DCPetterson Profile picture
Mar 17 10 tweets 3 min read
This is very good news.

Interest rates have been at historic lows since the Bush Great Recession of 2008, in an effort to heat up the economy. Republicans did all they could to stall the recovery during Obama's presidency. Despite that sabotage,...

1/10

cnbc.com/2022/03/16/fed…
... unemployment fell far below the level economists usually call "full employment." Obama even managed to shrink the deficit faster than any time since WW2. The stock market boomed.

For his first three years, Trump did little to alter the course of the Obama economy, ...

2/10
... other than ballooning the deficit to create still more economic growth.

Trump had planned to run for reelection on the strength of that economy, bragging about how good it was (while Republicans had tried to convince you for the Obama years that it was terrible).

3/10
Then COVID hit, and Trump ignored the pandemic, under the conviction that any steps taken to fight the disease would hurt the economy that Obama had created and that Trump wanted to run on.

That scheme backfired.

4/10
Trump's criminal mismanagement resulted in the fastest and hardest economy collapse in a century.

The Fed had to lower interest rates further to stimulate the economy, and Congress had to institute massive economic relief packages, creating huge record deficits.

5/10
But with Congress and the White House under Democratic control, the economy is rapidly recovering. We're back to record low unemployment, a booming GDP, and demand for goods and services growing so fast that production can't (yet) keep up.

6/10
When demand outpaces supply, classic economics says prices will be forced to rise. That's what we're seeing. It's a sign of an economy healthier than anyone could have predicted in late 2020.

7/10
Amazingly, the annual budget deficit will shrink by a trillion dollars this year!--partly due to increased tax revenue from the surge in growth.

The Fed has limited ways to slow demand and thus bring down the rate of inflation. Increasing interest rates is one of those.

8/10
That's why interest rates are going to rise--we no longer need historically low rates to encourage recovery from the Republican Recession of 2008 and the Republican Pandemic of 2020-2021. In fact, those incredibly low rates are now proving to be actively harmful.

9/10
So when the Fed starts inching rates up, understand why. It's because Democratic policies work to put food on the table, cars in garages, and even let Americans afford some luxuries.

#DemocratsDeliver
#BidenDelivers

10/10

cnbc.com/2022/03/16/fed…

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More from @dcpetterson

Mar 18
Living in a big city, I was only dimly aware of how much the point of the sunrise changed through the year. Now, living in the mountains with an inspiring view, it's almost unavoidable. I'm engaging in a year-long project to take a panorama of the sunrise once a month.

1/2
Here are the first four pictures, taken Dec 17, Jan 20, Feb 19 and this morning, Mar 18. The point of the sunrise creeps right-to-left, which is from the north toward the south as I face east. The biggest change so far was from Feb to Mar.

2/2 ImageImageImageImage
The series also underlines the fact that each sunrise is different. The air is a different quality, the snowcover changes, the clouds have their own personality. No two days are alike.

We're now halfway between the winter and summer solstices, the shortest and longest days.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 18
Word to whoever needs to hear this:

If the fauxvestigation into Hunter Biden was a real inquiry, you wouldn't know it was happening unless there are indictments. That's how career professionals handle things.

So all the noise tells you it's simply a political stunt. Period.

.
Look, remember when TFG tried to blackmail President Zelenskyy into announcing an investigation into Hunter Biden? There didn't actually have to be an investigation, just an announcement. Because no one had to take it seriously. It's all a political stunt.
Real prosecutors and investigators DO NOT announce what they're doing.

And that's why you're not hearing anything from Merrick Garland.

Are we clear now?
.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 16
dO sOmEtHiNg! Twitter is the kid who demands his parents take him on a cross-country trip to Disneyland and once once they get to Iowa declares they'll NEVER GET THERE and his parents aren't serious about it 'cause they're not there yet and he sees no evidence they ever will be.
The kid's seen lots of pictures of Disneyland, so if his parents ever meant to get there, they'd be there by now.

All he's seen on the trip are piddling little towns, and states that aren't California, so he has to reason to think they'll EVER get there.
The parents must be corrupt, or working for some other amusement park, or they'd be there already.

It's simple to get to Disneyland. There's a road and everything. Clearly, the parents don't really want it.

Okay, Nebraska now. Is that supposed to impress me?
Read 4 tweets
Mar 14
In the 21st Century, we find it hard to understand the feudal system that controlled the world before 1800.

You need to know.

The kings literally owned their countries. They ceded portions to the nobles, who then ran fiefdoms and paid taxes to the kings for the privilege.

1/8
The nobles collected taxes from the farmers and tradesmen by hiring tax collectors, who bid against each other for the opportunity. Contracts went to the bidder who promised to rake in the highest take. They shook down the People, took a cut, and gave the rest to the nobles.

2/8
The nobles then paid what they owed to the king.

This is why "taxes" and "tax collectors" are so hated, even today. There is a cultural memory of this feudal protection racket, where the collectors would hire armed thugs to shake down tradesmen and steal what they could.

3/8
Read 8 tweets
Mar 14
Media is scare-hyping the fact that China is experiencing a spike in COVID cases.

See, China is finally getting the Omicron surge.

China (with three times the US population) has had 117,00 COVID cases since late 2019 (to our 81,000,000) and 4600 deaths (to our 994,000).

1/6
China now has 7000 active cases, up from 1500 in mid-February. That's a big jump--Omicron is highly contagious. The US had 29 million active cases at the Omicron peak, up from 10 million before the Omicron surge. Not nearly as large a percentage, but ENORMOUS numbers.

2/6
China now has about 700 new reported cases/day and no reported deaths since May of 2020.

The US now has 30,000 new cases/day and about 1000 daily deaths--which at least is significantly down from the Omicron peak of 820,000 new cases and 2700 deaths per day.

3/6
Read 7 tweets
Mar 13
There was a unit of time used by the ancient Etruscans called the saeculum. It is the period from when an important event happens, until the last person who remembers it dies.

It's similar to the concept of "living memory."

We are nearing the end of the WW2 saeculum.

1/6
Fascism could not again take hold until the people who clearly remember its horrors are no longer with us. That explains why Trump and Putin are world players today.

See the importance of the saeculum?

We need to bring this unit of time back into common thought.

2/6
In WW2, Americans sacrificed food, fuel, consumer goods, even their lives to help a war effort thousands of miles away. Today, we whine over the price of gas. We've forgotten what sacrifice is.

This is the importance of forgetting the importance of things.

3/6
Read 7 tweets

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