Greece Close to the Edge, New CPI Data, and Are We Losing Money on TARP

Not too much big news today besides Greece being on the verge of burning down:

So what's Prime Minister Papandreou solution besides pushing more austerity measures?

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Greece's prime minister, struggling to ensure Parliamentary approval for a crucial austerity bill, said Wednesday he would reshuffle his Cabinet and seek a vote of confidence for his new government after coalition talks with opposition parties failed.
The negotiations collapsed as rioters clashed with police in the streets of Athens during a general strike and renewed fears of default rattled global markets.

The game continues despite Greece's 10 year bond yield reaching a whopping 17%. Zerohedge is reporting that an evacuation tunnel has been prepared for parliament to use after today's austerity votes.  As I have said before, the rioters are protesting for all the wrong reasons.

New CPI data is out today, well what do you know? It's ticking ever so higher:

The Consumer Price Index increased 0.2 percent in May on a seasonally adjusted basis. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 3.6 percent.This is a dramatic acceleration in the all items index.It was 1.1 percent as recently as November, the 3.6 percent 12-month number in May is thus more than a tripling in the rate of inflation.

And how about that core inflation?

for all items less food and energy increased 0.3 percent in May, its largest increase since July 2008. The indexes for apparel, shelter, new vehicles, and recreation all contributed to the acceleration, rising more in May than in April.

That's about 3.7% for the year on core inflation, what's Krugman's excuse this time?

So you know how proponents of TARP like to brag about how it was actually a good investment and the government made money on the deal?  Robert P. Murphy seems to think otherwise:

This (pdf or excel) is the latest report of TARP Investments. I’m looking at the Excel file, the first tab. And it looks like, even just focusing on the Capital Purchase Programs (i.e. the warrants and preferred stock in financial institutions, not the boondoggles of the auto bailouts), the government is reporting $2.59 billion in losses.

I tried looking at the file and was unable to find what Murphy was looking at.

If you wanna see my convo with some nice MMT'ers (I am being serious, they were actually very kind in showing me some resources), see this.

I will end with another great graph from Mark J. Perry on manufacturing productivity increases over the past 60 years:

Where is Robert Reich crying about how manufacturing increases has bankrupted the middle class?