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News Flash: People Hate High Prices
Consumer sentiment undershot expectations in early October, according to the preliminary read on the country's marquee mood gauge.
At 68.9, the University of Michigan headline was lower from September and short of the 71 consensus.
This is the same story month after tedious month. Sentiment -- even when it inflected late last year during the Yellen-Powell "everything rally" -- remains very depressed. The "vibecession," so to speak, is ongoing.
The simple figure above underscores the point.
My God, are you actually siuggesting that the majority of Main Street voters are not religiously following the dot plots? Will the next set of dot plots be released before the election?
Buckle up your seat belts folks. Depite DJT’s efforts to shoot himself in the foot with women and Latinos, grocery prices plus “the crisis on the border” will probably end up determining the election in Triump’s favor. It’s not just Main Street – I’m both amazed and horrified how m any classmates from my elite east coast college will claim while they don’t like Trump they like his economic policy proposals.Asked which ones, there’s amazing igornace. But these nice wealthy white boys sure don’t like darkies swarming over the border or beng subjected to gay people being shown in TV shows, advertisements and such.
Why is everything racist? It is possible to be a minority-person and support sensible border policies. Furthermore, it is also possible to be a “wealthy white boy”, find racism repugnant, and still support sensible immigration. It’s ok to object to the border chaos for reasons other than “darkies”.
The issue is that Trump and the Republican party (redundant at this point) don’t actually care about sensible immigration – he just wants scapegoats that he can blame for all the ills of society. These wealthy voters who like Trump’s fiscal policies (i.e. never ending tax cuts for the wealthy) feel no pain whatsoever from immigration, legal or otherwise, and even benefit from cheaper labor for their businesses.
It’s the same issue with “wokeness.” Two gay people kissing on TV doesn’t impact them in the slightest, but it’s a good way to get people to vote against their own economic interest because the poors can at least look back to the time when minorities and gay people were still beneath them.
If Trump actually cared about the border, he wouldn’t have intentionally sabotaged a bipartisan border deal. It’s always and forever all about him so he doesn’t care if other people are killed or put in cells and separated from their families as long as it serves his own personal interests. Putting tax cuts and “sensible” immigration policies (whatever that means with Trump) above all while ignoring that the guy clearly wants to be installed as king is horribly short-sighted.
Also, all these populist Trump voters sure will be disappointed when his tariffs and tax cuts reignite inflation. Every week, he throws out another tax cut (tips, overtime wages, car loan interest, etc.), but guess which ones will actually pass?
Thanks for the thoughtful response. I’m not a Trump supporter and I didn’t mention Trump or the Republican Party. My only point is that it is possible to be against the border chaos that America suffered for the first three years of the Biden administration (and really Trump and Obama administrations as well) for reasons completely unrelated to race. I’m just wore out from the constant accusations of racism simply because I’d like a strong, rules-based border.
I’m VERY pro-immigration from all countries. I completely understand the demographic issues that America is facing. We need sensible immigration and reform instead of the chaos of the last twelve years.
That’s fair – I guess it just raises the question of whether supporting someone who is clearly appealing to the latent racism in the country and turning it into overt racism makes that person voting for him racist. Sensible border policy is one thing, but it’s an entirely different thing when Trump talks about immigrants eating pets and referring to them as gang members and criminals. At this point, it doesn’t matter whether they are legal or not in his mind; they are all worthy of scorn. Whether we call it xenophobia or racism, it’s dangerous scapegoating that hurts the country and should be disqualifying for any reasonable person.
I get that most of the wealthy people who vote Trump/Republican are voting their fiscal interest which does override almost every other consideration for many people, but even ignoring the racism/xenophobia, you’d think there would be a point where seeing that Trump aspires to have the power that Putin or Xi have would have people rethinking whether or not a few more bucks in their pocket is worth it.
Dayjob brings up a very salient point. Trump and the right have transformed this into a racial issue. Weaponizing it.
Now, anecdotes must be treated with caution. But please bear with me when I tell a story about this in action.
Back in the spring of 2021 when people were finally venturing out again, a group of five naturalized US citizens from China went for a hike in the Delaware Water Gap. US citizens who ALL worked in R&D and other functions at a couple of major US pharmaceutical companies. So legal immigrants who were not welfare spongers.
At one point they were greeted by a group of nice white males who yelled “Here comes the Wuhan Parade!” and continued to harass them for a bit. My friend later told me “I have never been so scared in my 18 years in the USA.”
And no, they did not grill dogs or cats when they stopped for a picnic.
A very interesting article in the NYT online version today. It explores why Mr. Trump is increasing his share of African-American and Latino voters. He will likely achieve the highest percentage of vote of any Republican candidate since the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Quoting from the article: “Around 40 percent of Black voters and 43 percent of Hispanic voters say they support building a wall along the Southern border. Similarly, 45 percent of Hispanic voters and 41 percent of Black voters say they support deporting undocumented immigrants.”
Many millions of people support a strong border without being racist.
Correction: Many millions of people have been duped by a charlatan, the same way many people bought Trump steaks, and bought $350 Trump sneakers, and bought $100,000 Trump watches, and paid for “Trump U” “degrees” and on and on and on and on. Pick a grift any grift. It’s all a giant grift. His whole life is a grift. Also: How many times are you going to say “I’m not a racist!!” We get it, Patrick. You’re not a racist. If I run around downtown screaming “I don’t hate squash! I don’t hate squash! I don’t hate squash!”, do you know what people are going to think? They’re going to think: “Yeah, that dude hates him some squash.”
And many, many more do support a strong border because they are.
The GOP revived the “southern strategy” after Goldwater seemed to prove that they could not win espousing conservative policies alone. Rove ran with it and Trump has simply taken it to an even higher level.
Those voters cited in the NY Times are probably too young to remember the 60s riddle “What do southern whites call a black doctor?”
More anecdotals for you Patrick – last evening we were at a wedding reception. An Asian woman we know who works as a chambermaid complained because she now must work six or seven days a week. Because her nice white colleagues regularly call in sick etc. She does not.
Just further confirmation of what a high-end bakery owner and a hiring manager at a large food processing plant told me: they much prefer to hire recent immigrants because of their superior work ethic, (not because they can be paid less, though that might also be a factor.) They actually show up on time every day!
Might this be a factor in the NYT story you cited? Like in the “old days” when union workers came up and cautioned new hires about working too hard and “ruining it for the rest of us?”
It was not that long ago – 2021 and 2022 – that we all fretted over the inflationary impact of a worker shortage. Non-native born people filled the gap, surprising those highly paid analysts so close to our Dear Leader’s heart. Will we soon be dusting off that worry? Yesterday up in Prescott, AZ, our next president promised to immediately seal the border. How long will the lag be before “sensible immigration reform” mitigates it? We’ll find out!
There is another issue that raises it’s head in the ballot box. It is governance. I think all know the disaster we will be in for with a second DJT presidency. If you love your children, could you vote for someone who will throw their lives asunder?
I think these other issues are like red herrings. People know immigration issues do not affect their future. People know that the economy is much more than the USA. The issues we face are faced by the world and a DJT second presidency will send us down into an abyss we may never escape from.