Tag Archives: collapse (death)

Mar 16 2022

Producer Price Inflation Sets New Record at 10 Percent, No Relief in Sight


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 15, 2022 | Sundance

The “Producer Price Index” (PPI) is essentially the tracking of wholesale prices at three stages: Origination (commodity), Intermediate (processing), and then Final (to wholesale). Today, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) released February price data [Available Here] showing a dramatic 10.0% increase year-over-year in Final Demand products at the wholesale level.  This is the highest rate of inflation in the PPI ever recorded.

The single month increase in wholesale prices of 2.4% was driven by inflation built into the supply chain at every level that shows up in the final wholesale price.  Those price increases then get passed along to consumers along with the additional costs for warehousing, transportation and delivery.  I modified Table-A to take out some of the noise.

The January, December and November data was also revised significantly upward, and a sketchy footnote is included in the data. “Some of the figures … in this release may differ from those previously reported because data for October 2021 through January 2022 have been revised to reflect the availability of late reports and corrections.”   Remember that temporary drop in December, yeah, that’s wiped out now.

The reason the total demand inflation number is 0.8% is only because inflation in the service sector is lower than inflation in the goods sector.  Two reasons: (1) energy costs embed in goods first before services; and (2) when inflation on goods squeezes budgeted consumers, less services are demanded.

Unfortunately, there is nothing upstream in the supply chain and manufacturing pipeline to suggest that higher prices at the retail level are not coming.  The price of raw materials, and the wholesale energy costs to process those materials into finished goods, are still rising.  Factually, the recent massive increase in fuel and transportation cost is not included in this data.

You can see clearly in Table-B (again, cleaned up) the wave of inflation that took place in April through October 2021.  Inflation is backward looking, so when prices have already doubled in the previous year and the compounding price goes up another 35% this year, well essentially that’s another doubling when compared to 2020.   Put another way, raw materials (unprocessed intermediate goods) have tripled in price in the last two years.

In my estimation, the massive price increases the bureau quantified through January were the end of the first wave of massive inflation that CTH warned about last October.

“Do what you can do now to start preparing your weekly budget in ways you may not have thought about before.   Shop sales, use coupons, look for discounts and products that can be reformulated into multiple meals or multiple uses.   Shelf-stable food products that can be muti-purposed with proteins is a good start. Consider purchasing the raw materials for cleaning products and reformulate them yourself to avoid these massive increases in petroleum costs.” [October Warning]

The recent announcement of price increases we have discussed, from food producers specifically (Kraft-Heinz, Proctor and Gamble, etc.), in combination with massive fertilizer and farming costs for future yield, is the second wave that has yet to be fully quantified.  The second wave of retail inflation, only just beginning to arrive now in the February results, will extend throughout the spring.

Next month, March data reported in April, the second wave of inflation data should carry the first big jumps in gas and diesel prices.  For ordinary people, this next round of food inflation will be focused predominantly in the ‘Fresh Foods‘ categories.  Fresh produce, vegetables and fruits have short life cycles, and rapid increases in transportation costs hit that segment fast and hard.

On the positive side, our victory gardens are going up in value, very quickly.   A few backyard growing boxes can generate an easy $200 to $500/month in fresh produce as the price of ordinary row crops at the store starts to double and triple.  Mature citrus trees are worth their weight in gold right now.

FJB!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sujYdw_tJUc%3Ffeature%3Doembed
Mar 15 2022

We’ve just suffered through a global pandemic…


Posted originally by Tulsi Gabbard  Published March 15, 2022 on Rumble

Mar 15 2022

Did Manchin Just Save the Federal Reserve?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Central Banks Re-Posted Mar 15, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Once again Joe Manchin has broken away from party lines to prevent the Democrats from destroying the global economy. Manchin announced that he would not support President Biden’s pick for Fed chair, Sarah Bloom Raskin, as her personal views on climate change could drastically alter Fed policy. “I have carefully reviewed Sarah Bloom Raskin’s qualifications and previous public statements. Her previous public statements have failed to satisfactorily address my concerns about the critical importance of financing an all-of-the-above energy policy to meet our nation’s critical energy needs,” Manchin stated. “I have come to the conclusion that I am unable to support her nomination to serve as a member of the Federal Reserve Board.”

A group of senators wrote an urgent letter to Joe Biden in February, citing “concern about Ms. Bloom Raskin’s potential abuse of power to inflict harm upon the traditional fuel industry.” The Federal Reserve is intended to operate as an independent body that is not swayed by politics. However, Raskin is an advocate for pushing forward the Build Back Better agenda by banning investments in fossil fuels. In May 2020, Raskin wrote an op-ed that stated the Federal Reserve should simply refrain from investing in energy. “The decision to bring oil and gas into the Fed’s investment portfolio not only misdirects limited recovery resources but also… undermines urgent efforts to counter surging carbon dioxide and methane emissions, which are bringing us closer to the catastrophe of an unlivably [sic] hot planet,” she stated. She reiterated her position countless times and has urged all financial regulators and auditors to “mitigate climate-related threats by stepping forward and incentivizing a rapid, orderly, and just transition away from high-emission assets.”

The letter penned by concerned senators claimed that Raskin is an “activist” who is unfit to be placed in a top leadership position at an allegedly non-partisan central bank. Interestingly, the letter was penned before the war in Ukraine that has only led to worsening energy prices. The Federal Reserve is the most important financial entity in the United States, and the United States is currently the leader of the global economy. Biden is showing the people once again that he does not care about them or the economy by appointing someone dangerously unqualified to support this New Green World Order. The Biden Administration is continuing to back Raskin and has said that any claims against her are simply baseless lies funded by the evil fossil fuel industry. The only way Raskin could be appointed now would be for one Republican to back her nomination, which seems quite unlikely.

Mar 15 2022

DuckDuckGo Has Been Compromised


Armstrong Economics Blog/Censorship Re-Posted Mar 15, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Gabriel Weinberg has violated the trust of myself as well as the integrity of his entire company. I do not care what he thinks about Ukraine. He is obviously is easily influenced by the media and does not look at events with an open mind because BOTH sides will put out misinformation in a conflict. He has no right to censor Russia when what it says merely contradicts what the US says. How does he know who is telling the truth? That is not his job and engaging in censorship thinking what the US says is always true, guess he never looked at the whole Weapons of Mass Destruction that the US used to invade Iraq that was not part of any terrorist movement against the US or the West because Addam was an anti-religious fanatic. Both sides will spin the news in their own favor. We have a right to make those judgments for ourselves.

The EU is also going after search engines that will NOT censor information from Russia. This only makes the truth more impossible to uncover. The Tor browser is one alternative.

DuckDuckGo marketed its search platform as the antithesis to Google. “Our privacy policy is simple: we don’t collect or share any of your personal information,” the company lists on its website. The engine claims not to track data or sell information to advertisers. However, the site has been compromised.

The alternative search engine gained popularity recently after a heavy marketing campaign that included ads throughout major cities, radio, TV, and even Superbowl commercial time slots. Personally, I have noticed that the website has produced what seems to be targeted results comparable to Google. An online user posted the search phrase “where to get” in their browser, only for the search engine to auto-populate every search term surrounding COVID vaccinations. Try it for yourself.

The final nail in the coffin came when CEO Gabriel Weinberg announced that he would begin censoring search results due to “Russian disinformation.” Who gives Weinberg the authority to decide between “misinformation” and facts? The entire point of a search engine that acted as the antithesis to Google was to provide users with all available information, free from any censorship. Provide us with all the facts, and let us come up with our own independent thoughts. DuckDuckGo is no different from the companies it claims to be against, except it has a worse user interface.

Onion Alternatives

https://www.torproject.org/releases/tor-browser-11-0/

Website addresses ending in “.onion” are not similar to normal domain names, and one cannot access them with the ordinary web browser. They direct you to the Tor hidden services found on the deep web. Thus, .onion sites are a part of a deep web that is not perceptible to search engines and standard users. It is filled with websites for users fanatical about their anonymity and online privacy. Countless onion sites include very malicious things, and lots of them are likely to be rip-offs. It is usually recommended to stay away from them. As a browser, Tor is the best for privacy. It’s a links’ directory, and you’ll find links to nearly anything and everything which isn’t available on the clearnet.

Mar 15 2022

Hispanic Population Abandoning Democratic Party


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Mar 15, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

The Hispanic population will now have access to the first conservative network tailored to the Spanish-speaking community in the United States. The network, Americano, will first premiere on SiriusXM radio before hitting TV screens this summer. This comes at a crucial time in US politics ahead of the midterm elections. Americano CEO Ivan Garcia-Hidalgo said that the Democrats should be afraid.

“They’re scared. And they should be. Democrats took Hispanics for granted for too long, and no one thought to create a home for us in conservative media. There is an appetite for this. You see it on social media. You see it in elections,” Garcia-Hidalgo stated.

Countless articles surfaced during the 2020 US Presidential Election condemning Hispanics from voting outside the Democratic Party. Six in ten Hispanic voters selected Biden on the 2020 ballot, but the number who identified as Democrats declined eight percentage points from the 2016 election. Spanish-speakers who lived under Communist rule, such as Cubans, were more likely to vote for the GOP. They have seen the Marxist dream and know it is far from Utopia.

By January 2021, Biden’s support among Hispanic voters plummeted from 59% to 28%. “Sadly, during the course of the pandemic, one-third of our small businesses have closed,” a tone-deaf Kamala Harris stated. Many Hispanic business owners who came to the US for the American dream were affected. The CDC noted that Latinos were hurt by the coronavirus more so than other ethnic minority groups. Although the media would like people to believe that all Hispanics support Biden’s handling of the border, only 23% noted approval in a January Quinnipiac Poll.

Add to this that Latinos are more likely to hold Christian family values, which is in contrast to many Democratic policies and beliefs. A conservative news outlet designed for the large Spanish-speaking population is long overdue.

Mar 15 2022

Tucker Carlson Notes the Moonbat Crazy Over Ukraine Is Bipartisan


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 14, 2022 | Sundance

Comrades, Tucker Carlson’s opening monologue outlined the insanity of our current situation tonight.

Washington DC and the media echo chamber all agree that Ukraine is the most important shiny thing everyone should pay attention to…  and if you don’t, you’re a Russian agent – because freedom.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=FY0P8Tmj73I%3Ffeature%3Doembed
Mar 15 2022

Elizabeth Warren Promised High Gas Prices, Joe Biden Delivered Them


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 14, 2022 | Sundance

In September of 2019, Elizabeth Warren promised to do something on her first day in office that would rebuild the Russian economy, grow China’s influence and support the Maduro regime in Venezuela.  We immediately wrote about it HERE.

SEPT 7, 2019 – Democrat presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has made a campaign promise that was quite remarkable:

What Senator Elizabeth Warren promised in that tweet is EXACTLY what Joe Biden did on his first day in office.   Now, before going further, let me explain something about that relationship that will likely make a lot more sense.

You might remember when all the democrat candidates in the 2020 primary were told to drop out right before Super Tuesday, as part of the organized effort to stop Bernie Sanders from becoming the nominee.  The lone holdout was Senator Elizabeth Warren.  She was polling essentially even with Joe Biden while Bernie was leading.

It was very well documented at the time that Senator Warren was negotiating terms with the Biden team for her compliance and support.  Eventually, as the controlled party momentum grew, Warren agreed to drop out of the race, and she endorsed Joe Biden.  The terms of that agreement were never made public, but when we look at the priority of Warren (tweet), and compare it to the literal duplication of that pledge that was carried out by Joe Biden, well, the coincidence doesn’t look coincidental.   I digress…

Back to the original statement by Warren.  At the time she made this statement in 2019, we outlined a very specific series of consequences that would happen if she really did target fossil fuel on day one.  Now that Joe Biden has carried out exactly what Warren outlined, let’s go back to that 2019 outline of consequences and compare it to where we are today.

SEPTEMBER 2019 – The consequences of such policy are not esoteric; they are very real and very serious.  Who would immediately benefit from Warren’s policy: Russia, China, Iran and Venezuela. Who would suffer – Americans.  Here’s how…

Within the first 24 hours of Elizabeth Warren’s presidency she is promising to dramatically raise the price of Oil and Natural Gas.  This will:

  • Immediately hand Vladimir Putin hundreds of billions worth of enhanced Russian energy exports.  A windfall of economic growth that will mean Russian policy expansion globally.
  • Support the regime of Venezuelan dictator Maduro who relies on oil production and pricing to keep his socialist government in place.
  • Expand the influence of China; and increase the value of Beijing’s investments in Russian energy and 49% state in PDVSA (Venezuela).
  • Immediately help the Iranian economy; enhance the stranglehold of power by the Mullah’s over the Iranian people; help fund terrorist actions globally, and specifically create terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya and Israel.
  • Return U.S. policy and strategy back to a position of dependence on OPEC nations; so we can expect more U.S. military involvement in the middle-east (as above).
  • Destroy growth in American wages , and set up energy policy that will drive further industrial manufacturing out of the U.S. and into Mexico and Asia.
  • Simultaneously drive up the price of electricity in the U.S, further exacerbating the financial costs and losses to the U.S. middle class.
  • Raise gas prices back to Obama-era rates $5/gal.
  • In turn this will drive up the cost of transported products, and U.S. food prices will jump approximately 20% as massive inflation hits highly-consumable categories first.
  • The collective impact of the four domestic points above will drive down the ability of consumers to spend on other goods.  The U.S. economy is two-thirds dependent on consumer spending…. The collective impact means economic contraction.

Candidate Elizabeth Warren is promising to deliver these results in the first 24 hours of her administration if she was to win the presidency.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has never worked in the private sector, nor has she created anything that is materially not connected to government expansion.  She is proposing policy without any comprehension of downstream impact on a domestic, international, geopolitical or national security basis.  Senator Warren promises these impacts in her first 24 hours in office.

{BREAK}

Everything written above was written in 2019 and predicted to happen if the President were to: “sign an executive order that puts a total moratorium on all new fossil fuel leases for drilling offshore and on public lands. And ban fracking—everywhere.”

On his first day in office, Joe Biden did exactly that.

FORBES – “Through an executive action, Biden revoked permits for the Keystone XL Pipeline and put a temporary moratorium on oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, moves hailed by environmental and indigenous activists.” (link)

MONEY MARKETS – “President Biden signed an executive order pausing new federal oil fracking leases. (link)

CNBC – “Biden’s orders direct the secretary of the Interior Department to halt new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and waters, and begin a thorough review of existing permits for fossil fuel development.” (link)

Now, think about where we are right now with gasoline prices and food store prices and inflation.  Scroll back up and look at what was predicted to happen in 2019 if those energy policies and executive orders were carried out.

Don’t tell me no one could see this coming.  Everything from the strength of the Russian position, providing them the economic leverage to enter Ukraine, to the current gas prices and food inflation is a natural outcome of those specific policies.

Last point – While I have no inside knowledge to make the case definitive, it certainly does look to me like the terms of Warren’s exit and endorsement were delivered by Joe Biden on his first day in office.  Now we are feeling the consequences.

Mar 15 2022

Whoops, Narrative Shifting – Ex British Special Forces Reported Among Victims of Russia Strike Against Military Training Facility in Ukraine


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 14, 2022 | Sundance 

As with all things Ukraine, when the initial reports of the Russian cruise missile attack against the military training facility located near the border with Poland, we said to be cautious about western reporting of no NATO military personnel present, killed or injured.

The reason is for the warning was simple – if NATO is providing weapons and training, they’ve got to be doing the distribution and training somewhere in Ukraine near the NATO border.  Conduct war operations in a war zone, and you run the risk of war outcomes.

Now the Daily Mail is beginning to report on ‘missing, feared dead’ former British special forces operators likely killed in the blast.  As the story evolves, how long will it be before U.S. headlines carry similar missing U.S. “contractor” stories?

Most of the U.S. and NATO warfighting is carried out by independent contractors or mercenary groups now.  Ukraine is the perfect battlespace for that unofficial type of war fighter engagement.

(Daily Mail) – Three British former special forces soldiers are feared to have been killed in a Russian airstrike near the Polish border. More than 30 Russian cruise missiles targeted the Yavoriv base yesterday, killing as many as 180 people.

Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for Russia’s ministry of defence, said the base was struck by ‘long-range, high-precision’ weapons because it was hosting ‘foreign mercenaries and a large shipment of foreign weapons’.

He added: ‘The destruction of foreign mercenaries who arrived on the territory of Ukraine will continue.’

Konashenkov said up to 180 people had been killed in the strike, though Ukraine initially said 35 people died and another 134 were wounded.

But a source told The Mirror today: ‘There were many more killed within the site than has been claimed and bodies are still being found.

[…] ‘This is extremely sensitive as there are believed to be no serving British military personnel inside Ukraine as politically that would be extremely controversial.’ 

[…] A Ukrainian officer said there were around 1,000 foreigners at the camp – officially known as the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security – at the time. (read more)

“1,000 foreigners” at the military camp, and we are supposed to believe none of them were American?

There’s a big motive to keep any American or British death quiet, because it would undermine the official narrative being broadcast by western media.  All of these mercenary soldiers know they are operating in an unofficial capacity in order to provide western government with plausible deniability.  That is the risk that “contracted” war fighters assume when they take the very generous money offered.  It’s a mess.

Keep watching.

Mar 15 2022

Congress To Hold Private Meeting With Zelenskyy To Celebrate the Allocation of Taxes While U.S. Citizens Are Kept Out Using Fences and Barbed Wire


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 14, 2022 | Sundance

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have announced a private congressional teleconference between the exclusive confab of DC elites and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that will take place on Wednesday.   Congress has allocated $13.6 billion in “Ukraine-related” aid, with “10% for the big guy.”

The subject matter of the virtual meeting will likely surround the allocation of taxpayer indulgency fees to support Ukraine and the Non-Governmental Organizations run by the families of DC conference participants.  The meeting provides Zelenskyy the first opportunity to thank congress for deposits into his offshore holdings and celebrate his magnanimous money laundering operation.

Meanwhile, taxpayers who fund the congressional spending will be kept away from the private meeting by armed guards, fences and barbed wire constructed around the House of Representatives.  There is apparently and ongoing concern that the people who fund government might actually get too close to the government they are required to fund.

Yes, this is the ongoing state of our union, and our voices are irrelevant to their conduct.

WASHINGTON DC – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will speak virtually to members of Congress on Wednesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced in a joint letter.

“As war rages on in Ukraine, it is with great respect and admiration for the Ukrainian people that we invite all Members of the House and Senate to attend a Virtual Address to the United States Congress delivered by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine on Wednesday, March 16th at 9:00 a.m.,” they wrote.

“The Congress remains unwavering in our commitment to supporting Ukraine as they face Putin’s cruel and diabolical aggression, and to passing legislation to cripple and isolate the Russian economy as well as deliver humanitarian, security and economic assistance to Ukraine. We look forward to the privilege of welcoming President Zelenskyy’s address to the House and Senate and to convey our support to the people of Ukraine as they bravely defend democracy,” Pelosi and Schumer wrote in the letter.

The speech is only open to members of Congress. To attend, lawmakers who aren’t fully vaccinated will need to wear a mask. (read more)

Mar 15 2022

Steve Harrigan Returns From Ukraine With a Somber Message About the Situation


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 14, 2022 | Sundance 

Fox News correspondent Steve Harrigan returns from Ukraine with a somber message about the situation and likely future.   Harrigan notes that Russian victory in Ukraine is a foregone conclusion – Ukraine will be flattened if needed. However, that outcome comes at a serious cost.

The war inside Ukraine will wage on for years as an insurgency against Vladimir Putin.  The western alliance will spend trillions if needed.  NATO will kill as many Ukrainians and mercenary units as needed in order to battle Vladimir Putin in a proxy war.   The industrial war machine will gleefully churn out the material needed for the DC based political war machine to purchase.   First, WATCH:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=v8zi6cx6pAw%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Harrigan is correct, however, he missed the biggest tell-tale sign of all.  Where are the peacekeepers?  Where are the diplomatic voices, the ranks of the prudent and pragmatic political voices who focus on stopping the death?  Where are those voices?  Where is the faith-based voice asking for leaders to stop, breathe, meet and seek a solution without further war?

Those voices are silent because the western motive is to create a long-term insurgent war in Ukraine.  The geopolitical system views this as an existential battle against Russia.  Both sides in this conflict view this as a zero-sum contest.  The NATO alliance doesn’t view Volodymyr as a hero, he’s a tool.

If Zelenskyy were to walk toward a negotiated ceasefire, the bullet that kills him would come from the rear.  That’s how corrupt this conflict is.

ANNAPOLIS, MD – November 17:
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan holds a press conference to address COVID-19 concerns in Annapolis, MD on November 17.
(Photo by Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images)