Thursday, March 13, 2025

New York Fed’s Measure of “Inflation Persistence” Nixes Friday’s Idea that YoY PCE Inflation Cooled, Using Same Data

Inflation Whack-A-Mole: price pressures shifted from housing to non-housing services and core goods.

Links 3/4/2025

Coca Cola: Made in Mexico, Apparently

As the world’s largest soft drinks manufacturer faces a consumer boycott in one of its largest global markets, its marketers come up with a cunning plan. But will it work?

The GENIUS Act: Setting the Stage for a Federal Bailout When Stablecoins Become Insolvent

Why the GENIUS Act does not live up to its pretenses of making stablecoins safe, thus setting the stage for a Federal bailout.

Twilight of the Woke, or How to Historicize with a Hammer

A review of Musa al Gharbi’s “We Have Never Been Woke” which chronicles the class and cultural hypocrisy of a new elite.

Fifteen Songs About Airplanes and Flight

One last aggregation…..

Coffee Break: Across the Pond

Our first UK/Europe-focused Coffee Break, which examines Europe’s self-inflected energy cost uncompetitiveness

Links 3/3/2025

DOGE Taketh Away From the Many as Trump Pays Off Crypto Bros With New “Strategic” Fund, Above All, Crypto Czar David Sacks

We warned that crypto was closely aligned with criminal activity. The open grift of the new “strategic” Trump fund proves that case.

Woe to You Who Deprive the Poor of Their Rights

A battle of theologies in the age of Trump.

Jane D’Arista on How the Failure of Global Finance Is Systemic

Jane D’Arista describes the internationalization of finance and how is has produced not just crises but fundamental economic distortions

Links 3/2/2025

The Empire Rebrands

Both Biden’s “Foreign Policy for the Middle Class” and Trump’s “America First” are packaged to solicit support from the American people for empire.

Mass Terminations Have Cut USDA ‘Off at the Knees,’ Ex-employees Say

The US is now a net importer of food. “America First” policies threaten to make situation worse, but who could benefit?

Trump-Zelensky-Vance Blowup: Does Zelensky Regime End with a Bang, Not a Whimper?

Some hot takes on the epic Trump-Zelensky slugfest.