REUTERS
"Biden vows to cut US gasoline prices"
By Andrea Shalal
September 14, 2023
LARGO, Maryland, Sept 14 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden vowed on Thursday to get U.S. gasoline prices down, one day after a report showed consumer inflation surged by the most in 14 months due to higher energy costs.
KEY QUOTE
"I'm going to get those gas prices down again, I promise you," Biden told an audience in Largo, Maryland, during a speech on the economy.
THE TAKE
The comments come as Biden, a Democrat seeking reelection in 2024, faces voter frustration over the economy despite its continued growth during his four-year term in office as inflation hits consumer pocketbooks.
Consumer prices rose 3.7% over the last year, though the rate of inflation has slowed in recent months.
BY THE NUMBERS
U.S. gas prices average $3.85 per gallon of regular gasoline, up from $3.70 per gallon last year, according to the AAA motorist group.
CONTEXT
* Biden did not elaborate on steps he would take, but the U.S. Energy Department has talked to oil producers and refiners to ensure stable fuel supplies, a top Biden economic adviser said on Wednesday.
* Gasoline prices jumped 10.6% in August after climbing 0.2% in July, accounting for more than half the increase in the Consumer Price Index.
* Biden previously authorized large withdrawals from the United States' Strategic Petroleum Reserve to combat high prices, leaving it at its lowest level in decades.
Tapping it again this year would be seen as a risky move.
Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Jarrett Renshaw; Writing by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jonathan Oatis
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodi ... 023-09-14/
THE ECONOMY
Re: THE ECONOMY
REUTERS
"Fed losses breach $100 billion as interest costs rise"
By Michael S. Derby
September 15, 2023
NEW YORK, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve losses breached the $100 billion mark, central bank data released on Thursday showed, and they're likely to go a lot higher before the red ink stops.
The U.S. central bank is continuing to pay out more in interest costs than it takes in from the interest it earns on bonds it owns and from the services it provides to the financial sector.
While there's considerable uncertainty around how it will all play out, some observers believe Fed losses, which began a year ago, could eventually as much as double before abating.
William English, a former top central bank staffer now at Yale University, said he sees a "peak" loss of around $200 billion by 2025.
Meanwhile, Derek Tang of forecasting firm LH Meyer said the loss is likely to be between $150 billion and $200 billion by next year.
The Fed captures its losses in what it calls a deferred asset, an accounting measure that tallies what it will eventually have to cover in the future before it can return to its normal practice of returning its profits to the Treasury.
Losing money is very rare for the Fed.
But at the same time, the central bank has cautioned many times that the situation in no way impairs its ability to conduct monetary policy and to achieve its goals.
A money-losing Fed has not been a surprise given its aggressive campaign to raise interest rates, which has taken the benchmark overnight interest rate from the near-zero level in March 2022 to its current 5.25%-5.50% range.
With inflation pressures ebbing, it's widely expected that the Fed is done with its rate increases, or close to it.
LIQUIDITY DESTRUCTION
But that doesn't mean that the losses will stop mounting, as the current level of short-term rates will drive up the net negative income for quite some time.
Instead, the losses will eventually stop primarily due to the Fed's ongoing process of shrinking its balance sheet, which complements its rate hikes.
The Fed bought bonds aggressively during the coronavirus pandemic and its immediate aftermath, and in just over the last year it has shed about $1 trillion in Treasury and mortgage bonds.
Fed officials have suggested there's more to do on this front, and because of that, the central bank will have to spend less on interest because it is removing liquidity from the financial system.
Financial markets are eyeing a stop in the second or third quarter of 2024.
The liquidity targeted by the Fed primarily exists in the form of bank reserves and in inflows to the central bank's reverse repo facility.
Through these tools, the Fed pays a mix of banks, money managers and others to park cash on its books, so if liquidity shrinks, it costs the central bank less to tie up what remains, even if its policy rate doesn't change.
"The pace of losses will come down, even if interest rates stay high, because reserves and (reverse repos) are declining as securities run off, and new purchases of securities are earning the new, higher, rates," English said.
But he acknowledged "that's all very rough" given how many factors and uncertainties are at play.
Bank reserves have fallen about $1 trillion from their peak at the end of 2021 and stood at $3.3 trillion as of Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the reverse repo daily outstanding levels have fallen from more than $2 trillion a day between June 2022 and the end of June this year to $1.5 trillion on Thursday.
Money market trading firm Curvature Securities said in a research note this week that it's possible all the money will be out of reverse repos by the end of next year, returning the facility to where it stood just over two years ago.
POLITICAL PRICE
For some time the Fed has returned substantial amounts of money back to the Treasury, and this money has been used to lower government deficits.
James Bullard, the former head of the St. Louis Fed, said in an interview on Wednesday that he's "worried" about the central bank's losses and "it would be better not to do this."
He said it likely would have been better for the Fed to have kept some of the $1 trillion it has given the Treasury over the last decade to cover the sort of losses it is now navigating, but he noted that's not the system Congress has set up.
Whenever the Fed does stop losing money, it will take years before it is able to take the deferred asset off its books and start returning cash to the Treasury.
In 2022, the Fed handed back $76 billion, after returning $109 billion in 2021.
What's more, those high levels of earnings were tied to the very low rates then in place.
It remains an open question whether the Fed will be able to get back to that landscape, although some in the central bank, notably New York Fed President John Williams, are optimistic that can happen.
Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Paul Simao
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/fed- ... 023-09-15/
"Fed losses breach $100 billion as interest costs rise"
By Michael S. Derby
September 15, 2023
NEW YORK, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve losses breached the $100 billion mark, central bank data released on Thursday showed, and they're likely to go a lot higher before the red ink stops.
The U.S. central bank is continuing to pay out more in interest costs than it takes in from the interest it earns on bonds it owns and from the services it provides to the financial sector.
While there's considerable uncertainty around how it will all play out, some observers believe Fed losses, which began a year ago, could eventually as much as double before abating.
William English, a former top central bank staffer now at Yale University, said he sees a "peak" loss of around $200 billion by 2025.
Meanwhile, Derek Tang of forecasting firm LH Meyer said the loss is likely to be between $150 billion and $200 billion by next year.
The Fed captures its losses in what it calls a deferred asset, an accounting measure that tallies what it will eventually have to cover in the future before it can return to its normal practice of returning its profits to the Treasury.
Losing money is very rare for the Fed.
But at the same time, the central bank has cautioned many times that the situation in no way impairs its ability to conduct monetary policy and to achieve its goals.
A money-losing Fed has not been a surprise given its aggressive campaign to raise interest rates, which has taken the benchmark overnight interest rate from the near-zero level in March 2022 to its current 5.25%-5.50% range.
With inflation pressures ebbing, it's widely expected that the Fed is done with its rate increases, or close to it.
LIQUIDITY DESTRUCTION
But that doesn't mean that the losses will stop mounting, as the current level of short-term rates will drive up the net negative income for quite some time.
Instead, the losses will eventually stop primarily due to the Fed's ongoing process of shrinking its balance sheet, which complements its rate hikes.
The Fed bought bonds aggressively during the coronavirus pandemic and its immediate aftermath, and in just over the last year it has shed about $1 trillion in Treasury and mortgage bonds.
Fed officials have suggested there's more to do on this front, and because of that, the central bank will have to spend less on interest because it is removing liquidity from the financial system.
Financial markets are eyeing a stop in the second or third quarter of 2024.
The liquidity targeted by the Fed primarily exists in the form of bank reserves and in inflows to the central bank's reverse repo facility.
Through these tools, the Fed pays a mix of banks, money managers and others to park cash on its books, so if liquidity shrinks, it costs the central bank less to tie up what remains, even if its policy rate doesn't change.
"The pace of losses will come down, even if interest rates stay high, because reserves and (reverse repos) are declining as securities run off, and new purchases of securities are earning the new, higher, rates," English said.
But he acknowledged "that's all very rough" given how many factors and uncertainties are at play.
Bank reserves have fallen about $1 trillion from their peak at the end of 2021 and stood at $3.3 trillion as of Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the reverse repo daily outstanding levels have fallen from more than $2 trillion a day between June 2022 and the end of June this year to $1.5 trillion on Thursday.
Money market trading firm Curvature Securities said in a research note this week that it's possible all the money will be out of reverse repos by the end of next year, returning the facility to where it stood just over two years ago.
POLITICAL PRICE
For some time the Fed has returned substantial amounts of money back to the Treasury, and this money has been used to lower government deficits.
James Bullard, the former head of the St. Louis Fed, said in an interview on Wednesday that he's "worried" about the central bank's losses and "it would be better not to do this."
He said it likely would have been better for the Fed to have kept some of the $1 trillion it has given the Treasury over the last decade to cover the sort of losses it is now navigating, but he noted that's not the system Congress has set up.
Whenever the Fed does stop losing money, it will take years before it is able to take the deferred asset off its books and start returning cash to the Treasury.
In 2022, the Fed handed back $76 billion, after returning $109 billion in 2021.
What's more, those high levels of earnings were tied to the very low rates then in place.
It remains an open question whether the Fed will be able to get back to that landscape, although some in the central bank, notably New York Fed President John Williams, are optimistic that can happen.
Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Paul Simao
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/fed- ... 023-09-15/
Re: THE ECONOMY
THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR SEPTEMBER 16, 2023 AT 11:25 AM
Paul R Plante, NYSPE says:
CHAOS, people!
Yes, chaos, that is what BIDE-O-NOMICS, Joe Biden’s MASSIVE BORROW-AND-SPEND CORPORATE WELFARE PROGRAM that enrichens those at the top by sucking the lifeblood out of those at the bottom, and passing it up to those in the middle, who get to take a cut before passing the bulk up to those at the top is delivering for the American people, as inflation continues to go up, not down, as we see in a CNBC article titled “August wholesale inflation rises 0.7%, hotter than expected, but core prices in check” by Jeff Cox on September 14, 2023, to wit:
Inflation at the wholesale level rose more than expected in August, countering recent data showing that price increases have tempered lately.
Final demand goods prices rose 2% in August, the biggest one-month gain since June 2022.
end quotes
Contrast that reality with this burst of blather and hoo-hah from Biden clean energy czar Podesta on August 16, 2023 in the Fox Business News article titled “Biden’s clean energy czar Podesta says Inflation Reduction Act is ‘all about’ cutting carbon pollution – WH senior adviser John Podesta said the IRA is working to eliminate ‘carbon pollution that’s driving the climate crisis'” by Kyle Morris, to wit:
Senior White House adviser John Podesta said Wednesday that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), despite its name, is “all about” rolling back the carbon pollution that has been “driving the climate crisis.”
end quote
Is that a version of “BAIT-AND-SWITCH,” people?
Seems it to me, especially since it is not reducing inflation, nor according to John Podesta, was it ever supposed to.
So calling it the Inflation Reduction Act was a falsehood, plain and simple, just another blatant lie from an administration that does nothing but lie, day after day after day.
And other than being nothing more than just another politically-reliable Democrat party hack, who exactly is John Podesta, that he is in any way “qualified” to be Joe Biden’s “clean energy czar?”
Let’s take a look:
John David Podesta Jr., born January 8, 1949, is an American political consultant who has served as senior advisor to the president for clean energy innovation and implementation since September 2022.
Podesta previously served as White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton from 1998 to 2001 and counselor to President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2015.
Before that, he served in the Clinton administration as White House staff secretary from 1993 to 1995 and White House deputy chief of staff for operations from 1997 to 1998.
He is the former president, and now chair and counselor, of the Center for American Progress (CAP), a think tank in Washington, D.C., as well as a visiting professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center and was chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Additionally, he was a co-chairman of the Obama-Biden transition team.
In his current role as senior advisor to President Biden, Podesta oversees the disbursement of $370–783 billion in clean energy tax credits and incentives authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
end quotes
Ahhhh, yes, as Joe’s “clean energy czar,” a position he really has no qualifications for other than being a trusted party hack who will go along to get along, John Podesta is the one who hands out the CORPORATE WELFARE for Joe Biden, with no questions asked, while handing us the bill for his largesse!
Going back to that Fox article, it continues, thusly:
Speaking from the briefing room at the White House, Podesta, who was selected by President Biden to serve as senior adviser to the president for clean energy innovation and implementation in September 2022, discussed the Biden administration’s green energy efforts related to climate change.
Speaking on the subject of climate disasters on the measure’s one-year anniversary, Podesta insisted that the IRA is working to eliminate carbon pollution.
“To stop these disasters from getting even worse, we have to cut the carbon pollution that’s driving the climate crisis,” he said.
“And that’s what the Inflation Reduction Act is all about.”
Podesta’s comments came nearly a week after Biden admitted that the Democrats’ signature piece of legislation – the IRA – wasn’t as much about actually reducing the then-record-high inflation facing the nation as he originally touted to the American people.
“I wish I hadn’t called it that.”
“It has less to do with reducing inflation than it does providing for alternatives that generate economic growth,” Biden said during an appearance at a campaign fundraiser in Park City, Utah according to the press pool report.
end quotes
Generate Economic growth?
For whom?
Let’s go to a Reuters article titled “US retail sales beat expectations as Americans pay more for gasoline” by Lucia Mutikani on September 14, 2023, where we have this answer, to wit:
WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) – U.S. retail sales increased more than expected in August as a surge in gasoline prices boosted receipts at service stations, but the trend in underlying spending on goods slowed as Americans grappled with higher inflation and borrowing costs.
Though spending remains supported by higher wages from the tight labor market, the outlook is darkening.
Excess savings accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be run down.
Credit card balances have risen sharply, with delinquencies at an 11-year high in the second quarter, according to recent data from the New York Federal Reserve.
“We estimate that the stock of excess savings that has kept the consumers afloat has declined about 70% to $600 billion on aggregate and that excess savings for lower-income families have largely been depleted,” said Lydia Boussour, senior economist at EY-Parthenon in New York.
end quotes
From the bottom up and middle out, people, as opposed to from the top down – that is the heart and soul of BIDE-O-NOMICS – HOOVER out the money from the pockets of those at the bottom so that those at the top can continue to live in the luxurious style they are not only accustomed to, but entitled, to, as well, which takes us back to Fox, to wit:
“And so, we’re now in a situation where if you take a look at what we’re doing in the Inflation Reduction Act, we’re literally reducing the cost of people being able to make their — meet their basic needs,” Biden said.
end quote
Which is pure political BULL**** from the man who is America’s quintessential lying, dog-faced pony soldier!
Going back to the Fox article, we have more, to wit:
“Even when there is inflation there is a way to provide breathing room,” he added, citing negotiating medical prices as one example.
end quote
Which takes us to a Reuters article titled “US consumer spending accelerates; declining savings a red flag” by Lucia Mutikani on August 31, 2023, to wit:
Services spending increased 0.8%, driven by portfolio management and investment advice services, housing and utilities, restaurants and healthcare.
end quote
Healthcare is going up, not down, which takes us back to Fox, to wit:
Biden’s comments are a sharp turn from what he said in July 2022 ahead of the Inflation Reduction Act’s passage through Congress on a party line vote.
“The Inflation Reduction Act is the strongest bill you can pass.”
“It will lower inflation, cut the deficit, reduce health care costs, tackle the climate crisis, and promote energy security,” he said.
end quotes
ALL of which, as we shall see in the next installment of this series, is pure Biden BULL**** as only Joe can throw it, and now once again, time for station identification, and when we return it will be with the Reuters article titled “Fed losses breach $100 billion as interest costs rise” by Michael S. Derby on September 15, 2023, and the Reuters article titled “Biden’s offshore wind target slipping out of reach as projects struggle” by Nichola Groom on September 15, 2023, where we were informed that President Joe Biden’s goal to deploy 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind along U.S. coastlines this decade to fight climate change may be unattainable due to soaring costs and supply chain delays, according to forecasters and industry insiders, so please stay tuned and don’t touch that dial!
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/op-ed- ... ent-848233
Paul R Plante, NYSPE says:
CHAOS, people!
Yes, chaos, that is what BIDE-O-NOMICS, Joe Biden’s MASSIVE BORROW-AND-SPEND CORPORATE WELFARE PROGRAM that enrichens those at the top by sucking the lifeblood out of those at the bottom, and passing it up to those in the middle, who get to take a cut before passing the bulk up to those at the top is delivering for the American people, as inflation continues to go up, not down, as we see in a CNBC article titled “August wholesale inflation rises 0.7%, hotter than expected, but core prices in check” by Jeff Cox on September 14, 2023, to wit:
Inflation at the wholesale level rose more than expected in August, countering recent data showing that price increases have tempered lately.
Final demand goods prices rose 2% in August, the biggest one-month gain since June 2022.
end quotes
Contrast that reality with this burst of blather and hoo-hah from Biden clean energy czar Podesta on August 16, 2023 in the Fox Business News article titled “Biden’s clean energy czar Podesta says Inflation Reduction Act is ‘all about’ cutting carbon pollution – WH senior adviser John Podesta said the IRA is working to eliminate ‘carbon pollution that’s driving the climate crisis'” by Kyle Morris, to wit:
Senior White House adviser John Podesta said Wednesday that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), despite its name, is “all about” rolling back the carbon pollution that has been “driving the climate crisis.”
end quote
Is that a version of “BAIT-AND-SWITCH,” people?
Seems it to me, especially since it is not reducing inflation, nor according to John Podesta, was it ever supposed to.
So calling it the Inflation Reduction Act was a falsehood, plain and simple, just another blatant lie from an administration that does nothing but lie, day after day after day.
And other than being nothing more than just another politically-reliable Democrat party hack, who exactly is John Podesta, that he is in any way “qualified” to be Joe Biden’s “clean energy czar?”
Let’s take a look:
John David Podesta Jr., born January 8, 1949, is an American political consultant who has served as senior advisor to the president for clean energy innovation and implementation since September 2022.
Podesta previously served as White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton from 1998 to 2001 and counselor to President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2015.
Before that, he served in the Clinton administration as White House staff secretary from 1993 to 1995 and White House deputy chief of staff for operations from 1997 to 1998.
He is the former president, and now chair and counselor, of the Center for American Progress (CAP), a think tank in Washington, D.C., as well as a visiting professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center and was chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Additionally, he was a co-chairman of the Obama-Biden transition team.
In his current role as senior advisor to President Biden, Podesta oversees the disbursement of $370–783 billion in clean energy tax credits and incentives authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
end quotes
Ahhhh, yes, as Joe’s “clean energy czar,” a position he really has no qualifications for other than being a trusted party hack who will go along to get along, John Podesta is the one who hands out the CORPORATE WELFARE for Joe Biden, with no questions asked, while handing us the bill for his largesse!
Going back to that Fox article, it continues, thusly:
Speaking from the briefing room at the White House, Podesta, who was selected by President Biden to serve as senior adviser to the president for clean energy innovation and implementation in September 2022, discussed the Biden administration’s green energy efforts related to climate change.
Speaking on the subject of climate disasters on the measure’s one-year anniversary, Podesta insisted that the IRA is working to eliminate carbon pollution.
“To stop these disasters from getting even worse, we have to cut the carbon pollution that’s driving the climate crisis,” he said.
“And that’s what the Inflation Reduction Act is all about.”
Podesta’s comments came nearly a week after Biden admitted that the Democrats’ signature piece of legislation – the IRA – wasn’t as much about actually reducing the then-record-high inflation facing the nation as he originally touted to the American people.
“I wish I hadn’t called it that.”
“It has less to do with reducing inflation than it does providing for alternatives that generate economic growth,” Biden said during an appearance at a campaign fundraiser in Park City, Utah according to the press pool report.
end quotes
Generate Economic growth?
For whom?
Let’s go to a Reuters article titled “US retail sales beat expectations as Americans pay more for gasoline” by Lucia Mutikani on September 14, 2023, where we have this answer, to wit:
WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) – U.S. retail sales increased more than expected in August as a surge in gasoline prices boosted receipts at service stations, but the trend in underlying spending on goods slowed as Americans grappled with higher inflation and borrowing costs.
Though spending remains supported by higher wages from the tight labor market, the outlook is darkening.
Excess savings accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be run down.
Credit card balances have risen sharply, with delinquencies at an 11-year high in the second quarter, according to recent data from the New York Federal Reserve.
“We estimate that the stock of excess savings that has kept the consumers afloat has declined about 70% to $600 billion on aggregate and that excess savings for lower-income families have largely been depleted,” said Lydia Boussour, senior economist at EY-Parthenon in New York.
end quotes
From the bottom up and middle out, people, as opposed to from the top down – that is the heart and soul of BIDE-O-NOMICS – HOOVER out the money from the pockets of those at the bottom so that those at the top can continue to live in the luxurious style they are not only accustomed to, but entitled, to, as well, which takes us back to Fox, to wit:
“And so, we’re now in a situation where if you take a look at what we’re doing in the Inflation Reduction Act, we’re literally reducing the cost of people being able to make their — meet their basic needs,” Biden said.
end quote
Which is pure political BULL**** from the man who is America’s quintessential lying, dog-faced pony soldier!
Going back to the Fox article, we have more, to wit:
“Even when there is inflation there is a way to provide breathing room,” he added, citing negotiating medical prices as one example.
end quote
Which takes us to a Reuters article titled “US consumer spending accelerates; declining savings a red flag” by Lucia Mutikani on August 31, 2023, to wit:
Services spending increased 0.8%, driven by portfolio management and investment advice services, housing and utilities, restaurants and healthcare.
end quote
Healthcare is going up, not down, which takes us back to Fox, to wit:
Biden’s comments are a sharp turn from what he said in July 2022 ahead of the Inflation Reduction Act’s passage through Congress on a party line vote.
“The Inflation Reduction Act is the strongest bill you can pass.”
“It will lower inflation, cut the deficit, reduce health care costs, tackle the climate crisis, and promote energy security,” he said.
end quotes
ALL of which, as we shall see in the next installment of this series, is pure Biden BULL**** as only Joe can throw it, and now once again, time for station identification, and when we return it will be with the Reuters article titled “Fed losses breach $100 billion as interest costs rise” by Michael S. Derby on September 15, 2023, and the Reuters article titled “Biden’s offshore wind target slipping out of reach as projects struggle” by Nichola Groom on September 15, 2023, where we were informed that President Joe Biden’s goal to deploy 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind along U.S. coastlines this decade to fight climate change may be unattainable due to soaring costs and supply chain delays, according to forecasters and industry insiders, so please stay tuned and don’t touch that dial!
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/op-ed- ... ent-848233
Re: THE ECONOMY
The Associated Press
"Biden sending aides to Detroit to address autoworkers strike, says 'record profits' should be shared"
Story by JOSH BOAK, Associated Press •
16 SEPTEMBER 2023
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday dispatched two of his top aides to Detroit to help resolve the strike by unionized autoworkers, expressing sympathy for the union by suggesting that the Big 3 automakers should share their “record profits.”
“No one wants to strike,” Biden said in brief remarks at the White House.
“But I respect workers’ right to use their options under the collective bargaining system, and I understand the workers’ frustration.”
The United Auto Workers announced a targeted strike of 13,000 workers at three factories after failing to reach a contract with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis.
Biden said he is sending acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior aide Gene Sperling to Detroit to help reach a “win-win” contract for the companies and their employees.
Biden said that when negotiations began, he encouraged leaders of the two sides to stay at the bargaining table as long as possible.
Just a fraction of the UAW’s 146,000 members employed by the Big 3 are striking.
The UAW is seeking 36% wage increases over four years.
GM and Ford have proposed 20%, while Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, has put forward 17.5%
“The companies have made some significant offers,” Biden said.
“But I believe they should go further to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts for the UAW.”
The strike began just as Biden is branding the U.S. economy as his own.
Going into the 2024 presidential election, the White House has said its policies will help blue collar workers, bolster the middle class and create factory jobs by shifting away from fossil fuels to address climate change.
But there are also uncertainties about these changes as automakers gear up to produce electric vehicles and the UAW is the most prominent union to not endorse Biden’s reelection effort.
High inflation going back to 2021 has created an economic and political headache for Biden.
Workers’ paychecks have not kept up with the cumulative increases in the cost of groceries, gasoline and other goods.
Data from the Labor Department shows that new car prices have jumped nearly 20% since April 2021, while higher interest rates have made auto loans more expensive.
The Democratic president said he is backing the union’s efforts on wage increases because the contracts can set standards across the wider economy, “pushing up wages and strengthening benefits for everyone.”
But Biden also described talks as having broken down, a characterization that UAW president Shawn Fain disputed.
The head of the UAW said the union's negotiators “are hard at work at the bargaining table.”
The UAW strike is just one of many labor disruptions.
Screen actors and writers are also on strike, shutting down Hollywood production.
Business leaders blamed Biden for encouraging the more aggressive union tactics from the White House by repeatedly voicing support for a constituency that he believes is part of his own identity and a key constituency in next year’s elections.
“The UAW strike and indeed the ‘summer of strikes’ is the natural result of the Biden administration’s ‘whole of government’ approach to promoting unionization at all costs,” said Suzanne Clark, CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Joshua Bolten, head of the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs, said: “With American families facing challenges from persistent inflation and a slowing economy, this strike will only make matters worse.”
Fain, the UAW president, said that the union's strike would not hurt the economy, but “the truth is we are going to wreck the billionaire economy.”
“Working people are not afraid,” he said.
“You know who’s afraid?"
"The corporate media is afraid."
"The White House is afraid."
"The companies are afraid.”
There are other possible strikes coming, including 60,000 health care workers in California, Oregon and Washington, said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at the consultancy RSM.
But the work stoppage at three auto plants, he said, “represents barely a ripple in the national economy” as of now.
Still, a wider strike by the UAW could cause parts of the U.S. economy to shudder.
The consultancy Oxford Economics estimated that a total strike by unionized workers at the Big 3 would cause motor vehicle production to drop 30% or more.
The chain reaction across parts suppliers to the stores and restaurants that auto workers patronize could hurt local economies in Michigan, Wisconsin and other states that could be pivotal in next year’s election.
The political spillover was beginning before a strike was formally announced.
Former President Donald Trump, the early Republican front-runner, said that union workers jobs are at risk because of Biden’s push to use of government incentives to build more EVs.
Trump said in a recent interview with NBC News that consumers should still be able to buy gasoline-powered autos and that any EVs will ultimately be manufactured in China, despite a wave of factory investments in the United States spurred by Biden’s policies.
“The auto workers are being sold down the river by their leadership, and their leadership should endorse Trump,” said Trump, adding that the workers are “not going to have a union in three years from now."
"Those jobs are all going to be gone, because all of those electric cars are going to be made in China.”
Biden, by contrast, sees the talks as critical for producing a contract that “leads to a ‘Made in America’ future that promotes good, strong middle class jobs.”
___
AP writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/bi ... 615e&ei=14
"Biden sending aides to Detroit to address autoworkers strike, says 'record profits' should be shared"
Story by JOSH BOAK, Associated Press •
16 SEPTEMBER 2023
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday dispatched two of his top aides to Detroit to help resolve the strike by unionized autoworkers, expressing sympathy for the union by suggesting that the Big 3 automakers should share their “record profits.”
“No one wants to strike,” Biden said in brief remarks at the White House.
“But I respect workers’ right to use their options under the collective bargaining system, and I understand the workers’ frustration.”
The United Auto Workers announced a targeted strike of 13,000 workers at three factories after failing to reach a contract with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis.
Biden said he is sending acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior aide Gene Sperling to Detroit to help reach a “win-win” contract for the companies and their employees.
Biden said that when negotiations began, he encouraged leaders of the two sides to stay at the bargaining table as long as possible.
Just a fraction of the UAW’s 146,000 members employed by the Big 3 are striking.
The UAW is seeking 36% wage increases over four years.
GM and Ford have proposed 20%, while Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, has put forward 17.5%
“The companies have made some significant offers,” Biden said.
“But I believe they should go further to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts for the UAW.”
The strike began just as Biden is branding the U.S. economy as his own.
Going into the 2024 presidential election, the White House has said its policies will help blue collar workers, bolster the middle class and create factory jobs by shifting away from fossil fuels to address climate change.
But there are also uncertainties about these changes as automakers gear up to produce electric vehicles and the UAW is the most prominent union to not endorse Biden’s reelection effort.
High inflation going back to 2021 has created an economic and political headache for Biden.
Workers’ paychecks have not kept up with the cumulative increases in the cost of groceries, gasoline and other goods.
Data from the Labor Department shows that new car prices have jumped nearly 20% since April 2021, while higher interest rates have made auto loans more expensive.
The Democratic president said he is backing the union’s efforts on wage increases because the contracts can set standards across the wider economy, “pushing up wages and strengthening benefits for everyone.”
But Biden also described talks as having broken down, a characterization that UAW president Shawn Fain disputed.
The head of the UAW said the union's negotiators “are hard at work at the bargaining table.”
The UAW strike is just one of many labor disruptions.
Screen actors and writers are also on strike, shutting down Hollywood production.
Business leaders blamed Biden for encouraging the more aggressive union tactics from the White House by repeatedly voicing support for a constituency that he believes is part of his own identity and a key constituency in next year’s elections.
“The UAW strike and indeed the ‘summer of strikes’ is the natural result of the Biden administration’s ‘whole of government’ approach to promoting unionization at all costs,” said Suzanne Clark, CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Joshua Bolten, head of the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs, said: “With American families facing challenges from persistent inflation and a slowing economy, this strike will only make matters worse.”
Fain, the UAW president, said that the union's strike would not hurt the economy, but “the truth is we are going to wreck the billionaire economy.”
“Working people are not afraid,” he said.
“You know who’s afraid?"
"The corporate media is afraid."
"The White House is afraid."
"The companies are afraid.”
There are other possible strikes coming, including 60,000 health care workers in California, Oregon and Washington, said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at the consultancy RSM.
But the work stoppage at three auto plants, he said, “represents barely a ripple in the national economy” as of now.
Still, a wider strike by the UAW could cause parts of the U.S. economy to shudder.
The consultancy Oxford Economics estimated that a total strike by unionized workers at the Big 3 would cause motor vehicle production to drop 30% or more.
The chain reaction across parts suppliers to the stores and restaurants that auto workers patronize could hurt local economies in Michigan, Wisconsin and other states that could be pivotal in next year’s election.
The political spillover was beginning before a strike was formally announced.
Former President Donald Trump, the early Republican front-runner, said that union workers jobs are at risk because of Biden’s push to use of government incentives to build more EVs.
Trump said in a recent interview with NBC News that consumers should still be able to buy gasoline-powered autos and that any EVs will ultimately be manufactured in China, despite a wave of factory investments in the United States spurred by Biden’s policies.
“The auto workers are being sold down the river by their leadership, and their leadership should endorse Trump,” said Trump, adding that the workers are “not going to have a union in three years from now."
"Those jobs are all going to be gone, because all of those electric cars are going to be made in China.”
Biden, by contrast, sees the talks as critical for producing a contract that “leads to a ‘Made in America’ future that promotes good, strong middle class jobs.”
___
AP writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/bi ... 615e&ei=14
Re: THE ECONOMY
America Insider
"Poll Shows How Americans Really Feel About ‘Bidenomics’"
Story by Carver Malone
16 SEPTEMBER 2023
It’s becoming unmistakably clear that Joe Biden is completely inept at handling the economic problems that face America.
A poll from the Wall Street Journal shows that roughly 3 out of 5 voters disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy.
63% say they do not approve of Biden’s handling of runaway inflation.
In another survey, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that consumers are increasingly pessimistic about their finances under Biden.
A significant number of Americans believe their financial situation is “much worse” under Biden.
The non-profit group Media Research Center has compiled five charts that sum up the economic impact of Joe Biden.
It includes:
• Gas prices are up 63%.
• Real wages have gone down for Americans.
• Prices are skyrocketing 3 times faster under Biden.
• Mortgage rates are changing for the worse under Biden.
• Saving rates of Americans have collapsed under Biden.
Gas prices, for instance, remained relatively stable during Donald Trump’s presidency, even decreasing by four cents a gallon.
In the first 31 months of Joe Biden’s term, gas prices have surged by a staggering 63%.
The average price per gallon of gas has risen from $2.42 to $3.95, as reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
When adjusted for inflation, real wages earned by Americans have seen a decline under President Biden.
In the first quarter of 2021, the median weekly real earnings averaged $373.
By the second quarter of this year, this figure had fallen to $365.
Under President Trump, real wages increased from $352 on January 1, 2017, to $373 on January 1, 2021.
Consumer prices also tell a telling tale.
During the 48 months of the Trump Administration, consumer prices increased by 7.6%, as indicated by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
In contrast, in just 31 months under President Biden, prices have risen by a whopping 16.6%.
The CPI has climbed from 262.650 in January 2021 to 306.269 in August 2023, putting it on track to increase more than three times as much as it did during Trump’s entire four-year term.
The cost of financing a home purchase has significantly risen during the Biden Administration.
Mortgage rates today are more than double the average rates home buyers paid when Trump left office.
Under Biden’s predecessor, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropped by a third, going from 4.09% to 2.77%.
However, by September 7, 2023, mortgage rates had more than doubled, surging by over four percentage points to reach 7.12%.
With Americans earning less and facing higher costs, their average savings rate has dwindled under Biden.
From February 1, 2017, to February 1, 2021, the average personal savings rate shot up by 86%, from 7.2% to 13.4%.
Yet, by July 1 of the current year, it had plummeted to a mere 3.5%, a quarter of its pre-Biden level, based on calculations incorporating data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Under the Biden administration we’ve seen rising gas prices, declining real wages, soaring consumer prices, increased mortgage rates, and a drop in the average savings rate.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... 5e9f5&ei=9
"Poll Shows How Americans Really Feel About ‘Bidenomics’"
Story by Carver Malone
16 SEPTEMBER 2023
It’s becoming unmistakably clear that Joe Biden is completely inept at handling the economic problems that face America.
A poll from the Wall Street Journal shows that roughly 3 out of 5 voters disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy.
63% say they do not approve of Biden’s handling of runaway inflation.
In another survey, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that consumers are increasingly pessimistic about their finances under Biden.
A significant number of Americans believe their financial situation is “much worse” under Biden.
The non-profit group Media Research Center has compiled five charts that sum up the economic impact of Joe Biden.
It includes:
• Gas prices are up 63%.
• Real wages have gone down for Americans.
• Prices are skyrocketing 3 times faster under Biden.
• Mortgage rates are changing for the worse under Biden.
• Saving rates of Americans have collapsed under Biden.
Gas prices, for instance, remained relatively stable during Donald Trump’s presidency, even decreasing by four cents a gallon.
In the first 31 months of Joe Biden’s term, gas prices have surged by a staggering 63%.
The average price per gallon of gas has risen from $2.42 to $3.95, as reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
When adjusted for inflation, real wages earned by Americans have seen a decline under President Biden.
In the first quarter of 2021, the median weekly real earnings averaged $373.
By the second quarter of this year, this figure had fallen to $365.
Under President Trump, real wages increased from $352 on January 1, 2017, to $373 on January 1, 2021.
Consumer prices also tell a telling tale.
During the 48 months of the Trump Administration, consumer prices increased by 7.6%, as indicated by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
In contrast, in just 31 months under President Biden, prices have risen by a whopping 16.6%.
The CPI has climbed from 262.650 in January 2021 to 306.269 in August 2023, putting it on track to increase more than three times as much as it did during Trump’s entire four-year term.
The cost of financing a home purchase has significantly risen during the Biden Administration.
Mortgage rates today are more than double the average rates home buyers paid when Trump left office.
Under Biden’s predecessor, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropped by a third, going from 4.09% to 2.77%.
However, by September 7, 2023, mortgage rates had more than doubled, surging by over four percentage points to reach 7.12%.
With Americans earning less and facing higher costs, their average savings rate has dwindled under Biden.
From February 1, 2017, to February 1, 2021, the average personal savings rate shot up by 86%, from 7.2% to 13.4%.
Yet, by July 1 of the current year, it had plummeted to a mere 3.5%, a quarter of its pre-Biden level, based on calculations incorporating data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Under the Biden administration we’ve seen rising gas prices, declining real wages, soaring consumer prices, increased mortgage rates, and a drop in the average savings rate.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... 5e9f5&ei=9
Re: THE ECONOMY
MarketWatch
"Cost of imports registers biggest increase in 15 months as gas prices boost inflation"
Story by Jeffry Bartash
16 SEPTEMBER 2023
The numbers: The cost of imported goods rose 0.5% in August, marking the biggest increase in 15 months, largely because of higher oil prices.
Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had estimated a 0.3% increase.
If fuel is set aside, import prices fell 0.1% last month, the government said.
What’s more, the cost of imports has fallen 3% in the past year.
Prices have eased since a huge runup in 2021 and 2022.
Still, the recent increase in prices shows that inflation is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels of 2% or less anytime soon.
Other snapshots of U.S. inflation such as consumer and wholesale prices also rose sharply in August.
Key details: The cost of foreign-produced fuel rose 6.7% last month after a 2.2% increase in July.
The cost of most other imports was little changed.
Prices fell for industrial supplies and autos, offsetting increases in food and consumer goods.
Nonfuel import prices have declined 0.8% in the past 12 months.
Export prices rose 1.3% in August.
They are down 5.5% over the past year, however.
Big picture: A late-summer surge in oil prices tied to Saudi Arabian production cuts has nudged U.S. inflation higher, at least for now.
Before the recent spike in energy prices, inflation has been on a downtrend.
Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were set to open higher in Friday trades.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... 4fe8&ei=41
"Cost of imports registers biggest increase in 15 months as gas prices boost inflation"
Story by Jeffry Bartash
16 SEPTEMBER 2023
The numbers: The cost of imported goods rose 0.5% in August, marking the biggest increase in 15 months, largely because of higher oil prices.
Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had estimated a 0.3% increase.
If fuel is set aside, import prices fell 0.1% last month, the government said.
What’s more, the cost of imports has fallen 3% in the past year.
Prices have eased since a huge runup in 2021 and 2022.
Still, the recent increase in prices shows that inflation is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels of 2% or less anytime soon.
Other snapshots of U.S. inflation such as consumer and wholesale prices also rose sharply in August.
Key details: The cost of foreign-produced fuel rose 6.7% last month after a 2.2% increase in July.
The cost of most other imports was little changed.
Prices fell for industrial supplies and autos, offsetting increases in food and consumer goods.
Nonfuel import prices have declined 0.8% in the past 12 months.
Export prices rose 1.3% in August.
They are down 5.5% over the past year, however.
Big picture: A late-summer surge in oil prices tied to Saudi Arabian production cuts has nudged U.S. inflation higher, at least for now.
Before the recent spike in energy prices, inflation has been on a downtrend.
Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were set to open higher in Friday trades.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... 4fe8&ei=41
Re: THE ECONOMY
THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR SEPTEMBER 17, 2023 AT 7:57 PM
Paul Plante says:
As to BIDE-O-NOMICS, which takes money from the pockets of those at the bottom and passes it up through the hands of those in the middle so they can take a cut a cut, before passing the bulk up to those on the top, what Joe Biden calls wealth distribution “flowing upward,” as opposed to “trickling down,” according to an America Insider article titled “Poll Shows How Americans Really Feel About ‘Bidenomics’” by Carver Malone on 16 September 2023, we have as follows, to wit:
It’s becoming unmistakably clear that Joe Biden is completely inept at handling the economic problems that face America.
A poll from the Wall Street Journal shows that roughly 3 out of 5 voters disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy.
63% say they do not approve of Biden’s handling of runaway inflation.
end quotes
I don’t at all dispute the statistics, but I would correct that lead sentence to read that Joe Biden’s completely inept handling of our economy is what has led to the serious economic problems that face America, and its people, which takes us to a Reuters article titled “Fed losses breach $100 billion as interest costs rise” by Michael S. Derby on September 15, 2023, where we have this outcome of BIDE-O-NOMICS to consider, to wit:
NEW YORK, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Federal Reserve losses breached the $100 billion mark, central bank data released on Thursday showed, and they’re likely to go a lot higher before the red ink stops.
The U.S. central bank is continuing to pay out more in interest costs than it takes in from the interest it earns on bonds it owns and from the services it provides to the financial sector.
While there’s considerable uncertainty around how it will all play out, some observers believe Fed losses, which began a year ago, could eventually as much as double before abating.
end quotes
Talk about gross mismanagement of our nation’s monetary system, there we have it before us, in graphic black and white, and that takes us to an Associated Press article from May 31, 2022 titled “Biden plots inflation fight with Fed chair as nation worries” by Josh Boak, Christopher Rugaber and Zeke Miller, where we have this following about the blind and witless leading the blind and just plain dumb as a box of rocks, to wit:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Focused on relentlessly rising prices, President Joe Biden plotted inflation-fighting strategy Tuesday with the chairman of the Federal Reserve, with the fate of the economy and his own political prospects increasingly dependent on the actions of the government’s central bank.
end quotes
And as we can clearly see from this Reuters article above here titled titled “Fed losses breach $100 billion as interest costs rise” by Michael S. Derby on September 15, 2023, Joe Biden put our future and our fate into the hands of a bunch of politically-appointed morons who in the meantime since have run the central bank into the ground, which takes us back to the AP article, as follows:
Biden hoped to demonstrate to voters that he was attuned to their worries about higher gasoline, grocery and other prices whiles still insisting an independent Fed will act free from political pressure.
end quote
Independent Fed?
Act free from political pressure?
Not hardly, people!
Going back to that story, we have more as follows:
Like Biden, the Fed wants to slow inflation without knocking the U.S. economy into recession, a highly sensitive mission that is to include increasing benchmark interest rates this summer.
end quote
And it is the increasing of those benchmark interest rates that has caused the fed to lose so much money, and that increasing was as a result of the inflation caused by Joe Biden’s reckless economic policies which have greatly increased our nation's debt load and deficit, so we have the spectacle of the federal reserve trying to undo the harm to our economy being done to it by BIDE-O-NOMICS.
Going back to the AP article, it continues as follows:
The president said he would not attempt to direct that course as some previous presidents have tried.
“My plan to address inflation starts with simple proposition: Respect the Fed, respect the Fed’s independence,” Biden said.
The sit-down on a heat-drenched late-spring day was Biden’s latest effort to show his dedication to containing the 8.3% leap in consumer prices over the past year.
Rising gas and food costs have angered many Americans heading into the midterm elections, putting Democrats’ control of the House and Senate at risk.
Biden is running out of options on his own.
His past attempts — oil releases from the strategic reserve, improving port operations and calls to investigate price gouging — have fallen short of satisfactory results.
High prices have undermined his efforts to highlight the low 3.6% unemployment rate, leaving a growing sense of pessimism among Americans.
Tuesday’s meeting was the first since Powell was renominated in November by Biden to lead the central bank and came two weeks after his confirmation for a second term by the Senate.
It also represented something of a reversal by Biden as inflation weighs heavily on voters’ minds.
The president asserted in April 2021 that he was “very fastidious about not talking” with the independent Fed and wanted to avoid being seen as “telling them what they should and shouldn’t do.”
The White House, along with the Fed, initially portrayed the inflation surge as a temporary side effect caused by supply chain issues as the U.S. emerged from the pandemic.
Republican lawmakers were fast to criticize Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package from last year as pumping too much money into the economy and causing more inflation.
That narrative also has held some sway with leading economists who say the financial support was excessive even though it helped the job market roar back.
The administration has walked back its previous statements.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CNN on Tuesday evening that she did not fully understand the impact that unanticipated large shocks and supply bottlenecks would have on the economy.
“Look, I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take,” she said.
“But we recognize that now the Federal Reserve is taking the steps that it needs to take.”
“It’s up to them to decide what to do.”
This was only the fourth meeting between the president and the Federal Reserve chair, though Powell breakfasts as often as once a week with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who also attended Tuesday’s meeting along with Brian Deese, the White House National Economic Council director.
Ahead of the meeting, Biden suggested that he and Powell were aligned on addressing inflation.
“My predecessor demeaned the Fed, and past presidents have sought to influence its decisions inappropriately during periods of elevated inflation,” Biden said in an op-ed posted Monday by The Wall Street Journal.
“I won’t do this.”
“I have appointed highly qualified people from both parties to lead that institution.”
“I agree with their assessment that fighting inflation is our top economic challenge right now.”
Biden’s endorsement of the Fed’s policies — a stance echoed by congressional GOP leaders — gives Powell important political cover for a series of sharp interest rate hikes intended to rein in higher prices.
Yet the higher rates could cause layoffs, raise the unemployment rate and even tip the economy into recession.
Amid worries that the U.S. economy may repeat the high, persistent inflation of the 1970s, the cooperation between Biden and Powell represents a crucial difference from that time and could make it easier for the Fed to restrain higher prices.
In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon pressured Fed chair Arthur Burns to lower interest rates to spur the economy before Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign.
Nixon’s interference is now widely seen as a key contributor to runaway inflation, which remained high until the early 1980s.
“That’s why comparisons to the 1970s are wrong,” said Sebastian Mallaby, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of a biography on former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, “The Man Who Knew.”
“The president’s essay was striking because he explicitly backed the Fed.”
Powell has pledged to keep ratcheting up the Fed’s key short-term interest rate to cool the economy until inflation is “coming down in a clear and convincing way.”
Biden, in his op-ed, indicated that the record-setting pace of job creation in the aftermath of the pandemic would slow dramatically, suggesting more moderate levels of 150,000 jobs per month from 500,000.
That, he said, would be no warning of weakness but “a sign that we are successfully moving into the next phase of recovery—as this kind of job growth is consistent with a low unemployment rate and a healthy economy.”
end quotes
So there we have Joe Biden taking full responsibility for the total mess that is the federal reserve today with his statement that he appointed highly qualified people from both parties to lead that institution, which in turn gives him responsibility for this following from the Reuters article, to wit:
William English, a former top central bank staffer now at Yale University, said he sees a “peak” loss of around $200 billion by 2025.
Meanwhile, Derek Tang of forecasting firm LH Meyer said the loss is likely to be between $150 billion and $200 billion by next year.
The Fed captures its losses in what it calls a deferred asset, an accounting measure that tallies what it will eventually have to cover in the future before it can return to its normal practice of returning its profits to the Treasury.
A money-losing Fed has not been a surprise given its aggressive campaign to raise interest rates, which has taken the benchmark overnight interest rate from the near-zero level in March 2022 to its current 5.25%-5.50% range.
The Fed bought bonds aggressively during the coronavirus pandemic and its immediate aftermath, and in just over the last year it has shed about $1 trillion in Treasury and mortgage bonds.
For some time the Fed has returned substantial amounts of money back to the Treasury, and this money has been used to lower government deficits.
James Bullard, the former head of the St. Louis Fed, said in an interview on Wednesday that he’s “worried” about the central bank’s losses and “it would be better not to do this.”
He said it likely would have been better for the Fed to have kept some of the $1 trillion it has given the Treasury over the last decade to cover the sort of losses it is now navigating, but he noted that’s not the system Congress has set up.
Whenever the Fed does stop losing money, it will take years before it is able to take the deferred asset off its books and start returning cash to the Treasury.
In 2022, the Fed handed back $76 billion, after returning $109 billion in 2021.
What’s more, those high levels of earnings were tied to the very low rates then in place.
It remains an open question whether the Fed will be able to get back to that landscape, although some in the central bank, notably New York Fed President John Williams, are optimistic that can happen.
end quotes
And there is reality, people.
Think I’m kidding?
Not a joke!
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/op-ed- ... ent-848917
Paul Plante says:
As to BIDE-O-NOMICS, which takes money from the pockets of those at the bottom and passes it up through the hands of those in the middle so they can take a cut a cut, before passing the bulk up to those on the top, what Joe Biden calls wealth distribution “flowing upward,” as opposed to “trickling down,” according to an America Insider article titled “Poll Shows How Americans Really Feel About ‘Bidenomics’” by Carver Malone on 16 September 2023, we have as follows, to wit:
It’s becoming unmistakably clear that Joe Biden is completely inept at handling the economic problems that face America.
A poll from the Wall Street Journal shows that roughly 3 out of 5 voters disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy.
63% say they do not approve of Biden’s handling of runaway inflation.
end quotes
I don’t at all dispute the statistics, but I would correct that lead sentence to read that Joe Biden’s completely inept handling of our economy is what has led to the serious economic problems that face America, and its people, which takes us to a Reuters article titled “Fed losses breach $100 billion as interest costs rise” by Michael S. Derby on September 15, 2023, where we have this outcome of BIDE-O-NOMICS to consider, to wit:
NEW YORK, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Federal Reserve losses breached the $100 billion mark, central bank data released on Thursday showed, and they’re likely to go a lot higher before the red ink stops.
The U.S. central bank is continuing to pay out more in interest costs than it takes in from the interest it earns on bonds it owns and from the services it provides to the financial sector.
While there’s considerable uncertainty around how it will all play out, some observers believe Fed losses, which began a year ago, could eventually as much as double before abating.
end quotes
Talk about gross mismanagement of our nation’s monetary system, there we have it before us, in graphic black and white, and that takes us to an Associated Press article from May 31, 2022 titled “Biden plots inflation fight with Fed chair as nation worries” by Josh Boak, Christopher Rugaber and Zeke Miller, where we have this following about the blind and witless leading the blind and just plain dumb as a box of rocks, to wit:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Focused on relentlessly rising prices, President Joe Biden plotted inflation-fighting strategy Tuesday with the chairman of the Federal Reserve, with the fate of the economy and his own political prospects increasingly dependent on the actions of the government’s central bank.
end quotes
And as we can clearly see from this Reuters article above here titled titled “Fed losses breach $100 billion as interest costs rise” by Michael S. Derby on September 15, 2023, Joe Biden put our future and our fate into the hands of a bunch of politically-appointed morons who in the meantime since have run the central bank into the ground, which takes us back to the AP article, as follows:
Biden hoped to demonstrate to voters that he was attuned to their worries about higher gasoline, grocery and other prices whiles still insisting an independent Fed will act free from political pressure.
end quote
Independent Fed?
Act free from political pressure?
Not hardly, people!
Going back to that story, we have more as follows:
Like Biden, the Fed wants to slow inflation without knocking the U.S. economy into recession, a highly sensitive mission that is to include increasing benchmark interest rates this summer.
end quote
And it is the increasing of those benchmark interest rates that has caused the fed to lose so much money, and that increasing was as a result of the inflation caused by Joe Biden’s reckless economic policies which have greatly increased our nation's debt load and deficit, so we have the spectacle of the federal reserve trying to undo the harm to our economy being done to it by BIDE-O-NOMICS.
Going back to the AP article, it continues as follows:
The president said he would not attempt to direct that course as some previous presidents have tried.
“My plan to address inflation starts with simple proposition: Respect the Fed, respect the Fed’s independence,” Biden said.
The sit-down on a heat-drenched late-spring day was Biden’s latest effort to show his dedication to containing the 8.3% leap in consumer prices over the past year.
Rising gas and food costs have angered many Americans heading into the midterm elections, putting Democrats’ control of the House and Senate at risk.
Biden is running out of options on his own.
His past attempts — oil releases from the strategic reserve, improving port operations and calls to investigate price gouging — have fallen short of satisfactory results.
High prices have undermined his efforts to highlight the low 3.6% unemployment rate, leaving a growing sense of pessimism among Americans.
Tuesday’s meeting was the first since Powell was renominated in November by Biden to lead the central bank and came two weeks after his confirmation for a second term by the Senate.
It also represented something of a reversal by Biden as inflation weighs heavily on voters’ minds.
The president asserted in April 2021 that he was “very fastidious about not talking” with the independent Fed and wanted to avoid being seen as “telling them what they should and shouldn’t do.”
The White House, along with the Fed, initially portrayed the inflation surge as a temporary side effect caused by supply chain issues as the U.S. emerged from the pandemic.
Republican lawmakers were fast to criticize Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package from last year as pumping too much money into the economy and causing more inflation.
That narrative also has held some sway with leading economists who say the financial support was excessive even though it helped the job market roar back.
The administration has walked back its previous statements.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CNN on Tuesday evening that she did not fully understand the impact that unanticipated large shocks and supply bottlenecks would have on the economy.
“Look, I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take,” she said.
“But we recognize that now the Federal Reserve is taking the steps that it needs to take.”
“It’s up to them to decide what to do.”
This was only the fourth meeting between the president and the Federal Reserve chair, though Powell breakfasts as often as once a week with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who also attended Tuesday’s meeting along with Brian Deese, the White House National Economic Council director.
Ahead of the meeting, Biden suggested that he and Powell were aligned on addressing inflation.
“My predecessor demeaned the Fed, and past presidents have sought to influence its decisions inappropriately during periods of elevated inflation,” Biden said in an op-ed posted Monday by The Wall Street Journal.
“I won’t do this.”
“I have appointed highly qualified people from both parties to lead that institution.”
“I agree with their assessment that fighting inflation is our top economic challenge right now.”
Biden’s endorsement of the Fed’s policies — a stance echoed by congressional GOP leaders — gives Powell important political cover for a series of sharp interest rate hikes intended to rein in higher prices.
Yet the higher rates could cause layoffs, raise the unemployment rate and even tip the economy into recession.
Amid worries that the U.S. economy may repeat the high, persistent inflation of the 1970s, the cooperation between Biden and Powell represents a crucial difference from that time and could make it easier for the Fed to restrain higher prices.
In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon pressured Fed chair Arthur Burns to lower interest rates to spur the economy before Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign.
Nixon’s interference is now widely seen as a key contributor to runaway inflation, which remained high until the early 1980s.
“That’s why comparisons to the 1970s are wrong,” said Sebastian Mallaby, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of a biography on former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, “The Man Who Knew.”
“The president’s essay was striking because he explicitly backed the Fed.”
Powell has pledged to keep ratcheting up the Fed’s key short-term interest rate to cool the economy until inflation is “coming down in a clear and convincing way.”
Biden, in his op-ed, indicated that the record-setting pace of job creation in the aftermath of the pandemic would slow dramatically, suggesting more moderate levels of 150,000 jobs per month from 500,000.
That, he said, would be no warning of weakness but “a sign that we are successfully moving into the next phase of recovery—as this kind of job growth is consistent with a low unemployment rate and a healthy economy.”
end quotes
So there we have Joe Biden taking full responsibility for the total mess that is the federal reserve today with his statement that he appointed highly qualified people from both parties to lead that institution, which in turn gives him responsibility for this following from the Reuters article, to wit:
William English, a former top central bank staffer now at Yale University, said he sees a “peak” loss of around $200 billion by 2025.
Meanwhile, Derek Tang of forecasting firm LH Meyer said the loss is likely to be between $150 billion and $200 billion by next year.
The Fed captures its losses in what it calls a deferred asset, an accounting measure that tallies what it will eventually have to cover in the future before it can return to its normal practice of returning its profits to the Treasury.
A money-losing Fed has not been a surprise given its aggressive campaign to raise interest rates, which has taken the benchmark overnight interest rate from the near-zero level in March 2022 to its current 5.25%-5.50% range.
The Fed bought bonds aggressively during the coronavirus pandemic and its immediate aftermath, and in just over the last year it has shed about $1 trillion in Treasury and mortgage bonds.
For some time the Fed has returned substantial amounts of money back to the Treasury, and this money has been used to lower government deficits.
James Bullard, the former head of the St. Louis Fed, said in an interview on Wednesday that he’s “worried” about the central bank’s losses and “it would be better not to do this.”
He said it likely would have been better for the Fed to have kept some of the $1 trillion it has given the Treasury over the last decade to cover the sort of losses it is now navigating, but he noted that’s not the system Congress has set up.
Whenever the Fed does stop losing money, it will take years before it is able to take the deferred asset off its books and start returning cash to the Treasury.
In 2022, the Fed handed back $76 billion, after returning $109 billion in 2021.
What’s more, those high levels of earnings were tied to the very low rates then in place.
It remains an open question whether the Fed will be able to get back to that landscape, although some in the central bank, notably New York Fed President John Williams, are optimistic that can happen.
end quotes
And there is reality, people.
Think I’m kidding?
Not a joke!
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/op-ed- ... ent-848917
Re: THE ECONOMY
THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR SEPTEMBER 18, 2023 AT 8:57 PM
Paul R Plante, NYSPE says:
Before we go further here into the adverse consequences of the FROM BOTTOM UP AND MIDDLE OUT TO TRANSFER THE WEALTH TO THOSE AT THE TOP policies of BIDE-O-NOMICS, we are right now presented with the serious question as to whether those who comprise the politically-appointed federal reserve board have any kind of clue as to what they are doing, now that they have run the federal reserve literally into the ground so that it is losing money big time, and therefore is unable to contribute to the treasury, which causes “TOODLES” Yellen to have to issue additional debt to make up for the shortfall caused by the policies of the inept and incompetent federal reserve, itself, and that question takes us back in time to the Minutes of the Meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on July 2-3, 1996, where we had Thomas C. Melzer, the 10th president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis from June 1, 1985, to January 30, 1998, who was an outspoken proponent of the idea that the Fed should focus on price stability (low or no inflation) as its sole monetary policy objective, speaking on the record as to federal reserve policy, to wit:
One final comment with respect to the forecast: I am concerned about how these forecasts may be interpreted.
We are asked to prepare forecasts based on what we think an appropriate policy stance would be, although the policy assumptions themselves are not published with the forecast or for that matter even requested.
If the FOMC consensus happened to be identical to the St. Louis forecast of lower inflation in 1997, would the interpretation by the public be that nothing more needs to be done to contain inflation?
There is the dilemma.
On the one hand, if we forecast accelerating inflation assuming no change in the stance of policy, we may make it easier to take appropriate actions to contain it.
On the other hand, if we forecast decelerating inflation predicated on a tightening of policy, we may make it more difficult in fact to take the necessary actions.
Either way our credibility could be damaged.
I think we should make it clear in publishing our forecasts that the outcomes are not independent of policy actions and may in fact presume some tightening actions.
Having said that, our forecasts of variables that we can influence, namely inflation in future years, are important to markets.
We ought to use every opportunity to forecast lower inflation in the years ahead and do our best to make such an outcome a reality.
end quotes
In other words, people, wing it and fudge the numbers, because it is about creating expectations, and that is it.
The federal reserve, which has not had any credibility for some long time now, uses models of what they think reality is, and models of reality are not in fact reality, and may not even be close, which thought takes us to these words from William J. McDonough, the eighth president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, on that subject of models, at that same meeting, to wit:
Our views are based on models that all of us have to use and that have the quality of thinking that past events are likely to be repeated in the future.
Intellectually, I think that is probably very sound.
However, I am having great difficulty trying to reconcile my intuition and my mind.
That may be because of my strong reaction to what I think is a very unfortunate debate going on in the country with those who consider price stability as somehow antagonistic to growth.
The higher the growth, the more we have to worry about price stability in that view.
Some of us unfortunately have contributed to that debate.
At the same time, what my intuition is telling me is that, rather like the comments the Chairman made in response to a question by President Minehan, there may in fact be developments on the cost side, on the wage side, and therefore in the future on the price side that we do not fully understand.
I think it probably would not be a very good idea for us to move policy at a time when the outlook for what we are uniquely responsible for, which is price stability, is questionable both intellectually and practically.
So, I think we must busy ourselves between now and the next meeting with trying to understand as best we can what if anything new is happening, as you suggested in your remarks, Mr. Chairman.
end quotes
And right now, the vaunted federal reserve is lost in the woods and wandering in circles, because its models, which were based on yesterday, are no longer valid today, which takes us back to Joe Biden’s claim that he is the one who appointed what he in his warped and twisted value system thought were highly qualified people from both parties to lead the federal reserve, and the question of federal reserve independence from the same Biden regime that appointed its members, which takes us to a CNN article from March 22, 2023 titled “Biden White House closely watching Federal Reserve following bank failures” by MJ Lee and Phil Mattingly, where we have the Biden regime attempting to micromanage the federal reserve, to wit:
CNN — All eyes are trained on the Federal Reserve as it prepares to announce another potential interest rate hike Wednesday afternoon – exactly 10 days after the Biden administration stepped in with dramatic emergency actions to contain the fallout from two bank failures.
Biden White House officials will be closely watching the highly anticipated rate decision – and monitoring every word of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s public comments – for any telling clues on how the central bank is processing what has emerged one of the most urgent economic crises of Joe Biden’s presidency.
The moment creates a complex, if carefully observed, dynamic for the administration’s top economic officials who have spent much of the last two weeks engaged in regular discussions and consultations with Powell and Fed officials as they’ve navigated rapid and acute risks to the banking system.
But Biden has made the central bank’s independence on monetary policy an unequivocal commitment – and has repeatedly underscored that he has confidence in the Fed’s central role in navigating inflation that has weighed on the US economy for more than a year and remained stubbornly persistent.
Even as some congressional Democrats have directed fire at Powell for the rapid increase in interest rates and the risks the effort poses to a robust post-pandemic economic recovery, White House officials have taken pains not to shed light on their views publicly.
Officials stress nothing in the last week has changed that mandate from Biden – and note that the widespread uncertainty about what action the Fed will take on rates only serves to underscore that reality.
It’s a reality that comes at a uniquely inopportune time for a banking system that has shown clear signs of stabilizing in the last several days, but is still facing a level of anxiety among market participants and depositors about the durability of that shift.
“I do believe we have a very strong and resilient banking system and all of us need to shore up the confidence of depositors that that’s the case,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said during remarks Tuesday in Washington.
Yellen said a new emergency lending facility launched by the Fed, along with its existing discount window, are “working as intended to provide liquidity to the banking system.”
For officials inside the Biden White House, Wednesday is poised to offer critical insight into how the central bank is grappling with its urgent priority of bringing down inflation, while at the same time, minimizing the risk of additional dominoes falling in the US banking sector.
Those two imperatives – bringing prices down and maintaining stability across the US financial sector – are urgent priorities for the Biden White House, particularly as the president moves closer to a widely expected reelection announcement and the health of the economy remains the top issue for voters.
Yet the Fed’s decision will come at a moment of accelerating political pressure on the Fed itself – and Powell specifically.
White House officials have made clear – with no hesitation – that Biden’s long-stated confidence in Powell is unchanged.
In recent days, White House officials have begun to cautiously suggest that they see signs of the US banking sector stabilizing, following the turbulent aftermath of the closures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
Biden, for his part, has credited the sweeping steps his administration announced – namely, the backstopping of all depositors’ funds held at the two institutions and the creation of an emergency lending program by the Federal Reserve – as having prevented a broader financial meltdown.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment Tuesday afternoon at the White House press briefing on how she and other officials were watching the Fed’s upcoming decision.
“The Fed is indeed independent.”
“We want to give them the space to make those monetary decisions and I don’t want to get ahead of that,” Jean-Pierre said.
“I don’t even want to give any thoughts to what Jerome Powell might say tomorrow.”
end quotes
So, if the administration’s top economic officials spent much of those last two weeks engaged in regular discussions and consultations with Powell and Fed officials as they’ve navigated rapid and acute risks to the banking system, and if Joe Biden was taking credit, as the article says, for the creation of an emergency lending program by the Federal Reserve as having prevented a broader financial meltdown, is the federal reserve really independent of the Biden regime?
And that answer is no way in hell are they, and what is the significance of the July 2-3, 1996 Meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee?
That happens to be the federal reserve meeting where Janet “TOODLES” Yellen, then a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, having been nominated to the position by President Bill Clinton, proposed and defended the 2 percent inflation target in use by the federal reserve since that time, which target has been exceeded today because of the inflation caused by Joe Biden’s fiscal profligacy, which fiscal profligacy caused Biden Treasury Secretary “TOODLES” Yellen to tell CNN on 31 May 2022 that she did not fully understand the impact that unanticipated large shocks and supply bottlenecks would have on the economy, telling them, “Look, I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take.”
She was wrong big time because despite her Ph.D., she really is not very bright, which is what qualified her to be Joe Biden’s treasury secretary, that and her political reliability, which takes us to a Reuters article titled “Wall Street ends sharply lower as chipmakers and megacaps slide” by Noel Randewich and Ankika Biswas on September 15, 2023, where we had as follows on the CHAOS that is happening today as a result of Joe Biden’s ill-thought-out BIDE-O-NOMICS, which is Stalin-era CENTRAL PLANNING at its very worst, to wit:
Sept 15 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks ended sharply lower on Friday as chipmakers dropped on concerns about weak consumer demand, while rising Treasury yields pressured Amazon and other megacap growth companies.
Chip equipment makers Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA Corp all dropped more than 4% after Reuters reported TSMC had asked its major vendors to delay deliveries.
Nvidia dropped 3.7%, Advanced Micro Devices lost 4.8% and Broadcom and Micron Technology each fell over 2%, pulling down the Philadelphia Semiconductor index down about 3% for the session.
end quotes
Yes, people, we need more CHIP FABS in America at public expense with more huge subsidies to CORPORATE AMERICA to build them, and when we return from station identification, it will be with the Reuters article titled “Biden’s offshore wind target slipping out of reach as projects struggle” by Nichola Groom on September 15, 2023, where we are informed that President Joe Biden’s goal to deploy 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind along U.S. coastlines this decade to fight climate change may be unattainable due to soaring costs and supply chain delays, according to forecasters and industry insiders, so please stay tuned and don’t touch that dial!
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/op-ed- ... ent-849468
Paul R Plante, NYSPE says:
Before we go further here into the adverse consequences of the FROM BOTTOM UP AND MIDDLE OUT TO TRANSFER THE WEALTH TO THOSE AT THE TOP policies of BIDE-O-NOMICS, we are right now presented with the serious question as to whether those who comprise the politically-appointed federal reserve board have any kind of clue as to what they are doing, now that they have run the federal reserve literally into the ground so that it is losing money big time, and therefore is unable to contribute to the treasury, which causes “TOODLES” Yellen to have to issue additional debt to make up for the shortfall caused by the policies of the inept and incompetent federal reserve, itself, and that question takes us back in time to the Minutes of the Meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on July 2-3, 1996, where we had Thomas C. Melzer, the 10th president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis from June 1, 1985, to January 30, 1998, who was an outspoken proponent of the idea that the Fed should focus on price stability (low or no inflation) as its sole monetary policy objective, speaking on the record as to federal reserve policy, to wit:
One final comment with respect to the forecast: I am concerned about how these forecasts may be interpreted.
We are asked to prepare forecasts based on what we think an appropriate policy stance would be, although the policy assumptions themselves are not published with the forecast or for that matter even requested.
If the FOMC consensus happened to be identical to the St. Louis forecast of lower inflation in 1997, would the interpretation by the public be that nothing more needs to be done to contain inflation?
There is the dilemma.
On the one hand, if we forecast accelerating inflation assuming no change in the stance of policy, we may make it easier to take appropriate actions to contain it.
On the other hand, if we forecast decelerating inflation predicated on a tightening of policy, we may make it more difficult in fact to take the necessary actions.
Either way our credibility could be damaged.
I think we should make it clear in publishing our forecasts that the outcomes are not independent of policy actions and may in fact presume some tightening actions.
Having said that, our forecasts of variables that we can influence, namely inflation in future years, are important to markets.
We ought to use every opportunity to forecast lower inflation in the years ahead and do our best to make such an outcome a reality.
end quotes
In other words, people, wing it and fudge the numbers, because it is about creating expectations, and that is it.
The federal reserve, which has not had any credibility for some long time now, uses models of what they think reality is, and models of reality are not in fact reality, and may not even be close, which thought takes us to these words from William J. McDonough, the eighth president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, on that subject of models, at that same meeting, to wit:
Our views are based on models that all of us have to use and that have the quality of thinking that past events are likely to be repeated in the future.
Intellectually, I think that is probably very sound.
However, I am having great difficulty trying to reconcile my intuition and my mind.
That may be because of my strong reaction to what I think is a very unfortunate debate going on in the country with those who consider price stability as somehow antagonistic to growth.
The higher the growth, the more we have to worry about price stability in that view.
Some of us unfortunately have contributed to that debate.
At the same time, what my intuition is telling me is that, rather like the comments the Chairman made in response to a question by President Minehan, there may in fact be developments on the cost side, on the wage side, and therefore in the future on the price side that we do not fully understand.
I think it probably would not be a very good idea for us to move policy at a time when the outlook for what we are uniquely responsible for, which is price stability, is questionable both intellectually and practically.
So, I think we must busy ourselves between now and the next meeting with trying to understand as best we can what if anything new is happening, as you suggested in your remarks, Mr. Chairman.
end quotes
And right now, the vaunted federal reserve is lost in the woods and wandering in circles, because its models, which were based on yesterday, are no longer valid today, which takes us back to Joe Biden’s claim that he is the one who appointed what he in his warped and twisted value system thought were highly qualified people from both parties to lead the federal reserve, and the question of federal reserve independence from the same Biden regime that appointed its members, which takes us to a CNN article from March 22, 2023 titled “Biden White House closely watching Federal Reserve following bank failures” by MJ Lee and Phil Mattingly, where we have the Biden regime attempting to micromanage the federal reserve, to wit:
CNN — All eyes are trained on the Federal Reserve as it prepares to announce another potential interest rate hike Wednesday afternoon – exactly 10 days after the Biden administration stepped in with dramatic emergency actions to contain the fallout from two bank failures.
Biden White House officials will be closely watching the highly anticipated rate decision – and monitoring every word of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s public comments – for any telling clues on how the central bank is processing what has emerged one of the most urgent economic crises of Joe Biden’s presidency.
The moment creates a complex, if carefully observed, dynamic for the administration’s top economic officials who have spent much of the last two weeks engaged in regular discussions and consultations with Powell and Fed officials as they’ve navigated rapid and acute risks to the banking system.
But Biden has made the central bank’s independence on monetary policy an unequivocal commitment – and has repeatedly underscored that he has confidence in the Fed’s central role in navigating inflation that has weighed on the US economy for more than a year and remained stubbornly persistent.
Even as some congressional Democrats have directed fire at Powell for the rapid increase in interest rates and the risks the effort poses to a robust post-pandemic economic recovery, White House officials have taken pains not to shed light on their views publicly.
Officials stress nothing in the last week has changed that mandate from Biden – and note that the widespread uncertainty about what action the Fed will take on rates only serves to underscore that reality.
It’s a reality that comes at a uniquely inopportune time for a banking system that has shown clear signs of stabilizing in the last several days, but is still facing a level of anxiety among market participants and depositors about the durability of that shift.
“I do believe we have a very strong and resilient banking system and all of us need to shore up the confidence of depositors that that’s the case,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said during remarks Tuesday in Washington.
Yellen said a new emergency lending facility launched by the Fed, along with its existing discount window, are “working as intended to provide liquidity to the banking system.”
For officials inside the Biden White House, Wednesday is poised to offer critical insight into how the central bank is grappling with its urgent priority of bringing down inflation, while at the same time, minimizing the risk of additional dominoes falling in the US banking sector.
Those two imperatives – bringing prices down and maintaining stability across the US financial sector – are urgent priorities for the Biden White House, particularly as the president moves closer to a widely expected reelection announcement and the health of the economy remains the top issue for voters.
Yet the Fed’s decision will come at a moment of accelerating political pressure on the Fed itself – and Powell specifically.
White House officials have made clear – with no hesitation – that Biden’s long-stated confidence in Powell is unchanged.
In recent days, White House officials have begun to cautiously suggest that they see signs of the US banking sector stabilizing, following the turbulent aftermath of the closures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
Biden, for his part, has credited the sweeping steps his administration announced – namely, the backstopping of all depositors’ funds held at the two institutions and the creation of an emergency lending program by the Federal Reserve – as having prevented a broader financial meltdown.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment Tuesday afternoon at the White House press briefing on how she and other officials were watching the Fed’s upcoming decision.
“The Fed is indeed independent.”
“We want to give them the space to make those monetary decisions and I don’t want to get ahead of that,” Jean-Pierre said.
“I don’t even want to give any thoughts to what Jerome Powell might say tomorrow.”
end quotes
So, if the administration’s top economic officials spent much of those last two weeks engaged in regular discussions and consultations with Powell and Fed officials as they’ve navigated rapid and acute risks to the banking system, and if Joe Biden was taking credit, as the article says, for the creation of an emergency lending program by the Federal Reserve as having prevented a broader financial meltdown, is the federal reserve really independent of the Biden regime?
And that answer is no way in hell are they, and what is the significance of the July 2-3, 1996 Meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee?
That happens to be the federal reserve meeting where Janet “TOODLES” Yellen, then a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, having been nominated to the position by President Bill Clinton, proposed and defended the 2 percent inflation target in use by the federal reserve since that time, which target has been exceeded today because of the inflation caused by Joe Biden’s fiscal profligacy, which fiscal profligacy caused Biden Treasury Secretary “TOODLES” Yellen to tell CNN on 31 May 2022 that she did not fully understand the impact that unanticipated large shocks and supply bottlenecks would have on the economy, telling them, “Look, I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take.”
She was wrong big time because despite her Ph.D., she really is not very bright, which is what qualified her to be Joe Biden’s treasury secretary, that and her political reliability, which takes us to a Reuters article titled “Wall Street ends sharply lower as chipmakers and megacaps slide” by Noel Randewich and Ankika Biswas on September 15, 2023, where we had as follows on the CHAOS that is happening today as a result of Joe Biden’s ill-thought-out BIDE-O-NOMICS, which is Stalin-era CENTRAL PLANNING at its very worst, to wit:
Sept 15 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks ended sharply lower on Friday as chipmakers dropped on concerns about weak consumer demand, while rising Treasury yields pressured Amazon and other megacap growth companies.
Chip equipment makers Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA Corp all dropped more than 4% after Reuters reported TSMC had asked its major vendors to delay deliveries.
Nvidia dropped 3.7%, Advanced Micro Devices lost 4.8% and Broadcom and Micron Technology each fell over 2%, pulling down the Philadelphia Semiconductor index down about 3% for the session.
end quotes
Yes, people, we need more CHIP FABS in America at public expense with more huge subsidies to CORPORATE AMERICA to build them, and when we return from station identification, it will be with the Reuters article titled “Biden’s offshore wind target slipping out of reach as projects struggle” by Nichola Groom on September 15, 2023, where we are informed that President Joe Biden’s goal to deploy 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind along U.S. coastlines this decade to fight climate change may be unattainable due to soaring costs and supply chain delays, according to forecasters and industry insiders, so please stay tuned and don’t touch that dial!
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/op-ed- ... ent-849468
Re: THE ECONOMY
America Insider
"Joe Biden Cannot Outrun His Problems This Time"
Story by David Rufful
19 SEPTEMBER 2023
It’s shaping up to be a perfect storm for Joe Biden.
He currently faces an impeachment inquiry over his involvement in an international bribery scheme.
At the same time, Hunter Biden faces three federal criminal charges and up to 25 years in prison.
Compounding these issues, multiple polls show that Americans believe the country is falling apart under his watch.
Many Americans say Biden is inept at handling the economic problems facing America.
A poll from the Wall Street Journal shows that roughly 3 out of 5 voters disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy.
63% say they do not approve of Biden’s handling of runaway inflation.
Former president Donald Trump currently leads Joe Biden in a hypothetical 2024 presidential election matchup, according to a CBS News/YouGov poll and a Harvard-Harris poll.
The poll found that 50% of 4,002 U.S. adults sampled would vote for Trump in a rematch of the 2020 presidential election while 49% would vote for Biden.
Only 1% of voters are undecided, the poll found.
Everything points to one unmistakable conclusion: Joe Biden cannot outrun his problems leading up to the 2024 race.
Hunter’s trial will potentially overlap with his father’s 2024 reelection campaign.
Some Democrats have expressed concerns about the emotional toll that Hunter’s trial will have on the elder Biden.
In another survey, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that consumers are increasingly pessimistic about their finances under Biden.
A significant number of Americans believe their financial situation is “much worse” under Biden.
The non-profit group Media Research Center has compiled five charts that sum up the economic impact of Joe Biden.
It includes:
• Gas prices are up 63%.
• Real wages have gone down for Americans.
• Prices are skyrocketing 3 times faster under Biden.
• Mortgage rates are changing for the worse under Biden.
• Saving rates of Americans have collapsed under Biden.
Here are the charts:
Gas prices, for instance, remained relatively stable during Donald Trump’s presidency, even decreasing by four cents a gallon.
In the first 31 months of Joe Biden’s term, gas prices have surged by a staggering 63%.
The average price per gallon of gas has risen from $2.42 to $3.95, as reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
When adjusted for inflation, real wages earned by Americans have seen a decline under President Biden.
In the first quarter of 2021, the median weekly real earnings averaged $373.
By the second quarter of this year, this figure had fallen to $365.
Under President Trump, real wages increased from $352 on January 1, 2017, to $373 on January 1, 2021.
Consumer prices also tell a telling tale.
During the 48 months of the Trump Administration, consumer prices increased by 7.6%, as indicated by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
In contrast, in just 31 months under President Biden, prices have risen by a whopping 16.6%.
The CPI has climbed from 262.650 in January 2021 to 306.269 in August 2023, putting it on track to increase more than three times as much as it did during Trump’s entire four-year term.
The cost of financing a home purchase has significantly risen during the Biden Administration.
Mortgage rates today are more than double the average rates home buyers paid when Trump left office.
Under Biden’s predecessor, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropped by a third, going from 4.09% to 2.77%.
However, by September 7, 2023, mortgage rates had more than doubled, surging by over four percentage points to reach 7.12%.
With Americans earning less and facing higher costs, their average savings rate has dwindled under Biden.
From February 1, 2017, to February 1, 2021, the average personal savings rate shot up by 86%, from 7.2% to 13.4%.
Yet, by July 1 of the current year, it had plummeted to a mere 3.5%, a quarter of its pre-Biden level, based on calculations incorporating data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Under the Biden administration we’ve seen rising gas prices, declining real wages, soaring consumer prices, increased mortgage rates, and a drop in the average savings rate.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... 6986&ei=10
"Joe Biden Cannot Outrun His Problems This Time"
Story by David Rufful
19 SEPTEMBER 2023
It’s shaping up to be a perfect storm for Joe Biden.
He currently faces an impeachment inquiry over his involvement in an international bribery scheme.
At the same time, Hunter Biden faces three federal criminal charges and up to 25 years in prison.
Compounding these issues, multiple polls show that Americans believe the country is falling apart under his watch.
Many Americans say Biden is inept at handling the economic problems facing America.
A poll from the Wall Street Journal shows that roughly 3 out of 5 voters disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy.
63% say they do not approve of Biden’s handling of runaway inflation.
Former president Donald Trump currently leads Joe Biden in a hypothetical 2024 presidential election matchup, according to a CBS News/YouGov poll and a Harvard-Harris poll.
The poll found that 50% of 4,002 U.S. adults sampled would vote for Trump in a rematch of the 2020 presidential election while 49% would vote for Biden.
Only 1% of voters are undecided, the poll found.
Everything points to one unmistakable conclusion: Joe Biden cannot outrun his problems leading up to the 2024 race.
Hunter’s trial will potentially overlap with his father’s 2024 reelection campaign.
Some Democrats have expressed concerns about the emotional toll that Hunter’s trial will have on the elder Biden.
In another survey, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that consumers are increasingly pessimistic about their finances under Biden.
A significant number of Americans believe their financial situation is “much worse” under Biden.
The non-profit group Media Research Center has compiled five charts that sum up the economic impact of Joe Biden.
It includes:
• Gas prices are up 63%.
• Real wages have gone down for Americans.
• Prices are skyrocketing 3 times faster under Biden.
• Mortgage rates are changing for the worse under Biden.
• Saving rates of Americans have collapsed under Biden.
Here are the charts:
Gas prices, for instance, remained relatively stable during Donald Trump’s presidency, even decreasing by four cents a gallon.
In the first 31 months of Joe Biden’s term, gas prices have surged by a staggering 63%.
The average price per gallon of gas has risen from $2.42 to $3.95, as reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
When adjusted for inflation, real wages earned by Americans have seen a decline under President Biden.
In the first quarter of 2021, the median weekly real earnings averaged $373.
By the second quarter of this year, this figure had fallen to $365.
Under President Trump, real wages increased from $352 on January 1, 2017, to $373 on January 1, 2021.
Consumer prices also tell a telling tale.
During the 48 months of the Trump Administration, consumer prices increased by 7.6%, as indicated by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
In contrast, in just 31 months under President Biden, prices have risen by a whopping 16.6%.
The CPI has climbed from 262.650 in January 2021 to 306.269 in August 2023, putting it on track to increase more than three times as much as it did during Trump’s entire four-year term.
The cost of financing a home purchase has significantly risen during the Biden Administration.
Mortgage rates today are more than double the average rates home buyers paid when Trump left office.
Under Biden’s predecessor, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropped by a third, going from 4.09% to 2.77%.
However, by September 7, 2023, mortgage rates had more than doubled, surging by over four percentage points to reach 7.12%.
With Americans earning less and facing higher costs, their average savings rate has dwindled under Biden.
From February 1, 2017, to February 1, 2021, the average personal savings rate shot up by 86%, from 7.2% to 13.4%.
Yet, by July 1 of the current year, it had plummeted to a mere 3.5%, a quarter of its pre-Biden level, based on calculations incorporating data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Under the Biden administration we’ve seen rising gas prices, declining real wages, soaring consumer prices, increased mortgage rates, and a drop in the average savings rate.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... 6986&ei=10
Re: THE ECONOMY
Moneywise
"Nearly half of Americans earning more than $100K now report living paycheck to paycheck — here's why your savings are more important now than ever"
Story by Moneywise
19 SEPTEMBER 2023
Americans are still grappling with high inflation and even the wealthy are teetering on the edge.
About six in 10 Americans were living paycheck to paycheck in November, according to a report produced by commerce data platform PYMNTS and personal loans website LendingClub — 47% of those with six-figure incomes are feeling the financial pressure, too.
There are financial consequences up ahead for the millions of Americans who barely have enough cash to meet their basic expenses.
For a majority of employed workers, the median decline in real wages when factoring in inflation is over 8.5% — the biggest pay cut in 25 years, said the researchers.
If you’re one of them, this means your purchasing power is being severely eroded.
Not only that, but as Americans struggle to keep up with the ballooning costs of consumer goods, many are turning to credit cards to fill the gap. Credit card balances climbed by $45 billion in the second quarter of 2023, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Many consumers are barely making ends meet — let alone have room at the end of the month to fill up their savings accounts.
Despite inflation and economic uncertainty, it’s clear that now is the time when Americans must get a hold of their finances.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/persona ... 0009&ei=17
"Nearly half of Americans earning more than $100K now report living paycheck to paycheck — here's why your savings are more important now than ever"
Story by Moneywise
19 SEPTEMBER 2023
Americans are still grappling with high inflation and even the wealthy are teetering on the edge.
About six in 10 Americans were living paycheck to paycheck in November, according to a report produced by commerce data platform PYMNTS and personal loans website LendingClub — 47% of those with six-figure incomes are feeling the financial pressure, too.
There are financial consequences up ahead for the millions of Americans who barely have enough cash to meet their basic expenses.
For a majority of employed workers, the median decline in real wages when factoring in inflation is over 8.5% — the biggest pay cut in 25 years, said the researchers.
If you’re one of them, this means your purchasing power is being severely eroded.
Not only that, but as Americans struggle to keep up with the ballooning costs of consumer goods, many are turning to credit cards to fill the gap. Credit card balances climbed by $45 billion in the second quarter of 2023, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Many consumers are barely making ends meet — let alone have room at the end of the month to fill up their savings accounts.
Despite inflation and economic uncertainty, it’s clear that now is the time when Americans must get a hold of their finances.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/persona ... 0009&ei=17