imported post
"I showed you what the gov reports as your costs and your actual costs. Think about it? You got proof that the data is not correct."
The government data wasn't that far off-target. As I said earlier to clarify my point about what I paid in April, 3/4 of my driving was done on April 6th and 10th - which means that constituted the vast majority of my gas cost. I was on vacation for most of that month and did very little driving until the final week. I don't remember off-hand what I paid in that last refill - given my propensity for hanging onto receipts needlessly, I might actually be able to find that if I clean out my car.
"I was irritated that birch jumped into to instigate us into a fight. "Use the bazako."
I also did not appreciate this comment that you said,
I'm not quick to resort to violence."
I'm pretty sure he was referring to the rodent in my picture who happens to be holding one. My response to that was meant in a joking manner. If you ask anyone on here who reads most of my posts, I'm sure "violent" or "bad-tempered" isn't something they're likely to say about me. I'm a fun-loving live and let live kind of guy.
"Please do not make threats of violence. The reason I said I do not care what you think was it is easy to see you made up your mind and nothing was going to change it - not even you proving my position that the consumer cost (you) and what the gov reports is understated."
As I explained above, that was not the intent of my comment. As for government data, the reason you get the response that you do from me on it is that I believe you are a bit too extreme/over the top in your take on it. I don't believe some random bureaucrat is smart enough to deliberately fudge the numbers to mess with the markets. I also think that the markets tend to misuse the data. People latch onto bits and pieces of information about the state of an $11 trillion / year economy as gospel, when in fact, the information is merely a bunch of educated guesses based upon surveys / other data analysis. This is why for my longer term approach to the market (I'm doing fewer moves this year than last year), I try to put all the information together and look for the
trends rather than anything individually. My current defensive posture stems from my linkage of weak manufacturing data, spiking oil prices, and very anemic jobs growth.
"Your own receipts prove that. Just think about that. Open your mind. You are being brainwashed. Turn off CNBS. You said I paid 2.20-2.30 all month. Gas prices in all the states you stated were only at that level for a couple days by the gov numbers and only one state got near the 2.30 mark- that are used to calculate inflation and the PPI/CPI data."
Actually, Iobtain my market/economic information off the webthrough various sources. I don't form my opinions based on what a few talking heads are saying. As for dollar amounts, remember, it's clearly pointed out as an average. At any given point in time, I can pull up a list of gas prices all over my metro area, and the discrepancies can be quite significant ($0.10-0.15 per gallon,in stations that might be just blocks apart :shock
. FWIW, the current price I saw attwo stations last night was $2.199.
"There is a lot of money by the consumer going to the gas pump that is not being reported. Hence PPI was "great" today and retail sales sucked. PPI is provided by the gov and retail sales by a private company - if there was so much MORE money for the consumer to use to spend at the stores why did the retail sales numbers go down? That is why the market spiked and sold off."
Consumer behavior is more complex than gas prices. FWIW, I think people spend too much money on needless things with or without high gas prices.As for me, I don't spend much month-to-month on consumer goods... whether gas is $1, $2, or $3, my discretionary spending is pretty much static. I have more of a save/invest mentality than a consumer one. Of course, if more people behaved in this fashion, our economy probably wouldn't be $11 trillion per year in GDP, but I digress.
(Random note: Richfield, MN-based Best Buy's profits were up 85% - so someone knows how to make money in this economy :shock
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Alaska and Hawaii and CA pay a lot.
I always hate saying it but what can we say? I also call it "emotional money".
o
