Nothing New To Report Except For This

Nothing new to report this week - except for...well, we'll get to that.

It's been a good stretch since the 4th of July. We had our family BBQ, followed by rather spectacular fireworks right outside our door. It seems the wet blanket that Rudolph Giuliani spread over neighborhood fireworks action has finally been peeled back once and for all. 

Many New York City neighborhoods had famously blasted fireworks for years. Ours was in that club. Giuliani - for his own reasons that remain a mystery - decided that had to end. So for a few years. to NYPD patrolled aggressively on July 4th to put a damper on anything beyond sparklers and firecrackers. 

Sure, fireworks are dangerous. And some folks are stupid, or drunk, or simply careless. But, seriously, did that many people kill themselves or blow off a limb? Well, a finger or two perhaps. But don't we take responsibility for our own actions in this country. 

Heh! At this point, that's almost a joke. Taking responsibility has steadily given way to playing the victim. But we're digressing.

Anyway, the fireworks began to return over the years. And finally built up to a respectable spectacle. But this year really did recall those "good old days" that frankly made the neighborhood show much more interesting than that Macy's thing where professionals with their computerized launchers play a game of overkill every year. 

Actually it was better than those good old days. The stuff that normal folks can get these days is quite amazing and relatively easy to launch. 

And with that, the following days were a kind of post-4th of July stretch that spread out happy memories over the subsequent work days. 

Which means as the markets, the media and the government fired their dysfunctional ammo with both barrels in this election year we had those happy memories to blot most of it out.

But now is now. And, lo and behold, we're racing towards...well, we're not exactly sure. Can the stock market continue to set new highs forever? Is the economy really robust and ready to explode due to the juice AI is injecting into it? Will the next President really do all those wonderful things they're talking about? 

And the big one: Is inflation finally dead, after recent lower CPI numbers?

Well that's the except for this we began with. 

For those of us who continue to scratch our heads as we shell out more than we once did to pay our bills and try to live our lives in a somewhat decent manner, there was this article (HERE) that injected a little vial of brain cells into the digital morass that assaults us every day. There's enough of interest to make reading the whole thing worthwhile. But for now, let's just look at this short snippet. It helps us stop scratching so much:

"... the Consumer Price Index does not calculate the following: interest on anything, taxes, housing, health insurance (accurately), homeowners insurance, car insurance, government services like public schools, shrinkflation, quality declines, substitutions due to price, or additional service fees."

No wonder!