Wages fall, CPI falls, Dollar falls - deflation continues

[30ashopper]

A bad economy and low inflation are starting to drag down wages for millions of everyday workers and freeze benefits for millions of retirees.

Average weekly wages have fallen 1.4% this year for private-sector workers through September, after adjusting for inflation, to $616.11, a USA TODAY analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data found. If that trend holds, it will mark the biggest annual decline in real wages since 1991.

The bureau's data cover 82% of private-sector workers but exclude managers and some higher-paid professionals.

"Wages are usually the last thing to deteriorate in a recession," says economist Heidi Shierholz of the liberal Economic Policy Institute. "But it's happening now, and wages are probably going to be held down for a long time."

Wages tumble toward 18-year low - USATODAY.com

So here's the irony, everything is getting cheaper, so even though ss payments aren't increasing, people are still able to buy more with what they get, as long as it's domestically produced. We have another current pulling things in a different direction - Obama's trillion dollar deficits and reckless borrowing are dragging the value of the dollar down in international markets -

Which causes the cost of imports (like oil) to go up.

Congressional leaders welcomed President Obama's proposal to make $250 payments to Social Security recipients Thursday, as a government report confirmed there will be no automatic cost-of-living adjustment for the program.

Some public policy experts, however, argued that the action amounts to a politically motivated giveaway to seniors.

Because consumer prices fell in the July through September quarter, compared to the same period last year, there will be no cost-of-living adjustment to Social Security benefits in 2010 for the first time in the 34 years that those adjustments have been made automatically. The Labor Department reported September's consumer price index Thursday morning, the final piece of data needed for that calculation.

Anticipating that news, White House officials said late Wednesday that the president would support a one-time, $250 payment to Social Security beneficiaries, hoping to bolster the finances of seniors who suffering from the economic downturn and are accustomed to an increase in their monthly checks every January.

washingtonpost.com

Obama's solution (commonly referred to as 'Wack-a-mole'), borrow more, and send people checks, causing more inflation on imports.

It's a commedy of errors folks.

 

[Andy A]

What is it I don't understand? If there is truly, and I emphasis the word truly, deflation and I can buy more with my social security dollars than I could previously, why would I want another $250 other than pure greed? It is political in nature and nothing more. It is a very inexpensive way to buy votes by the administration.
Remember, there is no reduction in what SS or military retirees receive now. They just don't get an increase for the first time in 34 years. Could it be the economy, folks?

 

[30ashopper]

What is it I don't understand? If there is truly, and I emphasis the word truly, deflation and I can buy more with my social security dollars than I could previously, why would I want another $250 other than pure greed? It is political in nature and nothing more. It is a very inexpensive way to buy votes by the administration.
Remember, there is no reduction in what SS or military retirees receive now. They just don't get an increase for the first time in 34 years. Could it be the economy, folks?

Seniors are the largest, most reliable voting block in the country.