Two things about this report showing Rivian is planning layoffs for its workforce.

First, the larger ‘layoff‘ issue is going to be more prevalent as the economy contracts and consumer demand declines.  There is almost no expanded investment going into any Main Street business that sells non-essential goods.

The economic contraction, the drop in consumer demand that indicates a recession, is very real and now very easy to spot.

Second, Rivian is backed by the financing of Ford and Amazon and operates in California, Michigan and Illinois (three deep blue states).  Rivian is also the supplier for Amazon electric delivery vehicles having previously announced (in 2019) a deal to purchase 100,000 vehicles from Rivian.  Additionally, Rivian has lost 69% of its market value this year.

LA TIMES – Rivian Automotive Inc. is planning hundreds of layoffs to trim its workforce in areas where the electric-vehicle maker has grown too quickly, according to people familiar with the matter. […] The Irvine company, which has more than 14,000 employees, could target an overall reduction of around 5%, the people said. The layoffs are still in the planning stage, and nothing has been decided.

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You might have heard about an online grocery distribution center called Picnic in the Netherlands burning to the ground {LINK}.  The backstory of how the Picnic operation connects to the Dutch government is fascinating, and with context it looks like Picnic was targeted as part of the Dutch farmer protest.

In the Netherlands the government official who organized the regulations to take farmland from farmers and reduce their livestock is a politician named Christianne van der Wal-Zeggelink {wiki link}.  Mrs van der Wal-Zeggelink is the current Minister for Nature and Nitrogen Policy in the Dutch cabinet of Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Minister Christianne van der Wal-Zeggelink and Prime Minister Mark Rutte are climate activists, so it makes sense that the “Minister of Nitrogen Policy” would be the person who would attempt to reduce nitrogen by targeting the farmers.  It is Mrs. van der Wal-Zeggelink who created the regulations that the farmers are protesting.

Now, stay with me… Christianne van der Wall-Zeggelink is married to Piet van der Wal, an heir to the wealth of the family who owns a supermarket chain called Boni. {citation} So, when Dutch farmers sell product to Boni they are directly funding the wealth of the government minister who seeks to destroy their livelihoods.

Additionally, when Dutch shoppers spend their money at the Boni supermarket they are funding the family of the government minister who is seeking to destroy the farmers who provide the food to the supermarkets.  Do the Dutch farmer blockades of the supermarkets and distribution centers make more sense now?

Here is where it gets interesting….  The supermarket chain Boni is one of a small group of four big investors in the online supermarket chain Picnic. {citation}  The van der Wal family was part of a group of investors in 2015 and 2019 who generated €450 million for the Picnic grocery operation.

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This is not The Onion or any form of spoof.  This is real life, and it is happening today.

Amid a heatwave throughout most of Texas, The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, is urgently asking Texas residents to conserve electricity because “it has projected a shortage in energy reserves Monday “with no market solution available.” Voluntary conservation is needed between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Monday.”

The problem, as the Texas power authorities have identified it, is outlined via NBC News:

According to ERCOT, factors driving the need for this important action by customers:

• • • Record high electric demand. The heat wave that has settled on Texas and much of the central United States is driving increased electric use. Other grid operators are operating under similar conservative operations programs as ERCOT due to the heatwave.

• • • Low wind. While solar power is generally reaching near-full generation capacity, wind generation is currently generating significantly less than what it historically generated in this time period. Current projections show wind generation coming in less than 10 % of its capacity.

Conservation notifications are issued when projected reserves may fall below 2300 MW for 30 minutes or more, according to ERCOT. (link)

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Unfortunately, (a) she’s not talking about energy or oil production/supply; and (b) she believes it.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a comprehensively incompetent and unqualified person selected to run the commerce department, blames, without hesitation, a “fundamental lack of supply” for the cause of U.S. inflation [04:38].  She’s not pretending, Raimondo genuinely believes this.

I have struggled with the question of whether it’s incompetence or intentional ideology that drives some of these cabinet members to say stupid stuff.  In the case of Commerce Secretary Raimondo, it is clearly incompetence.  In order to believe that a lack of supply is driving inflation; which is not coincidentally the same demand-cause opinion held by the federal reserve; a person has to ignore the dozens of key economic indicators that show consumer demand has contracted, inventories are climbing, and orders to manufacturers have dropped.

Even Samsung, one of the largest producers of electronics sold in the United States, has told all their suppliers to stop sending the component goods used to manufacture their products because orders for finished goods have plummeted.  Hell, consider this…. THE COMMERCE DEPARTMENT, yes, that’s right, the Department that Raimondo is in charge of, has collected the data showing RETAIL SALES have DROPPED.  Yet here she is blaming a lack of supply for inflation.  WATCH:

It is not a lack of supply driving supply side and producer inflation. It is the massive increase in material, processing and transportation costs associated with Biden’s energy policy that are impacting supply-side inflation.   Demand has contracted, inventories are climbing, manager orders have plummeted, and consumers are squeezed.  Yet this knucklehead thinks recession is unlikely.

Gina Raimondo was also on Meet The Press, with another knucklehead, Chuck Todd.

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Despite the U.S. media not giving any time, attention or discussion to the rise of farmer protests in Europe, everyone should pay attention because the same climate change goals being enforced in the European Union are coming to North America.

The global food manipulators within the World Economic Forum have established the farming policy that aligns with their climate change goals. As noted in this Sky News discussion this is the Great Reset. It’s not just Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte pushing the agenda, in 2020 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave an identical outline, with an identical timeline, for the exact same process [SEE HERE]. The collective WEF political leaders are all singing from the same hymnal.

In this discussion and interview segment, the spokesperson for Netherlands, Agricultural and Horticultural Organization Wytse Sonnema, outlines why there is such a broad sense of “frustration, anger, even despair” amongst farmers amid proposals for nitrogen reduction target plans.  This will be coming to North America soon. WATCH:

In very simple terms, the politicians cannot reduce the farming process for industrial food production without reducing the farming yield.  It is just commonsense.

You do not need to be a farmer to understand that nitrogen/phosphorus-based industrial fertilizer has been the reason why farm yields have generated massive amounts of food on a global basis.  The United States, U.K. and places like the Netherlands have massively increased their ability to generate food for export, in large part due to the success of improved fertilizer and crop saving modern pesticides.

Larger discussion continues below….

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University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business, Finance Professor Jeremy Siegel, takes a closer look at the June jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Professor Siegel notes a .01% drop in average hours worked is the labor equivalent of losing 450,000 jobs.

With factory demand dropping, and with inventories climbing, and with FTE’s (Full-Time Equivalents) dropping, the jobs report takes on additional context that aligns with the overall decline we feel in Main Street activity.  Essentially, regardless of how many jobs are “created” within the economy, the overall economic activity -as measured by the value of products & services generated- is declining.

Additionally, as noted by Professor Siegal, the current best estimate as reviewed by the several data points, is a current drop in overall GDP in the -2% range.   Seigal points this information out because the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates into an economy that has declining (demand side) consumer activity, which, correctly as he states, only makes the contraction more severe.  WATCH:

The core supply side costs (all based on energy policy) continue to increase and drive consumer prices upward.  Simultaneously, consumer demand is dropping because the goods and services impacted by the increased costs (most of which are unavoidable) are more expensive.  This creates a downward spiral.  Consumer prices are increasing on housing, energy, food and gasoline (supply side impacts), at the same time discretionary spending contracts.

In this scenario there is no way to avoid a steep recession.  However, the real priority of Joe Biden surrounds whether Jill will allow his favorite pudding, and if the shoes on the pancake mix keeps making sparkly rabbit noises.

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released the June jobs report [Data Here] showing 372,000 job gains on the establishment survey of businesses.  However, the April and May reports were revised downward by 74,000 jobs, and there is an odd disconnect between the survey of businesses and the survey of households.

The survey of businesses (BLS establishment report) shows job gains of 372k for the month of June, but the survey of households (BLS household report) shows that fewer people are working.  The labor-force participation rate slipped to 62.2% from a previous high of 62.4%, fewer people are working.

This odd disconnect has many people wondering what is going on?

Wage growth comes in at 5.1% on an annual basis, which is far below the current BLS calculated rate of inflation at 8.6%. Meaning wage growth is not keeping up with inflation despite workers entering the labor force at a higher entry level wage.

Economists overall are flummoxed as job gains would indicate a strong economy. However, the actual economic activity, the creation of goods and services, is not growing.  Quite the opposite appears.  Orders for factory goods have dropped, inventories of currently available goods are climbing, and sales figures across a broad spectrum of companies are negative.  The economy as measured by the creation of goods and services is stalled, but the economy as a measure of employment is firm.

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The Energy Information Agency has finally updated “on road” diesel prices after a month of frozen data [SEE HERE].  Conspicuously, the technical “glitch” correction is resolved [statement here] as the price for diesel starts to drop a little.

Oil prices are showing a drop in price, and subsequently gasoline prices are starting to moderate.  Unfortunately, as noted at The Hill, the drop in price is not related to an increase in production, but rather a decline in consumer demand.

WASHINGTON – The price of U.S. crude oil was hovering around $98 per barrel on Wednesday afternoon, down from about $108 late last week. Brent crude fell to about $101 per barrel, down from about $111 late last week. 

[…] “We’re on the cusp of seeing more savings,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at gas price tracking site GasBuddy. “I’m trying to be a little bit optimistic here that this relief could make its entire way to the pump in the weeks ahead.” 

[…]  “The average price per gallon could fall 40 to 65 cents over the coming weeks,” he said, adding that the drop could be over a three- to six-week period. 

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Things in the Netherlands are remaining spicy after Dutch police attempted to stop one farmer protest by shooting at one of the teenage farm tractor drivers.

A summary of the background story is HERE.  Independent journalist Michael Yon has now travelled to the Netherlands to document the protest as western interest in the conflict starts to increase.  Steve Bannon interviewed Yon earlier today. {Direct Rumble Link}, Video Below:

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After the Dutch police shot at one of the protesting farmers last night, they took the tractor driver -a teenage boy- to a local police station.   The farmers responded earlier today by surrounding the police station and demanding his release.  The Dutch farmers are not backing down, they have doubled-down and are now blocking airports.

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Step back for a minute and elevate the discussion to a bigger review.  In the past several months every single institution of policy making has stated, many emphatically, that a looming global food crisis is imminent.   No one is hedging on this point; everyone in the geopolitical system is in alignment saying there will be food shortages.

Joe Biden, NATO, the G7, the European Union, the World Bank, USAID, and every western leader in the United States and Europe has stated there will be food shortages.

They are not saying there might be shortages; their statements are emphatic, there will be shortages.

Accept this basic cornerstone.  Then ask why not a single proactive step has been taken by any of the aforementioned institutions or governments to alleviate what they declare is a certainty.  Why?

Simple question, “why?”

If all of the western nations, non-govt organizations and heads of state, are aware of a coming food crisis, why is there no proactive response?

It is a question that even the most hardcore leftists will not answer, because there is only one answer.  No action is being taken because they do not want to take action.  No effort to avoid the crisis is being done, because they do not want the crisis avoided.

Peel all the layers of obfuscation and causation away, and what we find is the epicenter of the food shortage is directly the result of the Build Back Better agenda.  A post-pandemic western government deliberate decision to radically change global energy development.  In succinct terms, the climate change agenda.

However, regardless of how you feel about the validity of “climate change,” the cause of diminished food supplies is purposeful.  It is not climate change causing food shortages. It is the purposeful action taken under the guise of mitigating climate change that is causing the shortage of food.

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