Virtual Vanaprastha
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virtualvanaprastha.bsky.social
Virtual Vanaprastha
@virtualvanaprastha.bsky.social
720 followers 860 following 940 posts
Poet, essayist, amateur scholar of cultural anthropology and literary history who loves the small details. A throwback Progressive dedicated to the canon, rigorous rational analysis and ballasting the present with a strong knowledge of the past. No DMs.
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The season progresses in spite of a drizzly day. Halloween approacheth.
'The panel “deems void President Biden’s executive actions that were signed using the Autopen, and the committee determines that action by the Department of Justice is warranted to address the legal consequences of that determination,” it said in its letter to Bondi, published Tuesday.'
Biden’s autopen pardons void due to ‘mental decline’, House Oversight Committee says
Republican-led panel claims former president’s ‘cognitive decline’ was so severe he may not have been aware what he was signing and his clemency orders are therefore ‘null and void’ and should be revi...
www.independent.co.uk
The BLS Owner’s Equivalent of Rent page has been taken down. No BLS tables are available for "Average Price Data" for the most recent (September) report.
"OER weighs 26% of CPI, 33% of core CPI, 44% of core services CPI. It moves the needle. CPI inflation would have been a lot hotter without this outlier situation.
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Something went wrong... and significantly pushed down the month-to-month readings of Consumer Price Index."

Rate cuts by fiat.
Massive Outlier in Owner’s Equivalent of Rent Pushed Down CPI, Core CPI, Core Services CPI: Something Went Awry at the BLS | Wolf Street
wolfstreet.com
"OER weighs 26% of CPI, 33% of core CPI, 44% of core services CPI. It moves the needle. CPI inflation would have been a lot hotter without this outlier situation.
*
Something went wrong... and significantly pushed down the month-to-month readings of Consumer Price Index."

Rate cuts by fiat.
Massive Outlier in Owner’s Equivalent of Rent Pushed Down CPI, Core CPI, Core Services CPI: Something Went Awry at the BLS | Wolf Street
wolfstreet.com
"[A]dvisory committees are populated by activists from organizations openly hostile to conservative principles who use the committees to impede conservative policy. [S]uch committees should be reviewed regarding whether they are required by statute and abolished if they are not." Project 2025 @ 666.
"electricity prices rose 5.1% over the past 12 months through September, while gas service went up a whopping 11.7%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.

That came as the feds and state governments have been offering financial incentives for companies to build data centers."
Utility bills spike as power-hungry AI data centers boom, Bank of America report finds
The average utility payment for electricity and gas jumped in the third quarter of 2025 compared to the same period last year, according to a study led by Bank of America.
nypost.com
"The Secretary of Commerce has determined that the purposes for which the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee (FESAC) was established have been fulfilled, and the committee has been terminated effective February 28, 2025."
Here is the archived version of the USDA Shutdown Plan that has just been removed from the Trump Administration USDA site.
web.archive.org
'The Agriculture Department says... states won't be reimbursed if they cover the expenses on their own,...
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House Democrats accused USDA of "avoiding accountability" and ignoring its own shutdown-funding plan, which was struck from its own website, that indicated emergency funds could be used.'
Exclusive: USDA says it won't use emergency funds for food stamps
States also won't be reimbursed if they cover SNAP expenses on their own, the memo says.
www.axios.com
'September drop follows modest increases of 0.2% in August and 3.2% in July, both periods that McCown says were “significantly buoyed by frontloading to get goods in prior to additional tariffs going into effect.” Prior to those temporary gains, ports saw decreases of 8.3% in June and 6.6% in May.'
U.S. Container Imports Plunge 6.6% in September as Tariff Fallout Takes Hold
The ten largest U.S. ports recorded a 6.6% year-over-year decrease in inbound container volume in September, marking a sharp reversal from earlier months and signaling the beginning of what industry.....
gcaptain.com
"OER weighs 26% of CPI, 33% of core CPI, 44% of core services CPI. It moves the needle. CPI inflation would have been a lot hotter without this outlier situation.
*
Something went wrong... and significantly pushed down the month-to-month readings of Consumer Price Index."
😢
Gavin Newsom Knows Chump and
Stephen Miller's Playbook Well......
The August Consumer Price Index (CPI) derived from 'different-cell imputation', reached 36%. Under Trump, the expert oversight boards have been terminated. The rate of imputation/estimation has gone way up. This month the BLS was called back in for less than one week in order to calculate inflation.
Soaring CPI Imputation Rate Raises Data Accuracy Concerns in the US
Increased reliance on 'different-cell imputation' in the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) sparks worries about data quality and its impact on monetary policy and economic decisions.
www.markets.com
How convenient! A MAGA media outlet suddenly announces "an analysis" by the MAGA think tank Paragon Health Institute, founded by Brian Blase, health policy adviser to Trump during the first administration, saying the Democrats are completely wrong about the pending increase in ACA premiums.
Health Check: New Data Blunts Democrats' Core Claim In Funding Fight Over Obamacare Subsidies
A new analysis released Tuesday is challenging the central argument made by Congressional Democrats in the ongoing government funding debate, where they are
www.tampafp.com
Watched it on YouTube a couple of weeks ago.