Even as we're grappling with the spectre of a recession in the United States, prices are rising paradoxically. But not just plain-old inflation, no! The current economic circumstances have given rise to a whole new language, as if to make us feel better, by rationalising the whole barrage of price increases we're seeing.

For example, you may have come across agflation. Google has about 47,200 listings of the word, including Investopedia's matter-of-factly definition:

An increase in the price of food that occurs as a result of increased demand from human consumption and use as an alternative energy resource. While the competitive nature of retail supermarkets allows some of the effects of agflation to be absorbed, the price increases that agflation causes are largely passed on to the end consumer. The term is derived from a combination of the words "agriculture" and "inflation".

It's as though agflation is a real word! (Dictionary.com has no record of it). David Shvartsman acknowledged the word in an almost year-old article for Safe Haven, while expertly correcting the media and economists who have bastardised the word "inflation" to make it fit into their own view of the world.

In any event, we at Investor Central have come up with our own set of words to describe the current state of affairs:

Transflation - the economic rationalist explanation each time the Public Transport Council raises bus and MRT fares.

Meeflation - the "sticker shock" you get by going to People's Park and being offered Hokkien Mee, not in $2/$3/$4 portions, but $4/$5/$6 sizes.

Proflation - the phenomenon by which landlords are inexplicably bestowed the right to triple rents for long-standing tenants, or other people in the property business predict an endless rise in sale prices.

Cabflation - the mathematical relationship between the increase in taxi fares and the lengthening of queues of taxis waiting for passengers.

These inevitably lead us to the most important of all, and unlike "agflation" this one is a real word. Click on the link to read for yourself:

Afflation – the blowing of hot air by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his Wall Street buddies about giving the Fed more power. Does anyone else sense another Patriot Act coming on, this time stomping on civil liberties and rights to privacy in the banking sector?

What -flations are currently weighing on your finances?


Mark Laudi, who did a double-take when he first saw the word agflation and thought the author had meant "stagflation" (rising prices in a weakening economy). Hmm… stagflation: the increasingly panicked rantings of a groom when presented with the dinner bill for his wedding?

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Labels: afflation, Agflation, inflation, People's Park, price increases, Public Transport Council