Now that the Fake News Media has lost interest in Donald Trump and his Fascist beliefs, we can get the daily report on how badly Joe is running things, in particular the economic calamity that has resulted from Covid-19.
Of course, it’s a little difficult to promote the idea of an economic slowdown where the unemployment rate is under 5 percent, ditto when salaried, blue-collar workers are seeing their take-home pay going up.
One of the colleges near me has been advertising a master’s degree in what they call – ready? – ‘creative non-fiction writing.’ This is obviously a degree designed to attract students who want to work for the Fake News Media, which has lost virtually any concern with reporting, as opposed to embellishing the news.
Let’s take inflation, which is robbing everyone of money that otherwise could be spent on things we really need. Yesterday I drove past a local supermarket advertising 30 cans of Bud Lite for $29.95. A can of beer for a buck? That’s inflation?
How about the jump in new car prices which was a primary factor in pushing the overall inflation rate in 2021 to 7.5 per cent? What happened is simply this: as the economy improved from 2020 and demand for new cars also improved, production of cars lagged behind because of a shortage of chips. Why is there a shortage of chips? Because everyone above the age of five now has their own handheld device.
So, the shortage of new cars and the consequent price increases wasn’t a function of a ‘bad’ economy, it reflected ever-increasing demand for consumer products which all use the same kinds of components, so something in the supply chain is going to give.
Oh! That’s the big one. The so-called supply chain ‘crisis.’ Talk about manufactured news, or creative, non-fiction reportage, which is the same thing.
Take a walk through your local supermarket on a Friday afternoon when the weather report has a big storm that will hit the next day. Notice not only that the store is mobbed, but how everyone is pushing a cart loaded with toilet paper, milk (if they have young kids), bottled water, and everything else which are considered essential items even though the snow will all be plowed by the time the kids have to go back to school the following week.
This is the kind of ‘panic’ buying that occurred when people were convinced that the ‘king flu’ would force them to stay inside for weeks, if not months. I even ordered some toilet paper from China, just to see how long it would take to arrive. It took two weeks, but it wasn’t the soft stuff that Americans require in order to wipe their asses.
Know why there was a ‘crisis’ in the supply of consumer goods? Because Americans, virus, or no virus, simply can’t stop buying all the crap they love to buy. Know what’s happened to the level of consumer expenditures since the ‘Chinese flu’ arrived? It’s increased by 25 percent! No wonder the number of containers unloaded in Southern California ports jumped from 4.9 million in 2020 to more than 10 million in 2021. Boy – talk about a crisis.
About ten minutes from my house is a titty bar which has been in business for over 20 years. Because that’s how long I have been driving past Anthony’s Dance Club on my way to work.
The joint shut down last year and stayed closed for at least six months. Last week I happened to drive past the place not right after work, but around 7 P.M. at night. Not a weekend night, mind you. It was a Thursday night.
The parking lot, which has room for at least 60 cars and small trucks, was completely filled. They were parking on the shoulder of the road because there wasn’t a single off-road space to be had.
Now you may not think that we can get a pretty accurate view of today’s economy by looking at the parking situation in front of Anthony’s Dance Club (a.k.a., Anthony’s Gentleman’s Club) or by noticing that a can of beer is still under a buck. But I disagree.
What I think Joe needs to do is hire some of these kids who get a master’s degree in creative, non-fiction writing and put them to work priming the communications pump for 2022.
As we said back in 1992, it’s the economy stupid. Except this time around the economy is hardly standing still.