Category Archives: Business

A Weighty Question, by Eric Peters

Electric car batteries are heavy, which makes them more dangerous in a collision. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

Here’s an interesting – a weighty – question:

If “safety” is so important to the government – i.e., to the busybodies in Washington who force us to buy what they think is important – then why don’t they think it’s important to protect us from the consequences of what they’re forcing us to buy?

Such as two-ton-plus electric cars that are a physical threat to other cars – and the people inside them?

A subcompact-sized electric car like the Chevy Bolt – which is only 163.2 inches long – weighs 3,589 pounds. A compact-sized car like the Hyundai Accent – which is 172.6 inches long and so a substantially larger car – weighs 2,679 pounds.

The difference between the two is 910 pounds.

It’s a big difference when a 3,589 pound car pile-drives into a 2,679 pound car. F=ma and all that.

It’s an even bigger difference when an electric half-ton truck like the Ford Lightning – which weighs in at more than three tons – 6,500 pounds – which is  a ton (2,000 pounds) heavier than a non-electric F-150 pick-up – pile-drives into a 2,679 pound compact like the Accent.

Or even another F-150.

Heck, even another Lightning. See that business about F=ma again.

Whatever happened to saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety first?

The more weight rolling around out there, the greater the risk to people who aren’t driving one of these massively heavy potential pile-drivers. Perhaps this is intentional; another way to get rid of cars that aren’t electric – and perhaps some of the people who don’t want them along the way. But the risk is also greater, for everyone.

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Information Is Broken, by Paul Rosenberg

Once upon a time, information purveyors had an economic incentive to make sure the information they purveyed was correct. From Paul Rosenberg at freemansperspective.com:

Humanity is informed as never before; nothing in the historical record compares. This, unfortunately, is not a particularly good thing.

The provision of information, if it is to bless mankind, must have quality control built into it… it must have a feedback mechanism with teeth. Barring that, it can spiral out of control, as, indeed, it has.

Consider that almost everyone in the modern world is flooded with information. Even the poorest people walk around with phones beeping at them a dozen times per day, delivering little packets of it. And for active people the info-delivery is far greater. Even the delivery devices themselves, smart phones, have become status symbols.

But who is providing all that information, and what price do they pay for delivering bad information?

The previous era of information delivery was dominated by newspapers; they provided most of the information for daily living. And that system, problematic though it could be, had effective feedback mechanisms. Newspaper readers paid for the information they received. And so, if they made bad decisions because of bad information, the newspaper would have a problem on their hands.

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The Long-Term Negative Effects Of ESG Will Be Catastrophic, by Tom Czitron

ESG has evolved into fascism—a government-business partnership. From Tom Czitron at The Epoch Times via zerohedge.com:

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) has been a hotly debated topic over the last few years. The seemingly unquestioned march towards corporate utopia has met with resistance among those who oppose the idea that government oligarchs should dictate the affairs of private business firms. The long-term effects of the ESG movement are largely ignored by the mainstream.

ESG is largely justified on the basis that corporations and financial institutions should be socially responsible. They should work obsessively to address the perceived menaces of climate change, racism, sexism, and a host of subjects. Our benevolent political and economic elite define what is virtuous and what is not for a grateful public.

Corporations are compelled to enact policies that will reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, eliminate perceived negative economic outcomes against aggrieved groups, and be “sustainable,” as well as other virtuous goals. It matters little to the “select group of human beings,” as John Kerry called them, who are tasked with “saving the planet” that many of their solutions to these existential challenges are far more harmful than their worst-case scenarios.

The Friedman Doctrine, named after the eminent Chicago School economist, states that the sole responsibility of businesses is to maximize long-term shareholder value. I was exposed to this view in 1980 when I attended the University of Toronto’s Master of Business Administration program. I was surprised by the moral certainty and simplicity implied by the statement.

I remember our professor being challenged by my class on two fronts. One was the issue of charitable donations. That argument was quickly dispatched when it was pointed out that corporate CEO’s had no moral right to give away shareholders’ money. It was not theirs to give. If the benevolent CEO wanted to make charitable donations out of his own pocket he was free to do so. Shareholders had this same ability.

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Fake Meat Fail: Sales Collapse At Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods As 20% Of Staff Laid Off, by Tyler Durden

Notwithstanding massive hype, they can’t get enough people to serve as lab rats for lab meat. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

The fake meat industry appears to be in a death-spiral as sales at plant-based ‘meat’ companies Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat have imploded.

As Axios reports, “after years of hype, the tide is turning against the first generation of plant-based protein makers.”

Last year, both companies were riding high – with prime placement on supermarket shelves, and Burger King even adding an Impossible Whopper to its menu.

Impossible Meat even began to branch out – looking to expand offerings to highly processed meats such as chicken nuggets and sausages.

Sales have collapsed, however, which according to a recent Bloomberg report, has resulted in Impossible Foods planning to lay off around 20% of its workers.

Impossible Foods Inc., the maker of meatless burgers and sausages, is preparing to cut about 20% of its staff, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The Redwood City, California-based company currently employs about 700 workers. The new round of dismissals could reduce that amount by more than 100. 

Impossible Foods also offered voluntary separation payments and benefits to employees at the end of 2022, said the person, who asked not to be named discussing private information. An internal document viewed by Bloomberg confirmed the separation packages being offered. The company previously reduced headcount in October, cutting about 6% of its workforce at the time. -Bloomberg

Beyond Meat’s sales fell over 22% in the third quarter of 2022, as the company is preparing to similarly cut 20% of its workers. The company has also lost several executives.

According to the report, supermarket sales fell by 15% y/y as of Jan. 1, according to market-research firm IRI, while orders in restaurants dropped 9% in the12 months ended in November, according to NPD Group.

Meanwhile, data from consumer-experience strategy firm HundredX suggests waning interest in general – as the percentage of shoppers polled who have eaten Impossible products and say they won’t do it again has risen.

Beyond Meat stock is also down around 67% vs. one year ago.

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/fake-meat-fail-sales-collapse-beyond-meat-impossible-foods-20-staff-fired

Why Is the Associated Press Lying About Gene Therapy Shots? By Dr. Joseph Mercola

By the standard definition the mRNA shots are definitely gene therapy. Make sure you get your shots if you want mutant offspring. From Dr. Joseph Mercola at theburningplatform.com:

Video link

Story at-a-glance

  • The notion that the COVID shots are a form of gene therapy is so risky for Big Pharma’s bottom line, they’re going to great lengths to make sure people don’t think of them that way
  • The Associated Press published a “fact check” in which they argued that COVID shots are not gene therapy because they do not alter your genes
  • The AP misled readers by focusing on just one part of the FDA’s definition of a gene therapy — the part about modifying expression of a gene. But the full definition also includes the words “or to alter the biological properties of living cells,” which is precisely what the COVID shots do
  • When the mRNA shots were rolled out in 2021, they did not meet the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s definition of a vaccine. They only met the FDA’s definition of a gene therapy
  • The only reason COVID shots meet the CDC’s definition of a vaccine now is because they changed the definition to prevent “COVID-19 deniers” from saying that “COVID-19 vaccines are not vaccines per CDC’s own definition”

While the COVID-19 shots are referred to as “vaccines,” they do not meet the classical definition of a vaccine. Health authorities actually had to change the definition to accommodate the COVID shots and shut down the argument that, as experimental gene therapies, they may be riskier than traditional vaccines.

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Subsidy Junkies, by Eric Peters

Subsidies are the car industry’s fentanyl. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

The problem with getting hooked on something – whether it’s booze, or subsidies – is that it’s hard to quit once you are.

Just ask the car industry.

It has become dependent on subsidies – in the form of “tax breaks” – to get people to “buy” electric vehicles; the “buying” in air-fingers-quotation marks to mock the fact that when someone else is paying, you’re not really buying.

Tesla built its business model on this form of grift, elaborated in several ways. The way most people don’t even know about was using federal/state regulations that required other car companies – which at the time did not build any electric vehicles – to either build electric vehicles, in order to to satisfy “zero emissions” vehicle manufacturing quotas – or buy credits from Tesla that satisfied the requirement without having to actually build (and try to sell) EVs themselves.

In this manner, Tesla got his rivals to finance his business.

Not unlike having to pay salary of the cop who “pulled you over” via the “fine” you are made to pay for some conjured “offense.”

The lesser offense was using the government to make it easier to “sell” electric cars by paying the “buyer” a large sum of money – via tax rebates – to offset their otherwise unmarketable prices. Take $7,500 off the price (or cost) of any car and it is probable you’ll sell more of them.

Conversely, do not take $7,500 off and fewer people will buy them.

Chiefly because they can’t.

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Seven Points on Investing in Treacherous Waters, by Charles Hugh Smith

There are very few good investors. From Charles Hugh Smith at oftwominds.com:

What’s truly valuable has no price and cannot be bought.

If all investments are being cast into Treacherous Waters, our investment strategy must adapt accordingly. Once we set aside denial and magical thinking as strategies and accept that we’re in treacherous waters, a prudent starting point is to discern the most consequential contexts of all decisions about where and how we invest our time, energy and capital.

The most consequential global context is to first and foremost “invest in yourself”: invest in forms of capital that cannot lose value (for example, integrity, skills and experience) and assets that are not dependent on fluctuations in valuations for their utility. This is the essence of Self-Reliance.

For example, tools retain their utility regardless of their current market value, and so does a house as shelter and yard to grow food. Whether the value drops to $1,000 or soars to $1 million, the property provides the same utility of shelter and sustenance.

In other words, the mindset of speculation–buy low and sell high to accumulate as much money as possible–is not the only context to consider.

A second global context is that speculative winners–assets that rise sharply in value–will increasingly be targets for “windfall” and/or wealth taxes, as well as capital controls, such as limits on selling. If you log a 500% gain, then paying a wealth tax is a small price to pay for such a handsome gain. But such enormous gains will very likely be far more scarce going forward as speculative bets become net drains on capital and speculators exit because their gambling chips are gone or they realize they better conserve what capital is still left.

Meanwhile, back on the Government Ranch, the crying need for more tax revenues will become increasingly dire. As speculative bubbles pop, capital gains will dry up and blow away, and this rich source of tax revenues will have to be replaced with higher taxes and junk fees on whatever income and assets are available for “revenue enhancement,” ahem.

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Warning Shot Fired! By James Rickard

The notion of freedom-destroying Central Bank Digital Currencies is making its insidious way from academic and think tank literature to the general populace. Implementation is next. From Jame Rickard at dailyreckoning.com:

Another warning shot across the bow just happened…

I warned my readers a few weeks ago about how the Federal Reserve, in cooperation with giant global banks, has launched a 12-week pilot project to test the message systems and payment processes on the new CBDC dollar.

A pilot project is not research and development. That’s already done. The pilot means that what I call “Biden Bucks” are here, and the backers just want to test the plumbing before they roll the system out on the entire population.

That project is due to be completed next month. In other words, Biden Bucks are getting closer to becoming a reality for us all. Now there is another big development to keep you up to speed…

This month, the Digital Dollar Project (DDP) released an updated version of its white paper called “Exploring a U.S. CBDC.”

The project expanded the paper in order to examine central bank digital currency projects internationally, though its focus is still on the United States. Since its original white paper release in 2020, CBDC projects worldwide have increased from 35 to 114.

Here is one statement in the updated paper:

It [is] imperative that the U.S. government consider ways to maintain the use of the dollar in digital global payment systems and develop a strategy related to the use of alternative payment systems.

Pigs in the Digital Slaughterhouse

“Alternative payment systems” is simply a technical term for Biden Bucks, which means replacing the cash (“fiat”) dollar we have now. What’s this mean for you?

Let’s first consider the kind of freedom that physical cash offers you. Above all, cash is untraceable and anonymous. When you buy something with cash, there’s no way to trace the purchase to you individually. In that sense, cash is like gold or silver. It doesn’t leave a digital fingerprint.

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The Arsenal of Democracy Isn’t, by imetatronink

The U.S. would have a tough time rebuilding its industrial war armaments industry in under 10 years. From imetatronink at imetatronink.substack.com:

The erstwhile “arsenal of democracy” is neither a democracy nor an arsenal. It’s a pretentious empty shell.

WW2-era Studebaker Truck

As I originally wrote in my July 10, 2022 article Wunderwaffe Du Jour:

“The US military is not built nor equipped for protracted high-intensity conflict. Nor can it supply a depleted proxy army with the means to prosecute a protracted high-intensity conflict.”

The incontrovertible reality is that the US and its NATO allies are presently incapable of supplying the massive material demands of modern industrial warfare, as Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Alex Vershinin articulated so well in this essential June 2022 analysis: The Return of Industrial Warfare.

And yet the public discussion of potential war always includes convinced voices proclaiming that, just like in the Second World War, US industry could very rapidly ramp up to produce armaments of surpassing quality, and in overwhelming quantities.

This titillates the biases of American exceptionalists in general, and is a particularly seductive fantasy of the #EmpireAtAllCosts cult drones propagandizing for filthy lucre at the countless armaments-industry-funded “think tanks” in Washington and London.

But the notion that the rapidly declining empire can resurrect the Arsenal of Democracy band for one final farewell tour is a singularly delusional vanity.

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Eggs, Spike Proteins, And The Manufactured Food Crisis, by 2nd Smartest Guy in the World

Who is destroying chicken egg supplies and why are they doing it? From 2nd Smartest Guy in the World at 2ndsmartestguyintheworld.substack.com:

Pivoting off PSYOP-19 and PSYOP-UKRAINE-INVASION is the critically vital PSYOP-SUPPLY-CHAIN-BREAKDOWN which is exacerbating PSYOP-HYPERINFLATION and PSYOP-FAMINE.

Which brings us to the wholly manufactured global food supply crisis, with hundreds of food processing plants just in America alone having been sabotaged.

2nd Smartest Guy in the World
SABOTAGE: The One World Government Is Destroying Energy Infrastructure & Food Supplies
The Cabal is doing their utmost to induce mass global food and energy insecurity, and then fold all of these schemes into their all-encompassing and perpetual posthuman planetary lockdown in PSYOP-CLIMATE-CHANGE …
Read more

It would not be a stretch to conclude that the very same agencies and forces behind the “pandemic” and the slow kill bioweapon injections are behind the coordinated food processing plant destruction.

Twitter avatar for @AbsoluteWithE

The Absolute Truth with Emerald Robinson @AbsoluteWithE
Food processing plants are under attack. EcoHealth Alliance Whistleblower Dr. Andrew Huff (@AGHuff) explains what’s actually going on here. WATCH:

Eggs are a vital protein source for Americans, and have been an affordable and reliable food for decades, even during avian flu-type “outbreaks.” But now we are seeing a deliberate scheme to drive egg prices through the stratosphere:

Why now, and why eggs specifically?

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