Quote:Ronald Klain, the White House chief of staff, was criticized online late Wednesday after he retweeted a post from a Harvard professor that summed up our top economic issues as "high class problems."

Jason Furman, Harvard’s Aetna professor of the practice of economic policy, said the country would not be faced with these issues if the unemployment rate was still 10%, an apparent reference to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell's comments early this year when he said the unemployment rate in January was around that number.

Furman said if that unemployment rate was still a reality, the country would have "had a much worse problem."

Conservatives on social media took issue with Klain’s retweet, claiming that he was, in effect, downplaying the hardships that some Americans are experiencing.

"Struggling to pay for food, fuel, and housing because of rising prices is not a ‘high class problem,’" Tommy Pigott, the rapid response director for the Republican National Committee, tweeted. "Biden is making everyone worse off, but instead of stopping the damage, their strategy is to try to gaslight Americans."

Klain did not immediately respond to an after-hours email from Fox News.

President Biden announced a deal on Wednesday to expand operations at the Port of Los Angeles as prices keep climbing and container ships wait to dock in a traffic jam threatening the U.S. economy and holiday shopping.

Prices are jumping in large part because container ships are stranded at ports and because unloaded goods are waiting for trucks, leading to mass shortages and delays that have caused a longer than expected bout of inflation.

The rising costs are eating into worker pay, creating a drag on growth and driving Republican criticism of Biden just as his multitrillion-dollar tax, economic, climate and infrastructure agenda is going through the crucible of congressional negotiations.

Furman did not immediately respond to an email from Fox News. He engaged one commenter who said unemployment generally impacts a small percent of the overall population while "inflation is noticed and felt by everyone."

Furman said his earlier post was not political analysis but rather his "social judgment."

"That said, unemployment is always politically costly in a way that is puzzling given your obviously true statement," he said. "2009 was a great year for the 140m people with jobs most of who got large real raises. But didn’t feel great."

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White House's Take on How Americans Are Reacting to Inflation Shows They Don't Really Care

Quote:The White House has been constantly gaslighting us on the question of inflation.

They’ve been telling us that it’s “transitory.” They even told us last month that if you don’t count things like beef, pork, and poultry — you know, those things that Americans eat — then prices might be pretty much normal. Oh. Yes, if you just forget about eating, it wouldn’t be much of a problem. Of course, the hard facts of the numbers blow up those kinds of deflections.

The White House really thinks they can say anything and people will buy it. The sad thing is that that’s probably true. There probably are some people on the left who will buy just about anything they say. But most sane people see that there’s a problem when they avoid questions, deflect, or just throw some spin out there that doesn’t answer the question.

Take the comments from White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki today.

As we’ve reported, inflation is out of control, but Psaki claims that Americans aren’t comparing prices from now with one or two years ago (e.g. noticing how things are higher now).

Oh, really? It seems like that’s exactly what everyone is doing. They know it’s costing them more under Joe Biden for a lot of items, across the board, from food to other essential items like gas. They’re comparing to two years, one year, two months, you name it — the American people see what’s happening.

And “it’s the economy, stupid,” as another Democratic White House used to say. It’s always ultimately about the economy and how it hits people in the pocketbook. People notice when they have less at the end of the month. They notice when they’re at the grocery store, and it costs them $50 more for the same items than it did a few months ago.

That’s why Biden is in such trouble now. Because yes, Jen, they are comparing, and Biden is not faring well in that comparison, as we can tell from his cratering polls including specifically on inflation and the economy. The American people were already tagging Biden with the problem in August: 79% blamed Biden’s government policies for the spike in inflation, 86% of Americans were concerned with inflation, another huge number. The poll showed that rising prices are starting to hit people hard. Seventy percent said that rising grocery prices had caused them financial hardship, with 67% saying that about gas prices, as well. And the prices have mainly gotten higher since then.

But when the White House spins things with remarks like they did today, they’re officially signaling they don’t really care what you think, when they treat your concerns with such dismissive disdain.

Then, of course, more lying about what’s actually going on makes it worse.

Here’s Psaki lying about gas prices, denying that they are going up everywhere.

Even according to CNN, that’s a bunch of malarkey. The national average price for gasoline hit a fresh, seven-year high of $3.27 a gallon on Monday, up by seven cents in the past week alone, according to AAA. Gas has nearly doubled since bottoming at $1.77 in April 2020.

]

Not only is that hitting people at the pump, but with the surge in prices of natural gas, that’s going to hit Americans hard with the rise in energy prices. As we reported, it may cost as much as 54% more than compared to last winter. And guess who it was that shut down things like the Keystone Pipeline, making us less energy independent? While at the same time removing sanctions from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, allowing it to be built and helping Russia. That’s on Joe Biden. He had to go crawling — hat in hand — begging OPEC to pump more oil. Apparently, pumping oil is bad when the U.S. does it, but not when any other country does it.

Lat year i could fill my gas tank up for 30 bucks, this year its over 50 bucks. There's your cost comparison Raggedy Ann.

Its fools like this who need to be curbstomped into oblivion

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

These are the people drafting the speaking notes for Biden* to recite off the teleprompter, LOL. Biden* is too far down the dementia path to truly grasp the details of what he is saying, so it is easy to throw any BULLS HIT theory into the speech.

It was hilarious to hear Biden* blaming the private sector for the supply chain backlogs. He asked the oil companies to step up on the cost of oil/gas and you can be sure in a week or so he'll blame the oil companies for not cutting costs for U.S. citizens. He'll also blame the trucking companies, US cargo port operators, and express carriers like FedEx, UPS, DHL for the supply chain issues.

Biden* will ultimately take the fall so the Dems are riding this mumbling fool as long as possible.

Media Cover for Joe Biden as Gas Prices Surge to Levels Not Seen Since Joe Biden Was VP

Quote:According to a recent major online news story, “Gas prices are at 7-year highs, and Biden can’t do much about it.”

OK, stop laughing. I said, Stop! This was not a Babylon Bee post.

This was an actual CNN Business story and an atrociously prime example of the mainstream media playing defense for Joe Biden and his clumsy administration of radical nincompoops who put ideology ahead of common sense and practicality.

There’s actually a ton of things Joe Biden could do to restore the nation’s energy independence that he so swiftly and joyfully euthanized last winter with a series of executive orders and decisions that the same media hailed as oh-so refreshingly and thankfully green.

But he just wants the appearance of doing something.

Americans now are paying on average $3.36 a gallon for fuel with expectations the costs will ascend steadily and considerably before year’s end. By comparison, one year ago exactly, when someone else was president, Americans were paying $2.26 a gallon retail.

Are you sitting down? That’s a price increase from a Republican president to a Democrat president of nearly 50 percent (48.54 percent). In just one year.

In January, as Joe Biden Corp. moved into the White House, the gallon price was $2.33. On his first day in the Oval Office, Joe Biden killed the Keystone XL Pipeline, along with the jobs of 40,000 union members who were likely sucker enough to vote for him.

Just four weeks later, the price of gasoline had jumped 26 cents to $2.59. A week after that up another 13 cents.

It didn’t matter if Joe Biden was in his basement, at the beach, or Camp David, the prices just kept going up and drivers’ bank balances going down. Onward and onward — March $2.94, June $3.18, September $3.26.

There seems to be something of a connection here that the mainstream media misses, a connection with Joe Biden threatening future oil supplies with a plethora of moves — canceling drilling leases, barring drilling in vast offshore areas, jawing up the idea of our grandchildren someday maybe driving only electric vehicles, inexplicably helping foreign countries with competitive energy projects.

Markets react to perceived declining supplies with very real price hikes.

Joe Biden also rescinded sanctions on and formally endorsed Vladimir Putin’s immense Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline beneath the Baltic Sea to Europe that will cripple sales of U.S. LNG sales there and also give the wily Russian leader strategic leverage over NATO members now newly-dependent on his energy supplies.

CNN notes that pesky GOP members are criticizing Biden for the soaring prices “though the blame from Republicans is largely misplaced. Voters don’t like high gas prices and, fair or not, they have a history of blaming whoever is in the White House.”

Fair or not? Who else is pulling off these gambits that hurt the United States?

See, there’s nothing really Joe Biden can do. However, they neglect to note there is so much that Joe Biden could have not done.

Having seriously damaged the country’s energy output, the Biden team is working really hard to ameliorate these higher prices.

“White House weighing steps to address gas shortages.” (The Hill)

“White House asking companies for help lowering gas prices.” (The Hill)

In fact, Joe Biden did ask the oil companies he’s screwing over to help him control gas and home heating oil prices.

Because the United States is no longer energy independent as it was under that mean tweeter as recently as last year, Joe Biden recently asked OPEC oil-producing countries to boost their production.

That would lower the price of oil the U.S. now must import, oh, and cut OPEC’s revenues, too. You know, in the interests of international fellowship.

You may not be surprised to learn OPEC said, No.

Here’s another bold step Joe Biden’s overseeing to control gas prices a year before midterm elections that will doom his legislative agenda if Democrats’ slim congressional control melts away.

Oh, look! That’s exactly what happened back in 2010 during Joe Biden’s first midterm elections as vice president. Democrats have not yet recovered nationally from that electoral shellacking

The bold Biden step to reduce gas price hikes – you still sitting down? – is to have some Cabinet members meet to talk about an answer to stop gas prices going up. Which, just coincidentally, makes their much-vaunted electric vehicles appear more attractive.

Administration spokespeople wouldn’t say what exactly Jennifer Granholm, Tom Vilsack, and Antony Blinken ostensibly discussed to not come up with a solution yet. But claimed they were using every tool in the toolbox.

A meeting. They had a meeting, so they could tell The Hill and Bloomberg News and other sympathetic outlets how determined they wanted to look about doing something on the prices of gasoline and natural gas.

Joe Biden also asked oil companies for help hold down energy prices. Much like the naive or just plain PR stunt list he gave Putin of critical U.S. infrastructures he would appreciate Russians not cyber-hacking.

It seems there’s a concern, a political concern anyway, about the impact of soaring energy prices on the economy and the inflation rate, an invisible tax on every American now running at an alarming 5.4 percent monthly increase year-over-year.

There could conceivably be a connection between the trillions of dollars in new spending under Joe Biden and his party’s congressional teammates and the easily predictable surge in prices to absorb all that newly-printed dough floating around.

Earlier this summer, with the same ignorant smugness he promised to get all Americans out of Afghanistan but didn’t, Joe Biden assured Americans that any apparent inflation was a mere temporary blip as part of the pandemic’s economic recovery.

That’s the same type of argument – don’t you worry it’s just a temporary surge – that Joe Biden used earlier in his administration to allow media to explain the sudden disappearance of the previous administration’s calm on the southern border and the eruption of a chaotic surge of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into the country.

See, it’s just seasonal.

They’re not leaving. But it’s just a seasonal surge, see, that’s now continuing into its fourth consecutive season with no sign of abating. A helluva long blip.

Some Americans could get the impression now that Joe Biden, who’ll never drive his own car again, doesn’t mind if Americans can’t afford to drive their own fossil-fueled cars so much anymore. His party is even planning a new tax on every mile actually driven.

Americans could get the impression that Joe Biden says whatever he needs to say to get through a rough patch of news events. And then he continues on doing precisely what’s causing the problems in the first place. And the news media throws up its hands, too, because it’s ever so obvious that Joe “Biden can’t do much about it.”

Opening the Port of Los Angeles 24/7 Isn't the Game Changer Biden Claims

Quote:Though the problem has been building for many months, supply chain issues in the United States and particularly the role ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach play, have become a hot topic in the news cycle. Finally, Joe Biden somewhat addressed the issue; however, like many things Biden, the “solution” isn’t really a solution, and there is no acknowledgment of the federal and state regulations and laws that have, for the most part, caused the problem.

On Wednesday afternoon (after keeping folks waiting for an hour) Biden announced that the Port of Los Angeles will join the Port of Long Beach in operating 24/7 in an attempt to clear the shipyards of cargo containers and allow the dozens of ships anchored offshore to offload their cargo. That should do the trick, right? Only for people who don’t understand how a supply chain works.

Biden’s announcement isn’t exactly news for those who have been paying attention, and people should know that the ports won’t simply be throwing open their gates immediately. On September 17 port officials announced the start of a pilot program in which both ports would have expanded hours, with the goal of eventually operating 24/7:

The Port of Long Beach is drawing up a pilot program for drayage trucks to retrieve and return containers at night, while the Port of Los Angeles is coordinating a weekend gate program, dubbed Accelerate Cargo LA, that will operate on a trial basis, officials said.

Industry experts told Freightwaves that simply expanding port hours wouldn’t get goods to market faster because unless distribution centers/warehouses are also open 24/7, truckers won’t want to pick up loads during off-hours. One executive characterized the move as a “nothing burger” to Loadstar:

The announcement of the extended hours has been welcomed, but not everybody is impressed. One forwarder executive described this as a “nothing burger”.

Craig Grossgart, senior vice-president global ocean of Seko Logistics, remarked that the initiative will do nothing beyond allowing terminals to clean up their yards and make them marginally more efficient.

“Truckers and customers don’t want to pull boxes at night, because few DCs operate 24-hours a day. So, the trucker will have to pre-pull the container, store it in a secure yard, which costs more money obviously and comes with liability for the security of the container,” he remarked.

Long Beach Deputy Director Noel Hacegaba agrees that other segments of the supply chain need to step up:

“Given the magnitude of the cargo volumes we’re seeing, every segment of the supply chain needs to maximize their hours of operation….The objective of this pilot is to open the gates all night and serve as a catalyst for warehouses and trucking companies to move containers all night.”

As of September 16, there was a huge logjam at Los Angeles-area ports:

Dwell time for containers at terminals is six days, the wait time for on-dock rail is nearly 12 days and it takes 8.5 days on average for containers on the street to find dock space at warehouses. The situation is so bad that 65 container vessels were stacked up along the coast Thursday waiting to berth and unload.

In addition to the nationwide labor shortage, ports in California face a few state-specific challenges. This entire Twitter thread is a must-read, and Sal Mercogliano’s YouTube series on the issue is a must-watch.

One major challenge facing those operating in California’s ports is the state’s CARB pollution regulations.

And, depending on how SCOTUS rules on a pending case regarding how California’s AB5 applies to the trucking industry, the problem will only get worse. If owner-operators who contract with larger freight companies must be classified as employees (it doesn’t matter if they have an LLC or corporation; they won’t meet the ABC test since both companies provide essentially the same services), expect a huge contraction in trucking capacity in California.

AB5, enacted in 2019, seeks to define the status of an independent contractor in the state. It sets as law the ABC test for determining whether a worker is an employee or a true independent contractor. And for trucking, the B prong is viewed as making it difficult to hire independent owner-operators as drivers, because it defines a person engaged in the primary activity of the hiring company — like a trucking company hiring a truck driver — as an employee. (A trucking company hiring a janitorial service to clean the offices would not face this issue, since janitorial work is not its business.)

There were two AB5/trucking-related cases on SCOTUS’ docket for this term; on October 5 the Court denied certiorari in the Cal Cartage case, but hasn’t yet ruled on another case brought by the California Trucking Association (CTA). In that case, a federal judge issued an injunction in January 2020 blocking the implementation of the law in the trucking industry until legal challenges could wind their way through the courts. In April the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against CTA, but enforcement of that order has been stayed pending SCOTUS’ decision, which means the January 2020 injunction is still in effect.

The thumbnail takeaway here: If you think there’s a shortage of truckers now, you’d better pray that SCOTUS rules in CTA’s favor.

Sadly, some Republicans don’t understand the issue either. Freshman Rep. Michelle Steel, who represents the Huntington Beach area, introduced a bill to keep ships from anchoring off the coast of Southern California for 180 days. That’s it. That’s the bill.

Her bill is clearly aimed at environmentalists who are outraged about a recent oil spill off the coast of Orange County. The current evidence suggests that multiple ships’ anchors damaged the pipeline over a number of months. Obviously, if those ships weren’t idling offshore for weeks, the anchors wouldn’t be near the pipeline. However, one would think that a woman who served as an Orange County Supervisor for years and has been involved in California politics for decades would understand that this is a much more complex issue; her solution would be just as harmful as Biden’s inept plans.

So, while that imbecile and his merry band of idiots were feeding him ice cream and letting him watch Cuties, they basically let their policies and Commiefornia shut down imports from the west coast and don't care about rising prices for any other goods because they're so hell-bent on pushing the Wuhan flu shot on everybody to notice other problems on the ground.

By the way, it's interesting that the fed is claiming it'll cost up to 54% more to heat your home this winter; several stories out the last few days have indicated that natural gas is up 80% and people should expect double or even triple their normal heating bills this year, so the fed's ASSumption is quite low in this case.

that's a great line by Bongino buried in Crimson's wall of text:

"It makes you wonder how hundreds of the dumbest people on Planet Earth all managed to get jobs in the White House at the same time."

(10-14-2021 12:53 PM)No2rdame Wrote:  So, while that imbecile and his merry band of idiots were feeding him ice cream and letting him watch Cuties, they basically let their policies and Commiefornia shut down imports from the west coast and don't care about rising prices for any other goods because they're so hell-bent on pushing the Wuhan flu shot on everybody to notice other problems on the ground.

By the way, it's interesting that the fed is claiming it'll cost up to 54% more to heat your home this winter; several stories out the last few days have indicated that natural gas is up 80% and people should expect double or even triple their normal heating bills this year, so the fed's ASSumption is quite low in this case.

Here in Memphis it's been said that natural gas this Winter will be up 20% to 30% . If MLG&W have to buy more it will go up. This will Hit hard for most people.

(10-14-2021 01:25 PM)Redbanksdog Wrote:  Here in Memphis it's been said that natural gas this Winter will be up 20% to 30% . If MLG&W have to buy more it will go up. This will Hit hard for most people.

At least many homes are heated with electric there, but throughout the West, Midwest, and Northeast it's gonna be a lot worse.

Iowa alone predicting nearly double.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/...102694001/

Klains tweet about this being a "high class" problem is even more stupid when you find out he tweeted this in 2018:

Quote:Some on the far left now say supply chain shortages could continue for years and years to come. But that’s what they WANT, Glenn says. They want to use government to 'fix' the issue, therefore enacting more control over YOU. There’s a revolution happening now, but it’s being carried out by our elected leaders on the inside. From waking up to our current reality and denouncing all lies, Glenn explains in this clip what you can do to peacefully fight back…

And of course this is the ultimate in regressive taxes and is in no way hyperbole to suggest this will cost lives. Who does this affect the most? The poor and those on fixed incomes, i.e. the elderly.

Remember the scareathon over old ladies having to choose between eating cat food or affording their prescriptions? Well, first off cat food per weight of other foods is way more expensive than say a jar of peanut butter or other stuff. But this, is very real.

For one thing if the poor and old folks can't afford another 50% on their heating bill, guess what? The heat gets cut off. Good hard cold snap in say Chitcago or Philthadelphia and we could see stories of people freezing to death in their own homes. It's happened before and it looks like this winter could be a tough one.

Again, a hard regressive tax brought to you by the so called "progressives" that will hurt the very people they claim to want to help.

"I'm from the government and I'm here to help". Run for the tall grass.

Quote:

President Biden’s spokesperson has a hard job. I don’t mean Jen Psaki is asked hard questions. For the most part, the questions are akin to media T-ball. The ball is placed on the T and all she has to do is hit it. A willing cadre of White House scribes gently put the questions up for Psaki to take a whack. That’s easy. The hard part is maintaining a straight face when she says things like “inflation is decreasing after a record-breaking September”. She said:

“We’ve seen a decrease over the course of time,” she told reporters on Wednesday. “Over the second and third quarter of this year, monthly inflation increases have actually decelerated.” It’s like a drunk speeding down the highway at 150mph and when she’s pulled over, tells the cop: “What’s the problem, I was slowing down”.

The boot lickers at the Fed have called inflation “transitory” yet admitted in the same breathe that “transitory inflation” will last for quite a while. Apparently, the theory is using gentle words, as the Administration puts a shiv in consumers’ backs will lessen the pain.

Inflation is outpacing barely increasing wages. Consumers won’t call skyrocketing heating oil prices transitory. I’m guessing it will a collection of four-letter words directed at the White House, not the Fed. Make no make the White House is to blame.

My colleague Bonchie covered this administration’s idiotic class warfare spin this morning. Please take some time and read his take. The puppet master Ron Klain is telling people who are about to count pennies and worrying about how they will heat their homes this winter, that inflation is a “high class” problem. Imagine being that guy. On second thought, don’t.

Inflation’s pronouns aren’t Transitory and Tiny. Inflation is a monster – and Biden made it. He owns it.

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In a way I'm loving what THE SOB has accomplished which is nothing good. That's because these government caused hardships ARE ALSO AFFECTING THOSE IDIOTS WHO VOTED FOR HIM. I say, "let them eat cake".

It would have been a travesty if only conservatives were the only ones suffering, it's EVERYBODY. Soy
boys will now have to pay more for their lattes and such. More to gas up to go pick up their lattes too.

Like my FIL would say, "I tol yoo!"

INSANE Video Shows Supply Chain Problems Causing Container Yards To Overflow

As Shelves Lay Bare, Fox's Hemmer Grills Former Obama Official Over 'High-Class Problems' Idiocy

Quote:Harvard economics professor and former Obama official Jason Furman set off alarms across America last week by declaring that inflation and the Biden Supply Chain, and the many hardships the Biden Economy continues to visit on everyday Americans is nothing to worry about — much ado about nothing, as it were — and it is only creating problems for the “high-class” among us.

Yep, simply “high-class problems,” gang — move along. Nothing to see, here.

Listen, it’s not like the Democrat Party hasn’t been tone-deaf to the problems of everyday Americans for six decades, but this fundamentally boneheaded observation is beyond the pale. From a Harvard economics professor, no less. Oh — wait — never mind.

“Most of the economic problems we’re facing (inflation, supply chains, etc.) are high class problems. We wouldn’t have had them if the unemployment rate was still 10 percent. We would instead have had a much worse problem..”

Huh?

The second stupidest thing Furman did last week? He appeared on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” and attempted to explain his ridiculous observations to host Bill Hemmer. So how did that go, as reported by The Blaze? The ever-polite Hemmer took it straight to Furman from the start — albeit nicely:

“Jason, you started a prairie fire yesterday. To paraphrase Jay Leno, what the hell were you thinking?”

Furman of course attempted to defend his comments, as transcribed by The Blaze, foolishly alleging that rising inflation is somehow a “good thing.”

“You need to keep two things in your head at once. One is, inflation is real. [No crap?] Inflation is creating a problem for families, and we should do something about it.

“Number two, the reason we have this inflation is actually a good reason: that the unemployment rate has come down, that families got money, and people are buying more things than ever before.”

Wait — wut? So inflation is creating a problem for families but that’s actually a good thing because people are buying more things than ever before. (Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.)

So what about the supply chain? Brilliant Harvard stuff flowed from the former Obama official.

“The problem isn’t that our ports stopped working [I’m aware; tell Biden], it’s that people are buying so much stuff, that so much is trying to come through our ports right now. We have record volumes, you know, that both has a good side, a bad side, you need to keep both those in your head.”

Yeah, mostly a complete crock of crap.

Without a sufficient number of truckers to pick up that ever-increasing amount of “stuff,” Scooter, it isn’t going anywhere — regardless of how much “stuff” Americans continue to buy. Hell, even Circle-Back Psaki was forced to admit last week that the Biden administration can’t predict a Ho-Ho-Ho Christmas for America, remember? For us everyday Americans, that is.

And, Jason? Why do I think Christmas is going to be merry as hell for your elitist “high-class” friends?

I could use the rest of this article to point out the many obvious problems and blatant contradictions with Furman’s out-of-touch observations, beginning first with why behind Furman’s assertion that the unemployment rate has come down, but I’d rather not write 2,000 words, here.

Incidentally, did I mention that Furman is also a stand-up comic?

“Most presidents get one big fiscal thing done. President Biden is on track to getting three done, an enormous rescue plan, an infrastructure bill, and this reconciliation bill which focuses on climate change and child care.”

[ROFL emoji]

Finally, as we reported on Wednesday of last week, Biden stooge — Chief of Staff — Ron Klain ignorantly jumped all over Furman’s ridiculous comment like a desperately starved blind squirrel jumping on an acorn.

Nice job, Ron — say “hey” to Joe, from everyday America.

Enjoy: