Iditarod
Last year, I went to Alaska. As part of my preparation for the trip, I watched many of the Alaska themed television shows. The topic of one of these shows was the Iditarod.
This famous dog sled race is run each year in March – dozens of mushers and hundreds of dogs make the 1,000 mile + trey through the frozen Arctic landscape.
Last year’s shows made it sound as if the dogs were running along in the Mohave desert. What, with Global Warming and all, the snow was already beginning to melt in March!
Well, I too became inspired to enter the race. I have decided to enter the first all chihuahua team. Comprised of 61 Chihuahuas, my team should be able to outrun even the most experienced dog sled team. Training has already begun – for three hours each day, I turn the heater off in the office so that Gracie will get used to the cooler temperatures; the thermometer here in the office has been known to dip down to 74 degrees! Brrrrr….
That is only one part of the training; as for myself, I have been watching coverage of the 2009 Iditarod. Unlike last year, instead of warm temperatures and melting snow, they are reporting cold and icy conditions. What changed? Could it be that Global Warming has subsided? Is the planet getting cooler? Maybe!
On February 20, 2009, Bloomberg.com reported that the US National Snow and Ice Data Center had underestimated the Arctic ice sheet by 193,000 square miles (that is about the size of California!) due to a “glitch” in satellite sensors. According to a report in The (UK) Guardian, 2008 was the coolest year of the decade. There are many, many more reports like this; all you have to do is seek them out.
The “Gorey” myths about Global Warming may melt away under the heat of scientific scrutiny, but the Arctic Ice is here to stay. Don’t worry Gracie, there are plenty more years of Iditarod races ahead of us!
2009 Inflation Rate
I just wanted to let you know that I am on record as predicting that the inflation rate for 2009 will be at least 8%.
Milton Friedman won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1976 for “for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy.”
He is probably my Number Two modern hero. He taught the world that “inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.” This means that whoever is in charge of the printing press that makes money, controls the inflation rate.
I have noted that M1 has increased drastically over the past 6 months. M1 is the total of “Currency, traveler’s checks, demand deposits and other checkable deposits” – in other words, the money supply.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h6/hist/h6hist1.txt
Note that from 2004 to 2007, January to December of each year say a change in M1 of less than 6%; sometimes, the change was even negative. Contract that with 2008. M1 jumped 16% from January to December!
Friedman also taught me that from the time the treasury starts to inflate the currency (ie. print more money) till an impact is noticed in the marketplace is about 6 months. That is exactly where we are now. Watch for prices generally to increase soon.