WASHINGTON – In 2022, Americans are staring economic disaster in the face. As the Russia / Ukraine crisis deepens and grows more complex, Americans once again confront the economic and energy-based inflation disaster created by Obamanomics years ago. Before President Trump brilliantly reversed it. Before Trump’s game-winning policy reversal was 180’d with a vengeance, courtesy of Bidenomics. Want economic disaster? That’s what you get when ever-increasing energy prices + inflation add up to the results of Obamanomics further amplified by Bidenomics. The final act of the phony Green Revolution is here. And it’s coming for you. Just like Vlad Putin is coming for Ukraine. You and I are next, one way or the other.
Obamanomics plus Bidenomics (plus Putin) beget high energy prices and rampant inflation
America’s and the world’s post-Trump shift toward worldwide war and disaster has led to an astonishingly swift jump in prices at the wellhead and at the pump. Now add current energy prices plus inflation and you get the horrifyingly inevitable results that were bound to occur when Green New Deal Bidenomics picked up where Obamanomics left off. The middle and lower classes in this country are screwed. Vlad Putin is helping. The wrong way. (More later.)
Incoming Propaganda: The White House Resident’s very first State of the Union
Armed with a State of the Union Address wholly penned by others and electronically pasted to his trusty teleprompter, Resident Biden is set to deliver his first official State of Disunion Address Tuesday night before a now unrestricted and possibly unmasked Congressional audience. Minus a few nervy Republicans who’ve decided to return the boycott favor the Dems bestowed upon President Donald Trump for his 2020 SOU Address.
I won’t be watching, of course. I’ll rely later on excerpts and transcripts from this speech. Watching it live at my increasingly advanced age could result in heart arrhythmia or worse, and I can’t risk it.
But we can expect some firm warnings from Biden tonight, aimed at the mythical secret army of “white supremacists” lying in wait even now to destroy Nancy Pelosi’s “democracy.” And perhaps some hollow saber-rattling invective as well. That will be directed toward Russia’s (and Ukraine’s?) Dictator for Life, Vladimir Putin. Biden’s speech will somehow reassure us here, falsely claiming that we’ve already defeated Putin. Without evidence.
But on the plus side, we’ll also likely hear how the Democrats not only saved us from C_ _ _ id via often-forced vaxxing, while rescuing us and our kids from perpetual masking requirements. We’ll all recognize this packaging is a lie. But the media will run with it.
Building Back Worser? More on the likely pro-left, pro-green Bidenomics agenda
Other items we’ll possibly hear about will include how America’s economy is so much better now than it was under Trump. Neglecting to note Trump’s pre-WuFlu economic and energy miracles, of course. Oh, and we’ll also hear how unemployment is at record lows, neglecting to note that those permanently ousted from the work force aren’t included in these bogus numbers.
We might not hear how the Fed is likely to jack up interest rates by 50 basis points (0.5%) next week, which will be immediately reflected in interest charged on credit card balances and looming fat increases in ARM mortgages in the near future.
Ukraine, Putin, energy prices and inflation. Encouraged by Obamanomics and Bidenomics?
In the meantime, the Russia-Ukraine disaster will worsen. Putin now seems determined to re-install Soviet-style hegemony in that legitimate country even if he has to kill every last Ukrainian citizen to do so. While Biden is clearly being overcome with rapidly worsening dementia, what exactly is it that’s causing Putin’s brain to go full Genghis Khan?
Putin is only being held off now by average Ukrainian citizens with guns and a Ukrainian comedian-president who has more guts and patriotism than all the West’s Klaus Schwab- and George Soros-paid lackeys Globalist / New Feudalist World Economic Forum (WEF) knighted national leaders combined. (BTW: Hold onto your guns, citizens, before Biden tries (again) to take them away.)
Headline risk meets actual risk: Mr Market is reeling
All this, in a roundabout way, brings us to Tuesday’s (surprise!) latest stock market disaster, currently playing on a personal computer near you. (If you’re a home gamer, that is.)
At its worst, the Dow Jones Industrial Average of America’s top 30 largest company seems headed toward a negative 800 day. Another 2+% loss. As we near the 3 p.m. ET mark, we’re now only down here a mere 530 points more or less, for a 1.6% loss on the day, more or less.
The broader-based S&P 500 is off 58.55 at the moment, logging in a -1.34% loss thus far. And the continuously trashed, tech-heavy NASDAQ average is, for the second day in a row, doing modestly “better,” only losing 167.80 points on the day thus far for a roughly -1.21% loss on the day. At the 4 p.m. closing bell, our mileage, of course, may vary. But it doesn’t look like Tuesday will end well regardless of the occasional buying wave we’re seeing here.
Let’s pull out our crystal ball
Tomorrow’s market will pivot on the usual suspects, of course. Namely, ongoing economic disaster caused by spiraling energy prices, relentless Inflation, and the ongoing anti-capitalist disasters caused when Obamanomics and Bidenomics collide.
And let’s also not forget that likely persistent headline risk – or worse. We suffer this risk daily, due largely to Putin’s “Greater Russia” megalomania. And this, in turn, increases the likelihood that China will see Putin’s “boldness” as a signal that it’s time for the CCP to march on Taiwan. Such a move could indeed help destroy the West’s technology and chip pipelines for years. Ironically, such a disaster would almost certainly involve China and everyone else who’s against representative democracy.
Meanwhile, don’t forget the Federal Reserve. Their task becomes harder when two political parties and a dimwit White House Resident do nothing to help them out. Collectively, they see no point in helping the Fed out when it comes to reining in the inflation Washington created for the rest of us.
What’s an individual investor to do?
Likely positive moves: Stay in cash, nibble at gold and silver, cautiously tiptoe into energy (knowing spiking share prices in this sector can spike down just as fast). And perhaps we shouldn’t even forget looking at the hated coal industry. Coal, despite the strenuous efforts of Obama and Hillary to kill it, has not quite died. Instead, the world may soon be looking to buy more – much more – American thermal coal. Observe how easy it was for the Ukraine-Russia conflict to upset the economic and energy scene. It looks like those “green” energy sources won’t begin to replace what the Russia-Ukraine conflict may cause us to lose.
So surprisingly, companies like Peabody (NYSE: BTU) and CONSOL Energy (NYSE: CEIX) come to mind as short-term investment vehicles at least. (Full disclosure: We’re nibbling at CEIX shares today.) Yeah. Somehow, depriving people of heating and cooling power, because “save the planet,” doesn’t exactly work when people find themselves freezing to death. Or unable to cook dinner.
Stay tuned. Living in the middle of the latest 4th Turning is quite interesting, though it’s not very fun.
Headline image link: Cartoon by Branco. Reproduced with permission and by arrangement with Comically Incorrect.
