Inflation - We Haz It

I must work with a good bunch of guys.  They were all talking inflation when I walked up, and were even talking gold and silver.  They've all noticed, which is good.

The Numbers Guy at the Wall Street Journal noticed.

Over the past 30 years, the federal government has made a lot of changes to the way it calculates inflation. It's taken place under presidents of both parties. Each change in methodology has come with plausible-sounding justifications. But, as if by magic, each change has had the effect of flattering the numbers. Funny, that. 

This is the single biggest reason to buy silver or other hard assets and not Treasury Inflation Protected Securities.  If you're depending on them to pay you more if inflation occurs, you can bet that they will find the one thing in the world that has not been inflated to base your payments on.  ("The cost of individual transistors in a microprocessor goes down by a factor of 2 every year, which is what we pegged our TIPS to.  Forget interest: you owe us money!")

John Williams at Shadowstats thinks the current inflation rate is approaching what it was under Jimmy Carter - nearly 10%.  As linked on Zero Hedge, in a good article that expands on the story.

The storm is onshore, but the worst of it isn't here, yet.  We're in for rough times.

Edit 2135 EDT: the graph looked better in "Preview" than one published.  Put it back the way I usually scale pictures.