Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Part XV. The 2% solution?

 August 9, 2023

3%

That is what inflation has fallen to.

The target rate is nonsensically 2%, which still robs workers of their wages.  Given the recent inflation, a more sensical target would be at or about 0%, or better yet a slight deflationary rate of 1%.

That's the core inflationary rate, by the way. Real inflation is at about 4.1%.

The US is banning private equity investment in China and investment in some Chinese technology companies.

August 12, 2023

The EPA estimates that by 2055 most petroleum fueled vehicles will have attrited off the road.

August 16, 2023

From the Oil City News:
CASPER, Wyo. — Rocky Mountain Power, the state’s largest electric utility, is proposing to raise its energy rates by 29.2%.
August 24, 2023

Before more consolidation of everything is just what we needed:

Subway sandwich chain sells itself to Dunkin’ owner Roark Capital

August 27, 2023

France will spend €200 million to destroy excess wine in hopes of shoring up the struggling wine industry.  Wine consumption in Europe has been falling, while production increasing.

September 7, 2023

Chinese exports, upon which that nation depends, have decreased every month of 2023.  China's economy is dependent upon exports and there is serious discussion on the country going into a recession.

September 11, 2023

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez faced severe criticism from her constituents, after sharing a video on Instagram from the Kiwi left-wing Aotearoa Liberation League that accredited rising prices solely to corporations and described the discussion surrounding inflation as propaganda.

When I read the headline, I actually wondered if she'd reposted something of Robert Reich's. . . 

The bloom has really been off AoC's rose in recent months.

Trump has been heard at campaign dinners indicating that if re elected he will cut taxes, which are too low to start with, and use tariffs as a trade weapon.

September 15, 2023

The United Auto Workers are out on strike.


September 20, 2023

Ford Motors in Canada reached a deal with is union to avoid a strike there.

Republican infighting kept two budget bills from advancing there.

Cont:  

A drought in Spain has caused a 50% increase in the price of olive oil, which in turn is causing a spike in olive oil theft.

September 27, 2023

The Writers Guild of America has reached an accommodation with the entertainment industry and has ended its strike.

U.S. regulators and seventeen states have sued Amazon on Tuesday over allegations it uses its position in the economy to inflate prices.

The Senate has drafted a stopgap funding bill it will likely pass, but there's no certainty the dysfunctional House of Representatives will.

September 28, 2023

Kevin McCarthy, prisoner of GOP populists, will not take up the Senate bill to fund the government, making a shutdown impossible to avoid.

The House of Representatives is, quite frankly, dysfunctional.

And given this, we will close out this edition of Subsidiarity Economics, even though its barely gone, and start one focused on that theme.

But not before noting that the U.S. economy recently grew 2.1%.

October 1, 2023.

Crisis postponed. 

The following crisis that is:

Subsidiarity Economics. The Shutdown edition.

September 28, 2023


Kevin McCarthy, prisoner of GOP populists, will not take up the Senate bill to fund the government, making a shutdown impossible to avoid.

The House of Representatives is, quite frankly, dysfunctional.

And given this, we will close out this edition of Subsidiarity Economics, even though its barely gone, and start one focused on that theme.

Kevin McCarthy should hang his head in shame.

What all will close, assuming that the House doesn't get its act together today, isn't clear. Some things will, but "vital" things apparently will not.  Some Federal employees will be asked to work without pay, which is interesting, as working without pay is involuntary servitude, and was banned by a post Civil War constitutional amendment.

Congress, oddly, will get paid. 

The mail will continue to be delivered, as the U.S. Post Office funds itself.

Arizona and Utah have voted to spend state funds to keep their National Parks open.  Senator John Barrasso asked the Secretary of the Interior to use park entry fees to do the same.

Fat Bear Week is off due to the dysfunctional House of Representatives having been taken hostage by populists.

Government contracts and modifications to contracts will not be issued.

Medicaid will continue to be paid. Medicare will continue on.

The FHA will have limited staff and loans it processes will be delayed.

The SBA will shut down.

The ATF might not process background checks, which may lead to a complete halt on the sale of firearms by licensed firearm's dealers.

The latter is the thing that Wyomingites are likely to complain about right away.  People in industries supported by tourism are likely to notice the closure of the parks rapidly.

All of this, of course, is because this will be a managed shut down, which is really a limited shutdown or a slow-down.  If things continue for some time, and this time they might, a real shutdown may creep in, which Wyomingites, in spite of apparently disdaining the Federal Government, would really feel.  A closure of the airports, for example, could be expected at some point, And a cessation of petroleum production on Federal lands due to a lack of Federal oversight.  Perhaps a cessation of grazing on the Federal domain for the same reason.  And a lack of highway funds.

None of that will happen rapidly, of course.  Or maybe at all.

September 30, 2023.

We’re likely to avert a shutdown, but the clown show continues

Let the grousing now being.

Not from Reich, with whom I obviously have a love/hate relationship, but from the MAGA far right out in the hinterlands, who will be outraged, outraged I tell you, and they'll tell you on their way from the television to the refirgerator for a Coors Lite (can't touch that Bud, of course) who would, they'll say, have enjoyed the shutdown. . .right up until they didn't, and then somehow, it would have been the Democrats fault.Congress passed a 45-day stopgap spending bill yesterday.  In doing so, Speaker McCarthy noted:

We’re going to be adults in the room. And we’re going to keep government open.
Well now he has 45 days to see if he can do that.

The bill omitted funding for Ukraine.  President Biden noted that in his address regarding the stopgap bill.
Tonight, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate voted to keep the government open, preventing an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking Americans. This bill ensures that active-duty troops will continue to get paid, travelers will be spared airport delays, millions of women and children will continue to have access to vital nutrition assistance, and so much more. This is good news for the American people.
 
But I want to be clear: we should never have been in this position in the first place. Just a few months ago, Speaker McCarthy and I reached a budget agreement to avoid precisely this type of manufactured crisis. For weeks, extreme House Republicans tried to walk away from that deal by demanding drastic cuts that would have been devastating for millions of Americans. They failed.
 
While the Speaker and the overwhelming majority of Congress have been steadfast in their support for Ukraine, there is no new funding in this agreement to continue that support. We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted. I fully expect the Speaker will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment.

McCarthy had to rely on Democrats to pass the bill, and will now surely face an effort aimed at his removal by his hard right. 

October 4, 2023

Facebook's parent company Meta is laying off 11,000 employees.

October 5, 2023

75,000 Kaiser Permanente employees went on strike Wednesday. Staffing levels are an issue.

October 8, 2023

California has put into effect a law requiring  requires public and private US businesses with revenues greater than $1 billion operating in California to report their emissions comprehensively.

October 9, 2023

Workers for Mack Truck are going out on a UAW strike.

October 11, 2023

The UAW's strike has expanded to include a Ford plant in Kentucky.

October 15, 2023

The price of oil has jumped 6% since April.

October 24, 2023

Icelandic women are on strike for wage equality.

October 27, 2023

The economy grew by 4.9% last quarter.

October 28, 2023

Governor Gordon sounded climate alarm bells in a speech at Harvard this past week, noting that Wyoming needed to decarbonize. This caused the Wyoming Freedom Caucus to freak out.

October 31, 2023
Robert Reich.

November 2, 2023

Headline:

Union sets its sights on Tesla

November 5, 2023

Voters in Maine are voting on a referendum to replace the state's two electric companies with consumer-owned Pine Tree Power Company.

The proposal goes to the polls on Tuesday.  It states:
















November 9, 2023

The Air Force wants Congress to restrict the placement of wind farms near nuclear missle silos.

November 10, 2023

Moody’s Investors Service is revising the outlook on the U.S. government’s ratings to negative from stable but affirming the long-term issuer and senior unsecured rating at AAA.

Lest anyone doubt, this is bad for the economy and reflects a years long inability to get the deficit under control.

November 21, 2023

Ontario Knife Co. was sold to Blue Ridge Knives and all 56 employees at its Frankliville, New  York plant lost their jobs as a result.  Blue Ridge owns 800 brand names.

Last prior edition:


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