Biden economist Jared Bernstein gave a baffling press conference at the White House yesterday boasting about the condition of the economy.
Too bad almost no Americans agree with him.
A University of Michigan survey of consumer sentiment has tanked with personal finances continuing their precipitous fall – printing at 50 for June and 51.1 for July. The previous low was 51.7 in May 1980. So Americans are more glum about the economy today than during the depths of the pandemic and after the economic/financial crash of 2008.
Households’ expected future financial conditions are at the lowest level since the 2009 financial crisis. The recent mild decrease in gas prices has not been enough to improve inflation expectations from levels not seen since the double-digit inflation of the late 70s and early 80s.
3) Meanwhile, On The Left Coast, California Wants To Abolish Plastics
What is it with the left these days that they keep wanting to abolish things – from fossil fuels to cigarettes to guns to light bulbs to cars with combustible engines to…plastics?
Two weeks ago CA governor Gavin Newsom signed a law to sharply reduce the use of plastics in the state. This would apply to everything from water bottles to, grocery bags, containers, straws, and packaging. This is the state’s solution to the literally mounting garbage crisis that the politicians can’t solve.
The bill’s Senate sponsor Ben Allen says that this law ensures that California will “lead the nation and world in curbing the plastic crisis. Our planet cannot wait.”
For certain types of plastics, gushes Jay Ziegler with the Nature Conservancy, the law is a “de facto ban.”
The bill sets strict recycling requirements. Except that recycling requires huge amounts of energy, and sorry, Gavin, but you can’t get there with wind and solar power.
Any entity that fails to comply with the new law could face fines of up to $50,000 A DAY. And they scratch their heads and wonder day after day why businesses are leaving the state.
Does anyone remember when Chicago was known as “the city that works?”
Now it is the city where nothing works.
The two articles below ran in Chicago papers on the same day this week. They pretty much summarize the reason that people and businesses are fleeing the Windy City. Between 2020 and 2021 alone, Greater Chicago lost more than 91,000 people.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision to tie property taxes to inflation may result in mammoth bills next year: “If Lightfoot decides to collect the full amount allowed under her annual tax formula, the tax increase would nearly quadruple in 2023 to $85.5 million, according to a Tribune analysis of the mayor’s policy.”
As violent crime in Chicago soared, arrests fell to historic lows: “The decline mirrors a drop in nearly every category of officers’ activity tracked by the Chicago Police Department…The police have made arrests in just 12% of crimes reported last year, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis. That’s the lowest level since at least 2001, the first year the data was made publicly available.”
Montgomery County is the largest and richest county in suburban Washington, DC and one of the nation’s five richest counties. Property taxes are near the highest in the country. So the schools are great, right? Wrong.
The 2021 Montgomery County, Maryland public schools Grade 3 English Language Arts (ELA) Proficiency scores are in, and they look like this:
2019: 50.5%
2021: 36.3%
According to the Census Bureau, Montgomery has per pupil spending of $16,697, ranking eighth highest among the country's 100 largest school districts. That’s a hefty price to pay for failure.
Money can’t buy love or good public schools.
