Category Recession / Depression
Delete PayPal
Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Oct 28, 2022 by Martin Armstrong
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There are growing calls from users to delete the payment app PayPal. Two weeks ago, the company came under fire for hiding a clause in its terms and conditions that permits the company to fine users $2,500 for misinformation. This is what the original term consisted of:
You may not use the PayPal service for activities that…involve the sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials that, in PayPal’s sole discretion, (a) are harmful, obscene, harassing, or objectionable, (b) depict or appear to depict nudity, sexual or other intimate activities, (c) depict or promote illegal drug use, (d) depict or promote violence, criminal activity, cruelty, or self-harm (e) depict, promote, or incite hatred or discrimination of protected groups or of individuals or groups based on protected characteristics (e.g. race, religion, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, etc.) (f) present a risk to user safety or wellbeing, (g) are fraudulent, promote misinformation, or are unlawful, (h) infringe the privacy, intellectual property rights, or other proprietary rights of any party, or (i) are otherwise unfit for publication.
Two weeks after removing the penalty after mass backlash, PayPal has reintroduced the language into their terms and conditions. Basically, PayPal can use their “sole discretion” to rob its customers for any reason. Former PayPal CEO David Marcus criticized the company’s woke policy. “It’s hard for me to openly criticize a company I used to love and gave so much to. But @PayPal’s new AUP goes against everything I believe in. A private company now gets to decide to take your money if you say something they disagree with. Insanity,” he tweeted. Elon Musk, also a former PayPal CEO and co-founder, said he agreed with Marcus.
Why would anyone want to link their bank account to a company that could fine their users for thousands of dollars at any time? There are plenty of alternatives. As a reminder, PayPal also owns Venmo.
One of my employees attempted to close her account yesterday and received the following message. PayPal is making it difficult for users to delete their accounts and unlink their debit cards. This is completely unethical and shows that the service cannot be trusted.
The Climate Change Zealots are Coming for Your Pets
Armstrong Economics Blog/Climate Re-Posted Oct 28, 2022 by Martin Armstrong
The climate change zealots have found a new scapegoat to blame for changes in the weather – the family pet. CNN has dubbed the term “carbon pawprint” and is urging owners to switch their pets over to insect-based diets or lab-grown meat and reconsider future animal adoptions.
There was a 2017 study entitled “Environmental Impacts of Food Consumption by Dogs and Cats” that claims pets are responsible for global warming. “Dog and cat animal product consumption is responsible for release of up to 64 ± 16 million tons CO2-equivalent methane and nitrous oxide, two powerful greenhouse gasses (GHGs),” the study cited. The author suggests “reducing the rate of dog and cat ownership” in favor of smaller rodents or reptiles. If someone must have a dog, they claim it is better to adopt a small breed as it eats less.
“As calculated, US dogs and cats consume as much dietary energy as ~62 million Americans, which is approximately one-fifth of the US population. Although there are fewer dogs and cats in the US than people, they derive more of their energy from animal-derived products (33% ± 6% vs. 19% for people). Thus, if pets’ consumption was included in calculations, the US would be equivalent to a country of ~ 380 million in terms of raw dietary energy consumed and a country of about 690 million in terms of animal-derived energy consumed.”
The study glosses over the fact that many animals eat meat that is not safe for human consumption and would be otherwise thrown away. The study makes numerous mentions of the mental health benefits that pet ownership provides, but still concludes that reducing the number of pets in our society is for the greater good.
I am certain that those flying in their private jets to Davos are creating a larger carbon imprint. Around 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions, but the average person must always be forced to change their ways. I do not put it past the extreme leftists to implement taxes on pet ownership.
Climate Change War – US v Russia
Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Oct 27, 2022 by Martin Armstrong
As senior U.S. military officers deployed to NATO’s front line against Russia on the border with Ukraine have boasted that they are ready to join the fight. This provoked a response from Russia’s ambassador to the United States told Newsweek that such a move would bring about catastrophic ramifications. The commanders of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division who are now stationed just a few miles from the Romanian border with Ukraine are also making comments that they were ready to cross over in response to any escalation or attack on NATO.
This is all calling into question who the hell is the real commander and chief? President Joe Biden has repeatedly stated he was not going to send U.S. soldiers into Ukraine itself. The US has NOT sent troops to the borders of NATO since World War II. The National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby rushed to then say that “nothing has changed about the commander-in-chief’s decision that there will be no American troops fighting inside Ukraine.” This is raising serious concerns about who is really in charge and do we have a military so eager to jump in that we end up in WWIII because of all of this nonsense.
Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said, “we have already officially pointed out to high-ranking members of the US Government that such bravura statements by the U.S. Army commanders are inadmissible.” He further warned that Moscow would take these comments seriously. Behind the curtain, there is serious concern that Biden is just a puppet and has no idea that his administration is pushing the world to WWIII.
Antonov added: “We are not going to tolerate a situation where military threats are mounting on Russian borders… Direct participation of the U.S. military in the fighting will lead to disastrous consequences. I am convinced that further aggravation of the situation is not in Washington’s interests.”
There is absolutely no reason for the US to have troops stationed on the border. Russia is not interested in invading NATO and they too realize what that would mean. Stationing the Hard Rock Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), only increases the chance of war just like in Vietnam. This has been the first time in nearly 80 years that troops have been sent in this manner.
The Russian ambassador Antonov warned that “Washington is becoming increasingly involved in the conflict in Ukraine, turning the country’s territory into a battlefield with Russia.” If Russia sent nukes to Venezuela or stationed troops in Mexico, I seriously doubt the US would stand by silently.
Our War Model globally turned up in 2014 as I laid out at the 2011 World Economic Conference. I have warned that history will call this the Climate Change War. The Biden Administration is being run by climate zealots telling us our pets have to eat bugs along with us and they want to impose a federal tax to even have a pet of several thousand dollars to reoccur annually no less. These zealots want to wipe out Russia because they produce energy and that is 50% of the GDP. Having Ukrainians die for climate change is no problem – there are too many people anyway.
Even the Cuban Missile Crisis on a 51.6-year calculation turned back up on May 4th, 2014. The next 8.6-year wave will be 2023.008 which will be January 3rd, 2023. The peak of that wave will then be 2027.308 which is April 9th, 2027. These people have reignited the U.S.-Russia rivalry intensifying to levels not seen since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Zelensky is sacrificing his country for money. You do not put your entire nation at risk for a strip of land that has always been occupied by Russians for centuries. He takes his orders from the Biden Administration and it is public knowledge that he was told not to negotiate for peace.
These Climate Change Zealots are bringing the world to complete disaster over total nonsense when Climate Change has been a natural cycle for millions of years. They ignore the history of the planet past 1850 because they want to simply blame everything on the Industrial Revolution. They have confused pollution with climate change and will not address that there have been warming periods and ice ages without people driving their SUVs.
The military always wants war. They get to play with all their cool stuff. They have been using Ukraine to study Russia’s tactics and weapons. This has been a fantastic learning experience for the military. The problem this time, one Russian nuclear sub can surface offshore and fire 60 nukes and we will not be able to shoot them all down.
Joe Biden Claims Current Gas Prices Lower Than When He Took Office, States Falsely Gas Was Over $5/Gal When He Was Inaugurated
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 27, 2022 | sundance
Will big tech and social media remove Joe Biden for violations of misinformation, disinformation and malinformation? Considering his remarks today, they should.
Reading from a teleprompter loaded with lies about the economy, Joe Biden stunningly states that gas prices are lower today than when he took office. Further claiming that gasoline was $5/gal. {Direct Rumble Link} Nothing about any of his economic claims is true. WATCH (1 min):
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Allowing people to return to work after the pandemic lockdowns is not “creating jobs.” And gasoline was not $5/gal when Joe Biden took office.
Steve Mnuchin is Not Pretending, States U.S. Economy is Already in Recession
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 26, 2022 | Sundance
A lot of people didn’t like Steven Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary, I did. Secretary Mnuchin was an inside player, a billionaire himself, who worked for the outside team. He already had a full bank account and carried ‘f**k-off’ money. That, combined with Wilbur Ross having the same ability, was exactly what we needed to execute the America-First MAGAnomic resurgence.
The U.S. middle-class saw and felt the benefits. Economic security is national security, at a nationwide and even individual level. Mnuchin, Ross and Lighthizer constructed that economic outcome guided by the larger strategy of President Donald J Trump.
RIYADH, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Former U.S. treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Wednesday he believed the United States was in a recession and said this would continue.
Speaking at Riyadh’s flagship investment conference FII, he said: “I think we’ll probably see a peak of 4.5% 10-year rates.”
“I think you are going to see inflation in the U.S. begin to come under control, it will probably be a two-year period,” he added.
He said the U.S. and China must learn to co-exist. He added that the Middle East’s economic issues need to be dealt with regionally. (link)
Biden Created a Secret Deal with Saudi Arabia to Lower Gasoline Prices Ahead of Midterm Election, Leading to Anger Over White House Feeling Double-Crossed
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 26, 2022 | Sundance
The extreme vitriol against the recent OPEC+ decision to cut oil output, specifically the extreme Biden anger toward Saudi Arabia, now takes on additional context as the New York Times writes about a secretly negotiated deal between the Kingdom and White House officials that was never executed.
As the Times reveals, over the summer the White House thought their team had negotiated a deal with Saudi Arabia for increased oil production that would have lowered oil and gasoline costs in the U.S, strategically timed before the midterm election.
With that agreement in mind, Joe Biden went to Saudi Arabia a few months ago. However, as the western alliance began putting more pressure on Russia and increased the activity within Ukraine, the Saudi’s aligned with OPEC+ to support Russia via lowered oil outputs. The White House felt double-crossed, hence the fury.
(New York Times) – WASHINGTON — As President Biden was planning a politically risky trip to Saudi Arabia this summer, his top aides thought they had struck a secret deal to boost oil production through the end of the year — an arrangement that could have helped justify breaking a campaign pledge to shun the kingdom and its crown prince. It didn’t work out that way.
Mr. Biden went through with the trip. But earlier this month, Saudi Arabia and Russia steered a group of oil-producing countries in voting to slash oil production by two million barrels per day, the opposite of the outcome the administration thought it had secured as the Democratic Party struggles to deal with inflation and high gas prices heading into the November elections.
The move led angry Biden administration officials to reassess America’s relationship with the kingdom and produced a flurry of accusatory statements between the two governments — including a charge by the White House that Saudi Arabia was helping Russia in its war in Ukraine.
[Democrat] Lawmakers who had been told about the trip’s benefits in classified briefings and other conversations that included details of the oil deal — which has not been previously disclosed and was supposed to lead to a surge in production between September and December — have been left fuming that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman duped the administration. (read more)
This approach makes sense from the perspective of a White House intent on manipulating the U.S. economy to achieve ideological goals.
The climate change agenda is a larger picture scheme all about power and control. Downstream mechanisms of government, and institutions in the private and financial sector, collaboratively created by people in power, want to take advantage of the fraudulent dynamic for increased influence and affluence.
The love of money is always at the root of evil enterprise. The Build Back Better / Green New Deal is ultimately about controlling people and assembling more wealth amid a small tier of self-described elites. Inflation that crushes the working class around the world is an outcome of this larger dynamic of manipulating energy.
“The Great Reset” is designed to the benefit of the few.
…”I think they may have wanted a sword dance, lol”…
Bidenomics – Home Values Continue Dropping Quickly, Especially on West Coast – Meanwhile Rents Continue Increasing
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 25, 2022 | Sundance
As inflation bites the working-class hard, U.S. household savings rates continue dropping fast. When combined with drops in home values the loss in home equity compounds the issue. American families are getting poorer much more quickly under Joe Biden’s economic policies.
According to the Wall Street Journal home values dropped in August at their highest monthly rate of decrease since 2011 {link}. In part this is driven by higher mortgage rates which are pricing home buyers out of the market. However, the regional impact is worse on the west coast than east or southeast.
[…] The housing market has slowed abruptly this year due to a rapid increase in mortgage rates, which has raised borrowing costs for home buyers and pushed many prospective buyers out of the market. Existing-home sales fell for eight straight months through September. (link)
As noted in The Daily Mail review of a similar analysis: “It’s Northern California that leads the way, with San Jose experiencing a drop of 10.8 percent since September, followed by San Francisco at 8.5 percent, then it’s Seattle at 8.2 percent, Denver at 5.8 percent, San Diego 5.2 percent, Portland 5.1 percent, Las Vegas 4.8 percent and Phoenix at 4.4 percent.” (link)
What we are seeing is a confluence of events, generally brought about by the outcomes of larger Biden administration policy. Massive increases in energy costs are the result of energy policy; those increases are fueling inflation from the supply side on food, fuel, electricity, home heating etc. Simultaneously, Fed monetary policy is driving consumer demand down. The recession debate continues amid the economic think-tanks while Main Street outcomes show we have been in a recessionary period all year.
The majority of consumers have stopped purchasing nonessential goods and services. As a result, the only thing holding the economy together is employment. Sooner or later, as the natural lags in the economy bite down, the lack of consumer spending (noted in increased inventories) is going to result in lay-offs and unemployment. It’s almost a guarantee at this point once the boxcar impact of the prior supply chain shortages straightens out.
The third wave of food price increases is now here, and we are all likely starting to see those price increases in retail food stores. Depending on how much higher energy prices go this winter (gasoline, natural gas, home heating oil etc.) the middle class will again be making tough checkbook decisions on spending.
On a MACRO level (nationwide averages) I would not be surprised to see home prices drop to where they were in the beginning of the second quarter of 2021. Home sales have dropped quickly, and home inventories are now climbing. Home buyers are now in the position to negotiate for much lower prices as fewer home buyers are in the market.
If you did not purchase a home in the past year, you likely have stable equity. Depending on region, those who did purchase a home this year will have to wait quite a while before the price level returns. Meanwhile rents continue increasing as middle-class workers are stuck between diminishing real wages (Biden inflation) and higher home borrowing costs (Biden monetary policy).
Iranian Drones
Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Oct 21, 2022 by Martin Armstrong
The western alliance is not the only one providing military training. Iran has sent military members to Crimea to train Russian troops. Specifically, they are training them to use Iranian drones. There were reports of Russian troops visiting Iran in August to learn how to operate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Since then, there have been numerous reports of UAVs failing, but the successfully deployed UAVs are capable of causing serious damage.
Shaheds, also known as kamikaze or suicide drones, explode on impact and are capable of also carrying missiles. This drone is less expensive to develop, but it can travel up to 1,000 miles and leave a range of destruction in its path. Mohajer-6 UAVs can be used for spying purposes and can, of course, also hold a missile. Ukraine claims that they have shot down at least 200 drones and have the capability to jam radars.
Both Russia and Iran have denied trading weapons, but what do they have to lose now that all the cards are on the table? Russia has violated the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 by transferring arms from Iran. The West has already sanctioned Russia in every way possible. Numerous nations are placing sanctions on Iran now, but again, they are not too concerned. Tehran and Moscow, two nuclear powers, are strengthening their relationship and seem prepared to face any Western consequences while resuming trade.
Centinel2012 