I liked you post and I want to comment on what I really think inflation is but I'll be labeled a pinko. Suffice it say, it's simply the law of diminishing returns and supply and demand. If we stopped buying gas cold and started taking the bus or bike riding or conserving, car pooling, whatever... Agribusiness, Big Pharma, OPEC and the oil cartels their in collusion with would be forced to come off their reserves and bring prices down in order to move inventory. As far as food and produce, there are always cheaper alternatives but brand loyalty and force of habit keeps people slaves to businesses, the bigger ones at least, who raise prices number one create demand number two as a cushion against shortfalls if business falls off or the price of doing business goes up there's your inflation. BTW, the professor makes a good point, the quote un-quote "inflation" people are sqawking about now is due to the falling dollar, which is down because of our trade deficits and the fact that we increasingly can no longer take advantage of a weak dollar and bring it back up because we export almost nothing -- other than culture -- that can't be made for cheap somewhere else.  The puppetmaster is at the Fed and it's pulling the strings and joshing with Wall Street as it is wont to do. I say on a fundamental level, fear, blind consumption and demand causes inflation. You made a great point about alternatives, choices, but unfortunately most people make the same choice over and over again and follow the crowd. More on this later folks......Tune in next week. Great job Phil.

Jabulani Leffall

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