In economics, religion, and politics, the moral path is freedom.

Background on the inflation environment.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

(As with the previous discussion, this comment is cross-posted from my other blog, Attestation Update. This information is useful not just for CPAs interpreting the financial results of their clients, but also for readers of this blog, because the rapid run-up of inflation fears is a risk to economic freedom. If we return to the devastating inflation rates of the 1970s, we would see severely harm to economic freedom.)

Previous post suggested It’s time to start monitoring inflation. The dramatic increase in inflation rate in March and April 2021 suggests we need to be watching the inflation numbers more closely.

Not only does this help us generally understand what is going on around us, but specifically it helps us understand and interpret our clients’ financial results as we provide audit and review services.

A few articles I have found helpful in the recent weeks providing context on the inflation environment:

5/5/21 – Wall Street Journal – Everything Screams Inflation – Columnist senses a possible shifting point from the low inflation we have seen for a very long time, going back to a sustained period of high inflation.

He cites five general trends which point towards years of high inflation:

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

More indications of economic damage from shutdown.

Federal judge ruled the moratorium is a flagrantly illegal power grab. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

A bit of good news to go with the ongoing indications of economic destruction.

  • Federal judge ruled the CDC can’t force landlords to provide no-cash-payment housing.
  • Black homeowners having more difficulty getting back on track with mortgage payments than other ethnic groups. Economic impact of shutdowns are falling disproportionately hard on minorities.
  • Rent prices in New York City continue in freefall.

5/6/21 – Foundation for Economic Education – A Federal Judge Just Struck Down One of the CDC’s Most Blatant Power Grabs – The Centers for Disease Control assumed for itself the power to prohibit evictions of renters because they were not paying rent.

No, although it may be your first reaction, that is not socialism. The government telling you what to do with your property, how much to produce, and controlling the price you can charge, thus converting the property into de facto government property, actually falls into the definition of the economic system of fascism.

Article reminds us that in 9/20, CDC issued an order that non-paying tenants cannot be evicted in most situations. Serious penalties involved.

The extreme rationalization to grab this power was shut down by a federal judge on 5/5/20.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

It’s time to start monitoring inflation.

(This discussion is cross-posted from my other blog, Attestation Update. The primary audience for this discussions is CPAs, so we can start to monitor the inflation data. This allows us CPAs to better understand what is going on with our clients when providing audit or review services. The information is also useful for readers of this blog, because the rapid run-up of inflation fears is a risk to economic freedom. A return to the devastating inflation rates of the 1970s would severely harm our economic freedom.)

As CPAs, we pay attention to economic trends because those have big impact on our client’s operations.  Understanding what is happening in terms of interest rates, growth or shrinkage in the GDP, unemployment trends, and real estate prices also helps us interpret financial statements during and audit or review.

It is time to start monitoring inflation rates.

Graph at the top of this post shows worrying information about inflation.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

More indications of health consequences caused by economic shutdown.

How many more advanced cancer cases and how many more cancer deaths will we see because of the economic shutdown? Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

A few of the recent articles pointing to health consequences from shutting down the economy:

  • Flu bug has essentially disappeared.
  • Rapid increase in alcohol deaths in England and Wales during the lockdown.
  • One study finds being at home is more dangerous than being at work.
  • Three articles point to the harsh medical consequences of the drop in cancer screenings; people are dying because of lack of access to health care during the lockdown.

I hope someday there will be accountability for the politicians and public health officials who put us in this place.

4/29/21 – Scientific American – Flu Has Disappeared Worldwide during the Covid Pandemic – Since the Covid pandemic began the incidents of influenza have shrank to level of inconsequential. One expert is quoted as saying there is “no flu circulating.”

Tally of deaths in the United States from influenza:

  • 34,000 – 2018-2019 flu season
  • 22,000 – 2019-2020 flu season
  • 600 – 2020-2021 flu season, yes 600

Article has graph of influenza cases per week in North America. Graph of the previous eight flu seasons shows huge spike a couple months ago. The graph for the 2021 flu season is a flat line indistinguishable from zero. Looking at the graph you assume that flu has completely disappeared from North America.

“Experts” mentioned in the article unanimously attribute the disappearance to the same protocols used in an attempt to limit Covid infection – wearing masks, washing hands, frequent use of hand sanitizers, and social distancing.

Amusingly, missing from the article is even the mere possibility of considering that there might perhaps be the option of miscoding or erroneous diagnosis. There is no hint that could even possibly happen.

5/6/21 – Lockdown Skeptics – Alcohol Deaths Rise to Highest Level Since Records Began in England and Wales – Deaths from alcohol abuse have been rising for many years in England and Wales. However, there is a 20% increase in 2020 over 2019 with most of the acceleration happening after the lockdown began.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Ongoing news reports of the destruction caused by the lockdowns imposed by governments.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Infection rates continue to drop. Depending on the particular statistic and which county you wish to look at, infections, hospitalization, and death rate are down in California somewhere in the range of 90% to 95% or even more since early January.

Yet California is still in lockdown. Not as abusively harsh as several months ago, but still in severe lockdown. So the ongoing destruction will continue.

Merely a few of the recent articles which will be highlighted today:

  • The “hygiene theater” of deep clean is no longer necessary according to CDC
  • CDC reports drug overdose are soaring
  • Young adults are suffering severe psychological damage
  • Small businesses can’t find employees because of the overgenerous federal unemployment benefits
  • Some class-action lawsuit against higher education are moving forward
  • Infective pandemic is accelerating the close of colleges

Adverse Health Impacts

4/8/21 – New York Times – Has the Era of Overzealous Cleaning Finally Come to an End? – CDC finally conceded it is exquisitely rare to transmit coronavirus by touching a contaminated surface. They assess the risk that less than one in 10,000.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

‘Rules for thee but not for me’ still operative policy for our elected ‘leaders.’

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

There haven’t been high visiblity examples in the last couple of months where political or medical leaders exercise their divine right to ignore the rules they impose on everyone else. Or perhaps I just haven’t been paying enough attention.

Well, the governor of Michigan and two of her aides have broken the dry spell of flagrant hypocrites getting caught in their hypocrisy.

Make a completely wild guess what the governor did while urging her subjects citizens to avoid travel to Florida for spring break and warn that snowbirds could easily bring infection back with them when returning from Florida?

Yup. She took a trip to Florida.

To visit her father.

Since the purpose wasn’t to frolic on the beach the trip is okey-dokey.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Lockdown protest songs from Van Morrison and Eric Clapton.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

In fall 2020 Van Morrison and Eric Clapton released songs protesting lockdowns, describing the damage the economic shutdowns were causing and focused attack on our freedoms. A host of articles referenced on my blog describe the damage they were referring to.

On 9/18/20 Van Morrison announced three songs:

  • Born To Be Free
  • As I Walked Out
  • No More Lockdowns

Eric Clapton also released a song:

  • Stand and Deliver

For reasons you can easily figure out for yourself, which I will not state explicitly, the songs were trashed in public. I will not link to or summarize the articles complimenting the songs because they get more political than I choose.

Before going into further discussion of the songs, with links to Amazon and some highlights of the lyrics, here are four out of dozens of articles trashing them:

Merely from the titles of the articles, you can tell how much venom was poured out on the songs.

A hint of what the self-appointed critics did not like:

As I walked out all the streets were empty
The government said everyone should stay home
And they spread fear and loathing and no hope for the future
Not many did question this very strange move

After reading several articles, including some that were favorable, I wasn’t going to look at the songs any further. However, I decided to at least take a quick look. After I listened to Born To Be Free, I looked up the lyrics and listened again. Then I was intrigued and listened to all four songs, following along with the lyrics.

If you read my blog and especially if you got this far in this particular post, you will enjoy the songs.

Born To Be Free

By the way, all four of the songs are available for a mere $0.89. This one is available at Amazon at the link:

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Protest song against lockdowns from Mick Jaggar. Wait… What?

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Um, yeah. Rolling Stones, well Mick Jagger by himself (since the band can’t get together), weighed in with a song protesting the lockdowns.

A protest song.

Song ridicules the ongoing lockdown, describing the lobotomizing effect of being isolated.

It compares the forced quarantine to prison confinement.

There is one recurring line, which you have to think about a while:

It’ll be a memory you’re trying to remember to forget.

Aha…we will have to work to forget this horrible time.

It is a nightmare for those who lost businesses, will never catch up on their rent, whose education has been harshly disrupted if not destroyed, all those who now have severe depression, and those with well-advanced cancer because they couldn’t get in to see a doctor for so many months to check out that odd thing and now it is stage 4.

Yes, we will all have memories that will we be trying to forget.

A hint of the lyrics:

We took it on the chin
The numbers were so grim
Bossed around by p*****.

The video of Easy Sleazy, then more lyrics:

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By Jim Ulvog, ago