tegs07

shake, rattle and roll - snooks eaglin

I have a Sandberg and it’s by far the best build quality on a bass I have ever had. The finish is amazing…. but I just don’t love it. Possibly because I don’t seem to gel with active basses. For whatever inexplicable reason I have a Fender Nate P and it just works for me. Expensive, mass produced worth the cash? For me yep. For hours of enjoyment provided it is unbelievably cheap.

The problem economists have is that human behaviour is hardly rational or predictable so making a science of it is bound to fail. I’m not a great fan of central banks. I think they have meddled and messed up in a very big way and we are all now paying the price for their mistakes and shortcomings. Anyway back to price rises of basses or cars or whatever. Everyone finds the economy and geopolitics dull even though they are the invisible hand behind most of these issues.

Which was probably a months salary so a reversal to the norm?

Central banks (attempt) to control inflation rather than economists. I’m questioning the purposes of numerous threads about rising prices. Price rises don’t happen overnight or by accident. A massive increase in the supply of money (QE then furlough) at the same time as rising costs of energy and raw materials (war), increased consumption, lack of supply ( both of which are Covid related) and rising labour costs (inflation/cost of living crisis) all play a part. I can’t see this situation resolving quickly and countries like the USA which produce the expensive Gibsons, Fenders, G&Ls and MusicMan basses are hit by all of the problems above. I guess energy costs, raw materials and transportation costs are rising so it’s only the labour costs (including welfare of employees) that can really be contained which gives a considerable advantage to Far East producers of instruments. So yep I expect that considering all the circumstances it’s not that shocking that a US mass produced instruments are costing more than a few years back when central banks were pumping liquidity into the market to rescue investment banks, commercial banks were flooding the economy with money for cheap mortgages and loans, the cost of borrowing was at historic lows and energy (read fossil fuels) were being burned cheaply with little regard to their cost either in terms of national security or environmental impact.

Indeed. A McEconomy.

OK I will phrase it another way. If the economy was based upon a barter system and a chicken could be swapped for a nugget of gold. Even though the nugget of gold has no practical use it’s pretty rare so has value and is sought after. This works pretty well until the chicken farmer discovers that a gold mine has opened up and is distributing gold nuggets around the town and everyone has them. Does he still want to swap his chicken for a nugget, or does he ask for a bit extra? (Obviously extremely simplistic analogy we could add in the extraction costs of the gold , the fuel required to mine and transport it, the russian dictator, the debt cost required to borrow the gold from the mine to start with and the chicken flu pandemic that limited the supply of chickens and the rising scarcity of chicken feed due to the russian dictator as well as the increasing labour costs for the farmer).

Are the prices of instruments going up or is the purchasing power of currency going down?

november rain - GnR

strong - london grammar

three minute hero - the selector

brothers on the slide - Cymande

madness - madness

always the sun - stranglers

back to the old house - the smiths

red right hand - nick cave

someone’s got to love you - the house of love

just like honey- jamc

seas of cheese - primus

what the world needs now - PiL

she’s not there - the zombies

stonehenge - spinal tap

plain song- the cure

age of consent - new order

do you realise? - flaming lips