The Wall Street Journal on Instagram: “If you’re planning a cookout this summer, the chicken breasts and pork chops are finally a little cheaper. It’s the ketchup, potato chips and crackers that will cost you. The laws of supply and demand have tamed prices for goods such as meat, eggs, produce and gas. The Federal Reserve’s 10 rate hikes in the past 15 months have also helped bring some prices closer to normal levels. Prices, though, are stubbornly rising for what retail and food executives refer to as “the center store.” The middle of the store stocks items that can sit on shelves without going bad quickly, from cereal to cookies, paper towels to dish soap—all essentials that consumers can’t really put off buying. Prices for potato chips rose an average 17% to $3.05 per package for the 52 weeks ended May 27, compared with the previous year, according to NielsenIQ, a market-research firm. Mayonnaise increased 23% to $4.93 per container. Applesauce jumped 22%. The chief executives of the country’s major retailers aren’t happy. They are resisting further price increases from the nation’s packaged-food giants or pushing for lower prices—but the process is taking longer than they had hoped. The persistent price increases for pantry staples are weighing on consumers and limiting their spending on other goods and services needed to power the American economy as people prioritize buying food and other necessities. Two major industries—retailers and producers of consumer packaged goods—have been locked in a power struggle, with retailers throwing their muscle at suppliers to control prices, and suppliers trying to restore or protect their profit margins. Read more at the link in our bio. Photo Illustration: C.J. Burton Photos: iStock”
The Wall Street Journal on Instagram: “Visitors to Disney theme parks this summer are encountering something they haven’t seen in a while: elbow room. Travel analysts and advisers say traffic to Disney’s U.S. parks, and some rival parks, has slowed this summer. Data from a travel company that tracks line-waiting time at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., shows that the Independence Day weekend was one of the slowest in nearly a decade. Disney executives have said they have expected weaker earnings from their U.S. parks this year. The Orlando-area resort is even offering hotel discounts around Christmas, typically a peak period. Travel advisers and industry analysts say the slowdown is the latest sign that Disney’s recent price hikes and changes to park operations have soured some families on visiting the Most Magical Place on Earth. Disney faces a unique set of challenges right now, from streaming losses to executive succession to a political and legal fight with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Revenue from its parks division has long been a bright spot for the company, buoying overall earnings. Disney declined to comment on recent attendance. Read more at the link in our bio.”
Quillette on Instagram: ”“This redefinition of the word “trauma” is motivated by politics, dressed up as medical diagnosis. Until recently, everyone knew what trauma meant. In the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), trauma is defined as a psychiatric disorder with unmistakable, extremely debilitating symptoms that are closer to those of psychosis than of depression. These symptoms can occur after people have been subjected to or have witnessed “actual or threatened death, serious injury or sexual violence”—things outside the realm of “normal human experience.” This does not include “more subtle and insidious” harms, such as racism or oppression (however morally wrong these may be).” Read more at the link in bio.”
The Washington Times on Instagram: “Former President Donald Trump said “there is something wrong” with President Biden that goes beyond age, warning that the Democrat might not “make it to the gate.” Mr. Biden’s mental lapses and verbal gaffes are warning signs of a bigger problem, Mr. Trump said Friday. “He is not old, he is off,” Mr. Trump said at a campaign event in Council Bluffs, Iowa. “There is a difference because I know people that are 90 years old that are sharp as a tack — in fact, some of them are smarter than they were 20 years before.””
The Washington Times on Instagram: “Former President Trump’s legal team asked the federal judge in Florida overseeing his classified documents case to postpone the trial without setting a new date, saying there is “no reason” for it to take place in December. The Justice Department has asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for a mid-December trial date, but Mr. Trump’s attorneys said having a trial in the middle of the 2024 election cycle could make it difficult to secure an impartial jury. Mr. Trump is currently the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. “Proceeding to trial during the pendency of a presidential election cycle wherein opposing candidates are effectively (if not literally) directly adverse to one another in this action will create extraordinary challenges in the jury selection process and limit the defendants’ ability to secure a fair and impartial adjudication,” Mr. Trump’s lawyers wrote in a filing late Monday.”
The Washington Times on Instagram: “The Biden administration’s attempt to redesign the citizenship test has become contentious, with some immigration rights advocates arguing it would make it tougher for new arrivals to earn citizenship. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is testing an English section that requires applicants to describe pictures and a multiple-choice format for the civics questions. The agency wants the updates in place next year if all goes well. Rights activists say they expect immigrants to struggle with the new requirements.”
Wall Street Journal Opinion on Instagram: “President Biden will never admit it, but he has Republican-led states to thank for the resilient U.S. economy and labor market, writes The Editorial Board. An earnings surge in right-leaning states is helping compensate for sluggish growth in progressive ones. New state personal income data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis highlights how aggregate worker and proprietor earnings in red states grew significantly more in the last year than in the blues. The disparity owes to GOP-led states adding more jobs, including in higher-paying industries like tech and finance, along with faster-growing wages. Earnings nationwide rose 5.4% on average between the first quarters of 2022 and 2023, but much less in New York (2.6%), Indiana (2.6%), California (2.9%), Connecticut (3.4%), Rhode Island (3.6%), Maryland (4%), New Jersey (4.3%), Oregon (4.5%) and Illinois (4.6%). Apart from Indiana, these states are run by Democrats—and most have been for years. It’s no surprise that more Americans are moving to states where wages are growing faster and their earnings go further. Maybe one reason the U.S. economy continues to chug along is because the rising tide in states like Florida and Texas is lifting all boats. Read more at the link in our bio. #WSJOpinion Photo: Tampa Bay Times/Zuma Press”
Breitbart on Instagram: ”🌎 A painful lesson 🌎 Record-breaking mass migration into the United States, Europe, and Australia is causing a “Global Immigration Backlash” against establishment left-wing political parties, admits a New York Times columnist. “In earlier eras, the political left in the U.S. included many figures who worried about the effects of large-scale immigration,” a New York Times columnist admitted on July 11, adding: Both labor leaders and civil-rights leaders, for example, argued for moderate levels of immigration to protect the interests of [home nation’s] vulnerable workers … [but] many progressives are uncomfortable with any immigration-skeptical argument. They have become passionate advocates of more migration and global integration, arguing — correctly — that immigrants usually benefit by moving from a lower-wage country to a higher-wage country. “The global migration wave of the 21st century has little precedent,” said columnist David Leonhardt, adding that “Lower-income and blue-collar workers often worry that their wages will decline because employers suddenly have a larger, cheaper [imported] labor pool from which to hire.” The Wall Street Journal posted a similar article on July 8, saying, “The influx since the end of the pandemic is altering societies, with many people blaming immigrants for increases in crime and higher housing costs.” It continued: In Australia and New Zealand … foreigners are being blamed for rising housing costs. U.S. research suggests that an immigration inflow equal to 1% of a city’s population is associated with increases in average rents and housing prices of about 1%. The Wall Street Journal article was headlined “Immigration Backlashes Spread Around the World.” However, the authors of both articles downplay the huge economic impact of migration, which has worked with free trade to transfer a vast amount of wealth from middle-class Americans to investors since around 1990. So the citizen opposition is not a “backlash” — it is a rational response to the intended reality that migration transfers wealth from ordinary Americans upwards to wealthy investors, and deliberately fractures the civic rules that help ordinary people.”
Newsmax on Instagram: “TEA, CHAT & CHEAT SHEET: Biden held “cue cards” for meeting with British PM Rishi Sunak ahead of Tuesday NATO summit. Link in bio.”
The Washington Times on Instagram: “Pentagon officials would not say how many DPICM rounds would be sent to Ukraine but said it would be enough to “bridge the gap” until NATO allies can produce a sufficient number of standard artillery ammunition to ensure a steady supply.”
Fox Business on Instagram: ”‘FREAKING OUT’: Small business owners across the country detail the “unethical” business practice putting one provider in hot water at the link in bio.”
The Washington Times on Instagram: “Megan Rapinoe insists that she would welcome male-born transgender players in women’s soccer, but Riley Gaines is having none of it. Gaines accused the U.S. soccer star of undercutting women’s sports with her comments ahead of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in favor of allowing biological males who identify as female to play on the women’s team, even if they displace women.”
Campus Reform on Instagram: “After conducting a recent AI-based study that found influential high school textbooks in California and Texas to be similar in their instructing of climate change, a Stanford University professor is concerned that such politically different states agree on teaching the subject as a “two-sided issue.” Link in bio. #climatechange#highereducation#conservativepolitics”