Just when Trump thought the Epstein files threat was in the rear view mirror, Maggie Habermsn and Jonathan Swan come a knocking on the door of public consciousness again.
Their upcoming book ‘Regime Change’ rips of the festering scab that has grown over the open wound of Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
The regime are going to find this reporting very difficult to brush off as lies and a hit job. It’s just another in a growing list of damaging political threats Trump is unable to fend off.
Thanks to the New York Times for the clip.
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The idea that career politicians are completely disconnected from the financial struggles of average Americans is a valid critique, but the standard talking point of simply raising the minimum wage fundamentally misses the mark. Forcing a higher minimum wage doesn’t solve the underlying economic crisis; it merely triggers an immediate inflation spiral where the cost of daily goods and services jumps to absorb the new labor costs, ultimately leaving working-class citizens in a worse position than where they started.
The "minimum wage" debate is completely missing the point. Everyone is fighting over raising wages by a few bucks, but that’s like putting a band-aid on a broken leg. The real crisis isn’t just what people are getting paid—it’s the fact that the buying power of the U.S. dollar has been utterly destroyed, while the cost of basic goods and housing has gone into orbit.
Let’s look at the actual math using the ultimate benchmark of financial stability: buying a home.
In 1970, the federal minimum wage was $1.45 an hour, and the median home price was around $23,400. A single minimum-wage worker brought in about $3,016 a year, meaning an average house cost roughly 7.7x their annual salary. It wasn’t effortless, but with a dual income or some careful budgeting, owning a home on basic wages was mathematically possible.
Today, standard inflation calculators will tell you that $1.45 in 1970 equals about $11.64. But look at the actual cost of assets. The median home price has exploded to roughly $420,000.
If you want to walk into a bank today, factor in current interest rates, property taxes, homeowners insurance, and strict debt-to-income limits, you don't need $11 an hour to qualify. You don't even need $25 an hour. When factoring in standard modern debts like student loans or car payments alongside the inflated cost of everyday necessities, a single earner needs closer to $70 to $80 AN HOUR ($145k–$165k/year) just to secure the exact same purchasing power and financial security a basic worker had 56 years ago.
This structural gap hits on a massive point that raw home-price-to-income ratios completely miss: we don't buy sticker prices, we buy monthly payments. Comparing raw prices assumes you are paying in cash, but modern buyers are forced to absorb the real-world cost of borrowing and qualifying.
Treating the symptom (the wage) without fixing the disease (the collapse of our currency's purchasing power and the artificial inflation of assets) is a losing game. If we just hike wages without fixing the underlying economy, the cost of goods just keeps chasing the new printing press. We don't just need higher numbers on our paychecks; we need a dollar that actually means something again.
El PNP y el PPD han sido compadres en la corrupción desde siempre y en este asunto ambiental criminal de Esencia no ha sido la excepción. No les importa destruir todo a su paso con tal de salirse con la suya.