Fed Official Says There's 'a Lot More Work To Do' To Bring Down Inflation (cnbc.com) 190
Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said Tuesday she expects more interest rate increases ahead, with higher rates to prevail for a while until inflation is subdued. From a report: "I am committed to taking further actions to bring inflation back down to our goal," the central bank official said in remarks prepared for a speech in Florida. "In recent months, we've seen a decline in some measures of inflation but we have a lot more work to do, so I expect the [Federal Open Market Committee] will continue raising interest rates to tighten monetary policy." The FOMC has increased the Fed's benchmark borrowing rate seven times since March 2022, for a total of 4.25 percentage points.
Last week, minutes from the committee's December meeting indicated that most members were on board with additional hikes in 2023, likely taking the fed funds rate slightly above 5%. Reflecting the consensus at that meeting, Bowman said she sees elevated rates holding until there are "compelling signs that inflation and has peaked and for more consistent indications that inflation is on a downward path" before easing up on restrictive monetary policy. "I expect that once we achieve a sufficiently restrictive federal funds rate, it will need to remain at that level for some time in order to restore price stability, which will in turn help to create conditions that support a sustainably strong labor market," she said.
Last week, minutes from the committee's December meeting indicated that most members were on board with additional hikes in 2023, likely taking the fed funds rate slightly above 5%. Reflecting the consensus at that meeting, Bowman said she sees elevated rates holding until there are "compelling signs that inflation and has peaked and for more consistent indications that inflation is on a downward path" before easing up on restrictive monetary policy. "I expect that once we achieve a sufficiently restrictive federal funds rate, it will need to remain at that level for some time in order to restore price stability, which will in turn help to create conditions that support a sustainably strong labor market," she said.
How much would it go down if Russia exits Ukraine? (Score:5, Insightful)
Probably Not Much (Score:5, Informative)
The prices of crude oil and natural gas were trending higher than pre-pandemic levels before Russia invaded Ukraine. Natural gas, in particular, was twice as much in the fall and winter of 2021/2022.
Meanwhile, the federal reserve doubled the money supply during the pandemic, so that the federal government can hand that money directly out to consumers.
Which is more inflationary?
Re:Probably Not Much (Score:5, Informative)
*cough*
U.S. natgas output to hit record high in 2023, demand to fall [reuters.com]
"U.S. crude oil production in our forecast averages 11.7 million b/d in 2022 and 12.4 million b/d in 2023, which would surpass the record high set in 2019." [eia.gov]
Re: (Score:3)
"Guy who thinks the President has a big SHIP GAS button on his desk"
Strategic reserve? Thats two pivots off the point! Not a good look.
Re: (Score:2)
Is he sending it all overseas or did we quit pumping it, it can't be both?
Re: (Score:2)
That's how America works right? The government owns all the oil?
Re:Probably Not Much (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone who tells you that Trump or Biden or any other state leader is solely responsible for inflation because they printed money, is lying to you.
It's far from the only factor, but it's, by a *wide* margin, the primary one. Oil prices hit record highs in 2007-2008, and inflation held around 2-3%, spiking to 5% for a few months. In the last two years the US created more money than during the entire 10 year project of quantitative easing after the 2008 financial meltdown. And, instead of handing that money to banks to shore up their balance sheets, they handed it directly to consumers. Keep in mind that last round of money creation is *on top of* the previous ten years of quantitate easing with no increase in interest rates.
The US economy has been *flooded* with liquid money on top of cheap debt for decades at this point. You can't hold interest rates at 2% for years and have a healthy economy. You can't double, then triple, the money supply with no appreciable increase in GDP and have a healthy economy.
Yep, there have been supply chain disruptions. Yep, energy is getting pricey. Yep, there is political turmoil in a chunk of Europe right now. All this stuff happened in the near past and we didn't have 10% inflation. You could blame COIVD, but we didn't have 10% inflation in the thick of the pandemic, either.
Re:Probably Not Much (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Probably Not Much (Score:5, Interesting)
["Printing money" is] far from the only factor, but it's, by a *wide* margin, the primary one.
This is not an agreed upon fact by economists yet. The US money supply roughly quadrupled from 2008 to 2015, and there was no inflation. 2/3 of that growth happened after the recession was over. The common wisdom that an increased money supply will increase inflation has been significantly challenged over the past decade and a half.
The important question is what makes today different than the decade which preceded it. That difference will arguably be the primary driver of inflation, not money printing. Money printing is part of it, and a significant part, but something else apparently needs to happen too for inflation to take hold.
My guesses are reduced immigration and production during Covid, increased shipping costs, and increasing energy and food prices from the war. That plus printing money caused the inflation IMHO. It is probably 5-10 factors, all of which likely wouldn't have caused inflation without the other 4-9 factors in place.
Re:Probably Not Much (Score:4, Interesting)
Getting to some grand theory of everything in economics is going to be hard but the reason we did not see inflation before with money supply growth and do see it now is pretty simple.
The explosive growth in supply from 2008-2015 was there to allow debts be restructured. Yes yes a lot of that bad debt ended up being repaid ultimately not the point here. What matters is where the money went. That money went into capitalization requirements of mega banks. It went into pockets of large investors and retirement funds of boomers where were not yet taking disbursements in super large numbers. It blew asset bubbles on Wall Street and Main Street never saw any of that money sliding over the checkout lane in their local Walmart.
2020 - was different. How was it different? First payout went directly to persons not just to the very wealthy who would just bank it or invest it into some over priced Wall Street asset, and importantly not just to the unemployed/poor but also to people still working who did not need it. It was therefor mad money they were going to spend. They started buying stuff - first anything with a chip in it because that is all anyone could do during lock downs and after other things. That money created a lot of demand - demand that should not have existed because COVID should have cased markets to creator, companies to collapse and unemployment to quadruple but we did not let the market work. Now you have a lot of demand (both pent up and stimi induced) for a fewer goods because production did slow do to COVID policy, and prices started to rise. Rising prices caused/continue to cause people to refuse to work for wages at pre-covid rates, labor demand is strong because of production deficits, so wages go up, which gives companies pricing power since people can pay for those staple-goods with higher wages, which leads to demand for even higher wages, which creates more pricing power......
What people NEED to wrap their heads around is there are really TWO possible routes out of this inflationary cycle.
1) Another huge jump in the wealth gap, transferring the extra dollars away from the middle class to the %1ers who will again side line it.
2) Demand destruction, which can either be driven by less employment or increased taxation (without accompanying spending growth).
There really are no other options - save abandoning the dollar and the BWII system.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, anyone who tells you that inflation (as opposed to things like supply shocks) is the fault of anyone other than those who control the money supply, is either misinformed, or lying to you.
Free-market schools of economics (Austrian mainly, but also Chicago I think) would say that printing money is not the cause of inflation; it is the very definition of it. Or more precisely, expansion of the money supply in excess of the economy's real rate of growth.
Increases in prices of things are never the dir
Re: (Score:2)
I asked the same thing when gas prices spiked in 2003 when we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan .
Re:How much would it go down if Russia exits Ukrai (Score:5, Insightful)
Not as much as was caused by the President creating $2.2T last year.
Never, ever forget that inflation is all about increasing the money supply without increasing the supply of things that you can buy with money. And increasing the money supply by 11% just because you want to spend that much is a textbook case of inflation.
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly this post.
The entire planet basically 'printed money' in order to try and put a band aid on covid.
Now we need to fix that problem. A lot of people got rich from this and now, a lot of middle class and below, who thought they "survived covid ok actually?!" are about to get utterly slammed.
The rich will get richer though, regardless.
Re: (Score:3)
As for the answer as somebody else pointed out not all that much. Joe Biden rather cleverly released a ton of oil from the national reserves at just the right time to tank the price when Russia needed it the most. The result is Biden broke Russia's back and now they're scrambling to get cash to fund their War and selling oil on the Black market at cheap prices.
That rather clever bit of business o
Re: (Score:2)
The goal of all the sanctions and oil price manipulation was to get Russia to stop the invasion and force a diplomatic solution, specifically one where Russia did not annex more territory.
Last I checked Russia is still at war with Ukraine. Is it going well for Russia no, but you cannot call the Biden Administration's sanctions and energy policy a success. Its a failure and its price is a lot of Ukrainian blood, and hungry American children. That is only what your call a success if you are dimwit or liar.
Oh
Re: (Score:2)
And YOU have the right the decide its right to help eh? You get chose parents should struggle to feed their kids, that however many Ukrainian women and children get to die to support your political view point is worth it?
This ISNT WWII, it isn't the cold war. We are not under threat. Russia would never open hostilities the US in really imaginable scenario where don't chose to first involve ourselves in their conflicts given the state of play. This is just you playing gwd, because you have prove your dick is
Re: (Score:2)
Prices always go up much more quickly than they go down. So even if Putin pulls out voluntarily and admits wrongdoing and starts shipping gas and oil at normal prices, it may take years for energy prices to stabilize. The market is disrupted.
Re: How much would it go down if Russia exits Ukra (Score:2)
Almost none of it. Our inflation mostly set in before the invasion. This is the inevitable result of COVID disruptions and the business cycle. Inflation rates have fallen since the war started.
Re:How much would it go down if Russia exits Ukrai (Score:4, Informative)
dunno about stupid americans, but in europe the energy supply disruption and its substitution by other sources (like e.g. american liquified gas) is being felt quite severely in the form of generalized inflation. it doesn't look good, your wars aren't cheap and someone has to pay for them.
Re:How much would it go down if Russia exits Ukrai (Score:4, Interesting)
The common man suffers and the establishment prospers off weapons sales and spoils of war. How do you think the loans to Ukraine will be paid back? European banks are going to pillage Ukraine.
Re: (Score:2)
How much of the Ukraine aid is in loans? I've been seeing a lot of free aid.
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, but outside of America they fail to see that all the world's problems are because of Biden and that only our Lord and Savior Trump can return us to the glory days,
Re: (Score:2)
What were the gas prices before Biden took office?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
No but he sure as hell dropped any effort to hold them to any real account for that didn't he...
Re: (Score:2)
Care to explain to an outsider what influence the president of the US has on gas prices?
It seems Americans try to blame everything on either the current or some former president, depending on party affiliation (or rather, who they see as the more incompetent one), but wtf can he actually do about any of these things?
Re: How much would it go down if Russia exits Ukra (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So he's just the scapegoat for everything that corporations do to fleece the population? You elect every 4 years someone to throw dirt at, but you don't give enough of a fuck about it to actually want to change something, you just elect someone else the next time around to throw dirt at?
Weird system. I mean, yeah, kinda satisfying, or at least distracting, but wouldn't it make more sense to just solve the underlying problem?
Re: (Score:2)
Lemme guess, if Biden walked on water, your only comment would be "Some president he is, he can't even swim".
Re: (Score:2)
Ok, what options does he have that he could implement?
Re: (Score:2)
Explain to me how the gas reserve having been cut by less than half since the Ukraine war https://ycharts.com/indicators... [ycharts.com] means Biden has emptied the SPR.
So you don't think we have a global economy? (Score:4, Interesting)
I mean how blind to current events do you have to be to get distracted by Russia of all things and blame in inflation on THAT.
Hmm, it doesn't seem illogical to assume higher demand from Europe in a global oil and gas market would increase prices for fuel in the US as well as global shipping. Also, I didn't blame, I asked. I don't honestly know how to quantify it, but I wouldn't be surprised if our prices were impacted by global events especially ones that are impacting some of our biggest trading partners quite severely. I know the price of meat, especially beef, in the US skyrocketed rather suddenly a few years before COVID due to the Chinese market developing a taste for US beef. So why is it so preposterous to question if increased European demand for fuel, particularly in Europe could lead to an increase in fuel and shipping costs?
Re: How much would it go down if Russia exits Ukra (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
*cough*
U.S. natgas output to hit record high in 2023, demand to fall [reuters.com]
"U.S. crude oil production in our forecast averages 11.7 million b/d in 2022 and 12.4 million b/d in 2023, which would surpass the record high set in 2019." [eia.gov]
Re: (Score:2)
Costs going up, shifts the optimum price for maximum profit up, shifts the prices up, shifts inflation up.
Don't let your sound money idealism make you completely blind to common sense, there's more than one way to push prices up.
Re: (Score:2)
Notice the other way is to lower inflation is to raise unemployment.
PS they are not firing upper management.
CEO gets a raise of triple their salary and that is ok, but to give the average person a raise, that causes inflation.
Re: (Score:2)
You are exaggerating. Here's another analysis. Say the CEO earns 10x as much as an average worker, and the company has 1000 workers. (In a small company the CEO might not be the most highly paid compared to an expert engineer--they need to retain talent!)
In this example, giving the CEO a bonus of 50% would be equivalent to firing 5 people. But wait! Most of that bonus was contractually negotiated. It's not a gift but part of his salary. So let's say the company gives him an actual non-required bonus of 20%.
Re: (Score:2)
p.s., companies do fire upper management. You could call it thinning the herd, making a flatter hierarchy. It starts when the rank and file (and the CEO) ask, "Do we really need so many managers?"
Re:How much would it go down if Russia exits Ukrai (Score:4, Insightful)
it is absolutely adorable that your estimate starts with CEOs only making 10x as much as an average worker. Maybe 60 years ago... ...but definitely not any time since the 80's. [bloomberg.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Are you seriously suggesting nationalizing natural resources in the US?
Yes, it worked for Greece and would work for the USA as well. Putting natural resources in the hands of Big Business oligarchs is by definition A Bad Thing (TM).
Re:How much would it go down if Russia exits Ukrai (Score:4, Informative)
I know this will be tricky for you to understand, but try ok? [eia.gov]
The key point is that America is both an exporter and an importer of oil, and "energy independence" is not a real thing.
It's going to get worse again. (Score:3, Informative)
China is having a nasty Covid flare-up that's disrupting the supply chain again. Since a very large proportion of US consumer goods are made in China, US stores will end up raising prices even more.
Thus, practice blaming your favorite political foes so all your blame memes are lined up and ready to fire off into the Webtubes when it happens...
Re: (Score:2)
I get the impression that most voters think like that.
Re: (Score:2)
The MOAB is a mere firecracker next to Yellowstone. I think you'd need Tsar Bomba or better to have a reasonable chance of triggering it, and even that might not work because it erupts from a deep magma pool. The Earth "decides" when that pool melts enough crust to break through--miles and miles of it. There have been earthquakes in the range of 6 to7 around Yellowstone and it hasn't gone off. I don't think any man-made event has ever released that much energy.
I think maybe we could push Yellowstone ove
Audit (Score:2)
Re: Audit (Score:4, Interesting)
Good luck with that. https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Wow still "Audit the Fed" folks still around.
It's become mythical at this point. Be glad it never happens because no matter what the "audit" (whatever that means, there's really nothing the Fed does that Congress doesn't have access to) will never meet the wild expectations people have put on it.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, then if they aren't hiding anything, what's the problem? Open them damn books.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure half the world would love to see what's in there, agreed, open the books!
Prices for eggs are way up (Score:2)
I was paying $3.99 for a dozen jumbos a few months back. Now they are $6.29. Organic is even higher.
Re:Prices for eggs are way up (Score:4, Insightful)
Egg prices are more due to the bird flu issues, less general inflation.
(Some regions don't even have sufficient eggs for the market.)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Nope, 10s of millions of chickens have been killed due to bird flu.
Source: I live in Nebraska.
Good bot, nice try...
Re:Prices for eggs are way up (Score:4, Insightful)
There is X demand for eggs but supply is less than the demand. In an unregulated market this means the price for eggs can be raised because buyers are willing to pay it, thus inflation which is nothing more than rising prices no matter the reason.
Also since when is thousands and millions of chickens in consolidated breeding barns, pumped full of feed and medications, pumping out millions of eggs a day in an industrial process "in nature"?
The market is incredibly well regulated (Score:2)
As for eggs though we let the regulations around chickens slip a bit and we had
Re: (Score:2)
Listen to the city boy blathering about things outside his realm.
You pull 50+ million chickens out of the production facilities, then there's definitely an impact to supply, but no change to demand, so prices naturally rise.
Ain't nothing complicated, boy, and there ain't no conspiracy here, slicker...
Re: (Score:2)
His problem is not being a city boy he's just a russian/chinese troll.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Prove your statistic actually inflates the price of eggs.
According to my research, chicken eggs come from chickens [wikipedia.org] (however which came first is still a mystery).
Re: (Score:2)
Are you really trying to claim that the economic princables of supply and demand and their incredibly well understand effects on pricing don't exist?
Re:Prices for eggs are way up (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Holy... and I thought ours are insane for charging 35 cents an egg.
The primary cause of inflation is fiat money (Score:3, Funny)
https://news.stanford.edu/2022... [stanford.edu]
They don't get it (Score:2)
They are doubling down on ruining people's lives because of their flawed logic. It seems like inflation is getting even worse every time they increase interest rates. Increasing interest rates' primary effect is to eliminate jobs, which in a best case moves them overseas (hey, at least some Chinese kid will have a job.) In the worst case it fucks up quality of life for everyone permanently and unrecoverably. It's better that everyone have jobs than for prices to be a bit lower. They're jumping from the fryi
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Real GDP was growing in the 70s while the Fed seesaw'ed. Volcker came into a nicely functioning economy which despite high inflation had kept productivity high, the supply shock ending gave him the room to turn inflation around without driving the economy into a full blown depression ... that option earlier had likely simply not been on the table, nor is it now.
The debt overhang for the lower and middle classes now is nothing like the 70s and 80s, the consumer class can't survive on the interest rates from
Re: (Score:2)
The debt overhang for the lower and middle classes now is nothing like the 70s and 80s, the consumer class can't survive on the interest rates from then.
You're just showing the the economy is more dependent on interest rates. And they wont need to be raised to 70's & 80's level this time to have the same effect they did back then.
Re: (Score:2)
They are doubling down on ruining people's lives because of their flawed logic. It seems like inflation is getting even worse every time they increase interest rates.
Ruining whose lives? The investor class spent the pandemic going bonkers on bullshit tech stocks, crypto, NFT, ad nausea while buying up housing on the back of cheap $$$ while everyone else gets poorer?
Increasing interest rates' primary effect is to eliminate jobs, which in a best case moves them overseas (hey, at least some Chinese kid will have a job.) In the worst case it fucks up quality of life for everyone permanently and unrecoverably.
It reduces buying power which reduces prices as we are seeing materialize with declining home prices.
It's better that everyone have jobs than for prices to be a bit lower.
Presently there are millions more positions remaining unfilled than people exist to fill them. Not everyone having a job means there can at least be a reasonable reserve labor market to balance interests. E
Re: (Score:2)
The "investor class" as you label it... well, not too wrongly, well, that class has a huge problem: Nothing worthwhile to invest in. Seriously, I'm sitting on a pile of money here (actually, on a lot of real estate) that isn't gaining any interest (actually, and quite concerningly, it costs me more money than it gets me) and I'm quite desperately looking for something to throw my money at that could net some revenue. Problem: There ain't nothing.
An economy needs two things to function. On one side, a produc
Re: (Score:2)
Increasing interest rates' primary effect is to eliminate jobs,
I believe the intention is to decrease (excessive) demand in the economy as whole, unemployment is one way to effectively measure that.
The Fed is seeing a lag in their news feed (Score:2)
Inflation was last reported to be at ~2%. The job market remains strong.
Which country's statistics are people at the Fed looking at? It sure seems that the Fed chairman won't be satisfied until he causes a recession. Or worse.
Re: (Score:2)
Inflation was last reported to be at ~2%. The job market remains strong.
Which country's statistics are people at the Fed looking at? It sure seems that the Fed chairman won't be satisfied until he causes a recession. Or worse.
Oh, come on... the standardly reported annual CPI metric from December 13th indicated something like 7.1%. Core inflation was 6%. We'll get a new number in a few days.
This is a messy econometrics problem and the above metrics aren't great, so I'm interested to hear out claims that it's lower, but "inflation was last reported to be at ~2%" is too vague to evaluated. Which number? When was it measured? What goods? Where are you hearing 2%?
Even if it was measured under 0.17% over a month's span (e.g could be a
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I just realized I said this wrong. I meant 5-month average extrapolated to an annual 2% ( 0 + .1 + .4 + .4 + .1) * (12/5). Technically 2.4%, although I expect the print coming out on Thursday to be somewhere around 0.
Re: (Score:2)
the real work (Score:2)
...would be to
- explain to the president that simply 'printing more money' doesn't actually solve anything.
- cure congress of its penchant for 'spend now, borrow later, cut nothing'
- cure the American public of its expectation that yes they can have everything they want; we are the wealthiest state this planet has ever known, with the poorest people living in incomprehensible luxury and convenience even Kings would have envied even 50 years ago and yet we still can't afford everything we want and live - bot
Just keep up the good work! (Score:2)
If they pass just a few more $740 billion Inflation Reduction Acts I'm sure we'll finally get a wrangle on spending outstripping demand and see inflation plummet.
In Florida, Pandering to Republicans (Score:2)
Meaning (Score:2)
They can't be this stupid (Score:2)
The Fed however is damaging the economy because they think it is the only thing they can do to rein inflation.
Ironically, increasing interest rates thwarts business from creating more supply. Supply has been impeded by tariffs. We allowed shipping containers to be used to build a border wall. We have not addressed a
Re: (Score:2)
Inflation is caused when demand outstrips supply. It is obvious that the problem is supply, not demand.
Well, supply of cheap money over the last few years is the main problem. They are trying to fix it.
how much (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Raising interest rates is not going to bring down the cost of gas, eggs, milk, etc. The prices on those are not indexed to interest rates in any way, shape or form.
The Fed's actual mission is to trigger a recession, and thus reduce upwards pressure on wages, which in turn boosts corporate profits - the Fed's true master.
Corporate profits are already the highest they've been in 70 years [businessinsider.com]. The reason for this is because companies are raising prices on top of inflationary increases because they can. It has little to do with rising wages or supply chain issues or anything else. Businesses are simply raising prices [theguardian.com] to make more profit while using the excuse of (barely) rising wages and inflation to cover their actions.
Re: (Score:2)
You're not wholly incorrect. The Fed is also wrong as to the overall reasoning in some ways as the economy was COMPLETELY reoriented due to C19. Money being spent on say, travel, was suddenly being spent on housing. I'm sure that's not a big deal, it was ONLY US$750-800B in 2019 for domestic US tourism. This has been corrected as people are now filtering back to other activities.
That and a lack of mobility for labor? Yep = Rising wages.
By the
Re: (Score:2)
Raising interest rates can indeed bring down the price of gas, eggs, and milk, but not without a lot of pain.
The idea is that raising interest rates makes it more expensive to borrow, which is what businesses do when they want to expand. If they can't expand (or expand as much) this puts downward pressure on wages, by reducing the demand for workers. If wages go down (or not up as much) people are able to buy fewer things, including gas, eggs, and milk. (They might drive less and eat cheaper foods for examp
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Not at all Putin is horrible, what he is doing is horrible. However that does not automatically make it our obligation to interfere with it. It does not make it right when our people pay the costs.
Re: (Score:2)
Not at all Hitler is horrible, what he is doing is horrible. However that does not automatically make it our obligation to interfere with it. It does not it right when our people pay the costs of shutting down Auschwitz.
Godwin'd.
Re: (Score:2)
So what if Putin comes from the Baltics next? Give up NATO obligations to think of the American children?
Re: (Score:2)
HELL YES.
We should dissolve NATO before that happens but absolutely. Russia isnt going to be a threat to America, its a Europe problem, and it should be Europe that solves it.
Re: (Score:2)
After providing a nuclear umbrella and preventing most of Europe getting its own standoff weapons ... now renegging on the responsibility to maintain the status quo in the situation you set up? Guess European countries would just have to quickly research biological MAD weapons as the NATO status quo collapses, if they can't trust the US why would they trust their neighbors?
Biological weapons can be done faster than nuclear. Harder to control though, might blow back to American children.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Until you fucking DO something about the problem, everything else is pointless.
This!
Of course, we know that NOTHING is going to happen because the "Second Amendment Solution" brigade is too cheap to use their own guns and ammunition and too lazy to get up and actually fight even if someone gave them free gear.
They'd rather sit back and fantasize that John Wayne, Rambo, and the A-Team will rescue them like the princesses they are.
Re: (Score:2)
It's always okay to print money and give it to the rich but if you give just enough money to prevent Mass homelessness and starvation during the greatest crisis we've faced since world War II that's a bridge too far.
I'm not saying you should give money to the rich.
But it's just common sense that one of these things will cause inflation.
1. give lots of money to rich who invest it creating more supply.
2. give lots money to the poor so they spend it creating more demand.
We should still give money to the poor who need it. Just be aware that it causes problems it you go overboard with it.
Re: (Score:2)
and outright election fraud.
Then why aren't Republicans prosecuting those who committed vote fraud [yahoo.com]?
Then we can deal with the money-laundering FTX > Democrat scheme. More fraud.
Really? That's where you're going with crypto fraud?
You fucking Democrat twats. You think the opposition are Fascists, but who's more Fascist -- he who screams FASCIST!!! at the first sign of opposition, or he who actually engages in Fascist tactics?
Yes, yes they are [imgur.com] fascists [imgur.com]. Republicans are checking each and every box of fascism
Re: (Score:2)
We're starting to look a LOT like Weimar Germany.
That's the part I can actually agree with. What's currently going on in the US is pretty much the same shit that went down in Germany back then. People were pissed off with politicians who they saw as the reason for their poverty, and then some goofball came along and promised to get rid of all the parties and establish a regime of order where those corrupt Jews would get what they deserve.
Wonder who's gonna be the Jews this time around.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, at least someone gets it. That's pretty much the gist of it. The past few months have shown people that, hey, I don't have to work a slave job. I can actually work normal hours.
And we can't have that. Where's the fun in having money if you can't use it to make people miserable?