Free Republic

“The essence of leadership is being able to see the iceberg before it hits the Titanic.”Markets are being whipsawed by rate hike threats from Central Banks, China lockdowns, the Ukraine war, while being stalked by inflation and stagflation. The big risk remains policy mistakes – trying to solve these with the wrong monetary and fiscal policies. Taking a look at the stock markets its well windy out there. The Federal Reserve is threatening to raise interest rates at a clip – even the ECB might get its act together later this summer, while the Chinese are double padlocking doors across...

As 20 food processing facilities have burned down over the past 5 months, the federal government and now state governments are starting to warn about coming supply chain shortages. The State of Georgia has now declared a state of emergency, which is nothing more than another opportunity to squash your liberties, over supply chain shortages. Aden Tate, author of The Faithful Prepper and The Prepper’s Guide to Post-Disaster Communications, has the story at The Organic Prepper. Things have apparently gotten so bad in Georgia that the governor has now declared that the state is living under a state of emergency...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued a warning about the future, which looks grim. If things continue as they are now – and they more than likely will – global food shortages will continue. The result will be supply issues and civil unrest, likely beginning in the Third World and spreading from there. Protests have already erupted in Peru due to unrelenting inflation, and this is probably only a taste of what is to come as the problem spreads. Sky-high food prices, especially in poorer countries, will make it unaffordable for many families to make ends meet. This will...

A pattern of fires striking food facilities across the United States suggests that arson team are targeting food facilities for destruction. This theory, if confirmed, is consistent with other engineered tactics now being deployed to destroy food abundance in America: (snip) The partial halting of grain and fertilizer deliveries by Union Pacific railroad, which is largely owned by Blackrock and Vanguard investment funds. The mass culling of chickens and turkeys, using fraudulent PCR testing to claim there’s another “bird flu epidemic” that requires the mass destruction of egg-producing chickens (and other birds used for meat). The government paying farmers to...

Only 32 percent of the winter wheat crop in the United States received a “good” or “excellent” rating from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), new reports show. While this represents a slight increase of two points compared to a week ago, the figure is far behind 2021’s 53 percent rating, illustrating just how bad America’s wheat crop is due to persistent drought conditions in many areas. “Winter wheat rated as fair was 32 percent and winter wheat rated poor to very poor was 36 percent,” reported the Longview News-Journal. “Winter wheat headed was 5 percent, 1 point less than...

With Joe Biden only in office for just over 430 days so far, with well over 1,000 days left in his presidency, and stores in America already looking like the photograph above sent in to ANP by a reader in Beaver Falls, PA, just imagine what the store shelves will look like at the end of Biden’s term! With it long having been warned that only 9 meals separate a civilized society from complete and total anarchy, please listen to what Biden says in the final video below: “We both talked about how we could INCREASE and disseminate MORE RAPIDLY...

When I started warning of an emerging global food crisis a number of months ago, many out there assumed that I must be exaggerating things. Sadly, I was not exaggerating one bit. The soaring price of fertilizer, extreme global weather patterns, shocking crop failures and an epic global supply chain crisis had combined to create a "perfect storm" even before the war in Ukraine began. Of course the war has made things far worse, because Russia and Ukraine collectively account for about 30 percent of all worldwide wheat exports under normal conditions. For a while, the mainstream media and our...

Russia’s recent decision to halt fertilizer exports could have a devastating impact on Brazil, an agriculture powerhouse that imports more than 85 percent of its fertilizer demand. According to Bloomberg, Russia is Brazil’s top supplier of fertilizer. And Belarus, one of Russia’s allies, provides 28 percent of Brazil’s fertilizer imports. Before the invasion of Ukraine, fertilizer costs were already high due to inflation. Moscow’s protectionism following the invasion made it that much worse, depriving countries like Brazil of the nutrients they need to grow all kinds of farm goods. “No other nation in the world relies on foreign fertilizer (more)...

In one of the more tone-deaf examples of elitist arrogance we’ve seen in quite some time, the billionaire-owned news outlet Bloomberg has offered Americans some mind-blowing “advice” on how best to cope with Joe Biden’s inflationary economy. Specifically, you who are struggling to make ends meet thanks to steep (and climbing) increases in price for food, gas, energy and housing under the current regime should reduce your lifestyle to eating lentils, while allowing your pets to die as well. The article begins with this headline: “Inflation Stings Most If You Earn Less Than $300K. Here’s How to Deal” – as...

The fertilizer crisis just got a whole lot worse after 3,000 Canadian Pacific Rail Workers walked off the job, leaving fertilizer shipments stranded. Thousands of CP Rail conductors, engineers, train, and yard workers represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference decided to strike after the union and the rail company failed to strike a deal. This could result in a shortage of fertilizer and other needed farm supplies ahead of the spring growing season. “CP Rail is the leading carrier of potash, a potassium-rich salt mined from underground deposits formed from evaporated sea beds millions of years ago, used to...

March 14 (Reuters) - A worsening drought in the southern U.S. Plains is threatening the region's winter wheat crop just as the Russian invasion of Ukraine dents global supplies. Some farmers in southwestern Kansas, the top U.S. wheat producing state, have not received much measurable rain or snow since October. Winter wheat is planted in autumn, lays dormant in winter and begins sending up green shoots in spring. Proper soil moisture is critical at this stage for the crop to thrive. More than half of Kansas was classified as under severe drought or worse as of March 8, the driest...

We are witnessing the remaking of the world order in front of our eyes — and this will impact global supply chains in unforeseen ways. We are about to experience the most dramatic and unpredictable supply chain map we’ve experienced since World War II. If the Russia-Ukraine conflict’s international ramifications keep spreading, we face a real possibility of a bifurcating global economy, in which geopolitical alliances, energy and food flows, currency systems, and trade lanes could split. During the first Cold War, the world was anything but flat. There were two worlds — the East and the West. That world...

The breakdown of global supply chains is well-known by now. Whether it’s finding groceries in your supermarket, buying a new car or buying appliances like dishwashers and refrigerators, goods are scarce. Also, deliveries take forever and choices are limited. Many people wonder why the problem isn’t going away. Here’s the answer: The supply chain is a complex dynamic system. When any complex system collapses, you can look for specific causes but that’s usually a waste of time. Systems collapse internally because they are too large and too interconnected and require too many energy inputs to keep going. Any specific cause...

Over the past month, as Wall Street turned increasingly optimistic on US growth alongside the Fed, with consensus (shaped by the Fed's leaks and jawboning) now virtually certain of a March rate hike, we have been repeatedly warning that after a huge policy error in 2021 when the Fed erroneously said that inflation is "transitory" (it wasn't), the central bank is on pace to make another just as big policy mistake in 2022 by hiking as many as 4 times and also running off its massive balance sheet... right into a growth slowdown. The Fed is going from one huge...

I’ve been involved in the restaurant business for most of my life, and through the years, I have seen a lot – recessions, labor shortages, product scarcities, and changes in culture both internally and externally. But I have never seen anything like the current condition of the industry’s supply chain. From toilet paper to lumber, the supply chain crisis has been at the forefront of Americans’ minds for months. As a restaurateur who has an inside perspective and has personally observed its repercussions, I am compelled to speak honestly into the crisis at hand. We will never fix the supply...

Supply-chain problems, especially related to steel, are beginning to affect road and bridge projects that contractors are doing in this area for the state Department of Transportation. In a year-end wrap-up of the construction season Wednesday, District 11 Executive Cheryl Moon-Siriani and Jason Zang, assistant executive who oversees construction, said some contractors are having problems obtaining materials they need. The district includes Allegheny, Lawrence and Beaver counties. They didn’t want to identify specific projects, but they said in some instances contractors have changed how work is scheduled to do work in areas where they have the materials they need. In...

U.S. defense leaders have allowed China’s military might to grow unchecked while they prattle on about critical race theory and climate change. That increases the risk of war over Taiwan.The Chinese Communist Party is open about its imperial ambitions. Chinese leader Xi Jinping calls explicitly for “the transformation of the global governance system”—which means China in charge of the Asian Pacific and, ultimately, the world. America must act now to stop it. Our economic prosperity, no less than our national security, depends on it. A China that bestrides the Pacific would make today’s supply chain woes look pleasant. A China...

President Joe Biden tried to distance himself from supply chain disruptions this Christmas, telling Americans on Wednesday he was not responsible for any problems. “I can’t promise that every person will get every gift they want on time,” Biden said. “Only Santa Claus can keep that promise.” Biden argued that shortages for some goods around Christmas were normal, citing the Cabbage Patch Kids doll shortage in the 1980s and also the shortage of Beanie Babies in past years. The president downplayed reports of reduced supplies of goods for Americans shopping for the holidays. “Here’s the deal. For the vast majority...

The Biden-Harris administration on Monday opened an investigation into retailers, and not itself, to scrutinize the supply chain crisis. The probe is a repeated strategy from November when the administration opened a Department of Justice probe into oil companies for allegedly “gouging people.” The investigations into private companies is an Obama-era tactic deployed to displace blame on failed administrative policies to the private sector.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Joe Biden made sure to remind Americans that Big Government is meeting the “needs” of the public, and that his administration is in full control over the food supply. Pretending that the economy is in a state of recovery, the Biden administration ignores the growing problems of rapid inflation and food rationing. Reading from his weekly propaganda script, Joe Biden touted that grocery stores were “well-stocked with turkey” and “everything else” that Americans “need.” He made the announcement at the same time Publix announced a long list of food item shortages across 1,280 stores. “For all...