Tag Archives: Adverse effects

May 19 2022

What Did Mothers do Before Baby Formula?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Civilization Re-Posted May 19, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Hi Martin! Thank you for all you do. I was discussing the baby formula shortage with my 94-year-old Italian grandmother, and it opened my eyes to how resourceful people can be when left with no alternatives.

Baby formula was not an option in Sicily when her children were born. In fact, she did not learn about baby formula or disposable diapers until she immigrated to America. Disposable diapers were still not an option for poor immigrants and she cleaned each diaper by hand. As for formula, as most mothers know, occasionally it is not possible to produce enough milk for the day. Cow’s milk was never an option as they thought it would harm the baby.

My grandmother explained how she would put a piece of bread in a pot of boiling water, remove the bread, and use the water to feed her baby. Everyone in the town knew one another, and if a woman was having trouble producing milk, she simply would bring her baby to another woman in the town. I asked her if the women charged for their milk and she looked at me as if I were crazy. They did it from the goodness of their heart. There was such a strong sense of community that everyone in the town worked together. I cannot see that happening in today’s society.

REPLY: Times certainly have changed. German chemist Justus von Liebig invented baby formula in 1865 but it was not widely marketed or trusted for decades. Formula was taboo before companies like Nestle launched global marketing campaigns to push mothers to choose formula over breastmilk.

Wet nurses have existed throughout history. Lactating women were often hired by aristocrats or wealthier individuals to feed their babies. It was not uncommon for poor women who were unable to breastfeed to temporarily give up their baby and become a wet nurse for a different family, hoping to earn enough money essentially to buy her child back. Slaves throughout history were also forced to act as wet nurses for the families they served.

In ancient Rome, they had the columna lactarian (milk column) where mothers could bring their babies and receive milk from a wet nurse. More troubling, the site also became a notorious location for mothers to abandon their unwanted children.

The profession of wet nursing still exists, although you will not find listings on job application sites. The concept of having another women breastfeed a baby is still taboo in modern society and largely unregulated. According to numerous sources, women in the United States will pay a minimum of $1,000 per week to hire a wet nurse, making the option still only feasible for the wealthy. We may see a resurgence of the profession as alternative options no longer exist and people are desperate for additional sources of income.

May 19 2022

Biden’s Disinformation Governance Board Suspended


Armstrong Economics Blog/Censorship Re-Posted May 19, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Freedom of speech won this Wednesday after the Biden Administration suspended its controversial Disinformation Board. Former disinformation tzar Nina Jankowicz announced her departure today, citing an uncertain future, and, of course, disinformation. “It is deeply disappointing that mischaracterizations of the Board became a distraction from the Department’s vital work, and indeed, along with recent events globally and nationally, embodies why it is necessary. “I maintain my commitment to building awareness of disinformation’s threats and trust the Department will do the same,“ Jankowicz said.

Jankowicz has a long history of spreading false news and gaslighting the public to believe that the Bidens are not a completely corrupt family. She firmly denied the existence of Hunter’s laptop, and perhaps it is no coincidence that the contents of that laptop are slowly being leaked to the public.

Although this Orwellian plan has been temporarily suspended, censorship will continue discreetly.

May 19 2022

Twitter Bots Exposed


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted May 19, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Elon Musk’s potential Twitter takeover has brought to light the alarming amount of fake internet accounts on the platform that has been used to push the liberal political agenda. Musk has threatened to abandon the deal if the company cannot account for fake accounts or bots. Twitter later admitted when filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that around 5% of its 300 million users are in fact fake accounts. Twitter initially did not want to explain how they determined the 5% figure until it was revealed that their sample size was just 100 accounts out of 300 million. Musk exposed their slanted study, and Twitter reported him for violating their NDA.

Twitter quietly began to crack down on bots last month, and some of the most followed accounts saw a significant drop in followers. Former President Obama once held the record for being the most followed man on Twitter with 131.7 million followers. After the algorithm changed, Obama lost 300,000 followers instantly. Pop singer Katy Perry, the third-most-followed account and an outspoken Democrat, lost 200,000 of her 108.8 million followers.

A recent audit found that half of President Joe Biden’s 22.2 million followers are fake accounts. Based on the 2020 US Presidential Election, Biden should be the most popular president in history after securing more votes than any other president. “My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization. I don’t care about the economics at all,” Musk said in April.

Some believe Musk is using the bot excuse to lower the purchase cost. However, there is clearly something awry at Twitter. The massive platform was known to be a left-leaning tool for propaganda, but no one realized how deep the corruption was until recently. I expect more will be exposed shortly.

May 19 2022

Biden Administration Invoke Defense Production Act, HHS Will Now Control Means of Production for Baby Formula and Ensure Distribution Equity


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on May 18, 2022 | sundance

Do you know what it’s technically called when “government takes control of the means of production?”  Yeah, that.

This afternoon Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) giving Health and Human Services (HHS) the legal authority to control the supplies needed for the creation of baby formula (how it is made), and the authority to determine distribution equity (who gets it).  Emphasis mine:

White House [DPA Sec. 2] – “[T]he authority of the President conferred by section 101 of the Act to require performance of contracts or orders … is delegated to the Secretary of Health and Human Services with respect to all health resources, including the ingredients necessary to manufacture infant formula.”

“(b)  The Secretary of Health and Human Services may use the authority under section 101 of the Act to determine, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture and the heads of other executive departments and agencies as appropriate, the proper nationwide priorities and allocation of all ingredients necessary to manufacture infant formula, including controlling the distribution of such materials (including applicable services) in the civilian market, for responding to the shortage of infant formula within the United States.” (read more)

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, an über-leftist who ironically self-describes as an abortion absolutist, is now in charge of infant formula manufacture and distribution. You do not need to be a conspiracy theorist to predict which “at risk” group will get priority distribution of limited resources.

May 19 2022

Core Retail Financials Now Showing Results of Inflation Squeeze, Wal Mart and Target Stocks Hit Hard


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on May 18, 2022 | sundance 

May 18, 2022 | sundance | 221 Comments

The stock market is dropping, Wall Street analysts are flummoxed, but it just isn’t rocket science folks.  It’s Main Street economics 101.

The price to produce, manufacture and transport goods has skyrocketed, that’s the Producer Price Index (PPI).  Arriving goods at retail are significantly higher in price.  Simultaneously, consumer spending is being squeezed by unavoidable inflation in housing, energy, food and gasoline; so consumer spending is tight, that’s the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Higher costs to retail that cannot be passed on as higher prices to customers, means lower profit margins for the sellers.  That’s it.  That’s the majority of it.  Major retail companies like Target and Wal Mart are reporting the impacts from the squeeze in higher costs that cannot be passed to consumers in higher retail prices.   Checkbook economics.

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Businesses are seeing higher costs in the unavoidable goods they need to sell, the fixed price of goods.  What comes next?  Businesses, knowing they cannot raise prices too much, look at lowering the costs of operations in an effort to remain competitive, stay profitable, and stay in business.

How do businesses lower operational costs?  Increase expectations of employee productivity and/or lower employment costs.  That leads to layoffs.

I guarantee you…. YOU know more about the basic principles of Main Street economics than a room full of these Wall Street analysts.   I like El-Erian, but sheesh, talk about pretending not to know things.

Look at the companies.   The companies most exposed to wholesale inflation, those who deal in highly consumable goods like food, are the companies that will see their profit margins shrink fastest.

Highly consumable goods rise in price from origination (field) to destination (fork) the fastest.

The next phase covers the same results in durable goods.  That’s when things get really ugly.

May 19 2022

Interesting, DHS Pauses Disinformation Governance Board, Ministry of Truth Head Nina Jankowicz Removed


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on May 18, 2022

Interesting background discussions today, very interesting.  There are some aspects to the Washington Post story about DHS abandoning, at least temporarily, the Dept of Homeland Security Disinformation Governance Board.

WaPo represents the CIA public relations/narrative engineers, so it doesn’t come as a surprise they would be the announcing outlet for the leaked information.  There’s also an interesting aspect in who was selected to write the article, Taylor Lorenz, the conscripted narrative engineer and lead on-line counterintelligence/propaganda pusher.  [LINK]

However, beyond the background intelligence motive; and accepting the expressed intent of the DHS ministry of truth effort; notice the picture Lorenz published to accompany the notification (see above). “Nina Jankowicz … works in a press room at Volodymyr Zelensky’s campaign headquarters in 2019 in Kyiv, Ukraine.”  Quite telling.

The takeaway from the above data points, outlines how long the DHS has been planning to use the conflict in Ukraine to advance the agenda of the State Dept and intelligence apparatus (CIA).  When combined with the rapid response from big tech search engine notifications about removing on-line content that contradicted the official position of the U.S. government toward the Ukraine conflict (Google and DuckDuckGo), what we see is a very fulsome picture of how the U.S. government advanced propaganda was being constructed.

Knowing how Biden is a front man for the operations of the U.S. government that are now under the full control of the Fourth Branch, intelligence and globalist apparatus as constructed by the Dept of State and DC officials, it makes sense that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas would have no idea about the specifics of how Nina Jankowicz was put into place.

I said a few weeks ago that Jankowicz was likely a CIA construct and operator within the intelligence community on behalf of intelligence interests. I will now say we can remove the word “likely” from that sentence.

The Washington Post – […] Now, just three weeks after its announcement, the Disinformation Governance Board is being “paused,” according to multiple employees at DHS, capping a back-and-forth week of decisions that changed during the course of reporting of this story. On Monday, DHS decided to shut down the board, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation. By Tuesday morning, Jankowicz had drafted a resignation letter in response to the board’s dissolution. (read more)

On the same day the backlash against the DHS Ministry of Truth has collapsed the intended purpose, the United States Senate is scheduled to pass the $40 billion Ukraine package, because….

….Mission Accomplished?

It damned sure isn’t Joe Biden running the U.S. government…

May 19 2022

Report, JP Morgan Predicts National Average Gasoline Prices Over $6 Gallon by August


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on May 18, 2022 | sundance

Zero Hedge published a good article yesterday with some solid internal data showing a strong likelihood that national gasoline prices are likely to rise another 40% from current levels by mid-late summer.  That would put the national average for a gallon of gasoline around $6.20 by August.

The data behind the prediction is solid and essentially boils down to the U.S. refineries not having the expanded capacity needed to keep up with an increased summer demand, particularly as they need to keep generating high volumes of diesel fuel due to current critical shortages.

The issues are created by the Biden administration and the regulatory stranglehold they put on the oil and gas industry last year.  Obviously, all of this is a feature of the administration plan, not a flaw.  The Green New Deal agenda necessarily requires that gasoline rise in price to $7/gal this year in order to force the change in profit dynamic for alternative fueled transportation.

Unfortunately, we the consumers will be the ones punished as the progressive, communist and far-left policy makers chase their climate change agenda.  Cheap and cost-effective energy has to be made ‘not cheap’ and ‘not cost-effective’ in order to create the energy crisis their agenda requires.

Massive increases in gasoline prices are a feature, not a flaw.

Remember, Biden is disposable.  The people behind Biden purposefully selected him in order to generate a kamikaze ‘fundamental change’ mission within a single 4-year presidential term.  Getting crushed on the political outcomes is irrelevant, they just need to push the agenda fast enough, far enough, and destructive enough, so that all energy policies become irreversible.

The people behind the Biden administration energy program are trying to make the infrastructure needed to return to cheap and abundant energy independence, cost prohibitive.

(Via Zero Hedge) – […] According to JPM, a major driver in these counter-seasonal draws in gasoline is higher-than-normal exports. Preliminary EIA data suggest that gasoline exports, mostly to Mexico and the rest of Latin America, are averaging about 0.9 mbd since March, about 100 kbd above seasonal norms and nearly 300 kbd above summer rates.

The punchline: if exports persist at this elevated pace and refinery runs, already near the top of the range for reasonable utilization rates, fall within JPM’s expectations, gasoline inventories could continue to draw to levels well below 2008 lows and retail gasoline prices could climb to $6/gal or even higher, according to JPMorgan.

Some more details from the JPM forecast, starting with assumptions:

♦ The bank expects US refinery runs to peak at 16.8 mbd in August, which, with an average gasoline yield of 49%, means that US refiners will produce about 8.2 mbd of gasoline. Assuming gasoline imports of 0.7 mbd and 10% ethanol blending, the bank expects total finished motor gasoline supply to average 9.9 mbd. If exports continue just below current levels—about 0.8 mbd—that leaves the US with just 9.1 mbd of gasoline supply available for consumption at peak demand this summer.

♦ Because US gasoline demand is expected to average 9.7 mbd in August, the result is an average draw of 0.6 mbd from gasoline inventories in August, about 200 kbd tighter than normal.

♦ Holding those assumptions on refinery yields and flows for gasoline from today through August, total US gasoline inventories could fall below 160 mb by the end of August, the lowest inventory level since the 1950s.

A regression analysis on the relationship between gasoline inventory changes and NYMEX gasoline prices “suggests that a drop of about 60 mb in gasoline stocks between now and August would result in a 37% increase in prices which translates to a $6.20/gal average US retail price”, according to Kaneva. (read more)

May 18 2022

Parental Consent for Vaccines Not Required in California


Armstrong Economics Blog/Vaccine Re-Posted May 18, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Governments are rapidly decreasing parental rights in all areas from health care to education. A new bill in California will now permit children as young as 12-years-old to take the COVID vaccine without their parents’ permission. Senators Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) pushed SB 866 through the Senate and expanded it to cover any FDA-approved vaccine. The bill passed by just one vote.

Do we trust 12-year-olds to make important medical decisions alone? Are they aware of their current medications, potential allergies, and the repercussions of the vaccine? If a child were to experience an adverse reaction, their parents would not know how to help. California public schools are clearly pushing for these unnecessary vaccines, and vulnerable children may feel pressured by other authoritarian figures to take the shot without their parents knowing. This teaches children to trust the government over their parents, who they should begin keeping secrets from at a young age.

May 18 2022

Advice for the Poor from Justin Trudeau


Armstrong Economics Blog/Canada Re-Posted May 18, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

I reported that Canada has begun a eugenics program, yet again, to remove the undesirables from society legally. The Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) program was initially intended to provide legal euthanasia for people suffering from terminal illnesses. It was presented as a humane alternative for those who were in extreme pain and slowly awaiting death. The Canadian government expanded the program to cover psychiatric conditions, all psychiatric conditions, and “any other medical affliction.”

Bill C-7, “the euthanasia law,” has made suicide an option for those the government deems are a burden on society. Trudeau’s socialistic dreams under Schwab’s guidance will call for universal healthcare and income, and people who require lifelong assistance present a problem for the government. At first, the measure was intended for the terminally ill, then the mentally ill, and now it encourages death for those “too poor to continue living with dignity.”

Instead of helping the poor, trust fund baby Trudeau, who never experienced financial hardship, suggests the lower class simply kills themselves, and Canadian taxpayers will fund their suicides. This evil legislation is encouraging the most vulnerable among the population to end their lives. Perhaps a mother is desperate and unable to find her baby formula, or a man lost his livelihood and business during lockdown restrictions. Are they too undignified to live? As the economy continues to turn down, there will be more home evictions, job losses, and the overall standard of living will decline as the current level of inflation is unsustainable and the supply chain crisis is nowhere near under control. Government mismanagement caused the current economic downturn, and now they are asking the victims of their incompetence to leave this world behind. Unbelievable.

At this point, Canada is actively encouraging people to choose death as the government wants to eliminate those who Adolf Hitler once deemed “useless eaters” who did not contribute to his ideal version of society. People are outraged by Roe v. Wade in America, but no one is talking about how the Canadian government is PAYING for their citizens to commit suicide. At what level is someone “too poor to continue living with dignity?”

May 18 2022

California Proposes Gas Stimulus Checks


Armstrong Economics Blog/USA Current Events Re-Posted May 18, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Free handouts will not combat inflation. The politicians (or their advisors) know this fact but continue to issue free money in exchange for votes. Governor Newsom is proposing spending $11.5 billion to provide Californians with a $400 gas stimulus check. Those with more than one registered vehicle could receive two checks. This is part of Newsom’s $18.1 billion package to “combat inflation” and encourage people to vote for him to receive free money.

Other Democrats are proposing $200 gas stimulus checks for each resident, regardless of whether they even own a car or have a license. Newsom’s plan would also provide free public transportation for three months, which will cost taxpayers $750 million. There was bipartisan support to suspend the state’s gas tax, but that would be too logical.

California has the highest gas prices and gas taxes in the nation. Lawmakers have decided to raise the gas tax by 5.6% to reel in $8.8 billion. Removing the tax would be less costly for the state than distributing stimulus checks, but it is less likely to garner voters for Newsom, who is making endless promises leading up to the midterm elections.