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" the I-40 bridge at Memphis "
Discovery Of Massive Bridge Crack Forces US Coast Guard To Close Portion Of Mississippi River
The bridge carries traffic on I-40 over the Mississippi River between Memphis, Tennessee, and West Memphis, Arkansas. Figures from 2018 showed the bridge carries about 37k vehicles per day. The closure of the bridge has created a logistical nightmare for the metro area.
( Translation: We’ve known about this defect for a long time but we are now making it an issue so Biden can get a $3 trillion infrastructure bill passed. )
Article at link
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/discovery-massive-bridge-crack-forces-us-coast-guard-close-portion-mississippi-river
The 8:30 CPI will be interesting.
If it doesn't show a measurable increase you can put that stat in the trash bin along with all the other gov't measures.... If you haven't already.
Safe Spaces Are Creating A Generation Of "Snowflake Tyrants": Dr. Everett Piper
Dr. Everett Piper, author of “Grow Up: Life Isn’t Safe But It’s Good,” told Epoch TV’s “Crossroads” Program that cancel culture’s relentless demand for safe spaces is making America’s youth emotionally fragile, less able to cope with hardship, and more prone to advocating for an ever bigger government role in allaying insecurity and providing safety at the expense of liberty.
Piper, who served as president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University for 17 years, said that his earlier warnings, that coddling America’s youth by acquiescing to demands for “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings” would lead to a sad and dangerous infantilization of the American spirit, are increasingly coming to pass.
“The ‘snowflakes’ have graduated,” Piper said.
“And they now have jobs at Google and Amazon and Apple and Twitter and even Major League Baseball, where they’re carrying their cancel culture, their demands for safety, into our country at large, and they’re silencing everyone who disagrees with them. This is ideological fascism, it is not intellectual freedom.”
Piper’s complaint about “snowflakes” having a growing impact on the political tenor of major American corporations is part of what Republicans—and conservatives more broadly—have started to more vocally criticize as “woke capitalism,” or big business’s embrace of progressive positions on issues like LGBTQ and voting rights.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), fumed in a Sunday op-ed in The New York Post that “corporate America eagerly dumps woke, toxic nonsense into our culture, and it’s only gotten more destructive with time,” adding, “today, corporate America routinely flexes its power to humiliate politicians if they dare support traditional values at all.”
“Multinational firms threaten boycotts over pro-life legislation. Cowardly sports leagues pull events out of states that dare pass legislation they don’t like. Firms like Delta parrot woke talking points, even as they cut deals with China, lending Beijing legitimacy and funding as it commits genocide in Xinjiang,” Rubio wrote, referring to the atrocities committed against the Uyghur community by the Chinese Communist Party, and to Major League Baseball pulling an event out of Georgia in protest against the state’s new election integrity law.
A lobbying and communications outfit with deep ties to GOP leadership argued in a memo in mid-March that the rise of “woke CEOs embracing avant-garde social agendas” is fueling a populist surge in the Republican Party that threatens to upend its longstanding pact with big business.
“These campaigns will be met with the same strength that any other polluter should expect,” Rubio wrote, suggesting that “woke” corporations would face Republican backlash for their activism.
Much in the same tone, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) on April 20 called for the Republican Party to reduce its financial dependence on big companies, while urging the breakup of some mega-corporations that exert too much power on American politics and seek “to run our democracy.” Already, Hawley has introduced the Bust Up Big Tech Act and the Trust-Busting for the Twenty-First Century Act, which would strengthen antitrust enforcement to pursue the breakup of dominant, anticompetitive firms.
“A small group of woke mega-corporations control the products Americans can buy, the information Americans can receive, and the speech Americans can engage in. These monopoly powers control our speech, our economy, our country, and their control has only grown because Washington has aided and abetted their quest for endless power,” Hawley said in a statement.
Piper said that, at its core, corporate “woke-ism” was a phenomenon closely related to and fueled by the “demand to be comfortable rather than have your character built.”
“This trigger warning ideology, this demand for safety in the academy rather than being challenged, this demand to be comfortable rather than have your character built. This is not a recipe for maturity. It’s a recipe for childishness and perpetual adolescence,” he said.
“We’ve set aside the higher values, the higher ideas, the higher ideals of freedom and liberty,” Piper said. “We’ve allowed our freedom to be stolen from us because as children, we want to cower in the corner and demand that we be safe. And we’ve been willing to do that at the expense of essentially everything that the western civilization has stood for, and that is individual liberty.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/safe-spaces-are-creating-generation-snowflake-tyrants-dr-everett-piper
Truck boxes are made of the minimum thickness and lightest weight that is only required to keep the weather out. The bridge has that massive I-Beam... the bridge will win every time This is such a common occurrence that the bridge has its own website and cameras.
11foot8.com is a constant source of entertainment.
http://11foot8.com
YouTube censors panel of medical experts over Covid-19 “misinformation”
( Why does anyone have a youtube, facebook, twitter etc account ??? )
Are you ready for this week’s absurdity? Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.
YouTube censors panel of medical experts over Covid-19 “misinformation”
The Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis recently held a panel discussion to discuss recent research findings related to Covid-19.
The expert panel included four professors of medicine from Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford Universities, who are all PhDs and experts in a field of disease research. And that just scratches the surface of their credentials relevant to being considered Covid-19 experts.
The panel spoke against forcing children and vaccinated people to wear masks, and said there was no proof that lockdowns reduced the spread or death rates of Covid-19. They cited specific, peer reviewed scholarly research on which they based their opinions.
But YouTube decided that these experts were spreading misinformation, and took down the video, “because it included content that contradicts the consensus of local and global health authorities regarding the efficacy of masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
This, of course, is an absurd statement, as the video itself proves there is no scientific consensus.
Earlier this week, Gov. DeSantis reconvened the panel to discuss not just Covid, but also the censorship of the scientific debate on Covid-19 best practices.
The panelists pointed out that the censorship of scientific debate is responsible for some percentage of Covid deaths over the past year, as well as deaths from suicide, and untreated medical issues.
That’s because the scientific community and public were not allowed to discuss best practices in a free and open environment, which according to the scientific method, leads closest to the truth.
You can watch the full original panel discussion here (on YouTube alternative Odysee).
And you can watch the follow up conference here (on YouTube alternative Rumble).
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2021-04-16/youtube-censors-panel-medical-experts-over-covid-19-misinformation
The Ugly Truth About Printing-Press Money
Weeping and gnashing of teeth shall come…
We don’t know when, exactly. But we do know a certain catastrophe’s approaching. In fact, we can see it on the horizon.
Does anyone in Washington give a rip the nation’s beyond broke? Does anyone in Congress care that outright money printing is what’s financing their stimulus bills? Does House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters think it’s all a real hoot?
Surely, someone in the legislature is aghast at federal spending that’s gone completely out of control.
Are you aghast?
We are. But there’s nothing we can do to stop it. Nearly all remnants of fiscal conservatism have been quarantined from federal government.
The majority of the electorate have voted for generous gifts from the public treasury. They want free education, free food, free phones, free transportation, and free drugs. They want debt forgiveness. Most of all, they want free money.
Many representatives are pushing the President to give the voters what they want…and what the politicians have promised. Specifically, more stimmy checks. According to MoneyWise:
“More than 75 members of Congress say that until the pandemic is over, there should be regular stimulus checks. President Joe Biden is being urged to wrap them into the $2.3 trillion infrastructure spending plan he’s now promoting.”
Stimmy checks, as far as we can tell, have nothing to do with infrastructure. Yet that’s the beauty of perpetual stimmy checks in the interminable pandemic era. The legislature can “wrap them into” just about anything. All it takes is a simple stimmy check earmark.
Hemorrhaging Red Ink
The longer personal livelihoods are funded by government giveaways the more dependent people become. Those who were once self-supporting through their own work derived income are now reliant on stimulus…and generous unemployment checks.
Why work, when it’s much more lucrative to loaf and invite your soul?
Meanwhile, Washington’s hemorrhaging red ink. This week the U.S. Treasury Department released its Monthly Treasury Statement.
It’s unlikely Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen read it. But if she had she would’ve discovered the federal government has already racked up a $1.7 trillion budget deficit in fiscal year 2021.
The fiscal year extends through the end of September. The running budget deficit reported this week was through March – the halfway point. At this rate, we’re looking at a $3.4 trillion deficit for fiscal year 2021. This even tops the $3.1 trillion record deficit attained in fiscal year 2020.
The federal government ran a budget deficit of nearly $660 billion in March alone. In 2017 – just four years ago – the annual deficit was $666 billion. At the time, this was considered reckless and insane.
Now the federal government goes in the hole by $660 billion in one month and no one bats an eye. What’s more, Congress demands further spending, bigger deficits, stimmy check earmarks, and uncompromising fiscal insanity.
Where’s the money coming from?
By now anyone who’s bothered to ask is clued into where the money comes from. And from where it comes is flagrant deception…
The Ugly Truth About Printing Press Money
The Federal Reserve adds a notation to its balance sheet – now over $7.7 trillion – and the credit magically appears from thin air. The Fed then loans the freshly minted credit to the Treasury through the purchase of Treasury notes. The Treasury then directs this printing press money into Washington’s various spending programs.
This inflation of the money supply is inflation in the truest sense. And it comes with destructive consequences.
John Maynard Keynes, Fabian socialist and the godfather of modern day economic planning, in his 1919 work, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, wrote:
“By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. The sight of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security but [also] at confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth.
“[…]. As the inflation proceeds and the real value of the currency fluctuates wildly from month to month, all permanent relations between debtors and creditors, which form the ultimate foundation of capitalism, become so utterly disordered as to be almost meaningless; and the process of wealth-getting degenerates into a gamble and a lottery.”
Could this continuing process of inflation explain the extreme divergence between today’s freshly minted bitcoin millionaires and the abundance of Hoovervilles in cities across the country?
Could it explain the extreme divergence in net worth between the average Congressional representative and the average plumber?
What about the extreme divergence between house prices and incomes…or the extreme divergence between market capitalization and gross domestic product?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average just eclipsed 34,000 – is this some kind of joke?
After asset price inflation and wild gambling and speculation comes consumer price inflation…the real wealth destroyer.
This is the ugly truth about printing press money. The ugly truth Fed Chair Powell and Treasury Secretary Yellen will never share as they champion the virtues of their policies of mass inflation.
Weeping and gnashing of teeth shall come.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ugly-truth-about-printing-press-money
BLM Founder Branded "Fraud" After Buying Million-Dollar Home In Mostly-White LA Enclave
The co-founder of the polarizing Black Lives Matter movement is under fire for buying a $1.4 million home in a posh California neighborhood that’s 88 percent white.
It’s an interesting decision for Patrisse Cullors, a self-professed Marxist and race-baiting activist who has paid lip service to promoting black pride.
According to Dirt.com, the home is located in Topanga Canyon, an idyllic rustic neighborhood about 48 minutes outside of Los Angeles and less than 30 minutes from tony Malibu.
Cullors’ new home has three bedrooms and two baths and sits on one-quarter of an acre. The property also has a separate one-bedroom, one-bathroom guest house.
But what is most interesting is that the BLM co-founder chose to live in Topanga, where less than 2 percent of the population is black.
Sports journalist Jason Whitlock, who’s himself black, sarcastically called out Cullors for her blatant hypocrisy.
“Black Lives Matter founder buys $1.4 million home in Topanga, which has a black population of 1.4%. She’s with her people!” he tweeted Friday.
Whitlock's tweet was removed by the Twitter police and his account suspended...
More...
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/blm-founder-branded-fraud-after-buying-million-dollar-home-mostly-white-la-enclave
Target sells Woke Prayer Book: “Dear God, Please help me to hate White people.”
Are you ready for this week’s absurdity? Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.
Prayer Book Urges “help me to hate White people.”
A prayer book called “A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal,” is a number one bestseller on Amazon in the category “meditation”.
One prayer, called “Prayer of a Weary Black Woman,” by Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes, a theology professor at Mercer University, starts:
“Dear God, Please help me to hate White people. Or at least to want to hate them… I want to stop caring about their misguided, racist souls, to stop believing that they can be better, that they can stop being racist.”
The “prayer” then describes the type of White person they want to hate— not the actual blatantly racist ones, but the “wolves in sheep’s clothing” who “don’t see color”, are friendly and accepting on the surface.
“Lord, if it be your will, harden my heart. Stop me from striving to see the best in people. Stop me from being hopeful that White people can do and be better. Let me imagine them instead as white-hooded robes standing in front of burning crosses. Let me see them as hopelessly unrepentant, reprobate bigots who have blasphemed the Holy Spirit and who need to be handed over to the evil one.”
“Grant me a Get Out of Judgment Free Card if I make White people the exception to your commandment to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.”
This is a sick, insane, religious cult of hateful people. But institutions like churches, schools, and corporations are pushing this blatant racism mainstream.
The book is also available at Target— a store which banned a book that gave voice to transgender people who regretted their decisions to transition.
But hatred of white people is perfectly acceptable.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2021-04-09/target-sells-woke-prayer-book-dear-god-please-help-me-hate-white-people
The Secret of Synchronization
Futures Explode Higher After Payrolls Beat, Yields & Dollar Rise
The massive payrolls beat sparked an utter buying panic in US equity futures, with Small Caps massively outperforming...
More...
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/futures-explode-higher-after-payrolls-beat-yields-dollar-rise
Now down to 19.. Already sold one.
The link you provided says there are 20 in stock...
"Only 20 left in stock - order soon. "
We Have Never Seen A Home-Buying Frenzy Quite Like This
Could you imagine listing your home for sale and having nearly 100 offers in just three days? This sort of thing is actually happening in hot real estate markets all over America right now. Even though we are in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, we are witnessing a frenzy of home buying that is unlike anything that we have ever seen before. Of course one of the biggest reasons why this is happening is because of the utterly insane economic policies of our leaders. They have been creating, borrowing and spending money like there is no tomorrow, and that pushed M1 from 4 trillion dollars to 18 trillion dollars in just 12 months. All of that money had to go somewhere, and one place where it is showing up is in home prices in desirable rural and suburban locations around the country.
For example, a “fixer-upper” in a desirable suburban community outside of Washington D.C. was listed for sale on a recent Thursday for $275,000. On Sunday evening, 88 different offers had already been made on that property…
Ellen Coleman had never received so many offers on a house in her 15 years of selling real estate.
She listed a fixer-upper in suburban Washington, DC for $275,000 on a Thursday. By Sunday evening, she had 88 offers.
It eventually sold for $460,000, which was $185,000 above the listing price.
Isn’t that nuts?
The same thing is happening in lots of other parts of the nation too.
Down in the Austin, Texas area, one real estate agent says that “most homes are going for more than 20% over asking price”…
“Nearly every offer my clients make faces competition, and most homes are going for more than 20% over asking price,” said Austin-area Redfin agent April Miller.
She said she recently helped a client with an offer for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home listed at $515,000 and pulled out all the stops. The offer was for $100,000 over the asking price, and they waived appraisal and financing contingencies, yet still came in third out of 38 offers.
In my entire lifetime, I have never seen anything like this.
Overall, the median price of a home in the United States is up a whopping 16 percent compared to this time last year…
The median price of a home has risen 16% from last year, according to the National Association of Realtors, and they have increased even more in some regions of the country like the Northeast and West, which are both up 21% from last year.
Meanwhile, inventory has continued to linger at record lows. In February, the number of available homes for sale was down nearly 30% from a year ago.
Of course prices are not going up everywhere.
In fact, home prices are actually going down in certain core urban communities.
It isn’t just that people are looking to buy homes right now. Rather, millions of Americans have been choosing to relocate due to fear of the things that have been happening in our world.
For example, the COVID pandemic has been one of the biggest reasons for the mass exodus that we have been witnessing, and our public officials continue to drum up more fear on a daily basis. On Monday, the head of the CDC actually used the term “impending doom” to describe what she believes is ahead…
The U.S. is facing “impending doom” as daily Covid-19 cases begin to rebound once again, threatening to send more people to the hospital even as vaccinations accelerate nationwide, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.
“When I first started at CDC about two months ago I made a promise to you: I would tell you the truth even if it was not the news we wanted to hear. Now is one of those times when I have to share the truth, and I have to hope and trust you will listen,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a press briefing.
And Joe Biden is begging for mask mandates to be reinstated all over the nation…
Joe Biden pleaded on Monday with Republican governors who ended mask mandates to reinstate the requirements in their states and pause reopenings as the administration goes ahead with expanding vaccine eligibility and inoculation sites.
‘I’m reiterating my call for every governor, mayor and local leader to reinstate the mask mandate,’ Biden said during remarks on the White House coronavirus response Monday afternoon. ‘Please, this is not politics.’
As long as Americans are afraid of the COVID pandemic, we will continue to see people relocate from urban areas with a high population density to rural and suburban areas that are more spread out.
At the same time, multitudes of Americans are also relocating from core urban areas due to all of the civil unrest that we have witnessed over the past year.
Many believed that the civil unrest would end once Joe Biden entered the White House, but that has not happened.
Instead, we continue to see violence on an almost daily basis. Here is just one recent example…
Footage captured the demonstrators spraying paint across the windshield of the man’s truck and smashing the tail lights in Salem on Sunday.
The driver, who was wearing an American flag sweatshirt, stepped out of his vehicle as he engaged with the protesters, who then appeared to mace him.
The video then shows him pulling out his gun and pointing it at the anti-fascist protesters.
He could be heard shouting: ‘Get away from me’.
Sadly, the civil unrest in our land is only going to get worse.
So that means that even more people will be fleeing our core urban areas in search of greener pastures.
But now that hyperinflation is hitting housing prices, a lot of middle class and poor people will be priced out of the market.
The wealthy and the ultra-wealthy will have no problem making offers on homes that are way over market price because they have lots of money.
But the vast majority of Americans that are living paycheck to paycheck will find that their options are now greatly limited.
This is why I have always encouraged my readers to do long-term planning well in advance. When I was growing up, I often heard the phrase “you snooze, you lose”, and today that is more true than ever.
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/we-have-never-seen-home-buying-frenzy-quite
You should be very nervous...
Not only do we have a president that should be in a nursing home but we have one that took money from China for arranging " Special access and other considerations..."
Biden can be blackmailed so easily that he has zero negotiating powers with China.
Nevada Just Crowned Its First Transgender Pageant Winner
For the first time in its history, the title of Miss Silver State USA in Nevada has been awarded to a transgender person. 27 year old transgender Kataluna Enriquez won the crown this week, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.
Enriquez will now go on to compete for Miss Nevada USA, which can eventually lead to Miss USA and Miss Universe.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nevada-just-crowned-its-first-transgender-pageant-winner
Gross Profits For House Flippers Hits Record As Fed Turbocharges Real Estate Bubble
( I haven't sold any of my real estate for many years. We are not "flippers"... That requires much more activity than buy and hold. Also, there are transaction costs each time. Bottom line is that real estate as an asset has done exceptionally well... Property values continue to increase as well as rents. )
The linked article has several charts and info about the increase in real estate values.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/gross-profits-house-flippers-hits-record-fed-turbocharges-real-estate-bubble
"Things Are Out Of Control" - There Is A Shortage Of Everything And Prices Are Soaring: What Happens Next
( There are several are several ETFs available that can be taken as a long position in a traditional IRA that should go up with an increase in general inflation. ie DBA, BCI. I have been expecting higher interest rates so I also have a position in TBF which is a 1X inverse ETF for the 20 year bond index. ETFs in particular can be very problematic so do your research. )
In Wednesday's press conference, Jay Powell confirmed that the Fed is setting off on a historic experiment: welcoming a conflagration of red-hot inflation for an indefinite period of time in an overheating economy, with the underlying assumption that it's all "transitory" and that inflation will return to normal in a few years, and certainly before 2023 when the Fed's rates will still be at zero.
There is a big problem with that assumption: while FOMC members, most of whom are independently wealthy and can just charge their Fed card for any day to day purchases of "non-core" CPI basket items, the vast majority of the population does not have the luxury of having someone else pay for their purchases or looking beyond the current period of runaway inflation, which will certainly crush the purchasing power of the American consumer, especially once producers of intermediate goods start hiking prices even more and passing through inflation.
Many readers may not recall, but one such instance of "transitory" inflation that proved to be anything but and led to the infamous Volcker Fed and its double digit rate hikes, was the price of oil which took off in the Arab oil embargo and then refused to come back for over a decade.
The Powell Fed, however, is eager to brush aside any analogues to previous episodes of runaway inflation which it sees as having a demand component, and merely ascribes what is taking place to unprecedented supply chain disruptions - i.e., collapse in supply - as a result of both the trade war with China and, more recently, the covid pandemic, which have unleashed chaos among traditional supply-chain intermediaries.
To be sure, the Fed is certainly right that there has been turmoil within virtually all supply chains: one needs to only read what the respondents to the most recent mfg ISM said to get a sense of how bad it truly is:
“Things are now out of control. Everything is a mess, and we are seeing wide-scale shortages.” (Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components)
“Supply chains are depleted; inventories up and down the supply chain are empty. Lead times increasing, prices increasing, [and] demand increasing. Deep freeze in the Gulf Coast expected to extend duration of shortages.” (Chemical Products)
“The coronavirus [COVID-19] pandemic is affecting us in terms of getting material to build from local and our overseas third- and fourth-tier suppliers. Suppliers are complaining of [a lack of] available resources [people] for manufacturing, creating major delivery issues.” (Computer & Electronic Products)
“We have seen our new-order log increase by 40 percent over the last two months. We are overloaded with orders and do not have the personnel to get product out the door on schedule.” (Primary Metals)
“A sense of urgency is being felt regarding new orders. Customers are giving an impression that a presence of stability is forthcoming and order flow is increasing.” (Textile Mills)
“Prices are rising so rapidly that many are wondering if [the situation] is sustainable. Shortages have the industry concerned for supply going forward, at least deep into the second quarter.” (Wood Products)
“We have experienced a higher rate of delinquent shipments from our ingredient suppliers in the last month. We are still struggling keeping our production lines fully manned. We anticipate a fast and large order surge in the food-service sector as restaurants open back up.” (Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products)
“Steel prices have increased significantly in recent months, driving costs up from our suppliers and on proposals for new work that we are bidding. In addition, the tariffs and anti-dumping fees/penalties incurred by international mills/suppliers are being passed on to us.” (Transportation Equipment)
Even BofA's Chief Investment Officer, Michael Hartnett, threw in the following "heard on main street" anecdote in one of his recent Flow Show notes:
“Our worldwide supply chain, and ability to provide products and services to you, is being significantly impacted by increased prices resulting from labor and raw material shortages, escalating raw material prices, manufacturing delays and transit interruptions. Stated directly, our costs are increasing and are much more volatile than in the past.” - Mar 3rd price increase notification to CA real estate developer.
The problem has become so acute that several of the regional Fed business surveys asked specific questions about supply chain disruptions in the last few months. As the chart below shows, a majority of manufacturing firms report that supply chain disruptions are currently negatively affecting production. Additionally, 38% of businesses in the Atlanta Fed’s survey reported that supplier delays were moderate to severe, while 49% of Dallas Fed respondents reported that disruptions had meaningfully raised input prices. In the NY Fed’s Empire Manufacturing Survey, 59% of respondents reported finding new suppliers due to supply chain disruptions, while 58% reported that they had started building extra inventories. Overall, these measures suggest that supply chain disruptions are dramatically and adversely impacting business operations, and leading to far higher prices.
If that wasn't enough, to better understand the cause of supply chain disruptions, in a recent report from Goldman Sachs the bank summarizes recent media reports on disruptions.
One striking feature of these reports is that supply chain disruptions are "very widespread" and although the semiconductor shortage and its drag on auto production has garnered significant attention, Goldman economist Jan Hatzius notes that many other consumer goods - from headphones to sofas to roller skates - have also faced supply challenges this year.
Digging deeper, Goldman then notes that although supply shortages have affected a wide variety of products, in most cases the root causes are the same:
First, manufacturers were caught off guard by a faster-than-anticipated recovery in demand and hadn’t ordered enough inputs in advance to meet production needs.
Second, the increase in goods demand while transportation services are limited by the virus has led to an undersupply of shipping containers and congestion problems at West Coast ports, resulting in lengthy shipping delays.
So first the bad news: even if the current burst of inflation is truly "transitory" - as the Fed vows, staking what little credibility it has that inflation will reverse in the second half of 2021 - Goldman concedes that "neither of the above two problems should abate soon" since fiscal support for household income should keep goods demand elevated and the virus should continue to disrupt the supply of international goods transport services until widespread inoculation in the US and its trade partners normalizes both goods demand and supply.
But there is a silver lining: The good news is that because supply challenges are largely driven by transportation and not production constraints—unlike last spring when supplier delays spiked due to factory shutdowns that halted the supply of intermediate goods—Goldman, and by extension the Fed, expects that supply constraints will put upward pressure on prices but have less of an impact on real economic activity. As examples of how some importers and manufacturers have alleviated bottlenecks at higher costs, some companies have started importing bike parts and hot tubs by air rather than sea freight, and other producers have started rerouting imports through alternate ports.
That said, these bottlenecks can lead to another perverse price increase as they substantially increase transport costs in strained trade routes. As shown in the next chart, shipping costs from China to the US have roughly tripled over the last year. This will likely put upward pressure on consumer prices as manufacturers pass these costs on to consumers.
However, according to Goldman, the impact on consumer prices is likely to be muted compared to the huge increases in certain shipping costs, for two reasons.
First, shipping costs outside of East Asia have seen much smaller increases. For example, domestic transportation costs according to the Producer Price Index – which make up roughly three-fourths of total shipping costs for manufactured goods – are up just 1.6% relative to pre-virus levels.
Second, total shipping costs represent only a small share of the final price of a good. Using information from the World Input-Output Tables, shipping costs make up less than 3% of the final cost of manufacturing output, implying that international shipping costs make up less than 1%.
Taken together, Goldman estimates that elevated shipping costs are currently boosting year-over-year core consumer price inflation by roughly 9%!
Goldman's conclusion is that while supply-chain and logistical challenges will persist and shipping costs will remain elevated until early 2022, putting upward pressure on the level of consumer prices through the end of this year, the bank believes that the impact on inflation has already peaked and will turn into an outright drag in 2022 as shipping bottlenecks resolve themselves and prices moderate.
It is this fundamental assumption that none other than the Fed is also betting on; and while Goldman may be right and the supply side of the CPI equation may soon start to normalize and in fact be a drag on Y/Y prices in 2022, the bigger question is how much of an impact does the demand side have, a demand side where, as a reminder, the various stimulus checks have already more than offset all the lost income from the covid pandemic. And much more is coming. In other words, yes - if inflation was purely a supply phenomenon, Powell's avoidance of surging prices would be justified. But if the increasingly broader acceptance of Universal Basic Income in the form of weekly and monthly stimmies from the government makes handouts from the government, which now accounts for 27% of all consumer income...
... is here to stay, all bets are off, and the Fed has just begun the most ruinous monetary experiment in US history.
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/things-are-out-control-there-shortage-everything-and-prices-are-soaring-what-happens-next
There Is No Such Thing As "White" Math
I am not at all qualified to introduce today’s guest writer, Sergiu Klainerman.
I barely eked out a C+ in high school calculus, while Sergiu is a professor of mathematics at Princeton who specializes in the mathematical theory of black holes. He’s been a MacArthur fellow, a Guggenheim fellow and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences
Mathematics allowed a young Sergiu, who came of age in Ceausescu’s Romania, to escape to a world where right and wrong couldn’t be fudged, and, ultimately, to a life of freedom in the United States. Without math, his life quite literally would not have been possible.
In the piece below he explains how activists are destroying his discipline in the name of progress. Worse, they are robbing poor children of the opportunity to raise themselves up by mastering it — with untold effects on all of us.
Math, with its seemingly unbiased tools — 2 + 2 always equals 4 — has presented a problem for an ideological movement that sees any inequality of outcome as evidence of systemic bias. The problem cannot be that some kids are better at math, or that some teachers are better at teaching it. Like so much else, the basic woke argument against math is that it is inherently racist and needs to be made antiracist. That is accomplished by undermining the notion of right and wrong answers, by getting rid of the expectation that students show their work, by referring to mathematical testing tools as racist, and by doing away with accelerated math classes.
If that sounds like a caricature, I urge you to read this whole document,https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/1_STRIDE1.pdf funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which Sergiu writes about below. As the linguist John McWhorter put it in a powerful piece published yesterday: “to distrust this document is not to be against social justice, but against racism.”
I have copied part of the opening statement here: " ... The framework for deconstructing racism in mathematics offers essential characteristics of antiracist math educators and critical approaches to dismantling white supremacy in math classrooms by visibilizing the toxic characteristics of white supremacy culture..."
Sergiu wrote me in an email that the situation in his field reminds him of this line from Thomas Sowell:
“Ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children. In an age of artificial intelligence, they are creating artificial stupidity.”
This week, as promised, is education week. Like Shark Week! But dorkier. And, I hope, far more important. This is our first installment.
I’m pleased to publish Sergiu Klainerman:
In my position as a professor of mathematics at Princeton, I have witnessed the decline of universities and cultural institutions as they have embraced political ideology at the expense of rigorous scholarship. Until recently — this past summer, really — I had naively thought that the STEM disciplines would be spared from this ideological takeover.
I was wrong. Attempts to “deconstruct” mathematics, deny its objectivity, accuse it of racial bias, and infuse it with political ideology have become more and more common — perhaps, even, at your child’s elementary school.
This phenomenon is part of what has been dubbed “The Great Awokening.” As others have explained powerfully, the ideology incubated in academia, where it indoctrinated plenty of bright minds. It then migrated, through those true believers, into our important cultural, religious and political institutions. Now it is affecting some of the country’s most prominent businesses.
Unlike the traditional totalitarianism practiced by former communist countries, like the Romania I grew up in, this version is soft. It enforces its ideology not by jailing dissenters or physically eliminating them, but by social shaming, mob punishment, guilt by association, and coerced speech.
When it comes to education, I believe the woke ideology is even more harmful than old-fashioned communism.
Communism had a strong sense of objective reality anchored in the belief that humans are capable of discovering universal truths. It forcefully asserted, in fact, the absolute truth of dialectic materialism, as revealed by its founders Marx, Engels and Lenin. Communist ideology held science and mathematics in the highest regard, even though it often distorted the former for doctrinal reasons.
Mathematics was largely immune to ideological pressure, and thus thrived in most communist countries. Being skilled in math was a source of great societal prestige for school children. And it was a great equalizer: those from socioeconomically disadvantaged families had a chance to compete on equal footing with those from privileged ones.
Like children all over the world, I was attracted to mathematics because of its formal beauty, the elegance and precision of its arguments, and the unique sense of achievement I was able to get by finding the right answer to a difficult problem. Mathematics also granted me an escape from the intoxicating daily drum of party propaganda — a refuge from the crushing atmosphere of political and ideological conformity.
The woke ideology, on the other hand, treats both science and mathematics as social constructs and condemns the way they are practiced, in research and teaching, as manifestations of white supremacy, euro-centrism, and post-colonialism.
Take for example the recent educational program called “a pathway to equitable math instruction.” The program is backed financially by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; it counts among its partners the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley, the California Math project, the Association of California School Administrators, and the Los Angeles County Office of Education, among others; and it was recently sent to Oregon teachers by the state’s Department of Education.
The program argues that “white supremacy culture shows up in the classroom when the focus is on getting the ‘right’ answer” or when students are required to show their work, while stipulating that the very “concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false”. The main goal of the program is “to dismantle racism in mathematics instruction” with the expressly political aim of engaging “the sociopolitical turn in all aspects of education, including mathematics.”
In the past, I would have said that such statements should be ignored as too radical and absurd to merit refutation. But recent trends across the country suggest that we no longer have that luxury.
So let me state the following for the record: Nothing in the history and current practice of mathematics justifies the notion that it is in any way different or dependent on the particular race or ethnic group engaged in it.
For historical reasons, we often discuss contributions to the field of mathematics from the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Chinese, Indians and Arabs and refer to them as distinct entities. They have all contributed through a unique cultural dialogue to the creation of a truly magnificent edifice accessible today to every man and woman on the planet. Though we pay tribute to great historical figures who inform the practice of mathematics, the subject can be taught — and often is — with no reference to the individuals who have contributed to it. In that sense it is uniquely universal.
Schools throughout the world teach the same basic body of mathematics. They differ only by the methodology and intensity with which they instruct students.
It is precisely this universality of math — together with the extraordinary ability of American universities to reward hard work and talent — that allowed me, and so many other young scientists and mathematicians, to come to this country and achieve success beyond our wildest dreams.
The idea that focusing on getting the “right answer” is now considered among some self-described progressives a form of bias or racism is offensive and extraordinarily dangerous. The entire study of mathematics is based on clearly formulated definitions and statements of fact. If this were not so, bridges would collapse, planes would fall from the sky, and bank transactions would be impossible.
The ability of mathematics to provide right answers to well-formulated problems is not something specific to one culture or another; it is really the essence of mathematics. To claim otherwise is to argue that somehow the math taught in places like Iran, China, India or Nigeria is not genuinely theirs but borrowed or forged from “white supremacy culture.” It is hard to imagine a more ignorant and offensive statement.
Finally, and most importantly, the woke approach to mathematics is particularly poisonous to those it pretends to want to help. Let’s start with the reasonable assumption that mathematical talent is equally distributed at birth to children from all socio-economic backgrounds, independent of ethnicity, sex and race. Those born in poor, uneducated families have clear educational disadvantages relative to others. But mathematics can act as a powerful equalizer. Through its set of well-defined, culturally unbiased, unambiguous set of rules, mathematics gives smart kids the potential to be, at least in this respect, on equal footing with all others. They can stand out by simply finding the right answers to questions with objective results.
There is no such thing as “white” mathematics. There is no reason to assume, as the activists do, that minority kids are not capable of mathematics or of finding the “right answers.” And there can be no justification for, in the name of “equity” or anything else, depriving students of the rigorous education that they need to succeed. The real antiracists will stand up and oppose this nonsense.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/there-no-such-thing-white-math
San Francisco Pays $16.1 Million To Shelter 300 Homeless In Tents
( Why do liberals have such a hard time to figure this stuff out ??? )
California is in the midst of a self-induced homelessness crisis that shows no sign of abating anytime soon. The crisis is especially acute in San Francisco, where Mayor London Breed has erected three tent cities to house about 300 homeless people.
The cost? About $61,000 a year per tent. All told, the cost of the program is $16.1 million. I guess in San Francisco, even the tents are first class.
The city is running a $650 million deficit and the tent city isn’t eligible for reimbursement by the government, so that money comes out of city coffers. If the homeless were housed in a first-class hotel, the federal government would gladly reimburse the city for that, but not for a few measely tents?
SFist:
In the six “Safe Sleeping Villages” set up by the city of San Francisco during the pandemic, the cost of maintaining a single tent-camping spot is $5,000 per month, or $61,000 per year - more than it would cost to put each of these people in a market-rate apartment.
The insane costs of running these sleeping “villages,” which only have space for a total of 262 tents spread across the six sites, makes one immediately think of the criticisms that are leveled against the Homeless Industrial Complex, as conservative commentators are eager to call it. The revelation of the pricetag for the tent program — $16.1 million for the year — came at a budget committee meeting on Wednesday, as the Chronicle reports, via Abigail Stewart-Kahn, the interim director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.
In addition to the tents, the city supplies meals, sanitation services, and police protection.
The cost boils down to $190 per tent per night, which includes 24-hour security, bathrooms, maintenance, and three meals per day. This is cheaper than the per-day cost for the hotel program, but the hotel program is getting 100% federal reimbursement. (Thanks, Biden.)
Also, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing has committed to rehousing everyone as the [sic] come out of the hotel rooms — an enormous task, given that there are upwards of 2,000 people currently in the program.
San Francisco counts about 6,400 people as homeless, although that doesn’t include people living out of their cars, or the thousands who flit from temporary shelters to relative’s residences to friends and neighbors — anywhere they can find a place to lay their body down. Many of these people have jobs that don’t pay them enough to live within 50 miles of San Francisco.
The city was basically forced to adopt the tent idea because most homeless shelters closed down due to COVID restrictions. But $5,000 a tent? Certainly, allowances should be made but that is a ludicrous amount of money to spend on any group, regardless of their hard-luck circumstances.
Even city council members are critical.
“I understand the motivation to create sleeping space during this COVID-19 crisis,” says Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, speaking to the Chronicle.
“But we really need to dive deep to see if this a sustainable model… without any federal reimbursement.”
Perhaps if they had “dove deep” before they wasted this money, they wouldn’t be regretting it now.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/san-francisco-pays-161-million-shelter-300-homeless-tents
Baltimore Student Who Failed All But Three Classes In Four Years Was Ranked In Top Half Of His Class
( Article has many imbedded links. )
As teacher unions fight to keep schools closed, the true cost is being felt by students who are racking up failing grades, dropping out of virtual classes, increasing drug use, and, in rising numbers, committing suicide. In response, some union officials like the President of the Los Angeles Teacher’s Union has labelled calls to return to class examples of white privilege despite overwhelming science supporting resumption of classes. However, for minority students, this shutdown has taken a dire situation and turned into a freefall disaster. The pandemic led to the closure of an already failing public school system, as evident in a shocking story out of Baltimore. As recently reported, a high school student almost graduated near the top half of his class after failing every class but three in four years. He has a 0.13 GPA. His mother finally went public in exasperation with the failures in the public schools.
Tiffany France is understandably upset. She is a mother of three who works three jobs to support her family. She was never told that her son failed 22 classes and was late or absent 272 days over his first three years of high school. She was called for only one teacher-student meeting and that meeting never occurred at Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts.
France ultimately had to pull her son out of the school and enrolled him in an accelerated program to allow him to graduate in 2023.
For decades, we have spent huge amounts of money in school districts like Washington, D.C. and Baltimore as these cities and their leaders have failed to address these failures. We have had a lost generation of kids who have neither the education nor the trained skills to succeed in society. Yet, there is no accountability for the political and educational leaders in these cities.
In the meantime, school officials seem intent on driving top performing students from their systems in Boston, New York and other cities where advanced programs are being shutdown or suspended. Mayor Bill deBlasio proclaimed that public schools are a means to redistribute wealth as students continue to fail on every level in the system. Other education officials have denounced “meritocracy” as racist. These officials, including a recent congressman, attack standardized tests as racist rather than make real progress to improve performance on such tests for these children.
The top spending public school districts are also some of the worst performing school districts. New York topped the per capita spending at $24,040 per kid. Washington, D.C. is close at $22,759. Baltimore is often ranked in the top three per capita spending districts.
According to a 2019 study, over half of the New York City public schoolkids cannot handle basic math or English. On tests, Asian kids shows a 74.4 percent proficiency in math with a 66.6 proficiency for whites, a 33.2 percent proficiency for Hispanics, and a 28.2 percent proficiency for African Americans. Thus, more than two third of African American kids were not able to handle basic math in a school system with one of the highest per capita expenditures for students in country. Thus, public schools may be a vehicle for deBlasio to “redistribute wealth” but he is not distributing education or learning to those who need it the most.
In Washington, with the highest per capita spending on students, education officials “celebrated” a small improvement of scores in 2019. However, the scores would make most people cringe. Only 21.1 percent of black students were proficient in math (as opposed to 78.8 percent for white students).
In Wisconsin, the 2019 scores (for students in grades 3 to 8 and grade 11) showed only 39.3% of students tested proficient or better in English/language and only 40.1% demonstrated a proficient or better understanding of math. Both showed drops. However, the racial disparity was particularly shocking. Ironically, the gap slightly narrowed due to white students declining in scores. However, in the eighth grade, only 12.1 percent of black students were proficient or advanced in English. There was still as 30 point gap for black students.
In the meantime, the pandemic has led to delays, reductions, or outright cancellations of standardized testing in many districts. So now students will not be going full-time to school and also not be tested on their proficiency in subjects in some districts. It is as if they did not exist, which is precisely the problem. Politically, they do not seem to register in terms of importance or influence. They are useful objects for politicians who use them for campaigns for more money or power. Yet, they seem utterly detached from any actual benefits as these leaders allow public schools to continue on the same course of proven failure.
Watching this happen to the public schools has been particularly hard for many of us who are ardent supporters of public education. Growing up in Chicago during the massive flight of white families from the public school system, I remained in public schools for much of my early education. My parents organized a group to convince affluent families remain in the system. They feared that, once such families left, the public schools would not only loose diversity but political clout and support. They also wanted their kids to benefit from such diversity. My wife and I also believe in that cause and we have kept our four kids in public schools through to college. We believe public education plays a key role in our national identity and civics. They shape our next generation of citizens. My children have benefitted greatly from public schools and the many caring and gifted teachers who have taught them through the years.
Reading accounts like that of Tiffany France is a disgrace. She is working three jobs and counting on the school system to give her three children and education . . . and a chance. Yet, Baltimore and other cities have failed such children for decades. There is no accountability in the system. These leaders are failing whole generations and leaving them to an endless cycle of poverty and crime. Yet, they are reelected or reappointed every year. Educational leaders demand more money but show little progress or success. The money evaporates and nothing seems to change for Tiffany France or her children.
The problem is not standardized testing. It is the lack of education where a student with below a 1.0 GPA could qualify for cum laude recognition in Baltimore. Decades and billions of dollars have been exhausted without significant improvement. However, the real cost of our failure is born by these students who find little solace in knowing that their per capita expenditures continue to rise as their scores continue to fall. If we ran our highway system like this, we would have billion-dollar gravel roads for highways. In our education system, we are spending billions but kids like Tiffany’s son are going nowhere fast.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/baltimore-student-who-failed-all-three-classes-four-years-was-ranked-top-half-his-class
DRILLING PROGRAM NOW IN PROGRESS; OPENING UP THE DEEP KAVANGO PERMIAN BASIN, KALAHARI DESERT
( Note the release date... )
January 11, 2021 - Vancouver, BC – Reconnaissance Energy Africa Ltd. (the “Company” or “ReconAfrica”) (TSX-V: RECO) (OTCQX: RECAF) (Frankfurt: 0XD) is pleased to announce, it has commenced drilling operations on the first well (6-2), of an initial three well program, in the deep Kavango Basin in the Kalahari Desert of North East Namibia.
Drilling Operations
With the Company owned and operated 1,000 HP rig (Jarvie-1), we are now drilling ahead to a planned 12,500 feet total depth (TD) to evaluate potential hydrocarbon systems in one of five major sub-basins of the larger, more laterally extensive, Permian aged Kavango basin.
The first prospective section of the well is designed to reach 4,800 feet in depth where intermediate casing will be set. Sidewall cores and well logs will be run from an interval of 1,000 to 4,800 feet to identify conventional targets. The well prognosis provides for reaching the top of the Permian section at approximately 4,000 feet.
The second section of the well is designed to reach a TD of 12,500 feet drilling through the intermediate to lower Permian sections. While drilling the lower sections the Company will take whole core and conduct a full logging suite of all zones of interest (conventional targets and source rocks). A comprehensive state of the art logging program over both sections will be provided by Schlumberger.
The 6-2 well will be drilled with water-based drilling fluid providing ideal samples (cuttings and core) to be utilized to determine a range of petroleum properties and locations for future exploration and production wells.
In keeping with the Company’s policy of implementing environmental best practices, ReconAfrica is working with Valence Drilling Fluids, a North American company that provides all organic & biodegradable drilling fluids which are fully environmentally safe, for many aspects, including topsoil enhancement and development. “We welcome the opportunity to work alongside ReconAfrica on this project as they are a company that understands the importance of environmental protection with proven results,” stated Gareth Eckhout, VP, Valence Drilling Fluids.
“Drilling the first three wells in a newly discovered Permian basin, where one company holds all of the rights, is certainly a rare opportunity. There are many important similarities between the Kavango basin and the Permian Basin in West Texas, one of the world’s most prolific producing basins, where I have been actively drilling and completing wells for many years,” said Nick Steinsberger, SVP of Drilling and Completions. “I anticipate the first well will take up to 45 days to reach total depth and initial analysis of all prospective productive targets.”
RECONNAISSANCE ENERGY AFRICA LTD.
Suite 1500 - 999 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 2W2 Canada Tel: 604-423-5384 | www.reconafrica.com
2
Dan Jarvie, ReconAfrica’s geochemist said, “This important three well drilling program will provide ReconAfrica an initial assessment of the various Permian-age potential petroleum systems such as found in the age-equivalent Permian basin in Texas and Karoo basin in South Africa. Geological and geochemical analysis will provide details on potential, stacked conventional reservoirs as well as multiple petroleum source rocks. Petroleum source rock and stratigraphic analysis will provide the Company with a basis for assessing the timing of light oil generation, its expulsion and migration to conventional reservoirs for future production.”
https://reconafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/ReconAfrica-Press-Release-011021.pdf
"No Interest In Sticking Around" - Manhattan Luxury Homeowners Sell Properties At loss
Manhattan's luxury condo frenzy petered out a few years ago. Owners are taking realized losses as they offload properties at steep losses.
A prime example of this is the pending deal at 551 W. 21st St., where two units listed for a combined $26 million found a buyer after a couple of years on and off the market, according to Bloomberg, who cited data from brokerage Olshan Realty. The owner initially acquired the property in 2016 for $31.3 million and then attempted to flip it for $40 million the following year.
With no success, the owner is expected to realize a 17% loss on the properties once the transaction is completed.
Manhattan's luxury condo market peaked a few years ago and has since developed into a nightmare for sellers. Massive supply is quickly eroding values as inventory builds. In early 2020, half of all new luxury condo units constructed after 2015 in the borough were unsold. A confluence of macroeconomic headwinds, as well as SALT deduction caps and transfer taxes, cooled the market. Then came the big bad pandemic that wreaked even more havoc in the borough.
Donna Olshan, president of the brokerage, said sellers in the market have no interest in sticking around in "New York if they're not using the asset or if the asset isn't giving a return."
Olshan said a deal at 80 Columbus Circle for a 74th-story condo recently listed at $25 million. The seller combined two apartments in the tower, one unit purchased in 2011 for $17.5 millionWith Mayor Bill De Blasio doing everything he possibly can to drive both businesses (like Goldman Sachs) and individual citizens out of the city, the effects of his colossal mismanagement and general cluelessness have come at a loss for some wealthy elites who bought luxury condos in the last several years, thinking they could flip the unit(s) for a quick buck. Many have transformed into bagholders, or recently, they want out and are willing to take realized losses. , and the other unit (next door) purchased in 2014 for $18 million.
There is some good news in the luxury real estate market - after writing about the downturn for 18 months and the plunge following the pandemic, the decline in prices has brought buyers to the table.
With Mayor Bill De Blasio doing everything he possibly can to drive both businesses (like Goldman Sachs) and individual citizens out of the city, the effects of his colossal mismanagement and general cluelessness have come at a loss for some wealthy elites who bought luxury condos in the last several years, thinking they could flip the unit(s) for a quick buck. Many have transformed into bagholders, or recently, they want out and are willing to take realized losses.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/no-interest-sticking-around-manhattan-luxury-homeowners-dump-properties-loss
Has anyone done any financial analysis ?
Stuff like probable sales, expenses and earnings per share?
What is the business plan for growth ? Will they need to sell more shares to do so or borrow money ?
Does anyone have a sales and earnings estimate for 2021 ? Thanks.
The other way around...
Turning wine into water is more fun.
It's really sad what the liberals have done to this country.
A person cannot even say "All lives matter" without fear of losing everything he has worked for his entire life. Unless you openly support their agenda you are a racist. Our grandkids will not understand the world they live in.
Biden Calls On Congress To Strengthen Gun Ownership Rules
President Joe Biden on Feb. 14 urged Congress to strengthen existing laws concerning gun ownership on the third anniversary of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
“The Parkland students and so many other young people across the country who have experienced gun violence are carrying forward the history of the American journey. It is a history written by young people in each generation who challenged prevailing dogma to demand a simple truth: we can do better. And we will,” Biden said in a statement.
“This Administration will not wait for the next mass shooting to heed that call. We will take action to end our epidemic of gun violence and make our schools and communities safer. Today, I am calling on Congress to enact commonsense gun law reforms, including requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets.”
In the afternoon on Feb. 14, 2018, a man identified by authorities as Nikolas Cruz, now 22, walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and opened fire with AR-15 rifle. The shooting left 17 dead, including 14 students. Cruz, who is currently awaiting trial, could face the death penalty.
After the shooting, a number of Parkland students and parents began agitating for stricter gun control laws, arguing Cruz shouldn’t have been able to obtain a gun. But others pointed to failures by law enforcement, including safety officer Scot Peterson, who has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges for not entering the school building to confront Cruz, and urged restraint on new measures.
Biden said during the 2020 campaign that he supports stronger gun control; last week, administration officials met with gun control advocates, including Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, and John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters later that the administration is ready to move on the “ambitious plan” Biden laid out during the campaign.
Biden said on his campaign website that he will “defeat” the National Rifle Association (NRA). Among his proposed actions is repealing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which protects gun manufacturers from some lawsuits, banning so-called assault weapons, as Congress did for 10 years in 1994, and forcing people to either give up certain guns and magazines or register them with the federal government.
The NRA’s lobbying arm has fired back at Biden, saying he wants to ban “America’s most popular class of centerfire rifles, as well on the factory-spec magazines for most of the defensive pistols sold in the U.S.”
“Just as when Joe Biden unsuccessfully pursued gun control as Barack Obama’s vice-president, your NRA is fully prepared to oppose whatever plans he may have to ‘defeat’ America’s largest and oldest civil rights organization and the fundamental liberties it protects,” it added in a recent blog post.
Gun-control advocacy groups are pushing both executive orders and legislative packages they believe will help lead to fewer deaths by gunfire.
While Democrats control both chambers of Congress in addition to the White House, they require some Republican support in the Senate to pass new legislation.
Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) on Feb. 14 also mourned the shooting anniversary.
“As we honor the anniversary of this tragedy, we must also find the strength as a nation to prevent such tragedies from ever being repeated. With President Biden in the White House, we finally have the opportunity to make real strides to end gun violence. No survivor should endure another year of inaction. The fear of mass gun violence for Americans doing the most normal of activities, as well as gun violence in too many neighborhoods across the country, must be brought to an end with congressional action,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement.
“On this day, I recommit to ensure that the names of the 17 victims are never forgotten in the halls of Congress and to honor their memory with action that will make our communities safer from gun violence,” Deutch added.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-calls-congress-strengthen-gun-ownership-rules
Wind turbine shutdowns during polar vortex stoke Midwest debate
As residents of the Twin Cities awoke on Jan. 29, the first of three straight days of subzero temperatures, about half of the region’s electricity was coming from wind farms dotting the Upper Midwest.
Wind energy across the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s northern region, stretching from Minnesota to Iowa, peaked that morning between 9 and 10 a.m. at 11,445 megawatts. Wind farms were churning out about half of the area’s total electric output, according to the grid operator’s hourly data.
At the time, it was minus 8 degrees Fahrenheit at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Blustering winds made it feel like minus 19 F.
But grid operators would watch as electricity from wind steadily tailed off during the next day and a half.
By the evening of Jan. 30, there was less than 550 MW on the MISO North grid, supplying just 2.5 percent of the region’s power. The temperature, which had bottomed out an hour earlier, had fallen to minus 21 F with a minus 31 F wind chill.
That dip in wind output during last month’s deep freeze is now fueling debate about the nation’s embrace of renewable energy. The polar vortex arrived as calls grew on the left for a “Green New Deal” to transition to renewables and tackle the threat of climate change, all while various state-level proposals to increase renewable energy penetration circulated across the country.
Output from wind farms — a technology dubbed as the new baseload energy in the Upper Midwest — fell off even faster than anticipated starting the night before as temperatures fell below minus 20 F, the cutoff point below which turbines automatically quit operating.
A MISO presentation released ahead of the committee meeting today shows that when the grid operator declared a “maximum generation event” just before 3 a.m. on Jan. 30, only about half of the almost 14,000-MW forecast of wind generation to be available was actually producing energy.
Brian Draxten, manager of resource planning for Otter Tail Power Co., said wind turbines across North Dakota shut down because of the extreme temperatures. In fact, he said the wind farms went from a power producer to a 2-megawatt load on its system because they required heat to avoid being damaged.
More at the link
https://energynews.us/2019/02/27/midwest/wind-turbine-shutdowns-during-polar-vortex-stoke-midwest-debate/
New Video Shows Massive California Container Ship Traffic Jam
Newly released U.S. Coast Guard video offers visceral proof of just how extreme the congestion has become at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The new view from above reveals a vast armada of container ships scattered at anchor across California’s San Pedro Bay.
( The article indicates that COVID is impacting on shore logistics... The reported COVID cases is less than 2% of the union work force. It seems likely that the $Trillions in government money is causing a massive demand for stuff. )
As the Coast Guard footage paints the picture, the latest data from the Port of Los Angeles and from the Marine Exchange of Southern California tells the story behind those images.
The Dumbing Down Of America Is Poised To Accelerate
The Dumbing Down of America
Andrey Kessler at the Wall Street Journal accurately notes Mediocrity Is Now Mandatory
In January the College Board announced it would eliminate the essay portion of the SAT, as well as all of the separate SAT subject tests. Their stated purpose was “reducing and simplifying demands on students.” Such a burden.
When the University of California system did away with racial preferences in 1996, it moved to holistic admissions. Grades are only a suggestion—and SAT scores are biased, supposedly.
Virtually all universities and now many companies have D&I departments, for diversity and inclusion. Sounds worthy. But as far as I can tell, the No. 1 job of a D&I department is to hire more people into the D&I department. No one ever mentions excellence.
Many schools, like Hampshire College, Antioch University and Reed College, don’t even bother with meaningful grades—feelings might get hurt.
The Biden administration constantly points out “firsts”—its gender and racially selected cabinet, vice president and other appointments. Great, but why not say “best” rather than first?
An avowed socialist, mittens and all, is now chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, in whose hands merit will burn while mediocrity flourishes.
Political Correctness
A week ago I noted Politically Correct Educators Vote to Rename 44 SF Schools Including Washington and Lincoln.
The San Francisco school board is leading the surge in political correctness by voting to rename 44 schools.
Washington, Jefferson, McKinley, Monroe, John Muir, Robert Louis Stevenson, Daniel Webster, Herbert Hoover, Francis Scott Key, Mission, and Paul Revere are among the names targeted.
The stated cost is $10,000 per school. That's $440,000 just for new signs.
By the time they finish replacing all the statues, stationary, murals, and uniforms, I expect the board will waste double that.
A Few Politically Incorrect Points
Changing the name on an building will not change anything going on inside.
Eliminating the essay portion of the SAT will not improve reading ability.
Eliminating grades does not make people smarter, nor does giving everyone an A, nor does letting students grade themselves.
Diversity for diversity's sake does not benefit blacks or anyone else.
It's not just black lives that matter.
Sheltering kids does not prepare them for the real world.
Why People Voted For Trump
If you are looking for a reason why millions of people voted for Trump, look no further.
Every bit of this is a complete outrage. It is exactly why Trump got elected in 2016 and had he toned things down a bit in 2020 he probably would have gotten reelected.
Biden needs to speak out against this. But he won't. Instead he has embraced it. The dumbing down of the USA will accelerate.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/dumbing-down-america-poised-accelerate
Virginia Task Force Drops Gang Database After Complaints It Has Too Many Minorities In It
A tolerant country needs tolerant databases...
The Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force would stop using the GangNet database that catalogs thousands of gang members and gang-affiliated persons in the DC Metropolitan area over complaints that the database includes a ‘disproportionate number of minorities’.
According to the Washington Post, it will be the first law enforcement entity in the area that would stop using GangNet.
The database is widely used by more than 120 law enforcement agencies in the greater Washington, DC area that includes densely populated counties in both Maryland and Virginia. GangNet had been in use for about 10 years and has about 7,800 gang members in its database.
The database is used for intelligence purposes and can’t be used for the basis of probable cause to arrest someone.
Nonetheless, collecting the data about any crimes that may involve the ‘disproportional number of minorities’ appeared to be too much for the new neo-liberal era in the US.
It may soon appear that the entire concept of the ‘ethnic crime’ can appear to be banned in the US because it is not enough tolerant.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/virginia-task-force-drops-gang-database-after-complaints-it-has-too-many-minorities-it
Lithium prices...
Lithium carbonate charts
Lithium carbonate, 99.5% Li2CO3 min, battery grade, spot price cif China, Japan & Korea, $/kg (midpoint)
Lithium hydroxide charts
Lithium hydroxide monohydrate 56.5% LiOH.H2O min, battery grade, spot price cif China, Japan & Korea $/kg (midpoint)
https://www.fastmarkets.com/commodities/industrial-minerals/lithium-price-spotlight
It's a standard business model that mining companies need a lot of cash to start a mining operation.
Hindsight is always 2020 but when it comes to mining raising money is part of the deal.
In July of 2017 I pointed out that LAC will likely see ONE BILLION SHARES before they produce any lithium. That was before the reverse stock split 1:5 so in todays numbers we're talking about 200 million shares... Not too far from that now. Some people will say "So what ". The problem with that is as the number of shares continue to increase the price earnings ratio goes ballistic. Mining companies don't sell for 500 times earnings like a high tech startup.
See the previous post:
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=132750295&txt2find=billion
It looks like the same money raise..
Jan 20 it was announced and Jan 22 it closed.
The increase from $350 million to $400 million is the over allotment.
https://www.lithiumamericas.com/news/
US Economy Set To Overheat As Households Are Flooded With $2 Trillion In Excess Savings
This article makes a good argument why the previous economic stimulus and additional expected stimulus will later result in higher interest rates and stall the economy. A good part of the stimulus has gone into savings and with more money expected the economy will probably overheat as the savings are drawn down and end up as increased demand. The article does not mention employment but my guess is that a lot will depend on jobs. People will need a job to feel comfortable to spend their savings.
The article is a bit long with several charts so I won't repost it here.
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/us-economy-set-overheat-households-are-flooded-2-trillion-excess-savingsot mention
The Despicables
One of the nuggets to be mined from the wholesale cancelling of politically unapproved speech by the Tech Oligarchs – soon to be empowered by government oligarchs, if the “kraken” doesn’t somehow prevent it – is how obvious their pathological dishonesty has become.
Amazon, Facebook and Twitter have asserted that, as private businesses, they have the right to decide with whom to do business – and not do business with. But do they feel the same way about the right of other private businesses to practice what they preach?
Only when it conforms with what they preach.
Consider the religious tenets of the Sickness Cult; specifically, the dogma that requires all to wear a Face Burqa within a privately owned business, even if the owner isn’t religious and isn’t interested in proselytizing to his customers, much less insisting they show respect for a religion he doesn’t subscribe to.
It is a private business, is it not?
Why then must this private business be forced to conduct its business according to the religious tenets of people who don’t own the business? Isn’t that a violation of the owner’s rights, just the same as the rights asserted by Amazon, Facebook and Twitter?
They claim no one is forced to use their services; that people are free to use other services more to their liking. Bully! But why doesn’t the same standard apply to other private businesses, the ones the people who run Amazon, Twitter and Facebook insist be closed to people who aren’t forced to go within?
People should be free to do business with whomever they wish, according to whatever terms are mutually agreeable to the parties. If one party does not find the terms agreeable then they are free to not do business with the other party. This is the argument purveyed with great unction by Amazon, Facebook and Twitter justifying their decisions to stop doing business with Parler, for instance (in the case of Amazon) and cancelling the ability of people whose opinions – and facts – they dislike from their platforms, including the president of the United States (in the case of Twitter and Facebook).
Fine. Indeed.
They do have every right. It’s despicable – in the manner of “No Colored” signs on the door of businesses back in the ’50s – but they have every right as privately owned businesses to do business with whomever they wish, according to whatever terms they wish – so long as people are free to take their business elsewhere.
Aye, there’s the rub.
These Despicables want to enjoy the right to cancel, close – and decree – to others while at the same time denying the right of any other privately owned business to set its own terms and conditions.
The Despicables cannot stand the idea of freedom of religion when it comes to the wearing of the Face Burqa, for instance. The Holy Vestment must be worn everywhere, even within privately owned businesses and irrespective of a businesses’ private property rights.
Privately owned businesses are also unfree to unlock their doors and leave it up to customers to decide whether they wish to enter. It is not enough that no one is forced to enter these privately owned businesses. These privately owned businesses must be forced to not let them in – and if they are let in, force them to perform bizarre religious rituals including the wearing of a “mask.”
But this is nothing new. The Left specializes in situational ethics; in fungible etymology. Like Humpty Dumpty, a word means exactly what the Left says it does until the Left says it means something else.
This creates difficulties in the minds of rational, honest people – who take words at face value and base their arguments on moral principles that aren’t fungible. Thus the stymying of many conservatives – and even libertarians – with regard to the Mandatory Burqua policies imposed by many businesses under pressure from the government to do so – and also with regard to calling out the Despicables who brazenly refuse to do business with those whose opinions – and facts – they do not like, claiming they have private property rights to do so. . . and then going on a rampage when a privately owned business uses the same argument to defend its private property rights.
The Left is defined not so much by its leftism but its psychotic doublethink. It is rancidly intolerant while touting itself as ethereally tolerant. It promotes racism in the name of combatting it.
And it thinks property rights only apply to correct privately owned businesses; i.e., to their businesses.
This has always been the case but now it’s out in the open – which may finally put an end to this business.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/despicables
Yes there is a link...
CNN.COM
You can also see it here...
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/18/politics/joe-biden-donald-trump-inauguration-coronavirus/index.html
Headline on CNN.COM
"Biden's term will end an administration awash in corruption"
Welsh Man Would Give Council Over £50 Million If It Let Him Dig Landfill For Lost Bitcoin
( My son did something similar... When he was 11 years old he jumped into a computer, became a very successful computer geek, started to mine his own bitcoin back when it was still easy to do. It was a novelty at the time and he discarded 2,600 bitcoins that were priced fractions of one cent and were considered worthless !! )
A Welsh man on Friday repeated his previous request to the local council for permission to search a landfill site for a lost hard drive, which he claims contains bitcoin now worth around £210 million ($287 million).
The 35-year-old said that he’s willing to donate 25 percent of the value of the lost treasure to local residents.
James Howells, an IT professional from the Welsh city of Newport, told local news outlets that he had been mining bitcoin since February 2009, when it was much cheaper to do.
But in 2013, he said, he accidentally threw out a hard drive that contains 7,500 bitcoins.
“I had two identical hard drives and I threw out the wrong one,” Howells said. “I know I’m not the only person who has ever thrown out the wrong thing, but it usually doesn’t cost people over £200 million.”
He said that he has to “laugh about it now” because there’s nothing else he can do.
Howells contacted Newport City Council several times for permission to excavate the landfill site, but his requests were rejected.
“In 2017 the value of my hard drive was approximately £125 million [$170 million], at which point I made them another offer of 10 percent and unfortunately that offer was refused,” Howells told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“There is going to be a point when the files on that machine are worth more than a billion pounds,” he said.
“The attitude of the council does not compute, it just does not make sense.”
Howells said that he doesn’t think it’s too difficult to dig the landfill, as he only needs to search one specific area after a check against the records for where the waste was buried in 2013.
A landfill site in Milton near Cambridgeshire in England on March 8, 2017. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
He said that he’s now willing to give up a quarter of the treasure if it’s recovered.
“I want to give it to people. Basically, anyone who is struggling right now, they could make an application to a relief fund and get money sent to them straight away,” he said.
Howells said that he has the backing of a hedge fund to provide up to £3.5 million to cover the cost of the digging. His plan would adhere to all environmental and safety regulations.
A spokesperson for Newport City Council said that it has been contacted a number of times since 2013.
“The first time was several months after Mr. Howells first realised the hardware was missing,” the spokesperson said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times.
“The council has told Mr. Howells on a number of occasions that excavation is not possible under our licencing permit and excavation itself would have a huge environmental impact on the surrounding area,” the statement reads.
“The cost of digging up the landfill, storing, and treating the waste could run into millions of pounds—without any guarantee of either finding it or it still being in working order.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/welsh-man-would-give-council-over-ps50-million-if-it-let-him-dig-landfill-lost-bitcoin