Why doesn't CPI seem to capture the affordability crisis? "From 1967 to 2022, the cost of basic necessities—#groceries, #rent, #healthcare, #transportation, #childcare—increased 35% faster than everything else." * "groceries shot up by 23.6% from 2020 to 2024." *" Rent is at an all-time high […]

African #Daisies (?), #planter at Gerrard and Woodbine, East End, #Toronto #flowers #FlowerSky #bloomscrolling

@groundwork.bsky.social : Airfare ✈️ is up 20.7% Tomatoes 🍅 are up nearly 40% Coffee ☕️ is up 18.5% Beef 🥩 is up 14.8% Eggs 🍳 are up 1.5% And wages? Up 0.2%. https://groundworkcollaborative.org/news/trump-asleep-at-the-wheel-while-prices-soar-says-groundworks-jacquez/ #poliecon #inflation #wages

Yet the catastrophic #stupidity of current #U.S.policy shouldn’t be attributed purely to Trump’s personal unfitness to lead. Willful #ignorance and rejection of expert advice have characterized the #U.S. #politicalright for many years.” open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

"““We inherited a country where politics deliberately pitted Hungarians against each other,” he said, and he explained how Orbán mobilized supporters with hatred and fear, poisoning “the collective psyche of an entire nation.” “The Hungarian state must never […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

“He vowed #accountability for those who plundered the country and broke its laws, and promised to rebuild the nation’s shattered checks and balances. He urged #Hungarians always to criticize their leaders and hold them accountable.” open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

😳 The richest 0.1% in the US own 14% of its wealth! Yikes! h/t: @dbcurren.bsky.social https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/will-our-hyper-gilded-age-usher-in?r=b8e6&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true #antitrust #ineqality #techbro

“At this point, however, it’s clear that we r not experiencing a mere replay of the reign of the #robberbarons. We r living through something much worse. The #techbros make the ‘malefactors of great wealth’ called out by Theodore Roosevelt look benign by comparison” open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Good article by @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social Corporate Hospitals Bilking Americans as GOP Destroys Health Care : Patients are caught in the middle of a corporate money grab and lawmakers who refuse to regulate […]

#elisegould from https://www.epi.org : Today's jobs report came in stronger than expected as payrolls increased by 115,000 in April. As a result, average monthly growth the last three months was 48,000 jobs. The unemployment rate held steady as both labor force participation & the employment […]

Tech guy: confident assertion solving social problem -- with decades of contradictory evidence. Inside a billionaire bubble, a person can be pretty oblivious to real life. Post with link to @TheAtlantic article about David Sach's MAGA conversion […]

#Tulips #RosettaMcClainGardens, East End, #Toronto. #flowers #gardens #FlowerSky #bloomscrolling #tulipomania

RE: https://mastodon.social/@tanyatussing/116517493144447260 I call this the Trump global #carbontax #climatecrisis #climatemitigation

The Strait of Epstein crisis meets cheap solar panels and batteries. And boom 💥 - #DemandDestruction "But to really max out on demand destruction, you need both rationing and a cheap, easily installed substitute, and that's what the Strait of Epstein crisis […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Yikes! #oil is $108 #economy #inflation #iran https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/oil-price?op=1

RE: https://mastodon.social/@tanyatussing/116505209784709907 The #affordabilityagenda would bring down the prices of : #housing , #electricity , #gasoline , #childcare , #drugs , #groceries , & various products & services prices set through #surveillance - the extraction of personal information.

Congressional Progressive Caucus - New #AffordabilityAgenda last week. The “agenda focuses on affordability in many forms, proposing bills that would lower the cost of housing, electricity, gasoline, child care, prescription drugs, groceries, and consumer […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Good post by #MikeKonczal — the raising cost of essentials is outpacing #CPI. “When the prices of necessities rise faster than everything else, when housing becomes mechanically harder to access, when planning gets more cognitively costly, and when borrowing […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

#Muskism state take over plan - a chilling account "Obviously ( #DOGE !), Muskism also seeks to dismantle the state, but only the parts of it that can be transferred to Musk's own private hands. Muskism is about big government…for Musk, but not for you. It […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

NY Assemblyman Bores is running for Congress. We need to plan for AI becoming a bigger part of life -- safety, jobs, economy. Assemblyman Bores got a law passed in NY for some basic AI safety requirements. Yesterday, he announced a proposal for an AI dividend - to help our country transition […]

"It is incredibly lazy 2 treat the massive #inequality we see as the natural outcome of #capitalism. It is understandable the people who benefit from this inequality would make that claim, but it is bizarre the people seeking greater #equality would as well" deanbaker22.substack.com/p/we-dont-ne...

Biden files, Trump sabotages, state AGs for the win… “the anti-monopoly movement has bagged an important scalp. #ticketmaster was an iconic symbol of corporate lawlessness; the fact that they are now liable for lawbreaking says to all Americans that justice is possible against the powerful.” […]

From @joanhalifax.bsky.social #joy #wendellberry #cultivateawe

#JigarShah on high #gasprices shifting demand for #EVs & #hybrids - 192,000 public charging ports ready to go. "At $5 per gallon, that’s $150–200 billion annually flowing out of Americans’ pockets, alongside a reduction of roughly 2–3 million barrels of oil […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

‪Consumer sentiment plunges @carlquintanilla.bsky.social‬ ROSENBERG: “.. consumer sentiment at its lowest level since the series began in November 1952! .. undercutting the lows of all the prior eleven recessions .. the 1970s oil shock,.. the Asian financial […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Inflation up to 3.3%, while wage growth has stalled. @joshbivens-econ.bsky.social 🧵 : Price effects of the Iran conflict already showing up in March data. For the month, prices up a lot and real earnings are down. And it almost surely gets worse from here. 1 […]

"He is openly threatening massive escalation in #iran . #congress needs to immediately vote to put a stop to this. It is a constitutional duty to vote on #warpowers ". @amyklobuchar.com‬ : Trump said today that “a whole civilization will die tonight.” This is insane. He is openly threatening […]

Happy Easter

RE: https://mastodon.social/@tanyatussing/116346855124702428 #mikekonczal 's book about #freedom for regular people is an excellent argument against the " #freemarket " making most people more free. #economics #health #socialsecutiry

What’s everyone #reading this weekend? #books #BookSky

“The difficulties underscore an inconvenient truth for the #president: As powerful as the #American #economy is, its inextricable links with the rest of the world can still bring it to its knees.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/b...

Always a good update on jobs report from https://www.epi.org 's @elisegould.bsky.social : Today's jobs report came in stronger than expected with an increase of 178,000 to payroll employment. However, much of the gain was a bounce back to February declines […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

"If the president meant to be reassuring, however, he missed the mark. The reality, as best we can tell, is that Trump fully expected the Iranian regime to collapse in a matter of days or weeks, and he is now flummoxed to find out that a major war is a lot more complicated than he—or Secretary […]

RE: https://mastodon.social/@tanyatussing/116307518411349143 “They explore how Twitter’s core features—many invented by users—reshaped media and politics while also enabling new forms of harassment, misinformation, and attention hijacking.” #media #politics #society

All aboard, Trump leads US to the #19thcentury on the #RegressiveExpress - #tarriffs #wars & #worker insecurity More from @rbreich#19thcentury#regressiveexpress#tarriffs#wars#workert the Regressive Express : https://robertreich.substack.com/p/honestly-now-whos-better-at-the-economy #jobs #inflation #wages

RE: https://mastodon.social/@tanyatussing/116307518411349143 “They explore how Twitter’s core features—many invented by users—reshaped media and politics while also enabling new forms of harassment, misinformation, and attention hijacking.” #media #politics #society

#CharlieWarzel & #JasonGoldman … * “trace the history of Twitter from its hackathon foundings to Musk’s takeover. * “What made Twitter special, * “its original sin, * “Goldman and the founders’ biggest and most costly mistakes, and * “why the platform, 20 […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

"In this brief, we dissect the housing affordability debate, zeroing in on financing conditions that have largely been missing. We lay out the fundamentals of housing economics, survey the current policy landscape, and explain how popular proposals to loosen regulations may not lower housing […]

"In this brief, we dissect the housing affordability debate, zeroing in on financing conditions that have largely been missing. We lay out the fundamentals of housing economics, survey the current policy landscape, and explain how popular proposals to loosen regulations may not lower housing […]

@isabellamweber.bsky.social: "The world #energy shock is coming — it will deepen #inequality in ways we've seen before." "without urgent government action, the Strait of #hormuz crisis will ripple through our economies and rip apart our societies" "cost shocks don't just pass through markets […]

Why did Trump invade Iran? @ianbassin.bsky.social : Sadly, this is about the next election. He’s laying the groundwork to declare his election “emergency” to change rules and argue to courts they can’t question his national security judgment in war time. And if the Court does, he’s preparing to […]

RE: https://mastodon.social/@tanyatussing/116143702068602831 "Vendors, cowed by Amazon’s overwhelming bargaining leverage and fearing punishment, comply—agreeing to raise prices on competitors’ websites (often with the awareness and cooperation of the competing retailer) or to remove products […]

CA AG says, Amazon is fixing prices. "California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed for an immediate halt to what he says is a widespread price-fixing scheme run by the largest online retailer in America, Amazon." "His claim is that Amazon has been forcing vendors who sell on and off the […]

RE: https://mastodon.social/@tanyatussing/116126556456256427 "America is short nearly 4 million homes" Why? * local homebuilder financing has dried up * in most areas, the # of builder shrunk too * Wall Street financed home builders dominate most markets - adopting polices that lower supply of […]

‪@econliberties.bsky.social‬ : NEW: Alongside 16 other Democrats, @warren.senate.gov is introducing the American Homeownership Act of 2026. This bill takes private equity's chokehold on housing head on — ending major federal tax deductions & other unfair […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Interesting post RE: imbalanced trajectory set in 1945 & reset in 1971. Those old systems were going to break at some point. The US $ was the world's reserve currency, US became the world’s "consumer of last resort", while this "hollowed out its industry." What now, especially for middle […]

"When you make enough money, you get to write the laws." Funny, yet depressing, 3 min video about how #pbm s raise #drug prices: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_khH6pZnHCM #economics #poliecon #inflation

It turns out that #europe 's productivity growth is similar to #us. 🤔 "In short, it seems the secret to the superiority of the US economic performance isn’t the entrepreneurial genius of Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, but the bureaucrats making quality adjustments at the Bureau of Labor […]

JB Pritzker's Invoice: Payback's a Bitch emptywheel.net/jb-pritzkers...

#jbpritzker wants a refund for Trump's illegal #tarriffs "Your tariff #taxes wreaked havoc on #farmers, enraged our allies, and sent #grocery prices through the roof. This morning, your hand-picked #supremecourt Justices notified you that they are also unconstitutional." "On behalf of the […]