Work
Fig. 1. Yeah, this is me. The sign says, “If you’re whining about a labor shortage, STOP ignoring my job applications!” And the QR-code leads here. Photograph by author, January 16, 2023.
It’s one thing when I accuse the Federal Reserve of treating the wrong disease in attempting to stem inflation.[1] This is the Wall Street Journal:
[Wages’ share of the economy] appears to have slipped in recent decades: A 2017 Labor Department analysis put labor’s share at about 58% of economic output in the third quarter of 2016, which compared with about 64% at the end of 1970. Separate Labor Department data suggest that in the fourth quarter labor’s share was around its 2016 level.
Not everyone likes the Labor Department’s methodology, but there appears to be a consensus that, at least since around 2000, labor’s share has diminished in the U.S. This has coincided with an increase in profit margins.
So maybe it is possible that, rather than feeding inflation, faster wage growth could instead lead workers to regain the slice of the economy’s pie they have lost. If the Fed hits the brakes every time wages look as if they are growing faster than 2% annually plus whatever its assessment of productivity growth is, that won’t happen.[2]
But it appears the Federal Reserve will be sticking with its diagnosis.[3]
Justin Lahart, “Giving Labor Less of the American Pie,” Wall Street Journal, February 7, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/giving-labor-less-of-the-american-pie-11675792087
Nick Timiraos, “Fed’s Jerome Powell Braces for Longer Inflation Fight Amid Hiring Surge,” Wall Street Journal, February 7, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/feds-jerome-powell-to-address-economic-outlook-with-hiring-surge-in-spotlight-11675781503
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh
Unauthorized violence
Fig. 2. “Ed Gainey poses with CeaseFirePA during the 2020 Women’s March in Downtown Pittsburgh.” Photograph by Megan Gloeckler, undated, via Pittsburgh City Paper,[4] fair use.
I previously noted my suspicion of “a tacit agreement between white people with their ‘thin blue line’ paraphernalia and the [white supremacist] gangsters allowing the former to drive recklessly.”[5]
It’s almost certainly coincidence, so much so that I should probably just keep my mouth shut, but today, I am wondering if that agreement was somehow broken with the killing yesterday of a McKeesport white supremacist gangster[6] as I saw a number of what looked for all the world like traffic stops, including two simultaneously in the inbound direction along Washington Road, one before Boyce Road, and one after it, in Upper Saint Clair.
While it’s not unusual to see gangsters along the side of the road around Pittsburgh looking like they might enforce traffic law, it’s been much, much less common to see them actually doing traffic stops, especially of white people. Today was clearly different and the most honest thing I can say is that I don’t know why.
Johnathan Jermia Morris has been charged with homicide in the shooting.[7]
Mark Belko, “Allegheny County police are now patrolling Downtown Pittsburgh as concerns over safety escalate,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 6, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/02/06/allegheny-county-police-downtown-pittsburgh-patrols-safety-violence/stories/202302060067
Paula Reed Ward, “Details of McKeesport officer’s fatal shooting emerge; man charged,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, February 6, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/man-charged-in-shooting-death-of-mckeesport-police-officer/
Paula Reed Ward, Justin Vellucci, and Julia Maruca, “McKeesport police officer killed, another officer and suspect wounded,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, February 6, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/large-police-presence-responds-to-incident-in-mckeesport/
Megan Tomasic and Megan Guza, “Community gathers in grief as slain McKeesport officer is taken to a Brentwood funeral home,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 7, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/02/07/mckeesport-police-shooting-sean-sluganski-johnathan-morris-updates/stories/202302070088
- [1]David Benfell, “Sympathy for those poor, oppressed upper classes,” Not Housebroken, February 4, 2023, https://disunitedstates.org/2023/02/02/sympathy-for-those-poor-oppressed-upper-classes/↩
- [2]Justin Lahart, “Giving Labor Less of the American Pie,” Wall Street Journal, February 7, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/giving-labor-less-of-the-american-pie-11675792087↩
- [3]Nick Timiraos, “Fed’s Jerome Powell Braces for Longer Inflation Fight Amid Hiring Surge,” Wall Street Journal, February 7, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/feds-jerome-powell-to-address-economic-outlook-with-hiring-surge-in-spotlight-11675781503↩
- [4]Charlie Wolfson, “Neighborhood groups try to curb shootings as Pittsburgh’s mayoral campaign puts political focus on gun violence,” Pittsburgh City Paper, October 20, 2021, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/neighborhood-groups-try-to-curb-shootings-as-pittsburghs-mayoral-campaign-puts-political-focus-on-gun-violence/Content?oid=20401296↩
- [5]David Benfell, “Reckless driving as routine,” Not Housebroken, January 28, 2023, https://disunitedstates.org/2023/01/25/reckless-driving-as-routine/↩
- [6]Megan Tomasic and Megan Guza, “Community gathers in grief as slain McKeesport officer is taken to a Brentwood funeral home,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 7, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/02/07/mckeesport-police-shooting-sean-sluganski-johnathan-morris-updates/stories/202302070088; Paula Reed Ward, “Details of McKeesport officer’s fatal shooting emerge; man charged,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, February 6, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/man-charged-in-shooting-death-of-mckeesport-police-officer/; Paula Reed Ward, Justin Vellucci, and Julia Maruca, “McKeesport police officer killed, another officer and suspect wounded,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, February 6, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/large-police-presence-responds-to-incident-in-mckeesport/↩
- [7]Megan Tomasic and Megan Guza, “Community gathers in grief as slain McKeesport officer is taken to a Brentwood funeral home,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 7, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/02/07/mckeesport-police-shooting-sean-sluganski-johnathan-morris-updates/stories/202302070088↩