Tag: inflation

Santa’s back in town with inflation, inclusion on his mind

Don’t look for plastic partitions or faraway benches when visiting Santa Claus this year. The jolly old elf is back, pre-pandemic style, and he’s got some pressing issues on his mind.

Santa booker HireSanta.com has logged a 30% increase in demand this Christmas season over last year, after losing about 15% of its performers to retirement or death during the pandemic, said founder and head elf Mitch Allen.

He has a Santa database of several thousand with gigs at Bloomingdale’s flagship store in New York, various Marriott properties and other venues around the U.S. Most of Allen’s clients have moved back to kids on laps and aren’t considering COVID-19 in a major way, he said, but Santa can choose to mask up.

Another large Santa agency, Cherry Hill Programs, is back up to pre-pandemic booking numbers for their 1,400 or so Santas working at more than 600 malls and other spots this year, said spokesperson Chris Landtroop.

“I can’t even explain how excited we are to see everyone’s smiles at all locations this season without anything covering up those beautiful faces,” she said.

Inflation is also a major cause of the lack of people coming out to play jolly Saint Nicholas.
AP

Cherry Hill Santas are also free to wear masks, Landtroop said.

Among standout Santas still keeping their distance? There will be no lap visits at the Macy’s flagship store in New York’s Herald Square. Santa is seated behind his desk.

Some Santas who stayed home the last two years out of concern for their health have returned to the ho ho ho game, but Allen is desperately trying to refill his pipeline with new performers.

Inflation has also taken a bite out of Santa. Many are older, on fixed incomes and travel long distances to don the red suit. They spend hundreds on their costumes and other accouterments.

“We’re charging the clients slightly more and we’re also paying our Santas slightly more,” Allen said.

Bookings for many Santas were made months in advance, and some work year-round. Allen’s Santas will earn from $5,000 to $12,000 for the season.

A young girl sitting on Santa's lap.
Requests for inclusive Santas of all races are also at an all-time high.
AP

A few Santas told The Associated Press they’re unbothered by the cost, however. They’re not in the Santa profession to make a buck but do it out of sheer joy.

Allen and other agencies are juggling more requests for inclusive Santas, such as Black, deaf and Spanish-speaking performers. Allen also has a female Santa on speed dial.

“I haven’t been busted yet by the kids and, with one exception, by the parents, either,” said 48-year-old Melissa Rickard, who stepped into the role in her early 20s when the Santa hired by her father’s lodge fell ill.

“To have a child not be able to tell I’m a woman in one sense is the ultimate compliment because it means I’m doing Santa justice. It cracks my husband up,” added Rickard, who lives outside Little Rock, Arkansas. “I know there are more of us out there.”

By mid-November, Rickard had more than 100 gigs lined up through Hire Santa and other means.

“A lot of it is word of mouth,” she said. “It’s `Hey, have you seen the female Santa?’”

Some Santas charge anywhere between $150 to $300 an hour.
AP

Rickard charges roughly $175 an hour as Santa, depending on the job, and donates all but her fuel money to charity. And her beard? Yak hair.

Eric Elliott’s carefully tended white beard is the real deal. He and his Mrs. Claus, wife Moeisha Elliott, went pro this year after first taking on the roles as volunteers in 2007. Both are retired military.

They spent weeks in formal Claus training. Among the skills they picked up was American Sign Language and other ways to accommodate people with disabilities. Their work has included trips into disaster zones with the Texas-based nonprofit Lone Star Santas to lend a little cheer.

The Elliotts, who are Black, say breaking into the top tier of Santas as first-time pros and Clauses of color hasn’t been easy. For some people, Eric said, “We understand that we’re not the Santa for you.”

The Santa Experience at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, is staffing up with six Saint Nicks, including two who are Black and its first Asian Santa. Visits in Spanish and Cantonese are provided.

Working smaller jobs, including house visits, the Elliotts have seen how rising prices have hit some people hard. They’ve lowered their rates at times when they sense that people are struggling.

Other Santas don’t know their worth and charge $50 or $75 an hour.
AP

“People are having issues just eating, but they don’t want to miss out on the experience,” Eric said. Sometimes, he said, “You’ll meet them and be like, `You go ahead and hold on to that. I know you worked hard for that.’”

For other clients, the Elliotts charge anywhere from $150 to $300 an hour.

Charles Graves, a rare, professional deaf Santa in New Braunfels, Texas, said through an interpreter that he was inspired to grow his beard and put on the suit in part by awkward encounters with hearing Santas as a child.

“As a child, I was very excited to receive a gift, but then you just kind of go away and you’re like, there’s no connection there. Children look at me now and they’re like, wow, you know, there’s a connection there with the deaf culture. And I can always connect with the hearing kids as well,” said Graves, a spry Santa at 52.

Graves, who has a day job at a school for deaf children, also received training to be Santa. He works as Santa with interpreters. Breaking in has been difficult and expensive, he says, but “this is something really, really important to me.”

By mid-November, he had more than a dozen gigs, including a parade in Santa Paula, California, a mall in Austin, Texas, and at Morgan’s Wonderland, a nonprofit accessible theme park in San Antonio. He’s also doing some Zoom visits.

Among Santa’s rising costs this year are his duds. The price of suits, from custom to ready-to-wear, is up about 25%, said 72-year-old Stephen Arnold, a longtime Santa who heads the more than 2,000-strong International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas.

“Most of the performers I know are raising their rates, mostly due to the costs of transportation, accommodation and materials,” he said. “Personally, I’m raising my rates a bit for new clients but I’m holding prices this year for my repeat gigs.”

Arnold, who’s in Memphis, Tennessee, charges $250 to $350 an hour. Others in his organization, depending on location and experience, charge anywhere from $100 to $500 an hour, the latter in big cities like Los Angeles. Some, he said, don’t know their worth and lowball it at $50 or $75 an hour.

As for the pandemic, Arnold hasn’t heard a word about it from his clients, compared to last year and 2020, when he worked inside a snow globe. The Santas he knows seem unflustered.

“I’m surprised how few people are concerned about it,” Arnold said. “I visit my wife twice a day in a nursing facility. I’m diabetic. I mean, most of us are old fat men.”

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Toys getting smaller and cheaper as inflation slams shoppers

Retailers are poised to push smaller and less expensive toys this holiday season — a bid to tempt skittish shoppers as inflation hikes prices for everything from gas to groceries.

MGA Entertainment, maker of LOL Surprise and Bratz dolls, is launching more than 200 new toys that are priced at or below $10, including many that will hit stores next month, chief executive Isaac Larian said. That’s versus 10 or 15 new toys that were $10 or less last year.

“We are going after that market because people have less money to spend,” Larian told The Post.

Elsewhere, one of last year’s hit toys, Got2Glow Fairies, now comes in a downsized version that costs $25 versus $40 for the original, according to its Canada-based manufacturer WowWee. Among WowWee’s newest toys is a line of three-inch dolls called Fashion Fidgets, recently selling on Amazon for $8 each.

Walmart partnered with WowWee on the item and helped direct the pricing, said Andrew Yanofsky, WowWee’s head of marketing.

These three-inch Fashion Fidget dolls from WowWee cost less than $10, the sweet spot for toys this holiday season.
WowWee

“Some of our biggest initiatives this year are affordable price points,” Yanofsky told The Post.

Unlike last year, when retailers and toy makers were worried that they wouldn’t have enough product to sell, they have been focused this fall on clearing goods — including bigger, pricier items that didn’t arrive in time for the 2021 holidays. Some of the plans were already being laid last year, when shipping costs soared and larger toys took up too much space in containers that cost $20,000 to ship from Asia to the US.

“Retailers started pushing back on bigger packages and telling us that they want to dedicate more space on their shelves for lower price points,” Joshua Loerzel, co-owner of Sky Castle Toys told The Post. “Now we have retail channels that are flooded with big-ticket items that were hard to move in the first part of the year.”

These Mini Bratz dolls from MGA Entertainment cost $10 were introduced this year and are one third of the price of the original 11-inch Bratz dolls.
MGA Entertainment

Accordingly, most of Sky Castle Toys’ line-up for the holidays is in the $10-and-below category, Loerzel said. Those include DoodleJamz — squishy drawing pads that are filled with gel and sell for $9.99, versus a larger version priced at $25 when it was first introduced in June 2021. 

“We saw right away that we needed to pivot to a lower price point,” Loerzel said.

Toy giant Hasbro flagged “higher inventory levels” as it delivered lackluster third quarter results, warning it expects this year’s revenue will be “flat” compared to 2021. Its weak results were “further impacted by increasing price sensitivity for the average consumer,” CEO Chris Cocks said. Mattel also warned of “increased volatility in the market” last month as it trimmed its profit outlook for the year and said it is reevaluating its expectations for 2023.

“If you walk into any Target or Walmart store the toy selection is all about value,” Yanofsky said. “You’ll see a lot of stock, which is a complete 180 from last year. Supply is exceeding demand this year.”

When DoodleJamz was first introduced last year it cost $25. Now a smaller version of it costs $10.
Sky Castle Toys

At the Target store in Manhattan on West 42nd Street last week, nearly every toy was marked down between 10% and 20%, with Black Friday signage offering “Buy 2 get 1 free” on books, board games, video games and puzzles. Even Barbie gear was marked down, including $1.70 off a $15.29 Barbie “Brooklyn Roberts Broadway play set and a $1.10 off a $9.89 Barbie Family Chelsea travel set.

“It looks like the first week of January in the stores right now,” Loerzel observed. “There are a lot of early price reductions that you wouldn’t ordinarily see until right after the holidays.”

Lower-priced items, meanwhile, have been selling more briskly, and they have the dual advantage of selling well throughout the year, experts say.

MGA Entertainment introduced 200 SKUs of small, inexpensive toys this holiday season compared to just 10 or 15 last year.
MGA Entertainment

This year, MGA’s original 11-inch Bratz doll turns 21 years old and a special birthday edition, “Girls Nite Out,” is selling for $36 at Target. Meanwhile, however, a new line of, two-inch Mini Bratz dolls also are selling for $9.88 on Amazon and Walmart and $9.99 at Target.

To be sure, there also will still be expensive toys under the Christmas tree this year — but their numbers will be far smaller, say toy insiders.

“The consumer will spend, but likely in smaller bits for the next few quarters,” said Jay Foreman, CEO of Basic Fun, the maker of Tonka trucks and Lite Brite.

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Biden worsening ‘root causes’, gov’t agencies failed Paul Pelosi and other commentary

Border watch: Biden Is Worsening ‘Root Causes’

“Critics with regional expertise say Biden administration policies . . . have severely worsened” poverty, crime and political instability in Mexico and the Southern Triangle — his administration’s alleged “root causes” of immigration, reports RealClearInvestigations’ James Varney. How? “The torrent of people moving across the region has delivered billions of dollars to the coffers of human smuggling rings and the drug cartels.” Reports also suggest “more than two-thirds of those making the trek had been victimized by criminals and nearly one-third of the women had been sexually assaulted.” That’s why one expert sees the surge in traffic as something close to an international crime and places “a lot of blood on the hands” of Team Biden “for opening the Southern border on purpose.”

Iconoclast: Dems’ ‘Pro-Democracy’ Morass

Democrats’ message — that only one party in this election is committed to democracy (theirs), and thus there’s only one real choice — “makes little sense,” even if you reject their agenda and record on issues like inflation, crime and immigration, Josh Barro rants at Very Serious. That message “amounts to telling voters that they have already lost their democracy,” and if you insist to voters they “have no choice but you, you had better make yourself a palatable choice — otherwise, they are liable to defy you and choose what you claimed was unthinkable.” Yet “Democrats have not governed” that way. So: “You can see from [Dems’] actions that they are not actually serious about the arguments they’re making now, and I for one am sick of the disingenuous speechifying.”

Libertarian: GOP Should Govern Like Adults

If Republicans win the House and Senate, they’ll face “enormous challenges”: recession, inflation, debt and deficits “as far as the eye could see” — and more, warns Veronique de Rugy at Reason. How can they address them? First, make inflation a “top priority”: Congress and the White House “must trim government spending,” with Republicans avoiding “bloated ‘family friendly’ programs” like child tax credits and paid leave — which studies show “make the lives of families harder.” They should also resist the urge to “pressure [Federal Reserve] chairman Jerome Powell to stop jacking up” interest rates. Oh, and “govern like adults” — and not seek “revenge” by launching probes against Democratic foes. “Investigating the Dems is not on the top of most voters’ concerns this election season.”

From the right: Gov’t Agencies Failed Paul Pelosi

President Biden’s depiction of the assault on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, “ignores the multiple ways that government agencies who have the responsibility to prevent, deter, or quickly intervene in crimes such as this failed in their duties,” huffs National Review’s Jim Geraghty. The intruder who “attacked Paul Pelosi overstayed his visa and had resided illegally in the U.S. for many years.” Pelosi might have been spared the assault “if there were better enforcement of immigration laws,” had his attacker “been deported back to Canada years ago,” if the city and state had better “intervention for those with severe mental-health issues” and if US Capitol Police had “been watching the surveillance monitors.” Government agencies clearly “failed in their responsibility to protect the public.”

Eye on elex: Blake Masters’ Final Sprint

“Less than one week from Election Day,” notes the Washington Examiner’s Selena Zito, “36-year-old venture capitalist-turned-candidate” Blake Masters “has gone from a long shot at best to within the margin of error” against incumbent Dem Sen. Mark Kelly in Arizona. Why? “Democrats’ failure to recognize earlier how angry voters are about the economy, crime, and the border.” Plus, his age: “I’m a whole generation behind, and I actually know what it’s like to be raising a family under current conditions,” notes Masters. Zito adds that Masters has now joined “dynamo” gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake “on the stump,” and it’s helping his numbers. So the race is being closely watched: “If he flips this seat, Masters will almost certainly enter a Republican majority in the upper chamber.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board

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Democrats’ generic ballot lead for midterm elections shrinks: poll

A new poll finds that Democrats’ lead over Republicans in a generic congressional ballot has dropped threefold since August in yet another sign of the GOP’s momentum advantage with less than a week to go until Election Day. 

The Yahoo News/YouGov survey has captured the downward spiral of the Democratic Party since August, when Democrats led by 6 points in the generic congressional ballot. In late September, the same poll saw Democrats’ lead slip to 4 points. And now in the final Yahoo News/YouGov poll before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, the Democrats’ lead is down to 2 points. 

The survey released on Thursday found that among 1,641 registered voters, 46% say they will vote Democrat and 44% say they will vote Republican. It’s effectively a tie, as the poll’s margin for error is 2.7 percentage points. 

Among those who have already voted or say they will “definitely vote” on Election Day, 49% said they would vote for a Democrat, and 47% said Republican.

The poll also found that voter enthusiasm is favoring Republicans despite more early voting participants saying they voted for Democrats. 

Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Secretary Hillary Clinton rallied potential voters at Barnard College yesterday.
Debra L Rothenberg/Shutterstock

Among registered Democratic voters, 74% have either already voted or say they will “definitely” vote. The number is 7 points higher for registered Republicans, with 81% saying they’ve already voted or will definitely vote.

Other recent polls have also shown Republicans surging and overtaking Democrats on the generic congressional ballot. 

The latest Yahoo News/YouGov poll was conducted from Oct. 27-31.
Getty Images

A Wall Street Journal poll released on Tuesday found Republicans leading by 2 points and a Suffolk University-USA Today poll from last week showed the GOP up by 4 points.

The Yahoo News/YouGov poll also measured what issue voters care about the most, and like numerous other surveys, inflation was cited as the top issue by 38% of voters.  

Also spelling trouble for Democrats, a full 63% of voters said that inflation is “getting worse,” and only 17% said that it’s “getting better.” Republicans also beat Democrats by a wide margin, 43% to 34%,  on the question of which party would do a “better job” on inflation.

The poll was conducted from Oct. 27 to Oct. 31.

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Va. history repeating in NY, … and other commentary

Conservative: Va. History Repeating in NY?

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe likely lost the 2021 election with his debate declaration, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” Now, argues the Washington Examiner’s Hugo Gurdon, Gov. “Hochul may have just gifted deep blue New York to her challenger” with her debate flub, when Rep. Lee Zeldin noted she “hasn’t talked about locking up anyone committing any crimes” and she replied “I don’t know why that is so important to you.” Like McAuliffe’s gaffe, Gurdon notes, it was a “crystalline statement of Democratic insouciance toward ordinary people’s interests.” So: “It can be no surprise” that the polling “trend is fast against” Hochul. If Zeldin wins, “McAuliffe can take consolation in the thought that he isn’t alone in his Olympian blundering.”

Budget watch: Hochul Hiding Red Ink

“Governor Hochul’s budget office has yet to release the statutorily required mid-year financial plan update,” huffs the Empire Center’s Peter Warren. State law requires its release by Oct. 30. Why the delay? Likely because it holds “grim news” reflecting the “economic and financial market downturn.” The Aug. 1 update “projected a sea of red ink in the coming years, with deficits exceeding $6 billion by FY 2027.” By “signing the Green CHIPS legislation” a few days later, Hochul added “another roughly $500 million per year to the outyear annual deficits.” Voters should be able “to see the full impact on the state’s finances of both broad economic and market conditions, and specific policy decisions made by elected officials.” That’s why the law requires them “by a date certain.”

From the left: Big Brother’s Watching You Vote

TKNews’ Matt Taibbi flags the rise of mailers aiming “to remind people voting records are public, and whether they vote next week will be public record.” Some are handwritten with a signature; one creeped-out recipient says, “It feels threatening, as if a neighbor is keeping track of who has or has not voted.” Indeed, Taibbi reports, “the word ‘Orwellian’ came up more than once in interviews” on “so-called social shaming mailers.” Yet the practice “is likely to increase even more in the future” because it works. “Is Big Brother watching? If the wrong party loses next week, someone in your neighborhood probably will be. Welcome to 21st century electioneering.”

Eye on elex: Dems’ Dead-Parrot Denialism

“It’s never a good idea to tell people that what they see before them isn’t real,” warns The Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker, recalling the classic Monty Python “dead parrot” sketch. On key issues, “Democratic candidates across the country are performing an uncanny impersonation of the shopkeeper in the sketch who insists that the deceased bird is in fact not deceased, but ‘just resting’ and ‘pinin’ for the fjords.’ ” President Biden, for one, calls the economy “strong as hell,” yet inflation is “rapidly eroding real wages.” And Gov. Hochul’s “I don’t know why” locking up criminals is “so important to you” remark, Baker contends, shows “a detachment from the reality in which so many of her fellow New Yorkers live.”

Populist: GOP Must Learn From Musk

Elon Musk’s top challenge at Twitter “is changing the culture of this large organization without interrupting its business,” Bruce Abramson explains at RealClearPolitics, and “it’s a task at which President Trump failed. Trump often complained about the politicization and corruption of federal agencies . . . but he had zero perceptible impact on the culture of the federal bureaucracy.” Learn from Musk’s “first moves. He immediately removed key members of Twitter’s leadership, including its CEO, CFO, policy head, and general counsel,” axing “the highest profile senior people most identified with Twitter’s culture.” Then he “denied the rumors that he intended to fire three out of every four employees — without providing details about his actual intentions. The combined message is exactly right: Twitter culture is about to change in a significant way. If you’re competent in your job and on board with the shift, we’d be pleased to have you stay.”

Compiled by The Post Editorial Board

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US home price plunge is ‘just beginning’ as housing market rapidly cools: economist

A substantial plunge in US home prices is likely “just beginning” as decades-high mortgage rates cause a downturn in the housing market, a prominent economist cautioned Friday.

The warning from Pantheon Macroeconomics chief economist Ian Shepherdson followed more dismal data that showed a slowdown in housing activity.

Pending home sales – a measure based on signed contracts – plunged 10.2% in September, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The pending home sales index has plummeted 35% compared to one year ago, according to Shepherdson.

But cratering demand has only recently started to result in lower home prices – meaning more financial pain is on the way for prospective sellers.

“The bad news is that prices have much further to fall before the market adjusts fully to the collapse in demand,” Shepherdson said in a note to clients.

“Home prices have only recently started to decline on a month-to-month basis,” Shepherdson added. “The resilience in prices was made possible by a lack of existing homes on the market, but supply is now rising — albeit slowly — as homeowners who previously held off on selling worry that further delays will mean they fetch a much lower price.”

Mortgage rates are above 7%.
Bloomberg via Getty Images

As The Post reported, Shepherdson recently warned he expects home prices to fall by 20% by next year – a substantial correction after values hit record highs during the pandemic-era housing boom.

Mortgage rates topped 7% this week for the first time since 2002, according to Freddie Mac. Long-term rates have spiked as the Federal Reserve hikes interest rates to combat inflation.

“The good news is that mortgage rates likely are close to a peak, and if they remain around their current level, sales will find a floor early next year,” Shepherdson added.

Home prices are falling fast in some markets.
Getty Images

Sellers are slashing their asking prices to entice buyers who are facing the worst affordability crunch in decades. Mortgage payments are commanding a much larger share of household income, and while home prices are falling fast, they’re still higher than they were one year ago.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun warned that 7% mortgage rates are the “new normal” for buyers until the economy begins to improve.

“Only when inflation is tamed will mortgage rates retreat and boost home purchasing power for buyers,” Yun said.

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Consumer prices — a key inflation gauge — hotter than expected in August

A key inflation indicator showed higher-than-expected increases in core prices in August, adding more pressure on the Federal Reserve to act despite the risk of a deeper recession.

Consumer prices increased by 6.2% in August compared to the same month one year ago, according to the Commerce Department’s Personal Consumption Expenditures index — the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation. The annual rate was down from 6.4% in July.

Prices rose by 0.3% compared to the previous month.

The core PCE, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, increased by a hotter-than-expected 4.9% year-over-year in August, or by 0.6% compared to July.

Ahead of the release, economists expected core PCE inflation to increase by 4.7% year-over-year and by 0.5% compared to July.

The PCE inflation gauge is one of many data points the Federal Reserve uses to inform its policy path. Earlier this month, the Fed hiked its benchmark interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point for the third consecutive time as it doubled down on the fight against inflation.

The Fed’s hawkish stance has spooked investors who fear the central bank’s rate hikes will tip the US economy into a deep recession. Meanwhile, the Fed has pledged to adjust its path based on the data it receives.

“The [Federal Open Markets Committee] is strongly resolved to bring inflation down to 2% and we will keep at it until the job is done,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference earlier this month.

Ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers warned this week that the level of global market risk is similar to conditions seen prior to the Great Recession – and pointed to inflation-related discomfort as a key obstacle for policymakers.

The Fed is expected to enact more rate hikes this year.
AFP via Getty Images

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans, a non-voting member of the rate-setting FOMC, said he was “a little nervous” the Fed was hiking rates too rapidly to fully assess the impact on markets.

Another closely watched gauge, the Consumer Price Index, showed earlier this month that inflation ran at a hotter-than-expected 8.3% in August. Core CPI inflation, which excludes volatile food and gas prices, rose 6.3% year-over-year — up sharply from the rate of 5.9% seen in June and July.

Market analysts are increasingly fearful of a global recession.
Getty Images

As The Post reported, inflation has increased 13% since President Biden took office. Critics of the Biden administration argue the president’s government spending programs and restrictive energy policies have helped to fuel inflation.

Meanwhile, Biden and his allies have argued inflation is showing signs of improvement – and largely placed the blame for higher prices on aftershocks related to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Biden’s bragging about the economy just proves how financially illiterate he is

Last week, the White House attempted to define its economic vision in a 58-page report titled “The Biden-Harris Economic Blueprint.” One first notices the report’s sloppiness. Five footnotes supposedly sourcing the White House data include in bold letters: “Error! Bookmark not defined.” There is also awkward repetition, such as cutting-and-pasting “the strongest and most equitable labor market recovery in modern history” in paragraph after paragraph (eventually getting excited enough to remove the word “modern,” allowing the president to also declare superiority over all ancient economic recoveries).

The most revealing aspect of the White House economic vision is what is not included: inflation or deficit reduction.

Sure, the introduction declares that “President Biden’s top economic priority is bringing down inflation and lowering costs for families,” yet none of the report’s “five core pillars” focuses primarily on combating inflation, which remains incredibly high — 8.3% in August.

In fact, the report repeatedly brags about policies that worsen inflation. This includes mandating Project Labor Agreements and Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rules (union giveaways that raise costs for federal projects), and expanding federal Buy American rules that bar federal agencies from buying cheaper imports. The White House even trumpets its mandate applying expensive Davis-Bacon regulations to semiconductor manufacturers in the CHIPS Act — contradicting the bill’s purpose to lower production costs and spur domestic semiconductor production.

Inflation is still sky-high, even if President Biden says otherwise.
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

The White House report also laments the rising cost of college tuition, yet also brags about steep increases in Pell grants and college student aid that (according to the Federal Reserve) leads colleges to hike tuition further to capture 60% of all student aid.

If bringing down inflation is really the president’s top economic priority, we do not see that in his policies.

Nor does the White House report express any concern over trillion-dollar budget deficits. In fact, the only mention of deficits appears in a throwaway line touting the 2022 deficit decline that was entirely driven by rising tax revenues and the pandemic spending expiring on schedule, rather than any presidential actions.

President Biden’s laws such as the American Rescue Plan, infrastructure bill, veterans’ bill, CHIPS Act, appropriations bills, and student loan bailouts have cumulatively added more than $4 trillion to 10-year deficits in just 20 months. And that is on top of soaring baseline deficits that are scheduled to push interest costs on the debt to a record 3.3% of the economy within a decade. Most of the 58-page plan boasts about all the wonderful new benefits purchased on the national credit card, and offers no plan to stem the tide of red ink.

The White House report also repeatedly, and breathlessly, takes credit for an economic recovery that resulted overwhelmingly from the pandemic receding rather than any presidential policy. The “key accomplishment” of creating 9.7 million jobs stems mostly from the economy reopening following the pandemic. The “decline of more than $1.20 in gas prices this summer” of course fails to mention the $2.61 price rise that had occurred earlier under Biden.

In what is certainly news to Republicans, as well as America’s governors, mayors and public health officials, the report claims that “The Biden-Harris Administration also took decisive action to open America’s schools safely.”

There seem to be few positive developments in America for which the president will not demand full credit.

Vice President Kamala Harris has played along with President Biden’s nonsense.
Amanda Andrade-Rhoades – Pool vi

The report also offers lazy economic analysis that has long been refuted. This includes posting a chart claiming a substantial split between worker pay and productivity that economists on the left and right (including Lawrence Summers) have long disproven.

The report bemoans falling tax revenues, even though 2022 tax revenues are set to reach 19.6% of the economy (the second-highest level since World War II), driven by individual income tax revenues surging to a record 10.6% of the economy. Several charts attempt to show insufficient business tax revenues by including only corporate tax revenues, and ignoring the taxes paid by small businesses through the individual income tax code. The White House repeats the dubious claims that families earning under $400,000 have been spared from all new taxes, and that the $80 billion in new IRS funding will not bring more middle-class audits.

With Americans suffering under painful inflation, declining real wages and a falling stock market, the White House clearly feels pressure to justify its economic performance. They’ll have to do better than the latest spin.

Brian Riedl is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter @Brian_Riedl.

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Tenants say luxe Jersey City building floods, is a ‘nightmare’

For Jordan Mendelson, 28, living in a luxury building with a rooftop swimming pool, private gym, floor-to-ceiling views of Manhattan, the Hudson River and Statue of Liberty all within a stone’s throw away from New York City sounded like a dream when she got the keys to her $3,600-per-month two-bedroom apartment in September 2020. But six months later, it became a living nightmare. 

In March of 2021, Mendelson, an attorney, got a frantic call from her fiancé while she was at the hair salon saying the elevator in their 49-story building in Jersey City — 70 Greene — had flooded. 

“There was water pouring down in the elevator. We ended up having to climb up 72 flights of stairs,” Mendelson, who lives on the 36th floor, told The Post. She said it took her 40 minutes to hike up to her apartment, where she found her cat scurrying in fright, amidst no power and a leaky ceiling. 

Slow and stalled elevators have been an ongoing issue, Jordan Mendelson said.
Stefano Giovannini

“We hadn’t experienced anything like this,” she said, noting a pipe bursting in the building. The same thing happened, she said, in April 2022, and once again – and at its worst – earlier this month. That time it was so bad that hordes of residents had to relocate to nearby hotels for four days, sources told The Post. 

According to the listing portal Rent, Jersey City is now the most expensive US city to live in, but those living in 70 Greene say it’s hardly a luxurious life. More than 260 of the building’s residents have been sounding off in a community chat about the building’s management — publicly owned real estate company Equity Residential, which owns numerous waterfront properties in Jersey City, as well as New York City, D.C., Boston, San Francisco and others. Some of the gripes include maintenance staff unable to turn off the building’s water during the most recent floods, which reportedly led to a 9-month pregnant woman falling down a flight of stairs as she tried to exit the building. Other complaints include leaks causing property damage, elevator and hot water outages.

During the last flood, the elevator dropped 10 floors down before the emergency brake kicked in, one source told The Post. (Equity Residential denied this claim.) More proof and scathing reviews can be found on Google, Yelp and TikTok. 

Some residents took to social media platforms like TikTok to post about the flooded elevator inside 70 Greene in Jersey City.
TikTok

“This building is a complete nightmare. It was duct taped together years ago and its pipes explode every six months,” a Yelp user who goes by John B wrote of 70 Greene.

“The elevators were designed by squirrels and only operate 25% of the time. I don’t care what website tells you its [sic] 5 stars or who in the building says its [sic] a luxury building DO NOT LIVE HERE,” he urged in the one-star review.

Other current residents would agree, particularly after the last flood incident.

“You had to find your way through a dark staircase. Coming down 32 flights of stairs was just impossible. It was complete lockdown for the building,” a 46-year-old resident who has lived in the building for five years and asked to remain anonymous told The Post.

“There was no action plan from Equity until four days after the incident. Imagine just being homeless for four days? You couldn’t get a hotel room because the hotels were packed from residents. The fact that it took four days to come up with a resolution plan is unheard of, especially in a place where rents are exorbitant,” they said.

A flooded hallway after a pipe burst inside 70 Greene.
TIKTOK/@luanamoreira2103

A spokesperson for Equity Residential noted that residents will get reimbursed for hotel stays and property damage. The spokesperson told The Post they were unaware that a pregnant woman fell during the August building flooding.

Another resident, Clarissa Latman, posted a video on TikTok after the last flood showing puddles of water leaking from the elevator’s ceiling, a flooded gym, soiled carpet and residents climbing up flights of stairs as firetrucks appeared to assess the situation outside the building.  

“I have lived here for more than three years, and have experienced a number of dangerous conditions which came to a head after our third major flood due to negligent maintenance of the building’s pipes,” another resident, who asked The Post to remain anonymous out of fear of building retaliation, said. “The building has been giving us the run around, not communicating with us,” said the source, who also claimed 70 Greene was “deleting reviews” all the while upping the rent by as much as 30%. 

Jersey City, often called the invisible sixth borough of New York City, can command an average of $5,500 in rent, according to a report by the listing portal Rent as previously reported by The Post. Mendelson started packing her bags after seeing her own two-bedroom apartment listed for $5,942, up from the $3,600 COVID deal she got in 2020. 

“We ended up chasing them [70 Greene] for a lease renewal and they came back at $4,400, but it was still a $600 increase in one year,” Mendelson said,

Another woman paying close to $3,900 for a one-bedroom, who asked The Post to leave her name out, said she suffered $1,500 in property damage from the most recent flood when leaks from the ceiling on her 15th-floor unit damaged clothing, shoes, bedding and personal items in the apartment she shares with her partner. Luckily, she had renter’s insurance and said the building had offered to pitch in.

A memo posted inside the building notifying residents of a closed amenity space following the flood.
Stefano Giovannini

“Unfortunately we did recently have a pipe burst at 70 Greene which resulted in water damage to a number of apartment units as well as common areas and impacted the regular operation of the elevators,” Equity Residential spokesman Marty McKenna told The Post.

“We have worked with the impacted residents to find other accommodations, which we are paying for. We have also offered rent abatements to the residents. We are working with our contractors to assess the cause of the pipe burst and to make the necessary repairs at 70 Greene.”

Mendelson, however, is wary of such messaging from the management company after all she’s seen. She and her fiancé will be moving next month.

 “It’s not worth it, at the end of the day,” she said.

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Fed’s future rate hikes hinge on inflation data: minutes

Federal Reserve officials said last month that the pace of future interest rate increases would hinge on incoming data, with some saying rates would need to stay at a “sufficiently restrictive level” for “some time” in order to control inflation, according to the minutes of the July 26-27 session.

Participants at the session said it may take longer than anticipated for inflation to dissipate, and that a slowdown in aggregate demand engineered by the central bank “would play an important role in reducing inflation pressures,” said the minutes, which were released on Wednesday.

The Fed hiked interest rates by another 0.75% last month.
Bloomberg via Getty Images

The minutes did not indicate clear bias among Fed officials for either a smaller rate increase of half a percentage point or a third consecutive 75-basis-point hike at the upcoming Sept. 20-21 meeting, but a restatement that the behavior of inflation and the economy in general would drive the decision.

The Fed has lifted its benchmark overnight interest rate by 225 points this year to a target range of 2.25% to 2.50% as part of an effort to control inflation, which is running at a four-decade high and hovering, by the Fed’s preferred measure, at more than three times the 2% target.

The central bank is widely expected to hike rates next month by either 50 or 75 basis points.

For the Fed to scale back its rate hikes, inflation reports due to be released before the next meeting would likely need to confirm that the pace of price increases was declining.

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