Less for thee … More for me
Social Security has announced the cost of living benefit adjustment for 2026: 2.8%. Medicare has announced the the cost of medical insurance adjustment for 2026: 11.3%.
A key difference is in direction of flow. Social Security benefits are payments from the government to citizens. Medicare premiums are payments from citizens to government.
Maybe Medicare could use some help from hedonic adjustments?
BLS said this morning it’s 3.0%. September versus a year ago. Headlines are trumpeting it variously as “cool” or “soft” or “mild”. Astonishing. Kinda like Washington budgeting, where they project a 5% increase and call a 4% increase a “cut”. This 3% is a full percentage point higher than the Fed’s target, actual inflation is running at least another few percentage points above that, and Wall Street media are celebrating a supposedly low reading. You’d be hard pressed to find ordinary Americans describing inflation as low.
In case there was any remaining doubt Wall Street lives in a different world than Main Street.
“Worries persist that Trump’s tariffs could cause another round of painful inflation…”
I guess we’re just supposed to forget about the Fed abandoning its inflation target, cutting interest rates, halting QT, readying the next round of QE …
I tell my wife, gold will hit $5000+, we’ll be millionaires, and a loaf of bread will cost $20.
You can already push $20 for a fast food meal. At this rate one will soon have to be a millionaire just to aspire to lower middle class.
BREAKING:
🇩🇪 🇨🇳 German companies have started trading industrial secrets in exchange for Chinese rare materials Bloomberg
To keep rare earth supplies flowing, German companies are giving China a front-row seat to their industrial blueprints: diagrams, supply chain layouts, customer lists, and even 3-year production forecasts.
All this, just to get a 6-month license for rare earth supplies.
The German government reportedly has no clue what’s being handed over and no real plan to stop it.
Officials literally had to ask German firms what China was collecting and most didn’t even respond.
Smaller manufacturers are already shutting down. Big firms are playing along to survive.
The data covers sectors such as defence contractors, car part suppliers, and precision toolmakers.