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Another 370,000 Workers Quit in November, Total Quits Rate Now 4.5 Million

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the November job openings and turnover data today [DATA HERE] showing 370,000 workers quit their jobs in November bringing the quits rate now to 4.5 million people.

From the report, “Quits increased in several industries with the largest increases in accommodation and food services (+159,000); health care and social assistance (+52,000); and transportation, warehousing, and utilities (+33,000).”

Over the 12 months ending in November 2021, hires totaled 74.5 million and separations totaled 68.7 million, yielding a net employment gain of 5.9 million for 2021. However, while the unemployment rate drops with fewer people working, the employment picture overall appears to be tenuous.

The FRED personal savings rate for Americans overall [DATA HERE] has been dropping rapidly since March 2021, the last federal COVID employment bailout injection. All of the federal assistance has created massive data skews in the savings rate, as federal subsidies gave an artificial boost to the U.S. savings rate.

It appears that the aggregate American worker is now using their savings, created by COVID bailouts, to offset the massive inflation created by the COVID bailouts.  The net result is a workforce going into negative savings each month as inflation driven expenses (energy, fuel, food) are higher than earnings.  This is an unsustainable situation.

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Good News, Joe Biden Announced He Just Discovered Grocery Inflation Might Be a Problem

Comrades, the White House occupant announced today that someone told his wife’s sister about grocery store inflation.  The surprising incident happened when a guest made the comment while visiting over the holidays.

Apparently, there are these places, ‘grocery stores’ he thinks they might be called, where people go to get ingredients for cooking food and stuff.  Mr. Biden shared his surprise upon hearing about the issue.  In a rather remarkable result, Joe Biden now states his administration will begin to focus on what policies might help the types of people who have to go to these food store places.  WATCH

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Imagine what might happen if Biden finds out the temperature inside is made different from the temperature outside by something called electricity, oil or gas.

Wait…. nah, never mind…

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Sunday Talks, Is It Omicron Creating Societal Disruption via Staffing Shortages, or Are Companies Missing the Unvaccinated?

An interesting question surfaces as the vaccine mandate is enforced.  Is it the Omicron variant creating the labor shortages leading to “societal disruption,” or is it the absence of the unvaccinated workers who have been removed from many companies?

In this segment, Dana Bash asks the chief White House political scientist if the nation should prepare for major societal disruption under the guise of Omicron.   As we have previously noted, the absence of a small number of highly efficient and productive employees, the vital few, can have a major impact on business operations (Pareto’s principle).  Is that what we are really seeing, and they don’t want to admit it?

It does not seem coincidental the specific areas cited by Fauci, police, fire and first responders, are the exact jobs where the vaccination mandate was the most controversial.  Additionally, the percentages he cites are very similar to the unvaccinated percentage previously reported in those work groups.

A data driven Suspicious Cat remains, well, increasingly suspicious.

You decide…

Airline cancellations today, again exceeding 4,000 [FlightAware Link]

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Sunday Talks, Fauci Says CDC Quarantine Guidance Will Change Tomorrow After Feedback from Media, Not Science

Before getting to this soundbite, a note for those who travel the deep weeds.  Notice how whenever Fauci is answering questions on COVID subjects that are positive to his worldview, he uses the phrase “we“, including himself in the conduct of health officials.  However, whenever Fauci is answering questions that are critical of health officials, he uses the phrase “they“, to distance his role in the decision-making.  This is a key ¹*tell* in any conversation with leadership and/or teambuilders.

In this soundbite [full interview here and below], Anthony Fauci notes the CDC guidance on quarantine exit is likely to change, specifically because the feedback from media has been critical.  The media have been struggling to support the fear narrative, and the CDC changes are not helping them.  As a result, Fauci says the CDC quarantine guidance will change.  Not very science-y, huh?  WATCH: 

Fauci, along with Stephanopoulos, is a big fraud and a narcissistic con artist.  Notice in the full interview (below) Stephanopoulos asks if the media should stop focusing on infection rates now.  Transparently, the media motive is to stop the criticism of the Biden administration.

Going deeper on the introductory point:  Blame-casting is a profoundly negative leadership trait, with horrific consequences.  Stable executives, those with extraordinary skills at leading massive institutions, always look for this blame-casting trait when listening to peers, lower-level executives and teambuilders within the organization.

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Dystopian Scenes in Montreal, Quebec as 10pm COVID Curfew Is Reinstituted

Madness, just madness.  Montreal, Quebec has reinstituted a COVID curfew as the Canadian government promotes the fear of Omicron. [Prior Media Report Here] The concept of a curfew is not only arbitrary, but also abject nonsense.  Somehow the Rona is going to be worse at 10:15pm than it was at 9:55pm?

The scenes from the police patrolling the street, and instructing people over loudspeakers to go home, are dystopian and something you might see or hear in some fictional movie.  The commonsense of government is gone completely.  What did all of those people get double vaccinated and boosted for? WATCH:

https://youtu.be/zwpMZ9a7m38?t=5

MONTREAL – […] ” “I know we’re all tired, but it’s my responsibility to protect (Quebecers),” said Legault. “(Experts) agree that, in the coming weeks, there is a risk that the number of hospitalizations will exceed our capacity, which would eventually lead us to no longer being able to treat everyone,” said Premier Francois Legault. 

He made the announcement at a Thursday evening press conference, where he was joined by Health Minister Christian Dube and Public Health Director Dr. Horacio Arruda.  People who violate the curfew are subject to fines ranging from $1,000 to $6,000. (more)

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Biden Administration Claims of California Port Improvement Not Reflected in Port Operations for November, Fewer Containers Went Through Ports

You might remember on October 13, 2021, Joe Biden delivered widely carried remarks about specific actions his administration was taking to increase operations at the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) and the Port of Long Beach (POLB).

Here we take a closer look at the claims since the original announcement, and then highlight the actual results from the ports.  The port operations are actually doing worse today than they were in October. They are less efficient, less productive and have offloaded less freight in November than they did in October.  The factual results are exactly the opposite of the administration claims.

The October 13, 2021, White House fact sheet is HERE, “announcing a series of public and private commitments to move more goods faster, and strengthen the resiliency of our supply chains, by moving towards 24/7 operations at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.”  On November 17, 2021, the White House gave an update, “Recent Progress at Our Ports: Moving Cargo and Filling Shelves” and claiming the increased hours of operations were delivering on the White House expectations of increased productivity and offloading capacity.

Throughout these past 11 weeks, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg have been claiming their supply chain task force has been successful in generating exceptional results and removing the backlog at the ports, specifically the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.  However, if we look at the actual records from both ports, we find exactly the opposite:

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An Example of Field to Fork Inflation

Here’s a solid example of what “field to fork” inflation is all about.   Two images shared today point out how the farmland inflation originates, and how the farmland inflation surfaces in your life.

The first image (pictured right) is a current price reference point for crop fertilizer [Source] from the perspective of the farmer preparing.

To go into the deep weeds behind what is causing this massive jump in price, you can review THIS ARTICLE.

[…] “Compared to September 2020 prices, ammonia has increased over 210%, liquid nitrogen has increased over 159%, urea is up 155%, and MAP has increased 125%, while DAP is up over 100% and potash has risen above 134%.”

Those fertilizer component products are used for corn, wheat and soybeans crops.

[…] “Corn represents about 49% of the share of U.S. nutrient use, while wheat accounts for about 11% and soybeans account for 10%. Cumulatively, those three crops account for about 70% of U.S. fertilizer consumption.” {link}

Now, 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.

Worse yet, both grain and protein are the primary ingredients in pet foods; so pet food producers end up collecting even more price increases in their manufacturing. Have you noticed a shortage of pet food on your shopping trips?

When fertilizer goes up that high in price, the end cost of that harvest goes up in price, along with the end price of everything the harvest is used for.

So now we get to the point in the supply chain where these protein price increases show up to the average consumer.

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On Economic Consequences, No One Really Knows What Is About to Happen…

On economic matters, no one really knows what is about to happen, with one possible exception.  It is demonstrably certain inflation into 2022 will continue increasing.  Beyond that, after pumping $9+ trillion into the U.S. economic system under the guise of COVID relief, we are entering some very uncharted waters.

On a macro level, CTH has an idea what is likely to take place in the next three years; however, before getting to that, allow me to present evidence for the underlying supposition.   As you can see from this Biden message, shaped entirely by politics, on an economic basis the people around him have no idea what the downstream consequences of 2020 and 2021 will present in 2022:

The team behind Joe Biden brag about the U.S. economy being the only economy to continue growing during the COVID-19 pandemic period.  Their top line reference point is the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP.  Their brag is the U.S. GDP did not shrink during 2021 and the COVID pandemic.

However, what they omit (for political reasons) is that massive U.S. spending and bailouts covered the GDP hole.  More than $9 trillion was injected for stimulus payments, blue state bailouts, payroll protection programs, rent moratoriums, school subsidies, medical payments to hospitals, student loan payment pauses, vaccination purchases, covid sick pay and years of continually extended and enhanced unemployment benefits.

They also omit that none of this domestic spending would be possible if the global trade currency did not take place in dollars.  Our value is propped up by the fact that almost all trade takes place in U.S. currency.   If that system was not in place, congress could not spend this much money without collapsing the U.S. into a devaluation position resembling what happened previously in Greece.

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Here We Go, Kraft Heinz Tells Grocery Retailers Price Increases Beginning 2022 Will Be Up to 20 Percent

Hopefully everyone has done their preparatory diligence and are well situated to assist their family, because prices on fast turn consumable goods (groceries) are now less than 30 days from entering exponential increase phase.  CTH has been counting down the days to impact as the contract terms of 30, 60 and 90 days have begun expiring.

The Wall Street Journal has seen the first pricing notification memo from Kraft-Heinz food group to the buying offices of major U.S. retailers.  Here’s how the WSJ presents it: “Kraft Heinz Co. told retailer customers that it would raise prices across many of its products including Jell-O pudding and Grey Poupon mustard, with some items going up as much as 20%, according to a memo viewed by The Wall Street Journal.”  VIDEO:

Keep in mind a few points:

(1) The outlined price increases noted are against current price terms and contracts.  Meaning, these are price increases from right now to the next fulfillment.  These are not inflation price increases which are compared to a year ago.  These are 5% to 20% increases from the current price right now.

(2) The price increases are not the final price increase.  This is the price of a contract today from the field to the distribution center.  The retailer also has additional price increases (transportation, energy, labor, etc) which they need to add to the wholesale price before you see the final price at retail (grocery store).

The final field to fork price is not yet known but will be higher than noted above.  We are only seeing the notifications from field, through processing and into warehousing and distribution.

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Mainstream Media Attempt to Claim CDC Guidance Change Is an Effort to Reduce Risk of Transmission, Despite Fauci Admissions the Quarantine Changes Are All About Economics

The CDC changed guidance on quarantine times yesterday, highlighting their motive as always driven by politics and money, not public health {Go Deep}.  Many people immediately recognized this, but the visible intent of the change is problematic for the government institutions.

To defend the administrative state, the media -incapable of admitting what is transparently obvious- now need to reconcile the CDC quarantine changes through the false prism of public health.

The result is 100 percent demonstrable gaslighting.  Look at this spin:

(Philly Inquirer) – “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidelines this week for what people should do if they’re exposed to or contract COVID-19, following new research that shows most transmission occurs early in the course of illness.

The update comes as people return home from holiday gatherings with friends and family, and schools prepare to reopen — as the highly contagious omicron strain continues to spread. The new guidelines, which reduce the amount of time asymptomatic people must quarantine at home after exposure, are an attempt to reduce the risk of transmission while minimizing the disruption to people’s daily routines.” (read more)

Everything about that claimed justification for the quarantine changes is demonstrably and provably false.

Last night Dr. Anthony Fauci openly admitted the only reason the CDC changed the quarantine times was because they needed to help corporate employers reduce sick time, or time “out” of work.  Twitter Video:

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