Loretta Mester, the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, appears on CBS Face the Nation to discuss inflation, the economy and monetary policy.  Ms Mester is in a tough place, because she cannot admit the influence of federal monetary policy is far outmatched in the era where Joe Biden energy policy is limiting oil and gas development and creating massive inflation.

Mester does admit the supply chain crisis will extend well into 2023, but blows hopeful unicorn wishes by projecting that price inflation will temper by the end of this year.  From the perspective that 20 to 50% price increases on critical goods (housing, food, fuel, energy) are unsustainable in repeated cycles, she is correct; the rate of inflation will lower. However, that’s only because the baseline prices will have increased so high the rate of increase measure falls.  WATCH:

A $4 item that gains a $2 increase holds a 50% rate of inflation.  The next year that $6 item again has a $2 increase, but the rate of inflation drops to 33%.  The price increase is the same, but the rate of inflation drops.  That’s what is going to happen in the second half of this year.  FUBAR

The White House is doing this on purpose in order to chase their ideological dreams of sustainable energy and climate change.  Energy prices underline the entire economy, because oil and gas prices touch everything.  Insofar as they continue the war against coal, oil and gasoline, there’s nothing monetary policy can do to combat inflation.  The Fed must however, pretend not to know things.

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To get a better context for the catastrophic and dangerous war zone that is Ukraine, yesterday European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell Fontelles visited President Zelenskyy in Kyiv {link}.  The primary purpose of the meeting was to affirm the intent of the EU to accept Zelenskyy into the Union.

Earlier today, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also went into the war zone, toured the extreme chaos and battleground, and met with Zelenskyy (video below).

(Via MSM) – The UK is to send 120 armored vehicles and new anti-ship missile systems to Ukraine, Downing Street announced Saturday, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson paid an in-person visit to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Johnson and Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer made separate visits to Zelensky on Saturday, the latest in a string of leaders to travel to the country during the ongoing Russian invasion.

Johnson posted on Twitter that his visit to Kyiv was “a show of our unwavering support for the people of Ukraine” and announced a new package of financial and military aid.

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Apparently, Pennsylvania politics is all about getting the suburban mom vote, or so the professionals in polling say.   This endorsement seems puzzling, but perhaps the Pennsylvania Treepers can clear it up.  Prior story on PA political happenings here.

I don’t want to dump on anyone, but Dr. Oz being endorsed by President Trump seems out of sync with the base.  Ultimately, it’s up to Pennsylvania Republican voters, and maybe they like this guy as the most viable candidate.  Voter registration ends May 2nd, and the Pennsylvania primary is May 17th {link} [General election Nov 8].

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Neil Oliver takes a look at the economics of COVID and how government intervention and spending has crushed the working class.  However, it is not the financial aspects that carry the worst debt in the aftermath, there is a human cost that can never be repaid or recreated.  WATCH:

{TRANSCRIPT} –  “There are debts that can be repaid and debts that can’t. During the time of Covid, vast piles of money were conjured into being by the government, borrowed as if by magic from the distant future. Unimaginable quantities of that funny money were wasted – spent on PPE that didn’t work or that wasn’t needed and is now yet more plastic heaped into landfills or otherwise littering the landscape and seascape. Millions went on the Nightingale hospitals that were never used. Around 37 billion pounds – ten percent of a total of 370 billion pounds set aside for Bounce Back Loans and the Eat Out to Help Out scheme – were lost to fraudsters. £37 billion pounds.”

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This is not some grand conspiracy, ‘out there‘ deep geopolitical possibility, or foreboding likelihood as an outcome of short-sighted western emotion.  No, this is just a predictable outcome from western created events that pushed specific countries to a natural conclusion based on their best interests.

You can debate the motives of the western leaders who structured the sanctions against Russia, and whether they knew the outcome would happen as a consequence of their effort, but the outcome was never really in doubt.  Personally, I believe this outcome is what the west intended. The people inside the World Economic Forum are not stupid – ideological, yes, but not stupid. They knew this would happen.

The finance ministers of the BRICS alliance (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have decided to create their own financial mechanisms to continue trade between nations of similar disposition.  Once the internal issues inside the BRICS alliance are resolved, and once the mechanisms are created, then other nations will be able to decide to join or not.  The great global cleaving will commence.

(Reuters) – Russia, hit by Western sanctions, has called on the BRICS group of emerging economies to extend the use of national currencies and integrate payment systems, the finance ministry said on Saturday.

[…] On Friday, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told a ministerial meeting with BRICS, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, that the global economic situation had worsened substantially due to the sanctions, the ministry’s statement said.

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North Carolina Lt Governor Mark Robinson delivered a strong speech today at the President Trump MAGA Rally in Selma, NC. WATCH:

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Last weekend, it was the Hungarian election that surfaced as the first contest between globalism -vs- nationalism in the “post-COVID” era.  This weekend, it is the election in France that will indicate how the French people feel about similar issues of the totalitarian, fascist or corporate state, i.e. “globalism.”

There are a multitude of parties and coalitions in France represented by multiple candidates.  However, if no candidate wins 50% of the total vote tomorrow, only the top two candidates will advance to the second round national election on April 24th.  Those top two candidates are likely to be current French President Emmanuel Macron (globalist wing) and Marine Le Pen (nationalist wing).

Currently Macron holds around 25% and Le Pen around 23% (individually) for the first round, with multiple candidates holding smaller percentages of the remaining vote.  Therefore, it is almost certain that Macron and Le Pen will advance to a head-to-head matchup on April 24th.  That’s when things will really become important for the larger battle of globalism v nationalism.

The two candidates have faced off before, however, this time the pandemic response by Emmanuel Macron could likely tilt the election in favor of Le Pen.

SIDEBAR – I predict we will see Barack Obama enter the French presidential election again, as an influence agent, between Monday of next week and April 24th, just as he did the last time in order to try and convince the French people to stick with Macron.  Foreign interference in national elections (think Russia interfering in U.S. elections) is a horrible thing, a terrible threat to democracy, except when the U.S. globalists need it.

When the U.S. leftists, Democrats, need to influence the Canadian election, suddenly election interference is a good thing.  When the Democrats need to influence the Mexico election, no big deal. When the U.S. leftists need to influence the French election, or Egyptian election, or Israeli election, or U.K. election, no biggie, no biggie, no biggie.  Their hypocrisy is boundless when they know the media will let them pretend not to know things.  Watch for it, I’ll bet one donut the U.S. will pull out all the stops to support Macron. I digress…back to the point of current France.

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The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reported on Friday they are recording the highest Food Price Index since they started recording thirty years ago. With record highs in prices for cereals, vegetable oils, dairy and meats

This issue has been a slow burning fuse toward the biggest powder keg in modern history, and it is about to get very serious.  We have been warning about it since last fall {Go Deep}.  In the most deliberate and painstaking ways possible, we have been urging everyone to take this issue seriously.

The background cause is complex and started with the 2020 government response to the pandemic.  U.S. and international government intervention in the food supply process has been FUBAR from the beginning. Every action taken since early 2020 has been one bad policy after another; building failure upon failure, crisis upon crisis, bad decision upon bad decision, bringing us to a precipice summed up by saying “the absence of food will change things.”

Some will say the food prices we are about to experience –and the crisis it will create– was deliberate.  Others will say this was the cumulative outcome of major failures on the part of the government.  At this point the former makes more sense, and the latter looks like a justification and excuse, because if government entities were really serious about food prices and shortages, they would be taking pragmatic steps to mitigate the problem; they are not.

There are simple things government could do, such as helping farmers offset targeted fertilizer costs, providing relief for diesel fuel and energy costs, and taking other simple steps that would help the agricultural industry.

Instead of responding with the urgency this would demand, the collective government action has been to ignore the problem (talk soundbites), and give speeches about using subsidies to offset the end result (consumers) – without ever addressing the root cause.  All this while fueling conflict in Ukraine and chasing radical energy policies under the guise of global climate change.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) keeps track of food prices and projections using a global index [SEE HERE].  What they are calculating, and what they are projecting based on the current calculations, is a major increase in food prices combined with a major increase in food scarcity due to the unaffordability of food products.

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In Chapter 1, sub-section 1.4 of the 2022 Canadian budget, there is a rather remarkable new rule that bans foreign ownership and investment in housing for a period of two years.  [LINK HERE]

“To make sure that housing is owned by Canadians instead of foreign investors, Budget 2022 announces the government’s intention to propose restrictions that would prohibit foreign commercial enterprises and people who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents from acquiring non- recreational, residential property in Canada for a period of two years.”

Two points about this issue.  First, can you imagine the media outcry if a conservative prime minister would ever make such a proposal?  Quite a leftist change from the previous mantra “diversity is our strength”?

Second, considering the issue of foreign investment that creates housing, there is a likelihood this could backfire.  The new position of Canada will certainly put more upward pressure on the U.S. housing market.  Every action tends to have an equal and opposite reaction.  It will be interesting to follow this and see where it leads.

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While we have not followed the case as closely as some, the original framework of the federal case against men accused in the kidnapping plot of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer seemed seriously sketchy from the outset.  When it was revealed that twelve FBI operatives were involved in the plot {LINK}, well, it looked like a classic entrapment case.

Six total suspects were arrested of the group of 18 total plotters.  Twelve of the eighteen were feds.  Two men took a plea deal for lesser charges leaving four men to stand trial.

After four weeks of testimony, the jury was given the ability to consider an entrapment defense. Four days of deliberations have resulted in a not guilty verdict for two of the suspects and a hung jury on two more.

MICHIGAN – A federal jury didn’t find four men suspected of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer guilty Friday.  

Brandon Caserta, 34, of Canton, and Daniel Harris, 24, of Lake Orion, were found not guilty of conspiring to kidnap, a potential life offense.  The jury was hung on conspiracy charges against Barry Croft Jr., 46, of Bear, Delaware, Adam Fox, 38, of Wyoming. 

Harris and Caserta were additionally found not guilty on additional weapons charges and will be released from detention. […] The U.S. Attorney’s Office could retry Fox and Croft, who remain jailed, on their unresolved counts. (more)

Julie Kelly followed the case closely, and she posts the following article [SEE HERE]

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