Posted origially on May 13, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
The United States has surpassed China to become Germany’s largest trading partner. Trade between the US and Germany came in at $68 billion (63 billion euros) during Q1, compared to about 60 billion euros between China and Germany.
If we look at these figures, they pale in comparison to the aid packages we are sending foreign nations. It is appropriate to put these numbers into perspective to understand the true economic unruliness of these proxy wars.
Now, the United States has not become more competitive, and there is a known lag in manufacturing. Biden promised to add an additional one million manufacturing jobs to the US but has failed to attract new business. The issue here is that Germany has stated they would like to reduce their reliance on Chinese goods, as does America. Concurrently, Chinese manufacturing has strengthened to where they do not need to export as many goods from Germany.
The IFO, a German economic research institute, found that only 37% of companies stated they were dependent on China in February 2024 compared to 46% in the year prior. The research center noted that the outbreak of Russia’s war with Ukraine was the catalyst for the West decreasing trade with China. “The proportion of German companies that rely on important inputs or goods from China has declined in both industry and trade and is now just under 40% in each case,” the study states.
It is undeniable that Chinese goods come at a lower cost to the consumer. However, smart business does not conduct trade with an adversary, and the West was the first to label China due to its ties to Russia and the West’s desire to dismantle the One China policy with Taiwan. China is also hesitant to conduct business in the West, as they have seen numerous businesses sanctioned or dismantled. People are praising the US and Germany for reducing trade with China, one of the bad guys. They do not realize that this will lead to a higher cost of goods for everyone.
Posted originally on the CTH on May 9, 2024 | Sundance
Marjorie Taylor Green and Thomas Massive together brought a motion to the House floor to remove Speaker Mike Johnson from office. However, a considerable number of Democrats joined Republicans in a 359-43 vote to table the motion and protect Johnson’s speakership.
Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) aligned with MTG and Massie. Eight Republicans including Andy Biggs, Chip Roy, Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.), Barry Moore (R-Ala.) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) all voted to remove Johnson and create an unknown outcome, perhaps even a Democrat speakership.
After the failed effort to remove him, Republican Speaker Mike Johnson spoke to the media. WATCH:
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I do not see any way this effort to remove Mike Johnson would benefit candidate Donald Trump, the MAGA movement, or the semi-supportive/passive-aggressive Republican Party that genuine MAGA has to contend with.
It also seems strange that many Democrats did not relish supporting the stupid effort and making a mess out of Congress in an election year. Factually, the only beneficiaries of this chaos scenario, a scenario that could have resulted in legislation to block Trump from office, would be Democrats and perhaps Ron DeSantis or RFK Jr. {BACKGROUND}
Posted 0riginally on May 7, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
Blue states that implemented minimum wage hikes are seeing a drastic rise in food prices. Fast food chains like McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle Jack in the Box, Burger King, Domino’s, and more have reported menu item hikes in places like California that now require a much higher minimum wage.
This comes at a time when fast-food establishments are struggling to make ends meet. Last week, numerous establishments like Taco Bell, Starbucks, KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, and others noted a downtick in quarterly earnings. Fast food was once a cheap and quick alternative to the grocery store before inflation turned any outside dining experience into a luxury. Fast food chains that tend to attract upper-middle clientele like Chipotle have not seen as drastic of a reduction, but value clients earning >$45,000 annually, the core base that these establishments relied on, are not able to eat out.
McDonald’s said it has adopted a “street-fighting mentality” to attract new clients, but that will be a hard target to achieve domestically due to supply chain constraints, food inflation, and now minimum wage requirements. Fast food restaurants saw a 5% price increase overall in March, but states like California are witnessing prices surpass anything that the value client could once afford.
Effective April 1, fast food workers in California now receive a minimum wage of $20 thanks to a new law, AB 1228, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom. California already had one of the highest minimum wage brackets in the country at $15.50.
Chipotle, one of the few establishments that did not post a quarterly loss, was forced to raise prices between 6% and 7% across all 500 California-based locations. “The state isn’t making it easy,” Chipotle Chief Executive Brian Niccol reportedly said. The Wall Street Journal reported that menu items at Chic-Fil-A in California have risen by as much as 13% since mid-February.
Expect companies to begin issuing much smaller portions and automating their workforce. These measures are always passed down to the consumer, and in this instance, the target consumer is already priced out. McDonald’sis already looking at expanding internationally in places like China where it has become more profitable to conduct business. Politicians like Newsom pass these laws that sound great when spoken to the crowd but they are never properly executed because they go against the free market.
Posted originally on May 7, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
COMMENT: I was on the Swarthmore campus this afternoon and couldn’t help but notice the same green tents as I’ve seen in some of the other Gaza protest pics. More evidence perhaps of a coordinated effort.
CF
REPLY: Columbia University is canceling its large university-wide commencement ceremony amid ongoing pro-Palestinian protests. This is a major effort to bring back anti-semitism that will no doubt spread to the hatred of all Jews as was the case in Germany. There, it began with protests against the Jewish bankers. Then it was the Jewish shopkeepers; Then it was – what the hell – get all the Jews. Once this old hatred has been unleashed from the bottle, it may not be stuffed back in. Throw in the LEFT vs. RIGHT, rigged elections, and we are staring into the eyes of some very serious civil unrest that is scheduled for violence centered on the election. Those funders behind this movement will be enlisted to turn against the MAGA Republicans. The trick was to get them together first – and then expand the protests.
These Green Tents come with instructions confirming that this is a DELIBERATE effort to create civil unrest that will be used for the 2024 election as well. Despite all the new craze of fake fact-checkers have been defending Soros, Rockefeller, and Gates Foundations, claiming they are not funding all these Green Tents and major anti-semitism in the United States, the two of the organizers supporting the protests at Columbia University and on other campuses are Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow. Both are supported by the Tides Foundation, which was seeded by Democratic megadonor George Soros and previously funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It, in turn, supports numerous small nonprofits that work for social change and are involved in creating civil unrest in the United States.
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These protests against Israel in favor of “Palestine” are the oldest trick in the book on how to wage war and demonize your enemy for support—the terrorists our info states that 40% of the invading Hamas force were not even Palestinian. You deliberately want the opposing force to kill civilians, so who can say they are horrible people and need to be eradicated – every last one. Just look at the stats from World War I. There were 40 million who died, and at best, only 23 million were military. An estimated total of 70–85 million people died in World War II, but the military deaths were less than 25 million.
It is the act of war itself that is the crime against humanity. The people are merely pawns on the chessboard, and nobody cares if you actually live or die. As Field Marshall Hermann Goring said at the Nuremberg Trials, it is always easy to drag the people into war.
The US was secretly shipping arms to Britain on passenger ships, deliberately hoping the Germans would kill civilians and they could use that as an excuse to get into the war. The Germans even took out advertisements warning people not to sail on that ship for they would sink it. Finally, it took 67 years for the USA to admit the Germans were correct, and there were armaments on that ship.
Zelensky knew when the Russians would invade, and he refused to tell the civilians so the Russians would kill as many as possible so he could get support from the West. When he admitted he knew to the Washington Post, he said if he warned people, he would have lost $7 billion.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that some people are being paid to create anti-Israeli protests. It has been alleged that the Gates Foundation funded part of the protests
along with the Rockefeller Foundation and, of course, the man who thinks there is no God, so he must assume that role – George Soros.
College students always think they know something when they know nothing of the world. In Vietnam, at least, they were being drafted and sent to die. Here, they live in comfort even in their green tents bought and paid for by the very people using them as the next generation of pawns.
Knowledge comes only gradually after you get your first paycheck. Until then, the youth are merely playdough for those looking to create political movements. Bill Murry had the best answer: how to teach your kids about the real government.
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
Centinel2012 