The clarifying power of inflation in a world deluged by bullshit

 Today, the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates.  By how much?  A lot, comparatively speaking (75 basis points, seems to be the consensus), and they won't be done with this rate hike.  For the first time in decades, the country, and indeed, many countries around the world are facing inflation rates not seen since the last time we had an energy shock, thereby demonstrating the macroeconomic effects of energy shocks, challenging the default partisan talking points on the right that it is either the economic death-magic of having Brandon McOldie in the White House, or the specific effects of the specific fiscal policies of Comrade Brandon.  (Don't blame me, I voted f... actually, I did vote for him, but in my defense, the alternative was Rapey McShitbag.)  Actually, as it turns out, energy shocks matter, consistently.  Hence we turn to Jerome Powell and the question of whether or not he goes full Volcker, but in any case, inflation sucks, as in, it sucks the money right out of your accounts.  It sucks the purchasing power out of your paycheck, which is most challenging at the lower end of the income distribution, despite the fact that one usually hears inflation concerns from those accused of caring only about the wealthy.  But inflation just sucks, and it hits everyone.

Yes, the crumbling of our democracy matters, but as I wrote recently, there is not much that we can do about it, or at least, not much that any of us useless things called "political scientists" have conjured from our worthless brains.  So sure, delay your hearings while your staff produce their little movies.  Fiddle while Rome burns, fiddle out a warning!  Fiddle out danger!  Fiddle out justice!  If I had a fiddle...  Where was I?

Oh, right.  Rosin's gettin' expensive, just like everything else.*  Behold, clarification.

What matters?  What matters to you?  Jazz matters to me.  Without a well-rosined bow, there would be no Stephane Grappelli.  Can I say, objectively, that jazz matters, but sculpture does not?  No.  I can say that I grok Django, but that I don't grok Michelangelo, and I find something valuable listening to modern developments in jazz, and nothing in sculpture.  If sculpture holds meaning to you, I do not see it, quite literally, but I do not need to.

Can I say that sports are objectively meaningless, stupid and irrelevant?  Yes, and you are objectively wrong to care about them, and I am objectively superior for not caring.

But that's different.

Like how inflation is different.  Some shit just doesn't matter, and yet modern politics and civil discourse have gone down the path of ever-more-divisive and vitriolic conflict over things that range from trifling to overblown in the context of greater matters.

It is easiest to treat someone like shit over nothing when you don't have real problems.  There is an old saying about the land in which I dwell-- academia.  Why are the politics of academia so nasty?  Because the stakes are so small.

One of my regular entreaties is for the nonexistent reader of this obscure, pretentious little blog to think through the stakes, and place them in context.

Welcome to a world of "stakes."  We see this periodically.  When COVID first hit, it made every other issue look small by comparison, and with a million dead in the US alone, kept that low through vaccines, one understands why.  That doesn't mean people are capable of keeping their eyes on target at all times.

Moreover, taken to its extreme, the result of this method of analysis becomes something akin to what-about-ism.  "Inflation matters" does not preclude X, which is not inflation, from mattering, even if the stakes of X are less.  My point is that it is necessary to think through the stakes, and that requires understanding the scale.  That requires reference points.

When you look at geology photographs, you will see reference objects, either an actual ruler, or an object of known size.  A US Quarter, for example.  What is the scale?  What are the stakes?  In the presence of a new issue with real stakes, issues that were always kinda bullshit anyway become more obviously so.

Because people can't afford basics.

And it's worse with inflation because the cure, such as it is, is a Fed rate hike, which risks a recession, with its own pain, worse for the very same people hardest hit by inflation.

It is harder for even semi-vaguely rational people to care about petty, symbolic bullshit when it is hard to pay actual, real bills.

Clarity.  Reality.  The cold, hard power of numbers that either add up, or don't because at the end of the day, yes, getting the right answer is what matters, and if the right answer fucks you, symbolism won't unfuck you, and Roe is goin' down.

Don't sweat the small stupid shit.  It would be nice if the rest stopped picking fights over the stupid shit, but if you can at least separate the stupid from the not-stupid, you're half-way there.

Hopefully, you're more than half-way to paying your bills too, because that's the not-stupid shit, and people like me, fortunate enough to have no problems with the bills, should stop trying to draw those with real issues into our stupid shit.

Lookin' at you, academia.

*Actually, a little thing of rosin lasts for fuckin' ever, and I haven't bought any in eons, but I needed the line.