Looking Ahead Did you catch the headlines earlier this week about inflation falling in June? Well, as Charles pointed out on Friday, that headline wasn't exactly truthful. Sure, monthly inflation fell by a whopping 1/10 of 1% between May and June. But on an annual basis, inflation still clocked in at 3%. And core inflation, excluding food and energy, was 3.3%. Still, whatever hope that we might have pegged on that -0.1% decline just got an ice-cold bucket of water dumped on it yesterday when the producer price index (PPI) inflation numbers were released. Wholesale prices were up 2.6% last month, the highest readings since June. Excluding food and energy prices, they were even higher at 3%. It's always a mistake to put undue emphasis on a single data point, as the data is notoriously noisy. But all the same, you should view the narrative that inflation is under control with a major grain of salt… particularly given that both presidential candidates seem to be all-in on policies that make inflation worse. And speaking of that… While the election circus is in full swing, America's innovative spirit marches on – in ways that might make the rest of the world raise an eyebrow or two. Case in point: ammo vending machines. Yes, you read that right. Thanks to the company American Rounds, Some grocery stores in the South are now offering 24/7 access to bullets, right next to where you can pick up a soda and snack. It's as if we're preparing for a zombie apocalypse... I'm from South Africa… a place known for being a little rough and tumble (to under-exaggerate). But the ammo vending machine strikes even me as uniquely and unabashedly American. It's also a practical adaptation to a tight labor market. One of the ongoing themes of the Freeport Society is deglobalization, which goes hand in hand with the rebuilding of America's industrial empire. The problem is labor. We don't have enough bodies to fill the jobs that all of this reshoring requires. This is why automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence are so critically important… and why something seemingly as silly as a vending machine that sells bullets instead of bubblegum actually makes sense. For those concerned about gun safety, American Rounds CEO Grant Magers laid it out earlier this week in an interview with The New York Times: "Our ammo is not accessible sitting on a shelf, and we are the only company that absolutely, 100% requires an ID verification." The machine reads your ID to verify you're old enough to purchase the rounds and then scans your face to make sure it matches the ID, similar to the kiosks at airport security. And to Magers' point, keeping the ammo in an ID-controlled vending machine is safer than on an open shelf where it can be shoplifted. Gotta love it. To life, liberty, and the pursuit of wealth, | 
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