It will be 'really tough' for trucking companies to stay in business if things don't pick up by Memorial Day

 

May 5,2023

• Executives at trucking giant JB Hunt recently sounded the alarm about a freight recession.
• OOIDA, an American trucking association, is echoing the sentiment.
• It will be "tough" for truckers to stay afloat if the recession does not let up soon, an OOIDA analyst said.

An American trucking association is the latest to sound the alarm over a "freight recession" gripping the US, saying it will be tough for trucking companies to stay afloat if the slump in freight rates does not subside soon. 

If things don't pick up by Memorial Day, analysts expect the freight market to stay around current levels for the rest of the year, Andrew King, a research analyst at the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, or OOIDA, told Insider.

"That will be really tough for a lot of carriers to stay in business," he added.

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Securing America – Does a weak US military impact the strength of the dollar?

 

May 4, 2023

With Bradley Thayer, Ron Armstrong and Kevin Freeman

BRADLEY THAYER, Director of China Policy, Center for Security Policy, Author, How China Sees the World 

• China’s global expansion in the context of the South Pacific
• The importance of the Philippines in the battle between China and the U.S.
• Does the United States have the ability to deter a Chinese attack against Taiwan?
• What is the status of the U.S. nuclear arsenal?

RON ARMSTRONG, Stand Up Michigan
LORI BROCK, Majestic Friesians Horse Farm

• How Brock’s farm is being impacted by plans for Chinese battery plants in Michigan
• Why did these companies decide on Michigan as the location for their plants?
• Michigan’s role in negotiating with the Chinese Communist Party
• What will the environmental impact be of these plants?

KEVIN FREEMAN, Host, Economic War Room, Senior Fellow, Center for Security Policy, Author, “Game Plan: How to Protect Yourself from the Coming Cyber-Economic Attack” and “Secret Weapon: How Economic Terrorism Brought Down the U.S. Stock Market and Why It Can Happen Again,” Founder, Globaleconomiwarfare.com, @SecretWeaponUSA:

• A history of “reserve currencies”
• How American military strength ties directly into the power of the U.S. dollar
• A potential alternative to the American dollar being proposed in Texas

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US banks are failing, and the authorities seem unlikely to intervene

 

May 4, 2023

Shares in two more US regional banks have been suspended. Regulators moved in to halt trading in Los Angeles-based PacWest and Arizona’s Western Alliance on Thursday after they became the latest victims of an escalating crisis that began with Silicon Valley Bank in March.

The message from central banks and bank supervisors is that this is not a rerun of the global financial crisis of 2008. That may be true. With the exception of Switzerland’s Credit Suisse, European banks have escaped the turmoil. It is specific US banks that are the problem.

There are a number of reasons for that: the business models of the banks concerned; failures of regulation; the large number of small and mid-sized banks in the US; and the rapid increase in interest rates from the country’s central bank, the Federal Reserve.

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Recent Reports By Financial Regulators Show The Downside Of Letting Regulators Review Their Own Work

 

May 4, 2023

The Federal Reserve (Fed) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) released reports on their actions regarding the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank (Signature) and what could be changed to prevent a similar bank collapse in the future. Both reports rightfully conclude that bank management at SVB and Signature played a role as to why both banks failed but did not dwell too long on this point. Bank leaders at both institutions were clearly at fault for why both banks failed and became 2 of the largest bank failures in U.S. history. 

The Fed’s report also states that regulators had begun to realize that SVB had issues with their management and risk years ago but had been slow to react to the problems occurring at SVB as the bank grew in size. The FDIC also stated similar themes about being slow to react to rising issues with Signature. In addition to the reports by the Fed and FDIC, a report released by the Government Accountability Office, a congressional watchdog, said regulators identified problems at both banks in recent years but didn’t escalate supervisory actions in time to prevent their failures. Regulators had the tools but didn’t act promptly or with enough speed to potentially prevent the collapse of these institutions. 

Regulators in both reports called for revamping rules on how banks are monitored and regulated but clearly had the tools at their disposal to address the issues at both banks. The Fed goes after a 2018 bill that rolled back certain regulations in the 2010 Dodd-Frank bank bill. The 2018 bill allowed for banks under $250 billion in assets to be subjected to less stringent oversight by financial regulators. Randal Quarles, former Vice Chair for Supervision at the Fed disputed the Fed’s finding by saying the report “provides no evidence at all for what it describes as one of its main conclusions—that a ‘shift in the stance of supervisory policy’ impeded effective supervision of the bank.” 

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How Bidenomics Has Finally Defeated Reaganomics

 

May 4, 2023

The last thing many of us expected when Joe Biden became president was that he would be a revolutionary. But just over two years into Biden’s presidency, there is no doubt that he has done more to dramatically transform U.S. policy and thinking in more areas than any of his predecessors since Franklin Roosevelt.

America had failed to adequately invest in its infrastructure for over six decades when Biden made it a priority once again. Biden’s prioritized investment in combating climate change to a degree that no past administration ever did. On foreign policy, he executed the pivot away from a Middle East and terrorism focus to a long-term commitment to placing the Indo-Pacific region and our rivalry with China atop our list of priorities.

Remarkably, he did this while simultaneously handling the threats associated with Europe’s largest land war since World War II and reinvigorating America’s most important alliance, NATO, in a way few thought possible just years ago. He stopped the impetus toward isolation and inaction internationally of the presidencies that immediately preceded his.

What is more, none of the transformations cited above are actually the biggest the Biden administration has overseen.

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Ford is losing roughly $60,000 for every electric vehicle sold

 May 4, 2023

Ford lost tens of thousands of dollars per electric vehicle sold in the first quarter of 2023, as the division remained on track for roughly $3 billion in yearly losses, according to the company’s Tuesday evening earnings report.

Ford’s electric vehicle division — which was separated from its traditional gas and professional-grade vehicle sales in a late March reorganization — lost $722 million in the first three months of 2023, while selling just 12,000 units, according to the company’s first quarter earnings report. This amounts to a roughly $60,167 loss for each vehicle sold, according to calculations made by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Because the auto industry is very capital intensive and has high fixed costs that need to be spread out over thousands of units, it is not uncommon to have steep losses initially which are followed by profits,” Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Imagine, for instance, needing to retool a factory and rebuild an assembly line to build different vehicles. That is much more expensive than the revenue from the first few vehicles that are produced.”

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Work Ethic

 May 4, 2023

I didn’t write this, but I certainly agree. 

I need to rant for just a moment. I'm getting old and I’ve worked hard all my life. I have made my reputation, the good and the bad, I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I have worked hard to get where I am in life. I have juggled my job, my family, and made many sacrifices up front to secure a life for my family. It wasn’t always easy and still isn't, but I did it all while maintaining my integrity and my principles. I made mistakes and tried to learn from them. I have friends of every walk of life and if you’re in my circle, it should be understood that I don’t have to remind you of what I’d be willing to do for you. 

However....

I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who don't have my work ethic. People who have sacrificed nothing and feel entitled to receive everything.

I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it themselves.

I'm really tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which, no one is allowed to debate.

I'm really tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of all parties talk like their opinions matter to the common man. I’m tired of any of them even pretending they can relate to the life and bank account that I have.

I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

I’m upset that I’m labeled as a racist because I am proud of my heritage. I never stole any ones land, the government did that..

I’m tired of being told I need to accept the latest fad or politically correct stupidity or befriending a group that’s intent on killing me because I won’t convert to their point of view.

I'm really tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and actions. Especially the ones that want me to fund it. I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination, or big-whatever for their problems.

Yes, I'm really tired. But, I'm also glad to be in the twilight of my life. Because mostly, I'm not going to have to see the retched, depressing world these young useless idiots are creating. And lastly, because even though I shouted from the rooftops, no one listened or seemed to give a rat's behind. You reap what you sow, and so do your children.

No one is entitled to anything. You have a choice to work, a choice to stay off drugs, a choice to make something of yourself. I have nothing to do with your choice. That's all on you. You are entitled to what you earn.

There is no way these thoughts will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends it on! Surely, the politically correct police censors will try to quiet us.

How the U.S. eroded the dollar

 May 4, 2023

Americans hate inflation, in large part because it erodes the bedrock of capitalism — money. Concentrating on inflation, however, risks missing the profound other ways in which money has lost its power over the past three years.

Why it matters: U.S. government actions over the course of the pandemic have radically reshaped the dollar, which is now much more politicized and mutable than it was before 2020.

The big picture: Felix Salmon's new book, "The Phoenix Economy," out on Tuesday, covers the ways in which the world has changed since early 2020. Among them: a quiet revolution in how people think about what money even is.

Flashback: In mid-April 2020, millions of Americans woke up to find out that $1,400 had magically appeared in their bank accounts, placed there by the Trump administration as part of the first COVID stimulus plan.

• The U.S. dollar was effectively obeying orders being handed down by the government, the only entity capable of pulling such a move.

Where it stands: The Biden administration has been unusually aggressive in using the dollar as an instrument of foreign policy.

• It effectively confiscated $7 billion belonging to the central bank of Afghanistan, which it was able to do because those funds were on deposit at the New York Fed.
• It then did the same thing with Russia's foreign reserves and followed that up by cutting Russia off from the dollar-based payments system.

Between the lines: The pandemic changed the world's (or at least America's) conception of money itself. In what Felix calls the New Not Normal, money has become contingent, more of a social construct than objective reality.

• In a society that for decades was centered on the almighty dollar, that was disconcerting, to say the least.

• "Fiat currency" has become a pejorative term used by crypto advocates to undermine trust in the dollar. The Federal Reserve is constantly attacked by Republicans from former President Donald Trump to Sen. Rand Paul.

Zoom out: The dollar still retains its hegemony as the world's reserve currency, along with its utility as a measure of relative wealth. But trust in the currency is eroding, in a world where the Fed's main policy tool is always its own credibility.

The bottom line: The good news is that we've found an important new tool of foreign policy, and even of domestic fiscal policy.

• The bad news is that it makes capitalism that much more difficult.

Former Dallas Fed head warns the US regional banking crisis is 'more serious than we currently understand'

 

May 3, 2023

There have been three major bank failures so far this year, and some experts claim the carnage may not yet be at an end.

Former Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan told Bloomberg Television this week that he thinks "the banking situation may well be more serious than we currently understand."

Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in March, marking the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history. Signature Bank, which had $110 billion in assets at the end of 2022, making it the 29th largest U.S. bank at the time, failed shortly thereafter.

Americans have pulled nearly $100 billion out of banks since, according to Fox Business.

Biden Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen claimed in mid-March that the "banking system is sound." However, just weeks later, First Republic Bank, which had assets over $200 billion and catered to wealthy elites, similarly failed.

First Republic's demise represented the second-largest banking failure in American history, trailing the 2008 collapse of Washington Mutual.

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‘Go Woke, Go Broke’: Bud Light Sales PLUMMET Following Boycott – ‘This Kind Of Collapse Has Never Occurred’

 

May 2, 2023

On Monday, it was revealed that Bud Light has seen its sales numbers plummet in recent weeks after a major boycott was launched in reaction to Anheuser-Busch’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

According to Business Beer Daily, Bud Light’s sales have dropped a shocking 26 percent on a year-over-year basis on sales that occur outside of the restaurant and bar sector for the week of April 22.

The news comes as another devastating week for the company after the week of April 15th saw a 21 percent decrease in sales bringing their total sale figures for the year down eight percent, as reported by Outkick.

In response to the news, conservatives celebrated by claiming the sales decreases are a sign that an effective boycott can change company policy.

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Workin’ man blues

 

May 2, 2023

How the Democrats lost the white working class

He wasn’t a Southerner. But my paternal grandfather was a yellow dog Democrat. Born and raised on a farm in Hardin County — a small, tidy corner of northwest Ohio — Grandpa Nelson spent his life in overalls, out in the fields. He served in the army during World War II (nothing too exciting — he was a cook), came home, got married, had four kids and went to the Methodist church in town every Sunday. And, as long as he was physically able to vote, he threw his lot in with the Democratic candidates. 

In that respect, my grandfather was an oddity. Ohio has been called the ultimate swing state; it also has a gift for being a national bellwether — other than Joe Biden, no presidential candidate has taken the country without taking Ohio since 1960. As has gone Ohio in 11 out of the past 12 elections, so has gone the country. The state went blue when Clinton won in 1992 and 1996, but then went red for Bush in the two elections that followed. And then it went blue again for both of Obama’s terms. 

But Ohio broke ranks in 2020 — when the nation handed Biden the win, the state went the other way. Hardin County exemplified the change. It went red in 2016 and then even redder in 2020; Donald Trump got 75 percent of the vote there in the last presidential election, trouncing Biden by a 52-point margin. 

There’s an easy explanation — Hardin is about as working class as you get. While 90 percent of the county has graduated from high school, only 16 percent have a bachelor’s degree. Manufacturing is the area’s single largest employer. 

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Coca-Cola shareholders vote down proposal that targets pro-life states

 

May 2, 2023

Companies have increasingly come under public scrutiny for alleged political biases.

Coca-Cola shareholders recently voted against a proposal to conduct a survey into how state laws restricting abortion impact the company's business performance. 

"Shareholders request that Coca-Cola's Board of Directors issue a public report prior to December 31, 2023, omitting confidential information and at a reasonable expense, detailing any known and potential risks or costs to the company caused by enacted or proposed state policies severely restricting reproductive rights, and detailing any strategies beyond litigation and legal compliance that the company may deploy to minimize or mitigate these risks," the proposal stated. 

The proposal was introduced by As You Sow, a nonprofit that promotes ESG policies in corporations. Eighty-seven percent of controlling shares voted against the measure. 

Voting power is allotted per the number of shares an individual or entity owns. Rather than each individual having one vote, as in American elections, an entity that owns a higher percentage of shares will yield great voting power than an entity with less.

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Republicans Proved They Aren’t Holding Anyone ‘Hostage’ On Raising The Debt Limit

 

May 2, 2023

After last Wednesday’s vote, Democrats can’t claim conservatives amount to legislative nihilists who can’t get to ‘yes’ on an issue.

Conventional wisdom holds that last week’s vote by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to approve a debt limit and spending reduction bill is meaningless. Democrats called the legislation dead on arrival in the Senate, making whatever the House decides to do on its own irrelevant.

As with many things in Washington, the corporate media’s conventional wisdom is wrong.

Approving a debt limit bill did more than dispel the narrative that the Republican House, and Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., will remain perpetually in disarray. By eliminating one of the major elements of Democrats’ political argument, it raised questions about their own strategic endgame.

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Biden seeks debt meeting with Hill leaders as Treasury warns of June 1 breach

 

May 2, 2023

Did Biden just blink?

President Joe Biden invited Congress’ top four leaders in both parties to a May 9 meeting after the Treasury Department delivered a stark Monday warning: The nation could hit its existing debt ceiling as soon as June 1.

Biden called Hill leaders following Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s warning that the U.S. could default on its $31.4 trillion in debt in as little as 30 days. Yellen’s stunning forecast piles new pressure on Hill leaders and the White House to strike a bipartisan fiscal deal as cross-party talks remain deadlocked.

While the secretary’s letter was sent after markets closed on Wall Street, the prediction landed hard on the Hill, where lawmakers hoped they’d have months to maneuver past the current impasse between Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Now, they could have only a few weeks before a potential economic catastrophe.

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US Factory Activity Contracts for a Sixth Month, ISM Data Show

 

 

May 1, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- US factory activity contracted for a sixth-straight month in April, the longest such stretch since 2009 and a sign of lingering malaise in manufacturing.

The Institute for Supply Management’s gauge of factory activity rose to 47.1 from an almost three-year low of 46.3 a month earlier, according to data released Monday. A reading below 50 indicates shrinking activity.

A measure of prices paid for materials rebounded to the highest level since July. The increase coincided with a pickup in crude oil prices early in the month, though they have recently cooled on concerns about demand.

The step-up in input prices comes on the heels of data last week that showed the Federal Reserve’s key inflation gauges rose at a brisk pace in March. Central bankers are expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points this week.

The purchasing managers group’s measures of orders and production improved slightly but remained in contraction territory. The good news is that the figures suggest the manufacturing sector is shrinking at a slower rate.

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