from Bloomberg Television
Retail Expert Warns of Weak Holiday Shopping Season with Consumers ‘Stressed by Inflation’
by Amy Furr
Breitbart.com
A former Target executive and retail expert is warning of a not-so-jolly holiday shopping season as Americans struggle in President Joe Biden (D) and Vice President Kamala Harris’s (D) economy.
Former Target Vice Chairman Gerald Storch said during an interview on Fox Business Thursday, “It’s very clear that consumers are running out of money.”
“They’re increasingly stressed by inflation and the exhaustion of their pandemic-era savings. When you take a look over the last several years, what you see month after month, everyone talks about, the consumer’s still spending. They might be, but they’re spending less than the growth of inflation,” he stated.
In 2023, a LendingClub study found a majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, as polling at the time showed only 14 percent of voters believed Biden’s economic policies were helping them, Breitbart News reported.
23% of Tax Revenue ($1.1 Trillion) is Now Interest On the National Debt
by James Hickman
Schiff Sovereign
The corpse of King Louis XV was still warm when his son and successor, 19-year old Louis XVI, started cleaning the royal house.
French finances were an absolute mess. The country was almost hopelessly bankrupt after decades and decades of costly warfare… and even more costly royal luxury. The young king’s predecessors, Lous XIV and Louis XV, spared no expense when it came to their comfort and grandeur, and the end result was the largest national debt in the history of the world up to that point.
Louis XVI knew something had to be done urgently. So, his first order of business was to appoint a brand new finance minister– the famed economist and philosopher Jacques Turgot.
Buyer Beware: Third-Largest Home Insurer Uses Solar Panels as Justification to Revoke Coverage
by Olivia Murray
American Thinker
After two decades spent as loyal customers to Liberty Mutual, a California couple recently discovered that the insurer had decided to cut ties, sending Janice and Anthony Coleman a “non-renewal” letter when solar panels on the roof were mistaken as moss, mildew, and algae growth. Here’s the story, from a report via Yahoo News:
Janice and Anthony Coleman, longtime homeowners in Fairfield, California, were shocked when Liberty Mutual, their home insurance provider of 20 years, sent a non-renewal notice. The reason? An aerial photograph from space, supposedly showing the roof, was used as justification.
Liberty Mutual claimed the roof had moss, mildew and algae growth, but the Colemans insist the alleged damage was simply their solar panels.
Now, despite the fact that a professional roofer determined the roof was in fine working condition and there was no moss or mildew, Liberty Mutual maintained the revocation of coverage, and the Colemans were left without a remedy; the company’s actions process and actions were completely within the bounds of the the law.
D.C. Workers Spend $350 On Lunches Monthly Amid Inflation
by Amy Furr
Breitbart.com
People working in Washington, DC, are spending a lot of money on lunches as inflation continues to batter Americans in the Biden-Harris (D) administration’s economy.
A recent study found that employees in the nation’s capital are spending $350 on work lunches per month, Fox 5 reported on Thursday:
[…] The information is found in ezCater’s 2024 Lunch Report. “Washingtonians spend $350 on work lunches per month, including lunch from restaurants and groceries for making lunch,” it states.
The study also noted that “79% of Washingtonians’ lunch habits are affected by inflation, with 35% opting for cheaper lunch options and 39% buying lunch less frequently.”
Inflation is Not Dead, It’s Just Resting
by Edward Chancellor
Reuters.com
LONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters Breakingviews) – Over the past three years inflation has gone from “transitory” to “persistent” to, well, boring. Across the developed world annual price increases are returning towards the subdued 2% level targeted by many central banks. Commentators are talking of the Goldilocks scenario, where the economy, like the porridge in the fairy tale, is neither too hot nor too cold.
Don’t break out the champagne yet, though. There’s a long history of monetary policymakers prematurely celebrating the end of inflation, only to be caught off guard by its sudden resurgence. Perhaps the best example comes from the early 1970s.
No Central Bank Wants to Stop Price Inflation
by Daniel Lacalle
Mises.org
Many citizens want more government control of the economy to curb rising prices. It is the worst strategy imaginable. Interventionist governments never reduce consumer prices because they benefit from inflation, dissolving their political spending commitments in a constantly depreciated currency. Inflation is the perfect hidden tax. The government makes the currency less valuable by issuing more units of fiat money, partially dissolves its debt in real terms, collects more taxes, and presents itself as the solution to rising prices with subsidies in an increasingly worthless currency. That is why socialism and hyperinflation go hand in hand.
Socialism rejects human action and economic calculation and sells a false image of a government that can create wealth at will by issuing more units of fiat currency. Obviously, when inflation arrives, the socialist government will use its two favorite tools: propaganda and repression. Propaganda, which accuses stores and businesses of driving up prices, and repression, which occurs when social unrest intensifies and citizens legitimately hold governments accountable for scarcity and high prices, are the two main strategies.
Used Vehicles Getting Ready to Turn Into Inflation Headwind, After Historic Plunge Had Powered Core CPI “Deceleration”
by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
The used-vehicle pipeline is messed up for years to come.
Used vehicle prices – retail and wholesale – had performed a historic 50%-plus price spike between mid-2020 through mid-2022 when consumers were suddenly willing to pay whatever; dealers saw it and jacked up their prices. And knowing that they could extract record profits from those bedazzled consumers no matter what the price, dealers were willing to pay whatever at auctions to replenish their inventory. But starting in 2022, consumers gradually came to, and dealers had to respond. What followed was a historic plunge in used vehicle prices, both retail and wholesale, giving up about half of the price spike.
Carney On ‘The Bottom Line’: Biden-Harris Inflation Devastated Union Wages
by Pam Key
Breitbart.com
Breitbart News economics editor John Carney said Wednesday on Fox Business Network’s “The Bottom Line” under the Biden-Harris administration, union members saw their wages devastated by inflation.
Co-host Sean Duffy said, “You see unions, maybe they don’t endorse, or they endorse Trump, but they’re moving away from the Democrat Party. It fits hand-in-glove with the tariff conversation that Donald Trump’s been having with the media and with the American people. I think these workers believe that if you protect the American worker or at least give us fairer trade with the rest of the world, we’re winners as the American worker, which is why they’re supporting Trump and not Harris. Am I wrong?”
Peter Schiff: 2% Inflation is Fantasy Land
from Schiff Gold
Last week, Peter appeared on Soar Financially, where he was interviewed by host Kai Hoffmann. The two dive into gold’s upward trajectory and its historical precedents, the market’s misguided optimism when it comes to the American economy, and recent events in domestic politics and international banking.
Peter starts with his perennial reminder: public sector jobs do not boost the economy, and recent jobs numbers are intended to support a false narrative.
“Government jobs are not a sign of a strong economy. In fact, they weaken an economy because we have to pay for those jobs. They’re non-productive jobs. They result in bigger deficits, higher inflation. That’s really all we have– we have inflation that masquerades as growth.”
In a Rare Candid Moment, Three Central Bankers Talk Up Gold
by Mike Maharrey
GoldSeek
While central banks around the world have been aggressively adding gold to their reserves, central bankers don’t tend to talk much about the yellow metal.
Three central bank officials went off script at the London Bullion Market Association conference in Miami.
Reserve managers from the central banks of Mexico, Mongolia, and the Czech Republic sat together on a panel at the conference, and all three indicated their countries plan to add even more gold to their reserves in the near future as geopolitical tensions increase and global interest rates decline, creating more inflationary pressure.
Banco de México international reserves director Joaquín Tapia said, “Given the context that we are facing right now — lower rates, your political tension, U.S. election, a lot of uncertainty — maybe the share of gold in our portfolios could be increasing as well.”