By Bay City News Service
The price of goods in the San Francisco Bay Area has increased by 2.6 percent this year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
According to the Consumer Price Index for the Bay Area, food prices in the region rose 2.8 percent and prices for gasoline rose 2.2 percent over the last year.
Bay Area prices for all items, not including food and energy, rose by 2.9 percent over the last 12 months, with the cost of shelter increasing by 3.5 percent and the cost of apparel increasing by 6.2 percent, according the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Has the increase in expenses impacted your family?
One of the effects, that may accompany inflation (and is sometimes confused for it) is a rise in prices. A similar, but opposite effect in kind is deflation." http://wiki.mises.org/wiki/Inflation
Inflation in One Page Cause and Cure of Inflation 1. Inflation is an increase in the quantity of money and credit. Its chief consequence is soaring prices. Therefore inflation—if we misuse the term to mean the rising prices themselves—is caused solely by printing more money. For this the government’s monetary policies are entirely responsible. 2. The most frequent reason for printing more money is the existence of an unbalanced budget. Unbalanced budgets are caused by extravagant expenditures which the government is unwilling or unable to pay for by raising corresponding tax revenues. The excessive expenditures are mainly the result of government efforts to redistribute wealth and income—in short, to force the productive to support the unproductive. This erodes the working incentives of both the productive and the unproductive. 3. The causes of inflation are not, as so often said, “multiple and complex,” but simply the result of printing too much money. There is no such thing as “cost-push” inflation. If, without an increase in the stock of money, wage or other costs are forced up, and producers try to pass these costs along by raising their selling prices, most of them will merely sell fewer goods. The result will be reduced output and loss of jobs. Higher costs can only be passed along in higher selling prices when consumers have more money to pay the higher prices.
Inflation in One Page (concluded) 4. Price controls cannot stop or slow down inflation. They always do harm. Price controls simply squeeze or wipe out profit margins, disrupt production, and lead to bottlenecks and shortages. All government price and wage control, or even “monitoring,” is merely an attempt by the politicians to shift the blame for inflation on to producers and sellers instead of their own monetary policies. 5. Prolonged inflation never “stimulates” the economy. On the contrary, it unbalances, disrupts, and misdirects production and employment. Unemployment is mainly caused by excessive wage rates in some industries, brought about either by extortionate union demands, by minimum wage laws (which keep teenagers and the unskilled out of jobs), or by prolonged and over-generous unemployment insurance. 6. To avoid irreparable damage, the budget must be balanced at the earliest possible moment, and not in some sweet by-and-by. Balance must be brought about by slashing reckless spending, and not by increasing a tax burden that is already undermining incentives and production.
it is not that prices are rising, but rather the value of your money is decreasing. These retailers know the value of a dollar. That's why they need more and more of them in exchange for their goods and services.
it is not that prices are rising, but rather the value of your money is decreasing. These retailers know the value of a dollar. That's why they need more and more of them in exchange for their goods and services.
More dollars does not mean more goods, therefore it does not mean more wealth.
Republicans are using our Nationl Debt, (mortgage) to instill fear and get votes but the reality is we have always had a National Debt so we could get things done and be the Stongest Superpower, best life style country on the planet. As we bring more jobs back to America, we will have no problem paying off the Debt (mortgage) and our lifestyles will be assured. Stop instilling Fear and get to Work, get bang for your buck by controling what you spend uour money on and live long and prosper. Energy Costs have driven price increases and they are up 30% over the past 4 years and will keep rising as we depend on imported OIL and contine to waste energy on bad inefficient appliances, light bulbs and old cars. Supply and demand drive up these costs.
Jerry, I guess you could call me a Liberal with brakes. I believe that we do need some tax supported programs,- Social Security, Schools, reasonable health care, etc. But I also believe that Gov regulations on business go overboard to say the least, and this idea of everything free for everybody is foolishness. There's no such thing as FREE. It's all provided by tax payers, and without them the "free" goes down the drain. How can we make loans with money we haven't got to children of illegal immigrants? As for that nonsense about saving $200 per month on energy bills by installing Solar, is just more nonsense. Those of us who have gotten estimates are well aware of that. Not mentioned here is improvement in the housing crisis so now people are offering more than the asking price. Hey,- isn't that part of the way the crisis started to begin with. by paying considerably more than homes were worth? Won't we ever learn? Also Government should step in and prevent foreign buyers from purchasing our housing. That means individual homes as well as apartments, etcThat's the way our money goes: Pop goes the weasel!
About credit cards and unsecured credit, I know a young couple who went bankrupt a few years ago, not as a result of the present day crisis. Almost immediately after they began getting credit card offers, signed up for a couple, and yep! they were approved. They said they were approved because they were out of debt, the allowed debt was lower and the interest rate was a "little" higher. Sure enough, they are right back where they started with expenses higher than their income so they are scrambling around to rob Peter to pay Paul and running far behind. This kind of foolishness is the fault of both the borrower and the lender.
You have a point in that prices may be driven up by other factors like energy costs. To be honest I don't know how much energy costs have affected prices. That being said, My intention is to share the effects of inflation which is always a factor. BTW, there is a relation between a drop in the value of the dollar which makes imports more expensive like oil. This is why oil prices swing so often. Being dependent on our own oil is not the answer, stopping inflation is the first solution. I recommend economics in one lesson. http://mises.org/document/6785/Economics-in-One-Lesson