Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:27:43 +0000 From: "Gabe Menezes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Mario has claimed to be an MBA. Therefore I am taken aback that he had to resort to Google, to try and fathom out what is really going on w.r.t inflation gauging in the USA. > Mario asks: > Gabe says he is "taken aback" that I used Google. Hanh?! Does this mean I'm supposed to avoid Google to post reference materials to show that I am not making up facts in a discussion? How does this compute as we MBAs are used to saying among ourselves? :-)) > Besides, what does my MBA, which, BTW, is from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for those familiar with MBAs, have anything to do with the questions I raised? I did learn to use recognizable facts, to connect the dots and to support my facts and opinions with independent information. But you really don't need an MBA for that. Just common sense. > Gabe Menezes wrote: > Just this hour, Bernanke spoke in depth about trying to better achieve transparency, regarding inflation and that the Fed is working on this. > The Fed still hasn't recovered the plot: core vs. headline inflation again. > Let me quote from the Testimony of Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress, before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives July 18, 2007 > "Sizable increases in food and energy prices have boosted overall inflation and eroded real incomes in recent months--both unwelcome developments. > I believe that the interest rates in the USA, do not fully reflect the inflation rate; also the Fed is under sever constraints politically and had to cut interest rates to accommodate the fall out debacle of the Sub Prime loans. > Mario asks: > What do the comments summarized above have anything to do with the information that I questioned in my post of November 12 that US inflation was 5.1% and that the US routinely excluded the cost of food and gasoline when calculating inflation? See, http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2007-November/064664.html > Even Mervyn Lobo has now confirmed that the 5.1% he had mentioned was a rate used by non-US lenders when making loans to American businesses, which would be a hurdle rate that is always higher than the inflation rate by an amount that reflects the lender's perceived risk in the investment. BTW, we MBAs learn this stuff in Finance-101:-)) > I also showed that the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes inflation rates with food and gasoline included as well as an adjusted rate that excludes food and gasoline. See box in upper right hand in, http://www.bls.gov/cpi/#data > So, Mervyn was not wrong; he was only half right because he did not seem to be aware of the inflation rate that included food and gasoline. > Gabe Menezes wrote: > Mario should know this, as his neighbour hood is one of the worst hit areas in the USA, with run down buildings and distressed 'Repo sales signs'. An USD300,000 home is a substantial home, by any measure in Toledo; the equivalent ?150,000 would at best buy a studio flat (one bedroom) in London. > Mario responds: > Again, what does the condition of my "neighbor hood" have to do with the topic under discussion, even if these gratuitous comments about my "neighbor hood" were accurate, which they are not??? > Besides none of my neighbors are hoods:-)) > Getting back to Gabe's comments, how could anyone who claims to have "acute analytical skills" compare a mid-sized mid-Western city in one country with a national capital like London in another country? An MBA would never do that. Wouldn't a more appropriate comparison use cities like Washington, DC, or New York City, when making comparisons with London? > BTW, I love London where the beer is warm and they pay absurd prices to live in quaint, dingy old tenements with a lot of history behind them. I mean a LOT of history:-)) > Gabe Menezes wrote: > So much for the cock and bull story, as espoused by Mario, that the poor in the USA are the equivalent, if not better off than the middle class European. > Mario responds: > The alleged "cock and bull story" that Gabe is referring to has not been part of this discussion, until Gabe has now made it a part. > However, anyone familiar with the US and Europe would know that many people considered "poor" in America do enjoy a standard of living that is at least as good as that of many middle-income Europeans. Actually, there is no need to believe me, or anyone who makes "not-so-acute" analytical comparisons - come see for yourself. If you disagree, fine. You are entitled to your own opinion. I am entitled to mine. > My advice to those who read critical comments about the USA, especially by those who had applied for residency in the US and been rejected, is to ask yourself why the US has been for centuries, and continues to be today, a magnet for immigrants from around the world. We have somewhere between 12 and 20 million illegal aliens floating around for God's sake, determined to be a part of all this. > God knows we're not perfect. We can be violent and we can be altruistic. We have so many guns in private hands that the safest place is at a gun owner's convention. But for those who like freedom, democracy and free enterprise, rugged individualism, minimal government and low taxes, and the guts to risk our lives on behalf of others, you are welcome to join us. Or not. > Our motto is "No greater friend. No worse enemy." Take it or leave it. > "A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." - paraphrasing Ronald Reagan. >
