Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, among others, says inflation is largely being caused not by wage growth but by excess profits due to price gouging enabled by monopoly power. Since this country almost completely stopped enforcing antitrust laws in the 1980s, much of our free market has devolved into a set of oligopolies, and corporate profits are at an 80-year high.
Nothing more important or meaningful than "Grandparent duty!" Enjoy every moment, including the skinned knees, and don't make the same mistake we made: going to the donut shop for breakfast! Thanks for all your time and wisdom.
Dec 3, 2022·edited Dec 3, 2022Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
As Democrats keep the government functioning despite the clown show in the GOP, they must also find a way to use this moment to change the popular narrative that really came to prominence with Reagan. I'm referring to a story about hard-working Americans who deserve to keep their hard-won earnings, rather than contribute to a government that just stands between them and their desire for law and order and good Christian values. They are able to push this myth in the face of rising inequality and the obvious corruption of their leaders and heroes because of the right wing media machine, which Democrats and Independents must find a way to counter.
It seems to me that without that media bubble, normal and decent Americans would see through the economic hogwash as we witness the destructive consequences of concentrating wealth in the hands of Elon, Kanye, and Trump. Oh, and the Murdochs, Kochs, Sacklers, Mercers, Peter Thiel, and so on, in contrast to the increasing struggles of ordinary people.
The promotion of violence, through hateful rhetoric, and enabled by refusing to enact sensible gun laws would be a political problem without the constant drumbeat of fear that Tucker's audience and others are hearing. I just don't think we could be at this level of open misogyny, anti-semitism, and racism if we weren't so isolated both in our media consumption and in our physical sorting into communities of the like-minded.
I don't know how Democrats change the narrative, but at this point of complete and public moral collapse on the part of the Republicans, we have to find a way. Some people working on this: Simon Rosenberg at NDN has a presentation entitled "With Democrats, Things Get Better" that lays out an economic counter-argument to the GOP lies. https://www.ndn.org/WithDemocrats. The Lincoln Project is starting something they call Resolute Square and (I think) bringing together a variety of people working in this area, like their never-Trump Republican core, plus Joe Trippi, Molly Jong-Fast and Tara McGowan (I am not sure--you seem to have to join to get very much information---maybe someone else knows more), and there's the Crooked Media group as well as lots of good podcasts. The Bulwark is a great place to find common ground with people well to the right of me, at least, but who reject the current GOP. Supporting the growing independent local news outlets is critical. I am familiar with the Missouri Independent, the MinnPost, and The Minnesota Reformer, but there must be many others. I'm sure there are other efforts out there, but so far a liberal response to the Reagan myth seems to be scattered, underfunded, and unable to gain traction. In the next two years, again WHILE GOVERNING (one of the secrets of the GOP is they don't do that, so they have fewer balls in the air), we must help people see through the wall of Republican lies that so far is much bigger an stronger and harder to overcome than anything Trump did on the southern border.
Good news indeed! On another note I’m baffled by the likes of Newt Gingrich’s comments praising Pres. Biden. Such a turnaround and of course I’m suspicious. Any thoughts?
One piece that struck me this week was Robert’s mentioning the awful reporting from Rolling Stone on DeSantis’ silence on all the antisemitic talk from GOP influencers. It is quite disheartening to see people in media outlets treat callous bigotry and hatred with such kid gloves. A big example of this is that white supremacists love being called white nationalists as most of the media call them, because it is a euphemism for white supremacy. Same thing with calling the January 6th attackers “rioters” because that implies it was a spontaneous misdeed on that day instead of a planned terrorist attack. If people who mean such harm to others in our society get such easy treatment then it’s no wonder we’re fighting off fascism every election cycle.
Accountability is starting to happen and while it may have taken longer than we all wanted or expected it is here and working. Putting aside Trump and his multiple criminal investigations there is the J6th hearings, convictions and the forthcoming report; the Alex Jones conviction, the Stewart Rhodes Oath Keeper conviction, the ordering of Pat Cipollone testimony and various subpoenas for John Eastman, Lindsey Graham and Sidney Powell to testify under oath. Several indictments are expected over the next few months and some of those indicted may go to jail. As each of these criminal convictions occurs it makes it much harder to ignore or dismiss the criminal actions of the Republican Party and their enablers. People are just tired and worn out from all of this drama and the mid terms sent a message that people want to move on. The Biden Administration has done a very aimpressive job and a majority of people know this from first their first hand experience resulting in the Republican attempts to sabotage the Democrats being less effective and creditable.
On a different topic, I would recommend reading It Can't Happen Here, a novel by Sinclair Lewis, written in 1935. Eerily apt to the present. (It describes the rise of a US dictator similar to how Adolf Hitler gained power.)
Love the babysitting: or as I recently did for my 15 and 18 year old grand-kid driving. My favorite activities were cooking ( I live in a retirement community) so making a yummy winter stew is a treat for me... and taking my grandson out for a fish meal : his family don't eat fish and he loves fish. Sometimes I have cooked Bronzini or halibut, a real treat . Enjoy.
Let us not buy the popular myth that wages are behind today's inflation. Fed Chairman Powell most recently said that rising wages have NOT been the primary driver of the current run up in prices but he "expected that they would be". Would be...
IMO, the Fed left interest rates too low for much too long. Gifting the big banks relatively free money to profit from. Savers have been punished and pushed into equity investments they don't understand and/or don't have the risk capacity for.
Driving them up now will do nothing to solve the true causes of today's inflation: supply chain disruption (here comes a lot more of that soon), the war ON Ukraine (grain is priced by world supplies), and of course the one most news outlets continue to ignore - the big one. Corporate profiteering. Near monopolies are raising price NOT because of wage issues, but under the cover of "inflation publicity" they simply can get away with it.
There are CEOs on record in quarterly earnings reports who BOAST of this. But the media keeps flapping their jaws about the impact of wages and the Fed is trying hard but may need to try harder, blah, blah, blah. It is BS.
Americans are getting fleeced. Please read Robert Reich who can explain it much better than I can. Chairman Powell is in a la la land. He thinks if he follows the Volcker approach and takes a sledge hammer to the economy, it will solve the pricing problem. But he needs to get out of his economic silo and do the uncool thing: call out the corporate greed for what it is. What kind of society watches its people suffer greatly while major companies record some of the highest profits in history? Companies are rewarding their shareholders with resources that belong to the public. It is theft. It is as simple as that.
And there is more. On a recent thread over at LFAA, a certain personality said that "Biden had put a knife into the fossil fuel industry" and that was causing inflation. Yikes. Talk about buying BS propaganda. This administration has done nothing to restrict the major oil and gas producers from expanding production. The companies themselves have restrained expanding supply - for the specific purpose of keeping prices high! Where is the publicity around that? Instead the TV mouthpieces keep repeating the false charges that a President (any President) is causing prices at the pump to go up. It bogles the minds of those of us who read and want to see the full truth on display.
I would like to have a conversation about a serious threat to Democracy that receives little or no attention. Yet it underlines some of the most important issues of our time: the growing anti-science mindset, Covid denialism, conspiracy theories like the Stolen Election and social media control. At the root is the shockingly low level of reading comprehension in the US. The average American has a literacy level of less than the sixth grade. That's right! This means an inability to understand anything but the most black and white facts and an appeal to authority figures for guidance (preachers, cult leaders or the husband in many households where women let the menfolk digest the news and tell them what to think). Complex issues involving conflicting claims on the truth and critical thinking are the hardest for millions to deal with. This is greatly exaggerated by the dominance of social media and info overload. Insignificant information is being aggressively promulgated to the detriment of our society. We cannot ignore this insidious peril.
A bit off topic, but, if you know someone on a fixed income or otherwise struggling with groceries you could offer to take them as a guest to your membership club. Although you may be the only one allowed to make the actual purchase, you can ask the cashier to subtotal between yours and your guests items; figure it out later.
A single person household may only need to do this a few times a year, purchasing to stock up on non-perishables. It could make a big difference for them.
"A federal judge imposed monetary penalties (“sanctions”) against Kari Lake’s lawyers—including Alan Dershowitz—for making “false, misleading, and unsupported factual assertions.....” It's about time! The whole bunch of 'em!
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, among others, says inflation is largely being caused not by wage growth but by excess profits due to price gouging enabled by monopoly power. Since this country almost completely stopped enforcing antitrust laws in the 1980s, much of our free market has devolved into a set of oligopolies, and corporate profits are at an 80-year high.
Dershowitz has certainly done a stellar job over the past 30 years of self-trashing his reputation.
Nothing more important or meaningful than "Grandparent duty!" Enjoy every moment, including the skinned knees, and don't make the same mistake we made: going to the donut shop for breakfast! Thanks for all your time and wisdom.
As Democrats keep the government functioning despite the clown show in the GOP, they must also find a way to use this moment to change the popular narrative that really came to prominence with Reagan. I'm referring to a story about hard-working Americans who deserve to keep their hard-won earnings, rather than contribute to a government that just stands between them and their desire for law and order and good Christian values. They are able to push this myth in the face of rising inequality and the obvious corruption of their leaders and heroes because of the right wing media machine, which Democrats and Independents must find a way to counter.
It seems to me that without that media bubble, normal and decent Americans would see through the economic hogwash as we witness the destructive consequences of concentrating wealth in the hands of Elon, Kanye, and Trump. Oh, and the Murdochs, Kochs, Sacklers, Mercers, Peter Thiel, and so on, in contrast to the increasing struggles of ordinary people.
The promotion of violence, through hateful rhetoric, and enabled by refusing to enact sensible gun laws would be a political problem without the constant drumbeat of fear that Tucker's audience and others are hearing. I just don't think we could be at this level of open misogyny, anti-semitism, and racism if we weren't so isolated both in our media consumption and in our physical sorting into communities of the like-minded.
I don't know how Democrats change the narrative, but at this point of complete and public moral collapse on the part of the Republicans, we have to find a way. Some people working on this: Simon Rosenberg at NDN has a presentation entitled "With Democrats, Things Get Better" that lays out an economic counter-argument to the GOP lies. https://www.ndn.org/WithDemocrats. The Lincoln Project is starting something they call Resolute Square and (I think) bringing together a variety of people working in this area, like their never-Trump Republican core, plus Joe Trippi, Molly Jong-Fast and Tara McGowan (I am not sure--you seem to have to join to get very much information---maybe someone else knows more), and there's the Crooked Media group as well as lots of good podcasts. The Bulwark is a great place to find common ground with people well to the right of me, at least, but who reject the current GOP. Supporting the growing independent local news outlets is critical. I am familiar with the Missouri Independent, the MinnPost, and The Minnesota Reformer, but there must be many others. I'm sure there are other efforts out there, but so far a liberal response to the Reagan myth seems to be scattered, underfunded, and unable to gain traction. In the next two years, again WHILE GOVERNING (one of the secrets of the GOP is they don't do that, so they have fewer balls in the air), we must help people see through the wall of Republican lies that so far is much bigger an stronger and harder to overcome than anything Trump did on the southern border.
Good news indeed! On another note I’m baffled by the likes of Newt Gingrich’s comments praising Pres. Biden. Such a turnaround and of course I’m suspicious. Any thoughts?
One piece that struck me this week was Robert’s mentioning the awful reporting from Rolling Stone on DeSantis’ silence on all the antisemitic talk from GOP influencers. It is quite disheartening to see people in media outlets treat callous bigotry and hatred with such kid gloves. A big example of this is that white supremacists love being called white nationalists as most of the media call them, because it is a euphemism for white supremacy. Same thing with calling the January 6th attackers “rioters” because that implies it was a spontaneous misdeed on that day instead of a planned terrorist attack. If people who mean such harm to others in our society get such easy treatment then it’s no wonder we’re fighting off fascism every election cycle.
Accountability is starting to happen and while it may have taken longer than we all wanted or expected it is here and working. Putting aside Trump and his multiple criminal investigations there is the J6th hearings, convictions and the forthcoming report; the Alex Jones conviction, the Stewart Rhodes Oath Keeper conviction, the ordering of Pat Cipollone testimony and various subpoenas for John Eastman, Lindsey Graham and Sidney Powell to testify under oath. Several indictments are expected over the next few months and some of those indicted may go to jail. As each of these criminal convictions occurs it makes it much harder to ignore or dismiss the criminal actions of the Republican Party and their enablers. People are just tired and worn out from all of this drama and the mid terms sent a message that people want to move on. The Biden Administration has done a very aimpressive job and a majority of people know this from first their first hand experience resulting in the Republican attempts to sabotage the Democrats being less effective and creditable.
Have fun with the children! (Aaaah)
Good article in the Guardian about N. Gingrich's review of the Biden White House I thought I'd pass along...https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/03/newt-gingrich-republicans-joe-biden-winning
On a different topic, I would recommend reading It Can't Happen Here, a novel by Sinclair Lewis, written in 1935. Eerily apt to the present. (It describes the rise of a US dictator similar to how Adolf Hitler gained power.)
V. R. a concerned northern neighbour. (Canadian)
Love the babysitting: or as I recently did for my 15 and 18 year old grand-kid driving. My favorite activities were cooking ( I live in a retirement community) so making a yummy winter stew is a treat for me... and taking my grandson out for a fish meal : his family don't eat fish and he loves fish. Sometimes I have cooked Bronzini or halibut, a real treat . Enjoy.
Let us not buy the popular myth that wages are behind today's inflation. Fed Chairman Powell most recently said that rising wages have NOT been the primary driver of the current run up in prices but he "expected that they would be". Would be...
IMO, the Fed left interest rates too low for much too long. Gifting the big banks relatively free money to profit from. Savers have been punished and pushed into equity investments they don't understand and/or don't have the risk capacity for.
Driving them up now will do nothing to solve the true causes of today's inflation: supply chain disruption (here comes a lot more of that soon), the war ON Ukraine (grain is priced by world supplies), and of course the one most news outlets continue to ignore - the big one. Corporate profiteering. Near monopolies are raising price NOT because of wage issues, but under the cover of "inflation publicity" they simply can get away with it.
There are CEOs on record in quarterly earnings reports who BOAST of this. But the media keeps flapping their jaws about the impact of wages and the Fed is trying hard but may need to try harder, blah, blah, blah. It is BS.
Americans are getting fleeced. Please read Robert Reich who can explain it much better than I can. Chairman Powell is in a la la land. He thinks if he follows the Volcker approach and takes a sledge hammer to the economy, it will solve the pricing problem. But he needs to get out of his economic silo and do the uncool thing: call out the corporate greed for what it is. What kind of society watches its people suffer greatly while major companies record some of the highest profits in history? Companies are rewarding their shareholders with resources that belong to the public. It is theft. It is as simple as that.
And there is more. On a recent thread over at LFAA, a certain personality said that "Biden had put a knife into the fossil fuel industry" and that was causing inflation. Yikes. Talk about buying BS propaganda. This administration has done nothing to restrict the major oil and gas producers from expanding production. The companies themselves have restrained expanding supply - for the specific purpose of keeping prices high! Where is the publicity around that? Instead the TV mouthpieces keep repeating the false charges that a President (any President) is causing prices at the pump to go up. It bogles the minds of those of us who read and want to see the full truth on display.
I see lots of laughs and hugs for the Hubbells this weekend...what fun!
Have fun with the grandkids and thanks for everything you do .
I would like to have a conversation about a serious threat to Democracy that receives little or no attention. Yet it underlines some of the most important issues of our time: the growing anti-science mindset, Covid denialism, conspiracy theories like the Stolen Election and social media control. At the root is the shockingly low level of reading comprehension in the US. The average American has a literacy level of less than the sixth grade. That's right! This means an inability to understand anything but the most black and white facts and an appeal to authority figures for guidance (preachers, cult leaders or the husband in many households where women let the menfolk digest the news and tell them what to think). Complex issues involving conflicting claims on the truth and critical thinking are the hardest for millions to deal with. This is greatly exaggerated by the dominance of social media and info overload. Insignificant information is being aggressively promulgated to the detriment of our society. We cannot ignore this insidious peril.
A bit off topic, but, if you know someone on a fixed income or otherwise struggling with groceries you could offer to take them as a guest to your membership club. Although you may be the only one allowed to make the actual purchase, you can ask the cashier to subtotal between yours and your guests items; figure it out later.
A single person household may only need to do this a few times a year, purchasing to stock up on non-perishables. It could make a big difference for them.
"A federal judge imposed monetary penalties (“sanctions”) against Kari Lake’s lawyers—including Alan Dershowitz—for making “false, misleading, and unsupported factual assertions.....” It's about time! The whole bunch of 'em!