Tag Archives: Real wages drop

Apr 16 2023

Quint…


Posted originally on the CTH on April 15, 2023 | Sundance 

There is a scene in the movie Jaws when the town is arguing about a shark that is eating people and the best way to deal with it. Suddenly, from the back of the room there is the ear-piercing sound of fingernails being dragged slowly down a chalkboard.  As the sound travels, the room grimaces and then goes quiet….

Consider this my version of Quint’s approach…

The second most asked question when talking about national political corruption is the question, “who’s they?”   We often hear the opaque term “they”, but no one seems to give accurate context to it, so I will.

However, before getting to that point, allow me to begin with the end in mind.

If you want to know the most important thing you can do to save Our Republic, then first – get right with God.  Get right with the purpose of the mission, before you even think about packing a bag to begin the effort.  You ain’t got to be perfect, far from it, scruffy and messy works well; but you have got to be dead-plumb raw in admitting and accepting your fallible disposition. In many ways this is what “living your best life” is all about.  As eloquently shared:

…”There is nothing more powerful in the universe than being connected and aligned with power of infinite truth, infinite strength, infinite well-being, infinite love, infinite joy, and all the other positive emotional feelings and desires that we humans desire.”

If you want to harness that power for your own life and purpose, get right.

Now, having read the responses to the previous question, it’s obvious we have a lot of new friends here.  As I dive into sharing the details of our current national political construct, a baseline about party politics is needed.

If you think “Republicans” are the solution, then you don’t understand the construct of the ‘Big Club.’

Political parties were created to present you with: (1) a controlled outlet for your focus (pro-tip the Big Club “they” control it); and (2) the illusion of choice.

Now there are some differences between the two political parties – between the two wings of the same DC vulture.

• The DNC wants power. The RNC wants money.
• The DNC uses money to get power. The RNC use power to get money.
• The ideology of the DNC drives their donor activity. The ideology of the donors drives the RNC.

This is the essential difference in their business models.  This is also how the system works when you think about ‘money’ and raw ‘ideological power’.

Let me give you an example in current culture, around “wokeism“.

The social and cultural ideology of the left-wing is clear; they are pushing ideology.  However, when you look at the right-wing corporate response, notice the focus is on money.  The left is pushing a cultural revolution; the right is seeking to gain money in (a) corporate alignment, or (b) velvet-gloved combat against it.

The leftist ideology advances. Notice there is no ideological pushback against the cultural revolution from Congress.  Why?… Money

Democrats know if they want to advance ideology, simply find a mechanism to pay Republicans.  Easy peasy.

♦ Ukraine.  IDEOLOGY: The agenda of the left-wing (Dems) is clear; they are pushing for an expanded totalitarian globalist agenda.  MONEY: The right-wing response to the Ukraine ideology, is money.  Congress funds the industrial military machine, the military contractors.  The contractors repay politicians.

The globalist ideology advances.  Notice, there is no ideological pushback against the White House and U.S. State Dept foreign policy from Congress.

Why?… money.

If you are an institution (or individual) and your enterprise needs power to advance your interests (think Big Tech), you align with Democrats.   If you are an institution (or individual) and your enterprise needs money to advance your interests (think Wall St), you align with Republicans.

The left-wing wants power to advance ideology. The right-wing wants money.  That’s why the Republicans never stop any of the Democrats’ ideological gains.

♦ Elections. IDEOLOGY: The ballot-harvesting agenda of the left-wing (DNC/dems) is clear; they have thousands of networked groups funded by donor activity (Zuckerbucks etc.), organized in every community to assemble ballots.  MONEY: The right-wing response is to see the opportunity for fundraising…. Meanwhile, a massive network known as True The Vote, Catherine Englebrecht, with an army of skilled voter integrity grassroots operations, easily retooled to a ballot collection network, sits untapped.

This is the nature of the system that distracts us.  Two wings of the same vulture. This is the inherent nature of U.S. politics in the big picture, and I can get as granular and specific as anyone might need – including the propositions for why club candidates are selected within the ‘illusion of choice’ game.

Back to the question: “Who’s they?“

♦ Consider the scale.  Donald Trump is falsely prosecuted for a non-existent crime and tens of thousands of Americans send money to his campaign to show support.  According to media outlets, Trump raised over $10 million in a few days from the average MAGA American.   There are also claims that Ron DeSantis raised $30 million in the last few months from billionaires, hedge funds, Wall Street and multinational corporations during his not-a-campaign book tour.

Sounds good right?  Well….

For scale, former Dianne Feinstein staffer Dan Jones, left the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in order to work as the liaison between private interests, contractors and government officials in the stop-Trump campaign. Within a week, Dan Jones created the Penn Quarter Group and raised $50 million to spend on the effort….

…. “They” gave it to him.

There are various “theys” within the system.   One set of ‘theys” are the multinationals and billionaire donors who control the levers of power behind the Potemkin village we call Washington DC.   George Carlin called them ‘the big club.’

The other set of “theys”, that few people talk about, are the operatives who work as the guards for the system.   This is where the United States intelligence community, various opaque government agencies, and federal intelligence contractors come into play.   I have met the participants.

The guards are paid to run domestic surveillance operations that are then funneled into the U.S. Justice System for official targeting operations conducted by the DOJ and FBI.  These are tradecraft agents within quasi government agencies, most federal contract agencies, that target politicians and influential people with the specific intent on gaining leverage, blackmail, information etc, for use by those who retain and protect the system.

You could call these the “seven ways to Sunday crowd”, as defined by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.   Or you could call these people the “FBI contractors” who have access to the NSA database as part of their operational mission to conduct surveillance and create the files that ultimately end up with the “seven ways to Sunday crowd.”

It matters not what you call them, these men and women conduct targeting operations against U.S. citizens and U.S. businesses.  They also create the files that are used by political operatives like Dan Jones.  That’s why $50,000,000.00 was/is needed for the Trump operation.

All of the puppets, players and politicians within the Potemkin village are under this network of surveillance, and at any time they can be targeted by a host of tradecraft operations to ensnare them.

If you start digging into the actual corruption, schemes or a specific granular episode that highlights risk to the DC operation, you end up like former CBS news investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson, with “TSCI” material in a hidden file within your computer for the FBI to randomly find.

Former DAG Rod Rosenstein and FBI official Shawn Henry ran that specific operation against Attkisson.  Shawn Henry went on to work for Crowdstrike in their “proactive and incident response services” division.  That’s the intel security company that investigated the DNC “hack” and told the FBI it was Russians who did it…. at least that’s the claim from the FBI who never investigated the “hack”, a claim later denied by Crowdstrike.   See how that works?

Yesterday you might have read that 40 intelligence and law enforcement “confidential human sources” were in the J6 Proud Boy’s operation at the DC capitol.  That’s another example of the “theys” that function as contractors to the system within the larger intelligence apparatus.  It all falls under the Director of National Intelligence and Dept of Homeland Security (DHS).

Another example of the “theys” in the system are the FBI and various “Intelligence Community” officials and contractors you see exposed in the Twitter files.  Essentially, embeds in the Big Tech social media system.  It sure makes datamining operations easier when the federally contracted ‘miners’ are inside the communication platforms, able to review all the private discussions and report that information back to the DHS central command.  Things making sense now?

I have met these people.  I know exactly who they are.

This is the reality of our situation.   So, when you respond to my initial question about, “What do you want me to do?…. use this context.

And believe me, I’ll do it.  I’m right with what matters!

Apr 15 2023

Suspicious Cat’s Correct – Johnson and MacGregor Give Details


Posted originally on the CTH on April 14, 2023 | Sundance

In an era of universal deceit, it should not be a surprise for the suspicious cats to be more accurate.

Semi-related context for scope of fraud:  We know with demonstrable certainty that Hillary Clinton, the DNC, Fusion GPS, Chris Steele, DOJ, FBI and SSCI collaborated to create the fictitious premise called broadly “Trump-Russia collusion and interference in the 2016 election.”  The entire thing was bogus soup-to-nuts, all of it… make believe; none of it real.  So, how the hell did Mueller, Rosenstein and Weissmann indict Russians?

Now… Fast forward to the current classified intelligence leaks with the scale, scope and background of everything above in mind.  WATCH:

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In the next segment Douglas Macgregor gives his view, and makes some really good emphatic points about the facts within the intelligence leaks proving the United States government, OUR GOVERNMENT, is completely lying about Ukraine and other matters.

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What we think of as Washington DC is a Potemkin village.

All of it is a fabrication.

The real seat of power controlling government is the part we do not see.  The Fourth Branch of Government!

Apr 14 2023

The Pentagon Leak and the Power of Social Media


Armstrong Economics Blog/Technology Re-Posted Apr 14, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

The Washington Post revealed that the person leaking information from the Pentagon is not a high-level official. There was no collective effort to access the classified information, and the motive of the leak may surprise you. The leak was first posted on a Discord channel called Thug Shaker Central, led by a man in his 20s who allegedly lives on a military base. A user called Wow_mao spoke with the Post through Discord to say he used his platform for humor and began creating videos as a teen. “I can sort of understand how sharing big private military secrets could be a funny thing to do among your internet friends, but come on. Take care of yourself and stay away from doing stuff like this,” the anonymous user posted on YouTube.

A group of teens and young adults were able to access sensitive information—for fun. They did not need skilled hackers or top intel to access military records, showing how inept our national security has become. Discord is a social media platform that is largely unregulated. It is one of the last platforms where users can speak freely without censorship.

The Post discussed how a few users on social media were able to make the files a global sensation and cause international turmoil. Snowden reached out to countless reporters to reveal his message. WikiLeaks also put forth a campaign to draw attention to thousands of classified documents relating to America’s involvement in Iraq. This time around it only took a few kids on a social platform that is not regulated by the government. I expect Congress to now go after Discord as they did with TikTok. “It’s just a bunch of guys from the internet. How would they know about understanding military war documents?” Wow_mao said. “Many people were like: ‘That’s hilarious. Why are they here?’ And then they moved on with their lives.”

Apr 14 2023

The Coming New York Exodus


Armstrong Economics Blog/USA Current Events Re-Posted Apr 14, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

A new study found that 27% of New Yorkers plan to relocate out of state within the next five years. New York once represented the symbol of American prosperity and growth. People dreamed of living life in the “Big Apple” and America’s international image was largely portrayed at the New York fairytale in films and books. Yet, New York no longer resembles what it once was.

The study said 70% of people are still happy to live there, but 30% wish they lived elsewhere. In addition to those who said they plan to leave within the next five years, 31% stated they plan to retire out of state. They did not poll respondents on taxes. Safety is one of the top concerns and the study shows that about half of respondents no longer feel safe in New York, with good cause. Two-thirds naturally said that the state is unaffordable.

“Democrats, those over 50, white residents and those 35-49 rate the state most highly while through the eyes of Republicans, independents, Blacks and those earning under $50K a year, the state receives the lowest grades,” a researcher said. It is hard to imagine someone earning under $50K could comfortably live in New York. The true problem is crime and the light on crime lawmakers who let violent criminals roam freely after repeated offenses.

Felonies in the city of NY rose 20.4% in 2022 compared to 2021. “Things in a large city aren’t supposed to grow that much or go down that much in one year,” said Former NYPD supervisor Chris Hermann, now an assistant professor at Manhattan’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “This is kind of like monumental kind of stuff,” he stated, “like once in a lifetime.” Rape cases increased by 17% in one year, grand theft rose by 25% (auto grand larceny by 32%), felony assaults increased by 15%, and burglary rose by 27%. NYC Mayor Eric Adams has failed at his job by emboldening criminals with relaxed laws.

Apr 14 2023

Only 32% of Lenders Profited on Mortgages in 2022


Armstrong Economics Blog/Real Estate Re-Posted Apr 13, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

The talking heads have been warning of a housing crash, but that is not what Socrates indicated. The 30-year fixed rate is around 6.89% at the time of this writing. Housing costs continue to rise, causing the costs of servicing mortgage debt to rise. Housing inventory is limited, and a recent report explains why we saw mass layoffs in the banking sector. The demand is still there and it is a sellers’ market. Cash is king when it comes to real estate for those who can afford it. Mortgage lenders are in trouble. In fact, only 32% of mortgage companies were profitable in 2022 compared to 98% in 2020.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) recently announced that independent mortgage banks and subsidiaries of chartered banks lost around $301 for every mortgage they financed in 2022. This marks a 113% decline from the prior year’s average and the first-time banks are seeing losses on mortgage products. This is not 2008 when banks handed out loans to anyone who asked.

“The rapid rise in mortgage rates over a relatively short period of time, combined with extremely low housing inventory and affordability challenges, meant that both purchase and refinance volume plummeted,” said Marina Walsh, CMB, MBA’s Vice President of Industry Analysis. “The stellar profits of the previous two years dissipated because of the confluence of declining volume, lower revenues, and higher costs per loan.” Production costs reached a high of $10,624 per loan last year. Productivity was 1.5 loans originations per production employee, down from 2.5 per employee the year prior, and an indicator of why we are seeing layoffs in the banking sector. No one is refinancing at these rates either and most chose a fixed rate, as we saw what happened in 2008 with adjustable costs.

First-time mortgages reached an all-time high of $323,780 last year, up from $298,324, the largest annual increase since the MBA began collecting data. The increased cost of loans increased the cost of serving mortgages. The MBA expects volume to decline further in 2023 before rallying in 2024 and 2025. The banking crisis may lead to banks and lenders selling off their mortgage debts once they cannot afford to service the debt. Again, the housing crisis today is not relative to the 2008 crash.

Apr 14 2023

Credit Where Due, Glenn Greenwald Nails This Discussion of Media and the U.S. Intel Leaks


Posted originally on the CTH on April 14, 2023 | Sundance 

There are times when CTH and the perspective of Glenn Greenwald do not align. This is not one of those times. {Direct Rumble Link Here}

In this segment with Tucker Carlson, Glenn Greenwald nails the agenda, motives and outcomes of the U.S. media as they relate to the recent classified intelligence leaks. This is a solid three-minute encapsulation of the problem. WATCH:

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Apr 14 2023

Tucker Carlson Discusses U.S. Intel Leaks and Media Effort to Hide the U.S. Govt Lies


Posted originally on the CTH on April 13, 2023 | Sundance 

During his opening monologue tonight, Tucker Carlson outlined the latest developments on the U.S. classified information leaks and the media effort to avoid talking about the government lies within them.

It really is quite a remarkable development to witness in real time.  Corporate media, a completely collapsed fourth-estate, playing the distracting role on behalf of the intelligence apparatus they are supposed to keep in check.  WATCH:

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Apr 13 2023

Bragg Sued for Election Interference


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Apr 13, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

It is clear to everyone that Alvin Bragg is going after Donald Trump to prevent him from running in the 2024 Presidential Election. The Manhattan DA, who campaigned solely on a promise to take down Trump, but failed over 100 times, has made a mockery of the US legal system. Since no one is above the law, Bragg is being sued for tampering with the upcoming election.

A man by the name of Gabe Whitley (Honest Gabe) filed charges in the US Federal Court in Indiana’s Southern District against Bragg, who he claims violated 18 U.S.C. § 241:

“Section 241 makes it unlawful for two or more persons to agree to injure, threaten, or intimidate a person in the United States in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured by the Constitution or laws of the Unites States or because of his or her having exercised such a right.”

Campaigning on a promise to destroy an individual certainly seems like intimidation. Perhaps Bragg hopes Biden will appoint him to the Supreme Court one day if he succeeds in his mission. In this case, Bragg is violating the American public’s right to vote. Trump has amassed a large group of supporters, and like it or not, they have the right to vote in our elections as taxpaying citizens. The FBI and intelligence agencies did everything possible to hide the dirt on Biden prior to the elections. This time it is (D)ifferent as they are scraping the bottom of the barrel to find anything to use against Trump.

Whitley posted on Facebook:

“Today I filed a lawsuit in the US Federal Courthouse Southern District of Indiana suing Alvin Bragg for interfering in the 2024 Presidential Election. This political persecution of Former President Trump is illegal and we Hoosiers will not tolerate any election interference.

America’s Elections are under attack by the Radical Democrats destroying our country and our free fair elections.

For far too long Democrats have been screaming Election Interference about Russia, Russia, Russia which was later debunked. We Republicans will continue to fight for your right to vote in a secure elections.”

Similar to those who went after the Clintons, people are afraid to directly go after Bragg since he is backed by Soros and all the big money on the left. The timing of Trump’s arrest is no coincidence. The American people were deprived of a fair election in 2020, and look at the state of our nation today. If Biden was really the most popular president in US election history, there would be no need to destroy his opponents.

Apr 13 2023

The Dollar Sophistry


Armstrong Economics Blog/USD $ Re-P osted Apr 12, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION #1: Dear Martin Armstrong,
Thank you for your unwavering support of humanity and truth. The question I have is about the growing number of countries seeking to divorce themselves from the USD in favor of the alternate BRICS system. Yet when I try to make sense of the current Secured Dollar Funding Complex involving Cash Lenders, Fixed Income and Repo Clearing Banks, Commercial Paper, CD’s, Syndicated and Interbank Loans, Wholesale, Retail and Corporate Deposits, Corporate & Sovereign Bonds, etc. How likely is the world to cleanly disconnect from this entangled web and over what anticipated time frame, rapidly or a long drawn out affair?
Sincerely,

Roy

QUESTION #2: Marty, is all this sudden talk about dethroning the US dollar coming just when April was a major target for the Euro bounce?

HJ

COMMENT #3: You have always said when China starts selling dollars, it is time for war. It looks like they are right on schedule.

Pete

ANSWER: All of this talk of dethroning the dollar is right on time. Yes, April was the target and we should be very careful here for this April/May period is critical on a global basis. As for the BRICS displacing the dollar in the trade as so many are saying, this only PROVES they are just putting out biased claims being anti-dollar with pure sophistry. This reveals that they do not understand anything about the economy, trade, or international finance.

Yes, the Euro elected a Monthly Bullish Reversal (Buy Signal). However, it MUST exceed 11100 on a monthly closing basis to suggest the euro can advance further on a sustained basis. If the Euro exceeds intraday the February high, then a monthly closing below 108 would warn we may be looking at the war and the flight to the dollar would unfold. I would expect that capital controls would be introduced by the end of the year.

First of all, the very reason they created the Euro was to end FX risk and to create a single market. If the BRICS create a competitive currency, then they are introducing FX Risk and that will REDUCE trade with the United States. If the dollar declines, then they will suffer a loss of trade. What makes the US dollar the reserve currency is the fact that the US is the largest consumer-based economy that everyone wants to sell to. I find it laughable how these people pretend to understand finance but are ignorant in reality offering nothing but sophistry.

They can create whatever currency they desire, but they cannot force the FX risk on their buyers. I helped to reorganize the Japanese auto industry where they priced their cars in dollars to the States and took back the FX Risk to be managed. They beat the Germans who were pricing their cars in DMarks during the 70s and soon their sales were declining to the Japanese. I was then later called in by German companies to teach them about FX Risk. and market share. Creating some new reserve currency is pointless if they put the FX risk on their customers.

As far as China, I cannot believe how the bias has skewed the analysis. People are actually saying they are selling dollars because the dollar will be dethroned. China has been dependent on the US economy to make money. They would NEVER sell dollars to simply dethrone the reserve status of the dollar. They are selling dollars because YOU DO NOT FUND your enemy. We are headed into war. They know that. This is all geopolitical and those who just hate the dollar are going to get sucker punched because they are missing what is really going on here.

They have been buying gold NOT because they are bullish – but because they must sell US bonds for in times of war the US will just default on all bonds held by China. I think it is time to get your head out of the sand and open your eyes. This is not about dollars and gold. This is about preparing for World War III.

Apr 13 2023

Inflation Plateau Continues During March, Real Wages Shrink Again, Future Energy Costs Start to Rise Again with Oil


Posted originally on the CTH on April 12, 2023 | Sundance

In the latest round of statistics from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) the March inflation data has been released [DATA HERE]. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) climbed 0.1% in March after advancing 0.4% in February.  This puts the 12-month CPI outlook at 5% inflation. [See Modified Table A on Left]

A 4.6% decline in March gasoline prices was offset by higher rental and housing costs.  That was the primary driver of the lowered inflationary data as gasoline is weighted heavier in the impact.

However, that said, gasoline prices are already rising again after Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ oil producers early this month announced further oil output cuts.  This puts the April CPI data (starting to be assembled this week) on track to increase over March.

Overall, in the big picture the data shows the plateau of sorts as we described for this spring.  This plateau will be followed by another bump as a result of current input costs and prior energy costs traveling through the supply chain.

Energy services, electricity and natural gas, are stable but higher than last year.  The crop cycles carry those increased costs from field to fork.  Consumers cannot avoid those food prices increasing.  The more processing involved in the food sector, the higher the price increase.

Housing increases are another unavoidable cost and generally cycle with a lag within them.  As leases expire, the new lease rates increase accordingly.  The same is true for insurance rates.  Both unavoidable sectors have a rolling lag that hits the consumer upon renewal.

On the wage side [DATA HERE] wages went up .03% but the work week declined 0.3%.  Essentially nullifying earnings growth with fewer worked hours.  With inflation at 0.1%, real wages declined .01%.

For the total 12-month cycle noted by the BLS data, “real average hourly earnings decreased 0.7 percent, seasonally adjusted, from March 2022 to March 2023. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.9 percent in the average workweek resulted in a 1.6-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period.” For the year, wages continue to fall far short of inflation; meaning real wages are negative.  Actual real wage growth has been negative for 24 consecutive months.

The main street economy is feeling all of these impacts.  The paper economy (Wall St) is not feeling these impacts at the same level.  The chasm between the haves and have-nots is widening.