WSU Graduation

I know it is almost three months past our graduation from college but I thought I would post some pictures. Arielle will officially be done with college July 29th since she is finishing an online class but she did walk with me at the Spring 2011 commencement. Graduation was bitter sweet for me since I was excited to finally graduate but was bitter since I didn't have a job lined up and still don't. If I am unemployed for a year or two I will most likely go back to school for a PhD in financial engineering.

Arielle graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and a French and Psychology minor. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with a Finance major and an Economic minor. Arielle's brother Nick also graduated the week after from UNLV and is in the picture below.

Both of our families came down to Pullman for the graduation. I made Pizza, Arielle made WSU cupcakes, and some family brought fruits and vegetables.

Our after graduation plans are for us to move to New York as soon as I can find a job in NYC and Arielle will look for a baking job once we move there.

Arielle's 22nd Birthday Cake

I made a chocolate cake for Arielle's 22nd birthday. I got the cake recipes from Food Network but I came up with the filling, frosting, and sauce on my own. The filling between the two layers is a raspberry filling.

 

 The frosting is a chocolate ganache. I attempted to make a white chocolate ganache to marble with the chocolate ganache but the white ganache turned out too liquid so I used at as a sauce to drizzle over the cake. Overall it came out great and was the best cake I have made so far. Arielle's parents and mine both really enjoyed it as well.

Snow, Snow, and more Snow

It snowed all day on February 28th and now we have over a foot of snow.

WSU didn't cancel class even though the buses weren't running until 8am. I walked a mile to the gym on the night of the 28th and nothing had been shoveled off. These pictures are of our apartment complex the morning of March 1st.

Fresh Pair of Custom Kicks

I got some Nike gift cards for Christmas so I could buy some new shoes. I designed these NikeIDs. They have my name on them.

They are great for running!

Lentil Festival 2010

Arielle and I went to the Lentil Festival in Pullman. It was exciting for Pullman.

 Here is the chili that they serve for free. I had two cups and half of Arielle's. The picture below shows the giant stainless steel pot that it is made in.

Arielle and Tase T. Lentil.

Me and Tase T. Lentil.

Food from 2010

During 2010 I made some pretty good food such as Bonet (chocolate custard with caramel sauce or raspberry sauce), Italian Easter pie, lamp chops, arugula salad, and fennel pasta. Here some photos of other foods I made...

 Chocolate pancake with chocolate chips and a peach on top. Later in the year I made them again but added white chocolate chunks.

 Poblano burger from Cooking Light magazine. A beef patty mixed with roasted poblanos and topped with picked reb onions and a sour cream chipotle spread.

 Lentil chili that I made after I got the recipe from the Lentile Festival in Pullman, WA.

A standard flan. I am a big fan of custards.

The Cause of Inflation

After finishing my junior year and almost finishing my minor in economics I never really wondered were inflation really comes from. After taking a class on "Theory of the Firm and Market Policy" and another class on "Money and Banking" I was taught about influences on inflation such as the interest rate, the money supply, government policy, and many other features of the economy that can effect inflation. During the process of reading The Wealth of Nations I came across the actual cause of inflation. The actual cause of inflation is the dearness of goods within a society. Dearness can also be looked at like demand. The key to causing inflation is that the market goods as a whole become more dear or in higher demand to the people of that society. If only a type of good or a specific product becomes in higher demand such as in trends it will only cause a price increase for that good but not inflation.

In my opinion economics can never be fully understood until you understand psychology. The psychology behind inflation is what I like to call the "want problem" The "want problem" is the more wealth (which is the amount of goods commanded by an individual) a person gains the more wealth they want.
The United States is a good example of inflation. The United States is typically in a slow constant inflation. The people of the USA continually become wealthier and want more luxuries or goods that they don't need. Look at the so called standard of televisions. I know and have seen people of poor class (around $25,000 annual income) who have bought a flat screen television with all the bells and whistles (size, HD, and etc.). Now these individuals still had a smaller less extravagant television that worked great before their new purchase but made the purchase to "keep up with the Jones" whether they know it consciously or not. The example with the USA and televisions can be compared to many other items such as cars, phones, electronics, and the list goes on.

As you can see the amount of luxury goods Americans consume continues to grow not on new technology and new goods but it is the amount of luxury items that each American is consuming.

As I stated before there are many other factors that can affect the inflation rate or even cause deflation but the derivation of inflation comes from the dearness of goods within a society's market.