The Numbers Today – Not Good
The inflation numbers released this AM were not good news. Up at a 7.5% annual pace, the highest since February 1982.
Now those numbers are so forty years ago. You will hear the comparisons to the Carter years again for this administration.
With Iran in the news today too for their activity, Russia expanding and the world shaky, it does seem eerily like that period again.
The immediate impact of inflation numbers like that are:
The Federal Reserve will be more inclined to raise interest rates aggressively and take other steps to try to rein in prices before they spiral further.
Stock futures will plunge and market risk increase.
All the actions can slow the economy and that is an issue.
It means wages are going up (5.7%) over the past year, but far less than prices (7.5%). The average worker is behind.
What drove the increase?
Some of the steepest price rises were in energy, like a 9.5% rise in the price of fuel oil and 4.2% rise in electricity costs.
Doesn’t that make you shake your head once again on why one of the first acts of the administration was to stop us from being energy independent?
Why is buying fossil fuels from OPEC and Russia better for the environment than doing it ourselves? We’re begging them to increase production – why?
It didn’t make sense then and doesn’t now.
Unless you subscribe to the theory they want higher prices to drive us to the alternate solutions they want.
By the way, the price of oil exceeded $90 a barrel yesterday. Analysts say $4.50 a gallon is coming.
Trump Took Documents – Well, I Remember
The MSM with their fixation on President Trump are all running with the story that President Trump had (and still has) documents that belong in the archives.
In fact, they say he destroyed some as a normal part of his day.
A book coming in the fall by Maggie Haberman (“Confidence Man”) claims he flushed some of them (papers) down toilets and clogged things. The book is expected to be explosive. One reason is she is no fan of the President from covering him from his NY days. Yet, against the wishes of his staff he sat with her for hours giving interviews.
Why?
Well, remember when he spoke to Bob Woodward and the book buried him? The former President’s ego won’t allow him to do otherwise.
Anyway, the MSM is running big time with this story today and soon most the nation’s citizens will hear it.
Which I find interesting, since another former President left the White House with furniture, gifts and other goods that belonged to the American People. In fact, they were forced to return $28,000 dollars of gifts and pay an additional $86,000 for what took illegally.
The purpose of bringing this up is this. If Trump took some documents he was wrong. If the Clintons took furniture and goods they were wrong. How come Americans will only know of one of them?
Oh yea, the Trump case is pending. The other proven.
Wait Now – Crime Is In My Stores
You know the hypocrisy of masks and the “do as I say, not as I do” actions of some politicians. Well, here’s another.
The Reverend AL Sharpton called on NYC Mayor Eric Adams to address the brazen thefts at New York City stores.
He complained that businesses have been forced to such extreme security that retailers are even “locking up my toothpaste.”
Oh, I see crime matters now because it is an inconvenience to him.
He even said this:
“There are those that are concerned, including me, about overloading the system in the jails with petty crime, but at the same time you cannot have a culture where people are just at random, just robbing and stealing and is out of control, and is put on the front page of newspapers, which only encourages others to do it.”
I see, I see. I thought he supported the “soft on crime” programs.
On The Topic
The NYT had this column and story yesterday:
Call It ‘Codger Power.’ We’re Older and Fighting for a Better America.
We don’t want to leave the world a worse place than we found it.
Is that right? Well maybe you shouldn’t have been so permissive with drugs, crime and actions. Almost every time I read or hear about a crime there are drugs involved. Wasn’t it your attitude and generation that said “a little weed is nothing?” Wasn’t it your generation that said you can’t take the homeless off their streets, “they have a right to be there?” You created the culture we have now, and you’re late to the party of those of us who said you were wrong.
My problem is you destroyed so much for my kids and grandkids when you did what you did, not just yours.