"Ed Huntress" wrote in message t...

Inflation has taken off in China. The Economist reports this week that
China's economic ministers are in a panic that they may be in for a repeat
of 1992 - 93, when inflation ran over 20%. They've had to increase the money
supply by 20%/yr. for the past two years, to keep up with foreign demand
(don't ask, it's complicated -- the alternative is to watch their exchange
rate go up in smoke) and they're worried.

Inflation in the US is running a CPI of about 1.9%, which is within the
range that economists consider to be perfect. In other words, the cost of
living is just about dead flat in the US, and has been for the past year.


Odd that you would say that. As I may have mentioned, just last week
I was getting a hair wash anda happy ending when some bigshot American
economist came on the telly speaking to a large group of Chinese hot-shots.
He made a big point of the fact that inflation here was about 1% and his
biggest concern was with the people displaced by all the moving-to-the-
cities and social change stuff. Wish I'd got his name, but they took me
upstairs before the credits came on ....

All depends on whom you listen to, I guess. I haven't seen any huge
inflation - unlike I did in San Francisco - but ...... you can make
inflation figures say whatever you want by choosing where and what to
pick, ya know ? Housing prices here go *down*, and since housing is
usually the largest part of any family's expenditures ...