According to recently released figures quoted in Business Week, July’s inflation rate was double that predicted by economists.

Consumer prices increased by 0.8%, due largely to the rise in energy bills. As it stands now, the current year-over-year inflation rate is the highest it’s been in over 16 years.

It’s hoped that the current decrease in energy prices will bring the total year inflation numbers back down.

In any event, rising unemployment claims coupled with rising prices continue to raise the specter of 1970s-style “stagflation.”

Though it has arrived with little fanfare, today, August 14th, is a major day for future retirees. On this day, in 1935, President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. —and so, with the stroke of a pen, was created a guaranteed income stream for virtually all American senior citizens.
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Barack Obama has come up with an intriguing solution to the Social Security funding crisis: Keep the existing payroll tax for those earning less than $102,000 per year, also tax incomes above $250,000, and levy no tax on earnings between $102,000 and $250,000, creating a "donut hole" in the middle.
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