Jason Furman is the former Chairman of the National Economic Council under Barack Obama; he is currently a professor at Harvard teaching economics. If you ever wondered why the economy under Obama included the weakest economic recovery in history, the advice of Furman might explain it.
In an interview with CBS this morning, Jason Furman says the best way to get inflation under control is to raise taxes and stop people from spending money. This approach will impact the demand side of the economy and as a result, with no one purchasing stuff, it will lower prices. Seriously, no joke, he said this. WATCH:
Jason Furm: …”Congress should be trying to do their part and helping out if they can cut the deficit, including raising taxes on high income households, that would reduce a bit of spending in the economy, it would cool the economy down a little bit, and actually take some pressure off the Fed.”…
Create a deeper recession to control inflation, brilliant!
Like I have been pointing out for months, these ideologues believe inflation is being driven by the demand side, by consumers purchasing too much. They pretend not to know it is the supply-side issue of energy policy that is driving the CORE inflation they seek to reduce.
CBS pretentious pretender Margaret Brennan interviews Joe Biden’s Energy Security Coordinator Amos Hochstein about the trip to the Gulf Arab States and subsequent energy policy developments. [CBS Transcript Here] Hochstein spins the non-existing benefits of the trip by attributing the pre-existing Saudi cease-fire in Yemen as an outcome of Biden talking to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Quite a stretch.
Hochstein still thinks there is going to be a way for ‘western governments‘ to place price caps on Russian oil exports by getting the entire planet to agree only to pay Russia a set price for oil. With Russia an OPEC+ member, and the members of OPEC not in ideological alignment with the Biden administration on a host of geopolitical issues, good luck with that. The producers (OPEC) have control over what prices the consumers (Non OPEC) pay; they are not going to give up that mechanism just to please the Biden administration.
On the domestic front, while there is little possibility of a global oil production increase from OPEC, Hochstein claims to have assurances from U.S. oil producers they will increase their production capacity by November. At the same time the institutions in charge of Biden energy policy are going to keep targeting the oil producers to destroy them. Quite a weird dynamic. Hochstein finishes by saying solar and windmills are the future of U.S. energy production and if we invest more, well, we can save the planet. WATCH:
It is worth remembering what MbS said about the meeting: “We agree on many things, but we differ on a few others. Every country has its own culture and circumstances. I respect yours, you respect mine. Do not impose your culture on us. Do not impose your beliefs on us.” … “We agree we need to do more for climate change, but you guys are doing it wrong by favoring certain energy sources over others. The world needs energy security. We need all energy sources including oil & gas. We are doing our part on both fronts: climate change & energy security.” … “The stage of a country’s economic & social development must be considered in climate change negotiations.” … “We are increasing our production capacity to 13 million barrels per day (from 12 mb/d), but that is it. We cannot do more.”
The message here is: You guys do your part and invest more if you want to avoid energy crises, recessions and unemployment. Do NOT blame us!
During his press conference from Saudi Arabia, the installed occupant of the White House was asked about the possibility that congress will not pass the $500 billion spending proposal to continue the radical transformation of the American energy sector. [Transcript]
Q On the issue of climate, Joe Manchin obviously made significant news right now, which appears to be torpedoing what was one of your biggest priorities as it relates to energy and to climate back at home. Your message to those Americans right now who are looking for that relief that would have a wide impact as it affects the climate and energy specifically?
Joe Biden: “I am not going away. I’m going to use every power I have as President to continue to fulfill my pledge to move toward dealing with global warming.” Thank you very much.” [link]
Put another way, “you will eventually eat the bugs.”
As previously noted, regardless of how much chaos, crisis and hardship they create, the collective western government leaders are not going to stop pushing their Build Back Better climate change agenda. These are committed ideologues. They are united in their objective and not a single politician is willing to see the catastrophic damage they are creating.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a cabinet ideologue with zero experience in business or transportation, appears in the news admitted the high price of gasoline is part of the Biden energy agenda to push people into purchasing electric vehicles. You’ll have a higher car payment, but you won’t pay for gasoline. WATCH:
Joe Manchin didn’t completely torpedo the $500 billion in Green New Deal climate change spending, but he did stall it for a month saying he would not support the climate change spending until he sees July’s inflation numbers in August, which should be a warning.
If you think carefully about it, it’s a classic Manchin head-fake. The July and August inflation numbers, to be released in August and September respectively, are almost guaranteed to be lower than June.
July/Aug are the two months we are in right now where inflation is hitting a plateau. Gasoline prices are dropping due to a drop in demand. This is the period before prices start rising again in September and October when the energy farming costs start to roll out with the next harvest.
Senator Manchin isn’t stupid; in fact, he is quite Machiavellian, he knows this… thus, his position.
Manchin can give the illusion of prudence, but he knows the July inflation rate will show a decrease for two reasons.
First, in the month-to-month comparison, July will not carry the same scale of gasoline and energy increases as June. Second, in the year-over-year comparison, July ’22 will be comparing to July 2021 when prices already started skyrocketing. Bottom line, July inflation will give the illusion of dropping, which gives Manchin a shield to support the spending…. and he will.
WASHINGTON DC – Joe Manchin is forcing Democrats into a brutal choice: Take a deal now to lower the costs of health care premiums and prescription drugs, or try to negotiate a larger bill in September that includes climate and tax reform with no guarantee it will pass.
The West Virginia Democrat said Friday that he wants to see another month of inflation numbers before considering legislation that might increase taxes on some higher-income Americans and plow hundreds of billionsof dollars into the energy sector. On Thursday Manchin “unequivocally” rejected July or August approval of Democrats’ proposed energy investments and tax increases in a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, according to a person briefed on the meeting.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned. Days later, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated. A few days passed and both the President and Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, resigned and fled the country. Today, with their ruling governments in a state of turmoil, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi have both tendered their resignations.
The collapse of each of these national leaders is not necessarily connected; however, the global political system is reverberating with tremors directly connected to the post-pandemic economic turmoil. It would be naïve not to see these governing issues as consequences. The legitimacy of the governing class is slipping; perhaps it would be fair to say, some have ‘lost’ their legitimacy altogether.
Estonia is part of the EU and a member of NATO:
HELSINKI — Estonia’s president on Thursday asked Prime Minister Kaja Kallas to form a new government after she tendered the resignation of her one-party minority Cabinet, ending a more than month-long political stalemate in the Baltic nation.
President Alar Karis said in a tweet after meeting with Kallas that “I signed the resignation request of Prime Minister @kajakallas but also asked her to form a new government which could start working quickly and deal with all important issues of Estonian life.”
Estonia’s government crisis culminated in early June as Kallas, leader of the ruling center-right Reform Party, kicked out the left-leaning Center Party from the two-party coalition. The parties had substantial differences over spending and welfare policies amid increasing Estonian household costs because of high inflation. (more)
CNBC is the Biden defense team for media broadcasts of anything related to the economy. As a result, you know things are bad when CNBC broadcasts that Joe Biden’s economy has the highest level of dissatisfaction in the history of their surveys.
Steve Liesman was given the task again to share the horrible results. WATCH:
The “Producer Price Index” (PPI) is essentially the tracking of wholesale prices at three stages: Origination (commodity), Intermediate (processing), and then Final (to wholesale). Today, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) released June price data [Available Here] showing another 11.3% increase year-over-year in Final Demand products at the wholesale level.
Overall, the wholesale inflation rate is being driven by energy prices. The June calculation shows exactly that problem with energy prices embedded in goods driving 10% of the price increase. However, there is some good news in the short-term for July and August, as the intermediate and raw material costs are leveling off temporarily. Unfortunately, that raw material price plateau is almost certainly the result of a drop in demand.
The June inflation rate for final demand goods (2.4%) is driven mostly by higher energy prices (10%). Energy costs are passed along through every stage of the supply chain contributing to an overall wholesale price increase of 2.4% in June, 11.3% year-over-year.
Notice the slight drop in final demand services; that is important. What we are seeing is a contraction in the service economy overall, as the service sector -which includes restaurants- cannot pass along the scale of energy price increase to customers. People are changing their spending habits – service demand overall is dropping.
Officials in the state of Texas are worried the emergency measures taken Wednesday to avoid blackouts may not be enough. The utility operators urgently need the wind to start operating the windmills or things might get worse. Reuters News has more:
(Reuters) – Texas’s power grid operator on Wednesday took emergency measures to avoid rolling blackouts as soaring electricity demand threatened to outpace available supplies amid a stifling heatwave.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the grid that serves more than 26 million customers, initiated a rarely used emergency program that is triggered when supplies fall below a critical safety margin.
Earlier, ERCOT had urged residents to cut power use during the hottest hours of the day and warned of a risk for rolling blackouts. Residents were asked to turn up thermostats, defer the use of high-power appliances and turn off swimming pool pumps.
The emergency notice came after ERCOT began paying suppliers an average of $5,000 per magawatt hour to keep generators running. That price is the highest the grid operator pays. “They were pulling a lot of levers to avoid going into emergency operations and rolling blackouts,” said Doug Lewin, president of consultants Stoic Energy LLC. (read more)
Call me Captain Obvious, but in addition to the population migration, it looks like Texas imported California’s energy policies. The sustainable energy isn’t sustainable. However, on a positive note, their state ESG score is improving.
Gasoline in Mexico is $3.12/gal. Gasoline in the United States is $4.78/gal
The media did not give this much attention; however, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador thoroughly, albeit diplomatically, dressed down Joe Biden over his economic and energy policy during a Tuesday visit to the White House.
You might remember that together with a host of south and central American leaders, Mexican President Lopez-Obrador refused to attend Joe Biden’s Latin-America summit last month {Go Deep}. With that in mind Obrador’s media remarks in the oval office are quite remarkable in their pointedness.
The video and audio are tenuous, and the delay for interpretation makes following the flow of AMLO’s comments a little challenging. However, if you read the transcript you can clearly see how AMLO is diplomatically undressing Biden over the economic issue of U.S. energy policy. It would appear that AMLO is not part of the great western reset and has no intention on inflicting the pain that is deliberately being created by other western leaders. [Video at 23:30, Transcript Below] WATCH:
Now keep in mind that socially AMLO is a soft-socialist (immigration). However, he is also a strong economic nationalist who has previously expressed a strong dislike for the influence of multinational corporations in Mexico. AMLO is not a World Economic Forum acolyte. AMLO is on team BRICS.
In these remarks, AMLO is very pointedly telling Joe Biden that his U.S. energy policy is seriously flawed. It is really quite remarkable.
AMLO tells Biden that Mexico will continue investing in expanded refining of gasoline, and he is willing to sell that gasoline to American companies because Joe Biden will not issue permits to expand gasoline refining capacity in the United States. Additionally, AMLO affirms his position on further oil development in Mexico and then, here comes the kicker,…. offers to expand electricity sales to the United States, including supplying Texas with electricity because both the Biden administration and Texas are not developing their own energy resources.
AMLO is telling Biden that Mexico will increase energy subsidies to the United States if Biden asks him to. Think about that.
[Transcript] – PRESIDENT LÓPEZ OBRADOR: (As interpreted.) Yes, I fully coincide with what you have proposed, President Biden. And I could summarize everything we’ve been saying in five basic items of cooperation.
Number one, since the energy crisis started, Mexico has used 72 percent of its crude and fuel oil exports to United States refineries — 800,000 barrels a day.
Therefore, we decided that while we’re waiting for prices of gasoline to go down in the United States — and I hope that Congress approves or passes your proposal, Mr. President —
PRESIDENT BIDEN: It has gone down for 30 days in a row. (Laughs.)
PRESIDENT LÓPEZ OBRADOR: (As interpreted.) — of lowering — lowering prices, yes. That’s it.
If you think carefully about it, it’s a classic Manchin head-fake. The July and August inflation numbers, to be released in August and September respectively, are almost guaranteed to be lower than June.
(