Is Reality Closing In?

It was bound to happen--reality is like honey badger: it just doesn't care. Fox has an article that goes into some of the hard knocks reality has been dishing out. Interestingly, the article fails to mention what may be the hardest and most intractable knock of all--the highest inflation rate in 10 years.

Here's the link and an excerpt from the beginning that I found well put:

Battered Biden under siege as crises confound the White House

Remarkable 5 days of bad developments stretching from Israel to Mexican border, up East Coast via Colonial Pipeline

Israel is erupting, Americans are utterly confused when masks should be worn for COVID-19 protection and then there are the agita-inducing long lines for gasoline.

And that was just Tuesday.

A lot has changed in a matter of days.

Friday was supposed to be a glorious day for Biden. The latest employment numbers were set to be released, and economists were gushing that a million new jobs had likely been created in April by exuberant employers and their newly vaccinated workers. 

His team no doubt was prepared to unleash Biden to perform a little victory dance at the White House celebrating the stupendous number. But the show had to be hastily revamped when the actual tally came in nearly three-quarters-of-a-million jobs lower than expected; just 266,000 jobs created and unemployment unexpectedly rising to 6.1%.

"You might think we should be disappointed," Biden said, which was indeed something people might think. ...

 

Totally Can't Recommend This Enough

Richard Werner: How Banks Work & Dictate the Economy — DiMartino Booth — Down the Middle with Richard Werner.

Be patient. There's a long intro on how money is created, but once he gets into banking and the economy it's riveting.

Big H/T Brother Ass:

I'm Not An Economist, But ...

I thought the Red State analysis of the No Good, Horrible, Jobs Report was pretty good.

I doubt any readers missed it, but the bottom line of the jobs report was that the April report was a huge miss from predictions--perhaps the biggest miss on record. Moreover, the March report was revised downward--hugely. That's a pattern from the Obama years--decent seeming numbers subsequently revised downward on the sly.

But the really big story, which you can follow at the link, is that Zhou and his keeper Klain think that the fact that people aren't going back to work means ... that the government should pay them more to stay home. Or something very like that. One wonders what they're thinking--if anything. More socialist mind over matter?

Congratulations President Biden - you have achieved the progressive utopia. At least 7.4 million job openings but only 266,000 people got a job last month. pic.twitter.com/VfBNwaZfPe

— Charles V Payne (@cvpayne) May 7, 2021

Pension Plunder And The Fed

Recently in a comment I mentioned that, while I don't draw on Social Security, I feed at the public trough by other means--my Civil Service annuity. In this way you readers support my life of relative leisure, devoted to discussing moot matters. In my defense, I work hard at this, but that doesn't change the fact that the general public doesn't get a choice--even if the individual contributions to my annuity are miniscule. 

Call it belated pangs of conscience--I never thought of these things when I was in my 20s and I'm not sure what I could or would have done differently. I think these considerations first came home to me when the federal government switched retirement systems from CSRS to FERS and tried to talk legacy folks like myself into making the switch voluntarily. Without running the numbers I knew that the switch would not be a good deal for me--even though I was nearly buried under mortgage and private educations expenses at the time.

At any rate, my comment "triggered" a reader to write a lengthy and thoughtful email that addresses these matters in a big picture way. I've brooded on these issues in a disorganized way over the years, as I'm sure the rest of you have as well. It's about our children and grandchildren.

Here is that email, with some slight editing: