Photo above – screen cap from a Seinfeld episode 30 years ago. Take a look at those insanely low grocery prices. And they misspelled "plums".
(Full disclosure – this link at the bottom originally appeared in the WSJ, behind a paywall. It's now available through ABC, Mint, Axios, MSN and other sites due to the miracle of AI plagiarism)
Wow . . . if you're the Biden re-election team, you just GOTTA hate this. After having the president hijack last week's State of the Union address to become a campaign speech, Biden's major talking point keeps getting eviscerated, this time by his own agencies.
I'm referring of course to the claim that American has "the lowest inflation in the world”. About two seconds after the SOTU tv show as was over, pundits began posting links to global statistics, showing at least 10 nations where inflation is lower – much lower – than the USA. Now the US Department of Labor has chimed in: food prices here are the worst in 30 years.
The Labor Dept. bean counters softened the blow by pointing out that 30 years ago was during Bush administration. So perhaps there's still hope that Team Biden can spin this public relations disaster by claiming “Biden better than Bush, according to official data”. Stop laughing – you know this is probably going to happen.
There's a silver lining, however. We should rejoice that (in a free society) we have access to a variety of information sources, some of which are rejected by the party in power. If this was Russia, the Secretary of Labor would have fallen out of a hotel window or been locked away in a Siberian prison by now.
The Chinese government (and its paid US social media trolls) are of course reposting the Labor Department data mercilessly. It fits in with China's narrative that capitalism is dead, the US dollar is worthless, and “all your base are now belong to us”. And China is also warning of big repercussions if the US takes action against the propaganda app Tik-Tok. Premier for life Xi Jinping says America should embrace Tik Tok, even when it hosts 10,000 instructional videos on how to steal your neighbor's Hyundai, or die by overdosing on cinnamon. This is the same China which bans Google, and sends their citizens to a re-education camp in Chinese Siberia for visiting certain western news sites.
Earth to Biden – admit that we have a tough fight ahead on inflation, and everybody's help is needed. There would be more dignity in your position, and people would appreciate your candor. And stop inviting Xi to lavish banquets in the USA. He's not your friend, you know.
I'm just sayin' . . .
by baltimore-aureole
1 comment
[Corporate profits](https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/corporate-profits)
Price hiking, shrinkflation, planned obsolescence, and life by subscription are wearing away at our future. Our tax system should encourage labor compensation over stock buyback and sitting on massive amounts of capital.
Until money can no longer make more money than labor, we aren’t going to fix this. Capitalism is the least worst economic option humankind has devised, and it does need some attention.
This is an election year, take corporately owned media and social media with a grain of salt. Look at your budget, how the world is ACTUALLY affecting you, disregard being told how to think and how to feel.