Friday, September 29, 2023

“Smash-and-Grab Politics”



It costs $734 more each month to buy the same goods and services as two years ago for households who earn the median income, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics.
Paying $734 more each month adds up to $8,808 more per year for the same stuff as two years ago.
But don't worry.
In the middle of this month, Paul Krugman tweeted, “In the past I’ve focused on a measure that excludes lagging shelter and used cars as well as food and energy. Just to note that it adds to the evidence that inflation has been largely defeated.”
Well, if you exclude the prices of most things, that actually makes sense.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci secretly visited CIA headquarters to “influence” the agency’s investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to new allegations brought forward by the House coronavirus subcommittee.

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“Smash-and-Grab Politics”

The WSJ had an article on a new twist on the democratic process: extortion. Leverage of a small vote on a small but crucial part of the whole.

Democrats this month passed legislation raising the minimum wage for healthcare workers to $25 an hour. The bill was fashioned as a compromise after the Service Employees International Union threatened to bankroll ballot initiatives that would impose costly regulations on kidney dialysis centers, such as minimum staffing requirements.

In the past three election cycles, the SEIU has spearheaded three unsuccessful ballot measures targeting dialysis centers. Defeating them cost the industry roughly $300 million. To avoid another costly ballot fight, the centers backed the minimum-wage proposal. In other words, the dialysis industry let itself be looted by Democrats and their union friends in return for not getting its windows smashed in.

Fast-food restaurants this month also dropped a ballot referendum to overturn a state wage-fixing council and endorsed a bill establishing a $ 20-an-hour minimum wage for their workers. The deal came after Mr. Newsom and Democrats threatened to enact legislation that would have allowed plaintiff attorneys and unions to shake down the restaurants.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Questions Impossible to answer