We begin with an entry from Great Business Decisions in Rock Music History: Today in 1961, EMI Records decided it wasn’t interested in signing the Beatles to a contract.
The number one single over here today in 1961:
Today in 1966, a friend of Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Brian Jones, Tara Browne, was killed when his Lotus Elan crashed into a parked truck. John Lennon used Browne’s death as motivation for “A Day in the Life”:
The number one album today in 1971 was Sly and the Family Stone’s “There’s a Riot Going On”:
Today in 1963, Carroll James of WWDC radio in Washington broadcast a Beatles song:
James, whose station played the song once an hour, got the 45 from his girlfriend, a flight attendant. Capitol Records considered going to court, but chose to release the 45 early instead.
(This blog has reported for years that James was the first U.S. DJ to play a Beatles song. It turns out that’s not correct — WLS radio in Chicago played “Please Please Me” in February 1963.)
Today in 1969, 50 million people watched NBC-TV’s “Tonight” because of a wedding:
The number one British single today in 1965 wasn’t just one song:
Today in 1970, five Creedence Clearwater Revival singles were certified gold, along with the albums “Cosmo’s Factory,” “Willy and the Poor Boys,” “Green River,” “Bayou Country” and “Creedence Clearwater Revival”:
In 1955, Ed Cole unleashed the Small Block V8 on the world and instantly turned General Motors’ ho-hum entry-level brand into a performance powerhouse. Throughout the following decades, his compact, 4.4-inch on-center bore spaced 90-degree pushrod V8 transformed badges like Bel Air, Camaro, Chevelle, and Corvette into some of the world’s fastest and most desirable cars. But no matter how lust-worthy these burbling, swaggering slices of American shock-and-awe became, Cole and his successors were sure to keep the company’s core mission of mass affordability front and center. As recently as 2017, one could walk into the local Chevrolet showroom and come face to face with six different cars powered by the decedents of Cole’s game-changing bent-eight. Most importantly, even after 62 years of progress, safety mandates, and inflation, all six eight-cylinder sleds still landed between “instant approval with proof of some regular income” and “something just about anyone could realistically aspire to own.”
Back in ’17, the Small Block Club was accessible from just $36,905. That humble sum secured a manual transmission, 455-horse 6.2L LT1-powered Sixth-Gen Camaro 1SS that was fresh off a Car of the Year title. Those who wanted to add all of the trimmings, like heated/cooled seats and wireless phone charging, to the mix could upgrade to a 2SS for $41,905. In the underappreciated masterpiece that was the Ausie-imported – and confusingly named – SS, 2017 also marked the last time you could get a new eight-cylinder sedan from Chevy; it came fully loaded for $46,625. At the same time, the award-winning base C7 Corvette Stingray carried an MSRP of just $55,450. If you thought some extra “juice” was worth squeezing your wallet a little, there were three options still on the table, starting with the 650 HP, $61,140 Camaro ZL1. On top of that were two varieties of widebody Corvette that you could get your hands on without having to cut a check over $80,000.
Looking back at that performance-per-dollar paints a bleak picture of our Bowtie buying power just seven short years later. The SS sedan, and Australian auto-manufacturing itself, is already a distant memory. As of this week, the Camaro has been re-retired, and the mid-engine replacement for 66 years of original recipe Corvette development, once heralded as the deal of the century, has seen $10,000 in price creep over its first four years on sale, putting its basement floor almost 26% above of its Stingray predecessor’s 2017 starting point.
Not only is Chevy’s once-proud blue-collar performance corral down to just three flavors of Corvette, where it previously served up more attainable sedan and 2+2 Pony Cars, but the two-door leftovers have had their economics of ownership significantly altered. Not only has the base Corvette left the previous model in the dust financially, but it now acts as the entry point for all V8 goodness. That makes the cheapest V8-powered Chevy 89% more expensive than it was in 2017. The Stingray also stands as the only option under the ceiling set by the previous Z06. Elsewhere, the new E-Ray trim replaces the once-popular Grand Sport in the middle of the Corvette pack. At $106,495, it starts a whopping $41,045, or 62.7%, higher than the first-year C7 GS was asking. Then there’s the Z06 that acts as top dog in ’24, as it did in 2017. A side-by-side comparison reveals the new car to be 40.59% more expensive, with its ballooning bottom line now totaling $111,695 before buyers check a single option box!
Looking ahead, the C8 Corvette family is expecting two more models to join the fold. The imminent twin-turbo ZR1 is set to take the Crossed Flags to new heights, but to do this, it’ll have to leave traditional ‘Vette customers out to dry. With the Z06 as a starting point and 850+ horses on board, we won’t flinch if the 2025 ZR1 starts at $200,000 or more. After that, the only other murmurings about future Corvettes revolve around a halo model called “Zora” that is set to join the ZR1 and E-Ray powertrains in unholy matrimony to the tune of four-digit horsepower. With the ZR1 already poised to cross the $200k barrier, what could Chevy have in mind for its AWD HyperVette? $250,000? $300,000? We aren’t sure, but in a world where Ford feels comfortable slapping a $300k price tag on a Mustang that isn’t half as technically impressive, there’s no telling where this thing could land!
As exciting as the prospect of a 1,000+ HP Corvette is to us as long-time fans of the Crossed Flags, Chevrolet’s C8 pricing strategy is equally disheartening to us as prospective owners. Despite our ingenious suggestion, it appears as if the sizable sub-Stingray space that the Camaro was forced to vacate AND the $37,000 gap between the Base ‘Vette and the E-Ray are going to continue getting the cold shoulder from the parent company. With the 1LT Stingray now swimming in $70,000 waters and nothing in the pipeline aimed at long-time customers who can’t spend more than $1,000 per month on what usually amounts to a weekend toy, Ed Cole’s “performance for all” blueprint just might have reached its expiration date.
And not just at Chevrolet. Chrysler is discontinuing the Dodge Challenger, whose Hemi V8-powered R/T stickers just below $40,000. That leaves just the Ford Mustang GT, which starts around $42,000 for a 5.0-liter V8 and six-speed manual transmission.
A choice of one beats a choice of none, but it’s not that much better.
The dark reality of Bidenomics is 16.7% inflation under President Biden’s watch. When he took office, inflation was at just 1.4%. Inflation has stayed above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target for 34 consecutive months since March 2021.
According to the Labor Department, average hourly earnings for all employees dropped 3.1% to $11.07 in November from $11.42 in January 2021 when Biden assumed office. Despite nominal salary increases at their fastest pace in years, American workers are now worse off than when Biden took office.
In short, the prices have increased by 16.7% under Biden’s watch, while real wages have declined by 3.1%, meaning Americans have taken a 3.1% pay cut under Biden’s watch. To put it differently, they now need 19.8% more income than they had in January 2021 to maintain their standard of living.
Inflation acts as a tax on Americans. Due to entrenched inflation without corresponding real wage growth, most Americans (60%) live paycheck to paycheck, cutting expenses to make ends meet. Further, as we showed recently, the fight to slay inflation comes with side effects worse than the disease.
Therefore, it is no surprise that inflation and food prices emerged as Americans’ top economic issues in a recent TIPP Poll.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) released by the government on Tuesday showed a 3.1% year-over-year price increase from November 2022 to November 2023.
The CPI rate had declined steadily from a 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022 to 3.0% in June 2023 for 12 consecutive months. In July, it broke that run and increased to 3.2%, and further increased for the second month in August to 3.7% and remained at 3.7% in September. In October, it returned to 3.2%, and in November dropped again slightly to 3.1%.
After adjusting for seasonality, the CPI increased by 0.1% between October 2023 and November 2023. In the same period, Food prices rose by 0.2%, Energy prices declined by 2.3%, and All items except food and energy (Core) increased by 0.3%
We developed the TIPP CPI, a metric that uses February 2021, the month after President Biden’s inauguration, as its base. All TIPP CPI measures are anchored to the base month of February 2021, making it exclusive to the economy under President Biden’s watch.
We use the relevant data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to calculate the TIPP CPI, but we adjust the period to Biden’s tenure. CPIs are like index numbers that show how prices affect people’s lives, similar to how the Dow Jones Industrial Average reflects the stock market.
When discussing the TIPP CPI and the BLS CPI, we convert the index numbers into percentage changes to better understand and compare them.
Bidenflation, measured by the TIPP CPI using the same underlying data, stayed steady at 16.7% in November. It was 17.0% in October and September and 16.7% in August.
By the middle of 2022, significant inflation had already taken hold. In November 2022, CPI inflation stood at 7.1 percent. The official BLS CPI year-over-year increases will compare prices to already inflated bases in the coming months, so these statistics might mask the full impact.
The following four charts present details about the new metric.
The annual CPI increase reported by BLS is 3.1% for November 2023. Compare this to the TIPP CPI of 16.7%, a 13.6-point difference. Prices have increased by 16.7% since President Biden took office. On an annualized basis, TIPP CPI is 5.9%.
Food prices increased by 19.8% under Biden compared to only 2.9% as per BLS CPI, a difference of 16.9 points.
TIPP CPI data show that Energy prices increased by 29.9%. But, according to the BLS CPI, energy prices improved by 5.4%. The difference between the two is a whopping 35.3 points.
The Core CPI is the price increase for all items, excluding food and energy. The Core TIPP CPI is 15.1% compared to 4.0% BLS CPI in the year-over-year measure, an 11.1-point difference.
Further, gasoline prices have increased by 34.2% since President Biden took office, whereas the BLS CPI shows that gasoline prices have improved by 8.9%, a difference of 43.1 points.
TIPP CPI finds that Used car prices have risen by 24.0% during President Biden’s term. Meanwhile, the BLS CPI reports that the prices have dropped 3.8%, a difference of 27.7 points.
Inflation for air tickets under President Biden is 30.4% compared to the BLS CPI’s finding of an improvement of 12.1%, a difference of 42.5 points.
The latest TIPP Poll, completed earlier this month, shows nine in ten (85%) survey respondents are concerned about inflation. Since January 2022, inflation concerns have stayed above 85%. The “very concerned” share has been over 50% for twenty-two months.
Nearly six in ten (59%) say their wages have not kept up with inflation. Only 18% say their income has kept pace with inflation.
This statistic hovered in the low twenties for most of the last year. The positive change between January and March has petered out since May. Notice the steady descent from March 2023. It dropped to 18% in December, with a three-month average of 19.3%.
Nominal wages represent the amount of money one earns without considering changes in the cost of living. On the other hand, real wages consider inflation and measure the purchasing power of wages. Real wages provide a more accurate reflection of what is affordable with the income earned by factoring in the changes in the cost of living.
Real weekly wages measured year-over-year dropped for 26 of the 34 months of the Biden presidency from Feb 2021 to November 2023. It broke the 26-month negative run in June and has recorded positive readings for six months. However, it is only 0.53% in November.
As a result of inflation, Americans are cutting back on household spending.
They are cutting back on entertainment (82%), eating out (81%), purchasing big-ticket items (79%), holiday/vacation travel (76%), and memberships/subscriptions (72%).
Two-thirds (67%) are cutting back on even good causes such as charity giving. Over one-half (58%) of households spend less on groceries. The high gasoline prices forced 58% to cut back on local driving.
While Americans look forward to Christmas festivities, nearly two-thirds (63%) are concerned about Christmas expenses.
The worries are reflected in spending intentions. Compared to recent years, two people plan to spend less for every person who plans to spend more. Forty-two percent are likely to spend less, while only 20% will spend more.
Imagine having tickets to this concert at the National Guard Armory in Amory, Miss., today in 1955: Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley:
Today in 1957, while Jerry Lee Lewis secretly married his 13-year-old second cousin (while he was still married — three taboos in one!), Al Priddy, a DJ on KEX in Portland, was fired for playing Presley’s version of “White Christmas,” on the ground that “it’s not in the spirit we associate with Christmas.”
While I’m generally pretty skeptical about private-sector unions (let alone public-sector ones), I get why people in some industries join them, and why they once played an important role for workers. My grandfather, who started as a coal miner and ended up as a longshoreman, was a big union man, and I can’t very well blame anybody in those lines of work for thinking they want the protection of a collective. But try as they might, writers can’t turn a news room into a coal mine or a dock.
But they do try. And their trying is absolutely hilarious. That’s the only just word for it: hilarious. Outside of the narrow context that Dan provides, unions are so out of place in the modern world as to be intrinsically funny. They’re like flamingos in the Somme, or a bagpiper on a Ferris Wheel, or a newborn baby at the controls of a passenger jet. Whenever one laughs at journalists forming unions, one gets a lecture about the value of collective action per se. But we’re not talking about collective action per se; we’re talking about its misapplication by some of the silliest people in the country. There are lots of things that are defensible in and of themselves, but that, when applied incorrectly, become jarringly incongruous. Bomb-disposal suits are useful, but if I started pulling things out of the oven in one, I’d deserve to be ridiculed. Diplomatic immunity is useful. I don’t need it at Applebee’s. As a smart man one said, the key is location, location, location. The Washington Post ain’t it.
As with the similarly amusing move toward the unionization of graduate students, the habit that some of the Post’s writers are indulging is ultimately completely backwards. They haven’t considered their problems and concluded that a union walkout might be the best solution; they’ve decided that they want a union walkout, and then projected their problems onto its absence. Why? A love of drama, mostly. Usually, the drive to unionize cushy jobs is driven by a combination of a preference for radical chic and a broad-based resentment at having been born too late to have been a part of the moments in history that the organizers most admire. And so it is here. For people who don’t need them, unions provide a thin bat’s squeak of rebellion. They facilitate cosplay for the laptop class — providing a facsimile of danger, and offering up a hollow connection to a people with whom they have nothing in common. And, if the architects of the drive get really lucky, the existence of the union ends up making their job security demonstrably worse, which, via the magic of ideological zealotry, then serves to illustrate how important it was that they demanded one in the first place.
Strictly in the interest of mirth, I hope that the Washington Post’s union survives for another hundred years. I want to see more days like today, which has already brought some classic sentences such as this one, from The Wrap:
Washington Post games reporter Gene Park posted on X that he would participate in the walkout instead of covering “The Game Awards,” live on Thursday as originally planned, “In solidarity with my union family.”
I honestly can’t improve on that. I doubt anyone can. It’s got everything: The job that doesn’t matter — “games reporter” — the irrelevant event — “The Game Awards” — the disconsonant use of old-timey language — “in solidarity with my union family.” There cannot be anyone, anywhere in America, who is sitting devastated at home right now because the Washington Post’s games reporter will not be writing up The Game Awards. When the electricity shuts off, or the planes don’t fly, or the ports are closed to commerce, people notice. Gene Park’s silence, by contrast, represents one of the most spectacular non-events of the twenty-first century. Union or no union, you can’t fix that with indignation. Nobody can — whether their fist is raised or not. Onward!
The newsroom union of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, back when the Journal Sentinel was part of Journal Communications, did nothing to prevent the company’s breakup, by the way.
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 