Cross-Examination

• 2022: the worst year for stocks and bonds since 1969: Joe Biden claims the economy is “strong as hell” and the 40-year-high inflation that is making all Americans poorer will soon be gone, a promise his administration has been making for a year now. Well, Biden ought to look at the real data and not his handlers’ spin. Economically speaking, 2022 is shaping up to be a bad year, not only with high inflation but also when it comes to the stock market — i.e., retirement savings for millions. The S&P 500 has dropped almost 24% over the year. Meanwhile, the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index has lost 16% of it value. Negative growth in both stocks and bonds is unusual, explains financial planner Kevin Brady: “Normally, stocks and bonds have an inverse relationship. Historically, bonds have had a ballast effect when stocks go down. That’s not happening this year.” The market hasn’t looked this bad for both stocks and bonds since 1969. To make matters worse, when both bonds and stocks are down, it’s usually due to some significant economic factors. The likely reason the bond market is down is due to the Fed’s efforts to combat inflation by raising the interest rates, which has in turn eroded the value of bonds. The silver lining is that bond yields have risen significantly. A two-year Treasury bond now yields a 4.45% return, up from less than half a percent last year.

• CFPB’s structure ruled unconstitutional, Elizabeth Warren hardest hit: On Wednesday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s structure is unconstitutional. The Court ruled that the CFPB’s funding “violates the Constitution’s structural separation of powers.” The brainchild of Senator Elizabeth Warren, the bureau was created during the Obama administration and was intentionally designed to shield it from congressional oversight, given that it’s funded directly by the Federal Reserve. In its ruling, the court observed: “While the great majority of executive agencies rely on annual appropriations for funding, the Bureau does not. Wherever the line between a constitutionally and unconstitutionally funded agency may be, this unprecedented arrangement crosses it.” Warren wanted an unaccountable CFPB, as it would allow a rogue agency effectively controlled by Democrats to push more financial regulations onto the American public without needing the approval of Congress. Warren’s reaction to the court’s ruling is ironic and telling: “This is a lawless and reckless decision. [The CFPB] has returned billions of dollars to Americans by doing its job, and its funding is clearly constitutional. Extreme right-wing judges are throwing into question every rule the CFPB enforces to protect consumers and businesses alike.” Warren, a member of the political party most loudly moaning about “threats to democracy,” eschews the democratic process of congressional oversight when it comes to her pet project.

• Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister: Liz Truss has set an ignominious record following her announcement Thursday that she will step down as the United Kingdom’s prime minister after holding the office for just 44 days. Truss will go down in the record books for serving the shortest term in office for a PM in British history. Facing a nearly 70% disapproval rating among the British population, Truss just a day earlier defiantly declared that she is “a fighter and not a quitter,” but the leader of the UK’s Conservative Party could not overcome her fateful economic decision that sent the British pound tanking. A day later, a more contrite Truss thus stated: “Given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party. I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.” The ruling Conservative Party will now be tasked with choosing a new PM, its fifth one in the last six years.

Headlines

• CDC panel votes to add COVID vaccine to recommended childhood schedule (National Review)

• Social Security Administration allows people to choose their own gender on forms (National Review)

• ABC News reporter writing book on Biden’s Afghanistan disaster vanishes after being raided by FBI (Daily Wire)

• Nearly 60% see mainstream media as a threat to democracy (The Hill)

• Biden administration trounces Texas, Arizona in battle of busing, flying migrants across U.S. (Washington Times)

• Nineteen states investigate major U.S. banks for pushing ESG policies “killing” American companies (Fox Business)

• Bad medicine: Doctor granting John Fetterman clean bill of health is a campaign donor (Free Beacon)

• Ten more races move toward Republicans (Politico)

• Katie Hobbs sent thousands of erroneous ballots to Arizona voters (The Federalist)

• Policy: Biden eyes ill-fated oil export ban; it would be as cruel as it is contradictory (American Spectator)

• Humor: To drown out Justice Jackson, Clarence Thomas resorts to wearing noise-canceling headphones (Babylon Bee)

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