Friday, 12 November 2021 — Baltimore, Maryland

By Bill Bonner Editor, The Rum Rebellion

[5 min read]

• No escape
• Clean getaway
• From bad to worse

Dear Reader,

‘Policy failures will be responsible for tens of thousands of families getting stranded at airports, paying exorbitant gas prices, and encountering grocery store shortages. Americans face the most expensive Thanksgiving on record.’

The Hill

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report came out just after we filed yesterday’s Diary.

The Washington Post broke the news:

‘Prices rose 6.2 percent in October compared with a year ago, the largest annual increase in about 30 years, as rising inflation complicates the political agenda for the White House and policymakers’ road map for the economy heading into the end of the year.

‘Overall prices rose 0.9 percent from September to October, tying June for the biggest one-month increase since the Great Recession. Only a few categories saw prices fall last month, including airfare and alcohol.’

But don’t worry, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell — who insisted that inflation was only ‘transitory’ — now promises to make it go away:

‘…we understand completely that it’s particularly people who are living paycheck to paycheck or seeing higher grocery costs, higher gasoline costs, when the winter comes, higher heating costs for their homes. We understand completely what they’re going through. And we will use our tools over time to make sure that that doesn’t become a permanent feature of life.’

But a 6% inflation rate wreaks havoc.

The current yield on the world’s most important asset — the 10-year US Treasury bond — is only 1.46%.

The 10-year Treasury is the backbone of pension funds, corporate savings, Social Security, insurance programs, and other institutional holdings.

But at this rate, they’re losing 4.54% of their money each year. Who wants to take that deal?

That’s why US deficits — like those in Argentina — are now being funded almost entirely by ‘printing press’ money.

No escape

We keep busy on weekends with DIY projects. Every time we go to the lumberyard, we’re staggered by the price increases. Overall, construction materials are up 31% year-on-year. Gasoline is running at 62% more than a year ago.

Meanwhile, wages are going up at a 5% rate. But subtract the losses from inflation, and the average working man is actually getting poorer. The Wall Street Journal reports that ‘real wages are down 2.2% since January’.

That’s the way the inflation tax works…it falls most heavily on the poor and middle classes, who have no way to escape it.

Clean getaway

The feds added about US$3 trillion in new cash — based on the Fed’s balance sheet — between 2007 and 2019…and then another US$5 trillion since then.

Those chickens are now descending on the US economy like a flock of vultures.

And so, the inflators are doing their best to lay the blame anywhere and everywhere…except where it belongs.

Joe Biden has already told the Federal Trade Commission to find some patsies. It is supposed to ‘strike back at any market manipulation or price gouging [in the energy sector]’, he says.

And yesterday, he came to Baltimore again. He went down to the harbour and pretended to ‘do something’ that will solve the ‘supply chain disruption’ problem, whatever that is…

The Washington Post, a ‘paper of record’ for US politics and an all-purpose shill for the ruling elite, eagerly helped mislead the public. Here’s the subhead from yesterday’s article quoted above, pointing the finger in the wrong direction, so the real culprits can make a clean getaway:

‘It’s unclear when supply chains will clear, especially given how vulnerable the economy remains to the pandemic.’

Damned supply chains!

From bad to worse

According to the servile press, Biden’s US$1 trillion in new ‘infrastructure’ spending — almost every penny of which will be financed with more printing press money — will help fix the ‘supply chain problem’.

We can’t wait to see the follow-up story:

‘Biden Mends Supply Chains by Printing More Money; Prices Fall’.

Don’t hold your breath. Not going to happen.

First, because Biden knows nothing about supply chains, he has no clue about what’s wrong with them or how to fix them.

Second, because the supply chains are not the real problem. They’re just being used as a ‘rope-a-dope’ by the elite press.

And third, because more money printing will make the real problem — monetary inflation — worse, not better.

And so approaches the moment of truth when the Fed will have to lay its cards on the table…

Raise interest rates to limit inflation?

Or let ‘er rip…blame the supply chain and protect the elite?

Stay tuned…

Regards,

Bill Bonner,
For The Rum Rebellion

By Cory Bernardi Editor, Cory Bernardi Confidential

We’ve heard so much about the inequity of the vaccine rollout, and how the poor nations are being preyed upon by wealthy nations, that it must be true.

I mean, if it wasn’t, why would the media persist in the narrative that the wealthy West are a bunch of vaccine hoarders causing death and mayhem in the third world?

As with so much of the COVID saga, the facts don’t support what we’re being told. Here are a few inconvenient ones for the global catastrophists.

For the following data I’m indebted to Alex Berenson, who writes an excellent substack and has been banned from Twitter for exposing the worst of the COVID lies by governments and media.

Here are Berenson’s charts of some densely populated and poor nation’s COVID case rates that make for interesting viewing:

Remember, these are not highly-vaccinated countries. These are some of the nations we’re continually told we are cruelly denying vaccine access to. 

Berenson notes:

‘It’s almost as if Covid-19 infection waves have a predictable natural course over a two- to three-month period — a sharp rise and nearly equally sharp decline.

‘It’s almost as if the virus then disappears as many, many people gain natural immunity — including many younger people who never knew they were infected at all because the coronavirus is barely dangerous to them.’

This is the natural cycle of epidemics as whatever contagion claims those most vulnerable, while those left develop natural antibodies that provide a strong level of future protection.

However, when that natural cycle is disrupted with experimental treatments (that don’t fulfil the traditional definition of vaccines), things aren’t as predictable. 

Contrast the above images with the highly-‘vaccinated’ United Kingdom. 

Deaths attributed to COVID there are lower than at the peak. However, they seem to be on the rise again, and the new case load remains stubbornly high:

It’s as if the vaccines aren’t working. Some might suggest they’re actually making things worse.

It’s only natural that a ‘vaccine’ that only offers limited protection interferes with the process of developing natural immunity within the community. 

The real question is if they do further damage over and above that… 

That’s something for others to debate, but I’m pretty sure the UK data will be used to further justify the rollout of booster shots. 

After all, an endless cycle of jab after jab after jab is the only thing that will keep the rivers of money flowing into Big Pharma and the population thinking the government is saving them from hell on Earth.

Enjoy your weekend.

Best,

Cory Bernardi,
For The Rum Rebellion

PS: To sign up to Cory’s free weekly email, Cory Bernardi Confidential, click here.