Wizard...

 

In just four months, the Biden economic wizards have made several major economic mistakes, some of which were contained in the American Rescue Plan (ARP). 

First, there's that pesky $300 per week supplemental unemployment insurance that is most definitely making it harder for small businesses to hire back staff and limiting job growth. 

The White House's $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that passed in March was too big and too inflationary; talk of trillions more on the way alarmed the public even as prices on everything from soft drinks to diapers began to rise.  

Growth during the first quarter, when the bill was crafted, approached 6.5 percent; after-tax personal income rose 13 percent. Spending was primed to soar; last year consumer net worth rose 10 percent, to $130 trillion, thanks to rising stock and home prices, and Americans held an estimated $2 trillion of excess savings.

Though there were still millions of people unemployed, it was clear that thanks to vaccines, businesses reopening and past giant stimulus bills, the economy would boom, and job creation would follow. 

Dropping $1.9 trillion of extra stimulus into the mix was excessive and has contributed to surging inflation.

The third major economic goof of Biden's first four months in office - also related to the ARP - was highlighted recently in Krugman's own paper with the headline: "New Worry Over State Revenues: They're Soaring."

Backward...

 

The year before Covid-19 hit, the United States became a net exporter of energy for the first time since 1952, sending a strong message to the rest of the world: The country would not be beholden to foreign oil producers.

But with the Biden's administration restrictions on drilling on federal land, and cancelling the keystone pipeline, the oil production in USA decreased. 

Then we're going back to the Middle East for our strategic needs of oil, interference and ultimately wars and conflict.

The demand for crude surged as the impact of the pandemic fades.
Demand for oil could peak soon if countries meet their net-zero emissions targets, but OPEC producers and Russia are quick to note it's not going away entirely. 

Under climate pledges made through early October, the world is still expected to need 75 million barrels of oil per day by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency.

Logic...

 

The new SARS-2 variant, known as Omicron, may more easily sidestep some of the immunity of some vaccinated and previously infected people. But there’s good reason to think people who already have some immune protections may avoid the worst of what Covid infections can do to immunologically naïve people.

“Dealing with naïve people is never the same as if you have some memory. It’s never like [being back at] square one,” Ali Ellebedy, an associate professor of pathology and immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, told STAT. “The virus is going to not find it as easy compared to the situation in January 2020 or December 2019. It’s just completely different now.”

The new variant may well erode some of the protection induced by vaccines, or by prior Covid infection. If Omicron takes off, there may be larger numbers of breakthrough infections among the vaccinated and more reinfections among the previously infected. But a smaller portion of those infections may develop into cases of serious or severe disease.

No one know the details of this variant, but everyone is acting as a politician on self-interest. Just a thought.

Mea Culpa

 

Inflation has begun to consistently exceed central bank targets, prompting increased speculation that central banks could be forced to tighten monetary policy earlier than expected. Investors have been trying to ascertain where and how the Fed might look to tackle inflation if it concedes that rising prices are stickier than expected.

 Powell's comments amounted to a "Mea culpa," or an admission that he was wrong, and that the potential effect it could have on Fed policy and the value of assets might be underappreciated.

"In effect, the reality is no asset will benefit from the cost of capital rising, and you can kind of see the same thing going on in certain U.S. equities." 

"Most equities have been punished the last couple of days, and we can talk about the Omicron [Covid variant], but it's people somewhat fearful of the Fed's pivot to being wrong."

Inflation is a vicious beast, if you ignore it or attempt to control it.    Just a thought.

Numbers...

 

Why did the Governor office faked the numbers of Nursing Homes death?

The Federal Gov. could have helped these poor older people as they did help the State before with ventilators, the Javits Center, and the Hospital ships which would have accepted 5000 patients.

Still waiting for DOH investigation for the death of thousands of these elderly people.   Just a thought

The Bro...

 

Chris Cuomo was hit with a new allegation of sexual harassment days before CNN announced it was firing him"

Chris Cuomo told viewers he had “always cared very deeply about these issues. (sexual Harassment)"

“Hearing the hypocrisy and disgusted by his efforts to try to discredit these women, my client retained counsel to report his serious sexual misconduct against her to CNN.”

The new misconduct allegation comes after a veteran TV executive, Shelley Ross, wrote a column for the New York Times in September saying Chris Cuomo groped her at a party 16 years ago, when they both worked for ABC News.

What's up with the Bros?

Benefited...

 

Congressional Democrats have argued that one of the best ways to pay for the legislation is to raise taxes on wealthy households, which, according to many on the left, have benefited disproportionately and unfairly from the 2017 tax reform law passed by Republicans and signed by former President Trump. The latest data, however, proves that this claim is pure mythology.

Income data published by the IRS clearly show that on average all income brackets benefited substantially from the Republicans' tax reform law, with the biggest beneficiaries being working and middle-income filers, not the top 1 percent, as so many Democrats have argued.

careful analysis of the IRS tax data, one that includes the effects of tax credits and other reforms to the tax code, shows that filers with an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $15,000 to $50,000 enjoyed an average tax cut of 16 percent to 26 percent in 2018, the first year Republicans' Tax Cuts and Jobs Act went into effect and the most recent year for which data is available.

Filers who earned $50,000 to $100,000 received a tax break of about 15 percent to 17 percent, and those earning $100,000 to $500,000 in adjusted gross income saw their personal income taxes cut by around 11 percent to 13 percent.

Leave ..

 

Two more aides working in Vice President Harris's office are expected to leave their roles in the coming weeks in addition to the two high-profile exits of her press secretary and communications director, a source familiar with the departures confirmed to The Hill.

Peter Velz, who is the vice president's director of press operations, and Vince Evans, the deputy director of the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs for Harris, are planning to leave those positions soon, the source confirmed.

Harris' office declined to comment. The Washington Post first reported on their impending exits. 

The departure of Velz and Evans, who are expected to take new jobs in or close to the Biden administration, comes on the heels of news that Symone Sanders, Harris's press secretary, will leave the administration. Officials suggested Sanders had long planned to leave at the end of 2021.

Sound...

 

New York City mayoral candidate Eric Adams said that Democrats need to start on focusing federal level legislation regarding handguns instead of “assault rifles”, citing that more fatal shootings are committed with handguns as opposed to “assault rifles”.

But the sound bites to some Democrats are better this way.  Just a thought.

Decided...

 

The Justice Department has decided not to open a civil rights investigation into government-run nursing homes in New York over their COVID-19 response, according to a letter sent Friday to several Republican members of Congress.

Under former President Donald Trump’s administration, the department’s civil rights division requested data last August from four states New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan about the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths in public nursing homes.

The request came amid still-unanswered questions about whether some states, especially New York, inadvertently worsened the pandemic death toll by requiring nursing homes to accept residents previously hospitalized for COVID-19.

Thousands died unnecessary, and the Democrats are looking the other way. Just a thought.