PBS NewsHour: Tracking Inflation: How Fast Are Prices Rising?

[alp227]

Run time: 09:10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqZZLchyz6Y   Posted on YouTube: May 14, 2011 By YouTube Member: PBSNewsHour Views on YouTube: 55   Posted on DU: May 14, 2011 By DU Member: alp227 Views on DU: 814

 
Transcript

Paul Solman reports as part of his "Making Sense" series on economic topics. In this story, he interviews MIT professor Roberto Rigobon, who had scooped the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the 5% annual inflation rate.

[Warpy]

1. Demand isn't driving inflation

The pipeline is chock full of goods. People don't have the money to buy them.

The inflation we're seeing is in non durable goods, the things like food and fuel we need to live on.

I'm afraid Rigobon is ignoring the effect of a predatory financial industry using commodities to create speculative bubbles.

That's not the whole story, of course, but in a country where everyone has cut back rather severely because no one feels safe, it's a large part of what has been going on.

[xchrom]

3. ++1

[Kurmudgeon]

2. No doubt our good buddies, the oil corporations, are driving a majority of it. n/m