supply bottlenecks
volatile market rampant
corporate profits

Adapted from these paragraphs in the article, Latest US inflation data raises questions about Fed’s interest rate hikes.

The news is further stirring fears of unnecessary economic pain should the Fed push America into recession.

“Raising interest rates isn’t working, and the Fed’s overly aggressive actions are shoving our economy to the brink of a devastating recession,” said Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at the progressive Groundwork Collaborative think tank. “Supply chain bottlenecks, a volatile global energy market and rampant corporate profiteering can’t be solved by additional rate hikes.”

The Fed and some economists maintain that demand generated by a hot labor market and higher wages are driving inflation, and higher unemployment and interest rates are panaceas.

To that end, the Fed has hiked rates five times in 2022 and indicated more increases are to come, moves the Federal Reserve board chair, Jerome Powell, has acknowledged will “bring some pain” to households and businesses.

More increases are to come.

Moves the Federal Reserve board chair, Jerome Powell, has acknowledged will “bring some pain.”

Back in the day when I went to college and actually attended classes in person with a real person delivering a lecture on the History of the United States, a question was presented that stated, “With the economic distress caused by the depression, why did the Communist Party NOT make any real gains in America as a political power?

The answer, I was taught, was in the depression era, American’s held themselves responsible for there plight.

And as they were responsible, they looked to themselves to find a way out.

Today, I feel I AM looking to the Government to find a way out.

Why?

Because, today, I feel the Government IS responsible.

Boy Howdy but do I wish there a way to bring some pain to those folks.

whole problem is that
fools fanatics so sure, wiser
people full of doubt

In the 1933 essay, “The Triumph of Stupidity“, Betrend Russell wrote, “What has been happening in Germany is a matter of the gravest portent for the whole civilised world.“

It was in this essay that Mr. Russell stated: The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

It is much to easy to make a slight change and say, What has been happening in the United States is a matter of the gravest portent for the whole civilised world. The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

I am not so that anyone would count me among the ‘wiser’ people but I do welcome anything that removes doubt down to doubt about my own very exisitence.

Luckily for me there is the restroom in the 21st century.

When I use the restroom here at work I get overwhelming evidence that I am indeed here.

First is the mirror but mirrors have been around forever and not just in restrooms.

By chance my office is in an old building on Hilton Head Island that at one time was a restaurant.

I leave my office and go down two wide flights of steps to the sub basement where the restroom is.

When I return to my office and I get to the top of the stairs, immediatly in front of me is a floor to ceiling, wide mirror.

As The Rev Al would say, you can use a mirror to reflect yourself or you can use a mirror to correct yourself and after a trip to the restroom it is handy to have a full length image of yourself to make any last minute wardrobe adjustments.

But that is after leaving the restroom so I digress.

In the modern restroom, the facilities make note of my presence and the operate all their own my presence is no longer of note.

The soap dispenser then sense my hand and dispenses soap.

The faucet senses my hands and turns on the water.

The paper towel dispenser senses my hands again and dispenses paper towels.

The mirror reflects, the toilet flushes, the soap foams, the water gushes, the paper towels roll.

It adds up that the evidence points to me being here.

It should remove all doubt.

There are those mornings however when the toilet doesn’t flush, the soap doesn’t spit out, the water doesn’t gush and the towels don’t dispence.

I want to go find someone and ask ‘am I here?’

In one Jim Harrison story, he dreams he is lying dead in the kitchen and he wakes up his wife to go check.

I know just what he means.

Doubt.

The price of being on the wise side of life.

one certainty
when can’t possibly get worse it
absolutely will

What am I writing about?

What AREN’T I writing about?

Actually the words in today’s haiku are in a blurb for the 2019 book, Decline and Fail: Read in Case of Political Apocalypse which is a collection of opinion pieces or ‘political sketches’ by John Crace of the Guardian.

The blurb read: There is now only one certainty in life. When things can’t possibly get any worse, they absolutely will. And so, after three years of Maybot malfunctioning and Brexit bungling, welcome to BoJo the clown’s national circus – where fun for literally none of the family is guaranteed.

Mr. Crace’s columns on the British political scene are a joy to read.

In today’s sketch, Half-witted, reckless Librium Liz may be even worse than May and Johnson, Mr. Crace writes:

But the Tories are just playing with us. It’s as if the members said: “So you think David Cameron is useless? Just wait until we give you Theresa.” And once we’d all had about enough of May, they gave us a narcissistic, sociopathic liar instead.

Now, to top it all – at least we hope so; surely there can’t be another one who is even worse? – we’ve been landed with Liz Truss. Someone who is not just half-witted and robotic, but reckless enough to bankrupt the country. The ideologue with only a tenuous grasp on reality. There’s always a job waiting for Truss in an automated call centre:

A deathless loop that sucks the life out of you.

Further on in the sketch, I was thinking that as I read:

She is the embodiment of the circle of doom on a laptop that’s crashing.

She is not AI.

She is Artificial Stupidity, programmed to carry on repeating more and more errors until she collapses in on herself.

A dead cert to win this year’s Darwin awards for those who have contributed to human evolution by selecting themselves out of the gene pool.

Wire Truss up to an ECG and you’d find no activity. Just a flat line.”

… I wanted to use that old joke and ask, “But what do you really think about Ms. Truss?”

I admit that one of the appeals to me, in reading about the current situation in Britain is that both sides are on the same side that the current leadership is clueless.

This is a myopic view for me to take as I don’t live there or follow much news other than the Guardian and there may be news sources that support Ms. Truss.

From my limited browsing however it does seem that she is being bailed on by her own party.

For me, it is that never never land of a certain political party here in the US admitting that a certain someone indeed does not have any clothes, let alone new clothes, on at all.

I can hope.

BUT I enjoy the writing and the caustic nature and the vocabulary very much.

I think it must have been fun to write.

But I also think there is a down side.

Just like with time, Great Britain is about 5 hours ahead of us.

Stayed tuned for the US version coming soon.

evidence not seem
sufficiently conclusive
always that problem

According to a recent article, the tomb of Egyptian queen Nefertiti may been located in Egypt.

The article states that :

The discovery of hidden hieroglyphics within Tutankhamun’s tomb lends weight to a theory that the fabled Egyptian queen Nefertiti lies in a hidden chamber adjacent to her stepson’s burial chamber, a world-renowned British Egyptologist has said.

The article concludes with this wonderful paragraph.

George Ballard, a leading specialist in radar and geophysical investigations of buildings and structures, is as excited by the new discovery as he is convinced that a false wall blocks an entrance to an extension of the tomb: “The evidence that we have so far does suggest that there is a man-made structure forming the north wall and the east wall of the Treasury. The east wall of the Treasury is probably natural stone that appears to have been cut or formed as a wall. There is evidence of man-made structure, although that did not seem sufficiently conclusive to some people. This is always the problem in science.”

There is evidence of man-made structure, although that did not seem sufficiently conclusive to some people.

This is always the problem in science.

Ain’t it the truth?

Some folks just won’t understand facts.

Kind of reminds me of the story of Enrico Fermi constructing the first self sustaining nuclear reactor pile.

Them fellers were 99% sure they wouldn’t set the world on fire though they left a mark on nuclear power to this day by designating someone to be the ‘Safety Control Rod Axe Man’ whose job was to use an axe to cut the rope that the would drop a control rod that ‘MIGHT’ bring a runaway nuclear reaction under control.

That acronym for this job was SCRAM just seemed to fit as in, CUT THE ROPE AND RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, and to this day the button that shuts off a nuclear pile is called the SCRAM button.

Fermi had this guy in place the nuclear reaction went out of control so he was prepared.

On the other hand, the experimental nuclear pile that had a chance to set the world on fire was set up in downtown Chicago.

The remains of the lab are buried there to this day.

Buried under signs that read DO NOT DIG IN THIS AREA.

But Fermi was convinced that there would be no end of the world scenario.

The evidence was against something like that happening although the evidence did not seem sufficiently conclusive to some people.

There is always that problem in science.