Former Treasury Secretary Admits Doubts On Soft Economic Landing - Looks To Global Institutions For Solutions
Former Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, joins Bloomberg to answer questions on persistent inflation indicators despite Federal Reserve tightening measures and rising interest rates. Summers, with some carefully chosen words, essentially admits what alternative economists have been warning about all along - That short term positive indicators are misleading and that longer term indicators show impending recession and a sharp decline in the US.
After $8 trillion+ in fiat helicopter money pumped into the economy during the pandemic lockdowns, an impressive spike in retail and service sector activity was the result, spurring a hiring blitz in mostly low wage jobs. The lockdowns led to over 25 million job losses and the covid stimulus bought 12 million jobs back. This heightened activity, however, has been fleeting. Equally impressive has been the aggressive spike in stagflation. High prices continue to hang on and the Fed has little choice but to roll forward on increased interest rates.
The central bank has expressed steady hawkish sentiments in the past few weeks, which have run contrary to media and political claims of easing inflation and an inevitable "soft landing."
In a somewhat similar dynamic to the early-1980s under former Fed chairman Paul Volcker (inflation stats today are calculated far differently from the 80s in an attempt to hide true inflation), the mainstream economic media is starting to realize that interest rates will have to go much higher than they expected and a hard landing is an inevitable outcome.
Summers then hints at what he thinks the solution will be, which of course involves global policy makers and global banking institutions like World Bank. If we were to run Summer's comments through a truth translator, here is what we would likely hear:
"A soft economic landing is not going to happen and the negative data is becoming too obvious to deny. Inflation signals are not relenting and the Fed will continue hiking rates. This will lead to a recessionary crash, so we're going to admit to the issue now in order to avoid looking like complete fools later. In the meantime, we're going to use the ongoing crisis to promote more globalism, which was our intention all along."
A message to Larry - You can't hit the brakes on the car when you've already driven off a cliff.
Rising crime is the number one crisis facing Chicago today. More specifically, the city’s propensity for murder.
Chicago was the nation’s extreme outlier for homicides in 2022, with 697 deaths. More people were murdered here than anywhere else.
What’s worse, Chicago has out-paced the entire nation in murders for 11 years in a row. It’s become an embedded, chronic wound for the city.
That’s not a surprising result given the failed policies of Chicago’s leadership in recent years, from a dramatic drop in arrests to ever-fewer prosecutions to reduced sentencing. The pursuit of “equity” and “social justice,” instead of actual justice, has only increased the protection of criminals, crushed police morale and increased the violence inflicted on ordinary Chicagoans.
New Orleans is the nation’s other murder capital with more than 74 homicides per 100,000 residents. That’s the worst rate in the nation, by far. But Chicago still shares the crown due to the sheer amount of lives lost and its 11-year run at the top.
Apologists claim that the city’s mass number of murders is just a typical big-city problem. But it’s easy to dispel that myth. If that were the case, New York City would be the nation’s homicide capital.
But it’s not.
Chicago’s murder rate of 25.8 per 100K people in 2022 was 5 times higher than New York’s 5.2. That’s a staggering difference. Chicago would have had just 140 homicides last year if it had had the same murder rate as the Big Apple’s.
Conversely, New York City would have suffered 2,150 murders – not it’s actual 438 – if it had had the same homicide rate as Chicago’s.
Despite Chicago’s horrific results, city and state leaders continue to downplay the city’s overall crime crisis. Gov. Pritzker recently told CNBC in Davos, Switzerland recently that “crime is coming down gradually in the city,” a statement that is patently false. See him say it here. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said last year “we’re making progress on crime.” That’s also grossly untrue.
Though murders did drop 13 percent in 2022, overall major crimes in Chicago ended up 41% higher in 2022 vs. 2021. And in 2023 major crimes are already up 55% compared to the same period last year.
These are the facts that city leaders should be obsessed about changing:
There were no police available in 2021 for more than 400,000 high-priority 911 dispatches. That included 15,000 assaults in progress, 1,300 instances of people shot, 14,000 instances of domestic battery, and many more serious crimes.
Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans’ no bail, low-cash bail “reforms” of 2017 have, since then, resulted in an additional 15,000 new offenses for defendants already awaiting trial.
Every day there are about 1,000 more defendants accused of violent crimes on the street than there were in 2016 due to the expansion of electronic monitoring, Many of them are felons that end up committing more heinous crimes.
The number of beat cops on the streets since Mayor Lightfoot took office is down by nearly 1,500, a drop of nearly 20%.
The city’s leadership, including Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, County President Preckwinkle, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Tim Evans have had years, some even more than a decade, to implement their equity-focused “reforms. They’ve had their chance and they’ve failed miserably.
The crime data overwhelmingly tells us so. There can’t be any “equity” when blacks and Latinos, who make up 95% of all Chicago murder victims, are dying and being victimized in ever-higher numbers.
The chain of criminal justice is broken in Chicago. We are not arresting. We are not prosecuting and convicting. We are not sentencing. What few criminals are caught just go through a revolving door. And the SAFE-T Act, with the elimination of cash bail and the allowance of anonymous complaints against police, will only make things worse.
Chicago has already spent more than a decade as “The Murder Capital of the Nation.” At this rate the city will hold that title for two decades if nothing is done.
The obvious thing to do is to unwind these destructive policies that treat criminals like victims while the real victimization of ordinary residents continues to spike. The first target should be Los Angeles’ homicide rate of 9.9 per 100K – or 270 homicides a year for Chicago. And then go for New York’s, resulting in a murder total for Chicago of 140.
Still too many – but it would be progress – and it would free Chicago from the title of the nation’s murder capital.
Watch: El Salvador Sends Thousands Of Tattooed Gang Members To Mega-Prison
Government authorities in El Salvador are circulating some surreal images in order to prove to the nation and the world that they are cleaning up crime in a country that's currently under a state of emergency due to rampant murders and violent crime.
President Nayib Bukele has recently declared a "war on crime" and his message to gangs came in the form of publicizing 'shocking' video footage showing some 2,000 suspected gang members being huddled into a newly opened large prison using military tactics. Tens of thousands more suspected criminals have reportedly been rounded up. Watch below:
Video from the president of El Salvador.
Seems like “lock up all the guys with gang tattoos all over their bodies and throw away the key” was pretty low-hanging fruit?
It’s interesting how many countries can’t even manage that. The criminals make it easy pic.twitter.com/xUk2Cj1l3U
The footage has been met with some controversy, given there are allegations that innocent men may have been caught in the broad anti-gang dragnet.
Additionally, the police appear to be utilizing military prison tactics not seen since post 9/11 Gitmo images. According to international reports:
President Bukele tweeted that the first 2,000 people were transferred "at dawn, in a single operation" to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism, which he says is the largest jail in the Americas.
"This will be their new house, where they will live for decades, all mixed, unable to do any further harm to the population."
Once widely dubbed the "homicide capital of the world" - authorities in recent years thought they had it under control, but murders spiked over the past year.
This caused President Nayib Bukele to declared a state of emergency eight months ago, and police went 'gloves off' in attempting to clear the streets of gangs.
A few days ago, a half-acre of beachfront property in Naples, Florida, was listed on the market for a whopping $27 million. The listing comes as a 'major slowdown' in sales has hit the South Florida real estate market.
The 156 feet of beach frontage is situated on .59 acres of "unimproved" land listed for sale last week and located at 3600 Gordon Dr.
The tiny "unimproved" lot commands a higher price than many other homes currently listed for sale in the area.
Even though South Florida real estate is in what Chris Krzemien, president of the Broward Palm Beaches and St. Lucie Realtors, recently described as a "major slowdown in the fourth quarter of 2022," prices have yet to crash. Unlike in 2008, when massive amounts of supply hit the market and tanked home prices, today's environment is much different because of one word: scarcity.
I traveled to Hartford, Connecticut last week for a conference. It was the first time since the start of the pandemic that I had the pleasure of being pawed by TSA agents. Alas, since 2020, neither I nor the Transportation Security Administration have become corrigible.
Flying out of Washington National Airport on Thursday, I saw a special entry for the CLEAR program that enables people who pay $189 a year to skip TSA lines. I lambasted this program here back in December. Travelers stand in photo kiosks that compare their face with a federal database of photos from passport applications, drivers’ licenses, and other sources. TSA promises that its new airport regime will respect Americans’ privacy. Fat chance: TSA previously promised no traveler would be delayed more than 10 minutes at TSA checkpoints.
I stood and watched semi-frazzled travelers enter a roped-off expanse to get TSA approval for their visage.
A skinny young woman with a CLEAR t-shirt and a clipboard was standing guard at the entrance of the biometric site. She looked like a cherub with long straight red hair and a welcoming smile. Who could suspect that, as TheWashington Post warned, the new system could be “America’s biggest step yet to normalize treating our faces as data that can be stored, tracked and, inevitably, stolen”?
“How soon will they be making the biometric checks mandatory?” I asked her. “I don’t know anything about that,” she replied, as if I’d asked about the surface temperature of the planet Venus.
“Do people ever complain about having to do the biometric checks?
“No, this is voluntary,” she replied with a smile wider than a Kamala Harris grimace.
She was a good Washingtonian: she could never imagine any federal agency flogging hell out of the Constitution. I considered peppering her with another half dozen questions but wanted to keep my sarcasm fresh for dealing with TSA agents. My hunch was that the redheaded cherub was not a regular reader of the Libertarian Institute.
I finished guzzling my morning coffee I fetched from home and tossed the used Gatorade bottle into the giant trash barrel at the entrance to the TSA queue. The previous time I went through a TSA checkpoint at National Airport, TSA agents got riled up because I forgot to take off my belt. That spurred an enhanced patdown, a verbal brawl, and an article I wrote that the Minneapolis Star Tribune headlined, “The World’s Most Incompetent Agency.”
Seeking to avoid another kerfuffle, I sought to comply with the TSA checkpoint regimen. I took off my boots and belt and took all the metal clutter out of my pockets. I passed through and—beep—another alarm. WTF?
A TSA agent pointed to the giant video screen on the controlled side of the checkpoint, revealing a bright yellow splotch that proved that my derriere failed federal inspection.
“That’s my wallet,” I said.
“You aren’t allowed to have that in the scanner. We have to do a patdown.”
So I’m supposed to abandon my wallet to rascals notorious for robbing travelers? More than 500 TSA agents have been fired for stealing laptops, cell phones, and other property at checkpoints and in luggage screening.
Another TSA agent shuffled up to find my terrorist contraband. This dude was in his 20s but he looked weary before his time. He explained that he would perform a supplemental enhanced patdown on my backside.
“Are you going to jam my groin?” I growled.
“No, we’re not going to do that.”
“Yeah, OK, whatever.”
He proceeded to run his hands and his TSA Terrorist Catcher Magic Wand over my thighs and butt. I refrained from muttering that he got further than I usually did on first dates long ago. He then checked the inside of my thighs and signaled I could leave. I kept my profanity in reserve for the return flight.
Coming back through Hartford on Sunday afternoon, I was chagrined to see a long line of docile folks waiting to receive TSA blessings. I entered the queue and a scrawny, 70ish guy with his right arm in a sling came in behind me. He was struggling with his carry-on bag so I guessed his arm injury was recent.
He groused that he had paid for TSA Pre-Check but they hadn’t allowed him to use it that day. TSA Pre-Check customers usually avoid Whole Body Scanners—another reminder that the entire system is a charade.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“I’m going to Washington but I don’t work for the feds.”
“Good,” he replied. He said he was going to Fort Lauderdale and I said that was a helluva friendlier place than D.C.
Over the years, I enjoy drawing out folks to see if they recognize TSA’s “security theater.” This guy got it.
I mentioned that I might have problems today at the checkpoint because TSA hates me.
“Why do they hate you?” he asked.
“Because I have flogged them in print for 20 years. Their scanners fail to catch mock bombs and weapons in 95% of the tests by undercover agents. Their explosive detection tests are so harebrained that they are triggered by hand sanitizer. The TSA chief denounced me for maligning and disparaging TSA employees.”
He smiled.
“But I don’t know why they would ever suspect me because I was a Boy Scout.”
He laughed and said he’d been a Scout as well. “But your hat makes you suspicious,” he added.
It was a bulky brown hat I’d recently picked up in Tennessee. I didn’t realize till afterwards that it was the “Bootlegger” design. I said that if I was flying out of North Carolina, my hat would fit right in. But here in Connecticut, I was screwed.
As we got near the checkpoint, I tugged off my belt and began unlacing my heavy boots. “You can go ahead of me—this will take awhile,” I told the elderly gentleman.
“No, no—you go first,” he insisted. He absolutely, positively did not want to go just before me.
As I stood waiting my cameo in the Whole Body Scanner, I heard him explain to a TSA agent that he had metal knee and hip replacements. They signaled for him to step through a side gate next to the scanner.
I ambled into the screener radiating as much disdain as I could muster on a Sunday afternoon. A TSA agent barked that my feet were in the wrong place; I had to make sure I put my socks in the cut-out drawing. Yeah, yeah…
“Hold your arms up higher,” she ordered.
That woman sounded as dumb as my high school gym teacher.
She signaled me to exit and then another agent came up with a TSA magic wand and signaled that I must halt.
“We have to check you,” a tall, spindly young guy announced.
“What was the problem?” I growled.
“The scanner alerted for something around your shoulders and upper arms.”
I have been working on my bench press lately but I didn’t think the results were that impressive.
He waved the wand and found nothing and signaled I could move along.
“What might have triggered the alert?” I asked.
“I dunno. It could have been the heavy shirt.”
Maybe they thought the wool in my shirt came from sheep that were raised by Al Qaeda in Yemen?
As I tracked down my carry-on bag and boots on the carousel, I saw a TSA agent barking orders to the old guy with the arm in a sling.
“Do you want the supplemental screening to take place here or in a private room?” the TSA agent with a vapid visage badgered him.
I was tempted to shout: don’t go in the private room! But the guy had good instincts and said on his own that he wanted the patdown in public. At least it would be videotaped if the process went to hell in a handbasket.
The agent kept going up and down the old guy with the wand, poking and prodding and repeatedly ordering him to change his posture. The man looked humiliated at being treated like a terrorist suspect in front of so many bystanders. I don’t have that reaction to extra patdowns because I don’t give a damn for the opinions of TSA agents or anyone who happily submits to their boneheaded antics. But I could tell from the expression on the guy’s face that he was shocked.
He was finally released from TSA custody and shuffled with his shoes and belts to a nearby bench. As he was putting himself back together, I came up to offer condolences.
“I think it was the sling—that’s why they targeted me,” he said.
“They could have easily checked if you had a bomb or a gun in the sling without groping you all over but they didn’t do that,” I scoffed.
He put his head down and wished me a good trip.
“As a fellow American, I’m sorry how they treated you.”
My comment seemed to stun him. But more than twenty years after 9/11, TSA has no right to continue treating Americans like convicts waiting to enter a prison shower. TSA has taken menstruating women to private rooms to force them to lower their pants to prove they are bleeding—an abuse that has spurred multiple federal lawsuits. TSA effectively claims that Americans have no constitutional rights because they “voluntarily” submit to searches for permission to fly. That legal hogwash entitles them to endlessly harass hapless citizens.
Despite squeezing millions of butts and boobs, TSA has never caught a real terrorist. TSA should be abolished and replaced by the type of private security companies that protect European and Canadian fliers without endless BS from officialdom.
