tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53246864840716464.post5841954783543920467..comments2024-02-29T00:46:38.800-08:00Comments on Washingtons Blog: Stiglitz: "Deflation is Definitely a Threat Right Now"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53246864840716464.post-23675015243955937832010-01-23T05:53:42.882-08:002010-01-23T05:53:42.882-08:00There's a movement to radically change Califor...There's a movement to radically change California government, by getting rid of career politicians and chopping their salaries in half. A group known as Citizens for California Reform wants to make the California legislature a part time time job, just like it was until 1966.<br /><br />www.onlineuniversalwork.comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53246864840716464.post-13311862169951135472009-10-03T20:47:15.346-07:002009-10-03T20:47:15.346-07:00With all these experts making "new" pred...With all these experts making "new" predictions<br />what reason is there to consider them any more valid than previous ones? It seems that the recession is soon to give way to depression.<br /><br />Talk about which letter it resembles will become moot as folks focus on basics. One bright side to the above is that we will finally be rid of the armchair speculator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53246864840716464.post-9523224576755600952009-10-03T10:29:14.064-07:002009-10-03T10:29:14.064-07:00Amazing there have been 2 major deflations created...Amazing there have been 2 major deflations created in the US over the past 95 years and Wall Street finance and the Federal Reserve created both of them. These inflations are always fun, but kind of like doing euphoric drugs are getting drunk, there is always the hangover. The solutions being attempted now are the same as not coming down or staying drunk. This can go on for years. The country and the world should be looking at how to survive deflation (survive a hangover)and get it over with instead of how to avoid it. The answer to avoiding it was to not do what was done in the 1990's. Since the tech bubble broke, what we have been doing is akin to getting drunk all over again and in the process have now destroyed the housing market, inflated China and destroyed real household net worth. Now we face bankrupting our governments. The next shoe to drop will be the deflation of China.mannfm11https://www.blogger.com/profile/06507232690375884354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53246864840716464.post-90699546736150275362009-10-03T10:22:07.190-07:002009-10-03T10:22:07.190-07:00Wash, I want to say your blog is one of the best k...Wash, I want to say your blog is one of the best kept secrets on the web. ZeroHedge has found it. Based on the number of comments, I can see it is still underviewed. I have it on my links. You always have good stuff.mannfm11https://www.blogger.com/profile/06507232690375884354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53246864840716464.post-13085817954179034432009-10-03T10:19:24.994-07:002009-10-03T10:19:24.994-07:00I think it is called filing for bankruptcy. But t...I think it is called filing for bankruptcy. But there are other means GT. One of them is ceasing to buy crap. $50K has become a tight living standard (I'm old enough to remember if you made $30K you had made it, as in on Wall Street or something), but there are new forces at work. Eat at home one more time a week. For a family of 4, eating out is at least a $40 to $50 venture minimum. You can watch the super market deals on meat and other items and have steak for 4 at home for $20 and eat something else for $10 or less. Annual savings if you take the low end? $1500 a year. Take a sack lunch instead of eat lunch out. Cost about $1.50 to $2 a sack as opposed to $7 to $10. Times 3 (kids eat 1/2 adults) $8 as opposed to $21 to $30. Times 5, savings ia $65 a week at a minimum times 50 is $3250. So in merely changing how you eat a minimum amount, a $50K household has saved 10% of its income. <br /><br />Next, you drive a cheaper car. Wear cheaper clothes. Wait til next year to buy something you would have bought this year. Don't go to the movies.<br /><br />I have been broke before. A friend of mine who was on disability and I lived on $2000 a month and both of us smoked at the time. Rent and utilities was $900 of it and phones and cable was another $180. When you are in that shape, you can eat very easily on $35 a week, trust me. That is a per diem if you are eating out. <br /><br />Maybe you get an idea who is going to get hit. Housing has a long ways to go down. I would guess if this trend continues, utilities are going to come down and phones are going to get cheaper. Cars are going to be less lavish and used ones are going to go longer. In fact, I think cars are made to go 200K miles with minimum trouble now, so 15 year old cars won't be that uncommon. There are still a lot of extra cars in the US. <br /><br />The result is a $50K household might drop its expenditures 20% by just changing how they are consuming.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53246864840716464.post-44750215009417278632009-10-02T21:45:02.508-07:002009-10-02T21:45:02.508-07:00I would like an explanation of how a majority of w...I would like an explanation of how a majority of working families could be paying down debt and saving money when 50% of the household are making 50 K or less.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13156080225918567393noreply@blogger.com