Walmart says - watch for raising prices. Predicting high inflation coming.

[[AK]Clay]

Uh Oh...

http://www.usatoday.com/money/indust...nflation_N.htm

Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Bill Simon said during a meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board. "We're seeing cost increases starting to come through at a pretty rapid rate."
Along with steep increases in raw material costs, John Long, a retail strategist at Kurt Salmon, says labor costs in China and fuel costs for transportation are weighing heavily on retailers. He predicts prices will start increasing at all retailers in June.

I'm not an economist, so mostly talking by the seat of my pants. My thought is with the recession, prices on things were kept artificially low to avoid closing doors due to lack of sales. You can only do that so long.

If you have some purchases to make, sounds like now is a good time to do it. I also was told something interesting from one of our business leaders - during periods of inflation, cash is actually pretty valuable. More valuable than stocks. Stocks apparently do not increase in value with inflation (which I thought they did). But cash, in the bank, can actually earn you some good interest. Not sure if it's true, but food for thought.

[Slaughter]

A lot of the Inflation has to do with Quantitative Easing that the Fed has been doing.

They started by printing money, lately they've been digitizing money. With so much money in the system theres really no choice except for Inflation to kick in. Add in the fact that Oil and Gas prices have risen and it just makes matters worse.

[[AK]StitchJones]

Go green and plant a garden. invest in solar energy panels that can both supply electricity and heat. Focus less on manufactured goods and products. It's what we all need to start doing more as a whole.

[[AK]Ozzred]

Go green and plant a garden..

Not to take this completely off subject, but Ya - Gardens are freakin awesome! We found that we waste a lot less as we only pick what we need that day (unless we're over producing and giving stuff to friends / neighbors). I did my first one last year, learned a ton, and can't wait for the weather to break so we can get V. 2.0 going.

[[AK]Hylander]

Ironically enough, I lectured about inflation last night for my class at the college as we were talking about investing principles. (I'm teaching Personal Finance this semester)

Actually, inflation has been present significantly for several months now. The problem is the governments CPI (Consumer Price Index) is, for a lack of a better word, a complete fraud when used by itself because it excludes Food and Energy prices which are the two most common goods that increase expenses for households. By the time inflation begins to show up in the CPI itself, inflation has already had a good foot hold on consumers pockets.

Clay - In actuality, cash becomes less valuable during times of inflation because your purchasing power has been decreased. What makes 'cash' more valuable intrinsically is the ability to earn a higher rate of interest because the Federal Reserve's primary tool for fighting inflation is increasing interest rates. However, if the inflation rate is still higher than the interest rate being earned, your cash is still worth less. In complete financial terms, your likely to see an increase in finance charges and interest rates on financial products like credit cards and loans as well, so you're also seeing a decrease in disposable income due to the increased cost of capital. In terms of stocks, it depends on the industry. But overall, companies can only increase the price on their product so much before it decreases demand, and they themselves will be facing increased costs for their inputs whether its office expenses, raw materials, imported goods, utilities, or labor. The PPI (Producer Price Index) is one measure of input cost structure.

As far as Stitch is concerned, as usual, just ignore him. I have no problem with purchasing economically viable energy alternatives and taking advantage of any tax breaks you can receive - if it makes economic sense to do it. It's the sticking your head in the sand mentality that has this country so f'd up to begin with. We don't teach our children anything about personal finance, capitalism, entrepreneurship or economics so that they know how to utilize tools to harness it's vast power of opportunity. The only thing they are taught is how to "get a job" and become a slave to the system. Not that there is anything wrong with 'getting a job' you truly want if you sincerely believe in it. But it's not the only way, and we should encourage them to be more active in our economy. If you really want to go moonbat though, read Robert Kiyosaki's "Conspiracy of the Rich". Aspects of the book are actually correct, but to think it's a grand conspiracy that all the 'rich' want to keep you ignorant about the operations of our capitalist system is quite humorous.

Our problem is our society has become one that always takes the path of least resistance and blames others for something they don't have, or that has happened to them. However, just yesterday I was reading a report on how the younger generation is embracing entrepreneurship and is actually becoming more 'conservative' in regards to fiscal policy, economics, and taxes. If my little class this semester is any indication, I would tend to agree. I'm extremely careful not to inject my personal viewpoints into their education. I had a HUGE problem with that when I was in college so I do not want to do it to any of my students. If they ask my opinion, I will tell them what it is but it's only "MY" opinion and they will not be graded on answering questions according to my viewpoint on any subject. I strongly encourage them to learn as much as they can about the topic and develop their own opinions on subject matter. But the last couple of weeks we were discussing Obamacare and the class went off on how much they hated it, including one of my students who is a nurse. Only two or three in the whole class thought it was any kind of step in the right direction. Perhaps there is hope for the future yet.

[[AK]StitchJones]

Hy, by the end of this year I am hoping to have enough solar panels in place where I can actually give energy back to the power company. I've become hardcore green boy here.

[[AK]Clay]

I find the solar power interesting. After the subsidies, is it cost effective? What's installation like? I happen to have a flat roof, so this might be interesting.

[[AK?]Azmodious]

I would hold off on any large solar power investments, they are on the verge of getting the "full spectrum" solar panels. Current solar technology runs only off of the infrared spectrum, these new ones will be exponentially more effective.

[[AK]Hylander]

I did the math for solar for our situation a little over a year ago. Taking into consideration all the federal and state subsidies, along with allowance from the utility company - it would still take us, at a minimum, 12 years to recover the cost of purchase and installation. I don't plan to be in this house in 10 to 12 years. But then again, I wasn't planning in being in the 8 I have already been here either.

Except among the eco-terrorists, Libtards, and dedicated environmentalist, I don't think you'll see a mass installation of solar panels until you can recover your investment in the 5 to 7 year time frame.

[[AK]Clay]

There are benefits other than economic. I don't buy the green argument: likely the resources consumed in making the panels exceed those saved in using them for quite some time, since cost is correlated to how many resources are used to make it. But I see advantages to having access to at least some power not reliant on man made distribution systems. Ask anyone in a hurricane zone.

[[AK]Swae]

There are benefits other than economic. I don't buy the green argument: likely the resources consumed in making the panels exceed those saved in using them for quite some time, since cost is correlated to how many resources are used to make it. But I see advantages to having access to at least some power not reliant on man made distribution systems. Ask anyone in a hurricane zone.

I think before we start seeing wide-spread use of alternative energy sources at the home level, we need to see the use of these sources on a large-scale. Having a few homes use solar power is great - having the electricity company use solar power is better.

The problem I see that is holding back alternative energy is that there is no one solution for the entire country. Everyone can use oil and gas, but not every region of the country is appropriate for solar, wind, hydroelectric, etc. Take Louisiana - solar and wind are not feasible because of our climate and geography. Hydroelectric faces the huge hurdle of not affecting waterbody navigability. Biofuels actually might get a foothold here, because many biofuels production methods rely on agricultural waste, and we have plenty of agriculture here. Every region has their own unique needs and challenges.

My hope for the future is that we increase domestic oil/gas supply in a SAFE way while also focus on developing alternative energy sources. Of course, both of those markets directly impact my livelihood, so I may be a bit biased.

[[AK]Hylander]

Clay - A valid point, but for short-term outages a good gas or diesel generator is a more economically solution than solar.

Although I don't like the site of wind turbines along a mountain side, I'm not against it - but I admit I don't know the true output numbers to know if it makes 'real' sense to have these massive things placed all over. I do know we are getting several new solar farms here in the valley. Also, we have choice of energy providers here in Pennsylvania and you can pick from companies that only generate energy from "green" sources, but they are usually several cents more expensive per unit than the other means. Again, unless you are a either wealthy or a die-hard environmentalist, you're not going to willingly pay more for the green energy.

In the short term, I'd like to see more oil drilling, clean coal, and oil extracted from shale. In the time after that, I would like to see us get off dependence of foreign oil altogether and tell the middle east to kiss our @ss. Whether its bio-diesel, natural gas, fuel cells, ethanol (algae or something that makes sense - NOT CORN) doesn't really matter to me. Although it seems to me that hydrogen fuel cells would make the most sense if the technology can be advanced quickly.