06.05.08 Inflation Data; Tracking Cell Phone Users

ECONOMY:
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The U.S. computes its inflation data differently from the rest of the world in at least three ways, according to Bill Gross, PIMCO Funds bond guru. If you have had the misfortune to buy groceries or put gas in the tank over the past year or two, your inflation experiences vary quite a bit from the official government figures, which don't have to take those pesky food or fuel numbers into account. The first paragraph or two of the article qualifies as a pretty good rant, but is unfortunately true. Good read. Here's one sentence from the opening rant: "We have for so long now been willing to be entertained rather than informed, that we more or less accept majority opinion, perpetually shaped by ratings obsessed media, at face value."
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BEAST SYSTEM:
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Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home. As important as that tidbit of information might be - who needs a study to know that? The implications of the ability to track and monitor movements of the citizenry are unsettling.
...The surveillance society is alive and well - so is the threat to individual freedom and privacy as we enter these end times. The beast is becoming more visible as we venture further into this brave new world.
...Folks who make their living pounding computer keyboards at work have long been aware that their every keystroke can be monitored. Employers can track how many keystrokes were made in any one minute or hour. At one job I had, management's reports included production numbers broken down into thirty minute segments. I once heard a manager mention to another employee that he noticed she had not made a keystroke in ten minutes at one point in the previous hour and wanted to make sure she was not having some sort of problem. She explained that she had to go to the bathroom.
...Speaking of which, there are even some companies that require their employees to wear RFID identification which can monitor all their movements on the property, including keeping track of the number of bathroom visits and the elapsed time of those visits.
...When all the states buckle under and line up with increasingly stringent standards on new drivers licenses, all in the name of protecting us from terrorism, it will be at least theoretically possible for monitoring stations to pick up on RFID information contained in your driver's license as you pass by, and know in an instant, who you are and any other information that might be contained in your card. The technology already exists, as the above mentioned study illustrates.
...Meanwhile, though, thousands of people a day still cross our southwestern borders unmolested and untracked, and over 90% of the cargo that enters our ports is not checked. But, don't worry about that guy behind the curtain.