Archives for October 2022

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

I heard Janet Yellen, the Secretary of the Treasury, on a talk show this week. She said something that brought me back to my college economics class.

When asked about the possibility of a recession she pointed out that for the last three months the U.S. has been adding 600,000 jobs a month. She said that didn’t look like a recession to her. This made me think about people like Jamie Diamond head of one of the biggest banks in this country, if not the biggest. He has been talking about a looming recession, as have many of the stock investing types. But then I realized that old maxim that the stock market does not reflect the economy. The investor types are warning of a recession. Meanwhile, the job numbers and growth in non-investment areas is not showing any signs of a recession. 

Well, what about inflation? She was asked. She said more has to be done, but the labor rates are causing some of the inflation. Translation, people are making more money and that is causing people to spend more and they are willing to pay higher prices. That causes prices to go up. That’s inflation. Ta Dah!

We may be coming into a situation of stagflation. First an econ review. Inflation is when too much money is chasing too few goods and services. Prices go up. Deflation is the opposite. To stop too much money in the system the Fed takes money out of the system. They do this by issuing bonds at higher interest rates. The idea being that if there is less money in the economy people won’t have it to spend and drive up prices.

Stagflation happens when prices and interest rates stay high. The only thing the Fed can do is to keep their interest rates high to try and take more money’s out of the system. The U.S. economy is a huge beast and it may take years for this to happen to turn things around. I remember asking at that time (late 1970s) a financial buddy of mine how come interest rates were still high (like 15%) and he said there was a lot of money unaccounted for in the system and it was taking a while to get it out of circulation. As he put it, there was a lot of money in mattresses. I said but it’s taken a lot longer than people predicted. He said that the mattresses were thicker than anyone thought.

To go back on the econ history of the last stagflation. Nixon was worried about it. Ford was too. Remember WIN? (Whip Inflation Now). Carter got in and the Fed chair was Volcher He kept interest rates high and eventually got inflation under control, but it cost Carter his second term. Reagan got in, claimed credit for it. Kept Volcher, and proceeded to sow the seeds to destroy the middle class. The Republican talking points haven’t changed much since then. Other than they no longer believe in elections (minor point.)

Republicans are big on talking about fixing out economic problems and on reducing crime. Don’t let fact get in the way, however. Under Republicans since WWII they always spend more than Democrats. They talk about balanced budgets, but only when Dems are in, because when they are in it’ okay to run the counry into more debt.

As far as crime goes, the worst crime rates are in states run by Republicans. Nebraska has a worse crime rate than New York City. 

But Texas under their Republican governor is doing something about it. To combat gun violence in the schools they are handing out DNA kits so the school can have a record of a kid’s DNA so if they get so shot up by a weapon and can’t be readily identified the school will have the DNA to match. Great. What do you want? Fewer guns or more dead kids? The Texas governor has made it clear what he prefers.

Sunday, October 23, 2022

I heard a thing on the radio the other day that the woman who helped Nixon in one of his early campaigns said you want voters to go into the voting booth with three things in mind, all of them bad and all of them about your opponent.

Seems the Republican playbook hasn’t changed.

The Republicans running in this election are stressing the economy and crime. Their basic pitch is their opponent hasn’t done enough. They don’t mention that they don’t have a plan and that when they were last in power they did nothing: nothing on crime, nothing on the economy, nothing on anything. Or as Bill Clinton put it, “their biggest complaint is we didn’t clean up their mess fast enough.”

I should amend the above to say “nothing positive or helpful.” Crime? Blame immigrants and build a wall. This despite statistics that show immigrants commit less crimes than others or that building a wall would not stop illegal immigration or that under Obama more illegal immigrants were deported than any other time and that under Trump it was the worst.

If we want to stop or slow the flow of people desperate to get into our country we should look at what we can do to make where they are coming from better for them to stay. This was an idea brought up decades ago by Henry Kissinger when he went to Latin America for Nixon. If people felt safe in the place where they were living, if they could make a living, if they could live freely they wouldn’t be coming here. It’s not that hard to understand.

Republican whine about Democrats spending too much and taxing too much, yet it is those Republicans that always outspend Democrats and don’t pay for it. Biden has reduced our deficit by over a trillion dollars, under Trump it ballooned and now those Republicans running for office are saying they’ll cut taxes, making the deficit worse. Remember the last time? They didn’t cut your taxes. They cut corporate and ultra-rich taxes. Well, wait a minute that’s not entirely true. Wunderkind, Paul Ryan pointed out that their tax cuts allowed some woman to be able to afford a membership at Sam’s Club or some such thing, to which I say, “BFD!”

The problem as I see it is also that the politicians who grab headlines are the ones who do the most outrageous things. None of those politicians have done anything legislatively. Some rarely show up for work. People who do the real work, who get things done, aren’t flashy and the news doesn’t cover them.

When Biden went to a manufacturing plant in Maryland the only thing that made headlines was his opening comment of two words “Made in America.” Ha ha, funny. None of the follow up mentioned his running through a list of all he had accomplished to create more jobs in America, how he was bringing manufacturing back to America. How we could do anything if we set our mind to it. 

They didn’t cover him in Minnesota where a bride collapsed and because of his infrastructure bill they have the money ready immediately to repair it and are doing so. Biden said he’ll be back to walk across that bridge when it’s finished.

Instead the media is covering stunt politicians doing mean and outrageous things to make headlines.

Saturday, October 22, 2022

Click Bang,

What a hang,

I hear you say,

As I fade away,

“I think we ought to wait til tomorrow.”

– Jimi Hendrix

I can’t help but think – Nothing is going to happen.

I’ve heard how Merrick Garland is a careful man and when he does it will be … 

Yes, I’ve heard it all before. Remember Robert Mueller?

But this time it will be different. Will it?

I think about my friend who said that his grandparents lived in Germany in the 1930s, “They all knew Hitler was crazy, but by the time they decided to act it was too late.”

I feel like it’s Mikey with the cereal time again, “I don’t want to indict him. You indict him.”

He should be arrested. He should be behind bars. So should all his henchmen.

Let’s Git ‘er Done.

Please. Now.

Wednesday, October 18, 2022

We went and saw the play “Dear Evan Hansen” last night. To tell you anything about it would be to spoil the thing. However, I will say this – if you have a teenager, this is a play for and about them. Take them to it.

While I was watching the play I couldn’t help but think of Paul Gauguin. He was a man who created a world that didn’t exist, that never existed, but he imagined it so.

This led me to think about Rosie Perez who was recently on a talk show and talked about the decision to overturn Roe and how that would lead inevitably to many children being born that will be unwanted and unloved…and abused.

This leads me to Rudy Giuliani who in the early 90s took credit for the drop in New York City crime due to his efforts. The head of the LA PD did the same in his city. None of their claims held up under scrutiny. It was wishful projection on their parts. The best explanation I have heard came from Malcolm Gladwell who pointed out that the 1973 decision of Roe led to fewer unwanted children coming of age in the early 1990s and therefore less crime because abused children find others to abuse and when they come of age that translates to the kind of crime Rudy pounded his chest and said he stopped (but really didn’t.)

So, what can we expect with unwanted children being foisted onto people who don’t want then and in turn onto our streets and society?

This leads me to ask the question of what do these people who want to end abortion really want?

And, what do the people behind them puling the strings to get them to act want?

Certainly, as has been shown time and time again, it’s not for protecting life or any such nonsense like that because there is no follow through on their part to make lives better. It anything it seems those people do everything in their power to make people’s lives more miserable.

Okay. I’m done.

Friday, October 14, 2022

Yeah, I know the committee, but before we get to that let’s go back a day before.

Herschel Walker is on stage talking. Rick Scott and Tom Cotton are standing behind him smiling. Herschel talks about a bull inseminating three cows in the field. Then the bull jumps the fence and impregnates three more. I wonder if Cotton or Scott were listening? If they were what must they have been thinking? I can see thought bubbles rising up? Or in a video it would be that quiet “thought voice”. 

What would either say? (thought bubbles or voice, not Cotton or Scott, well yes Cotton or Scott in the form of thought bubbles or voice. Go on.)

….”What is he saying?”

… “OMG. What am I doing here?”

… “Help! This guy is crazy?”

… “Get me away from here?”

… “Who thought this was a good idea?”

I think Tom Cotton is one of the more despicable people in the U.S. Senate, because he always finds a way to make a bad situation worse. Rick Scott is no better, just more crooked than Cotton. I don’t know where Scott went to school, but every time Cotton is mentioned they say he went to Harvard. DeSantis went to Yale. This is the kind of people these schools are turning out?

At least Walker went to Georgia. He didn’t graduate, even though he said he did. Not sure what that says about Georgia.

I read Walker is worth $73 Million and makes $13 million a year. Not sure what that says about us.

Okay, on to the Committee. The last hearing was kind of boring because it was mostly stuff we had heard before. However, what it did do was firmly show that the person who caused this riot was Trump. Period. Full Stop.

The other thing that we had not seen before was Nancy Pelosi at work. Calmly, trying to get help to defend the Capitol. She was respectful, calm, and working. John Thune was in the picture, standing, rocking from one foot to the other. That’s what I’ve always seen Thune doing – nothing. Just standing in the background. Nancy addressed Mike Pence as Mr. Vice President. Very Respectful. Chuck was a bit more worked up, but he was on the case too.

Pence was elsewhere doing the job of defending the Capitol. Something the President should have been doing but he was leading an insurrection.

Ari Melber had an excellent point in the 8 o’clock wrap up show. If Trump testifies and pleads the fifth to leading an insurrection do you really want that guy in charge of defending the country from an insurrection?

Okay, in related news the new video clip of Nancy Pelosi on Jan 6th trying to get troops to the Capitol shows Steve Scalise standing beside her doing nothing and John Thune in the background rocking from one foot to the other. That was the Republican involvement from Republican members of the House and the Senate in trying to do something to stop the attack on the Capitol. Later, Scalise made remarks saying that people wanted to know if Pelosi had purposely delayed troops getting to the Capitol. Gee Steve, I don’t know. You were standing beside her when she called the Governors of Maryland and Virginia and the Attorney General and others what do you think? What did you do? Oh I remember, you stood and watched her in action. While Governor Hogan (R-MD) hesitated because of authority issues Governor Northam (D-VA) sent help right away. Thank god what’s his name the current governor wasn’t in charge. He would have sent troops to aid the rioters. BTW the current Virginia governor just got back from a trip to Arizona here he plugged for an election denier and Fascist who wants to destroy democracy who is running for governor there.

Then there’s the Secret Service.. These are the folks you contact to find out about electronic emails and stuff. Somehow they deleted all their cell phone records from Jan 5th and 6th and they want you to believe it was routine maintenance. I have an idea. Let’s charge each one of them with sedition and twenty years and see if they can’t recall what was on those texts.

Meanwhile, Alex Jones had a $965 million dollar judgement leveled against him. I thought that this might have been an excessive and punitive judgement, but a Connecticut lawyer says no. This is in keeping with the state law and they haven’t gotten to the punitive phase yet. I think punitive damages are usually three to ten times more. OH no, he’ll have to sell a lot more vitamins and peritoneum wipes! 

Maybe he has peritoneum bull wipes, seems that Walker’s bull might need them.

Walker’s Bull – I like that. 

It could be a sexual enhancement drug, an IPA, or beef jerky. I know who a guy who will sell it for you!

“Listen people, I’ve never had anything like it. I took some of dat Walker’s Bull and man, I tell you what, I told my wife ‘You better brace yourself!’. After that I went out in the backyard, climbed over the fence and shocked my sunbathing neighbor. In fact, I shocked three in a row. If you act now I’ll throw in a box of wipes. Because trust me – you’ll need them.”

Enough for now.