As we have continued to point out, a federal vaccine mandate might sound like a good idea on a think tank, academic or white-paper policy level of consideration; but on a practical level, wiping out a large percentage of your most productive workforce over a vaccine mandate is unworkable, and might even end the operation of the entire business.

That is the message today within an article written by Politico about several large federal contractor companies warning the White House they may need to drop their federal contracts because they simply will not be able to continue business operations if they lose their unvaccinated workforce on December 8th.

Thus the power of the blue-collar workforce is being recognized:

WASHINGTON DC – Objections among certain vendors over President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal contractors are reaching an inflection point. As the deadline for workforce vaccination approaches, some trucking companies are mulling whether to end their work with the federal government altogether, according to two industry insiders.

In an interview, the American Trucking Associations’ executive vice president for advocacy Bill Sullivan told POLITICO that some companies may simply decide that the cost of the mandate is not worth the government’s checks. Sullivan said he has raised concerns to the White House, Office of Management and Budget and other executive branch officials. He noted that if companies drop their contracts, it may be harder to get certain foods to troops, transport fuel for military vehicles, or even deploy the National Guard.

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In a rare act of journalism, NBC actually followed up on the October 13th grand proclamation of Joe Biden to speed up California ports.  What they found is exactly what everyone suspected, the grand prose from the White House was a political pantomime – absolutely nothing has changed.  WATCH:

As noted, and as previously outlined, the issues with the backlog of the California ports have absolutely nothing to do with rapid unloading of ships and container vessels.  The issue is the inability of California truckers to move those containers.  The problem is a shortage of CA emission compliant internal transportation trucks to move the containers out of the port and into the U.S. mainland.

As a result… the politically expedient goal to get rid of the optical problem (the ships) by offloading containers into a California port system, that is already overwhelmed with tens-of-thousands of containers, is only making the original issue exponentially worse.  More people are now starting to understand the internal issue that has been created by recent California laws, rules and regulations.

Daniel Greenfield at Front Page Magazine has a solid outline of the emission compliance issues and the problem of independent truckers not being able to work in California:

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Earlier today White House Press Secretary Jennifer Psaki falsely claimed a United States President can do nothing about gasoline prices.  This is an oft familiar claim by the political left, it is also one of the more transparently false assertions in their arsenal of deceit.  First, WATCH:

So 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.

• Permit the use of preexisting approved leases in ANWAR (Alaska) to put more volume into the Alaskan oil pipeline that is severely underutilized.
• Finish the Dakota access pipeline.
• Re-approve the preexisting energy leases in New Mexico, Arizona, NE Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.
• Retract the stoppage of the Keystone pipeline to permit efficient oil transport shipments from Canada.
• Stop blocking the expansion of coastal oil refineries in Texas, Louisiana and Alabama (regulatory issue), as well as Northwest, Northeast and Southeast Seaboard.
• Continue to develop natural gas as a clean burning fuel.
• Drive Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as an export.

None of this requires any approval from OPEC.  Strategically the all of the above approach enhances U.S. national security and diminishes the influence of Russia, China and Iran.  Within six months of the above, gasoline will plummet.

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Hundreds of requests for details on the specifics of the container shipping backlog.  So, I spent 3 days calling sources, digging for details and gathering information on the substantive issue at hand.  The epicenter of the problem is not what is being outlined by financial media, corporate media and politicians who have a specific interest in distracting from the issues at hand.  This has nothing to do with COVID-19.

The issues being discussed today relate to events that happened a long time ago.  As a matter of fact, it was so predictable that Amazon, Walmart, UPS, FedEx, Samsung, The Home Depot and Target all had taken actions years ago -long before COVID- because they knew this day would come.  It was not accidental that those companies showed up at the White House to discuss the issue, because there’s now a full court press to hide it.

There is one very specific regional issue driving the problem.  Read on:

The trucking issue with California LA ports, ie the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) and the Port of Long Beach (POLB), is that all semi tractors have to be current with new California emissions standards.  As a consequence, that mean trucks cannot be older than 3 years if they are to pick up or deliver containers at those ports.  This issue wipes out approximately half of the fleet trucks used to move containers in/out of the port.  Operating the port 24/7 will not cure the issue, because all it does is pile up more containers that sit idle as they await a limited number of trucks to pick them up.  THIS is the central issue.

On October 16, 2020, the EPA reached a settlement agreement [DATA HERE] with California Air Resource Board (CARB) to shut down semi tractor rigs that were non-compliant with new California emission standards:

2020 SAN FRANCISCO – “Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced settlements with three interstate trucking companies imposing $417,000 in penalties for violating the California Air Resources Board’s federally enforceable Truck and Bus Regulation, Drayage Truck Regulation and Transport Refrigeration Unit Regulation.

“As trucks are one of the largest sources of air pollution in California, EPA will continue to ensure these heavy-duty vehicles have the needed pollution-control equipment and operate in compliance with the rules,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator John Busterud. “These companies have agreed to bring their trucks into compliance and operate more cleanly in all communities they serve.”

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There’s hypocrisy, there’s double speak, there’s stupid decisions based on politics…. and then there’s this level of Biden hypocrisy and stupidity that cannot be adequately encapsulated.   President Trump’s energy production policy made the U.S.A. energy independent.  We were actually exporting oil and gas to other nations.

However, in the previous six months Joe Biden has:  (1) Shut down oil and energy development in ANWAR {LINK} which would increase use of the Alaska pipeline. (2) Blocked the Keystone Pipeline from completion {LINK} (3) Banned energy development on federal lands {LINK}. (4) Shut down the sale of energy leases in the Gulf of Mexico {LINK}. and (5) Blocked energy development in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Alabama {LINK}  … As a direct and immediate consequence, gas and fuel prices have skyrocketed.  The price of Unleaded Regular Gasoline is now up over 60% from 2020.  Now THIS:

The price of gasoline is directly attributable to Joe Biden policy in his war against oil.  However, now that Americans are being crushed with massive prices for gasoline; and Biden is getting massive heat for his ridiculous position; this insufferable administration has the absolute nerve to ask Russia and mid-east oil producers, OPEC, to increase their production. {LINK}  You cannot make this up…

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The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) releases the inflation numbers for July [LINK HERE] showing massive U.S. inflation continues to crush the working class.  Massive increases in domestic food staples (+10%), energy (+23%) and regular unleaded gasoline (+43%) are hitting the middle-class exceptionally hard [See Table 2].

No middle-class Americans are having their wages increase even close to the scale of price increases for basic purchases.  This outcome results in massive drops in “real wages” (wages minus inflation), and eliminates disposable income entirely.  These outcomes are not due to COVID-19 or any recovery therein.  These outcomes are a direct result of Joe Biden economic and monetary policy. {Go Deep – and – Go Deep}

The White House responds to inflation by saying the Biden administration is attempting to directly subsidize the middle-class inflation they are creating by giving Americans money to pay for higher prices through COVID bailouts.  Yes, the administration admits they are exploding the dependency state, WATCH:

The White House solution is to create dependency on the government for income.  This is exactly intended as government subsidies are used to keep the pitchforks at bay and simultaneously keep people dependent on government to sustain themselves [expand the political base].

Also, please understand when they say “inflation is transitional” or “inflation will spike and then come down to normal levels” what they are saying is that prices will massively increase right now, and then normal or slow price increases will return next year.  This does not mean prices will come down, ever; a key distinction.

Inflation is the comparative measure of price increases now compared to a prior time (last year), usually expressed as a percentage.  Ex. A lemon cost $0.49 cents last year (2020), and jumps to $0.89 cents this year (2021).  The lemon may only jump to $0.99 in 2022 (.10 more) and that is significantly lower inflation, but the price spike is perpetually built in.  The same is true for gasoline, electricity, energy, etc.

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Repost from June by Request – Several people have written to CTH for an economic review of our current status. Below this post are two primary precursor articles [Primary One and Primary Two] which outline the economic dynamic in play, and how we can look forward with accuracy to what is likely to happen. Despite the deflective talking points by the professional financial pundits, this massive spike in inflation is entirely predictable due to Biden economic policy and Biden monetary policy.

Keep in mind, the FED already said in April they would “support inflation”, that’s because – while they will not say it openly, they know there’s no way to stop it. The massive inflation is a direct result of the multinational agenda of the Biden administration; it’s a feature not a flaw, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with COVID. Also keep in mind the first group to admit what is to come are banks, specifically Bank of America, because the monetary policy is the cause.

There’s no way around this. Despite the pundit and financial class selling a counter-narrative, home prices will crash and unemployment will go up. I know this is directly against the current talking points, but the statistical reality is clear. CTH was the first place that said months ago that new home sales will plummet, that is starting to happen right now. There’s no way for it not to happen, the big picture tells us why.

You might remember, when President Trump initiated tariffs against China (steel, aluminum and more), Southeast Asia (product specific), Europe (steel, aluminum and direct products), Canada (steel, aluminum, lumber and dairy specifics), the financial pundits screamed at the top of their lungs that consumer prices were going to skyrocket. They didn’t. CTH knew they wouldn’t because essentially those trading partners responded in the exact same way the U.S. did decades ago when the import/export dynamic was reversed.

Trump’s massive, and in some instances targeted, import tariffs against China, SE Asia, Canada and the EU not only did not increase prices, the prices of the goods in the U.S. actually dropped. Trump’s policies led the largest deflation in consumer prices in decades. At the same time, Trump’s domestic economic policies drove employment and wages higher than any time in the past forty years. With Trump’s policies we were in an era where job growth was strong, wages were rising and consumer prices were falling.  The net result was more disposable income for the middle class, more demand for stuff, and ultimately that’s why the U.S. economy was so strong.

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On July 4th, a little more than a week ago, the White House made the preposterous claim that holiday food was cheaper than last year. Everyone who buys groceries knew that level of propaganda was unmitigated nonsense and the consumer pricing data released today shows exactly that.

According to the BLS, June prices jumped 0.9%. Every month this year the CPI has been rising faster than the prior month, which essentially means inflation is rising at an ever-increasing rate. Annualized inflation (June 2020 -vs- June 2021) now shows an overall inflation rate of 5.4%.

However, at a 0.9% monthly rate -if the level stabilizes- that means the real inflation rate is 10.8% Yeah, that’s a serious problem.

The BLS data (see table 7) shows that gasoline has doubled in price year-over-year. Unleaded regular gasoline is now 46.4% higher than last year. That level of fuel price increase is crushing the working class and blue collar workforce.

Inflation overall is currently rising three to four times faster than wages. That means real wages are dropping as Americans are paying more for everything, including fast turn consumable products like food and fuel. Again, we repeat… durable good sales will suffer as disposable income shrinks. Additionally, rising housing prices combined with diminishing blue collar wages is an unsustainable trend.

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CTH has said repeatedly the road to serfdom is cemented with the catch-phrase “a service driven economy.”  The June jobs report from the Bureau of Labor statistics [BLS LINK]  highlights the JoeBama economic policy exactly that way.

Approximately 850,000 jobs were gained in June; however, simultaneously the number of long-term unemployed increased by 233,000 to the current state of four million.

While we should expect to see the leisure and hospitality industries as well as education rebounding from the various COVID-19 shutdowns, and indeed they did ( +343,000 and +155,000 respectively), manufacturing was flat (+11,000), and construction was down -7,000.  The details inside the data are not as great as the top-line would presume.

CTH looks at alternative data connected to the overall economy; empirical data and sector specific trends inside industry.  The biggest domestic issue is inflation, stunningly large increases in prices for fast-turn consumer goods like food and fuel.  Inflation is one of the primary reasons we have stated home values and home sales have peaked on a MACRO level despite the massive amount of real estate investment purchasing underway by financial institutions.

When we look at durable good production, we focus on the primary drivers of higher cost middle-class or working class products.  Seeing construction jobs decline by 7,000 at the same time real-estate values are increasing only points to the problem of working class not being able to afford new home purchases.  In the real estate sector this is unsustainable; it is simply a matter of math, income stability and wages.

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White House spokesperson Jen Psaki had a great solution to the massive increases in gasoline prices, shut-up and eat more hot dogs.

https://youtu.be/ytjzGMEhmuQ

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