California Announces Ban on Gas Powered Vehicles Then Announces Energy Emergency Requesting Residents Not to Charge Electric Vehicles


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on August 31, 2022 | Sundance

A week ago, California state regulators voted to ban the sale of gasoline powered cars by 2035. The goal is to make every vehicle in California an electric vehicle.

However, just a week later, the California Independent System Operator (ISO) issues a flex alert for the Labor Day holiday weekend asking people not to charge electric vehicles because the power grid cannot handle the demand.  [Alert Notice]

The Flex Alert for Thursday, Sept. 1 is scheduled for 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., when the grid is most stressed from higher demand and less solar energy. During that time, consumers are urged to conserve power by setting thermostats to 78 degrees or higher, if health permits, avoiding use of major appliances and turning off unnecessary lights. They should also avoid charging electric vehicles while the Flex Alert is in effect.

To minimize discomfort and help with grid stability, consumers are also encouraged to pre-cool their homes and use major appliances and charge electric vehicles and electronic devices before 4 p.m., when conservation begins to become most critical. (LINK)

The Energy Economy


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on August 30, 2022 | Sundance

Let’s say you are an average household with an income around $100,000/yr who has an increase in electricity rates from $300 to $500 due to Joe Biden’s new national energy policy known as the Green New Deal.  That’s $200 more per month for this initial economic/energy “transition” moment.

That extra $200/month equates to $2,400 per year.

That $2,400 per year is static economic activity.  Meaning nothing additional was created, and nothing additional was generated.  The captured $2,400 is simply an increase in the price of a preexisting expense.

Take that expense and expand it to your community of 100 friends and family households.  The $2,400 now becomes $240,000 in cost that doesn’t generate anything.  $240,000 is removed from the community economy.  $240,000 is no longer available for purchasing other goods or services within this community of 100 households.

The economic purchasing power of the 100-household community is reduced by $240,000 per year.

Take that expense and expand it to your county of 10,000 households.  Now you are reducing the county economic activity by $24 million.  In this county of 10,000 households, $24 million in economic transactions have been wiped out.  Meals at restaurants, purchases of goods and services, or any other spending of the $24 million within the county of 10,000 households (approximately 25,000 residents) has been lost.

Now expand that expense to a larger county, quantified as a mid-size county, of 50,000 households.  The mid-sized county has lost $120 million in household economic activity, simply to sustain the status quo on electricity rates.  Nothing extra has been generated. $120 million is lost.  The activity within the county of 50,000 households shrinks by $120 million.

Expand that expense to a large county of 100,000 households, and the lost economic activity is $240 million.

Expand that expense to a small state of 1 million households (2.5 million residents), and the lost economic activity is $2.4 billion.

Expand that expense to a state with 5 million households (approximately 12 million residents) and the economic cost is $12 billion in lost economic activity unrelated to the expense of maintaining the status-quo on electricity use.   This state loses $12 billion in purchases of goods and services, just to retain current energy use.

These examples only touch on household expenses.  The community, county and state business expenses for offices, supermarkets, stores, etc. are in addition to the households quoted.

Meanwhile the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the community, county and state, remains static because the GDP is calculated on the total value of goods and services generated in dollar terms.  The appearance of a static GDP is artificial.  In real Main Street terms, $12 billion in economic activity is lost, but the price or increased value of electricity hides the drop created by the absence of goods and services purchased.

Fewer goods and services are purchased and consumed.  However, statistically the inflated price of electricity gives the illusion of a status quo economy.

Now expand that perspective to a national level and you can see our current economic condition.

Greenpeace to Ditch Greta


Armstrong Economics Blog/Climate Re-Posted Aug 30, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Reports are circulating that Greenpeace may soon ditch their poster child for climate change, Greta Thunberg. The Swedish activist was pushed to fame as a child and became notorious for passionate speeches that she was likely forced to read and believe. Klaus Schwab even featured the young girl in his film, “The Forum,” to promote Agenda 2030.

Greta is now 19 years old and no longer the perfect child-like puppet with braids and innocence. I warned that her parents manipulated this girl for their own benefit. She suffers from autism and depression, and her parents publicly stated that parading her around the globe was “medicine” for her ailments.

As an adult, she is diverting from the script. Last year, she said that democracy should be prioritized over climate change in a move that angered her handlers. She accidentally shared an image of “suggested posts” that her handlers asked her to share across social media platforms. Greta even came under fire by the Indian government after being spotted with pop star Rihanna who began promoting the Indian farmer’s protest.

There are now talks that the climate change crowd plans to discard the teen. Other activists have begun publicly criticizing her, which would have never happened when she was surrounded by the likes of Al Gore and Jennifer Morgan. “Since the beginning, we have said that we want to be hierarchy-free – and yet many saw Greta as the leader,” Swiss Jann Kessler stated. Others have whined that she was not the first to protest the weather cycle.

To the adults who abused this innocent girl – how dare you!

California Begs Residents Not to Move to Texas


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Aug 30, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

California’s failed policies have led residents to flock to states like Florida, Arizona, and Texas. Now, California is begging them to stay by using disturbing rhetoricBillboards are appearing across Los Angeles and San Francisco warning against moving to Texas. The reason? The horrific Uvalde School massacre that occurred at Robb Elementary in May.

“The Texas miracle died in Uvalde,” the billboards states. It is in bad taste to use a school shooting to promote an agenda. The gunman was apprehended by a Texas resident with a gun. The police failed those children. None of this has anything to do with California’s policies; crime is not as prominent in Texas.

Between 2020 and 2021, over 25,000 fled California to Texas, according to the US Census data. Overall, over 360,000 people left California in 2021. Most cite that California has become completely unaffordable, with the median home price at about $797,470. Companies have fled California since the beginning of the pandemic to tax-friendly states. They lost huge job creators and revenue makers such as Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, SpaceX, and Tesla, to name a few. Another less discussed reason is the intense woke rhetoric spewed by Newsom and others. Theft has basically become legal. Despite the beautiful scenery and weather, people simply do not want to live in the Golden State for a plethora of reasons.

Tucker Carlson Highlights the False Premise of the Demand Inflation Argument as Energy Becomes Scarce and Economic Collapse Looms


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on August 29, 2022 | Sundance 

During his opening monologue tonight, Tucker Carlson becomes the first mainstream pundit to point out the lies in the central bank argument.

The federal reserve and EU central banks claim they are raising interest rates to stop inflation by slowing demand.  A demand side approach.  However, it isn’t demand driving inflation; it’s the cost of energy driving inflation. That’s a supply side issue.

The central banks cannot admit what they are doing, or people would catch on.  They are intentionally reducing economic activity in order to support having scarce energy production. WATCH:

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Analysts Begin Quantifying “Some Pain for Americans” as Monetary Policy is Positioned to Support Green New Deal Energy Transition


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on August 29, 2022 | Sundance

The financial pundits are slowly starting to drop the pretending and discuss the bigger economic picture. However, as they tread very carefully, they are being very cautious about admitting too much.

Reuters discussion of the comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, starts to dip the media toe in the painful pool; yet they will not admit the Biden energy program is the source of the inflation Powell is targeting with his policy moves to shrink energy demand. Thus, the pretending continues.

If you take the written words and extract the parseltongue, you can see a more fulsome picture of what is being outlined.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo., Aug 29 (Reuters) – The message from the world’s top finance chiefs is loud and clear: rampant inflation is here to stay and taming it will take an extraordinary effort, most likely a recession with job losses and shockwaves through emerging markets.

That price is still worth paying, however. Central banks spent decades building their credibility on inflation fighting skills and losing this battle could shake the foundations of modern monetary policy.

In other words, the U.S. economy is based on core U.S. energy systems and moving that construct to alternative energy, windmills, electric vehicles and solar panels; along with getting Americans to accept a lowered standard of living; is an “extraordinary effort.”

Yes, they are ‘all-in’ and if they lose “this battle,” the core foundations of modern monetary policy will “shake” along with the economic collapse that follows. The economic energy “transition” is the Biden policy, the federal reserve is trying to support that policy by lowering economic demand.

Yes, they also now admit that people will lose their jobs, their livelihoods and the foundation of their economic stability in the process.

[…] “Regaining and preserving trust requires us to bring inflation back to target quickly,” European Central Bank board member Isabel Schnabel said. “The longer inflation stays high, the greater the risk that the public will lose confidence in our determination and ability to preserve purchasing power.”

Banks should also keep going even if growth suffers and people start to lose their jobs. “Even if we enter a recession, we have basically little choice but to continue our policy path,” Schnabel said. “If there were a deanchoring of inflation expectations, the effect on the economy would be even worse.”

[Energy inflation, the root of all supply side inflation] “is near double-digit territory in many of the world’s biggest economies, a level not seen in close to a half century.”

[…] Deglobalisation, the realignment of alliances due to Russia’s war, demographic changes and more expensive production in emerging markets could all make supply constraints more permanent. (read more)

Yes, the “realignment global of alliances,” as an outcome of the western world policy to fracture global markets based on energy use.  Notice they are now starting to admit what we have discussed here for over a year?

“The global economy seems to be on the cusp of a historic change as many of the aggregate supply tailwinds that have kept a lid on inflation look set to turn into headwinds,” Agustín Carstens, the head of the Bank of International Settlements, said.

“If so, the recent pickup in inflationary pressures may prove to be more persistent,” said Carstens, who heads a group often called the central bank of the world’s central banks.

All this points to rapid interest rates hikes, led by the Fed with the ECB now trying to catch up, and elevated rates for years to come. (read more)

Indeed, we are only now on the front side “cusp” of the transition which will force the continued lowering of economic activity within the aligned nations for more than a generation or two.   All economic activity, essentially all human activity, will have to be stalled and reduced until the levels of sustainable energy production can catch up to the levels of energy needed for the now smaller economy.

With current estimations of 50+ years before sustainable energy can generate 25 to 50 percent of the need, this is going to take a long time, and the bankers & financial control agents are going to have to simultaneously make the economies of the allied nations much smaller.

The planned energy oven is small, the size of the economic pizza must be shrunk in order to fit within it.

My last and important point is this…. The multinational corporations, banks and global finance folks, do not enter into these situations without a carefully planned way to retain their own wealth.  The job of a “hedge fund manager” is described in the title, to find a “hedge” against risk to continue increasing wealth.

The billionaire elites that have assembled their wealth on the old economic system will not trust anything to chance as this global cleaving of the world economy takes place. Being reactionary is not how they operate.  These groups pre-stage their wealth and assets outside the zone of collateral damage. They are proactive, not reactive to these global financial events.

With the foundation of the western economic system now being changed, look carefully at the political landscape to see what Wall Street risk mitigation maneuvers are taking place. My very strong hunch on this wealth preservation facet leads me back to domestic politics, and suddenly things make sense. I’m not wrong. I am open to being wrong, but I’m not wrong.

The Inflation Reduction Act – A Change We Don’t Believe In


Armstrong Economics Blog/Inflation Re-Posted Aug 26, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

President Biden agreed to waste billions on the Democrat-supported Inflation Reduction Act. According to a survey of 1,500 Americans as presented by the Epoch Times, neither Democratic nor Republican citizens believe this expensive act will combat rising prices.

Respondents were asked if they believed that the bulk of the package, the $369 billion set aside for climate change initiatives, would reduce inflation. Only 13% said they believed fighting climate change would combat inflation, while 26% admitted they had no clue. Yet, 38% replied by saying it will increase inflation, and an additional 22% think it will have no impact.

Only 8% of Republicans polled agreed with the act (no voting Republican lawmakers supported the measure), while 23% of Democrats were in favor. Around 68% of Republicans warned that the bill would increase inflation; 40% of Independents agreed, as did 17% of Democrats.

This leads one to believe that the measure would never have passed if the taxpayers had the opportunity to vote on how their money was spent. The Congressional Budget Office admitted that the measure would have a negligible effect on inflation. Currently, American households are paying an additional $717 per month due to inflation. This act will only cause Americans to be treated as criminals by the growing and armed IRS, which is training to use lethal force against civilians. Audits will soar, small and medium businesses will suffer, and no one besides those supporting the Green agenda will benefit from the Inflation [Expansion] Act.

The Biden Administration Urges Struggling Families to Buy Solar Panels


Armstrong Economics Blog/Energy Re-Posted Aug 23, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Similar to Pete Buttigieg’s braindead suggestion to simply buy an electric vehicle to combat energy inflation, the White House is now offering another solution for Americans crippled by inflation – stop being poor. While they did not say these words verbatim, their ideas behind taming inflation among low and middle-earning Americans are completely out of the realm of reality. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm patted the Democrats on the back for passing the Inflation Reduction Act.

“If you are low income, you can get your home entirely weatherized through the expansion from the bipartisan infrastructure laws, a significant expansion — you don’t have to pay for anything,” Granholm said, toting government rebates. Solar panels can run anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000 for an initial setup. Is this something people with little disposable income can afford? How about the growing number of renters who do not have this option even if it were “free.”

Granholm offered more belittling advice for the middle class. “If you are moderate income, today you can get 30% off the price of solar panels. Those solar panels can be financed, so you don’t have to have the big outlay at the front … it’s a significant incentive.” Oh wow, a 30% discount and only a six to 12-month wait for the tax credit! Forget about basic shelter costs and food, go ahead and finance expensive solar panels as your family starves on the streets.

This administration is completely out of touch with the needs of the American people. They have done absolutely nothing to lower energy inflation and are now gas lighting the people to believe WE can do more to combat prices not seen in 40 years.

The truth About Climate


A paper I wrote in 2021 and updated early in 2022

Senator Kyrsten Sinema Agrees to Senate Green New Deal Spending and Tax Proposal After Negotiating Minor Changes


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on August 5, 2022 | Sundance

Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema has announced her support for the senate climate change spending and tax proposal after some modifications to the new taxation.

To support the hedge fund donors, Senator Sinema insisted the carried interest loophole tax provision be removed and instead replaced with a corporate tax on stock buybacks.  Any time a corporation wants to buy back their own shares of stock, they will now pay the U.S. government a tax for doing so; at least that’s the ¹intent.

[¹Note: taxing shares of company stock will never work, because that’s exactly what shell companies were designed to avoid.  Set up a child shell company to purchase the stock and the parent company doesn’t pay taxes on the child’s purchase.  It’s a shell game]

Additionally, according to reports, there is some kind of agreement to modify the 15% corporate minimum tax.  Details unknown.  Bottom line, Senator Sinema now supports the $700 billion climate change spending and tax proposal.

“We have agreed to remove the carried interest tax provision, protect advanced manufacturing, and boost our clean energy economy in the Senate’s budget reconciliation legislation,” Sinema said, signaling that she plans to vote to begin debate on the bill.  “Subject to the parliamentarian’s review, I’ll move forward,” she said.  (link)