Category Destruction of existing power generation system

Aug 3 2022

Foreboding Data, Second Quarter Credit Card Balances Jump 13 Percent, Largest Increase in Twenty Years


It’s not just the scale of the increase that is surprising; it’s the history of how long it has been since this scale of debt increase happened in a single quarter.

(CNBC) – […] Although average hourly earnings are up 5.1% from a year ago, prices have been rising much faster. The Consumer Price Index, which measures the average change in prices for consumer goods and services, jumped a higher-than-expected 9.1% in June, the fastest pace in over four decades.

To bridge the gap, more consumers are relying on credit cards to get by, which has helped propel total credit card debt to $890 billion.

Overall, credit card balances rose 13% in the second quarter of 2022, notching the largest year-over-year increase in more than 20 years, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (read more)

This doesn’t sound like a good economic omen.

Posted originally on the conservative tree house on August 2, 2022 | sundance

Aug 3 2022

Smooth Operator, Senator Joe Manchin Answers Questions About His Energy Deal with Senator Chuck Schumer


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on August 2, 2022 | sundance |

Democrat Senator Joe Manchin wears the purple tie today as he answers questions from the DC legislative narrative engineers.  There are two videos below.  The first is a general presser with multiple members of the DC media (print journos) about the Green New Deal energy bill he negotiated with Senator Chuck Schumer. The second video is an interview between Manchin and Fox News host Harris Faulkner.

Unfortunately, in both the presser and the direct interview no one pins Manchin down on where “expanded energy production” of the bill is located.  Manchin claims there is legislative language in the deal that supports the fast domestic production of oil, coal and natural gas to meet the immediate issue of skyrocketing energy prices.  However, Manchin is a smooth operator, and he states confidence that rapid and expanded development of oil, coal and gas is part of the deal.  WATCH:

Here’s the segment with Harris Faulkner trying to pin him down on tax increases, energy production, inflation and the 2024 election.

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Aug 2 2022

It’s a Matter of Confidence


Armstrong Economics Blog/Gov’t Incompetence Re-Posted Aug 2, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Marty; I really do not think people give you enough credit whilst they all pretend to claim they called it correctly just a couple of months ago. I was at your 2011 WEC in Philadelphia. A friend bought the ticket and dragged me there. I have to say, aside from your prediction that war would turn up in 2014 which coincided with Ukraine, the underlying theme was that everything rested upon the confidence in the government. The more I have watched in horror how all our countries have fallen apart so rapidly, the more I understand your research.

My hat is off to you. I wish everyone would stop and acknowledge for once you are the source of fantastic information.

EH

REPLY: Thank you. But as they say, I have to die first before anyone really acknowledges this work. It was the fact that I bought my first Roman coin for $10 when I was about 13 years old, and I was amazed that one could even collect ancient coins. That truly opened a door for research I never knew was possible.

History has been confirmed from the coinage. Imperial Rome pretended that the emperor was still elected as consul every year as if the Republic still existed. Just as we think we live in a democracy but find out the president can issue an executive order that is never submitted to Congress, no less presented to the people for a vote. In that sense, we still live in a dictatorship, just like the Romans. That said, this allows the Roman coins to be dated to every year they were struck.

That established, I realized that the coinage would answer a vital question being a trader – How did Rome fall? Was it like a 747 coming for a landing? Or was it in some sort of panic meltdown? It turned out to be the latter.

I know of NO OTHER WAY that question could have been answered and how VITAL that is to our present-day events.

To everyone’s surprise, other than a trader, bull markets are long drawn out affairs, but bear markets accomplish 90% of the decline in just two to three years. You are witnessing history. The United States is being destroyed rapidly, and unfortunately, even a 100% Republican victory in November will not stop the decline. It will merely present a short-term bounce in confidence. What takes centuries to build vanishes from history faster.

Aug 2 2022

Global Recession Spreads, European Factory Activity Contracts in July, Japanese Factory Activity Also Drops


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on August 1, 2022 | Sundance 

In addition to the contraction in South Korean manufacturing announced last night, European manufacturing and factory activity is also contracting with less output, higher buildup of inventory and fewer orders for finished goods.  The global recession is being measured fast and furious.

Every economic outcome is connected to a purposeful decision by the leaders of western industrialized nations to follow the Build Back Better climate change agenda.  Higher energy costs, an outcome of the collective policy to stop new production of coal, oil and gas, which has transferred into higher food prices, farm prices, gasoline prices, heating and cooling prices as well as electricity rates, is forcing consumers to stop purchasing non-essential products.

The sale of durable goods collapsed in the first half of this year; however, no policymakers or bankers wanted to admit it and they kept saying there was an excess of demand.  Now, with fewer customers for durable goods in the market, global manufacturing and factory outputs are dropping fast.  Eventually the central planners are going to have to admit their pretended demand does not exist.

While there is a natural lag in the activity, the rate of factory contraction will be proportionate to rate of the drop in demand.  Meaning we have only just begun to see the manufacturing decline that lags a few months behind consumer activity.

LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters) – Manufacturing activity across the euro zone contracted last month with factories forced to stockpile unsold goods due to weak demand, a survey showed on Monday, adding to concerns the bloc could fall into a recession.

S&P Global’s final manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 49.8 in July from June’s 52.1, just ahead of a preliminary reading of 49.6 but its first time below the 50 mark separating growth from contraction since June 2020.

An index measuring output, which feeds into a composite PMI due on Wednesday and seen as a good gauge of economic health, sank to a more than two-year low of 46.3. In June it was 49.3.

“Euro zone manufacturing is sinking into an increasingly steep downturn, adding to the region’s recession risks. New orders are already falling at a pace which, excluding pandemic lockdown months, is the sharpest since the debt crisis in 2012, with worse likely to come,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global. (read more)

The WEF directed politicians are trying to bring energy demand down to match the energy shortage they have created. The various western government leaders, Biden included, want/need a recession to drop energy demand. The central banks and federal reserve are supporting the policymakers by driving up interest rates into the recession.

The combined effort leads to a shrinking of the global economy.

By lowering the economic activity and forcing their western nations into a joint collaborative and intentional recession, the central planners hope to offset the inflation they created by blocking coal, oil and gas production. By intentionally collapsing demand, the prices of excess non-essential goods will drop; however, there will be no one to purchase those goods at any price because global employment in a global recession is tenuous at best. This is the spiral they are trying to manage.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s manufacturing activity expanded at the weakest rate in 10 months in July, as pressure from rising prices and supply disruptions hurt output and new orders, suggesting a solid post-pandemic economic recovery is still some way off.

The final au Jibun Bank Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dipped to a seasonally adjusted 52.1 in July from the previous month’s 52.7 final.

That marked the slowest pace of growth since September last year, and was slightly lower than a 52.2 flash reading.

[…] Manufacturing activity suffered from contractions in output and overall new orders as well as a slower expansion in the backlog of work, the PMI survey showed.

[…] But a government official also warned downside risks for output remained as parts supply delays lingered. That is one of many reasons why the Bank of Japan remains resolutely committed to its ultra-low policies despite a global trend of rising interest rates to fight rampant inflation. (more)

It’s incredible how they various western leaders and bankers can still say there is too much demand, when every single economic indicator clearly shows that all consumer purchasing of non-essential goods and services has stopped.

We are seriously looking at a future employment scenario that might be as bad as it was during the economic lockdowns in the pandemic.  This time all of the unemployment will have been created by intentional climate change policy.

These ideologues are seriously disconnected from the pain they are inflicting.

Aug 1 2022

January 6 Committee’s Bombshell Testimony Against Trump!


Awaken With JP Published originally on Rumble on July 2, 2022 

Cassidy Hutchinson provided a bombshell testimony against Trump that will surely put him in jail. Here’s how it went down…

Aug 1 2022

Biden Thinks Americans Received $8K Stimulus Checks


Armstong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Aug 1, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

There are slips of the tongue, but President Biden cannot speak freely without a teleprompter. Every time he goes off script, he embarrasses his country. The president of the free world has no idea what is going on, and his mental health continues to decline publicly. The American Rescue Plan sent a trivial amount of money to Americans making under $75,000 annually at the expense of taxpayers. The government had no way to pay for this $1.9 trillion plan but implemented $1,400 checks on two separate occasions to pacify the people. Joe Biden thinks he provided Americans with $8,000.

Biden believes the public should ignore inflation and feel grateful for the imaginary money. “There’s reason to be down but I started thinking about it … the first year, we were able with the rescue plan, we were able to send them a check for eight grand,” the president said. “I mean a check. Beyond that by the way, there was more than that.” Biden then chimed in about his middle-class experience, which occurred decades ago when the US economy was unrecognizable compared to today. “That’s a lot of money, and so it helped save a lot of people in terms of getting thrown out of their home and rental housing and a whole range of things,” he said. He used the example of someone earning $120,000 receiving the imaginary $8,000 check, despite anyone in that income bracket being ineligible for a stimulus check.

The president cannot remember basic facts about his own policies. Biden belongs in a home for the elderly and senile, not the White House.

Aug 1 2022

Capital Controls in Europe Have Arrived


Armstrong Economics Blog/Tyranny Re-Posted Aug 1, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Dear Marty,

I was trying to wire money from my bank account in Italy to the one in the UK, just to realise that I can no longer transfer more than 6,000EUR per month.

The Soviet EUSSR is in full capital controls mode. I am missing the beauty of Italy every day, but I am so glad to live in Brexit UK.  Good luck to the old continent.

SB

REPLY: I warned that all my sources were confirming, three very high up, that Europe would quietly impose capital controls on June 30, 2020. That has now taken shape. Europeans and not allowed to send more than 6,000 euros per month to another account outside the EU. Capital has been pouring out of Europe, and they beat not just the war drums but also the Green drums that forewarn of a severe economic decline for Europe.

Even in the United States, we have capital controls in place for a different reason — taxation. You will find it limited to try to wire more than $3,000 to an individual outside the United States. As I reported before, a friend in Singapore found me a service apartment and put down the first month’s rent for me. I sent him a wire, but when I got there, he said he never got it. I called my bank to put a trace on it, and HSBC returned it, saying they would not credit it to that account because they could not verify it was not secretly for me. I had to write him a check. You can wire to a business without a problem, but not to an individual. The hunt for taxes lives.

People have argued with me that I am wrong and it is capitalism that is collapsing. Sorry – socialism has brought us to the very sad end. Politicians can only run bribing voters, saying they will rob the rich to hand it to them. They can no longer borrow endlessly with no intention of paying anything back. That said, they know they will have to default. The question has been HOW?

This is what Schwab’s entire WEF is about. His Great Reset is because socialism is collapsing. I did our Solution Conference in 2015 because I knew what he was advising to world governments. The problem was that his way is that they become dictators, and he is even ending your right to vote. While they call Putin authoritarian, the head of the EU also does not stand for election. They are appointed by EU member politicians. This is what they want — ZERO right of the people to vote. They intend to control what we buy, where we live, and what we are allowed to say. So you can see, in my Solution, we retained democracy, so they were not handed ultimate power. Capital controls are part of this plot to end our freedom.

Aug 1 2022

CNN Finds Two Republicans in Wyoming Who Support Liz Cheney


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on July 31, 2022 | Sundance

July 31, 2022 | Sundance | 116 Comments

The primary race in Wyoming is August 16th, just about two weeks away.  CNN traveled to Wyoming to review the possibility that Republican House Member might lose her primary race.  All signs point to “yes”, she’s going to lose her seat.  However, CNN was able to find two republicans who said they supported Cheney.  WATCH:

Aug 1 2022

Did Joe Manchin Threaten to Switch Political Parties? Chuck Todd Seems to Know He Did


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on July 31, 2022 | Sundance 

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin was on every Sunday talk show today (CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox) responding to his reversal of position on the Build Back Better legislative package (Green New Deal spending) that is part of the senate budget reconciliation bill.  There is something very interesting in his justification. [Do not skim read this, all citations included]

Fox News Brett Bair does the best job challenging Manchin on his prior statements saying there would be no spending deal without first seeing the August inflation data. [LINK].  Manchin never answered that hypocrisy directly but says there are two components of the deal, two parts of a new future legislative bill, that brought him to the agreement on the $370 billion current spend.

The current Senate bill is a reconciliation bill, meaning it involves taxes and spending – AND ONLY taxes and spending, because the bill originated in the House.

The constitutional framework for taxes & spending requires the House to originate all spending bills.  If a desired additional measure does not involve taxes and spending (a budgetary impact) it cannot be added to a reconciliation bill.  The senate must originate a new bill and then send it to the House.

According to Manchin the deal between himself, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden includes his support for the current green energy spending, in exchange for two new items in future legislation: 1) Streamlined energy permitting/regulation; and 2) Increased development of Oil, Coal, Gas.  Both of these pieces of legislation have to be handled in a separate Senate bill.

According to Manchin, his agreement to the current spending bill was contingent upon a promise that: (A) Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will generate a new bill for streamlined energy permitting and increased oil, gas and coal development; (B) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will take up the Senate bill and whip enough of her House Democrat membership to join with Republicans in support of that Senate bill; and (C) Joe Biden will sign that increased energy production bill.

Here’s the important part.  Senator Manchin claims he has leverage over Biden, Pelosi and Schumer to ensure a new bill with those priorities is created and advanced.  Manchin further claims there are “consequences” for Biden, Pelosi and Schumer if they were to renege on the deal.  He is quite emphatic about that point if you listen to the NBC interview.

Now ask yourself…. What leverage would Senator Manchin have over Biden, Schumer and Pelosi that would ensure they would not double-cross him?

There is only one Occam’s razor answer:

Joe Manchin threatened to switch political parties if any of them reneged on the deal.

The NBC interview with Chuck Todd questioning Joe Manchin is very interesting.  It is actually the best interview of all five conducted, in part because it seems like Chuck Todd has full knowledge of the Manchin threat component.

Manchin was challenged in three of the five interviews about this promised future legislative component.  In each of the interviews Manchin affirms and reaffirms there would be consequences if Schumer, Pelosi and Biden try to renege on the deal.  However, it is the Meet the Press Chuck Todd interview that really gets in deeper and overlays some sunlight on this issue.

WATCH at 04:03 of the video below, Chuck Todd has knowledge of the “deal” in detail and pushes Manchin on his “consequences” statement.   Then watch the very end of this interview (09:05) when Chuck Todd tries to pin Manchin down on the importance of Democrats holding the Senate.   Chuck Todd knows the unspoken threat that Manchin outlines as consequences.

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Chuck Todd knows the “consequences”.  He tried to pin Manchin down.  Manchin obfuscated.

You put it all together and it starts making sense.

Senator Joe Manchin cut a deal for removal of regulatory roadblocks to current energy programs and expanded energy development.  Schumer has to generate the legislation permitting faster investment in current oil, gas, coal.  Nancy Pelosi has to pass it in the House. Joe Biden has to sign it and change EPA/Interior Dept policy. In exchange for that, Joe Manchin has agreed to the $370 billion green new deal energy spending programs.

If Schumer, Pelosi or Biden renege, then Manchin switches parties and the Senate flips into Republican control immediately.  That’s his leverage.

Someone needs to ask Manchin: (A) what is the timeframe for the new legislative package; and (B) is this an accurate assessment of the “consequences” he outlined.

Here’s the other interviews:

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Aug 1 2022

Global Recession, South Korea Manufacturing Output Shrinks in July, First Time in Two Years


Posted originally on the conservative house on August 1, 2022 | Sundance

We are seeing the cascading impacts of the energy-driven inflation starting to ripple throughout the globe, specifically worsening economies who are dependent on the export of non-essential durable goods.  South Korea manufacturing is the latest example.

The first quarter of 2022 started with a drop in U.S. consumer spending on non-essential durable goods like electronics.  The net result of contracted consumer spending was a 1.6% negative GDP.

Inventories of goods started to build and by April/May of 2022 the Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed negative inflation in those sectors as discounts to move inventory were offered.

In June major manufacturer Samsung, headquartered in South Korea, announced they had told suppliers to stop sending component manufacturing parts for finished goods. (link)

By the end of July, the second quarter GDP in the U.S. again showed a contraction of 0.9%. Energy inflation was now creating a consumer spending recession, demand for non-essential goods dropped fast over the first half of the year.

Today, South Korea announces July manufacturing output contracted for the first time in two years, matching the prior announcement by Samsung:

SEOUL, Aug 1 (Reuters) – South Korea’s factory activity shrank in July for the first time in nearly two years, as output and new orders weakened amid continued inflation and supply chain woes, a private-sector survey showed on Monday.

The S&P Global purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to a seasonally-adjusted 49.8 in July from 51.3 in June, falling below 50 for the first time since September 2020. The 50-mark separates expansion from contraction in factory activity from a previous month.

Output fell for a fourth straight month and by the sharpest rate since October 2021, as new orders decreased for the first time in 22 months and those from overseas for the fifth month in a row. (read more)

All economies that are dependent on the manufacturing and export of durable goods are likely now seeing reduced factory outputs as fewer customers exist to purchase the final product.  This will lead to a predictable rise in unemployment amid those same nations.

This situation is the reason why the Bank of Japan did not raise their central bank interest rates.  They are attempting to offset the drop in global economic activity by keeping their currency value low as compared to the rest of the western countries.  This will help move their exported goods at a discount.

Inside countries with large imports, the definition of “non-essential” purchases within each household now starts to shift. Upgrading electronics, jewelry purchasing, and other non-essential goods become the first to feel the impact.  That contraction is then followed by appliances, furniture, clothing and eventually vehicles and high-cost durable goods.

As less and less disposable income is available, consumer spending gets increasingly prioritized.  The service sector is likely starting to feel the consumer belt tightening, particularly those consumer goods and services that are dependent on middle class families.

Inflation in general is a corrosive issue that eats away at the ability of consumers to purchase products and services.  Energy inflation is particularly damaging as it hits every sector of the economy with higher supply-side costs.  Food prices, fuel, transportation costs, electricity rates etc. take a larger portion of the paycheck, leaving less room (if any) for non-essential purchases.

A shrinking global economy is the outcome of an intentionally managed decline to support the Build Back Better, climate change, agenda.