CHANGE: Credit Suisse Strategist Says We’re Witnessing Birth of a New World Monetary Order. “Former Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department official, and now Credit Suisse (CS) short-term rate strategist, Zoltan Pozsar has written the U.S. is in a commodity crisis that is giving rise to a new world monetary order that will ultimately weaken the current dollar-based system and lead to higher inflation in the West.”
Archive for 2022
March 9, 2022
WHAT IS NIH HIDING ABOUT PITTSBURGH BABY EXPERIMENTS? Something very wrong is going on within the National Institutes of Health (NIH), according to Sam Dorman of The Federalist. That is made clear by the way in which officials there are obfuscating — or should I say “covering up” — the NIH’s role in a horrendous series of experiments at the University of Pittsburgh, including live-baby organ harvesting.
The NIH has accomplished much good over the years, but the response to the more than 100 members of Congress who demanded answers about the Pittsburgh horrors reminds of a quip by, I think, John Randolph of Roanoke about an opponent who he said “reminds me of dead fish on the beach in the moonlight that both stinketh and shine.”
THANK GOD HE’S NOT ALIENATING OUR ALLIES LIKE THEY SAID TRUMP DID: Pariahs? Saudis, UAE snub Biden in energy-production plea. “Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates refused to take Biden’s call as he sought increased oil production to help lower gas prices in the US, the Wall Street Journal reports. Ostensibly, the snub relates to a demand for support against Iranian proxy terrorists, but it goes deeper than that on both ends. . . . Biden’s defenders reacted with outrage late yesterday after this news broke. Some demanded an end to US arms sales to both countries and other reprisals, but those apologists have short memories. It was Biden who started this diplomatic-insult cycle by insisting in 2019 that he would turn Saudi Arabia into a ‘pariah’ state over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey. Remember this from the Democratic primary debate in Atlanta, via Jim Geraghty?”
The Saudis certainly do. Trump, meanwhile, made them partners for Mideast peace via the Abraham Accords. But hey, the adults are in charge now, right?
Related: The ‘cabal’ that bragged of foisting Joe Biden on us must answer for his failed presidency.
OPEN THE BOOKS ON SUBSTACK: Adam Andrzjeweski, the irrepressible energy force behind the Chicago-based non-profit that has filed more than 40,000 FOIAs to obtain and post $6 trillion worth of spending at all levels of government, is now on Substack.
Subs are free for those signing up today and you should because OTB has done more in the past decade to advance transparency and accountability in government than any other activist group.
THEY LIVE IN LESS OF A BUBBLE: It’s not the GOP the White House has to worry about, it’s local news reporters. “There are stories like this being reported by every local media outlet in the country. It’s a perfect local news story if you think about it. It’s easy to cover and has an impact on almost everyone watching.”
Related, via a reader from Segovia, Texas:
Nice to see Kamala and Nancy getting their share of the credit too, what with International Women’s Day and everything.
STUART BROTMAN: Ukraine war’s powerful First Amendment lesson.
JEFFREY CARTER: Commodity Prices on a Tear.
The main market for Nickel futures trades at the London Metal Exchange. Don’t try to trade them, because they suspended trading. A Chinese company had a huge short and had to get out. That added a lot of pressure to a market that was already on its way to the moon. They are still sorting things out as I write this.
For what it is worth, nickel is an essential element in the battery of an electronic vehicle. The other is lithium. Most of that is mined in China although they found a huge deposit in Nevada. Of course, the Green movement wants the lithium in Nevada to stay in the ground yet they agree with Buttigieg that we all should be buying electric cars. Green people are out of touch with reality. When the wheel was invented in the Stone Age, they’d have kept dragging things around.
Nickel’s rally, and the reliance on Russia for supply is going to make electronic cars a lot more expensive. Stainless steel just got a lot more expensive too. How many things does stainless steel go into?
As an old dinosaur commodity trader, I checked out some of the hard-core ag markets to see what they have been doing. It will be no surprise to astute readers of this blog that the prices across the board are higher than they used to be. Principally, you can blame the level of government spending for that increase. Inflation happens when there are too many dollars chasing too few goods. The Fed printed dollars, and the Federal government helicoptered them into the pockets of Americans. That guaranteed inflation. Biden’s Build Back Better would increase the rate of inflation, not decrease it.
Two quick ways to decrease inflation are to increase interest rates and really drop the level of government spending. The second will work better than the first.
Can’t do that, it would interfere with graft.
Plus: “By the way, that jump in wages from $10 to $15 got eaten up by inflation.”
WELL, NOT AMERICAN NATIONALISM: Ukraine has made nationalism cool again.
WELL, THAT EXPLAINS A LOT: Ancient Japanese ‘killing stone’ said to contain evil demon has cracked open.
On the upside, there’s this analysis: “My guess is the demon is going to look around at 2022 and want to go back into the rock for another millennium.”
CRISES BY DESIGN: How Dems Helped Spike Gas Prices.
Despite reassurances from the White House that it is doing nothing to discourage oil companies from opening new drill sites, President Joe Biden’s allies in Congress just months ago pressured oil executives to decrease outputs because of climate change, raising questions about the Democratic Party’s strategy to lower prices for consumers.
In late October, for example, the House Oversight and Reform Committee called in the CEOs of Exxon, BP, Shell, and Chevron to explain what steps they are taking to produce less oil and gas, with Rep. Hank Johnson (D., Ga*.) alleging that “the world can’t wait” any longer. At the time, gas prices were hovering around a 10-year high.
* * * * * * * *
The average price for gasoline at the end of Biden’s first week of office was $2.39 a gallon. Prices have now hit above $4. Although defenders of the president say the rising prices are forces outside the administration’s control, as well as Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Republicans say Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline and institute a moratorium on new gas leases is responsible.
Democrats scheduled a followup hearing with oil executives for Tuesday, March 8. That hearing was subsequently canceled last-minute, with no explanation given.
* Somehow the author mispelled “Guam” here.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: DeSantis Continues His Mastery Over Corrupt Mainstream Media. “On Monday, a reporter was stupid enough to take the thoroughly biased route with DeSantis when questioning him about the bill. Put mildly, it didn’t go well for the reporter.”
I CAN’T IMAGINE WHY: Saudi, UAE leaders declined calls with Biden amid Ukraine conflict: report.
Leaders in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) declined calls with President Biden as the war in Ukraine intensified, Middle East and U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
“There was some expectation of a phone call, but it didn’t happen,” a U.S. official told the Journal regarding a call between Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “It was part of turning on the spigot [of Saudi oil].”
UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed also declined a call from Biden, according to the officials.
Officials told the outlet that U.S. relations with the two Gulf countries have been strained over the Biden administration’s lack of support in the war in Yemen and the revived negotiations concerning the Iran nuclear deal.
Earlier “Saudi Arabia isn’t having it. Because the left, in another Get Trump operation, attempted to make Saudi Arabia a ‘pariah’ over the claimed assassination of Qatar spy Jamal Khashoggi…Bin Salman isn’t making it easier on Biden to repair their relations. He appeared to go out of his way to aggravate the White House during an interview with the Atlantic published last week. ‘We don’t have the right to lecture you in America,’ he said. ‘The same goes the other way.’”
Related: Biden tormented by Republican guerrilla campaign and ‘I did it’ stickers.
Also: 100Pcs I Did That Biden Funny Car Stickers. #Resist #CommissionEarned
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY (RUSSIA EDITION): Kremlin officials ‘privately denounce’ Putin’s ‘clusterf**k invasion’ as officials warn cornered Russian leader could use small NUKES on Ukrainian cities in worst-case scenario with his forces bogged down in snow and -20C freeze on the way.
And:
One very smart contact who knows about such things currently puts the odds of Putin using a tactical nuke at 60%, another contact — just as smart, just as knowledgeable — says “No way.”
Really, nobody knows but Putin and he probably doesn’t even know yet.
#RESIST: Blame at the pump: ‘I did that’ Biden stickers point finger for high prices. “The Biden stickers aren’t new, although the rapidly ascending pump prices might be making them more ubiquitous. Last fall, the Boston Herald reported on the sticker phenomenon when gas was ‘only’ $3.50 per gallon. A pack of 100 of the 3-inch-high stickers costs anywhere from $10 to $13 on Amazon.”
A friend comments: “Memo to Dems/Media: The rise in US gas prices isn’t the result of war in Ukraine. More the other way around.”
JUST AS GODDARD AND HEINLEIN INTENDED: NASA offers to fly your name around the moon for free.
When I go, send my name home to the stars.
THEY MUST BE ON THE FRONT ROOOOW: No, not Bob Uecker of Miller Light fame, but correspondents for CNN, MSNBC, NBC and ABC, which, according to Haley Strack of The Washington Free Beacon and others, are “feverishly recruiting” Jen Psaki.
“The four outlets occupy a majority of the seats in the front row of the briefing room, joined by Fox News, Reuters, and the Associated Press. Psaki came under fire from several other outlets in the room, which accused her of letting the front row dictate the direction of each briefing. Outlets are ‘tired of listening to the front row basically interview Jen for 35 minutes,’ one reporter told Politico,” according to Strack.
BONUS: If you ever wonder which news organizations are in the assigned seats, Strack includes an illustration identifying them. Other news organizations are there, too, but they typically don’t get nearly as many opportunities to ask questions.
WHEN IT COMES TO RAGGEDY ANDY’S UGLIEST SISTER, I NEED TO SEE SOME PROOF OF IQ: Jen Psaki: “There are 9,000 approved oil leases that the oil companies are not tapping into currently”… Aeuhhh?
THEY THINK THEY WANT OUR ATTENTION. THEY DON’T WANT OUR ATTENTION: GreenBiz: “Climate Changes’ Attention Deficit Disorder”.
FULL FAITH AND CREDIT: FIAT.
At this point our faith in the credit of the US government is about as empty as our gas tanks and our wallets.
AND THE BEAT GOES ON: Today’s blacklisted American: Renowned cancer researcher fired for wearing Halloween costume 13 years ago.
But no one cancels Castreau, do they?
NO ONE NEEDS OTHER PEOPLE TO LIBERATE THEM: Are leftists liberating children or preying on them in public school classrooms?
So long as the government stays out of their lives, they can liberate themselves, if they so wish.
Of course, it might not be the way the left wants them to be “liberated.”
I’m going to do a call back to Lloyd Biggle Jr’s “Externally imposed democracy is the worst form of tyranny” (The Still Small Voice of Trumpets.)
In this case, “Externally imposed sexual “liberty” is the worst form of tyranny.”
Hey, lefties, leave the kids alone.
SO, TWO WEEKS FROM BEING MAINSTREAM NEWS? Leftist Jesuit publication dismisses Archbishop Viganò’s latest warning as ‘conspiracy theories’.
AH, BUT THEY THINK IT CAN: The Ukraine War Can’t Save Biden.