The Fed Plan To Return Trump to the White House
Pair this with the next article so it makes more sense. The Federal Reserve held rates this week saying that inflation is still too hot to take any chances with interest rates. So Powell is going to keep the pressure on the consumer to slow the fuck down. As we’ve said a million times before, if the consumer is still under extreme pressure and living paycheck to paycheck by the election, it’s Trump’s to have. There’s still no objective or rational talk about the billions in excess profits corporations have made since the pandemic. And no talk (yet) about the article below that reveals some staggering news about collusion. For now, here’s a highlight from the NYT coverage of Powell’s presser.
From the article:
“Here are a few key takeaways from Powell’s press conference.
“The Fed still thinks that its next move will be a rate cut, and Powell clearly said that further rate increases are ‘unlikely.’
“Still, it is not clear how much the Fed will manage to cut rates this year. Inflation is cooling more slowly than officials had expected.
“Powell avoided commenting on whether three rate cuts are still possible this year: That was the Fed’s forecast as of March, but investors now expect fewer reductions.
“Powell said that he thinks that the current rate setting is weighing on the economy, and that it will continue to do so over time.
“The upshot? We may be headed for a longer period of high rates. For consumers, that means mortgages and credit card rates could stay pricey for a while.”
New York Times: Fed Holds Rates, Noting ‘Lack of Further Progress’ on Inflation
Massive News About Big Oil Collusion
Matt Stoller has been pumping out the best information on corporate price gouging and inflation since the beginning of the post-pandemic inflation crisis. While pundits and politicians were blaming supply chains and war (some validity to both but only to a certain extent) Stoller was doing the hard math to correlate the explosion in corporate profits to consumer price increases. Well, he’s doing it again and now there’s a lawsuit and investigation by the FTC that proves his theory on Big Oil. Outstanding work by Stoller and maddening as hell. Of course, I have Unf*cker Dan M in my head saying, “told you we need unf*ck transportation.”
From the article:
“It's pretty clear that in 2021 and 2022, the industry did fantastically well, with the ‘the top 25 companies [making] more than $205 billion in profits in 2021,’ and an ‘even more astounding’ amount in 2022. Of course, not all profits are due to price-fixing, but $205 billion is just the top 25, not the whole industry. And profits got much much better the next year. So let’s layer on a rough guess of a $200 billion increase in profits in 2021 that Scott Sheffield implies, which is 27% of the total corporate profit increase that year. That’s a pretty astounding amount, more than a quarter of the total inflationary increase being a result purely of a price-fixing scheme.”
BIG by Matt Stoller: An Oil Price-Fixing Conspiracy Caused 27% of All Inflation in 2021
High There!
At least there’s some good news. Can’t wait to launch our weed line. That’s the game changer we need.
From the article:
“‘If today’s reporting proves true, we will be one step closer to ending the failed war on drugs,’ Rep. Earl Blumenauer said in an emailed statement obtained by High Times. ‘Marijuana was scheduled more than 50 years ago based on stigma, not science. The American people have made clear in state after state that cannabis legalization is inevitable. The Biden-Harris Administration is listening.’”
High Times: DEA Moves To Reclassify Cannabis Under Schedule III in Historic Move, Report Indicates
