After the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that prices rose in October and are currently hovering at notable heights, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and a jolly band of Republicans glommed on to the news, proclaiming with certainty that the inflationary spike is here to stay.
Paul Krugman addresses the main argument that inflation is not a consequence of current or anticipated US fiscal policy and is likely a transitory, albeit rather painful, consequence of pandemic supply chain disruptions but companies have clearly succeeded in passing the increased costs along as their profits attest so we’ll need to see how consumers deal with this if the situation endures much longer. Remember that a majority of the US economy is related to consumption so this is not a small thing.
Right now I could just wish that news media reported inflation and the economy generally better than they do: really most of the reporting is so bad the perps should be arrested for disturbing the peace.
Newsreaders are a lot easier to train and have a lot better “ROI” than investigative journalists. It’s like the value brought in by the marketing department at a company vs. the costs of the engineering department.
Clearly we need to be expanding the budget for newsreaders and constraining the profligate costs of the journalists.
Why does the Right, and Joe Manchin, not understand that the whole entire world, is dealing with a -say it with me-Fucking Global Pandemic? Factories have been shut down, those that produce raw materials have been shut down-or had limited operations.
This was like my electricity last night, blipping on and off, this was like rolling blackouts for almost 24 months.
So molotov cocktail guy enters guilty plea, claims that the gas in the mason jars was old, so he didn’t think that they’d cause a fire. Who makes molotov cocktails years ago, and leaves them sitting around the garage.
Did realize that they caught this guy while looking for the person who left pipe bombs, and they still haven’t been found.
The way that Manchin uses it, “inflation” is the off-the-shelf nonsense response to questions about any bill that he wants to reduce or doesn’t want to pass, and for whatever real reason he might have. To my mind the question he doesn’t want to address is who he sees as being his real constituency.
Give the guy grudging credit, Manchin does understand how to suck the most clout out of being the single majority vote.
I bought my house 30 years ago for $65,000, now it’s nearly paid off and allegedly worth $350,000. I don’t see folks complaining about that…
…until the housing bubble bursts and it drops back down to $180,000.
The word of the week among lazy journalists was clearly “inflation.” Any guesses what it will be next week?
And 18 months ago the oil companies were actually paying to unload the oil in their tankers. The price bottomed out at (seriously ) negative $37.63 a barrel.(April 20, 2020 futures market). So if you had a place to put it, they would pay you $37 and change per barrel to take it! Six months later when per barrel price returned to a still cheap $50 in a presidential election no one was saying “Oil Prices Have Increased 300% !!!”
We could also say that oil is currently 1/2 the price of its peak during the 2nd Bush administration, and be factually correct.
Moral of Story…Extraordinary circumstances are seldom well served by Extraordinary rhetoric.
Take 10 deep breaths…
FEAR MONGERING…observe how many stories are now driven by fear ,revenge rhetoric by transparent demagogues…where is the salient analysis when we need it? overriding message delivered daily…get in the fetal position in your basement…none of these issues can be overcome…it is sickening.
Bannon.
Imagine if Biden had not won and we had lost one or both Chambers of Congress.
The fear mongering is led and staffed by Team Trump and our very own $$$$$$$$$ people.
I am saying that the GOP is an incredibly dangerous organization.
I am saying that the narrative is exactly as you say, for $$$$$$$ reasons
I vividly remember the inflation and high interest of the 70s because I was a kid in the Detroit area. Plus my conservative family hated Jimmy Carter. So I was fed a steady diet of anger and frustration over the two “i” words. And this was before Fox News and talk radio even existed!
Though I don’t know anything about how economics works, I do trust the experts like Paul Krugman who have weighed in on these issues. Yet even I get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I hear that word. It’s unreasonable and unreasoning.
Now imagine not trusting the experts. Imagine living on a steady diet of buzzwords from the MSM or the half-lies and total lies of right wing propaganda.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
I offer you a toast with my 10 cent cup of coffee that I could buy in 1965. 
Democrats are going to have to divert a large part of their resources to messaging. Yes, we will have to deal with some substantive issues, but we also have to communicate with those who can and will listen to us…
The last part is important as well. Many cannot and will not…and that must be taken into consideration.
Younger folks who have save $70,000 before they can even look at houses have been complaining quite bitterly for some time
Fearmongering, I mean conservative policy…
We need another war.
