Posted originally on Jan 18, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
My humorous post about McDonald’s celebrating Davos with the McKlausbug burger deluxe was a pretend advertisement, for now, but McDonald’s is a World Economic Forum partner. This is relevant as McDonald’s is the second-largest private employer in the world. Their chains run across 100 countries, in nearly 40,000 stores, serving about 69 million customers daily. The yellow arches may be one of the first images that come to mind when you think of capitalism and the United States in general, but the company has set its sights on the nation that will replace America as the world’s financial capital.
CEO Chris Kempczinski has said that the Israel-Palestine war had a “meaningful business impact” as people on both sides are boycotting the restaurant chain, with most believing the establishment is pro-Israel. Less than half of their locations are located in the US, and although their business is performing well in America, the fast-food chain is betting on the future of China.
McDonald’s plans to expand by 10,000 new restaurants by 2027, with one-third of those establishments opening in China. The company expanded its dealings in China from 20% to 48% in November 2023 after purchasing shares owned by investment firm, the Carlyle Group. Their analytics found China to be the fastest-growing consumer economy, but it was not always this way. Due to low demand, McDonald’s was forced to sell off nearly 80% of its Chinese interests in 2016.
So, what was happening in China during 2016? In 2016, China’s growth dropped to 6.7%, marking the slowest pace of growth in 25 years. Fixed asset investment was no longer coming from the private sector, posing a challenge to the economy’s growth and development. The government’s attempts to inject funds into the economy through various means, including easing credit in the real estate sector, did not yield the desired results. This raised concerns about the effectiveness of the stimulus measures. China also faced challenges related to a weak banking system, overreliance on fixed investment and government support for state-owned firms, and increasing debt levels.
Additionally, the world could not see China as anything but a Communist nation. Corporations and institutions see it otherwise; they see the lucrative business potential and a growing middle class eager to spend. Hence, they are heavily investing in future business ventures there.
China’s economy turned around in 2017, as predicted by our computer. Large-scale capital investment, financed by large domestic savings and foreign investment, and rapid productivity growth helped the economy recover. These two factors appeared to have gone hand in hand, with consumption being a major growth driver, contributing 58.8% to GDP growth in 2017.
The 2018 special report, “China on the Rise,”further explains how Socrates has been honing in on China, whose economy is expected to surpass that of the United States by 2032. With special attention to the Chinese yuan and Shanghai composite, this report examines how, when, and why China will become the new financial capital of the world.
China now has a growing middle class with some expendable income. Big corporations like McDonald’s see China as the next big opportunity, as our computer has been outlining for some time.
Posted originally on Jan 17, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
Over 150 million Americans are under a winter chill advisory due to life-threatening temperatures. Every state besides Hawaii has issued some form of caution to residents as nearly 80% of the nation faces below-freezing weather. Extreme weather highlights the importance of fossil fuels, as there is NO reliable alternative.
Texas is on the verge of having another power grid failure of the ERCOT system. Around 11,000 Texans experienced power outages on Monday. In 2021, a winter storm devastated the state, millions lost power, and hundreds lost their lives, causing state leaders to move further from renewables. Governor Abbott blamed solar and wind energy reliance for thrusting the state into a lethal situation, and called the Green New Deal “a deadly deal for the United States of America.”
EV owners across the nation are already feeling the impact. Tesla owners in the Chicago area have been unable to charge their vehicles due to the extreme cold. The frigid temperatures have caused the charging stations to become congested with non-charging and abandoned cars, leading to a challenging situation for the owners. Cold weather, in general, will hurt the ability of electric vehicles to charge properly, requiring the battery to be preconditioned to accept a fast charge.
Yet, the US government wants to implement electric school buses and military vehicles.
California plans to ban gas-powered vehicles by 2035 under the Advanced Clean Cars II, which will ban ALL gas car sales. California has routinely seen its power grid weaken due to extreme weather. In the summer of 2022, the California Independent System Operator called for a “voluntary energy conservation” during the upcoming Labor Day weekend due to the failing power grid. They are asking residents to refrain from charging their cars between 4 PM and 9 PM, which is when demand peaks. “If left unmanaged, the power demanded from many electric vehicles charging simultaneously in the evening will amplify existing peak loads, potentially outstripping the grid’s current capacity to meet demand,” Cornell University’s College of Engineering stated.
The state estimates it will need 1.2 million charging stations by 2030, but they have a mere 80,000 currently. California does not have the infrastructure to implement this zero-emission ban without toppling the entire power grid. So, electric vehicles alone have the potential to take down California’s power grid.
Clearly, we are amidst a period of global cooling and not warming. This is part of nature’s cycle — we cannot intervene. The globalists have descended their private jets at Davos to discuss climate change and how they can eliminate the least desirable carbon — YOU. They will plot how to limit the public’s usage of essential resources, causing people worldwide to suffer under the belief that they must go without to save the world.
The New Green Deal has become deadly in America and all climate change initiatives threaten civilization at large. The globalists will never convince free thinkers that they must save the planet by limiting indispensable resources that are essential for certain states and nations to remain inhabitable.
Published originally on the CTH on January 12, 2024 | Sundance
Everything about the case in New York City against the Trump Organization business operations is ridiculous. There are no victims. There was no fraud. All of the lenders did their own due diligence. All of the loans were paid back without issue, and the statement of financial condition was factual and accurate. There were no defaults or banking interests adversely impacted. There are no victims of what the State calls “fraud.”
New York Attorney General Latisha James campaigned for office with promises to target the Trump Organization and Donald Trump himself. This is malicious Lawfare in the extreme. Additionally, the statute being used as the predicate for the case is a consumer fraud statute, intended to protect borrowers from predatory lenders. In the four corners of this case, Trump is the borrower, and the banks were the lenders. New York is flipping the statute to claim the borrower defrauded the lenders, despite the lenders denying there was any fraud and there was no harm. The entire case is ridiculous.
Appearing on CNN, O’Leary Ventures Chairman Kevin O’Leary outlines, to a perplexed Laura Coates, why Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York is political nonsense. WATCH (prompted):
TRANSCRIPT – O’LEARY: Well, let’s leave out Trump for a minute, and let’s leave out politics, and just talk about what happens in real estate development anywhere. So, if you’re a developer and you’ve got a building on the block, anywhere in America, and it’s worth, let’s say, $500 million, and you want to build a building right beside it, you go to the bank and say, “This building is worth $500 million. I’d like to borrow a construction finance loan against this asset, and I want you to tell me it’s worth $500 million too.”
And the bank negotiates with you, and says, “Well no, we think it’s worth $400 million,” and you fight it out. You are always trying to show your assets in the brightest light with the sunshine you can possibly determine for them. You want them to be worth the very most because you’re only going to get a 40 to 50 percent loan to value, as it’s called. Then you borrow that money, in the case of a $500 million asset, maybe you get $250 million, and you build the new building with a construction finance loan. So that’s what this case is all about.
And by the way, forget about Trump, every single real estate developer everywhere on earth does this. They always talk about their asset being worth a lot and the bank says no. That’s just the way it is. So in this case, what I’m trying to figure out, and I’m not pro or con, or I don’t care about the politics, who lost money? Nobody. The bank got paid back the construction finance loan, and a new building was built. If you’re going to sue this case and win, you’ve gotta sue every real estate developer everywhere. This is all they do. This is what they do all day long every day. So I don’t think this thing will ever survive appeal regardless of what the fine is. This doesn’t even make sense.
Now look, I understand Trump has a lot of problems in other indictments and everything else, but if you’re a real estate developer, you’re watching this and saying, “What is this? This is ridiculous.”
Posted originally on Jan 11, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
Let me explain about labor statistics. Back in the ’90s, one staff member was in charge of verifying all government statistics worldwide. That project produced some really eye-opening facts. We discovered that in GDP, the government counts total government spending and total personal income (private & public). We could not find where they were backing out of the government payroll. I called the head of the BLS and said that this mistake was so egregious that they had to be backing it out somewhere. I was told they would get back to me. After some time passed, I called and said, hey, I don’t remember you getting back to me. The response was – NO COMMENT.
This means when Biden hires 87,000 IRS agents to harass small businesses, from a statistical basis, it is the economic function in GDP or creating 174,000 jobs. Every small business must now reveal who is the beneficial owner and they must report to the government where they live and if they dare to change residence. Failure to do so is prison time. This is why the Founding Fathers outlawed any direct taxation. They knew people would then be accountable to the government for absolutely everything they do. If you own a small business, it reminds me of what I saw behind the Berlin Wall. You were not allowed to move without the permission of the government. Oh, how power always consumes everything.
In high school, I had to read George Orwell’s 1984. That would probably be on the disinformation list along with Atlas Shrugged today and banned in most schools. Nevertheless, the one line that stuck with me was none other than:
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
The US government consistently lies on their jobs reports released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The agency initially cheered at the 3,140,000 new positions created in 2023, but later revised the figure down to 443,000. But wait, the BLS made another miscalculation in March to the tune of 306,000 jobs. This means that one-third of all new positions added in 2023 were a LIE.
Obviously they fabricated job growth under Biden in the wake of COVID regulations. Of course the economy added thousands of new jobs – you prevented businesses from remaining open for years! The Federal Reserve used this false data for monetary policy, continually citing a strong job market as one of the economy’s saving graces.
These calculations were FAR off to the point where the math cannot be seen as a mere error. The calculations were off for 11 out of 12 months last year. Let us look at history and ask the most important question: has this been done before? YES!
“By the time you include all the monthly revisions and the annual benchmark revision, about one-quarter of all the jobs we thought were added last year have been revised away,” E.J. Antoni, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, told the DCNF. “That pattern of consistent downward revisions has happened in two prior recessions. It is a result of market conditions changing too rapidly for the BLS to adjust their methodology, which in turn causes consistent errors in measuring nonfarm payrolls.”
The BLS has continually tailored their method for calculating employment. One of the key surveys used is the Current Population Survey (CPS), which is a monthly survey of households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the BLS. The unemployment rate is calculated as the number of unemployed individuals divided by the labor force, multiplied by 100. BLS creates occupational employment projections in a product called the National Employment Matrix, which describes the employment of detailed occupations within detailed wage and salary categories, including those who are self-employed or employed by a private household. The BLS also develops participation rate projections using data from the CPS conducted by the Census Bureau. So there is inaccurate data coming from multiple places.
In 2023, the agency made changes to its calculations in 2023, including the implementation of a new weight smoothing procedurefor state and metropolitan area employment data. They have recalculated this figure for Q1 of 2024 and will check back to see if the numbers are where they want them to be. Procedures for reducing nonsampling errors, such as data collection reinterviews, observed interviews, and systematic reviews of collected data. They claim that falling survey responses are reducing the accuracy of their reports. The agency also claims their statistical calculations are subject to a widening difference between preliminary and final releases.
So they have a general idea of employment in the country when they initially release their reports. Why bother to release them at all until the data settles? They know that the markets jump on anticipation of the monthly jobs reports and central banks and institutions factor that data into their planning.
So coincidentally, the BLS happens to be far off the mark during economic downturns. These must be the same people budgeting for the Pentagon or IRS, as the numbers they provide to the public simply do not matter and no one is ever investigated.
The US invasion from the south has simply gone too far. These far-left politicians need to realize that the migrants cannot vote for them just yet, and they’re rapidly losing support among their own citizens due to policies that favor illegal migrants over taxpayers. New York, the friendly welcoming city, is now preventing children from attending school as they are converting tax-funded buildings into migrant shelters.
Around 1,900 migrants have been living in a tent city (Bidenville), Floyd Bennett Field, as the city seemingly exhausted every available resource. There were numerous reports of an uptick in crime among the illegal migrants who even began knocking door to door at personal residences to panhandle. Instead of ensuring the safety of NY residents, officials worried about the safety of the non-taxpayers who should not be in this in country amid the winter months.
New York government officials had the bright idea of moving 1,900 illegal migrants into James Madison High School. What about the kids who are attempting to learn in person after suffering through years of COVID restrictions? The US government told those children that they could no longer attend school and gave them LESS THAN ONE DAY of notice.
“To be clear, this relocation is a proactive measure being taken out of an abundance of caution to ensure the safety and wellbeing of individuals working and living at the center,” City Hall spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak said.
Teachers were dismissed from school early and will be forced to attend school virtually. The teachers had no time to prepare for virtual learning or lesson plans. The students were previously required to pass a metal detector when entering the building, but the illegal may bypass every single safety measure.
James Madison High School students are being punished and forced to bear the brunt of the migrant crisis perpetrated by @JoeBiden. They were dismissed early today and are full remote tomorrow because migrants from Floyd Bennett are at the school tonight to weather the storm.… pic.twitter.com/5nSB8vAQ3n
— Councilwoman Inna Vernikov (@InnaVernikov) January 9, 2024
Why would they select a school building? All sporting events and school functions have been canceled. CBS reported that community leaders have offered officials a list of countless abandoned building nearby. The government quietly moved the migrants into the school overnight without notice to avoid protests or interference. Worse, they KNEW Floyd Bennet field was a flood zone and unsustainable for a tent city or Bidenville.
The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless issued a joint statement that calls the move “traumatic and disruptive” to students. The organizations noted that the city clearly has no long-term plan in place as they are unable to provide any details, such as how long the school will remain closed. ““Needless to say, today will be very traumatic and disruptive for these families. We fear, especially with more inclement weather expected this winter, that this is only a foreshadow of more problems to come, and we again urge the City to cease placing families with children at this facility,” the group noted.
Parents are completely outraged. Remove the tax on public schools if our buildings are being used to bribe future voters. The state of New York has prioritized ILLEGAL migrants over their own citizens. States are becoming increasingly desperate. They’d rather deport your child from the classroom than ask an illegal to go through the proper procedures to live in America.
Posted originally on Jan 10, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
As of January 1, California now requires students to learn media literacy throughout K-12. Will this curriculum update teach kids to fact-check the biased mainstream media or question everything? No. This bill is aimed at dismantling what the establishment has deemed as “misinformation” in recent years with the goal of rewriting history. Governor Gavin Newsom signed Bill No. 873 which will incorporate media literacy into every branch from mathematics to science and history.
Questioning the mainstream narrative is now prohibited. Children as young as 5 will learn NOT to ask questions or inquire about the status quo. They will be indoctrinated to rely solely on the government for reliable sources, and all school work from kindergarten until Senior year will rely on the “facts” touted by the government.
Stanford, home of the CIA’s MKUltra experiments, has implemented media literacy curriculum. Students are forced to create content on social media to combat disinformation, such as creating videos on the safe and effective mRNA vaccines. We already know that they push far-left ideals at universities, but they are now forcing everyone to think in unison to pass their classes.
The MSM gasped when it was revealed that Russian textbooks had been revised to say that the 2020 US Presidential Election was rigged. Governments continually rewrite history to align with the narrative they see fit.
The Constitution no longer holds weight in American politics. The First Amendment has died. There is nothing the governments fear more than a free-thinking society that questions our world and those in charge.
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
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