Authored by Ben Bartee via PJ Media,

The Democrat Party has a latent disaster on its hand vis a vis one RFK Jr.

On the one hand, they are fully dedicated to sabotaging his campaign. Under no circumstances whatsoever will he be permitted to win the nomination.

Even if he had 80%+ support from the electorate, the sick truth is that party leadership (influenced by the consultant and donor classes) would rather lose with Brandon than win with RFK Jr. because of what he’s liable to do to the Deep State and D.C. largesse were he ever to assume office. It would be a proverbial bloodbath for the administrative state and all of the grifters who feed on it.

On the other hand, they need to keep RFK Jr. within the Democrat Party fold because if he were to go rogue and run third party — which he, frankly, should have been doing all along — it would be a veritable death knell for the Brandon entity’s prospects in 2024, which are wafer-thin as it is.

Whatever perceived threat Cornel West poses to Brandon’s re-election with his Green Party run, magnify that threat by 10x, 100x and you’re in the ballpark of what RFK Jr. would do to the party. It’s not outlandish to speculate that a strong third-party run by RFK Jr. might literally break the Democrat Party for years or possibly forever. That’s how sick of the party’s BS its own members, not to mention independents and non-voters (the largest, unserviced voting bloc in the country), are.

RFK Jr. has already proven himself nearly bulletproof from relentless Democrat Party and corporate state media attacks — arguably on the same level in this regard as “Teflon” Don.

Here is RFK Jr., in an interview with Forbes, explaining what elaborate lengths the Democrat Party has gone to to rig the primary against him, outright threatening that he might drop his intra-party bid and turn his campaign into a third-party run:

If the DNC is gonna make it, is gonna rig it so that it is simply impossible for anybody to challenge President Biden, and you know I need to look at other alternatives. Because I can’t go back to the people who support me, to my donors, and say you know, I’m just going to, I’m just in this to make a point, I need to show them a road to victory.

What is for now a threat — albeit apparently a sincere and credible threat — needs to be encouraged by everyone to evolve into reality.

RFK Jr. abandoning the Democrats would all but ensure a defeat of the Brandon entity — and a brutal, landslide one at that — in 2024, which can be nothing but good news for all Americans, even delusional, loyal Democrats who don’t understand their own self-interest.

As discussed (and previewed) earlier, headline inflation came in at a faster-than-expected monthly pace in August, leaving the door open for additional interest-rate hikes from the Federal Reserve, although some focused on the moderation in shelter CPI, which is why Sept rate hike odds actually dipped after initially kneejerking higher.

Despite some attempts to goalseek the CPI number as dovish, Supercore CPI accelerated again, with Bloomberg economist August Saraiva writing that the report confirms that the report “adds to concerns that the renewed momentum in the economy is reigniting price pressures” which of course is obvious if one just looks at the price of oil rising to a new 2023 high every day. While Fed officials have been growing more optimistic they can tame inflation without a recession, a reacceleration in price growth could force them to push interest rates even higher — with the risk of sparking a downturn in the process.

For those who missed it, CPI rose 0.6% from the prior month, the most in more than a year, and was up 3.7% from a year earlier, more than expected. Core prices climbed 0.3% on a monthly basis – more than forecast – and were up 4.3% year on year. In other words, as Bloomberg puts it, inflation is still running warmer than the Fed would like.

• Overall, the single biggest contributor to the monthly gain in CPI was gasoline, which accounted for more than half of the increase. Shelter costs also kept pressure up, advancing for the 40th straight month and bypassing economist expectations for this category to slow. There were also notable increases in airline fares, auto-insurance costs, new cars and food prices.
• Stock futures and Treasuries initially slid, but then recouped losses. Contracts on the S&P 500 were flat as of 9:05 a.m. after dropping as much as 0.4%, while two-year yields were down about 2 basis points, at 5%. Interest-rate futures suggested that bets continue to be divided on whether the Federal Reserve will hike one more time this year.

The report complicated the picture for Fed policymakers, who meet later this month to set rate policy. While they’re likely to look through a temporary bump in energy prices, the shelter component is still running hot and gains across other categories could give them pause. The broader economic picture could also support another hike: The labor market, while showing cracks on the margin, remains tight

Commenting on the report, Fed mouthpiece Nikileaks, aka WSJ reporter Nick Timiraos said the report was mixed:

The glass is half full view of this inflation report is that any of the last 3 months of core inflation have been the mildest such readings since September 2021. The glass-half-empty view is that August core CPI wasn’t quite as low as the last two, and a touch above expectations.

The glass is half full view of this inflation report is that any of the last 3 months of core inflation have been the mildest such readings since September 2021

The glass-half-empty view is that August core CPI wasn’t quite as low as the last two, and a touch above expectations. https://t.co/rwquPFEw3Z

— Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) September 13, 2023

Below we excerpt from several of the more notable kneejerk reactions by Wall Street economists, strategists and traders to the CPI report :

Ellen Zentner, chief economist at Morgan Stanley

“The three-month annualized pace for core CPI moved from 3.1% to 2.4%. We think the Fed will keep rates on hold at the September FOMC meeting next week and the data following the September meeting will keep the Fed from hiking further.”

Peter Tchir, chief strategist at Academy Securities

“CPI, in grand scheme of things, a non-event. Yes 0.278% rounds to 0.3% on core, which is up a touch, but you have to go back to Aug 2021 to get a lower print (other than the prior two months). Sticky inflation seems real, but everyone knows (by its name) that it is sticky, so not sure Fed does much about it any time soon”

Dominic Konstam, chief strategist at Mizuho Securities

“Inflation optimists can stay optimistic, pessimists though won’t shift given the supercore acceleration.”

Julia Coronado, former Fed staffer and founder of Macro Policy Perspectives

“Slight upside surprise on core inflation with volatility in airfares, setting aside monthly volatility the story is we have exited the regime of high inflation, core goods & core services ex housing inflation are at pre-pandemic run rates, housing starting to cool”

Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers

“This is as close to an in-line number as we can get, Sure, the core was 0.3% vs 0.2%, but the fact that YOY is 4.3% tells us that it’s more the effect of rounding (it was 0.027% to 0.3%).”

Robert Tipp, chief investment strategist at PGIM Fixed Income

“While this print indicates good progress, there will still be some anxiety as to whether this drop in inflation is transitory. The Fed may not feel good about it until they see six or nine months of downtrend.”

Greg McBride, Chief Financial Analyst at Bankrate

“If recent increases in gasoline and other energy costs are sustained, it could feed through to prices on a broader range of goods and services.”

Rob Waldner at Invesco

“The rise in real yields – up from 1% since April — favors putting more money into the sector as the market is making a top amid a growing risk of a potential slowdown in 2024.”

Capital Economics

“Overall, there is nothing here to change the Feds plans to hold interest rates unchanged at next weeks FOMC meeting, and we still expect weaker economic growth and a continued normalization in the labor market to help drive a sharper fall in core inflation over the next 12 months than most others expect.”

Anna Wong, chief US economist for Bloomberg Economics

“The positive surprise in August’s core CPI is due to one single category – transportation services. In other areas – particularly used cars and rents – there were negative surprises. This report poses multiple dilemmas for a Fed that’s likely to hold rates steady at next week’s FOMC meeting.“We think the Fed is likely to look through the energy-price increase, but it’s not clear they’ll do the same for the increase in transportation services – after learning the hard way in 2021 that they shouldn’t dismiss potentially sticky inflation coming from a single category. Our baseline is still for the Fed to hold rates steady after September, but the risk of a rate hike in November has increased.”

David Russell, Global Head of Market Strategy at TradeStation.

“Today’s inflation report looked worse than it was. Headline and core were a little hotter than forecast, but shelter rose at the slowest pace in two years. Most of the contribution from the high reading came from energy and a surprise pop in airline fares. Used car prices also came down, which is encouraging for core. These numbers confirm the trend of lower shelter costs that market bulls want to see. But they’re not decisively low enough to trigger a rally. Keep the champagne on ice and wait for next week. The Fed meeting is more important than ever. Policymakers will have to decide what to do with these numbers.”

Ben Jeffery at BMO Capital Markets

“The Fed won’t be hiking next week, but particularly given the strength in supercore, November is still very much a ‘live’ rate decision.”

Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group

“This latest US CPI data is unlikely to move the needle on the Fed’s highly anticipated move to hold rates steady at their meeting next week. But the uptick in inflation gives the US central bank extra reason to be hawkish moving forward. As such, we also expect the Fed will start to prepare the market for a rate increase at its November meeting.”

Seema Shah, chief strategist at Principal Asset Management

The inflation print likely is not enough to tilt next week’s Fed call towards a hike. But at the same time, it has not provided clarity when it comes to the November meeting. “The rise in headline should come as no surprise given the recent run-up in energy prices and the Fed will likely look through the number. But the general expectation was that core inflation would remain stable, if not decelerate this month, so the upside surprise probably leaves the Fed with bad taste in its mouth and keeps it wondering if they still have more work to do.”

Michael Pond, head of global inflation-linked research at Barclays

“While core surprised by rounding up to 0.3% month on month, the upside was largely from a reversal in airline fares, which had been too weak in June and July. This miss is unlikely to change views about to path of inflation.”

Florian Ielpo of Lombard Odier Asset Management

“This inflation report places the Fed in a more comfortable wait-and-see situation: the marginally higher-than-expected inflation comes from the evolution of energy prices – nothing the Fed should be worrying too much about at the moment.”

Phillip Neuhart, director of market and economic research at First Citizens Bank

“August saw a gain in core inflation, while increased gasoline prices helped push headline inflation even higher compared to the prior month. The Fed is likely to keep the federal funds rate unchanged at this month’s meeting, but today’s report keeps alive the potential for another interest rate hike in coming months.”

Source: Bloomberg, primary sources

The meeting between Kim Jong Un and President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in the far eastern city of Vladivostok was all that it was expected to be, with the North Korean strongman praising a “heroic” Russian army which will be led by Putin to a “great victory” over its enemies.

“We are confident that the Russian army and people will win a great victory in the just fight to punish evil groups who pursue hegemony, expansion, and ambition,” Kim told Putin while raising a toast during an official dinner.

There’s much speculation that the one-on-one talks held prior to the dinner, which lasted about two hours, may have focused on Moscow buying North Korean ammunition for use in Ukraine. 

“I will always be standing with Russia,” Kim emphasized in footage broadcast on Russian TV, while Putin agreed that “An old friend is better than two new ones.”

Putin also hailed “the future strengthening of cooperation and friendship between our countries,” during a tour with Kim at Russia’s Far East spaceport, the Vostochny Cosmodrome. “The leader of the DPRK shows great interest in rocket technology, and they are trying to develop (their presence in) space,” Putin said

Just as the two leaders, seen by the West as ‘pariahs’, were about to meet, Pyongyang fired off two ballistic missiles into the sea in yet another warning to South Korea and its main military backer the United States.

When asked by reporters about defense cooperation and weapons procurement, Putin merely said he sees “possibilities” for deepened military ties.

“Well, there are certain restrictions, and Russia complies with all these restrictions,” Putin said to Russia 1 television station. “But there are things that we can of course talk about, discuss, think about it. And here too there are prospects.”

President Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toured the Vostochny cosmodrome, inspecting a number of its facilities, including the launch complex of the Soyuz-2 launch vehicle

Follow us on Rumble: https://t.co/Nuc9nUzTc5 pic.twitter.com/qN8zkxAyrM

— RT (@RT_com) September 13, 2023

No doubt high on Putin’s mind and hanging in the balance is Moscow’s important relationship with Seoul. Any weapons deal with the north would be a huge and likely irreparable blow to Russia-South Korea ties.

AFP cited Vladimir Tikhonov, professor of Korean studies at the University of Oslo, to say that Kim and Putin “may conduct an exchange of North Korea’s old-age, Soviet-type ammo for Russia’s newer military tech or hard currency (or wheat).”

NEW: Putin suggests #Russia will help #NorthKorea build satellites.

President Putin and Kim Jong-Un visited the Vostochny Cosmodrome. When asked by reporters if Russia would help Kim build satellites, Putin replied: “That’s why we came here. The leader of the DPRK shows great… pic.twitter.com/uymywKaZMj

— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) September 13, 2023

Russian forces blow through a lot of artillery shells on a daily basis along front lines in the war against Ukraine, but that’s precisely what the North Koreans have in ample supply – and it can be shipped by train along the small border shared by both.

* * *

The moment of Kim’s toast, wishing “great victory” over Russia’s enemies…

🇷🇺🇰🇵 Kim Jong Un r proposed a toast to Putin’s health, all comrades present, and to Russia’s new victories! pic.twitter.com/cuzWbfFHyv

— Rev Laskaris (@REVMAXXING) September 13, 2023

Authored by Michael Lebowtiz via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

Despite surging interest rates, there are few signs they are impeding economic activity or causing distress amongst borrowers. It may seem strange that higher rates are not proving troublesome for an economy with such a high amount of leverage. Don’t breathe a sigh of relief quite yet. There is often a delay, called the lag effect, between higher interest rates and economic weakness.   

Changes in interest rates only impact new borrowers, including those with maturing debt who must reissue debt to pay back investors of the maturing bonds. Accordingly, higher rates do not impact those with fixed-rate debt that is not maturing. The lag effect occurs due to the time it takes for the new debt issuance to bear enough weight on the economy to slow it down.

The graph below shows the Fed Funds rate and the time, as measured in months, from the last in a series of rate hikes preceding each recession since 1981. The average delay between the final rate increase and recession has been 11 months. The last Fed hike was in July 2023. Assuming that was the Fed’s final rate increase for this cycle, it may not be until June 2024 before a recession occurs.

This so-called lag effect is even more pronounced when rates were very low for extended periods before the rate hikes.

We examine government, corporate, and consumer debt to appreciate the current lag effect and better gauge when it will rear its ugly head.

Government

There is over $32 trillion of U.S. Treasury debt outstanding. Simple math asserts that each 1% increase in interest rates pushes the government’s interest expense up by $320 billion. That math is wrong.

The reality is only a small portion of the federal debt matures in any given month and must be reissued. Further complicating matters, some maturing debt was issued when interest rates were similar to or higher than current levels. For instance, the 30-year bond issued on August 16, 1993, with a coupon of 6.25%, just matured in August. Reissuing debt to replace the bond saved the government about 2% on $11.50 billion, or $230 million.

In our article, The Government Can’t Afford Higher For Longer, we quantified how rising interest rates affect and will affect the government’s interest expense. As we share below, its interest expense will increase more between 2022 and 2024 than in the 51 years prior!

Higher interest rates are unsustainable for the government. A $2 trillion deficit, as we have now, during a robust and peace-time economy with high-interest rates will force the government to cut its spending. While that is good in the long run, it hurts the economy in the short run. Ergo, as each month passes and interest expenses consume more of the deficit, government spending in other areas is likely to slow.

Rather than reduce spending, the easier, albeit fiscally irresponsible, way to keep running massive deficits is to ensure inflation normalizes so rates can drop significantly and interest costs are not burdensome. That has been the Fed and Treasury playbook for the last 30 years and will continue.

Corporate Debt

In aggregate, higher interest rates are currently helping corporate borrowers. As the graph below from Albert Edwards shows, net interest payments for U.S. corporations have fallen while Fed Funds have risen significantly. We touched on this graph in a recent Commentary titled Albert Edwards Ask What On Earth Is Going On?

To help explain why higher interest rates are currently helping corporations, consider the following quote per our article:

Albert surmises that many companies borrowed heavily in 2020-2021 at very low-interest rates, and the proceeds remain in deposit accounts earning more than the interest on the debt. Consequently, net interest is reduced.

The following graph, also from our Commentary, shows that such a circumstance is common when the Fed raises rates. The red circles highlight four instances in which interest costs as a percentage of profits fell while the Fed was hiking rates. The yellow circles show that interest expenses lagged but rose after the Fed stopped raising rates.

Such is the lag effect. Most companies spread out their debt, so only a small amount matures in any year. Therefore, it can take time until more expensive debt replaces cheaper maturing debt

The tweet below shows a wall of maturing debt is approaching quickly.

The following graph, courtesy of Game of Trades, shows what will happen to corporate interest expenses over time if rates stay at current levels. As it shows, corporate interest expenses will triple!

Individuals

The impact on individuals is similar to corporations and the government. Marginal purchases on credit result in the financial recognition of higher interest rates.

The graph below shows the weighted average mortgage rate. Currently, mortgage rates are well over 7%, about 4% higher than the lowest mortgage rates set in early 2022. Despite the sharp increase, the weighted average rate has barely ticked up. Only those buying houses are affected by the new mortgage rates, and there aren’t many home buyers. Existing home sales are at levels last seen during the depth of the financial crisis.

Unlike houses, cars do not have as long a shelf life. Per a recent study by ISH Markit, the average length of car ownership is 79 months or just over 6.5 years. As such, about 15% of car owners will have to pay cash or borrow at high auto loan interest rates.

Interest rates on credit cards float monthly. Therefore, cardholders who do not pay their entire balance monthly are immediately impacted by higher rates. According to the Fed and shown below, the average credit card interest rate is 21%, up over 6% since the Fed started raising rates. Credit card rates have risen significantly more than U.S. Treasury rates and Fed Funds.

Record Low Rates Before 2022 Increase the Lag

When contemplating how corporations and individuals have thus far insulated themselves from higher interest rates, consider that when interest rates are held low for long periods, the weighted average rate for every type of loan is lowered. The longer, the more borrowers benefit. And, the less borrowers are immediately impacted by higher interest rates.

As we showed, sub 3% mortgages in 2020 and 2021 and meager rates before the pandemic allowed a large majority of borrowers to extend their debt and avoid, for a period, the wrath of higher interest rates.

Over time, however, corporate and government debt matures, people need new cars or houses, and the reality of higher interest rates hits.

Summary

The lag effect is a ticking time bomb. Each day that passes, another borrower feels the impact of higher interest rates. The financial impact is slow but steadily increasing. Also, remember that the various types of pandemic-related stimulus are quickly exiting the economy. Normalizing economic activity and the slow but steadily growing lag effect will likely result in a recession.  

Given the leverage the economy depends upon, “higher for longer” is not possible without breaking something.  

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

The idea of a Brexit reversal surfaced over the weekend. Silly Remoaners, let it go and be happy.

Image from The Observer via a Tweet below.

Wishful Thinking

Will Hutton is hardly alone in campaigning to rejoin the EU by putting his focus and ire on the Conservative Party, but in doing so, he must gloss over the fact that it was a Tory government that lead the campaign to ‘Remain’ in 2016, and that many Conservatives never wanted to leave; forced into supporting independence because of the people’s instruction. And if the UK were to ever vote in support of applying for membership again, parochial Tory-bashing won’t suffice. Such a campaign would have to address, head-on, the EU’s failings and inadequacies. It would also have to address what the EU has become since 2016, and most crucially, what it hopes to become in the future. But the pro-EU movement in Britain has always been more focused on what the EU isn’t, rather than what it is. It has shied away from grand constitutional debates about the long-term direction of the EU, and also refrained from criticizing Brussels too much, no doubt concerned about feeding the skepticism all humans share of large, distant, unaccountable institutions determining how we live our lives. And that strategy not to engage more frankly with the EU and its grand ambitions was probably their biggest mistake prior to 2016. People like Will Hutton failed to pressure their British and European colleagues in Brussels to improve transparency, democracy and accountability. They failed to shift the direction the EU was taking towards one UK voters could more readily accept. And in doing so, the seeds of Brexit were sown. ….

if you want to convince most people, you are going to have to move beyond simple Conservative and eurosceptic bashing. You are going to have to talk about the wart-covered EU elephant in the corner of the room. That may not be what readers of the Guardian or Observer are likely to click on, but it is what they will have to wrestle with if they are ever to succeed in taking Britain back into the EU.

Will Hutton is hardly alone in campaigning to rejoin the EU by putting his focus and ire on the Conservative Party, but in doing so, he must gloss over the fact that it was a Tory government that lead the campaign to ‘Remain’ in 2016, and that many Conservatives never wanted to… pic.twitter.com/6AoqAnMCAv

— James Holland (@James7Holland) September 10, 2023

Please do!

— James Holland (@James7Holland) September 10, 2023

A Few Questions

Would the EU want the UK back? If so, on what basis? How?

The UK cannot undo Brexit by a vote. The EU would have to agree. Some countries in the EU might not want the UK back at all, and it would have to be unanimous.

But assume the EU magically displayed a green light. On what basis would the light be green?

The UK would not get the same deal as before. It would have to join the Eurozone Monetary Union (EMU). How would that vote go in the UK?

Consider Schengen and freedom of movement. The UK had an opt out on that. It won’t now. So how would that vote go in the UK?

What about the UK rebate?

For those in the US who have no idea what I am talking about, the UK rebate was a financial mechanism that reduced the United Kingdom’s contribution to the EU budget since 1985.

Does anyone think the EU will let the UK contribute less than other nations to the EU slush fund?

Six Brexit Reversal Referendum Questions

• Do you agree to abandon the British Pound for the Euro?

• Do you agree to turn over monetary policy to the ECB?

• Do you agree to pay your fair share into the EU budget slush fund?

• Do you agree to the EU’s freedom of movement clause and accept all EU immigrants?

• Do you agree to subjugate yourselves to the whims of the European Court of Justice?

• Do you agree to let the EU dictate 100% of your trade policies?

If the answer to any of those is no, the the EU will not let the UK back in the EU.

Some might think my questions are harshly worded. But my wording is mild compared to how the opposition would phrase things if there ever was a serious proposal to rejoin.

Two Locks and a Bonus Kicker

Brexit reversal won’t happen because It’s not just a matter holding a referendum to back in. The conditions for rejoining are not the same conditions the EU granted the UK when it first joined. And the EU might not want the UK back in even if the UK did agree to those terms.

Labour and even some Tory remoaners will piss and moan and blame everything that goes wrong on Brexit. But not even Labour would accept the conditions the EU would require to rejoin the club.

Big UK Economic Upgrade

Please note that the UK economy, blamed on Brexit, was much stronger than previously reported. On September 1, The Independent commented on the UK ‘Extraordinary’ GDP Upgrade.

Panmure Gordon chief economist Simon French called the revision “extraordinary” and said “the entire UK economic narrative – post pandemic – has just been revised away”.

The changes, which added almost 2 per cent to the size of Britain’s economy, mean the UK no longer has the worst growth record among G7 countries since 2019.

They also show Britain’s economy is likely outperforming Germany, Europe’s biggest economy.

The Great Escape

Escaping the EU nannycrats was a great decision. The EU stifles trade, thinking, and competitiveness. Every year global trade talks fail because of the EU.

France has a veto and uses it to save the family farm. It took decades for the EU to work out a simple trade agreement with Canada. Two small countries did not like some simple aspect and nearly delayed the deal forever.

Google, Microsoft, and Amazon would never form in the EU because the EU would bust them apart in the name of “competition” before they ever got going.

Look at Germany, more interested in protecting diesel, and cheating to do it, than lead any innovation in EVs. The EU lagged in phones, in EVs, and is 100 percent certain to lag in AI.

It takes unanimous opinion to do nearly anything in the EU, a fundamental flaw of both the EU and EMU.

And one interest rate surely does not fit the likes of the UK, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Spain, let alone all of the other countries on a forced, but time uncertain, path to join the EMU.

Why would the UK want to be on the hook to bail out bank failures in Italy, Greece, or for that matter Germany. Germany’s industrial production is imploding right now.

Brexit Was Not a Bad Decision and Did Not Fail

It’s important to understand that Brexit did not fail. Rather, the Tories failed at taking advantage of the opportunities of Brexit.

For discussion, please see my May 22, 2023 post Contrary to Popular Myth, Brexit Was Not a Bad Decision and Did Not Fail

OK Remoaners give it up. The decision has been made and no one in their right mind would agree to the conditions and risks necessary to get back in.

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According to the World Bank, global seaport trade traffic reached 841 million TEUs (20-foot container equivalent units) in 2021.

In this infographic, Visual Capitalist’s Freny Fernandes and Winifred Amase use that data to highlight the countries with the highest seaport trade traffic.

China Leads All Seaport Trade Traffic

With a third of the world’s total seaport trade traffic surrounding its many ports, it’s no surprise to see China on top of the list.

In addition to owning seven of the world’s 10 busiest ports, the country also owns close to 100 ports across 63 other countries. This brought the country’s container traffic up to 263 million TEUs in 2021.

In second place is the United States, which saw container traffic of 61 million TEUs. Massive U.S. ports in Los Angeles and New York are some of the busiest ports on the continent.

Asian countries dominated the rest of the top 10 list, taking up seven of the remaining eight spots.

Singapore came in third with 37 million 20-foot container units passing through in 2021. The port handled 599 million tonnes of freight, making it the busiest single port in total shipping tonnage.

The ports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi make the United Arab Emirates a key player in Middle Eastern trade. With a container traffic of 19 million TEUs, the UAE is seventh on the list of nations with the highest seaport traffic in 2021.

Via Remix News,

Poland signals it will issue a decree stopping the export of Ukrainian grain to Poland should the European Commission refuse to extend the embargo beyond Sept. 15…

Poland would not hesitate to issue an order to block the import of Ukrainian grain if the European Commission refused to extend the grain embargo on Ukraine, according to Polish Development Minister Waldemar Buda.

Currently, the European Commission has given the green light to five EU member states who have placed a grain embargo on Ukraine, but Buda said during an interview with public radio PR 24 that he feared the EU commission was likely to end the embargo.

Nevertheless, the Polish government indicates it cannot allow Ukrainian grain imports at a time when Polish farmers have just completed their harvest and need to sell their produce. The grain embargo on Ukrainian products containing wheat, corn, rapeseed, and sunflower imposed by Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia was agreed by the European Commission at the beginning of May. It was to last until June but was extended by the EU commission until Sept. 15. 

Buda confirmed that the transit of Ukrainian grain into other EU states or to the countries of Africa and the Middle East would continue without interruption, and this effort would receive support and encouragement from Poland.

The “solidarity corridors” backed by the European Commission would continue so that grain could flow to places around the world that need it, as these countries do not have the capacity to produce the grain themselves. 

In July, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned that if the European Commission does not extend the grain embargo on Ukrainian grain until the end of the year, Poland will have to close its border to the import of these goods from Ukraine. All the agriculture ministers from the five neighboring states have recently reaffirmed their support for the embargo to continue. 

As Remix News also reported, Hungary will also continue to block Ukrainian grain, regardless of what the European Commission decides.

Authored by Megan Redshaw, JD via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The preprint, published on Sept. 4, showed trial subjects vaccinated with Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine experienced a 3.7 times increase in cardiovascular deaths compared to placebo controls—a “significant adverse event signal” not disclosed by Pfizer when the vaccine was authorized for emergency use. In addition, the analysis found numerous instances where Pfizer/BioNTech attributed potential vaccine-associated deaths to other causes and undermined vaccine safety data.

Clinical Trial ‘Cause of Death’ Unsupported by Documentation

Researchers assessed data from Pfizer’s original phase two/three clinical trial involving 44,060 subjects equally divided into two groups. One group received a dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, and the other received a placebo. As part of their analysis, researchers reviewed the cause of death forms (CRFs) of 38 trial subjects who died during the study period from July 27, 2020, to March 13, 2021, the end date of the clinical trial.

They found that 14 of the 38 deaths—more than one-third of deaths—resulted from cardiovascular events, accounting for the difference between the 21 deaths in the vaccination arm compared to the 17 deaths in the placebo arm. In numerous cases, researchers found that documentation did not support the cause of death diagnosis or allow one to rule out the possibility of a cardiovascular event with an autopsy.

“In general, our review of the CRFs found them to be lacking in detail and extremely difficult to interpret and develop a good timeline of events,” researchers wrote. “Often, a subject’s pre-trial clinical history was absent. Absent also were results of the extensive array of medical testing carried out at the pre-trial screening and at other regularly scheduled visits.”

Absent test results included complete blood counts, metabolic tests, pregnancy tests, COVID-19 tests, a comprehensive list of active medications, and other tests that would have provided clarity on a subject’s overall health. Although more detailed clinical data on the trial subjects exists, the researchers said it is being withheld. Given the limitations of what Pfizer provided, the researchers said the information in the CRFs was often insufficient to support the investigator’s conclusions regarding the cause of death.

The researchers also noted frequent communications between Pfizer/BioNTech physicians and trial site medical staff about the CRFs, some of which were over 400 to 900 pages.

Pfizer Used Earlier Data Cutoff and Unblinded Control Group

According to the analysis, Pfizer excluded the 38 deaths from information provided to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during its December 2020 meeting where its vaccine advisory panel was considering whether to authorize the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for emergency use.

When Pfizer/BioNTech submitted its application for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) on Nov. 20, 2020, to the FDA, the application described clinical trial results using a cutoff date of November 14, 2020, even though the end date of the trial was March 13, 2021. Researchers said the earlier cutoff date concealed mortality data from the clinical trial.

“Both Pfizer presenters and the FDA committee failed to ask for and review deaths that occurred in the clinical trial participants after the data cutoff. As a result, they missed a more than three-fold increased risk of cardiovascular death with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine,” cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough told The Epoch Times in an email.

“If the FDA presentation with core slides had been presented with accurate, updated data, the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine should not have been approved because of safety concerns,” he added.

Twenty weeks into the clinical trial on Dec. 11, 2020, Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine received EUA from the FDA, and the agency allowed Pfizer to unblind its control group. Unblinding occurs when study participants are told whether they received a vaccine or a placebo, and placebo subjects are permitted to get vaccinated. All but a few chose to receive the vaccine.

Read more here…

Authored by David Craig via The Daily Sceptic,

The Government’s plans to force Britain to achieve ‘Net Zero’ CO2 emissions by 2050 seem to be falling apart. Few people seem interested in buying expensive, range-limited electric vehicles. Even fewer want to replace their cheap efficient gas boilers with expensive and poor-performing heat pumps. Offshore windfarms were a key part of our Government’s ‘Net Zero’ decarbonisation plans, yet there were no companies bidding for the recent group of offshore windfarm contracts. And our rulers seem unable to make up their minds about which technology to choose for Britain’s new generation of SMRs (small modular nuclear reactors) even though Rolls Royce has already developed a version which can work in the hostile underwater operating environment of nuclear-powered submarines and so could be quickly and inexpensively adapted for use on dry land.

However, having realised that it cannot provide sufficient electricity to power Britain as a supposed ‘renewable energy superpower’, the Government has come up with a brilliant solution – force us to use much less electricity.

I recently wrote an article for the Daily Sceptic explaining some of the more worrying aspects of the Energy Bill currently approved by a massive majority in the Commons and likely to be enthusiastically passed with a similar massive majority in the Lords.

In my article I quoted several sections from the Energy Bill. However, as these were written in almost incomprehensible legalese, I thought it might be useful to describe three common scenarios which will arise once the Energy Bill has become law.

• First, there is the replacement of existing electricity and gas meters. Our electricity and gas meters have a registered lifetime of anywhere between 10 and 25 years depending on the type of meter. Once a meter’s lifetime has expired, it should be replaced. Under the terms of the Energy Bill, someone from your power supplier will have the right to enter your home to replace your current meter with a smart meter. If you refuse him entry or try to refuse having a smart meter installed, he can legally return with police back-up, force entry into your home and use what is called “reasonable force” to restrain you while he rips out your old-fashioned meter and replaces it with a smart meter. “Reasonable force” might just mean handcuffing you during the installation or could even mean detaining you in a cell at the local police station while your meters are changed.

• Second, there is what happens when you wish to rent or sell your home or another property. It seems likely that we will be banned from renting out or selling any residential property unless it has an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) rating of ‘C’ or above. Currently there are just over one million home sales a year in Britain. Of these home sales, around 41% have an EPC rating of ‘C’ or above. This means that under the terms of the Energy Bill, over 590,000 homes a year would have to have alterations made to improve their EPC rating before they could be rented out or sold. These alterations could range from just installing double glazing or adding a little loft or wall insulation to spending tens of thousands of pounds installing a heat pump which would include replacing all the pipes and radiators in a home and could even require ripping up carpets and floors to install underfloor heating.

• Third, there are what are known as Energy Saving Opportunity Schemes (ESOS), where “opportunity” has a distinctly Orwellian flavour. With ever more homes having smart meters, energy suppliers will be able to identify towns, neighbourhoods, streets and even individual homes which Government ‘experts’ consider to be using too much electricity. The Energy Bill introduces ESOSs, which would give the legal right for energy inspectors to enter any home, using “reasonable force” if necessary, in order to make an energy-saving assessment and propose ways the homeowner could improve the property’s energy efficiency.

In all three of the above three scenarios, refusal by the homeowner to comply with the Government’s requirements would be a criminal offence with penalties of fines of up to £15,000 and imprisonment of up to one year.

That a supposedly “Conservative” Government would use its parliamentary majority to introduce such intrusive and oppressive eco-totalitarianism is something that few of us would have imagined possible.

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David Craig is the author of There is No Climate Crisis, available as an e-book or paperback from Amazon.