Something odd is happening in the background of the G7 energy ministers’ announcement earlier today.

Remember that moment {HERE} when Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland seemed really uncomfortable and weird at the presser – just 36 hours before the Trudeau administration announced they were going to drop the Emergency Act banking sanctions against the truckers? {Go Deep}

Here is an encapsulation of what’s weird, and you don’t have to be an expert in geopolitics and international trade to see it:

The G7 countries (including the U.S.) announced today they were demanding that Russia accept payment for oil and gas in euros and dollars.  This is happening at the same time NATO is demanding (via sanctions) that Russia be blocked from accepting payments in euros and dollars.

Something is weird.  Keep in mind, the same nations in the G7 are the same nations in NATO with the exception of Japan (G7 only).

The only way this conflict could make any sense, is if the G7 energy ministers realize that forcing Russia to trade in non-euros and non-dollars will structurally undermine the G7 unilateral hold of global finance and energy policy.   In essence, the G7 see the non-sanction countries, particularly India and China, lining up to replace the petro-dollar, and that not only weakens their position financially, but it also weakens their climate change position.

(more…)

Joe Biden said the western alliance would target any country that violated the sanctions against Russia.  Specifically, after a lengthy telephone call with Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping on March 18th: “President Biden made clear the implication and consequences of China providing material support, if China were to provide material support to Russia, as it prosecutes brutal war in Ukraine,” the senior administration official said, “not just for China’s relationship with the United States, but for the wider world.” (link)

Today, ten days later, China just called Joe Biden’s bluff.

China announces they will violate the western sanctions and continue to purchase crude oil and gas from Russia.

HONG KONG — Chinese state energy company Sinopec will continue to buy crude oil and gas from Russia, a top executive said on Monday, even as Western democracies step up sanctions in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

The company, known formally as China Petroleum and Chemical, is involved in two major projects in Russia: an oil and gas production joint venture called Taihu in the Volga-Ural petroleum basin in western Russia with state-owned peer Rosneft, and the development of the Amur gas chemical complex and processing plant with Sibur in the Russian Far East, adjoining China.

(more…)

Current Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is a Davos/WEF devotee of the highest magnitude.  Yellen is ensconced in the worldview of those who run the operations of central banking and global finance.  She is the globalist secretary of world treasuries and has been throughout her professional life.

As more people become aware of the Build Back Better agenda, or as some would say “The Great Reset,” and its direct connection to the dreams and aspirations of the climate change ideologues in the elitist class, it is worth paying attention when Yellen says nothing will deter the Biden administration from eliminating fossil fuels; and it is her role to make that objective financially possible.

Yellen emphasizes the Biden administration position about how the conflict in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia are an example of why the global energy resources need to fundamentally change to renewable resources.  Her strength of advocacy, in alignment with the Davos/WEF position, is yet another data-point to highlight the predictable cleaving of the world economies into two distinctly differing groups of nations.  WATCH:

It doesn’t matter how economically painful it is to chase these energy policies, the elitists who operate western government are all-in on the same program.  The same western governments who used totalitarian emergency powers to destroy liberty and freedom under the guise of COVID-19 mitigation, are the same western governments now aligned to use the crisis in Ukraine to advance their energy ideology.

(more…)

We could all see this coming.  The Ukraine-Russia conflict creates the opportunity for the Build Back Better initiatives to get triggered.  None of this is happening organically.  All of this is opportunism based on a series of dominos purposefully triggered.  Three government solutions to rising oil prices surface simultaneously in an effort to exploit the crisis they created.

Keep in mind, this economic roadmap was strategically outlined in the World Economic Forum “Build Back Better” initiative, and that was built upon the economic ‘climate change‘ opportunity that COVID-19 created.  The U.S. version of BBB was called the Green New Deal.

First, Biden proposes to trigger a useful “Climate Change Emergency” (LINK).  Second, the International Energy Agency proposes a “Ten Point Plan” to change energy use in the modern society (LINK).  Third, comes AOC and Bernie Sanders with the “Executive Action Agenda” (LINK).

All of this is the fundamental change represented by western government in the agenda of ‘building back better’.

(IEA) In the face of the emerging global energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, practical actions by governments and citizens in advanced economies and beyond can achieve significant reductions in oil demand in a matter of months, reducing the risk of a major supply crunch, according to new analysis released by the International Energy Agency today.

These efforts would reduce the price pain being felt by consumers around the world, lessen the economic damage, shrink Russia’s hydrocarbon revenues, and help move oil demand towards a more sustainable pathway.

(more…)

Move along, move along folks… please do not pay attention to the fire raging downtown, the suburbs are so nice this time of year… move along folks, look shiny Ukraine thing over there…

When retail sales are calculated, they are calculated in dollars.  Any recorded increase in retail sales that does not exceed the price increases in those items is factually reflecting a drop in units sold.

Ex. – if you sell 300 items at $1.00 each, you have $300 in sales.  If you sell 250 items at $1.25 each, you have $312.50 in sales.  Technically, you have a 4.1% increase in sales.  However, you have sold 17% less items (50 units).

When you are selling less stuff, your business (economy) is contracting, not expanding.  We have been in this contracting cycle (an actual production recession) since May/June of last year; however, the contraction has not been recognized because massive inflation is hiding it.  That, my friends, is the painful truth and it spells big trouble ahead.

(AP) […] Retail sales increased 0.3% after registering a revised 4.9% jump from December to January, fueled by wage gains, solid hiring and more money in banking accounts, according to the Commerce Department. January’s increase was the biggest jump in spending since last March, when American households received a final federal stimulus check of $1,400.

Business at furniture and home furnishing stores fell 1% in February, while sales at consumer electronics and appliance stores slipped 0.6%. General merchandise stores saw business down 0.2%, while online sales fell 3.7%. Restaurant sales rose 2.5% as shoppers shift more of their spending to services as the threat of COVID-19 fades. (read more)

Take the figures above and compare them to the sector inflation in February (Table-2, BLS Report)  – Just sticking to what is above:

(more…)

In September of 2019, Elizabeth Warren promised to do something on her first day in office that would rebuild the Russian economy, grow China’s influence and support the Maduro regime in Venezuela.  We immediately wrote about it HERE.

SEPT 7, 2019 – Democrat presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has made a campaign promise that was quite remarkable:

What Senator Elizabeth Warren promised in that tweet is EXACTLY what Joe Biden did on his first day in office.   Now, before going further, let me explain something about that relationship that will likely make a lot more sense.

You might remember when all the democrat candidates in the 2020 primary were told to drop out right before Super Tuesday, as part of the organized effort to stop Bernie Sanders from becoming the nominee.  The lone holdout was Senator Elizabeth Warren.  She was polling essentially even with Joe Biden while Bernie was leading.

It was very well documented at the time that Senator Warren was negotiating terms with the Biden team for her compliance and support.  Eventually, as the controlled party momentum grew, Warren agreed to drop out of the race, and she endorsed Joe Biden.  The terms of that agreement were never made public, but when we look at the priority of Warren (tweet), and compare it to the literal duplication of that pledge that was carried out by Joe Biden, well, the coincidence doesn’t look coincidental.   I digress…

Back to the original statement by Warren.  At the time she made this statement in 2019, we outlined a very specific series of consequences that would happen if she really did target fossil fuel on day one.  Now that Joe Biden has carried out exactly what Warren outlined, let’s go back to that 2019 outline of consequences and compare it to where we are today.

(more…)

Tucker Carlson used his monologue tonight to give a big picture review of how the White House is using the Ukraine-Russia conflict to hide the economic outcomes created by their policy.

Massive inflation on basic necessities, combined with rising gas, fuel and energy costs are crippling the working class.  The White House is now using the Russia-Ukraine conflict as an excuse to hide their responsibility.   It’s an accurate outline. WATCH:

(more…)

President Donald Trump sits down for an extensive interview on current events with the Nelk boys on Full Send Podcast.

https://youtu.be/WRbRoQcO9os

(more…)

Gasoline is now at the highest price ever recorded. The average cost of a retail gallon of unleaded gasoline hit $4.173, according to the American Automobile Association, with many regions now far exceeding that price.  It is not uncommon to see $5/gal gasoline in many areas.

Against this backdrop, Joe Biden announced today that his administration is banning the import of oil, liquified natural gas (LNG) and coal from Russia.  [We do not import LNG or coal from Russia, so that political point is moot.]  You can read the executive order HERE.

The executive order also bans any U.S. entity from investing or facilitating the investment of Russian energy development.  That section explains why there were earlier reports of Oil companies withdrawing from Russia.  They were obviously given a heads up.

The way the order is currently written, and a lot of it has to do with extremely generous interpretations by the U.S. Treasury Dept., it would appear that any energy company currently operating in the U.S. cannot simultaneously be operating in Russia (or be part of the subsidizing and insurance network that supports energy development in Russia).  The Treasury interpretations here are fraught with complexity.

The part that matters is boiled down in this section:

(i)    the importation into the United States of the following products of Russian Federation origin:  crude oil; petroleum; petroleum fuels, oils, and products of their distillation; liquefied natural gas; coal; and coal products;

(more…)

White House Press Secretary Jennifer Psaki said today the Biden administration will try to reduce the impact of rising oil prices for American consumers but will not do anything to allow increased production of U.S. energy resources.

Oh, and it’s all Vladimir Putin’s fault, WATCH:

I’ll keep repeating it, because many people just don’t understand the unique nature of our North American position.  Energy resources are nation specific.  Ireland, the U.K, Europe, or Australia, do not have abundant oil and natural gas deposits like the U.S. does.  ANWAR has more oil than Saudi Arabia.

A U.S. president can and does control the price of gasoline.  What can a U.S. President and administration specifically do?  We have abundant U.S. energy resources.  Quite literally the strongest in the entire world.

(more…)