Outside the Beltway

Outside the Beltway

Tuesday Tabs

Because I really do have too many open.

Steven L. Taylor
23
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23 responses to “Tuesday Tabs”

  1. steve Avatar
    steve

    Drum posted the data on bacon consumption which has actually been increasing. Must confess that I do my part to keep the trend line strong. We cook pretty often for our pretty liberal church. Wife and I have a standing joke that if we arent sure what to make we can just randomly choose something and wrap it in bacon and people will eat it.

    Steve

    9
  2. just nutha Avatar
    just nutha

    @steve: I prefer link sausage, but I don’t see any evidence at Safeway (or even granola-leftist Trader Joe’s) that anyone is preventing people from eating bacon. Then again, my state evaded the prohibition on “Merry Christmas,” too, so I may well be living in a pocket of anarchy at the edge of the nation.

    7
  3. gVOR10 Avatar
    gVOR10

    Kevin Drum did the bacon thing, with charts, last week. Interpreting his chart, when Biden took office an average worker had to work 11.7 minutes to pay for a pound of bacon, last week it was 11.5 minutes. He also charts that bacon consumption is actually up a bit.

    A couple weeks ago I had a brief exchange with a brother in law. Me – Inflation’s pretty much over. Him – PRICES HAVEN’T GONE DOWN! His view is more common than mine. But shouldn’t your weekly outrage at your grocery bill having gone up abate after many weeks of the bill not going up?

    ETA – @steve: that’s what I get for typing slow.

    4
  4. Grumpy realist Avatar
    Grumpy realist

    I think it was John Scalzi (SF writer) who had as one of his tasks-for-the-day was “tape bacon to the cat.” Which, after much demand from commentators, he did. With pictures.

    3
  5. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @gVOR10:

    PRICES HAVEN’T GONE DOWN!

    And he’s right, of course. But trying to explain why deflation is bad is probably a fool’s errand.

    But it hurts Biden that prices aren’t going to go down, at least not across the board.

    Doesn’t matter that some prices did (e.g., eggs).

    2
  6. Mr. Prosser Avatar
    Mr. Prosser

    @Grumpy realist: Ha! Just laughed out loud and disturbed the coffee drinkers, even the ones with headphones.

    2
  7. gVOR10 Avatar
    gVOR10

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    But trying to explain why deflation is bad is probably a fool’s errand.

    I thought of going there, but refrained.

    In retrospect, I did miss an opportunity. The guy makes his living as a small time real estate investor. Buys houses, lives in them and rehabs, then sells or rents them. He owns half a dozen houses and duplexes. It didn’t occur to me at the time to ask how his rents and the value of his properties had fared under Biden.

    2
  8. Moosebreath Avatar
    Moosebreath

    “More and more retailers are no longer accepting personal checks”

    I am more annoyed by the growing number of retailers who no longer accept cash.

    3
  9. just nutha Avatar
    just nutha

    @gVOR10: I’ve tried that argument before with real estate speculators before. I’m generally told it’s a wash because the gubmint takes most of the extra growth in taxes.

  10. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    I began to reduce my use of checks in the 90s, when online banking began to be a thing. By the mid-2000s I used checks solely to pay one credit card, because transfers online to that card tended to be problematic. Eventually I cancelled it, and haven’t bothered to even get new checks since, I think, 2011 or so.

    In a way, retailers that don’t accept personal checks, affect me as much as retailers that won’t accept gold bullion, or sacks of barley, or cowry shells (whatever they are).

    2
  11. jobeth Avatar
    jobeth

    @Moosebreath: I recently had some work done by a handyman. The price quoted was around $75 and the payment conversation went like this:
    Me: credit card?
    Him: no, don’t take them
    Me: check?
    Him: no, don’t take them
    Me: Zelle?
    Him: only Venmo
    Me: I’ve had a bad experience with Venmo. (remembering I had cash in the house) – hands over cash
    Him: what am I supposed to do with this? I don’t want to have to go to the bank.
    We finally agreed on a check he could deposit via his phone. That’s the last time he’ll fix something at my house. Just too much trouble.

    9
  12. Grumpy realist Avatar
    Grumpy realist

    @jobeth: ….not that it helps you now but I think legally under US law an offer to pay a debt in cash has to be accepted, if I remember correctly from my commercial paper class…

    3
  13. Grumpy realist Avatar
    Grumpy realist

    @Moosebreath: legally I think they have to.

    3
  14. Moosebreath Avatar
    Moosebreath

    @Grumpy realist:

    I haven’t tried to force the issue, but at least 2 national chain fast casual restaurants we regularly go to (Honeygrow and Cava) claim they don’t accept cash.

  15. Grumpy realist Avatar
    Grumpy realist

    Here’s the link

    1
  16. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    30 years ago, the week before we moved out of DC, I took our 18 month old to experience the $1 merry go round on the Mall. For some reason, I had 100 pennies. When I presented them, the cashier announced that they didn’t take change. I plopped them down on the counter in front of her, announced in an unnecessarily abrupt tone that it was legal U.S. currency and walked past her to put my son on the ride.

    She didn’t follow me.

    3
  17. Neil Hudelson Avatar
    Neil Hudelson

    @Joe:

    I see both sides. At least you were presenting her with the correct amount of money. I’ve been in physical altercations maybe half a dozen times total–a mugging, couple of bar fights, one in which a friend was fighting two dudes and I didn’t ask questions, and then once when a customer at a liquor store wanted to buy a King Cobra for a couple of bucks and just dumped a bag of change onto the counter, aying “count it.” I picked up a handful and said “one” before throwing it in his face, which I admit may have been a bit over the top.

    3
  18. Just nutha ignint cracker Avatar
    Just nutha ignint cracker

    @jobeth: Where my reality is different from yours is that I would have had that conversation with him before I contracted with him to do the work. Though I did have a similar problem with the moving company last move. Eventually worked it out tho.

    @Neil Hudelson: Yeah, just a touch over, but I do feel ya, bro.

    1
  19. Grumpy realist Avatar
    Grumpy realist

    Just checked over at the Fed web page and found, as usual, that the whole “cash lis legal tender” has a few other wrinkles.
    1. An offer to pay in cash is a valid legal offer, period. (This is probably what I was remembering)
    2. Private/commercial entities however do not have to accept the offer to pay in cash if they, for reasons of policy, chose to not do so. ( they do however have to be consistent.)
    3. This all goes poof if state laws demand acceptance of cash as method of payment.(states which do so: Massachusetts and New Jersey)
    4. Congresscritters are attempting to advance a bill which mandates the acceptance of cash payments nationwide. Hasn’t gotten that far.

    2
  20. charontwo Avatar
    charontwo

    @Joe:

    She was correct. By law, accepting pennies is required only up to $0.25. Amounts over $0.25, no.

    (you ca get rolls at your bank and put them in rolls which the bank will accept).

  21. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    @charontwo: As I said, she didn’t follow me. He had a great ride.

  22. JKB Avatar
    JKB

    Democrats Don’t Have a Nominee Until Delegates Say So.

    Given no real choice in the primaries, will Democrats show up to vote if that one choice is removed from them?

    Possibly, but how many are blind cult Democrats and how many support Biden as a Democrat.

  23. Franklin Avatar
    Franklin

    @jobeth: Lol. What indeed could anybody do with $75 cash? Besides spend it almost anywhere.

    But I had a similar convo with a friend I needed to reimburse. Oddly he wanted a check mailed to his house, which is about the least secure way to send money. But I guess it somehow made it.

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