I have stated for the past year ‘the absence of food will change things‘.   The inflation and food affordability crisis has now surfaced in Sri Lanka. Global media is paying attention, even sending out warnings about what this might represent for other nations.

Sri Lanka has a debt to GDP ratio of 120%, approximately the same as the United States.  However, Sri Lanka does not have the benefit of their currency being supported as the global trade currency; therefore, the debt and domestic inflation rate are directly tied together.

The rate of food inflation in March has exceeded 30%…. the absence of the public being able to afford food has now surfaced and the government is collapsing.  Read the news from Sri Lanka through the prism of what could happen in U.S. cities if we lose the dollar as the global trade currency.

(Via Reuters) – Reuters Breakingviews) – Sri Lanka’s collapse is front of mind for many. Protesters fed up with crippling shortages of essential food and fuel items are on the streets, prompting multiple members of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s cabinet to offer to resign late on Sunday.

Social unrest will probably accelerate a restructuring of some $44 billion of international sovereign debt. Though Sri Lanka’s problems follow years of mismanagement, its speedy unravelling is a warning to sturdier economies from Europe to Asia suddenly grappling with a spike in the cost of living.

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The inflationary impact to any specific country is directly proportionate to the scale of the government intervention in the COVID lockdown spend.  Almost all of the nations who deployed the WEF program are in the same inflationary position.

The U.S., U.K., New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the EU, within which Germany is the largest economy, all followed the WEF spending instructions.

(Germany) – According to the German Retail Association (HDE), consumers should prepare for another wave of price hikes for everyday goods and groceries.

Even before the outbreak of war in Ukraine, prices had risen by about five per cent “across the product range” as a result of increased energy prices, HDE President Josef Sanktjohanser told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung on Friday.

With Russia’s invasion hitting economies and the supply chain harder, yet another series of price increases is on the horizon. “The second wave of price increases is coming, and it will certainly be in double figures,” Sanktjohanser warned. (read more)

Every time the supermarket checkout rings, a yellow vested rebel is created.

The Washington Post, aka the U.S. intelligence community, is lamenting the likelihood that Hungarian nationalist Viktor Orban is likely to win reelection tomorrow despite the efforts of the multinational corporations and globalists in western politics trying to defeat him.

According to the public relations stenographers for the U.S. intelligence community, Orban retains a great deal of support from the working class in Hungary, despite the influence campaign the western alliance has been waging to support his political opposition.  The framework from the Washington Post indicates just how tentacled the U.S. government is in meddling in the affairs of our allies.

According to the CIA publication: “He has angered his neighbors and triggered harsh blowback from Ukrainian leaders for what they see as a wishy-washy reaction to the war. Yet by portraying himself domestically as a steady hand navigating between larger world powers, he has gained ground on the political opposition in Hungary and increased his odds of winning a fourth consecutive term as prime minister in a parliamentary election Sunday.”

The WaPo notes the job of the global intelligence community and the western manipulators within the NATO alliance become more complicated with Orban likely to continue advocating for the best interests of his country.  This makes it more challenging for “the European Union, which is trying to maintain a hard line against Moscow — from all 27 members of the bloc — while also pressing Hungary on rule-of-law issues and democratic backsliding.”  Orban, an economic nationalist, represents another roadblock in the western effort to create new “democratic norms” through a one world order model of government.

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My apologies in getting late to this but the BLS has completely revamped the way they calculate employment and all of the familiar data tables are revised. So, it takes a little longer to get to cut through the clutter and get to the data that matters.

Overall, the BLS report [DATA Here] shows 431,000 jobs regained in March from the government closures during the pandemic.

Despite the job regain number being less than expected, it’s not bad at all.

As expected, leisure and hospitality jobs [Table B-1] showed the strongest rebound with 112,000 jobs. With 25,000 job gains in hotels and 61,000 in food services (restaurants).  A little more than 2 million jobs have been regained in the last year from the COVID-19 lockdowns in this sector.

There are a few troubling indicators like a decrease in residential building jobs (-2,600), and a surprising decrease of 6,000 jobs in trucking and transportation.  Retail overall gained 49,000 jobs with most of them in the food and beverage sales sector.  However, retail furniture stores lost 1,600, electronics stores lost 1,300 and garden supply stores lost 1,900.

The retail job pattern would seem to indicate consumer spending being squeezed and priorities on spending leading to job losses in non-priority retail shops.  Boosting the disposable income concern, is a statistically significant loss of 5,000 jobs in the retail beauty and personal care stores.

On the upside, business and professional service jobs in March had a nice lift with 102,000 jobs added.

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Apparently, this question was asked by Jacqui Heinrich (Fox News) at the tail and of the White House presser.  The question is the first time this year that a stenographer for the regime has accurately put correct context on the inflation talking points from the White House.

As each datapoint from the economy has been reported, the White House has blamed Russia and Vladimir Putin for the bad economic data.  However, as Heinrich accurately states, none of the resulting impact from the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been quantified in the data.  That post Russian invasion data begins in March, will not surface until reports later this month.  WATCH:

Good question. Finally.

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Hopefully this does not come as a surprise to readers here; however, according to analysis by industry insiders, Chicken prices are likely to increase by 70% this year once the full price increases in grain, used as feed, start to take hold.  Overall, we will likely see a leveling off in beef prices, but pork (due to soybeans) and chicken (due to grain) will increase significantly.

The issue is one we noted in December of last year when identifying the downstream consequences of fertilizer and component products used for the production of corn, wheat and soybeans crops. “You might say those crops do not seem like they are that important.  However, keep in mind that Corn, Wheat and Soybeans represent the baseline for not only grain production in the U.S, but they are also the primary feed products for proteins: chicken, pork and beef.” {Go Deep}

(Fox Business) – Evercore ISI issued a protein inflation note this week projecting that most protein prices are forecasted to increase “substantially” due to the higher feed costs, with chicken breast reaching as high as 70% year-over-year in the first half of 2022.  The analysis said pork and ground beef could climb as high as 20% year-over-year during the same period. (more)

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Comrade rebels, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Deputy Managing Director says the sanctions against Russia are likely to undermine the US dollar’s global dominance as a trade currency.

As we have outlined, this is ultimately the counter strategic goal of Russia and Putin’s economic allies.  It’s a feature, not a flaw, in the process that Joe Biden has triggered.

(Inside Paper) – […] “The dollar would remain the major global currency even in that landscape, but fragmentation at a smaller level is certainly quite possible,” Gopinath said in an interview with the Financial Times.  She went on to say that some countries have already begun to renegotiate the currency in which they are paid for trade.

According to Gopinath, the drastic restrictions imposed by Western countries in response to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine may result in the formation of small currency blocs based on trade between individual groups of countries.  Furthermore, the use of currencies other than the dollar or the euro in global trade would result in a further diversification of central banks’ reserve assets. (read more)

This outcome, in combination with the realization the western alliance will also necessarily lose leverage for their climate change goals, is ultimately what triggered the G7 energy ministers to demand that Russia continue using euros and dollars.

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In an effort to take advantage of the energy crisis they have created, the entirety of the Democrat political apparatus is singing in unison.  WATCH these three soundbites from today (30 seconds each):

Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said we can’t let higher gas prices be an “excuse” to produce more American energy…

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The White House occupant took to the literal stage today to gaslight the American people and state it is not his energy policy that has created massive increases in gas prices.  Instead, chief of staff Ron Klain has convinced the puppet to claim Vladimir Putin is to blame for the increase in oil costs.

The manipulative effort to distract the nation from his energy and economic policy outcomes is brazen. However, like most things recently, the blame-casting is likely to be believed by approximately 25% of Americans.

In an attempt to slow down the rising price of gasoline, the puppet on the stage-set near the white house, announced a plan to release 1 million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve every day for the next six months. {Details}

As admitted, the goal is to “bridge the gap.” Unfortunately, most will not recognize exactly what the destination is on the other side of the bridge.

Inflation is a measure of price at a moment in time relative to the same time one year ago.  Ron Klain is trying to keep the tar and feathers away until the White House policy team can cycle through the inflation comparison to the fall of 2022. That’s when the comparison flips to comparing prices to the fall of 2021.

Prices skyrocketed in the last half of 2021. If Ron Klain can keep the electoral torches from reaching the White House until the fall of 2022, the rate of inflation will look better because they will be comparing this year’s high prices to last year’s high prices. The rate of change will lessen; the rate of inflation will look better.  Unfortunately, the high prices will remain – forever.

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As workers and middle class Americans continue to be squeezed by Joe Biden inflation, the inability of wages to cover housing costs continues to create a burden in the housing market.

Investment groups are purchasing hard asset real estate, which continues to keep upward pressure on home values. However, ordinary Americans are no longer able to afford upgrade or starter home purchases.

Potential homeowners are forced to continue renting as prices for everything including food, gasoline and energy costs skyrocket.   Scraping by is JoeBamanomics in action.

(CNBC) – In a grim sign for the housing market’s busiest season, pending home sales, which measure signed contracts on existing homes, fell 4.1% in February compared with January, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Sales were down 5.4% compared with February 2021. Analysts were expecting a slight gain. This is the fourth straight month of declines in pending sales, which are an indicator of future closings, one to two months out.

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