More from a housing bubble blog:

Want the truth about inflation? Ignore the government's bull***t number and just go talk to regular folks struggling to make ends meet

Folks, you've been had.

The government wants to keep the reported inflation number down so that it doesn't have to increase entitlement benefit COLAs. Hey, we are the government in the end, and I don't want to see COLAs going up either. But then just make a law to that effect. Reporting false inflation numbers is just stupid.

Why is the inflation number bogus? Because the government computes the cost of rent, not the cost of housing, as the number one item in its calculations.

As we all know, rents have dropped as everyone and anyone rushed in to buy a home. Plus with millions of unused and un-needed homes out there owned as second homes and investments, there's a huge increase in supply.

So presto, home prices double, and a lot of people are now paying more of their total disposable income just to keep the roof over their head. But inflation stays the same. Then there's the hilarious "excluding food and energy" number that's reported. Uh, you add up housing, food and energy, is there anything left for real people?

Here's a good article about reality, and the royal drubbing the Republicans are going to take in November. Who's more out of touch with regular folks - Bush Senior or Bush Junior? It'll be the downfall for both. Let them eat cake.

Used boots fetch $3 and old salt-and-pepper shakers bring in a buck at a makeshift flea market along Highway 27, presumably not what President Bush and Republicans have in mind when they herald a vibrant economy.

Times are "very good for the rich and very, very bad for the poor" who "can't afford to live," laments Larry Mitchell, 43, a now-and-then merchant peddling his wares recently in a submarine sandwich shop parking lot. He says the middle class is "having a hard time."

Seven weeks before the midterm elections, the gulf between Bush's perceptions and that of voters form the political backdrop across the country as well as in a region with several competitive House races. This area typically gets left out of national boom times and usually feels the pinch more than others during slowdowns.

Here and elsewhere differing views on the economy could hurt the GOP's efforts to retain control of the House and Senate this fall, and give voters reason to put Democrats in charge instead.