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Saturday’s Forum
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13 responses to “Saturday’s Forum”
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It’s common wisdom that car prices are much higher than they used to be, but as this article points out, many of the same models from thirty years ago still exist (Camry, Accord, Corolla). When you adjust for inflation, they are the same price or even cheaper, for a much better version of the car.
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For people who will not be able to afford the payment on a $20,000 used car, it doesn’t matter how high the quality is. Same for the people whose income hasn’t adjusted for inflation, such as the people who are making $20/hr for the job that I made $15/hr doing 40 years ago.
That’s why it’s called a “k-curve.” The people in the lower leg of the curve are still losing ground as “things get better.”
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The average price of things that drive inflation are always flat, when adjusted for inflation.
If we included some index funds in the basket of goods used to calculate inflation, we could really bring down the inflation-adjusted cost of groceries.
Shouldn’t one’s 401k be part of the inflation basket? It would help estimate the effects of inflation on your financial health.
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Charlotte Clymer details the snark behind Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon nickname, “no tab Pete.”
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I almost shudder to imagine the level of contempt he earned for himself when he forced all the regional commanders (some of whom had to spend more than 20 hours on a plane to attend) to endure being lecturing by that clown on what a “warrior” is and is not. He has an exceptionally smart batch of people wanting his hide on their wall.
Bet the house most of them have been on constant alert for a chance to screw him over. No safe undercutting opportunity will be missed.
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On the 29th of August, two airliners performed a fly over for a rugby match in South Africa. You can see in the video at this link they flew way too low.
The incident has generated a lot of talk in the aviation blogs and Youtube channels. Not without controversy, but everyone agrees it was a dangerous stunt, and way too low.
Had either jet crashed into the stadium, or hit the stadium’s roof and crashed nearby, it might have been the worst airline disaster ever. There were over 50,000 people in the venue, maybe as many as 62,000.
The airline, South Africa’s Airlink, claims all safety precautions were observed and the flight went according to plan.
If this is true, Airlink and the people who planned and approved this, should never be allowed to do any more fly overs anywhere for any reason.
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The Guardian has the scariest headline I’ve seen lately,
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner land in Moscow aiming to revive Ukraine talks
No good can come of this.
And this triggers a pet peeve of mine,
Trump made ending the war a priority early in his second term, but his efforts have so far yielded little results.
It seems moderately obvious that Trump did not make it a priority. I wish media would quit reporting that X is true when all they can really say is that a politician said X is true. Everybody says politicians lie, then they turn around and print their statements as fact.
If Trump wants to end the war in Ukraine, all he has to do is announce we’re 100% committed to Ukraine and back it up. I’m still mad at Biden for not doing so.
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At the start of that conflict, an expat friend of mine made an almost identical suggestion to the Biden response. He was asserting that Ukraine was outside of the area of United States influence, is traditionally Russian territory, and that it was unwise for the US to become entangled in a conflict where it was unlikely to affect the outcome positively for Ukraine–which was unlikely to prevail. For the record, this friend is both the most outspoken critic of Trump and probably the most liberal (classically and otherwise) of all my associates.
Trump’s opinion on Ukraine is not unique to Trump. (And on this point, my expat friend in Korea is operating from a 2 or 3 generations ago playbook.)
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The Ukraine war has been a huge and almost free benefit to the US. With the loose change in the Pentagon’s sofa and zero loss of life, we have gutted Russia militarily and economically. As a bonus we just got a class in next generation warfare, which would be very valuable were the Pentagon not run by a frat boy and the White House occupied by a man whose entire concept of foreign policy comes down to, “What do I get?”
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Meanwhile, in the UK:
Keir Starmer has announced his resignation as an MP.
This triggers a by-election where the Greens may make a considerable challenge, and their leader Zack Polanski is going to stand.
I’d still bet on Labour winning.Farage and Reform are in trouble again over dodgy fund raising.
Argentina announces it continues to pursue its claims to the Falkland Islands.
UK nearly tilts into the North Sea due to massive eye-rolling.
But also notes Millei is being encouraged in this by the Netanyahu/Trump intersection, out of their various resentments.
This is a score that shall be paid off if opportunity presents.
Diplomacy 101: “A favour for a favour. A harm for a harm.”UK debt repayment costs continue to edge up as bond markets continue to be iffy, for various reasons.
Combined with price inflation, resulting budget squeeze may pose problems for the government .
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