Toilet Paper Inflation

        When Ben Bernake gets up and rambles on for three hours at a Federal Reserve news conference, and  says that he thinks there is little to no inflation in the US, a couple of questions pops up in my mind. The first question is a real big REALLY? I would love to have an informal little chat with him and ask him if he ever has to go into a Target or a Wallmart and actually buy anything at all, or if he has a car, has he recently bought gas. The second question would be whether or not he has ever considered the price of a case of toilet paper, this most necessary item has gone from very cheap not too long ago to ridiculously expensive, a family of four would have to take out a second mortgage just to buy the stuff. The answer I would get is:  Uh ...... well no, the help performs these tasks for me, as I am too busy and important keeping my eye on the economy.  To Mr. Bernake I would say, yes, I know the academic thinking behind inflation statistics is to take the small everyday items such as food and gas out of the measurement, but I have to say to you Mr Bernake,  to Main Street Sally who is doing well just buying food and gas and nothing else would say otherwise. All I know, is that when I do my budget for the month, it's costing my family around 20% to 30%  more for the same groceries and gas that not too long ago cost a lot less. The groceries we buy are the everyday staples, but by the cost you would think we were buying steak and lobster, Yum.....

       Actually what's causing the price of gas and groceries to go up so much is the fact that the US Government is having to print so much more money right now just to maintain the minimum payment on our debt. The bill is coming due, and it's having the unintended but expected result of further devaluing the dollar.  One of the dumbest things we Americans ever did was allow Richard Nixon to take the dollar off the Gold Standard. At one time we could exchange a dollar for a dollars worth of gold, imagine that idea,  but now if you walked up to Uncle Sam and wanted gold, all you would get is a  whimsical  chuckle.

       See, that's what you get when you let just anyone be president of the United States. Richard Nixon taking us off the gold standard is just one example. The thing about these people who eventually become our presidents are,  they can goof up, make mistakes, or even completely crap out the United States, and then when their time is up they leave, the damage is done and then they fade away. They not only have a substantial presidential pension for life, but they are usually multimillionaires before they even get to the White House, no matter what they do in office, if they crap out the United States they have enough money to live the rest of their lives without ever working another day, or ever worrying about money. At the same time its the everyday people, the 99% , that have to pick up the pieces and go on living the best we can, with the decisions other people have made for us, not necessarily to benefit us.