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Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice: for they shall be filled. Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me. The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works. He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord. Let sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord.

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AGelbert

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August 10, 2022

AGelbert NOTE: The following comments (I replaced the handles with emojies) were posted today in response to a Stock Market news article explaining the cause  of the "positive" (i.e. buy, buy, buy) reaction of the "markets" to the "less than expected" CPI print of 8.9%. The comments, unlike the BLS CPI print of 8.9%, are reality based. but they fail to point out the real reason the markets went up today. After the comments, I will state what I am certain caused today's buying spree.

Quote
🤦‍♂️
8.5% is still an ugly number. A fake, ugly number at that.
always assume 10% downside to anything produced by fedgov/CIA mouthpieces/MSM polls

😡
Fake..
Everything is Fake
one BIG Ugly out of control Clusterf#ck Dumpster Fire!

🥺
Lots of lipstick on that pig.

🙄
There is not quite as much arterial bleeding pumping and spraying out of the victim as last month!

🎩
We're gonna need a bigger IV and larger blood bags. I hope donations don't slow down.

📢
after  the  https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CE16OV#   household reported  against  the  BLS  release..  No one  I mean  no one believes  these liars.. 

🔊
And also remember that any government report citing inflation/pricing is BS!

💩
At this rate of inflation, your money is only halved in 11.8 years.
Enjoy...

🙃
Key words…”at this rate” because we all know the numbers are probably double what they are saying they are so you can cut that 11.8 to 5 years I’m guessing….

No no no. Everything is made as opaque as possible and information is only available to a few who we trust to give us the whole story because everything is awesome. Things are great and anyone who isn't doing great is really just jealous of other peoples success and a drug addict and dumb and a liberal or a conservative and lazy and entitled and and and and. This was the story for many years while all of this was unfolding and now that it is impossible to ignore, everyone is still jealous , a drug addict, etc. But now that the people who labeled everyone who wasn't doing so well all those things aren't doing so well themselves. They are singing the same song all of those lazy, entitled, dumb people were singing decades before. It's really funny the cognitive dissonance most people have.

🐻
We'll see if the have that smug smirk on their mug standing in a gov bread line in January.
It's coming...

🐾
Roger that.


Compounding lies with more lies will only help the Fed to do the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time!
You are led by morons who think they are gods shaping reality.
arrow


Hubristic losers, the lot of 'em.

🤷‍♂️
While I agree they are lying through their teeth, being incrementally more hawkish than they have been and raising rates (with QT) is the right thing to do when inflation is higher than the Fed funds rate. That doesn't excuse them from holding rates way too low for way too long, and it won't stop the reckoning still to come in the housing and financial markets.

 
Zimbabwe, here we come !
More manipulated numbers from government agencies.
I can see it now.

Gov't Economist: "What number should I put in the CPI report, Director? 6.3%?"
Susan Rice: "Nah, they will never believe that it went down that much."
Gov't Economist: "What about 7.8%?"
Susan Rice: "Problem is the seven. It screams made up."
Gov't Economist: "Well, it kind of is..."

Susan Rice: "Put in 8.5%. It's not too far off 9.1% but we made that one up anyway, so it doesn't matter."
Gov't Economist: "That sounds pretty good."

Susan Rice, Director of the White House Economic Council, chuckles and smiles.
Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/wall-street-reacts-todays-huge-cpi-miss

The real reason the "markets" (i.e. stocks owned by MOSTLY the 1%) went "up" (i.e. buying spree BY the 1%) is because of the TWO GIANT GIVEAWAYS just passed by Congress (i.e. chip manufacturer 70 billion plus dollar swag AND the 🦕 Manchin "Climate" bill that MOSTLY provides MORE subsidy SWAG for the 🦖 hydrocarbon hellspawn, while providing a pittance for clean energy). There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in these pork barrel giveaways for we-the-people not in the 1%. Let me repeat that: NOTHING! There is NO repeal of the 2017 Trump massive tax baked in permanent REDUCTIONS to upper class taxes along with INCREASED Taxes baked in for the middle class and lower income brackets (see below).


There is ALSO NO CHANGE to THESE 2017 🥺 Federal Budget PROJECTIONS:


There is NO actual "subsidy" for buying an EV unless you consider a $7,500 (that's the max, rarely available) rebate on a $60,000 PLUS vehicle a "benefit for the middle class". I CERTAINLY DON'T.

Senator Sanders voted for this Bill. I think he should definitely NOT have done it, but my opinion carries no weight in Congress. At any rate, he did make clear (some, but certainly not all, of) what is wrong with the Bill, though you will never hear it from the US Corporate Media.

August 10, 2022 3:21 PM "Bernie Buzz" e-mail:
The Good and the Bad of the Inflation Reduction Act
SNIPPET:
Quote
As you may know, a reconciliation bill is one of the few opportunities we have in the Senate to pass major legislation with 50 votes, not the usual 60. It is unfortunate, therefore, that not one of the 50 Republicans in the Senate was prepared to come forward and support a bill which would have addressed the many serious problems facing struggling working families. That meant that we needed all 50 Democrats in the Senate to stand together if we were going to address the major crises facing our country.

That's not what happened. Two corporate Democrats, both of whom receive huge amounts of campaign contributions from powerful special interests, prevented that from happening.

The result is that this bill does nothing to reform our dysfunctional, wasteful and cruel health care system. It does nothing to address the massive levels of income and wealth inequality and concentration of ownership that we are currently experiencing. It does nothing to raise the starvation minimum wage or make it easier for workers to join unions. It does nothing to build the millions of units of affordable housing we need. It does nothing to address the crisis of childhood poverty and a totally inadequate childcare system. It does nothing to address the home health care crisis facing our seniors and people with disabilities. It does nothing to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing, and vision care. It does nothing to make it easier for young Americans to get a higher education, or pay off their student debt. It does nothing to move us forward toward immigration reform or voting rights reform.

The bottom line is that the US Congress just made a POINT of proving they are THERE for the 1% and they will continue to be THERE to guarantee the Capitalist SHAFT for the rest of us. And THAT is why Wall Street is so 😈 pleased today. Have a nice day. 



« Last Edit: August 10, 2022, 06:33:03 pm by AGelbert »
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

AGelbert

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Agelbert NOTE: Over the centuries, as the leaders in human civilization increasingly pursued privilege over principle, this rampant increase in elite human iniquity resulted in massive, unjust and totally unnecessary human inequity.



I present this March 12, 2015 article to readers in order to educate them on how we have been propagandized to believe Capitalism is "good" because it "creates wealth". This flawed world view is analyzed and exposed as folly. The key is the flawed assumptions about WHY poverty exists, WHY wealth exists and WHAT THE RELATIONSHIP between the two IS.

SNIPPET:

Quote
We noted this in the article we published here a few weeks ago, "4 Things You Probably Know About Poverty that Bill and Melinda Gates Don’t," and it rubbed many people the wrong way. It’s understandable that this feels counterintuitive at first because it seems to defy basic logic. Wealth is something, and poverty is nothing. Wealth is the outcome of action, so it must follow that poverty is what exists before or in the absence of action. In other words, poverty must be a default state. Right?

The problem with this intuitive theory of poverty is that it ignores context—from the quality of education, to race and gender privilege, to physical and mental health, to luck and coincidence and much more. Even more important than all that, though, is the fact that it pretends that what happened yesterday has no bearing on today. When it comes to the global economic system and issues of mass poverty, the all-important yesterday is measured in decades and centuries. If we don’t understand this long view, we don’t really understand anything.

Why is all this so important? Because it is impossible to solve an entrenched problem like mass poverty without understanding how it came into being. There’s every reason to believe we can overcome poverty, if we take the time to understand and learn the lessons from how it is created.


Poverty isn't just a fact of nature. We made it happen, and we can fix it.


Here are just three ways mass poverty has been created:

« Last Edit: August 13, 2022, 03:58:18 pm by AGelbert »
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

AGelbert

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📢 Comment of the YEAR
« Reply #32 on: August 18, 2022, 02:04:05 pm »
Comment of the YEAR
Quote
The FED is in a tug of war - throw the rich or the poor under the bus.

If they continue aggressively to raise the rates, they throw the rich under the bus with lower asset values across the board.

If they chicken out and they go too slow, they throw the poor and middle class under the bus because inflation is the most regressive form of taxation; also, they trash the value of the dollar (you can't maintain the most powerful military with a banana republic currency).
Comment Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/we-are-all-watching-beads-sweat-forming-feds-forehead
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

AGelbert

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August 26, 2022 BY William Rivers Pitt 🗽, Truthout (graphics by AGelbert)


Mitch McConnell’s Condemnation of Debt Relief Is Dripping With Hypocrisy

SNIPPETS:

Too many people from previous generations enjoyed privileges afforded by things like the G.I. bill and properly funded public schools, climbed to the top of the ladder, and then pulled the ladder up behind them. 

How? By voting for Republicans who hate public money and public schools, and why? To pay less taxes. It wasn’t Millennials or Gen Z who threw 74 million votes at Donald Trump in 2020, but a whole lot of them did what was expected of them and got an expensive education on the promise of future opportunity, only to find that ladder missing and their grandparents waving at them from the now-unattainable economic high ground. ... ...

Welcome to the world endured by millions of student debt holders. ... ...

How do you get the smartest students in the country to work defending the rights and power of corporations? Bury them in debt and then lure them into six-figure careers — perhaps a partnership, or even a judge’s robe down the road — spent defending those corporations in court. So long as these students are shackled to debt, torrents of them will be available to make sure 🦖 oil companies will never know a reckoning for, say, turning the Gulf of Mexico into a ☠️ death zone. This frees up money for the corporations to 😈 buy politicians who bring things like Citizens United to life, and the wheel goes round. ... ...

You’d like to think the Republicans in high dudgeon ::) over debt relief are trying to make a point without the usual dollop of hypocrisy on the side — you go into debt, you pay your debt — but you would be wrong to all points on the compass.

🐘 GOP Representatives 🐍 Vern Buchanan, 👿 Marjorie Taylor Greene and 😈 Mike Kelly got mouthy over the unfairness of it all. Which is kind of strange upon further analysis. During the height of the pandemic, each and every single one of them took advantage of the debt forgiveness available in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven. Kelly had $987,237 in loans forgiven. Buchanan had more than $2.3 million :o in PPP loans forgiven, and is now calling Biden’s new policy “reckless.” ... ...

Full article:
https://truthout.org/articles/mitch-mcconnells-condemnation-of-debt-relief-is-dripping-with-hypocrisy/

« Last Edit: August 26, 2022, 05:36:21 pm by AGelbert »
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

AGelbert

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« Last Edit: August 31, 2022, 04:09:18 pm by AGelbert »
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

AGelbert

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Re: Money
« Reply #35 on: September 04, 2022, 03:58:56 pm »
 
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« Last Edit: September 04, 2022, 04:37:57 pm by AGelbert »
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

AGelbert

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Reality Asserts itself at Wall Street. GOOD!
« Reply #36 on: September 13, 2022, 09:24:32 pm »
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

AGelbert

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You Earned It, You Keep It Act (HR 8717)
« Reply #37 on: September 15, 2022, 11:46:47 am »
My Federal Retirement

September 15, 2022

Proposed Bill Would Repeal Federal Taxes on Social Security Benefits

Representative Angie Craig 🗽 (D-MN) introduced last month legislation that would repeal federal taxes on Social Security benefits for retirees.

If passed, the You Earned It, You Keep It Act (HR 8717) would repeal all of the federal taxation on Social Security retirement benefits beginning in 2023.

Craig claims the tax repeal would be fully paid by implementing an extension of the payroll tax wage cap to over $250,000 a year. Under current law, wages over $147,000 are exempt from the Social Security payroll tax.

Social Security 🗽 is a promise we have made to the American people – if you work hard and play by the rules, the dignity of a secure retirement will be within your reach,” said Craig 🗽.

“But taxing the very benefits American workers have earned after decades on the job diminishes our promise and threatens to undermine the financial security of retirees already struggling with rising prices, “Craig said. “Eliminating this tax will help Social Security benefits go further and ensure that American retirees have all the resources they need after a lifetime of hard work.

Craig said that according to non-partisan analysis the proposed legislation would also improve the long-term solvency of Social Security compared to current law.

To read the full text of the bill, go here.

AGelbert NOTE: Below, if you are good at reality based interpretations of the Congressional 'how it works' for New Bills,  such as the "You Earned It, You Keep It Act (HR 8717)" Bill submitted August 16, 2022 by Representative Angie Craig 🗽 (D-MN), you will learn 👀 how 😈 Pelosi, aided and abetted by her Chief of Staff, 👿 Primus (a neoliberal, Wall Street worshipping sworn enemy of ANY improvement of Social Security and/or Medicare - which is why Pelosi made him Chief of Staff), will do all these two 😈👿 enemies of we-the-people can to keep HR 8717 from EVER coming to the House Floor for a vote. A Floor Vote would expose the FACT that Pelosi, and too many other so-called "Democrats", are AGAINST improving Social Security. They don't want most Americans to learn that they are FRAUDS. So, Primus and Pelosi, on behalf of the 1% American Oligarchy Social Darwinist GREEDBALLS, will 'play' with the Scheduling Calendar to kill the HR 8717. 🤦‍♂️😡

However, if more than 226 Reps ( :-[ CORRECTION: there must be at least 290) 🗽 push for a 🦅 floor vote, the corrupt Scheduling 'fun and  games' will be thwarted and we MIGHT get some justice, for a welcome change. May God Hear the 🙏🏼 prayers of all the humble Social Security pensioners and force Pelosi to bring HR 8717 to a floor vote 🕊️ THIS MONTH.

Congress.gov: Calendars and Scheduling


Library of Congress 257K subscribers

Congress.gov Legislative Process videos were produced by the Library of Congress (LOC).  In service to Congress, analysts in the LOC Congressional Research Service (CRS) authored (Valerie Heitshusen) and narrated (Walter J. Oleszek) the videos for Congress.gov.  Video also available here.
« Last Edit: September 23, 2022, 01:37:40 pm by AGelbert »
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

AGelbert

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The Fed Stopped Buying MBS Today
« Reply #38 on: September 17, 2022, 12:08:01 am »
Wolf Street

Sep 16, 2022 by Wolf Richter • Sep 16, 2022 • 179 Comments

The Fed Stopped Buying MBS Today.

The purpose of MBS purchases was to repress mortgage rates and inflate home prices. That process has already started to reverse.
SNIPPET:

The last time the Fed did QT Nov 2017 – Feb 2020.

During the last episode of QT, the Fed shed MBS from November 2017 through February 2020. The chart below shows this phase of the MBS reduction. During the phase-in, it took about three months before the first declines became recognizable. QT back then was much slower, and the phase in was much longer, than in the current era of QT.

Full article:
https://wolfstreet.com/2022/09/16/the-fed-stopped-buying-mbs-today

Reality Based Comments:

Thunder Sep 16, 2022 at 2:36 am
“The purpose of MBS purchases was to repress mortgage rates and inflate home prices. That process has already started to reverse.”

That last sentence sent a shiver down my spine because I never looked at it like that and it will punish the FOMO “real-estate always goes up” crowd.
Debt can be a two edge sword.

WA
I find it sick that despite promising tightening, 🎩 Fed was still buying MBS to maintain the balance sheet against pass through payments.

A class action lawsuit against US fed should be in order. Here is the probable text:

1. Fed MBS purchases artificially raises house prices and consequently raises rent expectations.

2. These higher rents resulted in Tillions of dollars worth of cumulative financial losses to 45% of all American households that rent over the last decade.

3. These artificially higher asset prices also resulted in higher property taxes for home owners causing them to lose billions of dollar cumulatively. The asset price gains that they received were reversed by QT.

4. To hold the Fed accountable for losses to a majority of Americans, we the people will like to Sue the US Federal reserve to recover our losses.

5. We would like the US courts to decide the matter and uphold the rule of law.

What do you guys think about this?

AGelbert > WA
Your logic is sound but the problem for home owners, very difficult to overcome in the courts, is their John Handcock on the mortgage contracts.

😈 Greenspan began pushing this "wealth effect" SCAM 40 years ago. I am glad that reality is finally asserting itself because, throughout all that period, people who did not own homes were defrauded by Fed caused inflation (consistently low-balled by the BLS). Thus, while home owners were enjoying the ride, they, and EVERYONE ELSE,  simultaneously got the inflation shaft (i.e. loss of buying power) on just about everything else people need to buy just to live, never mind optional and luxury goods and services.

The Government computed cost of living was correctly computed before Greenspan began gaming it during the Reagan Administration. He kept 'improving' that game to steal from pensioners and COLA linked wage earners all the way to late 1990's.
Shadow Stats still provides the pre-Greenspan COLA numbers, which are always at least 10% higher than BLS published numbers. If you want more detail on how we-the-people, particularly those who do not own homes, have been massively defrauded by the Fed gaming of the COLA formula for over 40 years, check out the Chapwood Index.
https://wolfstreet.com/2022/09/16/the-fed-stopped-buying-mbs-today/#comment-466034
« Last Edit: September 17, 2022, 12:31:06 am by AGelbert »
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

AGelbert

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Inflation Causing Hardship For Majority Of US Households
« Reply #39 on: September 17, 2022, 05:49:57 pm »
Agelbert NOTE: Wolf Richter, who usually gets the big picture, disappointed me, replying to the above comment I made, by mocking Shadow Stats as a "joke". If Shadow Stats REALITY BASED inflation numbers are a joke to Wolf, then he has a rather strange sense of humor. Wolf wants to believe the Greenspan massaged BLS COLA "math". That is a textbook example of "investment (also called "Endowment") bias" caused ERROR in judgement. Wolf is cognitively invested in those numbers, so he rationalizes that the numbers are "correct" .

YET, it is Wolf that has OFTEN made clear how the "weighting" of "Owners Equivalent Rent" in the CPI (which is used in the basket of items to use for the COLA calculation) makes a mockery of the TRUE increases in housing costs AND Rent. Despite that IRREFUTABLE VIDENCE that inflation is, 🎩😈 with malice aforethought, being  deliberately and methodically low-balled, Wolf just doesn't want to admit we-the-people have been defrauded for at least 40 years by 😈 Greenspan's "Wealth Effect" SCAM. 🤦‍♂️

Wolf Richter needs a reality check. Inflation is a MAJOR problem CAUSED by the Fed, which, BY 🎩 FED 😈 DESIGN, MOSTLY hits the poor and middle class. Wolf doesn't want to go there. If he doesn't GET REAL, then he will pay a painful price for believing the la-la land BLS COLA numbers with hard experiences.
None so blind as those who refuse to see.
The following article provides more evidence that the REAL INFLATION RATE is closer to Shadow Stats numbers than the BLS low-balled COLA pension and wage eroding Greenspan gamed formula.

SATURDAY, SEP 17, 2022

Inflation Causing Hardship For Majority Of US Households

As inflation remains at the highest level in more than 40 years, millions of Americans are facing financial hardship due to rising consumer prices.

Statista's Felix Richter reports that, according to a survey conducted by Gallup in August, the majority of U.S. adults now say that price increases are causing financial hardship for their household, with 12 percent describing their hardship as severe, meaning it might affect their ability to maintain their current standard of living. Another 44 percent of households face moderate hardship, meaning that price increases affect them but don’t threaten their standard of living.

Unsurprisingly, inflation woes affect lower income groups disproportionately. While it’s relatively easy to shrug off price increases when it only reduces the amount of money left at the end of the month, it is much harder for people who struggled to make ends meet even before prices started surging.

Infographic: Inflation Causing Hardship for Majority of U.S. Households | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

As the chart above shows, inflation pressure has even caught up with high-income households, though, as 40 percent of those with household income above $90,000 now say they're facing financial hardship in face of inflation, up from just 29 percent in November 2021. The share remains much higher for low-income households, however, where 74 percent now was severe or moderate hardship due to rising prices.
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/inflation-causing-hardship-majority-us-households
« Last Edit: September 19, 2022, 12:09:40 am by AGelbert »
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

AGelbert

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Good News News for Passage of a long Overdue Bill (i.e. overcoming SABOTAGE by 👿 Pelosi + Her Chief of Staff 🐍 Primus)
AGelbert NOTE: After the quote below, that I placed here because it contains "how it works" info for Bills to get to a floor vote in Congress (and my :-[ correction), Good News news for another Bill that, though not anywhere near as needed for some semblance of justice for pensioners, is a step in the right direction.
Friendly warning to those easily board: Righteous indignation rant on inflation theft included further down.

Quote
My Federal Retirement

September 15, 2022

Proposed Bill Would Repeal Federal Taxes on Social Security Benefits

Representative Angie Craig 🗽 (D-MN) introduced last month legislation that would repeal federal taxes on Social Security benefits for retirees.

If passed, the You Earned It, You Keep It Act (HR 8717) would repeal all of the federal taxation on Social Security retirement benefits beginning in 2023.

Craig claims the tax repeal would be fully paid by implementing an extension of the payroll tax wage cap to over $250,000 a year. Under current law, wages over $147,000 are exempt from the Social Security payroll tax.

Social Security 🗽 is a promise we have made to the American people – if you work hard and play by the rules, the dignity of a secure retirement will be within your reach,” said Craig 🗽.

“But taxing the very benefits American workers have earned after decades on the job diminishes our promise and threatens to undermine the financial security of retirees already struggling with rising prices, “Craig said. “Eliminating this tax will help Social Security benefits go further and ensure that American retirees have all the resources they need after a lifetime of hard work.

Craig said that according to non-partisan analysis the proposed legislation would also improve the long-term solvency of Social Security compared to current law.

To read the full text of the bill, go here.

AGelbert NOTE: Below, if you are good at reality based interpretations of the Congressional 'how it works' for New Bills,  such as the "You Earned It, You Keep It Act (HR 8717)" Bill submitted August 16, 2022 by Representative Angie Craig 🗽 (D-MN), you will learn 👀 how 😈 Pelosi, aided and abetted by her Chief of Staff, 👿 Primus (a neoliberal, Wall Street worshipping sworn enemy of ANY improvement of Social Security and/or Medicare - which is why Pelosi made him Chief of Staff), will do all these two 😈👿 enemies of we-the-people can to keep HR 8717 from EVER coming to the House Floor for a vote. A Floor Vote would expose the FACT that Pelosi, and too many other so-called "Democrats", are AGAINST improving Social Security. They don't want most Americans to learn that they are FRAUDS. So, Primus and Pelosi, on behalf of the 1% American Oligarchy Social Darwinist GREEDBALLS, will 'play' with the Scheduling Calendar to kill the HR 8717. 🤦‍♂️😡

However, if more than 226 Reps ( :-[ CORRECTION: there must be at least 290) 🗽 push for a 🦅 floor vote, the corrupt Scheduling 'fun and  games' will be thwarted and we MIGHT get some justice, for a welcome change. May God Hear the 🙏🏼 prayers of all the humble Social Security pensioners and force Pelosi to bring HR 8717 to a floor vote 🕊️ THIS MONTH.

Congress.gov: Calendars and Scheduling


Library of Congress 257K subscribers

Congress.gov Legislative Process videos were produced by the Library of Congress (LOC).  In service to Congress, analysts in the LOC Congressional Research Service (CRS) authored (Valerie Heitshusen) and narrated (Walter J. Oleszek) the videos for Congress.gov.  Video also available here.

September 22, 2022 My Federal Retirement

Bill Repealing Social Security’s WEP and GPO Advances in House

Reaching more than 290 cosponsors, the Social Security Fairness Act  (HR 82) entered an important stage in its path toward a possible full floor vote after the House Ways and Means Committee advanced the bill by voice vote on Tuesday.

The proposed legislation would repeal the windfall elimination provision (WEP) and the government pension offset (GPO). The WEP and GPO provisions reduce or eliminate Social Security benefits for those who are covered by a government (federal, state or local)-sponsored guaranteed pension plan, such as federal employees who are covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS).

The bill’s sponsor, 🐘 Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) , secured 299 co-sponsors which now allows it to be considered for a 🦅 floor vote under the Consensus Calendar process in the House rules.

A member of Congress may file a motion with the House Clerk to place their legislation on the Consensus Calendar once their legislation has accumulated at least 🦅 290 cosponsors. If the legislation maintains at least 290 cosponsors for 25 legislative days, and the committee of jurisdiction does not report the legislation, it will be placed on the Consensus Calendar. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has the authority to bring legislation on the Consensus Calendar to the floor for a vote before the full House of Representatives.

Davis filed a motion on July 15, 2022, to place the Social Security Fairness Act on the Consensus Calendar. The 25-days-on-the-Calendar requirement for the legislation was met Tues, Sept. 22,  2022. Davis is urging Speaker Pelosi and House leadership to allow an immediate vote on this legislation.

“Our bipartisan ‘Social Security Fairness Act’ has reached another important legislative milestone,” said Davis on Tuesday. “In the next few days, we will have met the Consensus Calendar requirements outlined in the House. Speaker Pelosi must allow a vote. The millions of public service workers across this country who are being unfairly punished by the Social Security Act deserve it. That’s why a bipartisan supermajority of the House is cosponsoring our bill. Let’s get this done.” 🙏🏼

NARFE Support

The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE) this week issued a statement of support for the legislation.

WEP and GPO have deprived public servants of their full Social Security benefits for far too long. Federal workers, teachers, police officers, firefighters and others earned pensions through their service, and earned Social Security benefits separately through their or their spouses’ private-sector—or other covered—employment,” said NARFE National President Ken Thomas. “Yet those earned Social Security benefits are reduced simply because they earned their public sector pension.”

“NARFE has pressed for repeal of these onerous penalties for decades, ” Thomas said. “Bills have been introduced each Congress, often accumulating cosponsors from a majority of House members. Yet not once has the bill been considered by committee—until today. By approving the Social Security Fairness Act, the House Committee on Ways and Means has made more progress on this issue than has ever occurred. That is a real achievement.”



The full text of the bill can be found here.

There is a similar bill 👉 S. 1302: Social Security Fairness Act) in the Senate proposed by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) with 42 cosponsors.

Agelbert additional NOTE: I've been a retired FAA Air Traffic Controller for decades. The above Bill, if 👿 Pelosi doesn't manage to kill it with some 🐍 procedural legerdemain, and it makes it through the Senate to President Biden, AND he signs it into LAW, will do absolutely nothing to increase the size of my pension because it only applies to those who retired before AFTER December 2021.

I am celebrating this Bill because it makes EVERY Federal Employee out there an advocate of strengthening Social Security. Federal employees have a powerful effect on political campaigns because they mostly vote their wallet. The Social Darwinist enemies of Social Security, which incude a LOT of Democrats, as well as almost ALL the Republicans, will then lose 90% PLUS votes from Federal employees.

This is good for all those who need a livable Social Security pension instead of the watered down by Greenspan authored BLS low balled inflation, and unfairly taxed above $32,000 a year on top of that, present Social Security "benefit" amount. Social Security needs to be DOUBLED, not just slightly "improved", simply because the low balling of inflation has annually whittled away at the purchasing power of people on Social Security pensions for over 40 YEARS. If you think that is a bit "extreme", just look CLOSELY at that $32,000 max not taxed figure. That was put in the IRS TAX LAW in 1983, and has not been changed since then. >:(

This graphic is not up to date (i.e. the numbers are for 2019, not 2022), but it gives you the right idea:

📢 Even with the low-balled COLA numbers, $32,000 1983 dollars EQUALS $95,155.34 in 2022 dollars! And THAT is just the unfair taxation part! The LOSS of buying power massively above and beyond the COLA "increase adjustments" since 1983 (i.e. 197.4%) add Government sponsored THEFT to the  Government sponsored unfair taxation. HOW? There are many, many goods and services we all require to live. They are NOT "luxuries". They are NOT "optional". THAT is what the Cost Of LIVING formula is supposed to be all about, but after Greenspan and his pals in the Federal Reserve corrupted the formula, is a Wall Streetpleasing shadow of REALITY BASED COLA prior to 1980.

REALLY? HOW can that be? For the eye opening details on how we-the-people have been steadily defrauded, year after year , just check out the Chapwood Index and/or Shadow Stats.

In this post I will only point to one cost that affects everybody, whether they own a home or not. That cost is the Median Sales Price for New Houses Sold in the United States. If you don't own, you have to rent. The more houses are valued at, the more you will end up paying for rent. Yes, food, water, clothing, transportation, etc. are all costs we cannot avoid, but the Chapwood Index will show you everything you need to know about that sine qua non basket of goods and services to evidence the FACT that BLS COLA numbers are ridiculously low-balled. I bring up housing cost, because THOSE are even MORE DELIBERATELY (see below) low-balled :o than those items I just listed.

February  1983:  $  73,800
July         2022:  $439,400

Do the REALITY BASED inflation math:
$439,400 - $73,800 = $365,600

$365,600 = [(365,600/73,800) x 100] = % increase of $73,800 = 495.4% INCREASE

197.4% BLS CPI Published  minus 495.4% PRESENT  = 298% LESS than REAL INFLATION

The REAL INFLATION in the USA is Two Hundred and Ninety Eight percent MORE than the BLS published inflation. What that means for a person on Social Security is that they have been ROBBED of the 298% INCREASE they were entitled to had the BLS not Greenspan gamed the CPI "Owners Equivalent Rent" numbers to provide a "wealth effect" ILLUSION.

Yes, it is hard to believe, but for a Social Security pension of $1,000 a month in 1983 to have kept up with REAL inflation, it would now have to be $4,954 a month. YET, that $1,000 a month 1983 pension is at $1,974 a month. 🥺

For anyone that is getting cross eyed with the math, my point is that this example (which applies to ALL Social Security pensioners, more or less, but usually MORE SO) means that pension of $1,974 is getting SHORT CHANGED by $2,980❗

Now I hope you see why all Social Security pensions need to be DOUBLED, at MINIMUM, AND not subject to taxes below, at MINIMUM (i.e. using the BLS published 197.4% increase from 1983 to 2022 COLA numbers), any amount less than $95,168.      
« Last Edit: October 20, 2022, 01:00:49 pm by AGelbert »
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

AGelbert

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The Reptilian Conscience Challenged (i.e. Social Darwinist) HISTORICAL Consistency of the Supreme Court

AGelbert NOTE: This  November 03, 2013 Post :o, as anyone who experienced the Reptilian Conscience Challenged Consistency of the Supreme Court from 2013 to 2022 can see, clearly evidences that the (supremely Social Darwinist) Supreme Court of the present is even WORSE than that of the 1920 - 1940 period, as bad as that one was, because. besides the fact that, unlike what FDR accomplished in the 1930's, ZERO reforms have occurred since 2013, back then preventing polluters from facing legal accountability for causing Catastrophic Climate Change was not on MUST-DO list of the 1%.
 
IOW, we have gone from Frying Pan into the FIRE. Have a nice day.

November 03, 2013, 07:13:12 by AGelbert

>:( Please observe the Reptilian Conscience Challenged Consistency of the Supreme Court during the 1920 - 1940 period.

When you look at the following timeline and compare it with the 1994 -2013 period, the later period of history LACKS ANY of the reforms that pulled us out of the earlier Depression even though the causes (Government blind eye to predatory business greedfest and human needs and dignity of the average worker) were EXACTLY THE SAME!  ??? :( :P >:(

TIMELINES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION: 
 
1920s (Decade)

• During World War I, federal spending grows three times larger than tax collections. When the government cuts back spending to balance the budget in 1920, a severe recession results. However, the war economy invested heavily in the manufacturing sector, and the next decade will see an explosion of productivity... although only for certain sectors of the economy.

An average of 600 banks fail each year.  :o

• Organized labor declines throughout the decade. The United Mine Workers Union will see its membership fall from 500,000 in 1920 to 75,000 in 1928. The American Federation of Labor would fall from 5.1 million in 1920 to 3.4 million in 1929.

Over the decade, about 1,200 mergers will swallow up more than 6,000 previously independent companies; by 1929, only 200 corporations will control over half of all American industry.

• By the end of the decade, the bottom 80 percent of all income-earners will be removed from the tax rolls completely. Taxes on the rich will fall throughout the decade.  >:(

• By 1929, the richest 1 percent will own 40 percent of the nation's wealth. The bottom 93 percent will have experienced a 4 percent drop in real disposable per-capita income between 1923 and 1929.

Individual worker productivity rises an astonishing 43 percent from 1919 to 1929. But the rewards are being funneled to the top: the number of people reporting half-million dollar incomes grows from 156 to 1,489 between 1920 and 1929, a phenomenal rise compared to other decades. But that is still less than 1 percent of all income-earners.

1922

•The conservative Supreme Court strikes down federal child labor legislation.  >:(

1923

• President Warren Harding dies in office. Calvin Coolidge, becomes president. Coolidge is no less committed to laissez-faire and a non-interventionist government.

Supreme Court nullifies minimum wage for women in District of Columbia.  >:(

1924

• The stock market begins its spectacular rise. Bears little relation to the rest of the economy.

1925

•The top tax rate is lowered to 25 percent   >:( - the lowest top rate in the eight decades since World War I.

1928

• Between May 1928 and September 1929, the average prices of stocks will rise 40 percent. The boom is largely artificial.

1929

• Herbert Hoover becomes President.

• Annual per-capita income is $750. More than half of all Americans are living below a minimum subsistence level.

• Backlog of business inventories grows three times larger than the year before.

• Recession begins in August, two months before the stock market crash. During this two month period, production will decline at an annual rate of 20 percent, wholesale prices at 7.5 percent, and personal income at 5 percent.

• Stock market crash begins October 24. Investors call October 29 Black Tuesday. Losses for the month will total $16 billion, an astronomical sum in those days.

1930

• By February, the Federal Reserve has cut the prime interest rate from 6 to 4 percent. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon announces that the Fed will stand by as the market works itself out: 'Liquidate labor, liquidate real estate... values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wreck from less-competent people'.

• The Smoot-Hawley Tariff passes on June 17. With imports forming only 6 percent of the GNP, the 40 percent tariffs work out to an effective tax of only 2.4 percent per citizen. Even this is compensated for by the fact that American businesses are no longer investing in Europe, but keeping their money stateside. The consensus of modern economists is that the tariff made only a minor contribution to the Great Depression in the U.S., but a major one in Europe.

•Supreme Court rules that the monopoly U.S. Steel does not violate anti-trust laws as long as competition exists, no matter how negligible.  >:(

• The GNP falls 9.4 percent from the year before. The unemployment rate climbs from 3.2 to 8.7 percent.

1931

• No major legislation is passed addressing the Depression.

• The GNP falls another 8.5 percent; unemployment rises to 15.9 percent.

1932

• This and the next year are the worst years of the Great Depression. For 1932, GNP falls a record 13.4 percent; unemployment rises to 23.6 percent.

• Industrial stocks have lost 80 percent of their value since 1930.

•10,000 banks have failed since 1929, or 40 percent of the 1929 total.

• GNP has also fallen 31 percent since 1929.

• Over 13 million Americans have lost their jobs since 1929.

• International trade has fallen by two-thirds since 1929.
Congress passes the Federal Home Loan Bank Act and the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932.

Top tax rate is raised from 25 to 63 percent.

• Popular opinion considers Hoover's measures too little too late. Franklin Roosevelt easily defeats Hoover in the fall election. Democrats win control of Congress.

1933

• Roosevelt inaugurated; begins 'First 100 Days'; of intensive legislative activity.

• A third banking panic occurs in March. Roosevelt declares a Bank Holiday; closes financial institutions to stop a run on banks.

• Alarmed by Roosevelt's plan to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, a group of millionaire businessmen, led by the Du Pont and J.P. Morgan empires, plans to overthrow Roosevelt with a military coup and install a fascist government modelled after Mussolini's regime in Italy. The businessmen try to recruit General Smedley Butler, promising him an army of 500,000, unlimited financial backing and generous media spin control. The plot is foiled when Butler reports it to Congress.

• Congress authorizes creation of the[ Agricultural Adjustment Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Farm Credit Administration, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the National Recovery Administration, the Public Works Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

• Congress passes the Emergency Banking Bill, the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, the Farm Credit Act, the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Truth-in-Securities Act.

• Roosevelt does much to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor,
but is concerned with a balanced budget. He later rejects Keynes' advice to begin heavy deficit spending.

• The free fall of the GNP is significantly slowed; it dips only 2.1 percent this year. Unemployment rises slightly, to 24.9 percent.

1934

• Congress authorizes creation of the Federal Communications Commission, the National Mediation Board and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

• The economy turns around: GNP rises 7.7 percent, and unemployment falls to 21.7 percent. A long road to recovery begins.

• Sweden becomes the first nation to recover fully from the Great Depression. It has followed a policy of Keynesian deficit spending.

1935

•The Supreme Court declares the National Recovery Administration to be unconstitutional.  >:(

•Congress authorizes creation of the Works Progress Administration, the National Labor Relations Board and the Rural Electrification Administration.

• Congress passes the Banking Act of 1935, the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and the Social Security Act. 


• Economic recovery continues: the GNP grows another 8.1 percent, and unemployment falls to 20.1 percent.

1936

•Top tax rate raised to 79 percent.

• Economic recovery continues: GNP grows a record 14.1 percent; unemployment falls to 16.9 percent.

1937

•The Supreme Court declares the National Labor Relations Board to be unconstitutional. >:(

• Roosevelt seeks to enlarge and therefore liberalize the Supreme Court  ;D. This attempt not only fails, but outrages the public.   ???

• Economists attribute economic growth so far to heavy government spending that is somewhat deficit. Roosevelt, however, fears an unbalanced budget and cuts spending for 1937. That summer, the nation plunges into another recession. Despite this, the yearly GNP rises 5.0 percent, and unemployment falls to 14.3 percent.

1938

• No major New Deal legislation is passed after this date, due to Roosevelt's weakened political power.

• The year-long recession makes itself felt: the GNP falls 4.5 percent, and unemployment rises to 19.0 percent.

1939

• The United States will begin emerging from the Depression as it borrows and spends $1 billion to build its armed forces. From 1939 to 1941, when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, U.S. manufacturing will have shot up a phenomenal 50 percent!

• The Depression is ending worldwide as nations prepare for the coming hostilities.

Roosevelt began relatively modest deficit spending that arrested the slide of the economy and resulted in some astonishing growth numbers. (Roosevelt's average growth of 5.2 percent during the Great Depression is even higher than Reagan's 3.7 percent growth during his so-called 'Seven Fat Years!') When 1936 saw a phenomenal record of 14 percent growth, Roosevelt eased back on the deficit spending, worried about balancing the budget. But this only caused the economy to slip back into a recession in 1938.

• World War II starts with Hitler's invasion of Poland.

1945

• Although the war is the largest tragedy in human history, the United States emerges as the world's only economic superpower. Deficit spending has resulted in a national debt 123 percent the size of the GDP. By contrast, in 1994, the $4.7 trillion national debt will be only 70 percent of the GDP!

The top tax rate is 91 percent. It will stay at least 88 percent until 1963, when it is lowered to 70 percent. During this time, America will experience the greatest economic boom it had ever known until that time.

The above timeline has been complied by Steve Kangas from the Resurgence Magazine.
http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/connections_n2/great_depression.html

See also cycle of past depressions.
« Last Edit: September 26, 2022, 04:24:09 pm by AGelbert »
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

AGelbert

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. AGelbert NOTE I just posted this at Wolf Street. Enjoy. ;D

Quote
Steve Sep 27, 2022 at 12:12 am
Inflation is just wealth transfer. 
Yort > Steve Sep 27, 2022 at 4:03 am
It used to be nearly impossible to accumulate insane amounts of wealth when the top Federal Tax rate was 94%. In 1981 an actor became President and slashed taxes and dropped the marginal tax rate from 70% when he was inaugurated to just 28% when his term ended, and had a 74% top approval rating so it seems giving out free money worked better in the 80s vs 2022…

Yet today if the top capital gains rate for billionaires was say 60%, they could simply borrow off their shares and never pay a dime like the current scheme to avoid taxes today. The proposed billionaire taxes are not going to pass as the billionaires buy out Congress via lobby funds. And lobby reform is not going to happen as it takes tens to hundreds of millions to win elections. Catch-22…

AGelbert > Yort
You are exactly right in absolutely everything you said. Thank you for saying it.

Let me add some (i.e. 1% caused corruption of government for the purpose of continuous wealth transfer from the poor and middle class to the Wall Street wealthy) details.

I am certain that the CPI, since 1983 when Reagan put Greenspan in there to corrupt the BLS CPI formula in order to short change all those who rely on the annual COLA adjustment to pensions or wages, has been consistently lower than the actual rate of inflation.

It is my studied view that the actual inflation since 1983 is not 197.4% like the Greenspan gamed BLS COLA numbers claim, but 495.4%.

197.4% BLS CPI Published  minus 495.4% PRESENT = 298% LESS than REAL INFLATION.

I am not making those numbers up. That 495.4% increase is the result of using the  Median Sales Price for New Houses Sold in the United States as proxy for overall inflation.
February  1983:  $  73,800
July         2022:  $439,400
SOURCE: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MSPNHSUS

Yes, of course it is true that food, water, clothing, transportation, etc. are all costs we cannot avoid that, in a reality based world, not the "core Inflation" Wall Street favoring fictitious world the Fed mendaciously pushes,  must be part of the overall CPI formula. There are many, many goods and services we all require to live. They are NOT "luxuries". They are NOT "optional". THAT is what the Cost Of LIVING formula is supposed to be all about, but after Greenspan and his pals in the Federal Reserve corrupted the formula, is, with Malice Aforethough, a Wall Street pleasing shadow of REALITY BASED COLA prior to 1980.

I bring up housing cost because THAT is even MORE DELIBERATELY low-balled than those items I just listed.

Now some will read this and claim I am being irrationally reductionist. They will say I am "cherry picking" the Median Sales Price for New Houses Sold in the United States from 1983 to 2022 to come up with an inflation number 298% higher than published.

I agree that, when all items in a reality based basket of goods and services are computed, using the Government formula prior to 1980, the inflation number perhaps will not be as high as 495.4%, but you can bet your inflation ravaged dollar that it will be at least 100% higher than the official 197.4% (explanation for that charitable assumption below).   

To those who cling to the view that the official 197.4% COLA increase from 1983 to 2022 is "reality" based, I ask a simple question: How much do you think a home, with no improvements, in still the same condition, with the same lot size, etc. as that home sold in 1983 for $73,800 is "worth" in 2022? According to Greenspan's gamed CPI (SEE: Owner's Equivalent Rent "weighting" fun and games), it is "worth"  $132,681.20. The difference between that price and the actual sales price of that house, and houses like it all over the United States, is the alleged "wealth effect" of ($439,400.00 - $132,681.20) 306,718.80. That is baloney and you know it. However, if we allow for a 100% greater inflation than the Government's 197.4%, that 1983 $73,800 home is worth $219,48.00 in 2022.

If you are wagging your head saying that is much less than said home is actually worth, as proven by the actual sales figures quoted above, then I hope you can agree that it is rational to conclude that the CPI computation by the BLS to arrive at annual COLA percentage is NOT reality based.

For those who say, "this is complicated and everybody comes up with their own version of the cost of living, so it is a joke to use any other numbers", I respectfully state that you are suffering from Endowment Bias, a type of Confirmation Bias. IOW, you are cognitively "invested" in believing the BLS's Greenspan gamed COLA numbers, so you irrationally block any other view, no matter how well reasoned with ACTUAL cost numbers from 1983 to 2022.

For those who agree that the "problem" is the weighting math for the different goods and services in the CPI basket formula used to compute the COLA adjustment, BINGO!

So tell me, what should the WEIGHT of "Owner's Equivalent Rent" BE? And while we are at it, is that term anything but BLS legerdemain? How hard is it to come up with a responsible term (e.g. COST Of Shelter) for the stats on home costs and how they relate to rent prices? I'm sure Wolf, who has exposed the "Owner's Equivalent Rent" low balling more than once here at Wolf Street, could come up with a reality based term AND a reality based weighting. My back of the envelope COST Of Shelter weighting is around 45% of the overall CPI basket. What say ye?

At any rate, anyone that thinks the published numbers are "close" to reality is in Wall Street favoring La-la-land. Have a nice day.
https://wolfstreet.com/2022/09/26/my-wealth-disparity-monitor-september-update-qt-rate-hikes-dropping-stocks-bonds-reduce-outrageous-us-wealth-disparity/

Learn more:

September 30, 2022 UPDATE:
Wolf couldn't handle reality so he 🗑️ my post. That is par for the course (i.e. ) with Wall Street worshipping $ Capitalists. They live in their own echo chamber and are quite efficient at blocking any irrefutable evidence that they are sufferning from Endowment Bias.

Experience is the best teacher and boy are they going to NOW get a MEGA-HARD LESSON in inflation caused Wall Street cratering REALITY

Reality based comments:
September 30, 2022
Macho Latte
My old cheap ironing board broke at the place where the mechanism locks the legs into a standing position, the only real place where there is any stress at all.  That board cost me around $20 in 2018. The replacement, the same identical board, cost me $90.  That's a 350% increase.

Mushytoe
We trimmed everything out except for food and fuel. No new clothes, no going out...zilch. spending less overall. Wages haven't risen so I have no idea where all this excess spending is coming from. Unless it is from debt.

Sardonicus
Everything you need costs 20-30% more than a year ago.
Of course spending is up massively.
The only thing that went down is what you get for your money. Which is why the economy is cratering.

Hal n back > Sardonicus
Is this spending data inclusive of inflation?
i have noticed grocery prices when on sale have increased substantially the last couple of months. 
i have little faith in govt data, just like many others here.

BANNED Phil McCoxwell
One of my favorite stupid sayings the “experts” always away say:  “the market has priced in…..”.  Nobody is pricing in anything. Just trying to figure out what’s side of the bet to be on. The markets no longer reflect the economy. Haven’t for a long time. All speculation based on fake money. That is why all these authors care about is what the fed will do. The federal reserve should not be at the center of our financial world.  If the markets were truly free, risk would be priced by the bond markets and the stock market could use it as a risk reference for real valuations. Like our government, it should be transparent and not interfere in our daily lives. Like that will ever happen again.

gunsfromthegrave > BANNED Phil McCoxwell
Always perplexed me too. How do you price in large parts of the population starving or freezing to death or foreign countries embargoing you of goods you are entirely dependent on them for. For instance how does europe price in all of their industry shutting down due to no fuel to run it on. Seems like the only value reasonable to go to in that case is 0.

Texas Cattle Man
The University of Michigan Sentiment indicators are worthless garbage. They are of no use in calculating or pre-positioning purposes. A better index is one I saw in a Youtube video yesterday. It's call the CBI (Cracker Barrel Index). Supposedly, Cracker Barrel has reported their business softening, as it appears that a lot of their customers, to a large extend Boomers, are battening down the hatches also. The Boomers Social Security and retirement benefits, are not keeping up with inflation, so they are turning the burners down on their spending. The Boomers are big holders of real estate, and have been big spenders historically, but as more and more of them that reach retirement age, that spending will be reduced. Things are not going back to what they used to be.

DavosSherman PREMIUM
With inflation greater than 18% and the "Fed" fighting it with 4%, inflation running red hot would be the result.

mtl4 PREMIUM
... the uniparty is all in on the pork trough. Try and name one president in the last 30 years that actually cut spending (even Clinton’s deficit miracle was an accounting gimmick). Bush kicked off a deficit explosion with the endless war or terror , Obamaroid carried out the Great Recession bailouts and kicking off the EU immigration nightmare, Trump kept the rates excessively low while failing to drain the swamp and Joe Xiden has been busy playing Manchurian Candidate and caving in whatever’s left. Notice, surprise surprise, not a single one has reversed anything.  The Republic is toast.

Agelbert NOTE: Article source of the above comments (The "Inflation Indicator" the Fed loves is the fictitious "Core" Inflation PCE. Even THAT ridiculously low-balled indicator is SURGING!):
Fed's 😈 Favorite Inflation Indicator Unexpectedly Surges As Personal Spending Jumps

Plutarch was, and still is, right. 💣 👉💥
« Last Edit: September 30, 2022, 01:35:35 pm by AGelbert »
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

AGelbert

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"Panic Seems To Be In The Air"
« Reply #43 on: September 30, 2022, 04:59:21 pm »
AGelbert NOTE: Reality continues to assert itself at Wall Street. It's about time it did. I recently read a quote from then Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, way back when the Great Depression got started after the 1929 Stock Market Crash:
Quote
1930 Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon announces that the Fed will stand by as the market works itself out: 'Liquidate labor, liquidate real estate... values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wreck from less-competent people'.
If Powell thinks the same way that Mellon did, this crash will make the 1929 Crash look like a walk in the park.

FRIDAY, SEP 30, 2022 - 03:10 PM By Ven Ram, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and strategist




« Last Edit: September 30, 2022, 05:06:26 pm by AGelbert »
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

AGelbert

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More 🌠 EVIDENCE 🧐 that GREED is BAD!
« Reply #44 on: October 07, 2022, 04:53:22 pm »
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2022 🌠
« Last Edit: October 07, 2022, 04:58:16 pm by AGelbert »
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12