Cog wrote:Or it could be that Zerohedge is doing their usual "We are all doomed" reporting gig. How has that worked out for them?
All you need is a little common sense to debunk the crazy idea that inflation has been 8% on average for decades. If that were the case, prices would roughly double every 9 years.
My house in central KY in a small city cost my dad $20,000 in 1962. The tax assessment is currently $170,000, and there have been some improvements over the years.
So that's about 8x in 55 years (given the impact of improvements like the added sun-room).
At 4% inflation, that's 3 doublings in 54 years, or a total of 8x which gets us to $160,000.
So 4% is close. There's nothing remarkable about my state or community, so I'm sure this is in the ballpark experience of the US average -- just like the MSM reported figures.
Considering this covered the inflationary 60's, 70's, and early 80's, 4% on average doesn't seem "scary" at all.
A cheap car in 1970 was about $3000. A cheap car in 2017 is in the lower $20's. Using $24,000 would be three doublings, to keep the math simple. So for cars you have a rate of about 6%, which given all the safety and comfort and quality improvements isn't dramatic.
For the house 8% for the 55 year period would give a little over 6 doublings. That would be $640,000 + today. Not even remotely in the ballpark of reality.
So again, unless you want to cherry pick AND not count adjustments for technology, safety, quality, etc. like the government does, then the zerohedge numbers don't pass the laugh test.
Not that I would expect the perma-short-term doomers to ever acknowledge economic reality.