Every month we devote posts to just general political class insanity that is running rampant through the country. The members of the American political class continue to show that they are incapable of operating any level of government in this country.
Even their best efforts are almost always inefficient and ineffective at resolving any problem facing Americans. They spend a great amount of time not trying to improve the lives of their citizens but continually ensuring their reelection and enriching themselves, their families, and their friends in the process, all at taxpayer expense.
1)We recently discussed the failure of Biden’s economic policies:
Higher food prices.
Higher gas prices.
Higher mortgage rates.
Higher car prices.
Higher health care costs.
And yet Biden somehow claims that his economic policies have been a great success. If that is so, consider the following depressing and dangerous economic news:
Recent analyses by Bank Of America indicate that Americans are increasingly draining their 401K accounts to cope with the high price of living in Biden’s economy.
The cause of the draining is what Bank Of America calls “financial distress.”
And the situation is getting worse and getting worse quickly.
Withdrawal in the first quarter of 2022 was trending upwards but by the second quarter the volume of withdrawals was up 36%.
Note: I assume that Bank of America is showing 2022 data because that is the latest time frame for which data is available.
Sad, sad times. Not only is the money needed now but by using their retirement money now it is going to make future retirement that much less financially robust so the effect of Biden’s failed economic policies will stretch out well beyond when he leaves office.
2)While we originally thought and discussed the reality that any number of large American cities would go bankrupt pretty soon, with those cities including New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle, for a long time our favorite to get to bankruptcy court first was Chicago.
Chicago has become more and more violent which has resulted in businesses and residents fleeing the city for safety and better quality of life which has reduced the tax base which reduced tax revenue. This reduced tax revenue resulted in worse and worse city services (i.e. police and fire protection, education quality, etc.) which drove more businesses and residents out of the city and the financial death spiral was in place.
But we have changed our thinking and now believe that the city of San Francisco now has the lead in the rush to bankruptcy:
It is also a violence infested urban environment.
It has a large and growing homeless population who are living on city streets.
The city’s drug program has resulted in drug addicts shooting up in public which has resulted in used syringes littering the streets.
Public defecation and urination has become so bad that the city actually has a website to report such behavior.
For any number of reasons, including the pandemic, office workers have not returned to the city in droves which has reduced retail foot traffic and caused many businesses to go out of business or move including, but not limited to Nordstrom, AT&T and others.
And joining that list of closed businesses is one of the city’s most famous restaurants:
Gracias is a famous city vegan restaurant.
Without much notice it recently and permanently shut down its operation,
General manager of the website SFGate, Joseph Donohue, gave some insight to the situation: “It closed because of the economy and the state of the Mission. If you go over a block to Valencia it looks like it’s a completely different city … they’re paying attention to one area and forgetting about the other areas of the city, which is kind of upsetting.”
Donohue further pointed out that the restaurant’s clients and customers kept saying that it was too dangerous to go out for dinner there at night.
An entry on the restaurant’s website further explained: “The condition of life in San Francisco has deteriorated and made running a small business nearly impossible. We thank all of those who worked beside us from the beginning until the end, your devotion will never be forgotten.”
Just another potential nail in the coffin of a city hemorrhaging residents, businesses, tax revenue and hope. And the local political class continues to have no clue on how to fix what was once a vibrant, exciting and relatively safe city. And now our choice to be the next big city to declare bankruptcy.
3)Not to beat a dead horse relative to San Francisco, consider what one recent retail operation did in the city:
While businesses are closing up shop in the city, one would think that a national chain coming into town with a new retail operation would be good news.
Total Wine & More is a national chain with over 250 superstore located around the country and it recently opened a new location in San Francisco.
And while that is good news for a city lacking a lot of recent good retail news, the chain thought it appropriate to surround the location with a seven foot tall iron fence.
And not only is the fence seven feet tall, it is topped off with bent over metal spikes making it virtually impossible to climb over the fence.
This is obviously a nod to the rampant and violent crime in the city and to protect not only the store and its contents but also its employees.
Yes, more proof to change our opinion and now believe San Francisco will be the next big city to go bankrupt is the correct one.
4) And while the big picture of the deteriorating conditions in San Francisco include businesses closing and residents fleeing the city, there is also a tragic under current at the personal, individual level because the city politicians have no clue on how to fix the crime, homelessness, drug addicts, and other quality of life issues in the city:
Until recently, Yowhannes “John” Tewelde worked in a store in San Francisco.
Unfortunately he was recently killed while working.
Seems a thief had come into the store and shoplifted a case of water.
The thief returned five minutes later and attempted to shoplift a case of beer.
Mr. Tewlde confronted the robber with a baseball bat in hand.
They wrestled, the robber got control of the bat and beat Mr. Tewlde with it which resulted in his death.
A neighbor described the victim as a man “loved by the community.”
Newspaper accounts reinforced this kindness with a store visitor calling him a “friendly and positive presence in the neighborhood.”
I discuss this tragic death as a reminder that the city politicians job to provide a safe city has affected a lot of people on a very personal basis, that the tragedy of the city is not just the reality that big companies and small companies are moving out but that residents and store employees are often confronted with life and death situations at a rising rate, And the politicians still have no solution.
Enough insanity for today: Bidennomics is causing Americans to raid their retirement nest eggs and San Francisco takes the lead in becoming the next major American city to financially go belly up.
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