Inflation Isn’t a Bug in the System, It’s a Feature

 May brings more bad economic news for hard-pressed American households. “Transitory” inflation remains firmly entrenched at rates equal to or higher than those reported at the start of 2024.

The Labor Department reports this week that the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, it’s official measure of the rate of change in the retail price of a basket of everyday goods and services, rose 0.3% in the month of April, the same as for the month of January. For twelve months, CPI increased 3.4% through April compared to 3.1% for twelve months through January. And wholesale prices, a good indicator of future retail prices, increased much more than expected in April, rising at the fastest annual rate since April 2023.

The cumulative effect of persistent inflation is devastating. Since President Biden took office in 2021 the CPI is up, and Americans’ purchasing power is down, by 19%. For basic necessities, the situation is even worse. Groceries are up 21%. Gasoline prices are up 47%. The cost of shelter 20%, and electricity almost 30%.

American workers cannot keep up. Since President Biden took office, average hourly earnings after inflation have fallen over 2.5%. A typical American family must pay $12,000 more per year simply to maintain the standard of living that it enjoyed when President Biden took office.

As bad as the official CPI numbers are, actual inflation is much worse. That is because the government calculates CPI using a methodology intentionally designed to understate actual inflation. It does so to conceal the destructive results that inevitably flow from its irresponsible policies.

Inflation is always and everywhere the result of government policies that increase the supply of money circulating in the economy faster than the productive sectors of the economy can expand their capacity to produce goods and services for purchase.

From day one, the Biden administration has flooded the economy with borrowed money in the form of transfer payments, subsidies, and grants designed to purchase the political support of favored constituencies such as those in the green tech sector. At the same time, Biden-controlled federal agencies have unleashed a tidal wave of crushing regulation designed to reduce the productive capacity of disfavored constituencies such as the oil and gas industry. The inflation that afflicts us was inevitable.

President Biden has asserted that fighting inflation is the “top economic priority” of his administration. Such a statement would be laughable if the subject matter was not so serious. This president has no intention of altering the policies that define and drive the progressive agenda. There is no war on inflation or, indeed, any serious attempt to bring it under control and stabilize prices. Inflation is baked into the progressive model of government that depends on the continuing disbursement of borrowed money to political supporters.

Under President Biden, the national debt has increased a whopping $13 Trillion and now stands at over $34.6 Trillion. Concerned commentators point out that it will require much sacrifice, potentially disruptive sacrifice, to pay off or even materially to pay down the national debt. They lament that elected officials seem to lack the will and have no plan to deal with the national debt.

In fact, the progressive political class does have a plan to deal with the national debt. Their plan is to perpetuate inflation and thereby to engineer a slow-motion stealth default on the debt that will enable them to continue to enjoy without disruption the political benefits that flow to them from their irresponsible debt-funded vote buying.

During the periodic “fiscal cliff” showdowns in Congress, it is often said that the United States cannot default on its debt. An outright default would certainly shred the government’s credibility in financial markets and dangerously undermine its ability to access those markets to raise funds in the future.

There is also a legal reason that the United States cannot default on its debt. Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, enacted to repudiate Confederate debt and put beyond question the integrity of the obligations of the United States, provides in part that “The validity of the public debt of the United States…shall not be questioned.”

Compliance with the Constitution requires that the obligations incurred by the government be repaid in full, dollar for dollar. But, over time, inflation steadily reduces the value of the dollars used by the government to repay the obligations it has incurred. The purchasing power, or value, of a dollar has decreased by 19% just since President Biden took office and is today worth only 81% of what it was worth in January 2021.

This dollar-cheapening inflation, created by irresponsible spend-to-elect policies, enables the government to pay off its debts for cents on the dollar, and effectively default on the obligations it has incurred as a result of those policies. Clearly, inflation is not a bug in the government’s financial system. It is an essential feature.

The Federal Reserve actively supports the spend-elect-inflate model of governance by pursuing policies designed to achieve and maintain a rate of inflation equal to 2% per year. Over a generation, that rate of inflation will reduce the value of a dollar by approximately 50%. That will certainly help the government avoid having to fully repay its debts, but it will be devastating to American households.

 By using inflated dollars to pay its debt, the government is failing to honor its financial obligations. It is defaulting on those obligations and cheating the institutions and individuals who purchased its securities. And it is violating the Constitution. Inflation is not only destructive economically; it is also unlawful.

 J. Kennerly Davis is a former finance executive at a Fortune 500 electric and gas company, and a former Deputy Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2024/05/17/inflation_isnt_a_bug_in_the_system_its_a_feature_1032282.html

'US Focused On Hunting Down Hamas Chief Yahya Sinwar, In Bid To End War'

 Via Middle East Eye

The United States is focused on tracking down Hamas's Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar, amid a new push by the White House to help Israel declare "total victory" so it can bring an end to the war in Gaza, US officials have told Middle East Eye. Current and former US officials, who spoke with MEE on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the mission, said the US was expanding its search efforts across the region, after believing the 61-year-old was hiding in tunnels deep below Gaza.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media, told MEE that the Biden administration is now exploring possibilities that Sinwar fled to Egypt's Sinai peninsula, and from there may have even escaped to either Lebanon or Syria. 

The White House referred MEE to comments from US national security advisor Jake Sullivan earlier this week, that he wouldn't comment on intelligence about Sinwar. The current and former officials did not reference any specific intelligence but said one factor driving the debate was that US intelligence was lagging on Sinwar's last whereabouts. 

According to the officials, the Biden administration is roughly one month behind on tracking Sinwar's last known location, which was within the Gaza Strip. 

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official who also advised four US presidents on national security, told MEE that the lack of clarity surrounding Sinwar's last location was "pretty bad." When asked about the timeframe, he said: "One month means you aren't even close to real-time information."

Last month, a Hamas official said that Sinwar had visited combat zones above ground and had held deliberations with the group's leadership abroad. 

Speaking to the pan-Arab news outlet Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed (or The New Arab), the Hamas official said Sinwar was not always staying in tunnels, as claimed by Israel, but also performing his duties in the field. MEE could not independently verify the reports on his whereabouts. 

Tracking Sinwar has taken on a new urgency within the US intelligence community because the Biden administration believes it could help pressure Israel to end the war by declaring victory, the officials said.

US President Joe Biden alluded to that strategy last week when he told CNN: "I said to Bibi (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu), 'Don't make the same mistake we made in America. We wanted to get bin Laden. We'll help you get Sinwar'."

The parallel between hunting Sinwar and al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden underlines the extreme difficulty the US and Israel face trying to find Sinwar. The hunt for Bin Laden took ten years, and when he was located, he was in Pakistan, roughly one kilometre away from a military academy of the US's counterterrorism ally.

According to the officials, Washington wants to focus Israel's energy on finding key Hamas leaders such as Sinwar and Mohammad Deif, the head of the al-Qassam Brigades, as a way to avert a wider full-scale assault on Rafah.

The Biden administration, which continues to provide Israel with military and intelligence support, has said it would withhold offensive arms from Israel if it attacks "population centrers", referring to Rafah, the southern Gaza border city which currently houses around 1.4 million displaced Palestinians.

On Sunday, The New York Times reported that US officials believed Sinwar was not in Rafah but likely remains in Khan Younis, a city that Israeli forces laid siege to between December and April. Sinwar himself previously bragged in 2021 that there were 310 miles of tunnels in the Gaza Strip.

A former US intelligence official familiar with Hamas told MEE that one of Sinwar's brothers, Mohammad, oversaw tunnel construction between Sinai and Gaza and has deep ties to smuggling networks in Sinai, a factor that could aid Sinwar's escape. 

William Usher, a former senior Middle East analyst at the CIA, told MEE, "Right up until 7 October, Hamas had pretty unimpeded access to the tunnel network. They had contingency plans to put key leaders out of harm's way," he said. "In the past, Hamas went to Lebanon, Syria and even Iran," Usher said. "It wouldn't shock me if Sinwar was hiding there."

US boosts intelligence-sharing with Israel

On Monday, The Washington Post reported that the US was offering Israel new intelligence to help track Hamas leaders in exchange for Israel not launching the assault on Rafah.

That report was carried by some Israeli news outlets under the title: US withholding "sensitive intelligence" on Hamas from Israel. However, several current and former US and Arab diplomats, as well as defence and intelligence officials, told MEE it was highly unlikely the US would withhold information on Hamas from Israel.

In January, The New York Times reported that US national security advisor Jake Sullivan ordered the creation of a new task force to collect information on senior Hamas leaders and the location of hostages in Gaza, and share that intelligence with Israel.

One of the main challenges for the US is that it paid little attention to Hamas in the lead-up to 7 October, analysts and former US officials said. The Palestinian movement is a designated terrorist organisation by the US, but whilst it was boxed into ruling the impoverished Gaza Strip, it was never considered a major threat to the US.

The last time the US faced a major security threat in Gaza was in 2003, when a US diplomatic convoy was bombed there, killing three Americans. "The US depends on Israel to a large extent to share intelligence with us on what’s happening in Gaza because it has historically been their priority," Usher said.

The US officials said that the Biden administration had accelerated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) coordination with Israel. Meanwhile, a former US official said that Israel would be particularly interested in tapping into the US’s geospatial intelligence capabilities.

Leverage over talks

One of the routes the US is exploring to track Sinwar is the ceasefire talks, the sources said. While the face-to-face negotiators on Hamas's behalf are the political leaders based in Qatar, Sinwar is widely believed to have the final say on any agreement, as the group holds captives in Gaza and exercises control over military units.

Current and former Arab and US officials told MEE that Sinwar is probably relying on a circuitous network of couriers and potentially messaging apps to communicate with Hamas officials abroad. "If he was using a mobile phone, he'd be dead already," Riedel told MEE.

An Arab official familiar with Hamas told MEE that the group has had years of experience learning to cloak its communication during previous wars with Israel. "This is a guy from a different generation who is used to communicating off the grid," the official said.

According to US officials, whilst Algeria and Turkey also maintain dialogue with Hamas, Washington is leaning on Egypt to rule out whether Sinwar fled to Sinai. Egypt's military intelligence talks directly to Hamas's armed wing, giving them better access to Hamas than any of Washington's other Arab partners. 

The current and former US and Arab officials told MEE that if Sinwar fled the Gaza Strip, it could be a blow to Hamas's morale. Although he has been described as "prepared to die in Gaza", one US official said that Hamas's endurance on the battlefield after seven months may be impacting his decision-making.

"He might want to reconstitute for Hamas 3.0," the US official said. Despite the US effort, some doubt that killing Sinwar would be enough for the US to press Israel into a ceasefire agreement.

Jonathan Panikoff, the director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council, told MEE, "killing Sinwar might be sufficient for the US to decide its time for Israel to declare victory and move on, but it's not clear that it would be sufficient for Netanyahu’s political survival".

"Ultranationalists like Ben Gvir and Smotrich will likely still demand a military operation in Rafah." MEE also reached out to Syria's UN mission in New York, and Lebanon and Egypt's embassies in Washington DC for comment on Sinwar's whereabouts, but didn't receive a reply by the time of publication. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-focused-hunting-down-hamas-chief-yahya-sinwar-bid-end-war

Biden’s Voldemortian theory of privilege: The president whose voice must not be heard

 While all eyes were focused on a Manhattan courthouse for Donald Trump’s trial, a curious thing happened in Washington. President Joe Biden invoked executive privilege in defiance of Congress.

It is not the invocation that is particularly unusual. What is curious is that Biden is withholding the audiotape of his own interrogation by Special Counsel Robert Hur, even though the transcript has been released as unprivileged.

It appears that Joe Biden is “he who must not be heard.” 

The invocation of privilege over the audiotape is so transparently political and cynical that it would make Richard Nixon blush. Multiple committees are investigating Biden for possible impeachment and conducting oversight on the handling of the investigation into his retention and mishandling of classified material over decades. Classified documents were found in various locations where Biden lived or worked, including his garage. The mishandling of classified material is uncontestable. Broken boxes, unprotected areas and lack of tracking are all obvious from the photos.

The comparison to the Trump case in Florida is both obvious and disturbing. Where Trump was charged with a litany of charges, including mishandling and retention of documents (in addition to obstruction), Hur decided not to charge Biden at all. His reason was outright alarming: The president is an elderly man with failing memory.

Biden made the situation even worse with a disastrous press conference in which he attacked Hur and misrepresented his findings. Biden told the public that the special counsel did not find willful retention of material. This was untrue — Hur not only found that Biden had done this, but repeatedly detailed such violations in the report.

Biden also claimed that he had not shown classified material to third parties, even though Hur specifically found that he had and established that there is a witness to that violation. 

Biden also attacked Hur for bringing up the death of Beau, his son who passed away in 2018. In showing why Biden could use his diminished faculties as a defense, Hur had noted that Biden got the date wrong of his own son’s death.

In the press conference, Biden angrily asked “How in the hell dare he raise that?” Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself it wasn’t any of their damn business.”

It was later shown that it was not Hur but Biden himself who raised his son’s death, which he often does in speeches. 

Hur’s view that Biden’s diminished cognitive abilities would undermine any prosecution left many dumbfounded. After all, the man who is too feeble to prosecute is not only running a superpower with a massive nuclear arsenal but running for reelection to add four more years in office.

From impeachment to oversight to the 25th Amendment (allowing the removal of a president for incapacities), there are ample reasons for Congress to demand information and evidence from the government on these questions. Congress is also interested in looking at repeated omissions for “inaudible” statements. Under this sweeping theory that Biden can legitimately withhold these recordings under executive privilege, any president could withhold any evidence of incapacity or criminality.

The House is poised to find Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for refusing to release the audiotapes. It is a cynical calculation. Garland knows that his own department will never prosecute him for contempt of Congress. Obama Attorney General Eric Holder was clearly in contempt of Congress and abused executive privilege arguments to shield embarrassing details tied to Operation Fast and Furious. His department refused to even submit the matter to a grand jury. 

Garland also knows that it will take months to get any ruling on the matter once Congress can file with a court. That will push any decision and release until after the election. While the administration and liberal legal analysts insisted that courts should expedite any and all trials of Donald Trump before the election, they are not eager for the public to know this information about whether Biden seemed feeble or confused under questioning. 

A court may be a tad confused as to why a president’s answers are not privileged, but the actual audio recording of those answers can be privileged.

White House counsel Edward Siskel added to the dubious basis for the claim in a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio.) and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) on Thursday. He suggested that, if there were a compelling reason for the audiotapes, it might be different.

“The absence of a legitimate need for the audio recordings lays bare your likely goal—to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes,” wrote Siskel. But that is not a basis for an executive privilege assertion. How material would be treated is not relevant to whether Congress has a right to the information.

Past presidents have routinely over-extended privilege claims for political purposes. Nixon had his own tapes in the Watergate scandal. Of course, he was denying access to all of the information on the tapes. Yet, in a strange way, that may have been more compelling, since Nixon was arguing that the disclosure would compromise the content of privileged conversations.

Biden is not claiming the actual conversations as privileged; only how he sounded and spoke the words that are already in available transcripts.

For the Justice Department itself, these pendulum swings between being a contempt hawk and dove are enough to give a judge vertigo. The department just prosecuted Trump officials for refusing to appear or supply evidence to Congress. Likewise, arguments of privilege by former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows have been rejected. Yet privilege is now being asserted for this conversation between Hur and Biden, concerning potentially criminal conduct committed when Biden was a private citizen — neither vice president nor president.

In other cases, federal and state prosecutors have argued that Trump’s statements on Jan. 6 were criminal, made in relation to private interests and not protected under executive privilege or immunity. Notably, unlike in Biden’s case, these were statements made while Trump was president and concerned matters raised during Trump’s term. Likewise, prosecutors rejected claims that Trump has any protection over his call with Georgia officials over the demand for a recount. Imagine if Trump had argued that it was privileged to hear his voice, but not to read his words in the call.

Biden’s Voldemortian theory of privilege is unlikely to succeed legally, but that is not the point. Garland knows that it is likely to succeed politically. With generally favorable judges in Washington, the Biden administration hopes to run out the clock on the election. If Biden wins the election or the Democrats win the House, there may be no ongoing investigation or justification to support the demand in court. Of course, unlike Voldemort, who simply did not want to be named, Biden wants to remain “he who must not be heard” outside of short, carefully controlled settings.

What Hur heard could therefore remain a privilege of office.

Jonathan Turley is the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at the George Washington University Law School.

https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/4671765-bidens-voldemortian-privilege-the-president-who-must-not-be-heard/

Future Forward Dem super PAC raises eyebrows in Biden World

 Allies to President Biden are concerned that Future Forward — the preferred super PAC backing the president’s reelection bid — isn’t doing enough in the late spring and summer months to help build a narrative boosting the president and his accomplishments.

The allies say the super PAC is sitting on a massive war chest, but that since its January announcement of a record-breaking $250 million ad buy between August’s Democratic National Convention and Election Day, it has done little to make the case for Biden amid a rash of polling that shows former President Trump leading in key battleground states. 

“I don’t get the strategy,” said one veteran Democratic operative, who has been involved in recent super PACs and desperately wants to see Biden win. “They’re sitting on a s‑‑‑ ton of money and we all know voters are framing their decisions earlier and earlier.”

The Democrat pointed out that it’s also less expensive to make ad buys now as opposed to the fall when television stations are flooded with wall-to-wall campaign ads from various races both national and local. 

“It defies logic and how we have run modern presidential campaigns up to this point,” the operative said. “And every day that goes by is a wasted day.”

A second Democratic source who has been involved in super PACs, said more needs to be done sooner, including a wide-ranging communications push to educate voters on the Biden administration’s successes. 

The source pointed to a recent poll by Politico/Morning Consult that revealed voters aren’t familiar with Biden’s domestic spending initiatives, with many saying they know little about the significant laws that passed during the Biden administration. 

A slim minority said they had seen, read or heard a lot about the laws — 11 percent for the American Rescue Plan, 14 percent for the infrastructure law, 9 percent for the CHIPS and Science Act, and 17 percent for the Inflation Reduction Act, the survey revealed. 

“We have a financial advantage. I don’t know why you wouldn’t flex that,” the second source said. “I’m certainly not someone who thinks we shouldn’t be spending late. We definitely should be spending late. And I’m not here to say it wasn’t effective in the past. It was effective. But this isn’t 2020. 

“And because we have a financial advantage, we can shape the narrative.”

Future Forward did not comment for this story. The super PAC is above equals when it comes to outside groups, as it is run by people who have strong relationships with top Biden advisers, including Anita Dunn. 

At the same time, other groups have been involved in helping Biden. Another Democratic super PAC, American Bridge 21st Century, launched a three-week ad blitz against Trump earlier this month, with ads airing in battleground states Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The ads seek to warn voters about reduced abortion access if Trump were to win the election.

And earlier this spring, Unite the Country, a third super PAC backing Biden, spent tens of millions highlighting Trump’s criminal cases and his threat to democracy.

But some Democrats say that isn’t good enough. And they’re asking to see more from Future Forward. 

“The only thing you can’t get more of in a campaign is time,” the second source said. 

Some in Biden World say they believe in the strategy employed by Future Forward. They say voters are still tuned out for the most part and that they don’t want to see ads so far away from Election Day because it would be overkill. They say the best time to catch undecided voters is in the final stretch of the campaign, after the convention. 

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Democrats are dominating the airwaves, spending $33 million on ads tracked by AdImpact. At the same time, the outside group MAGA Inc. has spent $7.9 million.

Traditionally, a campaign’s preferred super PAC has led the way on ad buys, beginning months ahead of the convention. During the last few presidential cycles, Priorities USA Action started driving a narrative about the presumptive Democratic nominee well before the Democratic National Convention.

In 2020, Priorities spent more than $6 million on a string of negative ads attacking Trump. The group ended up spending well more than $100 million before the convention that year.  

In 2016, Priorities, which was the preeminent outside group that helped back Hillary Clinton, released two ads in May of that year attacking Trump for his attitude toward women. 

One of the spots called “Speak” featured a string of comments Trump made about women including “You can see there was blood coming out of here eyes … Blood coming out of her wherever.” Trump made those remarks about television broadcaster Megyn Kelly after a Republican debate. 

In April 2012, Priorities — which also backed Obama’s race — aired an ad called “Romney’s World View.”  The spot appeared on TV and online in key battleground states at the time including Florida, Ohio, Iowa and Virginia. 

In the ad, a narrator sought to bring down then Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, portraying him as favoring the wealthy and being out of touch with middle class Americans. 

“Mitt Romney: He made millions off companies that went bankrupt, while workers lost promised health and retirement benefits,” the narrator says in the spot. “His own tax return from last year reveals he made $21 million, yet paid a lower tax rate than many middle class families. Now Romney’s proposing a huge $150,000 tax cut for the wealthiest 1 percent, while cutting Medicare and education for us. Mitt Romney: If he wins, we lose.”  

Democrats say Future Forward should step in with their own efforts. 

“The mantra for this race should be early and often,” one Democratic strategist said. “We should be all-in all of the time.” 

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4671318-future-forward-super-pac-raises-eyebrows-in-biden-world/

Youngkin vetoes Virginia contraception accessibility act

 Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed a slew of bills Friday, including one focused on protecting access to contraceptives.

“While I look forward to working with the General Assembly to see if we can reach agreement on language in the future, today I must act on the language before me, and there are several bills which are not ready to become law,” Youngkin said in a release shared by his office.

“This includes legislation related to contraception. Let me be crystal clear: I support access to contraception. However, we cannot trample on the religious freedoms of Virginians,” he added.

In his veto statement, Youngkin said the legislation created “an overly broad cause of action against political subdivisions and parents, as well as medical professionals acting in their expert judgment and within their scope of practice.”

“That is the issue the recommendations I sent back to the General Assembly addressed,” he wrote. “I will continue to uphold the oath that I swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

Companion bills in the State House and Senate chambers state that “a person shall have the right to obtain contraceptives and to engage in contraception” and that the right “shall not be infringed upon by any law, regulation, or policy that expressly or effectively limits, delays, or impedes access to contraceptives or information related to contraception.”

Youngkin, in his rebuke, said contraceptives are already protected under the Constitution. He originally sent back substitute language that would make access to the birth control a policy, rather than signing a new law, according to local outlet WRC-TV.

However, when state officials let his motion expire, the original bill was sent to his desk.

Despite his veto, Youngkin reiterated his support for contraceptives.

“Quality health care for women is essential and contraception remains a crucial component of reducing abortions and fostering a culture of life, making Virginia the best place to raise a family,” Youngkin wrote in the statement.

In a response to the veto, the Virginia Democratic Party took a swipe at the governor.

“Governor Youngkin just proved to Virginians that once again, he does not care about their health or rights,” Susan Swecker, chair for the Virginia Democratic Party, wrote in a press release.

“Contraception is used to manage a wide variety of health conditions, and by choosing not to protect it, Youngkin is hurting thousands of people,” she continued “This comes down to health and freedom, and Youngkin and Republicans continue to carelessly and blatantly disregard both.”

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4671685-glenn-youngkin-vetoes-contraceptive-rights-bill-virginia/

'Police investigation concludes Boeing whistleblower took his own life'

 A police investigation into a former Boeing manager who raised questions about safety at the company and was found dead after giving depositions concluded Friday, with law enforcement saying their findings point to the manager having taken his own life.

John Barnett, 62, was found dead on March 9. He was a longtime Boeing quality-control manager until he retired in 2017.

Since retiring, Barnett shared his concerns about Boeing with reporters. He shared details about the manufacturing process, and things employees or the company did that could cause wiring or oxygen issues on the aircraft, The Associated Press reported.

He was in Charleston, S.C., answering questions for depositions when he was found dead. His death caused controversy since it came after his whistleblower complaint, but police said his injuries were self-inflicted.

More than 25,000 people signed a petition calling on the Department of Justice to investigate Barnett’s death, along with the death of Joshua Dean, another Boeing whistleblower, who died after contracting a bacterial infection.

“John was deeply concerned about the safety of the aircraft and flying public, and had identified some serious defects that he felt were not adequately addressed,” his brother, Rodney, said in a family statement after his death. “He said that Boeing had a culture of concealment and was putting profits over safety.”

Boeing said in a statement that it is “saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing” and their thoughts are with his family and friends.

Boeing has denied Barnett’s claims, but his allegations come as the company is facing increased scrutiny following a series of mishaps, including a door panel blowing off mid-flight.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/4671979-boeing-whistleblower-took-own-life-police-investigation-concludes/

About those bills that your ATM rejects as deposits

 There’s nothing like a handful of cold, hard cash. Except, our cash is not hard (minus the coins, of course) and is likely to meet its demise at some point, depending on the conditions it encounters in its lifetime. 

The demise of our notes is so certain, the Federal Reserve lists an estimated lifespan for almost every denomination it prints.

All of our cash, from the lowly $1 to the sought-after $100, is printed in the District of Columbia and Fort Worth, Texas. It’s printed on substrate, or paper composed of 25% linen and 75% cotton, according to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP). It’s illegal for anyone except the BEP to use this substrate, which is made in Dalton, Massachusetts.

During the printing process, every sheet of bills is “thoroughly examined.” Those that don’t meet the necessary standards are destroyed. Bills can also be pulled from circulation and destroyed if, after being deposited with a Federal Reserve Bank, they fail to meet “strict quality criteria.”

What brings a bill to the point of being destroyed can vary. You’ve likely put some notes through rough conditions — crumpling them up in your pocket, running them through the washing machine, finding your children or pets playing with (or trying to eat) it. Even if you’ve nicely folded your cash in your wallet, you have probably noticed fold lines and fading ink.

This sort of damage is all expected. So much so that none of our bills are estimated to last longer than 30 years before needing to be replaced.

At just 4.7 years, it’s the $5 bills that have the shortest life expectancy, according to the Fed. That means if a $5 bill were reaching circulation this month, it would survive until roughly January 2029. A $100, on the other hand, can last for roughly 23 years. It’s not hard to understand why: $5 bills are more commonly used in transactions than $100 bills.

Below is a look at how long the Federal Reserve estimates our cash can last. The Fed doesn’t list an estimated lifespan for the seemingly rare $2 bill, as it is hardly circulated. 

• $1: 6.6 years
• $5: 4.7 years
• $10: 5.3 years
• $20: 7.8 years
• $50: 12.2 years
• $100: 22.9 years

One look at your wallet or piggy bank will likely show that these estimated lifespans are just that: estimates. Take, for example, the $10 and $20 pictured below.

A $10 bill from series 2009 and a $20 bill from series 2013. (Addy Bink/Nexstar)

The $10 is from series 2009, and the $20 is from series 2013. Every time a new design is approved, or a new signature from the Treasurer of the United States or Secretary of the Treasury is added, a new series of bills is printed. That series of bills could be printed for years, until a new series is needed.

While we can’t tell exactly when the note was printed, we can get a rough idea from the series year. 

There have been three different series of $10 bills printed since the bill pictured above was produced, and two different series of $20 bills. That means, in both cases, the bills have outlived their expected lifespans.

The two bills above, as well as any that have surpassed their estimated lifespan, are still usable and will remain acceptable until they’ve been deemed unfit for circulation.

Even if life takes a toll on the cash and it’s barely hanging on by a thread, you can exchange it for face value.

“As long as more than half of the original note is clearly present — and it doesn’t take special examination to determine the note’s value — a commercial bank can then include the note in its deposit to the Federal Reserve,” the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis explains.

This money, called “unfit,” was once burned. Nowadays, the bills are shredded and recycled, turned into compost, or given out for free at the Economy Museum at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Money that has been mutilated — which can be caused by fires, water, chemicals, explosives, bugs or animals, or burying it in the ground — can be submitted to the BEP for possible redemption. More than half of the note must still be present for identification, or proof must exist that at least half of the bill was “totally destroyed” for full redemption. The BEP will decline, however, if the submission appears to be part of a criminal scheme or an attempt to defraud the U.S.

Regardless of your bill’s estimated lifespan, as long as it’s in good condition, you can still use it to get gas, buy a lottery ticket, enjoy some fast food, or whatever else you may want to spend your soft, likely-not-cold cash on.

https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/4660935-your-cash-has-an-estimated-lifespan-will-you-need-to-replace-it/