Idol Chatter

I have to wonder what is in the water that many of our country’s leaders are drinking.  Here is just one more example of some very comfortable beaurocrat who is totally detached from the economic reality that most Americans are living with lately:

Perhaps a new high in bureaucratic separation from reality came a week or so ago when Bill Dudley, the president of the New York Federal Reserve, was grilled by a group of working class citizens about surging inflation in the food sector.

Dudley, who before his current post was head economist at Goldman Sachs (you will remember them as the too-big-to-fail outfit that got something like $12.9 billion in taxpayer bailout funds at the same time they were preparing to hand out bonuses of $12 billion to 443 partners), was slogging through prepared remarks about how inflation continues at negligible levels, when one of the audience members asked, “When, sir, was the last time you went grocery shopping?”

To which he gave a circuitous reply, finally noting that while “food prices may be rising … other prices are falling — today you can buy an Apple iPad 2 that costs the same as an iPad 1 and is twice as powerful.”

There followed, according to news reports, “incredulous, boisterous laughter.”

If Dudley, who is reported to get a $400,000-plus yearly salary in his Fed post, gave any response as to whether he ever sets foot in a grocery store, it wasn’t noted in media accounts.

Source: http://deltafarmpress.com/government/solution-escalating-costs-food-let-em-eat-ipads

I mean seriously?  With millions out of jobs, millions having (or already had) their homes foreclosed on and now far more people struggling just to get the basics (food and gas) paid for, when will we hear our leaders start to acknowledge the true state of affairs in this country?

This morning I read that Walmart CEO Duke is indicating that Walmart’s core customers are showing that they are finding it harder to make ends meet and as Duke says “running out of money at a faster clip”.    While politicians want to paint a rosy picture as we edge closer to election year, the truth is that a huge number of people in this country are struggling.

The recession of 2008 started with a surge of gasoline prices.  Sure the real estate market was poised for a collapse but what got us there faster was the rising gas prices which squeezed budgets to the breaking point and defaults started to roll out like a tsunami rolling all the way across this country.  What will break this time?  With both gas and food pricing climbing and the QE2 ending in a month or so, a new storm is on the horizon.

This is seriously scary.  Take cover now America.