A reader pointed out that elitists pay Bruce Mehlman good money for advice. He's an old Dubya hand who heads the lobbying firm Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas. So when Mehlman speaks, elitists listen.
And he's smart enough to tell them what they want to hear.
The Daily Caller reported, "Here Are The 2022 Risks That Official Washington Is Talking About," which covered his forecast for 2022.
Topping his list is covid, of course. They worry, and I resign myself to people trying to stop a virus with voodoo science. In the past two years we have learned that Fauci is about as much an epidemiologist as an astrologist is an astronomer. Cloth masks? Really?
What does Washington want to hear?
Mehlman said, "At some point, we need to get to accepting that it will never go away and that it is not going to kill everybody."
That point was a year ago, but the elitists in DC and NYC are too chicken to say it.
DC's next worry is the weather -- or as the Daily Caller called it, "Extreme Weather Disasters." That sounds like a Fox show from the 1990s. I can almost hear Pat Summerall say, toward the end of the inevitable New York Giants loss, "Stay tuned after the game for Extreme Weather Disasters followed by The Simpsons, except on the West Coast."
What does Washington want to hear?
Mehlman said, "Insurers use historical data to price risk. We are increasingly seeing 500-year record floods and other disasters that are out of proportion to what was witnessed in the past.
"These insurers are now being asked to cover things that you didn’t think would be insuring things that would be this bad because historically, they haven’t been.
"They are now covering people who didn’t use to be in harm’s way, but as a result of changing weather disasters, they are now at risk."
They are covering more people. That means business is good because they are expanding their customer base.
In the 1920s, the Mississippi kept flooding. Washington built levees and floodwalls. These bozos blame carbon dioxide and are putting up windmills.
DC's next worry is supply chains.
What does Washington want to hear?
Mehlman said, "U.S. and Chinese economies used to be tied together; now they are splitting apart. Technology used to encourage greater cross-border data flows, but now regulators are attempting to shut them down."
The problem is not Red China but these darned attempts to unchain us from Red China's economy. By the way, Mehlman was the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Technology Policy for Bush 43, who did not view Red China as a threat to our economy.
Hmm.
DC's next worry is inflation.
What does Washington want to hear?
Mehlman said Biden plans to use antitrust action to force prices down. Mehlman said, "The companies the administration plans to go after are also probably some of the most productive companies in the economy."
No one in DC wants to hear that the stimuluses are driving inflation to four decade highs.
DC's next worry is the stock market is doing too well.
What does Washington want to hear?
Mehlman said, "The market is clearly out of all its historic whack. The fact that in the last year we saw as much money invested in equities as the last prior 19 years is not normal.”
"The fact that so many stocks are down but the biggest five to 10 are off the charts up is also very unusual."
They don't want to hear that the Federal Reserve is active in pushing stock prices higher.
Curiously, the Daily Caller story only mentioned that stocks had fallen the day before. The 29% rise in the S&P 500 so far in 2021 was not mentioned. I don't think DC much cares for the stock market.
DC's next worry is Biden.
What does Washington want to hear?
Mehlman said, "A president with high approval is more feared and followed legislatively. It will be harder for him to get people to do what he wants and will also be dangerous news for down-the-ballot Democrats."
Biden is seen as weak. Hmm. Maybe that is a sign that he is about to be discarded.
DC's next worry is Red China.
What does Washington want to hear?
Mehlman said, "Both nations need to show that they are tough, but they both want to avoid a war and a recession. Both want to challenge big tech, but they also want to remain as an innovation powerhouse."
Prepare for war, get peace.
Assume peace, and don't be surprised by war.
As Neville Chamberlain discovered.
Unlike Great Britain, there is no United States to bail us out.
DC's final worry is woke companies.
What does Washington want to hear?
Mehlman said CEOs fear being canceled.
He said, "We found that as business leaders begin to think about political risks, some of the risks are the politics within the office place as opposed to national politics.
"Business leaders are trying to decide when it is appropriate to weigh in on issues like voting rights, abortion, and climate change, and when to stay clear."
***
My biggest fear in 2022 is Washington. It is run by people who are out of touch who have great power. Their biggest fear should be the public catching on and doing something about the situation.
"When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny."
ReplyDeletewhat is it when government scares the crap out of people with made up problems using selective stats to 'prove' the problem is as scary as anything ever, and the people are too stupid to realize?
DeleteOur current condition.
DeleteI retired comfortably some years ago, but apparently I can return to a sinecure dispensing stupidly obvious advice to morons...go figure
ReplyDeleteHe thinks China is an innovation powerhouse? - They don’t innovate, they steal.
ReplyDelete"Business leaders are trying to decide when it is appropriate to weigh in on issues…” - how about NEVER
A consultant borrows your watch to tell you what time it is. And keeps the watch. Mehlman has a lot of watches. He is as innovative as China.
A male cat, that was quite "active" with his harem of females, was "fixed" by his owner. After he recovered and was back outside on the fence to relax in the evening air, a couple of his female friends approached him. He said, "Naw, I don't do that any more. I'm just a consultant now."
DeleteThe Giants have won four Super Bowls!
ReplyDeleteThe thing they really don't want to hear is the Reds are going belly up and, because the Wokesters tied themselves to Satan, they're going to Hell along with them.
ReplyDelete1. "These insurers are now being asked to cover things..." Um, asked by *whom*?? Actually, one of the few industries to benefit from the bizarre weather panic religion has been the insurance business; "climate change" forecasts have allowed them to increase premiums against a non-existent "risk" - and then pocket the proceeds. (The insurance industry has also been funding some of the "climate change" (sic) "research" (sic) - hmm, I wonder why??)
ReplyDelete2. "The companies the administration plans to go after are also probably some of the most productive companies in the economy." Oh, yeah, THAT will turn out great - hobble the economy's most productive companies!
3. "The market is clearly out of all its historic whack. The fact that in the last year we saw as much money invested in equities as the last prior 19 years is not normal." Since when does DC get to tell the rest of us what equity prices should be doing? I've said it before, and I'll say it again on the odd chance that this clown happens to search on himself and stumble in here - EQUITIES MAKE A GREAT HEDGE AGAINST INFLATION. If they keep printing money, much of it will go into equities for lack of a better place to go.
4. "The fact that so many stocks are down but the biggest five to 10 are off the charts up is also very unusual." Don, as you noted, this is just flat-out false. Nearly all equities have done very well over the past year; maybe this guy doesn't know how to manage his own money, saddled himself with clunkers, and thinks that that's the whole market?
I'll stop there...
Insurers are being asked to insure places people shouldn't be building. An example, the Wabash river floods a lot in the spring. Someone built a shanty town next to the river, then a few years go by and people replaced the shanties w house while knowing it floods almost every spring. The private insurers finally quit insuring the homes.... Because that area floods almost every spring. Then the State decided to insure the homes on the Wabash because those mean private insurers quit. The state finally quit insuring the homes that replaced the shanties after like 30 yrs because, omg the area floods almost every spring. Now the state refuses to let anyone rebuild in that flood plan, common sense is totally gone. Meanwhile everyone's elses insurance kept going up because some idiots kept building where the shouldn't.
DeleteAlso the insurers are a business, they complain about paying out for stuff that is in their contracts. Even though we are actually in a low hurricane and low tornado cycles. 15-20 yrs ago, the huge disasters happened more. They just want to keep the money they are paid.
Kill incentive, kill profits, kill the economy.
ReplyDeleteThis government is freaking afraid of the people it s marginalizing. We 've spent 2 years doing everything they said to no avail and no change. Every third article On liberal sites is about the comming revolution and painting conservatives as the enemy Imo big mistake on their part... joe biteme surrendered today waved the white flag and said I have no fk n idea of how to stop the wuflu.... it s on you governors now... what a pu$$y
ReplyDeleteThe S&P isn't up 29% because 5 stocks are up and 495 are down. Anyone with a NY sense would recognize how stupid that is.
ReplyDeleteThese are all ideas put forth to deflect from the demented idiot in the white house.
What America wants to hear - Department of Defense intends to test a neutron bomb on Washington DC. Make America Clean Again.
ReplyDelete