Biden claims inflation was 9% when he took office – it was 1.4%

 President Biden claimed on Wednesday that inflation was at 9% when he entered the White House in January 2021, when, in fact, the consumer price index (CPI) was at a mere 1.4% at the time.

"No president has had the run we’ve had in terms of creating jobs and bringing down inflation," Biden told CNN's Erin Burnett in an interview. "It was 9% when I came to office – 9%."

President Biden speaks to reporters as he hosts Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in the Oval Office at the White House on May 7, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images / Getty Images)

It’s a notion Biden has alluded to before. In April, the president said: "Look, we have dramatically reduced inflation from 9% down to close to 3%. We’re in a situation where we’re better situated than we were when we took office where we – inflation was skyrocketing."

U.S. Inflation Rate Timeline (FOX News / Fox News)

But under Biden's watch, the inflation rate ballooned from 1.4% to 9.1% in June 2022. While it has now declined to 3.5% as of March 2024, it remains well above the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.

U.S. Inflation under Biden (FOX News)

Biden's claims come as he attempts to make the case to the American people that the economy is better under his "Bidenomics" agenda than it was under his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, whom he is running against for a second term.

While the White House repeatedly touts strong economic stats, voters at home aren't happy with Biden's job performance. A Fox News poll in March showed only 38% of Americans approve of Biden's handling of the economy.

Although inflation has come down from its 9.1% peak, U.S. households are still feeling the pain from rising prices during Biden's term.

Under Biden, overall inflation (seasonally adjusted) has increased 18.9% from January 2021 to March 2024. During the same period, all food costs are up 21%, while shelter costs are up 20.5% and energy costs are up 36.9%.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/biden-falsely-claims-inflation-9-when-took-office-1-4

House Passes 'Electoral Integrity' Bill To Restore Citizenship Question To Census

 by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to pass a measure that would add a citizenship question to the next U.S. census, as part of the latest efforts by conservatives to “protect America’s democracy and electoral integrity.”

The legislation, known as the “Equal Representation Act,” was led by Rep. Chuck Edwards, (R-N.C.), who spoke on the floor Wednesday regarding the need to ensure only American citizens are counted when apportioning congressional seats and Electoral College votes.

It passed in a vote of 206-202 along party lines.

The measure would direct the Census Bureau to add a question to the once-a-decade census asking whether or not the respondent is a citizen of the United States. It asks that only citizens be considered when determining how many lawmakers each state gets in the House of Representatives, as well as how many Electoral College votes each of the 50 states receives.

The measure creates new reporting requirements for data gathered from the citizenship question, noting that “the citizenship makeup of the population in the United States is a basic data point that should be available to U.S. policymakers, and the decennial census questionnaire is the best way to obtain such detailed information on citizenship status.”

The next decennial census is set to take place in 2030.

“Though commonsense dictates that only citizens should be counted for apportionment purposes, illegal aliens have nonetheless recently been counted toward the final tallies that determine how many House seats each state is allocated and the number of electoral votes it will wield in presidential elections,” Mr. Edwards said in remarks on the floor on Wednesday.

“And since the illegal alien population is not evenly distributed throughout the nation, American citizens in some states are losing representation in Congress to illegal aliens in other states, ” he added.

‘Alarming Undermining of American Democracy’

Mr. Edwards cited a 2019 study by the Center for Immigration Studies, which estimated that illegal immigrants and non-citizens, who have not naturalized and do not have the right to vote, impact the distribution of 26 seats in the House.

The lawmaker said his bill would “finally address this alarming undermining of American democracy” while helping to ensure electoral integrity.

“Enacting this legislation into law is vitally important to ensuring that the American people receive fair representation in Congress and that they, and only they, determine the outcomes of presidential elections,” Mr. Edwards said.

Conservatives welcomed the measure on Wednesday. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a statement after the vote, “We should not reward states and cities that violate federal immigration laws and maintain sanctuary policies with increased Congressional representation.”

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) applauded Wednesday’s passage of the Equal Representation Act while criticizing the Biden administration’s “open border policies” which he said have “created the worst border crisis in American history, impacting every American.”

“In the midst of a crisis that is setting records for illegal border crossings, Congress is today taking steps to proactively protect a fair electoral process,” Mr. Comer said in a statement.

Mr. Comer said the new bill “adds a simple citizenship question to the decennial census questionnaire to ensure accurate information, and provides that only citizens are counted for apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives and Electoral College votes.”

“American citizens’ federal representation should be determined by American citizens only,” the Republican added.

President Joe Biden speaks to guests during an event at Gateway Technical College’s iMet Center in Sturtevant, Wis., on May 8, 2024. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

White House ‘Strongly Opposes’ Bill

However, civil rights groups, Democrats, and the White House quickly criticized the bill–which is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate–with many questioning its legality under U.S. law.

The Constitution states that representatives will “be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state.”

In a statement of administration policy published on Monday, the Biden administration said it “strongly opposes H.R. 7109 [the Equal Representation Act]” which would “preclude the Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau from performing its constitutionally mandated responsibility to count the number of persons in the United States in the decennial census.”

The measure would also increase the cost of conducting the census and make it more difficult to obtain accurate data, the administration said.

“It would also violate the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, which requires that the number of seats in the House of Representatives ‘be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State,’” the administration added.

This is not the first time Republicans have attempted to add the citizenship question to the census. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross tried to do so during the 2020 Census under President Donald Trump.

That attempt was subsequently blocked by the Supreme Court.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/house-passes-electoral-integrity-bill-restore-citizenship-question-census

'Birx: We need ‘transparent panel’ on COVID origins'

 Dr. Deborah Birx, the former White House COVID-19 response coordinator, is calling for a 9/11-style commission to investigate the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying transparency is needed to rebuild trust in science and public health.

“I’ve called for over and over…a 9/11-like commission where all of this is laid out,” Birx said Wednesday on NewsNation’s “CUOMO.” “When we talk about rebuilding trust in science and data and information, it starts with transparency.”

Birx was in the spotlight nearly daily in 2020, informing the public on how the Trump administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were handling the infectious disease that killed more than 1.1 million Americans. 

Birx said such a commission should examine what mitigation efforts worked, the efficacy of vaccines, issues around long COVID, and whether enough safeguards are in place to prevent future lab leaks of dangerous pathogens. She noted people are “working with zoonotic viruses every day in multiple labs across the globe.”

One thing that went wrong early on in the pandemic: The pharma giant AstraZeneca requested that the European authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine be pulled.

The European Medicines Agency first gave AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine the nod in January 2021. Within weeks, however, concerns grew about the vaccine’s safety, when dozens of countries suspended the vaccine’s use after unusual side effects were noted, including rare blood clots detected in a few immunized people. The European Union regulator concluded AstraZeneca’s shot didn’t raise the overall risk of clots, but doubts remained.

Birx said the vaccines were “very effective” at preventing severe disease, hospitalizations and deaths, which is what the clinical trials studied.

However, she said questions remain about vaccinating lower-risk populations, potential side effects and long-term impacts that require further transparent investigation.

“There has to be this transparent panel and discussion,” she told NewsNation.

Birx pushed back against conspiracy theories that the vaccines were ineffective or caused widespread harm, noting far more people suffered from long COVID than reported any adverse vaccine reactions. But she said people’s concerns need to be heard and addressed.

“Until we’ve listened to each and every one of them and addressed their concerns, and they believe they were heard, people are going to continue to spread conspiracy theories,” Birx said.

The epidemiologist also criticized China’s lack of transparency, saying it began at the pandemic’s onset when Beijing officials initially claimed no there was no human-to-human transmission despite hospitals being overrun.

https://www.newsnationnow.com/cuomo-show/deborah-birx-transparent-panel-covid-origins/

Biden's Handling Of Israel War Has "Tremendously Increased The Risk Of A Fresh Eruption"

By Michael Every of Rabobank

Yesterday saw the Riksbank in Sweden cut rates by 25bp to 3.75% for the first time since 2016 (as Brazil cut 25bp to 10.50% as expected, yet the BoJ opened the door to another tiny June hike). Rate cuts, and a month before the ECB is expected to do the same! As Bloomberg put it, “their choice signals that the domestic situation, with subsiding inflation and a sputtering economy, takes precedence over any concern that moving ahead of bigger peers will lead to another bout of korona weakening that in turn would fuel import prices.” Or that cutting rates doesn’t see speculation and inflation return locally; and/or that the global backdrop doesn’t suddenly do anything (additionally) nasty that would complicate the inflation environment for everyone.

On that latter note, the headlines speak to a dynamic that risks exactly that kind of development, if not immediately then over time.

First, ‘Biden warns Israel he will halt US weapon supplies if it invades Rafah’. The US president doesn’t mean just the $260m of munitions already on hold despite Congressional approval, but most offensive weapons, even if defensive systems such as iron dome interceptors will still flow.

There are few topics less well understood and more passionately championed on both sides that the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, but these points hopefully underline why this US action has a key geopolitical, and potential market, impact.

• The US is trying to dictate Israel’s policy, but far too belatedly to please the anti-Israel crowd.
• It removes the only pressure-point left to force Hamas to release the remaining Israeli hostages which it holds (including dual US citizens), displeasing the pro-Israel crowd.
• This as a huge political win for Hamas. It leaves Israel with only the recent Hamas-penned deal that would see it hold hostages for longer, retake control of Gaza, and gain the release of high-profile Palestinian prisoners into the West Bank. That latter action would crush the popular standing of the Palestinian Authority, leading to a Hamasification that would undermine both US/Western hopes for Arab states helping rebuild Gaza under a reformed Palestinian Authority and a two-state solution.
• This US “offense things bad, defensive things good” strategy is a mirror image of what they have tried and failed with vs. Russia (re: Ukraine) and Iran (re: Israel), among others, so far.
• Saudi Arabia will be wondering if a defense alliance with the US is worth it when their future actions might be proscribed by a White House National Security Advisor who a week before 7 October proudly claimed that the Middle East was “the quietest it has been in years.” Other allies in other regions, from Europe to Asia, may also start to wonder how reliable the US is when push really comes to shove.   
• Israel, seeing this as existential, could ignore the US, creating a rupture between key allies. Or it could pivot to attack Hezbollah in Lebanon, which would be a far more destructive, destabilising conflict: and any US refusal to supply ammunition for that would be a true geopolitical earthquake that would embolden all forces pushing back on the US and its allies further.

In market terms, this doesn’t mean anything for energy prices immediately: indeed, some may wrongly take it as a “de-escalation” signal. However, the underlying pressure on the geopolitical tectonic plates has increased enormously, and the risks of a fresh eruption of some kind --with an inflationary impact of various potential forms (i.e., look at the Houthis)-- has increased in tandem.

Second, the IMF’s Gopinath this week stated: “Consider a world divided into three blocs: a U.S. leaning bloc, a China leaning bloc, and a bloc of nonaligned countries.” Which is of course exactly what we did years ago, when almost nobody else in markets was talking about it seriously. While she stresses that “connector countries” like Mexico and Vietnam are key ‘middlemen’ between the US and China, she notes we are seeing signs of real embryonic geopolitical and geoeconomic rupture.

The currency composition of cross-border payments for US-leaning countries is unchanged, but for those China-leaning the CNY share has more than doubled, from around 4% to 8% - and this is not only Russia, but a broader upstream trade commodity finance shift I have flagged before. She notes China’s shift from SWIFT to its own CIPS; central banks’ increased gold purchases for FX reserves; and flags the potential risks of trade fragmentation like Brexit on steroids, financial fragmentation that will see capital flows shift, and even that “the global payment system could become fragmented along geopolitical lines with the emergence of new payment platforms with limited or no interoperability.” Which is what happened in the 1930s, as well as in the Cold War, and which I have flagged as a risk repeatedly for years – and I have stressed that the dollar still wins even in a fractured world order where we all lose.

In a mild scenario, the IMF thinks this could reduce world GDP by 0.2%; in an extreme scenario, losses could be 7%; and low-income countries could experience 4 times the GDP loss of other countries in the event of fragmentation of commodity markets into two blocs. Most of the losses would be due to trade restrictions of agricultural commodities, raising concerns about food security in poorer countries: you think cocoa is volatile now? Again, we did this geopolitical work on agri commodity flows years ago.

Fragmentation of trade in minerals for the green transition would also make the already vastly expensive energy transition even more costly, as these minerals are geographically concentrated and not easily substituted. Again, this is a point made here before.

Understandably, the IMF asks, “So, what can we do to prevent this?” Yet the answer is: “The ideal solution would be to preserve and strengthen the multilateral rules-based global trading system and the international monetary system… and making more progress on dealing with subsidies and national security trade restrictions and developing international rules and norms on… industrial polices… But given where we are today, the ideal may be difficult to achieve.”

So, all the IMF can offer is “to keep open the lines of communication and stay engaged,” and “work together on areas of common interest,” which means little, and “limit harmful unilateral policy actions, including industrial policies” – which are about to expand massively, even in Europe.

Third, US presidential candidate RFK, Junior says that he has a dead worm in his brain and, “I have cognitive problems, clearly. I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me.” But not to worry, because you have the alternative choice of Joe Biden. Or of Donald Trump.

That all says, “disinflation and rate cuts”, right? So, surely, it’s time to risk doing just that?

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bidens-handling-israel-war-has-tremendously-increased-risk-fresh-eruption

Hospitals Turn to Pay In Advance, In Full

 If you are in the hospital emergency room, and that’s where most people without insurance go, then you get treated. Otherwise, many hospitals are turning to pay in advance for services.

Please Pay in Advance

The Wall Street Journal reports Hospitals Are Refusing to Do Surgeries Unless You Pay in Full First

For years, hospitals and surgery centers waited to perform procedures before sending bills to patients. That often left them chasing after patients for payment, repeatedly sending invoices and enlisting debt collectors.

Now, more hospitals and surgery centers are demanding patients pay in advance.

Advance billing helps the facilities avoid hounding patients to settle up. Yet it is distressing patients who must come up with thousands of dollars while struggling with serious conditions.

Those who can’t come up with the sums have been forced to put off procedures. Some who paid up discovered later they were overcharged, then had to fight for refunds.

Among the procedures that hospitals and surgery centers are seeking prepayments for are knee replacements, CT scans and births.

Federal law requires hospitals to take care of people in an emergency. Hospitals say they don’t turn away patients who need medical care urgently for lack of prepayment.

They are seeking advance payment for nonemergencies, they say, because chasing unpaid bills is challenging and costly. Roughly half the debt hospitals wrote off last year was owed by patients with insurance, the Kodiak analysis found.

Finding money for treatment is a challenge for many American households. Half of adults say they can’t afford to spend more than $500 on medical care should they be suddenly sick or injured, a survey by health policy nonprofit KFF found. They would need to borrow.

No Skin in the Game

It’s interesting to note that hospitals want payment in advance for births. Most illegals just walk in and never pay for anything.

Nonpayment is one of the reasons costs are soaring for everyone who does pay.

Medicare for all is not the answer. When consumers have no skin in the game, no one is interested in reducing costs.

Pets Treated Better Than Humans

Much money is wasted on keeping people alive who have less than a year to live.

We treat our pets in pain better than we treat humans. I just went through that myself. Our 15-year-old dog lost his eyesight due to ruptured eyes and was running into walls. He was in pain and could not see.

The total bill for that crying experience was only $232.

Right to Die

If what happened to our dog happened to me, I would want to go. Someone else might not.

But for those who cannot pay for services and don’t have insurance, I suggest they should be given painkillers only, or select a right to die.

We need to prioritize. And the only way for that to happen is for people to have some skin in the game.

Something Wrong Somewhere

Something is wrong somewhere when half of adults do not have $500 dollars to any emergency (auto repairs, medical, and home repairs).

Inflation is certainly a problem. Thank Biden, the Fed, and Congress (both parties) for that.

Ridiculous regulations are part of the cost. Medical malpractice insurance and lawsuits are a problem.

The minute someone tries to discuss these things, the Right starts screaming about “death squads”.

With millions of aging boomers, this problem is only going to get worse.

https://mishtalk.com/economics/hospitals-turn-to-pay-in-advance-in-full/

RAPT closes trials on hold

 RAPT Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: RAPT), a clinical-stage, immunology-based therapeutics company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing oral small molecule therapies for patients with significant unmet needs in inflammatory diseases and oncology, today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024.

The Company also announced today that it has decided to close and unblind both its Phase 2b clinical trial of zelnecirnon (RPT193) in atopic dermatitis (“AD”) and its Phase 2a trial of zelnecirnon in asthma. Both clinical trials were placed on clinical hold by the FDA in February 2024 based on a serious adverse event of liver failure requiring transplant in one patient in the AD trial. Prior to the imposition of the clinical hold, a total of 229 patients had been enrolled in the Phase 2b AD trial, of which approximately 110 had completed the 16-week dosing period.

“Although there were a significant number of patients who were unable to complete the AD trial due to the hold, we believe we will have sufficient data, even if not statistically significant, to inform our path forward and support our discussions with the FDA,” said Brian Wong, President and CEO. “We are working with the clinical trial sites to clean the data and we anticipate that our analysis of the data will be completed in the third quarter of this year. Concurrently, we are continuing our investigation and analysis of the serious adverse event that triggered the clinical hold.”

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/05/09/2878721/0/en/RAPT-Therapeutics-Reports-First-Quarter-2024-Financial-Results.html

Why Is CytomX (CTMX) Stock Down

 CytomX Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CTMX) stock is taking a beating on Thursday following a clinical trial update from the oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company.

CytomX Therapeutics’ latest clinical trial update covers its Phase 1a study of CX-904, a cancer treatment in development. The company notes that the current results show a favorable safety profile and anti-cancer activity.

However, diving into the data better explains why investors aren’t happy. Of the six pancreatic cancer patients able to be evaluated by the cutoff date, only two saw confirmed partial responses. That’s not giving CTMX stockholders hope for positive results from this trial.

Expanding on that, eight patients saw measurable tumor reduction in the cutoff date of the clinical trial. To put that in perspective, the company has enrolled 35 patients in this clinical study.

https://investorplace.com/2024/05/why-is-cytomx-ctmx-stock-down-43-today/