The cost of living in the U.S. is rising at its fastest rate in 10 years, according to new data from the Labor Department.
The data, released Friday, revealed that consumer prices increased 2.9 percent in July from the year before, meaning Americans may be earning less than they did at this time last year.
The consumer price index, meanwhile, rose 0.2 percent last month, which analysts largely attributed to rising housing costs, CNBC reported. Annual inflation remained unchanged from June’s pace at 2.9 percent.
If only there was some private consortium of bankers we could pin this phenomenon on, excluding food and gas, of course – no one needs those…
The U.S. central bank has raised rates twice this year, in March and June, and financial markets overwhelmingly expect a hike at the next policy meeting in September.
The Fed currently forecasts a total of four rate rises in 2018, with investors expecting a final nudge upwards of the year in the benchmark overnight lending rate in December.
No, this isn’t about Elizabeth Warren’s proposed new minimum tax rate.
Young Charles Donaldson III thinks we as a nation are hoarding the cash in an effort to keep education off-limits to someone.
“America to Me” subject Charles Donalson III used his platform during the Starz docuseries panel at the Television Critics Association press tour on Saturday to call out what he called America’s “hoarding” of wealth, citing examples he saw right there at the conference’s Beverly Hilton setup.
The gap of financial resources is particularly prevalent in the entertainment industry, Donalson added. He’s now a small part of that business, and so is everyone he addressed.
The high school graduate pointed out “all the money it takes just to set up this room,” referring to the Beverly Hills Ballroom. He continued, “Jesus Christ, you know how much food you have out there? Y’all are laughing, but I’m being dead serious right now. You all know how much food it is out there?”
One might wonder how a TeeVee show, spotlighting a school, somehow takes money (and food) away from the school. One may wonder…
Donaldson is a recent graduate of Oak Park and River Forest High (Chicago). It’s obvious the school needs more money. (Isn’t that always the solution?). The district only spends $14,822 per year per student on instructional costs, compared to $7,853 per student state-wide. That, by the way, is where the 189% comes from. This also exceeds the national average. It’s not enough…
For all the money, only 15% of the students get “free” lunches. Maybe that’s what Donaldson was getting at. Maybe Starz could donate some biscuits or something.
Also, for all the money, less than half of Donaldson’s peers are proficient in reading; only 12% understand math. Yet, per the fraudulent national trend, the school graduates 93% of its students. These numbers might explain – to someone who did not graduate from Oak Park – that the money isn’t the issue or, at least, that it is misplaced.
Oak Park is a “Title One” school. That means, well, nothing. In 1994, a useless Congress declared:
it to be the policy of the United States that a high-quality education for all individuals and a fair and equal opportunity to obtain that education are a societal good, are a moral imperative, and improve the life of every individual, because the quality of our individual lives ultimately depends on the quality of the lives of others.
Declarations like that are meaningless, but they are not cheap. We spend and spend. All measures of progress drop and drop.
Ah well, what’s the point? Nothing college for all won’t surely fix.
It usually isn’t on display in the economic/business news. For instance, does anyone of any measurable intelligence really believe making every person on the planet a billionaire would change anything?
The world’s first trillionaire won’t come from cryptocurrency or some clever new app – he or she will become rich from asteroid mining.
That’s what bankers Goldman Sachs reckon, anyway – and several companies are now vying to be the first into space.
NASA estimates that the total value of asteroids out there could be up to $700 quintillion – equivalent to £75 billion each for us here on Earth.
That is the equivalent of saying a wolf told you that a fox was hungry and thus every chicken would be happier.
The asteroid mining idea is real and will happen – but not with every single body orbiting the Sun. Someone will likely become extremely wealthy as a result. If The Goldman Sachs has its way, then that someone will be in some way directly related to Goldman Sachs. (And why switch dollars to pounds in the same sentence?)
If the real obtainable value of the celestial rocks really is $700 quintillion, then expect Goldman, the Fed, and Mordor to arrange future loans in the septillion range, with derivatives betting on the order of decillions. Gresham’s Law dictates they would still find a way to kill positive growth with funny money.
The zeros behind the $ or the £ mean nothing. That’s why, even if one distributed the actual cash value of the space debris to each and every person on Earth, turning everyone into billionaires, nothing would change. Zimbabwe is replete with billionaires – who can’t afford lunch.
In his defense, Rob Waugh is an excellent jack-of-all-trades journalist; maybe economics just isn’t one of them. However, that should be (should be) a specialty over at Bloomberg, where they supposedly push business news.
Yet, they seem surprised we have inflation in America and that that cuts into wages.
U.S. inflation accelerated in May to the fastest pace in more than six years, reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s outlook for gradual interest-rate hikes while eroding wage gains that remain relatively tepid despite an 18-year low in unemployment.
The consumer price index rose 0.2 percent from the previous month and 2.8 percent from a year earlier, matching estimates, a Labor Department report showed Tuesday. The annual gain was the biggest since February 2012 and follows a 2.5 percent increase in April. Excluding food and energy, the core gauge was up 0.2 percent from the prior month and 2.2 percent from May 2017, also matching the median estimates of economists.
Fed. Fed. Fed. Fed. Rates. Rates. Rates. In Bloomberg’s defense, they are actually in the business of promoting certain interests, like those of Goldman.
The narrative works something like this: The economy is great, never stronger. Unemployment is low, officially. Wages are rising. Inflation is low. Oops, for completely unforeseen reasons, likely related to gas prices, it reared its ugly head. Time to raise rates on the flood of fiat. Sally School teacher in Iowa sees her recent raise evaporate. But that doesn’t matter; Goldman is mining the Moon or something.
They leave out: That all the money, almost all of it, is fake, based on debts that cannot be repaid. Everything in the economy depends on said fake money (it’s like mixing in helium for a dive – a little boosts depth range, too much kills). Wages are always one of the last things to “catch up” after a correction – only just in time for the next correction. Real wage buying power (how much the pay is really worth) only this year returned to levels last seen in 1973. 45 years of loss, and the new, temporary gains are now squashed by inflation.
It’s almost like we’ve entered into a terminal phase wherein the wages will not, cannot recover. Workers and earners see their purchasing power decline to ancient levels, their standards of living plunge toward serf-like proximity.
When this all hits the fan the next time around, it may hail the curtain call for the banksters. That would be the good news.
Maybe there’s a way to relocate the banksters and their political pets to the heavens? Metro/UK.
The first video interview for FP, with my old friend and investor Russell Wilder. Watch for insights on what moves the markets and how it affects your goals.
In the days of old Congress used to pass annual budgets. This process generally started with a recommendation from the President. Next the proposed budget passed through the House, then the Senate. Finally, if he agreed with it, the President signed off on it.
That was then. Today, for more than a few years now, different appropriations have been cobbled together for this and that, rather than passed as a whole. Technically, this is permissible under Article I, Section 7 of the old Constitution. It’s my quibble that the old way was better, smoother. At any rate, at least it’s done. Until it’s not.
Last Friday/Saturday at midnight the Congress failed to agree on the latest stopgap spending bill. As such, “your” government has no budget for the coming fiscal year – running on empty.
A House-passed stopgap bill that would avoid a government shutdown fizzled out in the Senate late Friday night, leaving Congress negotiating frantically as the midnight deadline to fund the government passed.
The measure failed in a procedural vote by a 50 to 49 margin. Five Democrats — Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Doug Jones of Alabama and Claire McCaskill of Missouri — had backed it. Four Republicans — Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah — opposed it. So did Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for procedural reasons.
As nearly all Democrats and some Republicans opposed the measure that failed to work its way through Congress on Friday, lawmakers saw government funding lapse, at least temporarily. The proposal that failed in the Senate would have funded the government through Feb. 16 and reauthorized the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years.
As far as I’m concerned, they could permanently shutter the whole operation forever. Fear not, they won’t. In fact, much (most?) of the government will operate pretty much as “normal” for the duration. Most people will notice no difference. I’m releasing a video for FP tomorrow about this and a few related matters. Watch it.
This last happened in 2013. Before that, it was a more pronounced shortage in 1995. We somehow survived those episodes. The sky will not fall. For now, just know that “your” elected representatives are a band of utterly incompetent fools. You should remember this come the next election. You probably won’t though I’ll drop a reminder.
Running on, running on empty Running on, running blind Running on, running into the sun But I’m running behind
The three richest people in the US – Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett – own as much wealth as the bottom half of the US population, or 160 million people.
Analysis of the wealth of America’s richest people found that Gates, Bezos and Buffett were sitting on a combined $248.5bn (£190bn) fortune. The Institute for Policy Studies said the growing gap between rich and poor had created a “moral crisis”.
In a report, the Billionaire Bonanza, the thinktank said Donald Trump’s tax change proposals would “exacerbate existing wealth disparities” as 80% of tax benefits would end up going to the wealthiest 1% of households.
“Wealth inequality is on the rise,” said Chuck Collins, an economist and co-author of the report. “Now is the time for actions that reduce inequality, not tax cuts for the very wealthy.”
The study found that the billionaires included in Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest people in the US were worth a combined $2.68tn – more than the gross domestic product (GDP) of the UK.
“Our wealthiest 400 now have more wealth combined than the bottom 64% of the US population, an estimated 80m households or 204 million people,” the report says. “That’s more people than the population of Canada and Mexico combined.”
The report says the “billionaire class” continues to “pull apart from the rest of us” at the fastest rate ever recorded. “We have not witnessed such extreme levels of concentrated wealth and power since the first gilded age a century ago.”
David McNew/Getty/The Guardian.
This isn’t a piece on class envy – at least not mine is not. Who knows what the trained squirrels at the Guardian were up to. If this money were earned honestly, then there would be no problem, regardless of any “inequality”, real or fancied.
Some, many of whom are hoarse from howling at the moon last night, might propose to seize all of this wealth and redistribute it. Unlike Scrooge McDuck, these three real characters do not have $250 Billion in gold coins and cash in the basement of some mega mansion. It’s (almost all of it) invested in their companies and earning more money while created goods, jobs, and services. It’s not liquid. Taking it would collapse a sizable portion of the economy. Killing the goose … all for $1,500 per poorer half class member. Once…
Stick to the helpless screaming, SJWs.
The rest of you know I am (mostly) concerned with the truth. So, what is the truth behind Gates, Bezos, and Buffett?
Bill Gates became filthy rich by selling software. My perspective dictates the products are second-rate at best, a bill of goods bought from a high-class carny. Yet they remain extremely popular. The people get what they think they want. Gates gets richer. Okay.
Bezos runs Amazon. Some say this business is a modern monopoly, responsible for killing all the bookstores of the world. I have a vested interest here. Periodically Amazon sends me money for book sales. The checks are small but they do come. Thus, in my view, Saint Bezos and his beautiful creation can do no wrong. I wish them success as this directly benefits me. If you don’t like that, then you probably don’t read and, therefore, don’t really have a dog in the fight. Bugger off.
Buffett is held forth as the ultimate investor. Making and creating Billion$ while humbly living in the same small house for 50 years, the paragon of Wall Street virtue. That’s part of the truth.
The other part involves his direct manipulation of the economy. Watch the following video for a funny analysis of how this works (a cartoon, no less – for the people!):
Malekanoms/YouTube.
First, for the ardent pendatrists, consider the cloud cover in the cartoon. How is that consistent with the digital trees??? What say your television shows?
Now. If you happen to consider the substance, then know this: what Buffet and a few others do is not technically illegal. It should be as should be the whole central banking scheme. However, since we’re past the days of the law, why not make money (take money) from the existing corrupt system?
That’s where the problem lies. And howling at the moon, beating the bongos, and voting will not fix it.
The Big Club has big secrets. Amazingly, so much of what they do is out in the open for any to see who just look up. Given the low IQs, addictions, television, tattoos, diabetes, and goldfish-like attentions, there’s never too many people watching or caring. Maybe that’s for the best.
Malta’s prime minister has appealed for national unity following the murder of a campaigning journalist who had accused his government of corruption.
Daphne Caruana Galizia, 53, achieved fame and notoriety for investigative reporting laced with scathing commentary about allegedly corrupt officials and businessmen. She was killed on Monday when a powerful bomb blew up her car.
…
Caruna Galizia’s blog, Running Commentary, was one the most widely read websites on Malta and led the investigation of corruption allegations stemming from revelations in the so-called Panama Papers leak.
It was famed for a relentless pursuit of cases of apparent corruption and incendiary, sometimes highly personal, comments that saw her embroiled in frequent legal battles.
Earlier this year Politico magazine listed her as one of the 28 men and women “making and shaking Europe” for her unrelenting crusade against what she saw as Malta’s culture of “cronyism” and opaque government.
…
In her last blog post, published just hours before she died, she bemoaned the lack of progress in prosecuting alleged corruption cases.
“There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate,” she wrote in the last line.
Deadly crooks. She had also recently sought police protection due to increased threats of violence. For whom do the police work?
The Panama Papers are the largest information leak in history. 2.6 Terabytes worth of documentation was smuggled out of a Panama-based law firm which caters to some of the world’s richest and most powerful people. The papers reveal that the super-rich routinely offshore their considerable assets in an effort to evade control and taxation, and to maintain secrecy. Vladimir Putin, for example has at least $2 Billion hidden away; while running for office he declared his net worth to be a few hundred thousands.
By itself there is nothing wrong with this offshoring just as there’s nothing wrong with getting $20,000 from an ATM. It’s your money; do with it as you like.
The problem is the hypocrisy. At the same time these vampires seek to completely lock our assets down within the system they are moving their own money out of it. Perhaps this revelation will lead to the discovery of the stolen MF Global funds or the Madoff money. I would love to see Larry Summers’s name revealed, connected with secret accounts. Summers, Madoff, and John Corzine have acted against us in the war, treating us to POW-style financial torture. How should we counter-attack?
Most of this will be completely missed by the majority of Americans. There’s too much other stuff going on – the Final Four, the sham election, tattoos, etc. Our enemies plan on all of these distractions working. It’s time we withdraw from their system. While we’re at it we should offshore as many of these rats as we can find – send them anywhere but here.
Daphne Caruana Galizia was withdrawn – violently. It’s hard to miss a car bomb though I imagine most Americans will.
Obamacare plan premiums may increase an average of 45 percent in Florida next year due to health care insurers rate hike requests, according to Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation.
There are six insurers in Florida selling plans on and off the exchanges in 2018 including Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Celtic Insurance Company, Florida Health Care Plan, Health First Commercial Plans, Health Options, and Molina Healthcare of Florida.
Molina Healthcare requested the highest rate increase of 71.2 percent. Individuals with this coverage can expect their monthly premium to increase from $402 to $688.
….
“Consumers enrolled in a silver on-exchange plan that do not receive a premium subsidy will have the option of purchasing a similar off-exchange silver plan without this extra cost,” the office said. “Plans other than the on-exchange silver plans will increase an average of 18 percent.”
“In 2013, an unsubsidized plan comparable to an existing silver plan would cost a family of four an average of $7,200,” the report states. “In 2018, the average unsubsidized cost for the same family totals $17,000.”
Dave Granlund.
Thank God the GOP is on the case. Give them another eight years. Or 80. Never.
First, median incomes in 2016 set an all time record. Rather, they beat out (or caught up to) those from 1999. Hooray! We’ve only lost two decades of growth. And incomes, recall, are usually the last thing to catch up – before a new correction.
One of the first things to go up and one which goes up fastest … is new government debt. See: the Instantaneous manufacture of $317,645,000,000 worth of new debt in one day! It’s a miracle! Thanks to Congress and the Prez. for the temporary spending boost on the way to infinite and perpetual indebtedness.
For the latter story you can thank the government and their pet, the Federal Reserve. The Fed was one of three marvels foisted on the formerly free people in 1913.
Speaking of foisting – yesterday was the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I was a little busy and, therefore, this will likely be my only remembrance note this year. (Unlike last year – see Sept. 2016 archives).
Just in time for the anniversary, engineering expert Dr. Leroy Hulsey and his research team released a study of the collapse of WTC Tower 7. It’s kind of part one of the study anyway. He (they) have some questions about the official narrative.
You may recall that the ninth plane (from Toronto) hit WTC 7. The impact and resulting conflagration caused substantial weakening of the steel frame inside the tower (much like WTC 1 and 2), which caused a complete (and VERY neat and self-contained) collapse.
I completely made that last paragraph up. No plane hit No. 7. There was only a small, office-material-fueled fire (with temperatures insufficient to melt or weaken steel). And the fire almost burned out long before the collapse – maybe around the time the media was parroting that the tower had collapsed, even as it stood in the background of their live broadcasts.
Not many believe the “official” story about No. 7 or anything else that day, not even members of the Commission impaneled to investigate it. This study sheds a little light with more to come. See if you will.
Millions of people who buy individual health insurance policies and get no financial help from the Affordable Care Act are bracing for another year of double-digit premium increases, and their frustration is boiling over.
Some are expecting premiums for 2018 to rival a mortgage payment.
What they pay is tied to the price of coverage on the health insurance markets created by the Obama-era law, but these consumers get no protection from the law’s tax credits, which cushion against rising premiums. Instead they pay full freight and bear the brunt of market problems such as high costs and diminished competition.
On Capitol Hill, there’s a chance that upcoming bipartisan hearings by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., can produce legislation offering some relief. But it depends on Republicans and Democrats working together despite a seven-year health care battle that has left raw feelings on both sides.
The most exposed consumers tend to be middle-class people who don’t qualify for the law’s income-based subsidies. They include early retirees, skilled tradespeople, musicians, self-employed professionals, business owners, and people such as Sharon Thornton, whose small employer doesn’t provide health insurance.
Insurance premiums to rival mortgages. Thank God we have dedicated servants like Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan fighting hard for the banks and insurers us. They will surely fix this. And soon. Hold your breath.
