BIDEN WATCH: 11.12.22 - 11 Signs That Economic Activity Is Plunging Off A Cliff

US National Security Train Wreck Over Rare Earth Minerals – StevenBucci - https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5703 The U.S. is currently heading for a major national security train wreck. Bewildering environmental policies, energy plans detached from reality, and an incomprehensible practice of trusting China to provide critical components for both civilianand military technologies is an unsustainable trajectory. The administration has rejected fossil fuels, driving us commercially and across the defense industry toward electric vehicles. The problem is, China has a near-monopoly onthe mining and refinement of rare earth minerals (such as lithium and cobalt) that are used in EV batteries. China also monopolizes the production of those same batteries. In short, America is being forced to tie its future to EVs while having no capability to provide key elements of the system. Adding to the dilemma is that China is "allowed"to do all the "yucky stuff" we won't do, or don't want to do. The rub here is that China is not a client we can order about. It isn't even our friend. Today, China is taking advantage of current geopolitics to further entrench itself as the leading global producer of rare earth minerals. Critical minerals are already inshort supply and heavily controlled by foreign powers. China dominates the global marketplace for rare earth metals through its control of both the production and processing. China produces three-quarters of all lithium-ion batteries in the world, with a singleChinese manufacturer, CATL, controlling 30% of the global EV battery market. China also refines 80% of the world's cobalt and 60% of the world's lithium, two critical minerals key for electric vehicles. Meanwhile, the United States refines 0% of theworld's cobalt. As the White House report on "Building Resilient Supply Chains, Revitalizing American Manufacturing and Fostering Broad-Based Growth" (June 2021) acknowledged, by "operatingwell outside globally accepted practices," China has been able to "develop battery-critical materials infrastructure well ahead of market drivers." China doesn't care a wit for the environment. The mess it has at home and its drive for control of these elements prove it. The Biden administration knows of this problem, acknowledging critical minerals as an important issue to address in one of President Joe Biden's earliest executive orders.That order specifically identified the need for the United States to have "resilient, diverse, and secure supply chains to ensure our economic prosperity and national security." Unfortunately, the opposite has occurred. That same executive order led to a 100-day review report that specifically identified how important a reliable supply chain is for U.S. national security. The importance oflithium-ion batteries to military equipment and the need for rare earth metals used in airplanes and defense equipment was highlighted. The report also acknowledged that changes in future military advancements will require "high-density energy storage to support agile forces utilizing power-hungry propulsion,communications, sensors, and weapons." It's increasingly vital that the United States establish a more reliable supply chain of critical minerals and materials to diversify away from relying on China. Buildinga diverse supply chain of critical minerals and materials will require a major policy shift--including a focus on bolstering the production of critical minerals we have here in the United States. Domestic production alone will not meet the growing demand the United States has for critical minerals. The United States simply does not have the natural resources domesticallyand is not positioned to match the growing processing-capacity domination of China. China's marketplace domination is increasingly a national security risk to the United States. Beijing could and most likely will, when it's advantageous, abuse its market power to reduce or even cut off the United States' access to key critical minerals, leaving uswithout the ability to create next-generation battery technologies that are necessary for advanced military operations. To establish a more reliable supply chain of critical minerals, the United States should consider working with multinational companies--not tied to China--based beyond ourborders that already have access to the critical minerals we need to make electric vehicles. Some of those multinational corporations, such as Glencore and Anglo American, already have global operations and are well-positioned to help meet the growing demand herein the United States. Establishing a reliable supply chain of critical minerals and materials will help lessen America's reliance on China and will lessen the national security risk faced todayfrom Beijing's market dominance. The Biden administration's extreme environmental policies, frankly, should be curbed. If we are stuck with them, we have to recognize their inherent contradictions and atleast adjust them to reality. China's ability to hamstring American industry and defense must be mitigated. Action must be taken to alter this disastrous ambush in the making, and it must be taken now. ----------------------- 11 Signs That Economic Activity Is Plunging Off A Cliff - by Michael Snyder - http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/11-signs-that-economic-activity-is-plunging-off-a-cliff/ Have you noticed it too? There has been a dramatic shift in the economy in recent days. It has been sudden and it has been severe. All over the country, sales are fallinglike a rock, inventories are piling up to alarming levels, and large companies are beginning to conduct mass layoffs. Perhaps it was inevitable that such a downturn would arrive, but the Federal Reserve has made things far worse by rapidly hiking interestrates. Every other time the Fed has engaged in such a rate hiking binge it has resulted in a recession, and there is no way that we are going to escape unscathed this time around. The following are 11 signs that economic activity is plunging off a cliff� #1 This year, only 74 percent of Americans will celebrate Thanksgivingbecause so many people are skipping the holiday in order to save money� In 2021, researchers note that an IPSOS survey found that nine in 10 Americans planned to celebrate Thanksgiving. This year, the new poll of 1,000 people found that numberhas fallen to just 74 percent. In fact, 47 percent say they�re celebrating �Friendsgiving� because of its more budget-friendly menu. Specifically, just 24 percent of Friendsgiving celebrations will even have a turkey on the table, with 33 percent opting fora pizza instead! #2 Used vehicle prices have just plunged at the fastest pace thatwe have seen since 2008. #3 A Dollar General assistant manager named Travis Bennett recentlyposted a video on TikTok that showed unsold inventory at his store literally piling up to the roof� In a video with over 380,000 views addressed to �anyone inside this company that actually cares,� TikTok user Travis Bennett shows the conditions of his Dollar General. Thisincludes boxes filling the aisles and numerous crates that have not been unpacked. Bennett says this is typical for �most Dollar General stores across the country.� #4 Consumer confidence in the housing market just hit an all-timerecord low. #5 All over America, companies are seeing depressingly low salesnumbers. In fact, it is being reported that the Net Rising Index �is getting close to a level which corresponds to several past recessions�� A closely watched survey from the National Association for Business Economics has shown a decline in sales for companies that hasn�t been this sharp since the mid-2020 Covidcrash and is getting close to a level which corresponds to several past recessions. The Net Rising Index (NRI) for sales � the percentage of survey respondents reporting rising sales minus the percentage reporting falling sales � peaked at 74% of firms inApril 2021. As of October, it�s down to 36%. #6 CNN is reporting that Facebook could start laying off thousandsof workers �as early as this week�. #7 Other large tech companies are also conducting mass layoffs,and many believe that what we have experienced so far is just the tip of the iceberg. #8 Credit card debt growth has fallen to the lowest level in 4months. #9 20 million U.S. households are behind on paying their powerbills. #10 37 percent of all small business owners were not able to paytheir rent on time during the month of October. #11 A poll that was just released found that a whopping 73 percentof Americans will be �thinking a lot about the economy� when they vote. The fact that voters are so focused on the economy right now appears to be really bad news for Democrats. The guy in the White House always gets most of the credit or most of the blame for how the economy is performing, and right now Joe Biden�s approval rating is downright dismal� Voters� approval of President Joe Biden remains deep in negative territory and 70 percent of voters say the country is on the wrong track � both results that bode ill forDemocrats as Election Day approaches. Fifty-five percent of registered voters said they disapprove of the job Biden is doing as president, and just 42 percent said they approve in the last POLITICO-Morning Consultpoll conducted in advance of Tuesday�s election. Of course Joe Biden is still going to be in the White House no matter what happens during the midterm elections. In fact, either he or Kamala Harris will be residing there until at least January 2025. So there won�t be any major policy changes for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, economic conditions are just going to continue to deteriorate. As this new downturn accelerates, a lot of Americans are going to lose their jobs. In fact, Bank of America is projecting that job losses in this country will soon hit 175,000 a month� As pressure from the Fed�s war on inflation builds, nonfarm payrolls will begin shrinking early next year, translating to a loss of about 175,000 jobs a month during the firstquarter, the bank said. Charts published by Bank of America suggest job losses will continue through much of 2023. �The premise is a harder landing rather than a softer one,� Michael Gapen, head of US economics at Bank of America, told CNN in a phone interview Monday. Sadly, that is a wildly optimistic projection. During times like these, you will want to be carrying as little debt as possible, and you will want to have a sizable emergency fund so that you can continue paying the billsif something happens. In 2008 and 2009, millions of Americans ended up losing their homes because they couldn�t continue paying the bills once they lost their jobs. Don�t let that happen to you. The times that we are moving into won�t be pleasant. Eventually, they will be far worse than anything that we experienced in 2008 and 2009. But that doesn�t mean that we have to be depressed about what is coming. When I was growing up, I was often told that �when times get tough, the tough get going�. Those that choose to be bold and tough are going to have a much better chance of making it through what is ahead. Unfortunately, boldness and toughness are in short supply in our society today, and the coming economic slowdown is likely to cause a massive national emotional breakdown. -------------------------- The Strategic Petroleum Reserve Has Become a Joke � Todd Strandberg - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/ The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is an emergency stockpile of petroleum maintained by the United States Department of Energy (DOE). It is the largest publicly known emergencysupply in the world. The oil is stored in giant underground salt domes in Louisiana and Texas. The SPR has a capacity of 714 million barrels. The United States started the petroleum reserve in 1975 to mitigate future supply disruptions as part of the International Agreement on an International Energy Program afteroil supplies were interrupted during the 1973�1974 oil embargo. Because President Joe Biden�s poll numbers were hurting, he authorized in March the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the reserve for 180 days. The Biden administrationwill release another 15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in December in a bid to drive fuel prices down. Since 2015, Congress has been selling the oil in the reserve to partly fund the national deficit, in unpublicized sales. The DOE has run at least seven sales since 2017, selling132 million barrels, or about 18.2% of what had been in the reserve. According to legislation already in place, the amount of oil in the reserve could fall to as little as 238 million barrels in the next five years. This will be a 67% reductionto the oil in the reservoir since 2010. The SPR was never a vast underground sea of oil that could fuel America for a long time. The most recent inventory was 401.7 million barrels. This equates to about 20 daysof oil at 2019 daily U.S. consumption levels of 20.54 million barrels per day, or 41 days of oil at 2019 daily U.S. import levels of 9.141 million barrels per day. However, the maximum total withdrawal capability from the SPR is only 4.4 million barrels perday, so it would take about 91 days to use the entire inventory. The administration has no working plan to refill the reserve. In 2012, the total value of the crude in the SPR was approximately $43.5 billion, while the price paid for theoil was $20.1 billion (an average of $28.42 per barrel). The current spot price of oil is around $90 per barrel, so we would pay through the nose to refill the SPR. Biden has turned the SPR into a joke. The inventory is now so low that it could not help with any major crisis. If Biden and future presidents are going to deplete the SPRduring every future oil spike, the reserve could eventually run dry. The SPR has just been neutralized by our so-call friend in the Arab world. The oil-producing cartel OPEC and its allied countries announced they would cut their collectiveproduction by 2 million barrels a day. Biden went to the Saudi Arabians to beg them to produce more oil, and they made a fool of him by taking the opposite action. The U.S. used to have all types of reserves, but we sold most of them off in good times. We once had a billion-ounce reverse of silver. The treasury now has zero ounces ofsilver. Our ability to import goods from China has caused us to not even have reserves of essential drugs and rare earth metals. The only meaningful reserve we have left is a huge stash of government cheese. The dairy lobby has convinced Congress to fund thishoard that sits in old mines and rots. The DOE has raised the possibility of limiting fuel exports in a bid to force domestic gasoline prices lower, but the administration has in recent days toned down its rhetoric,according to two industry people. Oil company executives and analysts have said the move could backfire because it could cause producers to slow their drills if they no longer have access to foreign markets, increasing domestic prices. The SPR was a good idea, but government corruption ruined it. We should have had an SPR of at least 2 billion barrels. Energy is something that you can�t live without. Europenow sees the value of having greater gas reserves. Great Britain was really caught with its pants down. Its natural gas reserves are near 100%, but they will only last a few weeks. Some European nations have reserves that will last them until next spring. One of the most inspiring scriptures that explains why we have a problem with oil is Deuteronomy 25:4. I like Timothy�s quote that is sighted below. When Biden came to office,he attacked oil companies as greed firms that should be driven out of business. He still attacks them as profit-driven, but that is how the capitalist system works. Without a reward, you get less production. God is not only the Lord of the universe, but Heis the world�s wisest economist. �For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward� (1 Timothy 5:18). ------------------------