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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Maybe I should send that PI to your address and find out all the fucked up things you've done to your own body and to everyone else around you, so we can stop pretending that you've lived this perfect life you've made for your fake persona here.

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This is a test of how crazy and, simultaneously, physically unhealthy 6ixStringJack is:

6ix, what is your learned reaction to "Death, Napoleon and Debt"?

Death, Napoleon and Debt
May 19, 2023, 3:00 p.m. ET

By Paul Krugman, Opinion Columnist

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Haven't you wasted enough of your life reading opinions from this idiot? He's never been right about anything.

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Kevin Drum is an idiot too.

You hate fat people, so why don't you hate Kevin Drum? I showed you the selfie he took while he was on his shitter and thought his meat puppets wanted to see.

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

When your mom asks why she has to go back to work, tell her it was because you voted for Joe Biden*.

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Funny how nobody was doing that while Trump was President.

They all figure it out when Joe* and the Democrats were running things.

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Originally posted by second:
What was once labeled a “conspiracy theory” — that much of the inflation we’re seeing is driven by corporate greed to feed record profits — is now more and more being widely acknowledged as reality. But unfortunately, those in power are still yet to do much about it, whether instituting price controls to prevent corporate price gouging or passing a windfall tax to claw back the inflated profits that result. And it’s the ordinary American worker who’s being stuck with the bill.

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Seems like our own deep state is doing a better job of upending democracy, AND they get to blame Russia for it!

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It doesn't seem like that, at all. It seems like you are a highly motivated promoter of conspiracy theories.

Research reveals what kind of people fall for conspiracy theories

People can be prone to believe in conspiracy theories due to a combination of personality traits and motivations.

People who believe in conspiracy theories tend to be insecure and paranoid, suggests a new study.

Conspiracy theorists are also likely to be emotionally volatile and impulsive, according to the findings.

But they're not all mentally unstable, say psychologists.

They found that people can be prone to believe in conspiracy theories due to a combination of personality traits and motivations.

These include relying strongly on their intuition, feeling a sense of antagonism and superiority toward others, and perceiving threats in their environment.

The results of the study, published online in the journal Psychological Bulletin, paint a "nuanced" picture of what drives conspiracy theorists, according to lead author Shauna Bowes.

“Conspiracy theorists are not all likely to be simple-minded, mentally unwell folks – a portrait which is routinely painted in popular culture,” said Bowes, a doctoral student in clinical psychology at Emory University.

“Instead, many turn to conspiracy theories to fulfill deprived motivational needs and make sense of distress and impairment.”

She said previous research on what drives conspiracy theorists had mainly looked separately at personality and motivation.

The new study aimed to examine those factors together to arrive at a more unified account of why people believe in conspiracy theories.

The research team analyzed data from 170 studies involving more than 158,000 participants, mainly in the UK, USA and Poland.

They focused on studies that measured participants’ motivations or personality traits associated with conspiratorial thinking.

The team found that, overall, people were motivated to believe in conspiracy theories by a need to understand and feel safe in their environment and a need to feel like the community they identify with is superior to others.

More at https://talker.news/2023/06/26/research-reveals-what-kind-of-people-fa
ll-for-conspiracy-theories/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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As Americans look ahead to another Independence Day and a likely contentious 2024 presidential election, many are feeling fiscal pain as the prices of food, shelter, healthcare and transportation climb higher than their paychecks. About 52% of Americans participating in a USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll said the United States is too expensive to live in. And about seven in 10 Americans said stifling inflation and the economy are the nation's top problems today, according to a new Pew Center survey. A majority across age, gender and race told Pew inflation is "a very big problem."

"Their spending power has been minimized," said Gene Ludwig, former head Comptroller of the Currency, a U.S. Treasury Department bureau.

America's economic state is uncertain

What's America’s economic state? Frustrating and uncertain. The typical American household spends about $768 more on monthly purchasing goods and services these days compared to 2020 because of high inflation, Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, said.

Meanwhile, as the United States skirts a recession, Zandi said some Americans seeking relief are also dipping into their savings for survival. Around 25 million Americans are behind on their credit card, auto loan or personal loan payments, according to a recent Moody’s/Equifax data analysis. Also, the delinquency rate for bank credit cards was 3.27% in May, nearly two points higher than in 2021, Zandi said.

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
LOL

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
LOL

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I'm not surprised you reacted the same as angry poor white trash would in East Texas. Here is more for you to react like a poor ignoramus who knew everything he'd ever learn about money before he was 15 years old:

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How was work this week, honey?

Not poor. Haven't worked for over 4 years now and not even close to poor.



You don't know shit about money or the economy, dummy.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Originally posted by second:
Inflation around the world
Author Kevin Drum
Published on June 28, 2023 – 11:05 am

When you look at some sort of domestic trend or other, it's often helpful to look also at the rest of the world. This was one of the things that tipped me off about the connection between lead and crime, for example. Everyone knew that crime in the US had dropped during the '90s, and this had prompted a rash of theories to explain it: drugs, policing, abortion, broken windows, a growing economy, etc. But it turned out that crime was also down in Canada. And Germany. And Britain. And Australia. And all over the rest of the world. Clearly something had to be going on that wasn't unique to the US.

Today, the CEA does a similar exercise for inflation in the G7 large economies (mostly Europe). Here it is:

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This got me curious about smaller, less central economies. So I grabbed a few inflation rates from other continents:
Only Japan is actually shown with negative inflation, which is what is needed for correction.
Obviously there are differences, but not big ones. What this means is that inflation in the US almost certainly has little to do with domestic policies like the stimulus bill or easy money from the Fed. Inflation is a global phenomena, hitting everyone at roughly the same time and then declining at roughly the same time.

In other words, it's COVID. It's supply chains. It's shortages. It's oil prices.

There can still be idiosyncratic explanations for parts of the picture. In the US, eviction moratoriums at the start of the pandemic pushed up rental prices. Stimulus spending was higher than in many places and probably added a point or two to the inflation rate temporarily.

But these are small things. In a nutshell, it's COVID. It's supply chains. It's shortages. It's oil prices. Those things are all going away naturally, and inflation will shortly go away along with them.

https://jabberwocking.com/inflation-around-the-world/

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Price of stamps 66 cents.

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Originally posted by second:
Last month, the White House Council of Economic Advisers

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- Bidenflation has reached 17.0%, indicating significant inflation under President Biden's policies

- Most Americans are concerned about inflation and a majority feel their wages have not kept up with rising prices

- Real wages have generally declined during President Biden's term, with a return to negative territory in September

- The U.S. economy is facing stagflation, marked by stagnant growth and high inflation

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This divergence between reported and real inflation helps explain Biden’s atrocious economic approval rating, which many liberal commentators argue is far worse than the official data warrant. Looking at these real price increases, it’s no wonder Americans are so sour on the economy.

Biden’s policies are responsible. Reckless spending in recent years, including the projected $1.7 trillion 2023 deficit, has led to too many dollars chasing too few goods, bidding up prices, and diluting the currency already in existence.

Congress must lend the Federal Reserve a hand in the inflation fight and cut government spending, to help shoppers make ends meet. Until then, pay attention to what ordinary Americans — not government statistics — are saying about inflation.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
The Messenger: Real Inflation Is Higher Than Reported. One Shopper Has Proof

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Agreed. But no more immigrants, legal or otherwise, no matter where they come from. I'm not saying never again, but at least until we finally start making this country work for the legal citizens again. We're broke and we're broken. We don't need anybody else in here taking the dwindling resources.

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This country already works well, but not for people who are financial ignoramuses. The article that explains what you need to learn so that your life works well is "I Saw Thousands of Bank Account Details as a Teller. It Taught Me 3 Lessons Millions Never Learn." In the title, the word Millions should be replaced with 200 Million to make the size of the problem clearer.
https://www.inc.com/kelly-main/i-saw-thousands-of-bank-account-details
-as-a-teller-it-taught-me-3-lessons-millions-never-learn.html

After all, it's not just about what you earn, it's also about what you keep. And from my time as a teller, those who employed these three principles were those who were the most well-off -- not just in terms of financial well-being, but also in terms of happiness and general well-being. Because when you don't have the burden of immense financial stress, you have something everyone wants and the overarching goal of having money: financial freedom.

Then there is "My in-laws are terrible with money. What should I do?"
https://www.vox.com/even-better/23912950/parents-money-personal-financ
e-advice-how-to

Start talking to your husband, right now, about what you’re going to say when your in-laws ask to live with you. Given the current housing market, it’s a much more likely scenario than the one in which they travel the world.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Fuck you dude. Who do you think you're talking to?

The guy who hasn't worked for 4.5 years, that's who.

I'm in a much better position than most.

It doesn't change the fact that my money only buys 70% of what it did just 3 years ago. Democrats are responsible for this.

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I have never known angry poor white trash who understood inflation, except for you, assuming you know what you think you know.

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One way to calculate inflation is by postage stamp prices

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April 10, 2016 All U.S., 1st oz. 47 cents
January 20, 2017 Trump Inaugurated
January 22, 2017 All U.S., 1st oz. 49 cents
January 21, 2018 All U.S., 1st oz. 50 cents
January 27, 2019 All U.S., 1st oz. 55 cents
January 20, 2021 Biden Inaugurated
August 29, 2021 All U.S., 1st oz. 58 cents
July 10, 2022 All U.S., 1st oz. 60 cents
January 22, 2023 All U.S., 1st oz. 63 cents
July 9, 2023 All U.S., 1st oz. 66 cents

55/47=1.17 or Trump Inflation 17%

66/55=1.20 or Biden Inflation 20%

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Another way to calculate inflation is with the inflation calculator

The total inflation rate from Jan. 2017 to Jan. 2021 is 7.72%.
The total inflation rate from Jan. 2021 to Sep. 2023 is 17.66%.
https://www.calculator.net/inflation-calculator.html

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

I'm not poor, nor am I white trash.

I understand money a lot more than your stupid ass does.

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"I Saw Thousands of Bank Account Details as a Teller. It Taught Me 3 Lessons Millions Never Learn." In the title, the word Millions should be replaced with 200 Million to make the size of the problem clearer.
https://www.inc.com/kelly-main/i-saw-thousands-of-bank-account-details
-as-a-teller-it-taught-me-3-lessons-millions-never-learn.html

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1. Expensive possessions do not signify wealth

What I would see as a teller over and over again was that a high percentage of the people wearing the flashy designer belts or handbags dotted with a brand's logo often had the smallest bank accounts. The people driving luxury cars were as often those who were financially secure as they were those whose bank accounts were often negative or on the brink of negative.

In other words, there was little to no correlation between expensive objects and wealth.

Oftentimes, the expensive objects people owned to look wealthy were often the same things that brought them closer to poverty. Even those with high salaries had a tendency to carry lower account balances when they became consumed by the desire to display their wealth. When water seeks its own level, the bank account drains as quickly as it is filled.

Newly funded founders have a tendency to splash out on fancy offices, technology, and trips with the idea that if they look like they're successful they will become successful. But VCs and investors see through the façade of fabricated wealth and instead see a frivolous spender.

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2. Credit cards are not a tool to buy things you can't afford

Credit cards make things you can't afford exponentially less affordable. And, of course, they provide an all-too-easy trap to fall into that can prove exceedingly difficult to get out of.

The key is to only use a credit card as you would a debit card.

If you have the money for the things you charge, you always have the money to pay off your balance in full each month. When using credit cards the right way, they can be highly beneficial. In fact, my credit card came with a surprising benefit I never expected. But when used the wrong way, they will serve as quicksand, quickly eating away at your ability to reach financial well-being.

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3. Good credit is not good enough

There's an all-too-common belief that having good credit is good enough. But the point of having good credit is not simply to get credit line and loan approvals, but to get approved at the best rates. And the difference between good and very good credit can be the difference between thousands of dollars.

For example, the difference between the average mortgage rate for those with very good credit versus those with fair to good credit is just over one percent. It might seem small, but it will cost over $125,000 more in interest alone for a $500,000 mortgage over 30 years. Again, just a mere 1 percent difference in interest. Which can also be the difference between one late payment or carrying revolving debt (e.g., credit card debt).

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Financial well-being is an important part of life and a crucial component of business. These three basic financial lessons are incredibly foundational in theory, and yet they're wildly overlooked in practice.

After all, it's not just about what you earn, it's also about what you keep. And from my time as a teller, those who employed these three principles were those who were the most well-off -- not just in terms of financial well-being, but also in terms of happiness and general well-being. Because when you don't have the burden of immense financial stress, you have something everyone wants and the overarching goal of having money: financial freedom.

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

I'm not poor, nor am I white trash.

I understand money a lot more than your stupid ass does.

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All people I know who share your opinions are angry poor white trash. None of those people think of themselves that way. None of them make the connection between who they really are and why their lives are full of problems and heartbreak. With only a few exceptions, they blame anybody other than themselves for their misfortunes.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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A record number of subprime borrowers are behind on their auto loan payments by 60 days or more, according to figures from Fitch Ratings reported by Bloomberg.

The rate hit 6.11% in September – the highest since records began in 1994, and was up from the 5.93% recorded at the start of the year.

Analysts predict that auto loan delinquencies will continue to rise into 2024 and peak at about 10% before they start to fall, per CNN.

The high rates of delinquencies indicate that many lower-earning workers in particularly are struggling amid ongoing high inflation, a rough jobs market, and the resumption of federal student loan payments following a pandemic-era freeze.

High interest rates are also having an impact, with many turning to borrowing to cope. In the second quarter of this financial year, credit card debt surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in the NY Fed survey's history.

Though delinquency rates do not necessarily mean a recession will happen, they are often reflect a struggling economy.

Margaret Rowe, senior director at Fitch, told Bloomberg: "The subprime borrower is getting squeezed. They can often be a first line of where we start to see the negative effects of macroeconomic headwinds."

More than a third of Americans are considered subprime borrowers, according to an Experian study, meaning they have lower credit scores and are deemed less likely to meet their repayments on loans. As a result they usually have to pay considerably higher interest rates.

For subprime borrowers, rates for new cars average 11.5% and 18.5% for used autos, according to Experian. Prime borrowers are charged far less – 6.4% and 8.75% respectively on average.

Those that can't meet their payments face having their cars repossessed and often have great difficulty getting to work. In 2022, only 11% of commuters in the US used public transport, according to the World Economic Forum.

Cox Automotive, a leading auto organization, predicts that 1.5 million cars will be repossessed this year – 300,000 more than in 2022.

The rising number of delinquencies on auto loans is not putting off some consumers, however. A record number of new car buyers took out loans with monthly payments of $1,000 or more in the three months to June, according to data from Edmunds.

Car payments have become the highest expense for some Gen Zers and millennials, even exceeding their rent.

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A new analysis from real estate firm CBRE is providing some clarity on that question. What it reveals may dishearten house hunters: The cost to buy a home, compared with the cost of renting one, is now the most expensive on record — a price gulf that even surpasses the gap seen during the housing bubble in 2006.

It now costs 52% more to buy a home compared with renting an apartment, according to CBRE data emailed to CBS MoneyWatch, which analyzed the monthly cost of a new home purchase versus a new lease from 1996 through the third quarter of 2023. By comparison, at the peak of the housing bubble in 2006, it was 33% more expensive to buy versus to rent — a gap that quickly reversed when housing prices plunged during the Great Recession.

On a dollar basis, that means new homeowners today face monthly costs of $3,322, versus $2,184 for people who sign new leases.

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Many Americans say their household expenses are outstripping their incomes, prompting concerns about their financial futures. At the same time, household debt for most Americans has either risen in the last year or has not gone away.

About 2 in 3 Americans say their household expenses have risen over the last year, but only about 1 in 4 say their income has increased in the same period, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Even so, consumer spending has remained strong despite the double whammy of still-elevated inflation and rising interest rates, with the latter making it more expensive to carry credit card debt and to buy homes and cars. In some cases, Americans say they are shelling out more on basics like groceries even as their incomes haven't kept up.

Steve Shapiro, 61, who works as an audio engineer in Pittsburgh, said he'd been spending about $100 a week on groceries prior to this past year, but that he's now shelling out closer to $200.

"My income has stayed the same," he said. "The economy is good on paper, but I'm not doing great."

...

About 4 in 10 Americans (38%) approve of how Biden is handling the presidency, while 61% disapprove. His overall approval numbers have remained at a steady low for the last several years. Most Americans generally disapprove of how he's handling the federal budget (68% disapprove), the economy (67%), and student debt (58%).

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Confidence in the U.S. economy slid further in October as consumers fretted about sticky inflation, Washington's continued dysfunction, a possible U.S. recession and war in Israel, according to a report released Tuesday.

...

The board's expectations index, which measures consumers’ six-month outlook for income, business and labor conditions, continues to signal a recession within the next year: it fell to 75.6 in October from 76.4 in September. Any reading below 80 has historically been followed by a recession within the next year.

...

"Consumers continued to be preoccupied with rising prices in general, and for grocery and gasoline prices in particular," said Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board. "Consumers also expressed concerns about the political situation and higher interest rates. Worries around war/conflicts also rose, amid the recent turmoil in the Middle East."

Inflation has declined precipitously since hitting a peak of over 9% in June 2022, but it's still 3.7% as measured by the consumer price index. That's well-above the Federal Reserve's target of 2%.

The Fed is meeting this week to decide on interest rates. It is widely expected to hold its key rate at 5.25% to 5.5%, a 22-year high. The central bank will announce its decision at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.

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US Beef Prices Hit Record High As Nation's Cattle Herd Expected To Shrink Through 2025
Tuesday, Nov 14, 2023 - 08:45 PM

Brazilian processor Marfrig Global Foods SA warned the US cattle herd will continue shrinking through the midpoint of the decade. Less supplies will pressure meatpackers and keep the prices of steak and hamburgers at elevated levels.

During a conference call, Tim Klein, the head of Marfrig's North American operation, explained the availability of fattened animals for meatpackers to slaughter and process should trough between 2025 and 2026. He said this is because ranchers have not yet started keeping cows for breeding.

As we've noted, years of drought and high feed costs forced ranchers across the Midwest to send the cows to slaughterhouses, leading to a sharp reduction in the nation's overall herd size. In January, the beef cow herd size was the smallest since 1962.

Tight supplies of cattle have hurt the profits of meatpackers, including Tyson Foods Inc. and JBS SA:

National Beef Inc., Marfrig's US unit, saw adjusted earnings before items such as taxes and interest more than halve in the third quarter from a year ago to $150 million, according to a statement from the company on Monday. Tyson Foods Inc. and JBS SA posted results earlier that were largely affected by lower profits in their US beef operations. -Bloomberg

Declining cattle numbers also sent US beef prices at the supermarket to record highs.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Yeah. Joe Biden* sucks.

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Yeah. Joe Biden* sucks.

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It is not bragging to say I have more control over beef and natural gas prices than any President has ever had because I set the price and the President does not. But for some reason, people who buy stuff don't know that the people who sell stuff are setting prices, not the President. It is a good thing that most buyers don't know who is setting the prices or else they would burn down the mansions of rich people. Instead, they vote against whoever is President at the moment. It is so funny and so very lucrative for sellers that buyers are so stupid.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
No mention at all of Socialism in that entire article.

Not surprised in the least since fat idiot Kevin Drum wrote it. Just pointing it out.

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