Free Republic

Whoop there it is! The US Treasury 10y-2y yield curve descended further into inversion at -82 basis point, the worst since 1981. This is not a good sign, since the 10Y-2Y curve typically inverts just prior to a recession. The current US Treasury curve is currently humped at 1 year, then declining rapidly. The swaps curve is peaking at 9 months, then declining rapidly. The Fed Funds Futures market is pointing to a peak Fed Funds rate of 5% at the May 3rd FOMC meeting. Yes, a recession is headed our way.

Farmers in Germany have been banned from properly fertilizing large areas of their land under strict EU rules pushing the green agenda. The use of nitrate fertilizers has been further restricted for large swathes of farmland in North Rhine-Westphalia, which is now likely to drastically reduce yields. Although German authorities have implemented the ban, it is ultimately at the behest of the European Union, which is seeking to reduce the amount of nitrogen to tackle ‘climate change.’ The policy has already wreaked havoc in the Netherlands. As The Daily Fetched reported in September: Dutch farmers have risen in protest to...

Apple Inc's massive exposure to Chinese manufacturing has left it with production shortfalls of iPhones due to Beijing's harsh virus containment policies and unrest at a major factory in central China operated by Foxconn. A new report shows the iPhone maker's retreat from China is accelerating. WSJ said Apple is "telling suppliers to plan more actively for assembling Apple products elsewhere in Asia, particularly India and Vietnam, they say, and looking to reduce dependence on Taiwanese assemblers led by Foxconn." Apple's supply chain data indicates China is the iPhone maker's primary location. Market research firm Counterpoint Research recently noted 85%...

President Biden has asked Congress to intervene in a labor dispute between rail workers and their employers, hoping to quell an impending strike with the potential to upend the American economy. SMART Transportation Division, SMART-TD for short, a union representing conductors in the rail industry has rejected a deal brokered by the Biden Administration, upending the White House's efforts to avoid a strike before the holidays. With 51% of SMART-TD's members voting in opposition of the deal, the workers are poised to either strike, or be locked out by rail companies on Dec. 9. A potential strike could have devastating...

California's Air Resources Board has laid out a plan to ban all diesel-powered trucks that would cause inflationary ripples throughout the entire economy.The plan would mandate that all new trucks operating around busy railways and ports be zero emission vehicles by 2024 - while all diesel trucks would be phased out by 2035, and eventually, banishing every truck and bus fleet from California roads by 2045, where feasible, according to SFGATE.The proposed Advance Clean Fleets regulation first targets the busiest trucking areas in the state — around warehouses, sea ports and railways. The board says the pollution in these areas...

Important to understand is that there is not one single new original idea in Klaus Schwab's so-called Great Reset agenda for the world. Nor is his Fourth Industrial Revolution agenda his or his claim to having invented the notion of Stakeholder Capitalism a product of Schwab. Klaus Schwab is little more than a slick PR agent for a global technocratic agenda, a corporatist unity of corporate power with government, including the UN, an agenda whose origins go back to the beginning of the 1970s, and even earlier. The Davos Great Reset is merely an updated blueprint for a global dystopian...

It didn't have to be this way. But it is...and Secretary Mayor Pete Buttigieg is nowhere to be found. We've all heard of the game "Where's Waldo?" Well, I've got a better question. As we look upon the hordes of federal parasites dedicated public servants, where's Pete? We're seeing the convergence of some dangerous circumstances — a perfect storm, if you will. But it's not a convergence of weather patterns, but problems with the transportation infrastructure. Yet Pete (Buttigieg) is nowhere to be found — at least not anywhere near the problems he's supposed to prevent. Loaded ships are still...

1.) We have 25 days of diesel fuel left. 2.) Biden has failed to come to an agreement with rail workers’ unions, and a strike could start as soon as November 19th. ... If we actually run out of diesel fuel, the result on our supply chain would be catastrophic. We could expect shelves to empty and cargo ships to divert from America to places that have a better chance of delivering the goods. What’s more, prices would skyrocket on any good that has to be transported – which is basically all of them. If you can find it at...

Slump in imports, cargo diversions to other ports help shrink queue of dozens of vessels The backup of container ships off Southern California’s coast that was at the heart of U.S. supply chain congestion during the Covid-19 pandemic has effectively disappeared. The queue of ships waiting to unload at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach fell from a peak of 109 ships in January to four vessels this week ... . U.S. import volumes are declining ... The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together handled 686,133 loaded import containers in September, down 18% from a year...

Even the great Mississippi has had it with Biden's presidency. If you think the price of energy and food has reached the limit, I have bad news for you: All signs are it’s going to be much worse. Hot Air described the coming supply chain wreck.. Water levels on the Mississippi are tied with an all-time low. And that portends a bitter winter for consumers: Just under half (47%) of all grain is moved by barge, according to the USDA. Approximately 5.4 million barrels of crude and 35% of thermal coal are moved on the Mississippi.That’s just a small amount...

The International Monetary Fund is warning that the world is in for a rough ride, with more than a third of the global economy forecast to contract over this year and next amid a cost-of-living crisis fueled by inflation and exacerbated by factors such as Russia’s war in Ukraine. For most people, it will feel like a recession. “The worst is yet to come,” said the fund’s Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas. Speaking to a packed press conference Tuesday to launch the latest World Economic Outlook, he had a grim warning on global inflation, saying it is expected to peak at...

US diesel prices doubling. Diesel, the lifeline of the shipping industry, is UP 100% under Biden (that is, diesel prices have doubled) while the inventory of diesel fuel has declined by -37.5% under Biden. ... And you wonder why inflation is at 40 year highs?

You should keep a close eye on barges. You probably do not spend much time thinking about barges. This is something that you ought to change. The barge industry is quite important. It’s crucial for moving aluminum, petroleum, fertilizer and coal, particularly on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. About 60% of the grain and 54% of the soybeans for U.S. export are moved via the noble barge. Barges touch more than a third of our exported coal as well. Right now the barge industry — and all of us who depend on its wares — is mired in a...

A union representing nearly 12,000 railroad workers on Monday voted down the tentative contract agreement between freight railroad companies and all 12 of their unions brokered by the White House last month. Why it matters: The rejection, by the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division of the Teamsters (BMWED), raises the prospect once again of a nationwide rail strike.

The title is a bit misleading, but like everything else I believe this is step #1 leading to a more nefarious database. In a move that has many folks scratching their heads, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has renewed its push for the People’s Garden Initiative which now includes registering vegetable gardens nationwide. According to the USDA, the move is to foster a “more diverse and resilient local food system to empower communities to address issues like nutrition access and climate change.” But those who have been following the USDA closely for years know that they couldn’t care less...

When it comes to cooking and baking, it’s a truth universally acknowledged that butter just makes things better. But with the holiday season coming up, many may have to scramble to find enough butter for their baked goods. That’s according to the Wall Street Journal, which recently reported on a dairy shortage in the U.S. due to staffing issues and lower milk production. With less butter on shelves and in storage facilities (reportedly the lowest since 2017), that means the price of the yellow stuff has gone up. Over the last year, butter prices have gone up by more than...

President Biden on Wednesday will announce nearly $3 billion in new U.S. commitments to address global food insecurity, an issue that has been worsened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In his address to the United Nations General Assembly, Biden will outline $2 billion in global humanitarian assistance through U.S. Agency for International Development to increase emergency food security programing in countries most affected by the pandemic and supply chain woes exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. The money will go toward food and nutrition assistance, safe drinking water and other relief, the White House said.

The White House-brokered agreement to avert a railroad strike has the potential to fall apart, threatening widespread economic disruption right before the midterm elections. Rail workers are set to vote on the tentative deal reached between unions and railroads Thursday morning. If any of the 12 rail unions fail to ratify a new contract, nearly 125,000 rail workers could be headed for a strike. The agreement would mandate two-person crews, cap health care costs and allow workers to take time off for medical appointments or other scheduled events without being penalized, all key concessions won by unions. The deal also...

The world’s largest package delivery company and the union representing tens of thousands of its employees are entering a critical countdown towards the expiration of the current union contract in 2023. Workers at UPS are demanding better wages and workplace protections, following a summer of demands for better equipment against heat-related death and illness inside the ubiquitous brown trucks. But union organisers and labour leaders are also preparing for the possibility of a strike, which could be the largest ever against a single company in the US. Roughly 350,000 members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union work as drivers...

FedEx FDX stock was tumbling after the company doubly disappointed investors Thursday announcing weak quarterly results earlier than expected while withdrawing its full-year financial guidance. The stock was down more the 12% in after-hours trading after FedEx (ticker: FDX) said it earned $3.44 a share from $23.2 billion in sales in its fiscal 2023 first quarter which ended in August. Wall Street was looking for $5.10 in per-share earnings from $23.5 billion in sales.