Why the cost increase?

Pandemic gives the Fed the right to increased larceny. Rich get richer, you get screwed. They will take your hard earned bounty smiling.
Ha ha.

real meeting of the minds in here huh. lmao

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Well what do you want to discuss, cornbread recipes?

Corn meal doubled. Beef tallow and lard doubled and I can't find whole buttermilk.

That's a meeting of the mimes not minds.

Today I priced butcher block that I priced last December 72" 6 foot counter top 1.5" was 99.00 now 169.00. I need 5. Two for speakers and 3 for my (4) turntable, R2R and gear display I want to finish.. Spring loaded pocket casters all the way around to match the new speaker bases.. spring casters and a silicone spring pod on them...

The casters I want to use didn't go up in price they just aren't available for 45 more day and the price is not firm according to the seller.

Regards 

since getting the vaccine i have been able to tap into the microchip and basically solved most of the problems in american politics with my mind. so i know what must be done better than most of you. but i'm not here for that. i want to know if you guys think any more of the mid fi brands i'm interested in like Schiit will be following suit and raising prices. i'm interested in the monoblock life and the aegir seems like a good way to dip a toe in. are you all hearing anything about that or?

@oldhvymec re: your project situation. that sucks! i genuinely hope they can get it sorted out soon

Lol @td_dayton and I would say it's safe to assume all companies will be raising prices in the near future, transportation and labor costs pretty much demand it.

US inflation rates for 2021

2021 Jan 1.4%
2021 Feb 1.7%
2021 Mar 2.6%
2021 Apr 4.2%
2021 May 5.0%
2021 Jun 5.4%
2021 Jul 5.4%

Don’t be disheartened though. You can still buy a holiday home in Kabul for a very reasonable price ...

i want to know if you guys think any more of the mid fi brands i'm interested in like Schiit will be following suit and raising prices. i'm interested in the monoblock life and the aegir seems like a good way to dip a toe in. are you all hearing anything about that or?

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Schiit has a profit margin and they keep it close. The company is well ran from the customer view. They had some slow downs over the last year but their customer base grew. I had their little valve preamp that came out of the box with an issue. The very best customer service..

They took great care too keep a positive rapport in spite of me returning the unit..

I bet you won't see crazy hikes BUT they had to have increases, or everybody else is just full of crap.. I think there is a lot of that, too.

Regards

The Siberian forest fires still burn, the Greenland ice sheet is melting and rising temps are creating massive methane releases from the permaforst, but hey, let's worry about monthly inflation rates!

I'm for quit worrying and start doing. It's gonna get upside down in my life and surely in my children.. The industrial revolution is just now hitting countries like China, India and Mexico. They took what was discarded by most western countries as gross polluting factories and they are considered state of the art in ALL of those counties, NOW.

Miners in all eastern countries, horrible conditions, SUPER high death rate.. PURE Fodder just to have a job..

YET at the same time we put every one of our own factories out of business, with lower than low emissions.

Regards

the Greenland ice sheet is melting

Are you talking about the same one that Al Gore said would be gone in 5 years … back in 2006? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

That sure aged well.

PS. I hope you are not using tubes … you know tubes contribute to global warming right? 😂🤣

The fact that people are still blind enough to find that funny is truly remarkable.

" The fact that people are still blind enough to find that funny is truly remarkable."

Yeah, I’m blind because I can see the ice sheets are are supposed to be gone. 😂🤣

Okaaaaaay ...

@stereo5

" As I am in my late 60’s, I most likely won’t live to see the worst of climate change but my children certainly will."

You were supposed to have seen it already, you know, back in 2013 when the polar ice caps were going to disappear.

Within the next 30 years, it’s predicted that half of Florida will be under water and much of the East Coast will be losing their beaches due to increased water levels and erosion.

I believe most coastal US cities were going to be flooded by 2013 too right? That's what Al told us. Walking down W 57st NYC a few minutes ago, I didn’t see a drop of water. Did somebody come around with a shop Vac when I wasn’t looking?

Tell you what, when half of Florida floods, we get the same guy with the shop Vac to fix half of Florida too. 

The storms are getting stronger and stronger as well.

Only on CNN. Do you remember this genius who suggested a near earth object could be a result of global warming? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

CNN anchor suggests meteor hurtling toward Earth could be a result of global warming | Daily Mail Online

Don’t take this the wrong way, but at 60, you really should stop watching so many Bambi reruns.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/rained-first-time-summit-greenlands-ice-sheet-rcna1723

So the fact that the effects of global warming are happening but didn't happen 7 years ago is funny? Seriously wake up dude warning signs are everywhere you look.

@twoleftears 

You mean to say it was raining on an ice sheet that disappeared in 2013? That's something new.

Now if you excuse me, I need to put on my wetsuit as I need to go to the building next door for a staff meeting. 

So the fact that the effects of global warming are happening but didn't happen 7 years ago is funny?

No, what is funny is that you actually expect to believed after you have been lying through your teeth for decades.

Seriously wake up dude warning signs are everywhere you look.

Yeah, I just looked out the window and saw how NYC is flooded ... oh wait, it isn't. 

Will I see the signs if I walk ... sorry swim down to 58th?  😂🤣

Sorry, no other way to put this; your ignorance is mind boggling.
And no, I shall not respond to a single thing you say.
There really is no point.

Sorry, no other way to put this; your ignorance is mind boggling.
And no, I shall not respond to a single thing you say.
There really is no point.

You mean to say the ice caps did disappear in 2013? Google maps is pre 2013? 😂🤣

I see the forum police are hard at work, deleting posts again.  To think I spent 20 minutes writing my post quite articulatory only to be deleted by the police.  I would love to know the moderator who thinks any negative thing you say to someone else is considered hate?  What's next, Audiogon jail?

It's not called global warming anymore, now it's climate change, due to the fact that for a few years temps went down so they changed it to climate change which encompasses everything. 

@devilboy ,
I wouldn’t say you have a domination of the landscape when anything pro conservative is censored, demonetized or de-platformed.


It’s bad enough in the printed press where the Associated Press seem to set the agenda and tone for most of what’s published but as far as Social Media goes, the bias is undeniable and beyond any dispute.

Google (+YouTube), Twitter, Facebook (+ Instagram and WhatsApp) etc have all unashamedly been advocating a left wing bias.

They were all clearly partisan during the run-up to the election last year. Facebook even lent considerable financial aid to one of the parties and Twitter went as far as banning the account president of the US.

Incredible.
However, due to Biden’s less than stellar performance so far, not to mention some near comical press appearances, it can only be matter of time before even his staunchest allies and supporters might start displaying some dissent.

There’s already signs that the Murdoch owned Fox and Sky News have turned on the incumbent, big time.

@pauly,US inflation rates for 2021
Jan 1.4% Feb 1.7% Mar 2.6% Apr 4.2%
May 5.0% Jun 5.4% Jul 5.4%


Those are some pretty disheartening stats right there, ones that no global warming deflection tactics will soon eradicate.

The only thing perhaps saving Biden, for now, is the sobering thought of who his replacement might be.

As long as the extreme rich keep getting even more extremely richer, he’s liable to continue doing the job he was installed to do.

The rest of us meanwhile will have to manage as best we can and take some consolation in the knowledge that there are billions of people who would readily swap places with us here in the west instantly if they could.


We shouldn’t need to bring politics into this, but any discussion of the economy would be facile if we didn’t consider political decusion making.

Besides, these are truly incredible times. Many people I speak to are now gradually losing their confidence in any return to normality soon.
Looks like we’re all stuck with the new normal as we try to, pause for laughter, build back better.

Relax stereo5, it wasn't the forum police. It was my post, and I removed it. Pauly and thecarpathian were going at it and it reminded me of something and so I posted https://memegenerator.net/instance/81681918/henry-kissinger-its-a-shame-they-both-cant-lose  

But then I remembered George Bernard Shaw's advice https://www.facebook.com/simontempler22/photos/never-wrestle-with-a-pig-you-both-get-dirty-and-the-p...

Although I am reliably informed that ostriches don't actually stick their head in the same, it seems an appropriate metaphor.  Whatever little land is left after ocean-level rise will likely have turned to sand.

It was so nice to take a week off from this crap. On my last post, I was referencing how it is when dealing with fundamentalists and it was then that it occurred to me that no amount of rational thought or discourse (backed with facts and logic) can remotely begin to change their minds, let alone penetrate.

They are in lockstep with each other, even across the world, impervious to the truth as they only believe in what is convenient for them at the moment. Reading these childish and misinformed remarks are no different than one of them punctuating the conversation with Allahu Akbar or Death to the Infidels and learning that you've been discussing audio with an ISIS member. 

What they have in common is disdain for math, science, facts and community. They'll take any opportunity to lie, deceive and mislead.

Madness is transmissible. Look at Mississippi. 70% of 911 calls are for idiots ingesting Sheep Drench and other brands of Ivermectin. They won't take a safe vaccine, but will ingest toxins. One Alabama Dr. said at the present rate, the hospital system in his state will most likely collapse.
 
Just like the Tea Bagger Party, parents discuss tactics online and show up at school board meetings, screaming, threatening and spitting on other parents and teachers because they want to be free to send their children to school like little suicide bombers spreading infection, so as to discredit the present administration. Sacrificing one's family for a cause is some pretty sick stuff but hey, they can laugh about owning the libs.

All the best,
Nonoise

i think it is still ( ? ) possible to build a portfolio aligned 100% with the so called conservative values…. invest in coal, red state real estate, oxycontin futures, gas pickup trucks, chinese tweeters, etc….Parler, how is that go long bet going ?

Seriously, just look for firms with no recognition of any future risks $ in the SEC dusclosures, for they are brilliant….you will prosper…

There was a time when it was taboo to invest in vice stocks (tobacco, booze and gambling) and the smarter investors realized that no matter the situation, people will always drink, smoke and gamble, and then everyone was investing in them.

Nowadays, all one needs to do is observe what the idiots are doing, who benefits from that, and invest in that area, or shorting the good investments that end up suffering as a result of their madness. 

Once they learn how easy it is to manipulate the sheeple, they invest accordingly. Take a look at Fl. Gov. DeSatan: he and his staff are supported by a big donor who invests in Regeneron, so DeSatan tells his flock to ignore masks and the vaccine and just get the monoclonal drug instead, because the Feds will pay for it.

These idiots won't take an unofficially approved but safe vaccine for low cost but will take an unofficially approved drug that costs much more, just to piss off one side and make a politician filthy rich. No wonder his approval rating is going down.

All the best,
Nonoise

@tomic601,
Good advice. Everyone needs to know how money works.

One of my Hi-Fi friends came into some money (£100k) some 20 years ago and with the help of a broker he managed to invest that money across a portfolio of shares and investments.
He has a fair share of problems today, mainly health, bereavement issues and the ongoing challenges of staying on the wagon, but at least money isn’t one of them.

Some 25 years ago the British government decided to privatise some of the long held state owned utilities, water, gas, telecom etc

This appalled me and some of my left leaning friends, so we naturally refused to take advantage of what would be an obvious cash bonanza.

In the meantime others, including some politicians, were taking unfair advantage by falsely duplicating their applications, sometimes 3/4 times!
25 years later, with a great deal of real life experience behind me, I have nothing but contempt for most left leaning politicians and their supporters.

The ones that still mean well, I sympathise with. I was one of those myself until it gradually dawned on me that the world does not work like that. It never did, and as long as people remain people, it never will.

In the same position today I would take full advantage of any investment opportunities.

The principled behaviour of me and my friends back in the mod 1990s ultimately amounted to nothing at all.

perhaps you have heard of a “ blood diamond “

its not always about returns €£¥   or the almighty $

my most lucrative investment this year has been $ to the local foodbank, wow are they busy

you sound like a good man CD, self aware….bless you

Jim

cd318,
"The principled behaviour of me and my friends back in the mod 1990s ultimately amounted to nothing at all."

You may not see how your behavior affected, or was an example to others, but be assured that it did and it was. That is also the way that the world works.

So the world doesn’t work like you think and you throw your lot in with the radical right because not all left leaning politicians are honest, leaving your with totally dishonest, anti democratic right wingers financed by Putin in his quest to discredit democracies world wide.

Have you forgotten how the British Empire made it’s fortunes?

Also, wasn't it Thatcher who privatized industries via libertarian concepts and famously stated that there is no such thing as society? Didn't she attack and destroy unions? Doesn't sound left wing to me.

All the best,
Nonoise

And I just wanted to fix my house and build a pair of new speakers.

I'll haul it in my 1996 F150 5.0, Eddie Bower. 24 mpg PICK UP.

The drivers I just picked up from Parts Express are from Taiwan.

I think the Baltic Birch is from Russia. The best price I found was 91.00 a sheet and 9.75% sales tax. Over 100.00 a sheet. A/A ply is 129.00 a sheet.

White veneer 3/4 ply (lot of voids) 75.00

100% mark up..

My first real speaker project was 2 Jensen Imperial Horns and 2 Jensen Imperial sub. 11 sheets of 1" marine plywood. One of the subs was a for buddy.

The guy at the lumber yard/John Deere/Cat/International Dealer/fruit packing shed/, had cut specs for builds in his lumber yard.
The lumber was Naval Surplus.

The guy at the Western Auto/5 and dime/pharmacy/Veterinarian/feed store, sold the drivers.

The radio/appliance/mono/stereo/ham radio/TV repair/tube supply/ military surplus guy, made the crossovers.

It all cost me 1/2 of my summer wages (with a 50% employee discount). I got the 2 MC20, Mac 30 Kit and a C20 from a retro fit at the local Masonic Lodge. They reinstalled Marantz SS gear. They kept their Imperials though.. I don't blame them.. Weighed a ton.. 2 trips in a 51 Chevy PU (short bed).

BTW I worked at all 4 places and my fathers Gas station at any given time.. No I didn't have a paper rout, my brother did, he had a rural route.
Tule Fog route..

1.00-1.75 dollar usd per hour when I started.. 1968-74

Regards

@stereo5 ...had the same experience....I chalk it up to the 'lightning experience', whereas you're 'just sitting there, and *pow*'....

I don't take it personally, just a bad 'phraseology'....;)

@nonoise ....*wry G*...when everyone's free, we've got to expect a whole tushfull of 'variables' (yeah, me too)...and boy howdy,  ain't there...

In NC, the CV19D infect rate has gone up 5X, sig other & I have already 'month-ed' when we should go booster...finding relief and amuse in calling chickens 'dinosaurs'...

...one looks at strangers as a potential threat....
...parts of our government as another....
...the next chapter of the Afgan....(words fail)....(miserably)...
...a planet turning to Bite...

"May we live in Interesting Times...."

OK, got IT....wake up tomorrow for the latest outrageous...."WTF, over..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa1JR-TgPfU&list=RDMM&index=7

LA county, myself...but closer to what Frank has to say about it....just more of similar but mostly trouble of other sorts, unimagined and undreamt of.....*no emoji can infer or begin to*

oldhvymec

I've read where Baltic Birch is a fantastic material for speakers ,
my Thiels used 17 layers of birch veneer to form the curved sides .
Good luck with your  audio project .

I'm not a big fan of Trump's personality but Biden has been a train wreck.  The cost of material good are due to Covid and greed but Biden's policy's are not addressing it and only making it worst.  Unemloyeement payments, stimulus checks and extending the eviction ban need to be stopped.  There was a time it made sense to keep the economy going but that time has passed.  Every where I go there are help wanted signs.  Get back to work America.  

@nonoise,

So the world doesn’t work like you think and you throw your lot in with the radical right because not all left leaning politicians are honest, leaving your with totally dishonest, anti democratic right wingers financed by Putin in his quest to discredit democracies world wide.



I’d like to think I’ve thought it through a little deeper than that.
For instance I was able to observe at close hand the neverending bickering amongst mostly self serving comrades as to the best course of action going forwards.


Then came the schism between the hard line left and the so called Blairite moderates. A schism that continues today with the moderate Keir Starmer heading a Labour Party where many of its communist members are constantly seeking to undermine him.

Most importantly, in over 40 years of consideration I was unable to discover even one viable alternative to the capitalist system that we see in place today worldwide.


I could add that the powers that be in Russia, China, and Cuba etc have also been unable to come up with a viable alternative to communism. We all know what happened to the 5 year plans of Mao and Stalin, don’t we?

Capitalism, for all of its faults, may just be the best way of encouraging endeavour, creativity and drive that the human race is capable of.


Perhaps the real danger for the West is that it may not be able to compete with their less welfare orientated versions.

If there was one thing I could change right now it would be the gross inequalities of wealth between the extreme rich and the rest.

By some estimates, the richest 1% now own over 80% of all global wealth.
That’s not capitalism, that’s something bordering on evil.



’World’s richest 1% get 82% of the wealth’, says Oxfam (2018)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42745853

@kaarmstrong


Yes, there are many jobs but they need to pay a living wage.  Anything less is totally unacceptable.

I agree with some of what you’re saying except for the communism part as it adheres to a very old and strict interpretation that has been misused and appropriated by the right as a means of attacking the left, as if they were actual communists. That’s way too simplistic a stance to take.

Russia is no more communist than the Chinese in that they’re using a system that has been long in place in order to exploit it and are nothing more than gangsters who enjoy all the benefits of capitalism without the burdensome regulations. Just ask Nigel Farage and Arron Banks. Russia and China believe that autocracy should supplant democracy and are doing their level best to see it happen worldwide. They don't want any democratic ideas to gain a foothold in their countries. The sorry thing is, is that they're many supposedly on our side of the equation helping them as best they can. 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-brexit-farage-russia-trump-campaign-20180628-story.html

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jun/16/arron-banks-nigel-farage-leave-brexit-russia-connection

All the best,
Nonoise

Folks you can't have it both ways if you want people to make a decent wage and work and support their families than you will have to pay more for products to support that. That being said the bulk of todays inflation is due to shipping and container cost increases those won't last forever.

A big yes on the shipping and container costs that only a few economists bothered to notice. The rest are busy crying that the sky is falling. In about half a year we can all look back and see this as just noise.

All the best,
Nonoise

I’ve actually been thinking about going back to work.. The only issue, I’m the only one able (NOW) to pick up my Grandson. The wife can’t drive anymore (I surly don’t want her to try).

My daughter seems to forget I can earn double her wages, in the states and 3 to 4 times (if I go for pure money no bennies) out of the states. Heavy mechanics are always in demand. The question is do I want to start working in Labrador on a drilling project that will last all winter, or in the gulf where the weather is just now turning. Monsoon season, (north and south).

The biggest issue for me working in the US is the current workers compensation laws, just aren’t good enough. IF you reported injuries as the law and employers, require you too, you would never work.

BUT then IF you sustain a job stopping, life changing injury, the absolute maximum you can get NOW (100% disable) is about 150k. They rated me at 50% less than a years wages and the medical LOL. The medical pays for one thing, to asses what is wrong but there’s never any money paid on actual repairs or treatment to the patient. ONLY PT sessions twice at some astronomical price per 45 minute session.

I would have been better off in a gem.. REALLY!! Like I was for 45 years.. With a friggin paid for spotter at 50.00 per session 4 times a week with a 3k per year membership fee and it would still be 1/10 the price and 100 times the actual benefit.. PT is for after surgery.
It’s to the GYM after that..

I’m still waiting for an Insurance company to make an offer on THREE herniated disk, (two in my neck and one in my lower back), two hand repairs, stenosis surgery, pulling some old hardware out (pedicle screws and rods all solingen steel) one questionable hip, a pair of shoulders that are in constant need of attention, a whole slough of bone on bone arthritis AND of course future medical..

Its really rough being a heavy equipment mechanic. There is a whole lot more than that, that happened on the job. This is just my last 12 years and I was ground to a halt. That’s the way workers in America are treated...

They want to pay me off, what do you think that is worth after a single heart attack was 106.900.

This coming May will be 5 years. I’ve been stable for over a year. They have been arguing about grip strength (I kid you knot) for over 6 months. AND never once said anything about WHY I lost it.. My neck was broke.. 185lb grip strength to 30 (for 4 weeks) back to a stable 130 IF I hold my neck in a certain position.. and 110 in any position. I’m sure with my neck stabilized it would go up more.

I’ll never forgo a splinter working in the US again.. Everything will be reported, down to the time a day I change band aids.

90 years of service between me and my wife. The actual first time either of us reported an on the job injury. I was 61 years old, the employer fired me the following Monday.. BTW I couldn’t sign my name, I couldn’t hold a pen or pencil.

I’m glad I had money saved.. Had some property.. Had low payments..
Thank God for SS Medicare and personal supplemental insurance through my spouses retirement until BOTH of us expire.

It paid all but 117.00 on a second ambulance ride. The total was 106,900.00. Heart attack.

The real facts ARE what people have to live with every day, not hypotheticals. My situation is indicative of ALL the US’s labor force. They just aren’t taken care of financially or medically, how do you think that weighs on their mental health? How many are in half as good of shape as me? 1/2 again maybe..

Now you know WHY everyday people like me are sick of jet skiing, water skiing, snow skiing, always vacationing very seldom working, Suits and golf shirts wearing people bitching about the cost of US or any type of labor cost AT ALL.

The only labors close to being taken care of are Fireman and Policeman/women. Why the F#%K only them. Good lord I’ve worked in much harsher environments (over time) than either for 45 years.. Not 25 or 30 years with now and then, encounters for the first 10 or so.. Who stays a beat cop? Fireman in my town seldom have fire alarms, rescue and EMT, yes.. NO I wouldn’t want to be a cop.. Looting and arson are automatic capital offences.. Automatic on the spot...

In my town I can’t get cops to write a parking ticket for cars that have been by my house for 6 months.. HOW lazy is that? Parked on the corner in front of a fire hydrant for 2 weeks.. No ticket.. Call every day..

Remember the fire chief in Danville CA.. 250,000.00 a year retirement for 30 years (I think of service). 20,500.00 per month retirement.. I needed his lawyer, what a sad way of looking at things..

I NEED A BETTER LAYWER.. God forbid should I ever need to rely on that.

Remember, As George Carlin said on a few occasions.. I loved his take on golf.. Every injury those types of people ever sustained were screwing around doing anything BUT WORKING..

Gallagher works harder than most golfers, he uses a hammer.. LOL, sorry guys..:-)

He made more sense than any one I know.. Maybe my grandmother..

Long winded one.. mercy..

....the only golf round I'd pay to watch would be played with slingshots & pool cues, with no practice rounds....

Done for charity, only by the pros....😏

oldhvmec, 
Sorry to hear how you've been mistreated with on the job injuries. I've had both shoulders operated on and what they paid out was a joke. 

To this day my shoulders are messed up to the point where I can't even do a single, proper pull up and I was deemed 100% recovered.

Based on my experience, you will need a good lawyer. I hope you've got one.

All the best,
Nonoise

I am sorry to learn that my friends have so much health problem with  so little help from the health care system...

I dont want to politicize anything here....

But reading posts sometimes  teach us something about people soul....

My best  wishes for you nonoise and to our OP, oldhvimec, and to all others....

prayers for you and yours OP, nonoise and others. working people have been getting shafted for far too long & with no end in sight it's easy to despair. maybe i'm wrong but i tend to view music, my stereo & associated stuff (like posting) as a way to get past those realities. fwiw i'm sorry if i offended anyone with my earlier comments - was trying to keep it light. like i said will say a prayer for you all