Economic and Debate News

Joe Biden should take a cognitive and drug test.  The public is entitled to know what he is being injected with to try to keep him halfway alert and aware, although whatever it is didn’t work last night.  Trump is an egomaniacal asshole but at least his policies are sane and good for the country and our standard of living.  Biden is a senile puppet used by the dark, malevolent forces of pro(re)gressivism who secretly are funded by and serve the interests of China, Russia and whacked Islamists.  Pretty obvious choice to me, regardless of debates.  And we certainly didn’t learn anything about what either person would actually do if elected.

The US debt auctions so far this week have been very, very large, around $200 billion, but in shorter term instruments so relatively successful.  Interest rates on the newly issued debt remains fairly high, certainly much higher than existed on the debt these new notes are replacing.

The latest revision to the 2024 first quarter GDP performance was out yesterday.  It showed slightly better growth, which was very tepid, but also a revision downward on consumer spending and a revision upward on inflation, which anyone who buys groceries knows is still omnipresent.  (BEA Release)

And while the headlines say that the inflation report today showed price increases are slowing, it really didn’t in the areas that matter to people, like housing costs, food, gas and most of all health care, which as I have predicted, is showing large increases as oligopoly providers and health plans just raise prices, rather than doing anything to control costs, like dismantle DEI bureaucracies and stop excessive compensation to incompetent managers.  Health care is now the single largest contributor to inflation.  (BEA Release)