As the global cleaving begins taking shape based on the new western energy system, the Build Back Better agenda, Russian energy exports are worth a lot more money.  As a result, the Russian economy has gained more wealth than before the western sanctions regime was triggered.  As noted by the Wall Street Journal:

(Via WSJ) – […] Demand from some of the world’s largest economies has given Russian President Vladimir Putin the upper hand in the energy battle that shadows the war in Ukraine, and has confounded the West’s bid to cripple Russia’s economy with sanctions.

Sales are booming in Russia’s export market, the world’s largest in crude and refined fuels. And new trade arrangements have given Mr. Putin cover to use natural gas exports as an economic weapon against Ukraine’s European allies. Before the war, Russia supplied Europe with 40% of its gas. It has since throttled flows through the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany and other conduits, driving prices higher and putting pressure on European households and businesses.

Oil revenue more than makes up the difference. “Russia is swimming in cash,” said Elina Ribakova, deputy chief economist at the Institute of International Finance. Moscow earned $97 billion from oil and gas sales through July this year, about $74 billion of that from oil, she said.

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An additional perspective on the current status of the Ukraine-Russia conflict from Retired Lt. Col. Daniel Davis.  WATCH:

A strong point made from the mailroom, adds perspective toward why the British are disproportionately taking on the responsibility for the European war machine inside Ukraine.   It has been noted the U.K. government is doing much of the training, arming and support for Ukraine from within the EU.  The question becomes, why was Boris Johnson and the British government so ‘all-in’ with their full-throated military support?

Perhaps the answer is as simple as the London financial markets. “The UK has nothing left but those sketchy money markets and exchanges. The Russians, joking at the sanctions, pricing resources in rubles, working with BRICS, are an existentialist threat to the UK. It shows that the financial exchanges and trading houses based in the UK are paper tigers because they can be easily bypassed. Russia is indeed an existentialist threat to the UK.”

It’s a good point.

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Retired Admiral James Stavridis was the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander who conducted Secretary Hillary Clinton’s war in Libya without congressional authorization.  Stavridis represents the military side of the State Dept war machine, while Michael McFaul, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, represents the diplomatic side.

Hopefully, more Americans are awake now to the nature of U.S. foreign policy as it relates to who controls the use of our military.  Most modern interventions are conducted from within the U.S. State Dept using joint elements of the CIA that operate within it.  The State Dept and CIA now control all pentagon operations and direct U.S. missions.

Once we accept how this modern process of global influence works, then we understand how and why Mike Pompeo moved from CIA to State during the Trump administration.  Pompeo was the ‘mitigator,’ the person installed to block President Trump from interfering in this construct.  What Bill Barr was to the DOJ, Pompeo was for the State Dept.  It’s always uncomfortable to look at the Deep State with clear eyes.

As you review the propaganda; and there is no doubt this is pure propaganda as pushed by NBC today on Meet the Press; keep in mind that U.S. operators are deeply embedded inside Ukraine to facilitate goals of the State Dept proxy war against Russia.  New York Times – … [E]ven as the Biden administration has declared it will not deploy American troops to Ukraine, some C.I.A. personnel have continued to operate in the country secretly, mostly in the capital, Kyiv, directing much of the vast amounts of intelligence the United States is sharing with Ukrainian forces, according to current and former officials.

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As noted in the interview, albeit with parseltonge to obscure the reality of the situation and keep the American public thinking sending more money and weapons into Ukraine will change the outcome – it won’t, Russia has dug in throughout Donbas and now controls eastern Ukraine.  Donbas was always the goal of Vladimir Putin as a buffer against Western use of Ukraine.

Ukraine is to the United States what North Korea is to China; both are fully controlled proxy states.  Western media keep pretending that Ukraine is not the playground for the U.S. government.  However, the larger reality is clear and accepting that reality explains why the U.S. government is funding the Ukraine government.  Meanwhile Vladimir Putin is clear-eyed and has no problem watching the U.S. go bankrupt trying to keep Ukraine afloat.

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If you have been following along, you might remember the note we made in July about not every country willing to go along with the western agenda on energy reduction, climate change, and raising interest rates to shrink their economy down to the scale of diminished energy development {Go Deep}.

In addition to Russia, China, Iran, Brazil, South Africa, Argentina and India vociferously retaining their own economic and monetary independence, Mexican President AMLO literally blasted the program while visiting the White House and the Bank of Japan refused to join the mantra to raise interest rates.   Essentially, all of the aforementioned nations see the collective Build Back Better program for what it is, a path to poverty.

As a result of their non-compliance with the global bankers, which, not coincidentally I would point out, coincided with the assassination of Shinzo Abe, the government of Japan has been getting blasted by the proverbial ‘west’ (U.S, Canada, U.K, Europe and Australia).

Japan is attempting to deal with inflation by focusing on increasing energy production and security (the supply side); while the rest of the western group have been chasing the false promise of decreased inflation by lowering the demand side, ie. pretending not to know their energy policy is creating the increases in costs.

As a result of the distinctly different monetary approaches, the financial system has been trying to punish Japan and the financial media have been trying to point out every flaw in the Japanese economy as a result of their noncompliance.   However, as you will see in this Reuters article, the July inflation within Japan is moderating.  Inflation in Japan is 2.4% for July (year over year).

TOKYO, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Japan’s core consumer inflation accelerated in July to its fastest in seven-and-a-half years, driven by fuel and raw material prices and adding to the costs of living for households yet to see significant wage gains.

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Last Saturday’s weekly monologue by Neil Oliver was a tremendous hit, helping to awaken millions of people from multiple nations about the true intent of this new governing system as promoted by policymakers on behalf of corporate interests [SEE HERE].

Earlier today (UK time) GBNews host Mark Steyn had Mr Oliver appear in studio to expand the conversation.  What results from Steyn and Oliver is a brilliant segment outlining the nature of this new governing system.  A system structured on the standard that disconnected policymakers are legislating to the needs of corporations.

When you remove the old “representative democracy” scales from your outlook and replace the lens with an understanding that representation now means representing the needs of multinational interests, almost all of the contradictions reconcile.

From that perspective, the Build Back Better or Green New Deal (climate change) agenda is not about replacing the system of energy production with a green system that duplicates the output. The intent of the new program is to produce less energy and then modify the uses of the now limited resource.  In one of the examples given, 30 million gasoline powered cars are not expected to be replaced by electric vehicles, a personal transportation system of far fewer vehicles is the goal.  WATCH (prompted):

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As a result of western governments’ taking collective action under the auspices of a ‘climate change’ agenda, we are on the cusp of something happening with ramifications that no one has ever seen before.

Western governments’, specifically western Europe, North America (U.S-Canada) and Australia/New Zealand, are intentionally trying to lower economic activity to meet the intentional drop in energy production.

This is the core consequence of the Build Back Better agenda as promoted by the World Economic Forum.

Anyone who says there is a reference point to determine both the short-term and long-term consequences is lying. There is no precedent for nations’ collectively and intentionally trying to reduce economic activity.

Hiding behind the false justification that current inflation is driven by too much demand, central banks in Europe, the Bank of England, Bank of Canada and U.S. federal reserve are raising interest rates.  The outcome we are currently feeling is an intentional economic contraction and global recession.

The Build Back Better monetary policy is successfully shrinking western economic activity; however, the impacted nations that produce goods for markets in North America and Europe, specifically southeast Asia, Japan and China, are not raising interest rates in an effort to try and offset the drop in demand.  China has announced they are dropping their central bank rates in a desperate effort to lower costs and keep their export dependent economy working.

Underneath all of this, is a drop in energy production in the same nations trying to lower economic activity.  The political policymakers are attempting to manage this process without informing the citizens of the unspoken goal.   Shortages of oil, coal and natural gas are self-inflicted problems, all part of the BBB agenda.

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U.S. taxpayers are now responsible for financially supporting the lifestyle of Ukrainian citizens directly.  Earlier today the Biden administration sent $4.5 billion to the Ukraine government to pay for their “salaries, pensions, welfare and healthcare costs“; with an additional $1 billion in weapons.  Total package $5.5 billion for Ukraine.  Meanwhile, congressional members are doubling the size of the IRS enforcement to keep Americans paying for these expenditures.

Europe is not paying to support the lifestyle of their neighbors, we are.  Somehow, I doubt that Germany would be willing to pay the expenses of the Mexican government – yet it is perfectly justified (in their mind) for the U.S. to carry the financial burden of Ukraine.  The more you think about it, the more infuriating it becomes.

(Reuters) -The United States will send an additional $5.5 billion in aid to Ukraine, made up of $4.5 billion in budgetary support and $1 billion in military assistance, to help it come to grips with the turmoil of this year’s Russian invasion.

The $4.5 billion budgetary grant will fund urgent government needs including payments for pensions, social welfare and healthcare costs, bringing total U.S. fiscal aid for Ukraine to $8.5 billion since Russia’s February invasion, the U.S. Agency for International Development said.

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The good news is that gasoline prices have dropped in the past several weeks to an average of $4.13/gal.  However, the bad news is that most of the drop in price is related to gasoline demand dropping to the same level as July 2020 during the pandemic lockdown phase.

Obviously, $4.13/gal is still a very high price for gasoline, and that is leading to fewer people purchasing gasoline.

(Via Fox) – […] New data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that gas demand dropped from 9.25 million barrels per day to 8.54 million per day last week. That’s 1.24 million barrels per day lower than last year and “in line with demand at the end of July 2020,” when there were widespread virus-related restrictions and fewer people were hitting the road, according to AAA. 

The latest demand figures bolster a recent AAA survey that revealed 64% of drivers had changed their driving habits or lifestyle since March to offset the high prices at the pump. (read more)

If you think about the position of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC or OPEC+), it makes sense for them to recognize the intentions of the western leaders to shrink the western industrial economies and respond accordingly.

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A few months ago, amid all of the headline warnings about inflation and prices of essential products, CTH noted that if we were to continue waiting about six months, we would see a massive backlog of unsold goods and as a consequence the prices of non-essential durable goods would begin a rapid decline.  That exact scenario is about to unfold.

Keep in mind, this is not necessarily a collapse of total global economic activity; what we are seeing is a collapse of western nation economic activity that is impacting the rest of the world.  A great economic fracturing is taking place as the western nations intentionally shrink their economy.  The supplier nations are feeling the consequences.

Maersk is the international shipping company that delivers millions of containers of goods all around the world, mostly by ship.  They are warning that warehouses are full of previously delivered goods, unsold consumer durable goods, as retail sales have come to a standstill.

The amount of inventory in warehousing is so extreme, major wholesale and retail groups have run out of storage space (link).

COPENHAGEN, Aug 3 (Reuters) – Shipping group Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) expects global container demand to fall this year as sales of durable goods come to a “standstill”, leaving flat-screen TVs and furniture piling up in warehouses, the company said on Wednesday.

A surge in consumer demand and pandemic-related logjams holding up containers in key ports had boosted freight rates and profits in the shipping industry in recent quarters, yet the cost-of-living crisis has reversed that trend.

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In addition to the contraction in South Korean manufacturing announced last night, European manufacturing and factory activity is also contracting with less output, higher buildup of inventory and fewer orders for finished goods.  The global recession is being measured fast and furious.

Every economic outcome is connected to a purposeful decision by the leaders of western industrialized nations to follow the Build Back Better climate change agenda.  Higher energy costs, an outcome of the collective policy to stop new production of coal, oil and gas, which has transferred into higher food prices, farm prices, gasoline prices, heating and cooling prices as well as electricity rates, is forcing consumers to stop purchasing non-essential products.

The sale of durable goods collapsed in the first half of this year; however, no policymakers or bankers wanted to admit it and they kept saying there was an excess of demand.  Now, with fewer customers for durable goods in the market, global manufacturing and factory outputs are dropping fast.  Eventually the central planners are going to have to admit their pretended demand does not exist.

While there is a natural lag in the activity, the rate of factory contraction will be proportionate to rate of the drop in demand.  Meaning we have only just begun to see the manufacturing decline that lags a few months behind consumer activity.

LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters) – Manufacturing activity across the euro zone contracted last month with factories forced to stockpile unsold goods due to weak demand, a survey showed on Monday, adding to concerns the bloc could fall into a recession.

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