A regular reader who identifies himself as Joel wrote the following critique of the media’s negative narrative about the economy and crime. He was responding to the Robert Hubbell post about “the Media Doomsday Machine.”
So back in September the BLS [the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics] released the monthly Jobs number. A terribly disappointing 234,000 Jobs +- . It was disappointing because the same economic analysts who could not see a Housing Bubble bigger than the Stay Puff Marshmallow man had predicted 300,000 + . The fact that it was as high or higher than all but a handful of the previous 120 months never seemed to dawn on the talking heads. In October there were 677,000 Jobs added. And at the same time the number for October was adjusted 200,000 higher. It took the media all of 10 seconds to shift the narrative to “oh but inflation”
As stated by some CNBC talking head that day, inflation is an expectations game. If workers expect inflation they will ask for higher wages. If employers expect inflation they will charge more for goods and services. Inflation in September was all of 4.4 ,% high but not earth shaking. Then the (respectable) media ran stories of almost $6 dollar a gallon gas as if that was the norm. Of a Tex-ass couple who goes through 9 gallons of milk a week and was bankrupted by the cost (don’t ask about birth control). Of a Station owner in NJ who spends $1000s a week on gas for his 1970 muscle car and his 2000 Escalade.
Well the message was received, the expectation of inflation was created. Wages now contribute 8.5% of the inflationary spike. Raw materials and supply chain issues 27% of the inflation we see. And excess profits contribute 53% of the price hikes we are seeing. (EPI). It would seem the right people got the right message but it was not the American worker who in spite of all the hype does not have the power to demand wage increases on a broad based scale as they did in the past. In previous inflationary spikes inflation was driven 70% by wage increases . The media hype on inflation prior to the Ukraine war enabled corporations to profit vastly. The expectation was there. Corporate America hopped right on the band wagon. Don’t expect the corporate media to hop on board calling for an excess profits tax, or even to harp on those excess profits. Instead we will hear nonsense about low wage workers holding out for a living wage.
Was it a conscious conspiracy ? Probably not . Is it a combination of of group think and inferior reporting (IMHO) absolutely.
Moving on to Crime in NYC . In a nut shell if NYC was the safest big city in America in 2010 (according to Bloomberg) than how did it get unsafe in 2021 when every Crime Stat released by the NYPD is lower than 2010, when people felt the City was safe.
My favorite NYC crime category is rape. In 2021 there were 1491 reported rapes in NYC up from 1427 in 2020. Women be afraid be very afraid!!!. But wait there were 1755 in 2019 and 1791 rapes in 2018, when everyone thought the City was very safe.
The Right wing media generates a narrative and instead of countering it, the supposedly Liberal MSM run with the story. . Cowardly Democratic politicians who call themselves moderates hop right on board not wanting to seem like they are ignoring an issue.
If Trump was President every Republican would be calling inflation fake news and their Ivermectin downing base would be swallowing it hook line and sinker.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
When a mass school shooting happens, you get to see what kind of crime the right likes to minimize. “The left is using this tragedy to advance its political agenda.” Or “actually, when you look at the statistics, mass shootings have not been increasing.” Or “the left is sensationalizing a single horrible incident to scare voters.”
Minimizing every other other kind of crime is the province of the left. “It was worse in 1990.” “Crime has spiked nationally, so this isn’t a result of local policy.” And “the right is sensationalizing crime to scare voters.”
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I don’t think that’s a fair point, FLERP.
It is appropriate to compare, say, the murder rate over time.
It is appropriate to be outraged by any mass murder. Even one is too many, be it the murder of church people in Charleston, synagogue people in Pittsburgh, shoppers in Buffalo, children in Newtown or Uvalde. One is too many.
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It’s also appropriate to compare the number of mass murders over time. It is appropriate to be outraged by any murder. And one rape is too many.
I think it’s just a fact that a lot of people minimize crime depending on what kind of crime it is, and the reason they do it is because they feel they need to apply a counterweight to what they believe are sensationalized narratives play into the political agendas of their adversaries. And these people are not only on the right.
Meanwhile, while people argue about sensationalized right-wing narratives, cities like Philadelphia and Minneapolis (among others) are suffering from the highest levels of violent crime in their recorded history.
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The above post is a good example of “false equivalency”.
No other country in the world has the regular mass murder/school shootings that the US has. I don’t recall this being the case when I was growing up and the NRA wasn’t brainwashing folks into legalizing semi-automatic weapons being easily accessible to 18 year olds.
The murder rates in every city in America is directly tied to how easy it is to get guns in this country, as well as the economy.
The left does not “play down” the murder rate. They TELL THE TRUTH. They give perspective to THE TRUTH.
Apparently FLERP! believes that the perspective that the right wing gives on mass murder in schools is just as truthful as the perspective that Joel and others give about the crime rates.
Please do enlighten us as to what this evil left is saying about the high crimes in Minneapolis and Philadelphia and what the evil left is suggesting about a solution?
“Thoughts and prayers”? Some racist innuendo?
Calling your bluff on your false equivalency. The far right normalizers always use this kind of innuendo, but when you call them out to make them defend their false equivalency charges, they remain silent.
I don’t expect an answer because it is impossible to defend the false equivalencies when they are called out. But as Joel points out, the media doesn’t do this. But we can certainly call them out on this blog.
What does the left say about the high murder rates in Philly and Minneapolis? And please do make the direct comparison to the “thoughts and prayers” that the right says every time another 15 or 20 children get mass murdered.
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Right on schedule, 7 shot dead in Philadelphia in a 7-hour span, including a 10-year-old. Is this a right-wing narrative?
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More reasons to demand gun control. I’m not sure what your message is: school massacres are unimportant because they feed liberal outrage? Not so many die in school massacres as from daily gun violence? All these deaths prove the necessity of gun control.
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FLERP!,
Your suggestion that we are as unconcerned about the high crime in Philadelphia as the Republicans are about the mass murder of children in schools is appalling.
You didn’t answer my question. I called your bluff. What is it you think we are saying here? Stop with your nasty innuendo that we somehow condone this like the Republicans condone school shootings.
If you can cite a single instance of anyone here saying “thoughts and prayers for the Philadelphia victims, but that’s the price we have to pay for freedom”, please cite or QUIT LYING.
I would guess we are a lot more concerned for those Philly victims than you are, since you haven’t offered a single solution.
If that isn’t your point, then WTF are you saying? Stop your nasty innuendoes and just say it.
You think MORE GUNS in the hands of MORE PEOPLE in Philly is the answer?? We don’t and if you want to criticize us for that, then just do it instead of your nasty innuendo that we somehow “don’t care” because we don’t agree with the Republican SOLUTION.
Just like we don’t agree with the “thoughts and prayers”, more guns in the hands of “good guys” like 18 year olds solution to school shootings. That makes all of us consistent and you a hypocrite.
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I’m saying that there is a lot of carnage that is minimized (as Joel does in this featured post) by people who are not on the right. We should be outraged by all of it, without concern as to whether that outrage plays into a “narrative” we don’t like.
We can demand gun control, and we should demand gun control, and in fact we have been demanding gun control. But that’s not enough. What should be done tomorrow, and next week, and next month, while people continue to suffer or die from gun violence?
Why are some people outraged by certain kinds of gun violence, but then respond to other kinds of gun violence—the overwhelming majority of gun violence—by going to lengths to explain how it’s actually not that bad in the whole scheme of things?
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Diane, the message is false equivalency. But they never properly explain it, just use these kind of ugly innuendoes in which somehow we are as uncaring about the deaths in Philadelphia as the Republicans are about school shooting deaths.
It is a nasty lie, but these folks get away with it because they get to post and then never defend it. They do it over and over again because they are almost never called out.
(If I call out these false equivalencies here, FLERP! always starts to attack me personally instead of actually defending the false equivalency he just made. Which should tell you he knows it is indefensible.)
Do you think posting a link to a news story about shootings is a defense?? The Republicans post links to school shootings, too. The Republicans post links and say “thoughts and prayers” and “no gun control allowed”.
The Democrats post links to both and try to find real solutions.
It is outrageous and a blatant lie to make these false equivalencies and we should not allow these folks to do this without calling them out.
As Joel points out, if the media called out these blatant false equivalencies instead of legitimizing them, this country might find some solutions.
But no doubt FLERP! succeeded in getting some reader to believe “yes, those Dems on Diane Ravitch’s blog want to ignore gun violence in Philadelphia and are offering no solutions.
When it both cases, it is the Republicans who offer no solutions.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/30/democrats-progressives-leadership-texas-primary
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NYCPSP, I didn’t say that you’re unconcerned about gun violence in Minneapolis and Philadelphia, or in St. Louis or Baltimore, or in Detroit or NYC. I said many on the left minimize this violence in ways that are similar to how the right minimizes mass shootings. I gave examples of the kinds of arguments that people use to minimize the violence. Anyone who follows the discourse over crime and policing is familiar with those arguments. If you’re someone who makes those arguments, then I suppose I am talking about you. If aren’t, then I’m not talking about you. In any case, I’m not accusing anyone of being unconcerned about violence. One can be very concerned about something but still try to minimize it for political reasons.
Also, Diane has warned both of us many times about the two of us dominating threads with pointless back-and-forth, and she has asked me to ignore you. When you complain about how I’m not engaging with you, please understand that I’m trying to respect her wishes.
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We have never “minimized” any rising crime. TELLING THE TRUTH – as Joel does – is not minimizing it and again I don’t understand why Diane Ravbitch allows those slurs about Joel to stand when Joel simply posts the truth, which is nothing like what the Republicans do.
A REAL equivalency would be if Joel said “we need to do nothing about Philly except thoughts and prayers”. But he doesn’t. Joel asks for a truthful discussion. Joel wants solutions and is open to solutions.
But Joel is nothing like Republicans. False equivalency.
If you read FLERP!’s post carefully, you will notice that FLERP! forgot to mention what “solutions” to Philly’s violence the Republicans are offering that FLERP! thinks are so great. There are none.
The Democrats offer solutions to BOTH rising crime and school shootings and the Republicans offer nothing.
Like FLERP!, Republicans POLITICIZE rising crime without wanting to do anything about it.
Unlike Republicans, Democrats are outraged by school shooting and are trying to change the laws to help prevent them.
Just like Dems are working to curb violence in Philadelphia.
What are Republicans doing in response to Philly? What does FLERP! support? You will not get that here. I’m guessing it’s still “thoughts and prayers”
It’s just manufactured outrage. It is designed to push a false equivalency and NOT to help come to solutions.
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FLERP
My fellow metro NYC resident. Now I can not talk about crime Nationwide. NYC is very transparent they post weekly stats comparing to the last 2 years and I believe 2010 and 1993 , they also post the stats for 7 major felonies yearly going back to 2000.
So with the high profile murder on the NYC Subway last week did the NYC and National media that focuses so much on NYC report that murders are down 10% for the year in NYC .
Now the Left which I am proud to be a member of , would be terribly disingenuous comparing crime to the bad old days of the early 90s. Murders in NYC were lower in 2021 then they were in 2011 when Bloomberg was claiming historic success and calling “NYC the safest big city in America”
Most of the other Crime categories like Robbery and Burglary, you need not go back further than 2017 or 18 when deBlasio said the same.
Click to access seven-major-felony-offenses-2000-2021.pdf
That is not the story posted in the media. And it serves a narrative being driven by Police Unions and the Right in General . The Willie Horten card never fails to drive hysteria. Even if Reagan released far more felons under a similar program as Governor.
As for the increase in murder and some crime during the Pandemic in this City. I would ask how large was the underground (non criminal enterprise ) economy in this city prior to the pandemic. And what did they do to support themselves when it closed. On that AOC was a little confused , they did not steal bread .
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Joel, I’m not a “metro NYC resident.” I don’t like in the suburbs. I live in one of the highest crime precincts in Manhattan. In the past two years I’ve personally been assaulted twice on the streets in my neighborhood. My son has been assaulted twice on his way to school (he forgot to mention the second instance for several days because it’s not really that uncommon anymore). EMS comes daily to haul off overdose cases from the fetanyl sold by the a$$holes who sell the stuff in broad daylight. We have the entire block closed down once every other month because of stabbings that leave so much blood that you can’t even count the evidence markers on the ground. But by all means, I’d love to hear your views from the suburbs about how safe the city is.
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FLERP!,
Are you suggesting that the NYPD is like the Uvalde police and they are afraid of arresting drug dealers acting in the open because they might get hurt? They prefer to stop and frisk young teens instead?
The NYPD spends more money than any police force in this country. Are you suggesting the NYPD union makes them lazy?
We are spending billions on the NYPD and there is still crime?
What is your solution FLERP!? Do you blame the police? With 5 billion dollars they can’t stop your son from being assaulted?
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FLERP!
By the way I have two married Children living in the City a third that lived in not quite gentrifying Bushwick and countless friends . None of whom has been assaulted
All of these assaults must have moved to the West Side below 59th and above 23rd.
Assaults are up about 10% as compared to the previous five years. But far lower than the early 2000s .Midtown North, South or the 10th Precinct (covering all bases) is hardly a high crime area. Although per capita they may be, that is because of its relatively low population density and the high number of people and tourists who transit through them especially Midtown North. Where if offices were counted like cows in Nebraska , we would have twice the Congressional Representation. .
I spent a whole career1973 -2016 in some of NYC’s worst neighborhoods both days and nights . From East NY to the South Bronx and East Harlem in the 90s ,almost never felt threatened . I never had an incident worth filling out a police report. . But who am I to question your veracity.
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I have lived in NYC—not counting two years in DC—since 1960. I have never been assaulted, robbed, pickpocketed, or anything else. I have lived in very good neighborhoods—currently Brooklyn Heights. But remarkably, never approached by a criminal. I guess I’m lucky.
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And that’s how it’s done, ladies and gentlemen—minimizing the threat of violence. Anecdotes about how “I never felt threatened.” Data about the relatively low statistical probability of being the victim of violence. Suggesting that someone else’s life experiences with the issue are lies. Try that with mass school shootings—“nobody I know was ever in a mass school shooting” or “it is extraordinarily unlikely that anyone will be gunned down in a mass school shooting”—and watch the blog community here (well, the usual commenters at least) pile on. But do it with the kind of violence that’s much more common than school shootings, and you’re a regular trusted commenter who gets featured in posts.
I’ve exceeded what should be my allotment of comments on a single post, so I’ll make my exit now and leave y’all to talk about how awful I am in peace.
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Joel,
Did you see FLERP! offering any ideas for combating this increase in violence in NYC that is constantly subjecting his family to such dangers?
I did not. Not one idea.
It’s just a talking point appropos of nothing. AOC and the defund the police groups offer far more ideas for addressing this than our resident purveyor of right wing normalization.
The NYPD has a budget of over $5 billion. If they aren’t protecting our streets, maybe someone should start using that money to do the things that the defund the police suggest.
This is what I mean by calling these folks out. It’s just a talking point to change the narrative away from the things that hurt the far right.
The hypocrisy of someone who offers no solutions whatsoever attacking those on the left for not solving the crime problem yet. The hypocrisy of someone who offers no solutions whatsoever scapegoating the left and offering false equivalencies.
We offer solutions and the right offers “thoughts and prayers” and the propagandists make false equivalencies.
Anyone know FLERP!’s solution to the crime problem?
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FLERP
Merely pointing out that if the average NY City resident felt safe when Bloomberg was in office . The statistics say he should feel much safer today. You made it a point to say I live in the suburbs . I was merely pointing out that I worked in neighborhoods for most of a 42 year career that most NYC Residents and the NYPD considered to be very unsafe. Actually not very unsafe for a White person. The NYPD pays a bit more attention to White victims and the criminals don’t want the heat. Perhaps I was more than “Suggesting that someone else’s life experiences with the issue are lies” .
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Joel, I think there’s a bit of psychology involved, in that people perceive not only actual risk (as best they can approximate it), but also the directionality of risk and crime. In 2010, the city had been getting safer for the last 15 years, and people rightly perceived that it was continuing to get even safer. Today there is a sense of chaos on the streets (at least in certain neighborhoods—I’m sure Brooklyn Heights remains serene), a sense that things are getting worse. In 2010, people weren’t allowed to hang out and shoot up on the streets of my neighborhood. They do so now with impunity. In 2010, despite the fact that there are a lot of services for serious addicts in my neighborhood, there weren’t dealers openly selling hardcore drugs on the street—they would be arrested and charged with felonies. Today it’s a misdemeanor and the cops seem to rarely bother them. The addicts and the dealers are all armed, and many of the addicts are also suffering from serious mental illness, so you don’t want to get too close to them, as they can be very erratic. My son’s most recent assault happened as he walked by Macy’s at 7:45 am and got slugged in the back of the head. Although I don’t know why I mention it again, since you’ve already basically said you think I’m lying.
One good thing about where I live is that it doesn’t see too much gun violence. We get some—we had a fatal shooting a block away a few weeks ago—but it’s nowhere near the levels that some areas in the Bronx are seeing. The people in those neighborhoods are under siege. Please don’t minimize their problems by suggesting it’s no big deal, or that it was worse in the past, or that it’s a right-wing talking point.
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It’s a misdemeanor to openly sell hardcore drugs on the street in NYC?
I confess I had no idea.
I still don’t get why this is a Democratic problem. The police are Republicans and apparently, the experience of FLERP! is that the police are not doing their jobs at all and simply allowing violent people to walk around.
Sounds like there are more drug sales going on, which means there is a reason why more people are buying drugs. Which probably means that there is more mental illness and more despair. And less and less treatment for them.
Again, I recall one solution being defund the police and use that money instead for social services. Mayor de Blasio did a pilot program in one neighborhood and crime went way down. Not up.
What were those “very concerned” Republicans offering again? Thoughts and prayers?
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Alvin Bragg’s (Manhattan DA) policy is to not charge street-level dealers with more than a misdemeanor, regardless of what they’re slinging.
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Alvin Bragg’s worst act was to drop the case against Trump even though the career prosecutors had impaneled a grand jury to hear the evidence.
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dianeravitch
I agree. That was a stunning act of cowardice probably aimed at calling the(right wing ) dogs off his misguided directives to ignore gun possession in the commission of a crime.
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FLERP!
I have a nephew who is a high level DEA agent, the war on drugs is a failure . He would tell you it is past time to decriminalize it and take the profit out of it. Of course that is just an opinion and everybody has one. So Brag although off base on issues like Guns being an aggravating factor may not be so off base on low level dealers.
I have friends that live in the Bronx. They are upset about an increase in gun violence. None of them feel like they are under siege.
The Pandemic disrupted a lot more than supply chains. Unemployment in parts of NYC I believe reached 24% even after the lock downs ended . That is of those that are counted in the workforce.
So I will propose a theory. How big is the underground economy in this City . People working off the books in every field from Construction to retail and the local grocer. Is it conceivable to you that 10s of thousands were left without a Job or Government support. Many were in that position because of prior felony arrests for drug possession or dealing . When they were left without a means support they went back to dealing drugs or went from dealing part time to full time. This then as stated by an NYPD spokesman sparked ” a turf war ,an increase in gang related drug violence” That violence was always centered in the poorer communities of the City. But that violence in spite of an occasional tragic spill over to innocents in the line of fire, is concentrated among dealers and users.
My friends from the Bronx activist members of the Laborers Union were far more upset by being penned in and beaten severely at a peaceful demonstration in the Bronx during the George Floyd protests. The Demonstration highlighted in 3 reports on NYPD violence during the protests.
Which leads us back to the NYPD. Starting in May of last year murders
and shootings started falling dramatically in NYC as much of the City opened up and many people went to work in the service industries .
Murders and shooting flat in May,down in June ,July, August , Sept, Oct , and ever so slightly in November .
Then deBlasio issued a vaccine mandate for the NYPD .By some strange coincidence Gun arrests plummeted from Oct -Dec as murder rates rose in the last week of November – December turning what had been 60+- fewer murders June -November heading for a small year over year decrease to 20 more murders by the end of the year .Murders this year since January are down 9% as of this week .
Coincidence ?????? Did any in the media ask about why murders surged as a vaccine mandate went into effect for the NYPD. Did any in the media ask why Dec. was an outlier month in basically the last year. .
If you think its bad on the streets of Midtown try being a Stewardess or a School board member . It is not just street characters that have become more violent.
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Fetanyl (and heroin and meth) is already de facto decriminalized in Manhattan. Even under a decriminalization regime, dealing is still illegal and it should be. Same with using in public. Portugal is a good model. If you think we should legalize fentanyl, you don’t know much about fetanyl.
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To be clear, my 12:35 pm comment was a response to Diane.
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Diane, such posts really sould be edited for clarity, given a more clarifying introduction, and/or read less like rants than helpful analyses. What is the “BLS”? What does the “jobs number” indicate? “Stay Puff” (sic), “Tex-ass,” and the like just distract the reader from trying to decode the author’s intent. (I gave up.)
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I can help a little here:
BLS=Bureau of Labor Statistics
When Joel comes back online, he can explain the rest.
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Perhaps you should ask your local television station the meaning of the Jobs number. As for what the BLS is, if that Network/ Station is reporting the number of jobs employers in the Labor Dept survey claim to have created , would not responsible reporting inform the viewer of who and how it is compiled. Would not responsible reporting create the visual that showed exactly how this monthly number compares to other months. Instead we get a statement of how disappointed some unnamed economists were. Just for you here is the link . Count for yourself. Of course that would be difficult because that disappointing number in September no longer exists. It has been updated twice to 919k jobs. 919k jobs created ,makes it the best month of the120 months prior to the pandemic.
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0000000001?output_view=net_1mth
(not a difficult graphic to post ) .
As for the rant , not even close to the malfeasance committed by those who claim to be reporting the News.
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Joel, thank you for your posts.
Since I was in my 20s and started paying attention, I was amazed at how the so-called liberal media was obsessed every single day about the very serious and enormous problem of the budget deficit – only ONLY when a Democrat was president and Congress tried to pass legislation that would help all Americans.
As soon as the Republicans took over and wanted to cut taxes on the wealthy to the lowest rate in modern history, the media suffered complete amnesia about the budget deficit and it ceased to exist.
I started becoming a fan of Paul Krugman decades ago when he tried to call out how trickle down economics can fail and fail and fail and fail and the next time it is suggested by the Republicans, the NYT informs readers that the Republicans have this great new policy that has never been tried before and has an excellent chance of working. Krugman got ignored, of course, while the sycophants at the NYT who spend their time legitimizing right wing propaganda get amplified.
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It is amazing how we start talking about the budget deficit during a Democrat administration. The deficit typically balloons during REPUBLICAN administrations. Democrats are always left with the task of controlling it and do.
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NYC public school parent
Along with the deficit goes the narrative that the stimulus put too much money into workers hands causing inflation. Now that could be, but how much of that money was chasing limited goods when inflation actually spiked in November ,December January. Most low wage workers had that money spent in the Spring of 2021 before the checks hit the bank.
So on the you heard it here first Network, unless you follow Dean Baker on twitter . The CBO (the non partisan Congressional Budget Office ) Joined team transitory calling for inflation to moderate without a recession. My guess the “Liberal” Media never mentioned it.
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Excess profits are responsible for 52% of the inflation. The American people should realize that corporate America is literally picking our pockets. If the media were legitimate and honest, this would be a big story. Instead, they focus on inflation as a problem caused by the Biden administration. While gas prices in this country are at about $5.00 a gallon, most European countries are paying between $6.00 and $9.00 a gallon. Can they blame Biden for these high prices? These high prices are not the result of the Biden administration, they are the result of corporate greed. Robert Reich made the following comment about our high prices. He writes, “Billionaires have become $2 trillion richer during the pandemic, and CEO pay shot up by more than 17 percent last year — to a median $14.5 million.The CEO-to-worker pay gap is now 351-to-1. In 1965, the ratio was 21-to-1.” The rich keep getting richer, and everyone else struggles.
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What’s an excess profit?
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Windfall tax. War profiteering.
America had excess profits taxes during the wars — when companies were suddenly making profits that were significantly higher than the profits they had been making previously due to some emergency.
So did other western democracies.
The hypocrisy in our country is kind of amazing sometimes. What’s wrong with Martin Shkreli raising the price of a life-saving drug 5,000% anyway, right? That’s capitalism, right?
I guess it depends whether you own the Republican party or not. Shkreli didn’t realize how the game was played.
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Excess profits are profits far beyond the normal expectation of profit for a product or service, It is sometimes called price gouging.https://www.cbsnews.com/news/retail-price-gouging-lowes-amazon-target-accountable-us/
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Oxford University Press: “Profits which are above the level necessary to retain an entrepreneur in the current line of business. Opinions that profits are excessive are usually based on comparisons, either with the rate of return on capital obtainable in other industries with a comparable degree of risk, or with the past profits of the same company.”
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Thank you, LCT.
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Thanks, all.
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But what we really need is profits high enough to attract entrepreneurs into businesses where we want more goods or services to be supplied. This is the problem with outlawing price increases in the face of things like natural disasters. Requiring the price of gasoline to stay the same guarantees that there will be a shortage of fuel in an area and gives no one any reason to move fuel from where it is relatively more plentiful to places of great shortage.
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And that 52-53% share is a complete reversal of past inflationary spikes from the 60s-90s . When 70% of the increase in inflation could be tied to higher wages. Workers in spite of the hype do not have the power yet to drive inflation through wage increases. Unions are only 6% of the private sector workforce and breaking news not growing as a percentage. Wake me when those Starbucks or Amazon Workers get a contract. (Why they needed the PRO act).
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Unlike the 60s-90s in which inflation was tied to salaries and productivity, corporations now pump up the value of their stock by buying back their stock that is also connected to lavish CEO pay and bonuses. Lots of federal dollars that went to corporations during the pandemic were used for buybacks.
Some states like Florida hoarded their federal windfall instead of using the funds to mitigate Covid. DeSantis is crowing about Florida’s government surplus which he claims is from him being a good manager, but it is the unspent Covid dollars that are contributing to the rosy economic outlook.
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retired teacher
Totally agree
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Bad news attracts more attention and that leads to higher ratings that leads to higher AD rates and revenue.
The news media is in the private sector and profits rule. And from what I’ve read, the profit margins for the news media are rather slim and shaky so that probably means lead with the bad news and find ways to make the news sound worse than it is.
Most CEOs are also conservatives that graduated from an Ivy League college like Yale.
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Good stuff. Both Hubbell and Joel’s addendum response. Keep it comin’.
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Joel’s comments have always been elucidating and irrefutable.
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Rather…make a list of who does not lie! Most likely a very short list.
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You are on it. And that isn’t a lie. You defended Putin. Let’s hear if you can tell the truth: Just post “Putin massacred Ukraines for no good reason whatsoever except his own self-interest and ego.”
Of course, you can say you believe a lie so it isn’t a lie. But sorry, even if you claim you believe Putin is a truth-teller so you aren’t lying by saying Putin is a truth-teller, it is still a lie.
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This is how it seems to work: Wages rise and corporations of all kinds use this excuse to create massive windfall profits that enrich their coffers. Then they belly up to the Fed to claim that they cannot be allowed to fail because of their obligations to their employees who they happen to start laying off to make their shareholders happy. The Fed then begins quantitative easing as the corporations begin swapping their profits back and forth in the form of stock buy backs that bring in more wealth. Meanwhile the media continues the “Chicken Little” feedback loop to justify this inevitability.
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Pretty much.
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It sounds correct. It also sounds unsustainable. The wealthy, however, seem unable to look beyond the next quarterly or annual report.
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The “Citations Needed” talks about these kinds of narratives if you want continuous coverage of this issue. It should be available on all podcasting platforms. They use NSFW language, but if you can get past it, it’s very informative.
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I thought this was a great comment when I first read it. Still is. Robert Samuelson wrote a book more than 25 years ago, The Good Life and Its Discontents. We Americans are so enamored with ourselves that those of us who have it as good as any humans in history have ever had it still find reason to bitch and complain about petty details.
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