hide the true cost of living but because of the price volatility of certain goods that would skew the CPI when measured month to month. Fresh foods are not counted as much as tinned and frozen, which in turn are not counted as much as dvd players and laptops. Electronics are generally deflationary and fresh food is (as of now) not. |
Prove the 10% figure. Prove the CPI is skewed (to favor the government, which was claimed above.)
Are you in the U.S.? If not, how do you know about fresh food prices?
Energy prices are going down: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/gas-prices-expected-to-fall-further-heading-into-summer/2012/05/28/gJQAjc9TxU_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines_Tue
A lot of people make your claims about the CPI but none of them are able to show the inflation they claim. |
Really?? I said it was to favor the government? No, I did not. Far from it, in fact. This is not a partisan view, it is an economic view. These can be separate.
If I'm not in the US how can I know what's going on there? Hmm, I'll get back to you on that after I've done with reading online a bit more. </sarcasm>
As to my 'claims' about inflation I'll refer you to the American Farm Bureau Federation, you can read about their 'claims' of 13% food inflation at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-10/thanksgiving-meal-cost-jumps-13-.html or you could also read about the U.S. seeing worst food inflation in 17 years here - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24127314/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/t/us-seeing-worst-food-inflation-years/#.T8lu1NVDySo
The American Institute for Economic Research recently calculated inflation at 8%.
I think I've done your research for you. If you would like to prove inflation is only 2.5% and that CPI figures are calculated exactly as they were in the 80s then, please, go right ahead. |
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tideout
Joined: 12 Dec 2010
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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 4:22 pm Post subject: |
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| It seems to be leveling off for the time being. |
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tideout
Joined: 12 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 4:42 pm Post subject: |
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| dairyairy wrote: |
| It seems to be leveling off for the time being. |
Yeah, it seems like it was leveled out for a time period in the 1130-1140 range and it's got a new lower plateau of sorts.
Last year this time it had climbed in value but this does look like a very different year. |
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