The recession that wracked the United States is supposed to be over. There have been more people going back to work and consumers are spending money again. You wouldn't know that to look at the number of American households now using food stamps. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 23 U.S. families are now on the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program, or SNAP - one in five of all households. The U.S. has even surpassed the nation of Spain, one of the nations at the heart of the eurozone crisis in nutritional assistance programs.
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Statistics show that 23,087,886 U.S. households participated in January 2013, which is an increase of 889,154 families from January 2012 when the number of households totaled 22,188,732.
A record number 47,692,896 Americans are now enrolled in the program. In reaction, the cost of food stamp fraud has more than doubled in just three years. While the recession ostensibly ended in 2009, one of the federal government's biggest social welfare programs isn't shrinking back alongside the recovery.
Food stamp usage has soared 70 percent since 2008 to a record 47.8 million as of December 2012. Congressional budget analysts think participation will rise again this year and dip only slightly in coming years.
Food Stamp Enrollment by State
Continuously sluggish job markets coupled with a rising poverty rate are the chief factors behind the increase in food stamps. Many states have pushed to get more people to apply for SNAP, a program where the federal government picks up the tab.
In recent years, the law has enabled states to ease asset and income tests for would-be participants. This has been encouraged by the Obama administration, allowing people into the program people with relatively higher incomes as well as savings.
Designed to encourage people to take advantage of the program before they became destitute, the new rules concerning food stamps expanded the pool of potential applicants. This is how SNAP has evolved from a program that rose and fell with the unemployment rate to a more permanent feature of the landscape.
Catholic on line
Joseph Herrin (04-27-2013)
Image Source: http://microsites.jfklibrary.org/cmc/
The image above is taken from an advertisement of a special exhibit that is presently on display at the JFK Presidential Library in Boston. As you can glean from the banner below, this exhibit’s run began on April 12, just three days prior to the Boston Marathon bombing.
On April 15th, 2013, the day of the bombing, it was reported that a third bomb had gone off at the JFK Presidential Library. This library is also located in Boston, being about 3 miles from the finish line for the marathon. The report of a bomb going off at the library has since been denied. It is now being reported that a fire broke out in a mechanical room in a new section of the library. Whatever the truth of the matter, the entire world’s attention was drawn to the JFK library as all the mainstream media sources began making mention of a third explosion.
A brother in Christ (thank you Ivan) wrote to me and pointed out that a special exhibit was being held at the library. This exhibit focused on John F. Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. As noted on the top image, the subtitle for this exhibit is “Thirteen Days in October 1962.” The number 13 and fiery cataclysms are being promoted to an extraordinary degree by the media this year, a year marked the number 13.
Superbowl Ad Placed in ESPN Magazine
As mentioned in previous posts, the above advertisement contains a double entendre. Even as a football game has a fourth quarter, so does a year. The emphasis in this advertisement is upon the year, as one can see the number 13 going up in flames. The emphasis is particularly upon the “fourth quarter” which is October - December.
Two months back when I first posted the image above, a man wrote and suggested that the depiction of the Superdome in flames resembled the mushroom cloud shape of an atomic bomb exploding. The location of the Superdome is New Orleans, and this ties directly back into the exhibit at the JFK library.
The World on the Brink special exhibit at the JFK library includes as a centerpiece a documentary film titled Clouds Over Cuba. This documentary film has two distinct facets. First there is historical information, and archival footage, along with commentary, about the events in 1962. Second, there is a section titled “What If?” This latter portion of the documentary ponders what the world would be like had the Cuban missile crisis ended in a thermonuclear exchange between the United States and Russia. In this part of the film, New Orleans is depicted as having been wiped out as a Russian bomber flying out of Cuba drops an atomic bomb on the city. The entire documentary is about 20 minutes in length. There is a two minute trailer for the film available on YouTube.
Clouds Over Cuba Trailer
http://youtu.be/yCisZ4L0Od4
The complete documentary can be viewed freely online at the following website:
http://cloudsovercuba.com/
You can go directly to the “What If?” section by clicking on the link at the bottom of the website’s page for Chapter Selection. Although the film does not discuss a scenario where Washington, D.C. is destroyed, it does mention that the Russian missiles stationed in Cuba were in range of America’s capital. The website also features two images of the Capitol building in Washington. One shows the Capitol undamaged, and the other portrays it as having been destroyed by fire.
Capitol Building Undamaged
Capitol Building Destroyed
(Click on any image to view larger)
I was stunned when I saw this picture, being immediately reminded of the blog post I wrote last November titled Thirteen. Following is an excerpt from that writing.
---
Looking back over the course of U.S. history I found a foreboding sign of that which is to come. In March of the year 1813 the 13th Congress was seated and continued until March 1815. This is the only other time that America has had a Congress marked by the number 13. (Note that the 113th Congress is now in session.) That it coincided with a year that ends in the number 13 is equally significant.
What occurred in Washington, D.C. during the time of the 13th Congress foreshadows that which will occur under the rule of the 113th Congress. It was during the 13th Congress, in August 1814, that Washington, D.C. was razed by the British. Both the White House and the Capitol Building were set aflame in an act of wanton destruction.
White House After it was Burned
U.S. Capitol Building After it was Burned
In the past week a number of people have written to me to either notify me, or ask my thoughts, about a recent post by Nathan Leal. Nathan has posted a written “Alert” and has audio messages relating to the evil he foresees after Barack Obama is sworn in for his second term on January 2oth, 2013.
http://www.watchmanscry.com/article_babylon_arrives.html
(Note: I am not endorsing any minister or ministry by providing this link. Let the saints always test every word of prophecy carefully as the Scriptures admonish them to do.)
In this Alert, Nathan Leal compares what is transpiring in America to the judgment brought upon Jerusalem in the days of the prophet Jeremiah. Yahweh sent the King of Babylon to destroy the city of Jerusalem, break down its buildings, and burn it with fire. Nathan Leal specifically makes mention of the Scripture that gives a date for this occurrence.
Jeremiah 39:1-2
Now when Jerusalem was captured in the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it; in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the city wall was breached.
Note the time measurements given.
The 11th year...
The 4th month...
The 9th day...
Nathan Leal reveals that beginning at the date of September 11th, 2001, the date the towers fell in New York City, and going forward the specified amount of time listed by the prophet Jeremiah, one arrives at the precise date of Barack Obama’s second inauguration. Following is a brief excerpt from his article.
Moving forward from the date of September 11, 2001 and using the calculation found in the verse above (Jeremiah 39:2),
1. September 11, 2001 + 11 years = September 11, 2012.
2. September 11, 2012 + 4 months = January 11, 2013
3. January 11, 2013 + 9 days = January 20, 2013
We arrive at the date of January 20, 2013!
Ladies and Gentlemen, January 20, 2013 happens to be the same day as the coming Presidential Inauguration!
[End Excerpt by Nathan Leal]
I also find this correspondence significant. So what exactly happened on that day of which Jeremiah wrote? The city of Jerusalem’s protective walls were breached. Jerusalem’s government fell that day. The king fled, only to be captured. His children were slain before him and then his eyes were put out so that the last thing he would see would be the death of his children. The Babylonian conquerors took up seats in the gate of the city, indicating their conquest, and similar to the British burning Washington, D.C., the Babylonians burned Jerusalem.
The British Burn Washington, D.C.
...
Jerusalem would not have been given into the hands of the King of Babylon had they not already had Babylon in their hearts. The people lusted after the pleasures and prosperity of Babylon. They turned away from a path of righteousness and embraced idolatry and many abominations. The same is true of America today, and of the church that is within her borders. John wrote the following about Babylon.
Revelation 18:2-5
"Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality." I heard another voice from heaven, saying, "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”
For generations now America has been a dwelling place of demons and a prison of unclean spirits.
[End of excerpt from post titled Thirteen]
Let me interject here an image from the documentary Clouds Over Cuba. Note what the last sentence written above states, and then look closely at what is written on the ruins of the home in New Orleans behind and to the right of the man in the picture.
The words “Evil Spirits” are written on a piece of lumber in the ruins of this home. New Orleans is truly a dwelling place of evil spirits. The same could be said of America as a nation. This is why judgment is coming to her.
At the moment the above image was shown in the documentary, the man had stated that his father had been unable to find any groceries. A neighbor gave the son (the man pictured) thirty dollars and told him to go find food for his family to eat. It was because the man had left town to find food that he was not destroyed in the blast. A shortage of available food will be seen in America in days not far off.
At this point I want to include the last section of the post titled Thirteen.
---
Yahweh has been calling His people who dwell in the midst of Babylon to “Come out of her, My people!” Many Christians have heeded the call to come out of apostate churches, and to disengage from the pursuit of the American dream of ease and prosperity. Those who have not heeded the Spirit’s voice have been caught up in the sins of Babylon, and they risk partaking of the plagues which are coming.
People of God, I do not know precisely what the upcoming days will bring. I am not prophesying that Washington, D.C. will be burned with literal fire. It is possible that she will, but it is also possible that the destruction of the White House and Capitol during the 13th Congress foreshadows the destruction of the institutions that meet in those buildings. The American system of Republican democracy is ending. The separation of powers instilled in the Constitution by America’s founders have been breached. The walls have come down. The government has run amok. America’s government has fallen into the control of foreigners who seek their own welfare and care not for the citizens of the nation. The people of America have brought this judgment upon themselves. America’s fall and ruin is certain.
This leads me to a final point and I will close this post as it is getting lengthy. When Barack Obama campaigned for a second term in office he used a question and answer format to drum up support. His campaign website listed the question “Are You In?” The suggested answer was “I’m in!”
http://www.barackobama.com/im-in-splash-2
It was pointed out to me that the question “Are You In?” in the shorthand that people are accustomed to use in text messages and in e-mails would be conveyed as follows:
R U IN
The people of America have voted. Yahweh will give them what has been promised.
2013 is the year of the serpent. It is shaping up to be a year of rebellion, apostasy, defection, corruption, disintegration, and revolution. There is a famine coming. The abundance of former years will be forgotten. Seek the Lord while He may be found.
[End of Post]
In a post last week on the Boston bombing, I included an image from Google Earth that shows the location of the Finish Line for the Boston Marathon. The address is 666 Boylston Street.
I believe the pin labeled “A” shows symbolically where America is at this time. America has taken on the mature image of the beast (666). She has given herself to a headlong pursuit of every vice, sin, and abomination. She has murdered tens of millions of babies. She is brazenly pushing the homosexual lifestyle upon all mankind, from children in her public schools, to nations around the world. Drug abuse, violence, murder, rape, pedophilia, and every conceivable form of wickedness are rife in the nation.
America is about to cross the finish line. America, and the world, are on the brink. America’s long run of freedom under the protections of a constitutional republic are nearly over. We saw the Constitution’s protections suspended in Boston, one of America’s leading cities, a week ago. People were ordered to get off the streets, and to stay in their homes. Constitutional protections were suspended as the military, FBI, police, and Homeland Security went door to door, ordering citizens out of their homes at gunpoint. They performed searches of people’s homes without warrants, in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The Second Amendment right to bear arms is under assault by the government. This week, Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor of New York City, stated that the Constitution needs to change.
“The people who are worried about privacy have a legitimate worry,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a Tuesday press conference reported by the Politicker. “But we live in a complex world where you’re going to have to have a level of security greater than you did back in the olden days, if you will. And our laws and our interpretation of the Constitution, I think, have to change.”
[Source:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/23/ny-mayor-michael-bloomberg-constitution-must-chang/]
Barack Obama was first elected on a campaign promise of “Change.” The hour is at hand for promises to be fulfilled. America stands on the brink of destruction. Her race is almost over. As she nears the finish line an explosion will cut Lady Liberty’s feet out from under her. She will collapse, never to rise again.
Putting together these various pieces of a puzzle as I have done here is not the same as speaking a word of prophecy from Yahweh. There are men, however, who have prophesied of nuclear destruction coming to America. One such man was Dmitru Duduman. In one of the visions he was shown missiles coming from Cuba.
No matter how America’s judgment comes, it will surely come. Many signs point to the hour of her judgment being near at hand. Dmitru Duduman stated that when America is burned with fire that Israel will be left without protection. She will be vulnerable to her many adversaries.
I will close this post by sharing a personal prophetic experience of a friend and brother in Christ. Andrew is a Christian brother in his thirties. He has a sincere love for, and commitment to, Yahshua. I have known Andrew for some years. I stayed in his home for some months when I began traveling back in 2009.
Yahweh spoke to Andrew some years back telling him that one day he would have a son named Jacob. The Holy spirit indicated that Jacob would be born during the time of Jacob’s trouble foretold in Scripture.
Jeremiah 30:6-7
Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.
Since then Andrew’s wife has given birth to daughters, but no more sons. It seemed that they would have no more children until recently Andrew’s wife became pregnant once more. Last week she went in for a sonogram as she was at 20 weeks. It was clearly affirmed that she is carrying a boy. Jacob’s due date is in September.
Will this birth take place during a season of birth pangs for the nations? I believe that America has already been experiencing “labor pangs.” The slaughter of children at Sandy Hook, the bombing in Boston, economic troubles, unemployment, rampant crime, these are precursors of worse things to come.
Why was attention brought to bear upon the JFK Library with its special exhibit The World on the Brink on the day of the Boston bombings? Those who are sober and alert will take these things to the Lord and ask Him for understanding.
Psalms 34:9-10
O fear Yahweh, you His saints; For to those who fear Him, there is no want. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek Yahweh shall not be in want of any good thing.
Joseph Herrin
MOSCOW, April 29 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow believes using the issue of the alleged deployment of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the Syrian conflict to attain geopolitical goals is unacceptable, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.
“Perhaps there are some states that believe any methods are good as long as they can help overthrow the Syrian regime. However, the subject of the use of weapons of mass destruction is far too serious,” he said, commenting on US and UK statements last week to the effect that chemical weapons may have been used in Syria.
“I think it is unacceptable to use it, to speculate on it for geopolitical purposes.”
The White House said in a letter to lawmakers on Thursday that intelligence gathered by the United States, with the help of opposition forces in Syria, shows “with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria.” Damascus has denied using chemical weapons, but said the opposition might have used them.
US President Barack Obama has described the use of chemical weapons in the conflict a “red line” for potential American intervention, but held back from saying what the US might do about the latest disclosures. The White House letter said the attack very likely originated with Assad’s forces.
© RIA Novosti.
Elimination of Chemical Weapons in the World
The US has been in contact with neighboring states including Israel, Jordan and Turkey over what measures to take to stop chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria falling into the hands of terrorist groups, the New York Times reported last November. Israel is concerned in particular that Lebanon's Hezbollah movement could get hold of chemical warheads that it could fire from rockets into Israel.
If Assad’s forces has indeed use chemical weapons, Washington has a chance to press Russia and China, as UN Security Council members which have previously blocked sanctions against Syria, to take action, said Bruce Riedel a former veteran Middle East analyst at the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Lavrov said last Tuesday that any reports of the alleged use of chemical weapons in the conflict must be carefully investigated to avoid a repetition of the “Iraqi scenario.”
In 2003, unconfirmed intelligence that former Iraqi dictaror Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction were used as justification for a US-led invasion. That information later proved to be almost totally unfounded, according to weapons inspectors who searched for the weapons after that war.
RIA Novosti
In The forum part of the McCain Institute for International Leadership, a program formed by McCain as a way to debate foreign affairs. This year's theme for the Sedona Forum is "How can we promote freedom and democracy effectively?"
Rather than a discussion between McCain and Biden, the two sat on stage together with McCain posing questions to his former Democratic adversary on gun control and whether background checks are necessary, human rights abuses at the hands of the United States and the recent bombings at the Boston marathon.
McCain and Biden both said that despite their disagreements, they've never lost respect for one another.
On gun control, Biden said it's never been a simple issue, but that Congress has miscalculated how deeply the public feels about it and has failed to stand up to groups like the National Rifle Association, particularly after the shootings in Newtown. He said the public is looking to Congress to be mature enough to figure out a way to diminish the chance it will happen again.
"For the first time ever, you have people who are for gun safety, for increasing background checks," Biden said. "Two out of three of them say it will be a major determining factor in how I vote. That's the political dynamic that has changed. So I think we're going to get this anyway. I think this will pass before the year is out, within this Congress."
In responding to a question about the vulnerabilities of the United States when it comes to terrorist attacks, Biden said that the radical, lone wolves have been the most difficult to catch. But he said America shouldn't change its values, how it treats people abroad or people coming into the United States. Nor should America adopt policies that keep people from freely walking down the street without being frisked by police or carrying identification cards, he said.
"The moment we change any of those things, that's when they win," Biden said. "Because they don't see how you can have a society that is not ordered and regimented and wedded to an orthodoxy that is theirs. That's the point that bothers them most about us."
McCain followed up by saying that those who tortured U.S. prisoners, in violation of the Geneva convention, should be exposed and be held responsible to prevent repeated abuses.
Biden agreed with the man once held as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. He said the internal debate in Congress and at the White House is how things got to that point, but it's not yet resolved.
"I think the only way you excise the demons is you acknowledge what happened, straightforward," Biden said.
Breitbart
Oh sorry mr. Pharaoh we will search Moses
"Because of these reckless cuts, there are parents whose kids just got kicked out of Head Start programs scrambling for a solution. There are seniors who depend on programs like Meals on Wheels to live independently looking for help. There are military communities - families that have already sacrificed enough - coping under new strains. All because of these cuts."
"This week, the sequester hurt travelers, who were stuck for hours in airports and on planes, and rightly frustrated by it."
And, there's more pain on the horizon, Obama warned: "These cuts are scheduled to keep falling across other parts of the government that provide vital services for the American people."
Then, Obama declared that the only way to avoid more sequester pain is to pass his budget:
"There is only one way to truly fix the sequester: by replacing it before it causes further damage.
"A couple weeks ago, I put forward a budget that replaces the next several years of these dumb cuts with smarter cuts; reforms our tax code to close wasteful special interest loopholes; and invests in things like education, research, and manufacturing that will create new jobs right now."
Obama warned of the "pain felt by kids kicked off Head Start, or the 750,000 Americans projected to lose their jobs" due to the sequester.
Children and workers are being hurt and "That pain is real" - and more will follow if Congress doesn't pass his budget, Obama warned:
"The American people worked too hard, for too long, rebuilding from one economic crisis just to see your elected officials keep causing more."
CNS
Don Draper, Mad Men’s master advertiser likes to say “when you don’t like what they are saying, change the conversation.” When it comes to the current economic weakness, which was confirmed again today by the release of lower than expected GDP data, Washington would love do just that. Fortunately for them, they consistently outdo the master minds of Madison Avenue when it comes to misdirection. If the government doesn’t like what people are saying, they don’t bother just to change the conversation, they change the meaning of the words.
The latest example of this was revealed earlier this week when the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) announced new methods of calculating Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that will immediately make the economy “bigger’ than it used to be. The changes focus heavily on how money spent on research and development (R&D) and the production of “intangible” assets like movies, music, and television programs will be accounted for. Declaring such expenditures to be “investments” will immediately increase U.S. GDP by about three percent. Such an upgrade would immediately increase the theoretic size of the U.S economy and may well lead to the perception of faster growth. In reality these smoke and mirror alterations are no different from changes made to the inflation and unemployment yardsticks that for years have convinced Americans that the economy is better than it actually is.
Today’s data release confirms that the economic “recovery” is weaker than expected and remains heavily dependent on Federal support. Personal spending was indeed up 3.2%, the biggest jump in two years, but real earnings were down by 5.3%, the biggest fall since 2009. Not surprisingly the buying was made possible by a drop in the savings rate, which came in at just 2.6%, the lowest since the 4th quarter of 2007. No doubt, rising home prices and falling mortgage rates (made possible by Fed stimulus) allowed Americans to refinance their homes and to borrow and spend the money that they did not earn. With GDP continuing to disappoint, a statistical make-over couldn't come at a more convenient time.
In the simplest terms, GDP is calculated by combining a nation’s private spending, government spending, and investments (while adding trade surplus or subtracting trade deficits). Business spending on R&D, a portion of which comes in the form of salaries, has traditionally been considered an expense that does not explicitly add to GDP. But now, the United States will lead the rest of the world in redefining GDP. Washington has now declared that the $400 billion spent annually by U.S. businesses on R&D will count towards GDP. This equates to about 2.7% of our nearly $16 Trillion GDP. The argument goes that, for example, the GDP generated by iPhones has far exceeded the cost spent by Apple to develop the product. Therefore, Apple’s R&D is not an expense but an investment.
The BEA also argues that the cost of producing television shows, movies, and music should count as investments that add to GDP. Supporters of the change often hold up the blockbuster television comedy Seinfeld as an example. Given that the show’s billions in earnings far exceeded its initial costs, they argue that the production expenses should be considered “investments” (like R&D) and be added into GDP.
Economists who have staked their reputations on the efficacy of Keynesian growth strategies have argued that such changes will more accurately reflect the realities of our 21st century information economy. But their analysis ignores the failures so often associated with R&D and artistic productions. For every breakthrough iPhone there are dozens of ill-conceived gizmos that never get off the drawing board. For every Seinfeld, there are countless failures and bombs that leave nothing but losses.
In essence, the new methodology is an exercise in double accounting. For instance, suppose a company employs an accountant who works in the sales department, who is then transferred to the R&D department at the same salary. He still counts beans but now his salary will be billed to the R&D budget rather than sales. In the old methodology, the accountant’s impact on GDP would come only from the personal consumption that his salary allows. Going forward, he will add to GDP in two ways: from his personal consumption and his salary’s addition to his company’s R&D budget. The same formula would apply to a trucker who switches from a freight company to a movie production company (for the same salary). If he moves refrigerators, he only adds to GDP through his personal spending, but if he hauls movie lights, his contribution to GDP is doubled. It makes no difference if the movie bombs.
These double shots are different from traditional investments, which inject savings (or idle cash) back into the marketplace. Until money from personal or corporate savings is invested, it is not adding to GDP.
Another change that will artificially boost GDP concerns how government salaries will be counted. Unlike most private sector compensation, wages, salaries, and pension contributions paid to government workers are added directly to GDP. This distinction makes sense and eliminates potentially double accounting. Profits generated by private companies add to GDP when they are ultimately spent or invested by the company. Wages reduce profits, and therefore reduce GDP. But that reduction is cancelled out by the consumption of the employee receiving the wages. Governments do not generate profits, so salaries are the only way that public spending adds back to GDP.
The new system magnifies the GDP impact of government pensions, which are a principal component of public sector compensation. Going forward, the pensions will be calculated not from actual contributions, but from what governments have promised. Under the old system, if a state had a $10,000 pension obligation but only contributed $1,000, only the $1,000 would be added to GDP. Under the new system the entire $10,000 would be counted. So now governments can magically grow the economy simply by making promises they can’t keep.
The bottom line is that now certain private sector salaries (in R&D and entertainment) will be counted twice and public pension contributions will be counted even if they aren’t made. The economy will not actually be any larger or grow any faster, but the statistics will claim otherwise. With the stroke of a pen, our debt to GDP ratio will come down. Will this soothe the fears of our creditors? Will critics of big government take comfort that spending as a share of GDP may be lower? My guess is that the government is confident that its trick will work, and that distracting attention with a statistical illusion is the sole motivation for the change.
A similar type of hocus pocus has been successfully used to make inflation appear much smaller. A few months ago I produced a video showing how changes in methods used to calculate the Consumer Price Index (CPI) have resulted in a widening gap between increases in real prices and the CPI. The changes, that incorporate such concepts as hedonic adjustments and substation bias, were made to make the CPI more “accurate,” but have instead produced consistently lower results. Although I used a basket of 20 goods for that experiment, I gave particular attention to such things as newspaper and magazine prices and health insurance costs. But just recently I came across another data set that leads to the same conclusion.
Since the late 1980’s, The Economist Magazine has compiled something called the “Big Mac Index,”(BMI) a global survey of the cost of McDonald’s signature hamburger. Although the index is primarily used as a means to compare purchasing power parity around the globe, it also can be used to track the prices of Big Macs in the U.S. over many years.
From 1986 to 2003 the U.S. BMI rose roughly in line with the CPI. Although the burger occasionally rose faster or slower, over that 17 year period both indexes increased by about 68% (or about 4% per year). But from April 2003 to January 2013 the CPI Index is up just 25% percent (from 183.8 to 230.28 or about 2.5% per year) while the BMI is up 61% (from $2.71 to $4.37 or about 6.1% per year), or more than twice the rate of inflation.
What could possibly account for the difference? Has the Big Mac gotten bigger, better, tastier, or healthier? As an iconic product, McDonald’s has been reluctant to change a proven formula. If the Big Mac hasn’t changed, is it possible that our inflation yardstick has?
It has been estimated that if the government used the same methodology to measure inflation that it used during the 1980’s, we would be currently dealing with officialinflation that would be many times higher than today’s official 1.5%rate. The Big Mac appears to confirm this.
But now the government appears ready to distort the figures even further. With little resistance from the media or the public, the Obama Administration and Congressional Republicans seem ready to switch the inflation measurements used for Social Security away from the CPI in favor of the even more attenuated “Chain Weighted CPI.” This index, which is consistently lower than the CPI, looks to incorporate changes in spending patterns when consumers switch to more affordable products (in other words, it measures the cost of survival, not the cost of living). And while many admit that this is a manipulation, no one really seems to care.
Similarly clumsy tricks have been used to make our unemployment problem appear less severe. Over the years new methods have been introduced to factor out those who have “dropped out” of the labor force or to count part-time or temporary workers as employed.
All this takes us right back to Don Draper. If you can’t change the conversation, change the words. If that doesn’t work, just change the dictionaries.
Read more: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PeterSchiffsEconomicCommentary/~3/pu4uPauSF_c/changing_conversation#ixzz2RrCA41n8
Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi has survived a car bomb attack in the capital, Damascus, state media say.
The blast in the capital's western Mezzeh district targeted Mr Halqi's convoy, state TV said, reportedly causing a number of casualties.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, said Mr Halqi's bodyguard had been killed, AFP news agency reported.
It is unclear whether the blast was a suicide bombing or a planted device.
State television carried a brief interview with Mr Halqi, saying that it was filmed after the attack.
He appears assured but somewhat shaken in the interview, in which he talks about a meeting he has just attended on the economy.
"I was walking in the street when suddenly there was a very powerful explosion and I saw a car burning and people running," a witness told AFP.
State TV said the blast happened at a busy intersection, near a public garden and a school. The upmarket neighbourhood is home to government buildings, the residences of several political figures and a military airport vital to the regime's defences.
An unnamed Syrian official said the explosion was caused by a bomb placed underneath a parked car in the area, the Associated Press news agency reported.
An earlier report said it had been a suicide attack.
Footage from the scene showed the charred remains of several vehicles, and a badly damaged bus. Debris and glass were strewn around a wide area, where onlookers had gathered.
A picture that activists said was of the site just after the attack showed a large plume of black smoke rising into the air near a road and a high-rise building.
Syrian forces and rebels have been fighting around Damascus for months but with neither side gaining the upper hand.
The attack is the latest bombing inside government-controlled areas of the capital.
In December a suicide bombing struck the interior ministry. State media said top officials had escaped unhurt, but it later emerged that the interior minister himself had been badly injured.
So far there has been no claim of responsibility for Monday's attack. Similar bombings in the past have been linked to the jihadist al-Nusra Front, one of the most prominent rebel groups fighting the regime.
Mr Halqi, a senior member of the ruling Baath party, became prime minister last year after Riad Hijab defected to Jordan. He was previously health minister.
More than 70,000 people have been killed since fighting between Syrian forces and rebels erupted in March 2011.
BBC
