Author: DOuG pRATt

Core Inflation

PPI.GIF

Wholesale prices surge

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
Tue Dec 19, 9:15 AM ET

WASHINGTON – Inflation at the wholesale level surged by the largest amount in more than three decades in November, reflecting higher prices for gasoline and a host of other items.

The Producer Price Index, which measures inflation pressures before they reach the consumer, was up 2 percent last month, the biggest advance since a similar increase in November 1974, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

Economists had been expecting a rebound in wholesale prices following two months of big declines. However, the 2 percent jump was four times bigger than the 0.5 percent increase they had forecast. Even excluding volatile energy and food prices, core inflation posted a 1.3 percent advance, the biggest jump in 26 years.

Wholesale prices have taken a huge jump, obviously due to oil and gas. I think it’s hilarious how the “core rate of inflation” doesn’t include energy and food. Thanks to cheap Chinese labor you can buy a DVD player for $30, but so what, if gas is over $3/gallon, with all of the money going to the biggest, most profitable corporations on Earth? I hate comparisons with gas prices in Europe, because the high gas taxes over there pay for projects that benefit society as a whole.

There’s no point in the Fed trying to adjust interest rates upwards, because all that will do is collapse whatever parts of the economy are still working. This is what happened in the 1970’s, and it resulted in the so-called stagflation, where high unemployment and high inflation defied the “law” of supply-and-demand.

One big difference between the 70’s and now is that the surge in demand for energy and cars, etc., isn’t from Baby Boomers coming of age, but from China. It would have helped if we hadn’t destabilized the Mideast by invading Iraq. Oops!

Dead-on Colbert

Well this sure is a coincidence, given my post of only a few hours ago about Bodyworld 2! You can forget all of the happy talk on that radio show I recorded.

Leave it to Stephen Colbert to force my hand about the controversy surrounding Bodyworld 2. Watch the video clip, then click here. If that link doesn’t work for you, try this one. Here it is, folks! The dark, ugly side of the business of turning human corpses into plastic museum pieces.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/Colbert/Colbert12-18-06.flv 400 300]
BTW, I know I haven’t posted much of Colbert lately. Partly because I was genuinely concerned about Comedy Central being on the warpath against its material being posted, but mostly because I haven’t been keeping up. Blogger fatigue, I guess!

The Price is Right

rca color tv

My friend Samjay recently purchased a 50-inch Panasonic plasma HDTV for $2500. There were rebates and side deals for installation, but the bottom line is, that’s how much he spent.

And that got me thinking. Is that a lot of money for a TV set? Well, sure it is, but how does it compare to the first color TV my family owned? My father bought an RCA color console in 1967. The first program I ever watched on it? Don’t ask! Okay, I’ll tell you. It was My Mother the Car.

Dad says to the best of his recollection the set cost $450. Running that amount through a few online inflation calculators, in today’s dollars that comes out to $2714. So it would seem that Sam’s purchase isn’t all that extravagant.

The Living Dead

gunter vonhagen

A while ago (click here), I briefly described my reaction to Gunther von Hagens’ Bodyworlds 2 exhibit at the Museum of Science in Boston. For me it was, pardon the expression, overkill; but apparently it’s been a very successful show for the MOS.

Tonight, WBZ radio talk show host (and brain tumor survivor) Paul Sullivan had a representative from the MOS pitching Bodyworlds 2, presumably for the upcoming Christmas vacation week. Rather than comment further, if you have any interest the audio player has 20 minutes of the show.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/PaulSullivan.mp3]

HELPing In The Studios

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/DEC06/HELP.flv 400 300]

Previously I offered studio take 6 of the Beatles’ “I Feel Fine.” The audio player has takes 1 through 5 of “HELP!” The vocals weren’t introduced until take 9.

John considered this song to be a personal breakthrough, because it was a sincere cry for help. For all of the Beatles trivia I’ve picked up over the years, I’ve never seen confirmation of my suspicion that the song title HELP! was inspired by a magazine cover, as discussed here.

I’d like to offer a scan of the picture sleeve to the original single, as well as the single itself, but it’s in the possession of Mr. Dennis F. Rogers; so, instead, you can watch the Beatles performing the song on TV. This is from the last Ed Sullivan show ever broadcast in black and white. It’s fitting, I suppose, as this is, I imagine, the very last appearance of the Beatles in their Fab Four incarnation. “Rubber Soul” was released in December, and it was obvious to everybody that the times, they were a changin’.

One other piece of trivia I can pass along is that the man sitting at the control console on Tuesday, April 13, 1965, engineering the recording of HELP! was Norman Smith. He later had a hit single of his own, on the charts in late 1972. Some may consider it silly fluff, but I’ve always loved this song. Perhaps you remember it?