It’s getting close to October – to Halloween – and Cadbury has released a new, Halloween-themed Creme Egg. It’s like the ones they sell around Easter – only the gooey insides are green instead of yellow. Forgive me. I like these chocolate eggs – no matter the color of the insides – and can’t resist grabbing a handful when I see the display box at the supermarket. But I noticed that more fit in my hand now than used to. The Cadbury Creme Egg went from being about the same size as a normal chicken egg – to the size of a robin’s egg. It’s about a third smaller now – but the price remains the same.
Watch this video; see for yourself:
Similarly chocolate bars – which have been downsized, too. They are about a third smaller in terms of overall dimensions – and also, thinner. Have you noticed? (Here’s a recent news story about that.)
Of course, the price of chocolate bars hasn’t gone down, either. You pay more for the same – which means, you pay more for less – and they hope you’re too dumb to notice. Or, perhaps, they are counting on the psychological angle; that it is preferable to see “price stability” – even to the extent of willfully ignoring that you’re getting less and less of whatever the item is and paying the same (or, in some cases, more).
I take OsteoBiFlex – a supplement that’s supposed to help keep your joints limber. Just bought a bottle – the same size bottle. But inside the opaque, deep blue bottle – half empty! Not even cotton to fill the air gap.
I admit it’s clever. Much less clumsy, at any rate, than simply jacking up the price. Corporate America is nothing if not clever. Lawyers are often disparaged as shysters, but Corporate America is the true master of the art of shysterism. They get us to refer to their ads as “sponsored content.” They advise that we’ll “learn more” (really? Gosh! It’s like a free college course…) if we click on said “sponsored content.”
They can – and do – sell us anything.
The latest being inflation.
People ought to be seriously uneasy about the unmistakable intrusion of its reality into their American Idolized, Fuuuuuuhhhhtttball venerating lives. The federal government can fudge – can outright lie – about the various indicators of economic health. Can shift perceptions of reality. But reality can’t be dismissed so easily. If it takes more dollars to purchase cocoa or sugar then the price of a Creme Egg or chocolate bar has to increase commensurately in order to maintain the same equilibrium between the cost to make the item and the profit it earns. When the economy is flooded with funny money – “quantitative easing,” another euphemism whose sole purpose is to obfuscate reality – the value of a given thing remains the same but its apparent cost increases. It takes more sheaves of funny money to buy the same item. This is inflation.
And, because the average person cannot magically increase the amount of paper currency he carries (only the “Federal” Reserve can legally counterfeit) he is systematically impoverished.
The powers that be are trying to keep a lid on a pressure cooker that’s on the verge of blowing its top. Since 2008, the economy of the United State (singular, in the interests of honest language) has been injected with “liquidity” – that is, with historically unparalleled sheaves of manufactured money, in a desperate financial Hail Mary attempt to forestall the inevitable, a correction of just as unparalleled historic awfulness.
They claim inflation is “under control” – only about 2-3 percent annually (see here). If so, then why does our Fed Funny Money (which we’re forced to use; a point that must be made in deference, once again, to honest language) buy ever diminishing quantities of almost everything? The fact that the price of these items hasn’t gone up by double digits doesn’t change the underlying fact that the size/quantity of what you get has gone down by double digits, or almost.
More money – for less stuff.
If it were just Creme Eggs – or chocolate bars – one might shrug it off as a localized aberration. Something to do with volatility in a given market. Or, perhaps some sort of price-fixing flim-flam within a given industry. But it’s happening across the board – as anyone who shops for basic staples, food and so on, already knows. The bag of groceries that cost $50 five years ago now costs $70 – and there’s less in the bag, too. Gas costs twice what it did just five years ago. We’ve just gotten used to $3.40 as the New Normal.
It’s a canary in the coal mine, folks.
How much smaller can a Creme Egg get?
Throw it in the Woods?
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Speaking of, ‘Our Impoverishment’. Did you guys see this bit:
The Next Real Estate Bubble Is Already Underway
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=7945
No, and the reason why not is related to the same trick your post is bringing out.
There are three main ingredients to a bar of chocolate: cocoa, milk and sugar. With the help of R & D, it is possible to change the formulation to bring in cheaper ingredients and change the balance among the others. Notably, the proportion of cocoa to the milk and sugar can be reduced, and even the milk and sugar can be reduced as a proportion of the whole, by adding suitably modified vegetable fats and so on. Just as sizes can be reduced to maintain similar pricing per unit, the same pressures lead to this sort of quality rebalancing downward. It’s as tricky to spot as watering milk, unless and until it goes just that much too far. Even switching to marketing Creme Eggs rather than bars of chocolate is part of the process, since the filling substitutes for chocolate in the overall weight; I used to like buying the kind of Creme Eggs that had a chocolate filling, but they don’t seem to be around any more.
My wife was just complaining on Sunday about another example of product shrinkage.
She was baking a cake, from a mix. A cake mix used to contain 18 oz of product.
The last one she used, from a major brand name, was 15.25 oz.
Used to fill a 9×13 pan quite nicely. Now it’s about half as deep in the pan.
She happened to look at off brand cake mix since then and they are still 18oz. So no more brand name cake mix for her.
Idiots, did they think no one would notice?
I buy hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, and candles among many other things from Walmart. For these three items I have older ones at home for comparison. Both the hydrogen and the alcohol bottles are half the size and the same price they used to be for the double the size. Also, the candles I normally buy use to be 25 cents, same ones are now 50 cents. Happened overnight about two years ago.
dom, mang, why are you buying candles from Wallyworld?
Skip out on work a half an hour early on Thursday and hit up a couple of estate sales or garage sales and get candles 5 Cents on the Dollar. tHAT’s wHAt Craigslist if FOR!
just look at the ladies and give them, “The eye” of, sell it to me at this price, yes. Low Ball Them! And they’ll do it. Stop ignoring your abilities, your power over the ladies! Ha.
You are so000 way over paying.000
Anyway, a question I had was: how many candles is enough? A box? Two boxes?
Ok, excuse me, my better half is having chest pains, acting like this is The Sandford Big One… getting old is not Not For Wimps.
..pardon the interruption.
Yeah, …
You’re right! Also, I’ve been collecting candles for a long time. I’d say about the same time I started collecting guns. Now that I think about it.. it was when I met Eric! HA
So what’cher sayin’ is, there’s no limit to the amount of candles one should collect?
…And, I should stop passing up those boxes the pretty ladies at the garage sales offer me dirt cheap?
Even the half burnt ones?
Are you also saying it might be a great way to meet a cool dude just like eric to hang around with and break things with, or maybe it;s a way to add a beautiful woman to add to my start-up (non-existent) harem?
I did see a stunning woman in a dress and strappy sandals today at one that… oh, never mind, I’m daydreaming.
Oh and she WAS
…But bunching up is Not a bad plan, imho.
Me too!
Candles keep pretty much forever, I guess. So no worries about ’em going bad. I wish fuel stored as well…
Hi Farmer Tom,
I think they do think none one – or most people, at any rate – won’t notice.
And I think they may be right.
How else to explain the passivity?
Imagine if instead of reducing the quantity of a given item while keeping the cost about the same or only slightly higher, they had simply increased the price by an amount corresponding to true inflation… which would be in the neighborhood of 30 percent, I think.
People would be screeching bloody murder about that.
But so long as the box is the same size….
“How else to explain the passivity?”
that 70’s show. gold window (well, cubbyhole, by then) closure. the old saving incentives/rewards were undone, & so the old habits were unlearned, behavior modified – in meager, attempted self-defense: get rid of the $ now, for it will purchase less tomorrow. go into debt – pay it off (if ever) in depreciated currency. real estate shenanigans became a “great” debt-is-wealth inversion. get the wives working in an effort to bridge the widening gap, try to maintain the old lifestyle. etc.
not exactly passive. or aggressive. passive-aggressive? passive x aggressive = regressive. or is that progressive? does either ever do a body good? ☻
more generally, but in a collapsing of the topic sort of way, institutional-tool raison detre is creation of institutional/institutionalized people. “people.” passivity & conformance. shawshanks & cafo’s (concentrated animal feeding operations). steers & geldings. trustees. eunuchs. snitches & snoops & voluntary/honorary leo’s (law enforcement ossifieds). shanks & shower scenes.
here’s the thing, tho. the real, real thing, lol. it ain’t an “us agin’ them” dynamic. it never was & probably will never be that. pogo possum is/has been the prevailing dynamic. that’s the conspiracy. submission to / imposition of authority is so highly prized & valued that “authority” geegaws aplenty, in all price points, line the shelves of the global wal(lop ya’)mart. and “consumer” response is, “thank you sir, may i please have another?”, “i want some more, please”, & appreciative “mooo-ooo’s”. demand is, has always been, insatiable. larken & lew & the rest of the loyal opposition will never overcome that, no matter how long & how eloquently they extol the virtues of an/correct alternative human comportment. egalitarianism, up or down, is a “revolt against nature.” lose-lose.
Ruby: [On discussing the war’s origin] Every piece of this is man’s bullshit. They call this war a cloud over the land. But they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say ‘Shit, it’s raining!’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xotWaUIAuC4
“some people walk in the rain, others just get wet” ~ roger miller
gene kelly danced (& sang) in the rain.
for a time in ’69 we lived in a cottage in treasure island, fl. the beach was just across the street. camille came. when the wind got to blowing the rain right through the mortar between the bricks in the fireplace, me & mine walked in the rain (rhymed, synonymic, with pain, that time…) – as we evacuated.
in ’65 we were in san diego. watts was happening up the road. pap called the local “meteorologists” to confirm the efficacy of his plans should the storm hit our property line, was told he had to wait for the rain to fall inside the house – & we evacuated the state.
point should be clear: when a big storm’s coming, how much swordfish money there is in the flemish cap is i-r-r-elevant (internal rate of return on soon to be sunk investment is then a fool’s calculation)…. value subjectivity – it ain’t a set/forget, but drops right along with barometric pressure. staying to read the barometer will prove it, if proof is necessary.
mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur
“the world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived.”
self-deception is core, the fulcrum to which all the various levers are applied. and the coked up “i’d like to teach the world…” (or some “tipping point” fraction of it) is one of those self-deceptions.
♪ ♫ ♪ don’t forget this fact, you can’t get it back; it’s a lie, it’s a lie, it’s a lie… (it was never there to begin with).
Bought 2 boxes of American Eagle 22lr about month ago. When I finally got around to shooting them upon closer examination the boxes had 40 rounds
und to s
Do you mean quantitative easing? I think you might.
Quantitative vs. Qualitative easing.
Quantitative easing is an increase in the size of the balance sheet of the central bank through an increase [in its] monetary liabilities (base money), holding constant the composition of its assets. Asset composition can be defined as the proportional shares of the different financial instruments held by the central bank in the total value of its assets. An almost equivalent definition would be that quantitative easing is an increase in the size of the balance sheet of the central bank through an increase in its monetary liabilities that holds constant the (average) liquidity and riskiness of its asset portfolio. Qualitative easing is a shift in the composition of the assets of the central bank towards less liquid and riskier assets, holding constant the size of the balance sheet (and the official policy rate and the rest of the list of usual suspects). The less liquid and more risky assets can be private securities as well as sovereign or sovereign-guaranteed instruments. All forms of risk, including credit risk (default risk) are included
Hi John,
Yes – thanks.
Sigh. My kingdom for a copy editor….
Copy editor at your service, if you’ll have me. Hey it was worth a try, right?
One thing I’ve gotten into the habit of pointing out to people in places that sell grocery items is that 12 ounces is the “new” pound and 10 ounces is the “new new” pound.
That and, do you remember going to restaurants (mid-scale and greasy spoon alike) the menus that had been around so long, the edges and corners were slightly frayed in places and some had a sticky spot or two? Notice that there’s hardly anywhere that doesn’t get shiny, brand-new ones every six months or so. After all, they can’t cut back too far on the quantities for the same money since you’d get to a point where what arrives at the table looks nothing like the picture.
At those times, I can’t resist declaring, “New menus – prices went up again!” to anyone within earshot. While I understand that no (non-politically-connected) business can escape the reality of economics, that doesn’t mandate silence on the matter.
Hi Ferret,
Yup!
Went to Outback recently. The portions are now so small you leave hungry!
I remember when eating there was an exercise in gross over-consumption.
Welcome to the Turd World….
You know…someone would have to coordinate a thing like this.
The last time that was done openly was when Nixon fixed prices in the early ’70s.
But really, around the net the forecasts for stiff inflation have been CONSTANT – and now ridiculed – because of the low measurement of DCI or other inflation measures such as the “Billion Price Project”.
When a loan is created the money is also ‘created’ in that the loan is just an accounting entry, where such transactions rarely really have to ‘clear’ by means of anything more substantial than another accounting entry. Trust between banks, each that the other bank has not ‘fudged’ or ‘off-balance-sheeted’ such that they are secretly insolvent and incapable of clearing the payment in any actual sense – is all that ever kept the system together.
When that trust collapses, the bank deflates like a pricked balloon. And then you get to see how little substance filled its porcine proportions.
That was what happened in 2008.
What was supposed to follow was BANKRUPTCY – of the bank. The bank’s officers would be out of the job. Its assets would go on sale with the proceeds being divided between the bank’s creditors. You should note that depositors are among the bank’s creditors. And so the ultimate backstop was ‘SUPPOSEDLY’ FDIC – to make YOU whole (rather than the bank’s officers) in the event of BANKRUPTCY.
We all know what happened. These banks got to keep their depositor’s money by way of a round trip through Washington. But that was the ‘little’ bail-out. The BIG bailout came from the Federal reserve who, in the words of Ben Bernanke, “…essentially added zeros to the bank’s reserve account.” This process is MONEY PRINTING by any other name.
Thus the observation that inflation was coming.
And so it is curious that inflation has been declared – consistently declared – tame, despite our accelerating real expenses.
Could it be that the handful of MegaCorps who essentially own the government, as well as most of the smaller corporations, COORDINATED with one another to SHRINK products where possible, so as to keep the CONSUMER price index tame, even while the PRODUCER price index climbed like a Swiss hiker?
Could it be that this is the modern incarnation of the time-honored price-freeze?
What manufacturers call “shrinkage” has been going on at various intensities since the inflation-ravaged 1970s (I’m old enough to recall that time). The price stays the same but the amount of product shrinks.
A few years ago I saw a more obvious example. We like Mexican food, including tacos. So I would buy packages of 12 “stand-up” taco shells. Then one day the package contained just 10 shells.
” The powers that be are trying to keep a lid on a pressure cooker that’s on the verge of blowing its top.”
Huh. Wonder if you’ll be getting a visit from the authorities for that line…
Downsizing to keep prices from skyrocketing is a very old practice. When I was about 10 (1962) my old man pointed to a Hershey bar I’d just bought and said that when he was my age (1932) a hershey bar was bigger and only cost a nickel instead of the dime I had just paid.
When I was a teenager, I noticed that a Mars bar cost a quarter and was about half the size of the ones I bought when I was 10 or so. The newer ones came in a wrapper almost as big as the old one, but the old bar was in a green waxed paper wrapper and measured about 1.5″ x 3″, with two rows of three almonds. The new one measured about 1″ x2.5″ and had one row of three almonds. The bar with the same name now measures about that same size and weight, but there’s no whole almond row at all on top, and the ingredients are now High Fructose Corn Syrup, soy lecithin and other crapola. Nothin new in principle, just a greatly increased scale.
I bought “The Last Whole Earth Catalog” in 1971. It gave me a glimpse into things never discussed on TV or radio. It led me to books such as “Coming Into the Country” which was about Alaska residents. The way those people talked and the things they talked about would fit in on the threads here. There were gold prospectors who talked about phony paper money, Posse Comitatus guys talking about feds murdering tax resisters, and other topics close to what we discuss here and now.
Point is, all these things have been going on for a very long time. Things seem to be coming to a head, but it seems to me that more people are awake now than at any time in the past century.
The same amount of gold that would purchase a car in 1920 will purchase a car today.
Ten ounces of gold was worth approximately $250.00 in 1920, the average price of a car.
Today, ten ounces of gold is worth approximately $21,000.00, the average price of a car.
It is the paper money that is being devalued . . .
Food and diet? I read yesterday that in spite of it not being good for anybody; that eight states ordered approximately two million pounds of PINK SLIME meat for school lunches in the USA for the 2013/2014 school year.
The corporations have to dispose of their waste somewhere. The retail store public won’t touch it. Only educated teachers and administrators will. Like Mafia-Ma Pelosi so famously said “It’s for the children”.
Another clever trick? Adding low cost water. Diet TV dinners, for example, are often regular TV dinners with higher water content. Insultingly, many diet TV dinner consumers pay a premium to get a watered down versions of the usual TV dinner product at a much higher price!
Food Typical Percentage Water
Lettuce (1½ cup) 95%
Watermelon (1½ cup) 92%
Broccoli (1½ cup) 91%
Grapefruit (1½ cup) 91%
Milk (1 cup) 89%
Orange juice (3/4 cup) 88%
Carrot (1½ cup) 87%
Yogurt (1 cup) 85%
Apple (one medium) 84%
Also the useless newspeak brand name scam
Triple Strength Osteo Bi-Flex!!!
AKA 1,500 mg glucosamine and 1,200 mg chondroitin
& sometimes also
MSM (methylsulfonylmethane)
5-loxin
http://health.walmart.com/health-article/us/assets/nutritional-supplement/glucosamine/how-it-works
http://health.walmart.com/health-article/us/assets/nutritional-supplement/
– The basterds make it impossible to figure out any meaningful info on what you’re even taking. You’re on a need to know basis. and “It’s got electrolytyes” is what they need you to know.
Joe: I’m pretty sure what’s killing the crops is this Brawndo stuff.
Secretary of State: But Brawndo’s got what plants crave. It’s got electrolytes.
========
Yeah – we be fukt. Best hope was the Space Race X-Project. Hoped that would get us somewhere, ’cause a hard life bustin’ ass and keeping what you make, is worth more than an easy life keeping what someone else allows you.
I begin to think the smart people kill themselves…
Joe: I’m pretty sure what’s killing the crops is this Brawndo stuff.
Secretary of State: But Brawndo’s got what plants crave. It’s got electrolytes.
I need to sit down sometime soon and watch that documentary again. I have no doubt that we’ll soon be hearing something like the second line in the quote above from the current sepia-skinned sock puppet or one of his equally ignorant and repulsive minions – and just as little doubt that millions of brainstemmers across the country will swallow it whole.
David Petraeus Endures Angry Students on First Day of Class
Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e04_1378927399
Dutch public sound system hacked
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=994_1378923358
Obamacare is off to a good start in Kenya
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b0d_1378922313
– Fight the power!
He sure earned his big buck payoff for being one of the boys today. Can’t wait to see if Big Sis Janet Napolatano shows her mug on any Califonia college campus’s.
So true Eric. The stagflation of the 70’s is back with a vengeance. Wages the same but cost of living up, which benefits only those connected with the Federal Reserve. Those that get the money first. The flopped Nixonian price control policy has been re-branded by Madison Avenue. We get tiny containers of stuff for a moderate increase (inflation is good, right?) in price, and food stamps to placate the potential rioters.
I went to Wally-Mart yesterday and had to laugh at the newly shaped tiny containers of ice cream that still sell for the old $3.50. Uncle Sam says see, no inflation because the adulterated hydrogenated stuff is still $3.50. It is called cost-push inflation and sold to me in the same Cadbrury bag.
I had a Keynesian tell me that once the oil fracking boom takes off, the unitedstate will just sell lots and lots of oil and pay down the debt with that and everyone can work for the oil fracking companies and those who service them.
Then everyone will be able to buy what they need and these high prices won’t mean a thing.
Fat, dumb and happy.
While I’m sure they’d love to export LNG overseas, in the mean time they’re quite happy with attempting to eliminate competition in the electricity industry:
http://atomicinsights.com/natural-gas-companies-purposely-overproducing-build-market-share-deter-competition/
Direct link to the video (with cue points): http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/21636
It’s a long video, but the relevant discussion is at the edit point at 8:38
The first time I remember seeing this kind of thing was in the early ’90s, when soda manufacturers started reducing the size of a can of soda from 12 ozs. to 11.5 ozs., or something like that. Similarly, one-ounce bags of chips quietly became 3/4 ounce bags.
It’s a sly way of hiding inflation, as you say, Eric, and it’s perfectly symbolic of our overall economy. The guvmint removes energy and food from the inflation numbers, and suddenly inflation looks low to the masses. They remove people from the employment pool, and unemployment doesn’t look so bad. They do accounting tricks with the federal budget, and it appears that the total amount of debt is stabilizing. They tweak the measurements, and GDP looks pretty good.
This is why I don’t trust any numbers coming out of the guvmint. They’ve got the goalposts on wheels now, and can move them whenever they need.
With 40% or more of the population on food stamps (EBT), no one cares about price inflation in the grocery store.
Eric_G – With the increasing dependency of the populace on foodstamps a.k.a. EBT a.k.a. SNAP, not only do the recipients not care, they become another source of inflation. The recipients create additional demand with their government sanctioned worthless ones and zeroes (not even worthless paper anymore) which in turn causes prices to rise and quantities to diminish that much faster. It’s naked vote buying plain and simple. The PTB let the unwashed masses have their cut of what Leviathan steals for those of us that remain productive and they are only to happy to share the spoils. It’s only a matter of time before the host either dies or forcibly dislodges the parasites. It can’t happen quick enough to suit me.
Corporate America is nothing if not clever. Lawyers are often disparaged as shysters, but Corporate America is the true master of the art of shysterism. They get us to refer to their ads as “sponsored content.” They advise that we’ll “learn more” (really? Gosh! It’s like a free college course…) if we click on said “sponsored content.”
They can – and do – sell us anything.
Time once was when “Corporate America”[TM] actually had products and services of value to sell and was genuinely interested in providing them to willing buyers.
No longer.
Today it’s all about separating the rubes from their inflation-wracked fiat dollars without even putting up a pretense of providing anything of value in return. While some might express sympathy for the corporate side, chalking the current shortcutting/underhandedness/swindling up to “the long-term effects of over-regulation and monetary inflation,” the truth is just the opposite. These corporations are not “victims” of regulation and inflation; they have, over the last several decades, actively led the charge (through their bought-and-paid-for politician proxies in state and national capitols) in implementing these socioeconomically destructive trends. The more “regulation” there is of the marketplace, the more power the select few corporate behemoths have to enforce self-serving monopolies and choke out competition. The more “inflation,” the less in capital resources they have to expend to put out a quality product while fattening their own bottom lines.
Heads, they win; tails, we the consumers lose.
What if you shoot the coin out of the air? 😀
As BrentP pointed out above, only the enlightened among us understand the root cause of the inflation time bomb. What to do? Well we have to educate those around us as to the reality of inflation. I start out by explaining that an increase in consumer prices is a symptom of monetary inflation, not a cause. That inflation doesn’t happen because greedy businesses raise prices any more than wet sidewalks cause rain or snotty noses cause colds. Then I point out that if the gun-vernment suddenly decided to make tree leaves currency we’d all be rich, right? Everyone would just go out in the woods with trash bags, collect leaves and then head to the store as billionaires. Of course, it wouldn’t take any time at all for the store owners to start saying “Sorry folks, we already have plenty of leaves. What else ya’ got? Any gold? Silver maybe? How ‘bout .22 bullets?” As we already know, leaves would essentially be worthless; and so would Federal Reserve paper if we didn’t “believe.”
Next I pull out my nice crisp 10, 50 and 100 Trillion Dollar Zimbabwe notes and let my student look them over while I explain these were “real money” in 2008. I point out that I had to pony up the tidy sum of $3.64 on-line to be a trillionaire and how this happened. After that I hand them a 1921 Morgan silver dollar I carry and explain that this one legitimate U.S. dollar cost me 26 paper Federal Reserve Notes. Once they feel the heft of it and examine the Zim funny money, even the unwashed usually show a spark of understanding. And I run into more and more people that already have some level of understanding of the money changers’ scam these days. If more of us will calmly and intelligently spread the word about what the money changers are doing, there’s a good chance more of the economy will be driven underground and into barter. With enough public outcry we might even see our state governments start honoring their constitutional obligations with regard to money. Oh, that’s right, some are already doing this: http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2013/04/more-states-making-moves-to-gold-silver-as-legal-tender/ (there is hope). Let’s keep educating those around us and see what happens.
No, because it’s actually trickier and sneakier than that. It doesn’t matter whether you believe in it or not as the belief is just the flywheel smoothing things out rather than what keeps the trick going. That trick is Chartalism; for as long as they have the force to require taxes paid in their fiat currency, it will have some value for that – and that in turn creates an accurate belief, so that people value it for other transactions and not just for taxes. Of course, your personally valuing it gets less and less important the less economic strength you have left, as they can’t get blood from a stone. From their point of view, the failure isn’t the printing of more money but the not keeping up with mopping it up with taxes.
“Quantitative Easing” is basically printing dollars to meet margin call.
It’s adding water to fill the hole you dug – and then, when the sides of the hole collapse, you add MORE water, and pretend it’s ALL dirt.
One of those things that makes me think most of humanity is just a herd, the Zombie Apocalypse is already here…
Price point in numerical dollars is very important in all retail goods. People do not blame the government for price increases, they blame the retailers, the manufacturers, etc and so on. Only the enlightened blame the government and the banksters.
In manufactured goods there is an on-going every day struggle to keep retail price constant. When it comes to food it is much more difficult to do so. There are only so many chemical substitutes and processing short cuts. Thus the way to keep retail price constant is to reduce the amount in the package.
Losing this battle often results in people going to the government that rules them and demand something be done. What’s government’s answer? Price controls. They have one tool ultimately, violence, so every problem looks like a nail. They force retailers and manufacturers to sell for certain prices or else. Eventually they simply decide selling at loss is foolish and shut down. Taking the only option they have.
Brent, you said:
In manufactured goods there is an on-going every day struggle to keep retail price constant. When it comes to food it is much more difficult to do so. There are only so many chemical substitutes and processing short cuts. Thus the way to keep retail price constant is to reduce the amount in the package.
I have a friend who USED to work in food sciences, corporate manufacture of food, I think it was at Hershey’s.
She left the field completely, as she was DISGUSTED at what was being put into food. It didn’t cost less; it didn’t add nutrition; it didn’t add flavor; it didn’t act as a preservative.
In other words, it was garbage going into the food, for no reason beyond adulterating the food.
However, the fringe … that’s looking more realistic every day. Think of the outlandish – truth is stranger than fiction, so let your mind wander a little with me.
So, Food 1 is adulterated with an inert compound.
Food 2 is also adulterated with a different inert compound.
Compound A and Compound B don’t even react, whether you add heat or light or water or [whatever].
But once exposed to stomach acid, Compound A breaks into Compunds A1 and A2, and Compund B into Compound B1, B2, and B3. the body doesn’t really know what to do with these things, to it stores them away from key organs – a process that results in Liver, Kidneys, Adrenal glands (indirectly), lungs (respiration is part of processing, plus the compounds are in the blood), and maybe even the BRAIN (Brain/Blood barrier’s been doscussed a lot already elsewhere, in this case, Google is your friend.)
The A1, A2, B1, B2, B3 metabolites are processed, and in the bloodstream – and then stored in fat.
Option 1, the various metabolites can react with each other inside the body. So, A1 + B2 –> mutagen X. Mutagen X binds ot insulin receptors, inducing band blood sugar control and insulin insensitivity. Note that the body will try to compensate – it’s still pumping out insuling like crazy, trying to stabilize the blood sugar levels – and over a decade or two – it burns out the organ (Pancreas, I think) that makes the insulin. Pancreas is unable to keep working at 10,000%, and dies.
You’re now diabetic. Type 2 diabetic, but diabetic – induced via chemistry – and are now forced to live as cattle, getting insulin from a syringe. And because you’re likely still processing these metabolites, for quite some time – you’re going to need more and more insulin to stabilize your blood sugar, until you either die, or can’t afford the meds.
But by then, you’re past your “Productive life” anyway, so who really gives a f*ck? Government just pockets the SS and Medicare monies you didn’t “spend.”
Back to reality: There’s no tinfoil hat involved.
This is KNOWN to happen: I take a 5-alpha-reductase blocker. (Hormone, aka chemical catalyst, which turns testosterone into DiHydroTestosterone. DHT causes prostate enlargement, body hair growth, etc, and is the strongest androgen in the body. Exists in both men and women.)
So, where does it happen WRT ingredients?
Anyone take supplements? Vitamin D? Vitamin B1, B3, B6, B12?
Maybe insulin?
Ever take Tylenol, or Aspirin? Tums?
See, there’s no REASON to reach for the tinfoil, it’s NOT outlandish. All the things listed – are DRUGS by definition. they change the body. Vitamin D in your milk, sometimes even in Soy or Almond [milk]. But per Codex Alimentarius, they are treated as TOXINS, and also as MEDICINES. So these things need to be prescribed by a DOCTOR. YOU are not allowed to tell someone who feels sluggish they should eat liver (high in B vitamins, IIRC), or that they should eat more greens (high in Bs, too) – you must be a DOCTOR to know that.
And if they’re stressed and jumpy, and you suggext they drink some chamomile tea? You can go to prison. Practicing medicine without a license.
IT. IS. HAPPENING. HERE.
Tenesee way, a man is being prosecuted (actually, I think he won – on appeal) because he ran a blog where he made SUGGESTIONS about how to eat. One of those blogs where he says, “This is what worked for me.” He got off the processed food-stiffs, lost weight, is feeling better – and is being charged for presneting medical (dietary) advice without proper certification.
Why do we turn a blind eye? Why do we ALLOW this to continue? I mean, the sizes thing I can get – the ice cream, for example, was cleaned out and all replaced in a single shipment. That was no accident – keep the public from comparing the sizes and they don’t QUESTION, they just “vote” for what they recognize (RE: “The Distinguished Gentleman”, Eddy Murphy, voted into congress on name recognition; without a basis of comparison, people just go buy Turkey Hill / Breyers / Friendly’s ice cream, and don’t notice the size changed – so they “vote” with their dollars.)
No one is WILLING to give up the convenience of ice cream in the store to make their own, or to lose the negative effects, or even to complain about the size change, if/when they become aware of it. They shrug, say, “it’s not worth it,” and… they give up a principle.
After doing this a handful of times because, “it’s not worth [the effort],” they give up on other things: killing the unborn is enshrined in the “umbras and penumbras” of the Constitution. (And regardless of stance on abortion, people should at least acknowledge the reasoning is BULLSHIT. I mean, how can you support a “hidden [in the umbras and penumbras of the Constitution]” right to abortion via “Privacy” – and then OPPOSE the BLATANT INTENT of something like, the Fourth Amendment, or Second Amendment, or even the Fourteenth, “equal treatment under the law”, which is so abused as to have LESS meaning than the Second, even. (and we won’t even talk about the First, or the Tenth…)
These companies all want to become, “too big to fail,” so that they can control the government indirectly – without even an election to worry about.
Maybe we need to remember something from Malcolm X: We need to speak THEIR language.
Brothers and sisters, if you and I would just realize, that once we learn to talk the language that they understand, they will then get the point. You can’t ever reach a man if you don’t speak his language. If a man speaks the language of brute force, you can’t come to him with peace. Why goodnight! He’ll break you in two, as he has been doing all along. If a man speaks French, you can’t speak to him in German. If he speaks Swahili, you can’t communicate with him in Chinese. You have to find out, what does this man speak? Once you know his language, learn how to speak his language. He’ll get the point, there will be some dialogue, some communication, and some understanding will be developed. You’ve been in this country long enough to know the language the Klan speaks, they only know one language. What you and I have to start doing in 1965, I mean that’s what you have to do because most of us have already been doing it, is start learning a new language. Learn the language that they understand, and then when they come up on our door step to talk, we can talk.
We’re the new niggers. We just need to talk to the Klans – plural – in their own language. (Carefully, so we survive. Better still: so they do not.)
Everybody knows the game is rotten – old black joe’s still pickin’ cotton – for your ribbons and bows… (Leonard cohen – good song, “Everybody knows”. Should give it a listen.)
The stagnation and outright theft is a known effect of the decline of empire. We need to dictate – much as we hate that word – we need to DICTATE how the aftermath plays out. It may not affect us, we may be long dead; it might happen tomorrow.
But if we do NOT direct things – and, as many others on here keep exhorting me to do, TEACH and TALK THINGS OUT (rather than resort to violence) – we are (a) abrogating our responsibilities as sentient beings, and (b) ceding the field to the bullshit that walks. We never show up, the next generation gets dumber because they never heard the good, wise counsel – they only heard the Court Jesters spin fantasies of “get rich quick.” It puts us back in the same flow every time (Rome -> Byzantium -> HRE -> Feudal Europe -> UK -> US via revolution in thought, followed by deeds -> Dissolution of the US due to barbarians invading [breakdown of morals and leadership].
Pretend the Church is good for a moment.
Church leaders are wise.
Now – in the making of a new society, those Church leaders don’t show up – and then they scream and shriek about the immorality of the society formed!
Who is to blame? The people, who formed the best society they could make – might makes right, let’s say, enforced by Polizia – or those who ignored the call to make the foundation of the society, those good and wise Church-men?
The Church-men decided not to bother guiding their less-intelligent, less-capable brethren. Being good men and wise men, they would have avoided pitfalls – such as Polizia and arbitrary rules. They would’ve given their wisdom freely and set up the society, then retreated again to their Churches. Leave the people in freedom to grow wise, wealthy, prosperous. All would be happy.
Instead, they left the people to the greedy, nasty, forceful “mercies” of the indolent, the weak (afraid), the envious, the slothful, the wrathful (bullies) – the Fools.
Do you blame fire for burning? Water for being wet? Fools for being easily led, especially by those who would do violence to them? Or do you blame the wise, who knowingly didn’t show, who allowed the people to be led and mistreated this way, KNOWING that this is what would happen – it’s enshrined in history for generations, after all.
Can’t blame the fire, especially if a Fool is throwing gasoline on it. And it wouldn’t have happened if you’d been talking, loud, and frequently, and refusing the shut up and “go along to get along.”
We aren’t SAYING, let alone doing, much of anything. “It’s not worth it.”
Maybe that should be on our tombstones, too? The “it’s not worth it” generation?
Rage against the dying of the light. Gonna die anyway, might as well live on your feet – and die on them – than die on your knees.
Excellent Jean – absolutely top-drawer. Thank you!
On “what worked for me”:
I’ve dropped 30 pounds just by almost eliminating processed foods and complex carbohydrates from my diet. I eat as much meat as I want to; I also guzzle lots of strong coffee with sugar and (as a “side”) chocolate, having a sweet tooth and a need for caffeine.
I’m now 192.6 (just weighed myself) and fitter than I’ve been since my 20s… down from 223 in spring.
I feel great.
And – most interesting of all (to me): I have not only lost the taste for processed food, I find the taste of it repellent.
Eric, you ought to check out the book ‘Wheat Belly’ – it’s a scientific analysis of modern wheat, and just how terrible it actually is for you. Since the 80’s wheat is no longer as it once was – monsanto saw to that. For the greater good, of course. The side effects of this gmo’d mess are astounding, as the author (a cardiologist) goes on to detail, everything from those random unexplainable ailments people have to diabetes to headaches to GI issues. Wife down 10 lbs already, just from following the book’s recommendations!
Avoid wheat, feast on meat, veggies, and other natural, organic foods. Ditch the made-in-a-lab crap, that’s for ignorant boobus, not you!
Not surprising, AACC’s analysis says: “some of the concerns raised are alarming, but fear not because 116/135 of studies in the literature find that increases in refined grains cause no increases in obesity.”
AACC (Cereal Chemist Society)
http://www.aaccnet.org/publications/plexus/cfw/pastissues/2012/OpenDocuments/CFW-57-4-0177.pdf
WB Fu11 Book
https://staktrace.com/parkour/WheatBelly.pdf
I dunno, some of the ‘bots coming out of Japan look pretty cool these days… Only a matter of time before they’re better than the real thing, and then who’ll need women? And we’ll still have something to, uh, eat… 😉
And she’ll get you a sammich after! 🙂
(Yes, i’m a sick…. )
Jean. What’s that old sick man-joke of turning into a pizza & a six pack after midnight?
Garysco,
I dunno, and I’m getting drunk, so please excuse typos…
What you talkin’ ’bout, Willis?
‘Cause if it’s good, I got candidates livin’ off tha resehvation…
Jean. Ref your comment: Only a matter of time before they’re better than the real thing, and then who’ll need women? And we’ll still have something to, uh, eat… 😉
And she’ll get you a sammich after! :-)”
If you haven’t heard the original joke that’s OK.
The solution is to only eat things whose ingredients are known to you. That’s why I eat only soylent green.
On a brighter side, I just donated to this web site to help keep it going. I hope others do the same.
On another note, I’m living on the East coast of these United States and my clock shows 3:02 PM yet, the post I just made shows 7:02 PM. Where is this web site? In the middle of the Atlantic?
Hi Larry,
We’re hunkered down in a secret valley, where Google cannot get to us!
On the topic of eating ingredients who are known to you:
“Here’s to the woman
who lives up the hill.
If she won’t do it –
Her sister will.
…
SO HERE’S TO HER SISTER!”
;-D
Thank you, Larry!
The readers have been incredibly supportive. I plan to post an update shortly on that – but, long story short, we covered our nut last month and I think we will this month, too.
And: T-shirts will be available soon!
We’re hosted on the east coast, I need to change the time. I’ll do that now! Thanks Larry!
Jean, it is all about the money and complete control of the heard isn’t it? Gives new meaning to Going Galt.
For them.
For me, it’s becoming analagous to: Control of the people means they (a) leave you alone, and (b) don’t know who the F8CK you are.
F*ck it – THIS IS SPINAL TAP!!! HELLO, CLEVELAND!!!!!
IT GOES TO 11……….
Perils of being drunk.
Bit why does it seem so…
Real….
Any more?
Guess I’m just running out of Rope. Someone ask the Furies?
In 1984, Going Galt is basically impossible.
You’ll need to find you own way – from your own concept.
Jean >>. Ref your 1984 comment. Those were the “prols”, but they lacked education and had to drink crappy booze. Galt had a better idea, but he also had a “Midas Mulligan” banker to fund it.
Now you got me drinking too. We are sooo doomed.
Except for Catholic school lunches, I think even the most delusional of conspiracy theorists would have a difficult time proving that the Church is responsible for the processed food industry.
Fruitcake.
You conflated two different thoughts.
The Church example was about this comunity NOT disappearing, or going Galt, totally off the grid. Instead we need to be active in teaching, leading, even Ordering people to do what’s right. We can’t leave idiots to their own devices, and then be angry when they form a society that is “idiot-proof.” (Besides, they keep making better idiots – and all those idiots infringe on OUR rights, because we’re NOT idiots… But they demand to be “safe” from everything. )
Processed foods is a different thought – though you can draw a precise line between the neolithic foods (agrarian life) and the diseases of civilization, such as alzhemiers, diabetes, rheumatism, and the like. People used to die early, or live a long time – the number of child and infant deaths drove AVERAGE life span way down – but actually, if you live over a year, you had good odds; over 7, you’d likely live to a good age – 50+ years. (Not going to dig up links for the stats, but they’re findable online.)
It is known that agriculture actually has caused people to get shorter, stouter, weaker (especially bones, like teeth) – and arguably, uglier as well.
Wheat is actually grass. (So is rice, BTW.) Herd animals graze. Predators gorge and starve. Caine (agriculture) killed Abel (herder, hunter-gatherer). And a mark was placed on Caine, that no man would harm him. (IE, civilization and civility, in an extended metaphor.)
Lastly, in a roundabout way – the Church IS responsible for many BAD features of our society. Excessive “forgiveness” WRT criminals means the WORST scum get out – while a first-time offender may get crucified, because they (a) ARE a first-time offender (We’ll teach you!), and (b) These are the people who have money the government can steal. Middle-class. They don’t have enough money or power to inconvenience the man at the bench, though, so they DO have to pay – like a scapegoat, THEY pay for the crimes of the Elite. Cabinet members don’t pay taxes – WE pay taxes. If we make even an HONEST mistake, we can be ruined for life. Cabinet members? Well, first off, someone ELSE prepares the taxes. Second, are YOU going to prosecute the POTUS’s friend? It’s “How to end your career faster than you can blink.”
We SHEEP must know our place, though, licking the hand of the masters so we get an occasional table-scrap.
(Monsanto, for example, is in the government’s pocket, or vice-versa. Kraft, Nestle, etc. And the Big Pharma arena is the same, with VPs and execs from the drug companies working on the FDA and going back and forth…)
Think about it: What better way to HELP “your” team and harm your competition, than to serve on the regulatory comittee in charge of approving your products?
Brilliant rant, Jean!
Right on the money; I feel exactly the same way.
The good news is, there’s finally a giant tsunami of awakening.
I’m stunned how fast it’s turning. The gun victory was that first hairline crack in the dam; the scandals saw that crack spidering out to web of broken concrete; and Syria is the face of the dam exploding outward.
Next comes a torrent of water that will wash down the DC valley like an avenging angel.
It’s like that scene in “Force 10 from Navarone” when they set off the explosives in the dam, and nothing happens…at first. The wise old demolition expert says “Give it a while, chap”
It’s tipping point theory. And we’re tipping.
The PTB are totally fucked–I’m just not sure they know it fully yet.
They’ll strike back. This is the most critical moment in history–and Jean you’re absolutely right, it’s NOW that we just push at the monument to ensure it topples–and topples in the right direction.
Pull out all the stops–we might win this thing without a shot fired.
That’s close. It’s actually other organs, the Islets of Langerhans, that are physically located within the Pancreas.
Dear Brent,
Yup. A surefire indicator is the term “inflation.”
Ask the person what inflation is.
If he or she defines inflation as retailers raising prices, you are most likely talking to one of the sheeple.
If the person defines inflation as “The Government” debasing the currency, you know you’re talking to someone who’s taken the red pill.
The biggest irony of course, is that if we did not have to endure “monetary policy” that attempts to keep prices constant, we would have appreciation of the currency, deflation, and steadily LOWER prices for consumer items.
THIS! My ECONOMICS professor defined inflation as “the increase in prices over time”. If I was a more brave person, I would’ve asked if he thought the definition: “The over-printing of money” was accurate. Both are right, but ours is the cause and theirs is the result. Depends how you look at it I guess.
Someone who is fully redpilled won’t just say “the government” or even “the Fed”, but identify the group which control the Fed for their own benefit.
Playing devil’s advocate:
Which group would that be?
(The answer doesn’t matter, as it’s a reach-around regardless. Whether it’s the Templars, the Elders of Zion, The Bankers, The Elite – is somewhat irrelevant. There are multiple groups working in unison, planned or not. If you have, say, $10 Million to play with – you divest the sum total among several shell holdings, pump it into the market, purchase (whatever), and as the market volume goes up, people see a chance to profit, pour their money in – and you sell, and the same forces that caused the rise in price up front, now cause a crash. Volume of trades manipulates market perception, and “They” get theirs off the top. A few others might get lucky, or take their profits and leave – for most of US, it’s not possible – I don’t have $10 lying around to “invest”, let alone $10 Mil. And the majority will end up with a loss, and maybe be able to hold over time – if they’re lucky. What happens if you have Ben Bernanke and Warren Buffet using these holding/ shell companies to husband their wealth, making purchases (a) quietly, before making a prediction or “suggestion”; or (b) making investments en masse, as described above, through multiple accoutns – each one driving the price higher, each one untraceable, and then the entire batch goes back on the market after the uptick. At $10 Mill, if you move the value of the stock by $1, you can start to make nice money. If the price is $20/share, and the price goes to $21/share before you bail? 10Mil / $20 = 500,000 shares over several “buyers”. Sell at $21, you get $10.5 mil. minor, sure – but at that scale? If it goes up by $2/share – that’s another mil. Repeat just a handful of times, you’re going WAY up VERY fast. -WE- can’t do it – but someoen with the seed wealth could, and could clean up the connections – ensuring that while everything is done at his (her) behest, their hands are clean.
Works for anyone, just requires obscene amount of money up front.)
So, it overall doesn’t matter – the group or groups are irrelevant, especially given the private corp – The Fed – is insulated from any real risk or civil control.
I’m just getting at, there’s no “secret handshake” or such, no conspiracy group, etc. They’re all the same. Probably even in a sort of non-compete agreement, each one (for now) gets their shares & profits – Monsanto, Schering-Plough, etc. We’ll see how things progress from there. I’d guess they’ll consolidate at some point by eating each other, ubtil we only have Weyland-Yutani – “The Company.” but by then, we’ll be commodities ourselves.
Dear Jean,
Which group would that be? The answer doesn’t matter, as it’s a reach-around regardless. Whether it’s the Templars, the Elders of Zion, The Bankers, The Elite – is somewhat irrelevant.
Exactly.
It’s not necessary to list the entire roster of guests at the latest Bilderberg Group conference.
Why?
Because we already know the lever of power by which they implement their schemes — “The Government.” Discredit the Myth of Authority and that lever of power goes “Poof!”
Too true Bevin.
One of the greatest delusions of conventional economics, and no doubt a deliberate misdirection, is the notion that inflation is generally caused by non-monetary factors, i.e. higher consumer spending, excessive wage demands by workers or unions etc.
Dear Nick,
Yup.
I can no longer believe it was ever unintentional economic error.
It could only have been intentional political deception.
I remember how the waiters at this one chi-chi restaurant in LA would always shortchange you.
It was no accident that they never “longchanged” you, if there is such a word.
As I said earlier, conspiracy is just another word for plan. Everyone plans. TPTB sure as shootin’ do.
Bevin, we need to return to a commodity based dollar issued by the government and dump the private company the charges us 6% for every dollar they create for Uncle Sam to spend. Lincoln and Kennedy tried, but they both woke up dead for their efforts.
Dear Gary,
Listening to defenders of fiat currency ridicule hard money advocates is hilarious.
Anyone who can’t figure out that precious metals that have been valued for millennia will always be worth more than scraps of paper with some green ink on them is impervious to reason.
You may need to explain the Lincoln part given that he lived in the era of the greenback and its devaluing against gold.
I was shocked at how obvious some of it is. When coffee stopped being sold in 1lb cans the amount tapered off gradually over the years, until it reached the 13 or so oz can we have now. I noticed that sugar went from 5lb bags to 4lb seemingly overnight. The scary part is how many people didn’t seem to notice that.
Nor do they seem to CARE.
Bread and Circuses, and let them eat cake.
New Revolution is all too close. That’s a BAD thing. Lots of good people will be hurt and damaged, and the idiots – being more numerous – will survive in greater numbers.
100 Andy Griffiths won’t make up for the loss of ONE Einstein.