🐤 What recession?

Free Subs For Life: Do you enjoy sub sandwiches – or just love free food in general? Well, Subway literally has the deal of a lifetime. All you have to do to earn free subs for life is get a tattoo measuring one square foot depicting Subway’s logo on your back or sternum. Only nine people will have a chance to take the company up on the deal, but smaller tattoos will qualify other winners for a month or a year of free sandwiches. It’s all going down next week at a Subway block party in Las Vegas.

Good Guy Bo: In the wake of a deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, earlier this year, news spread that an anonymous donor stepped up to pay for the funeral expenses. Reports this week identified the donor as legendary multi-sport athlete Bo Jackson. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott praised the selfless act, explaining: “When we asked people to support the Uvalde community in the days after, Bo did not hesitate in reaching out to my office to offer his help to the grieving families."

Benatar Ditches Hit Song: More than four decades ago, rock star Pat Benatar shot to the top of the charts with her hit song “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.” Fans will no longer hear that crowd pleaser during her performances, though. Benatar recently revealed that she is removing it from her set list as a “small protest” in response to the troubling trend of gun violence across the United States.

A combination of skyrocketing inflation and rising interest rates have fueled concerns about a recession, but recent data has some economists reconsidering their earlier economic forecasts.

Consumers are paying too much for gas, groceries, and other necessities, but there’s more to consider than just rising prices. For example, the unemployment rate has remained near record lows with the most recent report placing the figure at just 3.6 percent. Additionally, consumer spending ticked upward by 1 percent last month. It’s true that merchandise across the board is more expensive, but more pessimistic earlier forecasts predicted that spending would go down as Americans fret over the economic future.

Delicate Balancing Act

Just because some indicators are making more experts optimistic doesn’t mean that the U.S. economy is out of the woods just yet. For one thing, supply and demand are still out of whack. Supply chain interruptions fueled by COVID-19 lockdowns and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continue to result in shortages of various goods. Meanwhile, many consumers who were able to save back money during the pandemic are eager to spend it.

If interest rates tamp down demand and the supply chain issues are sorted out sooner rather than later, some economists say we stand a real chance of avoiding a recession altogether.

What You Should Know

It doesn’t take an economic genius to know that a 9.1 percent inflation rate is unsustainable in the long term.

Nevertheless, there aren’t the massive layoffs and slashed consumer spending that usually signal an impending recession. The best course of action at the moment probably involves hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. Economist Aneta Markowska put the odds of a recession within the next six months at 10 percent and within the next two years at 70 percent.

A jury voted to convict former White House strategist Steve Bannon, who refused to testify for a House Jan. 6 committee hearing after receiving a subpoena. His trial concluded on Friday after jurors deliberated for about three hours and returned with a guilty verdict.

Lawmakers on the panel sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice after Bannon disregarded the subpoena last year.

While prosecutors argued that he believed he was “above the law,” Bannon initially claimed that his conversations with Trump were protected by executive privilege. Evidence presented in court, however, showed that the former president did not send Congress any such claim of executive privilege.

More recently, Bannon’s attorney signaled that his client would be willing to testify under oath after all, claiming that Trump decided to rescind his claims of privilege. Judge Carl Nichols said that factor wouldn’t have any impact on the facts related to the trial.

“Whether or not Mr. Bannon in the future complies with the subpoena is not relevant to whether or not he was in default in October,” the judge said.

The conviction came the day after the House committee held its final scheduled hearing in its ongoing effort to get to the bottom of the events surrounding a riot on Capitol Hill in January 2021.

Fans of the “Lord of the Rings” films received a treat on Friday when Amazon Prime released a sneak peek of its new series. Called “The Rings of Power,” the series serves as a prequel that explores events before the first film in the trilogy.

Although there is plenty of room for surprises and speculation after watching the trailer, it’s clear that a lot of the central characters will be portrayed on the small screen – albeit at a younger age.

There’s an adolescent Elrond and a youthful Galadriel among an ensemble cast that also includes a few new faces – including Princess Disa, the franchise’s first female dwarf. Oh, and there will be plenty of Hobbits in the form of ancestors to the harfoots that fans came to love in the movies. You can also get to know the story behind the films’ bad guy, Sauron, as he is depicted in human form.

In addition to an extended trailer, Amazon also revealed a collection of posters featuring the various characters who will be central to the new stories straight out of Middle Earth.

Several of the cast members were on hand at this week’s Comic-Con to unveil other insider looks at the highly anticipated series, which is set to premiere in just over a month.