Notes from the edge of civilization: Feb. 11, 2024
The Biden administration goes to war on 'shrinkflation'; Abbott gets tough on trafficking; and in our latest podcast, learn the ABCs of Bitcoin.
Two key issues are likely to play a huge role in shaping this year’s US elections: inflation and immigration.
This week, the Senate voted down a border deal that was bundled together with $60 billion in aid for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel.
The bill would have provided $20 billion in emergency funding to hire more Border Patrol agents and asylum officers, increase the capacity to detain illegal entrants, and invest in drug control. It also included a trigger that would kick in when border crossings reached a certain threshold (5,000 per day over 7 days or 8,500 in a single day). At those levels, Homeland Security would be given the authority to quickly remove illegal migrants.
While the bill now hangs in limbo, with Republican lawmakers calling it “dead on arrival,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott continued to take matters into his own hands. This week he announced a new law that makes human smuggling a felony carrying a 10-year minimum prison sentence, up from the previous misdemeanor with a two-year minimum sentence.
Of course, there are opponents of the new law who say it will not prove to be a useful deterrent.
“This increase in policing and increase criminalization is going to further exacerbate the overcrowding of our jails,” said David Stout, an El Paso County commissioner who joined the advocates during the news conference. “This is all based on the big lie that we have open borders. Gov. Abbott has utilized this lie to justify the expenditure of billions of dollars over the last number of years.”
Without wading into the politics of it, pretty sure Mr. Stout’s been watching too much CNN and staring at Vice stories on his phone. Maybe this will help?
Now, on to our second election issue: inflation. The Biden administration seems to finally recognize it does exist… sort of. The President admits things are getting more expensive but the narrative shift is that greedy corporations are to blame by choosing to put fewer potato chips and Twizzlers in the bag.
In a move reminiscent of Justin Trudeau blaming money-grubbing grocery stores for high food prices in Canada, today President Biden released a 48-second video in which he expressed frustration over companies reducing the size of their products while keeping prices the same, a practice known widely as “shrinkflation.”
“It’s a rip off,” Biden said. “The American public is tired of being played for suckers. I’m calling on companies to put a stop to this.”
That follows a similar message from Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who took to X earlier this week to complain about shrinkflation and call for a crackdown on corporate greed.
It would almost be funny if it weren’t so aggravating! Worse yet, this blatant scapegoating tactic may just work on many Americans who don’t understand that Biden’s money-printing bonanza over the past few years is what led to decreasing purchasing power and more money chasing fewer goods and services. Without shrinking product sizes, the cost of products would increase much more dramatically and create far more pain for the average consumer. Shrinkflation is a subtle mitigator, but also an obvious harbinger that all is not necessarily well.
If you know people in your life who could use a quick primer on the shrinking dollar, or the scary specter of price controls, please share the following two stories with them.
While you’re at it, why not also share our latest podcast episode, which offers a basic primer on Bitcoin in simple-to-understand language. We love gold, and so does our guest, Mark Jeftovic — the co-founder and CEO of Easy DNS Technologies. But as he explains, Bitcoin has some advantages (its digital, decentralized nature, and its portability and independence from third-party control) and has a role to play as a "just in case" asset. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a techie to understand it!
Have a great week!