The OT Thread

[moofs]

So I just did some calculations yesterday, and it looks like due to ~10% annual inflation, that $1 in 2000 is worth about $0.33 today.

Has your salary been adjusted accordingly?
(the answer, of course, is no. Unless you're a CEO or own your own company)

[MaxRider]

So I just did some calculations yesterday, and it looks like due to ~10% annual inflation, that $1 in 2000 is worth about $0.33 today.

Has your salary been adjusted accordingly?
(the answer, of course, is no. Unless you're a CEO or own your own company)

i always tell this to my friend
all price raise except salary
one good thing though
strip dance is still $20 same as 15 years ago

hmm found some website saying 2000 $1 is 2010 $1.25
you sure the inflation is that high?
when i graduated in 2000
fresh grad with the same degree as i am is around 45k
my friend cousin graduated last year got a job with salary < 40k

[moofs]

According to government inflation numbers, it is about 1.25x, yes.

The trick is, they lie their asses off. They exclude everything that actually inflates from inflation calculations. Government "inflation" basically tracks consumer goods, I believe (iPods, televisions, furniture?) and excludes everything else.
The salary thing you mentioned.. salaries aren't really tied to inflation, per se. It's more a combination of average income vs. average costs. The methods to figure those things out can vary greatly. I think median/average salaries have lowered, which would increase the inflation's effect.

I don't necessarily think it's quite 1/3. That seems a bit high. But I am fairly sure that it's at least 160-180% ("1/3" = 300%). Source: http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_da ... ion-charts
Most restaurants have gone up by 50% or more, gas is about 125%, rent's about 50%, etc.
(Note: I switched between absolute calculations and relative calculations there. To get the %'s in the 3rd paragraph to match the ones in the 2nd, you'd add 100%, so "Restaurants are 150% what they were in 2000, gas is 225% of that, rent is 150%, etc".)

[MaxRider]

my company is doing really good last few years (thanks to *****)
so i'm getting 5-8% raise annually
i don't think restaurant gone up by 50% or more
maybe Austin is always more expensive than Houston
price gone up about 15-20% i think
rent same as above
back in 2004-06 efficiency cost $750 a month (near UT)
right now i'm paying around $760-$780 for a 1-1 (vary because of water bill)
2 years ago i was paying $650 - because eco is really bad they have to lower the price
gas is definitely less than $2 a gallon
i spend less than $100 a month on gas (including driving to Houston)

[spolgar]

Considering compound interest, 1.25 = (1 + i )^ 12... or 1+i = 1.0186... a 25% gain in inflation implies that our inflation over the last 12 years has sat at 2%. That's way way way way low. The problem with the basket model that the Fed uses is that the big ticket items such as cars, houses, computers are pretty constant over the course of a decade. Food, Gas, Rent (especially in the aftermath of a housing
bubble), education, precious metals, have all gone up.

Here's what I think. Since technology is always increasing and technological know how seldom leaves an area in less than 2 decades completely, and since technology is a positive multiplier in any productivity frontier curve, prices of inputs can remain the same while the ability to manufacture more, given the same materials, should improve over time. So you can make more with the same stuff. This in turn should drive down prices. So in a well behaved economy, according to most Austrian economists, prices should decline over time.

A much better way to track inflation, which IMHO, is still very much on the conservative side, is to track the federal reserve interest rates and do a simple compound interest calculation. The federal reserve has a bit to say how much the currency is going to appreciate/depreciate by controlling the federal interest rate. If prices go up and the fed rate is too low, people will borrow like crazy and go buy houses... (Which is why I said this is still very much on the conservative side).

One of the truisms of the post keynesian economists found is that salary has nothing to do with demand or price level or anything a classical macro economist says that will determine the welfare of the worker. By and large, employers will pay employees what they think will keep their employees. In good times, that means the employee has more flexibility to go elsewhere, and in good times, there is more demand, so there might be more inflation. But the links aren't necessarily correlated strongly, so looking for wages to match inflation is not a particularly fruitful errand.

Now there is such a thing called the Big Mac index. This is to measure relative value of currency. Since most of a big mac's ingredients span many inputs, it's a good indicator of purchasing power parity. But since most of the food, packaging etc is manufactured by suppliers over seas and paid for in bulk from one very large customer, it's not really a good indicator of anything else. Any choices for an obvious product? It's hard to use illicit drugs, even though it would be an excellent choice. (Thought about it for awhile, but data gathering is kind of hard).

[moofs]

Response forthcoming. (I love this topic)

[Mr. E]

We could get the final word on the fate of the Astrodome today...

[Mr. E]

$270M Astrodome Renovation plan to create a multi-use facility.

$365M Reliant Complex Renovation.

Man...between that and the $100 Hobby expansion it's going to be an expensive ballot this November for the bonds!

[moofs]

Demolished: $100m
Hotel: Who knows?
PLANETARIUM: $500m

Are you kidding me?
http://swamplot.com/headlines-hobby-goi ... 012-05-23/
http://swamplot.com/what-i-saw-when-i-s ... 012-03-23/
http://swamplot.com/how-harris-county-s ... 012-02-21/
http://swamplot.com/tag/astrodome/
http://swamplot.com/brave-explorers-ent ... 012-04-04/
http://swamplot.com/the-secret-plan-to- ... 007-11-14/
What a mess (be sure to check the dates while reading...)

More importantly, this:
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?secti ... id=8671067

"Hello, we're your friendly city government, and you... are our bitches. Bend over now, ok?"

[Mr. E]

...un-freaking-believable...

[moofs]

I dunno. Look on the bright side, at least we can't vote for them!

[Mr. E]

I'm reading that there is going to be quite a bit of opposition to even put this on the ballot.

[moofs]

There should be! The City of Houston is *bankrupt*.

You probably shouldn't do things like spending 100m+ that you don't have...

Something needs to be done with the Astrodome at some point, but get the important ducks shot first, or something. AND STOP SPENDING SO MUCH.

[Mr. E]

I think that the Southwest/Hobby proposition will pass through with flying colors, seeing as how Southwest is ponying up $100M and the only "tax increase" we'll likely see is a surcharge tacked onto tickets purchased there.

I can't see a $500M+ Dome Renovation proposal being well-received seeing as how the actual plans are still very vague. The county needs to relinquish control to private investment. They've been botching that whole area since 1996.

I still say that we push to legalize casino gambling in Houston and call up Harrah's, Caesars and a few others to renovate the Dome, the Arena and all of that empty land where Astroworld used to be.

[moofs]

Not a bad idea, though I think gambling is a state thing and comes with mob ties.

[moofs]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhPFTSrF ... r_embedded

Maybe one of the best videos I've seen, even if I lost my taste for Griffin and Paul during the playoffs (chickensh**s).

[MaxRider]

they should do the helicopter dunk at the end

[moofs]

http://wagesofwins.com/2012/05/25/how-b ... -politics/

Yes. Man, yes.
I've lost friends because people couldn't think about politics and/or issues critically. (some of that's on me for failing to recognize it, but still...)

[deeps6x]

Damn you, Lastros.

Why isn't Earl Clark crossed off in your sig graphic?

Is that you Earl?!?

[spolgar]

http://wagesofwins.com/2012/05/25/how-being-a-sports-fan-is-normal-even-in-politics/

Yes. Man, yes.
I've lost friends because people couldn't think about politics and/or issues critically. (some of that's on me for failing to recognize it, but still...)

It takes a particular detachment to ponder about things critically, but sometimes this detachment isn't there.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/ ... never-tell

I mean, I could never do that. I would desperately want that moment to mean something in the grander scheme of things. Some people however manage to never let what they want to see versus what is really going on, and those people I try to emulate after.

I mean, I for one wanted Allen Iversion's career to mean something more than just a little guy going right really well and ping ponging himself off big dudes in the post to no avail. And I do think, theatrics wise, he is, inch for inch one of the best performers of all time. He's better than Maravich numbers wise and seems to be a better team mate.

He should be up there with a lot of excellent point guards. But the NBA media machine made him to be much bigger than Tim Hardaway or Kevin Johnson, which as scoring point guards go, I think those two were much better as facilitators and probably better on defense as well.