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What happens when you can’t even pretend that your theory still aligns with reality?
Here are two stories, one is out there and one is down here. First, the universe.
There have been other recent occasions in which the evidence behind science’s basic understanding of the universe has been found to be alarmingly inconsistent…
At first, scientists expected this discrepancy to resolve as the data got better. But the problem has stubbornly persisted even as the data have gotten far more precise. And now new data from the Webb have exacerbated the problem. This trend suggests a flaw in the model, not in the data.
Two serious issues with the standard model of cosmology would be concerning enough. But the model has already been patched up numerous times over the past half century to better conform with the best available data — alterations that may well be necessary and correct, but which, in light of the problems we are now confronting, could strike a skeptic as a bit too convenient.
Speaking of flaws in the model back here on Earth.
“The deficit will basically double from 2022 to 2023,” said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “This should prompt a serious evaluation of federal policy going forward, though I worry it won’t.”
The surge in red ink has confounded many economists’ expectations. Typically, deficits contract when the economy grows, because businesses and consumers owe more in taxes and the government does not need to spend as much to protect those who have lost their job. Then deficits normally expand again in downturns, as those factors go into reverse. And yet the current surge in the deficit is coinciding with a period of unusually strong economic growth, amid historic lows in unemployment and robust corporate profits.
Pick your reality, either we have a robust economy or we don’t. And it’s all a Potemkin village.
Jason Furman, who served as a top economist in the Obama administration and is now an economics professor at Harvard, said the current jump in the deficit is only surpassed by “major crises,” such as World War II, the 2008 financial meltdown or the coronavirus pandemic. Only during these national catastrophes did the United States see deficit numbers this large as a share of the economy or this substantial an increase in the deficit, Furman said.
Those are valid analogies since much like WWII, a whole lot of the labor force vanished, the economy was transformed, jobs disappeared and shifted, and now we still have people coming back from the ‘war’.
But there’s no robust economy, there’s just a recovery from an artificial economic catastrophe in which major portions of the economy were shut down, wealth changed hands and incredible amounts of money were spent (much of which were actually stolen in one form or another) and are continuing to be spent.
Some people act like we’re not spending enough money on “taking care of people”. We are. But the money was spent on COVID social welfare that was only necessary because society was shut down. Our governments went ahead and did this, and then in the teeth of inflation, didn’t stop spending but just kept raising interest rates so we now have more expensive debt than ever accompanied by a ton of spending.
And the senile crook at the top keeps boasting how ‘Bidenomics’ worked.
“To see this in an economy with low unemployment is truly stunning. There’s never been anything like it,” Furman said. “A good and strong economy, with no new emergency spending — and yet a deficit like this. The fact that it is so big in one year makes you think it must be some weird freakish thing going on.”
The freakish thing is that everything ahead of “a deficit like this” is a stunning bunch of lies.
We don’t have a fantastic economy, we have a terrible economy that’s destroying lives and the country while the media and its allied lefty experts keep hyping while furrowing their brows and trying to understand why anyone thinks something might be wrong.
I like politics. I always have. I am not always right, but I think that I understand our country’s politics ‘pretty’ well. And by the way, I am not often wrong. I try to learn new things. There are always new things to learn, but at my age have now seen a lot. I won’t say that I know it all, but let me just say I am not now easily impressed. However, after reading this article, what immediately comes to mind is Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Republican Response to Biden’s 2023 State of the Union Address which I thought was one of the best political speeches that I have ever heard. Right up there with Reagan’s 1964 nationally televised speech in support of Barry Goldwater. I urge you to find it and read. Better yet, listen to it. There are so many excellent parts to it, but let me quote the following:
“President Biden inherited the fastest economic recovery on record. The most secure border in history. Cheap abundant, home-grown energy. Fast-rising wages. A rebuilt military. And a world that was stable and at peace. But over the last two years, Democrats destroyed it all.” . . .
Despite Democrats’ trillions in reckless spending and mountains of debt, we now have the worst border crisis in American history.”
There are many other excellent lines in this speech. But the above immediately came to mind. Governor Huckabee announced during this speech that she has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. I do not know how she is now doing in her personal health circumstances. This is, of course, a serious concern. But in my opinion, President Trump could not find a better Vice Presidential running mate than Governor Sanders if her health permits.
And for the curious, I do not now, nor have I ever, lived in Arkansas. But I know first rate talent when I see it.
There’s also Kari Lake.
“Some people act like we’re not spending enough money on “taking care of people”. We are.”
That’s the problem. Socialism and misery or Capitalism and a skyrocketing economy, pick one or the other, you can’t have both.
But this, Obama’s third term (Biden is just a puppet figurehead), isn’t really about socialism, it’s simply nihilism, the destruction of America simply for the evil joy of destroying America. In pursuit of that nihilism socialism is just one tool in Obama Nero’s tool bag.
The leftists are snakes. They are very dishonest.
The cost of living goes up by 10%, for example, under leftist policies. Then they lower it by 2%. And Everybody cheers them.
They let millions of criminals walk free and legalize the drugs in the process too, to get their “support” numbers up.
Ordinary, honest and hard working people always suffer under leftist rule. Those are the only kind of people who keep the civilization going. When they fall, so does the the civilization.
The problem with the economy and the reason it is “different” than historical norms during similar economic conditions is that approximately 10% of our population is made up of illegal aliens–either long-term or newly arrived in the past two years. We can’t continue to house, feed, educate, provide healthcare and other benefits for such a large percentage of our population (which doesn’t show up on the official unemployment records). Combine that with record numbers of homeless and addicted Americans along with a labor participation rate where 1/3 of Americans can’t or won’t work and we are stuck with nearly half the people in this country being supported by the other half.
Thanks Daniel! Analyzing this economy is quite a conundrum.
I would say a large part of the economy has disconnected (for lack of a better word) from the government. A large mass of people is engaging in economic activity with minimal compliance to the government. How to analyze that? Like analysing the economies of South American countries where most of the economy is underground on the black market.
Just like Ukraine’s government, our government now seems to be largely a vast money laundering scheme. You get in, get rich by skimming and fraud, are removed after corruption charges only to be quickly replaced by the next fraudster.
And the U.S. is no longer a nation, but a world economic zone funding the local and multinational fraud schemes. And the fraudsters are in every branch of government and all its 5th column organizations and the administrative state. Nothing is untainted.
Quote: Typically, deficits contract when the economy grows, because businesses and consumers owe more in taxes and the government does not need to spend as much to protect those who have lost their job.
This ignores other aspects of government spending – e.g. vote buying, social experimentation, and agency specific increases to fix shortfalls. The first two should be no part of government and the last is questionable as to the need or effectiveness of increased spending but sometimes needed such as rebuilding the military.
My sector of domestic manufacturing was down 30% last year, and is down 50% so far this year. Luckily my company’s international sales have kept us to -5% last year, and -15% this year. The biggest manufacturers in my industry (and some of our biggest customers) moved their operations to South and Central America during the obama years, and now they’re saying they’ll be shutting those plants down. Apparently organized crime down there is a lot worse than we’re hearing about up here, and governments there are turning more socialist/kleptocratic. These companies still can’t afford to operate here, so they’ll probably be moving to Asia.
We’re obviously being lied to by the biden administration and the msm. The plant closures, mass layoffs, and retail space vacancies are hard to hide.