Aaron Krowne

AT&T: The (Apple) Brand Destroyer

A lot of the above commentors seem to miss the point that the very problem is that ONE carrier has been picked. It doesn't matter which one (though AT&T is notorious for a variety of reasons). The point is,why in the world should a PHONE DEVICE have only one carrier? What a racket. This is the antithesis of a quality outcome in technology, where consumers benefit most by eventual openness.
Unquestionably, as this article shows, both the carrier and the device manufacturer have an incentive to behave more badly than otherwise with a closed/cartelized arrangement.

Has everyone forgotten how Apple got destroyed in the 90s by the ultra-compatible PC architecture? They didn't gain back that ground until they became a non-computer gadget company and simply adopted a unix-based OS. Once again they are innovating first, but heading towards flaming out quickly as they try to stop progress towards a more open architecture.

I don't see how their model is going to hold up in this economy.

AT&T: The (Apple) Brand Destroyer

By way of comparison, those with experience with Verizon know how (despite a solid network) that company tends to destroy all the phones that come its way by severely crippling the software. This would likely be deadly for any particular phone, except for the fact that none seem to give Verizon exclusivity. Thus, Verizon has not been able to kill, say, BlackBerry.

Annual M2 Growth Is Nothing Like the 1970s

We have a much larger problem today with dollars abroad threatening to come home to roost; the "endogenous" (US-only) analysis probably doesn't really apply. Consider the exchange rate effects also... if our trading partners allow their currencies to reach their natural levels, prices will increase sharply here.

The New CPI Is Better, More Precise Than the Old CPI

notsosmart has an important point.

Also this article fails to really treat the subject on the vanguard of the debate because it doesn't mention the Shadow Government Statistics version, which had diverged to an extreme degree since the 1980 version (shadowstats.com), not the relatively minor difference Mark shows above. I think what he is missing is that the true "old" CPI is not just the previous one before this CPI-U-RS silliness; it is what was in place before the bizarre geometric-weighting and hedonic adjustments made in the 80s and 90s.

I've also studied the CPI a bit myself and find the weighting of health care expenses to be laughably low, by something like a factor of 3, at least.

I think the reason for the disconnect is that

The Hedge Fund Hustle

Dumb or not, gearing + hedge and hedge-like funds (including at IBs) seems to have really destabilized things. Far from being an event likely "sometime in the near future", look at what is happening in gold and silver right now: paper market (but only paper market) price collapse; widespread shortages virtually everywhere else.

Luckily, no one has to eat gold or silver.