Yep, that's what they say. Traditionally the Federal Reserve has
set a target of around %5 unemployment. The bankers consider that a good balance between "full employment" and inflation. When you have low
unemployment numbers the nasty people at the bottom of the pile tend to
want more money. Because there are so many of them that tends to drive
the price of everything up.

"Starbucks posts massive sales even as U.S. inflation soars
November 3, 20226:27 PM ET"

"In North America, Starbucks generated $6.1 billion in revenue last
quarter, up 15% from the prior year — another all-time record, said
Rachel Ruggeri, Executive Vice President and CFO, on a conference call
with investors.

But profits were down, at $1.1 billion last quarter compared to $1.3
billion the prior year."

Yeah, life is just tough all over.

"Jobs report: U.S. payrolls grew by 261,000 in October, unemployment
rate rises to 3.7%"

""The bottom line here is that the labor market is softening, but has
not yet reached the point where the data are screaming at the Fed to
stop tightening," Pantheon Macroeconomics Chief Economist Ian
Shepherdson wrote in a note. "But if these trends continue, as we
expect, markets will start to push the Fed — and especially Chair Powell
— to rethink the idea of continued hikes next year.""

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/october-jobs-report-november-4-2022-202231255.html

IOW, depending on how you look at it, the Fed is either tapping on
the brakes or jamming up the economy because that will reduce inflation.
We're just doing too damn well.

I know I'm doing much too well here. I'm doing so well that I'm
getting ready to feed mink to the crabs. Seriously. On the coast it
seems like everything gets recycled, one way or another. Sometimes more
than once. If nothing else the animals and the mold and the rust eats it
up. There are mink farms on the coast because left over fish parts are
an abundant source of cheap mink food. After they're skinned the mink
can show up at sporting goods stores, where they are sold as crab bait.
The seals don't like them so they don't tear up your traps the way they
might if you were using fish for bait. From what I've seen mink might be
a little more effective than chicken, which is what most of the
recreational people are using. There's a place in Tillamook that has a
freezer half full of carcasses out front, wrapped and stacked like cord
wood. At that point they're worth about $5 each. Next year I'll grab
some tuna heads while they're available. They're excellent crab bait and
go for around the same price. Where I'm crabbing most of the time we
don't have any problems with the seals.

One of the nice thing about driving a small rig is that we can
still get out there and use it, while some of the land yacht owners are
forced to park their low mileage monsters. I have a night scheduled at
Cape Lookout State Park this week and two more nights scheduled later in
the month. The weather is supposed to be wonderfully awful this week, so
I'm not planning on spending a lot of time on the dock. It should be a
good week to sit back and watch the weather happen, while we're sitting somewhere comfortable.

TB

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