Tag Archives: Bidenomics

This Was Inevitable

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On Tuesday, The U.K. Daily Mail posted an article explaining how Chipotle is dealing with the new minimum wage requirements for fast-food establishments in California. This is not surprising and should give legislators in all states a reason to pause before changing the minimum wage laws.

The article reports:

Chipotle has introduced two robots that can take over tasks normally done by its workers. 

The ‘autocado’ can peel, stone and cut an avocado for guacamole in 26 seconds. Meanwhile, a ‘digital makeline’ portions up salads and bowls based on orders on the app.

The machines are part of an automation drive that Chipotle bosses hope will cut down the number of workers needed – slashing rising labor costs. 

So, it is no surprise they are being put to use first in two of the Mexican chain’s restaurants in California, the company announced on Monday. 

Recent legislation raised the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20-an-hour in the state. 

The controversial wage hike – $4 more than the minimum wage in the state for any other job – was introduced by California Governor Gavin Newsom at chains with more than 60 locations in the US, and came into effect on April 1.

Chains including Burger King have already ramped up the roll out of digital ordering kiosks to cut the number of cashiers needed in Californian restaurants.  

It is not yet clear how the production costs of using Chipotle’s new machines compares to human labor when making Chipotle menu items. 

Also, robots don’t call in sick or require vacations or sick days.

The article concludes:

Chipotle’s sales this year beat Wall Street expectations – boosted by price hikes and a jump in loyal customers. 

But the company has come under fire for its reported varying portion sizes. 

It prompted Chipotle’s then CEO Brian Nicol – who has now moved to Starbucks – to deny that he had instructed staff to scrimp with servings as he revealed the company will be instituting changes to ensure satisfaction.

He revealed Chipotle will be retraining its staff to ensure ‘generous portions’ are consistent across its more than 3,500 stores.

Last month, Wells Fargo analyst Zachary Fadem and his team tested the theory that Chipotle has been skimping on its usually-large portions, after a series of videos posted to TikTok showed employees barely filling their burrito bowls.

The team ordered and weighed 75 bowls – all with the same ingredients –  from eight locations across New York City.

They discovered that the consistency of the burrito bowls varied widely from restaurant to restaurant. Some locations served bowls that weighed up to 33 percent more than others, the study found. 

Even without the minimum wage hikes, fast food is another victim of Bidenomics.

 

If You Are Looking For Facts, Don’t Look To The Democrat Convention

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Thursday afternoon, The Federalist posted an article about the lies being told at the Democrat Convention. They probably should have waited until the convention was over–I suspect their current list will expand greatly by the end of the night. Many of the lies have been told before, but I believe the theory is that if they tell a lie often enough, people will believe it.

The article lists some of the propaganda the convention is spewing:

The Harris-Walz campaign branding of “joy”—repeated this week ad nauseum by the propaganda press—is obviously fake and forced. By running a campaign almost completely devoid of policy substance or any real interaction with the news media, consisting mostly of staged videos of Harris and Walz yukking it up on the campaign trail or delivering speeches via teleprompter at highly controlled rallies, Democrat Party leaders are essentially running a psy-op on the American electorate. 

A big part of that psy-op is to lie and mislead brazenly about everything. On the opening night of the convention, Biden repeated the infamous “very fine people on both sides” hoax and the “suckers and losers” hoax, both of which anyone can easily look up in 30 seconds. He also claimed that 500,000 new electric vehicle charging stations have been created under his administration (the actual number is seven), among many other blatant falsehoods.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker repeated the “injecting bleach” line about Donald Trump and Covid. Former President Barack Obama lied about Trump’s tax cuts, claiming they only benefited the wealthy, and about how many jobs have been created under the Biden-Harris administration.

Michelle Obama falsely claimed Trump wants to outlaw IVF. Tim Walz was introduced as a “Command Sergeant Major,” a rank he never achieved. Capitol Police Officer Aquilino Gonell claimed he “almost died” on January 6, when in fact he suffered no injuries. On and on, lie after lie—and of the most lazy and obvious kind.

The sad part of this is that the mainstream media will not challenge any of this garbage. Many Americans will continue on their merry way completely unaware that they have been lied to. According to the Democrats, Bidenomics is working. Anyone who has read the recent revision to the jobs numbers or gone to the grocery store or put gas in their car understands that is not true. The question remains whether voters will remember this in November.

How Much Is The Biden Presidency Costing Americans?

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On Tuesday, PJ Media posted an article about the impact of the Biden administration’s economic policies on Americans.

The article reports:

Thank to Joe Biden-flation and his catastrophic economic policies, American families are spending over $11,000 more annually just for necessities.

The obscene cost of inflation is hitting hardworking Americans, as overall prices have gone up almost 20% since the Meanderer-in-Chief came into office in 2021. Americans can thank the Biden administration for that $11,400 extra for necessities, about 20% of the average U.S. annual salary. And if you hear the lie that inflation is down, don’t believe it. All that means is that the inflation rate is allegedly slowing, and the Biden administration loves to engage in monkey business to manipulate such statistics.

As Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) posted last week, “Inflation is still ~50% higher than the targeted rate. Biden’s inflation is far from over.” Unfortunately, he’s right.

Grocery and energy costs have, of course, gone up drastically under Biden, as the Washington Examiner reported. Gas is 33% more expensive than at the start of 2021 and electricity prices increased 29%. But groceries have, perhaps, seen the most staggering increase:

Grocery staples such as cheese, eggs, meat, and fruits and vegetables have all seen significant price increases, with ground beef as much as 103% higher.

Because inflation persists and prices continue to climb, it’s getting harder and harder to make ends meet. Biden wants you to believe the government can spend its way to prosperity — which is good for the government but not so for the rest of us.

The Biden administration continues to lie about inflation, but most Americans believe what they see rather than what the Biden administration tells them.

Bidenomics or Badonomics?

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop,Ph.D     harropcrew1@gmail.com 

Biden keeps saying that his economic plan is working for the American people. Is his so-called Bidenomics good or bad for the country? Let’s take a look at the truth; something the Biden regime seems allergic to.    

Inflation is a hidden tax that never is reversed. It may slow down, but short of an economic collapse, prices will not go down and we will always have some inflation. When Biden took office, the annual inflation rate was 1.2%.  Now it is about 10%.   This rate, however, does not reflect the actual increase in prices since 2020. Food has gone up close to 80% as any food shopper can tell you. Gasoline is up from $1.87 per gallon to $3.45 per gallon which is an 85% increase. These are essential expenses that are not included in the government’s Consumer Price Index and therefore make this estimate of inflation unreliable. Housing, which we all must have, has gone up dramatically. The cost of the average home has gone up 47% since 2020 which is unheard of. Rents are up an average of 26% over the same period. Most importantly, mortgage interest rates essentially doubled to 7%, which represents an increase in monthly payments of about $1200 for the average home purchase. Insurance has also gone up substantially for automobiles and homes (30%). Utility Costs have also increased significantly since they are up about 30%. None of these items are optional and cannot be avoided. Other items like cars, appliances, clothing, etc. are also up substantially. Who is hurt the most by these increases? Well of course, the average American not the Democrat elite. 

As a result of these increases, the average family has experienced an $8,500  annual reduction in their purchasing power and standard of living. But according to Biden, his economic plans are working and you are just too blind to see it!  You are being gas lighted. 

What has caused this destructive inflation?  Excessive government spending and printing paper money is the primary cause. However, the war against fossil fuels and excessive government subsidies for so-called green energy projects are also major contributors. All of these things are part of the Marxist agenda of the Biden regime that is out to destroy this country. 

This situation threatens the traditional American Dream. This is especially true for younger Americans. There was a time when young married couples could afford to buy a new home and begin the journey to financial security and wealth. The equity in a home is the bedrock of financial security and the American Dream.  With the dramatic increase in home prices, mortgage rates, and home insurance, young people can no longer afford to buy and must resort to paying rent.  Not a good thing to do in the long run. 

So, we are back to President Reagan’s question, “ Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” The answer is a no-brainer. You know what to do. 

 

The Impact Of Bidenomics

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On June 18th, Just the News posted an article about the impact of Bidenomics. Essentially Bidenomics is excessive spending creating inflation and rising federal deficits combined with interest rates rising in an attempt to curb inflation without dealing with the spending.

The article reports:

More companies are declaring bankruptcy and shutting down operations, citing inflation and high costs. Inflation and the economy remains a top issue among all voters, according to a recent The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll.

Retailers are closing nearly 3,200 stores this year, according to a recent analysis from CoreSight Research. The closures are a 24% increase from 2023.

U.S. drug stores and pharmacy closures led to 8 million square feet of shuttered retail space this year, the research company said. It also notes that retailers are losing inventory and customers due to retail theft. “Retail shrink” is closely connected to “organized retail crime,” it notes.

Out of the 3,200 being closed, the majority are being closed by roughly 30 retailers, with Family Dollar closing the most of over 600, according to the data, CBS News reported.

The article concludes:

One key indicator of economic health is consumer spending, and while it hasn’t yet slowed, warning signs are there because it’s largely being financed by debt, economists have explained. And consumers are also struggling to pay it off, they add. Earlier this year, economist David Rosenberg of Rosenberg Research warned that as total credit card debt reached a new all-time high of $1.13 trillion, credit card and auto loan delinquencies were also up. “As far as consumer credit is concerned, the default cycle isn’t merely looming, it’s arrived,” he wrote in an economic report.

According to a recent The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights, inflation/price increases (45%) and the economy/jobs (24%) are top concerns among voters.

“Inflation is a high-ranking issue among Democrats and Republicans and True Independents,” David Byler of Noble Predictive Insights told The Center Square. “Every political group thinks this matters.”

The rise in retail theft is also a factor in store closings. How much does it cost to put candy behind plastic so that it cannot be stolen? How many extra man hours are needed to help customers access products that are now locked away? These are also things that lead to higher prices and continuing inflation. Curtailing government spending and prosecuting retail theft would be a good first step in lowering prices for consumers.

‘Tis The Season

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Author: Pastor Daimon-CCTA Chaiman

It is a blistering hot day in North Carolina. Not in regards to the weather outside, but the atmosphere within the political arena is sizzling to temperatures beyond the capacity of the thermometer. Court cases full of poisonous venom, sprinkled with lies and deception. Hush money, classified documents, election interference are just a few buzz words that sprinkle the legal landscape these days. There is also illegal gun possession, sprinkled with cocaine with all the info of illegal foreign filthy money stored on a personal laptop. Yes, I know that this is all old news, but “tis the season” of revival of this old news as the court rooms finally become filled with cases on the docket concerning these issues.

Now, I want to just add my fifty-two cents. Yeah, yeah…I know it’s supposed to be “two-cents”, but Bidenomics inflation is costing me a bit more for my opinion. So, ready or not, here it comes.

President Trump seems to be in the fight for his life and for the life of the United States Constitution. Yet, his fight doesn’t seem fair. It is filled with tons of accusations that have no evidence or consistency in the words of his accusers. In fact, his accusers seem to have an extra shot of drugs that are not of the typical variety. Trump’s accusers seemed to be jacked up on a special drug provided by a leftist machine that appears to be untouchable. I say “appears” because every dog has it’s day, what goes around comes around, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, or, as the Bible puts it, “Whatsoever a man sows, that he shall also reap,” (Galatians 6:7).

When we cross over to peek into the crime wave of the other side, it seems that anything goes, nothing is illegal, and the perpetrators roller skate right out of the court room without any recompense for their atrocities. The notorious first family of crime seems to be very elusive, sort of like chameleons that transform into lizard-faced salamanders. But, hold on to your faith in God and in fair judicial process, because there is hope on the horizon and justice will be served. What ever could I mean? Just the facts, ma’am. Just the facts.

Number 45-47 is playing chess while the other team is playing checkers. Listen to all of his speeches in the recent 4 months, and take comfort in his resolve and confidence and assurance of imminent victory. Approximately one year prior to the previous election, he first told us that they were going to TRY to steal the election. He then told us that they ARE going to steal the election. And what happened to the election? Well, we all know that it was rigged to take a “LEFT” turn. He was correct. But, now he says “too big to rig”. It is a subtle hint that the left, the Democrats has lost their ability to cheat this time around. If he was correct four years ago, why lose faith in what he’s telling you in “tis the season”? His biggest message in these little nuggets of insight is that he simply says, all we have to do is get out and vote. Go to the polls and vote. “Tis the season” to follow Trumps advice and instructions. I have been in front of him in person three times within 9 months. Once by special invitation, and his message is consistently the same…except he gives updates that reveals subtle hints that assure that, if we will just get out and vote, relief is coming. “Tis the season” to unite on one accord and pull all of our ballots together. The Right team has expanded it’s players roster, players from the other league that are fed up with not being to play in the game and are therefore signing up to play on our team “tis the season”.

I know this seems uncertain due to the questionable election integrity of 2020, but take heart. “Tis the season” for truth and for the swamp to drain while our America First friend, President Donald Trump secures the victory for a record-breaking vote count that exceeds all previous elections in the history of this magnificent nation. See you at the polls, my friends!

Cooking The Books

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The Biden administration claims that the economy is really doing well. Some of us who buy gasoline or shop at grocery stores might not agree with that statement. The other claim has been that there is a booming job market. Our city is have layoffs in some of our local companies, is yours? There seems to be something fishy here. On March 29th, Zero Hedge posted an article explaining what was fishy. This is one of those articles when I post what I don’t totally understand, so please be patient. I have very little to add–the article says it all.

The article reports:

The first red flags emerged in the summer of 2022: that’s when the Biden Labor Department started well and truly rigging the labor market data.

Regular readers may recall that it was back in July of 2022, when we first warned that something had “snapped” in the labor market: that’s when a striking discrepancy emerged between the number of US Payrolls (as measured by the BLS’ Establishment Survey, a far more crude and imprecise, yet much more market-moving data series), and the number of actual Employed Workers (as measured by the BLS’ far more accurate Household Survey) . As we showed then, after the two series had tracked each other tick for tick for years, a wide gap opened in March 2022 which quickly grew to 1.5 million jobs in just 3 months…

The article includes the following chart:

 

The article further explains:

And while some of this discrepancy could be explained with the record surge in multiple jobholders, which increased by 1 million since March 2022 to an all time high of 8.6 million at the end of 2023 (as a reminder, the Establishment Survey counts 1 worker have 2 or 3 (or more) multiple jobs as, well, 2 or 3 (or more) separate jobs, even if it is just one worker trying to make ends meet under the roaring inflation of Bidenomics), most of the gap remained unexplained.

There was more: it was around the summer of 2022 that the Biden labor department – in its zeal to show job growth no matter the cost, or quality of jobs – also started fooling around with the composition of the labor market, with most of the monthly gains going to part-time workers, even as full-time workers stagnated or declined. The culmination, as we reported earlier this month, is that in February 2024, the US had 132.9 million full-time jobs and 27.9 million part-time jobs. Which is great… until you look back one year and find that in February 2023 the US had 133.2 million full-time jobs, or more than it does one year later! And yes, all the job growth since then has been in part-time jobs, which have increased by 921K since February 2023 (from 27.020 million to 27.941 million).

The article concludes:

Putting it all together, we now know – as the Philly Fed reported first – that the labor market is far weaker than conventionally believed. In fact, no less than 800,000 payrolls are “missing” when one uses the far more accurate Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data rather than the BLS’ woefully inaccurate and politically mandated payrolls “data”, and if one looks back the the monthly gains across most of 2023, one gets not 230K jobs added on average every month but rather 130K.

Of course, none of that paints Bidenomics in a flattering picture, because while one can at least pretend that issuing $1 trillion in debt every 100 days to add 3 million jos per year is somewhat acceptable, learning that that ridiculous amount buys 800,000 jobs less is hardly the endorsement that the White House needs.

Which is also why nobody in the mainstream media – which is now nothing more than the PR smokescreen for the Biden puppetmasters, the government and the deep state – will ever mention this report.

As such, we urge all readers to read Philly Fed analysis (link here) and to analyze the excel data (link here) at their own leisure, because in a fascist state, the media no longer works for the people.

Think of these numbers when you vote in November.

If You Believe This…

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On Tuesday, PJ Media posted an article about a recent claim made by The Washington Post about the impact of illegal immigration on America’s economy. Of course The Washington Post did not call it illegal immigration–they simply called it ‘immigration.’

The article reports:

Then on Tuesday morning, I came across this headline in The Washington Post: “The economy is roaring. Immigration is a key reason.” 

I immediately wondered if I might be concussed. 

Upon further review, I had no head injuries, and I hadn’t touched a drop of booze since last Friday, so I was indeed reading the headline correctly. Sorry, Burger King, there’s a new Home of the Whopper. 

Last fall, I began reminding readers that the MSM Biden bias was going to have to be at least three times stronger than it was in 2020 to get the slurring idiot in the White House reelected. They created a fictional Joe Biden out of whole cloth back then. He’s become such a mess that they are now creating a fictional version of their fictional version. They aren’t even pretending that the real Joe Biden is right in front of our eyes. 

The cheerleading for the economy is to be expected. It’s a kitchen table issue that they hope they can hide somewhere in a cluttered pantry. Over at The New York Times, Paul Krugman writes an almost weekly column telling readers not to believe their lying household budgets and dwindling savings accounts. His most recent effort has a headline that almost rivals the one we’re discussing today: “Bidenomics Is Still Working Very Well.” 

The article includes this quote from The Washington Post article:

There isn’t much data on how many of the new immigrants in recent years were documented versus undocumented. But estimates from the Pew Research Center last fall showed that undocumented immigrants made up 22 percent of the total foreign-born U.S. population in 2021. That’s down compared to previous decades: Between 2007 and 2021, the undocumented population fell by 14 percent, Pew found. Meanwhile, the legal immigrant population grew by 29 percent.

The article at PJ Media notes:

The authors don’t mention the inconvenient fact that record numbers of people are crushing the border and have been for months. The numbers are so overwhelming that the government is scrambling to keep tabs on as many as they can by putting them up in hotels on the taxpayer’s dime. 

This immigration isn’t much of a boon to state and local economies. We continually cover stories here about the financial strain that the “immigrants” are placing on states and cities all over America, like this recent one that Catherine wrote. 

Even if, as the authors posit, the economy is “roaring,” because of the “immigrants,” it’s only in one area. The southern border crisis is dragging the economy down in many ways. The “Rah! Rah!” in this article is akin to celebrating a $5000 bonus check on the same day that your mechanic tells you that your car needs $7000 worth of work to get back on the road again. 

I wonder if anyone still believes The Washington Post.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

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President Biden and his administration are claiming that they have inflation under control and that Americans are doing better than ever. They can claim all they want, but a quick trip to the grocery store could quickly result in widespread skepticism.

On Friday, Red State posted an article where the Tweets tell the real story.

These are the tweets:

I realize it is hard to read, but the price went from $5.99 to $7.69 in three years–a 28 percent increase. Did your income go up 28 percent in those three years?

 

Bidenomics Works For Some People

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On Wednesday, Red State posted an article about Bidenomics. Unfortunately it doesn’t work for the average American.

The article reports:

It’s a given that running drugs (and smuggling people) is a lucrative business — else the cartels wouldn’t be in the mix, to begin with. But the amount involved is utterly mind-boggling. While many Americans struggle under the weight of crushing inflation, Bidenomics may have found its champion in the cartels.

According to CBP estimates, the cartels are taking in a cool $32 million…per week. And that’s just in the Del Rio, Texas, sector.

Good to know Biden administration policies are benefiting someone’s pocketbooks, I suppose. 

How many families have been impacted by the illegal drugs coming across our southern border? How many Americans have lost their jobs because illegal aliens are working ‘under the table’ for lower wages?

I was aware of a situation at one point where an illegal alien was taken advantage of by a person from their own country. They were working at a restaurant ‘under the table’ at a very low wage, and when they were fired, the person they were working for refused to pay them for their last two weeks of work. Being in America as an illegal alien does not mean that you will have the opportunity to get rich. Because you are here illegally, you do not have the protections that an American citizen is supposed to have. Admittedly, we are paying illegal aliens money at the border and giving them free tickets to wherever they want to go, but there is no guarantee that when they arrive at their destination there will be a place to work or to stay.  Meanwhile, how many homeless Americans are living on the street?

The number of illegal aliens coming into our country every day is a heath risk, a terrorism risk, a human trafficking risk, and an economic risk (see Cloward-Pivan). We need to redo our immigration system to make it easier to come here legally, but for the time being we need to limit immigration so that the people who are here can assimilate. We should also deport any illegals that have accepted welfare benefits. American taxpayers should not be paying for the mess we have created at our southern border.

Bidenomics And The Cost Of Buying A House

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Although President Biden has attempted to buy votes from younger voters with his student loan bailout programs, in the process he has created inflation and interest rates that put buying a home out of reach for the very people he has tried to bribe.

On Monday, Breitbart posted an article about what has happened to monthly mortgage payments under President Biden.

The article reports:

The average monthly mortgage payment in Joe Biden’s America has soared to $3,322, per analysis from the Wall Street Journal.

That $3,322 is nearly double the average monthly mortgage payment when His Fraudulency assumed office. When former President Trump left office, the average monthly mortgage payment was $1,787.

The article includes the following Twitter post:

The article notes:

Those obnoxiously high mortgage payments are not only due to the Bidenflation caused by His Fraudulency’s lunatic government spending. There are other factors…

For those of you who vote Democrat and are currently pissing away all your money on rent because you can’t afford a home, riddle me this: What happens to the housing market when a president throws open our southern border to millions and millions of illegal aliens who need a place to live? Think hard now… Could it be that when you have a finite amount of something people want and then flood the country with millions more people who want it…? Yes, that’s right, dummies, the cost of that Something People Want explodes and that Something People Want becomes scarcer. And now you want it and can’t get it because you’re a dummy.

The second factor is this… Democrats hate single-family homes. This is why they use Climate Change to justify blocking the construction of new homes. Democrats want us all packed in cities in massive government housing complexes. By the way, they make no secret of this.

The final factor is this… This is all by design, dummies. Democrats know lunatic government spending creates lunatic inflation and that lunatic inflation destroys purchasing power and creates high interest rates that make it impossible for the middle class to purchase a home. Democrats also know that when you flood a country already dealing with a housing crisis caused by enviro-lies with millions of illegals, housing costs explode.

If you are a young American just entering the workforce full time, do yourself a favor and vote every Democrat (and RINO Republican) out of office. That is the only way you can secure your financial future.

Gaslighting?

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After a while you wonder if people are going to believe what the mainstream media tells them or what they see with their own eyes. Some of the recent claims made by the Biden administration simply do not agree with the reality Americans are dealing with.

On Monday, The U.K. Daily Mail reported:

President Joe Biden on Monday touted his administration’s success in bringing down the price of gas, groceries and airline tickets during the past year but received little thanks for his efforts.

Republicans ridiculed his claims.

‘FACT: Since Biden took office, airfare is up 21%, Thanksgiving dinner was up 25%, and gas prices are $0.86/gallon higher,’ the Republican National Committee said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

It illustrates the difficulty Biden faces as he tries to sell what his administration believes is an economic good news story ahead of next year’s general election. 

Inflation may have slowed and some prices may have dropped since last year, but most prices are still higher than they were before the pandemic.  

The article concludes:

And when it comes to public perceptions, most consumers don’t see a good news story in inflation settling down when they are still paying much higher prices than they did before the pandemic.

‘No matter how the White House spins it, Joe Biden’s out-of-control spending & mismanagement of our nation’s finances have increases prices by more than 17%,’ said Republican Rep. Ben Cline on X.

‘The cost of “Bidenomics” just keeps adding up for working families.’

Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin said: ‘Last year, Joe Biden’s broken policy agenda generated the highest inflation in 40 years. Americans have faced 33 straight months of rising prices, with food costs increasing every month since Biden took office. 

‘Americans aren’t buying the spin.’

The Republican National Committee also took issue with Biden saying gas prices had come down.

‘FACT CHECK: Under Joe Biden, gas prices have been above $3 per gallon for over 900 days in a row,’ it posted.

I think I would welcome a mean tweet about now.

Bidenomics At Work

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Aside from what you are paying for groceries and gasoline, have you looked at mortgage rates and home sales right now?

On Monday, One America News reported the following:

Sales of new U.S. single-family homes fell more than expected in October, likely as higher mortgage rates reduced affordability, but the housing segment remains supported by a persistent shortage of previously owned properties on the market.

New home sales dropped 5.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 679,000 units last month, the Commerce Department said on Monday. September’s sales pace was revised lower to 719,000 units from the previously reported 759,000 units.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales, which account for a small share of U.S. home sales, would fall to a rate of 723,000 units.

New home sales are counted at the signing of a contract, making them a leading indicator of the housing market. They, however, can be volatile on a month-to-month basis. Sales increased 17.7% on a year-on-year basis in October.

The stock of previously owned houses on the market is nearly 50% below it’s pre-pandemic level, according to the National Association of Realtors, which last week reported that home resales plunged to more than a 13-year low in October. Most homeowners have mortgage rates under 3%, making many reluctant to sell, boosting demand for new construction.

According to The Mortgage Reports, the mortgage interest rate in 2021 was 2.96 percent. In 2022, it was 5.34 percent. The current mortgage rate, according to Nerd Wallet is about 7.5 percent. That is a significant increase. Interest rates were artificially kept low for a number of years. That was not sustainable. However, the rate of increase (the Federal Reserve’s attempt to curb inflation) has hurt real estate sales. At one point many years ago because of a job change, we were forced to take out a mortgage at 8.5 percent (giving up a mortgage of 4 percent). If you are sitting on a 3 or 4 percent mortgage right now, the last thing you want to do is move and take out a 7.5 percent mortgage. Bidenomics has hurt Americans across the board. We need a new President with a new approach to the economy.

Looking Behind The Obvious Numbers

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On Saturday, Trending Politics posted an article about the latest jobs numbers (which are being praised by the Biden administration).

The article reports:

President Biden and other top Democrat leaders have taken a victory lap over the latest jobs report that “soared past expectations” by showing that the U.S. added 336,000 jobs in September. While the Biden Administration has hailed the report as a win for “Bidenomics,” an economist with the Heritage Foundation took to X to explain why the report is actually “very troubling.”

…Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni analyzed the findings further in a lengthy X thread, however, explaining why the report is “very troubling.”

“September nonfarm payrolls jump 336k; Unemployment rate flat at 3.8%; Labor force participation rate remains depressed at 62.8%; Those not in the labor force rose to roughly 5 million more than pre-pandemic – this is artificially pushing down unemployment rate,” Antoni wrote. When adjusting for true labor participation rate, Antoni pegged the actual unemployment rate between 6.3 and 6.8 percent.

…Antoni also pointed out that roughly 22 percent of jobs created came from the government, “an unsustainable increase.”

“Remember that private sector workers have to support those public sector jobs,” he continued.

The economist also noted that every single job created was part-time, pointing out that 1.2 million part-time jobs have been created over the last three months. Full-time jobs actually dropped by 700,000 over the same period, the highest figure since COVID-19 lockdowns.

In addition, double counting of multiple jobholders accounted for 37 percent of supposed gains.

…Antoni concluded by pointing out that the massive increase in part-time jobs is slowing down wage growth. “Lastly, the loss of full-time jobs and their replacement w/ part-time work is helping slow wage growth, which is then negative after adjusting for inflation – real weekly earnings fell dramatically until Jun ’22 and have moved sideways since,” Antoni wrote.

“People [are] supplementing incomes w/ part-time jobs are goosing the headline numbers while underlying economic fundamentals remain weak; people absent from workforce pushing down unemployment rate; earnings not keeping up with inflation; don’t expect the job gains to last.”

It will be interesting to see if this ‘favorable’ jobs report results in the Federal Reserve raising interest rates. The Biden administration is also claiming that inflation is under control–tell that to the people who have recently gone shopping or filled up their gas tank.

Please follow the link to the article. It includes a number of graphs and lots of additional information.

The Real Data vs. What We Have Been Told

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On Monday, The Washington Examiner posted the following headline:

If economic growth seems too good to be true, that’s because it is

I would revise that headline slightly to “If economic growth is so good, why do people seem to be struggling financially?”

The article reports:

Perhaps the most notorious example this year has been the jobs numbers published by the Biden administration. Consider the newly released August jobs report. While the economy added 187,000 jobs last month, previous months were revised down by 110,000 jobs. That means 59% of the employment growth last month was jobs we thought we already had.

In fact, every monthly employment report this year has been revised down, meaning the economy has been adding fewer jobs than initially believed. Worse, the Bureau of Labor Statistics published its semiannual benchmark revisions showing jobs were overestimated by more than 300,000.

Between the downward adjustments for the monthly data and the semiannual benchmark, the number of jobs has been revised down by almost 700,000. That’s 30% of the jobs initially estimated to have been added this year. Adding insult to injury, government jobs were revised upward with the semiannual benchmark.

To be clear, jobs data are normally revised, and occasionally, several months in a row will be revised in the same direction, sometimes heavily. But this year stands out because so many of the statistics have consistently turned out to be worse than initially estimated.

Other labor market indicators have followed this pattern. The number of job openings, a proxy for labor demand, has not only fallen over the last several months but previous levels were also revised down. The latest estimate shows job openings are now 2 million below the initial figure for the start of the year.

And the problem goes beyond the labor sector to the general economy. The revised estimate for gross domestic product in the second quarter of the year removed an eighth of the previously estimated growth, falling from 2.4% to 2.1%. Investment and business income, in particular, are in bad shape.

The media in America has brought us to the point where we have a choice either to believe what we see or what we are being told. We are told that Bidenomics is working and that we are all better off under President Biden. What we see tells a different story. It is our choice as to whether or not we believe our eyes or what we are being told.

Bidennomics At Work

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On September 12, The Washington Examiner reported the following:

Median household incomes peaked at $78,250 in 2019, the year before the pandemic. They declined in 2022 to $74,580, a year that saw inflation soar, undercutting household purchasing power.

“Despite nominal gains, historically high inflation resulted in a decline in real median household income,” said Liana Fox, assistant division chief for economic characteristics in the Census Bureau’s Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division.

That’s about a $300 a month decrease.

The article continues:

The figures released on Tuesday showed that poverty was flat, with about 11.5% of the population, or 38 million people, below the poverty line, which was $29,678 for a family of four.

The bureau also reported a jump in child poverty by one metric, the supplemental poverty measure, or SPM, from 5.2% to 12.4%. The increase was attributable in large part to the expiration of the temporary expanded child tax credit implemented by Democrats and President Joe Biden as a form of pandemic relief. The SPM, unlike the official poverty measure, includes tax credits in calculating household resources.

The question that needs to be asked in next year’s election is, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”

The Results Of Out-Of-Control Spending

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On Wednesday, Issues & Insights posted an article about the budget deficit.

The article reports:

Over the weekend, the Washington Post let it slip that all is not well in Bidenomicsville. The deficit, it reports, could end up hitting $2 trillion when the current fiscal year ends in three weeks, which it describes as an “unexpected deficit surge.”

In other words, the deficit will nearly double this year, calling the lie on one of President Joe Biden’s favorite boasts about how he cut the deficit more than any president in history.

But while this apparently comes as a shock to the Post, as well as other liberal news sites that picked up on the Post report, anyone paying attention knew this was happening.

Back in February, for example, we pointed out that Biden’s reckless economic policies had added more than $5 trillion to projected deficits, even as he claimed he’d done more to cut the deficit than “any president in history.”

…Now, households are paying dearly in the form of sharply higher prices for food, energy consumer goods, rents, and just about anything else they buy.

At the same time, Biden pushed through tax hikes and unleashed federal regulators, who are now gleefully writing rules to ban gas stoves, force electric car sales, slap massive new costs on energy producers, with plenty more to come. These are all anti-growth policies that are having their expected effect.

This is what Bidenomics is all about. And now we have a budget crisis that is snowballing.

That’s because while revenues keep coming in “unexpectedly” low (thanks to Biden’s sluggish economy), interest rate hikes are fueling massive increases in the cost of financing the federal government’s $30 trillion debt load.

Shutting down the government to stop the spending may be the only way we even have a possibility of not seeing our economy collapse under the weight of the federal debt.

How Is Bidenomics Working For You?

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On Monday, Breitbart posted an article about the ‘success’ of Bidenomics. The White House is attempting to convince Americans that Bidenomics has had a positive impact on the American economy. I don’t think they are succeeding.

The article reports:

A super-majority of voters have negative views of the U.S. economy and disapprove of President Biden’s handling of the issue, according to a Wall Street Journal poll that the paper describes as “a stark warning to the 80-year-old incumbent ahead of the 2024 contest.”

Sixty-three percent of American registered voters say the economy’s strength is “not so good” or “poor.” Just 32 percent say the economy is “good” and only five percent say the economy is “excellent.”

…When asked how the economy has fared over the past two years, 58 percent say the economy has gotten worse. Just 28 percent say the economy has gotten better. Twelve percent say the economy is about the same as it was two years ago.

Although the rate of inflation has declined this year, Americans are unhappy with rising prices. Seventy-four percent say inflation has moved in the wrong direction, with just 20 percent saying it has moved in the right direction.

…The economy is weighing heavily on the minds of many Americans. Thirty-eight percent of Americans say the economy is the most important issue in the 2024 Presidential election, up from 35 percent in April. Another 10 percent said inflation is the most important issue, up from seven percent in April. After the economy, the top issue is “immigration, at 23 percent. No other issue scores in the double-digits.

These negative views of the economy are likely weighing down Biden’s overall popularity. Just 39 percent say they have a favorable view of Biden, versus 58 percent who say they have an unfavorable view. Forty-nine percent say they have a very unfavorable view.

Unfortunately, because of media bias, former President Trump has never been given credit for the economy he created during the first two years of his administration (and was beginning to rebuild after Covid). The logical solution to the pending economic disaster under President Biden is to re-elect President Trump. However, the media and the uni-party in Washington are willing to do anything to prevent that from happening.

Who Wins Under Bidenomics?

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On Saturday, The Washington Examiner posted an article about Bidenomics, the name given to the Biden administration’s economic programs.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden announced $12 billion in corporate welfare to U.S. automakers and their suppliers this week to subsidize a transition from gasoline-powered cars to electric cars.

This should be understood as part of the long-term effort to ban gasoline-powered cars while insisting that they are not banning gasoline-powered cars.

Check out this paragraph in this CNN article on the subsidies: “The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported last year that aggressive, pollution-slashing changes in the global transportation sector — including the transition to EVs — could reduce the sector’s emissions by more than 80%.” The New York Times likewise writes in its article on this $12 billion in handouts: “Transportation is responsible for about one-third of the greenhouse gases generated by the United States, pollution that is dangerously heating the planet.”

But more interesting than the climate angle here is the redistribution angle. Biden administration officials present this corporate welfare as a way to help auto workers.

The article notes:

“Under Bidenomics, building a clean energy economy can and should provide a win‑win opportunity for auto companies and unionized workers who have anchored the American economy for decades.”

This is literally trickle-down economics. Biden gives billions to big business in the hope that big business will pass the money on to workers. The irony is that Biden always pretends to hate “trickle-down economics” and claims that Bidenomics is the alternative.

“Here’s the simple truth about trickle-down economics,” Biden said this summer: “It didn’t represent the best of American capitalism, let alone America.”

This is totally empty rhetoric, as Biden’s $12 billion corporate welfare to automakers shows.

Actually, Bidenomics is simply a plan to raid the American treasury, bankrupt the country and force everyone into a government-controlled crypto-currency. The only way to recover the American economy is to lower taxes on people and corporations, reduce regulation, and decrease government. The chances of that happening under a Democrat administration are non-existent.

How Is Bidenomics Working For You?

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On Thursday, The Daily Caller posted an article about the current state of the American economy.

The article reports:

Inflation rose in July after steadily declining from a high of 9.1% in June 2022, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) release on Thursday.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a broad measure of the prices of everyday goods like energy and food, increased 3.2% on an annual basis in July, compared to 3.0% in June, according to the BLS. Core CPI, which excludes the volatile categories of energy and food, remained high, rising 4.7% year-over-year in July, compared to 4.8% in June.

“Inflation has become much more ingrained in the economy than the White House, Congress, or the Fed want to admit,” E.J. Antoni, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Combined with slowing economic growth, we have the perfect recipe for stagflation.”

The workforce participation rate has remained at 62.6 since March. In February 2020, before Covid, it was 63.3. It began a downward spiral in March 2020 and has never fully recovered. The economy has not grown significantly–jobs added are simply the jobs coming back after the Covid pandemic.

The article concludes:

The U.S. added 187,000 jobs for the month of July, 13,000 fewer than economists expected, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%. The number of jobs for the months of June and May was revised down by a cumulative 49,000 jobs.

The U.S. economy grew at a rate of 2.4% in the second quarter of 2023, surprising economists who anticipated a more modest expansion of 2%.

About That “Bidenomics” Thing

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On Monday, The Independent Journal Review posted an article about rising gasoline prices.

The article reports:

Gas prices have quietly been on the rise over the summer as President Joe Biden and his administration have touted the merits of his “Bidenomics” agenda.

U.S. oil prices jumped by nearly 4% last week, and the per-gallon price at the pump hit a national average of $3.75 Monday, the highest recorded average since November 2022, according to AAA and the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Continued increases may pose a new headache for Biden, who is promoting the “Bidenomics” agenda ahead of his 2024 run for reelection.

Global oil prices are up 16% since late June, and they have increased for each of the past five weeks, according to CNN. Prices may only continue to rise in August and September as Saudi Arabia, Russia and other OPEC+ members undertake production cuts equivalent to about 1.5% of global supply, announced in early July.

The price increase is partially due to the actions of OPEC (The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) which has cut its production, but that cut is also due to the fact that America is no longer respected enough to be able to negotiate to prevent that cut and that America is no longer energy independent. Had we maintained our energy independence, the cut would not have had much impact.

Some of us remember the gas lines of the 1970’s. Energy independence will prevent those gas lines from happening again. It is unfortunate the the Biden administration did not understand the need to continue America’s freedom from the whims of OPEC.

 

The Individual States As Laboratories

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When our Founding Fathers put together the Constitution, they envisioned that the states would act as policy laboratories–that when one state enacted a policy that worked, the other states would copy that policy. That is a great idea, but unfortunately egos, lust for power, and other things interfere with that basic idea.

On Thursday, Issues & Insights posted an article illustrating the differences in the outcomes of some of the economic policies various states have chosen.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden last week bragged that his economic policies — straight from the Democrats blueprint that says “borrow, tax, spend, regulate, then do it all again” — are working. But as we’ve noted, Bidenomics has been a wreck, a flop that is taking us into a recession.

Not only did Biden openly boast as our sclerosis grows worse, he also, as Democrats always do, took a jab at “trickle-down economics,” claiming it has “failed the middle class … failed America … blew up the deficit” and “increased inequity.”

…We don’t see Biden or any other Democrat ever coming around to supply-side economic policies, the correct terminology for what they sneeringly call “trickle-down economics,” which asserts that lower taxes and less regulatory meddling fuel economic growth. Yet they are exactly what our economy — any economy – needs, now and forever.

In our post-lockdown world, the states that have the strongest economic recoveries are the red ones on the map. And what do they have in common? Low taxes and light regulation.

We can see this vividly in the rankings of states that have had the greatest increases in hiring over the last year. Of the top 10, only two are blue, or Democratic, states.

(The Washington Post marks Georgia, fourth on the list, as one of three blue states because Biden took its 16 electoral votes, but that is misleading [intentionally, we’re sure] because it is a red state with large Republican majorities in both chambers of the legislature and a popular [53% of the vote in 2022] GOP governor. Nevada, next at fifth, is also considered blue even though it too has a GOP governor.)

The next seven states, according to the Post, are also red or Trump states and they tend to “​​have unusually low tax rates and lean on extractive industries such as mining or petroleum. We’ve seen firsthand the economic boom that gas and pipelines can bring to struggling regions.”

The article also notes:

“Heavily taxed blue states such as New York and California,” the Free Beacon continues, “last year had some of the country’s most drastic drops in tax revenue. At the same time, Republican states are enjoying the highest revenue increases even as they keep income taxes low.”

All I ask is that when people who have the sense to get out of blue states and move to red states move is that they don’t bring their blue state policies with them!

When Fact Checkers Check President Biden

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Recently President Biden made a speech where he claimed that Bidenomics was working for everyone–inflation was down, jobs were up, etc. Well, that sounds wonderful, but the numbers tell a different story.

Issues & Insights reported:

The middle class made huge gains during the “trickle-down” Reagan boom and was making huge gains during the Trump boom until the Biden-backed COVID lockdowns gutted it.

Truth is, the only way Biden can make the case for “Bidenomics” is by lying. Examples:

    • “U.S. has had the highest economic growth rate, leading the world economies since the pandemic.”

Except it didn’t. The U.S. ranks 146th in real GDP growth in the world so far this year, came in 151st place last year, and was 66th in 2021, according to the International Monetary Fund.

    • “We created 13.4 million new jobs.”

Also false. Because almost 10 million of those were simply refilled jobs lost during the pointless COVID lockdown. Under Biden, the number of net new jobs is less than 4 million — which is nothing to brag about, given that the working-age population has grown by 6.8 million since Biden took office.

    • “Americans are back to work who’ve been on the sidelines, and they want to come back.”

Another falsehood. There are almost 10 million people who’ve dropped out of the labor force as of today, which is 2.7 million higher than it was just before all the COVID lockdowns.

    • “Just in my first two years in office, my team and I have reduced the deficit by $1.7 trillion.“

His biggest lie yet. As we pointed out in this space earlier, a Congressional Budget Office report released at the start of this year showed that “Biden sharply increased the deficit last year, this year, and next year, and he has set the country on course to add a total of $5.45 trillion to the federal deficit over the following decade.”

The only thing that Biden said that was truthful in his speech is that “Bidenomics is working.”

It’s working all right, assuming that Biden’s plan was to destroy America.

Please follow the link to the article. It includes a number of charts that actually illustrate what has happened to the American economy since 2021.