The Sound Of Someone Who Has Never Spent One Day In The Private Sector
By Mitch Berg
During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Biden said the key to controlling inflation is for businesses to “control costshttps://”:for businesses to “control costs”
“We have a choice. One way to fight inflation is to drive down wages and make Americans poorer. I think I have a better idea to fight inflation: Lower your costs, not your wages. Make more cars and semiconductors in America. More infrastructure and innovation in America.”
No word if the department of labor has reclassified “wages“ as “not a cost“ yet.
I will await Paul Krugman‘s word on the costs thst can be lowered by CEO degree.
March 4th, 2022 at 6:17 am
Ha! I happened to catch that part of Pedo Joe’s incoherent rant and the first thing I said when he told businesses to control costs, was that companies would take the easy route to do so, by laying people off or freezing wages. That might not be so easy right now. With labor market being what it is, companies don’t want to lose people. The sad part is that the paying of bribes for votes that the current regime gave out, we have a new generation of freeloaders that don’t want to work.
March 4th, 2022 at 6:37 am
Ol’ Slow Joe is trying to get you to blame business for inflation caused by the government printing too much money.
March 4th, 2022 at 7:04 am
The PR by Biden & co. on his theory that government spending will somehow reduce inflation is unquestioned by the media, of course. It is a great example of how everyday “journalism” is misinformation. If forty top economists agree that Biden’s spending will reduce inflation, well, what do the other top economists think?
The assumption by these economists seems to be that government spending increases economic efficiency.
This is not keynesian economics. It is not any kind of economics I have ever heard of. Marxist, maybe. The idea that the state can direct investment more efficiently than the market is simply wrong.
In the keynesian equation for GDP, government spending has a multiplier < 1 because the money is not spent to get a return on investment.
And I still don't understand how the feds spending money on non federal projects is proper economics. Why should I, a resident of Wisconsin, pay to fix California highways? Californians get the benefit of those highways, not me.
March 4th, 2022 at 7:55 am
More quotable quotes from that side of the aisle:
“I can’t be responsible for every undercapitalized small business in America.”
also
“If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
March 4th, 2022 at 9:59 am
Maybe there would be much less of a (wealth) inequality issue if the Federal Reserve was not trying to flood financial markets with cash that benefit big businesses and the indebted most of all. With regards to gouging, the price rises are a response to the implicit devaluation of the dollar by way of the Fed printing like 40% of all dollars in existance. Who wouldn’t raise their prices?
March 4th, 2022 at 10:20 am
Silver’s up; Gold’s way up.
March 4th, 2022 at 10:22 am
Funny…when you’re heavily invested in hard currency, you didn’t need one, but you have one more reason to celebrate the downfall of Globohomo economies.
Coincidence? I think not.
March 4th, 2022 at 10:36 am
if the Federal Reserve was not trying to flood financial markets with cash
Now why were they doing that, Mr AllDoeEyedInnocent? Perhaps trying to make up for the pandemic hysteria that you and your ilk imposed on multiple economies? You fuckers and your chickens are coming home to roost and your response is “huh, that’s weird”.
March 4th, 2022 at 10:42 am
I checked Silver spot price on APMEX, where I buy my junk silver coins.
The price in March last year is about the same as today. It moves up and down, of course, which I suspect is due to institutional investors and speculators manipulating the market. I can’t tell if the current uptick is real or manufactured.
I hate the lack of reliable information.
March 4th, 2022 at 10:55 am
By the way, that paragraph above from the Imbecile in Chief is wrong in so many ways.
First of all, this is not a wage driven inflation (although it will become one), this is a supply-side inflation. From shutting down businesses and cutting off oil supplies – remember when the US was self-sufficient in oil oh-so-many *months* ago? And then putting lipstick on that pig by printing money on overtime and sending out free money. Nothing inflationary there.
And the costs of doing business are directly related to the increases imposed by the Covidiots.
As to making more cars and semiconductors in America? Standard issue free market policy for the past 50 years has been to ship production overseas, with the government’s blessing, fuck the domestic workers (just send them some money, $1400 should be plenty) and the local suppliers. So that wasn’t such a great idea? Oh, just move it all back. The buildings and infrastructure, the trained workers, the supply depots, the shipping, the whole shebang… should be easy, right? Godd@mn, what idiots.
And I hate to correct the a55hole, but infrastructure isn’t a commodity. You can’t sell it. And letting the Red Chinese steal any and all innovation – like giving it away for free – is not going to help.
March 4th, 2022 at 11:06 am
JD, silver tends to be less interesting as an investment object than the “more precious” metals like gold or platinum. Gold bugs don’t much care about silver. You invest in precious metals to hold them, basically forever, as a sort of ultimate hedge against everything failing. You make money by investing when no one has any interest (for example, like buying in the 90s and holding on to it).
March 4th, 2022 at 11:25 am
Oh, here’s another inflationary item brought directly from all the oh-so-concerned anti-Russianists. Russia is a low-cost, high-volume global producer for all major fertilizers, and it’s the world’s second-largest producer after Canada of potash, a key nutrient used on major commodity crops. Russia provides most the fertilizer needed by Europe to grow wheat.
March 4th, 2022 at 11:47 am
JDM, I suppose I might be investing in the wrong things for the wrong reasons because I fear the wrong future.
I’m not worried about 1970’s inflation where society continues to operate and I simply have to sell a gold bar once in a while to replenish my bank account.
I’m worried about The Great Depression 2.0, the economy shifting back to barter, and gold bars being too hard to convert to chickens. Hopefully, that’s where Mercury dimes come in.
I hope I’m wrong. My grandkids can have fun playing with the dimes.
March 4th, 2022 at 11:53 am
JD, silver coins, like your Mercury dimes or even dollar coins, antique or new, would work wonderfully for what you want. Perhaps even the 1/10 oz gold coins.
March 4th, 2022 at 12:11 pm
This is not keynesian economics. It is not any kind of economics I have ever heard of.
Why, it is nothing but incoherent ramblings of a senile old man in the late stages of dementia, no?
March 4th, 2022 at 12:16 pm
^ As long as it those inclined to vote Democrat buy it, jpa, does it really matter?
March 4th, 2022 at 1:13 pm
^ This allows me the opportunity to bestow some of my wisdom upon you. You may also want to consider launching a separate Substack newsletter, at iwasrightallalong.substack.com.
Total jobs gain of +678K compared to market consensus of +400K. Clearly a very comfortable beat, and hopefully good enough for the Powell Fed to increase interest rates by a full 0.25% on March 16, although anything more than 0.25% would of-course be unacceptable, unnecessary and even unconscionable, given the apparently very serious risk to the market bubbles if an actual 0.50% rate hike were even to be contemplated, let alone actually done.
March 4th, 2022 at 1:16 pm
And to E’s point, further evidence the economy is booming and everyone is flush with cash – Minnesota’s budget surplus is not a measly $7 billion, it’s over $9 billion:
https://www.twincities.com/2022/02/28/heres-where-minnesotas-9-3-billion-budget-surplus-comes-from/
Drinks all around !
March 4th, 2022 at 1:18 pm
Joe, you ignorant slut. Don’t you know that all for-profit businesses already try their best to lower their costs to maximize their profits? And yes, for most businesses, labor is often among the highest costs of doing business.
Yeah, Joe ranks right up there with AOC and the MMT theorists as disconnected from reality. This is a prime example, although the SWIFT sanctions have the possibility to boot the US dollar from reserve currency status, which would be a crushing blow to the US’s deficit spending.
March 4th, 2022 at 1:26 pm
MMT, nerdbert. Nicely played.
March 4th, 2022 at 1:36 pm
I’m fearful.
Lesko Brandon has accomplished what President Trump could not do: he got NATO nations seriously upping their defenses. And it didn’t cost a dime – he used the old “let’s you and him fight” tactic pitting Russia against Ukraine.
Now he’s considering financial sanctions to crash the international debt system which will eliminate deficit spending and force the United States to live within its means, something Republicans have been thundering for years as they quietly pass continuing resolutions to avoid it. The last Congresswoman to propose such a budget was Michelle Bachmann, who wanted to lop off 45% of all federal spending. OMG, could Lesko Brandon accomplish that, too?
Donald Trump was a New York Democrat who ended up being the most Conservative president since Andrew Jackson. Could Lesko Brandon actually restore Constitutional government?
Would I actually have to vote for a Democrat, first time in my life?
March 4th, 2022 at 1:53 pm
Drinks all around !
At least for those who are already lined up around the trough.
March 4th, 2022 at 3:01 pm
For the troll: jobs lost under the dempanic coming back=everything is awesome, re-elect all Dems.
March 5th, 2022 at 8:22 am
JD, you’re exactly right. Hard currency (silver and gold) are not good money making investments. They are a hedge against the socio-economic collapse I believe is inevitable, and likely well within my lifetime. That said, they are a very safe investment, as they are all but guaranteed to keep pace with inflation over the long haul.
However, the premium for silver coins tends to be kind of high, so I buy fractional ounce silver bars for the same purpose.
I only buy gold in 1/2 and 1/4 oz bars, and comparatively few of them, because they won’t be as easily traded for day to day expenditures.
March 5th, 2022 at 8:29 am
re: Pedo Joe’s miraculous job machine.
As we learned last month, a good chunk of those “new” jobs are government make work for otherwise unemployable nitwits.
Because they don’t produce *anything* of real value, they don’t add to the GDP in any meaningful way other than cash flowing other people’s money; they only fuel inflationary pressure.
Anyone with an IQ higher than their shoe size, and not wearing reprobate beer goggles can see where this is headed.
March 5th, 2022 at 8:46 am
From JD’ 1:16 link
“ Anticipated spending on preschool through high school is down $484 million while HHS costs could fall by $202 million. All other spending in the budget is running just above expectations.”
What? You can be 100% sure the actual costs of those bottomless pits haven’t gone down. It can only mean there is less demand.
We’ve seen an exodus from government k-12 indoc centers nationwide, but does that account for it? Randi Weingarten’s fetid troops have been getting paid whether they’re “working” or not; they’ve all gotten bonus cash to boot!
And while the wards of the state community has been taking their needs into their own hands (by taking other people’s stuff into their hands), don’t tell me they’re not still sucking the public pump dry.
It’s likely the federal Covid relief bales of cash is involved…is that it?
It’s a curious thing…unless you have been sandbagging your share of Pedo Joe’s 75 IQ Guatamexidorian invasion.
March 5th, 2022 at 9:34 pm
Visa and Mastercard are 75% of Russian civilian payments, now shut off. People will go hungry.
A. Does that justify a Russian response of similar magnitude against US?
B. If they can do it to the Russians. They can do it to unvaxxed, or gun owners, or….
March 6th, 2022 at 10:01 am
This whole virtue signaling and canceling of anything and everything russian will only lead to an escalation and not a resolution. They are hurting people and not Putin. But them Diplomatic Geniuses™ who are the adults in the WH™ want this and useful idiots are playing right along. They will kill more people than the Uk/Ru conflict. But then they only care about the optics of the moment. Sorta like mRNA DOES mutate DNA in the liver as we learned from the recent FDA dump. Ooops. Move along sheople… Bzzzt…