Joe Biden has hired John Podesta to be the new Clean Energy Czar [Announcement Here] citing his experience in progressive causes.  Hilariously, the New York Times is running with a justification that Podesta holds some prior experience in advancing the climate change agenda. [See Here]

(NYT) […] In bringing on Mr. Podesta, Mr. Biden continues to surround himself with veterans of past Democratic administrations, old hands who can step into challenging positions without on-the-job training.

“His deep roots in climate and clean energy policy and his experience at senior levels of government mean we can truly hit the ground running,” Mr. Biden said of Mr. Podesta in a statement. (more)

If Podesta is the new Clean Energy Czar, it begs the question of what the heck John Kerry is doing now?  I digress.

You might remember that Steven Chu was the Obama Climate Change Czar for the first clean energy boondoggle that came as an outcome of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), those shovel ready jobs that didn’t materialize and carried the Solyndra spending nonsense.

John Podesta had nothing to do with the Obama-era clean energy initiatives or energy spending programs. Podesta was inserted into Obama’s orbit in the second term (2013) specifically to watch out for Hillary Clinton’s interests when she left to run for President.   Podesta later joined her in 2015 and took over the strategy team.

Bottom line, John Podesta is being now being hired to divvy up the $316 billion in Green New Deal money recently authorized by congress.  That is what Podesta specializes in, the distribution of taxpayer money to DNC allied groups and networks in advance of the 2022 midterms.   Podesta, Hillary’s fixer, is a bagman, nothing more.

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The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) released the August Jobs Report [DATA HERE].

The topline is a net gain of 315,000 jobs with an increase in unemployment to 3.7%.  However, the June and July jobs reports were revised down by 107,000 lower than previously reported, and if you look carefully at the data, you can see a serious problem.

Keep in mind, in the background is a release yesterday showing productivity within the economy dropping in the second quarter by 4.1%. [DATA]  Combine the drop in productivity with higher wages of 5.7% and total wage costs per unit of business output are up 10.1%.  Now we turn back to today’s employment release, and look at these three points of data:

(1) Unemployment for adult men and unemployment for Latinos increased in August.  Adult men and specifically adult Latino men are losing their jobs. (2) The average number of hours worked in August dropped 0.1 hour to 34.5 hours. (3) Total employment amid those aged 16 to 19-years of age increased by 363, 000 in August:

The graphic is modified Table A-1 to focus on ‘age’

 •Total economic productivity drops [biggest quarterly drop since 1948].  •Men and Latinos are losing jobs.  •Average hours worked drops.  •Teenage employment increases. What do these four facts tell you?

A total of 363,000 more teenagers started working in August, yet the total net gain in employment overall was 315,000 jobs.   That should be the headline of the August 2022 jobs report.

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UPDATE: Transcript ADDED – Tonight, a perpetually nasty and likely medicated man, demanding respect from a nation he abhors, will rally his 30% and decry the majority in a primetime address.  The shouting is scheduled to originate at 8:00pm ET from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Major media stenographers are saying he has been practicing this speech for several days.  There are also rumors he may introduce the latest regime gaslighting term “growth recession,” to discuss the economy.

The majority of the American victims likely will not be watching the protestations of their abuser. However, if you find yourself tuning in to learn just how much he hates you, or if you want to laugh at the insufferable old dolt, well, here’s the livestream links:

PBS Livestream – White House Livestream – Fox News Livestream

[Transcript]  THE PRESIDENT:  My fellow Americans, please, if you have a seat, take it.  I speak to you tonight from sacred ground in America: Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

This is where America made its Declaration of Independence to the world more than two centuries ago with an idea, unique among nations, that in America, we’re all created equal.  This is where the United States Constitution was written and debated.

This is where we set in motion the most extraordinary experiment of self-government the world has ever known with three simple words: “We, the People.”  “We, the People.”

These two documents and the ideas they embody — equality and democracy — are the rock upon which this nation is built.  They are how we became the greatest nation on Earth.  They are why, for more than two centuries, America has been a beacon to the world.  But as I stand here tonight, equality and democracy are under assault.  We do ourselves no favor to pretend otherwise.

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Let’s say you are an average household with an income around $100,000/yr who has an increase in electricity rates from $300 to $500 due to Joe Biden’s new national energy policy known as the Green New Deal.  That’s $200 more per month for this initial economic/energy “transition” moment.

That extra $200/month equates to $2,400 per year.

That $2,400 per year is static economic activity.  Meaning nothing additional was created, and nothing additional was generated.  The captured $2,400 is simply an increase in the price of a preexisting expense.

Take that expense and expand it to your community of 100 friends and family households.  The $2,400 now becomes $240,000 in cost that doesn’t generate anything.  $240,000 is removed from the community economy.  $240,000 is no longer available for purchasing other goods or services within this community of 100 households.

The economic purchasing power of the 100-household community is reduced by $240,000 per year.

Take that expense and expand it to your county of 10,000 households.  Now you are reducing the county economic activity by $24 million.  In this county of 10,000 households, $24 million in economic transactions have been wiped out.  Meals at restaurants, purchases of goods and services, or any other spending of the $24 million within the county of 10,000 households (approximately 25,000 residents) has been lost.

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During his opening monologue tonight, Tucker Carlson becomes the first mainstream pundit to point out the lies in the central bank argument.

The federal reserve and EU central banks claim they are raising interest rates to stop inflation by slowing demand.  A demand side approach.  However, it isn’t demand driving inflation; it’s the cost of energy driving inflation. That’s a supply side issue.

The central banks cannot admit what they are doing, or people would catch on.  They are intentionally reducing economic activity in order to support having scarce energy production. WATCH:

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The financial pundits are slowly starting to drop the pretending and discuss the bigger economic picture. However, as they tread very carefully, they are being very cautious about admitting too much.

A Reuters discussion of the comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, starts to dip the media toe in the painful pool; yet they will not admit the Biden energy program is the source of the inflation Powell is targeting with his policy moves to shrink energy demand. Thus, the pretending continues.

If you take the written words and extract the parseltongue, you can see a more fulsome picture of what is being outlined.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo., Aug 29 (Reuters) – The message from the world’s top finance chiefs is loud and clear: rampant inflation is here to stay and taming it will take an extraordinary effort, most likely a recession with job losses and shockwaves through emerging markets.

That price is still worth paying, however. Central banks spent decades building their credibility on inflation fighting skills and losing this battle could shake the foundations of modern monetary policy.

In other words, the U.S. economy is based on core U.S. energy systems and moving that construct to alternative energy, windmills, electric vehicles and solar panels; along with getting Americans to accept a lowered standard of living; is an “extraordinary effort.”

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As the global cleaving begins taking shape based on the new western energy system, the Build Back Better agenda, Russian energy exports are worth a lot more money.  As a result, the Russian economy has gained more wealth than before the western sanctions regime was triggered.  As noted by the Wall Street Journal:

(Via WSJ) – […] Demand from some of the world’s largest economies has given Russian President Vladimir Putin the upper hand in the energy battle that shadows the war in Ukraine, and has confounded the West’s bid to cripple Russia’s economy with sanctions.

Sales are booming in Russia’s export market, the world’s largest in crude and refined fuels. And new trade arrangements have given Mr. Putin cover to use natural gas exports as an economic weapon against Ukraine’s European allies. Before the war, Russia supplied Europe with 40% of its gas. It has since throttled flows through the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany and other conduits, driving prices higher and putting pressure on European households and businesses.

Oil revenue more than makes up the difference. “Russia is swimming in cash,” said Elina Ribakova, deputy chief economist at the Institute of International Finance. Moscow earned $97 billion from oil and gas sales through July this year, about $74 billion of that from oil, she said.

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Even Paul Begala, the notorious spin-doctor of all things conniving and corrupt within the Democrat party, sees a problem with Joe Biden’s decision to force the working class to pay for student loan debt.  WATCH:

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A solid dive by Law.Com and Daily Business Review into the background of who is financing Donald Trump versus who is financing Ron DeSantis should help to clarify the nature of the difference between them.

President Trump is funded primarily from massive amounts of small contributions from small donors, the MAGA base.

Governor Ron DeSantis is funded primarily by a small group of exclusive Wall Street corporations, billionaires and hedge fund managers, and almost no small donors.

Essentially, if you are thinking about MAGA populism -vs- corporate republicanism; well, there’s the issue in easiest to understand data form.

Additionally, the new managers of DeSantis have recently noticed the vulnerability and hired firms to try and stimulate small donor amounts in an effort to avoid the jaw dropping difference in average donation.  A strategy deployed by Jeb Bush in 2015.    Pay attention to the names giving large donations to DeSantis and you will see: (a) where the economic policy distinction comes from; and (b) where the RDS branding and consulting image is coming from.

Business Daily Review – Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has raised more money than Donald Trump since the former president left office, relying on deep-pocketed donors rather than the small-dollar contributors he’ll need if he seeks the White House in 2024.

DeSantis … has amassed $142 million from the start of 2021 through Aug. 5 this year from donors such as the hedge fund billionaires Ken Griffin and Paul Tudor Jones.  That tops the $136 million Trump collected over a slightly shorter period.

Unlike Trump, who relies largely on a network of small-dollar donors to fund his postpresidential political operations, DeSantis has raised the bulk of his money from a small number of wealthy donors writing him giant checks. That gives him plenty of money for his reelection effort in Florida, where laws allow unlimited contributions.

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Long-term CTH readers might remember in 2014 when President Obama claimed U.S. families had been paying too little for electricity for too long.  As soon as Joe Biden took office, he began implementing the Green New Deal energy policy that, (a) directly forces higher costs for energy; and (b) is now creating massive problems.

In July I noted my own electricity bill had jumped 28% in a single month.  That bill was followed by another almost identical increase this month.  A review of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for July [Data Here] shows that nationally the same thing is happening.  The year-over-year electricity price has increased 15.2%. However, worse still, the July increase alone was 1.9%, which figures to an annualized rate of 22.8%.

When the growth rate of monthly increase is exceeding the year-over-year result, that means future higher prices are coming.  This is a serious problem that cannot be overstated. Already struggling with a doubling of gas prices, massive food price increases at the grocery store and the pain of all costs for goods far outpacing any rate of wage increase, this type of uncontrollable increase in price of electricity is going to hit the middle class hard.

Steve Cortes calls this the backside of the Biden created inflation hurricane.  The backside of a hurricane is the worst because it hits from the opposite direction upon already weakened infrastructure.

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