The U.S. Census Department releases retail sales data today showing a strong contraction in consumer spending for July [MSM LINK].  The out-of-touch financial pundits were looking for a 0.3% decline; however, the drop was four times greater with a contraction of 1.1% in spending.

“The slide in retail sales comes after Friday’s preliminary consumer sentiment report from the University of Michigan showed one of the largest drops on record, leading some strategists and economists to warn of downside risk to the sales data.” (link)

This should not be unexpected for those who read here.  Massive price inflation on essential goods is eating up wages.  Food, fuel and energy price increases are changing consumer spending habits.  Non-essential purchases have stopped….. they haven’t slowed, they have stopped. ←Emphasize this because it is not showing up yet in the data lag.

The data reflects that auto sales were the primary contributor to the decline in spending (-4.3%).  This should make sense to people because auto purchases are the largest general consumer purchase outside of home purchasing.

When purchase decisions are made by families; and food and fuel prices are skyrocketing; replacing a vehicle is not essential.  Auto sales are a key indicator of consumer confidence and income.

Overall inflation is the primary driver.  Real wages are declining (wages – inflation), and disposable income is dropping quickly.  Americans need to start talking very deliberately about what is about to happen.  CTH predicted this and has been walking through the visible outcomes as each set of new data surfaces {SEARCH BOX}.  Nothing happening right now is unforeseen or not easily understandable.

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In July, Biden said Kabul would never fall.  Four days ago Biden said it would take more than 90 days for Taliban to reach Kabul, if at all.  Today, Biden sends 1,000 more additional troops to Kabul as it is expected to fall within 72 hrs.   That is correct.  By Monday the Taliban could control all of Afghanistan.

The AP is reporting that emergency evacuations have sped up the timeline to avoid the most embarrassing optics for the Biden administration.  An additional 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne are en-route to support the previously announced 3,000 U.S. troops handling the evacuation.  That is a total of 4,000 new military troops sent to Kabul to support the previous 1,000.  Keep in mind the original Afghan withdrawal was 2,500 troops in total.

(VIA AP) – The Latest developments on Afghanistan, where a weeklong Taliban offensive is now approaching the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, after the insurgents captured most of the north, west and south of the country, just weeks ahead of the final pullout of all U.S. and NATO troops:  “WASHINGTON — A defense official says President Joe Biden has authorized an additional 1,000 U.S. troops for deployment to Afghanistan.

That raises to roughly 5,000 the number of U.S. troops to ensure what Biden calls an “orderly and safe drawdown” of American and allied personnel. U.S. troops will also help evacuate Afghans who worked with the military during the nearly two-decade war.

The Pentagon said earlier that 3,000 troops are being sent to Kabul to join the nearly 1,000 already there. Biden’s statement on Saturday didn’t explain the breakdown of the 5,000 troops he said had been deployed.

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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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One of the most significant aspects to President Trump’s administration was the trade and economic team he assembled to drive the “America-First” Main Street resurgence we saw on display throughout the four years in office.  Readers will note, there was no turnover of personnel in the trade and economic team, because they were the priority, the fulcrum of the Trump Doctrine. One of the key people driving the America-First agenda was Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

President Trump’s trade and economic team were laser focused on bringing back domestic Main Street economics as the foundation of our economy.  That approach put Wall Street multinationals at a policy disadvantage.   No-one without an interest in U.S. economic security was allowed a seat at the Trump table.

Policies and practices that supported made in the USA domestic manufacturing and industry were the prism through which all actions taken by the Trump administration were viewed.  The massive growth in U.S. jobs and wages was a result.  We also had an unprecedented period of deflationary pricing.  Things were, well, economically astoundingly good for American workers.

As a direct consequence China, Europe and ASEAN partners who had their foothold in the U.S. economy were weakened.  This made the U.S. (Wall Street) multinational corporations -who rely on outsourcing, offshoring and raw material export- very angry.  The exfiltration of American wealth was halted by Trump.  There were trillions at stake, and many enemies were made because of the America-First agenda.

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There Are Trillions At Stake…

Here we go again, 150 multinational Wall Street corporations write a collective letter urging congress to pass the stalled legislation that would trigger a federal takeover of U.S. elections.  [Reuters Article Link] I’m not going to post the article directly, because it is the same group of characters, the same motives and intentions that we previously wrote about [HERE].

[Please note: all leftist media call them “corporations” when the narrative is purposed to attack capitalism (ie. ‘Occupy’), and then the media switch to the term “companies” when the narrative engineering needs to support the same corporations they previously attacked.  The Alinsky wordplay is part of the design.  Democrats say “corporations bad” to their woke sheep, so when they need to hide their alignment with the same businesses, the media switch words to call them “companies.”  I point this out because it is actually a useful tool to help people wake up and spot the manipulative and purposeful hypocrisy of the leftist ideology.]

At the heart of the issue, we are yet again back to the familiar battle, Wall Street -vs- Main Street.

Remember in April when 100 multinational corporations held a conference call to organize messaging on state election laws?  Well, this is the same crew only now with targeted messaging toward congress.

Additionally, I guarantee you the G-20 discussions about a “global minimum corporate tax” are being leveraged by the White House against these U.S. Multinationals in order to get them in line supporting the federal election takeover.  I guarantee you backroom deals and carve-outs, collusion between government and corporations, are being made.

Their commonality of purpose.  The multinationals need the federal takeover of elections because Wall Street needs globalism in order to continue advancing their financial objectives.  Main Street nationalism, or economic patriotism, is antithetical to their income statements.  The current White House and the Multinational Corporations have a common enemy, Main Street.

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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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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 has already said in April they would “support inflation” but 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 who said two months ago that 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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Reposting an earlier article by request as more people are starting to understand why CTH has focused on the financial motivations behind the political ideology for over a decade. It is critical that people understand the landscape. Underline it. Study it. Research the issues and teach everyone about it.

Consider if you will, the backdrop of current U.S. politics; the influence of Wall Street and the multinationals who align with globalism; the reality of K-Street lobbyists writing the physical legislation that politicians sell to Americans; and then overlay what you are witnessing as those same multinationals now attack the foundation of our constitutional republic. All of this is CORPORATISM, a continuum that people were ignoring for decades… Now, thankfully, there is a new awakening.

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Positive debate on solutions and constructive criticism of approach is always appropriate for our elected officials; heck, that is the essence of our discussion. However, recently there have been many critics of President Trump; many people only just now understanding the problem and proclaiming that President Trump specifically did not do enough to block, impede, stop and counteract the globalist forces that were/are aligned against his effort to Make America Great Again.

Hindsight is 20/20, but there are people who proclaim that Donald J Trump should have been more wise in his counsel; more selective in his cabinet; more forceful in his confrontation of corporate globalists. Let me be clear….

I will never join that crew of Trump critics because I have understood his adversary for decades. CTH did not just come around to the understanding of the enemy. CTH has been outlining the scope of the enemy, the scale of the specific war and the financial and economic power of the opposition for over a decade. We understand the totality of the effort it will take to stop decades of willful blindness amid the American people. We also see with clear eyes exactly what they are doing now, even with President Trump forcefully removed from office, to destroy the threat he still represents.

Donald J Trump was/is a walking red-pill; a “touchstone”: a visible, empirical test or criterion for determining the quality or genuineness of anything political. I have been deep enough into the network of the Deep State to understand the scale and scope of this enemy. To think that President Trump alone could carry the burden of correcting four decades of severe corruption of all things political, without simultaneously considering the scale of the financial opposition, is naive in the extreme.

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With Joe Biden in the White House you can expect to hear the name “Blackrock” in the headlines connected to a variety of issues from real estate purchasing to green energy projects with massive domestic and international investments.

BlackRock, Inc. (together with its subsidiaries) is a massive publicly traded multinational investment firm with over $8.68 trillion in assets under management [December 31, 2020 financial statement] in more than 100 countries across the globe.  To say that Blackrock is invested in globalism, climate change and leftist politics, would be a severe understatement {See Here}.  Larry Fink is the CEO and people like Cheryl Mills, Hillary Clinton’s attorney of record, are on the board.

Inside BlackRock there is a division called the BlackRock Investment Institute (BII) {See Here}.

Essentially the role of the BII is to tell BlackRock what is going to happen around the globe, and be the tip-of-the-spear in directing BlackRock where to invest money by predicting political events.

The Chairman of the BlackRock Investment Institute is Tom Donilon, President Obama’s former National Security Advisor (before Susan Rice), and a key advisor to Joe Biden throughout his career in politics.

You cannot get more deeply connected in the swamp financial schemes than Tom Donilon.

Donilon has been in/around government for 35+ years, deeply connected.  Before joining the Obama administration Donilon was a registered lobbyist from 1999 through 2005 for O’Melvney & Myers. {Bio Here} Tom’s sole client was Fannie Mae.  Fannie Mae is a government-backed private corporation that sells mortgages to investors.

Donilon took the lobbying gig because he was previously Executive Vice President for Law and Policy at Fannie Mae where he was responsible for Fannie Mae’s legal, regulatory, government affairs, and public policy issues.  Tom Donilon’s BlackRock Biography reads like a who’s-who of connections to the swamp {READ HERE}

Here’s where it really gets interesting.

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We noted last month the inflation issues were not going to get better and indeed they are getting worse.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released the latest inflation data, and the rate of inflation continues to increase at an alarming rate; now at 5% year over year for all items.

With only six months of JoeBama economic policy hitting so far, the rate of inflation is now four times larger under Biden than it was under Trump policies.

Everything the Biden administration is doing is making things worse, and now we are seeing big drops in real wages as the inflation rate is far beyond wage growth.   Under Biden inflation is massive and wage growth is non-existent.  This is an exact reversal of the Trump-era outcome where inflation was low and wage growth rates were high.

Year-over-year price comparisons for regular unleaded gasoline are now +58.2%.  [Table 7] Stunning increases in fuel. Natural gas is up 13.5%.  The prices of durable goods like furniture are up 9.8% while the prices for washers/dryers have jumped up over 26%.  Used car prices are up 29.7%, while every durable good is showing massive increases (appliances, clothes, furniture, jewelry, etc).  Even televisions are up almost 5%, after years of continually lower prices.

The May increase in energy prices “was the largest 12-month increase since the period ending April 1980”, over forty years ago. Yes, with 28% increases in overall energy prices Biden is mirroring Jimmy Carter in the outcome of his economic policy (this is not accidental).

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