Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has more financial and analytical resources at her fingertips than thousand hedge funds combined. When Secretary Yellen claims today that she “got it wrong” about inflation, what she is doing is continuing the game of pretending; she’s positioning the administration as incompetent, not deliberate.

The illusion of incompetence plays into the scheme of hiding the fact the administration is working through a purposeful strategy. In the game of pretending; and under the current circumstances; it is better to be seen as incompetent than recognized as working with malicious intent.  This is the illusion behind Joe Biden’s usefulness.

This is also the organized pretending game within DC that too few people will accept or admit. The Treasury Secretary and Federal Reserve Chairman are not making mistakes, they are working on a specific agenda and economic plan. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was not late to raise interest rates, he waited on purpose. He waited for the political reason of waiting until the triggered 2021 inflation spike cycled through the full calendar year.

These are not monetary policy leaders making monetary policy mistakes. These are monetary policy political ideologues, carrying out a political agenda within the U.S. economy. This is part of what National Economic Council Chairman Brian Deese would call the “economic transition.” WATCH this through the correct prism:

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Does anyone remember during the Jimmy Carter era when odd/even days on license plates to get gas?  Well, if the International Energy Agency is accurate, and the issue extends into the U.S. as predicted by many industry insiders, we could very well see gasoline rationing once again.

Beyond all the obfuscation, denial and continual pretending, the reason for the gasoline shortages is related to this forcible shift in energy policy that is underway in Europe and the United States.  It’s not a shortage of oil, it’s the new era where the Green New Deal is the policy priority.  The people within the Biden administration do not care about the consequences, Biden is pushed in front of the camera as a useful idiot to take the blame.

Business Insider – The US could see fuel shortages this summer once people start taking their vacations — and Europe could take a particular hit from the lack of supply, the head of the International Energy Agency has warned.

“When the main holiday season starts in Europe and the US, fuel demand will rise,” Fatih Birol told Der Spiegel. “Then we could see shortages — for example, in diesel, petrol or kerosene, particularly in Europe.”

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Joe Biden sought counsel today from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern about how best to remove firearms from Americans and force the U.S. economy to a dependency on renewable energy.   Prime Minister Ardern took the top spot in the global progressive movement after the retirement of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

PM Ardern, a remarkable smiley-faced fascist, now represents the face of modern global leftism and boned-up her progressive bona fides with the totalitarian New Zealand COVID policy.  The corporate fascists within the World Economic Forum love the government compliance model represented by Ardern to the collective global society they are creating.

New Zealand has a population of 5 million people, and a GDP of $205 billion (about the same as Nevada).  By comparison the U.S. has a population exceeding 350 million and a GDP exceeding $21 trillion. That said, during their White House meeting today, Joe Biden emphasized that he welcomes the assistance of PM Ardern in helping to guide U.S. efforts for firearm regulation and a comprehensive climate change driven renewable energy economy.

[Transcript] – […]  You understand that your leadership has taken on a critical role in this global stage — and it really has — galvanizing action on climate change; the global effort to curb violence, extremism, and online, like happened in Christchurch.

And — you know, we want to be — I want to work with you on that effort.  And I want to talk to you about what those conversations were like, if you’re willing.

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Anytime you hear the code-word “transition”, what the explainers mean is the change from traditional oil, gas and fossil fuels to renewable energy and the Green New Deal.  The phrase “economic transition” is used to explain the economic collapse of Main Street that will happen during the switch.   Remember THE GOAL?  It has never changed.

National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, aka the U.S. version of Baghdad Bob, appears before several audiences today in an effort to use as many words as possible to explain the “transition,” without actually explaining the “transition.”  Why?  Because they don’t want the average person to know what the “transition” is all about…. Because if the average person knew what this “transition” is all about, then they might realize all of these massive increases in price are being done intentionally.   WATCH:

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Again, you guys are going to get sick of me saying this…. BUT, the number one problem our country faces is that the vast majority of us are PRETENDING.

The White House is pretending the U.S. government does not have full control over what is happening in the economy.  The media are pretending not to know that the White House is avoiding admitting the agenda and economic pain is intentional and unavoidable.  The republican politicians are pretending the Biden economic transition program is because the White House is incompetent.  All of these -and so many more- are just pretenses.

What is being done by the government, in this decision to switch from an oil and gas economy into a wind and solar economy, is being done on purpose. Yes, everyone at every level of government, both political parties and every agency within it, and the entirety of the corporate media are pretending not to know this is the Green New Deal taking place.

We cannot confront or solve this stuff, until we -including media- stop pretending.  Brian Deese is Baghdad Bob.

I will not eat the bugs.

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…..Quit Pretending

Joe Biden is not running this economy.  Joe Biden’s economic advisors are not running this economy.  Joe Biden’s cabinet members are not running the economy. The people running this economy are the climate change activists behind the scenes who have been elevated into positions in all economic cabinet offices throughout the administration.  This was the deal in 2020 that led to Biden’s installation.

Professional political activists, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders types, within the Interior Dept., Energy Dept., EPA and other regulatory agencies related to the energy economy are in control. Not a single operator within the system looks to the White House or executive office for guidance.  They knew they had a short window to carry out the unilateral agenda regardless of damage it does.

This is a full-throated assault on the energy industry under the auspices of the climate change agenda. And that is what is collapsing Main Street and pushing massive costs onto consumers via inflation.  That’s it. That’s the background. No one in/around the White House has any control over the consequences. That was the 2020 deal made, and the reason why Biden was selected as the nameplate.

Oil prices have shot up to $120/barrel.  Russia and Ukraine are being used as a smokescreen for the ‘Build Back Better’, or domestically, the “Green New Deal’, agenda.  The same climate agenda supported by the entire Western government alliance who bow to the altar of the World Economic Forum.

Damn the consequences, full speed ahead. Main Street citizens are collateral damage.  They don’t care. In the view of the operators, their urgent goals are bigger than our needs; and their high-minded, filled with superiority justification is, they are trying to save us from ourselves.

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Germany is the central and largest economy within the European Union; it is also the most influential for anything related to the response from the European Central Bank and EU Central Bank President Christine Lagarde.   Today, Germany is reporting a massive (unexpected) jump in overall inflation for May of 8.7%, up from the previous month’s 7.8%.

Ironically, it was a little more than a month ago when EU Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said she did not expect the EU inflation to be quite as bad as the U.S. inflation crisis due to the EU spending less on COVID relief and focusing on employment retention.  This was the ECB justification for not raising interest rates until later this summer.  Obviously Lagarde has joined Jerome Powell in the room filled with bad financial decisionmakers.

Germany is the largest and most influential economy inside the EU. If the German economy falters, the entire EU slips into a recession.  The massive inflation now being reported by Germany, that continues climbing each month, will increase the urgency for of Lagarde to raise rates.  They too are in the inflation spiral, and this issue will quickly fracture the EU response to Ukraine.

(Via Reuters) – […]  German consumer prices, harmonised to make them comparable with inflation data across the European Union, increased to 8.7% from 7.8% a month earlier, well ahead of expectations for 8%, data from the Federal Statistics Office showed on Monday.

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Tucker Carlson accurately puts the spotlight on former presidential candidate, Senator Elizabeth Warren, as he outlines the destructive nature of the Joe Biden economic and energy policies.  Warren is an academic. Everything Warren has created and advocated comes from theory and academics.  Senator Warren has never built anything, created anything, or worked on a system to contribute anything.  Elizabeth Warren is 100% an academic and activist wonk, just like Barack Obama.

Tucker is right to focus on Warren because as we have outlined previously, control over energy policy and economic influence was the price candidate Warren demanded in 2020 for going along with the plan to install Joe Biden.  Her endorsement came with the demand that she be allowed to take her energy and economic theories and put them into actual economic policy for the Biden administration.  Tucker’s the first person I have seen to connect the two.  WATCH:

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In order to keep control over the literal application of her theory, Warren had demands for the businesses and companies that operate within the economy.  That’s why she is desperate to build mechanisms inside government policy where approvals and/or disapprovals take place.   Tucker got this monologue correct.

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Have you ever seen egg prices at $1 per egg range, or $12/doz?  Hold on a few months and perhaps you will.  That is the context for the scale of food price increases the USDA is now starting to predict.  The highest predicted change in food costs in well over 40 years, that’s the USDA warning in their revised May “Food Price Outlook”. [DATA HERE]

This month the USDA just re-re-revised the forward price outlook, and things are grim.  It likely doesn’t come as a surprise to many CTH readers because we have been discussing the convergence of events since October of 2021, when we first were able to predict Wave-1 (Dec/Jan), and Wave-2 (March/Apr) inflation.  However, the underlying data for Wave-3 is double the prior two phases.

Keep in mind the data is national & skewed toward low estimations as represented by (+).

When the USDA predicts egg prices increasing by 19.5 to 20.5% (from where those prices are now), there will be regions with much higher retail increases than estimated.

Just two months ago, USDA had egg inflation at 2.5%-3.5% range, year over year.  Again, that’s the scale of change; from a 3.5% forward outlook to a 20.5% forward outlook effective right now.

Food at home (grocery store) prices: up 7% to 8% in this monthly review, versus the April outlook of a rise of 5% to 6%. That means the USDA is predicting the highest grocery store price rise since 1980 when prices rose 8.1% (prices rose 7.2% in 1981).  There is no reason to think the USDA forecast will not rise again in June.

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The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) originally calculated the first quarter economy at a scale of -1.4% growth. The BEA revises that figure downward today with more data showing a contracted level of consumer spending [DATA HERE].  The economy contracted by -1.5% in the revised numbers.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the dollar value of all goods and services produced in the economy, minus the dollar value of goods and services we import. The percentages discussed are percentages of change over time.

♦ What changed in this revision to make the economy worse?

(1) U.S. inflation was revised upward (prices increased); (2) the estimate of calculated inventories was lowered; (3) the estimate of consumer spending was raised (inflation issue); which leads to (4) a massive drop in the calculation of disposable incomes.  [See the Change Table]

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the County Employment and Wages Summary Wednesday [DATA HERE].  The economic tracking measures the employment and wage increases at a county level throughout 343 counties in the nation.

The BLS measures the data on an annual basis from December 2020 through December 2021.  The average rate of wage growth at a county level was 5.9%, far lower than the measured 8.5% inflation rate.  That means real wages, the income of most Americans at the county level have dropped.

However, within the data Florida stands out as having the largest number of counties exceeding the national average.  23 Florida counties are included in the BLS tracking.  An incredible 21 out of 23 Florida counties have wage growth that far exceeds the national average. [BLS, Table-1]

Additionally, Florida holds the top spot for the highest annual rate of wage growth in Palm Beach County with 15.6%…. AND… Florida holds the top spot for the highest annual rate of wage growth amid the ten largest counties, with Miami-Dade wage gains of 11.1%. [BLS, Table-2]

Congratulations Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Florida workers.   You have the rare distinction of having wage growth overall that exceeds the BLS measured level of Biden inflation.   It’s no wonder why so many people are heading to Florida for jobs.

FREEDOM. If you keep it, they will come.

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