@ErikJonker@geopolitics As Russia keeps threatening NATO defence pact countries with aggression doesn't that make it imperative that they prepare to strike back robustly? The 1938 parallel demands that lessons of the past are not forgotten although clearly not learned.
• 272K jobs added in May
• Total of 15.6 million jobs added under Biden
• Women's employment rate hits another high in May
• 30 straight months of unemployment rate at or below 4%
• Prime-working-age labor force participation at 22-year high
• Wages up 4.1% over past year, significantly faster than 3.4% inflation
@DemDifference so wage growth when adjusted for inflation is 0.7%? Before I get vaguely excited about this momentus gain. I have to ask are any of those good jobs? Do any of those 15.6 million jobs pay a semi liveable wage? You probably know the answer is most likely no. So if the goal here is to bring hope to society, we need meaningful numbers that can reflect the actual value in these marginalized gains.
#Inflation soared under President #Biden in 2021 & 2022, as the #economy emerged from the #pandemic recession [that began under Trump]. Its causes were complex, including snarled #SupplyChains, stimulative policies by the #FederalReserve &, to a degree, federal fiscal policies incl’ing #Covid relief bills signed by #Trump &…Biden.
What #Republicans call “Bidenflation” has become one of the president’s biggest liabilities in his rematch w/ #Trump. In response, #Biden has sought to simultaneously cheer #progress in #stabilizing or bringing down #prices — #growth has slowed sharply from a yr ago — while acknowledging the pain #voters still feel in their pocketbooks.
Biden has also attacked #corporations for pricing practices in certain sectors such as meatpacking, snack foods, concert tickets & gasoline.
#Biden has worked to limit prices for #PrescriptionDrugs like insulin & inhalers, rein in #bank#overdraft & #creditcard fees & make airline #travel cheaper & more transparent, achievements that he often discusses on the campaign trail.
“We’re taking on #corporate#greed to bring down the #price of gas, food & rent, eliminating junk fees,” #POTUS told a crowd of cheering supporters in Philadelphia last week.
Blackstone is the largest landlord in the United States, owning over 300,000 rental units. In the last two years, Blackstone has aggressively purchased apartment buildings and single-family homes.
They ended a voluntary eviction moratorium in late 2022 and have since filed eviction suits against tenants who owed as little as one month’s rent. Blackstone justifies rent increases by claiming a housing shortage, but in reality it's a way to maximize profits.
The worries about escalation are justified but it's crazy to expect from Ukraine to let Russia destroy Kharkiv and not allow them to defend themselves, also by hitting targets in Russia from where attacks are launched on Ukraine. Ofcourse they will use supplied weapons for that. #geopolitics#ukraine#russia#eu#escalation@geopolitics
"If Donald Trump were in office today—presiding over full employment at a time when Americans enjoyed more purchasing power than ever before, and inflation was hovering steadily around three percent—he and Republican officeholders across the country would claim credit for building the greatest economy in history. In fact, if Trump defeats Joe Biden in November, they’ll all sing from that hymnal by early 2025."
Having said /1, Brian Beutler then addresses the push among some Democrats to pretend that the economy is bad, regardless of what facts say, because many Americans claim that they "feel" it's bad even as they admit their own economic circumstances are better.
"If we can swap Republicans for Democrats without changing anything else, and the mass 'struggling' magically goes away, it seems almost mathematically true that Democratic sheepishness over their economic successes is one of the key reasons Biden’s economy is widely viewed to be a failure."
Having a degree in #internationalrelations didn't land me a proper job in the field so far, but I can now argue on the internet more efficiently about the latest pressing #global#geopolitical with some strangers. I see it as an absolute win! 💯💯
"Americans are woefully ill-informed. That’s the only conclusion one can reach from a bunch of new polls that are chronicled in the links section below.
According to a new Harris poll for the Guardian, 55% of respondents think the economy is shrinking, 56% think the U.S. is in a recession, 49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, and 49% believe that unemployment is at a 50 year high."
"A whopping 72% also say they think inflation is increasing.
There is only one problem. NONE of those things is true. The market went up roughly 24% in 2023 and is up another 12% this year. The unemployment rate is under 4%, a near 50 year low. GDP is growing and there hasn’t been a recession since early in the pandemic year of 2020. And the inflation rate is dropping — down to 3.4% in April."
"This data indicates that it’s very possible Biden could lose in November because people’s perceptions about the economy are flat out incorrect and many voters have little grasp of what is happening in our politics.
The media is almost certainly at fault for the misperceptions about the economy."
“Super Size Me” was a study in America’s #FastFood culture & its role in the country’s #economy & #health problems, including #obesity. He put on 25 pounds, had bouts of depression & was diagnosed w/liver ailments during a 30-day stretch of McDonald’s-only fare.
Been reading r/worldnews for a decade now and lately it has been really revealing what a propaganda machine it has become. Just got perma banned for pointing out that "legal war targets aren't necessarily ethically correct"
With Artifact gone, reddit basically gone - what other sources do you use for #geopolitics?
@hobs Thank you! Please eliminate the NFL hashtag. I make a point of telling people to not hashtag NFL, and NFL is only used during live-posting. MANY thanks again. @wraptile@rbreich@JosephMenn@MikeDunnAuthor@gtconway3@ClimateNewsNow@DemocracyMattersALot
As with all of her postings, everything Heather Cox Richardson says today deserves attention. She opens by noting that the Dow Jones closed above 40,000 for the first time in history. But "in comparison to the breathless coverage of the stock market during Trump’s administration, this milestone is getting very little coverage."
Greg Jericho spells it out with graphics… the Australian standard of living has been falling since 2020 and will take years to recover (if at all). All of the noise made about wages fueling inflation is a lot of bull, there is no truth to it and no data to back it up. Don’t believe what most conservative economists tell you. Don’t believe a foolish press medium either. Wages need to move faster than inflation for us to be as well off as we were fourteen years ago (14 yrs… yes, that’s right). Neo-liberal economic policies are all about feeding the greedy at the top of the food chain, period.
https://www.europesays.com/1214655/ “If you don’t like paying taxes, make billionaires pay their fair share and you would never have to pay taxes again.” —Warren Buffett #Economy
