Alternative Visions - Economic & Political Updates: Sinema, Credit Suisse, Price-Caps, PPI Report & Consumer Debt

Today’s show discusses various political events and economic developments of the past week, in anticipation of next week’s big announcements on the Consumer Price Index report and the Federal Reserve’s latest rate hike decisions. Today’s show discusses Senator Kirsten Sinema’s decision to leave the Democrat party and become independent and what that means for the media’s hype of the Democrats ‘safe’ control of the Senate now with Warnock’s win in Georgia; Biden’s announcement of a sop thrown to labor to save multiemployer pension system (a history of the evolution of pensions in US is offered); Exxon’s announcement of a new $50B stock buyback bonanza for shareholders (+ history of stock buybacks in US since 2010); financial problems at the big EU bank, Credit Suisse and crypto company FTX in US; the politics behind the announcement last week b y the EU/G7/US to impose a maximum $60/barrel on Russian global oil sales. Show concludes with a breakdown of today’s Produce Price Index (PPI) report that shows a record surge in food prices and only moderate slowing of energy prices + a brief review of the Fed’s latest Consumer Credit report showing consumer debt has risen by $500 billion over the pre-Covid 2019 levels.