My wife just went to book a flight for work from Harrisburg to Columbus - $1200 round trip  

3 minutes ago, mikemack8 said:

My wife just went to book a flight for work from Harrisburg to Columbus - $1200 round trip  

Airlines took a TON of capacity out of the system during COVID. Retired some planes, parked a bunch out in the dessert. Also deferred maintenance on everything, so there are planes they have that can't fly. They have massively cut down their route and flight offerings. They also lost personnel (pilots and FAs), so they can't get back to where they were even if they had the planes.

Less supply + recovered demand = ridiculous prices. Same thing with hotels and resorts since so many closed. 

22 hours ago, jsdarkstar said:

Granted, I'm not an economics professor, but seems to me, eliminating the Tarriff's on China, and raising taxes on corporations who are making record profits thanks to inflation, may help the situation a lot for average consumers. Why shouldn't the corporations pay more when they profit on all of us?

Corporations don’t pay taxes… they pass the cost of the tax onto the consumer.

Just now, vikas83 said:

Airlines took a TON of capacity out of the system during COVID. Retired some planes, parked a bunch out in the dessert. Also deferred maintenance on everything, so there are planes they have that can't fly. They have massively cut down their route and flight offerings. 

Less supply + recovered demand = ridiculous prices. Same thing with hotels and resorts since so many closed. 

I get all that but it's really gotten out of hand in the past few months - hell a few months ago we booked three round trip tickets to Florida in June/July and the total for all 3 was $1100  

She works in the travel industry and books flights, hotels and rental cars every day.  Prices have really ballooned due to lack of staffing and cost of fuel.  

I need to book tickets out west for the family soon. I'm not looking forward to the prices. 

21 hours ago, mr_hunt said:

the cheeto stimulus checks for $1200 and $600 were good. the biden stimulus checks for $1400 were bad.  that's some article.    

 

i do think the checks should've been more strategic & only given to those who lost their jobs due to the pandemic and actually needed them....all 3 rounds....equal outrage!  but i imagine they were trying to do something quickly rather than get tied up trying to figure out a way to determine need. 

Yes.

You can overdose on medicine.

7 minutes ago, TEW said:

Yes.

You can overdose on medicine.

 

I do not come here to praise Trump, but. . oh, yes, yes I do. Constantly.

But not a supporter, never voted for him, nope.

30 minutes ago, mikemack8 said:

I get all that but it's really gotten out of hand in the past few months - hell a few months ago we booked three round trip tickets to Florida in June/July and the total for all 3 was $1100  

She works in the travel industry and books flights, hotels and rental cars every day.  Prices have really ballooned due to lack of staffing and cost of fuel.  

The demand has come back very strongly post Omicron. We're seeing it in all of our businesses. Staffing shortages are a disaster.

43 minutes ago, mikemack8 said:

My wife just went to book a flight for work from Harrisburg to Columbus - $1200 round trip  

 

MDT has always been a really expensive airport in my experience. A few of their direct routes are usually affordable, but it's mostly a place I don't even give consideration to when I'm looking at flights, and it's really close to me.. When we go book flights for vacation, it's usually really expensive to book flights this time of year. I always try go get a flight booked around December-January. We were finding round-trip flights to California for under $200.

4 minutes ago, EaglesRocker97 said:

 

MDT has always been a really expensive airport in my experience. A few of their direct routes are usually affordable, but it's mostly a place I don't even give consideration to when I'm looking at flights, and it's really close to me.. When we go book flights for vacation, it's usually really expensive to book flights this time of year. I always try go get a flight booked around December-January. We were finding round-trip flights to California for under $200.

Harrisburg is less than an hour from us.  We used to always go to Baltimore or Philly, but it got to the point where I was fine with the slightly more expensive tickets for the convenience of not having a 2.5 - 3 hour drive home from the airport.  Plus parking at Cramer is very reasonable.  It's getting to the point where we may start making the drive to one of the larger airports again 

For her work trip - this was kinda a last minute deal which resulted in booking 3 weeks out.  I did the math - even with gas prices high, if she drives it and gets a hotel halfway for both the trip out and back if she doesn't wanna do it all in one shot, it'll cost a quarter of the flight  

2 minutes ago, mikemack8 said:

Harrisburg is less than an hour from us.  We used to always go to Baltimore or Philly, but it got to the point where I was fine with the slightly more expensive tickets for the convenience of not having a 2.5 - 3 hour drive home from the airport.  Plus parking at Cramer is very reasonable.  It's getting to the point where we may start making the drive to one of the larger airports again 

 

Parking can really be a b**tch. I thought it was expensive at BWI,  but we flew out of Philly a couple years ago, and holy hell...

Just now, EaglesRocker97 said:

 

Parking can really be a b**tch. I thought it was expensive at BWI,  but we flew out of Philly a couple years ago, and holy hell...

Yep - if you get that auto pass or whatever it's called through Cramer (you pay a one time fee of like 40 bucks) it's $7 a day with free shuttle to and from the airport.  

Just booked a work trip to Ashville.  $650 round trip airfare.

4 hours ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

also..

basically they opened up all these lands for leasing, and nobody is biting. they blame "the greens" for scaring people off, but the bottom line is that if someone wanted to drill there the federal government made it available, and private industry decided the cost was not worth the payoff. 

But yet offshore wind leases 3 months ago for wind energy finished off with $4.37 billion to the US Government......hmmm....wonder where the people in the energy industry believe new energy sources make the most sense financially for long term investment?

https://grist.org/energy/a-record-breaking-offshore-wind-lease-sale-signals-a-new-era-for-development/

Fourteen companies competed for the rights to develop wind farms on six areas of the New York Bight, a shallow stretch of sea that runs between Long Island and southern New Jersey.

The auction lasted for three days as bids rose higher and higher, closing out at a total of $4.37 billion

46 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

The demand has come back very strongly post Omicron. We're seeing it in all of our businesses. Staffing shortages are a disaster.

so pay them more rich guy 🤣

5 hours ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

also..

basically they opened up all these lands for leasing, and nobody is biting. they blame "the greens" for scaring people off, but the bottom line is that if someone wanted to drill there the federal government made it available, and private industry decided the cost was not worth the payoff. 

They've rigged the game so that companies can't get financing, then blame it on the companies when they don't show interest in new exploration.  Nice game.

1 hour ago, vikas83 said:

Airlines took a TON of capacity out of the system during COVID. Retired some planes, parked a bunch out in the dessert. Also deferred maintenance on everything, so there are planes they have that can't fly. They have massively cut down their route and flight offerings. They also lost personnel (pilots and FAs), so they can't get back to where they were even if they had the planes.

Less supply + recovered demand = ridiculous prices. Same thing with hotels and resorts since so many closed. 

Plus the dramatic increase in the price of jet fuel.

4 minutes ago, The_Omega said:

They've rigged the game so that companies can't get financing, then blame it on the companies when they don't show interest in new exploration.  Nice game.

so the democrats now control big money? is there anything democrats can't do, except be in any way proficient at politics?

Vikas can probably answer better, but it doesn't seem to me that ESG is coming from "democrats", not in the sense you seem to think. consumers, for good or bad, want more than just monetary returns, they are showing preference for investments that make long-term social goods part of their model. 

I honestly don't know how much "Democrats" are working this vs. what the market is showing a preference for. I'd like to think it's small money investors at a large scale showing a little long-term thinking and putting their money where their mouth is, but it would be naïve of me to believe it so without any sort of proof positive.

Quote

 

A new Bureau of Labor Statistics report has shown that food prices across the United States rose by 9.4% in April compared with the same period in 2021, marking the fastest growing rate of food inflation in nearly 42 years.

According to the data, grocery store prices rose even higher, topping 10.8% with the biggest price increases affecting meat, poultry, fish, eggs, flour, bread and fruits. Meats, poultry, fish and eggs jumped up 14.3%, marking the largest yearly increase since May 1979. Other categories logging steep annual increases included fruits and vegetables (7.8%), cereals and bakery products (10.3%).

 

 

And this is before the dramatic increase in the price of fertilizer has really been factored in. By the fall it's going to be a lot worse.

1 minute ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

so the democrats now control big money?

Are you really this ignorant or just pretending to be?

https://www.invesco.com/us/en/insights/biden-esg-policy-focuses-financial-services-regulation.html

 

Quote

 

Biden’s ESG policy focuses on financial services regulation

November 26, 2021

 

11 minutes ago, The_Omega said:

Are you really this ignorant or just pretending to be?

https://www.invesco.com/us/en/insights/biden-esg-policy-focuses-financial-services-regulation.html

 

 

Quote

including through a recent proposal to roll back Trump-era rules that prohibit consideration of ESG factors when making investment decisions or voting proxies. 

so.. Trump basically prohibited consideration of ESG factors ... Biden .. rolled that back so that investors can choose to do so. And this is... tyranny? asserting control over big money?

to be clear I'm a fan of transparency and capitalism. I'd be on board with funds disclosing whether ESG considerations are or are not a factor for say ETFs, and letting individual investors vote with their money. beyond that, yeah that's BS. 

but are you going to defend Trump passing rules determining on what basis investment decisions are made? I am unclear on the context above, but for real?

18 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

so the democrats now control big money? is there anything democrats can't do, except be in any way proficient at politics?

Vikas can probably answer better, but it doesn't seem to me that ESG is coming from "democrats", not in the sense you seem to think. consumers, for good or bad, want more than just monetary returns, they are showing preference for investments that make long-term social goods part of their model. 

I honestly don't know how much "Democrats" are working this vs. what the market is showing a preference for. I'd like to think it's small money investors at a large scale showing a little long-term thinking and putting their money where their mouth is, but it would be naïve of me to believe it so without any sort of proof positive.

Eh...it is coming from a combination of Democrats and millennials in general. A lot of the state employee pension funds that have been on the cutting edge of ESG aren't controlled by the legislatures, but many times they are overseen by them. So while there isn't necessarily direct legislation about ESG investing that applies, the views are made known. At the Federal level, it's the regulatory agencies like the SEC and the Fed. The SEC making companies disclose environmental impacts in 10-Ks. The Fed making banks keep ESG scorecards. Are they forced by legislation? No. But if you run afoul of them, get ready for auditors up your arse. 

The biggest driving force, however, is millennial morons. They get into these organizations, demand this stuff, and have no idea what the real world impact is.

1 minute ago, vikas83 said:

Eh...it is coming from a combination of Democrats and millennials in general. A lot of the state employee pension funds that have been on the cutting edge of ESG aren't controlled by the legislatures, but many times they are overseen by them. So while there isn't necessarily direct legislation about ESG investing that applies, the views are made known. At the Federal level, it's the regulatory agencies like the SEC and the Fed. The SEC making companies disclose environmental impacts in 10-Ks. The Fed making banks keep ESG scorecards. Are they forced by legislation? No. But if you run afoul of them, get ready for auditors up your arse. 

The biggest driving force, however, is millennial morons. They get into these organizations, demand this stuff, and have no idea what the real world impact is.

ok. I'm a fan of transparency though, and let the market chips fall where they may. where does that stance fit in?

2 hours ago, mikemack8 said:

I get all that but it's really gotten out of hand in the past few months - hell a few months ago we booked three round trip tickets to Florida in June/July and the total for all 3 was $1100  

She works in the travel industry and books flights, hotels and rental cars every day.  Prices have really ballooned due to lack of staffing and cost of fuel.  

The same exact tix we booked to Florida have gone up $200 per ticket in less than 3 months. It's pretty nuts right now.