Elon Musk. Twitter. Babylon Bee.

[Josh]

Yes. Grocery store prices, buying vehicles. Getting a car fixed. Buying a house. Rent.

[Ken]

Yes. Grocery store prices, buying vehicles. Getting a car fixed. Buying a house. Rent.

Average house prices nationwide have dropped 12% in the past year: https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-h ... 022-12-02/

Inflation is also falling

[Josh]

Prices for basically anything are nowhere close to 2019 levels.

[Ken]

Prices for basically anything are nowhere close to 2019 levels.

No one said they were. Even if the inflation rate dropped to zero, that doesn't mean prices would drop (although some would because inflation is a broad-based average) It just means they stop going up. Dropping prices equals deflation. The Fed actually targets an inflation rate of 2% as ideal.

[Josh]

Prices for basically anything are nowhere close to 2019 levels.

No one said they were. Even if the inflation rate dropped to zero, that doesn't mean prices would drop (although some would because inflation is a broad-based average) It just means they stop going up. Dropping prices equals deflation. The Fed actually targets an inflation rate of 2% as ideal.

You just asserted that prices were going down a few posts ago.

[Ken]

Prices for basically anything are nowhere close to 2019 levels.

No one said they were. Even if the inflation rate dropped to zero, that doesn't mean prices would drop (although some would because inflation is a broad-based average) It just means they stop going up. Dropping prices equals deflation. The Fed actually targets an inflation rate of 2% as ideal.

You just asserted that prices were going down a few posts ago.

Read more carefully. Some prices are, indeed going down. Most notably gas prices and home prices. However the inflation rate, which is measured as an average of all prices, while dropping, is still at about 2% month-over-month on an annual basis. So the average of all prices is still rising, just not nearly as much as it was a year ago. For all prices to drop would mean deflation which is unlikely to happen short of an enormous recession. We are probably no more likely to see 2019 prices on some goods as we are to see 1950s prices. That isn't necessarily bad. Refrigerators cost much more than the did in say the 1930s but they are much cheaper today in real dollars.

The larger point is that we are currently nowhere near a severe recession as you claimed. In fact we are not currently in a recession at all.

[Josh]

2% monthly increase is 26% annual. That’s pretty bad.

And yes, we are in a recession by actual terms, even if the government decides to say we aren’t.

[Robert]

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1610 ... 25889.html

1.THREAD: The Twitter Files
Twitter and the FBI “Belly Button”

2.By 2020, Twitter was struggling with the problem of public and private agencies bypassing them and going straight to the media with lists of suspect accounts.

3.In February, 2020, as COVID broke out, the Global Engagement Center – a fledgling analytic/intelligence arms of the State Department – went to the media with a report called, “Russian Disinformation Apparatus Taking Advantage of Coronavirus Concerns.”

4.The GEC flagged accounts as “Russian personas and proxies” based on criteria like, “Describing the Coronavirus as an engineered bioweapon,” blaming “research conducted at the Wuhan institute,” and “attributing the appearance of the virus to the CIA.”

...

39.It all led to the situation described by @ShellenbergerMD two weeks ago, in which Twitter was paid $3,415,323, essentially for being an overwhelmed subcontractor.

Twitter wasn’t just paid. For the amount of work they did for government, they were underpaid.

This is bad.

[Ken]

2% monthly increase is 26% annual. That’s pretty bad.

And yes, we are in a recession by actual terms, even if the government decides to say we aren’t.

No, inflation is currently about 0.15% month-to-month which equates to 2% on an annual basis. That is what that chart above is showing.

Under what definition are we currently in a recession? There are help-wanted jobs everywhere around here in the $15-$20/hour range going unfilled in fast food, warehouse, retail, etc. Unemployment is at near record lows.

[Ken]

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1610 ... 25889.html

1.THREAD: The Twitter Files
Twitter and the FBI “Belly Button”

2.By 2020, Twitter was struggling with the problem of public and private agencies bypassing them and going straight to the media with lists of suspect accounts.

3.In February, 2020, as COVID broke out, the Global Engagement Center – a fledgling analytic/intelligence arms of the State Department – went to the media with a report called, “Russian Disinformation Apparatus Taking Advantage of Coronavirus Concerns.”

4.The GEC flagged accounts as “Russian personas and proxies” based on criteria like, “Describing the Coronavirus as an engineered bioweapon,” blaming “research conducted at the Wuhan institute,” and “attributing the appearance of the virus to the CIA.”

...

39.It all led to the situation described by @ShellenbergerMD two weeks ago, in which Twitter was paid $3,415,323, essentially for being an overwhelmed subcontractor.

Twitter wasn’t just paid. For the amount of work they did for government, they were underpaid.

This is bad.

Why is this bad?

People were finding Russian disinformation accounts on Twitter and making that information public. What is bad about that? Do you think Russian disinformation accounts should have free reign on American social media?

Maybe Twitter should do a better job of keeping that sort of stuff off of its platform in the first place? In fact Twitter shouldn't have been paid a dime for that sort of work. What Twitter actually should have done is do it right in the first place and keep that sort of thing off their platform from the beginning.

Or do you think the whole idea that Russia, China, Iran, and other foreign actors are trying manipulate American public option to their ends is just "fake news"?