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To: HairBall who wrote (39577)	2/10/2000 9:04:00 AM
From: HairBall	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 99985

Amazon: Ponzi Scheme or Wal-Mart of the Web? By: James Surowiecki Posted Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2000, at 2:52 p.m. slate.msn.com Regards, LG

To: HairBall who wrote (39577)	2/10/2000 9:08:00 AM
From: Les H	Respond to of 99985

Productivity "Data Signals That Economy Is Growing With Little Threat From Price Increases" The above quote was a headline on the front page of today's New York Times. Boy, the newspapers provided a lot of grist for my mill today. The economy is growing with little threat from price increases? What about a promise of price increases. My copy of the fourth quarter Productivity and Costs report showed the deflator for nonfarm business output rising an annualized 2.1% versus 0.7% in the third quarter, and the highest since 2.5% in the 1997:Q1. So, even though fourth quarter productivity was strong, inflation accelerated. And how quickly the media forget that the fourth quarter GDP report released a couple of weeks ago reeked with higher inflation. To wit, the price index for personal consumption expenditures, excluding food and energy, was up at an annualized rate of 2.1%, almost double its growth rate in the third quarter and the fastest growth since the 2.5% pace set in the second quarter of 1995. Look, it's bad enough when opinion "molders" strip out the prices that are rising, such as energy prices, and then claim that inflation is not rising. But I really start to feel like I'm living in Moscow during the Stalin era when the press keeps up the Big Lie that inflation is not rising when the government data, even excluding energy, clearly show that it is. ntrs.com