Monday, August 25, 2008

Its Inflation

The reporter for CNN is attempting to get economists to pinpoint the most egregious aspect of the poor economy. Is it the mortgage fiasco brought about by improper banking regulatory oversight of the Bush administration, the "credit crunch" brought on by the former, inflation brought about by the Bush administration's unique hands off the oil company policy, the Bush tax cuts, the Bush wars, or the Bush energy policy.

Do we see a common denominator?

CNN Money: Economists: Inflation threat growing
A survey of top economists shows that many are growing more concerned about inflation and slightly less worried about mortgage and credit market problems.

Nonetheless, the financial crisis remains the biggest worry -- 46% of the economists surveyed cited subprime loan defaults, excessive household and corporate debt or the credit crunch as the biggest problem.

3 comments:

Glynn Kalara said...

We have what a friend of mine on the right calls a deflationary/inflation. Also, know as stagflation. The difference here is the last time we did the stagflation dance we hadn't yet ruined ourselves financially. The debt/ credit crunch destroy any way out of this in the short term. Many many businesses and people are going to pay for this. The ones that will profit ironically are the "greed heads" that caused it to start with. The excessive speculation on homes, then commodities etc. has turned our economy into a gambling casino.
The next 2-5 yrs. are going to be extremely ugly for the US. The BV$H fiasco is going turn into the 21st century version of the 30's. Maybe, a better example of what lies ahead is Japan in the 90's after the collapse of their real estate bubble. They tried using 0% loans to get moving again with little success for the most part. Without much of an industrial base left and companies out sourcing whats left its a bad situation. Add the 11 million illegal aliens ( neo-slaves) to this situation and maybe Roman empire 3rd century AD is closer to our current situation?

Jim Sande said...

This is the economic equivalent of being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

This is depressing news. I have seen people talking about 5 years out like Warren Buffet. Hey we will be the most erudite homeless people in American history!

Glynn Kalara said...

I remember saying to my wife on the day Scalia selected BV$H in Dec. 2000 just how bad things will be 8 yrs. from now after this guy and his crowd are done with us. Unfortunately, he isn't done yet and the worst might still be coming.