Armstrong Economics Blog/Disease Re-Posted Apr 16, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
To virtue signaling with masks, know there is a chance it was created in a sweatshop. Half of the items you own likely were created in these conditions.
Tag Archives: Food Shortages
Consumer Spending Drops Again in March – Significant Sales Drops in Dept Stores, Electronics and Home Improvement
Posted originally on the CTH on April 14, 2023 | Sundance
Always keep in mind that retails sales from the Dept of Commerce [DATA HERE pdf] are always calculated in dollars. Inflation can artificially skewer retail sales if prices increase, and yet consumer purchases decline at a rate lower than the increase in price. Fewer units sold at higher prices can give the false impression of increased sales.
During an inflationary environment, when prices increase yet retail sales drop, there are substantially fewer units being purchased. Overall purchases at stores, restaurants and online declined a seasonally adjusted 1% in March from the prior month.
During the time measured gasoline was less expensive, so that led the drop in fuel sales; however, drops in dept stores (-2.5%), General Merchandise (-3.0%), electronics (-2.1%), and building supplies (-2.1%), shows another broad-based pullback of Main Street consumer spending. (pdf here)
These outcomes are in general alignment with what many people have shared via regional ground reports. Grocery store sales are flat despite major increases in grocery store prices (+10 to +20%). People are buying fewer grocery store units and making their food budget stretch as far as possible.
Durable goods are not considered essential, and sales of cars, electronics and department store products are much lower.
I am actually a little (pleasantly) surprised to see restaurant sales holding (+0.1%), despite the massive increase in fresh food costs. I thought people would eat out less, but the total decline in restaurant foot traffic seems to be in the single digits. I guess people can afford it more than I anticipated.
(Via Wall Street Journal) – […] The retail-sales report mainly captures spending on goods rather than most services such as travel, rent and utilities, offering only a partial picture of spending. The Commerce Department will release more complete figures later this month.
Spending on air travel was robust in March but outlays on other services like hotels declined, transaction data from Bank of America credit and debit cards showed. And the cost of shelter has increased faster than the overall rate of inflation, federal data show.
Some Americans have had to make adjustments to allow them to keep spending.
Recent data suggest many consumers are more cautious about purchases of goods they often have to borrow money to buy. In March, spending declined in big-ticket categories including vehicle sales, electronics, furniture, and at home-improvement and department stores.
“The current challenges in the used auto industry are well documented,” CarMax Inc. Chief Executive Bill Nash said on a call with analysts this week, “with affordability pressured by broad inflation, climbing interest rates, tightening lending standards and prolonged low consumer confidence.” (more)
Gold & the Dow Rally Together? OMG
Armstrong Economics Blog/Dow Jones Re-Posted Apr 14, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
COMMENT: Well, the goldbugs are wrong again. This claim that the stock market must crash and only gold will rise is as you say sophistry. It looks like gold and the Dow are rallying together. I can see how they are just promoting a cult-like agenda.
Thanks for being objective
MH
REPLY: We became the biggest institutional adviser because there was never an agenda. Everything goes up, and everything comes down. There is an old saying among actual traders – NEVER marry the trade. I buy gold personally. I just bought a hoard of $20 gold pieces all uncirculated and all dated 1924. I do not regard it as a trade, just a stash for the long-term. It will go up and go down. Do not pretend that something only goes in one direction.
Here is a chart from Socrates on the Quarterly Level of the Dow/Gold Ratio. Anyone who only forecasts a single direction is NOT an analyst – they are a promoter like a used car salesman. No matter what we look at, there is a time to buy and a time to sell. EVERY market functions that was.
Here is an advertisement from April 9th, 1930 pitching Bank Stocks. Brokers were telling people to buy all the way down, average in, but it took 26 years for the Dow to reach the 1929 high again. Anyone selling any product will ALWAYS tell you to BUY. That is their business. It is up to you to come to terms with how ALL markets really move. Hence, there is always a TIME TO BUY just as there is a TIME TO SELL.
Let Them Drive EVs
Armstrong Economics Blog/Climate Re-Posted Apr 14, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is targeting gas vehicles in an attempt to reduce emissions. Their goal is to reduce carbon emissions by 10 billion tons before 2055 to “protect public health.” In turn, 67% of new personal vehicles will be electric by 2032. The average price of an electric vehicle (EV) is $64,338 and completely out of reach for the average American consumer. The war on the working class rages on.
The measure will also cut oil imports by 20 billion barrels. Half of all buses and garbage trucks, 35% of short-haul freight tractors, and 25% of long-haul freight tractors will also be EV. This is guaranteed to propel inflation and cause supply chain issues. What will truckers do when the weather is poor or they need to stop for hours to charge their truck? Extreme weather can cause the range of an EV to decline by 20%. One of my vehicles is electric, but that’s not the car I am depending on for long drives.
America’s infrastructure cannot handle such a steep increase in EVs. We saw California urge residents not to charge their cars during the Labor Day heat wave. Some areas in Florida lost power during Hurricane Ian, and people could not drive. Texas experienced a similar problem when its power grid was experiencing issues. How will school buses operate during bad weather?
The bill focuses solely on tailpipe emissions and fails to consider the resources needed to create these vehicles. The batteries in these vehicles use 10X more energy than the average household uses in one day. The cobalt within these vehicles is mostly mined through modern-day slavery in the Congo. This also requires mining for things like lithium and cobalt. Lithium mining is extremely harmful to the environment. South America has experienced water supply contamination near lithium mining regions, and Tibet reported marine life dying in mass near some of their facilities.
The goal is to limit fossil fuel usage, not to help the environment. “Yet another draconian rule from the Biden Admin,” Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., said. “From gas stoves to vehicles, their anti-American energy policies put our nation on a dangerous path. It’s time for the government to stop over-regulating our lives and protect our energy independence.” Some have pointed out that insurance alone for an EV is 26% higher than combustion-engine vehicles, and maintenance costs are also much higher. Car ownership may soon be unattainable to a portion of the population.
Dr Peter McCullough Discusses Potential Risks of mRNA Technology Being Use in Animal Vaccine Programs
Posted originally on the CTH on April 11, 2023 | Sundance
Messenger RNA or mRNA technology in vaccines is increasingly a cause for concern in the aftermath of the COVID-19 (SARS-COV-2) vaccination protocol. Recently the concern has escalated as Big Rx and Big Ag have begun lobbying against any labeling requirement for animal products which contain mRNA as part of the vaccine protocol.
Recent studies have shown in mice that mRNA can transfer to the bloodstream from food ingestion (milk). The potential to use the food supply as a vaccine pathway into humans is raising alarm bells as the long-term consequences are unknown. Against this backdrop Dr Peter McCullough appears with Emerald Robinson to share his concern and strong support that mRNA vaccines should not be used in any animal within the food supply. {Direct Rumble Link}.
There are many concerns about mRNA technology in the food supply that extend well beyond just the animal vaccine protocol. The part of the interview concerning the food supply begins at 07:00 of the video. WATCH:
Yellen Admits Truth Behind the Inflation Reduction Act
Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Apr 11, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
The Inflation Reduction Act has only increased inflation. Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen came out and admitted the truth – the act’s entire premise is to push the climate change agenda forward. “The Inflation Reduction Act is, at its core, about turning the climate crisis into an economic opportunity,” Yellen admitted.
It provided the government with an opportunity to eliminate our energy independence. We did not have an energy crisis before Joe Biden took office. He killed the Keystone deal on his very first day in office and has been promoting the larger WEF Build Back Better plan at the expense of the nation. Biden implemented policies that worsened inflation and then convinced mindless politicians, who never read the large bills put forward, to vote for a $369 billion act under the premise of fixing a problem he created.
Now Joe Manchin, who brokered the deal with Biden, claims he was duped into believing the act was actually designed to reduce inflation. In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, Manchin criticized the need to raise the debt ceiling as a “needless emergency.” Manchin wrote:
“America is fast approaching another needless emergency—the raising of the national debt ceiling. This impending crisis isn’t an accident but a result of the inaction of various actors who refuse to confront fiscal reality, sit down, negotiate and make hard decisions for the sake of our nation’s future. While all parties have a responsibility to negotiate in good faith, recent actions make clear to me that the Biden administration is determined to pursue an ideological agenda rather than confront the clear and present danger that debts and deficits pose to our nation.”
He goes on to state that the national debt is nearly $31.5 trillion, “or close to $95,000 for every man, woman, and child, and represents 120% of our gross domestic product.” He proposes negotiating the debt ceiling and is pleading with “Mr. Biden to instruct his administration to implement the Inflation Reduction Act as written and stop redefining its credits and other subsidies.”
The Senator from West Virginia stated that Americans will pay the price for generations if Biden fails to act, but Yellen has now admitted that the goal of the IRA has been achieved. As Trump said, if you put the worst five presidents in American history together, they’ve done less damage to the nation than Biden in under three years.
It’s Finally Over – Biden Forced by Congress to Terminate National COVID Emergency
Posted originally on the CTH on April 10, 2023 | Sundance
Effective today, the U.S. National COVID-19 Emergency is officially over! [Details on House Resolution 7 Here]
Led by Republicans in the House and supported by a veto-proof majority in the overall legislative branch, Joe Biden was forced today to officially end the national COVID-19 emergency. [White House Link]
It passed the House by a vote of 229 – 197, February 1, 2023. It passed the Senate by a vote of 68 – 23, March 29, 2023. And was presented to the White House on April 5th for signature. Biden had no options. Federal emergency power is stripped, this will help states counter mail-in ballots.
Sunday Talks, Thomas Renz Warns of mRNA Vaccines in U.S. Food Supply
Posted originally on the CTH on April 9, 2023 | Sundance | 179 Comments
Attorney Thomas Renz was working on a legislative bill in Missouri for informed consent around vaccines, when suddenly he encountered pushback from Big Pharma and agriculture lobbyists. When he looked into the nature of their opposition, he discovered the intent to use mRNA technology in the U.S. food supply. Ever since he discovered this intention Renz has been trying to alert and warn everyone {Direct Rumble Link}.
Thomas Renz appears on the Bannon War Room for a discussion with Natalie Winters. The first segment begins at 04:58 of the video below:
The second part of the interview {Direct Rumble Link} is below. Start at 02:39:
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I will have more information to share on this “genetically modified food” issue later this week. I opened a research file on mRNA vaccines in food and will share a basic interpretation of the current status as soon as I finish compiling the information.
Prior CTH research on Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) in cattle and milk, and the origin of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) commonly known as ‘mad cow’, will help to provide context to the current Rx and Big Ag intention with mRNA use in animal protein products. Again, more later.
Posted in Big Government, Big Stupid Government, Conspiracy ?, Economy, media bias, Typical Prog Behavior,
That’s It – Stop Driving all Cars – Stop Hamburgers – Stop All Work
Armstrong Economics Blog/Climate Re-Posted Apr 5, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
Obviously, we have caused a hole in the magnetic field that will devastate South America and it must be all our fault for driving cars, heating our homes, eating hamburgers and Nathan’s beef hot dogs, smoking, and going to working even virtually since that requires electricity.
The image above (created by scientists Christopher Finlay, Clemens Kloss, Nils Olsen et al) shows a growing weak patch in the Earth’s magnetic field that is exposing satellites and the International Space Station to greater radiation risks. It appears to have been growing since 1958 and will possibly split into two like an Ameba is a unicellular organism giving birth to a clone. Unlike higher forms of life, amoebas do not need another individual’s genetic material to reproduce. The nucleus of each cell contains the amoeba’s genetic material. First, the genetic material replicates. Then the nucleus divides.
In my studies of cycles and the universe, there is never something new. It appears to be the same process over and over again. The universe is fractal. This to me appears to be preparing to split precisely as an amoeba which is a single-cell lifeform.
These climate zealots refuse to look at the world that is cyclical in nature and there is no exception. Their forecasts are always linear, and nothing in the world functions in such a manner. They always try to reduce everything to a single cause and effect and that shows their stupidity for everything exists in COMPLEXITY and you can NEVER reduce anything to a single cause and effect. I find their claims of CO2 a clear illustration of their own ignorance.
So has CO2 now caused the sun to have a hole that is shooting out plasma? Or has it only caused the hole on our planet in our magnetic field? We better hurry up and double everyone’s taxes so the politicians can use it to put their kids through college.
Centinel2012 