There’s a disconnect in the Main Street data that is perplexing from the standpoint of traditional economic and labor analysis.

There have been significant layoffs in the labor market as the result of diminished consumer spending activity. However, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) is reporting a hotter than expected 263,000 new jobs in November [DATA HERE].

There were declines in jobs within the retail sector [-30,000 in Nov, -62,000 since August] and declines in warehousing and transportation [-15, 000 in November, -30,000 since July], which would indicate the outcome of lowered consumer spending on goods, or at least a change in consumer spending priorities.

Simultaneously, there were significant increases in jobs for leisure and hospitality [+88,000 in Nov], with the majority of those gains in food service and drinking.  However, that sector is still lower than the pre-pandemic by -980,000 jobs.  Also note people are not attending events with high ticket costs, the performing arts and spectator sports segment dropped 7,000 jobs [Table B-1]

Overall, if you were to look at the macro level jobs report, anything attached to the traditional spending of durable goods (retail stores) is declining.  However, the jobs related to the service or life experience are growing.  Oddly, and perhaps creepily, this dynamic falls in line with the ‘you will own nothing and be happy‘ cliche’ that has been oft spoken about the new post pandemic ‘Build Back Better‘ economy as espoused by the World Economic Forum.

Job gains in the infrastructure of life such as, building and construction, as well as the labor sector associated with skilled domestic service trades like plumbing, electricians, maintenance, etc are continuing to hold stable.  The major shift in the labor market surrounds the buying of durable goods which has disappeared along with the disappearance of discretionary income.   Which brings us to the wage portion of the BLS report.

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West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore lead the way earlier this year in removing Wall Street financial firms from holding state funds due to ‘Environmental, Social and Governance’ or ‘ESG’ climate change ideology driving investment decisions.

West Virginia had been the tip of the spear since early 2021 {link} removing Blackrock in January of 2022, and even removed banking contracts from multiple investment firms during the battle and asked other states to join in the effort {link}.

Today, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced the DeSantis administration would be following the lead from West Virginia.

[FLORIDA] – […] State Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced Thursday that Florida will immediately freeze about $1.43 billion in long-term securities and about $600 million in short-term overnight investments managed by BlackRock because of the firm’s use of “Environmental, Social, and Governance” standards — known as ESG.

Patronis in a prepared statement said he doesn’t “trust BlackRock’s ability to deliver” and “BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is on a campaign to change the world.”

“Whether stakeholder capitalism, or ESG standards, are being pushed by BlackRock for ideological reasons, or to develop social credit ratings, the effect is to avoid dealing with the messiness of democracy,” Patronis said.

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All 12 railroad unions vote individually to ratify their contracts, unless congress intervenes and imposes a contract which forces all to abide.  The railroad unions representing a majority of the railroad workers remain in dispute with the currently proposed contract with no resolution in sight and a potential labor union strike looming on December 9th.

If one union within the collective group strikes, all of the unions — which represent more than 115,000 rail workers — would almost certainly join in solidarity, triggering an industry-wide freight rail work stoppage.

With the unions at an impasse over sick pay, Joe Biden has asked congress to intervene and impose a contract based on the terms of an earlier agreement.

(White House) –  I am calling on Congress to pass legislation immediately to adopt the Tentative Agreement between railroad workers and operators – without any modifications or delay – to avert a potentially crippling national rail shutdown.
 
This agreement was approved by labor and management negotiators in September. On the day that it was announced, labor leaders, business leaders, and elected officials all hailed it as a fair resolution of the dispute between the hard-working men and women of the rail freight unions and the companies in that industry.
 
The deal provides a historic 24% pay raise for rail workers. It provides improved health care benefits. And it provides the ability of operating craft workers to take unscheduled leave for medical needs.  Since that time, the majority of the unions in the industry have voted to approve the deal.

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In the 2024 GOPe roadmap for 2024, analytically and strategically South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem would be anticipated as the second-to-last entrant, followed by a carefully introduced Governor Ron DeSantis.

The most likely establishment framework would be for the prior entrants, Nikki Haley, Liz Cheney, Tim Scott and the two Mikes  Pence/Pompeo to do the maximum negative attack damage against President Trump prior to the dynamic duo arrival.  Flow through the ’24 primaries and Trump, DeSantis and Noem would be the last three standing before the wunderkinds team up after Nevada for the final assault.  Standing where we are today, something like that seems most likely. It tracks.

With that in mind, and reminding ourselves that Noem has already pre-seeded with the customary and proverbial book launch, it is worthwhile paying close attention to how Team Koch and Kristi Noem organize their staging.  In this interview, which reflects her very good and pragmatic position as a sponge for base voters, Mrs. Noem outlines her current views on the state of all things political, and, similar to Team DeSantis, stays high-road and reserves her jabs for Biden.

However, perhaps the most interesting aspect to the pragmatic position is Noem’s willingness to politely distance herself from the RNC mainstream by saying it’s time for new leadership at the chair.  At 06:35 of the interview segment below, Noem does a good job of strategically and diplomatically calling for Ronna McDaniel to be replaced. WATCH:

Sharp, very sharp.  Governor Noem is formidable, dare I say strategic, and Wall Street stealthy in her pragmatism.  She knows where the third rail of anti-MAGA is located and has a solid skillset around how to avoid it. When she enters, she will scoop up Haley’s fractured team – hence a later entry should be predicted.

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“Crowds? I see nothing. I’m surprised,” retail worker Jeremy Pritchett told FOX 2. “Normally, it’s wrapped all the way around the building. Today: no one.”

That’s the typical ground report from areas all over the country.  No one, literally almost no one, is doing any holiday shopping and the traditional Black Friday rush to get deals and discounts just didn’t happen.  Financial media are scratching their puzzlers, perplexed with furrowed brows.

Interestingly, almost every financial media outlet is using the same Retail Federation talking point about anticipating an 8% increase in holiday sales this year.  Apparently, pretenses must be maintained.  Meanwhile, news crews and camera crews are having a desperate time finding any holiday shopping to use as background footage for the claims that sales are strong.

“Look, over there. There’s a person buying something. Oh, wait, no, that’s just an employee dusting the empty cash register.”  At a certain point, one would have to believe reality would run head-first into the mass delusional pretending.  Maybe this holiday season will be it, maybe not.

Reuters – […] About 166 million people were planning to shop from Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday through this coming “Cyber Monday,” according to the National Retail Federation, almost 8 million more than last year. But with sporadic rain in some parts of the country, stores were less busy than usual on Black Friday.

“Usually at this time of the year you struggle to find parking. This year, I haven’t had an issue getting a parking spot,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry adviser of the NPD Group Inc.

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Jumpin’ ju-ju bones, Neil Oliver is going to that place publicly and loudly, that many of us have contemplated and discussed quietly with hushed tones and knowing nods.

What Oliver outlines in this monologue does not need much discussion amid the audience awaiting its arrival.  After all, he is basically discussing the logical consequence to the current state of political affairs not only in the U.K but also in the United States.  However, that said, it is rather remarkable in the era of government sponsored fear of rebellion, complete with labels of domestic extremism attached, to see Oliver’s voice bravely citing the outcome.

With 87,000 new IRS agents authorized by the regime quietly assembling for their assault, as Oliver notes, “there is nothing to fear if we have each other” and are willing to stand the gap as an ally for our fellow man.  What Oliver is saying is profound, true and could – in the most significant of ways, lead to a new beginning.  Yes, it is talk of a united rebellion, and that’s exactly what we need.  WATCH: 

[Transcript] – People write to me every day to tell me they fear the future. People from all over the world, all ages, all walks of life. I say this: we should not be afraid. If anyone should be afraid it is our government, the whole of parliament, the State and the Establishment. They should be afraid because they are in the wrong – doing wrong things and behaving unforgivably.

You can tell they are afraid by the way they keep doing more and more, faster and faster, to make the people poor, cold and hungry – also demoralised, anxious and fearful about the present, never mind the future. The fear felt by people around the world is the deliberate consequence of the actions of so-called leaders all across the West and beyond.

I say again, we should not be afraid. Those plotting and working against us, against our interests both as individuals and as sovereign states, have no power and no money other than that which we, the people grant them. They are supposed to use that power and money to protect us, to keep us free and to provide opportunities for those hard working, free people to make happy and successful lives for themselves. Instead, they are working night and day to have us welcome a state of being that is nothing less than digital enslavement.

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The true cause of inflation, and yes that includes ‘global inflation ‘, is the collective western economic jump into climate change energy policy known as “build back better.”  Stopping the use of oil, gas and coal as the source for cheap energy, has resulted in every element of the inflation now outlined.

As an outcome of their ideology, the central banks of the western economies began desperately to lower economic activity to reduce energy consumption.  The goal was/is to lower human economic activity to the point where windmills and solar farms can sustain it.  Everything else is pretending.  Tucker Carlson finally points this out. WATCH:

Coming out of the pandemic, western oil, coal and gas energy development was blocked.  Immediately energy prices skyrocketed, driving up the costs of everything.  Using the justification of “too much demand” the central banks (including the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank) are raising interest rates to lower the need for energy.

Western political leaders are pretending this is not a collective intention.  However, their prior promotion of the Build Back Better agenda belies their current protestations.

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We have been closely monitoring the signs of a global cleaving around the energy sector taking place.  Essentially, western governments’ following the “Build Back Better” climate change agenda which stops using coal, oil and gas to power their economic engine, while the rest of the growing economic world continues using the more efficient and traditional forms of energy to power their economies.

Within the BBB western group (identified on map in yellow), the logical consequences are increased living costs for those who live in the BBB zone, and increased prices for goods manufactured in the BBB zone.  In the zone where traditional low-cost energy resources continue to be developed (grey on map), we would expect to see a lower cost of living and lower costs to create goods.   Two divergent economic zones based on two different energy systems.

This potential outcome just seemed to track with the logical conclusion.  The yellow zone also represented by the World Economic Forum, and the gray zone also represented by an expanding BRICS alliance.  Against this predictable backdrop we have been watching various events unfold, some obvious and some less so.

Today, we get an obvious example:

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There is a significant lag in all data within the housing market.  That said, the third quarter (July, Aug, Sept) data reflects a significant drop in institutional investment within the housing market.

If you look closely at the timing (keep in mind the data reporting lag) what you will notice is that financial institutions began a big surge in purchasing hard assets, specifically real estate, as soon as Joe Biden took office (Jan ’21), and the economic policy became evident.   Intangible financial instruments became an immediate risk as the professional financial control groups recognized energy policy would drive inflation (supply side) and devalued money would fuel it (demand side).

As an offset to predictable inflationary policy (the insiders’ game), institutional money (Blackrock, Vanguard etc) was moved into hard assets with tangible value.  This shift in asset allocation, institutional sales, helped fuel a false surge in home prices and their valuations.  CTH was writing about this in 2021, and sounding alarms as it took place.  25% of all real estate purchases were being made by institutional investors.

The dynamic was predictable.  The Biden administration economic policy, energy policy and monetary policy, was going to cause massive inflation.  CTH was shouting about it in early 2021 and warning everyone to prepare for waves of price increases that would naturally surface first on high-turn consumable goods, and then embed into longer-term durable goods.

Despite claims to the contrary, this 2021 inflationary explosion had nothing to do with the pandemic or supply chain shortages.  It is entirely self-created by western governmental policy; the collective ‘Build Back Better’ agenda.  You can see now from the background moves within the financial sectors, they too knew the reality and their money shifts reflected that despite their ‘transitory’ pretending they were mitigating their own exposure.

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This is terrible news for many blue-collar families in Mississippi and North Carolina.  Last night, United Furniture, makers of Lane brand, fired all of their manufacturing employees and transportation workers effective immediately.

Fortunately, other manufacturers are quickly messaging the displaced workers with job offers {link}, but the overall message from the collapsed company is alarming.

Read the email letter from today that accompanied the late-night notification:

(Via Furniture Today) – “At the instruction of the Board of Directors of United Furniture Industries, Inc., and all subsidiaries (the “Company”), we regret to inform you that due to unforeseen business circumstances the Company has been forced to make the difficult decision to terminate the employment of all its employees, effective immediately, on November 21, 2022, with the exception of over-the-road drivers that are out on delivery. Your layoff from the Company is expected to be permanent and all benefits will be terminated immediately without provision of COBRA.

Over-the-road drivers that are out on delivery will be paid for the balance of the week. Whether or not you have completed your delivery, please immediately return equipment, inventory, and delivery documents for those deliveries that have been completed to one of the following locations: Winston-Salem, N.C., Verona, Miss., or Victorville, Calif. location. To be clear, do not complete any additional deliveries.

We regret that this difficult and unexpected situation has made this necessary. Additional information will be provided shortly.

Thank you for your service and dedication.
UFI/Lane Corporate Communications” (link)

A few quick points.

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