Econ 101: The World Bank issued a grim forecast for economic growth trimmed 2.9 percent this year, down from 5.7 percent in 2021. The world economic growth prediction is even lower than the pessimistic 3.6 percent forecast issued by the International Monetary Fund in April.

  The war in Ukraine, choked supply lines, China’s Covid lockdowns, and spiking prices for food and energy threaten to put a drag on national economies all over the world.  David Malpass, president of the World bank, said in a statement. “For many countries, recession will be hard to avoid.”

  Here in the US, President Biden and his Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen are on the ropes for rising inflation and in particular, killer gasoline prices. After spending $1.9 billion on pandemic economic recovery, Yellen told CNN “I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take,” thereby making her a target for Republican blame.

Elections: California Democrats sent a message about crime and homelessness yesterday  in elections in which they recalled a progressive prosecutor in San Francisco and sent a former Republican real estate developer into a runoff for the Democratic nomination for Los Angeles mayor.

 About 60 percent of San Francisco voters recalled Chesa Boudin, who had run for district attorney in 2019 pledging that “the tough-on-crime policies and rhetoric of the 1990s and early 2000s are on their way out.” Instead, San Franciscans are sick of crime.

  In Los Angeles, billionaire mall developer Rick Caruso spent $41 million pledging to clean up the city and, in particular, doing something about the city’s giant homeless encampments. He outspent Democratic Rep. Karen Bass 10-1.

  Caruso, among many projects, created The Grove Pedestrian mall in Los Angeles, a village unto itself that changed the heart of the city. He’s done more than a dozen projects that have improved the nature of their locations, but for people with money. How he would  deal with the homeless is just a promise.

The Shooting Gallery:  Actor Matthew McConaughey, who was raised in Uvalde, Texas, the site of the most recent school massacre, delivered an emotional speech at the White House calling for new laws and  “responsible gun ownership.” 

  McConaughey went on about the disfiguring wounds caused by an AR-15 rifle, saying some of the children killed in Uvalde were not recognizable. He displayed the sneakers worn by 9-year-old Maite Rodriguez saying, “These same green Converse on her feet turned out to be the only clear evidence that could identify her after the shooting.” 

  Admitting to being a gun owner,  McConaughey said, “We need background checks, we need to raise the minimum age to purchase an AR-15 rifle to 21, we need a waiting period for those rifles, we need red flag laws and consequences for those who abuse them.”

  Quick action is unlikely. An age requirement of 21 years to buy an assault rifle is a non-starter with Republicans. The discussion is mired in things like background checks and waiting periods. The top Republican negotiator, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, called for consensus rather than “artificial deadlines.”

  Cornyn said, “My goal is to achieve a result. And the only way we can do that, the only way we can get a bill that will pass both chambers and earn the president’s signature, is by taking the time and reaching that consensus.”

The War Zone: Ukraine is facing the dilemma of whether to keep fighting for embattled eastern cities, risking capture or death for thousands of soldiers, or withdrawing and carrying on the fight from the outside. 

  President Volodomyr Zelensky said Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk are “dead cities” pummeled to rubble nearly empty of civilians. Sievierodonetsk is two-thirds surrounded by the Russians and one heavily shelled bridge is the only entry and exit for Ukrainians. Zelensky has vowed to fight for all of his country’s lost territory, but it’s coming at huge cost.

  The fight for Sievierodonetsk has seesawed back and forth. Frederick Kagan writes — optimistically — in Time Magazine that, “The fight for Severodonetsk is a Russian information operation in the form of a battle. One of its main purposes for Moscow is to create the impression that Russia has regained its strength and will now overwhelm Ukraine. That impression is false. The Russian military in Ukraine is increasingly a spent force that cannot achieve a decisive victory if Ukrainians hold on.”

  At the same time, Russia is consolidating its gains. Russia’s defense minister said the military and Russian Railways have repaired about 750 miles of track in southeastern Ukraine in an effort to establish a “land bridge” from Russia, through Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, to occupied territory in Kherson and Crimea.

The Spin Rack:  Fox News doesn’t plan to air tomorrow night’s prime time congressional hearing on the January 6^th insurrection. Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Laura Ingraham will occupy their usual slots and the hearing will run on the less-watched Fox Business Channel. All the other bigs will run the hearing instead of their usual programming. — At least 21 people were killed and dozens injured in a train derailment in eastern Iran. — About 3,300 people are taking part in a British experiment in which they work a 32-hour week while maintaining the productivity of 40 hours. Organizers say they are recognizing the ”new frontier for competition is quality of life.”

Five Stroke Penalty: Professional golfer Phil Mickelson is in the sand pit after abandoning the PGA tour – and ethics – to play in the Saudi-run LIV Golf inaugural tournament.

  Reporters at a press conference yesterday bored in on the Saudi murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Mickelson said, “I don’t condone human rights violations at all. Nobody here does … throughout the world. And I’m certainly aware of what has happened with Jamal Khashoggi and I think it’s terrible.”

  On the other hand, the Saudis are paying him a reported $200 million to play in their tournament. 

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