That woman is wearing pants that could get caught in the treads of the escalator. This is dangerous. She needs to hike them up a few inches and stop being so blasé about it.
Well? Were you like me? Or did you go straight to the headline, "Inflation Takes Center Stage as Economists Seek Signs of Continued Slowing." Maybe you observed that the headline seems to expose bias in "economists." Why aren't they just seeking the precise truth? If they seek a particular observation — that inflation is slowing — then they are biased.
I'm only seeing that now, as I write this post. My second reaction was about how a man and woman going down an escalator is associated with Donald Trump's 2015 announcement that he was running for President. Does that association fit with an article about inflation today?
Presumably, the Times wants to assist Biden in getting reelected and less inflation would help him. But what does that have to do with the escalator? It's a down escalator, so it works as a metaphor, suggesting declining prices, and the couple do seem to be shopping. And yet prices are not going down. The hope is merely that the rate of increase will decline.
I end this encounter with the front page of the NYT dispirited. I never click through to the article. I continue to stare at the photograph — the harsh diagonal, the emptiness of the left side, the aimless, enervated couple. The nearly empty bag and the really baggy clothes suggest hunger and loss.
IN THE COMMENTS: who-knew noticed what the layout seems designed to keep you from noticing:
My first reaction was that the photo looked kind of bleak.... Then I read the headline and thought; why would economists think in terms of continued slowing?... I didn't even notice the second headline about the government sharing data with their favored cronies but found it unsurprising and figure no one is really trying to find answers to the 'new' questions and it was just another CYA operation.
Here's that article, "New Questions on How a Key Agency Shared Inflation Data/A government economist had regular contact with 'super users' in finance, records show, at a time when such information keenly interests investors." Excerpt:
[E]mails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show that the [Bureau of Labor Statistics] — or at least the economist who sent the original email, a longtime but relatively low-ranking employee — was in regular communication with data users in the finance industry, apparently including analysts at major hedge funds. And they suggest that there was a list of super users, contrary to the agency’s denials....
There is no evidence in the emails that the employee provided early access to coming statistical releases or directly shared other data that wasn’t available to the public. In several instances, the employee told users that he couldn’t provide information they had requested because it would require disclosing nonpublic data.
But the emails show that the employee did engage in extended, one-on-one email exchanges with data users about how the inflation figures are put together. Such details, though highly technical, can be of significant interest to forecasters, who compete to predict inflation figures to hundredths of a percentage point. Those estimates, in turn, are used by investors making bets on the huge batches of securities that are tied to inflation or interest rates....
Posts
159 comments:
My first reaction was "Who shops in a Mall these days?"
Then I read "Economists Seek Signs of Continued Slowing" and I thought "Well, that shouldn't be hard"
It's the front of the NYTs. My first reaction was "oh...more bullshit".
They NYTs is trying to help Biden gaslight the country regarding inflation. But everyone has to buy groceries, pay rent, and people who didn't refi in 2021 when interest rates were low, are currently screwed.
My first reaction was: another busy day at the mall.
Mine: There are people who still go to malls to shop?
My first reaction was that it’s two women.
It looked like two women to me, one more slovenly than the other, probably her friend.
Since when does a couple go shopping together, unless they're both women.
I looked at it for a minute and nothing really stood out to me, aside from the "seeking" comment which did seem like an admission of bias.
My first reaction was recalling Trump's elevator ride. I can't agree with your "dispirited" assessment because of the obvious shopping, signs of affluence in the clothing and the background, and of course an escalator corresponds most in my own mind to a department store. So prosperity and leisure.
Sorry to be a nit-picker, but that's an escalator, not an elevator. That, or Aerosmith's "Love in an Elevator" was much more exhibitionist than I realized.
"An escalator can never break. It can only become stairs. The sign says 'Escalator temporarily stairs. We apologize for the convenience that you can still get up there'." - Mitch Hedberg.
I didn't react to the screenshot at all. I guess you people like to drool whenever the bell rings
I thought the Trump escalator entrance, but I do remember some problems with kids Crocs & escalators.
My wife has to stop at an escalator to calculate her entrance. I think it has something to do with her confusing right & left.
Complete indifference.
'normalcy headed Down'
We were just assured by the hack-Democrat chi Com Loyalty press that the economy was on fire.
Jobs jobs jobs.
Never mind that most of those jobs are government - tax payer funded jobs.
You'd hardly expect the NYT to show a picture of a woman with a couple of kids pushing a cart full of groceries through a supermarket parking lot. Or a person at a gas pump.
AMDG-
those are mannequins in the windows
Back in the 80s mall shoppers in pictures and movies would show the man and woman carrying many bags. Now, the guy only has one bag and the woman none? Sad!
The question has been asked who shops at malls these days. From the picture it looks like the answer is hardly anyone and for hardly anything.
And my first thought in seeing that picture actually was if hate to be there, and that is why I still use Amazon. Malls? Blecch!
Here's the NYT economy story I found:
Price of Gold, Seen as Hedge Against Inflation, Soars to New Heights
The move has puzzled Wall Street, as it comes as the outlook for the economy has improved and inflation has generally cooled.
The move may puzzle Wall Street millionaires, but for average folks inflation has not cooled, the economy is so-so, and the illegal alien invasion is going to hold down wages. People are starting to figure out no one is running the country, that the Fed doesn't know which way to turn, and that wars are popping up like daisies. That's why the price of gold is running wild. It's a barometer of fear and a response to the dollar's declining value.
That couple in the photo has gone to the mall to one of those pop-up gold-silver stores so they can sell grandma's silver.
My first reaction before reading the headlines was: what *newsworthy* event does that photo depict. Then I read the headlines and got confused and gave up because I lost interest.
I'm old so man bun = person I might avoid. Unfair, I know.
My reaction: the nearly empty bag means the NYT is quietly admitting that things may not be that great.
"Play the Crossword"
Isn't that the only reason the paper still exists?
My reaction was to go to nytimes.com myself, in order to get a more authentic reaction. But, that escalator article was nowhere on the home page! In its place is a brand-new article, Inflation Stronger Than Expected. So, reality has bumped the escalator article off of the site.
I was shocked that they posted the BLS Wall Street Super User List so prominently.
It looks like they plan to throw Blackrock and Vanguard under the bus.
The fact that the BLS is a thoroughly corrupt entity is now apparently widely accepted enough the Regime has to get out in front of the scandal.
I thought of Trump coming down the escalator. As to the story, you're right that economists shouldn't be seeking a particular conclusion, but it's the NYT's spin. It's the NYT that is doing that, and likely projecting it on the economists, who may simply be trying to discern which way inflation is going.
The photo links to the inflation article by showing few shoppers and a depressed looking mall. I thought it was two girls and made no connection to Trump. That is a glum looking front page.
I read the headline, then saw the picture.
But the headline is ambiguous: what is slowing? The inflation or the economy?
Ifit's the latter, then the picture is a perfect metaphor of the declining value of our currency, and the economy is slowing to a halt leaving us trapped in the middle.
"Play the Crossword"
Now, let's read what Althouse said:
My reaction to the couple is they obviously need clothes if that is all they could find to go out shopping. That's what we wear around the house before bed. So that seemed to fit with Biden's economy.
I had a similar reaction to the economist, because if the government is stealing our data in violation of the Bill of Rights and giving it over to financial "super users" that have led us to this bad economy, then all that data is either not helping them to do a good job or is enriching them by making life miserable for the rest of us. Considering the violation part, I'm going with the latter.
No mention of the small boulder in the size of a large boulder line?
"Live US Inflation 3m ago Middle East Crisis 4m ago"
Is it live or ago? And honestly, I initially mistook the "m" as months rather than minutes, but then I don't normally look for "live" up to the minute news in a newspaper, even online.
It's a down escalator, so it works as a metaphor, suggesting declining prices, and the couple do seem to be shopping. And yet prices are not going down.
that's all i saw.. More Lies
That it’s a posed shot; the escalator is turned off; it’s the middle of the night and the mall is closed.
My first impression from the picture is the NYT is concerned about how this is impacting upper middle class people, as the mall seems on the higher end. That would make sense given it is the paper's primary market.
The more I look at the picture, the less confident I am in that first impression, but mainly because I am not sure what I am looking at.
My third impression is there is a reason why the persons in focus are going down the escalator.
The women look tired and dejected, the mall looks empty and dark. Then I saw the inflation headline saw a parallel with the fact that the women were going down the escalator. Which could suggest inflation going down, but given how the women look, it suggested to me that the economy is going down.
My first reaction was: meh.
Second reaction: inflation? what inflation? Dems tell me everything's fine, so what me worry?
I apologize for my lack of visual acuity, ignoring diagonals and being entirely oblivious to the existential dangers faced by women in loose pants.
I saw the headline and then looked at the image. It’s probably a mall and in better times it’s possible there would be more bags.
My first reaction was LIVE, bold, red font. I am supposed to take notice of this. Am I supposed to be alarmed? Is there some danger or disappointment being revealed, LIVE? Something to soothe troubles the Times may think I have? Give your attention to LIVE!
First reaction: Ugh, it's the New York Times. What are they saying this time?
Then the headline "Economists Seek Signs of Continued Slowing". Seek signs? Odd wording to me.
I didn't pay attention to the picture until our hostess mentioned it.
My reaction is to ask why, when I go to my NYTimes app, I get a different mall escalator photo? 2 women with shopping bags, less intersting looking....
"I continue to stare at the photograph — the harsh diagonal, the emptiness of the left side, the aimless, enervated couple. The nearly empty bag and the really baggy clothes suggest hunger and loss."
I have the opposite reaction. The mise en scene and the affluently attired couple on the steep escalator, suggesting a vast shopping environment above, below, and around them says MONEY to me, the money possessed by these two (and the man in the background) and the unseen other shoppers undoubtedly thronging outside the cropped view.
"My first reaction was 'Who shops in a Mall these days?'" and "Mine: There are people who still go to malls to shop?"
People who live near still functioning and well-maintained malls still shop in malls. The mall pictured here may be the one in the luxury skyscraper next to the Vessel in NYC, at Hudson Yards. It's quite nice, and richly appointed.
It's a pity that enclosed malls have fallen out of the public's (or developers'?) favors. Strip malls, which preceded and have now succeeded enclosed malls provide inferior aesthetic and shopping experiences.
I read the headline first. No reaction. I looked at the photo. Reaction: Her pants could get caught in the escalator.
The picture was so small on my phone that I thought the guy was doing half of a Richard Lewis hair touch.
My first reaction was that the White House was given a guest slot at writing the lead article on the front page.
I glanced at the photo and then read the headline and could see no connection. Then I guessed there might be a caption beneath the picture that was cut off because of the screenshot. Still seems something of a non-sequitur, or whatever the correct term would be.
I just woke up and my eyes aren't in focus yet. The picture is too blurry to distinguish so I went to the headline. It didn't seem interesting enough to be the top of the front page. Slow news day.
My reaction: Everything on the page is meant to distract from the "super user" story on the lower left.
When you've lost the NYT, you've lost everyone other than the billionaire super users who benefited from GOVERNMENT SUPPLIED INSIDER TRADING INFORMATION. Was this directed by the magical investor Pelosi and Wall St. buddy Schumer? Who benefited? Bloomberg? Chase? Goldman Sachs? Hmm?
Is the NYT okay with returning to the "Tax the 1%" and "Occupy Wall Street" efforts that arose during the Obama administration? Are they serious about taking money from the rich to give to the poor and turning on the oligarchs? (Those insider super users may be the only people who got ahead financially over the last several years.)
The escalator / mall / shopping photo is darkish, has three equity-themed people with tattoos and odd clothes (as @althouse analyzes), and detailed store content in the background. It's meant to be hard to absorb, and to hold the eye away from the doom in the left column.
The CPI print just came out. They need to reshoot the picture on an up escalator.
My first impression was that the down escalator was a subliminal attempt to make us think inflation is decreasing.
My second impression was the phrase, "...a sign that the fight against inflation..." What fight? Biden and his administration say that they are fighting inflation, but their actions are inflationary. They're pushing for more and more deficit spending and pushing for regulations which drive up the cost of everything. This is like saying you're want to put out a fire but everyone sees that what you're doing is throwing gasoline on it.
My first reaction was, "ugh tattoos."
My first reaction was to wonder if that was one of the Kardashian-Jenner clan or some other social media influencer or other young celebrity type out and about looking rich and fabulous. Aren’t they the only ones who can afford to do any casual shopping? And isn’t it enough that we get to live through them vicariously?
Given that it it the NYT, I chose to ignore the writing and enjoyed the orange and blue color pallete instead as my first reaction. Second reaction, time to get back to playing todays Connections.
My first thought: the feminization of the low-T, lefty male on display… ALL man-buns and tattoos.
My first reaction was liking the composition of the photo.
My first reaction was "Oh, NYT. What misinformation has made the front page today?". Second was why do you continue to do this to yourself, even bother to look at the times? Is it the crossword puzzle?
Why aren't they just seeking the precise truth?
This is the times, "the" truth doesn't even come into the picture. One reads the times for the "time's truth", facts have little to do with what they publish. Just review "Russia collusion", "climate change", "elections", "covid", "crime", "gov spending", the topics are endless, the misinformation epic.
Well…perhaps like the way doctors are biased in seeking signs of cancer, or scientific bias seeking signs of impending asteroids. Certainly NYT wants to see whatever they believe will help whoever runs Joe Biden. Economists also work for buy side firms or hedgies what take positions…they aren’t always neutral actors…
The picture is just lazy. Economic stories are often draped with people buying stuff- the mall, the auto showroom or gas station, realtors showing houses. If you have better visuals to backdrop boring economic data that pleases finance loathers the media would like to talk to you…
I thought it was two women, too, at first. And who knows, it's New York: Maybe it is two women.
Nobody's commenting on the second story, the Biden Administration's ' Hello, Super Users' Preferred Members club, the one that gets special unlimited early access to the government's economic data? Imagine my surprise, considering the treatment that a different recent Administration might have received, if there had been similar favoritism shown to Wall Street Fat-Cats.
My first reaction was, “Why do people think tattoos are attractive?”
Tits, and, a tranny.
Headline: Today - "Consumer prices rose 3.5% from a year ago in March, more than expected"
It's offical - the inflation has slowed! er.. well. Ok . Not so much. It's still increasing. but the hack-D press has this covered.
I was at the mall one time when the escalator stopped and I got stuck between floors. I yelled for help, but everyone ignored me. I held out as long as I could, but wouldn't you know it - as soon as I started urinating, that's when the guard came to rescue me.
Keep in mind Blackrock, State Street et al are in on the government’s intent on knocking the US down a bunch of pegs, what with the publicly traded’s social credit scores and all. You think Inbev came up with that shut on their own?
Frontrunning a little FOMC meeting or two never hurt anyone…too much.
I gave a hostile, indifferent look at the front page of the NYT and thought the couple were coming off a plane. They were wealthy and consequently carelessly dressed and, despite inflation, enjoying themselves on returning from a beach vacation (sunglasses). Prices, shimices, what do they care? Some ruined part of New York City (dark, sinister Blade Runner coloring) was on the left of the picture.
Wrong narrative, but showing what "New York" instantly evokes in my imagination these days.
...just don’t try and back those awful harem pants from the 80s. Those made everyone look awful…
Howard said...
I didn't react to the screenshot at all. I guess you people like to drool whenever the bell rings.
And yet your lack of reaction was worth posting. Got it.
It has been interesting noting that the usual posters are here proudly displaying their priors.
anyway...
Pretty much ignored the picture and found "seeking signs of continued slowing" to be a bit jarring, then switched in to reading Pravda mode. Inflation is not slowing if the we must be seeking signs in the tea leaves. Or we just don't want to say that we really hope the economy overall slows just enough and on the right time table for the election. But the Democrat house organ has to finally acknowledge it's a real issue and the claim that inflation was 'transitory' is fully busted.
I noticed an empty mall first. Then read the head line.
Subliminal. Article about inflation with an action picture of people headed down in your peripheral vision.
"I didn't react to the screenshot at all. I guess you people like to drool whenever the bell rings"
Quite literally untrue, isn't it, Howard? Otherwise you wouldn't have commented.
My first thought was........are man buns still a thing??
First its too expensive to shop at the mall because everything else
Second its not safe to shop at the mall
I read the headlines. I'm not going to pay much attention to a photo of two shoppers.
My first reaction was this: When the first sentance in the passive voice, confusion and mendacity lie ahead, I stop reading.
My first reaction was this: When the first sentance in the passive voice, confusion and mendacity lie ahead, I stop reading.
Reported today: March 2024 inflation rose to 3.5%. Dow down as a result assuming Fed cuts to interest rates this summer are now off the table.
The propaganda NYTs and lying Biden can try to tell you they have inflation under control...but they don't.
My first thought was, no wonder why nobody reads the Times anymore.
Given that I was prompted to seek something, I did try and look at the photo and see if it evoked some reaction. It did not, even though I wanted it to. That is normal for me. I am often ignorant of artistic intent. I know intellectually that the content, placement and framing of a photo is never without a very specific intent, but it is all wasted on me as I never "get" what they probably intended.
However I do usually have a reaction to headlines. I also thought it odd wording that they seek signs of slowing. Like the picture, I expect that the NYT intends to frame an angle by the words they choose, and I am much more likely to view it with suspicion. Biased economists look for things they want to find. Unbiased will try to understand what is happening and guess at what it portends. So, is the article about the economy and the sings, or is it about the bias of the economists looking for particular signs?
I got Chaotic Neutral.
Check out the stock market this mourning, NYT got their answer.
I saw a Gen-Z example of patriarchal cis heteronormativity.
A modern woman with upscale clothes and demeanor, having a good time shopping at a mall. Her fella appears resigned to his fate- tagging along, being asked to decide which outfit looks better on her when he can't tell any difference. Maybe less likely than my generation to be feeling bad that she has an entire closet full of perfectly good clothes and there is no reason to buy more, as she earns more than he does in the modern iteration (but maybe not).
The articles? More mush from the wimps.
I didn't notice the photo, only the top headline. My reaction was that the NYT, like the government, lies about everything. Why not look for compliant economists?
My first reaction was, why is the NY Times making things difficult for the Democrats? My second was, is that a couple? And the third was that the couple should be on an up escalator to illustrate inflation.
I first noticed a gloomy picture of a Hispanic couple in baggy clothes riding down an elevator in what appeared to be a deserted mall. I saw the tattoos on his arm and his man-bun. I wondered if the clothes and hair were in fashion. The picture said "depression" to me, but I have no idea why the Times selected it for the front page.
What's your first reaction to this screen shot of the top of the NYT website?
Unhappy rich liberals with their shopping bags hiding their faces and avoiding their future as they sink further and further, down, down, down into the ugly darkness.
1. "Presumably, the Times wants to assist Biden in getting reelected and less inflation would help him." Ann Althouse
CPI much worse than expected and the official number understates real inflation.
2. Women with tats are a bigger threat to democracy than White Supremacists.
My first reaction is how the one story was highlighted over the other, even though the latter story, the early sharing of government data before public release, is the much bigger story- a true scandal if the reports are true.
But Althouse is correct- those pants need to pulled up when riding an escalator, but I didn't notice it.
My first reaction? There they go again.
The NYT's lying about inflation trying to help Biden and hurt Trump.
I think empty malls and hollowed out downtown nyc. Sorta makes me smile.
Economic modeling was developed to make Astrology look
respectable.
I have a feeling that an awful lot of keystrokes displayed here and elsewhere, over 0.1%; which may well get revised anyway...
I had the Trump/inflation thought when I saw it.
The picture isn't interesting enough for me to stop and dwell on it.
So. Meh.
First thing I noticed was a picture of a young couple going down an escalator in a poorly-lit mall, sparsely populated with shoppers. Probably Muslim, given their skin tones, her harem pants, and his Adidas warm up pants. Second thought, why is the picture there? It doesn’t seem to tie to either of the headlines to its left. Did Althouse inadvertently cut off a headline that was below the image? Third thought was the spin captured in the upper headline: Economists Seek. No, you idiots, the evidence is impossible to ignore. Food prices continue to climb. Gas prices are not quite double what they were under Trump, but they’re getting there. To a retiree like me, that’s where my social security check and pension go. Fourth was to second guess my original take that this is a Muslim couple — why is she in harem pants but not a hijab, and I see that her midriff is exposed.
1) Didn’t even notice the woman’s pants, but after reading your thoughts I definitely agree that they look dangerous on an escalator.
2) They look like a happy couple. Doesn’t seem to match any concern about the economy or inflation.
3) I hate large tattoos.
4) I can’t look at a downward escalator without thinking about Trump. Which shows how skilled he is at producing symbolic imagery.
1) Didn’t even notice the woman’s pants, but after reading your thoughts I definitely agree that they look dangerous on an escalator.
2) They look like a happy couple. Doesn’t seem to match any concern about the economy or inflation.
3) I hate large tattoos.
4) I can’t look at a downward escalator without thinking about Trump. Which shows how skilled he is at producing symbolic imagery.
Inflation Takes Center Stage as Economists Seek Signs of Continued Slowing.
"Economists" are the dummies who think food and gas inflation is irrelevant and there's no need to talk about it.
People buy food all the time!
You can measure inflation all you want, but if you're ignoring the price of food (and gas), your numbers are off and your headlines are stupid.
Here's an interesting interview with a writer of The Atlantic about food inflation.
James (8:01am):
Mitch Hedberg is wrong. An escalator can break. I still remember the shudder I felt reading a news story from Moscow several decades ago - late Soviet era, I think. A crowded escalator literally broke and seven people were crushed to death in the gears. No pictures, thank God.
"An escalator can never break. It can only become stairs. The sign says 'Escalator temporarily stairs. We apologize for the convenience that you can still get up there'." - Mitch Hedberg.
Oh, they can break, alright. I still remember, when living in NYC, reading in the local papers about a woman in New York (in Queens, I believe) who was swallowed up and crushed to death when an escalator in one of the subway stations broke up and she was pulled into the moving gears underneath the "stair steps." If I recall correctly, subway workers were trying but failing to halt the escalator completely, and it continued to slowly move, inch by inch, essentially "eating" the conscious woman in slow motion.
My first reaction was that the photo looked kind of bleak. Like Jersey Fled and a couple of others, I thought it was two women. Then I read the headline and thought; why would economists think in terms of continued slowing? Then I realized it's because they think in terms of government provided and manipulated statistics. I doubt they would use the term 'continued' if they were basing their expectations what they are paying at the gas station and grocery store. I didn't even notice the second headline about the government sharing data with their favored cronies but found it unsurprising and figure no one is really trying to find answers to the 'new' questions and it was just another CYA operation.
.My first reaction was "The eclipse was two days ago."
Because of the guy's sunglasses.
"We were just assured by the hack-Democrat chi Com Loyalty press that the economy was on fire.
"Jobs jobs jobs."
Do you have contrary information?
"Never mind that most of those jobs are government - tax payer funded jobs."
Are they?
First reaction: Good photo. Cool use of lighting with people illuminated. Similar to Jake and Elwood in the Baptist church.
!. I looked at the photo, first. I thought it was two women, noticed a mall setting.
2. I re-read your question, then looked at the first headline. I thought, "Yeah, right. More NYT support for the administration."
3. Read second headline. "Hmm. Are they insinuating that there is something wrong with that?"
Enigma said...
My reaction: Everything on the page is meant to distract from the "super user" story on the lower left.
When you've lost the NYT, you've lost everyone other than the billionaire super users who benefited from GOVERNMENT SUPPLIED INSIDER TRADING INFORMATION. Was this directed by the magical investor Pelosi and Wall St. buddy Schumer? Who benefited? Bloomberg? Chase? Goldman Sachs? Hmm?
Bingo.
This story is bigger than any single scandal that has happened for the last several decades at least.
We now know that the entire DC government and their globalist allies including both parties has been committing fraud and stealing from the rest of the country in blatant and grotesque ways.
A lot of us knew this was happening, but actual hard proof has been leaked by whistleblowers.
This is the real reason that they mailed in 20 million ballots for Joe Biden.
It’s interesting to hear the comments about malls. In my area there are still two very active shopping malls, which are usually crowded. There are also a couple of virtually deserted ones that are still open.
There is nothing more depressing than eating at a food court of a mall that has about 10% of business space still utilized. Especially if you were there years ago when things were better.
Robert Cook said...
"We were just assured by the hack-Democrat chi Com Loyalty press that the economy was on fire.
"Jobs jobs jobs."
Do you have contrary information?
"Never mind that most of those jobs are government - tax payer funded jobs."
Are they?
It is now confirmed that the BLS is provably corrupt.
And if you look at the BLS "data" all of the new jobs are part time and over the last 4 years all of those new jobs have been taken at lower wages by "immigrants."
I know you are an idiot Cook, but even this is too obvious for you to ignore.
Howard said...
I didn't react to the screenshot at all. I guess you people like to drool whenever the bell rings
Howard drools every time he tells us how smart and cool he is.
I'm with Iman: repulsed by man bun and tattoos.
Open Southern border - via Biden executive orders. Real estimates are millions of illegal entrants.
Hack-Democrat press/White House: "The border is secure!"
Our economy was wrecked quite nicely by the chi com democrat elite virus. Obey the jab mandates - 'OR NO ONE IS SAFE!" Chime the hack -D Putin-like loyal chi com NBC corrupt press.
The economy is amazing! Jobs! (mostly government)
Inflation is edging up! but slower! So - you know - all hail the corruptcorats.
Your first reaction is a mom-reaction.
In a Mexican-Jewish family it's 'watch out with that taco, you could put an eye out.
This Morning's WSJ
Dow Falls Over 400 Points as Treasury Yields Jump
Stocks and Treasury prices fell after the latest inflation reading came in hotter than Wall Street expected.
Remember the olden days? Back Before the USA was a shithole 4thworld country?
back in 2019?
VOTE RESIDENT BIDEN!! VOTE DESTRUCTION!! VOTE RUIN!!! VOTE DEATH TO AMERICA!!!!
SPY, DOW and QQQ all down 1% right now.
Thanks Biden!
"Price of Gold, Seen as Hedge Against Inflation, Soars to New Heights
The move has puzzled Wall Street, as it comes as the outlook for the economy has improved and inflation has generally cooled."
Cooled? Really? My home insurance bill for 2024 came yesterday. Here are the last few years:
2024: $912
2023: $622
2022: $418
2021: $244
Yeah, "cooled" is the word I'd use to describe inflation under Bidenomics, too. SMH
Cook.
Yes.
I had no reaction. I was too busy thinking about the Roman Empire.
"Since when does a couple go shopping together, unless they're both women."
Don't you read Instapundit? Glenn has frequently blogged about accompanying his wife on shopping trips. There's long been a thing of wives bringing husbands along. You can ask why. There must be a hundred answers: To carry packages, to protect her from attacks and from loneliness, to monitor the spending of money, to opine on the attractiveness of her in various items of clothing that could, with the spending of money, become hers, to do the driving, to share a lunch, to get some damned thing he actually needs, like underwear or socks, to get out of the house and at least go somewhere, to have any possible additional moments with the love of his life, to fend off other men, real or imaginary....
My subsequent reaction was that the picture showed an upper class couple obliviously descending into a collapsed economy.
Then, a shrug at the data-sharing corruption. Like, folks, the wealthiest counties in the country are the ones around the Capitol, and have been for quite a while.
When I open the NYT website now, the top story is, "Inflation Runs Hotter Than Expected, Raising Doubts About Rate Cuts".
Consumer prices rose 3.5 percent in March from a year earlier, a larger-than-predicted jump. The underlying details could worry the Federal Reserve.
So much for the wishin' and hopin' of the economists and the NYT.
I knew latest inflation data was being released. So when seeing Economists Seek Signs, blah, blah, blah I knew the news is that inflation is on the rise again. I've become good at NYT Headline Writer's Speak.
The photo dominates the page. It is frivolous as are many Times readers - the self-anointed really cool kids. Fun and fashion rule.
The fact that the BLS is a thoroughly corrupt entity is now apparently widely accepted enough the Regime has to get out in front of the scandal.
I know a guy socially who is a labor economist for BLS. When I found out, I burst out laughing, and asked him, why are they now calculating unemployment in such a way that it is always at least 5 percentage points below what it would be if we used the definition from the Reagan and Carter era? Is it simply to save face for the politicians and bureaucrats? We’ve had a strained relation ever since, and I never did get a satisfactory answer to my question.
Seems to me that these guys are our hired help, and every minute detail of their data gathering and analysis techniques ought to be a matter of public record. I’m sure that keeping it under wraps makes graft and cronyism more profitable for insiders, not to mention running interference for favored political parties and candidates, and BLS is quite unlikely to be the worst offender in our monster bureaucracy.
Achilles is a young man who takes Testosterone boosters instead of the ssri's the VA and his wife beg him to take. He thinks the Chi Com cancer feeding herb tongkat ali will make his dick long and his biceps jacked. It doesn't work, so he posts his insane conspiracy theories thinking that will silence the voices in his CTE addled brain.
You need help, bro.
I haven't been to an indoor mall in over a decade, but there are open air shopping centers nearby that are jam-packed on the weekends, and Costco and Sam's Club are madhouses at all times.
My first reaction was...
Trump wannabees.
"Seek signs of continued slowing" is a weird way of saying it isn't slowing.
@Hassayamper said at 11:47: "Seems to me that these guys are our hired help, and every minute detail of their data gathering and analysis techniques ought to be a matter of public record."
Yes, well it is, in a way... you see, some corporations with billionaire leadership teams and clients are more public than others, yes? In fact, they're so public, they get a unique kind of recognition for exceptional, er, good citizenship. Public-spirited !
I wonder how much the 'Super Users' members are making today, as the data is released to the hoi polloi, much to their shock.
It's kind of like Flash Trading, but instead of millisecond reaction times, you get to sip your drink and get it all into place the night before. And now they're sipping their drinks and occasionally watching the tallies.
I saw the headline first. Driving down a 6 mile stretch of road yesterday. It once held thriving businesses competing for highly prized retail frontage since I first laid eyes on it in 1964. The %40+ vacancy, with parking spaces wide open, lets me disbelieve that headline.
I mourned the passing of all the entrepeneurs and their families who sunk their life's work and monies into the now collapsed dreams.
I mean, just think of Randolph and Mortimer Duke and their Orange Juice futures, by the dozen, except that in this case, there is a score of Clarence Beeks types, funneling the data to them nice and early, every single time the official Federal Government report is being prepared. And instead of a commodity market, it's an entire national economy ripe for plunder.
Howard's last close brush with testosterone was the day his daddy spurted him out of his balls.
Howard said...
"Achilles is a young man who takes Testosterone boosters instead of the ssri's the VA and his wife beg him to take. He thinks the Chi Com cancer feeding herb tongkat ali will make his dick long and his biceps jacked. It doesn't work, so he posts his insane conspiracy theories thinking that will silence the voices in his CTE addled brain.
You need help, bro."
?!
I'm not telling you to quit, just turn down the "infusions" half a notch.
From personal experience: just about anything can get caught in an escalator.
In my case, a loose shoelace when I was 8.
I wound up losing a toenail but I got off easy, compared to the range of possible results.
There's not much time for anyone to notice and help you.
An emergency stop button would help, if there had been one.
Hassayamper said...
I know a guy socially who is a labor economist for BLS. When I found out, I burst out laughing, and asked him, why are they now calculating unemployment in such a way that it is always at least 5 percentage points below what it would be if we used the definition from the Reagan and Carter era? Is it simply to save face for the politicians and bureaucrats? We’ve had a strained relation ever since, and I never did get a satisfactory answer to my question.
He is smart enough to know how corrupt our regime is and how stupid you have to be to support them.
Only people as stupid as Robert Cook believe the numbers coming out of the BLS.
Even Howard is smart enough to retreat to his mean girl mode.
It is embarrassing at this point to be a Uniparty toad.
My first reaction was "Let's take a closer look at those breasts."
My second was, man bun, goatee, sleeve tats, Adidas stripes, indoor shades, and holy cow, is that a puka shell necklace? Get fucked dude. On the other hand it seems to be working - see breast reference.
My third, knowing the inflation data already, was that was a reach to try to put some positive spin on a bad thing for Biden they probably knew was coming.
I agree the photo suggests bleakness. Slouchy downturned expressions as they descend to trafficless markets.
I also agree with other commenters that the NYT editors want the escalator to remind readers of Trump.
Taken with the headlines, I believe the NYT editors want us to anticipate a Trump win in November and associate that with a bad economy.
"WTF is this?" was my reaction. It's bleak, dark, depressing. It's a photo of nothing newsworthy. Why would they use it? Is it a mistake?
Because I binge watched Ripley I have seen a lot of Caravaggio lately. The photo with its contrast of light and dark brought the painter to mind. Note also the single male shopper (stalker?) on the level below.
I disagree with the Trump entrance interpretation. What I see is classic subliminal messaging:
The escalator is a chart line showing inflation going up. The women (??) are going leftward and down. They represent happy and smiling consumer prices descending.
Goebbels, you son of a bitch, I read your book!
Goetz von Berlichingen
Northland Mall, once the nation's first and largest shopping malls is vacant and trashed.
https://99wfmk.com/northland-mall/
Construction started 1952 opened 1954
Glenn has frequently blogged about accompanying his wife on shopping trips. There's long been a thing of wives bringing husbands along. You can ask why. There must be a hundred answers: To carry packages, to protect her from attacks and from loneliness, to monitor the spending of money, to opine on the attractiveness of her in various items of clothing that could, with the spending of money, become hers, to do the driving, to share a lunch, to get some damned thing he actually needs, like underwear or socks, to get out of the house and at least go somewhere, to have any possible additional moments with the love of his life, to fend off other men, real or imaginary....
I accompanied my wife for a major shopping trip to Beverly Hills for her 40th birthday. I was doing extremely well financially in those days, so instead of giving her a present directly, I instead gave her a budget of $10,000, first class tickets to LAX, a limousine ride to Rodeo Drive, and my presence for a day as a package-carrying donkey and factotum. I wanted her to have the "Pretty Woman" shopping experience and it succeeded wildly. Ten grand went a lot farther in those days...
I was NOT consulted on what looked best, as always, and my presence failed to prevent her busting the budget somewhat, but I was quite richly rewarded that evening and really for many years since then. Can't recall how many times she's bragged about that day to her girlfriends.
I had fun too. My needs are quite modest for the most part, and I get more pleasure from spoiling her than buying crap for myself, except for weapons and books, of which I already have plenty.
I'm the only one showing you any love, Achilles. Everyone else is either enabling you or afraid to push you past your breaking point.
If you understand the primary purpose of the New York Times is regulating Democrats’ volatile emotions, the bland pablum of their top headline is objectively alarming. Googling “CPI” confirms my hunch: Dow closes 422 points lower after a surprisingly bad inflation report (CNN).
Two low-IQ women who will certainly vote democrat because that's what stupid people do...
After I noticed the man bun, I ignored the photo. First headline was old news. Second headline looked interesting - that's the only thing I would have clicked on.
I saw two thin, presumably single women, one carrying a designer bag, in an article about how inflation might mean they have to stop buying designer clothing.
Why not show a mom with a kid in tow trying to buy groceries? Maybe because the newsroom doesn't see them as important?
My first was "I guess flowy, baggy, harem pants are in again," and then went to the headlines where the economists are looking for but not finding the inflationary slow-down.
My shoelaces got caught in an escalator once when I was a kid. Very startling. Kicked forward as hard as I could in a panic and ripped the ends off.
Mine was: "Ooh, a pretty girl!"
That was it.
My first thought is that the shoppers should be going up the escalator.
I think that attempted message is that inflation is going down but that, in the same way escalators are a bit slow, it probably isn't going down as quickly as some people would like, but don't worry, we'll get there.
What the photo and headlines communicate to me, though, is that the economy continues to trend down and we're not particularly close to the bottom yet.
I'll tell you who is terrified right now: tuition dependent colleges. The combination of the government's enormous f-up on FAFSA forms and the deteriorating economy has put the fear of God into the administrative people all of a sudden. In the past week I have heard people actually say out loud that "It might be that deteriorating family balance sheets and a growing concern that the return on investment from college tuition is no longer as substantial as it once was could have an impact on Fall 2024 enrollments."
For three years I've been jumping up and down and waving my arms and yelling "Stop acting like the numbers put out by the government reflect reality! The economy is not strong. If you raise tuition even to 'keep up with inflation,' you will price out a huge cohort of students." Some jackass finance guy said to me: "Raising tuition is a sign of confidence in our product. It will attract more students." Maybe, but NOT IF THEIR FAMILIES DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY!
I am afraid that a lot of institutions that have been drinking the Kool-aid of corrupt government numbers are going to go bankrupt, as F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "Both ways: little by little and all at once."
Window shopping. That’s all anyone can afford after Biden ordered the American oil and gas industry to be destroyed to avoid .005 degree warming 75 years from now.
Perceived Inflation in early 2024 is about 6.4% while actual CPI is running at 3.2% as reported by the Federal Reserve.
Politics play a big part in inflation perceptions with Republican beliefs running higher than Democrats and independents. As Gomer Pyle used to say: "Surprise! Surprise!"
BTW, from the looks of things here, Trump should no longer ride his Tower escalator.
while actual CPI is running at 3.2% as reported by the Federal Reserve.
In case you haven't noticed, they've rigged the CPI to lower SS and other COLA increases in hopes of delaying the coming reckoning.
while actual CPI is running at 3.2% as reported by the Federal Reserve.
LOL! The same government that fiddles with the data. The same government that can't find out who left drugs in the WH. The same government that... Oh why bother...
@gadfly: Perceived Inflation in early 2024 is about 6.4% while actual CPI is running at 3.2% as reported by the Federal Reserve.
Perception is reality in politics, romance, art, branding, social media, and fiction.
Biden cannot win the inflation argument by noodling about 3.2% vs. 6.4% (and 3.2% is likely manipulated propaganda). The problem is that an ordinary weekday lunch costs $20 at a low end restaurant, while the same food was closer to $10 in early 2020. Trashy McDonalds costs a relative fortune, let alone upscale burgers from Five Guys (e.g., $12 or $13 for just the burger). This sets perceptions and this is reality.
People remember all the free government money gifts from 2020 to the present. Inflation wasn't caused by COVID on the main -- it was many later actions that used COVID as cover for patently absurd financial policies. "It's just transitory inflation" they said. But, the timeline and cause of recent inflation is OBVIOUS (i.e., 2021 to present):
https://ritholtz.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/CPI-2024.png
https://haroldjackson876berita.blogspot.com/2024/02/cpi-november-2023-usa.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/10/heres-the-inflation-breakdown-for-march-2024-in-one-chart.html
Biden = Jimmy Carter 2.0, but now with endemic graft and cynicism
Sean is right. It now reads "Inflation stronger than expected."
Why the change? A propaganda too far, even for the Times? Who changed it? Did the economists themselves complain about being misrepresented?
Is the news even worse? Maybe the woman is hoping to be injured by the elevator so she can get a settlement and keep shopping.
Also on the front page: effluent masturbation about how Dr. Jill Biden's cloths are magical:
"but in opting for de la Renta, the first lady was not simply supporting an American company that represents the melting pot myth of the country. She was connecting to a longstanding relationship: Oscar de la Renta has dressed almost every first lady since Jackie Kennedy; Dr. Biden first wore the label for her inaugural state dinner in 2022."
"It is not an accident, for example, that on the first day of the Japanese state visit, Dr. Biden greeted Mr. and Mrs. Kishida in a black Armani dress with a keyhole neckline that she had worn several times before. Re-wearing clothes has been one of Dr. Biden’s signatures, part of the conversation around sustainability, which nods to her husband’s climate policies (not to mention the economic realities of the country). She has done so consistently over the course of the administration. To do so again at such a moment of ritual display was to double down on the point."
"Nor it is an accident that, in the last month, Mrs. Trump has been edging back into the spotlight, stepping out at strategic moments in the luxury brands that are shorthand for the financial success her husband has made part of his selling point, as if to shrug in the face of the civil penalties that have been levied against him."
How far journalism has dropped since Bush One's State Dinner barfing.
I deliberately did not read the headline, so I didn't know the intended subject.
What I saw/felt was anomie; listlessness.
gadfly said...
Perceived Inflation in early 2024 is about 6.4% while actual CPI is running at 3.2% as reported by the Federal Reserve.
Politics play a big part in inflation perceptions with Republican beliefs running higher than Democrats and independents. As Gomer Pyle used to say: "Surprise! Surprise!"
As we know the BLS is just lying at this point.
Gas prices actually rose 6.3%.
The BLS reported the "seasonally adjusted" number and used that to calculate inflation. If you calculated inflation the same way we did 20 years ago it is in double digits.
This is all for stupid people like Gadfly who just cannot think for themselves.
The headline suggests inflation is slowing, but the subhead says prices are up and economists want to know if that's a "blip" or a trend. In other words, the issue is not whether inflation will continue to slow but whether it will continue to rise.
The photo suggests downward movement.
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