I’m pleased that we have run Frank Shostak’s piece this morning on inflation data, and it’s pretty alarming but it strikes me that the piece still understates the threat and the reality.
This morning at the store, a fruit drink I usually buy just went from $2.50 to $3.20 in something like two weeks. The apples I bought seem to have jumped 25%. The checkout lady confirmed soaring prices in isle after isle, and I noted that customers in front and behind me were scrambling for coupons and muttering about price hikes. We’ve already known that producers have been repackaging and shrinking their products for 12 months: this is always the first step before price increases. But this only works so long. Finally, the inevitable can’t be put off any longer.
CNBC reported yesterday that at a food industry conference, major suppliers were talking about increases of 4 and 5 percent on top of increases at the same level only last month. Past data already show crazy price increases on things like butter (20% YTD), lamb (18.9% YTD), bacon (11.3% YTD), and even potatoes (6% YTD). The explanation is always the same: weather plus rising demand.
Why is it that by the time price inflation comes around, everyone seems to forget about the money question? It doesn’t matter that the monetarists once seem to dominate the day with the quantity theory or that the Austrians have been talking about this issue for 100 years. When it comes to the reality, casual observers hardly ever mention money and monetary policy. So far, we are being told that it is mother nature at work plus consumer greed. I suppose next we’ll be hearing about producer gouging.
And yet the reality is there for anyone to see. The Fed created an unprecedented amount of reserves out of thin air and with recovery in the air, the banks are using them, causing the money creation. All of this is explained in detail in books such as The Inflation Crisis and How to Resolve It – which might be the best journalistic reduction of Austrian monetary theory around.
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Today prices of oil went over $100 in markets here and over $114 for Brent crude! Gold has risen above $1400. The high price of beef was a featured story on CNN. Oh, wait, Bernanke says not to worry. “We have the tools to deal with inflation.” Maybe its time for Ron Paul to invite him to testify.
Yes, customers are commenting about rising prices. I was on the soap aisle in Wal-Mart yesterday and an older gentleman was complaining about the price increases. There were several people on the aisle and I thought that it would be as good a place as any to voice my comments. I said that prices were going up because the government was printing too much money. Too many dollars in circulation devalues the currency and prices increase. Of course nobody said anything. But seeing that this will be increasingly common, I think it is a good idea to have some prepared comments that drive home the truth as to why prices are increasing.
“Why is it that by the time price inflation comes around, everyone seems to forget about the money question? ”
Well, because most people don’t know very much about most anything. Most people have been conditioned to blame greedy oil companies, or … the weather. (Heh.) The term “supply and demand” is vaguely familiar in their mind. They remember reading something about it sometime during skrewel. Someone on the alphabet news says “Cold weather is hurting wheat crops in Madscamistan,” and they believe it. Or, some glamopundit says, “Tensions in the Middle East are causing the price of oil to skyrocket,” and they believe that too. (Although, that’s a bit more reasonable.)
I used to be one of those people. Now, I’m not. I traveled from the left, to the right, to the truth.
“Tensions in the Middle East are causing the price of oil to skyrocket,” and they believe that too. So true, that’s always a part of the script. One of the reasons for the tension is inflation. But a lot of people would rather blame the boogey man.
“Tensions in the Middle East are causing the price of oil to skyrocket,” and they believe that too.
This is more than a trite non-answer. It’s propaganda designed for a very specific purpose — to justify war and occupation. It’s been used as the justification for empire for centuries.
The press covers up the real reason. Bernanke has done a wonderful job of getting front of this so the accomplice press in general doesn’t blame him. But it won’t last. People in the business press are blaming him already. More blame will fall on him the more price inflation rises.
Agree that life is getting tougher. The post WW2 middle class bubble was a freak phenomenon and the US is regressing to the world historical norm of 80% serfs in one form or another. We old folks have lived through the best times in the history of the world and it is not coming back.
Half of mess is intentional on the part of our owners and the rest our own stupidity and greed, the inability to plan ahead and delay consumption. Half of the people on this list might be conventional home owners? Now is the time to plow your lawns and plant potatoes and onions. OK, in a month.
Now is the time to plow your lawns and plant potatoes and onions.
I wish I could. The cartel of control freaks who call themselves my “local government” seem to think they have the power to tell me I’m not allowed to use my yard for anything other than, well, a mostly empty yard.
If people had even a tiny inkling of how pervasively controlled their lives are by land use restrictions, there would be a lot more anarcho-capitalists in the world.
“The explanation is always the same: weather plus rising demand.”
And why is demand rising? Could it be that demand is rising because there’s more money in circulation to spend?
Inflation has been excessive to normal for at least 3 years; it’s just rapidly picked up the pace lately. Not using the cost of food and energy to compute it has to be among the most vicious and Machiavellian damn lies these lying thieves ever tell.
Demand isn’t rising. It’s a common excuse mouthed by the propagandists. Demand has been falling for the past two years.
They can point to statistics that show more money is being spent, calling it a “rise” in demand, while conveniently ignoring that the money buys a lot less than it used to buy.
Really, do you think they’d come out and say:”We’ve been creating trillion$ out of thin air which always makes prices rise”?
The government introduced an alternate inflation reality when they implemented the recommendations of the Boskin Commission. They use pseudo-science to claim the CPI is zero while prices are soaring all around us.
This was their way of cutting Social Security in the mid 1990s. They couldn’t cut it outright, but by using an imaginary inflation gauge they were able to fool the masses. The average Social Security check today would likely be twice what it is if they used a real inflation gauge. Since so many other things like compensation is based on the fraudulent CPI wages stay low while prices rise.
A good way to fight against inflation is to remain single with no kids. Don’t start a family and let women go fuck themselves. Ever since women had the right to vote or to run for office, government kept growing bigger and controlling more aspects of our lives. So do yourself a favor and boycott women.
Second, stock up on oatmeal, powdered milk, tang punch with added vitamin C, water, guns and ammo and you should be fine.
For one buck, you can make a gallon of vitamin C enriched tang orange “juice”. You can eat three servings of oatmeal a day and add powdered milk for protein, potassium, vitamin D and to remove the taste of yuck in oatmeal.
I live extremely cheaply and I don’t feel affected by inflation yet, I’m unemployed since June and I feel fine.
Get women out of your lives and you will only have yourself to support. Much easier that way.
Being single is the best way to fight inflation, don’t get caught in the wheel and the scheme. Remember, malekind’s biggest flaw and biggest weakness is in his pants. Control that and you control the world.
“and let women go fuck themselves.”
As a gentlemen, I could always offer the proposition to do that for them.
Well this is the best monetary theory out there. So for clarification … is it women that cause inflation, or is it the penis?
I’ve always wondered why all those money supply graphs seem to suddenly shoot straight up. Turns out, it’s just morning.
LMAO!
I am so thrilled that penis jokes have finally made it to the Mises blog.
Makes me feel all warm and tingly inside.
Seek professional help if your inflation lasts more than four quarters, as this may be a sign of a serious condition.
I always challenge my friends to be as frugal as possible when going out to the point of making women buy us [men] drinks.
It’s a very interesting and unorthodox paradigm but a fun way to be cheap and learn how to interact with others so they’ll act to please you more.
@Jeffrey Tucker,
“This morning at the store, a fruit drink I usually buy just went from $2.50 to $3.20 in something like two weeks.”
For $1.00 I drink one gallon of tang punch enriched in vitamin C. Think about it.
And I don’t need to entertain some filthy bitch either. So I can keep that gallon of tang for myself, LOL !!!
A costly divorce can do you even more damage than hyperinflation. Men, do yourself a favor and stay away from women.
We could also get rid of our electricity, internet and indoor plumbing, and go totally off the grid. But … I kinda of happen to like civilization, my wife and my daughter. Plus, it’s nice to be able to play my acoustic and electric guitars, read Mises online for free, and grill a NY strip steak. But that’s just me.
Just went through a divorce, eh? Don’t worry: you’ll get over it.
No, you’re assuming things. I have always been single all my life plus I’m a virgin !
It’s just that I hear all the divorce and custody horror stories around me and in the news and this has thought me and confirmed to me that a man is better to stay away from women.
So this is kind of like voluntary eugenics?
You can try to be a wize crack and assume that by refusing to reproduce, I am somehow improving the gene pool so my genes should be bad.
1st) I don’t care about “my” genes because they are not my genes, they are God’s genes, the universe’s genes, nature’s genes. Those genes were crafted, thought and made into existence by forces outside my control nor want. So if you say they are bad, they are not my fault. If they are anybody’s fault, they are GOD’S FAULT.
2nd) I think that flesh life forms are very limited and a prison for the soul. I believe that the soul ought to belong to self and that a flesh life form is like imprisoning and over specializing the soul. It’s violent, it’s an abduction. Therefore, in the name of my soul and in the name of consciousness, I cannot make myself accomplice to this crime against life.
3rd) I believe that through proper training, we can takeover our own souls and become our own source of existence, hence why should I spread a sexually transmitted disease when I can become my own source of life.
4th) Isn’t it ironic that, in order to spread your “good” genes, you must have a weak free will so as to not be able to resist sexual appetite and give in to it. Those with strong free will can keep their endowment soft and in their pants without touching it. That is STRENGTH. It is clear that nature wants strong armed and brainiac drones with weak free will for it to control.
I am not nature’s drone, I am heading for my soul.
I find it ironic that “libertarians” would complain against the government but would bend over and crawl before God and the forces of nature.
I am the slave of nobody, not the government, not nature and not even God.
True libertarians claim their souls, not their real estate.
Freedom Fighter,
Women are people too. If you choose to keep to yourself that is absolutely your right, but don’t look down on half the human race simply because of the chromosomes they received (it’s God’s fault after all)
As for a tang and oatmeal diet, you should try cycling some parboiled rice in there, it is cheap, stores just as well and will give you better nutrition than oatmeal alone.
“I have always been single all my life plus I’m a virgin !”
Ah, I see. So on top of it all, you’re speaking like an authority figure about something that you are one of a small minority of adults to not have first-hand knowledge of. Gotcha.
Well as someone who is, to say the least, not speaking from such a position, I can give you my philosophy in a nutshell: freedom and the generative force of life are different aspects of the same larger truth. Investigating all that is true about being a physical form has helped me to cultivate my understanding of freedom that much better. I am a better freedom fighter because of it. If it seems a contradiction to you, then there’s no one forcing you to do things someone else’s way: freedom to me means, among other things that there is no one true path. But I’m not a slave just because you’ve patted yourself on the back with some rebellion-against-everything philosophy that says I am.
Come see what I’ve seen and then tell me I’m a slave. Until then, you are nothing more than another ivory tower wanker, and I like what I masturbate to a whole lot better.
So…
You’re denying them your essence?
That is, Your Precious Bodily Fluids??
Good grief Freedom Fighter. Get in the bunker already and hunker down. But I can almost guarantee that tomorrow morning you’ll wake up and see that the sky did not fall, the sun rose in the east, and raving hordes of feminista’s are not pillaging your town. Just don’t expect all of us to join you in the bunker. As Joshua_D said, many people here happen to like civilization and the women in their lives.
Then you can keep all the women in the world. If a woman ever talks to me, I will tell her that I am not interested but a certain chubby bald guy named Rick is very interested, go see him instead.
Tang punch and oatmeal is made by civilization so I don’t see why you say I’m not civilized. I use electricity as evidence of my presence on the internet plus I have flush toilets. You guys are funny.
I suppose you hatched out of an egg?
Breakfastonomics?
This is your brain. Crack. Dribble. This is your brain on tang.
Just because my parents were irresponsible enough to spread their human disease doesn’t mean I should repeat their mistake. Why should I give birth to a child which will be the slave of nature, the slave of government and the slave of God. No thank you.
My genes are “bad” because I am not a “good” obedient drone, I don’t please mother nature.
Do you have a newsletter or something …?
Skinny and I’ve got all of my hair. That said, what’s wrong with chubby bald guys anyway?
Anyhow… are you sincere or are you just a very bizarre troll?
I am sincere. That’s what I’ve always believed in. I’m an oneironaut.
Please never change. Greatest virginal unintentional comedian of our generation? I say yes.
Your way of thinking is unfit for survival, and thus rare to see exhibited. To call that ‘bad’ means to make a subjective judgement on whether survival is good or bad. Furthermore, it denies ones basic physical self in almost every way..
In any case, you seem to attribute the ‘evils’ of divorce to women, when in reality, the evils of divorce are from the concept of divorce itself.
Also, as far as genetics and souls go, there is no evidence of a soul, but if you believe you have one, and that it is caged by your body, the ultimate solution is suicide, which is also only prevented by the ‘weak-will’ of the body. Furthermore, it is my belief that should a soul exist, if it exists without an external reality to be bound by, it will be inert, unable to act. So would you rather have action (and scarcity) or be inert, which is the equivalent of death?
@Freedom Fighter – can’t imagine why any woman would leave living the dream with you…unless maybe oatmeal gave her gas or something.
freedomfighter, think of all the money you will need to save for therapy due to your extreme misogny.
most people don’t walk around holding a grudge against the entire opposite sex and, if they do, they are surely damaged goods in some way.
Yes there is a higher demand, but the question is how can the demand for consumer and producer goods simultaneously rise (the PPI is rising at a faster rate relative to the CPI)? There is only one conceivable answer, namely that the FED, and other central banks around the world, have increased the supply of money way beyond the demand for money. And yet, even with this massive rise in effective aggregate demand, the (official) unemployment rate is at 9%+ (Keynesian economics has been empirically invalidated once again, though they’ll probably attempt to explain such phenomena by pointing to certain “exogenous shocks,” i.e., democratic revolutions in the Middle East).
Economic textbooks in the future will claim that a gluttony of foreign savings caused this recession, and that revolutions and entrepreneurial greed yield general price inflation.
Living without women: Really? What the hell’s the point?
Misery loves company.
Keep all the money and resources for yourself plus being single is a gesture of revolt against the natural order of things and the social order of things. That I am dissatisfied with the tyranny in this world and the tyranny in nature and that I refuse to partake in this so nature, don’t expect offsprings form me. Show us how you did it the first time, mother nature, do it yourself.
Do you think the Natural Order of Things is concerned about your little one-man rebellion? Do you really think you aren’t partaking in nature?
Freedom Fighter
Not only are you not hurting nature, you’ve accepted being half dead already. Get out and give life a whirl. It ain’t where you’re going because we’re all going to the same place. It’s how fully you can live on the trip.
Hint: There’s a Reason why sex sells.
My trip is WAR not sex.
Sex drive is war against your free will. So I get my kicks at fighting back instead of obeying like a drone.
Given that sex drive is painful if you say no, I would tend to think that nature doesn’t offer a free market capitalism mechanism of biological urges. It all seems to be a natural intervention to force us to “buy” a service that otherwhize would not interest that many people.
Why is it that you can so no to eating chocolate but not no to having sexual gratification.
Sex sells because nature forces us to buy. That’s why I decided to boycott and fight back. I will not obey nature’s mandates.
Sex drive is like Obama’s health care reform. It’s mandatory, so it’s not libertarian and therefore I have to proceed more boldly against that evil.
Little ? One-man ?
As a libertarian, I don’t feel the need to belong to a group nor to have consensus before I act as an individual and do what is right.
Some little men have grown big and strong with time.
Why not fight back against eating, drinking, breathing, going to the toilet, sleeping,…oh well, you get the point. And most of the time those things aren’t nearly as much fun as sex. Oh the other hand maybe your genes have something twisted. And if everyone had those, how long would the world last?
I tend to think that unpleasantness and pain exist as a decoy and as a diversion so that we won’t suspect pleasure and it’s powerful grip on our free will. We think along the way that pain is bad so fun must be good when in reality, sexual “fun” is not fun at all because you cannot say no.
Say no to eating chocolate, to playing golf, to playing videogames to do other fun activities and you won’t feel that pain in your abdomen urging you to do that activity. You can always replace a chocolate bar with a sugar pie and videogames with a movie etc.
But say no to sex and it soon shows it’s true sinister and barbarous side and it becomes painful. This is tyranny, not fun so it is my moral duty to fight back.
Eating, drinking, breathing, toilet, sleeping is all part of my own vital biological needs. Sex is not an individual biological need.
“Say no to eating chocolate, to playing golf, to playing videogames to do other fun activities and you won’t feel that pain in your abdomen urging you to do that activity. You can always replace a chocolate bar with a sugar pie and videogames with a movie etc.”
Not true at all. If I have a high preference for some activity and I am limited to do that (either by force or limited means), I do feel pain, distress etc. No matter what it is. It is called subjective preferences and subjective utility. I personally can say that in high school, video games did not have its substitute in movies for me.
Well, try saying no to food or water and you will also see pain and urge. That´s no argument.
True that sex is not a biological need. So is not reading, talking, playing, exercising… Generally having fun and enjoying life. Have you also abandoned all of these activities? If you are consistent to what you write, you should sit around all day, drinking tang and eating oat meal, sleeping and going to toilet. What are you doing on the internet then?
“isle” –> “aisle”
INSURANCE COMPANIES have been writing annuities for a hundred or so years. A pension is basically an annuity. How many life insurance companies have gone broke in this depression? States and municipalities don’t have access to the same data that insurance use to compute annuity fees?
Companies go broke because the sign contracts they know will bankrupt them? States go broke because they sign contracts the know will bankrupt them? I think not!
These government pensions are in trouble because the states and municipalities have NOT made the necessary annual contributions and have raided the funds when they appeared fat to legislators who don’t have the smarts to balance a checkbook.
Aside from AIG, I can’t think of any; of course, AIG was more an investment bank than an insurance company. I must quibble with one point you made. The fat legislators don’t balance their checkbooks out of crookedness moreso than stupidity.
Don’t worry, Mr. Tucker! The CPI says things aren’t so bad, so no need to worry.
PS – This “Freedom Fighter” character is a riot. I doubt that he’s a real person – perhaps an over-the-top caricature of the nerdy libertarian who creates and justifies a philosophy and lifestyle based on his own peculiarities – but it’s funny all the same.
No need to pick on him… other than his dismal view of women I see no need to revile his personal choices. He is not telling anyone else what to do.
@Travis Anthony,
Thanks for having a sense of humor.
But I will have the last laugh when I reach the chaotic fractal frontier cloud computer and use it’s full potential. Data mining is the name of this game. I know things you guys couldn’t understand.
hmmm,
This post makes me less confident that you exist…
If you do I stand by my “don’t pick on him” post, and if you don’t then well done.
Do you mean that I don’t exist in the sense that I am just pulling all your legs or do you mean that I don’t exist in the sense that I don’t physically exist ?
If I don’t exist then how come I can post messages here ? And in the case you imply that I am just playing with you guys, well it’s half truth, LOL ! ha ha ha.
Thanks for the free fun. No, I’m not telling you what to do. My boycotting women leaves more for the rest of you guys, right ? What are you complaining about ?
I mean that you don’t exist as the person you describe yourself as…
…but now that you mention it AI is getting better all the time and I sometimes wonder whether certain posts are made by humans or computers impersonating them. I have no such suspicion in your case but one can never be too aware.
This statement in the article is totally false, “the Fed created an unprecedented amount of reserves out of thin air and with recovery in the air, the banks are using them, causing the money creation.” What recovery? The banks did create reserves, but they are not using them. Today’s release of the Federal Reserve Balance Sheet proves banks are still hoarding. Bank deposits at Federal Reserve banks just hit an all time high, $1.3 trillion. Also, commercial bank credit is still collapsing . Institutional Money Funds (Not a M2 Component) is off almost $1 trillion from its peak in 2007 . Looking at just M2 is ignoring the whole picture. M3 is still produced by independent researchers, and it is not going to the moon – just flat . Housing prices are at lows and going nowhere. Yes, prices are rising, but hyperinflation is not around the corner, . . . yet.
Remember 2007, everyone was complaining about higher prices, then it all collapsed. The malinvestments are still out there and must be cleared, the market will eventually force it. The government and central bank have been fighting it, and for the unprecedented amounts of QE still have not spurred excessive money creation.
There are numerous reasons as to why an economy can practice inflation. One explanation is the demand-pull theory, which states that all sectors in the economy try to buy more than the economy can produce. Shortages are then created and merchants lose business. A second explanation engages the deficit of the federal government. If the Federal Reserve System expands the money supply to keep the interest rate down, the federal deficit can contribute to inflation. A third reason involves the cost-push theory which states that labor groups cause inflation. If a strong union wins a large wage contract, it forces manufacturers to raise their prices in order to compensate for the increase in salaries they have to pay
Oh let me see, does it come as a suprise?
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/fdominicus/archive/2011/02/04/my-predictions.aspx
Guess what I wrote it down a few days ago.
And around 2 years ago I wrote about the “Failtout” plans and it’s effects on inflation:
http://fdominicus.blogspot.com/2008/09/its-not-plan-at-all.html
“which states that all sectors in the economy try to buy more than the economy can produce.”
It would be very astonishing that ALL sectors would behave like this. In free market capitalism where money is a privately handled commodity as opposed to fiat currency handled by a central bank, such a trying to out buy the production scheme would not last very long as a motor for inflation. Because new production would come in to make up for the increased profits potential.
Unless there is a natural disaster of global proportions where resources would be massively destroyed, such a scenario is unlikely.
However, petroleum resources are diminishing and this will cause an increase in petroleum prices and a consequential increase in the price of everything else. But demand will shrink accordingly, thereby reaching a stability.
Really, inflation is always about monetary inflation. In fact, new sources of energy could drive the price of everything down and bring an age of absolute prosperity for all.
>As a libertarian, I don’t feel the need to belong to a group nor to have consensus before
I act as an individual and do what is right.
As a libertarian, I know that I am an introvert with “type B” personality and few manual skills. For 30 years I was happy to work under a union contract. Maybe you are a “type A” person with a great line of BS. Maybe you have watchmaker or artist or auto mechanic skills. When I take something apart and reassemble it I always seem to have parts left over. Does that make you a better human being than I am?
I do have auto mechanic skills. As for being better, since this is always viewed in terms of worth and since worth is always a subjective notion, that is up to you to decide.
>>Now is the time to plow your lawns and plant potatoes and onions.
>I wish I could. The cartel of control freaks who call themselves my “local
government” seem to think they have the power to tell me I’m not allowed to use my
yard for anything other than, well, a mostly empty yard.
Are you prevented from planting flowers in painted pots? Lettuce, radishes, carrots, swiss chard . . . grow well in pots and planters.
Indeed. You can get really impressive results with container gardening. It is amazing how much food you can get out of a teeny tiny space. I once grew eight ears of corn on a west-facing balcony on the third floor of an apartment building. And a lot of other stuff: huge herb garden, tomatoes, peppers, beans, a few melons, cucumbers, strawberries, and then greens and peas in the fall and spring. And I got a lot of mileage out of flowers like geraniums, forgetmenots, and morning glories/moon vines. All this on a generic 4×8 balcony.
Also, you can use vegetables and fruit-bearing bushes, and even grains (try purple millet for something cool) as landscaping. Do you have bushes out in front of your house? Why not blueberries instead? Plant apple trees instead of those awful ornamental bradford pears. Don’t plant flowers – plant strawberries or sweet potatoes. It doesn’t have to look like farm, but you can still sneak in your garden. Remember, freedom and enjoyment of life isn’t something that you’re given – it’s something that you take (or grow, I guess).
Strangely, this about gardening might be the only remotely on-topic discussion here.
“I’m a virgin!”
Why am I not surprised?
“I’m an oneironaut.”
I’m a twoironnut, ’cause I can’t stay in the fairways with my woods.
““I’m a virgin!”
Why am I not surprised?”
Well, seven years ago, I tried a hooker and just couldn’t get stiff enough. So I wonder if that counts. LOL !
“Indeed. You can get really impressive results with container gardening.”
Long time ago there was a National Geographic program on the Siberian Railroad. The reporter commented that all the apartment windows had window boxes. The Intourist Guide replied that without the window boxes many more people would have starved.
I don’t doubt that. When people really want to do something, they find a clever way. I like being able to not leave the yard to grocery shop, and I’m sure people stuck in the Soviet Union were even happier about their gardens, however small. I bet there were lots of clever ways to get more out of less under such circumstances.
I am rather surprised by the fact that your grocery stores contain “isles”. Mine still has those boring old aisles.
An isle is an island while an aisle is an aisle as one would encounter in a grocery store. My charge for the language usage tip? Still free, inflation be damned.
Peace.
What is so surprising? When the amount of money increases there is more $$$ chasing after the same amount of items. The price goes up. Throw in shortages due to weather and other things again price goes up. Now the largest reason for higher prices is energy. When the president is determined to have higher energy cost (2008 campaign speech) and dose not make provisions for disruptions caused by shut down of crude from unfriendly countries energy prices will skyrocket which will cause all other prices to be affected ie inflation! What a suprise!
> When the amount of money increases there is more $$$ chasing after the same amount of items. The price goes up.
BUT THAT is not happening. The new money is being used to build factories in China and India. None of it got into the hands of the poor and the working class, the people who spend money.Well, maybe an occasional money trader will but a new Mercedes for his wife.
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