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Good grief--almost everything you went through is a ten on the scale of stress. (I took the test pretending like I was you and took a couple of guesses. Try it. Yikes!) If you got fired for your briefing to the House, if you haven't already, please demand an apology. You were 100% right. And get a glowing letter of reference in writing. It's against the law for them to bad mouth you on the phone so if you don't get whatever job you want, *ever*, they are at fault. Meanwhile, from an old, hard-hitting broad, think about playing well in the sandbox. I never figured it out and wish I had. Maybe not necessary since you are so incredibly brilliant but men can't stand women with sharp elbows especially when you are smarter than they are. That's the way it rolls. Sucks. I love your kitty!

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTCS_82.htm#:~:text=The%20Holmes%20%26%20Rahe%20Stress%20Scale%20is%20a,you%E2%80%99re%20at%20risk%20of%20illness%20due%20to%20stress.

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Claudia, I can empathize with you. Not in one instance but in several moments in my professional life I went through a similar experience. Some people think their duty is to "reprogram" others!

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We are very lucky to have people like you Claudia! We got your back against these junk economists. Only a complete fool can't see that you were right. The economic elites in the US fought against the policy proposals initiated by FDR during the WW2 to distribute limited supply and control inflation also. In times of large reduction of supply in the US, like during WW2 and the COVID 19 pandemic, these shameless economist and politicians prescribe cutting access off to the limited supply to the bottom half of the population. What makes it even more shameless is that they ask those same people to fight the fire. During WW2 it was the soldiers and their families, and during COVID it was the essential workers. John Maynard Keynes "How To Pay For The War" laid out the basic road map of the right way to control inflation is a supply constrained environment. The economic success the US had following WW2 was because of the decision FDR made to follow a similar road map that Keynes had advised UK government. The economic success the US is having today is because the Democratic party listen to people like you and S. Kelton.

As Bill Mitchell often points out; any time you cut off a large portion of your productive capacity, any spending can cause inflation, not just government spending. As a person who didn't qualify for any of those checks due to my income, I also increased my spending on stocking up on home supplies. It didn't matter if you received any government assistance or not, if you had plenty of money you were going spend money. It would have been a far bigger disaster than the "Great Recession" had they not followed your advice, I think.

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These are all very good point, especially the connection between this cycle and the WWI and WWII. Isabella Weber has written extensively on those periods, making her the perfect expert for this one. It has been a frustration that many of our peers look to the 1970s as the comparison. It is not. I also value the words of encouragement. It's not been easy to push back against the consensus.

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The1970s inflation comparison is ridiculous. This just shows they don't understand the difference between "cost push" and "demand pull" inflation. If they don't understand the difference they shouldn't be commenting on inflation. They insist on attributing inflation to government over spending while ignoring the supply side that is the source. They use inflation as justification for putting downward pressure on wages. The inflation caused by the 1973 and 1979 oil price shocks opened the door to implement junk economic theory designed to weaken the power of labor and lower wages. The fed doesn't have the right tools to controlling inflation in any meaningful way. At this point the fed is just making inflation worse by reducing much needed investments.

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