Pizza chains struggle because low income consumers can no longer afford prices up 30% since 2019

 Bloomberg reports here.

 

 

The US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent is under fire for market manipulation because he made closed-door comments yesterday morning to big shots gathered for IMF and World Bank meetings

 Bloomberg published the story just before noon on Tuesday reporting the closed-door meeting where Bessent said he expected the tariff stand-off with China to de-escalate, and that the current situation, which amounts to a trade embargo, is unsustainable and will de-escalate in the very near future.

Markets opened Tuesday morning strongly higher and by 11:00 AM were up 110 points on the $SPX. 

The Secretary of the Treasury shouldn't be having closed door meetings with the very people most likely to profit from what he has to say.

This is quite literally fascist economics.

Bloomberg is reporting Kamala Harris has the nomination clinched

 Kamala Harris has more than enough pledged delegates to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, following an extraordinary two-day blitz that saw the vice president consolidate her party’s backing to challenge Donald Trump in November.

Harris sealed her status as the presumptive nominee Monday night after crossing the magic number of 1,976 pledged delegates, according to an unofficial Associated Press tally. While delegates who indicated their support are not required to back her nomination, the achievement — and lack of credible opposition — underscores the vice president’s hold on the Democratic ticket.

More.

But look at those big stretches of light blue in places like New York, Michigan, and Illinois, among others. The resistance to Kamala Harris is real, even in California.

 

Good Lord man, that "wave" is just 291,400 people, 0.086% of the entire population

 Record Wave Leave Big Cities for Small Ones...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They expect to be paid for this news.

Dubai seeds clouds on the weekend, gets floods by Tuesday, but no, it was climate change

Dubai Grinds to Standstill as Cloud Seeding Worsens Flooding

 

The Gulf state’s National Center of Meteorology dispatched seeding planes from Al Ain airport on Monday and Tuesday to take advantage of convective cloud formations, according to Ahmed Habib, a specialist meteorologist. The NCM on Wednesday said the seeding had taken place on Sunday and Monday, and not on Tuesday. ... The latest storms followed heavy rains earlier this year, according to Habib at NCM. The seeding planes have flown seven missions, he added. “For any cloud that’s suitable over the UAE you make the operation,” he said.

Fearful of UAE speech laws, craven AP Obama never mentions that government cloud-seeding operations turbocharged Dubai rains leading to historic flooding and deaths

AP Obama can always be counted on to lie by omission.

 Storm dumps heaviest rain ever recorded in desert nation of UAE, flooding roads and Dubai’s airport

One couple, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to speak freely in a country with strict laws that criminalize critical speech, called the situation at the airport “absolute carnage.” 

But Bloomberg makes it the lede.

Dubai Grinds to Standstill as Cloud Seeding Worsens Flooding

Paragraph two:

The heavy rains that caused widespread flooding across the desert nation came after cloud seeding. The UAE has been carrying out seeding operations since 2002 to address water security issues, even though the lack of drainage in many areas can trigger flooding.

Bug spray and vanilla extract flying off the shelves in South America amid dengue fever outbreak expected to top record 4.5 million cases from 2023

Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina are the hardest hit, with more than 3.5 million cases, 83% of which are concentrated in Brazil, according to the Pan American Health Organization.

More.

Record 549 cases of dengue fever in Puerto Rico

 Story here.

There have been nearly 25,000 cases so far this year in Peru, double the 2023 year to date figure.

Fascist Joe Biden makes $20 billion in grants and loans to Intel in Arizona under the $114 billion Chips Act, which is all borrowed money, to buy votes

Democrats are more than willing to hand Joe Biden slush money to buy votes, but $25 billion for a wall? No way. 

Bloomberg doesn't even hide it:

(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden said his $20 billion award to Intel Corp. demonstrated his investments in US industries that had withered under Donald Trump’s tenure, touting a flurry of government spending he hopes will help him defeat his Republican rival in a general-election rematch. ...

Biden trails Trump in several crucial states, including Arizona, as voters remain skeptical of the president’s handling of the economy. Biden is responding by using his bully pulpit, as well as federal dollars, in states to show the public the results of his plans. The president said Wednesday’s announcement would support 10,000 manufacturing jobs, including 3,000 in Phoenix. ...

Intel is the first company to land a preliminary funding deal from the Chips Act for advanced manufacturing facilities. The law provided $39 billion in grants, plus loans and guarantees worth $75 billion to persuade companies to build factories on US soil and reverse a decades-long shift of semiconductor production to Asia.

Shithole Chicago commie mayor Brandon Johnson drives out the wealthy and property prices down

 From Bloomberg here:

The historic Gold Coast, featuring 100-year-old mansions, opulent condos and designer boutiques, has lost some of its most illustrious residents and appeal in recent years as the city’s high taxes and crime encouraged the wealthy to relocate. Those staying in Chicago are opting for more modern homes in trendier areas, leaving Gold Coast properties sitting on the market for months.

Now a plan to boost taxes on the sale of homes of $1 million or more could further depress deals in the neighborhood, whose residents include the billionaire Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. Known as the “mansion tax,” the measure will be on the ballot during the Illinois primary on Tuesday. ...

It’s unclear what impact the tax will have on property prices and whether it will generate the revenue that the mayor’s office expects. Los Angeles passed a similar measure increasing transfer taxes for properties over $5 million in 2022, but the measure only generated $142 million, a tiny fraction of the over $900 million it was expected to bring in. ...

The Gold Coast currently has 113 homes on the market at $1 million or more, according to Zillow. Only Streeterville, directly south of the Gold Coast and along the famous Michigan Avenue shopping strip, has more.

In the broader area of the Near North Side, which includes the Gold Coast and Streeterville, homes over $1 million have spent an average 123 days on the market, almost double the average in the rest of the city, according to Chicago Association of Realtors data collected from 2021 to 2023.

Biden surrendered Afghanistan to the terrorists of the Taliban, backs two wars in Israel and Ukraine which risk world war with Russia and maybe China, but Americans think Trump is dangerous

 Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll of nearly 5,000 (all online smh):

Biden Is Too Old But Trump Is Dangerous, Swing-State Poll Shows :

Less than half of respondents said his almost-certain rival, 77-year-old Donald Trump, was too old. Still, Trump faces his own vulnerabilities with swing-state voters, with a majority saying the former president is dangerous. ...

Almost six in 10 swing-state voters labeled Trump as dangerous — a concern far more pronounced among undecided voters, who make up less than one-tenth of the swing-state electorate. Even 28% of those who plan to vote for him in November agree that Trump is dangerous. Fewer than half as many Biden supporters said the same about their candidate.

Swing-state voters who volunteered that they had heard something about his recent comments degrading NATO were especially lopsided in thinking Trump was the more dangerous of the two candidates.

 

Bloomberg: Covid vaccine study of 99 million vaccinated people in 8 countries proves there were vaccine injuries

 I use ... and [  ] to weed out and address some of the propaganda still displayed in this slanted and quite abbreviated story, here, which still tries to minimize the danger inherent in these vaccines:

 Vaccines ... against ... a coronavirus infection were linked to small increases in neurological, blood, and heart-related conditions in the largest global vaccine safety study to date.

The rare events — identified early in the pandemic [but systematically minimized, questioned, vilified, and censored] — included a higher risk of heart-related inflammation from mRNA shots made by Pfizer Inc., BioNTech SE, and Moderna Inc., and an increased risk of a type of blood clot in the brain after immunization with viral-vector vaccines such as the one developed by the University of Oxford and made by AstraZeneca Plc. ...

The new research, by the Global Vaccine Data Network, was published in the journal Vaccine last week, with the data made available via interactive dashboards to show methodology and specific findings. ...

Myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, was consistently identified following a first, second and third dose of mRNA vaccines, the study found. The highest increase in the observed-to-expected ratio was seen after a second jab with the Moderna shot. A first and fourth dose of the same vaccine was also tied to an increase in pericarditis, or inflammation of the thin sac covering the heart. 

The study vindicates the many European countries which stopped recommending the shots for young men under the age of 40, but the story doesn't mention this.

The story laughably claims 1 million lives in Europe alone were saved compared with 13.5 billion doses administered worldwide, which is an improper comparison on its face. 

Over 3 million people in Michigan alone never got one single jab and OMG they are still alive.

 

Drudge promotes Kamala Harris because . . .

 . . . her unfavorables are sky high and somebody better do something quick, might as well be me, lol. Timed for the bigger Sunday audience:

PAPER: How Kamala Harris found her groove...

43% of registered voters in the Bloomberg/Morning Consult swing state poll have a VERY UNFAVORABLE view of her.

43% also have NO CONFIDENCE WHATSOEVER that she could fill Joe Biden's shoes.

Her numbers are worst with anyone aged 45+, with total negatives in the vicinity of 60%.

She's a huge drag on the ticket, which is why they keep her on a tight leash.

In Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll in Pennsylvania, it's still the economy, stupid: More important to women voters than abortion by 29 points, the cost of everyday goods being the most important economic factor

 The women shop. The women remember.

The massive poll results for seven swing states is available here.

The women think Trump is the one to fix it, by 11 points.

 

 

Trump 2024: What doesn't kill him only makes him stronger

 

Bloomberg/Morning Consult polling in key battlegrounds shows Trump the winner everywhere

 

This so-called history appearing at Bloomberg pretends that the Yom Kippur War, a surprise attack on Israel by Egypt and Syria, didn't happen

Conflict is like nothing that's happened before...

It turns out that former S&P Sovereign Ratings Committee Chair John B. Chambers, who presided over the AAA downgrade in 2011, is a partisan wackadoodle

 Here commenting about today:

“The external position is about the same, but I think the governance has weakened and the fractiousness of the political settings is much worse, and that has led to government shutdowns, it’s led to fears that the government might default on its debt because of the debt ceiling, and it’s led to a failed coup d’état on the 6th [of] January, 2021.”

And here a couple years ago:

"I don’t think the chance of a default because of a debt ceiling is that high as long as the Democrats control both Congress and the White House, that won’t always been the case. That could reemerge."

 Because, this:

The Wall Street bean counter who trashed America’s global credit reputation is a New Yorker who never studied economics, majored in literature and philosophy, and has a master’s in English lit. ...

Chambers grew up outside Kansas City, Kan., and went to liberal Grinnell College in Iowa, where he was a star on the swim team, ranking eighth in school history in the 1,000-meter freestyle. After graduating in 1977 with a bachelor of arts in literature and philosophy, he went Ivy League, enrolling at Columbia University, where he got a master’s degree in English literature.  ...

S&P was found to have made an estimated $2 trillion error in its 10-year deficit projection but brushed that aside, citing instability in Washington and the fact that the deficit-reduction cuts fell short of S&P’s recommended $4 trillion.

Germany boosts electricity from coal to 10 gigawatts, a drop in the bucket

 Bloomberg, here:

Germany now generates more than a third of its electricity from coal-fired power plants, according to Destatis, the federal statistical office. In the third quarter, its electricity from the fuel was 13.3% higher than the same period a year earlier, the agency said.  

Germany as recently as 2019 still had 40 gigawatts of electricity capacity from coal, and planned to reduce that to 27 by 2022, so obviously Germany has much more capacity available than 10 gigawatts during its present natural gas supply crisis caused by the Ukraine war.

But Germany's more serious mistake than reducing its coal capacity was its voluntary and hysterical reduction of nuclear generation capacity by 40% in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011. Now it's got just 3 reactors left out of the 17 it had back in the day. 

Meanwhile US electric capacity from coal in 2021 dwarfed the German, at about 210 gigawatts, but that is way down from almost 318 in 2011, a similarly ideologically driven, self-imposed, and illogical reduction of 108 gigawatts, or 33% in ten years.

The foolish growing reliance on unreliable "green energy" in the US and the turn away from coal which began in earnest under Obama has meant increasing unreliability of electric resources during extreme events, and a huge increase in the duration of power outages experienced by customers.

The average customer outage was just north of 8 hours in 2020 vs. about 3.5 hours in 2013, an increase of over 130%.

This will only get worse if America tries to rely on wind and solar at the expense of fossil fuels and nuclear.