As inflation bites the working-class hard, U.S. household savings rates continue dropping fast.  When combined with drops in home values the loss in home equity compounds the issue.  American families are getting poorer much more quickly under Joe Biden’s economic policies.

According to the Wall Street Journal home values dropped in August at their highest monthly rate of decrease since 2011 {link}.  In part this is driven by higher mortgage rates which are pricing home buyers out of the market.  However, the regional impact is worse on the west coast than east or southeast.

[…] The housing market has slowed abruptly this year due to a rapid increase in mortgage rates, which has raised borrowing costs for home buyers and pushed many prospective buyers out of the market. Existing-home sales fell for eight straight months through September. (link)

As noted in The Daily Mail review of a similar analysis: “It’s Northern California that leads the way, with San Jose experiencing a drop of 10.8 percent since September, followed by San Francisco at 8.5 percent, then it’s Seattle at 8.2 percent, Denver at 5.8 percent, San Diego 5.2 percent, Portland 5.1 percent, Las Vegas 4.8 percent and Phoenix at 4.4 percent.” (link)

What we are seeing is a confluence of events, generally brought about by the outcomes of larger Biden administration policy.  Massive increases in energy costs are the result of energy policy; those increases are fueling inflation from the supply side on food, fuel, electricity, home heating etc.  Simultaneously, Fed monetary policy is driving consumer demand down.  The recession debate continues amid the economic think-tanks while Main Street outcomes show we have been in a recessionary period all year.

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NBC’s Mark Murray {Eyeroll} produces a midterm media poll {DATA HERE} to frame the 2022 election and claim a tight race for both Democrats and Republicans.  Despite collapsing economic numbers, widespread inflation and disapproval on every category, NBC finds the #1 issue for all voters is “The Threat to Democracy.”

NBC’s Chuck Todd gives the spin on the outcome:

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71% of the country say we are on the wrong track (20% approve).

57% of the country disapproves of the job Biden is doing with the economy (38% approve).

50% of the country says things will get worse (20% think will improve)….

…. But it’s a close election?…

…. And the #1 concern is “the threat to democracy?“

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The moves are so predictable… {See Here}… well, it would be funny if the consequences were not so severe.

With Prime Minister Liz Truss announcing her resignation there was considerable discussion of former PM Boris Johnson returning to run for the job.  However, as an outcome of his conversations with other “conservatives” in British politics, Johnson has withdrawn his name.  This sets up… wait for it…. the World Economic Forum’s groomed U.K. climate change “conservative” to take the job.  This stuff is so predictable, it’s beyond funny.

(Via CBS) – Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement Sunday that he would not seek the leadership of the Conservative Party, leaving former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak as the frontrunner to take over after Liz Truss hastily announced her exit last week, after just 45 days at the helm. (read more)

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak together with King Charles III….  What could possibly go wrong?  LOL

Sometimes people make fun of me for cementing my views in the reality of a big picture perspective.  I don’t care.  It’s not a conspiracy theory to see how the alignment of western leadership interests are shaped by the control of the people and institutions who manipulate the illusion of choice.

Liz Truss was dispatched because she dared, in the smallest way, to accept the reality of what created the ‘Build Back Better‘ U.K. economic crisis.  She was always going to be replaced by someone who was willing and able to retain their fullest devotion to the grand pretense.  That’s where Rishi Sunak steps in.  Please watch the video below, you’ll see:

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All around this western world of ours we find ourselves surrounded by economic pretenders and financial pundits, perhaps intentionally stuck, using old school economic theory to analyze a new era in government manipulation of the economy.  It’s maddening… but at least we do not need to pretend on these pages.

Milton Friedman was not wrong at the time he stated that inflation is driven by monetary policy.  Print money and the value of it diminishes; this is true.

However, we are in an era that Friedman never foresaw, nor could he fathom, where the structural policy of government is created to intentionally shrink economic activity.

Purposefully reducing energy resources and then purposefully reducing economic activity to match the diminished level of energy available, is the underlying purpose of what the western globalists call “Building Back Better.”   The claim of “climate change” is the justification for their action.  Too few people truly understand this, and as a result we see false arguments about the root of inflation being presented.

The ROOT CAUSE of modern western inflation is the intentional shortage of traditional energy resources (coal, oil, gas), which is driving up the price of the everything attached to the use of energy, everything.  It is a supply side causation with policymakers trying to forcibly shrink energy demand.   Quit making excuses in any other direction.

As energy products skyrocket, everything attached to the energy product rises in price – that is a supply side issue.  Yes, if you wish to be obtuse and support the justification from the policymakers, you can -if you chose to join the pretending- argue that demand for energy is the cause. However, demand for energy is far more consistent than the reductions in the supply that have been created.

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Last week we discussed the announcement of a $24.6 billion merger deal between Kroger and Albertsons supermarkets {Go Deep}.  The majority stockholders in both companies are institutional investment groups, Blackrock, Vanguard and Cerberus.

The merger would consolidate the second and third largest food retailers in the U.S. and would certainly dilute the competitive dynamic amid the supermarket industry.  Concern over price controls and decreased competition has now arrived on the desks of DC legislators who are reviewing the deal.

(Reuters) – […] U.S. Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar and Republican Senator Mike Lee were quick to say that they would hold a hearing to discuss the merger. A European interloper could make deal plans even harder.

Frans Muller, Chief Executive of Stop & Shop owner Ahold Delhaize (AD.AS), has made no secret of his desire to consolidate U.S. grocers. The Netherlands-based firm is already the fourth largest grocery chain. If it managed to cobble together a better offer than Kroger’s bid for Albertsons, it would become the second largest supermarket. Plane spotters tracked two Albertsons jets next to Ahold Delhaize’s U.S. base in Massachusetts in early August. Ahold declined to comment.

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For his monologue this week (¹sorry, no transcript), U.K pundit Neil Oliver notes the vulnerabilities of the globalist elite when the people finally reach the point of having had quite enough.

Using the famous Mike Tyson quote, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face,” Oliver notes the scheme and grand designs of the globalists may seem omnipotent, but only so long as it takes for the angered masses to assemble in common resolve.  The elites are vulnerable despite their seemingly endless efforts to promote themselves as untouchable.  Their weakness is their limited number.

Oliver takes his position to a new level of indignation as he now describes the conniving western political class as soulless, rotten and seemingly willing to promote evil enterprise in their efforts to retain control.  Indeed, their current efforts to control the masses – through energy restrictions while they worship at the false altar of ‘climate change – they are fully exposed for their exploitative intent given the aftermath of their two years of COVID schemes, lies and visible madness.  WATCH:

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¹The transcript is normally available on GBNews. However, it is not available today.  Coincidentally, or not, the corporate Fox News YouTube site has not shared a single Tucker Carlson monologue for the last two weeks.

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Sometimes the knights in shining armor appear as crews’ wearing jeans, overalls and steel toed boots.

It doesn’t take an emergency beacon to activate them, just a need… and they come.  Purposefully, without condition, ready to move, activate and respond.  They throw the gear bags, kiss the ladies & babies, and head out. The rest is figured out upon arrival.

Superior Construction, came from Jacksonville, Ajax Paving from Fort Myers, Honc from the Cape and trucks with subs from just about everywhere. There’s both a unity and similarity that flows when callouses are clasped and the melding of purpose comes together.  Few words are needed, because it’s a task centered outlook, let’s git r’ done – no quit.

I asked Richard to put this together. {Direct Ruble Link} The drone video is from FAI photography. The song is by Lucy Thomas.  The message, well, given all of the critics who say America’s best days are behind, perhaps they need to pause a little bit and remind themselves what we are capable of.  Enjoy:

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What has been accomplished in two weeks of 24/7 reconstruction is nothing short of remarkable.  Then again, this is the Christian America we know well.  The truckers, pullers, spreaders, drivers, welders, machinists, heavy equipment operators, tugboat operators, barge haulers, diggers, pumpers, tradesmen, all of them, just people.

Damn good people at that.

People who represent what makes our nation unique.  The invisible, salty, mostly scruffy and beautifully comfortable about it, yet critical network of blue-collar crews that keeps it all operating.  God, how I cherish them so.

At the core of our American purpose is a decency and unity.  Critics don’t like to talk about it, but American workers are fundamentally good. When something seems impossible, for blue-collar Americans ‘impossible‘ is just another starting point, if you get out of the way. Don’t lose sight of that.

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CPFB) was originally created by congress (Elizabeth Warren lead) as a quasi-constitutional watchdog agency to reach into the banking and financial system, under the guise of oversight, and extract money by fining entities for CFPB defined regulatory and/or compliance violations.

Essentially, the CFPB is a congressionally authorized far-left extortion scheme in the banking sector.  The CFPB levies fines; the fines generate income; however, unlike traditional fines that go to the U.S. treasury, the CFBP fines are then redistributed to left-wing organizations to help fund their political activism.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was the brainchild of Senator Elizabeth Warren as an outcome of the Dodd-Frank legislation. Within the CFPB Warren tried to set up the head of the agency, the Director, in a manner that that he/she would operate without oversight. Unfortunately, her dictatorial-fiat-design collapsed when challenged in court.  Backstory #1 – Backstory #2

Previously, a federal court found the CFPB Director position held too much power and deemed it unconstitutional. The court decision noted that giving the President power to fire the Director would fix the constitutional problem.  However, a second set of legal challenges targeted the core of the CFPB scheme, the financing.

WASHINGTON DC – An appeals court on Wednesday ruled that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding mechanism is unconstitutional, in a victory for lenders that have targeted the agency’s structure in a years-long bid to tamp down regulation.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the design of the CFPB violated the Constitution because it receives funding through the Federal Reserve, rather than appropriations legislation passed by Congress. Democrats established the structure when they created the CFPB in the 2010 Dodd-Frank law as a way to shield the bureau from political pressures that could impact its oversight of the finance industry.

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Elevate far enough and you return to that same place where the international finance and banking system is making decisions on politics.  The western alliance is ‘all-in‘ on the goal of using climate change as the entry point to the carbon trading system.  No one is going to be allowed to challenge this agenda.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss has resigned after only 44 days in office, driven mostly by the financial system reaction to her proposal that taxes should be lowered in order to stimulate the economy.  In the big picture, the years of slowly advancing progressive politics in the U.K. has culminated in a political system that is only manageable by a leader who retains a globalist financial outlook and a climate change policy framework.

Prime Minister Truss’s economic agenda, lower taxes – stimulate growth, in combination with an emergency effort to quickly develop oil, coal and natural gas exploitation (fracking etc.) in order to avoid the escalating European energy crisis, was just too much and too radical.  The financial markets responded negatively, the World Economic Forum (WEF)was unhappy, and western alliance leaders were critical, including Joe Biden:

Biden called Prime Minster Truss’s proposed tax cuts “a mistake” earlier this week. Biden said he “wasn’t the only one” who thought as much, indicating he had talked to other western alliance leaders who thought the same.

“I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake. I think that the idea of cutting taxes on the super-wealthy at a time when … I disagree with the policy, but it’s up to Britain to make that judgment, not me,” Biden said.  With domestic opposition and international pressure, it became clear that Liz Truss was going to collapse.  She did.

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(Daily Mail) – British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned today after just 44 days in office, sending the country’s parliament into chaos and making it the laughing stock of the world.

Truss only took over from former leader Boris Johnson on September 6 after winning an internal Conservative Party leadership contest. She quickly lost the faith of the party to such an extent that she was deemed unfit to lead last night in a wave of no confidence letters from colleagues.

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New England consists of six states in the US Northeast, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.  The states have been warned by regional ISO electricity providers for several years about their vulnerability if the winter weather is harsh and there is a significant increase in demand for home heating.  Those warnings are now multiplied by the massive price increases for natural gas.

Keep in mind as all these natural gas and LNG issues surface, the U.S. has been exporting natural gas to Europe as part of the Biden effort to subsidize the NATO effort against Russia.  Prices for natural gas have skyrocketed, and now shortages of the fuel source for energy production may create even bigger problems for New England.

[Via Zero Hedge] – […] The region’s power mix changes have left it increasingly reliant on international NatGas spot markets. State governors have asked US Energy Secretary Jennifer Graholm to waive the Jones Act and allow foreign-owned tankers to ship LNG from the US Gulf region. 

All of this has led to New England residents facing some of the highest electricity bills in years. Heating season is already underway. 

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