Healing together
Both are a choice
Happy Tuesday, everyone! 🌱
Today, we will talk about the economy (Again?! Yes 😁), AI protections, and my cat.
For any interested, I missed the past couple weeks because my 15+ year-old cat returned home with a broken leg and multiple other injuries. Most of my mental energy the last two and a half weeks was spent caring for him, encouraging my family regardless of outcome, or consoling myself for any outcome.
Not my cat, but…looks similar. Let me know in the comments if you want me to get a good picture to share. 😁🐈
While he is not 100%, he is home, healing after surgery, and we are incredibly thankful. More on that later.
Elephant in the room
Long time readers here at Sowing Hope will know I feel Joe Biden has been a good president and the country is better off. I'm grateful to have awesome followers like you, some of which disagree with me on this. I'm glad we can hear each other’s points of view and keep growing together. While I feel it’s important for me to share this part of my perspective, I also know something has come up that is important for us to address together.
America has a long history of non-partisan, clear condemnation of political violence. We talked about it in a post last year; violence isn't how we make progress here.
The attack on the former president was heinous and unacceptable, regardless of what you think about him.
Here in the U.S. we make our voices heard with pickets and ballots, not fists or bullets.
Violence is the way backwards to destruction, and we should be looking forward to what we can accomplish together. I am glad to hear the former president is safe. However, my heart breaks for the life that was lost and those who were in critical condition. I know we will know more in the coming weeks. If you are one who prays, please pray for these families.
One thing we can all do is continue having loving conversations rooted in kindness with our neighbors. Regardless if it’s online or in person, we need to lift each other up with compassion, understanding, and comfort right now.
With that, we'll dive into the news.
To the economy
Jobs and wages
In June, non-farm employment rose by 206,000, comparable to the average monthly increase we've seen over the previous 12 months of 220,000 (link). This keeps the unemployment rate at historically low rate of 4.1% (same link).
Inflation
As we have discussed here at Sowing Hope, inflation has been staying low for a while now. Year-over-year inflation (how much prices change in a 12 month period), has hovered just over 3% for over a year, now (link). Even more exciting is inflation month-to-month in May and June has been 0.0% (0% annualized) and -0.1% (-1.2% annualized) (link). That's right, prices went down last month. It looks like it’s mainly caused by food inflation staying low, vehicle prices going down, and energy prices decreasing (same link).
My gut tells me the later two may be from the Inflation Reduction Act and our historic U.S. production of oil (see below for why).
Inflation Reduction Act
lowers the cost of new and used electric vehicles (link and link, respectively) ,
encourages more of them to be built in the U.S. (link ), and...
builds significant domestic renewable energy (link which also further discusses the car costs).
U.S. Domestic Oil Production
more oil produced in the U.S. than any other country in history during 2023 (link) and actually for the past 6 years (link).
Yeah, just one bullet point on this one, actually.
And listen, I hear you: I'm not thrilled we are still burning dinosaurs and our children's future. I just know we can be grateful today for relief our neighbors feel while we build the tomorrow we want for our children.
Quote inspired by Wendell Berry…
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, but borrow it from our children. (link)
Wages
Wage growth continues to beat inflation in June with a monthly increase of 0.3%, bringing wage growth for the past 12 months to 3.9% (link), significantly more than inflation. As I've stated before, I'm always glad to see the numbers show my neighbors are doing better than they were a few years ago.
Random interests
AI protections in TN
My home state just passed a law to provide some protections for musical artists against AI impersonations (link). It looks like the law prohibits the use of large language models, or more commonly called AI, to reproduce an artist’s voice without their consent.
Heads up
You all are the best and make what I'm doing here at Sowing Hope possible. Again, I'm glad my cat is doing better. He now has one fewer legs, significantly healing wounds, and much more movement than when he first came back. Let me know in the comments, with an email, or any other way if you want me to keep you updated on his progress.
Until next week, don't forget to be awesome. 😁 🌱