(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Battle Against Inflation is Over. Guess who won? Saturday's GNR [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-12-16 You might not know it from the headlines, but we are winning the battle against inflation. Markets say the battle against inflation is over — and the Fed won Global markets think the war against inflation is over. And the Fed won. Why it matters: Reading the tea leaves from bond, stock and currency markets sheds light on how investors believe the economy will develop next year. It also helps explain the rip-roaring rally in stocks. The big picture: The overwhelming signal markets are sending right now is that inflation will fall back to the snail's pace of 2% that prevailed before COVID. This is most clear in the market-based reading of inflation expectations — charted above, and often referred to as a "five-year breakeven" — which is now nearly back to 2%. often referred to as a "five-year breakeven" — which is now nearly back to 2%. That's the lowest it's been since the pandemic-era inflation issues flared up in 2021. rally in stocks you say? Dow hits record high as stocks cap longest weekly winning streak since 2017 Propelled by a dovish outlook from the Federal Reserve, the Dow finished the week at a record high as US stocks capped their longest weekly winning streak since 2017. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) ticked up by about 0.2%, or about 60 points, earning the the blue-chip index another record finish. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was virtually unchanged, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) gained roughly 0.4%. Markets rejoiced after the Federal Reserve's shift in tone this week as the central bank signaled more rate cuts in 2024 than previously forecast and acknowledged its anti-inflation campaign is gaining traction. That helped drive a rally in US stocks with the Dow reaching a record and the major indexes posting a seventh-straight winning week. Encouraging Inflation Report Last month inflation was zero, prices did not rise in America. This month they rose by 0.1%, well within with the Fed’s target range of 2% annually. inflation has been at 0.2 or less for 5 of the last 7 months All of this is very good news, and more signs that we are getting to the other side of those shocks of 2020-2022 - COVID, supply chain shortages, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, global inflation…..congratulations all, we are getting there. AND people might finally be catching onto this! Inflation fears down, consumer optimism up: Economy may start to help Biden with voters Consumers are feeling better about inflation than they have since April 2021, according to a New York Federal Reserve survey. The optimism comes after strong jobs numbers and reports of resilient consumer spending this holiday season. Growing consumer confidence is good news for Biden who has struggled to prove that his economic approach is working, which has weighed on his approval ratings ahead of the 2024 election. More evidence of inflation being under control → Fed Signals Rate Cuts in 2024 Policymakers are striking that patient stance to give themselves time to assess whether interest rates are high enough to weigh on the economy and ensure that inflation will slow to the Fed’s 2 percent target over time. Price increases have been cooling for months and hiring has slowed, which has been giving officials more confidence that their current setting may be sufficient. The Fed’s fresh forecasts suggested that “inflation is less of a problem than it was even three months ago, and expressed optimism about their ability to bring inflation down,” said Gennadiy Goldberg, a rates strategist at T.D. Securities. Historically, efforts to lower inflation by slowing demand sharply have ended in a recession. But officials are increasingly hopeful that this time might be different. Biden and the Democrats are doing great things The Tide Turns for Renters as Asking Rents Post Biggest Decline in Over 3 Years he median U.S. asking rent declined 2.1% year over year in November to $1,967—the biggest annual drop since February 2020—according to a report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. This is a 0.6% decline in asking rents since October. Bidenomics, baby The wealth of Americans climbed by over $50,000 per household, 37%, from 2020 to 2022, and doubled for American 18-34 years old. Biden has forgiven more than $130b in student load debt, and as of May, home ownership for Gen Z was higher than Millennials and Gen X at this point in their lives. Remember that the minuman wage has risen in many states and cities in recent years, creating a much higher floor for all workers, something particularly important for younger people entering the work force for the first time. Again, this is the best job market for young workers since the 1960s. The annual deficit is trillions lower today than when Biden came into office. Despite high interest rates, household debt remains historically low. Household debt is an area Republicans have begun to focus on, and not suprisingly, are using bad and misleading data. Here’s a graph from the St. Louis Fed: Bad News for Bad Guys Jury Orders Giuliani to Pay $148 Million to Election Workers He Defamed A federal jury on Friday ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to pay two former Georgia election workers more than $148 million for destroying their reputations and causing them extreme emotional distress by spreading baseless lies that they had tried to steal a victory from President Donald J. Trump after the 2020 presidential election. Lawyers for Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss asked the jury to send a message when deciding what Mr. Giuliani should pay. “Send it to Mr. Giuliani,” one of the lawyers, Michael J. Gottlieb, said in his closing argument on Thursday. “Send it to any other powerful figure with a platform and an audience who is considering whether they will take the chance to seek profit and fame by assassinating the moral character of ordinary people.” Mr. Sibley warned that an award of the scale being sought by the women would be the civil equivalent of the death penalty for Mr. Giuliani, who has been struggling financially and is under indictment in Georgia, where a local prosecutor has brought racketeering charges against him, Mr. Trump and others in connection with their efforts to overturn the former president’s election loss there. It’s the Beginning of the Disastrous End for Rudy Giuliani Rudy Giuliani, the disgraced politician once known as “America’s Mayor” and now known as a punchline, is about to face the most disastrous court ruling of his life—and it will only get worse from there. Giuliani is poised to get hit with a multimillion dollar ruling against him in D.C. over his baseless accusations of election fraud against two poll workers. After that civil trial concludes, he’ll turn around and begin preparing for a criminal trial in Atlanta, where he’s facing many of the same racketeering charges he once wielded as a federal prosecutor against mobsters in New York. And throughout it all, Giuliani has a long list of creditors, from former associates to contractors, who are also hounding him for money. For Giuliani, 2023 will likely end in penniless defeat. But 2024 could be even worse—it could actually end with him in prison. Reuters poll 31% of Republicans say they will note vote for Trump if he is convicted of a felony crime It’s a reminder of what a risk Trump is for Republicans. He only got 46% of the vote last time, and has more baggage than any candidate in modern American history. Consider what Trump and the Republicans will have to defend in 2024: convicted for trying to rape a woman in a department store oversaw one of the largest financial frauds in American history more responsible for ending Roe and stripping away the reproductive rights of women than any other person in America executed what may be the most consequential security breach in American history and lied about it to the FBI has taken more money from foreign governments than any politician in American history, and is without doubt, the single most corrupt politician our country has ever seen praised dictators, appeased and partnered with Putin, denigrated NATO and openly undermined American power and interests around the world oversaw a party-wide effort to overturn an American election, end American democracy for all time and is promising to finish the job in 2025 led an armed assault on the US Congress support for more dead kids in schools, a warmer planet, the stripping of fundamental rights common throughout the world, taking health care away from tens of millions, mass deportation…… Florida Proud Boys Member Sentenced to 5 Years for Jan. 6 A Florida member of the Proud Boys was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday for his role in the Jan. 6 attack, despite claiming he was trying to help police officers when he hurled a “heavy rock-like object” at a Capitol building door. According to CBS News’ Scott MacFarlane, the judge called Anthony Sargent’s defense “laughable,” saying he pushed an officer into the mob to prevent him from arresting another rioter and twice shoved police away from the Capitol as they attempted to fall back to safety. Other Good News Florida abortion rights activists win over Republicans in ballot measure push Carter is one of more than 150,000 registered Republican voters who have signed a petition in support of a ballot amendment that would bar the state from restricting abortion “before viability” — which is usually at 24 weeks — or “when necessary to protect the patient’s health.” That total comes from the Florida Women’s Freedom Coalition, one of several groups working to gather the 891,523 signatures necessary to get the measure on the ballot, working with Floridians Protecting Freedom, the campaign leading the ballot initiative. The group says it has gathered and submitted more than 1.3 million signatures so far. The website of the Florida Division of Elections says it has validated 687,699 signatures as of mid-December. Florida is one of nine states where groups are pushing to get measures on the ballot that would bar restrictions on abortion rights, following a streak of wins for similar measures in Kansas and Ohio. And as the Feb. 1 deadline to get the petitions submitted and verified approaches in Florida, some Republican voters are coming out publicly to support and even advocate for it. Jack Smith goes all in Special Counsel Jack Smith put all his chips on SCOTUS this week in a play to stop Donald Trump from delaying his election interference case until after 2024. Trump’s only real legal strategy to beat the four felony charges he faces for trying to overturn his election loss is to win next November and then use his presidential powers to make it all go away. In a petition filed Monday, Smith all but dared the Supreme Court to publicly state whether the justices intend to let him get away with it. But Jack Smith saw Trump and his lawyers coming a mile off and wasn’t going to simply fall back into defensive maneuvering. On Monday, he marched into two different courts at once and took aim at Trump’s spurious attempt to derail this case. Supreme Court leaves Illinois assault weapons ban in place The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to block an Illinois law banning assault-style weapons, leaving the measure in place The decision from the justices, with no noted dissents, marks the second time they have declined to halt Illinois' statewide ban, which a gun rights advocacy group and gun shop owner argued violates the Second Amendment. It has also left in place a similar ordinance in Naperville, a suburb of Chicago. On The Lighter Side What can you to save democracy? We here at the GNR have set up a fundraising ActBlue account where you can donate and have it evenly distributed between 24 races that will be key to winning the House in 24! Go ahead and donate at this link: More worried about keeping tfg out of the WH? You could: Looking for something else? Maybe something that doesn’t involve donating? GREAT! Here are some other ideas: So pick just one and get to it! I am so lucky and so proud to be in this with all of you 💓💚💛🧡✊🏻✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿✊❤️🧡💛💚 [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/16/2211983/-The-Battle-Against-Inflation-is-Over-Guess-who-won-Saturday-s-GNR?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/