ORIGINALISM 

The Constitution Was Literally Written By Slaveowners. Why Is America Obsessed With Upholding It?


Candace McDuffie

THE ROOT
Mon, June 27, 2022

Members of the Supreme Court pose for a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, April 23, 2021.

Last week, the Supreme Court eviscerated a woman’s right to abortion, undermined Miranda rights, expanded gun rights and allowed border patrol agents to operate with even further impunity. Today, it ruled that a former Washington state high school football coach can pray on the field immediately after games—regardless of the religious backgrounds of the students.

The mostly conservative justices are using the Constitution as a smoke screen for their rulings—which will continue to demolish even more human rights. The governing document was constructed during the Constitutional Convention that occurred in Philadelphia from May 5, 1787 to September 17, 1787.

The primary authors consisted of: John Adams, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. The last two men on that list owned slaves. How can this set of laws still guide a nation when it was concocted by white men who looked at Black people as property and not as human?

The fact that a Black man—Justice Clarence Thomas—is working to erode the rights of millions of people is more than ironic: it’s downright pathetic. In a concurring opinion Thomas wrote Friday, he claimed that the Supreme Court’s controversial June decisions aimed to weaken substantive due process which protects certain rights even if they’re not listed in the Constitution.

“As I have previously explained, ‘substantive due process’ is an oxymoron that ‘lack[s] any basis in the Constitution,’” he wrote. He also said that it’s “legal fiction” that is “particularly dangerous.” Even more ironically, how is it up to the states to decide a woman’s right to abortion yet not interfere with a person’s right to carry a concealed firearm?

In Justice Samuel Alito’s concurrence, he stated:

“Does the dissent think that laws like New York’s prevent or deter such atrocities? How does the dissent account for the fact that one of the mass shootings near the top of its list took place in Buffalo? The New York law at issue in this case obviously did not stop the perpetrator.”

Does Alito realize that by that line of reasoning, abortion laws won’t stop abortions from happening?

Seven of the nine Supreme Court justices were put there by presidents from a party who haven’t won a popular vote more than once in three decades. Shouldn’t the Twelfth Amendment, which established the electoral college, be revisited?

The Fifteenth Amendment gave Black people the right to vote. However, last year nineteen states passed laws that restricted access to voting. The Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude, but America’s mass incarceration problem proves this as untrue.

Why isn’t the Supreme Court clamoring to restore these rights or rectify systems that fail the people?

It’s clear that the right will continue to twist and contort anything they can to carry out their agenda—an agenda that has and will always harm this country’s most marginalized and vulnerable populations. And honestly, the Constitution will always be a hell of an excuse to oppress Black folks on behalf of white supremacy.

Americans are paying $54,000 on average for an electric vehicle. A year ago, they were paying closer to $44,000.


Stephen Jones
Mon, June 27, 2022 

The cost of raw materials needed to make EV batteries have jumped by 140% since March 2020, according to data from Alix Partners.picture alliance / Contributor

The average price paid by Americans for EVs jumped 22% in the year to May, data from JD Power shows.


For non-EVs, inflation over the same period was 14%, according to the data, cited by The WSJ.


Americans are now paying $54,000 on average for EVs and $44,400 for non-EVs, per JD Power.

Americans are paying $54,000 on average for an electric vehicle (EV), a surge of 22% in a year, figures show.

Meanwhile, Americans are paying $44,400 on average for fossil fuel-powered vehicles, representing a gain of 14% in the year to May, research by JD Power, cited by the The Wall Street Journal, found.

Automakers are hiking prices to offset the soaring cost of raw materials. Long-running supply chain challenges, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, has caused the cost of materials like nickel, cobalt, and lithium — all of which are essential ingredients for EV batteries — to surge.

In March 2020, it cost on average $3,381 to gather the raw materials needed for a single EV, but that cost is now $8,255, up 140%, according to Alix Partners.

The EV price spike is causing a headache for motorists who want to ditch fossil fuel-powered cars to avoid record gas prices. The average cost of regular gas was last put at $4.90 a gallon by the American Automobile Association, down from above $5 earlier in June but well up from $3.10 a year earlier.

Online searches for EVs have increased 73% since January, according to data from auto-shopping websites Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader, per The WSJ.

EVs represented 4.5% of US car sales in 2021, according to the International Energy Agency.

Norwich Sikh independence celebration is criticized by Indian residents


Claire Bessette, 

The Day, 

New London, Conn.
Sun, June 26, 2022 

Jun. 26—NORWICH — City leaders and state legislators are in the middle of a bitter rift between Sikhs and a group calling itself "Indian American Community of CT" concerning the city's support of an April 29 celebration of Sikh Independence Day.

Since that day, emails, texts, angry phone calls and letters have circulated by Indians demanding that Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom and the City Council rescind their proclamation declaring April 29 as Sikh Declaration of Independence Day.

Similar demands have been made of state legislators to revoke a General Assembly citation started by state Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, and signed by the Norwich delegation and state legislative leaders.

A petition on www.change.org asks the Connecticut General Assembly to rescind its citation in support of the Declaration of Sikh Independence Day. The petition had 747 signatures as of Friday afternoon.

Sikh community leaders, including the World Sikh Parliament, have fired back with their own emails, videos, links to articles describing atrocities against Sikhs allegedly supported by the Indian government. A petition started by Norwich Sikh community leader Swaranjit Singh Khalsa on www.change.org asks that U.S. lawmakers, including President Joe Biden, "must allow Sikh history to be celebrated and acknowledged in U.S." That petition had 737 signatures by Friday afternoon.

The Indian American Community of CT claims that the General Assembly and Norwich are illegally interfering with U.S. international affairs. The group accused the World Sikh Parliament, which ran the April 29 event program, of having ties to Sikh terrorist organizations. Norwich and state leaders have been "misguided by fringe organizations with nefarious intentions," said one email sent by Vikram Bhandari of Wilton and signed only by Indian American Community of CT.

The group called the independence celebration of the 1986 declaration of independence by Sikhs for an independent state of Khalistan, "uncalled for recognition of a separatist movement calling for the breakup of India."

The email contained links to published articles about the 1984 assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by two Sikh bodyguards and the bombing of an Air India passenger jet on June 23, 1985, allegedly by Sikh extremists.

Notably, the email sent Monday, June 20 to Norwich Mayor Nystrom and City Council members was not sent to Alderman Singh Khalsa, whom is a Sikh. He said he was not surprised.

"They don't like Sikhs, and it's very painful for them to see me as elected official," Khalsa said in response to the slight.

Khalsa and other Sikh leaders accused the Indian consulate in New York of stirring up the controversy in Connecticut. Khalsa's email responses contain links to articles describing an Indian government "disinformation" campaign against Sikhs and Indian government military actions against Sikhs, including the June 1984 military assault on a Sikh temple, and the widely labeled "Sikh genocide" riots against Sikhs in November 1984 following Indira Gandhi's assassination.

Khalsa cited a book that claims the Air India bombing was planned by the Indian foreign intelligence agency to blame Sikhs.

Khalsa said Sikhs view the Punjab region as the Sikh homeland occupied by India. Khalsa said the 1986 Sikh Declaration of Independence in Amritsar Punjab was "made in peaceful manner among 500,000 people." He said the April 29 Norwich anniversary celebration likewise was peaceful.

"Sikh nation seeks peaceful resolution with India and just wanted their right of self-determination," Khalsa said in an email to The Day last week.

On Friday, Khalsa said Sikh leaders are working to set up a meeting with officials at the U.S. State Department to file a written complaint against Indian consulate of New York "and all parties involved in it."

Reactions to the demand by the Indian American Community of CT's request that the citation and city proclamation be revoked are mixed.

Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom staunchly defended the city proclamation and support for the local Sikh community. Nystrom said more than 25 Sikh families live in Norwich and are peaceful, productive members of the community. Nystrom said he has read about violent attacks and political persecution against Sikhs and Sikhism in India.

"We have Sikh residents living in the city of Norwich who are kind, peace-loving families," Nystrom said. "This is an argument between people that can never be settled, not even by us and our resolutions."

On May 24, state Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, Deputy Senate Majority Leader Matthew L. Lesser, D-Middletown, and state Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, issued a joint letter clarifying their position regarding the citation "perceived as challenging the sovereignty of India." The letter stated the citation "mistakenly" included their names as introducers and said they were grateful to the Consul General of India for the chance to clarify their position.

"As state senators, we each represent large and diverse Indian American communities," the letter stated. "We support continuing friendship between the people of India and the residents of Connecticut."

Duff issued a separate letter June 1 saying he did not authorize his signature and was not aware of the citation at the time.

Republican state Rep. Doug Dubitsky, R-Chaplin, whose district includes Norwich, wrote in a June 9 letter to state Rep. Harry Arora, R-Greenwich, an immigrant from India, that Dubitsky too did not give permission for his name to appear on the citation. But Dubitsky's letter explained that it is common practice and courtesy for a legislator to include the names of fellow legislators representing that municipality on celebratory citations.

"When I present a citation in the Norwich area, I typically ensure that the names of the other Norwich delegation members are on the citations, even if they had no involvement in the subject matter of the citation. It is a common courtesy among legislators," Dubitsky wrote.

Dubitsky compared the Sikh-India controversy to an effort several years ago in the state legislature to support the people of Northern Ireland in their fight against British rule. Saying he "truly did not know who was right and who was wrong in that conflict," Dubitsky declined to support the move.

"If I had been asked in advance about adding my name to the Sikh Independence citation, I likely would have taken that same position," Dubitsky wrote.

Like Nystrom, Osten strongly defended the Sikh citation and said her office sent requests to legislative staffs of all Norwich legislators and Senate leaders Duff, Lesser and Anwar for support of the 36th anniversary of the declaration of Sikh independence. Osten said she has been issuing citations for the past several years for the anniversary, and this was the first time the citation has drawn controversy.

"I'm not retracting mine," Osten said. "I've done this for the past five or six years. Apparently, this has become a political issue this year. I'm not disrespecting either side in this issue. They think that this is the state government taking sides. It is not. It's a citation. it's a legislative document, not government action."

c.bessette@theday.com

WNBA star Brittney Griner ordered to trial Friday in Russia


JIM HEINTZ
Mon, June 27, 2022 

MOSCOW (AP) — Shackled and looking wary, WNBA star Brittney Griner was ordered to stand trial Friday by a court near Moscow on cannabis possession charges, about 4 1/2 months after her arrest at an airport while returning to play for a Russian team.

The Phoenix Mercury center and two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist also was ordered to remain in custody for the duration of her criminal trial. Griner could face 10 years in prison if convicted on charges of large-scale transportation of drugs. Fewer than 1% of defendants in Russian criminal cases are acquitted, and unlike in the U.S., acquittals can be overturned.

At Monday's closed-door preliminary hearing at the court in the Moscow suburb of Khimki, Griner's detention was extended for another six months. Photos obtained by The Associated Press showed the 31-year-old in handcuffs and looking straight ahead, unlike a previous court appearance where she kept her head down and covered with a hood.

Her detention and trial come at an extraordinarily low point in Moscow-Washington relations. She was arrested at Sheremetyevo International Airport less than a week before Russia sent troops into Ukraine, which aggravated already-high tensions with sweeping sanctions by the United States and Russia’s denunciation of U.S. weapon supplies to Ukraine.

Amid the tensions, Griner’s supporters had taken a low profile in hopes of a quiet resolution, until May, when the State Department reclassified her as wrongfully detained and shifted oversight of her case to its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs — effectively the U.S. government’s chief negotiator.

Griner’s wife, Cherelle, urged President Joe Biden in May to secure her release, calling her "a political pawn.”

Her supporters have encouraged a prisoner swap like the one in April that brought home Marine veteran Trevor Reed in exchange for a Russian pilot convicted of drug trafficking conspiracy.

Russian news media have repeatedly raised speculation that she could be swapped for Russian arms trader Viktor Bout, nicknamed “The Merchant of Death,” who is serving a 25-year sentence on conviction of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and providing aid to a terrorist organization.

Russia has agitated for Bout’s release for years. But the discrepancy between Griner’s case — she allegedly was found in possession of vape cartridges containing cannabis oil — and Bout’s global dealings in deadly weapons could make such a swap unpalatable to the U.S.

Others have suggested that she could be traded in tandem with Paul Whelan, a former Marine and security director serving a 16-year sentence on an espionage conviction that the United States has repeatedly described as a set-up.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, asked Sunday on CNN whether a joint swap of Griner and Whelan for Bout was being considered, sidestepped the question.

“As a general proposition ... I have got no higher priority than making sure that Americans who are being illegally detained in one way or another around the world come home,” he said. But “I can’t comment in any detail on what we’re doing, except to say this is an absolute priority.”

Cape Coral women revamp 'community fridge' to help combat food insecurity


Luis Zambrano, Fort Myers News-Press
Mon, June 27, 2022 

Forty years ago, a family with their daughter came to the city of Cape Coral after using all their money to buy a plumbing supply store.

They were a family of first-generation Cuban Americans from New Jersey, surviving on inexpensive groceries like rice and beans in the first few years of arriving here.

"Not being able to have the luxury of having money, and so sometimes we were hungry," Dionne Lopez, 52, said.

Lopez, who runs Lee County Plumbing & Supply now, started a community fridge in November 2020, before Thanksgiving, to help Cape Coral residents who were suffering because of the pandemic.


"Nobody should have an empty stomach, so when that pandemic started, and people lost their jobs, and they couldn't go out and buy food and so forth, we started the refrigerator," Lopez said.

Dionne Lopez who runs Lee County Plumbing & Supply, started a community fridge in November of 2020, before Thanksgiving, to help Cape Coral residents who were suffering because of the pandemic.

The community fridge, located at 532 Southeast 47th Terrace, provides free food and is open 24/7 to any Cape Coral residents who are in need.

People are free to take what they need, and volunteers can donate and place food and canned goods inside or on the shelves. No raw meat or expired food is accepted.

While the fridge was a welcome addition to the city, its usage declined since 2020 as Lopez couldn't manage both the fridge and her business until she got help from her now collaborator, Gabrielle Ferraro, 28.

From the elderly to people with families and kids, even some pregnant women, there was a need for the fridge in Cape Coral, Ferraro said.

Ferraro owns Double Dee's Munchies, a food truck, and she met Lopez in November 2020.

"She has a big propane tank and I stopped and started talking to her, and she had the fridge out front, and she told me about it and I was like obsessed with it. This is so great," Ferraro said.

She kept tabs on the community fridge, and when she noticed a dip in activity Ferraro pitched in to run the advertising and help manage the fridge two weeks ago.

"I was trying to figure out a way to give back, so I reached out to her and just said, 'Hey, I think I can help. Like, I have the connections of like being able to get this, like, blown up,'" Ferraro said.

Using her connections, she started a Facebook page and TikTok last Monday, and they have both seen a surge in donations and people coming and going since last week.

"On Facebook, the first post I made has over 400 shares," Ferraro said.

Katie Seaver, 31, of Cape Coral, helps restore a refrigerator being used as a food supply for local residents. Dionne Lopez who runs Lee County Plumbing & Supply, started a community fridge in November of 2020, before Thanksgiving, to help Cape Coral residents who were suffering because of the pandemic.

Cape Coral has a population of 204,510 and a poverty rate of almost 10%, according to the U.S. Census.

Julie Ferguson, executive director of Cape Coral Caring Center, a nonprofit agency providing food and utility assistance to Cape Coral residents, said hardships are felt in Cape Coral for working families.

"Cape Coral kind of has the haves and the have-nots. We have very wealthy people, and then we have kind of the middle income and then we do have kind of the working families that find it very difficult," Ferguson said.

"When you are supposed to spend no more than 30% of your income on rent or mortgage, for our working family that is not an easy thing, and in this community with rents being a minimum of about $2,200 a month," She added.

Lopez said she sees many long-time residents suffering the most in her area.

"There is a big variety of people that we see," Lopez said. "We see a few of the homeless guys that come every day. People that are trying to get back on their feet."

She hopes to continue doing what she can for her community, and that maybe someone from North Cape Coral can make something similar to what she's doing.

"I can't feed everybody, but the communities stepped in," Lopez said. "I'm hoping that maybe somebody north from here is seeing this and say, 'Hey, I'm going to try it.'"

Luis Zambrano is a Watchdog/Cape Coral reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. You can reach Luis at Lzambrano@gannett.com or 239-266-5604. Follow him on Twitter @Lz2official.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Cape Coral businesswomen fight food insecurity with community fridge

Filipina wins transgender pageant in Thailand

- My first message to everyone is to spread love, peace

Sat, June 25, 2022 
By Juarawee Kittisilpa

PATTAYA, Thailand (Reuters) - Filipina Fuschia Anne Ravena was crowned Miss International Queen 2022 on Saturday at a contest in Thailand billed as the world's largest and most popular transgender pageant.

The 27-year-old business owner beat 22 other contestants for the crown, with the second and third place going to contestants from Colombia and France, respectively.

"My first message to everyone is to spread love and peace and unity because that is the most important thing that we do as of the moment and what's happening in the world right now," said Ravena who wore a glittery-silver evening gown.

The pageant, which was halted for almost two years because of the pandemic, resumed in the Thai seaside town of Pattaya during Pride Month to also celebrate gender equality, said Alisa Phanthusak, the CEO of Miss Tiffany Show, the organiser.

The contest, which brings together transgender people from around the world, was launched over a decade ago to help transgender women feel more accepted by society.

Thailand has one of Asia's most open and visible lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities, adding to its image of tolerance and attraction as a liberal holiday destination for foreign tourists.

But activists say Thai laws and institutions have yet to reflect changing social attitudes and still discriminate against LGBT+ people and same-sex couples.

(Writing by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)

Chinese fast fashion brand SHEIN is 'increasing threat to U.S. specialty retailers,' UBS says

Dani Romero

Sun, June 26, 2022 

Chinese fast fashion retailer SHEIN has become the "most downloaded" shopping app in the U.S., according to UBS Evidence Lab's Global App Monitor, as well as the "most searched-for [apparel] retailer in the U.S."

Founded in 2008, the online-only retailer of inexpensive clothes, beauty, and lifestyle products has become a global phenomenon in the age of TikTok. SHEIN has grown from a $15 billion valuation in 2020 to now being valued at $100 billion in a recent funding round, WSJ reports.

Strong momentum with consumers "explains much of the valuation increase," UBS analysts wrote. "The data also causes us to believe SHEIN is a major and increasing threat to US specialty retailers" such as American Eagle (AEO), Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), Urban Outfitters (URBN), Victoria's Secret (VSCO), The Gap (GPS) "as well as Department Stores and Off-Price retailers."

Despite having no network of physical stores, SHEIN is the No. 1 brand on TikTok and has proven to be a huge success among Generation Z. The e-commerce site has been the second favorite website for shopping among teens (behind Amazon) for the last two years, according to Piper Sandler's semi-annual Gen Z survey.

Faye Winter attends the SHEIN x Klarna pop up event on April 08, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for SHEIN)

The retailer's strength with a younger consumer comes from leveraging social media better than many of its competitors.

SHEIN's TikTok followers increased 162% year-over-year. The retailer has 1060% more followers than Macy's (M), according to UBS Evidence Lab's TikTok Tracker, and that has translated into 19% more Google searches than Macy's in May.

A UBS survey of 7,500 consumers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, China, Japan, South Africa, and Australia found that the SHEIN's average consumer is female, younger, and lower-income. Consumers on the site tend to buy casual wear and undergarments/sleepwear.

The top reason why U.S. customers are shopping SHEIN is its affordable pricing, the survey said. The site pushes discounts to the limit, offering blouses for $2.90 or a pajama set for less than $15. Other reasons consumers are drawn to the site, according to the survey, are its "style that suits me" and "on trend designs."

Figure 7: SHEIN Purchase Habits US vs. US Survey responses Avg.

SHEIN has pursued an aggressive, data-driven “fast-fashion” business model, which has made the brand popular among price-sensitive consumers but also drawn criticism for its enormous environmental footprint. That poses a formidable challenge for the industry's push toward sustainability as well as for competitors.

"We continue to believe [specialty retailer] stock prices will remain under pressure," the UBS analysts wrote, citing inflation, market sentiment, and decelerating sales. "SHEIN represents another underappreciated headwind negatively impacting earnings for the public Softlines companies, in our view."

Dani Romero is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @daniromerotv

Did corporate greed fuel inflation? It’s not biggest culprit
By PAUL WISEMAN

June 26, 2022

FILE - Wallace Reid purchases fuel for the vehicle he drives to make a living using ride-share apps, Wednesday, June 22, 2022, in the Queens borough of New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Furious about surging prices at the gasoline station and the supermarket, many consumers feel they know just where to cast blame: On greedy companies that relentlessly jack up prices and pocket the profits.

Responding to that sentiment, the Democratic-led House of Representatives last month passed on a party-line vote — most Democrats for, all Republicans against — a bill designed to crack down on alleged price gouging by energy producers.

Likewise, Britain last month announced plans to impose a temporary 25% windfall tax on oil and gas company profits and to funnel the proceeds to financially struggling households.

Yet for all the public’s resentment, most economists say corporate price gouging is, at most, one of many causes of runaway inflation — and not the primary one.

“There are much more plausible candidates for what’s going on,” said Jose Azar an economist at Spain’s University of Navarra.

They include: Supply disruptions at factories, ports and freight yards. Worker shortages. President Joe Biden’s enormous pandemic aid program. COVID 19-caused shutdowns in China. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And, not least, a Federal Reserve that kept interest rates ultra-low longer than experts say it should have.

Most of all, though, economists say resurgent spending by consumers and governments drove inflation up.

The blame game is, if anything, intensifying after the U.S. government reported that inflation hit 8.6% in May from a year earlier, the biggest price spike since 1981.

To fight inflation, the Fed is now belatedly tightening credit aggressively. On June 15, it raised its benchmark short-term rate by three-quarters of a point — its largest hike since 1994 — and signaled that more large rate hikes are coming. The Fed hopes to achieve a notoriously difficult “soft landing” — slowing growth enough to curb inflation without causing the economy to slide into recession.

For years, inflation had remained at or below the Fed’s 2% annual target, even while unemployment sank to a half-century low. But when the economy rebounded from the pandemic recession with startling speed and strength, the U.S. consumer price index rose steadily — from a 2.6% year-over-year increase in March 2021 to last month’s four-decade high.

For a while at least — before profit margins at S&P 500 companies dipped early this year — the inflation surge coincided with swelling corporate earnings. It was easy for consumers to connect the dots: Companies, it seemed, were engaged in price-gouging. This wasn’t just inflation. It was greedflation.

Asked to name the culprits behind the spike in gasoline prices, 72% of the 1,055 Americans polled in late April and early May by the Washington Post and George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government blamed profit-seeking corporations, more than the share who pointed to Russia’s war against Ukraine (69%) or Biden (58%) or pandemic disruptions (58%). And the verdict was bipartisan: 86% of Democrats and 52% of Republicans blamed corporations for inflated gas prices.

“It’s very natural for consumers to see prices rising and get angry about it and then look for someone to blame,” said Christopher Conlon, an economist at New York University’s Stern School of Business who studies corporate competition. “You and I don’t get to set prices at the supermarket, the gas station or the car dealership. So people naturally blame corporations, since those are the ones they see raising prices.’’

Yet Conlon and many other economists are reluctant to indict — or to favor punishing — Corporate America. When the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business asked economists this month whether they’d support a law to bar big companies from selling their goods or services at an “unconscionably excessive price” during a market shock, 65% said no. Only 5% backed the idea.

Just what combination of factors is most responsible for causing prices to soar “is still an open question,” economist Azar acknowledges. COVID-19 and its aftermath have made it hard to assess the state of the economy. Today’s economists have no experience analyzing the financial aftermath of a pandemic.

Policymakers and analysts have been repeatedly blindsided by the path the economy has taken since COVID struck in March 2020: They didn’t expect the swift recovery from the downturn, fueled by vast government spending and record-low rates engineered by the Fed and other central banks. Then they were slow to recognize the gathering threat of high inflation pressures, dismissing them at first as merely a temporary consequence of supply disruptions.

One aspect of the economy, though, is undisputed: A wave of mergers in recent decades has killed or shrunk competition among airlines, banks, meatpacking companies and many other industries. That consolidation has given the surviving companies the leverage to demand price cuts from suppliers, to hold down workers’ pay and to pass on higher costs to customers who don’t have much choice but to pay up.

Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston have found that less competition made it easier for companies to pass along higher costs to customers, calling it an “amplifying factor” in the resurgence of inflation.

Josh Bivens, research director at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, has estimated that nearly 54% of the price increases in nonfinancial businesses since mid-2020 can be attributed to “fatter profit margins,” versus just 11% from 1979 through 2019.

Bivens conceded that neither corporate greed nor market clout has likely grown significantly in the past two years. But he suggested that during the COVID inflationary spike, companies have redirected how they use their market power: Many have shifted away from pressuring suppliers to cut costs and limiting workers’ pay and have instead boosted prices for customers.

In a study of nearly 3,700 companies released last week, the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute concluded that markups and profit margins last year reached their highest level since the 1950s. It also found that companies that had aggressively raised prices before the pandemic were more likely to do so after it struck, “suggesting a role for market power as an explanatory driver of inflation.″

Yet many economists aren’t convinced that corporate greed is the main culprit. Jason Furman, a top economic adviser in the Obama White House, said that some evidence even suggests that monopolies are slower than companies that face stiff competition to raise prices when their own costs rise, “in part because their prices were high to begin with.”

Likewise, NYU’s Conlon cites examples where prices have soared in competitive markets. Used cars, for example, are sold in lots across the country and by numerous individuals. Yet average used-car prices have skyrocketed 16% over the past year. Similarly, the average price of major appliances, another market with plenty of competitors, jumped nearly 10% last month from a year earlier.

By contrast, the price of alcoholic beverages has risen just 4% from a year ago even though the beer market is dominated by AB-Inbev and spirits by Bacardi and Diageo.

“It is hard to imagine that AB-Inbev isn’t as greedy as Maytag,” Conlon said.

So what has most driven the inflationary spike?

“Demand,” said Furman, now at Harvard University. “Lots of government spending, lots of monetary support — all combined together to support extraordinarily high levels of demand. Supply couldn’t keep up, so prices rose.’’

Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco estimate that government aid to the economy during the pandemic, which put money in consumers’ pockets to help them endure the crisis and set off a spending spree, has raised inflation by about 3 percentage points since the first half of 2021.

In report released in April, researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis blamed global supply chain bottlenecks for playing a “significant role” in inflating factory costs. They found that it added a staggering 20 percentage points to wholesale inflation in manufacturing last November, raising it to 30%.

Still, even some economists who don’t blame greedflation for the price spike of the past year say they think governments should try to restrict the market power of monopolies, perhaps by blocking mergers that reduce competition. The idea is that more companies vying for the same customers would encourage innovation and makes the economy more productive.

Even so, tougher antitrust policies wouldn’t likely do much to slow inflation anytime soon.

“I find it helpful to think about competition like diet and exercise,” NYU’s Conlon said. “More competition is a good thing. But, like diet and exercise, the payoffs are long term.

“Right now, the patient is in the emergency room. Sure, diet and exercise are still a good thing. But we need to treat the acute problem of inflation.”

___

AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.

AP PHOTOS: Israel's separation barrier, 20 years on

ODED BALILTY
Mon, June 27, 2022 at 12:06 AM·4 min read

JERUSALEM (AP) — Twenty years after Israel decided to build its controversial separation barrier, the network of walls, fences and closed military roads remains in place, even as any partition of the land appears more remote than ever.

Israel is actively encouraging its Jewish citizens to settle on both sides of the barrier as it builds and expands settlements deep inside the occupied West Bank, more than a decade after the collapse of any serious peace talks.

Palestinians living under decades of military occupation, meanwhile, clamor for work permits inside Israel, where wages are higher. Some 100,000 Palestinians legally cross through military checkpoints, mainly to work in construction, manufacturing and agriculture.

Israel decided to build the barrier in June 2002, at the height of the second intifada, or uprising, when Palestinians carried out scores of suicide bombings and other attacks that killed Israeli civilians. Authorities said the barrier was designed to prevent attackers from crossing into Israel from the West Bank and was never intended to be a permanent border.


Eighty-five percent of the still-unfinished barrier is inside the West Bank, carving off nearly 10% of its territory. The Palestinians view it as an illegal land grab and the International Court of Justice in 2004 said the barrier was “contrary to international law.”

The United Nations estimates that some 150 Palestinian communities have farmland inside the West Bank but west of the barrier. Some 11,000 Palestinians live in this so-called Seam Zone, requiring Israeli permits just to stay in their homes.

The U.N. also estimates that about 65% of the roughly 710-kilometer (450-mile) structure has been completed.

The security benefits of the barrier have long been subject to debate and while the number of attacks has fallen sharply, other factors may be at play.

The intifada began winding down in 2005, after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died and was replaced by President Mahmoud Abbas, who is opposed to armed struggle. Most leading militants were captured or killed, and under Abbas, the Palestinian Authority cooperates with Israel on security matters. Israeli troops regularly operate in all parts of the West Bank, and Israel often announces that it has thwarted attacks before the assailants ever left the territory.

Earlier this year, during a renewed wave of violence, Israeli media reported that authorities have long ignored gaps in the barrier because they are used by Palestinian laborers. Those are now being closed, but the barrier is not expected to be completed anytime soon.

Last week, Israel began construction on a new barrier, some 45 kilometers (almost 30 miles) long in the northern West Bank, to replace a security fence built two decades ago. It says the new barrier will be 9 meters (30 feet) high — more than twice as high as the Berlin Wall.

Concrete walls that high can already be seen snaking through Jerusalem, Bethlehem and other urban areas. Near a main Israeli highway, the barrier is concealed behind dirt embankments planted with trees and flowers. In other rural areas, it consists of barbed wire fences with surveillance cameras and closed military roads.

Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for a future state.

In Gaza, which has been under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the Hamas militant group seized power from Abbas' forces in 2007, Israel recently completed a high-tech barrier that runs along the 1967 boundary.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized by the international community and views the entire city as its capital. But towering concrete walls cut off dense Palestinian neighborhoods that are within the Israeli-drawn municipal boundaries and have largely severed the city from the occupied West Bank.

In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority has limited autonomy in major population centers, but Israel retains total control over 60% of the territory. There it has built more than 130 settlements that are home to nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers. Many live on the other side of the barrier but have access to a rapidly growing highway system linking the settlements to Israeli cities.

With any peace process effectively frozen, the government has instead pursued what it refers to as goodwill gestures — mainly the issuing of more permits so Palestinians can enter through checkpoints and work inside Israel.

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Deer graze next to section of Israel's separation barrier between Jerusalem and the West Bank village of A-Ram, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022. Twenty years after Israel decided to built its controversial separation barrier amid a wave of Palestinian attacks, it remains in place, even as Israel encourages its own citizens to settle on both sides and admits tens of thousands of Palestinian laborers. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)More

Israel to let more Palestinians work in manufacturing to fill labour shortage

 Palestinian men from Gaza enter Israel to work


Sun, June 26, 2022 
By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's cabinet approved issuing 3,500 additional permits for Palestinian workers in Israel's manufacturing and services sectors, increasing the number to 12,000 to help relieve a shortage of skilled staff, the Economy Ministry said on Sunday.

Workers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War, require permits to cross checkpoints and enter Israel where wages are higher.

Israel employs nearly 100,000 West Bank and Gaza Palestinian workers, according to the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority. But most work in construction or agriculture, with only a comparatively small number given permits for jobs in factories or the services sector.

Israel's jobless rate is around 3%, and the economy ministry said the existence of 14,000 vacancies in manufacturing was creating a barrier to economic growth.

Economy Minister Orna Barbivai said in a statement that in addition to the extra work permits for Palestinians, the ministry plans to work to increase manufacturing productivity through automation and digitalisation.

The quota for Palestinian workers in manufacturing will automatically be reduced if the annual average unemployment rate in Israel rises above 7.5%, the government said.

Ron Tomer, head of Israel's Manufacturers' Association, called the decision to boost numbers of Palestinians allowed to work in Israel a "lifeline" for the industrial sector given severe shortages of workers.

"There are currently thousands of open jobs that manufacturers find difficult to fill, and we believe that increasing the quota will help reduce the severe shortage at least in the short and medium term and help the industry continue to operate and grow in Israel," he said.