REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

I'm surprised there's not an inflation thread yet

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Saturday, October 26, 2024 12:47
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PAGE 13 of 17

Friday, May 19, 2023 8:09 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Maybe I should send that PI to your address and find out all the fucked up things you've done to your own body and to everyone else around you, so we can stop pretending that you've lived this perfect life you've made for your fake persona here.

This is a test of how crazy and, simultaneously, physically unhealthy 6ixStringJack is:

6ix, what is your learned reaction to "Death, Napoleon and Debt"?

Death, Napoleon and Debt
May 19, 2023, 3:00 p.m. ET

By Paul Krugman, Opinion Columnist



Haven't you wasted enough of your life reading opinions from this idiot? He's never been right about anything.

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Monday, May 29, 2023 6:27 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Haven't you wasted enough of your life reading opinions from this idiot? He's never been right about anything.

Is this right in your opinion? Something we should all be reminded of from time to time.
A large percentage of the population is seething with resentment because of this.

Profit vs. Personal Income in the United States, 1980-2022


https://jabberwocking.com/raw-data-profit-vs-personal-income-in-the-un
ited-states-1980-2022
/

Just in case it is not obvious, profits cannot keep increasing faster than personal income unless sellers keep inflating their prices.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, May 29, 2023 9:19 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Kevin Drum is an idiot too.

You hate fat people, so why don't you hate Kevin Drum? I showed you the selfie he took while he was on his shitter and thought his meat puppets wanted to see.


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Monday, May 29, 2023 4:00 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Kevin Drum is an idiot too.

You hate fat people, so why don't you hate Kevin Drum? I showed you the selfie he took while he was on his shitter and thought his meat puppets wanted to see.

I tried to reproduce his graphs using his sources, but my graphs do NOT show that Corporate profits grow faster than personal income. Something is wrong, but I don't see what it is, other than I start with 100 on 1/1/1980 and Drum starts with 0.0.

Corporate Profits After Tax (without IVA and CCAdj)/Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items Less Food and Energy in U.S. City Average
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=15D4p


Personal Income/Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items Less Food and Energy in U.S. City Average
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=15D4t


Profit vs. Income
Adjusted for inflation
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=15D4Z



The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, May 29, 2023 4:52 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


If the graph is changed from Personal Income to Mean Personal Income, it looks more like Drum’s graph. Personal Income is everybody’s and it totals $trillions. Mean Personal Income is the income of one person and it totals $thousands.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=15D8t



The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, May 30, 2023 6:34 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


From the Federal Reserve Blog

Corporate profits versus labor income
Risk and reward versus slow and steady
Posted on August 9, 2018
1947 to 2018 graph:
https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2018/08/corporate-profits-versus-labor
-income
/

Same graph but only 1980 to 2023, the same span used by Kevin Drum. I don’t see Profits getting too out of line with labor income until after 2009. Drum sees profits getting out of line starting in the 1990s.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=15DJT


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, May 31, 2023 1:11 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Reckless spending and inflation are forcing many Americans to 'unretire

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2023/05/28/inflation-gov
ernment-spending-are-pulling-boomers-out-of-retirement/70254240007
/

When your mom asks why she has to go back to work, tell her it was because you voted for Joe Biden*.

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Wednesday, May 31, 2023 7:35 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

When your mom asks why she has to go back to work, tell her it was because you voted for Joe Biden*.

Tell her she and all others like her are chicken-hearted for not burning down the houses of the greedy sellers who are cheating them. If they expect the government to burn down those houses for them, their expectations will not be met.

Greedflation:

PepsiCo has become a prime example of how large corporations have countered increased costs, and then some.

Hugh Johnston, the company’s chief financial officer, said in February that PepsiCo had raised its prices by enough to buffer further cost pressures in 2023. At the end of April, the company reported that it had raised the average price across its snacks and beverages by 16 percent in the first three months of the year. That added to a similar price increase in the fourth quarter of 2022 and increased its profit margin.

It's become common among large corporations to raise prices far in excess of inflation simply because they can. But why can they?

David Beckworth, a senior research fellow at the right-leaning Mercatus Center at George Mason University and a former economist for the Treasury Department, said he was skeptical that the rapid pace of price increases was “profit-led.”...Mr. Beckworth and others contend that those higher prices wouldn’t have been possible if people weren’t willing or able to spend more.

....“It seems to me that many telling the profit story forget that households have to actually spend money for the story to hold,” Mr. Beckworth said. “And once you look at the huge surge in spending, it becomes inescapable to me where the causality lies.”

It's one thing to wantonly raise prices above the level of inflation in search of windfall profits, but you can only do it if consumers don't push back — and if they don't push back then you might as well charge all that the market can bear.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230531003549/https://www.nytimes.com/202
3/05/30/business/economy/inflation-companies-profits-higher-prices.html


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, May 31, 2023 10:27 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Funny how nobody was doing that while Trump was President.

They all figure it out when Joe* and the Democrats were running things.

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Wednesday, May 31, 2023 2:26 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Funny how nobody was doing that while Trump was President.

They all figure it out when Joe* and the Democrats were running things.

There was inflation under Trump and it was in all countries. Biden didn't make it happen and he can only stop it by declaring and winning a war on the people who sell at inflated prices. By the way, he'd lose that war, just as it has been lost in every country.

inflation by country
https://www.google.com/search?q=inflation+by+country

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, May 31, 2023 4:28 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


LOL

You're dumb as dirt.

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Thursday, June 8, 2023 7:37 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


For Proof That Corporate Greed Is Driving the Inflation Crisis, Look to the Car Industry

By Branko Marcetic

The supply chain disruptions caused by pandemic lockdowns have been a leading cause of the economic chaos of recent years, feeding the rage of consumers paying sky-high prices for suddenly scarcer goods. But they’ve also been a bonanza for the firms making those goods, who have outright admitted to using the headlines about inflation to tack on added price markups to their products, whether it’s eggs, airplane tickets, or electricity.

Maybe no product has embodied today’s inflationary pressures quite like cars have, as shortages of parts coupled with continuing strong demand for vehicles has sent their prices soaring. While we’ve been told that firms are simply passing along higher production costs to consumers, car dealers have also been making record profits, with Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond president Tom Barkin telling the New York Times that carmakers and dealers had “discovered that a low-volume, higher-price model was actually a very profitable model.” A Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) study from this past April determined that dealer markups contributed majorly to inflation in the price of new cars.

This is backed up by the words of the executives of the country’s largest dealerships themselves, who on earnings calls have explicitly talked about selling cars at inflated prices and making a tidy profit. It points to the need for robust government action to provide relief for consumers against such private sector greed.

“We Actually Would Have Made Less Money”

Take CarMax, the largest used car dealer in the United States. On an earnings call this past April, CEO Bill Nash explained how the firm’s “extensive price elasticity tests,” which look at what happens to the level of demand when prices are raised or lowered, convinced the company it could safely get away with the very low-volume, higher-price model Barkin spoke about. The company had “determined that we could have sold a few more cars, but we actually would have made less money,” Nash explained.

On an earlier earnings call from December 2022, Nash responded to questions about other competitors lowering their prices to move cars off their lots and how that would impact CarMax’s strategy. Nash again cited the firm’s determination that they would have made less money, concluding that “what I’ve always said is . . . what we’re going after is profitable long-term market share gains.” He mentioned that the firm had price-tested both up and down, which “gives us confidence that we made the right decision from a profitability standpoint.”

“In a lot of cases,” Nash said about his competitors’ strategy to sell more units by dropping prices, “it’s not sustainable over the long term because you’re just not making the money that you need to.”

It’s a similar case with Lithia Motors, as of last year the largest dealership group in the country. Asked in a February 2022 earnings call if he was “seeing any hesitation at all among consumers to the elevated prices,” executive vice president Chris Holzshu replied, “Absolutely not.”

“Demand is very high right now, and we’re taking advantage as much as possible in both new and used in that capacity,” he said.

Asked if the firm was selling above the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP), the cost that carmarkers like Ford or Nissan recommend dealers should sell a vehicle for, CEO Bryan DeBoer answered, “We do have some stores that are charging over MSRP.”

“We allow our network to make the decisions closest to what their customer base is and what the supply and demand is in that local market,” he added.

AutoNation chief financial officer Joe Lower likewise told investors in February 2023 that “more than half of our vehicles were sold at or above MSRP” in the previous year’s fourth quarter, which had “trended down, but it’s still far higher than historical levels.” The quarter before that, CEO Mike Manley noted that revenue was up 4 percent to $6.7 billion, “driven by higher average selling prices of new and used vehicles” and which had “more than offset lower sales of” both.

Two quarters earlier, when asked if inflation becoming a longer-term problem would entice the company to sell more inexpensive brands at lower prices, or if it would stick with “the premium side because those customers perhaps aren’t as bothered by inflation,” Manley replied, “It doesn’t really change my view on the balance that we have in our portfolio” and simply “reinforces we have a good balance.”

In the company’s most recent earnings call, Manley explained that the supply of late-model used cars had dropped, as had their turnover, since consumers were holding on longer to their cars. To offset this, “We focused on enhancing economics through effective staff-sourcing, reconditioning, speed to market, and of course, pricing,” he explained. Later, Lower explained that the firm wanted to “make sure that we maximize the inventory that we had” in terms of used cars, and that “with that, it means that we were even more diligent, I think, in terms of pricing.” According to AutoNation’s filing for that quarter, gross profit from used cars was $154 million for the first three months of 2023, up $18 million from the same period last year.

Coming straight from the mouth of executives of some of the country’s largest dealership firms, this would appear to corroborate the BLS study and confirm the suspicions of those looking at dealers’ record profits and sensing something is off.

Deal of the Century

As Bill Nash’s remarks about CarMax’s competitors deciding to lower their prices shows, these firms aren’t necessarily representative of the entire industry. But it’s hard to argue in light of all this that the inflated car prices consumers have been dealing with the past few years are simply because dealers are passing on their own higher costs.

Instead, executives at some of the country’s largest dealerships have been openly telling investors that they’re calibrating prices to what will net them the most profit, often by taking advantage of strong consumer demand to charge prices that are higher than they need to be — and explicitly rejecting an approach of selling more cars at lower prices because it’s less profitable.

What was once labeled a “conspiracy theory” — that much of the inflation we’re seeing is driven by corporate greed to feed record profits — is now more and more being widely acknowledged as reality. But unfortunately, those in power are still yet to do much about it, whether instituting price controls to prevent corporate price gouging or passing a windfall tax to claw back the inflated profits that result. And it’s the ordinary American worker who’s being stuck with the bill.

https://jacobin.com/2023/06/inflation-prices-profits-car-dealerships-c
ontrols



The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, June 27, 2023 10:36 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
What was once labeled a “conspiracy theory” — that much of the inflation we’re seeing is driven by corporate greed to feed record profits — is now more and more being widely acknowledged as reality. But unfortunately, those in power are still yet to do much about it, whether instituting price controls to prevent corporate price gouging or passing a windfall tax to claw back the inflated profits that result. And it’s the ordinary American worker who’s being stuck with the bill.





This you?

http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=61343&mid=11759
71#1175971


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Seems like our own deep state is doing a better job of upending democracy, AND they get to blame Russia for it!

It doesn't seem like that, at all. It seems like you are a highly motivated promoter of conspiracy theories.

Research reveals what kind of people fall for conspiracy theories

People can be prone to believe in conspiracy theories due to a combination of personality traits and motivations.

People who believe in conspiracy theories tend to be insecure and paranoid, suggests a new study.

Conspiracy theorists are also likely to be emotionally volatile and impulsive, according to the findings.

But they're not all mentally unstable, say psychologists.

They found that people can be prone to believe in conspiracy theories due to a combination of personality traits and motivations.

These include relying strongly on their intuition, feeling a sense of antagonism and superiority toward others, and perceiving threats in their environment.

The results of the study, published online in the journal Psychological Bulletin, paint a "nuanced" picture of what drives conspiracy theorists, according to lead author Shauna Bowes.

“Conspiracy theorists are not all likely to be simple-minded, mentally unwell folks – a portrait which is routinely painted in popular culture,” said Bowes, a doctoral student in clinical psychology at Emory University.

“Instead, many turn to conspiracy theories to fulfill deprived motivational needs and make sense of distress and impairment.”

She said previous research on what drives conspiracy theorists had mainly looked separately at personality and motivation.

The new study aimed to examine those factors together to arrive at a more unified account of why people believe in conspiracy theories.

The research team analyzed data from 170 studies involving more than 158,000 participants, mainly in the UK, USA and Poland.

They focused on studies that measured participants’ motivations or personality traits associated with conspiratorial thinking.

The team found that, overall, people were motivated to believe in conspiracy theories by a need to understand and feel safe in their environment and a need to feel like the community they identify with is superior to others.

More at https://talker.news/2023/06/26/research-reveals-what-kind-of-people-fa
ll-for-conspiracy-theories
/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly



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Wednesday, June 28, 2023 9:50 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Is the US getting too expensive to live in? Many Americans worry about economy, inflation

https://news.yahoo.com/us-getting-too-expensive-live-095212724.html


Quote:

As Americans look ahead to another Independence Day and a likely contentious 2024 presidential election, many are feeling fiscal pain as the prices of food, shelter, healthcare and transportation climb higher than their paychecks. About 52% of Americans participating in a USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll said the United States is too expensive to live in. And about seven in 10 Americans said stifling inflation and the economy are the nation's top problems today, according to a new Pew Center survey. A majority across age, gender and race told Pew inflation is "a very big problem."

"Their spending power has been minimized," said Gene Ludwig, former head Comptroller of the Currency, a U.S. Treasury Department bureau.

America's economic state is uncertain

What's America’s economic state? Frustrating and uncertain. The typical American household spends about $768 more on monthly purchasing goods and services these days compared to 2020 because of high inflation, Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, said.

Meanwhile, as the United States skirts a recession, Zandi said some Americans seeking relief are also dipping into their savings for survival. Around 25 million Americans are behind on their credit card, auto loan or personal loan payments, according to a recent Moody’s/Equifax data analysis. Also, the delinquency rate for bank credit cards was 3.27% in May, nearly two points higher than in 2021, Zandi said.




Nobody gives a shit about Ukraine.

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Wednesday, June 28, 2023 2:56 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Inflation around the world
Author Kevin Drum
Published on June 28, 2023 – 11:05 am

When you look at some sort of domestic trend or other, it's often helpful to look also at the rest of the world. This was one of the things that tipped me off about the connection between lead and crime, for example. Everyone knew that crime in the US had dropped during the '90s, and this had prompted a rash of theories to explain it: drugs, policing, abortion, broken windows, a growing economy, etc. But it turned out that crime was also down in Canada. And Germany. And Britain. And Australia. And all over the rest of the world. Clearly something had to be going on that wasn't unique to the US.

Today, the CEA does a similar exercise for inflation in the G7 large economies (mostly Europe). Here it is:


This got me curious about smaller, less central economies. So I grabbed a few inflation rates from other continents:


Obviously there are differences, but not big ones. What this means is that inflation in the US almost certainly has little to do with domestic policies like the stimulus bill or easy money from the Fed. Inflation is a global phenomena, hitting everyone at roughly the same time and then declining at roughly the same time.

In other words, it's COVID. It's supply chains. It's shortages. It's oil prices.

There can still be idiosyncratic explanations for parts of the picture. In the US, eviction moratoriums at the start of the pandemic pushed up rental prices. Stimulus spending was higher than in many places and probably added a point or two to the inflation rate temporarily.

But these are small things. In a nutshell, it's COVID. It's supply chains. It's shortages. It's oil prices. Those things are all going away naturally, and inflation will shortly go away along with them.

https://jabberwocking.com/inflation-around-the-world/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, June 28, 2023 4:44 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


LOL

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Wednesday, June 28, 2023 5:02 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
LOL

I'm not surprised you reacted the same as angry poor white trash would in East Texas. Here is more for you to react like a poor ignoramus who knew everything he'd ever learn about money before he was 15 years old:

Gross Domestic Product: Implicit Price Deflator
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=16AlB


Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=16AlQ



The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Saturday, July 8, 2023 11:27 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
LOL

I'm not surprised you reacted the same as angry poor white trash would in East Texas. Here is more for you to react like a poor ignoramus who knew everything he'd ever learn about money before he was 15 years old:



How was work this week, honey?

Not poor. Haven't worked for over 4 years now and not even close to poor.



You don't know shit about money or the economy, dummy.

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Saturday, July 8, 2023 4:47 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


Price of stamps 66 cents.

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Monday, July 10, 2023 8:33 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Inflation around the world
Author Kevin Drum
Published on June 28, 2023 – 11:05 am

When you look at some sort of domestic trend or other, it's often helpful to look also at the rest of the world. This was one of the things that tipped me off about the connection between lead and crime, for example. Everyone knew that crime in the US had dropped during the '90s, and this had prompted a rash of theories to explain it: drugs, policing, abortion, broken windows, a growing economy, etc. But it turned out that crime was also down in Canada. And Germany. And Britain. And Australia. And all over the rest of the world. Clearly something had to be going on that wasn't unique to the US.

Today, the CEA does a similar exercise for inflation in the G7 large economies (mostly Europe). Here it is:


Quote:


This got me curious about smaller, less central economies. So I grabbed a few inflation rates from other continents:
Only Japan is actually shown with negative inflation, which is what is needed for correction.
Obviously there are differences, but not big ones. What this means is that inflation in the US almost certainly has little to do with domestic policies like the stimulus bill or easy money from the Fed. Inflation is a global phenomena, hitting everyone at roughly the same time and then declining at roughly the same time.

In other words, it's COVID. It's supply chains. It's shortages. It's oil prices.

There can still be idiosyncratic explanations for parts of the picture. In the US, eviction moratoriums at the start of the pandemic pushed up rental prices. Stimulus spending was higher than in many places and probably added a point or two to the inflation rate temporarily.

But these are small things. In a nutshell, it's COVID. It's supply chains. It's shortages. It's oil prices. Those things are all going away naturally, and inflation will shortly go away along with them.

https://jabberwocking.com/inflation-around-the-world/

This helps show that both sloppyseconds and that idiot Drum both don't know how to read a graph.
Also, where is China?
The graph shows that, as the world's most powerful and influential Economic power, the rest of the world follows the disasters that Libtard voters in America elect. Other, smaller economies lag behind, and suffer from, America's Economy. Note that Canada is the closest follower.
the info states it is year-over year inflation. The US has the lowest first because it was the first to peak exorbitant Bidenflation, so now comparatively it is lower than the excessive high a year ago. The other nations have not followed the graph as low - yet - because they peaked later, after USA inflicted Bidenflation upon the world.

Other nations tried to get off the nutso roller coaster as it was climbing early on, but Bidenflation was just too powerful.

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Thursday, July 13, 2023 7:08 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


Quote:

Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Price of stamps 66 cents.

I just hear that China is counterfeiting U.S. Postage stamps, sold online. They even have claims that they are undetectable as counterfeits.

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Tuesday, July 18, 2023 4:18 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Last month, the White House Council of Economic Advisers released a note comparing inflation rates among the Group of 7 — the major advanced economies. https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2023/06/27/apples-to-
apfel-recent-inflation-trends-in-the-g7
/

This is trickier than it might seem, because different countries measure consumer prices in different ways. In particular, the U.S. Consumer Price Index treats housing differently from the corresponding official measures of European nations, in ways that have caused U.S. inflation to seem more persistent than in some sense it really is. When the C.E.A. produced comparable numbers, they looked like this:



America is now a clear outlier, with inflation falling well below rates in other major economies. And this chart doesn’t include the most recent consumer price report, which showed a further decline in inflation and has probably widened the gap.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, July 19, 2023 1:58 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Last month, the White House Council of Economic Advisers



lied again. Like they always do.

*yawn*

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Friday, August 11, 2023 4:34 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


CNN: US inflation means families are spending $709 more per month than two years ago

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/11/economy/inflation-rate-spending/index.ht
ml


That's $8,508 more per year, for Democrats who don't now how Math works.

This is Bidenomics.



Biden agenda is forcing Democrats from his party; Manchin could be next

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/manchin-could-be-next-long
-line-big-names-who-left-democratic-party-under-biden




Joe Biden* is just fucking terrible.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Saturday, August 12, 2023 3:35 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Inflation's up... credit card debt tops $1 TRILLION ... and Americans drain 401(K)s to make ends meet... Yet Joe dares demand our thanks for 'Bidenomics'? His fiscal insanity plunged us into this crisis

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12393665/ANDY-PUZDER-Inflatio
n-credit-card-debt-401K-Bidenomics.html





Why are Black rappers aligning themselves with the right?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/10/black-rappers-al
igning-right-conservative-ice-cube




This article is hilarious, and this dumb woke bitch Tayo ain't going to change any of their minds writing shit like this for rich white self-hating Democrats.

You're losing the black community, Democrats.

And you deserve it. Racists.

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Monday, October 2, 2023 8:52 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Gasoline Prices Adjusted For Inflation (1930 to 2023)



https://jabberwocking.com/raw-data-gasoline-during-my-lifetime/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Saturday, October 14, 2023 10:24 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Bidenflation Climbs To 17.0%, Hurting Americans

https://tippinsights.com/bidenflation-climbs-to-17-0-hurting-americans/

Quote:


- Bidenflation has reached 17.0%, indicating significant inflation under President Biden's policies

- Most Americans are concerned about inflation and a majority feel their wages have not kept up with rising prices

- Real wages have generally declined during President Biden's term, with a return to negative territory in September

- The U.S. economy is facing stagflation, marked by stagnant growth and high inflation



We're still lying and not calling this a recession even though we've been in one for a few years now, but at least we don't have leftist MORONS like Paul Krugman claiming that inflation is transitory anymore.

--------------------------------------------------

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Sunday, October 15, 2023 1:58 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


The Messenger: Real Inflation Is Higher Than Reported. One Shopper Has Proof

https://themessenger.com/opinion/real-inflation-consumer-prices-food-e
nergy-costs-economy?utm_source=onsite&utm_medium=latest_news


Quote:

This divergence between reported and real inflation helps explain Biden’s atrocious economic approval rating, which many liberal commentators argue is far worse than the official data warrant. Looking at these real price increases, it’s no wonder Americans are so sour on the economy.

Biden’s policies are responsible. Reckless spending in recent years, including the projected $1.7 trillion 2023 deficit, has led to too many dollars chasing too few goods, bidding up prices, and diluting the currency already in existence.

Congress must lend the Federal Reserve a hand in the inflation fight and cut government spending, to help shoppers make ends meet. Until then, pay attention to what ordinary Americans — not government statistics — are saying about inflation.



--------------------------------------------------

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Sunday, October 15, 2023 10:53 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
The Messenger: Real Inflation Is Higher Than Reported. One Shopper Has Proof

The Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment was announced on Oct 12th as 3.2%.

January 2011 -- 0.0%
January 2012 -- 3.6%
January 2013 -- 1.7%
January 2014 -- 1.5%
January 2015 -- 1.7%
January 2016 -- 0.0%
January 2017 -- 0.3%
January 2018 -- 2.0%
January 2019 -- 2.8%
January 2020 -- 1.6%
January 2021 -- 1.3%
January 2022 -- 5.9%
January 2023 -- 8.7%
January 2024 -- 3.2%

https://www.ssa.gov/news/cola/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Sunday, October 15, 2023 12:55 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Yup. That ain't keeping up with food prices.



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Monday, October 16, 2023 10:43 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Moved to this thread from "As Palestinians pushes for statehood, Israel finds itself more isolated" because Second derailed another thread again.

Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Agreed. But no more immigrants, legal or otherwise, no matter where they come from. I'm not saying never again, but at least until we finally start making this country work for the legal citizens again. We're broke and we're broken. We don't need anybody else in here taking the dwindling resources.

This country already works well, but not for people who are financial ignoramuses. The article that explains what you need to learn so that your life works well is "I Saw Thousands of Bank Account Details as a Teller. It Taught Me 3 Lessons Millions Never Learn." In the title, the word Millions should be replaced with 200 Million to make the size of the problem clearer.
https://www.inc.com/kelly-main/i-saw-thousands-of-bank-account-details
-as-a-teller-it-taught-me-3-lessons-millions-never-learn.html


After all, it's not just about what you earn, it's also about what you keep. And from my time as a teller, those who employed these three principles were those who were the most well-off -- not just in terms of financial well-being, but also in terms of happiness and general well-being. Because when you don't have the burden of immense financial stress, you have something everyone wants and the overarching goal of having money: financial freedom.

Then there is "My in-laws are terrible with money. What should I do?"
https://www.vox.com/even-better/23912950/parents-money-personal-financ
e-advice-how-to


Start talking to your husband, right now, about what you’re going to say when your in-laws ask to live with you. Given the current housing market, it’s a much more likely scenario than the one in which they travel the world.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly



Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Fuck you dude. Who do you think you're talking to?

The guy who hasn't worked for 4.5 years, that's who.

I'm in a much better position than most.

It doesn't change the fact that my money only buys 70% of what it did just 3 years ago. Democrats are responsible for this.

I have never known angry poor white trash who understood inflation, except for you, assuming you know what you think you know.



I'm not poor, nor am I white trash.

I understand money a lot more than your stupid ass does.

Quote:

One way to calculate inflation is by postage stamp prices


No. This is not a valid indicator of inflation by any metric. Postage stamp increases are approved by the Governors of the USPS and are not tied to any automatic triggers.

A better (but not perfect) example that you could have used would be the COLA raises for Social Security by year.

TRUMP:
2017: 2.0%
2018: 2.8%
2019: 1.6%
2020: 1.3%

Non-Compounded TOTAL COLA during Trump's administration (4 YEARS): 7.7%

Non-Compounded AVERAGE COLA during Trump's administration: 1.925%

BIDEN*:
2021: 5.9%
2022: 8.7%
2023: 3.2%

Non-Compounded TOTAL COLA during Biden*'s administration (ONLY 3 YEARS): 17.8%

Non-Compounded AVERAGE COLA during Biden*'s administration: 5.93%

Quote:

April 10, 2016 All U.S., 1st oz. 47 cents
January 20, 2017 Trump Inaugurated
January 22, 2017 All U.S., 1st oz. 49 cents
January 21, 2018 All U.S., 1st oz. 50 cents
January 27, 2019 All U.S., 1st oz. 55 cents
January 20, 2021 Biden Inaugurated
August 29, 2021 All U.S., 1st oz. 58 cents
July 10, 2022 All U.S., 1st oz. 60 cents
January 22, 2023 All U.S., 1st oz. 63 cents
July 9, 2023 All U.S., 1st oz. 66 cents

55/47=1.17 or Trump Inflation 17%

66/55=1.20 or Biden Inflation 20%



MEANINGLESS

Quote:

Another way to calculate inflation is with the inflation calculator

The total inflation rate from Jan. 2017 to Jan. 2021 is 7.72%.
The total inflation rate from Jan. 2021 to Sep. 2023 is 17.66%.
https://www.calculator.net/inflation-calculator.html



Yeah. That's how they figure out COLA, why your numbers mirror my COLA example, and why your Post Office example is meaningless, dummy.

It doesn't paint the whole picture though. These are not compounded numbers. The higher prices compound every year. This is bad enough when you're averaging 2% inflation (the target FED rate, and slightly higher than Trump's 4 year average). It's terrible when you're bordering 6% average every year.

FED inflation calculations, as always, uses metrics that don't necessarily reflect the ACTUAL increase in the cost of living. Unlike the inflation that hit during the Obama years that was heavily lopsided on goods and services that most people could do without, during the entirety of the Biden* administration they've hit food and energy particularly hard. These are things that people cannot live without, and their impact is not calculated honestly when they calculate inflation. (This is not a new phenomena during the Biden* administration... This is ALWAYS the case).






Now that we've got all of that settled, let's look at compounded figures.


For illustrative purposes, let's just say that One American Dollar was worth One American Dollar on the day that Trump was inaugurated, and then they were reset again when Joe Biden* took office. In other words, 100 cents bought 100 cents worth of goods and services on January 20th, 2017, and then 100 cents bought 100 cents worth of goods and services once again on January 20th, 2021. Inflation will be calculated for each year when SSA redetermines COLA in October of every year).

TRUMP YEARS:

After year one (October 2017), with 2.0% inflation, it now took $1.02 to buy what $1.00 used to buy in January 2017.

YEAR ONE TOTAL INCREASE FROM JAN 2017: $0.02

After year two (October 2018), with an additional 2.8% inflation, it now took $1.04856 to buy what $1.00 used to buy in January 2017. ($1.02 x 1.028)

YEAR TWO TOTAL INCREASE FROM JAN 2017: $0.05

After year three (October 2019), with an additional 1.6% inflation, it now took $1.06533696 to buy what $1.00 used to buy in January 2017. ($1.04856 x 1.016)

YEAR THREE TOTAL INCREASE FROM JAN 2017: $0.07

After year four (October 2020), with an additional 1.3% inflation, it now took $1.07918634048 to buy what $1.00 used to buy in January 2017. ($1.06533696 x 1.013)

YEAR FOUR TOTAL INCREASE FROM JAN 2017: $0.08



BIDEN* YEARS: (Reset value of $1.00 to $1.00)

After year one (October 2021), with 5.9% inflation, it now took $1.059 to buy what $1.00 used to buy in January 2021. ($1.00 x 1.059)

YEAR ONE TOTAL INCREASE FROM JAN 2021: $0.06

After year two (October 2022), with an additional 8.7% inflation, it now took $1.151133 to buy what $1.00 used to buy in January 2021. ($1.059 x 1.087)

YEAR TWO TOTAL INCREASE FROM JAN 2021: $0.15

After year three (NOW October 2023), with an additional 3.2% inflation, it now took $1.187969256 to buy what $1.00 used to buy in January 2021. ($1.151133 x 1.032)

YEAR THREE TOTAL INCREASE FROM JAN 2021: $0.19


During 4 years of Trump, the value of the dollar when he took office decreased by around 7.9%

During only 3 years of Biden* the value of the dollar since he took office has already decreased by 18.8%.


And inflation hasn't gotten back to 2% yet, and by all accounts it appears to be rising again. If I'm being nice to the Biden* and give him another low-ball estimate of 3.2% next year to match this year (1.187969256 x 1.032) you're going to need 1.225984272192 to buy what $1.00 used to buy in January of 2021, and Biden*'s 4 year inflation increase is going to be 22.6% vs. Trump's 7.9% four year increase.

Best case scenario, that's just a hair under 3 times as much devaluation of the Dollar under Biden* as what happened under Trump. And that's only if inflation doesn't go out of control again in 2024 like some people are predicting that it will.




And everybody knows that this doesn't count food and energy when they use this COLA metric. Price increases for both food and energy are far more higher than only 18.8% since Joe Biden* took office in January of 2021. Anybody renting an apartment or buying a new/used car will tell you that it was more than an 18.8% increase since January of 2021 too.


--------------------------------------------------

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

--------------------------------------------------

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Monday, October 16, 2023 11:00 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

I'm not poor, nor am I white trash.

I understand money a lot more than your stupid ass does.

All people I know who share your opinions are angry poor white trash. None of those people think of themselves that way. None of them make the connection between who they really are and why their lives are full of problems and heartbreak. With only a few exceptions, they blame anybody other than themselves for their misfortunes.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, October 16, 2023 11:21 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Interestingly enough, I did finally get around to reading one of Second's articles which prompted that unrelated string off of the Palestinian thread.

Quote:

"I Saw Thousands of Bank Account Details as a Teller. It Taught Me 3 Lessons Millions Never Learn." In the title, the word Millions should be replaced with 200 Million to make the size of the problem clearer.
https://www.inc.com/kelly-main/i-saw-thousands-of-bank-account-details
-as-a-teller-it-taught-me-3-lessons-millions-never-learn.html



Even when he is sorely mistaken when trying to apply those lessons to me when I'd already learned them far before I became a member of this site and have honed them to a fine blade that serves me extremely well in times such as these, Second and I actually agree on the points the article makes. And I also agree specifically with his replacement of 200 Million instead of just the millions of people the article calls out. I see this shit happening everyday with people I know and it frustrates me beyond belief.

While working as a teller at 16 years old, she learned a lot about people's stupid spending habits. Here's the main points she brings up.

Quote:

1. Expensive possessions do not signify wealth

What I would see as a teller over and over again was that a high percentage of the people wearing the flashy designer belts or handbags dotted with a brand's logo often had the smallest bank accounts. The people driving luxury cars were as often those who were financially secure as they were those whose bank accounts were often negative or on the brink of negative.

In other words, there was little to no correlation between expensive objects and wealth.

Oftentimes, the expensive objects people owned to look wealthy were often the same things that brought them closer to poverty. Even those with high salaries had a tendency to carry lower account balances when they became consumed by the desire to display their wealth. When water seeks its own level, the bank account drains as quickly as it is filled.

Newly funded founders have a tendency to splash out on fancy offices, technology, and trips with the idea that if they look like they're successful they will become successful. But VCs and investors see through the façade of fabricated wealth and instead see a frivolous spender.



Yup. This is why I was broke at 20 years old when the best job that I will ever have in my life disappeared before my eyes because of external influences beyond my and anybody else's control.

Not only did I spend more on one single outfit what I'll now spend in an entire year on clothing, but I always had all of the newest tech, the most expensive home entertainment setup, and I'd be partying or going out to the bar 7 nights a week while always paying for imported beer while my friends drank MGD and Budweiser.

Granted, the price for an imported beer at the bar back then was about 1/3 of what an MGD would cost at the bar today...

What happened to all that tech? It's ancient now. It's in a landfill. The only part of my home entertainment setup that I still have to this day was a pricey SONY VCR, and that's only because I still have some VHS tapes that I was never able to replace since they were personal stuff or things that never got a DVD/BluRay release or downloadable versions, and I've been too lazy to convert them.


I dropped out of college for that job. I then spent the next 5 years living in my grandma's basement with the 2 out of the 7 worst cats that pissed all over everything, working odd jobs through temp agencies just trying (and failing) to not get too far into debt.

It was only when I was 25 that an offer came up that forced me to move several hundred miles out of state and away from all the bad influences that I was able to finally make good money again and actually save it. I was in some pretty serious debt at first, but my journey of not keeping up with the Joneses had already begun years before that.

Paying off those 0% credit cards right before the free balance transfers to other 0% interest cards was the first goal. This took 8 months to do, and on the month of my 26th birthday I celebrated my Debt Independence Day and I've never since carried any sort of debt balance for the 18 years since.

My only real goal after that was building up a 6 month nest egg. I figured at that point I'd relax a bit and start buying shit I didn't need again. But when I hit that goal, something changed. Or more accurately, nothing changed at all. I didn't change my spending habits in the slightest. Even when I got a huge promotion, or the maximum year-over-year raises. At one point, even with a high monthly rent payment for the time, I was saving over $2k per month, not including the money I was putting into retirement or into my HSA.

Watching those numbers go up so quickly every month became my drug of choice. Being at the right time at the right place in the stock market made this even better. I didn't need to spend money to feel good about myself anymore.

Eventually, once again because of circumstances far beyond my control, that job too had ended. And without a college degree, with 5 years of job experience that wouldn't translate well into any other jobs because most of them had already found their way overseas, I found myself in the position of not being able to make any real money. But this time I wasn't worried about it. I was about to buy a house with cash and say goodbye to monthly rent charges for the rest of my life.

Quote:

2. Credit cards are not a tool to buy things you can't afford

Credit cards make things you can't afford exponentially less affordable. And, of course, they provide an all-too-easy trap to fall into that can prove exceedingly difficult to get out of.

The key is to only use a credit card as you would a debit card.

If you have the money for the things you charge, you always have the money to pay off your balance in full each month. When using credit cards the right way, they can be highly beneficial. In fact, my credit card came with a surprising benefit I never expected. But when used the wrong way, they will serve as quicksand, quickly eating away at your ability to reach financial well-being.



Credit cards are a great thing. But only for a very small percentage of people.

The free balance transfers eventually ended. Fortunately for me, the timing was just about perfect on that too. By the time I finished paying off my credit card debt for good, I had spent just over $125 in credit card debt... The first and only time I ever paid for debt on credit cards in my life.

Since then, I have always paid my balance off every month and have enjoyed anywhere from 1% to 6% of my purchases in rewards which I've never used to buy more crap that I don't need. Whenever the balance gets high enough to do so, I convert that into cash on the cards that is used to just have to pay less for the things I buy that I do need and for monthly bills.

And I've become very good at taking advantage of the sign-up bonuses. I've always timed them when I was going to make some larger purchases like materials or tools I've needed to work on my house. A free $300 for spending $1,000 in 90 days is a 30% discount on things I needed to buy anyhow. Couple that with the fact I rarely ever pay full price for anything and that savings is often double or more.

Back in November of 2018, I bought all of the trim I'd need to eventually trim out all the doors, windows and floors of my home on clearance for $275 bucks. Combined with the $30 rebate I got and the new card I got with a $250 sign up bonus for spending $1,000 on things I was going to buy anyhow, I actually made $5 on all that trim. To this day, I still haven't even put all of it up.

If I had bought all of that at full price without the card bonus, it would have been over $2,000 in pre-Bidenflation money.

Between sign-up bonuses and cash back rewards, I've made over $5,000 tax-free using credit cards... dwarfing that $125 in credit card interest that I once paid, as well as easily covering the interest payments I had made on the one car I've ever bought in my life that I didn't pay for with cash several times over.

Quote:

3. Good credit is not good enough

There's an all-too-common belief that having good credit is good enough. But the point of having good credit is not simply to get credit line and loan approvals, but to get approved at the best rates. And the difference between good and very good credit can be the difference between thousands of dollars.

For example, the difference between the average mortgage rate for those with very good credit versus those with fair to good credit is just over one percent. It might seem small, but it will cost over $125,000 more in interest alone for a $500,000 mortgage over 30 years. Again, just a mere 1 percent difference in interest. Which can also be the difference between one late payment or carrying revolving debt (e.g., credit card debt).



828 credit score here. And that's without ever having a mortgage and 22 years without a car payment.


Quote:

Financial well-being is an important part of life and a crucial component of business. These three basic financial lessons are incredibly foundational in theory, and yet they're wildly overlooked in practice.

After all, it's not just about what you earn, it's also about what you keep. And from my time as a teller, those who employed these three principles were those who were the most well-off -- not just in terms of financial well-being, but also in terms of happiness and general well-being. Because when you don't have the burden of immense financial stress, you have something everyone wants and the overarching goal of having money: financial freedom.



The real lesson is that it ain't about what you make, but it's about what you keep.

Yeah... You've got to make something. I need to get better at that part again someday. But right now I'm not hungry. I'm not very heavily incentivized to do the front-end work again because I became such a pro at the work on the back-end.


I saw a great video just last night that hit home and really compliments this whole subject.

The Philosophy of Epictetus: Be a Loser if Need Be



I've been a philosopher for quite some time now and didn't even know it until last night.



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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Monday, October 16, 2023 12:02 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

I'm not poor, nor am I white trash.

I understand money a lot more than your stupid ass does.

All people I know who share your opinions are angry poor white trash. None of those people think of themselves that way. None of them make the connection between who they really are and why their lives are full of problems and heartbreak. With only a few exceptions, they blame anybody other than themselves for their misfortunes.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly



I noticed that you had posted this before I made my last post.

Please read it.

Maybe then you'll understand why I never take any of your constant personal insults seriously.

Not only do they bear no basis in reality, but I don't spend a single second of my life giving care to what anybody thinks about me. This includes people that I care about and/or people who are of benefit to my own existence. Two categories of people which often overlap, and also two categories of people which you are not nor could you ever be a part of.

Of the people who do matter, they think highly of me because with my free time and a lifetime of various skills I have acquired I can easily make myself available to them whenever they need anything. I don't need to buy anybody's love or respect. I don't even need to help them if I don't want to. But I often do because it makes me feel good to do so and I've got all the time in the world at my disposal.

My day to day life is virtually drama free, and infinitely easier than yours has ever been or ever will be. I want for nothing. I answer to nobody. I do whatever I feel like doing whenever I feel like doing it. Even if that's doing nothing at all for as long as I feel like just doing nothing.



And daily naps are about as close to heaven as I could ever imagine one could find on this shitty little rock we all currently call home.



--------------------------------------------------

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, October 19, 2023 4:20 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Late payments rise on US loans tied to inflated pandemic credit scores

Emergency cash and repayment freeze gave lenders an ‘opportunity to juice up their growth’

https://www.ft.com/content/ac880c02-c4c7-4424-8165-3d900a87bd52?segmen
tId=b385c2ad-87ed-d8ff-aaec-0f8435cd42d9


Fortunately, they didn't bump too many people up above 800 when they were doing this, so people who are responsible with money like me aren't lumped in with the rest of you dummies.






The hidden price of inflation: High costs disrupt life in more ways than we can see

Inflation forces people to invest less, spend time negotiating for raises and devote more energy to coping with rising prices.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/10/18/hidden-costs-of-inflat
ion/71220144007
/


How about not spending more money than you can afford on bullshit you don't need?

No? That's not one of the things people are doing?

Well... I guess they deserve to go bankrupt then.



There was no good to any of Biden's policies. Even the ones the Legacy Media is bending over backwards to still tell you were a good idea at the time.

All that free money is gone, and all we're left with is a society that became even less disciplined with their money than they were in 2020 and a banking industry that became even more predatory than it already was in 2020.

Fuck Joe Biden* and anybody who voted for him.

--------------------------------------------------

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Monday, October 23, 2023 12:16 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


More people are missing car payments in another ominous sign for the economy

https://www.yahoo.com/news/more-people-missing-car-payments-162832787.
html


Quote:

A record number of subprime borrowers are behind on their auto loan payments by 60 days or more, according to figures from Fitch Ratings reported by Bloomberg.

The rate hit 6.11% in September – the highest since records began in 1994, and was up from the 5.93% recorded at the start of the year.

Analysts predict that auto loan delinquencies will continue to rise into 2024 and peak at about 10% before they start to fall, per CNN.

The high rates of delinquencies indicate that many lower-earning workers in particularly are struggling amid ongoing high inflation, a rough jobs market, and the resumption of federal student loan payments following a pandemic-era freeze.

High interest rates are also having an impact, with many turning to borrowing to cope. In the second quarter of this financial year, credit card debt surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in the NY Fed survey's history.

Though delinquency rates do not necessarily mean a recession will happen, they are often reflect a struggling economy.

Margaret Rowe, senior director at Fitch, told Bloomberg: "The subprime borrower is getting squeezed. They can often be a first line of where we start to see the negative effects of macroeconomic headwinds."

More than a third of Americans are considered subprime borrowers, according to an Experian study, meaning they have lower credit scores and are deemed less likely to meet their repayments on loans. As a result they usually have to pay considerably higher interest rates.

For subprime borrowers, rates for new cars average 11.5% and 18.5% for used autos, according to Experian. Prime borrowers are charged far less – 6.4% and 8.75% respectively on average.

Those that can't meet their payments face having their cars repossessed and often have great difficulty getting to work. In 2022, only 11% of commuters in the US used public transport, according to the World Economic Forum.

Cox Automotive, a leading auto organization, predicts that 1.5 million cars will be repossessed this year – 300,000 more than in 2022.

The rising number of delinquencies on auto loans is not putting off some consumers, however. A record number of new car buyers took out loans with monthly payments of $1,000 or more in the three months to June, according to data from Edmunds.

Car payments have become the highest expense for some Gen Zers and millennials, even exceeding their rent.




The rate of subprime borrowers behind 60 days or more on their car payments is higher than it has ever been since they started recording this statistic. Not since 2008-2012. Since at least 1994.

1.5 Million cars are going to be repossessed by the end of 2023, with even more coming in 2024.

If I can keep my piece of shit 26 year old car running over the winter, I should be able to get a really nice used car on the cheap before she fails to pass the emissions test for the last time.



--------------------------------------------------

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Friday, October 27, 2023 10:59 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Americans are struggling to pay their debts as economy tightens

https://thehill.com/business/4272973-americans-are-struggling-to-pay-t
heir-debts-as-economy-tightens
/


But please. Let's raise taxes so we can send more money to Ukraine and Israel.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Friday, October 27, 2023 12:23 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Home prices and rents have both soared. So which is the better deal?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/home-buying-renting-52-percent-more-expen
sive-to-buy-cbre
/

Quote:

A new analysis from real estate firm CBRE is providing some clarity on that question. What it reveals may dishearten house hunters: The cost to buy a home, compared with the cost of renting one, is now the most expensive on record — a price gulf that even surpasses the gap seen during the housing bubble in 2006.

It now costs 52% more to buy a home compared with renting an apartment, according to CBRE data emailed to CBS MoneyWatch, which analyzed the monthly cost of a new home purchase versus a new lease from 1996 through the third quarter of 2023. By comparison, at the peak of the housing bubble in 2006, it was 33% more expensive to buy versus to rent — a gap that quickly reversed when housing prices plunged during the Great Recession.

On a dollar basis, that means new homeowners today face monthly costs of $3,322, versus $2,184 for people who sign new leases.



My implied wealth by not paying for a mortgage/rent and a car loan is just skyrocketing under this shitshow of an Administration.

The average car payment in 2023 is now $729 per month. The average full-coverage car insurance cost is $2,014 per year in 2023, or $168 per month. (I pay $350 per year, or $29 per month now... quite a bit more than last year, but nothing like full coverage averages).

Subtracting the $29 per month for my car insurance coverage price, that's $4,190 a month I "make", tax-free, simply by not needing to pay for any of it.

That's $50,280 after tax worth of things that I don't have to work for in 2023.


Go Joe Biden* Go!

You are the worst President we've ever had in any living person's lifetime, and I pity all the hundreds of millions of people who didn't prepare for what you've done to them.



--------------------------------------------------

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Saturday, October 28, 2023 12:25 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


CBS News: Many Americans say they're spending more than they earn, dimming their financial outlooks, poll shows

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-economy-household-spending-highe
r-than-income-ap-norc-poll
/


Quote:

Many Americans say their household expenses are outstripping their incomes, prompting concerns about their financial futures. At the same time, household debt for most Americans has either risen in the last year or has not gone away.

About 2 in 3 Americans say their household expenses have risen over the last year, but only about 1 in 4 say their income has increased in the same period, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Even so, consumer spending has remained strong despite the double whammy of still-elevated inflation and rising interest rates, with the latter making it more expensive to carry credit card debt and to buy homes and cars. In some cases, Americans say they are shelling out more on basics like groceries even as their incomes haven't kept up.

Steve Shapiro, 61, who works as an audio engineer in Pittsburgh, said he'd been spending about $100 a week on groceries prior to this past year, but that he's now shelling out closer to $200.

"My income has stayed the same," he said. "The economy is good on paper, but I'm not doing great."

...

About 4 in 10 Americans (38%) approve of how Biden is handling the presidency, while 61% disapprove. His overall approval numbers have remained at a steady low for the last several years. Most Americans generally disapprove of how he's handling the federal budget (68% disapprove), the economy (67%), and student debt (58%).





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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Monday, October 30, 2023 7:44 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I need my 401(K) money now: More Americans are raiding retirement funds for emergencies

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/10/26/401-k-withdrawal-for-e
mergencies-more-common/71311871007
/


You voted for this, retards.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Tuesday, October 31, 2023 1:33 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Confidence in US Economy Dips Further as Inflation and Recession Fears Grip Consumers

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell, and its expectations index continues to signal a recession within the year

https://themessenger.com/business/consumer-confidence-october-conferen
ce-board-economy-recession


Quote:

Confidence in the U.S. economy slid further in October as consumers fretted about sticky inflation, Washington's continued dysfunction, a possible U.S. recession and war in Israel, according to a report released Tuesday.

...

The board's expectations index, which measures consumers’ six-month outlook for income, business and labor conditions, continues to signal a recession within the next year: it fell to 75.6 in October from 76.4 in September. Any reading below 80 has historically been followed by a recession within the next year.

...

"Consumers continued to be preoccupied with rising prices in general, and for grocery and gasoline prices in particular," said Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board. "Consumers also expressed concerns about the political situation and higher interest rates. Worries around war/conflicts also rose, amid the recent turmoil in the Middle East."

Inflation has declined precipitously since hitting a peak of over 9% in June 2022, but it's still 3.7% as measured by the consumer price index. That's well-above the Federal Reserve's target of 2%.

The Fed is meeting this week to decide on interest rates. It is widely expected to hold its key rate at 5.25% to 5.5%, a 22-year high. The central bank will announce its decision at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.



You voted for this, retards.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Tuesday, November 14, 2023 11:54 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

US Beef Prices Hit Record High As Nation's Cattle Herd Expected To Shrink Through 2025
Tuesday, Nov 14, 2023 - 08:45 PM

Brazilian processor Marfrig Global Foods SA warned the US cattle herd will continue shrinking through the midpoint of the decade. Less supplies will pressure meatpackers and keep the prices of steak and hamburgers at elevated levels.

During a conference call, Tim Klein, the head of Marfrig's North American operation, explained the availability of fattened animals for meatpackers to slaughter and process should trough between 2025 and 2026. He said this is because ranchers have not yet started keeping cows for breeding.

As we've noted, years of drought and high feed costs forced ranchers across the Midwest to send the cows to slaughterhouses, leading to a sharp reduction in the nation's overall herd size. In January, the beef cow herd size was the smallest since 1962.

Tight supplies of cattle have hurt the profits of meatpackers, including Tyson Foods Inc. and JBS SA:

National Beef Inc., Marfrig's US unit, saw adjusted earnings before items such as taxes and interest more than halve in the third quarter from a year ago to $150 million, according to a statement from the company on Monday. Tyson Foods Inc. and JBS SA posted results earlier that were largely affected by lower profits in their US beef operations. -Bloomberg

Declining cattle numbers also sent US beef prices at the supermarket to record highs.



MORE AT https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/us-beef-prices-hit-record-high-n
ations-cattle-herd-expected-shrink-through-2025




-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM



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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 8:45 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Producer Price Index by Industry: Animal, Except Poultry, Slaughtering: Beef, Fresh/Frozen Whole/Half Carcass, Not Canned or Made Into Sausage, Made in Slaughtering Plants
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1boUA


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 9:35 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Yeah. Joe Biden* sucks.

--------------------------------------------------

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 9:49 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Yeah. Joe Biden* sucks.

It is not bragging to say I have more control over beef and natural gas prices than any President has ever had because I set the price and the President does not. But for some reason, people who buy stuff don't know that the people who sell stuff are setting prices, not the President. It is a good thing that most buyers don't know who is setting the prices or else they would burn down the mansions of rich people. Instead, they vote against whoever is President at the moment. It is so funny and so very lucrative for sellers that buyers are so stupid.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 10:37 AM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:


Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Yeah. Joe Biden* sucks.

It is not bragging to say I have more control over beef and natural gas prices than any President has ever had because I set the price and the President does not. But for some reason, people who buy stuff don't know that the people who sell stuff are setting prices, not the President. It is a good thing that most buyers don't know who is setting the prices or else they would burn down the mansions of rich people. Instead, they vote against whoever is President at the moment. It is so funny and so very lucrative for sellers that buyers are so stupid.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly





Jacks upset because his food stamps won't buy much steak. Too funny...

T


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Wednesday, November 15, 2023 11:01 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I'm not on food stamps dude.

Look up the law in Indiana. I can't get them until I'm 55 years old unless I move to a bankrupt Democrat shithole.



How was work today, honey? Did you make any progress chipping away at all that lifelong debt keeping you poor for life?


Admittedly, I didn't get to take a nap today. I was too busy working for the best boss in the world.

Me.



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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Monday, November 20, 2023 6:49 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Argentina elects its own Donald Trump

Kevin Drum | Published on November 19, 2023 – 6:06 pm
https://jabberwocking.com/argentina-elects-its-own-donald-trump/

The Washington Post describes Argentina's recent past:

For only the second time in its history, Argentina has seen 10 years without economic growth. During that decade, poverty rates shot up from 28 percent to more than 40 percent. Now, for the first time ever, even formal workers in Argentina’s economy are below the poverty line. Inflation is nearing 150 percent. The peso has plummeted, prices change nearly weekly, and Argentines are forced to carry around large wads of cash just to buy groceries.


( Inflation actually hit 322% in September, but who's counting, really? )

If you think this spells bad news for the party in power, you'd be right. Today, lunatic insurgent candidate Javier Milei won Argentina's presidential election. Here's what he plans to do:

Wielding chainsaws on the campaign trail, the wild-haired Milei vowed to slash public spending in a country heavily dependent on government subsidies. He pledged to dollarize the economy, shut down the central bank, and cut the number of government ministries from 18 to eight.... He has branded Pope Francis, an Argentine, an “evil” leftist. Climate change, he says, is a “socialist lie.” He would hold a referendum to undo the three-year-old law that legalized abortion.

Most of the discourse revolves around Milei's plan to adopt the US dollar as its national currency, but Argentina has flirted with dollarization before. In 1989, after inflation hit 5,000%, the peso was pegged to the dollar, which worked well for a while. The peg slipped a decade later and plans were made for full dollarization. But then Argentina fell into a deep depression and plans were shelved. Even the dollar peg was abandoned.

It's easy to see why Argentinians might want to outsource monetary policy to the US, but it's a loser idea. It's always going to fail eventually when the economies of the two countries get too far out of sync. In any case, Argentina has defaulted on its foreign debt three times in the past couple of decades and understandably has a hard time attracting dollars these days. This means its domestic stock of dollars is low—which might not make dollarization literally impossible but would sure make it painful and tricky.

There's also the fact that Peronists still control Congress, which presumably means that Milei won't be able to simply bulldoze his ideas into law. Big talk doesn't necessarily translate into big action. In that sense, he might be even more Trumplike than people think.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, November 20, 2023 7:42 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


No mention at all of Socialism in that entire article.

Not surprised in the least since fat idiot Kevin Drum wrote it. Just pointing it out.

--------------------------------------------------

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Monday, November 20, 2023 8:42 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
No mention at all of Socialism in that entire article.

Not surprised in the least since fat idiot Kevin Drum wrote it. Just pointing it out.

Is this one of those Trumptard notions about how an economy works? Because every Trumptard I know does not know how Capitalism works. Not one of you Trump voters has ever understood why your lives are filled with financial problems, workplace struggles, heartbreak, drama, sudden reversals in fortune, and tragic/early deaths. I stopped wondering why in about 1962, when I was ten years old, long before Trump got into politics. Paleo-Trumptards and fully-formed Trumptards kept showing me why their lives go wrong: the cause is inside their heads, not out there somewhere in politics.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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