People seem to be closing their wallets. FINALLY! We keep hearing about “inflation,” and the cost of living IS going up. A LOT! But it’s not structural inflation, it’s greed and price gouging. The core drivers of the “inflation” are housing costs – being driven up by Wall Street investors – and fuel – as always, driven by greed.

But people have been spending anyway. They got used to easy credit and easy debt. The recent rate increases seem to be having the desired effect. That debt ain’t so easy any more and people are getting worried. Where I live, the wine industry is, well, pretty much everything these days. They’re suffering. People are eschewing the wineries (and their prices) for off-the-shelf stuff. I heard ‘Target’ is going to cut prices on something like 1,200 items. That’s an indicator. People aren’t buying. Spending is down, revenues are down. Now, in a natural turn of events, prices will start coming down, too.

But not in housing and not in fuel. As long as Wall Street can buy the houses, the cost will continue to skyrocket. Gas companies just gouge. It’s what they do. Prices at the pump here in California were making their way steadily to $6.00/gallon but the state legislature passed a law, here, that allows them to look into cost increases – and punish the companies if such a look finds the increases were just based in greed. So, as the prices started going up and up, a state politician said, out loud, ‘maybe we should look into those gas prices.’ They dropped the next day. Funny how that works…

Now there’s an entire movement out there, a “no-buy year,” in which participants buy only essentials. I doubt such a thing will go widespread in our consumer society but it won’t take a lot of people for an impact that can make a difference.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trump called Robert De Niro a failed actor. De Niro is anti-Trump and makes no bones about it. He spoke outside the courtroom where Trump’s criminal trial is under way. Someone tried to heckle him and he shut the guy down. Trump claimed De Niro had run into a “force far greater than the radical left – MAGA!” I saw the exchange. I thought De Niro won the moment. Just one opinion, though.

Donald J. Trump is the thinnest skinned snowflake I’ve ever even heard about.

I keep getting new favorite bits of this process. The most recent was when a spokesperson for Trump came out in front of the press, complaining that the left was trying to turn the trial “into a campaign event.” Let’s just ignore how the trump campaign has raised money off of the trial and used the press draw as free advertising where the defendant in a criminal trial is allowed to hold court and speechify on nearly whatever topic enters his diseased mind.

Trump claims he wants to be on the campaign trail. In my view, Trump IS on the campaign trail. So, of course MAGA is pointing the finger at Democrats. But, as always, with MAGA, every accusation is a confession…