BERKELEY, Calif. — Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck usually begins his postgame news conferences with an encompassing opening statement, win or a loss. But after Minnesota’s 27-14 defeat to California on Saturday, Fleck began with an open-ended question.

“Where do you want me to begin?” he said.

In each game, Fleck uses a thick black pen to write down coaching points in a yellow notebook. He had the scribble-covered pages with him at the table inside Memorial Stadium in the wee hours Saturday, but he spoke extemporaneously for a few minutes about a slew of self-inflicted issues that resulted in Minnesota ending nonconference play at 2-1.

Minnesota Golden Gophers quarterback Drake Lindsey (5) throws a pass against the California Golden Bears in the first quarter of an NCAA college football game in Berkeley, Calif., on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group via AP)

Losing the turnover margin 2-0 was a big reason for the Gophers’ loss; the second, Koi Perich’s muffed punt, led directly to a Cal touchdown that turned a three-point divot a 10-point crater, 24-14, midway through the fourth quarter.

“It’s not Koi’s fault, right? It’s my fault,” Fleck said. “But it’s our team’s responsibility to win football games, not Koi’s, not (quarterback Drake Lindsey’s and not linebacker Maverick Baranowski’s). We’re a team and we didn’t do enough on special teams, offense and defense to win that football game in every area. That’s what it’s going to look like. Now, the great thing is it’s all correctable.”

That muffed punt wasn’t the only play Perich will want back. In the first quarter, his fair catch on a punt inside the five-yard line gave the Golden Bears better field position for its opening touchdown. On that ensuing TD, Perich was slow to cover Jacob de Jesus out of the backfield, and he caught an easy 3-yard scoring pass from Jaron-Keawe Sagapoluteleon.

In the second quarter, Perich caught a 19-yard out route to put Minnesota in better position to tie the game. But on a double-pass trick play, Perich felt pressure as he went to throw and ate a 9-yard loss. The Gophers punted two plays later.

Coming off a true freshman season that included all-Big Ten and All-America honors, Perich was ballyhooed for the impact he could make on offense on top of the work he did on defense and special teams in 2024. Knee-jerk comparisons to last year’s Heisman Trophy winner, Colorado’s Travis Hunter, might have saddled him with unrealistic expectations going into his sophomore season.

The Esko, Minn., native has yet to make a similar splash through three games this season and might be too eager to make an impact in all three phases of the game. It sometimes seems as if he’s looking to hit two home runs in each at-bat and losing focus in the process.

“All great players go through adversity,” Fleck said. “This is probably his first piece of adversity in the 15 months he’s been here.”

“Adversity strengthens you, if you use it properly,” Fleck added. “You swallow the pill of adversity, and you take accountability and responsibility for it. We all do. It’s going to make him better.”

The muffed punt might be the most glaring example of how the sophomore is trying to do too much because he didn’t follow the coaching standard of getting away from a bouncing ball.

Trailing 17-14, the Gophers’ defense forced Cal to punt from its 47-yard line with eight minutes left. The ball hopped inside the 20 and was rolling at the 8-yard line when Perich went to grab it but it bounced off his hands and right foot. Cal recovered and quickly scored a TD.

“Casual creates causalities,” Fleck said.

After the turnover, Perich put his helmet in his hands as fellow special-teams members tried to console him. Postgame, at least one member of the support staff patted him on the back as Perich slowly sipped a drink in the locker room as they quickly packed up for a long overnight trip back to Minneapolis.

Lindsey is one of Perich’s best friends on the team and wouldn’t put the loss solely on his shoulders.

“That’s my brother,” said Lindsey, who threw one touchdown pass and one interception. “(It’s) something that we’ve got to talk about and make sure everybody is aligned on. We can’t be casual all across the board. It started with me; we were casual (Saturday). I’ve got to be a better leader and get us in the right type of spots.”

Minnesota linebacker Maverick Baranowski (6) and defensive back Darius Green (12) converge on Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele in the first half of the Gophers late game Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025, in Berkeley, Calif. (Gophers Athletics)

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Both Sen. Hubert Humphrey and Rep. Augustus Hawkins were raised in religious families. Yet when drafting their Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act in 1977, they forgot to apply Jesus’ warning in Matthew 6 to the Federal Reserve, paraphrasing that “no central bank can fulfill two mandates.” That lapse will bedevil Fed policy makers this coming week and for several meetings thereafter.

Moreover, having ignored Israelite leader Joshua’s exhortation to “choose ye this day whom ye will serve” — whether Arthur Burns’ Keynesianism or Paul Volcker’s monetarism — the Fed’s policy-making Federal Open-Market Committee is lost.

Yes, all this is whimsical blasphemy.

But the need for coherent choices in an environment with clear benefits and dangers on both sides would be hard enough if the White House kept its prudent and traditional silence. But with Donald Trump spouting sundry threats — with clear economic impacts — on a daily basis and still campaigning to bring the Fed to his heel, that body has an unenviable task indeed.

Objectively, there are signs that output is slowing and employment stagnating. For Keynesians — who now include nearly everyone in the financial media and politics — this situation calls for increasing the money supply to lower short-term interest rates.

However, also objectively, inflation has not been tamed. Our dollar is losing value against other currencies in foreign exchange markets. That is good for farmers and manufacturers since it makes our exports cheaper, tariffs notwithstanding. It also makes imports more expensive, again independent of tariff rates du jour.

Bear with a long series of numbers demonstrating these hazards.

Wednesday’s Producer Price Index for August, which measures prices for goods and services before they reach consumers, was soothing when looked at superficially, as market pundits generally did. The index number itself was down a 20th of a percentage point from July. Compared with August 2024, it was up only 2.7%. Low and falling inflation, right?

Well, not exactly. Year-over-year comparisons are treacherous. Events months ago can mask changes right now. But it is also dangerous to just annualize the change from one month to the next. These bounce around. Looking at changes over recent ranges of months puts us on firmer ground. For the PPI, doing that for the last two, three and four months produces jarring numbers — annual rates of 4.1%, 6% and 4.8% respectively. Doing that for the last half-year, however, shows a less alarming 2.3% increase.

With any price index, it is wise to also see changes with food and energy costs stripped out. It is not that these are unimportant, but they are more volatile than other goods. Their jittery variations can hide important developments elsewhere.

Do this for the “core” PPI. Its comparison with August 2024 shows an increase of 2.9%. This isn’t alarming but neither is it down to the Fed’s announced target of 2%. Calculating annualized “core” rates for the last two, three, four and six months gives us rates of 3.3%, 3.4%, 3.5% and 3.4% respectively. So it seems a stable rate, but well above target.

Those data should raise the hair on the heads of analysts everywhere. They are a blow to assertions by Trump and his followers that inflation is dead. Indeed, since changes in producer prices are an early warning of coming price boosts at the household level, economic policy makers in the administration and at the Fed who swore oaths to do their jobs should miss some sleep.

Now look at Consumer Price index data released Thursday. These directly affect households. The year-over-year increase was 2.9%, up slightly from 2.7% in July. Again, though, the July-to-August increase converted to an annual rate is far higher at 4.7%. That should set analysts’ hair on fire rather than on end. Once again let’s look at annualized rates for the last two, three, four and six months. They are 3.3%, 3.4%, 3.5% and 3.4% respectively. No brusque acceleration but assertions of near-zero inflation clearly ring false.

Now, for one more angle, examine the “core” CPI, again stripping out food and energy costs. August 2025 is 3.1% higher than August 2024. This is being discussed everywhere. But if the July-to-August change is repeated for another 11 months, the increase would be 3.7%. The annualized rates for the last two, three, four and six months are 3%, 3%, 2.9% and 2.9%. This isn’t just “sticky” as many observers describe. It isn’t jelly on an upside-down spoon that will drip off eventually. It is cold peanut butter that may cling for a long time.

Yes, this may have been a mind-numbing barrage of percentages. But the upshot is important. Inflation may not be taking off as it did early in the Carter and Biden administrations, but neither is it falling. If anything it may be grinding slowly higher.

So the Fed is in a hard spot. There is tremendous pressure from the White House for faster money growth to push the targeted overnight interest rate lower. A meth-addicted Wall Street begs for yet another fix. Fed officials have tacitly made public promises of a target-rate cut this coming week. A new Trump minion is being confirmed to fill an open seat and he will vote.

So there will be a quarter-point cut next week. But what then? Labor force indicators are at best mediocre, although the 800,000 reduction in jobholder numbers from a normal annual benchmarking with fully complete data is overblown. Little, if any, of that can be attributed to Trump. But we certainly don’t have a rip-roaring job market, especially for young people and those with only high school degrees.

Then there is the harsh wisdom — from the Bible or elsewhere — that no person can serve two bosses and no central bank can meet two mandates given equal weight in law. Kenneth Arrow got a Nobel Prize 50 years ago for, among other work, proving that mathematically. If you have only one “policy instrument,” which for the Fed is the money supply, then you can meet only one policy objective.

That takes us back to Joshua’s warning. You have to choose one theoretical god or another. Trump apparently would have that be the labor market, which lower rates could improve; data (and perhaps Chair Jerome Powell) dictates that their master should be inflation, for which a higher or stagnant rate would serve.

Humphrey and Hawkins, writing their act in response to a request from President Jimmy Carter’s Council of Economic Advisors, assumed the core theories of John Maynard Keynes: Monetary and fiscal decision makers, that being the Fed and Congress, could face either inflation OR unemployment but would never confront both with one policy.

However, in 1977-78 when the legislation now governing the Fed was in process, our nation as well as nearly every other industrialized economy — Britain, France, West Germany and the rest of Europe — faced precisely that dilemma. Inflation was high and rising while output and employment were falling. “Stagflation,” stagnant output and employment with simultaneous acute price rises, accurately described the problem.

Economists at the University of Minnesota and Minneapolis Fed were key in identifying errors in Keynesian theory. Their theory was complex, but core policies they advocated were those of their intellectual forebear Milton Friedman. The money supply was central to economic and price stability. And money should grow steadily in step with the economy according to some rule. It must not be subject to spastic flooring the accelerator and jamming the brakes.

While the last 25 years eroded acceptance of the complex theories from this group within economics, Friedman’s prescription remains valid. Inflation worsened after Humphrey-Hawkins. Output did not improve until Volcker took over as Fed chair. He squeezed inflation out of the U.S. economy by limiting money growth even if some interest rates hit 18%. Pain was extreme, but it led to an excellent economy of stable prices, high employment and good growth of output in the 1990s. We hurled all that away in the new millennium, but that is a different story.

This stagflation specter has returned to haunt the U.S. economy, and that of the industrial world. The Fed should see that indeed it cannot meet two mandates and concentrate on the one it can fulfill. The president will rage, both caucuses in Congress will condemn and Wall Street will do deep knee bends. The process will be hard. The alternative would be worse.

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St. Paul economist and writer Edward Lotterman can be reached at stpaul@edlotterman.com.

President Trump fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner last month because he didn’t like the monthly jobs numbers. He claimed the numbers were “rigged.” But Friday’s monthly report for August confirms that job creation has stalled amid his tariff barrage.

Employers added a mere 22,000 jobs last month while the numbers were revised down for the previous two by a combined 21,000. This means only 107,000 new jobs were created in the last four months—an average of 27,000. Monthly job gains averaged 167,000 last year.

Nearly all of the new jobs last month were in social assistance and healthcare (46,800), which rely on government spending. Industries with high tariff exposure shed workers, including manufacturing (-12,000) and wholesale trade (-11,700). Transportation equipment manufacturing lost 14,500, and manufacturing jobs overall this year have declined by 38,000. That tariff golden age is still over the horizon.

The Occam’s razor explanation is the uncertainty and additional costs from Mr. Trump’s border taxes. Caterpillar estimates that tariffs will cost the equipment maker $1.8 billion this year. Deere projects a tariff hit of about $600 million, mainly from higher steel and aluminum costs. Deere is also hurting because soybean farmers have seen their market share in China shrink after its trade retaliation. Tariffs are slamming U.S. auto makers like Ford ($2 billion tariff cost this year).

Jobs in mining also notably declined last month by 6,000. Oil and gas producers say the tariffs have increased prices for materials and caused them to pull back on drilling. Construction job growth has stalled since January and fell last month by 7,000, likely owing to the president’s immigration crackdown and higher building costs from tariffs.

Nearly all industries on the Institute for Supply Management survey last month reported a slowdown from tariff uncertainty. “All decision making is currently dominated by tariff considerations,” a retail company said. A transportation equipment maker noted: “This current environment is much worse than the Great Recession of 2008-09.”

Unfilled jobs on the National Federation of Independent Business survey in August were also the lowest since July 2020. Nurses and social workers can still find jobs, but they’re rare hiring bright spots. Of the 511,000 net new private jobs since January, 453,000 have been in social assistance and healthcare. While corporate profits have held up well overall, why hire if you don’t know what your supply lines or margins will look like?

Mr. Trump blamed the Federal Reserve, as he always does, and he told Americans to look for the “real” jobs numbers a year from now when companies supposedly finish building new plants. The jobs report probably does lock in a 25-basis point cut in interest rates this month. The Fed may even do 50, but this won’t revive the jobs market even if Mr. Trump and Wall Street approve.

What Mr. Trump needs is a broad revival in business confidence of the kind that accompanied his November victory and appeared before his tax on imports and willy-nilly interventions in private business decisions. Repeat after us: Tariffs are taxes, and taxes hurt economic growth.

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Mr. Trump last week asked the Supreme Court to hear the legal challenge to his tariffs on a fast track. The best news for the economy would be if the Court takes up his challenge and finds them unconstitutional.

— The Wall Street Journal

Madness in the land

Is there madness in this land? Are the micro plastics and PFAS passing through the blood-brain barrier and causing an increased level of lunacy? Could this explain the current level of brutality?

Oh how I wish I knew. I find the thought of taking a life so abhorrent, that I can’t comprehend the mental state of those who do. Though I do believe that we must have the right to protect and defend loved ones and ourselves from threat. But that threat would have to be extreme to take a life. Yet among us are those who set this threat level so low as to be non-existent. The successive events of this current madness have overwhelmed me to the extent that all I have are hope and wishes.

But wishes I have.

I wish that our courts would protect society from proven predators. I wish that we would believe to our very depths, that though I may not like what you say, I will always support your right to say it.

Bob Emery, Mendota Heights

 

Some news

Let’s ask Gov. Tim Walz if the grim news of conservative speaker Charlie Kirk’s assassination may be along the sort of “news” that might have been inevitable in the near future. When, at a fundraising rally near the end of Labor Day weekend, he gleefully mused at the rampant left wing’s (politicians and media) wild speculation that because Trump was uncharacteristically out of sight for three days he may be deathly ill, or better yet, dead. The childish yet ghoulish glee with which he fanned and wrung his jazz hands at the prospect was disgusting. He seemed genuinely entertained by the possibility. He then went on to say that if not, there certainly would “eventually be some news”, while grinning, rolling his eyes and wagging his clownish eyebrows … ”Just sayin’”!

Peter K. Cudworth, St. Paul

 

Some things we can change

Thursday morning brought some serious tears on three levels.

Beginning with two tragic reminders, losing Charlie Kirk and another anniversary of 9/11.

If that wasn’t painful enough, Gov. Walz is running again.

Nothing can change the murder of Charlie Kirk or the horror of 9/11, however we can change the occupant of the governor’s office.

Jon Swenson, Eagan

 

Adopt an urban street

County roads and major highways are often sponsored by local businesses, major area employers, and nonprofit organizations as their custodial caretakers. Yet, why has the same concept not been applied to our neighborhoods beginning in our major cities? Why cannot neighbors organize together to form local caretaking trusts to keep their neighborhoods free of garbage and debris?

The cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis can designate and award select areas to participants with street signage in every neighborhood or statistical area recognizing each individual volunteer or organization as local custodial stewards of their streets and urban communities. This models an example of social proactivity during times of great polarity.

For decades, people sharing the same streets never truly learn or know anything about their neighbors. Should this be considered normal?

The coming together of urban neighborhoods after the Annunciation mass shooting refocuses the need for shared humanity that is both cooperative and proactive.

Omar Alansari-Kreger, St. Paul

 

‘Nuts and bolts’ pragmatism

The other night, my neighbor in the Macalester Groveland neighborhood hosted a “get to know the candidate” event for State Rep. Kaohly Her, relative to her candidacy for St. Paul mayor. Like many St. Paul residents, I had not even been aware that there will be a mayoral election this fall until recently. I frankly went to this event without knowing much about Rep. Her, even though she is my state representative.

The event was attended by approximately 50 people and lasted a couple of hours. After mingling for about an hour, she spoke to the full group and fielded a broad range of questions for another hour. During the “mingling” portion, I was able to speak directly with her for about 20 minutes. I was extremely impressed with Rep. Her. Her life story, alone, is quite inspirational. I had three primary takeaway impressions:

First, she has exceptional people skills and communicates easily with people of different backgrounds; she loves to engage. Second, she combines idealism and empathy with a strong base of pragmatism. And third, she is simply an extremely capable and hardworking individual who I’m guessing is successful in whatever she sets her mind to.

She seems to be someone who can communicate and work effectively with people she may not agree with while holding true to her core values. I believe she offers a greater degree of “nuts and bolts” pragmatism than is often found in local DFL candidates.

Peter Langworthy, St. Paul

 

Three shells

Minnesota has a gun law that could protect school children if it were amended slightly.

The law limits waterfowl hunters to using guns loaded with only three cartridges. Three.

Why can’t we amend this existing state law to apply to all guns everywhere in the state? Second Amendment backers have already accepted this restriction for hunters in the field;  how can they possibly object to its application to hunters on playgrounds?

Go for it.

Joe Delmont, Mendota Heights

 

Wait and see

Now that there will be no Chinese market for the soybeans raised here, will the farmers admit they voted for the wrong man? When our waters deteriorate for lack of EPA oversight, will Minnesotans who enjoy fishing, swimming and all water activities realize they put the wrong man in charge? And, after national military are sent to Chicago, Maryland, New Orleans and perhaps Minneapolis, will our law enforcement and military folks finally speak up? Guess we will have to wait and see.

Jerry Carroll, Roseville

 

A surging budget

Undeniably, St. Paul is navigating financial headwinds — slow growth, the downtown downturn, and the post-pandemic malaise  negatively affecting other struggling cities nationwide. What seems to be overlooked, though, is that since 2018 St. Paul’s budget has surged from $563 million to the $887 million Mayor Carter is proposing for 2026.

John Vaughn, Stillwater

 

A business owner who believes in second chances

Earlier this summer, I had the pleasure of spending a morning working alongside Mike Hilborn and some of his amazing employees. Mike is the owner of Roof to Deck Services and a strong mayoral candidate for St. Paul. As part of his service to the community, Mike brings a crew once a month and voluntarily picks up trash and power-washes areas of downtown. I met Mike at 6:30 in the morning in the parking lot of Catholic Charities. I hesitated to get out of my car as the parking lot and surrounding grounds were filled with bodies on benches, on patches of grass or wrapped in sleeping bags. I wasn’t sure if they were dead or alive. Once I met Mike, I was comfortable knowing his mission. He mingled with the homeless and delivered a positive and uplifting greeting to folks coming in to work. Mike’s platform includes creating a solution to the homeless problem as well as addressing the growing crime and the out-of-control taxes. As a business owner who believes in second chances (Mike’s employees are prior convicts), he has the experience, knowledge and compassion to be the leader of
our Capitol City.

Jodi Laliberte, White Bear Lake

 

‘Happen not at all’

In the Pioneer Press Sept. 4 issue, “Vance Visit“,  JD Vance was quick to say, “I have never had a day that will stay with me like this day did.” He added later, “I would just say, take the concerns of these parents seriously. I think all of us, Democrat, Republican and Independent, want these school shootings to happen less frequently. Hopefully there’s some steps that we can take to make that happen.”

1. I’m not sure this administration is taking the concerns of these and all parents seriously.

2. Let’s change “less frequently” to “happen not at all.”

3. Let’s change “hopefully” to “yes we can.”

Jane W. Murphy, St. Paul

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Bipartisan bill would have been better

The Senate bipartisan immigration and security bill, The Border Act of 2024, would have limited the number of immigrant encounters each day, raised the standards for those seeking asylum, created a faster claims procedure of 90 days, limited parole for migrants, expanded detention capacity, provided for the hiring of additional Border Patrol agents, asylum officers and immigration judges, plus added money to increase the wall building. It also increased the number of immigration visas or green cards, protected Afghan evacuees and protected documented dreamers.

This bipartisan plan may not have been perfect, but it would have been an agreement between the two parties’ positions. But, “only I can fix it” President Trump has exacerbated this critical issue. We have soldiers on the streets, ICE officers appearing in our communities arriving in unmarked cars, masked, displaying little or no identification. Unaccompanied child immigrants are swept up, detained and processed for deportation, due process has largely been ignored. Farm workers, day workers and students have been wrestled from the streets and workplaces. The promise to deport the worst of the worst MS-13 gang members has resulted in few such apprehensions, but instead there’s been widespread dark-of-night seizing of law-abiding immigrants. We are watching the mess unfold that Donald Trump has created.

People want border control, the deportation of criminals and due process. People do not want children or people who have lived here for decades deported despite being productive and acting honorably. Trump’s deportation policy is wrong, hateful and, not surprisingly, unpopular.

Pete Boelter, North Branch