Update(1225ET): Israel is looking to "send a message" against Iran, but short of causing outright war and mass casualties, a top level official has told The Washington Post. During Monday's Israel War Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu is reported to have requested defense leaders to draw up a list of targets.
According to Washington Post's reporting:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked the Israel Defense Forces to provide target options, according to an official familiar with high-level discussions, who said Israel is looking at options that would “send a message” but not cause casualties.
Those options include a potential strike on a facility in Tehran or a cyberattack, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.
“Everybody agrees that Israel must respond,” the official said. “How to respond, when to respond, is the question.”
Israeli officials are now signaling to their US counterparts that they would like the White House's backing and coordination for retaliation, however, so far President Biden has urged restraint. This weekend the president clearly said the US will not back an Israeli military attack on Iran, on fears it would spark a bigger war.
Biden has issued what appears an ambiguous statement, and Israel's military says it is preparing:
BIDEN: US COMMITTED TO ISRAEL'S SECURITY AND FOR CEASE-FIRE
THE ISRAELI AIR FORCE HAS COMPLETED ITS PREPARATION FOR AN IMMINENT ATTACK AGAINST IRAN
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“BlackRock owns the processed food companies that are poisoning us, and they own the pharmaceutical companies that are making $4.3 trillion a year treating the chronic disease that's been caused by BlackRock's other companies." Source: The Rubin Report
We told you this before and don’t be fooled by the Fed’s little ditty about it being usual this time of year, a phony, pathetic attempt at damage control and blame shifting. The Fed is the problem. They’re talking credit card payment difficulties. Source
Bloomberg quotes UBS AG on possible rate hikes rather that cuts impacting inflation risks for 2025.
“The combination of strong US growth and sticky inflation is raising the odds the Federal Reserve hikes rather than cuts interest rates, bringing borrowing costs to as high as 6.5% next year, according to UBS Group AG strategists.
“While the bank’s base case is for two rate cuts this year, UBS now sees a growing possibility that inflation fails to decline to the Fed’s target, spurring a pivot back to hikes and sparking a deep selloff in bonds and stocks. Markets have already scaled back bets on policy easing as recent US data has shown surprising strength in the world’s biggest economy.”
Meanwhile, another Fed talking head, no shortage of them these days, offered this on MarketWatch.
With all due respect, the people struggling with this Fed caused inflation don’t need another pseudo-economic psychologist. They need a real honest banker and putting an end to fractional banking period, the Fed itself.
Also, known as sound money.
“Boston Fed President Susan Collins says the central bank would benefit from paying attention to American consumers’ bad feelings about a good economy.
In a wide-ranging conversation with MarketWatch, Collins talked about the stubborn impact of inflation, the often uneven picture of a healthy economy and the value of listening to frustrated American consumers as policy makers at the Fed work to stabilize the economy.
Collins said it can take a while for consumers to adjust to that kind of shift, and some American households might simply still be reeling from the shock of the pandemic.
“Uncertain environments are very anxiety-producing,” she said. “I think part of what people are telling us is the toll that it takes to deal with that uncertainty.”
“Collins said she’s been concerned about a scenario in which negativity and cynicism spread and more consumers and businesses tighten their purse strings pre-emptively, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy that could drag the economy downward.
“One of the things that I think is important to watch for is a dynamic that ends up being self-fulfilling, where it causes a number of other folks to pull back in ways that slow the economy because people are worried about everybody else,” she said.
Not that you need another painful reminder about how pathetic Biden’s economic leadership has been and is, we’re not sadistically inclined at all.
“One thing is certain in these strange times: The rate of Bidenflation just doesn’t seem to be cooling off by any stretch of the imagination.
“In fact, it’s likely to outlast Biden’s entire four-year presidential term.
“Keeping an eye on the latest inflation rate is important because any lost purchasing power doesn’t come back once it’s been taken from you.
So let’s take a deeper look…
“According to the latest official CPI update, consumer prices are starting to heat up yet again, much like they did between June-September of last year:
Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 3.5 percent before seasonal adjustment.
The index for shelter rose in March, as did the index for gasoline. Combined, these two indexes contributed over half of the monthly increase in the index for all items. The energy index rose 1.1 percent over the month. The food index rose 0.1 percent in March. The food at home index was unchanged, while the food away from home index rose 0.3 percent over the month.
Prices for necessities like shelter, motor vehicle insurance, medical care, apparel, and personal care also increased. The only major categories that saw any notable relief from year-over-year price increases were vehicles and natural gas.
The situation remains dire even if you were to analyze the current rate of inflation like some media talking heads and economists do, when they report “it isn’t that bad.”
They pull off that trick by removing the items that every household in America needs from the calculation (things like food, energy, shelter, and rent).
According to a recent report, even that weaker measure of inflation is heating up:
Along with the overall inflation measure, economists also look at the core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, to find the true trend. The supercore gauge, which also excludes shelter and rent costs from its services reading, takes it even a step further. Fed officials say it is useful in the current climate as they see elevated housing inflation as a temporary problem and not as good a measure of underlying prices.
Supercore accelerated to a 4.8% pace year over year in March, the highest in 11 months.
The same Fed that predicted inflation would only be “transitory” in 2021 is now predicting that skyrocketing housing costs will only be a “temporary problem.” Source
Unfortunately for the Federal Reserve and the Biden Administration, overall inflation (including housing) is likely to stick around. Here’s one of many reasons why…
Upstream of consumer price inflation lies something called producer price inflation, which also increased “2.1% year-on-year in March 2024, the most since April 2023, after 1.6% rise in February.”
“Here are a few other potential reasons inflation has been so persistent…”