Anyone worried about inflation going away in New York, and worse, turning into deflation (the talk du jour), should look to the MTA for some relief. In a recent audit, astounding abuse of the overtime pay system is revealed. This is on top of the absurd retirement policies they have  in place. An example: The audit cites the case of LIRR track foreman Vincent Mazzola: Mazzola makes a $82,249 base salary but, in 2009, earned $148,459 in overtime — allowing him to bring in $230,708 total for the year. And guess who pays for all of this? YOU DO! Every time you take a cab ride, that 50c- $ 1.50 sur-charge is paid to the MTA to fund this craziness. And the fares keep going up (even though they are relatively cheap compared to other major international cities). We could possibly accept the fares if the service was fluid, efficient, the stations were clean, the staff friendly…..we know the exact opposite to be true. Add this to record wheat prices, gold prices and other commodity prices and you could be CERTAIN inflation is here to stay.

The up-side? Inflation is generally good for real estate, at least while interest rates are low.