Inflation, Deflation, Who Can Tell Anymore?
It’s a rough time in the global economy, and the knowledge that we’re still a couple gloomy Xmases from a recovery doesn’t make this season any merrier. But at least we beat inflation, right?
Oil prices have collapsed faster than the value of an unfinished Miami condo. Commodities are down across the board as demand slumps. It just was just a few weeks ago that economists and gold-hoarders were predicting American hyperinflation due to Fed profligacy. But suddenly the dollar is up and the watchword is deflation.
Worry not. Prices aren’t really going down that fast. They’re just being reclassified and hidden. Have you bought an airline ticket lately? Or… a t-shirt?
Check this out. Pretty sweet, eh? Plastering the wisdom of legendary SF eccentric Frank Chu across your chest makes you look and feel smarter.
Wanna buy it? Thirty bucks. That’s right, 30 smackeroos. Now there’s some inflation. I paid 1/3 of that for an original Frank Chu sign a few months ago. But here comes the real kick in the perineum.
A $5 charge for “Economy”? Have things gotten so bad that companies are tacking on surcharges just for business conditions?
Oh wait… that’s for “economy” shipping. Hmm, maybe this could be clearer, CafePress.
But with e-tailers vigorously discounting themselves out of existence, maybe it’s only a matter of time until we see the “DJIA decline surcharge.”