The Economy Stinks

Says the man waiting to dine out, play golf and drive his new vehicle

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Welcome again to No Sports Tuesday, when we try to make sense of the part of the world that has nothing to do with Joe Burrow’s hands or why David Bell keeps batting Run-DLC (copyright: me) 4th in the order.

Today: We say the economy stinks. Why do we say that?

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Jim Daugherty was an economist for the federal government, which you’d think might make me well versed on many things Money. All I know about money is it’s good to have some.

My dad was charged with putting out the monthly Consumer Price Index, the government’s comprehensive stare at how our money lives were doing. He could tell you the cost of eggs went up last month, and the cost of shoes went down. And what it all meant. I can’t balance a checkbook.

Economics is a hazy science. Any science dependent upon statistics should be looked upon sideways. It’s a reason I don’t do well with baseball analytics.

I have eyes, though. Here’s what I see, in a country with a lousy economy:

Full restaurants any night of the week, especially weekends.

Full golf courses, even on Mondays.

Roads full of new vehicles. The highways are thick with F-150s, their shiny newness owning the roads like bison once owned the Great Plains.

Lines of people stretching across downtown, for the privilege of paying three- and sometimes four-figures for Taylor Swift concert tickets.

That don’t sound like hard times to me. (Fractured grammar intended.)

This is not to suggest everyone has the means to live this way. In fact, some of the pickup truck-driving, steak-eating Swifties likely are living on borrowed money and maxed credit cards. And I can sympathize with families who eat pancakes for dinner a couple times a week, and fresh vegetables almost never. If I never again see another stewed tomato atop a pile of elbow macaroni, I’ll die a happy guy.

I just want to know why we think the economy is bad.

There’s something askance about complaining about the economy while you’re standing in line to get into Texas Roadhouse with your family of four. When inflation pinches you and the raises aren’t coming, isn’t discretionary income the first casualty?

A few months ago, Kerry and I took her dad to Texas Roadhouse in Milford. It was a Tuesday. Precisely, a Tuesday at 5. Not Date Night, not TGIF night. Tuesday night at 5. Well.

There was no place to sit and wait because all that space had been occupied before we arrived. We waited an hour before the line outside became the line inside. If you’re conservative and don’t buy a beer or a cocktail, you can get out of TR for about $125, tip included, for your party of four.

That’s a good chunk o’ whipout in a lousy economy.

I work at a public golf course, two or three days a week, each week different days. The place is jammed like a driving range on the first warm day of spring. Since the COVID spring/summer of 2020, getting a tee time is like getting an audience at the Vatican. You have to know somebody.

It costs $49 to ride 18 holes there on weekends and holidays. That’s a good chunk of whipout in a lousy economy.

We lived in Loveland long before Loveland was cool. Old downtown was nobody’s choice of destination for our first 20 years in town. Then someone came up with the idea that downtown could be a bike-trail destination and away we went. Bars, restaurants, boutiques, paid parking. And crowds.

We’ve given up trying to have dinner in a downtown Loveland restaurant on the weekends. During the week, we get there very early, to avoid the fate of all those Texas Roadhouse carnivores.

Loveland, once workaday, is now chi-chi. It ain’t cheap no more. It takes a good chunk o’ whipout to dine there.

Where we gettin’ the jack, Jack?

I was under the impression the economy was a wreck.

I couldn’t ask my dad about it. He’s been in heaven awhile, maybe standing in line at a celestial Red Lobster. I found a decent alternative: A recent column from NYTimes scribe Paul Krugman, a Nobel Laureate economist.

“There is a real disconnect between what Americans say about the economy and reality — not just official data, but even their own experiences,’’ Krugman wrote last week.

“We’ve just experienced what Goldman Sachs is calling the “soft landing summer.” Inflation is down by almost two-thirds since its peak in June 2022, and this has happened without the recession and huge job losses many economists insisted would be necessary. Real wages, especially for nonsupervisory workers, are significantly higher than they were before the pandemic.

“According to a recent poll by The Wall Street Journal, 74 percent of Americans say that inflation has moved in the wrong direction over the past year — a result stunningly at odds with the data, which shows inflation plunging. Consumer spending has been strong, suggesting that American families aren’t too worried about their financial situation.

Voters, especially Republicans, may believe or claim to believe that inflation is still rising, but while this belief may be politically important, it’s just wrong. What we’ve actually seen is falling inflation without any rise in unemployment at all.

Do you see it this way?

Maybe I’m wrong. Definitely I’m lucky to live in a country that seems to me to be doing pretty well. I surely don’t mean to diminish or ignore the money challenges many face. I just don’t see it as terribly challenging for most folks.

Krugman:

“We’re living in a world in which what people believe may have little to do with facts, including the facts of their own lives.’’

Now, then. . .

AND ONE MORE THING. . . My completely scientific means for judging economic health? What brand of golf ball I find in the woods off the fairways. Bad times: Top-Flites and Pinnacles. Good times: ProVs and Taylor Mades. Now? I’m seeing buckets of ProVs.

AMERICA’S GREATEST CITY HAS TWO OF ITS SADDEST SPORTS FRANCHISES. . . which makes you happy or sad, depending on what you think of New York. The Mets threw mountainous cash piles at players last winter and are abjectly failing. The Jets have Aaron Rodgers for four plays before he possibly tears his Achilles.

To root for either is a masochistic thing to do. My buddy Jets Joe is thinking of walking around wearing a KICK ME sign.

ANYBODY ELSE FEEL MISERABLE? I got sick in the middle of the night Friday and am just now kicking it. I’ve been told it was the proverbial Something’s Going Around. Bad stomach, worse head. Missed work at the cart barn Saturday. My second health-related work absence in 34 years. Anybody else blessed with this crud?

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TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . New Stones album out soon. Tried to link its first single, “Angry’’, for youse, but couldn’t. You can find it easily on YouTube.

It’s Stonesy-enough. Mick can still stretch a lyric, Keef is playing Keef chords. But. . .

I just don’t know.

Do we admire the lads for pushing on, or do we wish they’d acknowledge their ages?

I saw a few great Stones Shows. Goats Head Soup Tour in the mid-70s, I believe, fantastic. Steel Wheels at Riverfront Stadium in ‘89 (disappointing; Mick was under the weather). . . a ‘94 show in St. Petersburg (very good) and so on.

Watching Mick sing Satisfaction for the millionth time is like watching Mike Love and Brian Wilson sing Fun, Fun, Fun. The Stones stage act long ago became vaudevillian, which is either OK or ridiculous, I haven’t decided which.

I’ll give the new set a listen, but I’m not expecting much. Their last great album, IMO, was Tattoo You. That was 42 years ago.