Writes Zacahry D. Carter, in
"Inflation Is Not Destroying Joe Biden/But something is!"With inflation functionally over, the search has now shifted to some other kind of price metric that can explain Biden’s terrible polling.
The Washington Post editorial board hypothesizes that the country is experiencing “an inflation hangover,” feeling squeamish about higher price levels even though prices are no longer
increasing at a meaningful rate. In the Post’s telling, people credit themselves for raises and promotions, and blame the president for bad news on prices....
I don’t have a pat explanation for Biden’s bad polling or all of these weird readings on economic sentiment. My best guess is that housing is a significant part of it. Housing has been unusually expensive since the pandemic.... People don’t talk about it much anymore, but the pandemic was rough....
One thing people like to do after a bad stretch is start over.... Voters may be wrong about the economy, but it’s hard to blame them for wanting a new beginning.
Posts
148 comments:
With inflation functionally over
There hasn't been out of control inflation for, like, 3 whole months! What are you worried about!?
Amazing what short memories they expect us to have. In their world, there are no lessons to be drawn from experience; PTSD is a neurological impossibility. Why would anything going on in your life or your experience cause you to not vote for Biden?
According to Chi-com Arabella Drudge links - Biden is up by 2.
If the corrupt powers that be on the left were worried about Biden not winning - they would pull him.
They are not worried. The Husk Puppet is just fine.
I'm noting higher gas prices and higher food prices. I must be hallucinating. Everything is wonderful under Crook Joe.
Funny how “lived experience” as a trump card goes right out the window if it hurts Democrats.
I talk to people and say it out loud. I get a lot of agreement.
The Covid virus was timed and released on purpose. who did it help? The corrupt media-democrat-big-pharma industrial complex.
Ditto what Tim said. I am shocked, shocker I tell you, that he didn't try to say either there wasn't any inflation during the Pedo's term or, because of the false, without evidence, wage increases, that inflation had basically no effect.
I have six more weeks off after my surgery; not because I need it (I'm 90 percent recovered from total hip replacement surgery), but because I am cleared by the doctor to stay out until July 15th and I am one that finally got to use my credit short term disability insurance on the signature loan I took out to buy my car -- and I won the battle to get the short term disability insurance to pay me 60 percent of my weekly wages until then. I am bringing this up because I thought I might drive from Florida and visit all my childhood homes (ostensibly for the last time), but the high, inflation-caused gas prices make it unaffordable. FJB. I am voting for the convicted felon, not the unconvicted felon.
Do these idiots not understand that inflation is permanent? The rate of inflation may have gone down, but prices never will. People will continue to feel the effects of his terrible policies in perpetuity.
That 'inflation hangover' they've diagnosed is more accurately called, 'lying fatigue', whereby the subject has been lied to so outrageously, for so long, that they now tune it out. Human survival instinct means they are unable to disbelieve their lying eyes (as instructed), but it's like living next to an airport: You don't consciously hear the constant noise anymore, but it's still there, and still highly stressful. COVID jabs, employment numbers, inflation, political show trials, sexual norms, regulation-by-freak, etc. etc. etc.....
Inflation is "functionally" over, ha! Economists use the word "sticky" to describe things like prices or wages that tend to not move immediately with changes in supply and demand. The reason for this is that every knuckle dragging troglodyte that has to manage wages or prices knows that the human brain is not an idealized Keynesian engine. The high school graduate plumber and the associates degree HVAC small business owner both know (and understand) that there is this thing call human nature. Once you start paying someone a wage their lizard brain reacts violently to the idea of it being reduced. Once you start increasing prices their reactions are the same. The Wizards of Smart have not figured this out.
Additionally because prices are "sticky" and many companies are loathe to increase prices until they have to, the inflation shock to the first order of items *like raw materials* takes a while to work it's way through the entire system to the last order of items. There are things I bought last week that were noticeably higher in price than the week before because it took that long for inflation, which is functionally over, to be actually done working it through the supply chain.
Lastly back to our lizard brains. The cost of my groceries has gone up 80% in the last 24 months. The fact that it only went up 3% in the last 2 months is not the win those Wizards of Smart think it is because my lizard brain has that "sticky" memory of a grocery run at Costco only being $220 not $400. That "fixed" inflation rate of 3% by math is 5.4% inflation to my "sticky" lizard brain. And it is noticed.
Every single time I buy something, I choke. Inflation is very real and it hits the lower and middle class the most.
This inflation is now deeply imbedded in our economy and is NOT going away. My car insurance went up 32% in one year with no accidents or tickets.
Of course, the Dems and Fake News deny inflation exists or downplay it. The worst aspect of this inflation is that it was mostly avoidable. The free money from the IRA will continue to supercharge inflation. The Street and the Green elites get rich and we plebes get fucked.
It will cost OPPD $28b in 2020 dollars to achieve net zero per its own consultant. Net zero will cripple our economy.
It was a huge mistake to tell people not to believe their lying eyes.
You keep telling me inflation is done, but I work part time in a local, family-owned market at the register. I see price the increases. However, maybe, just maybe some of us are uncomfortable with electing someone so obviously impaired for another 4 year term. It’s painful to watch him now. It’s obvious that voting for Biden is voting for Kamala as President. You keep wanting to find “something”. There are a lot of somethings. Too many to list here.
I'm the same age as Joe Biden. I'm probably in better shape. Anyway, I've got better hair. There's no way I could handle a full time, high pressure job. I don't think I'm going to improve over the next four years.....It's pretty obvious what the problem is with Joe Biden: he's too old.
People are starting to understand that Joe is not a lovable old fool. He is a pandering, lying, corrupt Fascist. His senility is just an added feature.
Of course, the Left never thinks of itself as fascist (Do they Cook?). It was the Soviet ploy of disguising the similarities between Soviet Communism and German Nazism by labelling everything to the right of Communism as fascism.
Self-proclaimed intellectuals (mostly college student and their teachers) and the news media have faithfully followed that Soviet line since WWII.
My name goes here:
Excellent comment.
I guess lying that inflation was already 9% at the beginning of his term isn't working out.
"I don’t have a pat explanation for Biden’s bad polling or all of these weird readings on economic sentiment."
Maybe, an economy is like a shark?
It has to move forward constantly or it dies... And, I think what we have on our hands, ahem, is a dead shark.
Here's the real inflation I feel, karen: yesterday I bought a dozen donuts from our local blue-collar donuts shop. 14 months ago that box of 12 donuts was $12.50. Yesterday it was $17.50. I'm sure some of the resident math whizzes could figure out the rate of inflation for a box of donuts is about 40%. Pretty effing extreme. I'll vote for democrat party members when the price goes back down to $12.50.
Joe Biden is what is and what should never be. And he shouldn’t let the screen door smack his narrow ass on his way out.
Putting aside the economic issues, which of course is most important because it affects people's daily lives, it is also because people sense Biden isn't actually in charge. We're leaderless, with the strings being pulled behind the scenes.
Whatever peoples opinion of Trump, there was never any doubt of who was actually in charge. Take that into account with the fact things were much better under Trump and people instinctively gravitate that direction.
Obama may have gotten his third term, but he's finally learning you can't lead from behind (the curtains).
Dave Begley said...
It will cost OPPD $28b in 2020 dollars to achieve net zero per its own consultant. Net zero will cripple our economy.
Are you sure that's "billion" with a "b"?
Mike said...
14 months ago that box of 12 donuts was $12.50. Yesterday it was $17.50.
betting dollars to donuts means something different now, that's for sure.
Go to McD's look at the "dollar" menu" see how much a soda is, then look at the McChicken
THEN; look at your paycheck..
i "wonder" why people are upset?
They just CAN'T figure out why America is uncomfortable with a pants shitting geriatric, who glitches out for extended periods of time, who is clouded by allegations (without evidence) of corruption, and who has used the legal system to punish opponents.
Here they thought all America wanted was "normal" inflation. How is "normal" inflation not enough?!
There's just something about Joe!
It is indeed very puzzling when reality doesn't conform to theory and you know the theory can't be the problem because everybody who isn't icky agrees that the theory is correct.
So, the only conclusion is reality's the problem, but that's good because reality is easier to fix than theory these days. The way to fix reality is to change the way we talk about it and what parts of it we pay attention to.
The Fed's inflation target is 2 percent. Today's report came in at more than 3 percent. How is missing a target by 50 percent an indication that inflation is basically over? BTW, if you were mad in 2022 that the price of something you like went up from $100 to $120, you are still going to be enraged if the price became $121 in 2024.
Inflation is what???
Biden’s economists deliberately leave food and energy costs out of their inflation calculations “because they’re too volatile” — and also because that’s been where inflation has been the worst for for retirees and people in the working class. Let me know when mortgage rates return to what they were in 2021-2022.
The sheer arrogance of this slavish mediocrity is only matched by the poverty of his writing. Where did you find this person, Professor?
Wince:
Absolutely sure it is $28 billion in 2020 dollars per the Wizards of Smart at E3, Inc.
The crazy thing is that OPPD currently only has about $2b in revenue and it is close to its self-imposed debt to revenue ratio. The smart thing that the CFO does is enter into Power Purchase Agreements with the likes of NextEra Energy. NextEra spends the capital and gets the federal income tax credits so this capex is off of OPPD's balance sheet.
""Something is wrecking Joe Biden, but it isn’t the economy—at least the economy that economists know how to measure—and it isn’t inflation....""
What people have caught on to is that the BLS is a completely fraud and that our government and media are lying about the economy.
The "Core CPI" number would be well into double digits if we used the same CPI we used in the 70's. They changed the way CPI was calculated and the people are not buying it anymore.
Additionally every new job created the last 3 years has gone to an illegal immigrant.
All of the GDP gains in the last 3 years are due to illegal immigration. Adding new people does boost the base number. But Per Capita GDP is falling precipitously.
The last is housing availability. I am top 10% income. We were planning on upgrading to a house with some acreage and were out with offers on land 3 years ago.
There is no way we can switch from our current mortgage to a new mortgage. The housing market volume everywhere has absolutely cratered.
Also every company in this area just went through a round of layoffs. The "strong" job market lie is absolute bullshit and everyone knows this.
The gap between the government jobs survey and the household jobs survey is massive. Mostly because the Government household survey is an obvious load of "survey" magic.
Something's ruining America:
Too
Much
Government
"Additionally every new job created the last 3 years has gone to an illegal immigrant."
What's worse is that total non-farm and private payrolls are decreasing as well. In short, job and career mobility are drying up, in no small part because of migrant saturation beyond the undocumented theft of part-time and off-the-books jobs by illegals. I'm talking about foreign visa workers.
"I talk to people and say it out loud. I get a lot of agreement."
Given how ignorant or misunderstanding of the facts a majority of people are*, "get(ting) a lot of agreement" to any statement of (purported) fact or opinion is worthless as a gauge of factual reality. It can only be a gauge of the feelings people have about what they think (or have heard or think they have heard) is "true," or how they interpret (or misinterpret) what they have heard or think they have heard.
*(Or just plain stupid)
There's way more useful and factual economic news in the Althouse blog comments than in the NYT, WaPo or WSJ any day of the week.
Another excellent comment by Achilles.
Since the Althouse blog commentariat is nationwide, let's hear from others!
The Titanic is at the bottom of the ocean, but at least it has stoped sinking.
When the economy that economists know how to measure doesn't line up with the economy that people experience, that's a problem. But deciding on the nature of the problem is itself a problem. For Democrat economists and journalists, the problem is that people are just too dumb to realize how good they have it. Just like with open borders/free trade, the economists are saying, everyone's better off on average, the numbers don't lie. Don't listen to those stupid losers whose middle class existence has been sacrificed. Both here and in Europe, sooner or later, people wake up.
America's landlords know that the next time we have an economic crisis comparable to Covid, they will again be forced to eat their tenants' rent. That risk will be priced into housing forever now.
This unexpected Hunter Biden verdict has seemed to leave the usual Dem shitbirds what frequent this site licking their wounds. And P0TATUS was even more demented yesterday in his gun control puppet show.
Prices went up at the beginning of his administration and they never went back down.
Even if you think Biden is swell and competent, those are the facts. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Inflation is over? Ok, maybe, but the resulting doubling in the cost of my grocery cart remains. So if inflation goes down to the target of around 2 percent that is compounding on the doubled amount.
Core inflation is only above target because of shelter (ex shelter it is 1.9% yoy). Almost all of shelter is owner equivalent rents.
When interest rates rise, then the cost of renting goes up, since it is no longer economic to buy and rent out a place. So high rates lead to high shelter cost (OER is based on rents) and high inflation. And some think that cutting rates is a bad idea because of OER which are driven by the high rates.
"wrecking Joe Biden"
The pollling may be a bit negative, but his chances of victory in November are still good. Low numbers include disenchanted lefties who want him to go full prog, esp. on Gaza, but will come home when it counts, and nice women who are bothered by inflation but will respond to the abortion appeal.
What's really wrecking Biden is what's wrecking all of us at some point: age. For good progs, it doesn't matter, in fact it's an advantage: dysfunctional Joe is more likely to bend to his prog team. But for nice moderates, who consider the person as well as the policies, it's an issue.
I just assumed OPPD was some global NGO, forecasting global expenditures, not Omaha Power (as I just looked up).
I was thinking trillions for the former.
Yes, billions is a lot for a municipal power company.
"That risk will be priced into housing forever now."
+100
Nothing motivates structural economic changes like losses, and real estate developers and owners will never forget what the government did to them, in fact many are still dealing with it. I know numerous single-family and high-density developers that will never develop property in a major market again.
The freeloaders don't even realized that they might have priced themselves out of upgraded housing permanently, and that they will be fighting with illegals and downmarket cohorts for ever shrinking residential stock within their price range...forever.
One word: Obtuse.
An infliction on our entire media class.
OT… RIP Jerry West, one of the Great Ones.
The guy’s an FJB shill. Still trying to convince us not to believe our lying eyes. Here are his last 5 articles according to slate:
https://search.app/ho7ZpKJQZLPUsHvN9
June 10, 2024 I think I Can Explain Joe Biden’s Bad Approval Ratings
May 28, 2024 Biden’s Allies Hate His Latest Move Against China. They’re Wrong
May 9, 2024 I Read The Embattled Columbia President’s Old Book About What We Owe Each Other. It’s Not Good.
March 19, 2024 The Real Reason No One Is Giving Biden Credit For How Good The Economy Is Right Now.
August 25, 2022. Actually, Loan Forgiveness Is A Long-Standing Principal Of Functioning Societies!
My guess is he was a Biden Aide and was told to burrow into the media somewhere and write what the Party tells him to write.
I think the something is the prosecution of political rivals and supporters. People don't like living in banana republics, which bring us to the next thing, illegal immigration that even when "controlled", "regulated", "monitored" or whatever BS they claim to be doing by Executive Order still is over 1 million unintegrated people added to the US each year that haven't paid taxes but will be given full benefits immediately. That brings us to the ever rising debt for the Americans that have been here. That debt is what is keeping inflation going, because we are now creating money just to service the debt which results in paying for new programs by borrowing more money that raises inflation.
The notion that DC, the Fed, any Administration, can make things look good for a quarter or two during an election season is simply BS. Progressives will buy it, because they want the money being handed out. Americans that are footing the bill while being told by the Attorney General that criticism is dangerous, we are getting fed up.
the WSJ:
Inflation Eased Slightly to 3.3% in May
WOW! so hyperinflation is down to just rampant inflation!
we are LITERALLY supposed to be SO HAPPY that inflation (for THIS month) is "only" 3.3%
According to a Biden press release:
"prices today; are only slightly higher than they were, this morning.. inflation is CURED!!"
One of democrat's biggest priorities has been obfuscating the magnitude of "the great replacement" from black Americans. Everyone always focuses on all of us, but it is black America that will pay the worst price for this continued invasion. It's bad now, but it will be orders of magnitude worse in 10 years. The competition for gig work and minimum wage jobs (which themselves are causing job destruction) will be complete warfare among the working poor in 2034 and black America is still oblivious, save for a rising realization among black males under 30 with higher than room temperature IQs.
This is what unchecked economic immigration does to your economy. This is what the destruction of the middle class does to your future, and most of black America still couldn't be happier.
It's no secret if you were paying attention. The Democrats learned opposite-day lessons from Trump: They adopted his bullying and rudeness, and took on a MAGA-like skin of fake populism. They actually wanted to bring back Carter's boundless gifts to Party friends, so they used Biden to pretend they were patriotic, pro-democracy, not corrupted by Wall St. and cheap immigrant labor, not corrupted by education unions, not corrupted by the UN/NATO, not corrupted by overt equity racists, not corrupted by genocidal maniacs, not corrupted by transgender surgeons and Big Pharma, and that they wanted to reduce inflation.
In (perhaps) quoting Lincoln: "You can fool some of the people all the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/366761/what-is-the-origin-of-the-quote-you-can-satisfy-some-of-the-people-all-the-tim
I have waited 30 years to make this comment to a Democrat: “It’s the economy, stupid.”
Terrorist being fully vetted are quite the problem too, in Obama's Fundamentally transformed America under Joe Biden...
Bill Melugin
@BillMelugin_
BREAKING: Per federal source familiar, ICE, in conjunction w/ the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, arrested 8 Tajikistan nationals w/ suspected ISIS ties in NYC, LA, and Philly in recent days. I'm told all 8 crossed the southern border illegally, received "full vetting", and had no initial derogatory information that flagged. I'm told derogatory info/potential national security concerns flagged later on - apparently after release into the US. Source was unable to say when and where they crossed illegally into the US.
All are now in ICE custody pending removal proceedings and an active federal investigation.
This was initially scooped by
@JennieSTaer
& New York Post, who report at least one of the individuals was caught on a FBI wiretap talking about bombs.
FBI/DHS joint statement to
@FoxNews
“Over the last few days, ICE agents arrested several non-citizens pursuant to immigration authorities. The actions were carried out in close coordination with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces. The individuals arrested are detained in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. As the FBI and DHS have recently described in public and partner bulletins, the U.S. has been in a heightened threat environment. The FBI and DHS will continue working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate, and disrupt potential threats to national security. ”
Last edited
4:52 PM · Jun 11, 2024
https://twitchy.com/dougp/2024/06/12/here-are-the-kinds-of-people-cleared-to-stay-in-us-after-full-vetting-from-the-biden-dhs-n2397199
Ah, the Richard Pryor defense "Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?"
Just more DNC/MSM propaganda. Inflation is not out of control. There is no crime. Biden is tough on illegal immigration. Biden is not persecuting his political opponents. Whites are not being discriminated against. And Ukraine and Israel are fighting noble wars and our aid is not being wasted.
And everything is great.
No But "inflation is wrecking" lower income Americans, young people, the middle class and elderly on a fixed income. Other than that it's fine. By the way holding steady at 3.3% as it has for the last two months, is not "easing" at all, it is continuing to ratchet upwards when none of the prior price hikes have been reversed. I hate listening to lying Joe Biden talk about it "coming down" when prices keep going up, not down.
Summary: Alzheimers or some other dementia is wrecking Joe. The rest of us are trying NOT to be wrecked by inflation.
Biden etal. are finding out that people believe their lying eyes too much. We even have little Richie in this thread trying to sell the regime narrative again.
I hate to be the one to explain this to you, Rich (not really- I enjoy slapping you around like a little boy bitch)- owner equivalent rent measurements are felt by everyone, you dumb fuck. Even if you own your home, you are affected by the increased cost of owning the damned place- the taxes, the insurance, and the costs of maintenance. You comment is just another in the line of "Don't worry about inflation, it only is high because of this one little item that almost no one has to pay for." It is gaslighting dishonesty every single time you use it.
Something is wrecking Joe Biden, but it isn’t the economy—at least the economy that economists know how to measure
Only if the economists are so stupid they trust obviously corrupt numbers from the Biden Admin
With inflation functionally over
The laughter is killing me.
1: I do the grocery shopping. No inflation is NOT over
2: Let me know when 30 year fixed mortgage interest rates are back to 3%. Then we'll know that "inflation is over"
3: I'm trying to understand the fundamental stupidity that says "sure, Biden screwed over Americans for teh last 3.5 years, but he's stopped now! Why are they still upset!?!"
Even if all the lies the Left is pushing were true, it still wouldn't change the reality that our paychecks buy a lot less than they did when Biden took office, that prices are higher, that we have a lot less money in the bank, and a lot more credit card debt.
"Are we better off than we were 4 years ago?" In 2020, the answer was "yes". In 2024, the answer is "no"
--- the poverty of his writing
What gall! How can you criticize someone who cites the Washington Post editorial board and Matt Yglesias and... and... wait, it's gotta be here somewhere.....
Well, OK, he left Ruy out. But this is still profound material. You deplorable schmucks could learn a lot from it.
On a lighter note, George Strait does a killer job covering Tom Petty's classic "You Wreck Me" and you can watch/listen to it here on YouTube.
(One of my all-time favorite Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers songs, and one of the best covers of it too. Uses the classic Bo Diddley beat (like "Hand Jive"), music written by the great Mike Campbell, currently touring with his new band The Dirty Knobs, which sometimes includes Heartbreaker personnel.)
When the people who are in charge of dealing with inflation, can just vote themselves a pay raise, then inflation doesn't exist.
Congress, state legislatures, city councils, have dealt with inflation by increasing their pay and benefits. Same with the federal, state, and local governments.
Something is wrecking Joe Biden, but it isn’t the economy—at least the economy that economists know how to measure… [my emphasis]
I guess Democrat economists — at least the sort of economists that writers for Slate bother to read — have forgotten how to measure an economy. Good to know.
The author starts off claiming that the comparison of Biden’s economy to Carter’s is somehow false and misleading. But he chooses not to measure it the same way it was measured in the 1980s.
Before the pandemic and inflation, half of all Americans had less than $500 to tide them over. Apparently it hasn‘t occurred to economists and policy makers to ask their fellow citizens how it’s going these days.
Democrat messaging is working with the simple minded. I see posts this morning, that corporations are to blame because they just all decided to raise prices all at once without raising pay. It's corporate greed they screem! Has nothing to do with the president and his horrible economic policy they sheepishly repeat.
Earnest Prole said, "Before the pandemic and inflation, half of all Americans had less than $500 to tide them over. Apparently it hasn‘t occurred to economists and policy makers to ask their fellow citizens how it’s going these days."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I can't remember who said it on another Althouse thread, but those people no longer have $500, they have $0, and many are now operating with negative net worth. They're underwater, late with their rent, and financing this month and next with a credit card, if they're lucky enough to have one.
D.D. Driver said...
"They just CAN'T figure out why America is uncomfortable with a pants shitting geriatric, who glitches out for extended periods of time, who is clouded by allegations (without evidence) of corruption, and who has used the legal system to punish opponents."
Despite what you choose to believe Hunters laptop is a real thing and there is plenty of evidence on it to place Joe at a lot of business meeting with foreighn nationals.
Robert Cook said...
"I talk to people and say it out loud. I get a lot of agreement."
"Given how ignorant or misunderstanding of the facts a majority of people are*, "get(ting) a lot of agreement" to any statement of (purported) fact or opinion is worthless as a gauge of factual reality."
I can't stop laughing.
William:
It's pretty obvious what the problem is with Joe Biden: he's too old.
Not too old, too decrepit.
Dissembling. The compounding of prices due toinflation has declined, but the prices are still higher will real wages have fallen. People know they can't buy as much as they used to with their take-home pay. And they are comparing it to 2021, not last month.
With all the debt funded cash they flooded into the economy, inflation was going to spike. It was kind of nice for Democrats to take the White House, whether by clever use of new voting laws, or by fraud, and thus take the hit. To think, this could all have been blamed on Trump if they hadn't "stolen" the election. But the dangers of world war, well, that's all on Democrats/Biden.
The pain of the Bidenflation is sharper in that so many of the younger people don't know how to cook at home and can't seem to grasp the cost of eating out everyday, much less using a food delivery service.
There’s this meme that tech culture is solving one problem: “What is my mother no longer doing for me?” Or, as George Packer put it in 2013, “It suddenly occurred to me that the hottest tech start-ups are solving all the problems of being twenty years old, with cash on hand, because that’s who thinks them up.”
--Russ Roberts, Econtalk
Tech culture depends on a lot of loose cash and the cash is getting tight with the compounding of inflation
It’s a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma encased in weakness surrounded by a thick crust of dementia laced with corruption
Has the U.S. government stopped borrowing trillions? Have they stopped overspending? Meanwhile have they secured Social Security and Medicare? What about the national defense, how much do we need to spend to counter Chinese, Russian and Iranian aggression, that we're not already spending?
What happens the next time a big bank, or a state pension plan, or some other too-big-to-fail monstrosity starts to fail?
We've only seen the beginning of high inflation.
Anyone who asserts that "inflation is over" has yet to renew his auto or homeowners insurance policy. Plus all the arguments in the above comments, esp. about inflation being "built in" to future pricing. Of everything.
=> by the way, this is a very nice site that was linked from "Real Clear Markets" this morning:
https://www.justfacts.com/nationaldebt#government
"With inflation functionally over..."
And yet, the higher prices remain. Such a deal. An order of fries and a large coke is over $6 at fast food places around here. Not that long ago, you could get a complete meal for that price.
Greg,
You are SO wrong. Biden has not screwed over Americans for 3.5 years. Oh no.
Biden has screwed over Americans for over 50 years.
Dam, my lying eyes are lying to me again.
In 2001, I sold my home in York, S.C., and moved to Hershey, Pa.
In 2001, that home -- 1200 sq. feet, 3 BR, 1 Bath -- in a small town (7,000) that's too far from Charlotte to act as a commuter feeder and too far from the Interstate, sold for $73,000.
Today, that same home is "valued" on Zillow for $230,000.
I wouldn't believe that, except similar homes on that same street have sold for similar amounts. In a town where the median income is about $30,000.
I was able to buy my home there ($53,000 in 1990) with the help of my mother, and I had to get a notarized statement that what she gave me was a gift and not a loan. This was before Rep. Barney Frank got the feds to loosen loan requirements, launching the bubble that resulted in the big contraction of 2007-2008 (and described in The Big Short).
We're dealing with a huge inflationary bubble here. In a normal economy, wages would rise to meet the higher prices. But Biden and the Democrats have opened the borders to illegal immigrants to keep those wages from flattening, and add new voters grateful to them for the social services given to them.
What the Washington Post doesn’t understand is that most voters have functional memories. We aren’t all demented with age like Joe Biden or brain-addled from massive crack cocaine abuse like Hunter Biden.
We remember how much we paid for a trip to the grocery store or Costco in January 2021. While the nominal cumulative inflation since then is about 20%, a lot of specific products have increased by more than that. Yes, the headline inflation rate is now only 50% above the Federal Reserve’s target. But that does not at all erase the damage of the last three or so years. Some people have received offsetting wage increases, but many people have not. And of course anyone with an adjustable rate mortgage is looking forward in abject horror to their new rate after a reset.
The United States of America has not seen inflation like this in over four decades. We know that the Washington Post would like to hand-wave it away in order to ensure the reelection of their preferred zombie, but it’s not that easy.
“Has the U.S. government stopped borrowing trillions? Have they stopped overspending? “
Trump will bring about deficit funded tax breaks that will make Liz Truss seem fiscally conservative.
Average price of gas during the Trump presidency ranged from $1.87 to $2.90 per gallon, and was $2.33 when Biden was sworn in. Prior to Trump, gas got as high as $4.05 per gallon under Obama in July 2008. Under Biden, gas rose higher than Trump's highest price in May 2021, five months into his presidency, and has never fallen back to that level since, peaking at $4.93 in June of 2022 and falling to a low of $3.13 in December 2023. Presently it stands at $3.63, 25% more than the absolute high under Trump, and has never been less than 8% higher than the absolute high under Trump. And of course, that fuel price increase finds its way into the cost of consumer goods.
But sure, inflation is "over."
Trump will make us wear our underpants outside our clothes.
CPI (consumer price index) under Trump never went up more than 2.9% on a year-to-year basis until Covid hit, at which point it went up bewteen 4.2% and 7%. Under Biden, the CPI has never gone up less than 3.1%, and has been as high as 9.1% in June 2022.
But all the top men - TOP MEN - say that inflation is over and you are all just to stupid to realize it.
Sure.
Inflation is still high. The rate of inflation has stabilized. The governments, corporations, and public are all steeped in progressive credit/debt emissions. The private sector has further resorted to capital (i.e. retained earnings) extraction in order to compensate for liberal fiscal policies, Spring time forays, CAIR, DEI, redistributive change, Green deals, etc.
“Has the U.S. government stopped borrowing trillions? Have they stopped overspending? “
Trump will bring about deficit funded tax breaks that will make Liz Truss seem fiscally conservative.
Given how appallingly little we have to show for the expenditure of all those trillions, I will take the tax breaks, thank you very much.
Inflation is still high. The rate of inflation has stabilized.
Kind of like spending "cuts" are simply spending increases that increase at a lower rate than they had the year before.
Does this idiot grocery shop? Buy gas? Homeowners insurance? Car insurance?
My homeowners has tripled over three years and I'll be lucky if it's not cancelled next year. Everyone in California is scrambling.
If inflation dropped to a perfect (as Trump said) 1.4% tomorrow, do you think prices will actually come down?
Of course not. This is the new baseline.
Did your income rise 30% in the last few years to compensate?
People living on fixed incomes are getting fucked because they are likely conservatively invested. They're making a tidy 5-8% on their money, which is great, except they're not keeping up.
If you're young and you want to buy a house, you're fucked.
I did a fun calculation just now. For a $1.5M house (which doesn't exist where I live), you are paying over $8k per month with insurance.
There's a reason us old folks are staying in our big, empty houses, which just drives prices up even more.
It's a shit-show...
"According to Chi-com Arabella Drudge links - Biden is up by 2."
You will start seeing polls with Biden ahead.
That's the only way they can steal the election.
If Trump is up by 8 in every poll it would be too obvious.
I'd like to tell that wonderfully obdurate person who said "with inflation functionally over" that the warm wet feeling on his leg is really just summer rain, not me giving him my opinion of his statement in physical form. I bet he'd even believe it.
'Trump will bring about deficit funded tax breaks that will make Liz Truss seem fiscally conservative.'
Cut taxes and spending.
Not difficult to understand unless you're a liberal idiot.
"Inflation" is composed of
1. actual price increaes - the bits that you notice
2. statistical adjustments - the bits that you don't notice, but the government officials know all about, or so they say
This is how it can be that the public wrongly thinks inflation is bad when in fact, as statistically adusted, it's doing just fine.
Next week, I will explain global warming.
"...even though prices are no longer increasing at a meaningful rate."
Bullshit!
Prices are going up at my local grocery stores. A box of Nathan's frozen bagel dogs went from $5.99 to $9.99 last week at Albertsons.
Blogger Never-Biden Never-Putin said..."I talk to people and say it out loud. I get a lot of agreement.
The Covid virus was timed and released on purpose. who did it help? The corrupt media-democrat-big-pharma industrial complex."
The same paper trail of Danzak, Baric and others conducting gain of function research stretching back years belies the notion that it was timed and released on purpose. OTOH, there's no doubt the dems used the pandemic to game the 2024 election by flooding the zone with insecure voting procedures.
Poor little Rich- having a terrible day defending Joe Biden.
$1337 to $1593. That's how much my annual house insurance went up per the early June payment. That's a 19% increase.
Yeah, inflation has "stabilized". Right.
I'm convinced Democratic Operatives who work at newspapers never buy anything.
"$1337 to $1593. That's how much my annual house insurance went up per the early June payment. That's a 19% increase."
When Brandon took office, my home insurance was $240/year. It cost over $900 this year.
The same paper trail of Danzak, Baric and others conducting gain of function research stretching back years belies the notion that it was timed and released on purpose.
I dunno, it seems as likely that years of such research with no accidental lab leaks suggests that they could contain the virus when they saw fit to do so.
What's wrong with Joe Biden is that he is likely suffering from Parkingson's disease, he is medicated up the hilt and Susan Rice (taking her daily phone call from Obama) is running the country.
And THAT is what voters see and understand and it wouldn't matter if Susan could wave a magic wand and bring about deflation and low interest rates - most voters in the so-called "middle" want to vote for a functioning person - not a person behind the curtain.
Trump should do a Wizard of Oz ad.
There's a reason us old folks are staying in our big, empty houses, which just drives prices up even more.
My husband and I, empty nesters for the past two years, are rattling around in a 5-bedroom house because our mortgage rate is on the order of 2.5%. Every living thing in this house including the dog has personal living space twice the size of our first little bungalow in Seattle.
I'm thinking of moving upstairs and pretending I'm a hermit. Why not, after all?
The dog has her own bedroom with ensuite bathroom.
There's way more useful and factual economic news in the Althouse blog comments than in the NYT, WaPo or WSJ any day of the week.
Yes, well done commentariat. They are cooking the numbers with new calculations of CPI that exclude the stuff that makes the number look as scary as what households are feeling and they just cook all the government numbers that are part of the calc- healthcare, par example.
...and I don't know how corrupted this Zach guy's education in econ was but the term inflation functionally over has never been uttered by any econ professionals in my orbit.
---The dog has her own bedroom with ensuite bathroom.
So that's three empty bedrooms for the Somalis and Guatemalans. I trust you are doing your share in the fight for displaced Democratic Party voters.
I have to wonder if these people really believe their own bullshit.
All of Joe Biden’s wars are on a pay as you go basis, the only deficit funded spending is on things that Democrats don’t like, like money they don’t get to dole out personally. We are currently borrowing almost 4 x what we spend on our military, every year, much of it from the people that we are threatening with them. It’s worked so far! But then the farmer is the turkey’s best friend until one day the turkey gets a surprise.
You should read the Slate article (I tried) and then the comments below (I managed a few).
Those commenters may as well be living on a different planet. It's a different perception of reality.
And they think--no, they know--we're the dumb ones. Everything they believe is utterly true. The idea of debating something so obviously true is anathema to them.
I personally think it's ugly for people to communicate that way, but they seem to be convinced they're clever.
I don't see how we're going to live together.
Stabilized refers to acceleration. We are still progressing, albeit at a reduced rate.
deficit funded tax breaks
Deficit funded spending, primarily in Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacares. The "tax breaks" were capital returned in tax refunds.
The economy stabilized with a return to productivity post-Covid, post-BLM, etc.
"I have to wonder if these people really believe their own bullshit."
Let's ask Rich!
Taxes are now a pretty small share of the cost of a gallon of gas these days (and due to Cost Incidence, a concept that everyone should learn before participating in microeconomic debates, are not fully borne by consumers). Mostly it’s due to producers and oil companies getting better at restricting supply.
Every normal person knows Biden is corrupt. And he is being protected by the corrupt class.
Only loyal leftists think he is clean.
SINCE BIDEN TOOK OFFICE:
Gas: +55.3%
Groceries: +21.2%
Eating out: +22.2%
Baby food: +28.4% K-12
Food: +65.1%
Pet food: +23%
Rent: +21.2%
Electricity: +29%
But according to the loyal left - the gaslight lying liars who lie - we are all fascists for noticing.
Gas is still high because of the power of the producers and oil companies. Drive less, get more efficient cars and reduce demand, and we’ll all be a little less captive to the supply they control.
Food is still high because pricing is sticky. It’s not going to come down, and widespread deflation would be far more dangerous to the economy than inflation. What needs to happen is for incomes to catch up with what happened to the cost of living in 2022 and 2023.
Housing is high because thanks to decades of market distortions, there isn’t enough of it. Period.
First we know the Biden number inflation comparison to Carter is bogus. The method of computation has changed so the current number is significantly lower than it would have been under Carter. There are enough examples above to show that anyone with a brain is aware of how much everything costs NOW compared to 4 years ago. The same game is being played with the employment numbers ( visit Zerohedge the day after they are issued). We get a glowing number at the end of the month which is then reduced significantly a month later. This has been going on for at least three years. People are no where near as stupid as the politicians think; they know what a burger and fries costs at McDonalds compared to three years ago and it ain't just pennies more.
I think the payment I cited is combined house/car insurance, actually.
Gas is still high because of the power of the producers and oil companies.
And, of course, because more of those producers are non-American governments like Saudi Arabia who Biden insulted as soon as he took office and who now refuse to expand production when Biden asks.
Rich Why do oil producers have more power to raise prices under Biden than they did under Trump? They don't. What happened under Trump was that the supply of oil increased because producers were allowed to drill and prices went down because of increased supply. Biden has restricted drilling so: supplies go down, prices go up. Economics 101.
Gas is still high because of the power and oil companies.
So much BS in such a short post. The "power of the producers" is wholly dependent on supply, which thanks to Biden is controlled by Russia and OPEC, not to mention EPA mandates that require "summer blends," which require many large refineries to shut down and restart every spring and Fall to little actual environmental benefit. But it does add cost to the process by bureaucratic fiat.
Then there's your overall thesis of oil companies being greedy and keeping prices high. But we've all seen gasoline pump prices rise and fall relative to the world price for a barrel of crude. If the oil companies were that greedy why would gas prices ever fall? Wouldn't they behave more like Biden's benefactors in the credit card business and keep costs high, the way MBNA keeps interest rates high? The way the student loan interest stays high? The way other greedy businesses run by progressive financiers, like campaign consulting or drayage fees charged by unions at blue city venues, keep pricing high? Gotta pay the democrats campaign bills somehow!
But gasoline prices at the pump fall. Rise and fall with the world average. Explain that, Rich.
The total tax on energy includes embedded costs forced by regulation, Green subsidies, redistributive change, and climate claims.
@Never Biden- Never Putin When you show numbers as you did you should cite the source. I don't dispute that you are correct, just that citing the source makes it hard for the die hards to contradict you.
What people have caught on to is that the BLS is a completely fraud and that our government and media are lying about the economy.
This is what the secret is. They are lying about everything.
Blogger Rich said..."Taxes are now a pretty small share of the cost of a gallon of gas these days (and due to Cost Incidence, a concept that everyone should learn before participating in microeconomic debates, are not fully borne by consumers). Mostly it’s due to producers and oil companies getting better at restricting supply."
"California Democrats are planning to send the state’s astronomical gasoline prices soaring even higher by strengthening a pair of decade-old climate policies.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB), whose most senior members are appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom, is considering amending two regulations — the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and the cap-and-trade program — to help the state meet its carbon-reduction goals. But in the process, gas taxes will increase significantly over the next two years and beyond.
Gas prices could increase by as much as 47 cents per gallon by 2025 and by 52 cents by 2026, according to CARB’s September 2023 report on the potential impact of the proposed LCFS amendments. Gas taxes could surge by as much as $1.15 per gallon on average from 2031 to 2046, hitting a peak of $1.83 in 2041. California drivers currently pay about 12 cents per gallon in additional gas taxes because of the LCFS program, per the report’s projections."
It's clear gaslighting isn't included in Net Zero.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator, it took $1.20 in May 2024 to buy what $1.00 would buy in January 2021 when Biden took office. That’s because those little numbers that Mr. Carter so casually dismisses are cumulative, and they compound. They are baked in now.
People notice. Have you been to McDonald’s lately? Or put gas in your car? Those costs have gone up even more.
This is what happens when you spend borrowed money on the “investments” that Biden pushes to buy votes. Or send it to Ukraine to fight the Russians. Because Ukraine has the goods on Hunter and the Biden family and he dares not say no to them.
Reference: https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
“Gas is still high because of the power of the producers and oil companies.”
YOU are high, Rich. Back away from the crack pipe while you still have a few sparking brain cells left.
but...Joementia/Pedo Pete's expert assured us inflation is Trans, or something.
Rich said...
Core inflation is only above target because of shelter (ex shelter it is 1.9% yoy).
--
bullshit metrics to obscure real-world effects.
Oh, inflation is over, is it? Where on earth did the $5/gal milk and $7+ dozen eggs come from? I saw sliced turkey for a jaw-dropping $14 / pound. 8' 2x4s were 3.50 in 2020. Now they're close to $9.
The inflation statistics have been horse-pucky for a while now, and the employment and wage statistics are equally fraudulent. Turns out that many companies post job listings with no intention of hiring anyone. They want to show that they are "growing," perhaps, or they needed to finagle so as not to pay back their covid loans and go used to it, or they're doing it to keep current employees feeling insecure. The supposed "jobs" are deliberately impossible schedules or sub-market wages or they just don't call people back but keep posting the same ads.
We've seen 3.5% unemployment before: wages were shooting up, recruiters were constantly calling people, and employers were worried about keeping their employees happy. None of those things are happening, which is good evidence that the actual unemployment rate is not any 3.5%.
This has been Jimmy Carter stagflation for nearly 3 years now with no end in sight.
The worst thing about this is the suffering; the hopes and dreams of working- and middle-class people being crushed by the rampant inflation without wage growth. Drug and alcohol abuse, gambling, domestic violence, and suicide have all increased massively, and the pressure just keeps grinding things down.
But the next-worst thing is that ALL of our data has been corrupted and I don't think anyone has a clue how to manage a complex modern economy when the data itself is dishonest. How do you run an enterprise of any size effectively when essential information about the macro-economic conditions is just wrong? How do you budget? How do you maintain the right level of inventory? How do you handle payrolls and pensions and insurance costs?
It is really difficult for me to believe that the Powers that Be trashed the economy so badly and as a result wrecked so many lives just because they were caught up in a collective foot-stomping, breath-holding, mouth-frothing, rage-fit because a relative outsider won an election, but what, exactly, is the alternative explanation?
Rich said...
“Has the U.S. government stopped borrowing trillions? Have they stopped overspending? “
Trump will bring about deficit funded tax breaks that will make Liz Truss seem fiscally conservative.
Higher taxes drive inflation up. It increases the cost of goods produced.
But I would not expect someone as limited as Rich to understand how inflation actually works.
Further, according to a CNN report from August 2023, the typical American family has seen its cost go up by $709 per month since 2021. It’s more than that now, almost a year later.
Strangely, 2021 was when Biden took office. People are not dumb. They see the connection.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/11/economy/inflation-rate-spending/index.html
Rich said...
"Taxes are now a pretty small share of the cost of a gallon of gas these days (and due to Cost Incidence, a concept that everyone should learn before participating in microeconomic debates, are not fully borne by consumers). Mostly it’s due to producers and oil companies getting better at restricting supply."
People like you never get tired of being stupid.
Price per barrel of US crude $78.00. 78/42 = 1.857 per gallon. Cost to refine .40-.70 per gallon depending on crude type. Cost to transport and market .27 per gallon. Gas tax .46-.56.Then you have state and local taxes. $3.02 per gallon. The rest is supply and demand.
Now to address your stupid statement. The entity restricting supply are the rule the Biden administration implemented the minute they got in office.(google it) Producers have futures contracts to supply. It makes no sense for them to restrict supply. Even if a leaseholder get's permission to drill they are reluctent to commit because they don't know what new restriction the government will place on them.
It IS the economy, and it IS inflation. Look, they can fudge the numbers all they want. Surburban housewives KNOW what they are spending at the grocery store, and you cannot hide it from them. And Biden needs those votes, or the election is going to be outside the margin of cheating. If they have to report that Biden got 85 million votes this time, there will be an insurrection. And that kind of thing gets bloody.....and does not tend to work out well for the "elites".
Inflation is NOT over. Joe "Bribe me!" Biden is doing everything he can to boost inflation. $2T deficits plus restrictions on production will cause inflation every time. 3.2% inflation is 50%+ higher than the already too high 2% target.
Dementia Joe is restricting supply of energy and vehicles. He wants us to drive EEVs (Emission Elsewhere Vehicles), but good luck paying for the electricity to charge them. You like your gas or propane furnace? Too bad, Joe requires you to yank it, upgrade your electrical panel and install a much more expensive electrical furnace. Same for your water heater, drier and stove.
Those diesel semi-trucks? Too bad, they must be EEVs, and half their cargo capacity is now devoted to batteries, and a quick fill up now takes days. So what if freight costs are 10x higher, it's to fight climate change! Get with the program, luddite!
Deficits put more money in peoples pockets. They then go out and spend it, driving up demand and prices. Corporations have no control of that. That's all on Congress and Corrupto-crat Biden.
Rich said...
Taxes are now a pretty small share of the cost of a gallon of gas these days (and due to Cost Incidence, a concept that everyone should learn before participating in microeconomic debates, are not fully borne by consumers). Mostly it’s due to producers and oil companies getting better at restricting supply.
You are economically ignorant or just flat dishonest. None of your posts deal with reality at all.
5-6% of the total cost is not a pretty small share. It is far more than the ROI gas and oil companies make. Only a government sycophant could say something so silly.
Oil/Gas prices are higher now because the Biden Regime restricted exploration domestically and started several wars in oil producing nations.
When Trump becomes president he will lower gas prices just like he did during his first presidency.
He will do this and Rich will make more stupid excuses about why Trump makes life better for Americans.
And Biden's wars will end because the regimes that are supported by oil exports wont have the money to wage war. Just like Trump's first presidency.
Ann, you should shut down this thread. It's almost like cruel and unusual punishment for the leftist learning impaired like Rich, Chuck, Gadfly, Miss Vicky from Pasadena, and Igna. Please, I beg you!
Has this turd, Zachary, ever set foot in a grocery store? You can't buy a single paper bag of groceries without spending $75. I just dropped $65 on 15 gallons of gas. I went to the golf course with a buddy a couple of weeks ago and bought lunch. For two bacon cheeseburgers, two fries and two diet Cokes I was out nearly $40. This wasn't a fancy sitdown place. It was the cafe at a public golf course.
Tout the numbers all you want. My experience is that the weekly grocery run is at least 33% more than it was at the start of Biden's term. I don't know too many people whose paycheck has kept up with that.
They changed the way CPI was calculated and the people are not buying it anymore.
This is how DC delays the day of reckoning. Lower COLA for SS. Apres moi, le deluge.
Inflation is not "over" -- as of today, the annual percentage increase in the CPI was 3.4%.
And as others have noted, the price level is much higher than when he took office. Did your wages keep pace with that increase? Mine didn't.
So unless we have deflation, many people -- especially the poor -- are much worse off compared to the day he took office.
And giving him credit for "bringing the rate of inflation down" is like crediting the arsonist for putting out his own fire. Inflation was <= 2% when he took office. Then he fired it up, with help from the Fed. Now that it's down to 3.4% -- still too high -- he wants "credit" for his accomplishments?
Dream on.
"Then he fired it up, with help from the Fed. Now that it's down to 3.4% -- still too high -- he wants "credit" for his accomplishments?"
Well, he wants credit for "job growth", when much of it is just people who were laid off due to the Existential Threat of Covid are finding jobs again. So there's that.
A simplified example:
Assumption: wages rise 3% every year.
Inflation year 1 of Biden 3% (up a bit over Trump).
Year 2 inflation up 5 percent
Year 3 inflation up 9%
year 4, inflation up 3.5 %.
Comparing at end of year 1.
EOY 1: Costs 1.03% wages 1.03%
ratio of wages to costs... 1.0... stability
EOY 2: Costs 1.085 wages 1.0609 People lose a bit of ground.
EOY3: costs 1.1826 wages 1.092727
EOY 4: costs 1.2204 wages 1.1255
Plot it out, folks. The already applied inflation put people way behind. Because today's increase in wages are near the same rate as today's rise in costs just mean you STAY behind.
But the left thinks we should applaud.
Taxes are now a pretty small share of the cost of a gallon of gas these days
Horseshit. Paid $4.85 a gallon the other day and 49.4 cents is the state tax with a 50-cent-a-gallon carbon fee on top. Add on the 18-cent federal tax and the government is making a shit-ton more money off that gallon of gas than those evil oil companies.
The hilarious thing is Rich doesn't even get paid by the DNC to look this foolish.
Barry Dauphin said...
The Titanic is at the bottom of the ocean, but at least it has stoped sinking.
6/12/24, 8:50 AM
I was trying to think of a suitable metaphor or simile but this sums it up.
"The hilarious thing is Rich doesn't even get paid by the DNC to look this foolish."
We don't know that. One explanation for "Rich" is that he is being paid.
The Times informs us that Beiden is absolutely perfect in every way, but is failing. The voters are so stupid.
Blogger Josephbleau said...
The Times informs us that Beiden is absolutely perfect in every way, but is failing. The voters are so stupid.
That is why they are trying so hard to find new voters crossing the border in the millions.
"Taxes are now a pretty small share of the cost of a gallon of gas these days..."
Speak for yourself:
California pumps out the highest state gas tax rate of 77.9 cents per gallon (cpg), followed by Illinois (66.5 cpg) and Pennsylvania (62.2 cpg). The lowest state gas tax rates can be found in Alaska at 9.0 cents per gallon, followed by Missouri (17.5 cpg) and Mississippi (18.4 cpg).
The gas prices where I live are usually among the highest in the nation, yet there are refineries less than 20 miles away.
And even with all that money the roads are no better than many third-world countries.
The gas prices where I live are usually among the highest in the nation, yet there are refineries less than 20 miles away."
Anybody trying to tell you that gas taxes are a small share of the price of gas is either full of shit or lying. Or both.
"And even with all that money the roads are no better than many third-world countries."
Somebody has to pay for all those mass transit projects- lord knows, the people who ride them aren't going to.
The way you hand pricing power to oil producers is by restricting supply, one of Biden’s first acts as president was to kill Keystone.
His Inflation Reduction Act was incredibly inflationary, spending a trillion dollars on EVs that… wait for it, mostly work for affluent Democrats, and are simply not practical for most working Americans who need more from their vehicles than a ride to work or the train station.
My pension COLA is capped at 3%, and that’s to the number that’s watered down to keep social security alive, every three inflation exceeds 3%, I am permanently poorer.
Biden has been fighting inflation by reducing the pricing power of labor by increasing supply. You can lie with statistics all you want, but “lived experience” for these workers is that they are getting poorer, and if you look at real wages in the years that Bidenomics have had time to take hold, you can see that his policy of putting downward pressure on wages is working. Of course the affluent classes that make up the base of the Democratic Party are less impacted by the wage pressure, and benefit by the cheaper labor, but the working people who are getting shafted still get to vote their lived experience.
I think that Rich performs a great service by lining up DNC talking points for us, like tin ducks in a shooting gallery.
imTay
Then there is the associative principal of stupidity. Which states; "The longer you hang around stupid people the more stupid you become."
Which is why I read a lot.
Inflation may have "stopped", but my income never started. Until my income rises to catch inflation, inflation is still going.
“Functionallly over” meaning 3.3% when they expected 3.4%.
Meaning 3.3% when the sustainable target is 2%. It’s 65% over that.
Meaning 3.3% on top of 4.7% in 2021, 8% in 2022, and an annualized estimate of 4% this year, for a total of 17.5%. And that’s “core” inflation, leaving out nonessentials. Like food.
Meaning inflation far outpacing wages.
Meaning spending power and saving capacity are slashed. And they ain’t coming back again.
These people aren’t too stupid to know this, they just hope you are.
But you don’t need to do the math. You can look at your bank account.
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