Category: Energy/Fuel

Biden says Americans have to get ready for more blackouts as energy infrastructure nears breaking point

BY MARY VILLAREAL

SEE: https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-06-04-biden-get-ready-for-more-blackouts.html;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Biden says Americans have to get ready for more blackouts as energy infrastructure nears breaking point

(Natural News) For a couple of years, rolling blackouts have been regular occurrences in the state of California, the Midwest, and the Deep South. Now, the Joe Biden administration is saying that people have to get ready for even more blackouts this summer as the energy infrastructure nears breaking point.

In the June 3 episode of “Zoon Politicon,” commentator Holly Seeliger talked about the problems brought about by the Biden administration’s push for green energy.

With the grid system not nearly producing enough electricity, a vast swath of land from the Great Lakes to the West Coast is at risk of blackouts as drought takes its toll amid power plant and supply chain woes.

John Bear, CEO of Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which serves the Midwest corridor from Minnesota to the Texas Panhandle, said that energy shortages move the area in the direction of rotating blackouts. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation also lists the Midwest as the one being at the highest risk for energy cuts.

The Federal Electricity Regulatory Commission, an independent body that oversees the U.S. electric grid, estimates that power prices in the region may soar up to 233 percent at the peak of summer, which is boosted by high demands as temperatures rise and gas prices continue to soar.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also estimates that the average summer temperatures across the U.S. will be between 50 and 80 percent higher than normal.

The Biden administration’s effort to transition six energy grids to a decarbonized system is also part of the problem. According to Bear, part of the effort is phasing out fossil fuel units before new batteries are available. The White House also previously announced Biden’s long-term strategy to decarbonize the U.S. economy by 2050, but under these efforts, each of North America’s six electricity grids will see power capacity decline.

Reliability crisis could create dangerous outages in Texas, California

Significant outages have already been faced by the Texas grid over the winter storm in February 2021, which killed 246 people. The grid is set to lose 2.9 gigawatts of gas, coal, and nuclear capacity this year, as well. Meanwhile, the grid run by Bear will lose 3.2 gigawatts of power due to retiring coal plants, which will not be replaced. (Related: Rolling blackouts to affect over a billion people as energy crisis worsens.)

Republican commissioners on the FERC and some industry groups argued for a slower transition to avoid energy shortfalls. One of its members, Mark Christie, said they were headed for a reliability crisis, as they are not yet ready for such a move.

Democrats on the commission, on the other hand, are pushing that power transmission issues are the reasons for periodic blackouts, not the energy transition.

California grid operators, in contrast, have also warned that the state faces a risk of blackouts during the next three summers due to power supply shortages. This prediction is based on an analysis of existing power supplies, with new sources expected to come online and the potential of extreme events, including potential gaps between electricity supply and peak demand.

The state is also trying to shift to cleaner energy, although it isn’t the best long-term solution to power issues. Droughts make hydropower less available, while wildfires reduce electricity transmission, according to the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission. (Related: NERC: Power grid problems, intense heat could lead to widespread blackouts in North America this summer.)

California’s electricity blackouts are likely to return this summer due to supply shortages. The most precarious window for electricity supply shortages is in the early evenings after solar power stops working, and September is expected to be the most problematic month.

Follow PowerGrid.news for more updates about energy sources this summer.

Watch the video below for more information on what to expect about power and energy distribution in the U.S. this summer.

This video is from the Zoon Politikon channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Inflation, food shortages, and the ongoing energy crisis are all coinciding with escalating war.

Millions of Americans will suffer amid mass power outages this winter, thanks to a burgeoning energy crisis, insider warns.

Germany’s largest ammonia producer slashes output amid escalating energy crisis; food crop shortages anticipated throughout 2022.

European energy price spikes lead to a “national crisis” in the UK as colder-than-normal temperatures continue to grip the continent.

Germany’s largest ammonia producer slashes output amid escalating energy crisis; food crop shortages anticipated throughout 2022.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

News.Yahoo.com

ScientificAmerican.com

USA DOMESTIC food production now collapsing due to fertilizer costs, scarcity, diesel price inflation and food protectionism

BY MIKE ADAMS

SEE: https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-06-03-usa-domestic-food-production-now-collapsing.html;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

(Natural News) When the USA and NATO countries engaged in economic warfare against Russia by de-platforming Russian banks from the SWIFT system in March, it set off a chain reaction of world events that will lead to global famine and food scarcity panic. Fertilizers and the natural gas used to manufacture fertilizer are now in short supply around the world. Many prominent food producers such as India have turned to export bans (food protectionism) to secure their own domestic supplies, worsening global food scarcity. Rising fuel costs have only added to the problems, resulting in far higher costs of farm inputs across the world.

But now America’s domestic food production is collapsing as well — and seemingly for the same reasons. Sky-high fertilizer costs, fertilizer scarcity, insanely elevated diesel fuel prices, and supply chain problems affecting agriculture equipment are all contributing to an alarming trend across America: More and more farmers are simply not planting crops.

There’s no economic reason to do so. Rising fertilizer prices make the crops a money loser from day one. Even if a farmer invests in the fertilizer, his ability to harvest and transport the resulting crops out of his own fields is increasingly questionable. Worsening the situation, drought conditions are so bad that rice farmers in California, for example, are being told by the water control authorities there that they will only be allowed 0.4-acre feet of water per acre. You can’t grow rice in less than five inches of water for the entire season.

So they’re not planting most of the rice. Only 70,000 acres are getting planted out of 450,000 acres that could be used. Worsening the shortage, California has decided to divert water into the Pacific Ocean for environmental reasons, rather than let rice farmers use the water to grow food. From that story:

“In April 2022, the water districts serving Colusa County were given their final allocation for the 2022 growing season – 0.4-acre-feet per acre,” Colusa County officials said in a statement. “This allocation is not enough to support rice production, and estimates show that the Sacramento Valley will fallow 370,000 of 450,000 acres

in the Sacramento River Settlement Contractors service area, primarily in Colusa and Glenn Counties. Currently, less than 7,000 acres are estimated to be planted in Colusa County, resulting in a direct financial loss to growers in excess of $270 million.”

As described by an editor at USSANews.com, this policy is truly insane:

As a former rice farmer in northern California, I can testify to the stupidity and insanity of environmentalists who favor obscure fish over humans. Water to farmers is now below growing levels and will cause devastation to the 2022 rice industry, taking down farmers as well as all related industries. The fact that the world is facing a major food shortage means nothing to these environmental zealots.

When Californians have no rice on their food shelves later this year, will they realize their own malicious left-wing politicians deliberately created the food scarcity emergency?

India to halt rice exports while other nations halt exports of wheat

India is also reportedly moving to halt its own rice imports, reports Bloomberg.com, unleashing a “devastating” food scarcity scenario with worldwide implications. According to Bloomberg, India accounts for 40% of the global rice trade. From that story:

Rice may be India’s next food protectionism target after it restricted wheat and sugar exports, analysts say, a move that could have a devastating impact on global food security as it’s an important staple.

India’s curbs on wheat and sugar exports sent shock waves through global markets as it marked an escalation in food protectionism that’s seen countries choke off flows of locally-grown supplies to the world. A similar move on rice by the No. 1 exporter at a time when crops like wheat and corn are soaring would threaten to plunge millions more into hunger and boost inflation risks.

According to the India Times, Hungary has banned wheat exports, and nations like Argentina, Bulgaria, and Turkey are working toward outright bans of crop exports in order to meet their domestic needs.

All across the world, crop yields are collapsing and food supplies are dwindling. International trade is being strangled and domestic supplies are becoming more scarce and far more expensive.

It’s all deliberate, driven by destructive USA / NATO policies that strive for famine and collapse

Nearly all the problems with food scarcity and food inflation are driven entirely by malicious policy decisions stemming from the arrogant USA and oblivious NATO nation “leaders” who have lost all ability to recognize economic principles (or who actually want mass starvation and depopulation).

Together, the USA and NATO nations de-platformed Russia from trading in crops, fertilizer, and natural gas, setting off this chain reaction of scarcity and unprecedented price increases for farm inputs, setting into motion a global starvation scenario that will worsen for years to come. Even if Russia were suddenly re-platformed back into the SWIFT system tomorrow, the damage to the food supply for 2022 – 2023 has already been done.

Mass starvation will burn through the world’s developing nations for the next two years, and even in first-world nations, working-class citizens will find themselves spending higher and higher portions of their incomes on basic food supplies.

This will, of course, lead to food riots. It’s all by design. The idea is to cause mass chaos and martial law in America before the mid-term elections. In order to achieve that, the corrupt, illegitimate Biden regime had to whip up war with Russia, unleash economic protectionism across the globe, shut down fertilizer shipments in the USA, drastically raise fuel prices by shutting down pipelines, and engineer a food scarcity emergency by making sure the USDA keeps paying farmers to destroy crops and destroy tractors (in exchange for USDA payouts, of course).

Food industry transport workers are sitting on their hands in Florida

Yesterday a source informed me that food industry transport workers in Florida who would normally be working 16-hour days right now — transporting tomatoes, peppers, melons, fruit, and other crops out of Florida — are sitting on their hands with zero work. There are virtually no crops to transport in this particular area of Florida where 10,000+ acre farms are common. The fields weren’t planted, and there are no crops to harvest.

These crops normally supply restaurants and grocery stores across the entire Eastern half of the United States. Now, they have nothing, and the farmers have no reason to even plant anything until fertilizer and diesel prices come down.

Official crop yield statistics haven’t yet caught up to this reality, but once Florida reports its crop yields for June, the numbers are going to be catastrophic.

The oblivious masses of America will see grocery shelves going increasingly bare beginning in August, then accelerating through the end of the year. Long before the mid-terms, many American families will be in a panic over food and fuel prices. Yet the worst is still to come because 2023 will be disastrous as food and fuel become increasingly scarce and expensive.

We will see food riots in America before the end of this year, and we will almost certainly see serious food rationing in 2023, possibly followed by “food passport” rationing cards or other schemes designed to limit how much food the public is allowed to buy.

“Joe Biden’s national weight loss plan” is about to become a reality as Americans face real famine and civil unrest. This is what happens when you allow Democrats to steal elections and place incompetent criminals in power. When the traitor Mike Pence refused to do his job on January 6 — and the FBI ran another false flag insurrection op — this is what you get: A nation being dismantled as an act of economic warfare carried out against the people of America by radical left-wing Marxists like Obama and corrupt criminal families like the Bidens and the Clintons.

Get the full details on all this and much more — including Russia’s upcoming retaliation against America’s cyber attacks — in today’s Situation Update podcast:

Brighteon.com/bc8df6a9-7a39-4666-953a-cec4d19a21ac

GET READY: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says “economic hurricane” is about to make landfall across America

Image: GET READY: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says “economic hurricane” is about to make landfall across America

BY ETHAN HUFF

SEE: https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-06-02-jpmorgan-dimon-economic-hurricane-landfall-america.html;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

(Natural News) The head of one of America’s largest and most influential financial institutions is warning that things are about to get really ugly, economically speaking.

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, just told a room full of analysts and investors that an “economic hurricane” is barreling straight towards the United States, and that his company is “bracing” for impact.

So-called “quantitative easing,” or QT, which is scheduled to begin this month, will ramp up to $95 billion a month in reduced bond holdings. There is also the ongoing war in Ukraine, which continues to drive up commodity prices.

Oil, Dimon warns, could hit $150 or even $175 a barrel. And food, as many of us well know, is becoming increasingly more expensive with each passing day.

“You’d better brace yourself,” Dimon warned his audience. “JPMorgan is bracing ourselves and we’re going to be very conservative with our balance sheet.”

“You know, I said there are storm clouds but I’m going to change it … it’s a hurricane,” he added, noting that while conditions might seem “fine” to some, there is no knowing for sure whether the coming hurricane is “a minor one or Superstorm Sandy.”

Central banks can no longer contain the runaway train

The end of the Federal Reserve’s cheap money era, as CNBC calls it, is rapidly coming to an end. This, among other factors, is said to be driving down stock prices in the tech sector.

Inflation is also hitting multi-decade highs, and this is on top of supply chain failures that really picked up during the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) plandemic.

It is believed by many that the economy is now entering a recession – or perhaps a depression – of epic proportions. The writing is clearly on the wall flashing collapse in huge letters, in other words, and Dimon is speaking up about it.

“Right now, it’s kind of sunny, things are doing fine, everyone thinks the Fed can handle this,” Dimon explained. “That hurricane is right out there, down the road, coming our way.”

“We’ve never had QT like this, so you’re looking at something you could be writing history books on for 50 years,” he added, noting that several aspects of the Fed’s quantitative easing programs have clearly “backfired,” one of them being negative interest rates, which he called a “huge mistake.”

At the same time, Dimon says that central banks “don’t have a choice because there’s too much liquidity in the system.”

“They have to remove some of the liquidity to stop the speculation, reduce home prices and stuff like that.” (Related: Remember early last year when the Federal Reserve’s entire payment system crashed due to an “operational error?”)

The war in Ukraine is only exacerbating a problem that has been stewing for years, but it could be the straw that finally breaks the camel’s back – and more than likely this is all by design as part of the controlled demolition of the old world order, which is necessary in order to usher in a new world order.

“Wars go bad,” Dimon said. “[They] go south in unintended consequences. We’re not taking the proper actions to protect Europe from what’s going to happen to oil in the short run.”

Last week during an investor conference, Dimon said the “storm clouds” could be dissipating. A week later, his whole tune changed to indicate that he was wrong: the storm clouds appear to be bigger, darker, and more ominous than most people are prepared to encounter once they finally arrive.

One thing JPMorgan is doing to try to batten down the hatches is to move its clients from a lower-quality deposits called “non-operating deposits” to money markets, as one example. Will it be enough, is the question?

As the economic hurricane arrives, we will keep you informed about the latest at

Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

CNBC.com

NaturalNews.com

Iran seizes two Greek OIL tankers in Persian Gulf

BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

SEE: https://robertspencer.org/2022/05/iran-seizes-two-greek-tankers-in-persian-gulf;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

The grave threat of Iran is compounded by its Doomsday theology, which asserts that at the end of days, the Hidden Imam will appear in the midst of a violent apocalyptic scenario — likely provoked by Iran itself — and played out on a battleground stained with the blood of infidels.

Iran is becoming increasingly emboldened, thanks to the Biden administration’s obvious weakness. Iran’s paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps seized two Greek oil tankers in the Persian Gulf “in helicopter-launched raids in the Persian Gulf….The action appeared to be retaliation for Athens’ assistance in the U.S. seizure of crude oil from an Iranian-flagged tanker this week in the Mediterranean Sea over violating Washington’s crushing sanctions on the Islamic Republic.”

Iran will continue to escalate as a global menace, while America under Biden will increasingly become a global laughing stock.

Meanwhile, a website in Iran has asserted that Iran really sees no need for a nuclear agreement at all. That would be a great gift to the embattled West, as the last nuke deal was long shown up to be based on lies, by Iran’s own admission, and in this round, Biden gave over negotiation of the new deal to Russia, which cashed in on a $10 billion contract. According to an Iranian journalist:

Islamic Republic hardliners have concluded that by exporting close to one million barrels of oil per day at prices above $100 a barrel, Iran can generate enough income equal to a full export volume, without a need to agree to the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions, JCPOA.

Greece’s Foreign Ministry called Iran’s actions in the Persian Gulf “piracy,” and they represent much worse to come, unless Iran is stopped. Recently the Biden administration began in desperation to seek closer ties with Greece to contain Turkey. In early March, as the world focused intensely on Ukraine, Turkey violated Greek airspace with F-16 aircraft. Turkey has been challenging Greece’s sovereignty for some time, bullying Greece with provocative statements and threats of war.

With a weak America, it’s time for Islamic supremacists to act with impunity.

“Iran seizes 2 Greek tankers in Persian Gulf as tensions rise,” by Jon Gambrell & Nicholas Paphitis, Associated Press, May 27, 2022:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized two Greek oil tankers Friday in helicopter-launched raids in the Persian Gulf, officials said. The action appeared to be retaliation for Athens’ assistance in the U.S. seizure of crude oil from an Iranian-flagged tanker this week in the Mediterranean Sea over violating Washington’s crushing sanctions on the Islamic Republic….

The Guard issued a statement announcing the seizures, accusing the tankers of unspecified violations. Nour News, a website close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, warned a short time earlier that Tehran planned to take “punitive action” over Greece assisting the U.S. in seizing oil days earlier from the Iranian-flagged tanker Lana….

An Iranian helicopter landed on the Greek-flagged Delta Poseidon in international waters, some 22 nautical miles off the coast of Iran, the ministry said.

“Armed men then took the crew captive,” it said, adding that two Greek nationals were among the crew.

“A similar incident has been reported on another Greek-flagged vessel, that was carrying seven Greek citizens, close to the coast of Iran,” the ministry said….

Biden’s handlers renew Chevron’s oil license to operate in Venezuela

The impact of sanctions relief for Venezuela and Biden, according to ...

Biden to ease Venezuela sanctions one day after Cuba rules lift ...

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://robertspencer.org/2022/05/bidens-handlers-renew-chevrons-oil-license-to-operate-in-venezuela;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

America Last. Biden did far more than shut down the Keystone Pipeline. He also placed a moratorium on oil leases on federal property (which was blocked in court but is apparently still followed in the Interior Department, as the number of drilling permits it has issued dropped sharply), suspended some existing drilling leases, restricted fracking, placed onerous financial regulations on the oil industry, and more.

But Chevron operating in Venezuela is just fine.

“Biden’s Treasury Department renews Chevron’s oil license to operate in Venezuela,” by Lawrence Richard, FOXBusiness, May 27, 2022:

The U.S. Treasury Department renewed a license Friday for Chevron to operate its oil production in Venezuela, a country sanctioned by the U.S., potentially setting up a broader license agreement later in the year.

The U.S. has previously served as Venezuela’s largest oil market but oil activity between the countries has been limited amid ongoing political turmoil between Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his opposition, Juan Guaido, who the U.S. recognizes as Venezuela’s rightful leader, Reuters reported.

Under the current license, Chevron is allowed to continue to maintain its staff and operation infrastructure as well as payments on third-party invoices, local taxes and utility services.

The license allows Chevron to conduct “transactions and activities necessary for safety or the preservation of assets in Venezuela,” according to the report. The oil company is also able to participate in shareholder and board meetings….

Chevron’s new license extends its current agreement through the end of November. 

Half of America to go dark this summer due to Biden’s “Build Blackouts Better”

Image: Half of America to go dark this summer due to Biden’s “Build Blackouts Better”

BY ETHAN HUFF

SEE: https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-05-22-half-america-dark-summer-biden-build-blackouts-better.html;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

(Natural News) A perfect storm of megadroughts, heatwaves and reduced power generation thanks to “green” energy initiatives is shaping up to leave half of America completely in the dark this summer.

Rolling blackouts from the Great Lakes to the West Coast are expected to be a common occurrence this year, according to Bloomberg, citing a new report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a regulatory body that manages the stability of the electrical grid.

NERC is warning that the West Coast especially will be extremely strained during the warmest months of the year. Historic drought conditions reduce hydroelectric power generation due to decreasing reservoir levels. This is already occurring at the Hoover Dam, which is just days away from dropping below 1,050 feet (if it has not already).

Once the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, the Hoover Dam is now at its lowest level on record. And this is just one of many such dams throughout the West that is in dire shape leading up to what is expected to be an extremely hot summer.

“Compound the hellacious weather backdrop with grids decommissioning fossil fuel power plants to fight climate change and their inability to bring on new green power generation, such as solar, wind, and batteries, in time, is a perfect storm waiting to happen that will produce electricity deficits that may force power companies into rolling blackouts for stability purposes,” reports Zero Hedge.

Of course they’re also blaming Russia, saying “cyberattacks” will take down the grid

Since last summer, power generation capacity across the western United States has declined by about 2.3 percent, even as demand is expected to increase. The Midwest is also in pretty bad shape, with the grid expected to be extremely tight throughout the summer months.

Some grids may have to source power from neighboring grids if they run into

shortages, which could trigger blackouts. The NERC expects this, having warned last year that at least 40 percent of the country is now at risk of losing power at a moment’s notice, depending upon demand.

This year, expectations are even worse with at least half of the country expected to run into energy problems once the really bad heat arrives. Not only have conditions worsened since the last estimation, but more “green” energy has been installed to replace stable energy since that time as well.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has issued multiple warnings as of late about how summer heatwaves could push that system over the edge. Texas is known to be hot and should be prepared, but after the freeze fiasco last year, there is no telling what will happen to the Lone Star State this year.

California is also in dire straits with a drought that is shrinking reservoir levels combined with the decommissioning of fossil fuel plants.

“We know that reliability is going to be difficult in this time of transition,” said Alice Reynolds, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, during a recent press conference.

Keep in mind that this is all expected to hit a time when gas and other energy prices are skyrocketing, inflation is through the roof, and food shortages are expected to increase. Hell on earth is about to be unleashed, it seems.

“America is slipping into the abyss as households get a taste of what it’s like to live in Venezuela,” warns Zero Hedge.

“It’s not that far off from what people are experiencing today: soaring inflation, shortages, a ruling regime which so many claim was not elected by the majority and soon, rolling blackouts.”

To keep up with the latest energy news as it develops, be sure to check out EnergySupply.news.

Sources for this article include:

NaturalNews.com

ZeroHedge.com

StrangeSounds.org

Joe Biden Is the Equivalent of 9/11 for the American Economy

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2022/05/20/joe-biden-is-the-equivalent-of-9-11-for-the-american-economy-n1599568;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Joe Biden’s tumultuous year and a half of pretending to be president has seen the fall and rise of many things in the United States: gas prices, of course, are rising through the roof, along with prices on pretty much everything else. But for the stock market, it’s a different story altogether. Yahoo Finance reported Friday that U.S. stocks have just endured their longest losing streak since 2001; in other words, Joe Biden’s presidency has had an effect on the U.S. economy that is equivalent to 9/11.

This is not in any way to diminish the untold suffering that resulted from the attacks. Nearly 3,000 people were brutally murdered. There is no equivalent for that and no mitigation of its horror. The analogy between then and now is not in that but in the fact that the economy is suffering to a degree that we have not seen since the immediate aftermath of that terrible day.

According to Yahoo Finance, the major stock indexes were “heading for steep weekly losses as concerns over the resilience of corporate profits in the face of inflation resurged this week.” Luckily, Old Joe’s Commie pals threw us a lifeline: “the S&P 500 traded lower, erasing earlier gains after China’s central bank unexpectedly cut a benchmark interest rate to offer some relief to borrowers in the country still grappling with a widespread COVID-19 outbreak.”

Nonetheless, “the index dropped more than 1.5%, bringing it on an intraday basis lower by more than 20% from its recent record close from Jan. 3. If the losses hold through market close, the S&P 500 will have entered a bear market.” Well, of course, we will. That is as certain as Joe’s next teleprompter gaffe.

Meanwhile, the news from the other indexes was no better: “the Dow shed more than 400 points or 1.4%, and the Nasdaq dropped more than 2% during intraday trading. Treasury yields sank, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note sinking to just above 2.8%, and U.S. crude oil prices edged up to more than $112 per barrel.” And this has been going on for a while: “the losses Friday for the major U.S. stock indexes extended a slide seen earlier this week. As of Thursday’s close, the S&P 500 was on track for a weekly loss of 5.4% — its biggest since January. And the index was also on track to post a seventh straight weekly loss or its longest losing streak since 2001. The Dow and Nasdaq paced toward weekly losses of 5% and 6.2%, respectively.”

The longest losing streak since 2001. What happened in 2001 that made stocks take a nosedive? According to CNN Money, that fateful year “began with a bang. The Nasdaq surged a record 14.17 percent on the second trading day of 2001 after the Federal Reserve surprised investors with a half-percentage point rate cut. That was the first of 11 attempts by central bankers to revive consumer and business spending. Stocks continued to rise in January only to tumble by April. They gained sharply through May before gradually declining through summer.”

But then came 9/11, and suddenly the economic picture was drastically different: “the Dow industrials fell more than 1,300 points in the first week after the markets reopened following the terror attacks, its worst week since the Great Depression. By Sept. 21, the major indexes had fallen to three-year lows. But less than 10 weeks later, the major indexes erased their post-Sept. 11 losses, vindicating investors who called for patriotic buying after the attack.”

Related: Key Bond Market Recession Indicator Flashing Red

Will the American economy similarly rebound now? It could, but there is no chance of such a recovery while Joe Biden and his henchmen have their knees on our collective economic windpipe. It is the Biden administration’s profligate spending, an uncontrolled increase of the money supply, and relentless commitment to green fantasies and socialist internationalism that have gotten us in this fix, and there is no end in sight.

Could the stock market recover? Sure, if Biden suddenly became an America-First president and focused on relieving the plight of the American people rather than the Ukrainian people and if he abandoned his schemes to destroy the economy chasing more green delusions and worked to restore the energy independence the nation had achieved during the Trump administration. But that’s about as likely as Old Joe reading a message off his teleprompter without saying something silly and/or incoherent.

The next milestone will be when the stock downturn becomes the worst since the Great Depression. Watch for that one soon. And then what will we see in America? Breadlines? Hoovervilles? Food riots? In Joe Biden’s America, during the presidency that Nancy Pelosi gushed was “perfect,” all this and more is in the offing. Old Joe Biden’s presidency will long be remembered for its many milestones, and wrecking the strongest economy on the planet will stand as one of the foremost.

While Americans Can’t Afford Gas, Biden Slashes Drilling

BY DANIEL GREENFIELD

SEE: https://robertspencer.org/2022/04/while-americans-cant-afford-gas-biden-slashes-drilling;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

It’s not Putin’s price hike, it’s Biden’s. And he insists on reminding us of that every few days.

The Biden administration on Monday reversed a Trump administration plan that would have allowed the government to lease more than two-thirds of the country’s largest swath of public land to oil and gas drilling.

The Bureau of Land Management’s decision will shrink the amount of land available for lease in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska…

The decision returns to an Obama administration plan that allows fossil fuel extraction in up to 52% of the reserve, compared to the Trump administration’s effort to open up 82% of the land to drilling.

Nationally gas prices continue to rise, despite increased production, hitting an average of $4.13. Of course, where I live, people would wait on line for an hour to get $4.13 gas and consider $5.13 a mouthwatering bargain.

But that’s what happens when you put enviros in charge of a city, a state, or a country.

While Biden and his lackeys advise Americans to buy $55,000 electric cars, they fly jet planes everywhere and then keep blocking efforts to make America energy independent.

U.S.-dominated global financial system facing collapse as China begins buying Russian coal and oil in yuan, not petrodollars

Image: U.S.-dominated global financial system facing collapse as China begins buying Russian coal and oil in yuan, not petrodollars

BY J.D. HEYES

SEE: https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-04-15-china-begins-buying-russian-coal-oil-in-yuan-not-petrodollars.html;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

(Natural News) We have been warning since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that one of the negative long-term effects of imposing massive economic sanctions on Moscow would be the dismantling of the U.S. petrodollar-dominated global financial system, and that is exactly what is happening.

Not only is Russia continuing to finance its war in Ukraine, but President Vladimir Putin has also managed to bypass those sanctions with China’s help, as Beijing continues to snap up Russian energy.

While Russia requires European nations reliant on its coal and oil to pay for those commodities in “hard currency” — gold — or Russian currency  — rubles — China is able to purchase both in its own currency, the yuan, as Beijing begins to build a parallel global financial system that cuts out and undermines the petrodollar.

Bloomberg News reports:

Russian coal and oil paid for in yuan is about to start flowing into China as the two countries try to maintain their energy trade in the face of growing international outrage over the invasion of Ukraine.

Several Chinese firms used local currency to buy Russian coal in March, and the first cargoes will arrive this month, Chinese consultancy Fenwei Energy Information Service Co. said. These will be the first commodity shipments paid for in yuan since the U.S. and Europe penalized Russia and cut several of its banks off from the international financial system, according to traders. 

The traders went on to say that the current purchases were the first using the Chinese yuan; the Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean grade crude shipment is expected to arrive in Chinese ports next month.

For years, as its economy rose to be No. 2 in the world, China has been frustrated at the petrodollar’s global dominance in trade as well as the political leverage that it gives the United States, and as such, Beijing has been chipping away at the dollar’s status. Those efforts are now accelerating amid U.S.-led Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine, as Moscow is also offering rupee-to-ruble payments to India and Saudi Arabia is in discussions with China to price some of its crude stocks in yuan as well.

In other words, not only is the Biden regime incompetent when it comes to domestic policy but its foreign policy is being run by left-wing ideologues and amateurs who are doing more to destroy American global leadership and dominance than President Donald Trump ever did; in fact, it became strengthened under Trump.

As reported by Zero Hedge, New York Federal Reserve repo guru and current Credit Suisse strategist Zoltan Pozsar issued a stunning note last week saying that the most likely consequences of the Ukraine war are “the birth of the Bretton Woods III – a new world (monetary) order centered around commodity-based currencies in the East that will likely weaken the Eurodollar system and also contribute to inflationary forces in the West.”

“Fast forwarding to the punchline, Poszar wrote that if the framework he has laid out previously (and again, in his latest note) is the right framework to think about how to trade interest rates in coming years, inflation will be higher; the level of rates will be higher too; demand for commodity reserves will be higher, which will naturally replace demand for FX reserves (Treasuries and other G7 claims),” Zero Hedge continued in its analysis of Poszar’s forecast.

The analysis also said that at the same time, the global demand for dollars will also be much lower as well because more trade will be conducted in other currencies. As a result, “the perennially negative cross-currency basis (the dollar premium) will naturally fade away and potentially become a positive cross-currency basis,” the analysis added.

In short, that means the petrodollar is on the way out as the world’s global reserve currency, and that will have an extremely negative impact on the U.S. economy, as interest rates rise, inflation spins out of control and debt payments on our $30-plus trillion national debt become unsustainable.

Sources include:

ZeroHedge.com

Bloomberg.com

Between hyperinflation and World War III, most of humanity doesn’t stand a chance

BY ETHAN HUFF

SEE: https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-04-07-hyperinflation-world-war-humanity-doesnt-stand-chance.html;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

(Natural News) As the world inches closer to another world war, food shortages, social unrest, and hyperinflation are following suit. And when all is said and done, much of the world’s population will likely not make it.

Ever since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, the stability of the global economic climate has gone off a cliff. It was bad before that, of course, but things seem to have gone into hyperdrive since February.

The Great Recession Blog put together a broad picture of some of the most notable areas where either background inflation (rising producer costs) or consumer inflation is rising significantly, one of the big ones being oil.

“Oil, of course, impacts the price of just about everything, and there is no cavalry here that is going to come to the rescue for anyone, in spite of Biden’s biddings,” the blog explains.

Oil giants like Exxon are boasting massive profit increases due to the shortages created by Russian sources being taken offline, while consumers at the pump are paying higher prices than ever before in our nation’s history.

“Apparently shortages are good for business … at least for some businesses – the ones with their own ample supplies, who see gushers of profits in times like these,” the blog explains.

Will there be enough food to go around at this time next year?

Rising energy costs also directly affect the food sector, as is now being seen perhaps most prominently in Germany, where food prices are increasing 20 to 50 percent.

The United States is seeing glimpses of this as our own energy supplies have been hampered by Biden regime policies that once again made the country energy-dependent rather than energy-independent, which we were under Donald Trump.

The situation is getting so bad all around the world now that the prospect of widespread famine and starvation is becoming a reality. Energy costs the most, fertilizer is in shorter supply, and crop yields are already suffering in many places due to inclement weather – what else is next?

“Of course, financial aid doesn’t fill bellies in places where food doesn’t exist due to lack of fertilizer and/or due to crops not being planted in the major food-producing nations for the world as well as within those nations,” the blog explains.

“What helps is food shipments, and food shipped from the U.S. to other nations to prevent starvation inevitably means some food shortages in the U.S. on a smaller scale and certainly higher prices as people scramble to get their hands on the limited food that is available.”

If there is not enough food to share, however, then this scenario quickly becomes much worse, leading to riots and much worse the longer it persists.

“In a time when one calamity – the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis – hit the entire world (with the economic impacts largely due largely to our national responses to COVID) another calamity – war – hits the entire world (partially due to our global responses to it),” the blog further reveals.

“Each calamity, along with the baked-in inflation already fueled by years of central bank profligacy, weakens our ability to absorb the next one.”

It is almost expected that something new, big, and catastrophic is just waiting to be unleashed next, even as we hobble through the current nightmare. It is almost as if a perfect storm is ready to be unleashed when the time is right, tipping the entire global economy past the point of no return (if it is not already there now).

“I find myself wondering what global calamity after this will fly in like a black swan to take everything down because we have exhausted our resilience all over the world and seem hell-bent on continuing to do so with wars and sanctions no one can afford.”

The latest news coverage about the global economic implosion can be found at Collapse.news.

Sources include:

TheGreatRecession.info

NaturalNews.com

U.S., Western sanctions on Russia BACKFIRE: Ruble now backed by gold and gaining strength while the dollar’s purchasing power evaporates~The World Government Forum Says They Will Abandon The Dollar!

Image: U.S., Western sanctions on Russia BACKFIRE: Ruble now backed by gold and gaining strength while the dollar’s purchasing power evaporates

BY J.D. HEYES

SEE: https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-04-05-us-western-sanctions-russia-backfire-ruble-trading-higher-against-dollar.html;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

(Natural News) In the weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Western world, led by the United States, imposed what was said to be a crippling regime of economic sanctions on Moscow.

Joe Biden’s handlers took to his Twitter account to announce: “As a result of our unprecedented sanctions, the ruble was almost immediately reduced to rubble. The Russian economy is on track to be cut in half. It was ranked the 11th biggest economy in the world before this invasion — and soon, it will not even rank among the top 20.”

Though he is frequently touted as an ‘experienced foreign policy expert’ by the biased legacy media, in fact, most fair-minded observes say that Biden hasn’t been right about much of anything regarding foreign policy throughout his lifelong career in politics. Knowing the phraseology helps because it has allowed him to BS his way through, but the reality is, he’s seldom, if ever, been right about anything.

So it’s no surprise that his remark regarding the fate of Vladimir Putin and the Russian ruble is wrong as well.

In fact, just a few weeks after Biden’s account tweeted that nonsense, the ruble has gone up in value — and by a lot.

Following the sanctions, Putin took an aggressive approach to salvage his country’s currency and economy. First and foremost, he began demanding ‘hard currency’ — gold — as payment for Russian energy exports. Countries could also pay in rubles or Bitcoin, though the latter has not been emphasized as much.

Also, Putin noted in a speech to the world that all debts owed to his country would be paid in rubles too — or existing contracts would be canceled.

He talked of “a clear and transparent scheme” launched by the U.S.-led West to crush the Russian economy. As such, he demanded that countries “open ruble accounts in Russian banks” so they could take care of debts.

“If such payments are not made, we will consider this a default,” he said.

“Nobody sells us anything for free, and we are not going to do charity work. That is, existing contracts will be stopped,” he announced.

Meanwhile, China and India, as well as some other countries, are not playing along with the U.S.-led effort, with one official Chinese media account on Twitter making a mocking reference to a request from the Biden regime to assist in isolating Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

“Can you help me fight your friend so that I can concentrate on fighting you later?” said the account.

“There is no limit to China-Russia cooperation in the pursuit of peace, no limit to our efforts to safeguard security, and no limit to our opposition to hegemony. China-Russia relations feature non-alliance, non-confrontation, and non-targeting of any third party,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told Reuters last week.

India is also continuing to buy Russian oil, at massive discounts.

Over the past 25 years, the DC regime has sanctioned so much of the planet that more nations than ever are now ignoring Washington.

The birth of the multipolar world has occurred, and Americans will suffer thanks to the fools who have squandered all of our country’s post-World War II goodwill long ago.

Sources include:

InformationLiberation.com

NaturalNews.com

___________________________________________________________________

The World Government Forum Says They Will Abandon The Dollar!

They were all smiles at the World Government Forum as they discussed destroying the Dollar and the financial system once and for all! This is not a conspiracy theory, they admit it and I have the video for you.

Gas rationing, food vouchers and hunger are now being normalized for the war phase of the plandemic

Image: Gas rationing, food vouchers and hunger are now being normalized for the war phase of the plandemic

BY ETHAN HUFF

SEE: https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-03-27-gas-rationing-food-vouchers-hunger-war-plandemic.html;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

(Natural News) As predicted, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is advancing the next phase of the plandemic, which involves widespread shortages of fuel and food that lead to mass starvation.

Already in Ukraine, residents are running out of food and medicine. And the economic fallout from this is spilling over into the rest of the world, too.

The chance of a U.S. recession in 2023, according to banking giant Goldman Sachs, has risen to 35 percent. Conversely, global growth indicators are being slashed as everything continues to move downwards amid the conflict.

War in Europe is no longer a theoretical situation but rather a certainty, economists say. And the situation is going to get really ugly and cause a lot of pain for millions of people – though probably not the people at the top, who are getting richer by the day.

The goal is to usher in a global financial reset, which is exactly what we are now seeing take place as Russia takes the blame for everything bad that is currently happening.

Inflation and the Wall Street / central banking corruption that created it has been happening for years now, long before Putin entered Ukraine. But they needed a scapegoat, so here we are.

They’re starving out the world to usher in their financial reset and new world order

In France, the Emmanuel Macron regime is now talking about setting up a food voucher system to help residents afford to eat. That system will likely be tied into Macron’s Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) “vaccine passport” system.

Diesel may also soon need to be rationed as countries cut off their imports of Russian supplies due to sanctions and anti-Russia sentiment. Since diesel powers the world, this will have a devastating effect on an already crippled supply chain.

Meanwhile, millions of refugees are pouring out of Ukraine, and the Biden regime is eager to take them all in even as Americans suffer and struggle to put food on the table amid soaring inflation and supply shortages.

Much of Ukraine is having to be supplemented with humanitarian aid just to keep enough food flowing into people’s homes. In some areas of the country, less than four days’ worth of food remains.

“The domino effect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent food prices higher,” reported CNN.

“As gas prices surge, fertilizer supply is shrinking. That has sent wheat, corn, vegetable oils, and soybean prices through the roof – particularly troubling for countries already struggling with food insecurity.”

Macron recently proclaimed that there is now a “worldwide food crisis” that affects not just French people but everyone.

“I want to put in place a food voucher [system] to help the most modest households and the middle class facing these additional costs,” Macron told France Bleu radio the other day.

Since wheat supplies from Russia and Ukraine are now cut off from the rest of the world – these two countries are considered a “breadbasket” for certain food commodities – global wheat prices have soared.

“Together, the (two) countries export 30% of the world’s wheat,” reports indicate. “Fertilizer supply is low, too, as energy prices surge.”

“The shockwaves have even reached the world’s biggest economy. US food prices rose 1% in February, the largest monthly increase since April 2020. Over the past 12 months, overall US food prices increased 7.9%, the biggest jump since July 1981.”

As for diesel, if Europe adopts a full embargo, the entire world could be plunged into an extreme oil supply shortage – that is, unless OPEC nations begin really ramping up production, and quickly. So far, OPEC has been hesitant to do anything that might help the situation.

More related news about the takedown of the current world order can be found at Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

CNN.com

NaturalNews.com

Tipping Point: Riley Moore, West Virginia-The Left’s War on Domestic Energy~Iran-backed Shia group Biden removed from terror list hits oil facilities in Sunni Saudi Arabia

WV Treasurer: Biden Administration's push against fossil fuel banking "un-American"

WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE PASSES MEASURE TO CUT OFF BANKS THAT REFUSE TO SERVICE COAL & OIL INDUSTRIES (FOSSIL FUELS / GREEN NEW DEAL)

Iran-backed Shia group Biden removed from terror list hits oil facilities in Sunni Saudi Arabia

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://robertspencer.org/2022/03/iran-backed-shia-group-biden-removed-from-terror-list-hits-oil-facilities-in-sunni-saudi-arabia;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

This matters to Americans because Biden ended America’s energy independence and crippled domestic oil production. If he were a traitor trying to destroy the United States, what would he be doing differently from what he is doing?

“Saudi Aramco petroleum storage site hit by Houthi attack, fire erupts,” by Aziz El Yaakoubi and Maha El Dahan, Reuters, March 26, 2022:

RIYADH, March 26 (Reuters) – Yemen’s Houthis said they launched attacks on Saudi energy facilities on Friday and the Saudi-led coalition said oil giant Aramco’s petroleum products distribution station in Jeddah was hit, causing a fire in two storage tanks but no casualties….

The Iran-aligned Houthis have escalated attacks on the kingdom’s oil facilities in recent weeks and ahead of a temporary truce for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The coalition has repeatedly said it is exercising self-restraint in the face of the attacks, but launched a military operation in Yemen early on Saturday saying it aimed to protect global energy sources and ensure supply chains….

The ministry blamed Iran for continuing to arm the Houthis with ballistic missiles and advanced drones, stressing that the attacks “would lead to impacting the Kingdom’s production capacity and its ability to fulfil its obligations to global markets”. Teheran denies arming the Houthis….

Democrats Mull $100 Monthly ‘Biden Bucks’ Gas Stimulus Checks to Buy Your Vote

BY RICK MORAN

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2022/03/23/democrats-mull-100-monthly-biden-bucks-gas-stimulus-checks-to-buy-your-vote-n1583510;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

The Democrats have hit upon a simple way to end inflation. Why not give every American a $100 check every month to offset the inflation that their policies caused in the first place?

Better yet, Congress could give kids another $100 a month so that a family of three or four would be eligible for up to $300 a month in “Biden Bucks.”

Of course, what all that deficit spending will do to the inflation rate can only be guessed at. But when you have the power to print cash, it doesn’t matter, does it? If inflation gets too bad, you can always print up more “Biden Bucks.”

Eventually, they’d have to denude the Enchanted Forest of trees to print all that cash, but there are plenty more where those came from.

CBSNews:

American consumers could see increased costs of $2,000 this year due to the recent surge in gas prices — and that’s on top of an extra $1,000 in grocery store costs due to the steepest rise in inflation since 1982. Already, consumers are reporting they are cutting back on spending or driving less, with most blaming sticker shock at the pump.

The gas stimulus would “provide middle-class Americans with monthly payments to ease the financial burden of this global crisis,” Thompson said in a statement about the proposal, referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has pushed gas prices higher.

Currently, millions of Americans would qualify for the payments based on current gas prices, which averaged $4.24 a gallon on March 22, according to AAA.

Called the Gas Rebate Act, the bill is being proposed by Democratic Reps. Mike Thompson of California, John Larson of Connecticut, and Lauren Underwood of Illinois. No word on how the Biden Bucks would be paid for, but if history is any guide — and when it comes to federal spending, it usually is — Congress will sorta, kinda, mostly forget that little detail when it comes to passing the bill.

A second proposal from Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, would provide a quarterly rebate to consumers based on a tax levied on oil and gas companies.

The Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax would charge a per barrel tax equal to 50% of the difference between the current price of a barrel of oil and its pre-pandemic average price between 2015 to 2019, according to a statement from the lawmakers.

The two lawmakers calculated that if the per barrel price sits at $120, the tax would raise about $45 billion a year — providing single filers with $240 annually and joint filers with $360 each year.

In 1980, Congress tried another “Windfall Profits Tax.” It defined “windfall profit” as the “excess of the removal price of a barrel of crude oil (amount for which barrel is sold) over the sum of the base price adjusted for inflation and the amount of the severance tax adjustment. Specifies that the windfall profit on any barrel of crude oil may not exceed 90 percent of the net income attributable to such barrel.”

The complexity of the oil industry — a complexity that no Democratic politician understands — can’t be reduced to gibbering bureaucratic blather in order to find a unique way of taxing profits.

If anyone thinks a “Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax” would bring in $45 billion, I have a fine, beautiful, bridge over the Chicago River I’d like to sell you.

It won’t be necessary, after all. Biden Bucks will be spent on something else in the government that will be equally wasteful, equally stupid, and equally expensive.

PETRODOLLAR PUKES: Cracks emerge in U.S. dollar dominance as Saudis consider accepting Chinese currency for oil sales to Beijing

Image: PETRODOLLAR PUKES: Cracks emerge in U.S. dollar dominance as Saudis consider accepting Chinese currency for oil sales to Beijing

BY J.D. HEYES

SEE: https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-03-17-cracks-emerge-us-dollar-dominance-saudis-consider-accepting-chinese-currency-for-oil.html;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

(Natural News) Since the end of World War II, the British pound was replaced as the world’s reserve currency with the U.S. dollar, which put Americans at a distinct advantage by making our money the strongest and safest in the world.

But in recent years, there have been emerging threats to King Dollar’s dominance, thanks in large part to insane ‘America last’ domestic and foreign policies adopted and perpetuated by left-wing Democratic regimes.

There was a temporary lull in the push to demolish American economic primacy during the four years of Donald Trump’s administration, but his MAGA platform so upset the global power structure all stops were removed to prevent him from winning reelection.

Now, after installing the mindless Joe Biden, the deep state powers that be who are propping him up have reimplemented their policies aimed at destroying America because our country is the only one standing between liberty and economic enslavement by a select global elite.

The latest sign that their plan is working: Saudi Arabia, long an ally of the U.S. and perpetrator of the American “petrodollar,” has announced it will consider accepting the Chinese yuan as payment for oil sold to Beijing.

Zero Hedge explains:

One of the core staples of the past 40 years, and an anchor propping up the dollar’s reserve status, was a global financial system based on the petrodollar – this was a world in which oil producers would sell their product to the US (and the rest of the world) for dollars, which they would then recycle the proceeds in dollar-denominated assets and while investing in dollar-denominated markets, explicitly prop up the USD as the world reserve currency, and in the process backstop the standing of the US as the world’s undisputed financial superpower.

Those days are coming to an end.

And it appears as though the catalyst for the USD’s reserve currency demise is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “Saudi Arabia is in active talks with Beijing to price its some of its oil sales to China in yuan, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would dent the U.S. dollar’s dominance of the global petroleum market and mark another shift by the world’s top crude exporter toward Asia.”

Talks with China regarding pricing Saudi oil in yuan contracts have taken place in an on-again, off-again fashion for about six years, but they dramatically increased this year as the Kingdom grew increasingly frustrated with U.S. security commitments to help defend the Saudis going back decades, according to the sources.

These China-Saudi talks, again, are being influenced directly by the policies of the current Biden regime, the WSJ noted.

“The Saudis are angry over the U.S.’s lack of support for their intervention in the Yemen civil war, and over the Biden administration’s attempt to strike a deal with Iran over its nuclear program,” the paper said, adding: “Saudi officials have said they were shocked by the precipitous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last year.”

“China buys more than 25% of the oil that Saudi Arabia exports. If priced in yuan, those sales would boost the standing of China’s currency,” the report continued.

None of this is by accident. The people who operate the deep state are not dumb; they know what they’re doing. They know certain policies embolden and empower our country — like those Trump adopted — and they know which policies will push our allies into other economic spheres of influence and thus weaken our country (which they believe we deserve, for some insane reason).

So this move to alienate the Saudis and hasten the rise of China’s currency at risk to the USD is purposeful. And it comes as other elements of the plan are being put in place thanks to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, per Zero Hedge:

Russia starving the western world of much-needed resources, sending commodity prices ever higher, while its silent partner China quietly picks up the pieces and takes advantage of Russia’s isolation to approach all those other “non-western” former petrodollar clients to offer them a new product, the yuan, which Beijing is now actively and aggressively pushing to dethrone the dollar as a global reserve currency.

This crash is inevitable, by the way; electing Trump to another four-year term won’t do anything but delay it — that is if our country’s economy has not collapsed already by 2024.

Sources include:

ZeroHedge.com

WSJ.com

Michigan’s Whitmer Looks to Shut Down Major Fuel Pipeline as Region Suffers From High Gas Prices

Michigan’s Whitmer Looks to Shut Down Major Fuel Pipeline as Region Suffers From High Gas Prices.

BY JAMES MURPHY

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/michigans-whitmer-looks-to-shut-down-major-fuel-pipeline-as-region-suffers-from-high-gas-prices/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

At a time when American consumers are paying the highest average prices ever for gasoline, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer persists in efforts to shut down one of the most important pipelines moving fossil fuels between Canada and the United States. Whitmer is seeking to shut down the Enbridge Line 5, which transports synthetic crude, natural gas liquids, sweet crude, and light sour crude between Wisconsin and the states of Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

Whitmer has been at war with the pipeline for a couple of years now. In November of 2020, the governor revoked an easement for the pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac that has stood since 1953. According to the governor, Enbridge has repeatedly ignored structural problems on the pipeline, making it too hazardous to continue to move fossil fuels through her state.

“Here in Michigan, the Great Lakes define our borders, but they also define who we are as people. Enbridge has routinely refused to take action to protect our Great Lakes and the millions of Americans who depend on them for clean drinking water and good jobs. They have repeatedly violated the terms of the 1953 easement by ignoring structural problems that put our Great Lakes and our families at risk,” Whitmer said in 2020.

“Most importantly, Enbridge has imposed on the people of Michigan an unacceptable risk of a catastrophic oil spill in the Great Lakes that could devastate our economy and way of life. That’s why we’re taking action now, and why I will continue to hold accountable anyone who threatens our Great Lakes and freshwater.”

Enbridge denies that the pipeline is in poor shape and has continued to use it despite Whitmer’s revocation of the easement. In addition, Line 5 moves more than half a million barrels of oil and natural gas liquids each day throughout Canada and the Great Lakes. A shutdown could be disastrous to gasoline prices, which are already through the roof.

A new report from the Consumer Energy Alliance estimates that consumers would have to pay at least $23.7 billion more in the next five years in addition to already-higher prices if Line 5 is immediately shut down.

Fuel prices in the region could rise an additional 9-12 percent should the pipeline be shut down immediately with no other viable alternative to move fuel between the western Canadian oil fields and refineries in Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

“Based on previous studies of disaster-related fuel production disruptions, we conservatively estimate that the closure of Line 5 will spark a 9.47% to 11.66% regional (U.S.) increase in fuel prices,” the study finds.

An immediate shutdown would make a significant dent in the amount of fuel readily available in the region: “Refineries in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Ontario, and Quebec would lose about 45% of their crude oil input in the event of a Line 5 closure.”

With a loss of 45 percent of crude oil input with literally no plan to replace it, trucks and rail would not immediately be able to handle the amount of shipping needed and fears of an accident would increase if such transport systems were utilized.

Whitmer’s concern regarding a possible disaster isn’t completely unfounded. In 2010, a leak in Enbridge Line 6B caused an environmental disaster along the Kalamazoo River near the City of Marshall in southern Michigan. That disaster caused some 840,000 gallons of crude oil to spill and foul the Kalamazoo River for nearly 40 miles. That disaster caused both Michigan and Enbridge to reassess the safety of their lines. Cleanup took four years and more than $1 billion. It’s unlikely Enbridge wants to pay another such bill, so it behooves the company to be as careful as possible.

But at a time when consumers are being strangled by the highest gasoline prices ever, Whitmer should not be attempting to completely shut down a reliable source of fuel to her region. Whitmer should back away from this shutdown idea and instead focus on working with Enbridge regarding the safety of Line 5.

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