A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Donald Trump.
Inflation was at 8.3% in August, significantly exceeding economists’ predictions with core prices jumping even higher, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Core prices, which measures all prices less food and energy, remained elevated at 6.3%, slightly higher than July’s 5.9%, according to the BLS. With core prices remaining strongly elevated, it is unlikely that the Federal Reserve will slow its rate of interest increases designed to combat inflation, and will once again hike rates by 0.75% next week, according to The Wall Street Journal. (RELATED: Fed Unveils Bleak Forecast In Another Troubling Sign For The Economy)
Economists had predicted inflation to decrease from 8.5% to around 8.1%.
“The Federal Reserve will require at least three months of reassuring inflation data—along with evidence of a cooling labor market—before considering softening its tone,” said Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, according to the WSJ. This estimate is in line with the Federal Reserve’s estimate that the fight against inflation will likely take until the end of the year, according to a report.
The energy index continued to fall 5% from July, but energy costs have still increased 23.8% year-on-year, according to the BLS. Gasoline in particular remains high at 25.6%, down from 44.9% in July, with fuel oil remaining up 68.6% even after falling 5.9% in August.
Food prices posted the largest 12 month increase in 43 years, with a 11.4% year-on-year increase in national food prices, up from July’s 10.9%, according to the BLS. Prices for shelter also remain elevated, increasing 6.2% year-on-year, compared to 5.7% in July.
Under President Biden’s economic plan, we’re: – Bringing home jobs that went overseas – Making things here in America – Making our supply chains more secure – Winning the race for the future
The Biden administration has been taking a victory lap on economic conditions, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen claiming that the U.S. had undergone an exceptionally rapid recovery “by any traditional metric,” in remarks at a Ford electric vehicle facility Sept. 8. She went on to say that “Household balance sheets are strong.”
The Federal Reserve, which operates independently of the Biden administration, has been less optimistic, and described the economy as “generally weak” in a report just one day prior to Yellen’s speech. Roughly half of the regional banks that comprise the Federal Reserve system reported that their regional economies were either stagnant or declining, with the remainder reporting either slight or modest growth.
“Last month President Biden made a huge production over a 0.0% month-to-month change in the CPI from June to July,” said Peter C. Earle, economist at the American Institute for Economic Research in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “There isn’t anything to celebrate in today’s July-to-August CPI numbers, so the likely spin will be to return to touting the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday that she is confident that the Democrats’ budget will include a global minimum tax for corporations just days after nearly 140 countries endorsed the measure.
“I am confident that what we need to do to come into compliance with the minimum tax will be included in a reconciliation package,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told ABC News on Sunday. “I hope that it will be passed and we will be able to reassure the world that the United States will do its part.”
Though the United States and 135 other countries signed the agreement, each nation must pass its own legislation to enact the minimum tax rates. Democrats are currently crafting the budget, a spending package that would reshape the social safety net, but the process has slowed by disagreements between the party’s moderate and left wings.
Discussions regarding the global minimum corporate tax began earlier in 2021 and were led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The agreement requires at least a 15% corporate tax on multinational companies with revenue greater than 750 million euros annually, which the OECD projected may generate up to $150 billion in tax revenue per year.
Another report found that corporations shift $1.38 trillion in profits into global tax havens per year, causing countries where the profit was generated to lose $245 billion in annual tax revenue.
Yellen said the deal could reverse the “global race to the bottom” regarding corporate tax rates and instead give countries the “resources we need to invest in our people and our economies.”
“[It] is really something we need to make globalization work and to make it work for American workers,” she added.
Inflation increased at a rapid 5.4% clip compared to August 2020, the Department of Labor said Wednesday. The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a common tool used to measure inflation, increased 0.5% between June and July, according to the Labor Department report. “It will be another very hot number with the fingerprints of the pandemic all over it,” Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi told CNBC before official numbers were released.
Energy and food costs contributed the most to the higher-than-normal figure, rising 0.7% and 1.6% respectively last month, the report showed. Gasoline ticked up 2.4% in July and a whopping 41.8% year-over-year.
The CPI increased at an annual rate of 5.4% in June, 5% in May and 4.2% in April, according to governmentdata. Inflation rose 0.9% in June, the quickest increase since August 2008.
The Federal Reserve, which has downplayed rising consumer prices as a temporary product of the rapid economic recovery, acknowledged last month that inflation could be “higher and more persistent” than it previously forecasted. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently predicted continued “rapid inflation” over the medium term, after months of suggesting it would subside quickly.
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell appears for a Senate Banking Committee hearing on July 15. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The White House has repeated the predictions made by the Federal Reserve and Yellen, calling inflation transitory and ensuring it would return to normal by 2022.
“It’s also important to note, though — because we rely on the Federal Reserve for projections — that they are projecting to come back to normal levels next year, and this is still foreseen as a transitory impact on prices,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday.
She added that inflation remained at an elevated level due to a large number of supply chain shortages around the world, a theory prominent economists have backed.
“The kind of inflation now is driven by the fact that there aren’t enough used cars, that the oil markets are rocking and rolling, that housing construction demand is high and there’s been trouble getting sawmills up and running,” Beacon Economics founding partner Christopher Thornberg told The Wall Street Journal.
Used car prices have surged 41.7% over the last year, according to Wednesday’s Labor Department report. Conservatives and other economists have blamed Biden’s high-spending for the increased prices affecting Americans.
“The Democrats’ reckless tax & spending spree fuels Biden’s raging inflation crisis & will drive U.S. debt to $45 TRILLION,” Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott tweeted Tuesday.
The Treasury Department will conduct emergency cash-conservation measures starting Monday to avoid busting the U.S. debt ceiling after a two-year deal to suspend the federal borrowing limit lapsed at midnight Sunday.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a letter July 23 that the Treasury would invoke the “extraordinary measures” if Congress didn’t raise the debt ceiling. Yellen noted that trillions in federal spending and COVID-19 response laws made it difficult to estimate how long the Treasury would sustain its measures.
“The period of time that extraordinary measures may last is subject to considerable uncertainty due to a variety of factors, including the challenges of forecasting the payments and receipts of the U.S. government months into the future, exacerbated by the heightened uncertainty in payments and receipts related to the economic impact of the pandemic,” she wrote.
The debt ceiling prevents the Treasury from issuing new bonds once a certain limit is reached. Congress had suspended the debt limit for two years as part of a budget deal in August 2019, when the ceiling reached $22 trillion, according to Bloomberg. A new debt ceiling would include additional borrowing since, reaching $28.5 trillion according to the Congressional Budget Office.
President Joe Biden sits alongside Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen as he holds a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House February 9, 2021. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Yellen’s cash-conservation measures would allow the Treasury to redeem certain investments in federal pension programs and halt new investments in order to generate revenue, CNBC reported. But payments on entitlement programs and interest on federal debt, among other things, would stop unless the federal government floats new Treasury bonds.
Economists said the measures allow the Treasury to pay off federal government obligations without accruing new debt for two to three months, CNBC reported. But Congress must raise or suspend the debt ceiling or risk the U.S. defaulting on its debt.
The federal government has never defaulted, as such a move would have far-reaching consequences for the economy. Although economists said they’re optimistic Congress will reach a deal on the debt ceiling, the prospect appears less certain in Washington.
An aide to House Democratic leadership told CNBC that discussions about the ceiling are ongoing and congressional leaders do not want to risk the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. government.
President Joe Biden’s administration, on the other hand, may not get involved in discussions about the debt ceiling. A White House official told CNBC that “it is Congress’s responsibility to raise or suspend the debt limit in order to pay for the spending it has already authorized over the years.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen acknowledged “rapid inflation” will persist for several more months after she repeatedly downplayed the risk of consumer price increases. Americans can expect consumer prices to continue their rapid rise until returning to normal in the “medium term,” Yellen said Thursday in an interview with CNBC. But Yellen, along with top Federal Reserve officials, predicted inflation wouldn’t be a concern.
“We will have several more months of rapid inflation,” Yellen told CNBC. “So I’m not saying that this is a one-month phenomenon.”
“But I think over the medium term, we’ll see inflation decline back toward normal levels,” she said. “But, of course, we have to keep a careful eye on it.”
Yet in February, Yellen downplayed the risks of inflation, saying the Treasury Department had the tools to deal with the risk “if it materializes.” She also pushed back on former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers’ warning that President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package would trigger massive, once-in-a-generation inflation.
Yellen added that the Biden administration was more worried about jobs than rising prices.
President Joe Biden speaks as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen listens during a White House meeting on April 9. (Amr Alfiky/Pool/Getty Images)
One month later, the Treasury secretary downplayed inflation again when asked if the $1,400 stimulus checks included in the relief package could boost prices, according to the Associated Press. She again pushed the legislation, saying it was key for a full economic recovery.
“I really don’t think that is going to happen,” she said in the March 8 interview, the AP reported. “We had a 3.5% unemployment rate before the pandemic and there was no sign of inflation increasing.”
Then, one week later, Yellen doubled down, arguing again that there wouldn’t be significant inflation.
“Is there a risk of inflation? I think there’s a small risk and I think it’s manageable,” Yellen told ABC News.
“I don’t think it’s a significant risk,” she continued. “And if it materializes, we’ll certainly monitor for it but we have tools to address it.”
However, consumer prices have surged faster than they have in decades, according to government data. Economists also expect inflation to rise higher and for longer than previously expected.
In addition, several major U.S. corporations have recently announced price increases while the highest number of small businesses have reported price hikes since 1981.
These Leftist can’t even lie convincingly anymore, and it obviously doesn’t bother them. When they lie it’s their native language.
Before reading, please take a quick moment to sign up for my podcast. You can download the clip and sign up here below.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen appeared on CNBC Thursday afternoon to push for more stimulus spending saying that, “a big package”is necessary to help the economy recover and that, “the price of doing too little is much higher than the price of doing something big.”
Apparently, the Treasury Secretary is not familiar with the Fall of the Roman Empire (or, she is, but is deliberately choosing to ignore.) It was Rome’s debt crisis that led the fall of the Roman Republic and it’s not inconceivable that the history could repeat itself in modern day America.
Biden Administration Tries to Make Its Case
The reality is: $1.9 Trillion is a lot of money. Especially on the heels of the multiple trillions already spent. But, the Biden administration has its script and it’s sticking to it. “Give me more!” is the mandate.
Kamala Harris went on the Today Show Wednesday to plead for stimulus to open the schools (interestingly, of the $128 billion being demanded for education, only $6 billion is allocated for the opening of schools in 2021 – the rest is spread out over the next seven years.)
And, President Joe Biden keeps talking his “book” — by highlighting every negative in the economy in an effort to create more pressure for stimulus spending. Though the economy added jobs last month, Biden tells us, “at this rate it will take ten years to return to full unemployment.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is signaling its willingness to continue printing money with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell telling the Economic Club of New York last week that although he is seeing some signs of inflation, it’s just a “transient thing that we think will pass.”
I wouldn’t count on that.
Debt & Inflation Caused Roman Empire to Implode
Again, I return to the biggest causes of the fall of Rome: massive debt, rampant inflation, over-taxation, too many freebies, feudalism, and an enormous trade deficit with Iran (rather like China today.)
Consider the similarities: We have massive debt, high taxation, too many freebies, major trade deficits, a kind of feudalism (a system that benefits the wealthiest Americans seemingly at the expense of the middle class) and we are soon to be looking at rampant inflation. How could we not? Last year alone, in 2020, we raised the money supply 24% — the biggest surge in the 150 years that we’ve been tracking our currency.
All this spending has consequences. Sadly, our politicians are too selfish to recognize any long-term economic issues. It’s always about the next election and they’ll spend as much money as it takes to get ahead in the polls. But, as Mark Twain said,
“history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”
Let’s not let the United States of America go the way of the Roman Empire.
Legal Insurrection
Legal Insurrection went live on October 12, 2008, originally at Google Blogger. We hit our one-millionth visit about 11.5 months later, our second million a few months after that, and since then readership and linkage from major websites have grown drama
Family
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
Legal Insurrection
Legal Insurrection went live on October 12, 2008, originally at Google Blogger. We hit our one-millionth visit about 11.5 months later, our second million a few months after that, and since then readership and linkage from major websites have grown drama
Military
Legal Insurrection
Legal Insurrection went live on October 12, 2008, originally at Google Blogger. We hit our one-millionth visit about 11.5 months later, our second million a few months after that, and since then readership and linkage from major websites have grown drama
Legal Insurrection
Legal Insurrection went live on October 12, 2008, originally at Google Blogger. We hit our one-millionth visit about 11.5 months later, our second million a few months after that, and since then readership and linkage from major websites have grown drama
NEWSMAX
News, Opinion, Interviews, Research and discussion
Opinion
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
Legal Insurrection
Legal Insurrection went live on October 12, 2008, originally at Google Blogger. We hit our one-millionth visit about 11.5 months later, our second million a few months after that, and since then readership and linkage from major websites have grown drama
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
You Version
Bible Translations, Devotional Tools and Plans, BLOG, free mobile application; notes and more
Political
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
Legal Insurrection
Legal Insurrection went live on October 12, 2008, originally at Google Blogger. We hit our one-millionth visit about 11.5 months later, our second million a few months after that, and since then readership and linkage from major websites have grown drama
NEWSMAX
News, Opinion, Interviews, Research and discussion
Spiritual
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
Bible Gateway
The Bible Gateway is a tool for reading and researching scripture online — all in the language or translation of your choice! It provides advanced searching capabilities, which allow readers to find and compare particular passages in scripture based on
What Did You Say? 
You must be logged in to post a comment.