Another Republican President, Another Recession.

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
This does not surprise me. In fact (though many will miss the point) it is an endorsement for Fetterman.


anyone the US chamber of commerce endorses is NOT getting my vote...big business has more than enough government officials in their pocket already, anything they want, i'm voting against.
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/cryptocurrency-technology-business-government-and-politics-cdddaeac5d6590dbf7329ce046f1008eScreen Shot 2022-10-03 at 5.53.23 PM.png
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top regulators on Monday recommended a series of new safeguards to ensure that a growing and unregulated cryptocurrency market doesn’t imperil U.S. financial stability.

Among seven major recommendations, regulators called on Congress to pass legislation that would address the systemic risks caused by the growth of stablecoins, which are a form of cryptocurrency pegged to the price of another financial asset, like the U.S. dollar or gold.

Recent volatility in the cryptocurrency market, especially in stablecoins, has made regulators particularly wary about the need for regulation as usage of the digital asset continues to grow.

Members of the Financial Stability Oversight Council met Monday to approve the recommendations of a 125-page report created in response to President Joe Biden’s March executive order on digital assets. The report also calls for giving agencies greater regulatory power over cryptocurrencies and digital assets.

The oversight council is an interagency group headed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and includes Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the role of the council is to identify risks and emerging threats to U.S. financial stability.

Powell, who has recently said stablecoins will need greater regulation as they become more widely used by consumers, said Monday that “acting now will allow us to support responsible financial innovation while preserving financial stability.”

Yellen said, “As we’ve painfully learned from history, innovation without adequate regulation can result in significant disruptions and harm to the financial system.”

At the start of the year, the council stated it would focus its efforts on researching and developing recommendations on digital asset issues, as more Americans invest in cryptocurrencies.

Roughly 16% of adult Americans, or 40 million people, have invested in cryptocurrencies, according to a September 2021 Pew Research Center poll. And 43% of men age 18-29 have put money into cryptocurrency.

Last month, the Treasury Department issued a report that recommended the U.S. work on developing a digital dollar.

Yellen said Treasury recommends that the U.S. “advance policy and technical work on a potential central bank digital currency, or CBDC, so that the United States is prepared if CBDC is determined to be in the national interest.”

More than 100 central banks around the world are considering a digital currency, but just a few have actually issued one.
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
https://www.rawstory.com/venezuela-sanctions/
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On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration is offering strongman Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro relief from sanctions to allow Chevron to resume extracting oil — on the condition that he allow real elections to take place in the repressive leftist dictatorship.

"In exchange for the significant sanctions relief, the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would resume long-suspended talks with the country’s opposition to discuss conditions needed to hold free and fair presidential elections in 2024, the people said," reported Patricia Garip, Vivian Salama, and Kejal Vyas. "The U.S., Venezuela’s government and some Venezuelan opposition figures have also worked out a deal that would free up hundreds of millions of dollars in Venezuelan state funds frozen in American banks to pay for imports of food, medicine and equipment for the country’s battered electricity grid and municipal water systems."

The report comes as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is announcing a cut to overall oil production, a move that sparked outrage among U.S. officials given America's longstanding military support for many of these nations as part of an implicit way to ensure global energy stability.

"If the deal goes through and Chevron, along with U.S. oil service companies, are allowed to work in Venezuela again, it would put only a limited amount of new oil on the world market in the short term," said the report. "Venezuela was once a major oil producer, pumping more than 3.2 million barrels a day in the 1990s, but the state-run industry has collapsed over the last decade because of underinvestment, corruption and mismanagement. Sanctions leveled by the Trump administration further dented production and forced Western companies out of the country."

Nevertheless, the report noted, "Any shift in U.S. policy that brings back Western oil companies would send a psychological signal to the market that more supply is on the way, the people said."

U.S. fuel prices, which soared over the summer due to a number of factors including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, declined significantly in recent months, although some refinery issues have caused small regional increases again in parts of the Midwest and West Coast.
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/us-jobs-report-september-2022-b91e272b3e56b1f70ef558f6029f97c5?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_02Screen Shot 2022-10-07 at 1.23.41 PM.png
WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers slowed their hiring in September but still added 263,000 jobs, a solid figure that will likely keep the Federal Reserve on pace to keep raising interest rates aggressively to fight persistently high inflation.

Friday’s government report showed that hiring fell from 315,000 in August to the weakest monthly gain since April 2021. The unemployment rate dropped from 3.7% to 3.5%, matching a half-century low.

The Fed is hoping that a slower pace of hiring would eventually mean less pressure on employers to raise pay and pass those costs on to their customers through price increases — a recipe for high inflation. But September’s job growth was likely too robust to satisfy the central bank’s inflation fighters.

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Last month, hourly wages rose 5% from a year earlier, the slowest year-over-year pace since December but still hotter than the Fed would want. The proportion of Americans who either have a job or are looking for one slipped slightly, a disappointment for those hoping that more people would enter the labor force and help ease worker shortages and upward pressure on wages.

The jobs report “was still likely too strong to allow (Fed) policymakers much breathing room,” said Matt Peron, director of research at Janus Henderson Investors.

Likewise, Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said she didn’t think September’s softer jobs and wage numbers would stop the Fed from raising its benchmark short-term rate in November by an unusually large three-quarters of a point for a fourth consecutive time — and by an additional half-point in December.

On Wall Street, stocks tumbled Friday morning — a sign that investors foresee more aggressive Fed rate hikes ahead. The S&P 500 index sank 1.9% in early trading. And the yield on the 2-year Treasury note, which tends to track expectations for Fed actions, rose to 4.31% from 4.26% late Thursday.

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The public anxiety that has arisen over high prices and the prospect of a recession is also carrying political consequences as President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party struggles to maintain control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.

In its epic battle to rein in inflation, the Fed has raised its benchmark interest rate five times this year. It is aiming to slow economic growth enough to reduce annual price increases back toward its 2% target.

It has a long way to go. In August, one key measure of year-over-year inflation, the consumer price index, amounted to 8.3%. And for now, consumer spending — the primary driver of the U.S. economy — is showing resilience. In August, consumers spent a bit more than in July, a sign that the economy was holding up despite rising borrowing rates, violent swings in the stock market and inflated prices for food, rent and other essentials.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has warned bluntly that the inflation fight will “bring some pain,” notably in the form of layoffs and higher unemployment. Some economists remain hopeful that despite the persistent inflation pressures, the Fed will still manage to achieve a so-called soft landing: Slowing growth enough to tame inflation, without going so far as to tip the economy into recession.

It’s a notoriously difficult task. And the Fed is trying to accomplish it at a perilous time. The global economy, weakened by food shortages and surging energy prices resulting from Russia’s war against Ukraine, may be on the brink of recession. Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, warned Thursday that the IMF is downgrading its estimates for world economic growth by $4 trillion through 2026 and that “things are more likely to get worse before it gets better.”

Powell and his colleagues on the Fed’s policymaking committee want to see signs that the abundance of available jobs — there’s currently an average of 1.7 openings for every unemployed American — will steadily decline. Some encouraging news came this week, when the Labor Department reported that job openings fell by 1.1 million in August to 10.1 million, the fewest since June 2021.

On the other hand, by any standard of history, openings remain extraordinarily high: In records dating to 2000, they had never topped 10 million in a month until last year.

Last month’s decline in unemployment was widely shared across demographic groups. The jobless rate for Hispanics tumbled to 3.8%, the lowest level in government records dating to 1973. Unemployment for Black Americans also fell, from 6% in August to 5.8% in September, still above its record low of 5.1% in November 2019.

In September, restaurants and bars added 60,000 jobs, as did healthcare companies. State and local governments cut 27,000 jobs. Retailers, transportation and warehouse companies reduced employment modestly.

Many Americans appear to have decided that there are still plenty of jobs available and that they can take their time accepting one. Among them is Jenny Savitscus of Columbus, Ohio, who recently earned a technology certificate at a program run by Goodwill. Savitscus, 45, who’d like a job in high technology, said she’s willing to hold out for an employer that will offer flexible hours and work-at-home options.

“There are opportunities out there,” she said. “Employers and job seekers are trying to find the right balance’’ between work and home life. She said she can afford to wait for just the right position because she has two part-time teaching jobs.

Friday’s government report underscored how resilient the job market remains even if it may be slowing.

“The U.S. labor market continues to decelerate, but there are no signs that it’s stalling out,” said Nick Bunker, head of economic research at the Indeed Hiring Lab. “Payroll growth is no longer at the jet speed we saw last year, but employment is still growing quickly.”

Radial, a company that powers the online businesses for Lucky Brands, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, is one employer that is hiring more cautiously. The company plans to hire 15,000 seasonal workers at its 25 warehouses — 7,000 fewer than a year ago — and 2,000 at its customer-service centers, said Sabrina Wnorowski, chief human resource officer for Radial, based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

Wnorowski said the company’s more moderate approach to hiring reflects a renewed focus on adding workers closer to the peak of the holiday season to make them more productive. She noted that online sales growth is slowing and that the tight job market appears to be weakening a bit. Peloton, for example, the maker of high-end exercise equipment, announced Thursday that it is cutting 500 jobs — 12% of its workforce.

Yet some companies continue to plow ahead with hiring. Walt Rowen, president of Susquehanna Glass Co. in Columbia, Pennsylvania, said the company, which makes decorative glass products, needs around 15 seasonally workers along with a full-time staff of 40 to 45. Rowen has raised entry-level pay from around $9 an hour before the pandemic to $14 an hour and yet still struggles to fill vacancies.

“It’s getting harder and harder,” he said. “You used to be able to interview 10, bring in five and keep three. Now we’re interviewing 20, getting five and keeping one.’’
 

Offmymeds

Well-Known Member
anyone the US chamber of commerce endorses is NOT getting my vote...big business has more than enough government officials in their pocket already, anything they want, i'm voting against.
The US Chamber of Commerce filed an amicus brief supporting BRITISH Petroleum over Florida small businesses during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement.

Many small businesses pay dues to the US COC thinking it lobbies for them. What a joke.
 

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
It’s hard to talk to Republicans about money when they read this. Note the unsubstantiated claims.

 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
It’s hard to talk to Republicans about money when they read this. Note the unsubstantiated claims.

lol yeah, the links in their propaganda click bait take you to this think piece on 'the Daily Signal'.

Screen Shot 2022-10-09 at 12.48.23 PM.png


And after a quick glance at the obvious trolling titles that this guy produces, I was not surprised when their work turns out to be a lot of statistical spam auto set up some half-assed conclusion that is dripping hate for 'the libs'.

A perspective from across the aisle on the same event and consequences.

Funny enough, this link is highlighting the bs in the previous one. When you go through the rabbit hole of links in that Daily whatever post that the Heritage propaganda company cited, you get to 'the Tax Foundation' story that uses a methodology that I am pretty sure includes all corporations taxes/revenues, which is misleading, and not what the American Progress website story did.




Also telling is when you click the links on the American Progress page it is taking you to actual information on the data.
 

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
lol yeah, the links in their propaganda click bait take you to this think piece on 'the Daily Signal'.

View attachment 5210117


And after a quick glance at the obvious trolling titles that this guy produces, I was not surprised when their work turns out to be a lot of statistical spam auto set up some half-assed conclusion that is dripping hate for 'the libs'.



Funny enough, this link is highlighting the bs in the previous one. When you go through the rabbit hole of links in that Daily whatever post that the Heritage propaganda company cited, you get to 'the Tax Foundation' story that uses a methodology that I am pretty sure includes all corporations taxes/revenues, which is misleading, and not what the American Progress website story did.






Also telling is when you click the links on the American Progress page it is taking you to actual information on the data.
Thanks. I didn’t look deeply.
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
https://www.rawstory.com/editorial-democrats-should-scuttle-the-debt-ceiling-before-america-hits-the-fiscal-brink/
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They aren’t saying it publicly, but behind the scenes, congressional Republican officials and business leaders are bracing for the nightmare scenario of a debt ceiling crisis potentially worse than the one in 2011 if the GOP retakes the House this year. That’s according to an Axios piece that pays special attention to Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., who could be in line for a key budgetary post in a Republican-led house. Smith tells the website bluntly that he thinks holding the nation’s fiscal stability hostage is a valid political strategy to force policy changes on the Biden administration.

Add it to the long list of reasons a Republican House takeover could be disastrous for America — though that danger would be mitigated if Democrats were to finally get rid of the whole debt ceiling concept now, while they control Congress.

The debt ceiling is the amount of money the treasury is allowed under law to borrow to cover America’s financial obligations. The ceiling has routinely been raised over the years as those obligations have increased, a process that used to be uncontroversial. That has changed in today’s deeply divided Congress, with Republicans occasionally seeking leverage over Democratic presidents by threatening to refuse to raise the limit when it’s needed.

It’s important to stress (because Republican fiscal warriors love to obfuscate this fact) that refusing to raise the debt ceiling is not the same as refusing to take on additional debt. It’s more akin to refusing to pay a loan or a credit card bill for spending that has already happened. That would mean a U.S. default on its financial obligations, which would very likely lead to a global financial meltdown.

Even talking about that is the height of political irresponsibility. But Republicans came close to actually doing it in 2011, in their quest to stymie then-President Barack Obama at every turn. Although a last-minute agreement was finally hammered out to raise the ceiling so America could pay its bills, the mere threat of a federal default caused turmoil in the financial markets, resulted in the nation’s first credit downgrade in history, and added billions to the cost of government borrowing.

In the Axios piece, Republican sources and others questioned whether House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, should the Republican become House speaker, would have the will to stand up to the bomb-throwers in his own caucus (as then-Speaker John Boehner finally did in 2011) to avert a debt ceiling crisis. The signs aren’t good.

Some have called for removing the debt ceiling altogether, since it serves no real purpose today except as a recurring fiscal time bomb. Facing the real chance that Congress next year will be controlled by a radicalized GOP willing to burn down America’s fiscal house in order to burn the Biden administration, Democrats should get rid of this threat now, once and for all.
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/inflation-business-prices-consumer-aed3121e4d5e3ec37cf1591995f13ce0?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_02Screen Shot 2022-10-13 at 9.24.11 AM.png
WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation in the United States accelerated in September, with the cost of housing and other necessities intensifying pressure on households, wiping out pay gains that many have received and ensuring that the Federal Reserve will keep raising interest rates aggressively.

Consumer prices rose 8.2% in September compared with a year earlier, the government said Thursday. On a month-to-month basis, prices increased 0.4% from August to September after having ticked up 0.1% from July to August.

Yet excluding the volatile categories of food and energy, so-called core inflation jumped last month — a sign that the Fed’s five rate hikes this year have so far done little to cool inflation pressures. Core inflation climbed 0.6% from August to September and 6.6% over the past 12 months. The yearly core figure is the biggest increase in 40 years. Core prices typically provide a clearer picture of underlying price trends.

Major U.S. markets swung sharply lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures moving from several hundred points up to a 400 point decline in seconds. Markets in Europe tumbled as well.

Thursday’s report represents the final U.S. inflation figures before the Nov. 8 midterm elections after a campaign season in which spiking prices have fueled public anxiety, with many Republicans casting blame on President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats.

Higher prices for many services — health care, auto repair and housing, among others — drove inflation last month. The cost of eyeglasses and eye care, for example, jumped 3.2% from August to September, the sharpest one-month increase on records.

Inflation in services is being fueled mainly by steady consumer demand and higher labor costs. Both Delta and American Airlines, for example, reported strong revenue and profit growth this week, driven by increased demand from travelers. Airfares rose a brisk 0.8% from August to September.

A range of services industries, including airlines, hospitals and even veterinary services — are having to rapidly raise wages to attract the workers they need. Those higher labor costs, in turn, are often passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

Inflation has swollen families’ grocery bills, rents and utility costs, among other expenses, causing hardships for many and deepening pessimism about the economy despite strong job growth and historically low unemployment.

Prices are accelerating even as some of the supply chain problems bedeviling many manufacturers are easing. Core goods prices, which sent inflation higher last year, were unchanged last month.

As the elections near, Americans are increasingly taking a dim view of their finances, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Roughly 46% of people now describe their personal financial situation as poor, up from 37% in March. That sizable drop contrasts with the mostly steady readings that had lasted through the pandemic.

The September inflation numbers aren’t likely to change the Fed’s plans to keep hiking rates aggressively in an effort to wrest inflation under control. The Fed has boosted its key short-term rate by 3 percentage points since March, the fastest pace of hikes since the early 1980s. Those increases are intended to raise borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans and business loans and cool inflation by slowing the economy.

Minutes from the Fed’s most recent meeting in late September showed that many policymakers have yet to see any progress in their fight against inflation. The officials projected that they would raise their benchmark rate by an additional 1.25 percentage points over their next two meetings in November and December. Doing so would put the Fed’s key rate at its highest level in 14 years.

Along with lower gas prices, economists expect the prices of used cars to reduce or at least restrain inflation in the coming months. Wholesale used car prices have dropped for most of this year, though the declines have yet to show up in consumer inflation data. (Used vehicle prices had soared in 2021 after factory shutdowns and supply chain shortages reduced production.)

Large retailers, too, have started offering early discounts for the holiday shopping season, after having amassed excess stockpiles of clothes, furniture and other goods earlier this year. Those price cuts might have lowered inflation in September or will do so in the coming months.

Walmart has said it will offer steep discounts on such items as toys, home goods, electronics and beauty. Target began offering holiday deals earlier this month.

Yet prices for services — particularly rents and housing costs — are remaining persistently high and will likely take much longer to come down. Health care services, education and even veterinary services are still rising rapidly in price.

“Services price increases tend to be more persistent than increases in the prices of goods,” Raphael Bostic, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, noted in remarks last week.

Rising rental costs are a tricky issue for the Fed. Real-time data from websites such as ApartmentList suggest that rents on new leases are starting to decline.

But the government’s measure tracks all rent payments — not just those for new leases — and most of them don’t change from month to month. Economists say it could be a year or longer before the declines in new leases feed through to government data.
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/social-security-cola-increase-8778d4aa9da4102edc79762ea622196f?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_01
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of Social Security recipients will get an 8.7% boost in their benefits in 2023.

That’s a historic increase and welcome news for American retirees and others — but it’s tempered by the fact that it’s fueled by record high inflation that’s raised the cost of everyday living.

The cost-of living adjustment means the average recipient will receive more than $140 extra a month beginning in January, according to estimates released Thursday by the Social Security Administration.

The boost in benefits. the biggest in 40 years, will be coupled with a 3% drop in Medicare Part B premiums, meaning retirees will get the full impact of the jump in Social Security benefits.

“This year’s substantial Social Security cost-of-living adjustment is the first time in over a decade that Medicare premiums are not rising and shows that we can provide more support to older Americans who count on the benefits they have earned,” said Social Security Administration’s Acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakaz.

However, a separate government report showed inflation newly accelerating, a trend eating into the Social Security gains for older people. The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4 percent for September after just 0.1 percent in August and is up 8.2 percent for the past 12 months. Jobless claims for unemployment benefits rose for the week.

Stock futures declined before U.S. markets opened.

The Social Security announcement came just weeks before the midterm elections, and at a time when Democrats and Republicans are sparring about high prices now and how best to shore up the program financially in the future.

President Joe Biden has pledged to protect both Social Security and Medicare. “I’ll make them stronger,” he said last month. “And I’ll lower your cost to be able to keep them.”

About 70 million people — including retirees, disabled people and children — receive Social Security benefits. This will be the biggest increase in benefits that baby boomers, those born between the years 1946 and 1964, have ever seen.

Willie Clark, 65, of Waukegan, Illinois, says his budget is “real tight” and the increase in his Social Security disability benefits could give him some breathing room to cover the cost of the household expenses he’s been holding off on.

Still, he doubts how much of the extra money will end up in his pocket. His rent in an apartment building subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is based on his income, so he expects that will rise, too.

Social Security is financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers. The maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security payroll taxes for 2023 is $160,200.

The financing setup dates to the 1930s, the brainchild of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who believed a payroll tax would foster among average Americans a sense of ownership that would protect the program from political interference.

Next year’s higher payout, without an accompanying increase in Social Security contributions, could put additional pressure on a system that’s facing a severe shortfall in coming years.

The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released in June says the program’s trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2035.

If the trust fund is depleted, the government will be able to pay only 80% of scheduled benefits, the report said. Medicare will be able to pay 90% of total scheduled benefits if the fund is depleted.

In January, a Pew Research Center poll showed 57% of U.S. adults saying that “taking steps to make the Social Security system financially sound” was a top priority for the president and Congress to address this year. Securing Social Security got bipartisan support, with 56% of Democrats and 58% of Republicans calling it a top priority.

Some solutions for reforming Social Security have been proposed — but none has moved forward in a sharply partisan Congress.

Earlier this year, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., issued a detailed plan that would require Congress to come up with a proposal to adequately fund Social Security and Medicare or potentially phase them out.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., publicly rebuked the plan and Biden has used Scott’s proposal as a political bludgeon against Republicans ahead of midterm elections.

“If Republicans in Congress have their way, seniors will pay more for prescription drugs and their Social Security benefits will never be secure,” Jean-Pierre said.
 
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