Imports are plummeting… should be a good thing… trade imbalance shrinks…. that lifts GDP calculations…. but the problem is…

…. Consumer Demand Has Collapsed.

The state of the U.S. economy is not as difficult as the ‘experts’ always claim.  Simple business and checkbook economics always, always, tell you the future. You just have to be willing to accept things as they are, not as you would wish them to be.  Let’s have an honest chat. We need it.

Remember, it was November 2021, and no one was paying attention but retail hiring was negative.  The month before the 2021 Christmas holiday, when historically businesses would be adding people to their payrolls to support the increase in shopping, and retail businesses did no hiring. In fact, 20,000 retail jobs were LOST the month before Christmas.  Retail sales had plummeted. That was a major flare, no one paid attention. Everyone was distracted with the Supply Chain crisis.

Then the fourth quarter 2021 GDP result came in at 6.9%, massively higher than the visible reality on Main Street.  The reasoning was identified as a major increase in the value of inventories. While the Biden administration liked the GDP figure, the existence of the unsold inventory was another major flare.  Add unsold inventory units to the massive inflationary value of those units (+8%) and you quickly see the +6.9% was bad news, not good news.  Major increases in the value of goods have no value unless people are purchasing them.  It wasn’t happening.  Again, no one (except us) was paying attention.

Then the first quarter of 2022 GDP result came back with a negative 1.6% result.  With high inflation those inventories were stagnant.  The eight-percentage point GDP swing from the fourth quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2022 was another warning flare.  Again, no one was truly paying attention.  Retail sales -as measured in units purchased- had been in a contracting position since June of 2021, when the stimulus ran out.  However, skyrocketing inflation was hiding lower unit sales.

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According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) global economic activity, as measured by economic outputs, contracted in the second quarter.  However, when it comes to identifying the cause of the issue, the IMF joins western financial leaders and central banks in playing the game of pretending.

The radical new energy program contained within the Build Back Better agenda, is the root cause of the supply side inflation.  The drop in the production of oil, gas and coal in the same western nations that are following the BBB agenda is origin of the massive spike in energy prices.

Inflation is a major issue, geographically consistent and virtually identical in all the nations who are following the Build Back Better climate change agenda, which is the justification for the energy ‘transition.”  However, not a single leader, central bank or multinational financial institution -including the IMF- will admit the energy policy is the cause of the issue.

(IMF) – The world’s three largest economies are stalling, with important consequences for the global outlook. Inflation is a major concern.

The global economy, still reeling from the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is facing an increasingly gloomy and uncertain outlook. Many of the downside risks flagged in our April World Economic Outlook have begun to materialize.

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Do they want a civil war?  It might sound good around the DC cocktail party circuit, whipped into a frenzy by the Lawfare crowd, but the outcome would not be in their interests.

Given the severity of manipulative politics and DC based media in the past several years, I would not take the Washington Post article at face value.

WaPo represents the interests of the Intelligence Community side of the deep state apparatus.

Everything the WaPo creatures write is part of an advanced and coordinated DC engineering effort that has multiple motives; the face value of the one they present is never the real agenda.

We all know why they want Donald Trump removed as a threat to their echo-chambered system of corruption and governmental graft.  The entire DC system, including the Stasi DOJ and FBI state police, is based on financial influence, power, greed and corrupt sales of offices.  Donald Trump always represented a disruption to their scheming and conniving systems.  That motivating truth has never changed.

According to the Washington Post, the DOJ is now putting witnesses in front of a grand jury to solicit evidence to support a “seditious conspiracy” charge against President Trump for attempting to overthrow the United States government and Joe Biden.

WaPo – […] There are two principal tracks of the investigation that could ultimately lead to additional scrutiny of Trump, two people familiar with the situation said, also speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

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A key metric in the data released by Wal Mart is not their upfront sales and profit. The recessionary KPI (key performance indicator) is a significant increase in same store sales of 6% (excluding fuel), yet the outcome of that increase in customers is a decrease in profit because the purchases are food.

[Keep an eye on this and we will likely see a similar increase in foot traffic at Aldis]

(VIA NBC) […] Walmart, which is the biggest grocer in the U.S. and often considered a bellwether for the overall economy, said more customers are turning to its stores, which are known for low prices, to fill their pantries and fridges. But they are skipping over general merchandise that they can live without.

Walmart said it now expects same-store sales in the U.S. to rise by about 6% in the second quarter, excluding fuel, as customers buy more food at its stores. That’s higher than the 4% to 5% increase that the company previously expected.  However, that merchandise mix will weigh on the company. Groceries have lower profit margins than discretionary items, such as TVs and clothing.

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Yesterday, Senator Chuck Grassley sent a letter [pdf HERE] to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray, notifying them of whistleblower allegations from within the FBI that senior leadership in both Main Justice and FBI are involved in a coordinated effort to cover-up criminal activity related to Hunter Biden.

The whistleblower allegations, in combination with the documented history of DOJ and FBI misconduct, culminate in Senator Grassley stating:

“If these allegations are true and accurate, the Justice Department and FBI are – and have been – institutionally corrupted to their very core to the point in which the United States Congress and the American people will have no confidence in the equal application of the law. Attorney General Garland and Director Wray, simply put, based on the allegations that I’ve received from numerous whistleblowers, you have systemic and existential problems within your agencies.” (LINK)

Unfortunately, what this amounts to, is Senator Grassley is telling Chris Wray and Merrick Garland, the leaders of the institutionally corrupt activity, that they are systemically corrupt. Which is akin to telling a criminal that he is engaged in unlawful conduct.

Our friend Techno Fog breaks down the outlined allegations succinctly HERE.  Absolutely none of the information contained in the allegations is surprising or new to anyone who has followed the details of Main Justice and FBI activity through the past several years.  What Grassley outlines is simply evidence, supportive evidence, of what has been transparently obvious to those who have reviewed the DOJ and FBI conduct.

The U.S. Dept of Justice and FBI are now political institutions that have abandoned their originating mission in order to become the domestic equivalent of the Soviet-era FSB. Their joint targeting mechanisms have been redesigned to support the interests of corrupt DC politicians, specifically the interests of democrats.  Grassley is admitting what has been visible for years.

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The non-democratic, socialist and totalitarian Ukraine government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has created a blacklist of western voices that are considered “Russian propagandists” for their criticism of the Ukraine-Russia conflict. [Details Here]

The overwhelming commonality of the people on the list is their advocacy for citizens of nations who are providing support for Ukraine to have a democratic voice on the issue. The Zelenskyy government has stated it will not permit any criticism of their country and demands that all western nations continue to send billions of dollars to provide an appropriate lifestyle for all Ukrainian government officials.

Currently the burden of financing the continuation of the Ukraine government has fallen upon U.S. taxpayers who have provided approximately $60 billion so far for the pay and pension benefits of Ukraine officials and their families. President Zelenskyy says we have a moral obligation to continue this funding, and any voice who would question the process is now blacklisted within Ukraine and labeled a Russian propagandist.

Tucker Carlson discussed the issue with two of the people targeted by Zelenskyy, former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and journalist Glenn Greenwald. WATCH:

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Senator Elizabeth “Fauxcahontus” Warren writes an op ed today [SEE HERE] that is fraught with a level of ideological pretending almost off the charts.

Essentially Liawatha is big mad because Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is raising interest rates into a contracting economy.

The duplicitous senator accurately notes what the fed chairman is doing is only going to deepen the recession and hurt main street worse.

American workers are going to suffer, and the middle-class is going to bear the majority of the pain inflicted by the Biden administration policy.

All of that is true, but Fauxcahontus is not stupid.  Instead, she attempts to distance herself with forked tongue while knowing the monetary policy is specifically designed to support the energy policy she demands.

A recession lowers energy use, and as a result lowers energy costs. Pushing the U.S. economy deeper into a recession in order to support the Green New Deal “economic transition” is exactly the intent of the rate hikes.  Liawatha knows this but does not want to be stuck on the USS Biden when it sinks.

“Rising costs are an urgent problem, and interest rates play a key role in maintaining price stability. But urgency is no excuse for doubling down on a dangerous treatment. As with any illness, the right medicine starts with the right diagnosis. Unfortunately, the Fed has seized on aggressive rate hikes—a big dose of the only medicine at its disposal—even though they are largely ineffective against many of the underlying causes of this inflationary spike.” (read more)

Senator Elizabeth Warren is the worst kind of liar.  She is a liar that convinces her followers of her virtue through forked tongue.  Turn over the Senator Elizabeth Warren UniParty medallion and on the opposite side you will find the image of Senator Ted Cruz.

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The professionally republican party members, led by Ronna McDaniel Inc, are not happy with the grassroots MAGA voters who are not filling their party campaign coffers at the anticipated rate.

If the donors of the grassroot MAGA base continue to withhold financial contributions, mostly due to a lack of club alignment with the priorities of the voting base and the right wing of the DC UniParty refusing to act for our interests, the professional republican club business may suffer.  The tenured board members of the club are not happy. Not happy at all.  [Washington Examiner Article]

Keep in mind, the only two times in the modern Republican club era when grassroots funds exceeded the corporate Wall Street donor class, was in 2010 with the rise of the Tea Party and then again in 2016 with MAGA and Donald Trump.

Small dollar donations (under $250) within the GOPe club were never a part of the established republican club priority, until they saw what can happen when the grassroots mobilize.  It was the scale of donations from the Tea Party base (monster vote) and MAGA base (monster vote) that stunned former RNC Chairman Reince Priebus in 2016. Mr. Priebus temporarily convinced the GOPe Club owners (board members) to tamp down their open hostility and verbal disparagement against the base.

The professionally republican club members, including Ronna McDaniel Inc, despise the vulgarian deplorables with a condescending intensity that drips from their pursed lips as they sip white wine spritzers from their crystal goblets at cocktail parties. It’s a similar dynamic of hatred on the DNC club side of politics toward the Bernie Sanders vulgarians; although Obama Inc (Plouffe, Axelrod, et al) taught the Pelosi crew to hide it better.

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No credit to the CNN team for calling out the obvious; I mean, this is the same panel who redefined “insurrection” to fit their needs; however, the Biden administration’s efforts to redefine economics are so pathetic even the narrative engineers at CNN cannot support them.  WATCH:

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The White House is expending a tremendous amount of communication effort over the past 48 hours trying to convince the American public that the economy is good, and we are not in a recession.

Yesterday it was Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Today National Economic Council Chairman Brian Deese, White House Economist Jared Bernstein and even Joe Biden himself, all declaring that despite the economic contraction you may feel, see and even quantify, we are not in a recession.  WATCH:

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The action of the recession deniers reminds me of the famous Ralph Waldo Emmerson quote:

“The louder he spoke of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.”

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