Someone had requested a simple to see infographic of the Bureau of Labor and Statistics August inflation data with monthly and yearly outcomes.  I thought everyone might find this graphic as a good tool for sharing with your network.  [Data Source Link]

Additionally, the BLS also released the producer price index today [DATA HERE].  The PPI for goods dropped slightly, as we expected, due to the August temporary decline in gasoline and diesel.   However, the PPI for final demand services moved up 0.4 percent in August, the fourth consecutive rise.

We are now seeing service providers having to raise their prices to cover their increased costs.   This could be trouble for employment in the long-term.

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Within the politics of Sweden, the ‘Sweden Democrat‘ party is the equivalent of MAGA Republicans.  As a result, the European media call them “far-right.”

As the results of last weekend’s election are finally tabulated, the anti-globalist parties in Sweden have surged to victory.  With all of the consequences from globalist policies creating havoc in the country, the political dynamic in Sweden has now flipped.

Do not let this election outcome slip your geopolitical reference point.  Current Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has lost the majority coalition. She has resigned.  European leftists are shocked and big mad.

(Dutsche Welle) – Sweden’s right-wing opposition appears to have won in a razor-thin electoral race. The big winner of the elections are the far-right Sweden Democrats, who could become part of government for the first time.Sweden’s right-wing opposition appears to have won a thin majority in the country’s parliament with nearly all votes counted.

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said that she would resign and that preliminary results were clear enough to draw conclusions. She said that it was important that Sweden gets a new government as soon as possible.

Leader of the nationalist Sweden Democrats, Jimmie Akesson, declared victory and pledged to “put Sweden first.”

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If there was ever an audio-visual of the disconnect between Joe Biden policy and the horrific consequences they create, today would be the case study.

As the stock market is plummeting after a horrific inflation report from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, Joe Biden is simultaneously celebrating the passage of the “Inflation Reduction Act,” most commonly known as the Green New Deal.  WATCH:

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The same thing happened on Fox News.

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We are in an abusive relationship with our own government. If you want a real-time example of how governmental bureaucracy fits into this statement, look no further than the footnote at the bottom of this article ¹cited from the BLS report today.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) has released the August inflation data today [DATA HERE] with a top line at 8.3 percent year over year.  Unfortunately, things are unfolding exactly as we previously shared.  [Modified Table 1 at left]

Despite the temporary drop in gasoline prices (-12%), the costs of food (+13.5%), electricity (+15.8%) and housing (+6.7%) are crushing U.S. consumers.  The stock market is responding accordingly.  We can only imagine the inflation data if the heavily weighted gasoline factor was not pushing overall toplines down.  Estimation of inflation would be well over double digits.

Keep in mind, as you read this review the price of the current harvest (prior field costs) is only right now coming into the food supply chain.

Food inflation is running at its highest rate since 1979 (+11.4%) and it will go higher as the third wave in this sector hits.

To give you an example, margarine increased in price 7% in August alone, that’s an annualized rate of 94% [Table 2 details].  Flour is also on pace for another 22.8% increase right as the holiday baking season begins.

We cannot eat gold, silver or durable goods.  Electricity, home heating (natural gas), food and housing costs are priorities right now.  Main Street USA is being crushed by Joe Biden overall economic and energy policies.  It’s bad now, and going to get worse – much worse, as the third wave of food inflation has only just begun.

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Mid-August CTH noted, “amid all of the headline warnings about inflation and prices of essential products, CTH notes that if we are to continue waiting about six months, we would see a massive backlog of unsold goods and as a consequence the prices of non-essential durable goods would begin a rapid decline.  That exact scenario is about to unfold.” {link}

Today the world’s second largest appliance manufacturer, Electrolux, announced a collapse of corporate earnings -the result of the western alliance economic contraction- leading to major cost cutting and future incentive programs.  [Announcement Link, emphasis mine]

(Electrolux) – […] Market demand for core appliances in Europe and the US so far in the third quarter is estimated to have decreased at a significantly accelerated pace compared with the second quarter, driven by the impact of high inflation on consumer durables purchases and low consumer confidence. High retailer inventory levels have amplified the impact of the slowdown in consumer demand.

In combination with supply chain imbalances resulting in significant production inefficiencies and increased costs, the third quarter earnings for the Group are expected to decline significantly compared to the second quarter 2022 also excluding the one-time cost to exit the Russia market. This has been driven mainly by Europe and North America. Business Area North America is expected to report an operating loss in the third quarter exceeding the loss in the second quarter.

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It is good to see at least one energy finance analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, speaking commonsense.  In an article by Clark Williams-Derry for Barron Magazine [SEE HERE], the author accurately outlines how significant U.S. Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) exports are driving up natural gas prices for American consumers.

The author accurately refutes the notion that exports do not drive-up domestic prices, by walking through the example of how natural gas prices dropped for U.S. consumers when the liquefied natural gas plant in Quintana, Texas [Freeport LNG] was temporarily shut down, blocking a portion of the export capacity.  However, that facility is about to come back on-line and with increased exports from other facilities domestic U.S. prices have already doubled.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Association (IEA), U.S. storage of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) is 12% below the five-year average (LINK).  Additionally, the IEA is expecting the U.S. to export 11.7 billion cubic feet of LNG per day during the fourth quarter of 2022 — up 17% from the third quarter. The destination of that export is Europe.

Consider that 43% of U.S. households use natural gas for home heating, and power suppliers use natural gas to create electricity.  With the massive 2022 exports of LNG to Europe (+17% in fourth quarter alone), that means lower domestic supplies and increased prices here in the United States for electricity and home heating.  We are seeing and feeling these massive price increases right now.

Barrons – […]  If you need more evidence of the impact of natural gas exports on prices, just compare supply and demand fundamentals for the year leading up to February 2020 (the last pre-pandemic month) versus the year leading up to this May (the most recent month with full federal data). Annualized production rose over the period, while domestic consumption remained roughly flat. Yet LNG exports almost doubled—a surge that tightened U.S. gas markets and doubled the price that U.S. consumers pay for the fuel. 

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There is a particular historical irony in the timing.  On the same day King Charles III ascends the throne, previously Europe’s most isolated from consequence – yet loudest voice in chasing the catastrophic climate change energy policies, the British government is forced to reverse course on years of energy regulations and restrictions.

Britain’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss announced, “a new round of oil and gas licensing will come next week with more than 100 licenses issued. A moratorium on fracking will be lifted and planning permission can be sought where there is local support,” in an urgent emergency effort to lower energy costs for British citizens.

The move comes in combination with a government plan to help citizens and businesses cope with skyrocketing prices for electricity and home heating fuel.  The climate change chickens have come home to roost throughout Europe and the British government is urgently trying to head-off the calamitous consequences.

Inside the media announcements of the Truss plan, the biggest concern expressed is how the financial and multinational banking sector (the ESG investment groups) will respond to the government position. After decades of ideological “green” outlooks flowing into the energy industry, the biggest concern expressed in the financial analysis is how a reversal by such a large economic system will reverberate.

The climate change ideology has a stranglehold on the energy sector of the economy, this move by Great Britain would be the most significant push-back in decades.  The minority green activists are apoplectic that they may lose control over the majority of opinion.  The economics of a reversal in energy policy could reverberate throughout the western alliance, particularly in Europe.  It will be interesting to see whether this shift in U.K. policy has ripple effects in the U.S.

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War is an outcome of ideology and economics, and the latter is perhaps the most powerful weapon.  As the harsh reality of Europe’s insufferable decades-long efforts to embrace the virtues of climate change begin to settle in, the reasonable adults in the conversation are able to see how their weakness is being exploited by their adversary.

On Sept 7, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen held a press conference in Brussels, announcing five initiatives to contain the expensive EU energy crisis: “The goal is clear. We must cut the revenues of Russia that Putin uses to finance this atrocious war against Ukraine.” {Go Deep}

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin made it very clear that any further efforts to weaken his economy, via western sanctions and interventionist efforts against his economy, would be met with retaliation in the form of cutting off all oil and gas supplies to Europe.  It appears the Europeans now understand the nature of their vulnerability.

(Via Reuters) – The EU has dropped plans to cap the price it pays for Russian gas.

Energy ministers from the bloc met Friday (September 9) in Brussels. They scrapped plans for the cap after the idea failed to win broad support.

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The U.S. Federal Reserve has published the second quarter 2022 balance sheet of U.S. total household wealth [DATA HERE].

In the second quarter (April, May, June) 2022, the total U.S. household wealth dropped $6.1 trillion, despite a calculated increase in home value of $1.5 trillion.  The majority of the loss is connected to a drop in Corporate Equity (stock market) and household investment in the stock market.

FED “The net worth of households and nonprofit organizations declined $6.1 trillion to $143.8 trillion in the second quarter. The value of stocks on the household balance sheet declined by $7.7 trillion, while the value of real estate increased by $1.5 trillion.”  Keep in mind this is backward looking data, and after a period of decelerating rates of growth, the overall real estate market is now in a period of decline as calculated for the most recent month of July [DATA].

The equity position of homeowners is now considerably less than the equity position when the feds calculated the second quarter household wealth (two months ago).  Part of the issue goes back to what we have been discussing with inflation and specifically energy driven increases in fuel and electricity.

Inflation sucks money out of the economy, making people less wealthy.  Energy inflation sucks money exponentially faster out of each household, potentially making the already working-class poor, much poorer.

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The internecine angle to the intra-party political and financial conflicts come via Politico, so apply that prism accordingly. However, the overarching background of the story (as presented) does align with the internal party power conflict we all know about.

According to the outline, Mitch McConnell has withdrawn spending of the Senate PAC funds from MAGA senate candidates. McConnell is telling his senators who are more favorably aligned with President Trump, to push the Trump PAC to spend more on them if Trump wants to see them win in 2022.

President Trump has, and continues to, support all of the MAGA candidates with direct funding [See FEC Filing], campaign rallies [LINK], and major big donor fundraisers [LINK], including at least one example of excessive funds distributed [LINK].   However, whenever anything involves McConnell, particularly when it involves money, it is critical to apply a Machiavellian prism to McConnell’s DeceptiCon motives.

By now everyone should know Senator McConnell holds no fundamental interest in being in the majority.  Nothing in his power structure changes if Democrats are in the majority.  From McConnell and the club approach, the “control of the senate” argument is a fundraising gimmick.  Give the DeceptiCons control of the senate and nothing structurally changes in the policy or legislative sphere.  Reference the 2014 to 2020 GOPe control, anti-Trump resistance, budgets and support for Obamacare, as examples of the last time the GOPe had senate majorities.

Absent of any real motivation to gain a republican majority in the senate, illusions and pretenses dropped, the “battle for control of the senate” simply comes down to a strategy of what is best to support Big Corps, and downstream fundraising.  However, the fundraising angle does afford Mitch the opportunity to leverage more power and eliminate influence.

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