BarryLaverty

Actually it's with most of Trump businesses, but Truth Social wasn't ever going to be the answer as it was portrayed to any question other than 'how is that carnival huckster going to hatch another scheme for him?'

What analysis of the information in the article. You're very astute. Or maybe not. You could be a bot with that 'response'.

Some facts for those of you who worship at corporate altars and want to blame inflation on President Biden. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/greedflation-caused-more-half-last-100000899.html ‘Greedflation’ caused more than half of last year’s inflation surge, study finds, as corporate profits remain at all-time highs Fortune· Getty Images Irina Ivanova Sat, Jan 20, 20245 min read “We may be looking at the end of capitalism.” Those words, from the pen of the loquacious Albert Edwards of Societe Generale, shocked the Wall Street analyst set last April and set Alberts on his way to becoming a financial press favorite for his witty turns of apocalyptic phrase. He was commenting on the phenomenon of “greedflation,” an economic bugbear previously beloved of progressive economists, not quite venerable 160-year-old French investment banks. But after falling from its blistering pace in 2022, consumer inflation has gotten stubbornly stuck in the 3% range—rising unexpectedly for the last two months even as wholesalers’ prices stay flat or fall. That is greedflation’s music, offering a clear bit of evidence that excessive profit-taking is happening above the raw cost of goods. And yet another progressive economic study, this time from the Groundwork Collaborative, sheds light on the problem, arguing that more than half of the consumer price price increases in the middle of last year were due to excessive profits, according to the findings. Corporate profits, by the way, remain at all-time highs. View this interactive chart on Fortune.com Corporate profits drove 53% of inflation during the second and third quarters of 2023 and more than one-third since the start of the pandemic, the report found, analyzing Commerce Department data. That’s a massive jump from the four decades prior to the pandemic, when profits drove just 11% of price growth. “Businesses were really, really quick, when input costs went up, to pass that on to consumers. [But] had they only passed on those increases, inflation would have been maybe one to three points lower,” Liz Pancotti, a strategic advisor at Groundwork and one of the report’s authors, told Fortune. Less business, more money In fact, corporate profits have been so good, companies may have backed themselves into a corner, Bloomberg Opinion columnist (and former Fortuneeditor) Justin Fox opined this week, citing Home Depot’s earnings, which saw an increase in dollar sales per square foot (thanks to rising materials prices) but also fewer transactions. Corporate profits have hit a new record in the most recent quarter, while the portion of national output going to workers is still below pre-pandemic levels, despite solid real wage growth. That high-profit, lower-volume dynamic is even hurting workers—who are being scheduled for fewer shifts to service fewer shoppers, who are themselves put off by ever-increasing prices, Bloomberg Opinion writer Conor Sen wrote. In the short term, that trend may manifest itself in some positive changes, like a four-day workweek. But in the longer term, companies will refuse to give up their fat profit margins without a fight, and will try to cut wherever possible. The tech industry, while a small part of the overall economy, is prime evidence of this dynamic, with Google, Amazon and plenty of smaller companies this month announcing plans to shed the less-profitable parts of their workforce as they pivot to the hopefully-more-profitable AI sector. Meanwhile, consumer-facing companies have been upfront with investors about their price-raising strategies—and they don’t seem interested in a reversal. PepsiCo’s CFO Hugh Johnston said last spring the company could “increase margins during the course of the year;” construction materials giant Holcim said in October it would raise its margins to make up for falling demand, and consumer-products giant Procter & Gamble this summer boasted of an $800 million profit increase, thanks to falling commodity costs that it would not pass on to consumers. That all adds up to consumer-inflation rates that are, well, inflated, according to Groundwork. Company profits are “probably why we saw inflation in the realm of 7% to 9% for a while, instead of the 5% to 7% range,” Pancotti told Fortune. Now that “we’re in the 3% range, if you took corporate profits away, we should already be at the 2% target” that the Federal Reserve has set, she added.After pandemic-era upheavals, “on the whole, things are really stabilized, but we’re still seeing significant gaps between consumer and producer prices,” she said. It’s not just the left making this argument. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has also found corporate profits playing an outsize role in price growth. The Kansas City Fed, in a recent study, found that growth in markups accounted for more than half of consumer price inflation for 2021, a “substantially higher contribution than during the preceding decade.” Last month, the largest review to date of greedflation, from the Institute for Public Policy Research and Common Wealth, looked at 1,300 companies across four continents and concluded that profiteering by a relatively small set of companies pushed up consumer prices “significantly higher” than would have happened from the supply-chain shocks alone. Societe Generale’s Edwards, in his takedown of greedflation last year, warned that corporations’ greed could lead to a revolt and social unrest. Calling profit-taking "unprecedented" and "astonishing,"Edwards noted that he had never seen this level of corporate greed during four decades in the finance industry, and warned that popular unhappiness at companies’ “super-normal profit margins” could usher in price controls, of the type last seen decades ago. To be sure, classical economists argue that blaming companies for trying to boost profits is like blaming the rain for falling—profit-seeking is their mission, and it was to be expected, if anything, from the unleashed pent-up demand that exploded as the economy reopened post-pandemic. But increasingly, mainstream as well as progressive economists are making the case that the prices just didn’t need to go up this much. Outside the U.S., corporations as well as governments have pushed back against price hikes. The European supermarket chain Carrefour, which first tried to embarrass PepsiCo by pointing out price increases on its products with in-store signs, last month said it would stop carrying PepsiCo products altogether. Belgian chain Colruyt also dropped products from Mondelez, the maker of Oreos and Philadelphia cream cheese, after price hikes.

Never about anything than another scam, another fleecing to feather his nest. (Washington Post) Truth Social lost $58 million last year. Here’s who made money anyway. Trump’s social network generated just $4 million in revenue last year, but Trump’s stake is worth billions, and the company’s leaders stand to make millions in salaries, bonuses and stock By Drew Harwell April 7, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. EDT Former president Donald Trump’s social media company generated just $4 million in revenue last year — about as much as the average McDonald’s franchise in the United States, according to a report last year by the fast-food industry publication QSR. But that hasn’t stopped Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs Truth Social, from granting Trump a share package now worth billions of dollars — or from paying its leaders millions of dollars in salaries, bonuses and stock, according to documents it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Trump Media, based in Sarasota, Fla., has only 36 employees and lost $58 million last year, the filings show. The online analytics firm Similarweb estimates that Truth Social’s traffic is less than 1 percent of Reddit’s, a platform that received $800 million in revenue last year. But a stock-market frenzy has supersized Trump Media’s value to about $5.5 billion — more than the market values of Macy’s, Columbia Sportswear and Alaska Airlines, which make billions in revenue a year. The Washington Post shared with Trump Media the numbers it intended to highlight in this report, all of which were taken from the company’s filings. Trump Media spokeswoman Shannon Devine responded in a statement: “Truth Social just successfully launched as a public company, with a committed and expanding audience of millions of users, so it’s no surprise the partisan activists at The Washington Post — already the target of ongoing legal action for its defamatory reporting on us — would gin up this sort of ridiculous hit piece.” Trump Media sued The Post for defamation last year, saying the news organization had reported incorrectly on allegations concerning its financing. A federal judge in Florida recently dismissed the case but said Trump Media could amend its complaint if it believes it can state a viable claim. Donald Trump Trump is Trump Media’s biggest shareholder, with 57.3 percent of the company, or 78.7 million shares — a stake worth about $3.2 billion based on the stock’s closing price Friday. Through an “earnout” provision, Trump stands to receive another 36 million shares if the price stays above $17.50 for 20 days, which could happen as soon as April 26 and would raise his total stake to $4.7 billion. A six-month “lockup” agreement says Trump can’t sell or transfer his shares until Sept. 25 — or possibly a few days earlier, if the stock hits a certain price threshold. Trump could ask the company’s board to waive that requirement but has yet to do so. The lockup also applies to company executives and board members. The board Three people on Trump Media’s seven-member board of directors have been compensated with either stock or cash or both. Devin Nunes, Trump Media’s chief executive and president, received 115,000 shares, worth about $4.6 million. He was paid a $750,000 salary last year that increased to $1 million this year. Nunes, a former Republican congressman from California, also will receive a $600,000 lump-sum “retention bonus” this month. A bonus agreement signed by Nunes said the money was designed to help “ensure the continuity” of Trump Media’s business. Board member Eric Swider, who was chief executive of the special purpose acquisition company that merged with Trump Media, and Renatus, his consulting firm in Puerto Rico, received about 153,000 shares as part of the merger deal, a stake worth $6.2 million. Another board member, Kash Patel, a former Nunes aide who served on Trump’s National Security Council, was paid $130,000 last year as part of a consulting agreement with his company, Trishul. A filing says Patel also serves as a “national security adviser to [Trump] as a private citizen” and receives payment for that service from Trump’s Save America political action committee. The other four board members — Trump’s former trade representative Robert E. Lighthizer; Trump’s former Small Business Administration leader Linda McMahon; the Louisiana attorney W. Kyle Green; and Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. — were not paid last year, though a filing said the board could give itself “stock as non-cash compensation … from time to time.” One former board member, Dan Scavino Jr., a longtime Trump aide who led his White House’s social media operation and is now advising Trump’s presidential campaign, was paid $240,000 last year through a consulting agreement with his company, Hudson Digital. Scavino will also receive a $600,000 retention bonus this month. Trump Media also issued a $2.2 million “executive promissory note” to Scavino. The company gave similar promissory notes to other executives, which automatically converted on the day of the merger into stock. The filings do not specify whether Scavino’s note was converted. The executives Trump Media’s chief financial officer, Phillip Juhan, received 490,000 shares, worth $19.8 million. He was paid $337,500 last year, and his salary jumped to $365,000 when the merger closed. He last worked as the finance chief of a chain of fitness clubs. Chief operating officer Andrew Northwall received 20,000 shares, worth $812,000. He was paid $365,000 last year. Previously he worked at Parler, the social network that was popular among pro-Trump rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Juhan and Northwall also will receive $600,000 retention bonuses this month. Other executives will receive a total of $1.24 million in bonuses. They include chief technology officer Vladimir Novachki, who also received 45,000 shares, worth $1.8 million, and general counsel Scott Glabe, who received 20,000 shares, worth $812,000. Glabe served as an associate White House counsel under Trump. The founders Trump Media co-founders Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, who met Trump on “The Apprentice” and helped launch the business in 2021, received a combined 7.5 million shares through their partnership, United Atlantic Ventures, a stake worth about $304 million. Story continues below advertisement Arc Global Investments II, the biggest founding investor in Digital World Acquisition, the company that merged with Trump Media to take it public, said in a filing it received 13.3 million shares, worth about $539 million. A previous filing by Trump Media said Arc would receive 9.5 million shares. Arc and Digital World are involved in a legal dispute regarding how many shares Arc is owed. Arc is managed by Digital World’s former chief executive Patrick Orlando. The lenders Trump Media said it had helped fund its operations by issuing 19 convertible notes since 2021 in exchange for loans with a total face value of more than $40 million. The holders of those notes, most of whom the filings do not identify, can convert the unpaid principal into stock. The company said several of the notes had been amended or extended since they were issued, and that it had an “ongoing disagreement” with one noteholder over their “differing interpretations of certain terms.” Story continues below advertisement The company also said it had issued convertible notes to unnamed investors for “working capital purposes” during the last quarter of 2023, and that more than $1 million of the notes remained outstanding by the end of the year. The lawyers The Trump Media deal sits at the center of four ongoing lawsuits, all of which were filed within the last two months: Trump Media and Digital World sued Arc and Orlando in Florida, saying their “irrational and disturbing behavior” had “imposed massive costs” and caused “extensive reputational harm.” Litinsky and Moss’ United Atlantic Ventures sued Trump Media in Delaware, saying Trump had pushed a “last-minute stock grab” that would dilute their shares. Trump is scheduled to be deposed in that lawsuit this month. Arc sued Digital World, its chief executive and three board members in Delaware, saying they had worked to deprive Orlando of millions of shares. Trump Media sued Moss, Litinsky and Orlando in Florida, accusing the co-founders of mismanaging the company with a “toxic corporate culture” and seeking to force the forfeiture of their shares. The Delaware judge in the United Atlantic Ventures lawsuit said at a hearing April 1 that he was “gobsmacked” that Trump Media filed this suit when the dispute was already playing out in his court. Digital World said it spent $19.6 million on “legal investigations” last year, mostly due to its $18 million settlement with the SEC, a Trump Media filing shows. Trump Media also agreed last year to pay an unnamed law firm $500,000 for services, the filing said. In November, the firm was issued a $500,000 convertible note with a conversion price of $10 per share; that stake is worth $2 million today.

It's according to sources and I would state confidently that with all prior Trump statements and moves that it will happen the way it is described. It's out there as common knowledge in Republican circles. Why would you doubt it?

Always been a simp for Putin, admired his thuggery and dictatorial rule. His solution turns our back on not only Ukraine but NATO and all our allies. (Washington Post) Inside Donald Trump’s secret plan to end the Ukraine-Russia war Foreign policy experts and some Republicans warned that pressuring Ukraine to cede land would reward Putin Former president Donald Trump has privately said he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine by pressuring Ukraine to give up some territory, according to people familiar with the plan. Some foreign policy experts said Trump’s idea would reward Russian President Vladimir Putin and condone the violation of internationally recognized borders by force. Trump’s proposal consists of pushing Ukraine to cede Crimea and the Donbas border region to Russia, according to people who discussed it with Trump or his advisers and spoke on the condition of anonymity because those conversations were confidential. That approach, which has not been previously reported, would dramatically reverse President Biden’s policy, which has emphasized curtailing Russian aggression and providing military aid to Ukraine. As he seeks a return to power, the presumptive Republican nominee has frequently boasted that he could negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine within 24 hours if elected, even before taking office. But he has repeatedly declined to specify publicly how he would quickly settle a war that has raged for more than two years and killed tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians.

Keep cheering for America's failure so your cult leader can come on back and start wrecking the economy with tariffs or furiously fumbling a pandemic! Yay!

That's some straight running racist mess there. You say the same thing about others with big families? 'Feral hogs' is your equivalent????

Did you mean to post that as a support for Abbott? It didn't work, if so.

You aren't Colonel Potter, so you might need to actually say more than that if you want to actually have an opinion.

Love seeing @KirtFalcon talk about that time he had a 'Black friend'.

Why are you so fearful of immigrants coming to our country? How did your ancestors get here? Seriously curious.

By design, the obvious move is to push minorities on college campuses out and take away the power of education. Wish the gutless pukes behind it would own up to the motives. https://www.yahoo.com/news/does-dei-ban-mean-college-093129640.html What does a DEI ban mean on a college campus? Here's how it's affecting Texas students. Lily Kepner and Kayla Jimenez, USA TODAY NETWORK Fri, April 5, 2024 at 4:31 AM CDT7 min read 2.6k University of Texas junior Isabel Bellard was part of the Fearless Leadership Institute, a program that supported Black and Hispanic female students. The program helped her find a community on campus with shared experiences and gave her access to opportunities she wouldn't have otherwise had, such as taking her first-ever flight to New York to network with businesses. Then on Jan. 1, the state's anti-DEI law went into effect. The legislation signed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last year banned Diversity, Equity and Inclusion offices and initiatives at public universities and colleges. At UT Austin, that meant the leadership institute shifted to support all women regardless of ethnicity. The university's Gender and Sexuality Center became the Women's Community Center. And the Division of Diversity and Campus Engagement, of which both programs were a part, morphed into the Division of Campus and Community Engagement to comply with the law. This week, the university began laying off at least 60 staff members, according to two people with knowledge who spoke to the Austin American-Statesman, part of the USA TODAY Network, on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the terminations publicly. In an email to the university community Tuesday, UT Austin President Jay Hartzell said that in implementing changes required under the law, the university would close the new campus division altogether and eliminate programs that "now overlap with our efforts elsewhere." Bellard said she found out Tuesday that the leadership institute that meant so much to her was on the chopping block. An hour after Hartzell's email, Bellard said she saw the program's website was removed from UT's server. Ashley Awad participates in a protest to defend diversity, equity and inclusion at the University of Texas, April 5, 2023. The Austin chapter of Students for a Democratic Society held the protest and advocated for more funding for multicultural programs and hiring more tenure-track faculty of color.More The loss of the institute and other DEI programs is a crucial one, she said. "Black people at UT, when they get here as students, the first question is where are all the other Black people?" Bellard said. Only 4.5% of UT students in the fall 2023 semester were Black, according to a university fact-sheet. Black students were not allowed to attend UT until the 1950s. "Most Black students, they're one of maybe two, maybe three other people of color in the room and so that creates this really isolating space for people of color," Bellard said. " "FLI was actually the space that said, 'Hey, there is a space for' you." What is happening at UT Austin provides a revealing glimpse of what eliminating DEI initiatives can mean at the campus level, to individual students and student communities. A growing number of higher education institutions are grappling with state anti-DEI laws and protests from students and faculty who say the programs help improve student diversity and bring them a sense of belonging on campus. At least 82 bills seeking to slash higher education DEI initiatives have been introduced in 28 states and the US Congress, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education's DEI legislation tracker. A dozen have been signed into law, including in Alabama, Florida, and Utah. Amid a state DEI ban: The University of Texas lays off dozens of employees University of Texas Austin students: 'We didn't see this coming' Lacey Reynolds, a junior at UT and the president of the Onyx Honors Society, said she attended an emergency meeting with hundreds of students Tuesday night to process the news and action items. "We didn't see this coming," Reynolds said. "We had no idea we would be hit this hard." All students are affected by this, Reynolds said, adding that students are planning to stand up for staff members being let go ― many of whom felt like "families away from home." "It's really hard right now being a student leader, when the people who you would seek advice from have lost their voices," she said. "Being a Black president at a predominantly white school during a fight that people are now starting to call 'Jim Crow 2.0.,' I would say it's extremely difficult, very heavy." Students against legislation to ban DEI in colleges and universities gathered for a sit-in at the Texas capitol on March 23, 2023. Texas passed legislation banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public colleges and universities.More Shocked and angry, UT senior Amanda Garcia, an organizer for Texas Students for DEI, also attended the student emergency meeting Tuesday.I'm Over the summer and fall, Garcia said she had been in meetings with administrators and student groups to discuss how SB 17 would be implemented on campus. But, she said, she had no idea this was coming. "Up until this point we had believed the administration was in some ways willing to work with us," Garcia said. The loss of the division and staff members comes after UT Austin shuttered the Multicultural Engagement Center; ended a program to support undocumented students, and cut its sponsorship of student groups at the center, including the Afrikan American Affairs, Asian Desi Pacific Islander American Collective, Latinx Community Affairs, and Native American and Indigenous Collective. Garcia said the groups are now running GoFundMe accounts to make up for thousands of dollars lost from their budgets. UT's Division of Diversity and Campus Engagement 'a national model' The university's Division of Diversity and Campus Engagement was "a national model for integrating diversity and community engagement into the core mission of a university," according to an in-house description of the department in December. In an impact report last year, articles described how the division was working to support students academically and professionally and how the division's work enhanced the university's strategic plan, "Change Starts Here." "We know that many people of different groups and identities need to be at the table to solve the world’s biggest challenges and dream up new innovations for a better tomorrow," the report says. "That is why our units are supporting and uplifting diverse talent in an effort to make The University of Texas at Austin the world’s most impactful public university." The University of Texas has laid off at least 60 staff members who previously worked in diversity, equity and inclusion-related positions, according to two people with knowledge of the terminations.More Hartzell, the university president, said in his email Tuesday that the university found that restructuring and rebranding the Diversity division wasn't enough. "We have concluded that additional measures are necessary to reduce overlap, streamline student-facing portfolios, and optimize and redirect resources into our fundamental activities of teaching and research," he wrote. Nineteen of the division's programs have beenrelocated to other divisions, including the Sweatt Center, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, Advise Texas, First Generation Longhorns and Disability and Access. The Women's Community Center is not on that list. Hartzell said the Division of Student Affairs would work to make student-facing services available through the end of the semester. The Texas NAACP and the Texas Conference of American Association of University Professors released a joint statement decrying the university's actions, saying the division had already been modified to comply with the anti-DEI and dismantling it "appears to be an inappropriate and unnecessary." They called on the university to be more transparent about the moves and the related layoffs. Multiple elected officials and social justice groups have also called on UT-Austin to reinstate the eliminated positions and programs. UT students not giving up, pledge fight on DEI programs Garcia said students are mobilizing and coming together in "unprecedented" ways to figure out how to support staff members who were laid off and move forward. "We're more determined now than ever," they said. "I think they really underestimated how much these staff members meant to students." Bellard also said that students will fight for staff members and for the return of programs that were integral to her experience at UT. "In order for any marginalized students to be treated fairly at the University of Texas, because they weren't accepted for so long, diversity and identity-specific programs and partnerships are critical in developing students' sense of belonging" on a campus where white students are the majority, she added. "If I was a freshman, I'd be considering transferring and getting my degree from a different university."

Last two months, they were raised by 22K. RIF.

Keep rooting against America, Klink! Keep hoping against hope and progress!

The economy continues to boom, with 39 straight months of job growth under President Biden. Thanks, President Biden! (NY Times) Another month of robust US job growth points to continued economic strength BY PAUL WISEMAN Updated 11:06 AM CDT, April 5, 2024 Share WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers delivered another outpouring of jobs in March, adding a sizzling 303,000 workers to their payrolls and bolstering hopes that the economy can vanquish inflation without succumbing to a recession in the face of high interest rates. Last month’s job growth was up from a revised 270,000 in February and was far above the 200,000 jobs that economists had forecast. By any measure, it amounted to a major burst of hiring, and it reflected the economy’s ability to withstand the pressure of high borrowing costs resulting from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes. With the nation’s consumers continuing to spend, many employers have kept hiring to meet steady customer demand. Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate dipped from 3.9% to 3.8%. The jobless rate has now remained below 4% for 26 straight months, the longest such streak since the 1960s. The government also revised up its estimate of job growth in January and February by a combined 22,000. Normally, a blockbuster bounty of new jobs would raise concerns that a vibrant labor market would force companies to sharply raise pay to attract and keep workers, thereby fanning inflation pressures. But the March jobs report showed that wage growth was mild last month, which might allay any such fears. Average hourly wages were up 4.1% from a year earlier, the smallest year-over-year increase since mid-2021. From February to March, though, hourly pay did rise 0.3% after increasing 0.2% the month before. The economy is sure to weigh on Americans’ minds as the November presidential vote nears and they assess President Joe Biden’s re-election bid. Many people still feel squeezed by the inflation surge that erupted in the spring of 2021. Eleven rate hikes by the Fed have helped send inflation tumbling from its peak. But average prices are still about 18% higher than they were in February 2021 — a fact for which Biden might pay a political price. In a statement Friday, though, Biden argued that the economy’s strong performance means that his policies are paying off. “My plan is growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, investing in all Americans and giving the middle class a fair shot,” he said. “Inflation has come down significantly. We’ve come a long way, but I won’t stop fighting for hard-working families.” The 303,000 jobs that the economy added in March were the largest gain since last May. And they boosted average monthly job growth so far this year to a vigorous 276,000, an improvement even on 2023’s robust average of 251,000. The unemployment rate fell last month even though a sizable 469,000 people entered the labor force looking for work. That influx increased the proportion of Americans who either have a job or are looking for one from 62.5% in February to 62.7%. A bigger labor force tends to ease pressure on companies to significantly raise wages, thereby slowing inflation pressures. Though most industries added jobs last month, hiring was mainly concentrated in three categories: Healthcare and private education, leisure and hospitality and government accounted for nearly 69% of the hiring. In addition, construction companies added a solid 39,000 jobs. Four years after the pandemic curbed travel and forced shutdowns of restaurants, bars and entertainment venues, those industries have finally regained their pre-pandemic employment level, with a category that includes such businesses adding 49,000 jobs in March. The Fed’s policymakers are tracking the state of the economy, the job market and inflation to determine when to begin cutting interest rates from their multi-decade highs. Rate cuts by the Fed would likely lead, over time, to lower borrowing rates across the economy. The central bank’s policymakers started raising rates two years ago to try to tame inflation, which by mid-2022 was running at a four-decade high. Those rate hikes — 11 of them from March 2022 through July 2023 — helped drastically slow inflation. Consumer prices were up 3.2% in February from a year earlier, far below a peak of 9.1% in June 2022. The much higher borrowing costs for individuals and companies that resulted from the Fed’s rate hikes were widely expected to trigger a recession, with waves of layoffs and a painful rise in unemployment. Yet to the surprise of just about everyone, the economy has kept growing steadily and employers have kept hiring at a healthy pace. Some economists believe that a rise in productivity — the amount of output that workers produce per hour — made it easier for companies to hire, raise pay and post bigger profits without having to raise prices. In addition, an influx of immigrants into the job market is believed to have addressed labor shortages and slowed upward pressure on wage growth. This helped cool inflation even as the economy kept growing. “This report is like the macroeconomist’s Holy Grail,’’ said Julia Pollak, chief economist at the online job marketplace ZipRecruiter. “It’s pointing toward noninflationary growth.” Noting the strong job growth, influx of new workers, declining unemployment and slowing wage growth, Pollak said, “It suggests that the Fed can walk and chew gum at the same time, bringing down inflation without crippling the labor market.” In the meantime, the Fed has signaled that it expects to cut rates three times this year. But it is awaiting more inflation data to gain further confidence that annual price increases are heading toward its 2% target. Some economists have begun to question whether the Fed will need to cut rates anytime soon in light of the consistently durable U.S. economy. The still-strong demand for labor has meant that some employers are still struggling to fill vacancies. One of them is John Zmuda, president of Moseys Production Machinists in Anaheim, California, who said it’s still “extremely hard’’ to find workers. Though he receives plenty of resumes, Zmuda said “it seems like most people are just wage-hunting” rather than seeking a long-term career. Moseys, a family-owned company that supplies the defense, aerospace, healthcare industries, wants to add three or four workers to a staff of 27. Zmuda said he has raised wages 10% over the past year or so. But California’s high cost of living, especially for housing, puts off some potential recruits. Like many manufacturers, Moseys depends heavily on robots. But for an employer, automation goes only so far. “People bring to the table their minds and eyes,” Zmuda said. “Robots do not. People will think before they do something.’’ Likewise, in Duncan, Oklahoma, Southern Machine Works, which also supplies the aerospace and defense industries, needs four or five machinists. “It’s really been a struggle to find anyone,’’ said Frank Burch, CEO of the third-generation family firm. Attracting recruits to a rural town of 23,000 is difficult, especially when the oil-field-services giant Halliburton is nearby and seeking workers, too. “We’re just hiring individuals that seem to have the mental capacity to learn the business, and then we’re teaching them through our in-house training program,” Burch said. Employers, he suggested, will probably have to get used to tighter labor markets: “When you look at the demographics of the country – the baby boom’s gone, the current generation just isn’t having children. I just don’t really see it changing in my lifetime.’’ ___ AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.

Ah, that great white nationalist Elon Musk pushing out 'The Great Replacement Theory' again. Nice to see consistency.

Which one?

President Biden is also a Catholic who attends Mass regularly. Here is RFK's stance on abortion: Reproductive rights Kennedy’s stance on abortion has been unclear throughout his campaign. The independent presidential contender said he would support a federal abortion ban after the first three months of pregnancy at the Iowa State Fair in Summer 2023. He later walked back the comments, and his campaign released a statement that Kennedy supports a woman’s right to choose and does not support legislation banning abortion. He previously told USA TODAY he feels the government should not be telling people what to do with their bodies, and it should be up to the woman during the first three months of pregnancy. How are they different?

Always have, always will.

Texas is the most 'conservative' state in the country. What exactly hasn't been enacted or inflicted on us, at this point?

We bringing up Clarence Thomas now? Or later?

I have never defended acts of violence or threats of violence by anyone. I think if criminal acts are committed while 'protesting', that they should be fully prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Say, like when 1000 assaults on police officers occurred on January 6th. Who's with me?

Oh, no stereotyping here. I know that most Republicans are everyday people, decent and kind, salt of the earth, while just like Democrats, some are mean-spirited jackasses whose narcissism and lack of compassion for others is always disappointing. Why they are following an infested Yankee Mob boss down a rathole is admittedly baffling. Why they are fixated on wedge issues to do with gender and denying education with clarity is also a mystery.