Money Problems: “If gas prices are plummeting, why is inflation rising? If jobs are growing, why is GDP falling? If everybody’s on vacation, why are consumers miserable?” Derek Thompson in The Atlantic: The Everything-Is-Weird Economy. And The World Economy Is Imperiled by a Force Hiding in Plain Sight. “This past week brought home the magnitude of the overlapping crises assailing the global economy, intensifying fears of recession, job losses, hunger and a plunge on stock markets.”

+ Evil Ways: “Beautiful and serene in a crown of white flowers, 4-year-old Liza Dmytrieva, who was killed by a Russian missile strike, was buried Sunday in central Ukraine as an Orthodox priest burst into tears and told weeping relatives that ‘evil cannot win.'” (Sadly, evil can win until good puts a stop to it.) “President Volodymyr Zelensky has suspended the head of Ukraine’s spy agency and the prosecutor general, citing many cases of treason in the two powerful organizations.”

+ Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jack (I can’t afford them myself): “In the 1950s and ’60s — the so-called Golden Age of American capitalism — family outings were within the realm of affordability for most median income earners. Many blue-collar workers could afford new homes and cars and still take their kids to Disneyland. Despite rising wages, many of those same activities are now out of reach for everyday Americans.” America’s favorite family outings are increasingly out of reach.

+ Exhausted to Death From All the Winning: “Covid has really magnified what had already been brewing in American society, which was that, based on where you lived, your risk of death was much different.” People in Republican Counties Have Higher Death Rates Than Those in Democratic Counties.

+ Cam Stroke: St. Andrews is a place that ordinarily won’t let guys with mullets and p-rn ‘staches onto the premises. But one such man, Cameron Smith, just capped an incredible golf season with a British Open win.

+ Some People Claim There’s a Woman to Blame: “I was standing there as his guest, watching this off from the side of the stage and looking out at maybe 100,000 deliriously happy fans. I said to myself, “Wow, you know, this could really be a brand.” 33 hotels and 150 restaurants later, it looks like John Cohlan was right. The Margaritaville CEO on Just How Far the Jimmy Buffett Brand Can Go. (Until someone finds the lost shaker of salt?)