...He got that from ME. I had the scoop before uncle Jamie. Is this really news, after all? Perhaps.
Anyway, inflation's not going away. Unless there's another Great Depression. I learned in history class that unemployment was into the 30s percent and a full meal could be had at a restaurant for a quarter in those days. (Remember 19 cent burgers?)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jpmorgans-dimon-says-u-interest-012212631.html
Comments
Used to buy those White Castles when visiting relatives in and around Detroit in the 60s. Remember 20 cents. I was making $1.25 an hour than at a summer job at a gas station. No benefits of course. The 3-speed stick-shift cars we drove to White Castle were clunky gas guzzlers. (20 mpg was nearly unheard of). No power steering, power brakes or turn signals. Reach out and adjust the side mirror by hand if lucky enough to have one - most cars didn’t. Might even have to hop out and change a flat tire ourselves on the way home - as “flats” were common in those days. After getting home we’d watch something on a small black & white TV - whatever the 3 or 4 available networks decided to air. No remote control of course.. Would need to get up to adjust the “vertical” or “horizontal” settings every few minutes as the picture would always go out of kilter. But the burgers tasted damn good.
Now manual steering is something else. While it could take a lot of effort to steer, remember that cars were much lighter then and the engines weren't sitting over the front axle. My old MR2 had the easiest, most responsive steering of any car I've owned - with a curb weight of 2100 lbs, mid engine (M) rear wheel (R) drive, (2) seater (MR2) - pure joy. But also decades later.
Some TVs in the 60s, even the 50s did have wireless remote controls, but they were very limited in both capacity and availability. They were sold with some Zenith sets. The one I knew about was the "Space Command" (ultrasonic) in the 60s. Though earlier, in the 50s, Zenith had an optical remote control, the Flashmatic "ray gun". Just because you couldn't afford a remote control that cost 1/6 the price of a car (without mirrors or power steering) doesn't mean it didn't exist
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180830-the-history-of-the-television-remote-contro
Without a remote control, this is how one adjusted a TV (Ernie Kovacs video 1½ min)
https://content.jwplatform.com/previews/tQ5Knynv
”Even until the late 1980s, new cars didn’t come pre-installed with passenger side-view mirrors. “ Source
Let’s remember that the kind of people who frequented White Castle (and devoured 20-cent burgers) weren’t the wealthiest on the block. Quite likely in the 60s they were driving something built in the 50s or earlier.
@msf - your experience with non-power steering is different from mine. The ‘57 and ‘62 Chevies I owned were a bit of a struggle to steer. But one got used to it and didn’t really notice. It’s amazing the things we got used to in those days.
At the height of the pandemic, Powell cut rate from to 0.25% while increase monthly buying of treasury bonds and later mortgage bonds. Rate hike started in March 2021 by 25 bps when they realized they were way behind to control their 2% inflation target. 6% rate suggested by Dimon would bring this economy into deep recession.
Edit: Just thought about one horror of the 50s which fortunately didn’t impact me - pedophilic priests.
We just had a blank space in the dash. My father didn't see the point.
And I'm glad we're actually making a few strides toward "a more perfect Union," even if a part of the population doesn't like it.
Cancer chemotherapy was only beginning to be effective in the 1960s, but as late as the 80's my cousin died in six weeks from colon cancer that very likely would be halted today. I can't remember the last time I saw someone die from the first or even second heart attack, if they got to the hospital in time. Happened all the time before angioplasty.
https://baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1993-08-01-1993213175-story.html
https://cbsnews.com/news/tony-dow-on-life-beyond-leave-it-to-beaver/
...And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming....
6%. Well, I remember the inflation of the '70s and '80s. But I had no money invested anywhere. These days, I'm paying attention. 6% might actually result in good rates for savers--- although things have already improved on that score. The economy? BELCH.
Sorry to hear of friend’s passing.
I’m afraid most of us live in different “realities.” I traded a conservative small town upbringing for a career in a more liberal and affluent suburban area near Detroit. In retrospect, neither reflected “reality” - although I’d say life in the suburbs came a lot closer.
That was the problem.
Powerful maps: Groundbreaking report exposes ‘redlining’ in Pittsfield’s past that kept Black citizens in poverty cycle
'Jim Crow in everything but name'
By Heather Bellow, The Berkshire Eagle April 16, 2022
Mass. College of Liberal Arts used to be known as the North Adams State Teachers' College, before everything shifted and got fancified and dandied-up. Special names for lovely wonderful institutions. Because we are ALL special and wonderful and glorious and super-dooper and fabulous. How DARE you tell me I have AVERAGE ability????
"How come, in former lifetimes, everybody's somebody famous?"
-----Crash Davis.
Yes indeed, there was red-lining. And we never heard it referred to. It was a dirty little secret. Now there's no more redlining, and the crime is ALL OVER the city. What have we fixed?
I grew up in a Leave It to Beaver family (not really) and city in SW Ohio starting 76y ago, middle-class if not upper-middle-class, but thank goodness had liberally educated, progressive, allocentric parents who knew what freedom is for and what our obligations are to others.
They pushed hard for and helped get enacted fair housing legislation, among other local initiatives (religiously though not color-integrating the country club, bringing the MJQ to the local symphony, active in LWV, Planned Parenthood, all that sort of thing).
Many of my friends' families were not like that, though lots were (through church and local university).
Now, in a true black comedy piece of history, I find out that where we moved to, on the north side, in the early 1950s had begun its life (long before my parents arrived) as a restricted redlining model for the entire bleeding country.
https://www.pbs.org/video/redlining-harry-kissel-ozarwf/
FDR's admin adopted of Harry Kissell's recommendations. Oi!
Off-topic,
@msf
>> remember that cars were much lighter then and the engines weren't sitting over the front axle.
Not clear what cars are being thought of here, but every Chevy (and all the rest) I drove from the 1950s and 1960s had exactly that distribution:
https://conceptbunny.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/1957-Chevrolet-Bel-Air.gif
No matter. I mispoke. What I was thinking of was front wheel drive. https://www.bmwofbridgewater.com/blog/2018/december/13/front-wheel-drive-vs-rear-wheel-drive.htm
I remember big, heavy, clunky DeSotos, smaller Studebakers, Nash Rambler, Hudson, along with Ford, Plymouth, Dodge, Chevy, Olds, Cadillac. Lincoln. Mercury. Edsel. Seems to me, the sheet metal was thicker, heavier. You could "pound out" a small dent. And I recall the old line: "You could get any color you wanted, as long as it was black." Just a bit before my time.
Correct on RWD having better balance and handling characteristics. FWDs tend to get better traction in snow due to the weight over the drive wheels. But, as I once learned first-hand, once you “break traction” and enter a skid at higher speeds with a FWD they become absurdly difficult to control compared to RWD (no picnic either). One thing to avoid is installing “winter” tires on just the front to save expense. That can cause the fronts to grip better than the rears during an icy skid and make it near impossible to pull out of it. Great sketch from David. Sure resembles the classic ‘57 Chevy, prettiest car I ever owned.