5-Points

Prices were around $3.50 pre-covid when Trump was in office. I wonder why that was.

Nope. Just letting you know that gas prices are still high.

Any decent parent would limit their children's screen time.

So? I just told you what the price of gas is at the station near me in California.

He prolly searched for "cheapest gas in NYC" and thinks he made a valid point.

Chevron station near me is $4.80. And the refinery is only 12 miles away.

Bump

While this is 100% true, it isn't reflected in my 401K. It's my SEP IRA that is proof positive that I can't invest for sh!t.

My 401K says it was booming then and total shite now.

Uh, businesses were forced to close during covid. Many were never able to reopen. Why would that lead to over hiring?

The correct phrasing should've been "the economy was booming under Trump and struggling to recover under Biden." It isn't tribalism when it's the truth.

Not when the economy is doing "really good."

Says the guy who claims "the economy was 'fine' under Trump" and "really good under Biden." When all the evidence says otherwise.

Yep, the economy is really good under Biden Over 305,000 Laid Off In Major U.S. Cuts This Year—Here Are The Biggest More than 305,000 employees in the U.S. lost their jobs in a torrent of major layoffs at U.S. companies throughout the year, according to Forbes’ layoff tracker, starting with a parade of cuts at tech giants in January, and persisting stubbornly throughout the summer and fall even as recession fears tapered off and as unemployment rates remain low. After cutting 10,000 employees late last year, Amazon announced plans in January to cut another 8,000 in what CEO Andy Jassy called an “uncertain economy,” while in March, the tech giant cut 9,000 positions, and in November, it laid out plans to slash “several hundred” more employees in a cost-cutting initiative to “better align with [its] business priorities.” Google parent company Alphabet cut roughly 12,000 jobs in January, which CEO Sundar Pichai referred to as “tough choices” to capture “the huge opportunity in front of us, including from the company’s investments in AI. January also saw a major layoff at Microsoft affecting 10,000 employees (just under 5% of the Washington-based tech company’s 180,000 employees), with another 1,000 employees in sales and customer service reportedly losing their jobs in July. Meta, which cut 10,000 employees in January, let go of another 6,000 in May, bringing its total layoffs since fall 2022 to 21,000—CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in March the company is in a “year of efficiency” that, in part, will “improve [its] financial performance in a difficult environment so we can execute our long term vision.” Also in January, software company Salesforce announced plans to cut 7,900 employees (10% of the company’s workforce) amid a “challenging” economic environment, according to CEO Marc Benioff, though the San Francisco-based company hired another 3,300 employees in September. In February, Dell Technologies, the owner of PC-maker Dell, cut more than 6,600, which it attributed to “uncertain” market conditions, Bloomberg reported, while software company IBM said it would cut roughly 3,900 employees (1.5% of its workforce). In August, CVS Health cut 5,000 of its more than 300,000 employees, though the company told Forbes at the time those layoffs will not affect “customer-facing” positions at its pharmacy and clinic locations. CONTRA Despite painful cuts at big tech companies, the overall unemployment rate remains very low. The U.S. labor market added 199,000 jobs in November, outpacing economists’ expectations and bringing the unemployment rate to 3.7%, well below the Covid-era all-time high of 14.7% in April, 2020. The unemployment rate has remained below 4% since January 2022, while annual hourly wages have inched up, climbing 12 cents—a 0.4% increase—in November, according to data released earlier this month from the Labor Department. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, layoffs by non-farm employers have remained roughly flat in the wake of the pandemic, and have returned to pre-pandemic levels following a massive surge in 2020. TANGENT Other major layoffs this year took place at Detroit’s Big Three automakers—Ford, General Motors and Chrysler parent Stellantis—which all cut thousands of employees this fall, with the companies attributing those cuts to downstream effects of the United Auto Workers strike. Many of those workers were rehired after the strike. During the strike, which lasted six weeks and targeted specific manufacturing plants, Ford laid off more than 3,100 employees, while Stellantis—the maker of Jeep, Dodge and Ram—cut more than 2,000 and GM let go of roughly 2,300. Ford had reportedly cut another 1,000 employees in June, while GM slashed another 940 in July and Stellantis earlier this month let go of 1,225 employees. KEY BACKGROUND Big U.S. tech companies, banks, manufacturers and health care providers increasingly started cutting costs through the summer of 2022, leading to major job cuts at HP, Amazon, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Meta. The layoffs were fueled partly by recession fears, which were amplified as the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates in a bid to curb sky-high inflation. Nearly 125,000 employees were hit by major U.S. layoffs between June and December, 2022, according to Forbes’ 2022 tracker. Those layoffs continued in the first six months of 2023, with 194,000 people losing their jobs in major U.S. cuts, and into the fall, even as inflation started to taper off and the Fed paused its campaign of hiking interest rates—though rates have remained above pre-pandemic levels. Interest rate hikes, which have the effect of curbing inflation, also reduce demand for goods and services, often prompting companies to slow down hiring or lay off employees. Those market changes can affect sectors from banking to construction—Bank of America economist Michael Gapen told CNBC in August that slowed demand means “you’re likely slowing hiring, and there may be layoffs.” BIG NUMBER More than 74,000. That’s how many employees were cut in a series of major layoffs at U.S. companies in January, the biggest month for large-scale layoffs this year, according to Forbes’ layoff tracker. The number of employees hit by layoffs in January more than doubled the second-biggest month, March, when nearly 35,000 employees were cut, followed by July (just over 34,000) and April (roughly 28,000). Companies always do mass layoffs when the economy is "doing really good."

Wordle 959 5/6* 🟨 🟨🟨 🟨🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Framed #694 🟥 🟩 https://framed.wtf Holy sh!t what a lucky guess!

Or, maybe, we love our country and we hate to see ungrateful, illegal, shitbags feel like they're entitled to be here when they aren't. It could be that, too, right?

They're already at war with us. The fact that you don't realize that makes YOU the joke.

I don't speak for you.

All part of the plan.

They would prolly be more effective if we didn't wait a week then telegraph them before striking. I speak for all Americans when I say this administration is the biggest joke this country has ever had to endure.

The world needs more glass. Just sayin.

I'm still around.