Thu: For Whom Has the Speaker Spoken?

The Good News Is That People Are Irrationally Negative??

The U.S. economy grew at a blistering pace over three months ending in September, more than doubling growth in the previous quarter and rebuking worries about a possible recession. The robust performance, however, complicates the fight to dial back inflation.

Fresh GDP data released on Thursday, which exceeded economist expectations, reinforces other recent indicators of a strong economy resisting the Federal Reserve's effort to cool price increases with a slowdown.

A blockbuster jobs report earlier this month exceeded economist expectations by nearly twofold. Consumer spending, which accounts for nearly three-quarters of U.S. economic activity, surged in September, according to data released last week.

U.S. GDP grew at a 4.9% annualized rate over the three-month period ending in September, accelerating from a 2.1% annualized rate over the previous quarter.

The surge owed in large part to an increase in consumer spending, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a government agency, said on Thursday.
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The U.S. economy grew at a 4.9% annual rate between July and September, the Commerce Department said Thursday, the fastest pace in more than two years ― what should be unabashed good news for President Joe Biden and his reelection campaign.

New numbers on the gross domestic product, though, are not necessarily designed to cut through news that includes former President Donald Trump’s ongoing legal woes, the Israel-Hamas war and the marathon mess of the House Republicans’ finally finished speaker selection process. And even if it did, will Americans believe it instead of what they see with their own eyes?

Poll after poll has shown Americans with a terribly pessimistic view of the economy in spite of record low unemployment, cooling inflation and recent growth in real wages. The recession almost all economists said was a near-certainty 10 months ago never came close to materializing, and growth remains so strong that the Federal Reserve is more worried about potential overheating than a slowdown.

“I think one thing the White House should take comfort from is, in some sense, people are so irrationally negative right now, the only direction things really could go is up,” said Jason Furman, former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers in the Barack Obama administration.

More Flipping than the Floor Exercises at a Gymnastics Meet

In addition to bail bondsman Scott Hall, ex-President Donald Trump lawyers Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, and Jenna Ellis, CNN exclusively reports that six more co-defendants criminally charged over their efforts to overturn the 2020 election alongside Trump "have discussed potential plea deals" with Fulton County prosecutors.

Robert James, an ex-Dekalb County attorney and expert on the case, according to CNN, said "this may be the beginning of a run of plea deals in Fulton County, as prosecutors aim to have defendants on board 'as witnesses as opposed to adversaries.'"

Defendents Waiting to Make a Plea Deal

A Lannister Always Pays His Debts, But Not Corrupt Clarence 

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas loves to hang out in his fancy motor home, spending his vacations in RV camps and Walmart parking lots. That’s the story he likes to tell, anyway. What he doesn’t talk about is how he got that RV, much less how fancy and expensive it is.

Now Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, who chairs the Finance Committee, is shedding some light on that. His committee has been looking into Thomas’ finances, and it has discovered that Thomas never paid back most of the $267,230 loan he took from his longtime friend Anthony Welters to buy the luxury Prevost Marathon Le Mirage XL motor home.

“Today the committee has the answer to one of the pressing questions raised by reporting about his arrangement with Justice Thomas - was the loan ever repaid? Now we know that Justice Thomas had up to $267,230 in debt forgiven and never reported it on his ethics forms,” Wyden said.

Thomas bought the used motor home in December 1999, with the loan from Welters. The New York Times reports that in today’s dollars, the loan—and the vehicle—would be worth $493,700. The loan terms were generous: It required no money down, annual interest-only payments (on a 7.5% interest rate), and the principal due at the end of five years. According to the records the committee obtained from Welters, Thomas appears to have made just one of those interest payments in December 2000, with a check for $20,042.23.