It is the late Joe Schmidt, Pittsburgh native, football player at Pitt and in the NFL, coach of the Detroit Lions, who is credited with the quintessential observation on the human existence.
“Life,” Schmidt is quoted as saying, “is a shit sandwich and every day you take another bite.”
The maxim so impressed author/sportswriter Larry Merchant that he used the sanitized “And Every Day You Take Another Bite” for the title of his 1971 book on the NFL, which is described on Amazon as a humorous look at players, owners and a league that tended to take itself too seriously.
Things really haven’t changed that much, either regarding the NFL or life in general.
Schmidt’s catchall philosophy comes to mind as I contemplate the curious events that unfold day after day.
Consider today’s inflation report. Amidst the shorthand alphabet soup that describes various aspects of gayness (LGBTQ) or vapid, attention-seeking politicians (AOC), we have the various government inflation gauges.
Tuesday we had the CPI (Consumer Price Index) information released for June. This is not to be confused with PCE (Personal consumption expenditures) or PPI (Producer price index), to name a few.
These measures are the equivalent of rubber rulers. One can stretch them to indicate whatever is desired by that individual.
Consider that today a headline on zerohedge.com regarding the CPI number headlined “Tariff-ic! Core Consumer Price Inflation Cooler Than Expected In June.”
Meanwhile, on CNBC.com, the web site of the cable news channel inhabited by an unexpectedly large number of Trump haters who pepper their observations with snarky remarks about the president, the headline was generic. But the story emphasized that this month’s increase of three-tenths of a percentage point, to an annual inflation rate of 2.7 percent, was just the start because the bogeyman of tariffs is yet to be felt fully.
The zerohedge people, in the story on that site, noted – correctly – that we’ve been warned repeatedly that tariffs already would be making our existences that much more expensive. Yet the impact is nowhere to be seen in the numbers.
They noted that shelter and energy accounted for the modest uptick in June inflation, even as prices of new and used cars were falling, which was not supposed to happen with tariffs in place.
What it means, mostly, is that when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell convenes his gang of Fed governors at month’s end (July 29-30) the expectation is yet again for no cut in interest rates.
President Donald Trump wants Powell gone, feeling that the head man of the Fed is demonstrably political. Powell had cut rates by 50 basis points in September last year, close to an election and when most observers said he would not, fearing he would appear to be political in trying to get Kamala elected.
Powell also presided over massive Clueless Joe Biden spending initiatives, with nary a negative word. Yet, this same Powell has been all over the airwaves lamenting the potential impact of Trump tariffs and using that as justification to keep interest rates untouched.
In case you missed it, largely due to those tariffs, the U.S. ran a trade surplus of about $27 billion in June, the first such positive month in eight years. By way of comparison, the May trade deficit – not surplus – was $316 billion!
Fed man Powell plays both sides of the issue. When the numbers back his reluctance to cut interest rates, he insists he is data dependent. When the data indicates interest rate cuts are in order – and some of his Fed governors have been saying so publicly – he hops from data to expectation. He thinks tariffs will be inflationary, sort of like he thought previous inflation was “transitory” despite it lingering for years under Biden.
In this way, Powell serves up yet more shit sandwiches for consumers and the nation.
Simply put, his actions cost you more any time you or this massive debtor nation, borrow money.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve continues to run up operating losses, being more than $100 billion in the red in 2023 and currently having a remodeling project at its headquarters that is $700 million over budget, up to $2.5 billion.
The Fed is a reported $235 billion in the red over recent years.
And they’re the people running the nation’s money supply and deciding interest rates, feeding you shit sandwiches on a daily basis while they eat cake – Marie Antoinette reference intended.
Sam Ross Jr's site 