Good morning, everyone.

Looks like a rainy Friday followed by a cool sunny weekend ahead of us here in Nashville.  Below, you'll find some quick Nashville headlines followed by some thoughts on inflation, supply shortages, and the US government's tax revenue boom.

JOKE (answer at bottom): How do you know there’s an F-16 pilot in the room?

Thanks for reading.

Nashville

HEADLINES

• Severe weather possible Friday afternoon and evening (Homepage) The National Weather Service Nashville is warning of potential severe weather on Friday, which could bring thunderstorms and strong winds to Middle Tennessee.
• What to know about Tennessee's special legislative session on Ford deal (Tennessean) Discussions will revolve around distributing $500 million in economic incentives to Ford Motor Company — the car manufacturing giant aiming to develop an electric vehicle campus at the Memphis Regional Megasite in West Tennessee
• Could Nashville's next pro sports franchise be a WNBA team? (Tennessean) The better question: does anyone care or would anyone go?
• Biden's infrastructure bill: Tennessee leaders are eager to put their $7 billion to work (Tennessean)
• Tennessee families and educators invited to review school funding (Chalkbeat)

DEVELOPMENT

• Warehouse rents at record high in Nashville (Post)
• Property once housing studio that hosted Cash, Nelson listed for $1.2M (Post)

National

📈 INFLATION NATION

You've seen the graphs and headlines by now. Here's a quick review of the news we've had over the past week:

• Social Security Benefits to Increase 5.9% for 2022 (WSJ)
• Oil prices rise, as Saudis dismiss supply concerns as demand grows (Reuters)
• Dollar Tree breaks the $1 barrier as costs take a bite (AP)
• Prices Jumped 5.4% in September over Last Year (NRO)
• U.S. home heating bills expected to surge this winter, EIA says (Reuters)
• Port of LA shifting to 24/7 operations to help ease shipping backlog ahead of holiday season (ABC7)
• Almost 20% of U.S. Households Lost Entire Savings During Covid (Bloomberg)

What's clear is that prices are climbing. Quickly. These are not an abstract series of headlines meant to stoke fear or anger for their own sake. The presence of inflation and monetary debasement is real despite the persistent claims from Jerome Powell and Janet Yellen, the two lizards lording over the money supply, that it is merely transitory. "Nothing to worry about," they platitude.

Biden's Chief of Staff, Ron Klain, even went so far as to support the idea that inflation is a "high class" problem—whatever that means. Bloomberg published a column entitled 'America Needs Higher, Longer-Lasting Inflation'. Meanwhile, Bank of America CEO, Brian Moynihan, sagely points out that inflation is actually not that temporary as Blackrock CEO, Larry Fink, blames the gig economy. Over in Europe, Vladimir Putin lords over a fat stockpile of oil like an overfed dragon as oil prices spike and Germany and Britain struggle to patch up a faulty electric grid.

Inflation tends to arise due to a variety of factors conspiring to debase a currency. But the number one factor causing inflation is government policy. As Thomas Sowell says, "Inflation is a quiet but effective way for the government to transfer resources from the people to itself, without raising taxes." The upside here is that, eventually, the government will meet reality and witness their policies falling to the cutting room flow with a resounding thud as appears to be happening in France and, to some extent, the UK after the energy shortage threatening the nations.

💰 TAX REVENUES ARE BOOMING

Tax revenues jumped 18 percent in the fiscal year that just ended, analysts say — the biggest one-year increase since 1977. The lion's share of revenue came from corporate tax receipts which lept 75% due, in large part, to Trump's corporate tax cuts. Individual income taxes were up 27.5%, CBO estimates. Those too are disproportionately paid by the well-to-do, with 80% coming from the top 10% of earners. Even still, the Biden administration insists on rewriting the tax code and policing any and all transactions over $600 so they can leech even more money from the middle and lower classes. Honorable stuff.

🚢 SUPPLY CHAIN BOTTLENECKS FOR SCALE

Before the pandemic, usually, just one cargo ship had to anchor near the Los Angeles ports — which together handle 40% of containers entering the U.S. — while waiting to unload its goods. On Tuesday, there were 58 — down from a record 73 in mid-September. The massive pileup can be traced to, among other things, port closures in China, factory lockdowns in Vietnam, an uptick in online purchases from consumers stuck at home with stimulus checks to spend, and an unprecedented shortage of truckers and warehouse workers needed to transport items from the ports. Biden has commanded that ports work 24/7 to deal with the logjam.

☔️ CLIMATE FAUX PAS

When it comes to climate change, it's the solutions that are the problem.

• Biden Administration Seeks to Expand Wind Farms in Coastal Waters (WSJ) Wind turbines are the Segways of energy. Cool in theory, but ultimately useless for anything other than aesthetic signaling—ugly aesthetic signaling.
• Rocking down to Electric Avenue? Good luck charging your car (Reuters) Parking your Tesla on the street in a city? Good luck finding a charger.

HEADLINES

• North Korea: Kim Jong-un vows to build 'invincible military' (BBC)
• 12 former security officials who warned against antitrust crackdown have tech ties (Politico)
• Mark Zuckerberg spent $419M on nonprofits ahead of 2020 election — and got out the Dem vote (NY Post)

Entertainment

THINGS TO DO

You can view our full weekly event calendar here.

Tonight
🚚 Nitro Circus: You Got This Tour 2021 @ First Horizon Park, 7p (Info)
🎙 Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit @ Ryman, 8p (Info)

Tomorrow
🍷 Tennesse Beer, Wine, & Shine Festival @ Two Rivers Mansion, 12p (Info)
💡 5th Annual Light the Nations @ The Nations, 2p-10p, FREE (Info)
🏒 Nashville Predators vs. Carolina Hurricanes @ Bridgestone Arena, 7p (Info)
🎙 Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit @ Ryman, 8p (Info)
🎙 Parker Millsap w/ Molly Parden @ The Basement East, 9p, $20 (Info)

Sunday
🌾 Zac Brown Band @ Bridgestone Arena, 7p (Info)
⚡️ Lightning 100 Nashville Sunday Night: Emily Wolfe @ 3rd & Lindsley, 8p, $12 (Info)
🎙 Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit @ Ryman, 8p (Info)

COMING SOON

📺 Succession Returns Sunday
Season 3 of the popular HBO show premiers on Sunday night.

🎞 The Velvet Underground Opens tonight at the Belcourt
Acclaimed filmmaker, Todd Haynes' new documentary on the NYC of the 60s and how the band created a new sound that changed the world of music, cementing its place as one of rock 'n' roll's most revered bands.

Fine Dining

🥯 NASHVILLE GEM: H&S Bagels

105 17th Ave S, Nashville, TN 37203

Hours
Monday-Saturday: 7 am to 3 pm
Sunday: 7 am to 1 pm.

Hand-rolled, New York City-style bagels. Small batch chicken salad. Do I have your attention? H&S Bagels is sandwiched between all the most bustling areas of Midtown at 105 17th Ave S and is sure to become your morning go-to or an addition to your weekend brunch menu. The NYC-style bagel shop carries all the bagel shop staples, with just a touch of the owner’s personal flair and exceptional quality control.

You can grab your bagels with smear, add lox, or go sandwich style, but the New Jersey owner Hector Sanchez even threw a Fried Taylor Ham (Pork Roll) on the menu for his South Jersey buddies.

As for the authentic New York City bagel quality, Sanchez outdid himself. Not only is he gracing Nashville’s bagel scene with his 40 years of bagel rolling experience, he also equipped his Midtown shop with a state-of-the-art water filtration system that filters Metro’s water to mimic the mineral content of that in New York City.

OTHER

• New Mediterranean concept to begin serving dinner at former home of Taco Mamacita (Biz Journal)

Covid Gutter

Trends and news concerning everyone's favorite viral pandemic.

Aspirin is the latest therapeutic drug to receive the "it's not a vaccine, so it's evil, and you're sub-literate for taking it" treatment. Despite studies indicating that Aspirin may help reduce the severity of Covid-19, journals across the fruited plain rushed forward to proclaim that it "actually doesn't work". Soon after, the FDA withdrew their suggestion that Aspirin may help prevent heart attacks and stroke.

Cheap, widely available, over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs threaten the Corporate Health Industry's hold on supplying expensive vaccinations that generate more revenue for their shareholders. Executives at Pfizer—ever watchful of the stock price—and bureaucrats at the FDA—full of ex-Pfizer executives also concerned with $PFE—will not stand idly by as word gets out that there are other ways to deal with Covid-19 apart from their holy grail of a vaccine which, again, is more profitable for all parties involved.

The slogan at Pfizer is "Make Them" by working hand-in-glove with the US government to enforce mandates and shutter any alternatives that crop up to distract the slack-jawed masses from doing anything but sticking that loving needle in their arm. Bill Gates showed us in 2019 that vaccines delivered him a return of 20 to 1 turning his initial $10 billion investment in global health organizations into $200 billion. Pfizer executives drool.

HEADLINES

• Mix-and-match COVID boosters are as good as—if not better than—all the same shots (Ars Technica) Next, they'll suggest you actually get Covid to further boost your immunity into the stratosphere.
• WHO Creates New Team to Study Covid-19 Origins (WSJ)
• Unvaccinated Chicago Teachers Can Keep Working if They Agree to Weekly COVID-19 Testing (WTTW)

Around the Web

🚼 Mum has 20 babies in one year by surrogates and spends £67,000 on their 16 nannies Kristina Ozturk, 23, and her millionaire husband Galip, 57, have paid £138,000 to surrogates to expand their family and say they may want as many as 100

🏆 The Nobel Prize and the Cocaine Gold Rush David Card won the Nobel Prize in economics in part for a goofy immigration study with a glaring mistake

📡 Strange, repeating radio signal near the center of the Milky Way has scientists stumped It's not a fast radio burst, pulsar or low-mass star. So what in the heavens is it?

Political Theater Highlight Reel

1. Extinction Rebellion activist (wearing a mask...) crashed the runway at Louis Vuitton's Paris Fashion Week show, before being dragged away by security
2. Tucker Carlson acutely diagnoses the Fed's lax attitude towards inflation
3. Joe Rogan embarasses CNN Medical Correspondent Over Vaccines For Kids
4. Vladimir Putin Calls CNBC Reporter ‘Pretty’ and ‘Beautiful’ to Dismiss Her Questions on Russia

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Have a great weekend

Answer: He'll tell you.