Demanding Supply — The classic tale of 2021 marched on in December, strong demand from consumers was no match for continued supply chain and labor market hurdles. On the one hand, we have consumers who are wealthier and broadly have more spending power than ever before, while on the other hand the same compounding issues of supply chain disruptions and labor market tom foolery exists. Let’s see how it plays out.

For the month of December, per IHS Markit, U.S. economic activity continued to ramp up, but at the slowest rate in months. PMI numbers for manufacturing and services came in at 57.8 and 57.5, respectively. Being above the crucial 50 mark, these figures show a continued expansion but a decelerating one, as November’s figures were both at or above 58.

As true friends do, fellow Western economies also saw slowdowns in monthly manufacturing growth too. The Eurozone saw its lowest growth since March largely on account of Germany, the “engine of Europe” seeing a decline in services for the first time since April. 

Its the same old song and dance. Inflation, supply chain, labor market, Omicron, do I even have to say it? The only certainty here is that at least one item on your wishlist won’t be here in time for the Holidays. Godspeed, apes.

F*ckin COVID — Yeah so this sucks. At this rate, future generations of middle and high school students are gonna see “two weeks to stop the spread” as the biggest meme of all time. We really thought we had a shot against this COVID thing (no pun intended).

London and New York are on fire, colleges are going back to Zoom, and Broadway shows are getting cancelled left, right, and center. Sound familiar? The eerie similarity between December 2021 and March 2020 can’t be lost on any of us now. Only difference is, we’re about 20 months wiser than we were when this sh*t-show got started, maybe that wisdom will see us through. Additionally, we’ve realized what works and what doesn’t. No need to wipe down groceries and Amazon packages anymore, but maybe a better performance of mask-wearing could help.

The worst part? With the Fed insisting on policy tightening, JPow likely won’t be there to save your calls again. Praying for you all.

Ratio’d — At this point, we should have an entire section in The Peel solely dedicated to Elon Musk’s twitter feed. “Elon’s Antics”, “Trolling Twitter”, “He Needs Some Banana” all sound great, but for now, I guess we’ll cover it here.

In the latest, Elon once again went toe-to-toe with famed and powerful haters Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders. If you’re still wondering what the beef was about, kindly punch yourself in the face. Obviously, we’re talking taxes and climate change.

Basically, Sen. Warren once again went to Twitter to get her base fired up about rich people’s paying of taxes (or, lack thereof). Elon, never one to be outdone, fired back explaining how this year he will have the highest individual tax bill in American history. Although, taxes are often a well-kept secret, so we can’t really know what the most ever paid was. However, Steve Cohen’s $3bn 2017 tax bill is certainly up there, but we couldn’t really find others to match. This year, on account of his stock sales and option exercises, Mr. Musk will pay somewhere between $7.6bn and $15bn in individual taxes, certainly hard to compete with.