Free Republic

A Wall Street analyst has been fired after he was filmed telling a Jewish American to “go back to your country” while he also covered hostage posters with signs accusing Israel of being an “apartheid state” committing “genocide.” Freepoint Commodities confirmed in a statement that the employee seen in a now-viral video “is no longer associated with” the company that “does not tolerate discrimination and hate speech directed against any group.” He was identified by journalist Andy Ngo as Kurush Mistry, which sources later also confirmed to the Financial Times. The woman with him — who called Israelis “rapists” —...

Crushing federal and state regulations are forcing California's farmers to move operations to Mexico. What could go wrong? Anybody notice who might be getting their hands on the U.S. food supply? I found it buried in an Epoch Times story about Congress's upcoming Farm Bill spendathon, set to go to a vote in December. It's supposedly aid to U.S. farmers, including California's, the U.S.'s top agricultural state, which produces much of the U.S. food supply. But it's hardly a solution. Turns out the regulatory burden is so nasty out there it's driving farmers in California to move operations to Mexico...

Trillion Energy International Inc. (CSE: TCF) (OTC: TRLEF) (Frankfurt: Z62) is a company in the right place at the right time as it is poised to bring on desperately needed natural gas production within weeks to the European market. With energy prices going parabolic, gas supplies cut off and the Ukraine War drags on with no end in sight, Europe is facing a long cold winter and a decade of sky-high energy pricing. Russia has indefinitely shuttered the Nord Stream Pipeline, thereby cutting off much of Europe’s natural gas supply, in retaliation for Western sanctions. The pipeline won’t flow again...

As the global economy labors under sky-high energy costs, those costs are bleeding through the entire economy triggering record-setting inflation. One sector being increasingly battered by the high energy prices is the commodities sector, and that is raising prices which will be passed on to consumers through every producer and manufacturer dependent on those commodities to produce their products. The storm hitting commodities will eventually add to the pressures on consumers, and affect investors, as it affects the profitability of the companies who supply products. And things are set to get even worse as winter approaches, and supplies of natural...

Kazakhstan’s president on Thursday blasted his government for its handling of a sugar crisis as shortages and price spikes contributed to chaotic scenes in supermarkets. Rising living costs since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic have helped fuel unrest in Central Asia, including in the region’s richest country, Kazakhstan, where bloody turmoil in January left 238 people dead. Demonstrators attend a rally in memory of victims of the recent country-wide unrest in Almaty on February 13, 2022. Hundreds gathered in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty on February 13, 2022 to commemorate victims of the deadly unrest last month, defying an official...

The US is a movin’ on up to the high side ... of energy prices. Today, WTI crude oil futures broke through the $110 barrier. The WTI Crude crack spread, the differential between the price of crude oil and petroleum products extracted from it, is up 535% under President “I HATE OIL!” Biden and diesel fuel is up 121%. WTI crude is up 1% today. “Crack? I thought crack was something that Hunter did!” – Joe Biden

We have a double whammy facing investors, The Federal Reserve wanting to take away the monetary punch bowl and Federal energy policies that are crushing middle-class households and lower-wages workers. But how do you hedge against The Federal Reserve tightening and Biden’s reckless energy policies? Take a look at investing in commodities (S&P GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust and the Bloomberg Commodity Index) versus the S&P 500 Total Return index since The Fed began signaling that they would take away the monetary punch bowl. Yes, commodities like food and gasoline/diesel prices are up dramatically under Biden’s energy policies (not to mention the...

It has been a miserable day for markets as The Federal Reserve struggles to get inflation under control. The Dow fell over 1,000 points today and NASDAQ was down a cool 5%. Is the Hinderburg Omen back in fashion? Better yet, the Powell-Yellenburg Omen? While equity markets have gotten clobbered by Powell and the Gang, commodities at least rallied in the afternoon.

Having suddenly and ultra-aggressively turned on it people with the most draconian restrictions of any nation in the world so far since COVID arrived on the scene in some Wuhan bat-soup, this week has seen the proletariat starting to fight back as food shortages hit and life inside their apartment prison cells becomes unbearable. The CCP demanded “Control your soul’s desire for freedom. Do not open your window or sing,” after Shanghaians began to scream for help. 🇨🇳 Chinese authorities sending drones over to Shanghai and sounding messages: “Please comply w covid restrictions. Control your soul’s desire for freedom. Do...

Commodities prices could rise by 40 percent and will likely continue to go higher, according to a note from JPMorgan Chase from April 7, as raw materials hit a record high last month following Western sanctions on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine. Russia is a main supplier for up to 10 percent of global energy production and about 20 percent of global wheat production. The commodities affected include oil, which is already up 33 percent from the same month the previous year, while natural gas has gone up by 65 percent since the invasion roiled the markets. Metals...

We will look back at current events and realise that they marked the change from a dollar-based global economy underwritten by financial assets to commodity-backed currencies. We face a change from collateral being purely financial in nature to becoming commodity based. It is collateral that underwrites the whole financial system. The ending of the financially based system is being hastened by geopolitical developments. The West is desperately trying to sanction Russia into economic submission, but is only succeeding in driving up energy, commodity, and food prices against itself. Central banks will have no option but to inflate their currencies to...

ROME -- Prices for food commodities like grains and vegetable oils reached their highest levels ever last month largely because of Russia's war in Ukraine and the “massive supply disruptions” it is causing, threatening millions of people in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere with hunger and malnourishment, the United Nations said Friday.The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said its Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in international prices for a basket of commodities, averaged 159.3 points last month, up 12.6% from February. As it is, the February index was the highest level since its inception in 1990.FAO said...

Numerous elites like Klaus Schwab of The World Economic Forum (and Davos fame) are calling for a “Great Reset” in global economies. But perhaps “The Great Reset” in taking place in asset markets … and not in a good way. Consider what has happened since President Biden was elected. The S&P 500 total return index (green index) has risen thanks to The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet expansion (orange line) with COVID. Until 2022 when the expectation of Fed rate hikes surged from 3 in late December 2021 to 9.4 expected rate hikes over the next 12 months (yellow line). The...

With Russia’s central bank having just profoundly altered the international trade and monetary system by linking the Russian ruble to both gold and commodities, journalists in Moscow asked me to write a Q and A article on what these developments mean, and the ramifications of these changes on the Russian ruble, the US dollar, the gold price and the global system of currencies. This article has been published on the RT.com website here.Since RT.com is now blocked and censored in many Western locations such as the EU, UK, US and Canada, and since many readers may not be able to...

Zoltan! (Forbes) – Credit Suisse’s Zoltan Pozsar argues Bretton Woods II crumbled when the G7 countries seized Russia’s foreign exchange reserves. Keeping money inside financial institutions like the IMF was considered risk free. That is clearly no longer the case. Similarly, Bretton Woods I collapsed when Nixon took the US of the gold standard back in 1971 when dollars were convertible to gold at a fixed exchange rate of $35 an ounce. This led to Bretton Woods II, backed by “inside money” or the dollar, which itself is not linked to gold or any other commodity. Now the basis of...

Soft Red Winter (SRW) futures hit an all-time high Friday before retreating back, as consecutive limit up trading days meant wheat prices topped a previous high set in 2008. Earlier this week, prices had shot to a 14-year high. "On the continuous futures, the Chicago March winter wheat futures contract set a then all-time high of $13.34 1/2 cents on Feb 27, 2008. Today, the March 2022 has traded to $13.40. So on some continuous charts, a new record today," says Bill Nelson of ProFarmer. "The wonky part of this is that today's record is for wheat futures in delivery....

Ukraine is considered the “breadbasket of Europe,” and the Russian invasion is choking off grain exports, sending global food prices to record highs. Grain prices surged to record highs last week as world food prices are now higher than they were during the 2011 Arab Spring, leaving us with an abundance of caution that political uprisings due to food price shocks could be right around the corner. On Friday, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Food Price Index (FFPI), a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities, reported record-high prices for February....

Commodities markets from agriculture to energy to metals have been upended by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as Bloomberg’s index of raw materials is set for the biggest weekly gain in nearly half a century. The invasion has sent commodity prices soaring as western sanctions force Russia into growing isolation. Banks, importers, and shippers avoid Russian exports as traders price in new fears of shortages in energy, grains, and metals, sending the Bloomberg’s gauge of raw materials to its largest weekly gain since 1974. The Bloomberg Commodity Index (BCOM), which updates at the end of each session, was up 8.6% on...

BP's decision to abandon its stake in oil giant Rosneft is the first high-profile example of the self-sanctioning by companies of their business links to Russia, a process likely to have major short- and long-term implications for energy markets. BP's dramatic exit of its 19.75% share of Rosneft could cost the London-listed oil major as much as $25 billion, a hefty price to pay in order to be seen to be doing the right thing in response to Russia's invasion of neighboring Ukraine. "I have been deeply shocked and saddened by the situation unfolding in Ukraine and my heart goes...

Goldman Warns Of Stagflationary Commodity Supply Shock On Ukraine, Raises Near-Term Brent Forecast To $115 One look at the surge in oil, gas and various other commodities like wheat, confirms what everyone by now knows: unleashing hell against Russia in the form of the nuclear SWIFT option coupled with central bank sanctions may crush the Russian economy but it will also will lead to a harrowing price shock for ordinary citizens across the globe coupled with the worst stagflationary episode in years. As Goldman writes in a late Sunday note, Western sanctions on Russia are set to tighten significantly after...