“You will lose more in purchasing power (as central bank monetary inflation destroys the currency by printing enough to finance the higher stock prices) than you will ever net in gains…”

You and I are riding China’s economic tiger. The whole Western world is. It has been a pleasant rise so far. We have the electronic gadgets and cheap toys to prove it. “Made in China” is everywhere. But this tiger is a paper tiger - paper money.

Another sign that the US has entered a recession?According to a survey released today, US consumer confidence is the lowest it’s been in over a quarter of a century.

This month the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers has fallen to the lowest since March 1982’s level of 62.0.

According to Reuters, this is “when the ’stagflationary’ period of low growth and high inflation was still fresh in the memory of many Americans.”

Back among the worriers…the United States is headed toward a recession, says the IMF… A look back at a ‘great’ war…Lehman Bros. liquidate three of their funds. Someone you definitely want as your next-door neighbor…and more!

Fortune magazine asks an interesting question: How do you account for the discrepancy between the Fed’s recent assurances that inflation is under control and the 91% of the population (according to a March CNN poll) that’s worried it isn’t?

The answer? The feds focus on what they call “core” inflation. This strips out energy and food from the consumer price index because of their theoretical vulnerability to short-term volatility — magically making inflation seem smaller than it is.