Last year, when CTH discussed the original Kraft-Heinz wholesale notification for January 2022, we warned it was only the first round.  The reason for waves of price increases is specifically, because each of the processed food categories is impacted differently depending on the amount of processing involved.  Each category is different.

This understanding is why we warned everyone in October of last year to make as much preparation as possible for waves of food inflation.  The original notification for contracted terms in 30, 60 and 90 days was +20%.  Meaning this month, on those group and sectors, prices to retailers went up by 20%, and you are seeing that in the supermarket now.

For the next wave, Kraft-Heinz is telling wholesalers the fulfillment shipments arriving in March will be up to +30% on the next categories.  Oscar Mayer proteins will be the biggest increase at the top end (+30%), Maxwell House coffee on the lower end (+5-10%) and the juice and drink category around +20%.  [A $5 beverage pack will cost $6 in a few short weeks.]

The processing sector is still dealing with cumulative cost increases.  The fulfillment terms are still catching up with the increased costs.  These announcements are ON TOP OF the current price increases we are feeling.  We are entering hyper-inflation.

If you look at the notification timing from Kraft foods, January 24th, you will see the categories we predicted to come next are the exact categories being outlined in this wave.

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We have been tracking the issue of U.S. port congestion, supply chain crises and the White House supply chain initiatives since they first surfaced last fall.  We finally have full data to review, and what we see is very disturbing.  Not only was the White House supply chain effort a fraud, but they also manipulated the port system to give a false impression of the U.S. economy.

Let’s start with the latest issue.

For several weeks, we have been trying to figure out why the Port of Los Angeles (POLA), our nation’s busiest and most valuable port, had delayed their reporting for December.

Normally they update their container statistics and port efficiency/productivity results between the 10th and 15th of the month.  However, this month the data was delayed by several weeks.

When we finally grew frustrated and asked the POLA about this ridiculous delay, they responded January 25th, saying: “Good morning. Data from one vessel has delayed final numbers. We plan on releasing numbers today or tomorrow.”

The POLA justification and timing seemed odd, and their explanation seemed fishy.  One container ship manages to delay the entire POLA result?  However, this morning after checking and seeing still no result we realized what was going on.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis released the U.S. 4th Quarter GDP result (link).  The value of imported goods is a deduction to the U.S. GDP.  If the biggest port in the U.S. holds back their import cargo data, the resulting information cannot be deducted from the GDP.  Missing data gives an artificial outlook for the GDP.  Put another way, the 4th quarter GDP is inflated by the missing deduction.

From the position of the Biden administration, there is a perverse economic motive to keep all those import cargo ships from arriving.

Would the Port of Los Angeles intentionally hold back data in order to help the White House give a false and more optimistic impression of the U.S. economy?  At first blush it might seem a stretch, but then – as if on cue – a few hours after the BEA made the public release, suddenly the Port of Los Angeles released their December data.  In politics timing is never coincidental.

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A Gallup news survey [DATA HERE] indicates that eight out of ten Americans expect higher prices and continued rising inflation, as the working class can see the through the smoke and mirrors of the Biden economy.

Overall, there are multiple datapoints that show the economic quagmire that is taking place right now.  Gasoline continues to rise in price, as oil costs continue to skyrocket as an outcome of Biden energy policy.  Food store prices have only just begun to show the higher prices that are built into the replenishment process.

Newly arriving goods overall are at a much higher price that previous inventory.  The 30, 60 and 90-day terms of purchase order fulfillment are now reflecting the cumulative cost increases at every stage in the supply chain.  Inbound prices to retail are still climbing. This is an economic quagmire created by inflation that cannot be avoided.

Fuel, food, home energy and home prices overall are rising.  As a result, durable good spending has contracted.  CTH has pointed out this dynamic for almost five months; however, the actual data is difficult to extract, because the scale of government spending in 2021 has clouded all of the economic indicators.

The official government inflation statistics at 7 to 9% do not accurately reflect the real inflation being felt by consumers, which is in the 25 to 40 percent range for highly consumable products.  If you look around your local community, it is not difficult to see that working class Americans have modified all of their spending priorities to deal with the food, energy and housing inflation that cannot be avoided.

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Despite a request from Wall Street multinational business groups impacted by the threat from the truckers, the administration of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced they will not relent in their effort to force vaccinations on unwilling truck drivers.

According to Canadian media, the efforts of the insignificant proles behind the big rig steering wheels are easily dispatched annoyances when contrast against the unlimited power of the federal government.

The truck drivers will kneel before the mighty power of the administrative state, or the truckers will be ignored; it matters not.  The families of Canadian politicians can have their goods delivered from anywhere with taxpayer funds. The empty stores and supply chain disruptions will not be permitted to affect the powdered class.

CANADA – The federal government says it will not back down on its vaccination rule for cross-border truckers despite entrenched opposition from some drivers and groups claiming to represent their interests.

In a joint media statement released today, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan, Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough and Stephen Laskowski, the president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), said COVID-19 vaccines are the “most effective tool to reduce the risk of COVID-19” and protect public health.

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The Canadian ‘Freedom Convoy’ of truckers, pushing back against COVID mandates and forced vaccinations, began late last week and has gained massive support from the public.  The fundraiser for the effort now exceeds $3.3 million dollars and climbing.

Rebel News and other alternative media outlets have joined the convoy [LINK HERE], which not only includes big rig truckers but massive numbers of regular Canadian citizens who are joining the convoy as they head to Ottawa for an arrival date of January 29th.

It is difficult to estimate the scale of the groups as they are coming from multiple directions.

The truck convoys started from British Columbia in the west, Newfoundland in the east, and Windsor, Ontario in the south.

However, cars, SUV’s, vans, and small commercial trucks are now included in the massive convoy lines and joined with the big rigs.

Along the routes people are gathered at intersections and highway overpasses to cheer on the effort.  The scale of growth amid this grassroots movement is really quite remarkable.   For the people of Canada, millions have latched on to this protest as an opportunity to tell the government and public officials that enough is enough.

As noted by Rebel News: ” The nationwide movement is being launched in protest of a federal vaccine mandate that came into effect January 15, requiring all commercial truck drivers crossing into Canada to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19. The federal vaccine mandate for truckers has already caused significant supply chain chaos, with delays and shortages affecting many regions across the country. The mandate could result in a loss of 12,000 to 16,000 cross-border commercial drivers, according to the Canadian Trucking Alliance.”

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When Joe Biden took to the microphones in October to announce, “a series of public and private commitments to move more goods faster, and strengthen the resiliency of our supply chains, by moving towards 24/7 operations at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach,” the supply chain objective was to increase the productivity of the ports.  However, data released for November [SEE HERE] and now December, show exactly the opposite.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited both ports recently.  Both ports, along with Oakland, also made the arriving ships remain further offshore than when the October announcement was made.  They are hiding the ships.

For some unknown reason the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) has delayed reporting of December; but the Port of Long Beach (POLB) just released their data {LINK}.  What the statistics show is that less cargo is being handled now, than it was when the 24/7 port operations announcement was made:

The purpose of telling the ships to await their port time in a queue farther offshore is transparent.  The Biden administration wants to give the illusion they eliminated the bottleneck of container ships.   Out of sight is out of mind.

Operation ‘Hide the Ships’ allows the administration to make claims about port efficiencies and increased productivity that are abjectly false.  The data from the two months after the announcement shows less container offloading and onloading happened in November and December than happened in the prior month of October when the new initiatives were announced.

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There are two merging inflection points set to hit the public in a few days.

The first, is a much faster collapse in credibility for those who are pushing the vaccine benefit narrative.  The second, the more widespread appearance of shortages for food and basic essentials.  These two broad narratives are going to merge. CTH will outline the issues as they predictably surface.  This outline focuses on the latter, the supply chain angle.

♦ The cross-border vaccination mandate protests by truckers are continuing in Canada and at areas near the U.S-Canada border.  The vaccine mandate for the Canadian side began on January 15th. The mandate for the U.S. truckers begins January 22nd.  Both groups are currently slow-rolling the protest in/around the border crossings.

A coordinated Trucker Protest on the Canadian side is scheduled for January 23rd {LINK}, coincidentally the same time as a protest rally in Washington DC by members of the healthcare industry.  It is not coincidental that retail executives in the grocery industry are starting to prepare people in Canada for major grocery shortages {LINK}.

CANADA – “[…] “Independent grocers are in a myriad of communities in this country where there is no other grocery store,” Sands said. “If those stores close, you’ve got a food security issue.”

Meanwhile, stores are also experiencing a shortage of goods stemming from supply chain issues, including a shortage of truckers, packaging and processing delays and the Canadian winter.

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This is crazy.  The Canadian government is saying someone made a mistake when they announced they were rescinding the vaccine mandate for cross border commercial truck drivers.  As of right NOW, the January 15th deadline is in place.  All truck drivers from the U.S. or Canada will have to prove their vaccinated status in order to cross the border.

CANADA – The federal government says that unvaccinated Canadian truckers will not be exempted from the new federal vaccine mandate for truck drivers coming into effect this weekend.

In a joint statement, Canada’s transportation, health, and public safety ministers said that Canada’s initial policy requiring truckers coming into Canada to be fully vaccinated, or face PCR testing and quarantine requirements, stands.

Despite the Canada Border Services Agency telling reporters on Wednesday that unvaccinated Canadian truck drivers arriving at the border would “remain exempt” from any testing or quarantine requirements, the government now says that information, provided by a spokesperson, was incorrect.

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Comrades, the Premier of Western Australia, Mark McGowan has announced new rules for vaccine passports in the state.  Premier McGowan says life will become “very difficult” for the state’s unvaccinated, as he unveils the toughest proof-of-vaccination rules in Australia.

Let me be very clear, these rules and regulations are going to lead to unintended consequences that government officials have never considered.  The pain this will bring upon the vaccinated, yes, the vaccinated, will be of such consequence the government will be defending itself for years from the backlash of unintended consequences that global leaders have yet to fathom.  More on that later…

In the interim, in his announcement today, McGowan announces that vaccine passports will be required to participate in any level of civil society, and the unvaccinated are going to be intentionally locked out of almost everything.  Watch Video from 01:00 to 04:00 to see the scale:

This totalitarian interventionist exercise will bring a scale of consequence that Australians have yet to realize.  Unfortunately, many state and municipal leaders in the United States are not that far behind.

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We have talked about this quite a bit. {Go Deep} I’m not sure how this attempted needle threading is going to work out in the longer term. The announcement has come as a surprise to the Canadian trucking industry.

Apparently fearing the economic consequences, the Canadian government has dropped the vaccination requirement for Canadian truck drivers, and instructed border officials to permit unvaccinated Canadian truckers to cross the border.

The vaccine mandate for cross border truckers was scheduled to begin in a few days, January 15th.  However, the Canadian vaccination rule for U.S. truckers will remain in place.

MONTREAL — The federal government is backing down from its vaccine mandate for Canadian truckers three days before it was set to take effect.  Ottawa announced in mid-November that truck drivers crossing into Canada would need to be fully vaccinated by this Saturday.

But on Wednesday evening Canada Border Services Agency spokeswoman Rebecca Purdy told The Canadian Press that Canadian big-riggers will not have to quarantine if they are unvaccinated or have received only one dose.

[…] The new rule will still take effect for American truckers, who will be turned away at the border unless they’ve been inoculated starting this weekend. (read more)

How the hell can Canada justify dropping the vaxx mandate for Canadian truck drivers, but not for U.S. inbound shipments?  Are they preparing for a massive amount of rig switching at the border?   Good grief, what a mess.

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