Inflation and Revisiting Section 230: Make Musk and Zuckerberg Pay |
CounterPunch Exclusives
CounterPunch Exclusives
Inflation and Revisiting Section 230: Make Musk and Zuckerberg Pay
The inflation data released yesterday and today were bad and worse. The CPI increased 0.5 percent in May, while the core rose 0.2 percent. That brought their year-over-year inflation rates to 4.2 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively, well above the Fed’s 2.0 percent target.
The Producer Price Index (PPI) showed that much more inflation is in the pipeline. The overall index rose 1.1 percent, bringing its increase over the last twelve months to 6.5 percent. The core PPI rose 0.8 percent. It is now up 5.1 percent over the last year.
I’ll have more to say on inflation on the weekend, but if we saw this sort of inflation under Biden, it would be hair on fire stuff. In fairness, Trump does have his war, his efforts to derail the fall elections, and his corruption scandals to distract us, but a big jump in inflation is ordinarily a big deal. (Even bigger, since Trump says he loves inflation.)
And this inflation is all of Trump’s own doing. Biden had to deal with a pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, problems that were not of his making. When Trump was elected, inflation had been headed downward to the Fed’s 2.0 percent target. But Trump’s tariffs, his mass deportations, and his war reversed the downward path and sent inflation sharply higher. That’s a pretty bad story.
Section 230 Immunity and Making the Billionaires Pay
Most people are probably clueless about what Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act is. That’s the way the tech billionaires like it. It is one provision of an obscure act, which is almost unknown outside of DC policy circles.
The deal with Section 230 is that it grants social........