Many people believe the people who are in charge of the economic policies destroying the middle-class have no idea how the Main Street economy actually works.  I disagree, I believe they know exactly what they are doing and why they are doing it.

From one perspective, inflation is a statistic that comes from a bureaucratic system quantifying prices.  They have no concept of how policy-driven price increases hurt consumers or working-class families.  Everything in their sphere is academic and esoteric.

However, that said, those who have designed policy know there are benefits to inflation, like lowering economic activity that supports their lowered energy production policies. Inflation also helps them pay their way out of the spending they create that drives the inflation. Make money worth less and debt is lessened, or so the theory is told.

Joe Biden made remarks today that “inflation” as he looks at it, is defined as the amount of money in a paycheck.  WATCH:

.

(more…)

The bizarre part, from the perspective of normal democracy, is the open admission by EU Commissar Ursula von der Leyen that she intends to punish the Italian people if they elect the wrong political leadership to run their country.  Yes, she literally threatened to punish Italy if the voters elect an Italy-first candidate tomorrow.

Having previously sanctioned Hungary and Poland for electing heads of state that are nationalist minded, Ursula von der Leyen warned the Italian people she will take the same action if Italians defy the will of the European Union collective. When asked about EU citizens demanding their elected leaders listen to their specific and unique economic needs, the EU President Stated {Direct Rumble Link}:

“We will see the result of the vote in Italy. If things go in a difficult direction — and I’ve spoken about Hungary and Poland — we have the tools.”

.

The remarks come from Commissar von der Leyen because a rising nationalist star in Italy named Giorgia Meloni is anticipated to win victory.  Meloni is an unapologetic nationalist who believes in Italy-first.  As a result, the EU media consider Meloni an ultra-far-right-wing politician.   However, the scale of public support for Meloni has positioned her to become Italy’s first female prime minister in the election tomorrow.

(more…)

This is epic. This is like listening to Grandpa rail against the Federal Reserve and central banks without realizing the motive behind what the Federal Reserve and central banks are doing.   This is the best example to date of the misconception behind ‘The Great Pretending.’

U of Penn, Wharton Business School professor of finance, Jeremy Siegel, rails against Jerome Powell and the central bankers for raising interest rates into a collapsing western global economy.  Everything, everything he outlines, is essentially accurate about the damage being done to western economies. …. Except the biggest realization and acceptance is missing…. It’s being done by design.  The people he outlines are not making a mistake, they are doing it on purpose.  First, WATCH:

The U.S, EU, CA, AU and western economic central bankers did not respond sooner to the inflation crisis (2021) because the central banks were waiting for the politicians in their systems to establish the energy policy that their pre-planned action was intended to support.  [<- Reread that if needed].

Once the collective Build Back Better/Climate Change energy policy was established (2021), and after the resulting inflation created the justification for the central bank action, then -and only then- did the central bankers trigger the next phase of raising interest rates (2022) to reduce western economic activity and support the Build Back Better agenda.

All of this was by design.  None of this was by mistake.  The process, strategy and timing were all part of the Build Back Better agenda.  Purposefully created inflation, the result of the energy policy, was planned and used by the central banks to justify the rate increases.  It was a self-fulfilling prophecy built into the Build Back Better roadmap.

Now these ‘bankers’ are trying to collapse the economy to meet the reduction in energy production.  The bankers are supporting the political motives of the politicians.  This is all intentional.  Jeremy Siegel misses this core and fundamental aspect.   However, some of the lesser ideological western leaders (politicians) are starting to get ‘cold feet.’

(more…)

Finally, a finance and economic discussion that touches on the critical component to inflation that no one dare say, or else they suffer political backlash.  Although Mick Mulvaney, Austin Goolsbee and to a lesser extent, Rick Santelli, had to maintain the acceptable ‘pretending’ approach, parsing words carefully, at least this is one of the first times where the supply side (energy driven) issue of global inflation was discussed.

As the group collectively admitted there is no other option other than a “hard landing” that collapses the economy from the current Fed approach; additionally, Rick Santelli, blasts the relationship between the political central banks and the global leaders who have pressured this dynamic.  WATCH:

.

Still pretending, but lessened a little.  Hey, progress.

(more…)

National Grid and Eversource are the two major electricity providers for Massachusetts. Both companies have notified the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) that rates for electricity are about to skyrocket.

National Grid has announced a 64% increase in electricity rates effective November 1st. While Eversource is on a different schedule, they too have announced an increase in natural gas rates of 38% on November 1st and the January 1, 2023, electricity rate will be announced in the next few weeks. Eversource is anticipated to announce a similar rate increase to National Grid. WATCH:

Both major power companies rely on natural gas to create electricity.  Thanks to Joe Biden’s energy policies, which includes the massive export of natural gas in LNG form, domestic prices for natural gas have skyrocketed and will continue increasing as production is further shut down by regulation.

We are helping the EU survive their sanction driven energy crisis by sending them natural gas (LNG format), while simultaneously forcing Americans to pay more in order to maintain the EU export.   Everything about the process is FUBAR.

(more…)

With most financial media being intentionally obtuse with the Biden economic impact upon Main Street, it is refreshing to see analysis that cuts to the heart of the matter.  HatTip to ZeroHedge who provides a link to a great article outlining reality for blue and white-collar working families.

The folks at NerdWallet have taken the inflation date from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) and applied the math to real life.  The result is a good encapsulation of checkbook economics and how the Biden economy is painful for the working class.

In total, Joe Biden’s energy policy driven inflation has added $961/month to preexisting expenses.  That’s $11,532 a year just to retain the status quo standard of living.

(NerdWallet) – […] In all of 2020, American households spent $61,300, on average. This number includes everything we spend our money on: housing, food, entertainment, clothing, transportation and everything else. In 2022, it stands to reach $72,900, a difference of more than $11,500 if consumers want to maintain the same standard of living. Keep in mind, this is an average, a number that represents an approximation across all Americans, but one that’s exact to a very few. Those who earn (and therefore spend) more will see more dramatic dollar increases. Those who earn less may see less dramatic dollar jumps, but the impact of these rising prices could be more significantly felt. (read more)

If the average household spent $61,300 and inflation is adding $11,500 to the expense, that means we now have to spend 18.7% more just to maintain the current standard of living.  That average is in line with what we are seeing in the real world.

(more…)

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced another 75-point increase in federal interest rates today. This is the third consecutive 0.75 percentage point increase.  Additionally, Fed policymakers have pledged to continue raising rates as high as 4.6% in 2023.

While Powell walked through his reasoning to continue targeting inflation by lowering consumer demand, not once in any of his remarks did he mention energy policy driving up the cost of materials and goods.  The Great Pretending continues. WATCH:

The Fed chair is trying to manage the economic policy transition by reducing economic activity to match intentionally diminished energy supplies.  Lowering economic activity drops demand for energy. Unfortunately, as admitted by Powell on August 26, 2022, in Jackson Hole, this means a period of “some pain” for Americans as the central banks join together in an effort to lower consumption.  (more…)

Trying to survive current price increases in housing costs, energy costs, electricity costs, food and fuel costs has forced consumers to reevaluate purchasing decisions.  As consumer demand for non-essential items has collapsed, and as Americans dig deeper into their savings just to sustain current unavoidable expenses, major retailers are now cancelling Christmas inventory orders.

On one hand the leaders of large multinationals must pretend everything is splendid; after all, the only acceptable position they can articulate is to support interest rates being raised because demand is just too darned high.  lololol…  pretending.  But on the other hand – those same retailers are furiously trying to calculate how to avoid being stuck with billions worth of unsold inventory.

RetailWire – Walmart, Target, Macy’s and Kohl’s are among retailers that have recently said they are canceling some orders to better balance inventory levels, a replay of a strategy used at the start of the pandemic.

Other steps retailers are using to clear inventories as spending has slowed on some non-discretionary categories are employing markdowns and packing away products for the following year. The elevated inventory levels also reflect intentional over-buying to mitigate shortages and the easing of supply chain constraints.

(more…)

I was asked recently, what I considered to be the biggest problem of the current moment, and how would I describe it to my future self.  My response was, we are living in an era of great pretending, and if you elevate yourself and pause its actually quite interesting to watch.

The pretending issue goes beyond politics, it’s everywhere.  Sure, there was always an era where reality was skewed in favor of one position or another by various groups, people and leaders, where denying the obvious was always odd.  However, this current state of our national and international disposition extends far beyond politics into almost everything.

A person would ordinarily expect to see cultural or social pretending as an outcome of political correctness.  Denying the underlying social construct behind the rules of the urban society has been the norm for several years.  However, the pretending has become so pervasive it has recently extended into finance and economics; places where reality -actual outcomes- used to inoculate facts and figures against pretense.

It is no longer uncommon, heck, it’s become almost standard in this new era, to see CEO’s, CFO’s and even entire boards of directors, maintaining a standard of pretense. It is quite weird to see it happening.

Yes, this era -for a host of reasons- has made delusion somewhat of a norm.

In the social sphere, cultural norms now claim men can have babies, people can choose their gender, labels and pronouns, and everyone else bears the responsibility to conform to the delusion.  While goofy, that part is somewhat a weird cultural phenomenon of this western era.   If we were not pretending people like AOC would have no career opportunities.

In the political sphere, the axiom of politics being downstream from pop culture is perhaps the reason the infection of pretense has overwhelmed congress and the professional bureaucracies of government.  The social pretending has metastasized from the federal level to the state level, and now we see efforts to counteract “wokeism” as a social priority for state and local leaders.   It’s weird to see so much time and effort being exhausted on combatting social pretense at every level.

But the more stunning development comes in the sphere of economics, where factual outcomes of transactions are matters of simple accounting.  A ledger of sales and profits would normally dictate whether a business was successful or failing, and in the bigger picture would show empirical evidence of the financial health of the community of customers who purchase goods and services.

(more…)

Joe Biden’s economic policies, mainly driven by excessive spending and the Green New Deal climate change agenda, are the origins of massive inflation.

In an attempt to diminish the outcomes of his energy policy, the Biden administration has been releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, in an effort to curb gasoline prices.  However, that process is about to end as the SPR is becoming dangerously low and will need to be replaced (more spending).

When asked about the current status of inflation during a CBS interview, Biden responds by saying it could be worse, citing the last two months where the SPR spigot has been running at maximum release.  WATCH (48 seconds):

.

(more…)