BTRTN: The Midterms, the Insanity & the PM Shuffle

[reggieandlee]

Born To Run The Numbers on a month that spanned the unnerving to the downright terrifying: the Democrats' plummeting fortunes, the sorry state of global democracy, the unchecked march of global warming, and the nuclear saber rattling by Putin.

http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2022/11/btrtn-midterms-insanity-pm-shuffle.html

Excerpts: "Why have the Democrats’ fortunes plummeted so quickly? Perhaps the simplest answer is the right one: the October 13 inflation report that showed more roaring prices, +8.2%, despite five separate Fed rate cuts in 2022. This was the last inflation report before the midterms, the last chance for the Democrats to be able to point to progress on the most important issue to voters and one that favors the GOP. After that report, Republican candidates across the land re-loaded and doubled down on the economy (as in, 'it’s the economy, stupid'), and the Biden Administration was reasonably helpless in countering the assault...
"But rather than cut his losses in the face of Ukraine and Western resolve, (and massive, land-retaking offensives by Ukraine) and find a way to declare some minor victory en route to an exit ramp, Putin has instead decided on the unthinkable. He not only reversed himself and instituted a draft, which was shocking enough, but more shockingly has raised the topic of nuclear weapons. You know the old joke about 'minor surgery,' which is surgery performed on someone else. Well, now we have 'tactical nuclear weapons,' which are weapons that you think can be realistically deployed on some other country without consequence...
"Liz Truss’s economic policies – the ones that forced her to resign in a record-shattering 45 days – are virtually identical to those that headline the GOP playbook in the US... she proposed to cut taxes for the wealthy justified by the hoary canard of supply side stimulus -- and yet, while Truss went down, the GOP is decently positioned to take back both Houses of Congress one week from today."

[jmbar2]

1. Woe is me...