Friday Stuff

I know it’s hard to believe, but inflation actually is coming down along with gas prices, as David Pakman points out; yeah, when it comes to inflation we’re still in the middle globally, and a little bit of inflation is actually good for the reasons Pakman notes, but we seem to be going in the right direction (putting the lie to nonsense like this, for example...the point is that you really can’t blame any president for this stuff...and yes, the market has slumped, but that's partly because of the Fed playing with interest rates to cool down the economy and the war in Ukraine; the market always slows in the 4th quarter anyway)...



...and I haven’t checked in with Brian Tyler Cohen for a little while now I’ll admit, but I give Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg a lot of credit here for how he responded to the whole “Vicky Hartzler U.S. House meltdown” thing – Mayor Pete has a talent for this stuff and generally does well with the media I have to admit, which should position him pretty well for bigger political prospects down the line (there was a time when I sold Buttigieg short, and I had my reasons, but I definitely think he's grown in his role in the Biden Administration...and Dem U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin is spot-on also)...



...and it looks like nuclear fusion could be a brand new energy source, though it’s far from being scaled up to be considered an alternative source of power, by about 40, 50 or 60 years or so I guess (John and River Butcher of The Damage Report tell us about it)...



...and this recent video from Second Thought tells us Why It’s So Hard To Imagine Life After Capitalism (I think I’m falling behind on his videos again...my bad...”The existence of greed is not reason enough to build an economy that rewards it.”...he kind of goes “over the river and through the woods” here a bit as far as I’m concerned, but that doesn’t mean that the information he presents isn’t important...the big takeaway for me comes at the end where the case is made that we can create an economy that serves us instead of oppresses us...and starting the video with "The Usual Suspects" hooks me in right away, I have to admit)...



...and here are more seasonal selections.