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12.12 City Takes Steps to Conserve Reservoir
12.11 Baltimore's Top 10 Sports Stories of 2007
11.29 An Uneasy Read
11.28 Reviewing James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer's "Multinationals on Trial"
11.27 Contemporary Lessons from a Tragic Chapter
12.13 Beyond the point of no return
12.12 Loans to Hunt Oil’s Peruvian Fossil Fuel Project Challenged
11.28 George W. Bush’s ‘Convenient’ Truth
Ref. : Single-Payer FAQ
Ref. : Environmental Health News
Ref. : What is Global Warming, and what can citizens do about it?
Ref. : Global Warming Links
Ref. : Health & Nutrition Links
12.19 War Is Over--Say the Pundits
12.19 Payment-per-Placement for Public Relations: A Dirty Underbelly of Journalism
12.18 Huckabee Chairman Hid Payoff Secret
12.18 Corporate News Means No Real News Where Impeachment is Concerned
12.13 FCC Proposes Greater Media Consolidation
12.11 Gary Webb's Enduring Legacy
12.10 The Lou Dobbs Primary?
12.10 Just Give Us Some Truth!
12.04 US Corporate Media Deliberately Censors the News
11.29 Washington Post Buys into Anti-Obama Bigotry
11.29 News Not Fit to Print: US Coup Planned for Venezuela?
11.27 A Matter of Opinion
12.20 Stand and Deliver: Democrats Take a Bow
12.17 Police State America - A Look Back and Ahead
12.14 Imagine a Campaign that Called for Slashing Military Spending by 75%
12.12 Advocacy, Intellect, and Common Sense
12.10 Riding a One-Trick Pony
12.10 Why the Democrats Could Lose
12.07 Who Says College Students Shouldn't Vote Where They Live?
12.06 Neocons Down, Not Out
12.04 Iraq 3.0
12.04 A Miracle: Honest Intel on Iran Nukes
11.30 A Change Ain't Gonna Come: Democrats Openly Embrace Aggression and Torture
11.29 Kucinich and Paul Challenge Their Parties to Take Peace Seriously
11.27 The 'Triumphant' Neocons
11.27 Our Wealth-Oriented Economy: "America, the Beautiful ain't so pretty any more"
11.27 Crackpot Realism Is Riding High
11.21 The Ease Of Fooling Most Of The People Most Of The Time
12.20 Complicity in the Use of Torture
12.18 Whited Sepulchre: Huckabee's Hook-Up With Reagan-Bush Crimes
12.17 Surprise! Mukasey Covers Up Torture
12.12 3 House Judiciary Members Call for Impeachment of Cheney NOW
12.12 Torture: Are Americans 'Better Than That'?
12.12 America's Judicial Coup
12.10 Cave Dwellers: More Democratic Deceit on War and Torture
12.06 Special Relationship: Global Snatch and Grab is the Law of the Land
12.04 Eating Iraq: Corruption Rules and Cholera Rises While Insurgents Surf the Surge
12.01 Henry Hyde: Mr. Cover-up
11.26 Annals of Liberation: Killers and Extremists in the Pay of Petraeus
11.26 The Bush Rules of Evidence
11.23 Impeachment on the Thanksgiving Table: McClellan's Dish
11.21 The Mystery of Minot: Loose nukes and a cluster of dead airmen raise troubling questions
11.21 Bush's Plame-gate Cover-up
11.20 Iraq's Laboratory of Repression
Ref. : Letters to the editor
12.17 Thinking about Sovereigns
12.13 Billionaire Bailout: Central Bank Socialism and America's True Values
12.10 Thinking about "Economic Conditions"
12.03 Thinking About Revenue
11.26 Thinking Mone-TERROR-ism
12.13 Mobile Labs to Target Iraqis for Death
12.10 How The Iranians Stole The Bomb From Israel
12.10 True Aim of Annapolis, and Why It Failed
12.04 Venezuela's Social Democracy Hits A Speed Bump
12.04 Thinking About Venezuela
12.03 Annapolis Hypocrisy Hides Occupied Palestine Reality
11.28 Venezuela’s D-Day: Democratic Socialism or Imperial Counter-Revolution
11.27 Omelettes into Eggs
11.26 Tragedy and Travesty at Annapolis
11.21 Pakistan's Navigating Savage Seas
11.21 Pakistan, my fatherland, I weep for thee
11.21 Scribes of Hate: Culture Vultures and the Terror War
ECONOMICS:
THINKING INFLATION
How can most housing costs, property tax costs, education costs, insurance costs, food costs, or energy costs be excluded as factors in the inflation computations?
In the past four years the Real Estate taxes on my 100+-year-old property have increased well over $1,500. These taxes now account for over 25% of my total expenditures for the entire year. My various insurance premiums now account for over 15% of my expenditures, and every renewal brings more exclusions/exemptions from the coverage. Energy/utility costs now account for another 20% to 25% of yearly expenditures. My weekly food costs have risen 50% over the past four years for the same items and quantities. I don’t TH*NK my household is that much different from most others in this regard when I figure that my personal inflation rate has been running 12% to 15% per year – a far cry from the official BELOW 3% currently hawked by Uncle $ugar.
Last week I heard from my Alma Mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana, that Fall 2007 tuition would be raised to $204 per credit hour. My total tuition there in Fall 1968 was just over that for the entire two-semester course load of 32 credit hours—a cumulative increase of 3,200% over the 39-year-time period. The State of Illinois’ share in picking up the costs of elementary and secondary education costs has dropped from over 50% to less than 30%, so the schools must reply more on local property taxes to fund education, just as the state universities must rely more on tuition payments.
I also just heard from the gas company that if I wanted to go on the “budget plan,” it would cost me $129.00 a month – up $35 a month, or 37%, from the very same proposal of only just two months ago. What does that say about where energy costs are headed for the coming heating season? An annualized inflation rate of under 3%... who are they kidding?
I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You should be thinking, too.
Copyright 2007 Questions, Inc. All rights reserved. Fred Cederholm is a CPA/CFE, a forensic accountant, and writer. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois (B.A., M.A. and M.A.S.). He can be reached at asklet@rochelle.net.
Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent.
This story was published on June 18, 2007.
