Good piece on recent economic news

[mister_coffee]

Certainly the Carbon Tax is onerous. Whether it is as onerous as not having any glaciers would be is still a question to be answered.

Our economic survival depends as much on the continuous water flow provided by glaciers as it does on cheap fuel.

[Jingles]

Price gouging in the Valley is alive and well especially in the gas and diesel market
I look at diesel prices as that's what I use prices within last 2 weeks
Twisp Chevron 5.09
Hanks 4.79
TRIBAL Trails 4.49
Chevron in Omak 4.42
Safeway E. WENATCHEE 4.39
no not making special trips for fuel simply topping off with each DR Appoinment.
Won't even discuss non biodiesel
But not certain the local stations aren't being gouged by their supplier and only way to be certain about that is looking at their purchase prices
Another observation is the prices usually all go up here locally when an increase of tourist is expected. I.e. Thanksgiving, Christmas, hunting season, and summer.
But must thank the WA Carbon Tax on some of the increase 48 cents per gal on gas and 53 cents on diesel.

[Rideback]

I suspect we'd be better off if we hesitated to lump all the price raises into the 'inflation column. Instead, the reality is that we are all suffering from a price gouging problem within the ranks of the gas prices and grocery stores to mention just a couple.

When I can buy items 30-50% cheaper from Amazon, that's not a Biden inflationary problem...

[just-jim]

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Good write-up by Heather C Richardson on the differences between ‘demand’ and ‘supply’ side economics and the history of that. And, how what the current administration is doing is working, as opposed to much of the previous 40 years.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.c ... er-22-2023

“ The administration is highlighting economic numbers not just because they are good—and they are: real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by an astonishing annual rate of 4.9% in the third quarter of 2023; under Trump it was 2.5% before the pandemic knocked the bottom out of everything—but also because they illustrate the administration’s return to an economic theory under which the U.S. government operated from 1933 to 1981.

In those years the federal government focused on supporting people on the “demand side” of the economy in the belief that what drives economic growth is demand for goods and services. This theory means that the government should work to make sure workers and those at the bottom of the economy have money to afford the goods and services they need. This theory suggests that education and good wages and a basic social safety net are good for the economy because they enable people to have enough disposable income that they can buy things.”
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