CNBC is the Biden defense team for media broadcasts of anything related to the economy. As a result, you know things are bad when CNBC broadcasts that Joe Biden’s economy has the highest level of dissatisfaction in the history of their surveys.
Steve Liesman was given the task again to share the horrible results. WATCH:
Sad news. President Donald Trump’s former wife, Ivana Trump, mother to Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump, has died. She was 73-years-old.
President Trump made the announcement on Truth Social:
[LINK]
Ivana Trump was born Ivana Zelnickova in 1949 in the Czechoslovak city of Gottwaldov. She married Donald Trump in 1977 and they were divorced in 1992. They remained good friends and according to Ivana, they spoke to each other every week.
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 June price data [Available Here] showing another 11.3% increase year-over-year in Final Demand products at the wholesale level.
Overall, the wholesale inflation rate is being driven by energy prices. The June calculation shows exactly that problem with energy prices embedded in goods driving 10% of the price increase. However, there is some good news in the short-term for July and August, as the intermediate and raw material costs are leveling off temporarily. Unfortunately, that raw material price plateau is almost certainly the result of a drop in demand.
CTH has modified Table-A and Table-B to take out the noise.
The June inflation rate for final demand goods (2.4%) is driven mostly by higher energy prices (10%). Energy costs are passed along through every stage of the supply chain contributing to an overall wholesale price increase of 2.4% in June, 11.3% year-over-year.
Notice the slight drop in final demand services; that is important. What we are seeing is a contraction in the service economy overall, as the service sector -which includes restaurants- cannot pass along the scale of energy price increase to customers. People are changing their spending habits – service demand overall is dropping.
Sorry, I had no idea President Trump was delivering remarks today. President Donald J Trump is speaking from Las Vegas and delivering remarks On America First Policies. Ongoing livestream links below. However, they are having major technical issues:
Donald J Trump Rumble Livestream – RSBN Rumble Livestream Link
Elon Musk has notified Twitter and the SEC [SEE LETTER HERE] that he is exercising his “right to terminate the merger agreement and abandon the transaction contemplated” due to the social media company not providing transparent access to background data that would allow authentication of “monetized daily active users” (mDAUs).
It appears that Twitter Inc did not want to reveal how Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop was able to sustain operations, at an extremely high cost, without making money. That’s the essential source of the issue.
The social media company did not want anyone looking at the data stream inside the communication platform. Musk was not allowed to authenticate the number of real users and identify the number of ‘spam’ or ‘bot’ accounts within the platform.
From the SEC Letter: […] ” Specifically, in the Merger Agreement, Twitter represented that no documents that Twitter filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission since January 1, 2022, included any “untrue statement of a material fact” (Section 4.6(a)). Twitter has repeatedly made statements in such filings regarding the portion of its mDAUs that are false or spam, including statements that: “We have performed an internal review of a sample of accounts and estimate that the average of false or spam accounts during the first quarter of 2022 represented fewer than 5% of our mDAU during the quarter,” and “After we determine an account is spam, malicious automation, or fake, we stop counting it in our mDAU, or other related metrics.”
Mr. Musk relied on this representation in the Merger Agreement (and Twitter’s numerous public statements regarding false and spam accounts in its publicly filed SEC documents) when agreeing to enter into the Merger Agreement. Mr. Musk has the right to seek rescission of the Merger Agreement in the event these material representations are determined to be false.
Although Twitter has not yet provided complete information to Mr. Musk that would enable him to do a complete and comprehensive review of spam and fake accounts on Twitter’s platform, he has been able to partially and preliminarily analyze the accuracy of Twitter’s disclosure regarding its mDAU. While this analysis remains ongoing, all indications suggest that several of Twitter’s public disclosures regarding its mDAUs are either false or materially misleading.
University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business, Finance Professor Jeremy Siegel, takes a closer look at the June jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Professor Siegel notes a .01% drop in average hours worked is the labor equivalent of losing 450,000 jobs.
With factory demand dropping, and with inventories climbing, and with FTE’s (Full-Time Equivalents) dropping, the jobs report takes on additional context that aligns with the overall decline we feel in Main Street activity. Essentially, regardless of how many jobs are “created” within the economy, the overall economic activity -as measured by the value of products & services generated- is declining.
Additionally, as noted by Professor Siegal, the current best estimate as reviewed by the several data points, is a current drop in overall GDP in the -2% range. Seigal points this information out because the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates into an economy that has declining (demand side) consumer activity, which, correctly as he states, only makes the contraction more severe. WATCH:
The core supply side costs (all based on energy policy) continue to increase and drive consumer prices upward. Simultaneously, consumer demand is dropping because the goods and services impacted by the increased costs (most of which are unavoidable) are more expensive. This creates a downward spiral. Consumer prices are increasing on housing, energy, food and gasoline (supply side impacts), at the same time discretionary spending contracts.
In this scenario there is no way to avoid a steep recession. However, the real priority of Joe Biden surrounds whether Jill will allow his favorite pudding, and if the shoes on the pancake mix keeps making sparkly rabbit noises.
Earlier today Joe Biden held an official ceremony promoting the killing of unborn babies as a legacy initiative of his administration. Biden signed an executive order [View Here] stating that abortion “is essential to justice, equality, and our health, safety, and progress as a Nation.”
{Direct Rumble Link} – Executive Order Here – WATCH:
(Via Reuters) – […] Biden, [a member of the progressive death cult], has been under pressure from supporters, particularly progressives, to take action after the landmark decision, which upended roughly 50 years of protections for women’s reproductive rights.
The president’s powers are constrained, because U.S. states can make laws restricting abortion and access to medication, and the executive order is expected to have limited impact.
Biden will direct the Health and Human Services Department to take action to protect and expand access to “medication abortion” approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the White House said.
Experts have said a pill used to terminate early pregnancies is unlikely to become available without a prescription for years. States that already restrict the medication would not be affected by the presidential order.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released the June jobs report [Data Here] showing 372,000 job gains on the establishment survey of businesses. However, the April and May reports were revised downward by 74,000 jobs, and there is an odd disconnect between the survey of businesses and the survey of households.
The survey of businesses (BLS establishment report) shows job gains of 372k for the month of June, but the survey of households (BLS household report) shows that fewer people are working. The labor-force participation rate slipped to 62.2% from a previous high of 62.4%, fewer people are working.
This odd disconnect has many people wondering what is going on?
Wage growth comes in at 5.1% on an annual basis, which is far below the current BLS calculated rate of inflation at 8.6%. Meaning wage growth is not keeping up with inflation despite workers entering the labor force at a higher entry level wage.
Economists overall are flummoxed as job gains would indicate a strong economy. However, the actual economic activity, the creation of goods and services, is not growing. Quite the opposite appears. Orders for factory goods have dropped, inventories of currently available goods are climbing, and sales figures across a broad spectrum of companies are negative. The economy as measured by the creation of goods and services is stalled, but the economy as a measure of employment is firm.
Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was a bulwark against communist expansion in Asia. Abe was a strong voice defending the independent rights of the people of Taiwan, and his assassination will have major reverberations around the world, specifically throughout southeast Asia.
No doubt Beijing is celebrating the assassination today, even while they retain their dragon grins behind the panda mask. Losing Shinzo Abe is a very big deal in Japan akin to the United States losing JFK decades ago.
Earlier today, delivering remarks on new state healthcare initiatives during a visit to Cape Coral [full presser here], Florida Governor Ron DeSantis delivered remarks on the killing of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. WATCH:
https://youtu.be/UtZkPMml4po
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was a transformative figure in Japanese politics. A devout nationalist with a humble demeanor, Abe shifted the national sentiment from post war apology toward an outlook of pride in Japanese culture, work ethic and traditional value. He was beloved by conservatives and patriots in Japan and disliked by leftists and globalists.
Perhaps the best example of Abe’s incredible personal and political influence was his visit to Pearl Harbor in December 2016. It was the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack. Although Japanese leaders had visited Pearl Harbor before, Prime Minister Abe was the first to visit the hallowed memorial resting atop the sunken USS Arizona. It was an amazing and moving moment in history.