Inflation Is Up And You Best Watch The Wages

18 February 2008

INFLATION is getting uncomfortably high, and it is just as well that we have not also had a wages breakout. Goodness, if people start getting paid more, then we will all be worse off. Especially if you happen to be a starving chief executive living from hand to mouth to stock option to annual bonus. Clearly, the working poor will have to remain the working poor, otherwise we will not be able to ignore them at relevant social occasions. Here are some pretty poor words.

AAA. A measure to indicate that an investment possesses the lowest level of risk. It once meant something, until ratings agencies started to get a bad case of the stutters. They began to say things like "This is a . . . a . . . a dog", which would be interpreted as "Triple A". Then everyone involved would leave planet Earth for a little trip around the outer reaches of the solar system accompanied by a subprime mortgage.

Compensation. An opportunity to prove that when something is more important than money, it's definitely about the money.

Investment bankers. Masters of the universe. Who cannot fail to be impressed by their love affairs with calculators? Their intimate knowledge of when to wear a yellow tie and when to wear pink? Their wholehearted efforts to destroy what's left of Western civilisation?

Sorry. A word that is very much in vogue. We suggest economists apologise for being right half of the time, but never knowing which half. Kevin Rudd should apologise for being the only Kevin Rudd available. Brendan Nelson should apologise for not having the decency to stay in bed.

David James is investment editor for BRW magazine and author of The Business Devil's Dictionary.


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