Current Events in November 2018

Lots of consumers have their retirement savings in investment accounts, and the companies that maintain those accounts almost always charge fees.

But a new study finds 53 percent of consumers with investment accounts don't know how to find out which fees they are paying and how much they are. Remarkably, 19 percent of consumers with workplace retirement accounts think they’re paying for types of fees that don’t actually exist.

The authors of the study by personal finance site NerdWallet say the total costs of investment account fees could reach $1 million over a lifetime. Fees may take the form of an account management fee as well as fees charged by certain mutual funds and ETFs. A recent analysis by Morningstar found the average fees charged by funds and ETFs are about $610 a year on an investment of $100,000.

Since over half of the respondents in the survey, conducted by the Harris Poll, don't know how to locate fees on their account statement, it is presumed they don't know how much they are paying. If you don't know how much the fees are, there is no way to know if the company managing your account is the best choice.

More savvy millennials

The survey found that millennials with investment accounts are more savvy about fees than their parents' generation. Fifty-three percent of millennials knew where to look on their account statement to locate fees. Only 47 percent of Gen Xers and 46 percent of baby boomers could point to the fees.

Perhaps more disturbing is the overall lack of awareness many investment account holders have about fees in general. Around 37 percent of people with workplace retirement accounts and 31 percent of consumers with an IRA or brokerage account think they have never paid a fee on their account.

Some even report paying fees that don't exist. That suggests they aren't paying close attention to their monthly statement, or aren't sure how to read it.

The lack of fee awareness also spills over to bank account statements. More than a third of consumers in the survey were unaware of where to find fees on their monthly bank account statement.

Bank fees are more avoidable

“What’s especially unfortunate about the 34 percent of people with bank accounts who aren’t sure how to locate fees on their accounts is that bank account fees are generally easy to avoid,” the authors write. “But if account holders aren’t sure how to find them, they may be paying fees they’re unaware of.”

While bank fees are mostly avoidable, fees on investment accounts are not. Money managers don't work for free, nor should they. But not all investment account fees are equal.

After finding the line item on your monthly statement that details fees, use that information to compare your current account manager with competitors. When interviewing a potential investment advisor, one of the first questions should be about the fees the company charges.

'Tis the season for scams -- in part because the holidays are fast approaching, but also because cold weather has arrived in much of the U.S.

When the mercury drops, scammers come out of the woodwork to rip off consumers with a variety of utility scams.

Southern California Gas (SoCalGas) is warning that scammers often impersonate utility company employees, either on the phone or by showing up on your doorstep. They might tell consumers their service is about to be shut off until they pay a surcharge, or they may try to sell a worthless device to lower heating bills.

"We encourage customers to look for the warning signs associated with this latest scam and to call the police as well as our customer call center number to report it to us,” said Paul Goldstein, vice president of customer services at SoCalGas. We also want to reiterate that we do not call our customers who are late on their payments but will instead send a text, an email, or a notice in the mail."

Demanding payment for ‘overdue’ bill

Georgia Power said a common tactic scammers employ is to demand payment for a bill that is allegedly overdue. But the tip-off comes in the form of payment. If the caller demands a credit card or prepaid money card number over the phone, it's a scam.

If you get one of these calls, utility officials recommend hanging up and, if you're in doubt that it’s a scam, looking up the number for you local utility company and speaking with a customer service representative.

Holiday pyramid scheme

While there are many scams associated with the holidays, the U.S. Postal Service says a common one involves Facebook. It says be very careful if you see a posting inviting you to be a “secret sister.”

The scheme first emerged in 2015 when Facebook members were invited to take part in a holiday gift exchange. The posting told participants to send a gift costing at least $10 to someone on the posted gift list and promised between six and 36 gifts in return. But the Postal Service says it's just a pyramid scheme.

“The people at the top of the pyramid benefit most -- and might actually receive the items promised,” USPS said in a post. “However, for everyone to receive what they’ve been promised, each layer of the pyramid must attract new recruits. It’s mathematically impossible to sustain.”

The Postal Service cautions that fraudulent pyramid schemes run afoul of the Lottery Statute – Title 18, United States Code, Section 1302 – since they meet the definition of a lottery.

Other holiday scams include fake charities and phony shopping sites and apps. Consumers should only support well-known charities and only shop at well-known shopping sites. AARP has compiled a list of other common holiday scams and how to avoid them.

Ford Motor Company is recalling 215 model year 2010 Ford Fusions, Mercury Milans and model year 2010-2012 Lincoln MKZs that previously received a replacement passenger airbag.

In the event of a crash requiring deployment of the passenger airbag, the bracket that secures the airbag inflator to the module housing may deform, allowing the gas that inflates the airbag to leak out.

If the airbag does not inflate as intended, there is an increased risk of injury in the event of a crash.

What to do

Ford will notify owners, and dealers will replace the passenger airbag module, free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin in November 2018.

Owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332. Ford's number for this recall is 18S34.

Lime, the bicycle and electric scooter sharing service, is officially adding automobiles to its lineup of wheels.

After testing the concept, the company will kick off its new addition in Seattle, a metro where the company’s dockless bikes are a hit and other companies’ rideshare services are also enormously popular.

But, Seattle has also been a thorn in the side of Lime’s dockless scooters. The city has a city-wide ban on e-scooters from bike lanes or sidewalks, and Lime did itself no favors when it reportedly set up a “pop-up” stand in a busy city park where it invited passersby to try its electric scooters and distributed handouts asking people to email city officials and urge the approval of dockless e-scooters.

“LimePods, Lime’s car-sharing product line, a convenient, affordable, weather-resistant mobility solution for communities,” a spokesperson for Lime said in a statement to TechCrunch. “The ease of use of finding, unlocking, and paying for cars will be consistent with how riders use Lime scooters and e-bikes today.”

What kind of car and how much?

Lime likes to think of itself as “the leading micro mobility provider in the US,” and its car fleet will reflect the micro angle by incorporating the 2018 Fiat 500 as its cornerstone.

The company will reportedly start with 50 of those Fiats and, then, grow organically from there, with lofty hopes of having 1,500 cars in Seattle by early 2019, according to BloombergNews. If Lime hits that mark, it would make the company the preeminent free-floating car-sharing program in any U.S. market.

Similar to how Lime’s pricing works for its scooters and e-bikes, a trip in a LimePod will cost $1 just to unlock the car, then the meter starts charging 40 cents for every minute the car is in use.

Facebook says it has fixed a privacy bug that allowed websites to read likes and interests on users’ profiles without them knowing about it.

The bug was first discovered in May by Ron Masas, a security researcher at Imperva. Masas found that Facebook search results were not sufficiently protected from cross-site request forgery attacks, meaning bad actors could have used an iFrame to extract data from a logged-in Facebook profile in another tab.

“This allowed information to cross over domains — essentially meaning that if a user visits a particular website, an attacker can open Facebook and can collect information about the user and their friends,” Masas told SiliconANGLE.

Masas said the bug allowed websites to see the user’s interests as well as their friends' interests, even if their privacy settings were set to allow only friends to see their interests.

One of many security issues

Facebook said it fixed the bug within days of being alerted to it. The company says it hasn’t seen the vulnerability be exploited for malicious purposes.

“We appreciate this researcher’s report to our bug bounty program,” said Facebook spokesperson Margarita Zolotova in a statement. “As the underlying behavior is not specific to Facebook, we’ve made recommendations to browser makers and relevant web standards groups to encourage them to take steps to prevent this type of issue from occurring in other web applications.”

The data vulnerability is among several others to have affected Facebook recently. It follows the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which a political data firm improperly harvested information on 87 million users to use for election profiling.

More recently, Facebook admitted that millions of user account tokens had been stolen by hackers who breached its system.

Ford announced on Wednesday that it’s teaming up with Walmart to work towards a goal of using self-driving vehicles for grocery delivery.

The partnership will be based on existing arrangements that Walmart and Ford both have with Postmates, a service that delivers “anything, anytime, anywhere” locally on-demand.

A pilot program in Florida will test a method of delivering items such as groceries, diapers, pet food, and other items to consumers using robotic vehicles. While the pilot is underway, the vehicles will collect data about consumer preferences to help the company identify which items people want.

"Like us, Walmart believes that self-driving vehicles have an important role to play in the future of delivery, and that true success comes from first learning how individuals want to use them in their daily lives," Brian Wolf, Ford's autonomous vehicle business lead, said in a statement.

"Together, we’ll be gathering crucial data about consumer preferences and learning the best way we can conveniently connect people with the goods they need."

Testing different vehicle configurations

Ford says it will be testing the efficiency of different vehicle configurations and exploring modifications that could make it easier to meet consumers’ needs -- especially to “accommodate perishable goods, or scenarios where our vehicles end up making multiple deliveries on a single trip,” the automaker said.

The automaker is also working on a fleet of autonomous vehicles that it plans to launch commercially in 2021. For its Walmart-Postmates partnership, Ford will use research vehicles designed to simulate an autonomous experience.

“We’re confident that working with Walmart will strengthen our effort to successfully deploy self-driving vehicles in a way that people actually want to experience — whether they’re ordering takeout, groceries or anything else they might need,” Wolf said.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) says it projects mail delivery demands will go up sharply this holiday season with consumers putting 15 billion pieces of mail and 900 million packages into the system between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

To help consumers get their cards and packages delivered on time, USPS is expanding its Sunday delivery operations to locations with high package volumes beginning Nov. 25. Sunday package delivery already takes place in most major cities. Select locations will also get Christmas Day delivery.

Mailing early can also ensure that consumers' packages get delivered on time. USPS has published these mailing and shipping deadlines, though shipping before the deadlines is always a good idea:

• Dec. 4 – APO/FPO/DPO (ZIP Code 093 only) Priority Mail and First-Class Mail    

• Dec. 11 – APO/FPO/DPO (all other ZIP Codes) Priority Mail and First-Class Mail    

• Dec. 14 – USPS Retail Ground    

• Dec. 18 – APO/FPO/DPO (except ZIP Code 093) USPS Priority Mail Express    

• Dec. 20 – First-Class Mail     (including greeting cards)    

• Dec. 20 – First-class packages (up to 15.99 ounces)    

• Dec. 20 – Hawaii to mainland Priority Mail and First-Class Mail    

• Dec. 20 – Priority Mail    

• Dec. 20 – Alaska to mainland Priority Mail and First-Class Mail    

• Dec. 22 – Alaska to mainland Priority Mail Express    

• Dec. 22 – Hawaii to mainland Priority Mail Express    

• Dec. 22 – Priority Mail Express

"We have increased our operating capacity to include additional transportation and extended our delivery windows," said Megan J. Brennan, Postmaster General and CEO. "Our dedicated employees are proud to deliver more packages to homes than any other shipper."

Increase in shipping volume

Because holiday shopping is now spread over such a wide time frame, USPS no longer designates a “busiest mailing day.” Rather, it identifies the two weeks before Christmas as the time when it expects the heaviest mailing demands.

In addition to consumers mailing their own packages, online retailers are expected to make use of USPS to ship purchases, along with FedEx and UPS. The Deloitte Holiday Shopping Survey released last month projects online holiday sales will increase 17 percent to 22 percent this year.

Consumers shipping by FedEx are catching a break. The company has announced across-the-board increases in shipping rates, but they don't take effect until January.

There have actually been rumblings on Wall Street in recent days that perhaps the day of the smartphone is over.

It began when Apple disappointed investors with its earnings and projection of future iPhone sales. Could it be, traders wondered, that consumers have broken their addiction to their mobile devices?

Not likely. A new survey by Deloitte suggests just the opposite. An estimated 270 million Americans have smartphones and look at them 14 billion times a day.

In 2018, smartphone penetration rose to 85 percent, 3 percent higher than last year. The strongest growth came among older consumers, those 45 and over.

Broken down by individuals, the survey found the average consumer looks at their phone 52 times a day. Not surprisingly, 39 percent of consumers in the survey admit to some level of smartphone burnout, believing they probably use their phones too much.

Voice control adds to the appeal

The survey authors suggest there will be no letup in smartphone use, noting that voice controls have made it easier to use and control the devices. More homes are now equipped with smart appliances that are controlled with – you guessed it – smartphones.

"This year's survey really advances the story of smartphones as the true center of our lives, both inside and outside the home," said Kevin Westcott, vice chairman at Deloitte. "While interest in other mobile technologies such as voice-assistance and IoT is there, the smartphone remains the go-to device for consumers, enabling them to do anything they desire: communicate, work, socialize, consume entertainment, stay fit or take care of things at home."

Tablets, meanwhile, don't hold the same appeal. In fact, tablets suffered the largest year-over-year decline in market penetration of any device category, falling 5 percent. That means your chances of buying one at a bargain basement price this holiday season have improved.

Not so hot this year-over-year

Virtual reality (VR) headsets, the hot technology a couple of seasons ago, failed to get traction among consumers. They hold only 8 percent market penetration, behind's fitness bands and smartwatches. After smartphones, the most popular digital device is the laptop computer, with 77 percent market penetration.

The dominance of the smartphone is all the more remarkable when you consider it didn't exist 11 years ago. In 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs stood on a stage in San Francisco and introduced the first iPhone, a “revolutionary product” he confidently predicted would change the world.

After months of putting American cities through an elaborate selection process, Amazon has chosen metro New York and metro Washington to share its second corporate headquarters.

In the end, the decision seemed to make perfect sense. New York is the financial capital of the world while Washington is the seat of government, which is doing an increasing amount of business with the tech giant.

The Washington location is Crystal City, Virginia, wedged between Reagan National Airport and the Pentagon. The New York location is in Long Island City, a neighborhood in Queens.

Both metro areas stand to reap significant economic rewards since Amazon plans to hire roughly 50,000 workers between the two locations. At the same time, the company will situate its East Coast operations hub in Nashville, hiring 5,000 workers there.

“We are excited to build new headquarters in New York City and Northern Virginia,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon. “These two locations will allow us to attract world-class talent that will help us to continue inventing for customers for years to come. The team did a great job selecting these sites, and we look forward to becoming an even bigger part of these communities.”

Amazon will be in the center of things

While Amazon will maintain its current corporate headquarters in Seattle, the new East Coast locations put it close to the source of economic and political power. The New York location is just across the East River from Midtown Manhattan and the Upper East Side. Long Island City is currently a mixed-use community with an industrial base and a Bohemian vibe. It has easy access to Manhattan as well as LaGuardia and JFK airports.

Crystal City, renamed National Landing, is on the Potomac River in Northern Virginia, just across from the nation's capital. It's a neighborhood of high rise office buildings and condos, whose prices just went up.

In fact, property values in both New York and Washington, already among the highest in the nation, can be expected to go even higher. Both are high-density population centers with little room for new construction to accommodate the thousands of new people who will be working there.

Meanwhile, political leaders in both New York and Virginia are celebrating Amazon's decision. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called it “a giant step on our path to building an economy in New York City that leaves no one behind.”

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam called it “a big win for Virginia.” Both states offered Amazon generous tax breaks in their bids to secure the winning locations.

The government's Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of inflation in the economy, rose 0.3 percent in October, well above the Federal Reserve's inflation target.

But a closer look at the numbers shows the increase was largely confined to just two areas – energy and housing. Gasoline prices, which were abnormally high in October, accounted for about a third of the increase in the CPI.

The cost of putting a roof over your head rose 0.2 percent in October and is up 3.2 percent over the last 12 months. Housing costs are rising even as the housing market experiences a slowdown in sales. Robert Frick, corporate economist with Navy Federal Credit Union, isn't overly concerned about the rising numbers.

“Inflation came in hot at 0.3 percent, but a big reason was gas costs, which are dropping now and will cool inflation in November's report,” Frick told ConsumerAffairs. “Core inflation - which subtracts energy and food costs - has risen just 2.1 percent from a year ago, dropping a bit from last month’s annual figure. That's the number to watch, and it shows inflation continues to be subdued, only rising gradually over the last few months.”

Food prices were lower

In fact, there were a number of categories last month where costs did not rise. Food costs were down 0.1 percent. New cars and trucks were priced 0.2 percent lower, but used vehicles saw a surprising 2.6 percent increase.

Utility costs were down 0.6 percent, as much of the country was between air conditioning and heating seasons last month. Medical care was up 0.2 percent for the second straight month.

“If the Fed is looking to inflation as a reason to raise rates next year, inflation isn't cooperating,” Frick said. “With the economy expected to cool more in 2019, only rising wages would give the Fed hawks ammunition to raise rates.”

A pause in the Fed's raising-raising campaign would not only give relief to Wall Street, it would provide a respite to consumers with large credit card balances who see their interest rate go up every time the Fed hikes its federal funds rate.

Natural Life Pet Products is recalling Natural Life Chicken & Potato dry dog food.

The product contains elevated levels of Vitamin D.

The company has received complaints from three pet owners of vitamin D toxicity.

The following product, with a Best By Date code of December 4, 2019, through August 10, 2020, on the back or bottom of each bag, is being recalled:

• 17.5 # Natural Life Chicken & Potato Dry Dog Food Bag UPC: 0-12344-08175-1

The recalled product was sold in retail stores in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and California.

What to do

Consumers should stop feeding the recalled product and dispose of it or return it to the place of purchase for a full refund.

Consumers with questions may contact Natural Life Pet Products at (888) 279-9420 from 8 AM to 5 PM (CST) Monday through Friday, or by email at consumerservices@nutrisca.com for more information.

Like many other consumer horror stories that end in a corporate apology, it took the work of incensed social media users for JetBlue to publicly acknowledge that it shouldn't have given a passenger’s custom wheelchair away to the wrong person.

“The customer did not have the experience we want to provide to our customers who use wheelchairs and we’ve apologized to her for the stress and inconvenience this situation caused,” JetBlue’s press team tells ConsumerAffairs in a prepared statement.

The nightmare for the passenger and writer who goes by the pseudonym “Coffee Spoonie” on Twitter began on November 7, when she told her 19,000 followers that she was stranded on a JetBlue airplane because staff couldn’t find her custom-built wheelchair after they mistakenly gave it to someone else.

Then they found the chair and returned it to her -- with damages that made it impossible to use. On their official corporate Twitter account, JetBlue publicly responded that she should file a claim for a repair through their “business partner,” a third-party contractor. But the contractor demanded payment from Spoonie’s health insurer for the repair, she later said online.

The social media outrage from her followers and others who testified to similar experiences was swift, and the following day, Spoonie posted that JetBlue had changed course, with a promise to have the wheelchair repaired through a different contractor and a heartfelt-sounding apology over the phone.

“In investigating the incident, we learned that another customer on the same flight mistakenly identified the wheelchair as their own and was escorted in it to the baggage claim by one of our business partners,” JetBlue says of the incident in a statement to ConsumerAffairs.

The statement does not specify how the wheelchair became damaged or answer whether it is typical for JetBlue’s business partners to demand payment from health insurers before fixing broken wheelchairs.

“We have addressed any concerns regarding insurance with our business partners and the chair is being repaired,” JetBlue’s statement concludes.

The ordeal sparked numerous other people to share their own stories of broken or lost wheelchairs. But starting next month, the flying public won’t be limited to viral social media posts to discover how often incidents like this happen.

Flying while disabled

When it comes to air travel complaints, it’s the rare people trying to board with an emotional support peacock or squirrel who tend to grab the most headlines and vows from airlines to crack down.

Meanwhile, a far more common flying nightmare has gone ignored by airlines for years; customers with disabilities say that they are regularly mistreated during air travel, with one of the more common problems being airline staff that lose or break their personal wheelchairs -- leaving passengers who can’t walk completely stranded and without a medical device worth thousands of dollars.

Evidence that airline staff treat wheelchairs no more delicately -- or potentially worse -- than the suitcases they are checked with has only been available anecdotally. Unlike lost or mishandled luggage, wheelchair damage doesn’t come with its own reporting requirements under federal law.

Outspoken travelers and wheelchair users like Senator Tammy Duckworth, the Illinois Democrat and former lieutenant colonel who lost her legs in the Iraq war in 2004, have traditionally been the public’s only window into the issue.

"On a recent trip, I retrieved my wheelchair at the end of the jet bridge, but a titanium rod had been damaged during the flight and my chair literally broke apart while I was sitting in it," Duckworth wrote last year in a letter to Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Elaine Chao, asking that the agency do more to monitor airlines’ treatment of disabled passengers.

Last year, the Government Accountability Office, the independent federal watchdog agency, finally looked into the issue. It found that disability-related complaints related to air travel doubled from 2005 to 2015, reaching over 30,000 complaints for the most recent year that data was available.

Advocates say that the problem can be traced to shrinking seats, crowded or overbooked planes, and other side effects of an industry that has become increasingly consolidated and unfriendly to consumers.   

Transparency through litigation

In late 2016, the Obama administration finally promised some reprieve to fliers traveling with wheelchairs in the form of transparency. The outgoing administration said that by 2018, all United States airlines would be required “to report on how often they mishandle wheelchairs so air travelers with disabilities can easily compare carriers and make informed travel decisions.”

But after agreeing to the changes, the airline industry predictably asked that the new rules be put on hold under the Trump administration.

“Industry is facing some real challenges with both parts of this regulation and will need more time to implement it,” a lobbyist with Airlines for America, the group that represents most major airlines, reportedly said in an email to the Department of Transportation (DOT) under the new administration in March 2017.

The following day, the DOT announced that it would delay the wheelchair rule until January 2019 -- without giving the advocacy groups and other stakeholders who had worked on the issue for five years a public hearing or chance to comment.

The advocacy group Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) promptly sued and is now celebrating a recent announcement from the DOT that all airlines will be expected to publicly disclose their wheelchair mishandling complaints by December 4.

“We applaud the DOT for finally implementing the new rule,” Carl Blake, executive director of PVA, said in a October 29 announcement. They say that the DOT’s decision came after appeals court judges took the agency to task for delaying the wheelchair rule without so much as a hearing

Advocacy group Democracy Forward, which represented the PVA in the lawsuit, says that the new rule will fill what has otherwise been a “data desert” when it comes to flying with a wheelchair.

“Until the rule goes into effect December 4 of this year, there really was no way to actually track how often airlines were damaging or losing wheelchairs,” Democracy Forward spokesman Charisma Troiano tell ConsumerAffairs.

Troiano expects airlines to comply, though the DOT rules allow airlines the chance to delay if they can submit a detailed explanation about why that’s necessary.

ConsumerAffairs questioned five major airlines -- United, Delta, Southwest,  American, and JetBlue -- about their plans in regards to the wheelchair rule. The press teams for all of the airlines except JetBlue said they plan to comply and publicly report wheelchair mishandling complaints by the December 4 deadline.

While JetBlue’s press team did not answer repeated questions about the wheelchair rule, Airlines for America spokesman Alison McAfee says via email that the industry group’s members “are committed to being compliant with the Wheelchair Rule by the deadline.”

More changes need for overall accountability

Though the PVA and Democracy Forward applauded the measure, their advocacy work indicates that more systemic changes are still needed.  In a separate lawsuit, PVA is calling for better access for disabled passengers to use the restroom on flights, an issue that travelers like John Morris of WheelTravel.org has described as an “accessibility nightmare.”

And while airlines are already required to publicly disclose other issues like lost luggage or injured or killed pets, that hasn’t stopped such stories from regularly repeating themselves.

When it comes to pet deaths, airlines typically deny culpability in their government-mandated public reports.

“I have not seen an instance in which the airline determined that they did something wrong,” an Animal Legal Defense Fund attorney said in an interview last year about United Airlines’ own troubling history with pet deaths.

What’s more, federal laws have long protected airlines from getting sued by passengers with civil rights complaints. As the air travel guide Points Guy recently noted in an article about flying while disabled, courts have repeatedly ruled that consumers have to file such complaints with the DOT instead.

Previously, the DOT’s fines levied on airlines have been few and far between -- and the money doesn’t always go back to the affected passengers.

“You cannot sue an airline for any of this,” Kelly Buckland, a wheelchair user executive director of the National Council for Independent Living, told The Points Guy. “You’re entirely dependent on the Department of Transportation. We need to be able to hold them accountable.”

Volkswagen is claiming that it can produce 50 million electric cars and will have “much lower” prices than Tesla, which is still months away from delivering on its promise of a $35,000 Model 3.

“Now we’re coming into an age where electric cars will play a major role,” CEO Herbert Diess told Automotive News last month in an interview released Monday. “We will be very big in electric cars worldwide because we are very strong in China. We have huge economies of scale, and we will bring those cars here” to the U.S.”

The German automaker is planning a model for its ID range of electric cars priced under $23,000, Reuters reports, citing a source with knowledge of the matter. Diess added that VW has already “booked production in its plants for 50 million full-electric cars.”

Tesla competitor

Volkswagen is expected to discuss the forthcoming electric car, known as “MEB entry”, at a November 16 supervisory board meeting, during which the company will discuss its plan to transition into being a mass producer of electric cars.

Diess said the new MEB platform will make it possible to reduce costs significantly. The model is expected to be produced at a volume of 200,000 units a year.

“A 40 percent cost reduction, but a much better car; twice the range, bigger interior, but outside, still a compact car,” he said.

"Volkswagen will be building the series production models of the ID family in Saxony," the automaker said in a statement earlier this fall. "1.2 billion euros is being invested in Zwickau to become the first pure-play MEB plant and the largest competence center for e-mobility in Europe.”

Doing away with diesel

Word of Volkswagen’s planned shift to electric models follows the Dieselgate scandal, in which the automaker was found to have equipped half a million of its vehicles with diesel engines with on-board software to defeat pollution controls.

The company’s efforts to recover from the 2015 scandal have included suspending sales of all diesel vehicles in the U.S., paying multi-million dollar fines to regulators, and buying back millions of affected cars. Additionally, the automaker has faced lawsuits from dealers and consumers.

Volkswagen’s talk of making a Tesla rival also comes as cities around the world start to ban diesel engine vehicles in an effort to reduce urban air pollution.

The days of low inflation may be coming to an end.

Prices for just about everything, even gasoline, dropped in the years after the Great Recession. Consumers had less buying power and businesses couldn't raise prices.

As a result, interest rates fell to near historic lows. That made it easier to buy a home and home prices rose.

Now the economy is recovering and the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates. Businesses are finding they are finally able to pass on higher costs to consumers. Heading into 2019, consumers may begin to face a new reality.

Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported a sharp, 0.6 percent jump in final demand Producer Price Index (PPI). Businesses that produce goods and services are beginning to absorb higher costs, which typically get passed along to consumers.

More costly food and gasoline

Much of the increase came in food, energy and trade services. Without those costs, the index rose a more modest 0.2 percent.

Unfortunately, consumers still have to buy gasoline, go grocery shopping, and pay their electric bills. Gasoline prices have been going down in recent weeks but are still about 20 cents a gallon higher than at this time last year.

Looking ahead, economist Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors doesn't think inflation is ready to kick into high gear, but he does see trouble spots. In his analysis of the BLS data, he notes transportation costs are rising quickly, as are construction costs.

A larger concern may be interest payments on the mushrooming national debt. A report by The Wall Street Journal shows the debt has surged from $5.1 trillion to $15.9 trillion in a few short years.

Rising interest rates

When interest rates were low, the debt service was more manageable. But in a rising interest rate environment -- like a consumer's credit card -- more and more of the payment will go just to pay the interest.

The Journal analysis shows that interest costs on the federal debt took up 6.6 percent of all government spending last year. But the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates interest spending will make up 13 percent of federal spending by 2028.

Along that trajectory, the Journal analysis projects the government to spend more on interest than it does on Medicaid in 2020 and that interest payments will eclipse defense spending by 2023.

As interest rates rise and federal spending increases it will leave less money to pay for government services and entitlements unless economic growth accelerates or taxes are raised.