Welcome again my dear readers. Unfortunately, I am going to start with some facts that if you live in America will probably be self-evident to you already in your daily lives. I am then going to provide a list of curious facts. It may be rational to point at COVID, Ukraine, or other source as the root cause and therefore shrug off these things as being side effects of otherwise unrelated events and in my heart, I truly hope that is all it is. I can believe however and every day it appears more and more likely to me that the events presented certain bad actors with an opportunity and enabled them to a degree cover their bad actions with current events.
We have all noticed inflation everything from Gasoline, Food, rent, housing and much more. The problem with over all numbers like food being reported at 9% is that it includes both primary staples like beef, pork, eggs, and wheat as well as less desirable items like organ meat, vegetable “meat”, and ethnic items. That mask the true impact of price increases. For example food is only up 9% but Beef is up over 40%, eggs 30%, and bacon 35% since 2020 (here and here). We can add to this that on any given day for the first time in my 46 years of life you can go into the grocery store and find entire sections empty or very nearly empty some times it is the meat section, sometimes the dairy case, could be paper goods, or nearly anything else. This has been an on and off thing since the middle of 2020 however in the years that followed it has only gotten worse (here, here, here, and here). Most recently and alarmingly it appears that baby formula is becoming scarce (here, here, and here).
Energy, with gasoline up over 100% since 2020. Less than 20% of the increase being since the War in Ukraine while it may play a factor the war isn’t the root or even the most influential cause. Then we have the new warnings from Electric companies from California to Virginia and everywhere else talking about energy shortages and rolling blackouts even in places that have never had them before (here, here, and here). The cost of fuels, electricity, and essentially all energy is going to continue to rise while Americans face more and more shortages. A faction of the commigress seems to think a vaguely worded anti-gouging bill will lower the cost for consumers at the pump (here). Where in truth this bill is worse than the price caps of the 70s (here). It is worse because to much profit is whatever political creatures decide is to much at any given time. This arbitrary attempt at floating price controls will only server to create an environment worse than the price controls of the 70s where gas was scarce (here and here). It will be worse because rather than having a fixed bar where if fuel could be provided at or under the bar it was available and if not it was unavailable this bill would create a situation where providers could never be sure if the price they can provide fuel at will put them in legal jeopardy or not. So many if not most will elect not to provide gas, and either they will find some other way to make money or they will be added to the wreckage of the American small business landscape where between 20 and 30% of previously successful small businesses have closed forever (here and here) since the end of 2019.
I could go into the crime rate and its correlation to the prosecution rate across the country or how many chain stores are curtailing their hours of closing locations due to rampant unprosecuted theft. I think those topics would get us to far off the thread I am working on and may be a future note to you my dear readers. The fact is that to many things are currently wrong to cover them all in an omnibus all inclusive dispatch. So today we will talk about inflation and shortages in goods and energy mostly. With that on ward.
Next let us consider if we were in charge of thigs what we might do to try and alleviate the burdens of supply side inflation. Supply side inflation differs from monetary inflation in that monetary inflation is cause by an over production of money creating a situation where excess money is chasing finite goods resulting in the cost of goods going up. In this case the supply detriment is usually because people are purchasing more standard goods and more luxury or excess items than they would have under normal conditions. Monetary inflation is longer lasting and tends to feed off itself. The cycle works like this:
Excess Money is created and distributed to meet a perceived need
Demand for goods is increased
Prices increase
There is insufficient money for people to obtain necessities
Excess Money is created and distributed to meet a perceived need
We saw a lot of this with the Trillions in stimulus over the course of COVID-19. The only way to get out of a consumer monetary inflation cycle is to stop creating excess money, raise interest rates to discourage major spending and then ride the fallout until, enough excess dollars are destroyed, production catches up to the existing money supply, or wages catch up to current prices. The fallout is generally recession across the markets most reliant on excess money. It hurts but is required if a standard of living is to be maintained or increased over the long run. Unfortunately, this seldom happens and that is why the median income today is less than it was adjusted for inflation in 1976 (here). Usually people just adapt as the gap closes slowly. Supply side inflation occurs when there is a disruption to the availability of goods or services creating a situation where demand outstrips available supply and as a result prices go up. These types of situations are usually temporary and result from some kind of disaster be it major like a flood, hurricane, or tornado that destroys production capability over a region or more minor a factory burns down or major producer goes out of business. These types of inflationary pressure only last until supply can be restored by rebuilding or obtaining a new source for the lost resources.
Right now, America (the rest of the world too to some extent but I don’t live there) is suffering from both monetary inflation and supply side inflation. It appears the Federal Reserve is kind of sort of pussyfooting their way into raising rates and cutting off the excess money if it is to slowly and anemic compared to what is actually needed to combat current monetary inflation (here, here, here, and here). Supply side inflation is much easier to combat and with aggressive measures to increase production, ease regulatory hurtles for new producers, and open otherwise restricted markets to utilize their production capacity. Once recognized Supply side inflation can be eliminated in a short period of time and its impacts are usually lessoned through the entire process leading to resolution. What has our government done to help increase oil production or food production to ease the burden on working middle class families?
1. The government has denied request to cultivate Conservation Reserve Program lands to ease food shortage (here, here, and here).
2. Both state and federal authorities have reduced and denied irrigation water access permits that are required to successfully bring to harvest many crops (here, here and here).
3. The government has stopped the Keystone pipeline and is threatening other existing fuel delivery pipelines (here and here).
4. The government has halted all oil leases on government land (here, here, and here)
5. The Biden administration tries to shift blame to Russia when 85% of increased fuel cost happened before the war in Ukraine (here and here).
This seems a curious response as the decent into hell continues. I am generally open minded and weather I believe them or not I generally don’t disregard “conspiracy” theories out of hand. I am more likely to rate them as to how plausible I think they might be and wait for more information. Kind of a scale from 0 (yea that is bullshit) where lizard people, flat earth, and fake moon landing reside to 10 (this is probably true) where things like hunter Biden’s laptop and Lab leak COVID reside. I do this because I know that the use of Conspiracy Theory as a derogatory term to chill speech seems to have been introduced by the CIA in the middle 60s to silence opposition to the official report regarding the assassination of JFK, and has since been used to cover up some of the worst actions by powerful government agencies, political actors, and those associated with them (here). At this point you may be wondering why I am getting back into the topic of conspiracy theories. It is because as I watch the world unfold and hear the words of our president telling us this is all part of a painful transition (here) indicating that all or most of this pain was planned and then just days later our friends at the World Economic Forum including Mr. you will own nothing and be happy Klaus Schwab said openly that declared that the global energy crisis is a “transition” that will be “painful” for most, but should not be resisted by nations tempted to preserve their own sovereignty over the “global agenda.” (here, here, here, here and here). At what point and how many coincidences does it take for us to say well shit all this pain is planned and intentional so a small group of people can essentially attempt to rule the world? At what point does the idea that there is a group of people that want to see depopulation to “sustainable” levels become more plausible? Look at the evidence and look at what they are actually willing to come out and say publicly at this point then you decide what it means. I don’t fully as of yet know what I think, but some of the worse and most evil theories about the global elite have moved up a few places from 4s or 5s on the scale to 6-8 on it for me at least.
What I do know and we have been told for sure is that we are coming up on a time where there will be global famine and there will be starvation even in the wealthiest of western nations (here). While it is more expensive now than a while ago you can still get a long-term emergency food supply and, in my opinion, you need to do it. If you can put in a garden, hydroponic setup, or even some planter boxes, and get chickens and or rabbits if you can. I don’t know how long the food crunch will last but I do believe it is coming and that you need to become ready now if you are not yet. If you don’t you risk starvation for you and your family.
Revelation 6:8
I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.
God bless you, and be ready.
-Sam
Yep. (*NOD*)