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Wind blades and solar panels head for landfills after being replaced
https://www.yahoo.com/news/wind-blades-solar-panels-head-125406075.html
Homebuyers with good credit scores will soon encounter a costly surprise:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/apr/18/joe-biden-hike-payments-good-credit-homebuyers-sub/#:~:text=Mortgage%20industry%20specialists%20say%20homebuyers,socked%20with%20the%20largest%20fees
https://nypost.com/2023/04/16/how-the-us-is-subsidizing-high-risk-homebuyers-at-the-cost-of-those-with-good-credit
SHipping....
California’s robust supply chain, which drives nearly one-third of the state’s economy, has continued to buckle under stresses from the pandemic and an ongoing labor fight between longshoremen and port operators up and down the West Coast, which has prompted many shipping companies to rely instead on ports along the Gulf and East coasts. Cargo processing at the Port of Los Angeles, a key entry point for shipments from Asia, was down 43% in February, compared with the year before.
“The longer it drags on, the more cargo will be diverted,” said Geraldine Knatz, a professor of the practice of policy and engineering at the University of Southern California, who was executive director of the Port of Los Angeles from 2006 to 2014.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/california-economy-edge-tech-layoffs-180105851.html
While America burns, Xi Jinping’s plot to dominate the world is quietly succeeding
1.8k
Douglas Murray
Fri, April 7, 2023 at 12:00 PM PDT
https://www.yahoo.com/news/while-america-burns-xi-jinping-190000822.html
It is sometimes not possible to notice great tectonic shifts. At other times it is eminently possible, and anybody with their feet on the ground can feel that ground move. So it is at the moment with the rise of China and the fall of America. Consider the events of recent weeks.
The United States has been single-mindedly focused on one story: the arraignment of a former president on charges cooked up by an ambitious Left-wing district attorney who wants to make his name by getting Donald Trump to jail. In Manhattan and Palm Beach, the media has paid for helicopters to fly overhead and capture every move of the former president. The streets have been packed with press photographers taking photos of other press photographers, all waiting for something to happen.
All the time, America’s cities – from New York to San Francisco – are rotting from the centre out, with Leftist DAs allowing theft and even violent crime on a scale that has not existed in living memory. This is presided over by a president who everybody can see is half asleep on the job and a vice-president who is not as up to speed as all that.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party has its own designs. In recent weeks, Chairman Xi popped up in the Middle East to broker a deal between the Saudis and the Iranians. The great divide in the Middle East between the Sunni bloc, dominated by Saudi Arabia, and the Shia bloc, led by Iran, suddenly appeared to reach a rapprochement.
I wouldn’t give it very much time, myself, though Saudi Arabia and Iran’s top envoys met again this week in Beijing to pose for another photo op. Still, the durability of the deal is not the real point here. The point is that it was Beijing assuming the role that Washington would once have played in power-brokering such a deal.
It was the same at the end of last month when Xi turned up in Moscow to present the Chinese plan for ending the war in Ukraine. It would allow Russia to keep the territorial gains it has made during its war of aggression. So it is not a good plan, and the Americans, among others, rejected it immediately. But the point is that it was once again the Chinese who were taking the initiative, parading around the world stage, talking and posing as the protectors of the international system.
So it was inevitable that other world leaders would eventually come to the court of the new emperor and treat him in the way that he now expects to be treated. This week, Emmanuel Macron travelled to Beijing to pay homage. There would have been a time when a French president who wanted credit for stopping a war like that in Ukraine would have gone to Washington DC for meaningful talks. Today, the French president turns up in China for meaningless ones.
Trailing a set of gifts that would have embarrassed a medieval potentate, Macron announced at their joint press conference that he knew he could rely on Xi to bring Moscow to the negotiating table. For his part, a profoundly bored-looking Xi simply said that “China is willing to jointly appeal with France to the international community to remain rational and calm”. They yesterday issued an ambiguously worded joint statement to that effect.
And that was essentially that. And this being China, naturally the “press conference” had no questions from any press. After all, you must respect the customs of the country you are in, and the custom under the communists in China is that the press writes what the government tells them to. In the CCP system, what need has the press of questions?
This is just to focus on the international diplomacy side of things. But the same applies in area after area. While we in Britain argue about things like whether or not a woman can have a penis or how “racist” we are this week, China’s top politicians and envoys are busily travelling the world making trade deals. Ever since Beijing was allowed into the World Trade Organisation in 2001 – a decision which already looks both world-historic and unwise – it has used its financial clout to simultaneously exploit the rules and break them.
Today, they are not even hiding their desire to ensure Chinese economic dominance in the 21st century. Nor are they any longer hiding their desire to leave the US dollar-dominated financial system behind them.
Just this week, China was once again in America’s own backyard. After a set of negotiations, a new agreement between China and Brazil was announced. And here is the salient factor: the deal completely bypasses the American dollar, which would once have been the standard for such negotiations. Brazil and China said that the arrangement would see yuan directly exchanged for reais, with no need to convert to US dollars.
Brazil’s Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil) announced that this would both “reduce costs” and promote better bilateral trade and investment between the two countries. That was the spoken bit. The unspoken part was: and we don’t need America or its currency.
In many ways, that is not surprising. Because successive American governments – of all political stripes – have done a great deal in recent decades to diminish the standing of the US dollar. It doesn’t matter whether the president, House or Senate are Democrat or Republican, US government spending and debt just keep rocketing up and up. When Democrats are in charge, they ratchet up borrowing and lavish it on their pet projects. When Republicans are in charge, they seem to be forever surprised by events, and forever have the same response – increased government borrowing.
During the last presidency, that came about primarily as a result of the Covid pandemic when the government started splurging out cheques to get American households and businesses on their feet. There is a great debate over whether that was the right thing to do. There is no debate at all over the fact that much of this money simply disappeared.
But for China, it couldn’t have worked out better. China of course gave the world the virus – whether from a lab leak or a wet market – and caused the shutdown of the American, and global, economies.
In the wake of that, in countries like our own, the economy is only really now sputtering back to life. But the effects on the education of the next generation, the debt accumulated and much more mean we will live with the effects of the China virus for the rest of our lives. Meanwhile, Beijing won’t even co-operate in finding out how it emerged in the first place. Not a bit of it. Nothing that might slow down or distract from their agenda.
And while we distract ourselves with ridiculous and ill-informed rows about the alleged iniquities of everything in our past, China is simply getting on with its future. While our institutions bend over backwards to be as “diverse” as possible, China’s institutions simply try to become as dominant as possible. From the rise of Chinese companies to China’s increasingly aggressive behaviour towards Taiwan, Beijing is intent on its agenda while the West wobbles.
For instance, in the tech world it has been clear for years that the platform TikTok, a Chinese firm, is highly suspect. Indeed, it has long been accused of data harvesting. The platform has captivated children and teenagers in Britain and America, but it has not been allowed to trouble the youth of China.
While our children – and some adults – do the latest stupid dance for the platform, they don’t seem to have realised that they are not using a product. They are the product. Their information is the point. And what do we do about it? We have interminable discussions from Westminster to Washington about how to handle Chinese technology that may already have done its job in compromising us. And the Left worry that even raising the question might be “racist”.
The old line about Nero fiddling while Rome burns comes to mind. But what our leaders have been doing is worse than that. Our societies – and governments – have been doing silly little dances – sometimes on TikTok, sometimes, like Macron in Beijing – while the Chinese Communist Party moves the ground from under our dancing feet. If you take the long view, the things that our leaders have allowed, encouraged and been distracted by in the past 20 years make the Emperor Nero look like a model of responsibility.
Douglas Murray’s latest book, ‘The War on the West’, is out now in paperback
US oil production will remain at 'historically high volumes’ through 2050: New government report
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/us-oil-production-will-remain-at-historically-high-volumes-through-2050-new-government-report-211713075.html
Ben Werschkul
Ben Werschkul·Washington Correspondent
Thu, March 16, 2023 at 2:17 PM PDT
Despite his campaign rhetoric of ending fossil fuels, President Biden acknowledged in his recent State of the Union address that "we’re going to need oil for at least another decade."
But a new report released Thursday by an independent agency of Biden’s own government projects it will even be much much longer than that.
[Stay ahead of the market]
In fact, the 2023 Annual Energy Outlook from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) finds that U.S. oil production may even increase between now and 2050 even as clean energy sources like wind and solar power increase dramatically as well.
The analysts say that U.S. demand for oil and gas is likely to remain remarkably steady for decades and “we expect U.S. production to remain at historically high volumes as exports of finished products grow,” said Angelina LaRose, EIA Assistant Administrator for Energy Analysis, during a session Thursday around the release of the report.
The EIA is an independent government agency that prepared this week’s report without the input of the White House or other officials like Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. Their predictions have also been echoed by outside experts in recent months, but Thursday's release marks an official government acknowledgment of the widespread expectation that U.S. oil and gas production isn’t likely to wane anytime soon.
Covid. Was Sweden right about Covid all along?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/sweden-covid-along-201447751.html
Is California taxed less than Texas? New study says yes...but there's a catch
https://www.yahoo.com/news/california-taxed-less-texas-study-005552358.html
Prosecutor in controversial Hannah Tubbs case suspended for 'misgendering' defendant
https://www.yahoo.com/news/prosecutor-controversial-hannah-tubbs-case-130059401.html
California will have water consumption limits for the first time after ‘landmark’ legislation passed
https://www.latimes.com/socal/glendale-news-press/news/tn-gnp-me-water-efficiency-bill-20180601-story.html
What Are the Fifth-Letter Identifiers on the Nasdaq?
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/06/nasdaqfifthletter.asp
A - Class A Shares
B - Class B Shares
C - NextShares Exchange Traded Managed Funds (ETFM)
D - New Issue - This is temporarily used to denote a corporate reorganization.
E - N/A - The letter used to stand for delinquent in regard to SEC filings. Nasdaq now uses the Financial Status Indicator to denote delinquent regulatory filings, but notes other markets may still use "E" for this purpose.
F - Foreign Issue (if the issuer requests it)
G - First Convertible Bond
H - Second Convertible Bond
I - Third Convertible Bond
J - Voting - This is temporarily used to denote a shareholder vote situation.
K - Non-voting
L - Miscellaneous Situations, such as certificates of participation, preferred participation, and stubs (research is required to investigate the exact reason for the identifier being attached)
M - Fourth Preferred Issue
N - Third Preferred Issue
O - Second Preferred Issue
P - First Preferred Issue
Q - N/A - The letter used to stand for bankruptcy. Nasdaq now uses the Financial Status Indicator to denote when a company has filed for bankruptcy, but notes other markets may still use "Q" for this purpose.
R - Rights Issue
S - Shares of Beneficial Interest
T - Securities With Warrants or Rights
U - Units
V - When issued or when distributed (shares that are set to split or have other similar pending corporate actions)
W - Warrants
X - Mutual Fund Quotation Service (MFQS) Instrument
Y - American Depository Receipt (if the issuer requests it)
Z - Miscellaneous Situations, such as certificates of preferred when issued (research is required to investigate the exact reason for the identifier being attached)
Marxism was first publicly formulated in 1848 in the pamphlet The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, which lays out the theory of class struggle and revolution. Economic decisions, he said, should not be made by producers and consumers and instead ought to be carefully managed by the state to ensure that everyone benefits.
Southern California coastal towns are losing valuable sand, putting some beaches at risk
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/southern-california-coastal-towns-are-losing-valuable-sand-putting-some-beaches-at-risk/ar-AA15bQRW
What are the 10 least populated states?
According to the 2020 census, here are the top 10 least populated states in the U.S.:
Wyoming - 576,851
Vermont - 643,077
Alaska - 733,391
North Dakota - 779,094
South Dakota - 886,667
Delaware - 989,948
Montana - 1,084,225
Rhode Island - 1,097,379
Maine - 1,362,359
New Hampshire - 1,377,529
California saw almost 1% of its residents leave for other states in past year, latest Census data shows
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/m/3b5a35df-750d-323f-9696-4042782989f4/california-saw-almost-1-of.html
Mark Calvey
Thu, December 22, 2022 at 2:37 PM PST
California saw almost 1% of its residents move to other states in the year ended July 1, 2022, according to the latest Census Bureau data. California topped the list of states losing the most residents, with a net domestic migration loss of 343,230 residents for the year. The Golden State also saw almost 1% of its residents move to other states in the previous year.
L>A> out of control
https://www.yahoo.com/news/los-angeles-county-da-gascon-012926263.html
Ingredients
12 oz Zweigle's Chorizo chicken sausage, fully cooked, sliced into ½ inch pieces
1 20 oz can pineapple chunks, reserve juice
2 T teriyaki sauce
1 T chili sauce
2 T honey
1 T pineapple juice (that you reserved from can)
Instructions sausage bites
Soak your toothpicks in water for 20 minutes before baking so they don't char in the oven. This won't leave a flavor residue. Be sure to use non-colored toothpicks as the colored toothpicks will bleed and discolor the food!
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Line a baking sheet with foil (and spray with non-stick cooking spray), parchment paper, or a silicone baking mat.
Place a chunk of pineapple on top of a slice of chicken sausage and stick one toothpick into each of them. Place on the prepared pan.
In a small mixing bowl, combine remaining four ingredients to make the glaze.
Brush glaze over tops and sides of sausage/pineapple bites. Try not to get a ton of glaze on the toothpick as it will burn when in the oven.
Cook in the oven for 15 minutes or just until hot, keeping an eye on them so they don't burn.
Remove from oven, let cool slightly, and serve warm. Enjoy!
Why is inflation still so high right now, and when can we expect it to finally stop?
Dina Al-Shibeeb
Sun, September 18, 2022 at 6:00 AM
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/why-inflation-still-high-now-130000789.html
The impact of lithium mining on the environment, what’s behind clean energy?
https://www.lithiumbatterytech.com/the-impact-of-lithium-mining-on-the-environment/
‘I expect a tsunami of shutoffs’: 20M American households now can't afford to pay their utility bills on time
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/expect-tsunami-shutoffs-20m-american-110000281.html
The U.S. consumer price index rose 8.5% in July from a year ago — down from a 40-year high of 9.1% in June. But hot inflation continues to hit consumers hard.
According to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, roughly 20 million households in the U.S. — one out of six homes — are behind on their utility bills.
The consequences could be dire.
“I expect a tsunami of shutoffs,” Jean Su, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, tells Bloomberg.
Electricity prices have spiked due to the skyrocketing cost of natural gas. According to the Energy Information Administration, natural gas is the biggest source of electricity generation in the U.S.
A year ago, natural gas traded at $4.31 per metric million British thermal unit. Today, it’s at $9.34 per MMBtu.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that July prices for electricity jumped 15.2% from a year ago, marking the biggest 12-month increase since 2006.
Abolish (Besides Private Property)
We all know Marx wanted to get rid of private property, but he was remarkably frank about wanting to abolish these things, too.
one of the remarkable things about The Communist Manifesto is its honesty.
Karl Marx might not have been a very good guy, but he was refreshingly candid about the aims of Communism. This brazenness, one could argue, is baked into the Communist psyche.
“The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims,” Marx declared in his famous manifesto. “They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution.”
Like Hitler’s Mein Kampf, readers are presented with a pure, undiluted vision of the author’s ideology (dark as it may be).
Marx’s manifesto is famous for summing up his theory of Communism with a single sentence: “Abolition of private property.” But this was hardly the only thing the philosopher believed must be abolished from bourgeois society in the proletariat's march to utopia. In his manifesto, Marx highlighted five additional ideas and institutions for eradication.
1. The Family
Marx admits that destroying the family is a thorny topic, even for revolutionaries. “Abolition of the family! Even the most radical flare up at this infamous proposal of the Communists,” he writes.
But he said opponents of this idea fail to understand a key fact about the family.
“On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based? On capital, on private gain. In its completely developed form, this family exists only among the bourgeoisie,” he writes.
Best of all, abolishing the family would be relatively easy once bourgeois property was abolished. “The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its complement vanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of capital.”
2. Individuality
Marx believed individuality was antithetical to the egalitarianism he envisioned. Therefore, the “individual” must “be swept out of the way, and made impossible.”
Individuality was a social construction of a capitalist society and was deeply intertwined with capital itself.
“In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality,” he wrote. “And the abolition of this state of things is called by the bourgeois, abolition of individuality and freedom! And rightly so. The abolition of bourgeois individuality, bourgeois independence, and bourgeois freedom is undoubtedly aimed at.”
3. Eternal Truths
Marx did not appear to believe that any truth existed beyond class struggle.
“The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class,” he argued. “When the ancient world was in its last throes, the ancient religions were overcome by Christianity. When Christian ideas succumbed in the 18th century to rationalist ideas, feudal society fought its death battle with the then revolutionary bourgeoisie.”
He recognized how radical this idea would sound to his readers, particularly since Communism does not seek to modify truth, but to overthrow it. But he argued these people were missing the larger picture.
“‘Undoubtedly,’ it will be said, ‘religious, moral, philosophical, and juridical ideas have been modified in the course of historical development. But religion, morality, philosophy, political science, and law, constantly survived this change.
There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, etc., that are common to all states of society. But Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience.’
What does this accusation reduce itself to? The history of all past society has consisted in the development of class antagonisms, antagonisms that assumed different forms at different epochs.”
4. Nations
Communists, Marx said, are reproached for seeking to abolish countries. These people fail to understand the nature of the proletariat, he wrote.
“The working men have no country. We cannot take from them what they have not got. Since the proletariat must first of all acquire political supremacy, must rise to be the leading class of the nation, must constitute itself the nation, it is so far, itself national, though not in the bourgeois sense of the word.”
Furthermore, largely because of capitalism, he saw hostilities between people of different backgrounds receding. As the proletariat grew in power, there soon would be no need for nations, he wrote.
“National differences and antagonism between peoples are daily more and more vanishing, owing to the development of the bourgeoisie, to freedom of commerce, to the world market, to uniformity in the mode of production and in the conditions of life corresponding thereto.”
5. The Past
Marx saw tradition as a tool of the bourgeoisie. Adherence to the past served as a mere distraction in proletariat’s quest for emancipation and supremacy.
“In bourgeois society,” Marx wrote, “the past dominates the present; in Communist society, the present dominates the past.”
Fed rate hikes won't stop inflation if government spending stays high, paper says
Megan Henney
Wed, August 31, 2022 at 1:31 PM
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated a pledge last week to "forcefully" wrestle inflation under control, no matter the broader economic cost.
But a paper released by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the Chicago Federal Reserve on the same day as Powell's keynote speech in Jackson Hole suggests the U.S. central bank may fail to cool consumer prices with its interest rate hikes unless government spending slows down in tandem.
"The recent fiscal interventions in response to the COVID pandemic have altered the private sector’s beliefs about the fiscal framework, accelerating the recovery, but also determining an increase in fiscal inflation," the paper said. "This increase in inflation could not have been averted by simply tightening monetary policy. The conquest of post-pandemic inflation requires mutually consistent monetary and fiscal policies to avoid fiscal stagflation."
In other words, taming the inflation crisis that has gripped the U.S. for more than a year requires the Fed to tighten monetary policy, in addition to the federal government pumping the brakes on spending.
FED RAISES INTEREST RATES BY 75 BASIS POINTS IN ANOTHER HISTORIC MOVE TO TACKLE INFLATION
The authors – Francesco Bianchi, an economics professor at Johns Hopkins University, and Leonardo Melosi, a senior economist at the Chicago Fed – blamed the massive amounts of spending in response to the COVID-19 crisis for much of the inflation spike. Prices soared as high as 9.1% over the past year, the highest since 1981, though they have since moderated slightly at 8.9% in July.
In the span of just two years, Congress unleashed a torrent of federal money to shield the economy from the coronavirus pandemic, approving roughly $6 trillion in relief measures. Lawmakers approved about $2 trillion under President Biden and $4.1 trillion under former President Donald Trump, according to a COVID money tracker published by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan organization based in Washington.
Biden and congressional Democrats have also approved a roughly $790 billion health care and climate change spending bill – about half of which will go toward paying down the deficit – in addition to canceling up to $10,000 in student loans for millions of borrowers and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has estimated that could cost up to $600 billion.
The paper suggests that as a result, the Fed can only reduce inflation once "public debt can be successfully stabilized by credible future fiscal plans." Without limitations on federal spending, rate hikes will only make the cost of servicing the $30 trillion national debt more expensive, pushing inflation higher.
"Increasing rates, by itself, would not have prevented the recent surge in inflation, given that large part of the increase was due to a change in the perceived policy mix," the authors said. "In fact, increasing rates without the appropriate fiscal backing could result in fiscal stagflation. Instead, conquering the post-pandemic inflation requires mutually consistent monetary and fiscal policies providing a clear path for both the desired inflation rate and debt sustainability."
The paper was published just one day after Powell stressed that fighting inflation remains the Fed's No.1 priority and pledged to rein it in with a series of rate hikes that he warned would cause economic "pain" for millions of households and businesses.
"While higher interest rates, slower growth and softer labor market conditions will bring down inflation, they will also bring some pain to households and businesses," he said. "These are the unfortunate costs of reducing inflation. But a failure to restore price stability would mean far greater pain."
Even with four consecutive interest rate hikes, including two back-to-back 75-basis-point increases, Powell stressed that the Fed is not in a place to "stop or pause" – an unwelcome sign for investors who were predicting a rate cut next year.
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/fed-rate-hikes-won-apos-203122350.html
The current benchmark federal funds range of 2.25% to 2.50% is around the "neutral" level, meaning that it neither supports nor restricts economic activity. But the Fed chief signaled that a restrictive stance will almost certainly be necessary as the central bank tries to pump the brakes on the economy.
"We are moving our policy stance purposefully to a level that will be sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2%," Powell said, suggesting that "restoring price stability will likely require maintaining a restrictive policy stance for some time. The historical record cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy."
Central banks will fail to tame inflation without better fiscal policy, study says
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/central-banks-fail-tame-inflation-140931718.html
Sat, August 27, 2022 at 7:09 AM
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. (Reuters) - Central banks will fail to control inflation and could even push price growth higher unless governments start playing their part with more prudent budget policies, according to a study presented to policymakers at the Jackson Hole conference in the United States.
Governments around the world opened their coffers during the COVID-19 pandemic to prop up economies, but those efforts have helped push inflation rates to their highest levels in nearly half a century, raising the risk that rapid price growth will become entrenched.
Central banks are now raising interest rates, but the new study, presented on Saturday at the Kansas City Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole Economic Symposium argued that a central bank's inflation-fighting reputation is not decisive in such a scenario.
"If the monetary tightening is not supported by the expectation of appropriate fiscal adjustments, the deterioration of fiscal imbalances leads to even higher inflationary pressure," said Francesco Bianchi of Johns Hopkins University and Leonardo Melosi of the Chicago Fed.
"As a result, a vicious circle of rising nominal interest rates, rising inflation, economic stagnation, and increasing debt would arise," the paper argued. "In this pathological situation, monetary tightening would actually spur higher inflation and would spark a pernicious fiscal stagflation."
On track this fiscal year to come in at just over $1 trillion, the U.S. budget deficit is set to be far smaller than earlier projected, but at 3.9% of GDP, it remains historically high and is seen declining only marginally next year.
The euro zone, which is also struggling with high inflation, is likely to follow a similar path, with its deficit hitting 3.8% this year and staying elevated for years, particularly as the bloc is likely to suffer a recession starting in the fourth quarter.
The study argued that around half of the recent surge in U.S. inflation was due to fiscal policy and an erosion in beliefs that the government would run prudent fiscal policies.
While some central banks have been criticised for recognising the inflation problem too late, the study argued that even earlier rate hikes would have been futile.
"More hawkish (Fed) policy would have lowered inflation by only 1 percentage point at the cost of reducing output by around 3.4 percentage points," the authors said. "This is a quite large sacrifice ratio."
To control inflation, fiscal policy must work in tandem with monetary policy and reassure people that instead of inflating away debt, the government would raise taxes or cut expenditures.
Student loan forgiveness at a minimum of 600 billion in spending is way more important than climate change or inflation, as it only came in at 375 billion.
Ford is slashing thousands of jobs as it goes electric. Experts say a tidal wave of layoffs will rock the industry as it undergoes a seismic shift.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/going-electric-could-cost-auto-105500604.html
In a September study, the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, said that the US could shed 75,000 auto jobs by 2030 if electric cars rise to 50% of domestic sales. (Today, they account for around 5%.) European automotive suppliers estimate that rapid electrification could cost them 275,000 jobs by 2040, even accounting for new positions that arise making EV parts.
California farms have more than half a million acres unplanted this year due to drought, as food prices continue to climb
https://www.yahoo.com/news/california-farms-more-half-million-175027052.html
The country needs help with inflation, energy, but Biden bill gives us more taxes, IRS agents
https://www.yahoo.com/news/country-needs-help-inflation-energy-201035066.html
This Graph Shows Which Political Party Corporate America Loves the Most
https://howmuch.net/articles/the-30-biggest-political-donors-on-the-fortune-500
Ukraine's Zelenskiy fires spy chief, top prosecutor Too many treason cases
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukraines-zelenskiy-fires-spy-chief-063043759.html
Canadian oil
Citing a report from the U.S. Energy Information Agency, Rousseau said Canada is America's top foreign oil supplier with an average of 3.7 million barrels per day out of the five million bpd it produces, compared to the Permian Basin's 5.3 million bpd.
fantasy world
This whole Transgender topic has become the construct of an intellectual academic monkey puzzle whose goal is trying to create terms to add legitimacy to a minority that is an aberration to the norm of human behavior. The candidates that cloud the issue of "What is a Woman" should be rejected simply on the basis of disconnect with society norms and their fantasy world
Stagflation will be the Fed’s biggest worry
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/m/8f49dec7-8c3c-3c6d-9107-5712587d5499/stagflation-will-be-the-fed%E2%80%99s.html
Peter Morici
Wed, June 22, 2022 at 3:00 AM
The Federal Reserve’s biggest long-term concern should be stagflation—a combination of persistent and unacceptably-high inflation coupled with nonplus growth. As this column has argued, short of a punishing recession Americans will be lucky to see inflation at 4%, never mind the Federal Reserve’s official target of 2%. The war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia’s aggression have disrupted supply chains.
California water crisis?
more like an allocation mismanagement agenda.
To be precise, agriculture in California uses about 80 percent of the state's developed water supply but only 40 percent of the state's total water. How does that work?
If you're looking at total freshwater use in California, roughly 50 percent is actually set aside for environmental purposes — i.e., it's allowed to stay in streams or wetlands to maintain ecosystems. Another 40 percent or so goes to agriculture, and the remaining 10 percent goes to cities and towns. (These precise numbers fluctuate between wet years and dry years.)
So, of the water that's stored behind dams and in reservoirs and is intended for economic purposes — what's known as the "developed water supply" — about 80 percent goes to farms and 20 percent goes to cities and towns. But that's why you often hear different numbers bandied about.
http://www.vox.com/2015/4/1/8326555/california-water-restrictions
A deeper drop in Russian oil supply is likely to trigger a global recession and a full-blown energy crisis, Bank of America warns
Harry Robertson
Fri, May 27, 2022, 8:25 AM
Gas prices, oil prices, gas station
Oil prices have shot up this year already, causing pain at the pumps.Rogelio V. Solis/AP
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/deeper-drop-russian-oil-supply-152544266.html
A further decline in Russian oil supply is likely to spark a global recession, Bank of America said Friday.
The bank warned oil prices could hit $150 a barrel, and an energy crisis could ensue, if supplies fall sharply.
Russia's oil production has fallen by around 1 million barrels per day in 2022, as sanctions have hit the country.
Any further drop in Russian oil supply is likely to lead to a global recession and could even trigger a full-blown energy crisis that pushes prices past $150 a barrel, strategists at Bank of America have warned in a note.
Russian oil production has fallen by roughly 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2022, according to a BofA team led by Francisco Blanch. The fall has come as countries and traders cut their purchases of the country's energy following its invasion of Ukraine.
They said Friday they expect supply from Russia to fall from 11.4 million barrels a day in the first quarter of 2022, to an average of 10 million barrels a day in 2023.
"That's probably just about as much as the world can handle without triggering a major negative economic outcome," Blanch and his colleagues wrote.
The bank's strategists warned that a deeper fall could wreak havoc on energy markets.
"We believe that a sharp contraction in Russian oil exports could trigger a full-blown 1980s style oil crisis and push Brent well past $150 a barrel," they said. That's well above the roughly $110 current level that has driven a spike in fuel prices.
The 1970s and 1980s were decades in which energy markets were chaotic and global growth suffered.
Bank of America said global economic growth and energy demand are tightly correlated, with demand increasing in line with rises in gross domestic product.
Yet the bank noted that energy stocks are currently very low, with the crude oil stocks-to-use ratio at around its lowest ever level. Therefore if global growth is to continue, supplies need to rise.
The problem is, output is unlikely to tick up sharply, due to Russia's supply problems and other issues, including weak investment in oil. The situation could also worsen if the European Union agrees upon a total ban of Russian oil.
"The next negative energy supply shock will have to be accommodated by a mirroring energy demand growth (or GDP growth, if you like) contraction or by supply growth elsewhere," the strategists said.
At $102 a barrel so far this year, Brent crude oil prices are currently close to their highest average levels ever, of $112 a barrel in 2012, BofA said.
Brent crude was little changed Friday at $114 a barrel, up around 47% since the start of January.
Read more: 'The pain isn't over yet'. The investing chief of a $1 billion digital asset manager expects stocks to fall another 30% - and says the sell-off could cause bitcoin to plummet below $22,000
Read the original article on Business Insider
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ABC News
Restaurant leaders respond directly to President Joe Biden's State of the Union
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/restaurant-leaders-respond-directly-president-213500067.html
ABC News
Restaurant leaders respond directly to President Joe Biden's State of the Union
KELLY MCCARTHY
Wed, March 2, 2022, 1:35 PM
Hours after President Joe Biden's inaugural State of the Union speech Tuesday night, restaurant and bar industry leaders called on the administration for action.
Chefs, restaurant owners and leaders of the Independent Restaurant Coalition spoke to media Wednesday in tandem with a new letter signed by over 100,000 restaurant employees urging the president and Congress to add much-needed money to the bipartisan-backed Restaurant Revitalization Fund.
"I felt a little disappointed that it wasn't addressed that our need is as dire as it is. The opportunity has not been lost, but that window is closing very quickly," IRC board member, San Francisco-based chef, and co-owner of Che Fico, David Nayfeld said. "The president could have had an opportunity to recognize us in that moment, but it's not too late. He can recognize it through action. I don't care if we were in a speech, I care that the program gets refilled and that his actions speak to his values."
PHOTO: A sign hangs on the door of a restaurant indicating that the eatery will remain closed, May 28, 2021, in Denver. (David Zalubowski/AP)
PHOTO: A sign hangs on the door of a restaurant indicating that the eatery will remain closed, May 28, 2021, in Denver. (David Zalubowski/AP)
The urgency of the IRC's message comes nine days out from the March 11 expiration date for the Continuing Resolution, commonly referred to as the spending bill to add money to the RRF.
Omicron's impact on restaurant industry shows dire need for restaurant relief grants
"The state of the union is not strong when neighborhood restaurants and bars are ready to close permanently," Erika Polmar, executive director of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, said.
After nearly a year since the RRF became law, it has failed to support roughly two-thirds of eligible businesses that applied for the program, leaving out nearly 200,000 independent bars and restaurants with four out of five of those businesses in danger of closing permanently, threatening the nearly 11 million employees it supports.
IRC co-founder Tom Colicchio reiterated thanks for early support from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer along with others who came together in Washington, D.C., to include $28.6 billion for the industry as part of the American Rescue Plan, but said it's not even close to enough.
PHOTO: Exterior view of Aquagrill restaurant now permanently closed due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, March 16, 2021. (Anthony Behar/Sipa USA via AP, FILE)
PHOTO: Exterior view of Aquagrill restaurant now permanently closed due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, March 16, 2021. (Anthony Behar/Sipa USA via AP, FILE)
"As great as that was that really only took care of about a third of the restaurant applicants -- and he knew at the time that that money wasn't enough -- he actually called it a downpayment for our industry," Colicchio, the Crafted Hospitality owner and restaurateur said. "It's almost a year later since he made that declaration and there are almost 20,000 restaurants in New York City alone that have applied for grants and still have not received a dime."
Like many, Colicchio's own restaurants in New York City have been at the epicenter of multiple COVID-19 surges that prompt tighter restrictions, closures and smaller crowds, which has directly impacted business.
"I owe at least a million dollars in back rent. So all the business coming back is not going to do that. At a certain point I'm gonna have to make a decision if I can't pay my landlord, I'll have to declare bankruptcy and close cause there's no way we can find that in the current business we have now. Eventually landlords are going to run out of patience and restaurant owners will be closing their doors in droves," he said.
Nayfeld said as the third year of the pandemic nears, it has become "impossible for most restaurants to withstand the compounding debt, rising costs, revenue-decimating local restrictions, and COVID-19 surges without dedicated help from Congress."
"Replenishing RRF is the only way independent restaurants and bars can recover from the past two years of economic trauma that we've endured and the aftershock we'll continue to experience," he said. "To take that little bit of money to reopen a business, buy back inventory, get a little momentum for six to seven weeks, then shut down again, that loss of momentum is so detrimental to the business -- Omicron was something for a lot of restaurants was the arrow through our bodies that's gonna make us limp along and die from later."
He continued: "If I could make a plea to Speaker Pelosi, my elected official, I would ask that she drive down the streets of downtown San Francisco and see the boarded up cafes, restaurants and bars that won't come back without assistance -- Even the owners of the ones that look busy, I promise you they would say that they're stressed, their bank accounts are dwindling, in debt to their eyeballs and they don't see a solution."
President Biden addressed the economy and inflation on Tuesday night, but Colicchio said while problematic for the restaurant ecosystem, it's not the primary pain point for the tens of thousands of independent owners and operators seeking relief from the last two years.
"Prices of food are going to go up -- that's why the restaurants that didn't receive grant money are at a competitive disadvantage," he said. "The roughly $40 billion we're asking for will cover the grants for all the restaurants that have applied and I don't believe that that's going to be inflationary. A lot of that money is not gonna go out and be spent, it's going to pay bills that are already there."
Inflation paired with increasing fuel prices will inevitably impact the local, independent restaurant supply chains and Colicchio said that "upscale restaurants have pricing elasticity" to stay nimble. But without support from government grants, he said, "all the small neighborhood restaurants that don't have that -- are going to get really hurt and those are the restaurants that we're really fighting for. Those mom and pops and neighborhood restaurants cant raise prices by 15%, the clientele won't absorb that. Another reason why we need to complete this funding. We're not asking for anything additional from our original position, we're just asking for government to finish their job."
At least 90,000 restaurants and bars have closed since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the IRC. The unemployment rate for leisure and hospitality is still 8.2%, about double the economy-wide rate, as restaurant and bar employment is still down 984,700 below its pre-pandemic levels.
Polmar explained, as detailed in a January IRC report, that "neighborhood restaurants and bars are deeper in debt and exhausted every possible option. Our industry is organizing for the second time in five weeks because the only hope we have is for our elected officials to hear our pleas and ensure every single restaurant and bar has the relief they need to survive the pandemic."
Restaurant leaders respond directly to President Joe Biden's State of the Union originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
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