Macy's to close 150 stores by 2026, open new Bloomingdale's, Bluemercury locations

And yet America is pumping more oil out of the ground than any other country in the world. Ever. Hard to blame what is happening on gasoline prices when America is making record contributions to the global supply.

But that won’t prevent you from cherry picking nuggets of bad news, blaming Joe for those details while you still ignore the bigger picture.

 

Hey, don't confuse them with actual data. They have been trained by Fox News for years that fuel prices were high because of Biden's "war on oil". Nothing will convince them to the contrary.

 

Walmart, Target, Costco, TJMaxx, Amazon are all doing fine.

Department stores in malls targeting recreational shopping by the unemployed middle-class housewife are dead.

 

I agree

 

I would only argue that it isn't a knee-jerk reaction but a calculated response, one might even say learned.
The Republicans know that Trump isn't viewed well by the independents, so the only thing left is to try and blame everything on the Democrats.
Not that it's the first time this has been done or that the Democrats haven't done it, but it is more important as Trump is not a favorable candidate with the independents.

 

We are not that far apart here, but I think you meant $869 billion in private hands. In a $28 trillion economy that is chump change.
There is a problem people are feeling with today's economic concentration. It is felt as BEBY (Big Everything But You). And it really feels that way. I won't ruin your vibe and tell you who else feels that way, but "Big Everything" needs to meet "Big Reorganization".
There are 129 million individual tax payers, but the real money is the business taxes rolled into everything you buy.
We mustn't ignore economic dislocation caused by "We'll chip in $300 billion to help people think EV's are affordable."
Soo... how do you want to get Bezo'es and Gate'es money? Take The Big Pen and liberate say, 1/4th and bring in, what $300 billion for congress to piss away in an afternoon?
https://www.usdebtclock.org/

 

Recreational Shopping! I like it.

 

Brick and mortar retail has been going downhill for a long time now. Anyone who thinks Biden is responsible gives him too much credit and clearly doesn’t understand the factors at play.

 

Most every honest economist in the world has said that the wealth gap is destroying the world economy.

The best analogy ever, is the Monopoly analogy. If we were playing Monopoly, once all the properties of the game are concentrated in to few hands, those who dont own those properties slowly get bled to death by paying higher fees (taxes), they pay higher fines for “landing on the wrong places”, and then when the money in the game in concentrated into to few hands, the game is over because everyone is paying one or two people.

If you cant see this happening now, you’re not paying attention. Our Money, and wealth is being concentrated every year in fewer and fewer hands. The top 5 wealthiest people in the America have more money than the rest of the country combined. THAT is not sustainable….

 

I am speaking of individual net worths, not the economy as a whole. It’s disingenuous to attempt to say this isn’t a big deal because they hold only a fraction of the total nation GDP when it is already shown those 5 individuals hold more wealth than the bottom 50% of Americans. Now if you want to involve net worth of companies it will likely skew even more.

Numerous economists have shown why this is an issue as purchasing power is removed from the lower and middle class and transferred to the wealthy.

 

The wealth gap was way wider during the industrial revolution. That is the era during which the U.S. became the wealthiest country on the planet. That some people were more successful economically than others is the way it has always been everywhere. It is indicative that some people are better at making money than others. That anyone CAN make a lot of money is a good thing. It beats the hell out of socialism which is the economic system of the poor and the political where only the politically powerful can make a lot of money.

 

I think the point is that Biden and his gang have tried repeatedly to destroy the petroleum industry but have failed. He is even backing down on mandating EV's. Do you like that cherry picked nugget of good news?

 

"5 individuals hold more wealth than the bottom 50% of Americans. Now if you want to involve net worth of companies it will likely skew even more."
You are ignoring the wealth they own in their retirement accounts and personal investing, and home equity.
Not wreck your vibe again, but creating a shortage of labor is how you move the lower classes into better jobs. In spite of what our politico's are selling, illegals are working mightly to drop anchor babies - even more cheap labor 18 years out. Hmmm... 17 million illegals I'll guess 7 million femaled dropping 2.5 kids = an absolute disaster for the poor who live here that hasn't gotten a break since Trump.
It may be a tough pill to swallow but your societal needs are more in line with Trump than Biden.
And as far as a national haircut for the rich, why punish the most productive among us?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevef...e-taxes-with-trumps-tax-cuts/?sh=eddd1fa66876
Democrats claim the Trump tax cut bill of 2017 was a giveaway to the “rich,” but this episode of What’s Ahead shows that it had the opposite impact on high-income earners. In 2018 the top 1% ended up paying $16 billion more in federal individual income taxes than they did in 2017, while 99% paid a total of $80 billion less.

It used to be that hardest part in economics is getting accurate information, but now hardest part is getting honest information.
Don't give up.

 

One more thing:
Mark your calendar for April 1
California goes to $20 per hour for fast food. Prices are going up early. I paid $7.88 for a sour dough single patty burger at Carls. No drink, no fries.
Lots of poor and first job'ers work at fast food. The bets are that most will lose their jobs, lots of weak brands will fold. National brands will win as usual. More money for Ronald McDonald. (No holes in his shoes!
Fast food is important to the poor. Mom stops on the way home from work and gets 2 #3's and two "#5's. At Carls that's going to be ~ $50 on up.
So appropriately on April Fools Day, the command economy spearfishes another segment of business that can't move, but it can die.

 

and Democrat voters will claim there is no cause/effect

 

So you think they should blame the independents?

 

Economics is a collection of opinions. Whether the information is accurate, honest or not doesn't really matter because the analysis of that information is opinion and you can find opposing opinions for every analysis. Trying to analyze human behavior in the way they deal with money is no different than trying to analyze what voters will do on election day.

 

Not sure what you mean by that, but I'll phrase it differently.
Most of the 'blame' for inflation (90+%) have nothing to do with the policies of the current (at any time) administration.
For other things, I've read here on this forum many things blamed on Dems, and some Republicans, that really weren't accurate. That would probably reverse if the party in power changes.
That's the best I can do with your comment.

 

It depends on how you define inflation. If you mean prices then the government has nothing to do with that. Prices result from supply and demand. If you mean money supply expansion that cheapens the dollar then that is all on government. Because of that real inflation we have to spend more to buy anything because our dollars are worth less. Prices vary over time. They are temporary. Inflation of the money supply is permanent because a debtor government will never deflate the money supply. That is why, over the long haul, what looks like price increases is actually devaluation of the currency.

 

Just WOW……

An “economy” is the transactional movement of money (both spending and income), and wealth is the concentration of money/assets

Your comparing apples to transmissions

 

That concentrated wealth is invested in something and that something is definitely part of the economy.

 

You use prior data to get a read on future events. Those who know don't say. At least not for free. They are working in investments, real estate, banking, and private equity funds.,

 

Economy:An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services.

 

Right after that, the price collapsed.

And it has stayed down, and is expected to remain that way.

Which is why the frackers are capping wells again.

 

Shopping centers have been in a steady state of decline for about a decade. The trend accelerated during and after Covid.

Developers are trying to “repurpose” them, by redeveloping the site into an imitation Main Street surrounded by parking and five over one apartments.

They also peddle them to warehouse developers.