| Today's Takeaway is by Brian Sozzi, Executive Editor.
President Biden is a super busy guy, something that I was reminded of instantly when I interviewed him inside the White House in mid-May.
He's running a country and a reelection campaign (for now, on the latter...). He is studying poll numbers. He's fending off both Covid-19 and increasing calls by those in his own party to step down as the Democratic nominee. He's contending with challenges to a golf match by Trump. He's a husband, father, and grandfather.
As for Trump, he is playing a lot of golf, campaigning, fighting off legal troubles, and trying to recover speedily from an assassination attempt. Despite their jam-packed schedules, I encourage both to put the poll numbers aside and turn off CNN, Morning Joe, Hannity, and Fox & Friends reruns.
I would devote 10 minutes immediately to the earnings calls of big food makers PepsiCo and Conagra Brands from a week ago. Here are the transcripts for the PepsiCo and Conagra Brands calls, compliments of Yahoo Finance.
Then, Trump and Biden should summon the CEOs of PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Conagra Brands, Campbell Soup, Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, Anheuser-Busch, JM Smucker, and others of similar ilk for a get-together.
The goal: obtain granular detail on why inflation is still so sticky and what specific actions food companies are taking to either offer more value or cut prices. The reason: American households are struggling, and it's going to take more than green jobs (Biden) and corporate tax cuts (Trump) to fix the problem.
Just look at this consumer confidence chart from Morgan Stanley — confidence is back on a downtrend despite a "steady" job market.
If these power men and their advisers aren't demanding answers from Big Food, the natural follow-up would be, why the hell not?
It's not enough to read government inflation data. I have personally long thought CPI, PPI, and all sorts of reports are wonky stuff to be used by people with econ PHDs or algo traders, detached from the real challenges that a single parent with two growing kids is facing.
These are the people who need an explanation of what is truly going on with prices and how four more years of the Biden administration will lessen the financial pain. Or how four more years of Trump will eradicate inflation for some time. Communicate clearly and effectively; the average household needs to hear it.
Because if the Biden administration doesn't do this simple exercise and Trump sidesteps it as well then, summoning the current president's go-to line, here's the deal: Consumers are going to take their financial frustrations out in 2025 and materially pull back on spending, and that will not be good for markets. | 
