Fani Wiped From Fulton Cross-Exam After Shower-Shi**ing Testimony
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from yesterday’s testimony from Fulton County DA Fani Willis and her (now outed) secret lover she paid at least $600K to be special counsel was a national exhibition of the quality of people going after Donald Trump.
For starters, Willis exploded in anger on the witness stand Thursday, accusing defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant of lying about her relationship with Nathan Wade.
“Let’s be clear, because you’ve lied,” Willis yelled, waving documents around. “It is a lie! It is a lie!”
“You think I’m on trial. I’m not on trial no matter how hard you try to put me on trial,” Willis continued.
🚨BREAKING: Fani Willis EXPLODES on the witness stand as she’s asked when her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade ended. Court takes 5 minute break for her to cool down. pic.twitter.com/Yrfjw8U8KM
She also claimed that she wasn’t a hostile witness, and that Merchant’s interests were “contrary to democracy.”
🚨FANI WILLIS RATTLED ON THE STAND:
“I am not a hostile witness. I VERY much want to be here. Ms. Merchant’s interests are p…are..contadi… contrary to democracy, your honor, not to mine!” pic.twitter.com/3tf2ojEfWt
Willis may have also admitted to campaign fraud while discussing the copious amounts of cash she makes it a habit of keeping on hand (which she claims – without evidence, she used to reimburse Nathan Wade for their romantic getaways).
This is called CAMPAIGN FINANCE FRAUD:
FANI: “When I took out a large amount of money on my first campaign, I kept some of the cash from that.”
She claimed that She ‘don’t do my friends like that,’ and always pays them back – so you see, she totally didn’t receive a ‘benefit’ after paying Wade with taxpayer funds to go after Trump.
THIS IS GETTING STRANGE: Fani Willis: “He tells me how much it is and I give him the money back,…I don’t do my friends like that. So if you tell me it’s a G then you gon get a thousand dollars.” WATCHpic.twitter.com/yx4bHcQka6
And so it’s no surprise that Fani’s Friday testimony was nixed from today’s schedule. As Just the News reports;
The second day of the hearing regarding Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade began on Friday with the remaining witnesses expected to testify, as Willis was not brought back to the witness stand.
The hearing started on Thursday, with Willis testifying as a defense witness that she didn’t know she was required to disclose her romantic relationship with Wade to the county. Willis was originally supposed to be cross-examined by her prosecution team on Friday, but the prosecution chose to not bring her back to testify.
Earlier in the week, judge Scott McAfee suggested that Willis could be disqualified in her case against Trump.
“I think it’s clear that disqualification can occur if evidence is produced demonstrating an actual conflict or the appearance of one, and the filings submitted on this issue so far have been presented a conflict in the evidence that cannot be resolved,” said the judge.
Guess we won’t get to see her allegedly backwards dress again. (Ok, it’s not the same dress, but what a mess!).
Dems’ best chess move is to nuke Fani and lag on her replacement so Trump’s trial is delayed an his guilt is an open question going into his next term, should he win once again. Also, do not google ‘waffle stomp.’
Regarding the surprisingly strong employment data, Fed Chair Powell said the quiet part out loud. The media hopes you didn’t hear it as we head into a contentious election in November.
Over the last several months, we have seen repeated employment reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that crushed economists’ estimates and seemed to defy logic. Such is particularly the case when you read commentary about the state of the average American as follows.
“New Yorker Lohanny Santos publicly vented her frustration after her attempts to go door-to-door with her CV in hand in the hope of finally landing a job were unsuccessful.
It would appear that other young jobseekers could relate to Lohanny’s struggles. The USA and Canada rank fifth out of seven when it comes to youth unemployment and third when it comes to total unemployment, according to World Bank data based on an International Labor Organization model for 2020, as per Statista.” – Business Insider
Even M.B.A.s are finding it difficult.
“Jenna Starr stuck a blue Post-it Note to her monitor a few months after getting her M.B.A. from Yale University last May. “Get yourself the job,” it read. It wasn’t until last week—when she received a long-awaited offer—that she could finally take it down.
For months, Starr has been one of a large number of 2023 M.B.A. graduates whose job searches have collided with a slowdown in hiring for well-paid, white-collar positions. Her search for a job in sustainability began before graduation, and she applied for more than 100 openings since, including in the field she used to work in—nonprofit fundraising.” – WSJ
These stories are not unique. If you Google “Can’t find a job,” you will get many article links. The question, of course, is why individuals with college degrees, no less, are having such a tough time finding employment. After all, aside from record-smashing employment reports, we also continue to see near-record low jobless claims and high numbers of job openings, as shown below.
The Washington Post touched on part of the problem and why the unemployment rate for college graduates is higher than for all workers.
“Part of the problem is that the industries with the biggest worker shortages — including restaurants, hotels, daycares, and nursing homes — aren’t necessarily where recent graduates want to work. Meanwhile, the industries where they do want to work — tech, consulting, finance, media — are announcing layoffs and rethinking hiring plans.”
As the Washington Post summed up:
“The result is yet another disruption for a generation of college graduates who have already had crucial years of schooling upended by the pandemic. In interviews, many said they’d struggled to adjust to remote-learning in early 2020 and felt like they had missed out on opportunities to forge connections with professors, employers and other students that could have been crucial in lining up for postgraduate work. Now, as they enter the workforce, they say they’re feeling increasingly disillusioned about the economy, which is fueling political discontent and causing them to rethink the financial independence they thought they’d achieve after college.”
Of course, it isn’t just the shuttering of the economy and the shift to working from home causing the problem. It is also the shift in demand from consumers to more service-oriented conveniences, combined with the need by employers to maintain profitability.
Fed Chair Powell Says The Quiet Part
Since the turn of the century, the U.S. economy has shifted from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-oriented one. There are two primary reasons for this.
The first is that the “cost of labor” in the U.S. to manufacture goods is too high. Domestic workers want high wages, benefits, paid vacations, personal time off, etc. On top of that are the numerous regulations on businesses from OSHA to Sarbanes-Oxley, FDA, EPA, and many others. All those additional costs are a factor in producing goods or services. Therefore, corporations needed to offshore production to countries with lower labor costs and higher production rates to manufacture goods competitively.
During an interview with Greg Hays of Carrier Industries, the reasoning for moving a plant from Mexico to Indiana during the Trump Administration was most interesting.
“So what’s good about Mexico? We have a very talented workforce in Mexico. Wages are obviously significantly lower. About 80% lower on average. But absenteeism runs about 1%. Turnover runs about 2%. Very, very dedicated workforce.
Which is much higher versus America. And I think that’s just part of these — the jobs, again, are not jobs on an assembly line that [Amerians] really find all that attractive over the long term.“
FED CHAIR POWELL: Because, you know, immigrants come in, and they tend to work at a rate that is at or above that for non-immigrants. Immigrants who come to the country tend to be in the workforce at a slightly higher level than native Americans. But that’s primarily because of the age difference. They tend to skew younger.“
The suppression of wages, increased productivity to reduce the amount of required labor, and offshoring has been a multi-decade process to increase corporate profitability.
A Native Problem
Following the pandemic-related shutdown, corporations faced multiple threats to profitability from supply constraints, a shift to increased services, and a lack of labor. At the same time, mass immigration (both legal and illegal) provided a workforce willing to fill lower-wage paying jobs and work regardless of the shutdown. Since 2019, the cumulative employment change has favored foreign-born workers, who have gained almost 2.5 million jobs, while native-born workers have lost 1.3 million. Unsurprisingly, foreign-born workers also lost far fewer jobs during the pandemic shutdown.
Given that the bulk of employment continues to be in lower-wage paying service jobs (i.e., restaurants, retail, leisure, and hospitality) such is why part-time jobs have dominated full-time in recent reports. Relative to the working-age population, full-time employment has dropped sharply after failing to recover pre-pandemic levels.
However, as noted, full-time employment has declined since 2000 as services dominate labor-intensive processes such as manufacturing. This is because we “export” our “inflation” and import “deflation.” We do this to buy flat-screen televisions for $299 versus $3,999. Such is also why the economy continues to grow slower, requiring ever-increasing debt levels.
For recent college graduates, this all leads to a more dire outlook.
Immigration Is Needed, But It Has Consequences
To keep an economy growing, you must have population growth. In other words, “demographics are destiny.” As such, there are two ways to obtain more robust population growth rates – natural births and immigration. As shown below, the fertility rate in the United States is problematic in that we aren’t producing enough children to replace an aging workforce.
Such is particularly problematic given the rapid aging of older adults versus a declining working-age population. Such means the underfunding of entitlements will continue to grow, requiring more debt issuance to fill the gap.
However, there is a vast difference between immigration policies that import highly skilled workers, capital, and education versus those that don’t. Merit-based immigration policies bring workers who earn higher salaries, create businesses, employ labor, and create tax revenues and other economic contributions. However, current policies are creating a rush of lower-skilled, uneducated labor that will work for cheaper wages, produce less revenue, and are subsidized by tax-payers through welfare programs. As noted above, these workers tend to fill the jobs in the service areas of the economy, thereby displacing native-born workers. Such was a point made by the WSJ:
“Before the pandemic, foreign-born adults were almost as likely as the overall population to hold at least a bachelor’s degree. This was mainly because of higher educational attainment among immigrants from Asia, Africa, and Europe, which offset lower levels of schooling among people from Mexico and Central America.”
Post-pandemic, this has not been the case, which is impacting native-born employment. This is not a new issue, but one addressed by Bill Clinton in the 1995 State of the Union Address:
“The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants; the public services they use impose burdens on our taxpayers.”
Such is the natural consequence of a change in the economy’s demands and the need for corporations to maintain profitability in an ultimately deflationary environment.
Conclusion
While there is much debate over immigration, most of the arguments do not differentiate between legal and illegal immigration. There are certainly arguments that can be made on both sides. However, what is less debatable is the impact that immigration is having on employment. Of course, as native-born workers continue to demand higher wages, benefits, and other tax-funded support, those costs must be passed on by the companies creating those products and services. At the same time, consumers are demanding lower prices.
That imbalance between input costs and selling price drives companies to aggressively seek options to reduce the highest cost to any business – labor. Such was discussed in our article on thecost and consequences of the demand for increased minimum wages.
Reductions in employment would initially be concentrated at firms where higher prices quickly reduce sales.
Over a longer period, however, more firms would replace low-wage workers with higher-wage workers, machines, and other substitutes.
As employers pass some of those costs on to consumers, consumers purchase fewer goods and services.
Consequently, the employers produce fewer goods and services.
When the cost of employing low-wage workers rises, the cost of investing in machines and technology goes down.” – Congressional Budget Office.
Such is why full-time employment has declined since 2000 despite the surge in the Internet economy, robotics, and artificial intelligence. It is also why wage growth fails to grow fast enough to sustain the cost of living for the average American. These technological developments increased employee productivity, reducing the need for additional labor.
Unfortunately, these tales of college graduates expecting high-paying jobs will likely continue to find it increasingly complicated. Particularly as “Artificial Intelligence” becomes cheap enough to displace higher-paid employees.
During this week’s Super Bowl ads, Biden slammed greedy corporations for inflation. In his most recent podcast, Peter explains exactly what’s happening with inflation, and why Biden’s blame game has it backward.
Peter opened with the biggest news of the week: January’s inflation numbers. People expected good news, but the actual numbers were considerably worse:
The markets were expecting better-than-expected news. The conventional wisdom is that the inflation problem has been solved: ‘Yes, we’re not all the way back down to 2%. We’re at 3%. But we’re on a good path. After all we started at 9% right we’ve already gone from 9 to 3, right?’
But there was never any reason to expect good news:
We really haven’t had great news. Yes, the year-over-year numbers have been improving. But that’s because of the comparisons to the year prior so we’ve had easy comparisons to make the year-over-year numbers look good.”
The recent numbers came out above expected at just over 3%. This is building a trough around higher base-line inflation:
For the last several months we haven’t made any more headway on bringing inflation down. It’s been pretty sticky. To me, it looks like we’re building a trough. This is the bottom when it comes to inflation. If the CPI were a stock you’d want to get long.”
Peter takes January’s inflation numbers and annualizes them to prove that we’re still way above target:
If you annualize that rate if we had 0.3% every month between now and the end of the year that’s 3.7% inflation that’s not even close to 2%…”
Meanwhile, reckless borrowing and spending in the economy continue. Credit card loans are at record highs. What’s worse is that the rates on those loans are also at record highs:
Credit card debt has hit a record high… what’s more significant is the highest [21%] interest rate to pay on that debt. That is a huge burden on the borrower who has all this debt.”
Reeling in excessive spending and borrowing is another reason why we need interest rate hikes, not cuts. But Biden lays blame for inflation at the feet of corporate America, allegedly the true cause of America’s economic woes:
Corporate America is screwing everybody over because they’ve been [pulling] a fast one, because they’re so greedy. What they’ve been doing is they’ve been reducing the quantity of goods, right? Not as many chips in the bag of potato chips. Not as many sheets in a roll of toilet paper… Right? It’s shrinkflation.”
Biden is demanding a stop, but businesses were forced into this mess by the government:
Why are companies doing this? They’re trying to avoid raising prices, but they have to figure out how to deal with the prices that are rising [so] they’re paying their costs that are going up. Because of inflation. They’re trying to figure out the best way to pass on these higher costs to their customers. And, one way they do that is by shrinking the quantity.”
Really, it’s the government and the Fed causing inflation in the first place:
It’s not the companies that are really pulling a fast one…It’s the government that’s pulling the fast one. It’s the government that is spending all this money and telling the taxpayers it’s free.”
Ironically, Peter says shrinkflation helps give cover to Biden and his reelection as capitalism takes the blame:
If companies were more honest and transparent and reflected all the inflation, and just immediately raised prices, the public would be even more upset. Biden’s popularity would be even lower than it is right now.”
Despite initial optimism surrounding January’s inflation numbers, Peter’s analysis reveals a stark reality: inflation remains persistently high, and misguided economic policies blamed on innocent corporations and capitalism are about to exacerbate America’s financial woes.
Fast-Moving Clipper System To Blast Mid-Atlantic With Snow
A fast-moving clipper system will dump snow across the Upper Midwest, North Central Appalachia, Mid-Atlantic, and parts of the Northeast on Friday into Presidents’ Day weekend.
The National Weather Service issued winter weather alerts from Northwest Missouri to Baltimore, Maryland, Philadelphia, northeast New Jersey, and southeast New York.
“Here comes the next storm. Snow is already falling across the Midwest and Central Plains. 1-4 inches of snow is coming east through Saturday morning,” meteorologist Henry Margusity wrote on X.
Private forecaster NY NJ PA Weather shared an impact map of the incoming snowstorm on X. The forecast states that the Washington–Baltimore metro area and the Philadelphia metro area, up to Trenton, NJ, are in “Zone 3,” which means 2” to 4” is expected. NYC is in “Zone 2,” with upwards of 3” expected.
On the day of President Joe Biden’s first visit to East Palestine more than one year after a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed and spilled hazardous chemicals, most residents of his eastern Ohio village echoed the same sentiment— that the trip is too late and is motivated by insincere reasons.
The White House, which initially announced President Biden’s visit on Jan. 31, said in a statement on Feb. 15 that the president “will receive a briefing from officials on the continuing response and recovery efforts and meet with members of the community. He will reaffirm his commitment to ensuring the people of East Palestine are not defined by this single event, and that his administration is delivering on the needs of affected families, businesses, and residents.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Feb. 15 that “this is a trip that he’s been wanting to make and wanted to make sure that it was the right time to do.”
The derailment happened on Feb. 3, 2023. President Biden is scheduled to meet with residents and community leaders on Feb. 16.
“I am glad President Biden is finally following through with his promise to come to East Palestine, but I don’t want this to be a political stunt and photo opportunity since it’s an election year,” Misti Allison—a mother of two who lives with her husband, Aaron, in East Palestine—told The Epoch Times.
DJ Yokley, an East Palestine business owner, wonders why it took so long for President Biden to visit and indicated that his arrival is motivated by the election.
“The American people have awakened to realize that the leader of our country did not show up to the greatest catastrophe of 2023. And now he’s going to show up because it is an election year,” Mr. Yokley told Fox & Friends.
President Biden “better have a wagon full of answers and a wagon full of good news for us because otherwise, why are you coming at this point? Why are you showing your face if not just to try to sway votes and try to get back in office?”
“It’s a scenario where we know what he’s doing,” Mr. Yokley continued. “The American people see it, and now it’s ‘Hey, we have to go visit East Palestine because we haven’t done it yet, and check it off the books.”
Until the derailment, most Americans had never heard of East Palestine, a village of 4,700 that’s about a mile from the Pennsylvania border.
Around 9 p.m. on Feb. 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern Railway freight train carrying 151 cars derailed. Hazardous chemicals, including vinyl chloride, in some of the rail cars spilled onto the ground and into the air.
Vinyl chloride is used to make PVC pipes and other products. The National Cancer Institute notes that the toxic chemical has been linked to cancers of the brain, lungs, blood, lymphatic system, and liver.
When 38 of the rail cars derailed, a fire ensued, damaging an additional 12 cars.
Of the 20 cars carrying hazardous materials, 11 derailed, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Authorities—fearing a major explosion—decided to release and burn vinyl chloride from five cars on Feb. 6, sending a massive cloud of black smoke into the sky. Visible for miles, it was likened to the mushroom cloud caused by a nuclear weapon.
They called it a “controlled burn,” but residents claim it was anything but controlled. A dark cloud of chemical-filled smoke could be seen for miles. Debris landed on properties several miles away.
Train cars ruptured, spilling their contents into a drainage ditch that connects to Sulphur Run, a stream that flows through the heart of East Palestine.
Before the burn, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine urged residents to evacuate a one-by-two-mile area surrounding East Palestine—which included parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Mr. DeWine described the urgency as a “matter of life and death.”
Three days later, Mr. DeWine held a press conference announcing that the evacuation order had been lifted and residents could return to their homes. Norfolk Southern trains resumed their routes through East Palestine, and federal and state officials said testing showed that the air and water were safe.
A year later, cleanup work continues. Officials from federal and state agencies have repeatedly said tests show that the air and water are safe in East Palestine and surrounding communities. Residents are still complaining about a toxic smell in the air, burning eyes, rashes, and headaches, among other health issues.
In its Jan. 31 statement announcing that President Biden would visit East Palestine in February, the White House stated that “under President Biden’s leadership,” the Environmental Protection Agency deployed a team of trained emergency response personnel to help local and state emergency and environmental response efforts.
“The Department of Transportation also arrived on scene within hours to support the National Transportation Safety Board in their independent investigation of the derailment,” the statement reads.
However, the Biden administration was widely criticized for its handling of the toxic train derailment’s aftermath.
On Feb. 15, President Trump chastised President Biden for visiting East Palestine more than a year after the derailment.
“Biden should have gone there a long time ago — for him to go now is an insult to those who live and work in East Palestine, and the Great State of Ohio, itself. I can’t believe anyone wants him there?” President Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“I know he doesn’t want to be there, and even he knows he is making a mistake, because he is pandering to people who are smart, politically savvy and, unfortunately, badly hurt by Biden’s inactions and lack of caring. It will be so interesting to see how they meet and greet this FRAUD, and the THUGS that surround him!” he added.
While the Biden administration received widespread criticism for what many residents and leaders in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania deemed a slow response to helping in the derailment and burn’s aftermath, President Trump visited East Palestine on Feb. 22, 2023, less than three weeks after the train veered off the tracks.
The weather was cold and rainy, but residents lined the streets and cheered President Trump’s motorcade as it passed. The scene seemed more like a festive Fourth of July parade on a hot and sunny summer afternoon than a dreary and rain-soaked winter day.
While President Biden was returning to the White House from his trip to Poland and Ukraine, where he pledged hundreds of millions more in aid for the war-torn country, President Trump arrived with Trump-brand bottled water, cleaning supplies, and words of encouragement.
Before a press conference, President Trump toured Little Beaver Creek, where local officials provided insight into the derailment’s environmental impact.
He criticized the Biden administration’s response, telling residents, “In too many cases, your goodness and perseverance were met with indifference and betrayal.”
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg received criticism in the initial weeks after the crash for not addressing what happened in East Palestine for more than a week. He did not announce his intentions to visit the village until President Trump scheduled his trip.
Mr. Buttigieg finally appeared in East Palestine on Feb. 23, a day after President Trump.
“Buttigieg should’ve been here already, President Trump said on Feb. 22.
“Get over here,” he added in a message intended for President Biden.
President Trump noted that the Federal Emergency Management Agency initially said it wouldn’t dispatch aid to East Palestine, but reversed course upon learning that he would visit East Palestine.
“When I announced that I was coming, they changed their tune,” President Trump said on Feb. 22, adding that his presence “opened up the dam” for the Biden administration to act.
“What this community needs now are not excuses and all of the other things you’ve been hearing, but answers and results, and that’s what I think you’re going to see.”
East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway is a conservative Republican who has endorsed President Trump and has said he previously invited President Biden to the region.
He called President Biden’s decision to visit Ukraine before traveling to his village “the biggest slap in the face.”
“That tells you right now he doesn’t care about us,” Mr. Conaway said last year. “He can send every agency he wants to, but I found out this morning in one of the briefings that he was in Ukraine giving millions of dollars away to people over there and not to us.
“I’m furious.”
On Feb. 15, he addressed President Biden’s plans to visit the next day.
“I’ve said on multiple occasions he should have beat former President Trump here, but he didn’t. Now here we are a year later, and he’s going to come and visit.”
Christina Siceloff lives around six miles from the derailment site in Darlington, Pa.
She told The Epoch Times that she has experienced health issues since the burn and that others in her town have, too.
President Biden’s visit “is a bit late,” she said, adding that she welcomes his arrival “as long as he is coming and actually wanting to do something to help East Palestine and the surrounding areas, and not just to take pictures of himself being here.”
“Whether it be if Trump was president or Biden, I feel the same way. People’s lives and health, now and for the future, are what’s important. That matters more than politics,” Ms. Siceloff said.
Rick Tsai, a longtime East Palestine resident, has a chiropractic clinic across the border in western Pennsylvania around a five-minute drive from home.
Mr. Tsai told The Epoch Times that the focus on President Biden making his first visit to East Palestine is detracting from what should be addressed.
“We’re forgetting what is really going on here. This town is still horribly contaminated and the EPA is lying to us,” said Mr. Tsai, who has performed his own testing of creeks in the community.
“I just got out of the creek. There are chemicals everywhere I walk, everywhere I step everywhere I dig. Two miles from the crash site in the park where children play, chemicals just ooze out of the bank and out of the sediment. We have been discarded by the EPA, the CDC, and local state and federal government. I’m disgusted,” Mr. Tsai said.
“The EPA will tell the president that everything is OK, and the president will tell the world everything is OK. We will continue to have contamination and live with uncertainty each day. What I want to know is—will we receive help?” he added.
The derailment and burn—and what he deems as an unacceptable response from local, state, and federal authorities—moved him to seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson’s seat. Mr. Johnson recently retired to become president of Youngstown State University.
Mr. Tsai and his wife, Tammy, have frequently appeared on national broadcast media outlets since the disaster and are outspoken advocates for East Palestine.
“Since the derailment happened, we keep getting told everything is fine, but we know that everything is not fine,” Mr. Tsai told The Epoch Times. “East Palestine residents have been abandoned. I’ve been abandoned. We have a well, and we don’t know if our water is going to be safe to use.”
As it did for Mr. Tsai, the disaster’s aftermath inspired Ms. Allison to take action.
Before the derailment, she worked remotely in a technology job and juggled caring for her children and her mother, who was in the final weeks of her battle with lymphoma. She is now deeply involved in activism to improve the health of East Palestine residents in the aftermath of the derailment.
Ms. Allison earned a master’s degree in public health and previously worked for the Cleveland Clinic and the American Cancer Society. She testified before Congress during the same time her mother died, urging lawmakers to pass railway safety legislation. She joined Moms Clean Air Force, a national environmental advocacy organization devoted to addressing air pollution.
Ms. Allison would like to see President Biden make what she believes would be long overdue announcements on Feb. 16.
“I want President Biden to come to East Palestine with federal support, resources, and a positive update to give this area hope,” she told The Epoch Times. “While the East Palestine area is not in a dire emergency situation currently, from my understanding, if an emergency declaration is signed, it will open up pathways for additional support, such as long-term healthcare Medicare coverage for any residents with potential adverse health conditions now and in the future.”
Housing Starts Collapsed In January – Biggest MoM Decline Since COVID Lockdowns
After single-family home starts plunged in December, analysts did not expect much of a bounce back in January as rates remain high and some regions were affected by weather.
Analysts were way off. Housing Starts puked 14.8% MoM in January (vs unchanged exp), but December’s 4.3% MoM decline was revised up to a 3.3% MoM rise. Building Permits also tumbled, down 1.5% MoM (vs +1.3% exp) and well down from the +1.8% MoM in December…
Source: Bloomberg
This pushed the Housing Starts SAAR back near post-COVID lows…
Source: Bloomberg
DO NOT BLAME THE WEATHER! It’s January – we know there are weather issues and that should be more than ‘priced-in’ on a seasonal adjustment basis.
Multi-family permits cratered to their lowest since Oct 2020. Permits for one-family homes edged higher after rising consistently throughout 2023
And multi-family starts were even worse, plunging from 489k SAAR to 314k SAAR – the lowest since May 2020 (when the economy was closed)…
The government’s report showed housing starts fell in all four of the nation’s regions, led by the Midwest and Northeast. The number of single-family homes completed plunged to the lowest level since May 2020.
They built it, but no one came… the inventory of new houses for sale remains elevated and suggests builders may be cautious about beginning new projects.
Don’t expect Permits to be reaccelerating anytime soon as mortgage rates have started to rise once again…
Source: Bloomberg
Which is not good news for CPI either as it suggests there is little rent relief coming soon.
And finally, there is a record gap between what the government tells us about construction employment and actual construction activity…
Makes you wonder, eh? Did builders all suddenly get massively less productive? Or is the BLS just making shit up as usual?
Producer Prices Surged In January As Services Costs Soared
After the hotter-than-expected CPI (which has been shrugged off entirely by the stock market), Producer Prices were expected to rebound very modestly MoM but continue to slow on a YoY basis in January. Instead, like CPI, it re-accelerated with headline rising 0.3% MoM (+0.1% MoM exp), which left PPI up 0.9% YoY (down from December but hotter than the +0.6% exp)…
Source: Bloomberg
The picture was even worse under the hood with PPI ex food and energy up 0.5% MoM (vs +0.2% prior and +0.1% exp) and ex-food, energy, and trade up 0.6% MoM (vs +0.1% exp).
This was the biggest ‘beat’ for Core PPI since Jan 2021…
In fact, core PPI reached a new record high (reminder, disinflation does not mean lower prices), now up 17.4% since Biden was elected…
Services PPI soared MoM, and energy continues to be a driver of deflation (but is losing its power)…
Source: Bloomberg
And on a YoY basis, Services PPI is also re-accelerating (+1.47% from +1.14%). Energy continues to be the deflationary driver…
Source: Bloomberg
This is not good news for the disinflationistas. And it will stop President Biden’s narrative that ‘prices are coming down’…
In recent years, “van life’, “car life” and “tiny homes” have all become extremely hot topics on social media. Millennials and Generation Z have been particularly eager to try out these “minimalist” lifestyles. At a time when home prices have risen to absurd levels and the cost of living has become exceedingly oppressive, it can be very tempting to adopt a low cost way of life.
But it is also important to understand that the elite are very much encouraging these trends. If they could get most of us happily living in tiny homes and electric vehicles, they would be very pleased. You see, the truth is that the smaller our living spaces are, the less carbon emissions we will produce, and that is precisely what they want.
Today, millions of Americans cannot afford to purchase normal homes, and so more of us than ever are turning to “tiny homes”.
A “tiny home” can be anywhere from 100 to 400 square feet, and today Airbnb has thousands of such listings.
It has been reported that 55 percent of tiny home owners are women, and 56 percent of all Americans say that they would actually consider living in a tiny home.
The average cost of a tiny home is $52,000, 87% cheaper than the average price of a typical U.S. home. Building or buying a tiny house requires far less capital than a standard house. This significant price difference allows more Americans to achieve homeownership without taking on a burdensome mortgage.
If you are very stressed financially, I can definitely understand why such an option would seem appealing.
It is certainly not easy to live a typical middle class lifestyle in today’s world.
One woman that now lives in a 300 square foot home made from straw bales and cob says that her life “looks radically different” compared to when her family was living in a large four bedroom house…
Ten years ago I was living a typical suburban life on the outskirts of Denver. My husband, Casey, and I were both teachers. We lived in a four-bedroom house with a small yard where our two kids liked to play.
Today our life looks radically different. We live entirely off the grid in a 300-square-foot home that we built from straw bales and cob, a natural building material made from soil, water, and other organic matter. We rely on solar power for electricity and rain collection for water, and we use a drop toilet to create “humanure” — compost made from human waste.
If this is what makes her happy, good for her.
But don’t let the elite push you into such a lifestyle.
The elite have been promoting the concept of tiny homes for a very long time. For example, the following comes from the official website of the WEF…
Interest is surging in tiny homes – livable dwelling units that typically measure under 400 square feet. Much of this interest is driven by media coverage that claims that living in tiny homes is good for the planet.
The reason why they love tiny homes so much is because they believe that they are good for the environment.
I found that among 80 tiny home downsizers located across the United States, ecological footprints were reduced by about 45% on average. Surprisingly, I found that downsizing can influence many parts of one’s lifestyle and reduce impacts on the environment in unexpected ways.
“Van life” is another lifestyle that has become extremely trendy in recent years.
At one time, people looked down on those that “live in a van down by the river”, but now literally millions of Americans are doing it…
“Van life” or “van living” is a term that is becoming more popular around the country. People packing up their lives, moving into a mobile unit and exploring the states.
According to Yahoo Finance, the number of American van lifers has increased by 63% over the last couple of years, going from 1.9 million in 2020, to 3.1 million in 2022.
I was stunned when I first saw those numbers.
Needless to say, not having a mortgage or a rent payment is a big plus.
But there are a lot of negatives to such a lifestyle.
I pulled into a Shell gas station in my rented Ram ProMaster campervan.
Once parked, I headed into the convenience store and beelined to the bathroom.
Inside, there was an impossible-to-describe stench. Toilet paper covered the restroom floor, and pee covered the toilet seat. I used the bathroom as fast as humanly possible.
I certainly can’t blame her.
Most public restrooms along our major highways are simply disgusting.
And as the number of Americans living in their vans has multiplied, many communities have grown tired of them. Here is just one example…
The city of St. Petersburg is working to erase so-called eye sores downtown.
Thursday afternoon, city leaders will take a closer look at “van life” and where drivers can set up camp.
This comes after many complaints came into the city from residents within the city limits who say oversized RVs, large busses and conversion vans are taking up too much space and for too long.
In fact,”car life” is now being hailed by many on social media as an even cheaper alternative to “van life”…
YouTuber Michael Hickey – likely kicked out of his parent’s basement – built a bed in his 2009 Kia Rio. He said this option allows him to “live rent-free” and travel the country.
In the video, Hickey said the best parking lots to sleep in are ones owned by Cracker Barrel restaurants. He purchases groceries from supermarkets and prepares them right there in the parking lot on a portable stove.
As for showering, he uses a network of Planet Fitness gyms to exercise and shower.
To make money, he works side-gigs, such as DoorDash and Instacart.
Hickey is not alone. Tons of other Gen-Zers post their stories of living in cars on YouTube.
Did you ever imagine that we would see a day when being homeless and living in your vehicle would be considered “trendy”?
But this is where we are at.
Millions of those at the bottom of the economic food chain are trying to make the best of a very bad situation.
Corn Drops To 3-Year Low As Supplies Expected To Surge To 1987 Levels
Corn futures hit a three-year low as traders waited for the US Department of Agriculture’s annual outlook forum on Thursday. The USDA’s initial outlook for the coming season could show higher domestic crop supplies and elevated spring plantings.
According to Bloomberg, USDA’s annual outlook forum is expected to project the largest domestic stockpile since 1987.
Traders have already been pricing in a dismal outlook, with money managers holding the largest bearish bet in almost five years. Corn for March delivery has nearly roundtripped all Covid gains.
A survey of Bloomberg analysts expected the upcoming 2024-25 season will reach upwards of 2.493 billion bushels. This will exert continued downward pressure on US farmers and force them to decrease spring plantings of corn in favor of planting more soybeans.
Meanwhile, in a separate USDA report, new forecasts show US farmers are poised for another year of financial misery, facing the most significant decline in incomes in almost two decades as grain prices slide and US dominance in ag exports wanes.
USDA forecasts net farm income, a broad measure of profits, to plunge $39.8 billion, or 25.5%, to $116.1 billion in 2024. This follows a forecasted decrease of $29.7 billion, or 16%, from 2022 to $155.9 billion in 2023.
If the estimate holds, farmers face the largest income drop since 2006 and back-to-back years of financial pain.
“With this expected decline, net farm income in 2024 would be 1.7 percent below its 20-year average (2003–22) of $118.2 billion and 40.9 percent below the record high in 2022 in inflation-adjusted dollars,” USDA wrote in the report.
What could reverse sliding grain prices? More Black Sea destabilization…
A new study has found that exercise is twice as effective at alleviating depression than taking anti-depressant drugs.
“Experts analysed 14,170 people with major depression disorder from 218 separate trials and ranked different forms of exercise by how effective they were at treating the condition compared with existing treatments,” reports the Telegraph.
Walking or jogging two to three times a week was the best way to improve mood, the researchers found, improving symptoms by 63 per cent, compared to taking SSRI drugs, which only produced a 26 per cent improvement (not to mention all the risks and side-effects).
The study found that “the benefits from exercise tended to be proportional to the intensity,” meaning the more intense the better.
Prescriptions of anti-depressants hit a new record in England last year, with a whopping 8.6 million people taking the drugs, over 14 per cent of the entire population.
“While walking and jogging were effective for both men and women, the study found that strength training was more effective for women and younger people, and yoga more effective for men and older people,” reports the newspaper.
The depression-industrial complex isn’t going to be happy about this one.
Regime culture constantly bombards us with the narrative that depression is inevitable, that everyone should constantly be talking about their “mental health” and that pharmaceutical drugs are more effective than living a healthy lifestyle.
Social media addiction has also fueled emotional incontinence and oversharing of feelings, leading to depression and anxiety being virtually glamorized.
Teenagers are increasingly being plied with anti-depressants despite the fact that in many cases, feeling a bit down and confused sometimes is a normal part of puberty.
In most cases, depression is circumstantial and rooted in a person’s bad lifestyle choices and their decision to wallow in their own self-pity, something that is encouraged by society.
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