on the rocks

bernanke yesterday: there is NO inflation.

goldman sachs recently: goldman defends bernanke's actions blah, blah, blah.

there is no inflation.

if you watch cnbc or fox business today for a while, you will hear this phrase a minimum of 50 times.

meanwhile, the airfares for prethanksgiving travel this year are up 69% from last year.

prechristmas fares are up 40%.

across the board, airfares are 17% HIGHER.

we have recently let the biggest airlines combine. it's great for those companies and their stock, for the stockholders.

obviously, there are less seats available.

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we have structural problems.

from yahoo yesterday, let's list a few seriously american products that we dont make anymore and guess where they are now made.

rawlings baseballs are made in costa rica, and not made here since 1969, but not before an intermittent stop in haiti.

converse shoes come from indonesia since 2001.

we dont make any stainless steel that strengthens our concrete. true, we arent making it and polluting our air, but someone is.

matell toys, of course, have come from china since 2002.

how about minivans? they havent been made here since 2003.

the BUY AMERICA ACT, is a law from the bush era requiring government, mass transportation--in fact it requires all minivans used for public transportation to be made in this country.

as pfwill well knows, no vending machines have been made here since 2003.

LEVI JEANS have been imported since 2003.

televisions--no tvs have been made in this country since 2004.

LLCOS made the last ones for philips.

railroads--again the BUY AMERICA ACT requires government mass transportation to use american products. there havent been any since 2008.

the guard bars, braces, weld kits, industrial steel chain, al of the connectors used on rail arent made here, but we are required to BUY AMERICAN.

dell computers were proudly made here. a few are still assembled here from foreign components.

not one fork, spoon, or knife is made here.

no incandescent light bulbs--nary a one.

of course, there wont be any more pontiacs made here.

dress shirts--c f hathaway, since 1937, closed in 2002, and dress shirts come from china taiwan, and korea.

there is no doubt in my mind that those bedbugs are coming fom imported clothing and bed linens. wash that new stuff before you wear or sleep on it.

the garment industry, horrible jobs that they were, was booming in the 20s, 30s, and 40s.

people put their families through school and fed them with those jobs.

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we are throwing an incredible amount of money at the economy, and it seems to be picking up some steam, but, at what cost?

there were cities where all of these things were made, and they prospered.

the desperate government can throw all of our money at the economy, but the things i mentioned wont ever be made here anymore.

relatively low skill manufacturing jobs have gone away. it's tough.

my point is that when money is just thrown at an economy, expecting something to happen, if the problem is structural, as it is in this country, it will do little good.

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on the bright side, vw, toyota, and bmw are manufacturing here for export out of this country. the devalued dollar will help them immensely, depending on how many imported parts are used in assembly.

bmw makes their crossover here for export around the world, because south carolina labor is cheaper than german, and they are expanding into tennessee.