Daily Verse | Job 10:18-19
“Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me. If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!”
Friday’s Reading: Job 11-14
Saturday’s Reading: Job 15-17
It’s Friday and the completion of another trip around the drain here in the Land of Brandon. Things are not looking good, my friends, as we stare a global food shortage in the face and it’s likely millions will die, especially in third-world countries where people are living on less than a dollar a day. We’ll face some shortages and inflated prices here in the U.S, but most of us will be able to navigate the financial tsunami even while the government takes its pound of flesh while doing nothing to alleviate the pain.
Equity and all that, prol.
As many predicted, Q1 GDP is worse than thought, down 1.5 percent.
First-quarter gross domestic product declined at a 1.5% annual pace, according to the second estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That was worse than the 1.3% Dow Jones estimate and a write-down from the initially reported 1.4%.
Downward revisions for both private inventory and residential investment offset an upward change in consumer spending. A swelling trade deficit also subtracted from the GDP total.
The pullback in GDP represented the worst quarter since the pandemic-scarred Q2 of 2020 in which the U.S. fell into a recession spurred by a government-imposed economic shutdown to battle Covid-19. GDP plummeted 31.2% in that quarter.
I’m old enough to remember when we were assured that inflation was just a passing phase and recession wasn’t a thing to worry about.
One factor helping to propel growth is a resilient consumer fighting through inflation that accelerated 8.3% from a year ago in April.
“Fighting through inflation” by … spending? How long do you think that will last as Americans blow through their paychecks faster on things like, say, gasoline? Not much discretionary cash left over for remodeling the house or buying the new transgender Barbie doll.
Plus, consumer confidence is tanking.
The University of Michigan consumer sentiment for the US fell to 59.1 in May of 2022, the lowest since August of 2011, from 65.2 in April and below market forecasts of 64, as Americans remained concerned over the inflation. The current economic conditions index fell to 63.6, the lowest in 13 years while the expectations gauge sank to 56.2 from 62.5. The median expected year-ahead inflation rate was 5.4%, remaining near a four-decade high for the last three months. To make things even worst, the index of buying conditions for durable goods, such as household appliances, fell to the lowest level since the survey began in 1978.
The adults are back in charge, baby!
Although Americans aren’t all that impressed with the adults. Sixty percent of Americans disapprove of the current Resident. Okay, really, it’s 59 percent, but what’s a point here or there?
U.S. President Joe Biden’s public approval rating fell this week to 36%, the lowest level of his presidency, as Americans suffered from rising inflation, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed on Tuesday.
The two-day national poll found that 59% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s job performance. His overall approval was down six percentage points from 42% last week.
Biden’s approval rating has been below 50% since August, raising alarms that his Democratic Party is on track to lose control of at least one chamber of Congress in the Nov. 8 midterm election.
In a sign of weakening enthusiasm among Democrats, Biden’s approval rating within his own party fell to 72% from 76% the prior week. Only 10% of Republicans approve of his job in office.
Behold, 81 kA-ziLLiOn VoTEs!
As low as Biden’s overall approval rating is, it remains higher than the lows of his predecessor, Donald Trump, whose approval rating bottomed out at 33% in December 2017.
At least he’s more popular than Trump! And best of all — NO MoAR MeeN TwEEtS!
And besides, totally not his fault, says the totally not biased fairly unbalanced Reuters staff writers.
This year, Biden has been dogged by a surge in U.S. consumer prices, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine helping drive fuel prices higher and global supply chains still hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He’s been HOUNDED, I tell you. Hounded by that totally autonomous “surge” in those evil right-wing conspiratorial “consumer prices” and them evil Ruskies whose invasion has increased the cost of gas and … oh, wait. They forgot to mention that Brandon shut down the Keystone Pipeline on Day One and has banned drilling on federal land and killed fracking and is letting drilling permits off the coast of Alaska expire even though we have as much oil as we need literally beneath our feet because … climate change!
But this is a good thing. You guys just don’t understand.
“[When] it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over,” [Brandon] said during a press conference in Japan following his meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“God willing.”
The [R]esident then insisted that his administration’s actions, rather than increasing the price of gas, had actually been able to “keep it from getting worse — and it’s bad.”
He’s a hero, you understand. Like in the Marvel universe.
I just can’t understand why his numbers are down.
I just can’t.
Have a good weekend.