"The first signs of rampant inflation" Note: Emails are organized in the order received, with first received at the top. *** Re: Thinking Great message to start the New Year. Every so often (not often enough), I go through my pen collection and find one I haven't enjoyed using in a long time. Then, sit down with a tablet of blank (I mean no lines - yellow works best for me) and start thinking about something that is bugging me or I can't figure out. Being somewhat graphical (but not an artist), there are lots of squares, circles, clouds, connecting lines, arrows and such. I keep them just in case I need to jumpstart an idea that wasn't good then, but is now. Bill Fuller Federal Way, Washington USA *** Take me off your list immediately and permanently. I have no idea how I got on this list. After all the bad news this year we simply cannot take any more. This nation is hurting severely and what we need is hope right now. Not your cheap attempts at fearmongering. Stick it up your ---. You look like you are ready for social security anyway. Aaron Felts somewhere in cyberspace --- Aaron You have been removed from our lists and, honestly, I don't know how you got on it. Perhaps a friend signed you up. We don't want to send Nip Impressions or any of our other publications to anyone that doesn't want them. As far as social security goes, you have apparently missed my previous comments elsewhere on that bankrupt program. Jim *** Jim, Happy New Year, and thanks for your updates. I wanted to draw to your attention to what I think is a typo in your article titled "The First Signs of Rampant Inflation". You state that "In times of rampant inflation, FIFO can understate a corporation's income". Please correct me if I am misinterpreting your article, but I think what you meant to say is that "LIFO" (not FIFO) understates income during inflation, bc you would be calculating cost of goods using the "last in", or the most expensive inventory. I believe that FIFO would actually lead to higher income and higher taxes during inflation. No worries if this is just a typo, but I wanted to make sure I have a clear understanding of your point of view here. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Best regards, Peter Ruschmeier Barclays Capital New York, NY USA --- Peter: I meant to say "FIFO" but it is true only if you read the rest of the sentence : "(if you are successful at holding down your input costs)". If one is successful at holding down their input costs and uses LIFO, they will have a larger income than using FIFO. Otherwise, you are correct. However, the important point is either way, companies start playing with inventory accounting, depending on their own personal circumstances, when inflation becomes a factor. Or, another way of dealing with this may be the way of Mr. Felts, above, who seems to want to ignore the whole mess. Jim ### Have a comment? Send your email to jthompson@taii.com. Unless you tell us otherwise, we will assume we can use your name if we publish your letter.