34. When Dementia Replaces Meritocracy – $1,000 per barrel oil & Desperate Politicians
This week I read a forecast that Europe this winter will face energy costs equivalent to $1,000 per barrel oil. Think about that for a moment. If that happened here, our gasoline would soar to $45 per gallon. Inflation would also soar. Our economy would implode. We can already see that the cost of electricity with “green” sources in Germany tripled in cost. Now Germany and Europe are facing a cold, hungry winter. November’s mid-term election is critical.
The United States is blessed with fossil fuels that could provide us with energy for 200 years which would allow us the time to actually develop alternative energy sources that make economic sense. Instead, the Demented are pushing us on a path to follow Europe relying on unpredictable and inefficient solar and wind. Their rush plus Hunter Biden’s investments makes one wonder how they benefit financially from the shift? Do Hunter and other Democrats own stock in the Chinese companies that make solar panels?
To try to game the mid-term elections, the Biden Administration taking actions best described as desperate such as releasing oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in an effort to reduce the cost of gasoline before the November elections. When a real crisis hits that well will be dry. Either way, reality comes after the elections when global energy prices soar. It will be brutal.
Am I correct that Senator Manchin (D- WVA) to get the requisite government approvals to build the final leg of a natural gas pipeline from Pennsylvania into West Virginia supported/passed the $800 Billon Boondoggle Bill that wastes $400 Billion “solving” a nonexistent climate crisis buying Chinese solar panels to be paid for with an 87,000 person IRS army that will harass small business owners…only to be stiffed by his fellow Democrats on the required approval? Yep!
Yesterday, Senator Manchin was quoted as saying that he would not be voting for the continuing resolution to fund the government when the current budget expires September 30 UNLESS he gets the approvals of that gas pipeline. Fade the video to black and raise the ominous music.
This week my typical lunch officially doubled in price from when Trump was in the White House. After lunch I listened to a podcast of a Democrat that works on Wall Street complain that conservative pinheads are unwilling to acknowledge that inflation in July was zero. He stated that inflation has peaked, and he is buying stocks now because they will be so much higher in value in the spring of 2023. I agree that gas is now down to only slightly more than double what I paid with Trump in the White House but in July my lunch only was 50% higher. You cannot fix stupid, but perhaps we can watch them go broke.
Hedge funds are not publicly traded and therefore their financials are opaque. Thus, we need to wait for the ripple effects to see if the reported June and July commodity debacle was real. Those ripple effects should appear the end of this year or maybe as late as next spring. Combine those potential ripple effects with the melting of China’s economy and the European economy collapsing this winter under the weight of massive energy cost increases and this “pinhead conservative” can see an immense economic problem coming. By itself, if the collapse of assets was $30 Trillion In June-July 2022 and the loss of assets that triggered The Great Recession was $6 Trillion, this economic dislocation will be worse than The Great Recession.
In their desperation to buy votes in November, the Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) led by Biden have kicked some of the student debt to the taxpayer. I do not know how to handicap the use of the voting machines versus honest elections. Have the lawsuits filed by Dominion Voting machines been withdrawn because they are afraid of the machines being are demonstrated in court?
What I do know is there are an amazing number of pots boiling including new facts making J6 look like a staged DSA event and reports of increasing numbers of FBI leakers/whistle blowers coming forward, the next two years look to be more chaos. This will be worth it if the swamp actually gets drained.
I believe the highest probability for the economy over the next 12-18 months is described by the following:
- If the financial markets are correct and The Fed pauses from raising interest rates in December and begins to cut interest rates in the spring, we are in for a whipsaw 12 months.
- If the financial markets are wrong and The Fed does not cease raising interest rates until something breaks next year, the shift in sentiment in the market will be brutal and the genesis of a financial crisis.
I believe the second scenario is the higher probability. If the reports of the vaporization of $30 Trillion in assets is correct, and all of the economic forces described in this blog converge this winter, BRUTAL is does not describe 2023.
Grant Massie Land Company has had a fantastic year despite the number of tracts of land on the market being approximately 30% of normal but there is reasonable demand. Commercial banks are getting cautious which is creating serious cross currents in the residential land development market. Retail land is recovering from the pandemic, but buyers are value hunting. No one is inquiring about office zoned land. The Industrial Market is driven by land zoned for distribution centers – primarily 50-150 acres sites but even here we are finding some caution.
Numerous times I have shared with you my perspective that the USA is in the middle of a swirling maelstrom of multiple existential crises. Remember my description of heading into the Bermuda Triangle during a category 5 hurricane on a little sailboat with a senile captain? I was optimistic.
Fortunately, God is in control.
Please pray:
- That God exercises his control over our government at all levels.
- For the “Forgotten 599” surviving Americans being held as political prisoners by Biden and the Demented Marxists in hell hole conditions in the DC Gulag.
- For honest elections because without them we are not free.
- For the valiant Ukrainians.
Let’s Go Brandon!
(John 14: 27) New Revised Standard Version, Oxford University Press)
Stay healthy,
Ned
August 24, 2022
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