Remind me

How does raising the interest rates on my existing consumer debt help offset the fact of inflation? Productivity is low and labor costs are high and we are all more likely to lose our jobs. . .those in the trucking industry report that there isn't anything to ship around, despite the usually-heavy summer season. We'll know more when they start getting the Christmas 2006 items to the warehouses this month.

Since June 2004, "the Fed" has raised rates a quarter-point 17 times, taking it from that sweet one percent, 46-year low! to the "it's okay if you want to buy Certificates of Deposit, I guess" 5.25 percent.

So, sure, it's better for us all to dump more money towards banks, creditors, etc., while core inflation (which does not include the things that eat up most of the household budget anyway - energy and food) "rose by 2.4 percent in the 12 months ending in June, the fastest clip in 11 years, and above the Fed's comfort zone of 1 percent to 2 percent."

Forget "the Fed's" comfort zone, we're looking at an 8.25 percent prime!

If you see me "not eating" or "not doing" anything that requires fossil fuels (like blogging - why haven't they invented a laptop I can wind up like those radios yet?), you'll know why.

Dang, I shouldn't have skipped that "It's all about you" free lunch at the Barreto Family Funeral Home this afternoon.

I know there's a Day of the Dead cultural level of different comfort with such things and all, which I may not automatically share, but eating lunch inside a chilly marble mausoleum/chapel in which walls some people are "resting" was just a bit difficult the last time I tried.

If you think you have what it takes to see a memorial park for a park, swing by their Hispanic/Samoan Fiesta Luau on August 19. It won't change interest rates, but there will be free food and entertainment and tours of the famous peoples' graves in Mt. Washington Cemetery.