| Inflation continues to rise, hitting a 13-year high last week. One of the main blows to folks’ budgets is the cost of fuel. After shutting down US production of fossil fuels to boost climate credentials, the government is now hoping foreign oil producers will help them out. But that might be harder said than done, as China has been happy to buy and stash fuel at any price. So you might not even get a lump of coal at Christmas, with media sources warning that supply chain bottlenecks could cause headaches for holiday shopping. Major retailers have said they will work 24/7 to to clear the backlog and west coast ports will stay open to unload cargo ships. Footage of the queue of ships off California is quite a spectacle. Yet, according to one Harvard prof, inflation and supply chain issues are the “high class” problems you get from modern monetary policy and ultimately, things could have been much worse… Just give it time, buddy. In the end, people are still shopping though and making the season merry and bright doesn’t have to cost the earth. In other holiday news, USPS has enforced a slow-mode on the postal service, in a bid to overhaul the service. Speaker Pelosi may have said a quiet thing out loud at a press conference this week. When asked why the public doesn’t seem to like the Democrats proposed spending bills, the Speaker chided journalists for not doing a better job of selling them. She is convinced that people “overwhelmingly support” the bills, even if they don’t know it. It is strange how Speaker Pelosi assumes the media will carry water for her party. Perhaps they have not considered that people don’t like “free” money as much as the Democrats assume. |
