When Government GEVeth, Government Can TakEV Away

GM, Ford and Stellantis all jumped on the EV bandwagon in compliance with President Biden's edict to shift to electric vehicles.  The edict came with the carrot of many government subsidies for doing so, including $7,500 direct to each consumer.

The problems that then ensued is that the infrastructure for such vehicles is still not in place even after billions spent by the Biden Administration to force such to be created - only to have it bogged down in  Democrat-created red tape that basically spent the funds to create jobs for Democrat functionaries with little actual results to show for it. Even Democrat cheerleader and mouthpiece John Stewart was appalled. Nor are the vehicles themselves suitable to fully replace ICE vehicles on a one-for-one basis.

But the market for electric vehicles was pretty much created and expanded by these edicts and subsidies.  Now that President Trump's administration has ended the taxpayer give-aways and drunken spending on electric cars, economic reality has set in.

The current limits on electric cars still make them a niche vehicle that are only good for certain conditions - and not for the Democrat-Greenie-demanded total replacement of internal combustion engine vehicles.

The results are that the manufacturers that went all-in and complied with the Biden Administration's edict and promise of government subsidies while ignoring economics and the actual current use case for electric vehicles are now realizing reality:

The Detroit News: Stellantis writes down $26.5 billion from EV investments

Yahoo Finance: What Ford Motor (F)'s $19.5 Billion EV Reset and Hybrid Pivot Means For Shareholders

 GM Authority:  GM Writing Down Another $6 Billion For Cutting Back On EV Investments

 Jumping on the Biden EV bandwagon cost the automakers over $58 Billion dollars so far and the losses continue to pile up.

Again, EVs do have some niche uses and appeal, but to expect based on government edict and the promise of tax breaks and subsidies alone that they would replace ICE cars and especially work trucks was foolhardy in the extreme. 

More On Canada

Yes, pun intended in the title.

Understand dear readers, the main element of the Canadian identity is one thing and one thing only.  It's not poutine, it's not hockey, it's not peacekeeping, its not even the reason the Geneva Convention is now referred to as the Geneva checklist. 

It is one thing and one thing only:

 They are not American. 

The Canadian psyche is locked in on differentiation from being American.

Ask them what is a Canadian, they're going to almost reflexively say Not American.

They may then proceed to other elements of their national essence like Government-run healthcare and gun control, but again these are simply enumerating ways how the country is different from America.

Indeed so much of Canadian identity is simply being not American or trying to differentiate itself frrm the US.  From a reaction to the USA's  melting pot, Canada announced the policy of multiculturalism. Most things Canadian are simply reactions to America.

So much so that they threw the election to the Liberals, after almost a decade of Liberal misrule and decline.  

The Liberals immediately got a campaign issue by immediately championing standing up to Trump for Canada and claiming to be preservers of Canada's unique (non-American) identity.

This  championing is even as the Liberals have: consistently degraded the Canadian identity; gone woke on the nation's history; imported tons of immigrants with no attempt to Canadianize them; and have tried to trade in what it means to be Canadian for a more universalist, citizen-of-the-world, euro-type definition. 

And Trump came along and threw the Liberal party and Mark Carney, who is perhaps the very definition of a citizen of the world, not just a lifeline, not just some red meat patriotism to campaign on, but a literal red carpet to hold onto power.

Even further polling showed that Trump running his mouth cost the conservatives. Politico: Poll: Canadians despise Trump and distrust US

Had Trump not decided to inject himself into Canadian politics with the repeated stupid "51st state" nonsense, and then did his quixotic tariff attack over the questionable claim of fentanyl being illegally smuggled over the border,  there would be a conservative in power in Ottawa right now to turn Canada around. 

So yes, the results of this election is Trump's fault.  This was an absolute blunder and completely counter-productive.

The more on Canadians certainly share the blame and will get the government they voted for good and hard as a result. But, had Trump not decided to run his mouth, the results would have been far different.

The Conservatives would have been a far better friend and ally to the USA than what we're about to get.

On the upside, with the Liberals back in power and likely pushing ahead full steam with corruption, net zero, and other progressive economic bromides, it can be predicted that Canada's per capita GDP for the entire country will now continue its drop and slip below that of the state of Mississippi.

So, they've got that decline going for them, which isn't nice, but, at least it will be very Canadian.

Media Sympathizes For Laid-Off Feds

The Detroit News: ‘I am going through hell’: Job loss, mental health, and the fate of federal workers

I don't recall these kinds of empathetic and sympathtic reportage when pipeline workers were fired en masse due to Biden's policies.

Instead the journos and Democrats told them and laid off miners and pipeline workers to get another job and  "learn to code".

This is different, because after all, these are their people being laid off.

These are credentialed, right-thinking, registered Democrat (vast majority if not all), Washington Post NPR-listening and NY Times-reading folks.

These federal workers being laid off aren't those unwashed working-class union members who Democrats claim they represent but don't really want to associate with. These federal workers are people who look and dress like the journos do, think like they do, shop at all the right stores like they do, and go to all the right places just as they do. 

Quite a difference in handling, isn't it?

Inflation Isn't Rearing It's Ugly Head Again, It's Just Being Actually Accurately Reported Again

Right on time for President Trump to take office, the data now shows inflation increasing.

Reason: Trump May Have To Grapple with Returning Inflation

We will note that Reason, an ostensibly libertarian publication is no friend of Trump.  Verily, Reason seems to be having vapors about his actually reducing the size, scope, and spending of government - something you would think a libertarian would cheer for, neh?

One would think so, but no. Basically Reason at this point is all about marijuana legalization and wide open borders, and damn little else. 

It is not "returning inflation", instead it is that inflation is now being reported accurately again after the books have been cooked and the data tortured the past four years.

Politico: How Democrats Were Tricked Into Believing the Economy Was Strong

The Democrats, pace Politico, weren't being "Tricked" -- they were the ones running the trick.  

The Biden-run government agencies were the ones massaging the data and running the scam under reporting inflation and messing with job statistics to give the picture of a rosy economy under Biden that wasn't. 

The Biden Administration and the media establishment (But I'm repeating myself) had been busy boasting and talking up how wonderful the economy under Biden has been, how Biden achieved a "soft landing" and  try to give him a boost for his reelection and then for Harris when even the massaged stats couldn't get him to the finish line.

The administration and media both made themselves busy asking Americans - "Who are going to believe Biden and the Media, or your own lyin' eyes?"

Now that Biden is out, the stats are being reported, presumably more accurately, just in time for President Trump to have to deal with the results of the massive overspending and effects of the policies Biden has left behind. 

The Fed's decision on setting interest rates - including reducing them right before the election which just so happened to assist Biden, was doing so based on the statistics being manipulated.  

The deliberate false reporting of government statistics,  statistics relied upon to set economic policy, should be seen as one of the greatest scandals of the Biden era.  

Perhaps one day it will be.

Making Cents - The Case For Ending The Penny

Inflation has made the penny barely worthwhile nowadays. 

Indeed, the early symbol for a penny originated with the Roman denarius - a coin that once was a day's pay for a Roman legionary. When English translations of the Bible referred to a penny they were, in fact, referring to the denarius.

The days when a penny was a day's pay are long, long, long gone. 

Verily, even most people's thoughts these days are more costly than a penny.

Inflation has eroded the purchasing power of the currency, and now the lowly penny may be making its final farewell.

The United States 1 cent coin costs 3.69 cents to make,  a 20% increase this year alone, currently costing the US Treasury a loss of $179 million dollars per year minting them for them to sit in people's drawers or jars, and weigh down their purses.

As such, Trump has instructed the Treasury to stop producing them.

While from a sentimental standpoint, keeping the penny is attractive as the US has had pennies since 1787, it is likely time to join other nations such as Canada in letting the penny make a graceful exit from our money supply.

Other US coins have gone by the wayside. For example, the last United States half penny was last minted  over 150 years ago in 1857 and the lack of 1/2 pennies hasn't been missed or remarked upon. 

Expect the penny to be removed for circulating currency if Congress agrees, and the costs of items to be rounded up or down accordingly.

The end of the penny, after all, just makes cents.

Every. Single. Time. Yet Again.

Surprising no one, President Biden's final jobs report was "revised" downward - yet again joining every other one of the Bureau of Labor employment statistics reports.

Revised downwards. Every. Damn. Time. 

That simply cannot be a happy coincidence.

Legal Insurrection: January Jobs Report: 2024 Employment Revised Down by 600,000

Well, at least it's not the 818,000 fewer jobs than first reported the last time around, but over counting by 600,000 is one heckuva statistical error.

Yet again, these stats aren't just bad because they let Biden trumpet a healthy economy and jobs market that simply wasn't there - in an election year no less.

A major problem when you cook the books on these reports is people do rely upon them.  For example the Fed, when considering adjusting interest rates relies on this report, among others. and in such reliance is not cutting rates probably as much as they should as they think the economy is growing just fine.  Unfortunately the economy under Biden was presented as being much better than it was due to these cooked statistics.

Can You Trust Any Statistic From The Biden-Harris Administration?

If the true statistic would make them look bad, the answer is clearly no.

We've seen the Bureau of Labor Statistics under Biden-Harris release, with great fanfare numbers showing job growth, and then the job numbers are quietly revised. Downward.  Every time, in some cases by 800,000 jobs after the good news is announced.

Now so too with the FBi and violent crime stats.

The FBI reported crime was down 2.1%, to benefit Democrats,

It has now quietly revised that decline to a 4.5% increase, which is quite a major and a notable increase.  Missed it by that much, I suppose,

Real Clear Investigations: Stealth Edit: FBI Quietly Revises Violent Crime Stats.

Surprise! (Not!) BLS Does Yet Another Huge Downward Jobs Revision

Throughout President Biden's term in office, the Bureau of Labor Statistics are released with great fanfare showing job growth, and then the job numbers are quietly revised. Downward, Every single time.

Now, the latest downward revision is a doozy.

Legal Insurrection:Biden/Harris Jobs Success Was Fake – 818,000 Downward Revision Announcement 

On Wednesday morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced a preliminary benchmark revision to the number of nonfarm payrolls from April 2023 through March 2024. According to the report, the number of new jobs added to the economy during this period was revised downward by 818,000.

That's the biggest downward revision during the Biden Administration yet. Indeed it is the biggest revision in 15 years.

That the BLS has clearly been politicized to loudly announce job growth happy-talk so it can be trumpeted by Biden et al, and then quietly walked back to make the Biden Administration look good is pretty much beyond question at this point. 

One major problem is the false statistics of such job growth made the Fed think it needed to keep interest rates up to fight inflation and the rate increases were not hurting the economy as jobs were still being created in record numbers defying normal expectaitons.  But they were not.

How to Lie With Statistics (a book everyone should read or at least listen to on Audible to become a better critical thinker IMHO) is not supposed to be a how-to manual. 

The Biden Administration just seems to outright and repeatedly lie about job growth statistics. What other statistics (cough, inflation!, cough) are they also cooking the books on?

Not Exactly A Statistic For Michigan To Be Proud Of

The Detroit Free Press: Michigan surpasses California as the top cannabis market in the U.S. by sales volume

Michigan with a population of 10 million surpasses California with a population of 39 million in terms of amount of marijuana sold. In terms of cash, in Michigan in total sales is a $4 billion industry compared to California's $6 billion marijuana industry as the devil's lettuce cost more in the land of fruits, nuts, and flakes.

This may account for the ever-present unpleasant smell of skunk in this state.

The article notes Marijuana is cheaper in Michigan than California as we have a better business climate so opening and operating marijuana businesses is cheaper and less tied up in red tape, and Michigan doesn't tax the electric lettuce quite as much.

That Michigan is leading in Soma purchases and consumption is hardly something to be proud of as a state, and consuming more than a state three times as large is kinda worrisome for its overall impact on the state's populace.

But, maybe it will lead to some new Michigan Visitor's Bureau slogans:

Great Lakes, Great Weed!

Pure Marijuana

Michigan - It's Dope!

All Skunk Smells Lead to Michigan!

Michigan, The Skunk State!

Every. Single. Time.

Yet again, continuing what has been the case since the reporting began under the Biden Administration, the Bureau of Labor's employment numbers are being yet again revised downwards after their initial happy result.

The New York Post: Initial US employment reports overstated by 439,000 jobs in 2023

This overstatement has occurred Every. Single. Time. the Bureau of Labor has released employment statistics under Biden.  The original happy pronouncements of job creation on the report, which Biden & Co is quick to take credit for, and which gets published widely, gets quietly walked back on a slow news day and revised downwards, by a significant amount.

That every single time the initial reports come out with a higher number than the corrected reality, with the correction published without any fanfare, and typically on a slow news Friday afternoon shows this is unlikely to be an honest mistake. 

In short, the Bureau of Labor's employment numbers under Biden have been politicized and are quite simply statistically unreliable. When all "mistakes" made in a series only go one way, that's a pretty sharp indication it;s not a mistake at all.

This is rather problematic as those politicized numbers are not just there give a false impression that things are going great, they are used to set policy, including by the Fed to adjust (and likely raise based on these false reports of rising employment) interest rates based on believing the economy is growing more than it actually is doing.

Michigan Dems Bent On Both Raising Cost Of Energy And Reducing Reliaiblity In the Name Of Global Warming

Michigan Dem's ideology is about to both raise energy prices in this state while at the same time reducing reliability.

The Detroit Free Press: Michigan Senate passes clean energy bills targeting reduced greenhouse gas emissions

Senate Bill 271 requires utilities to generate energy using at least 15% renewables through 2027, 50% from 2030 to 2034, and then 60% from 2035 on. Separately, utilities would be required to have clean energy portfolios of 80% by 2035 and reach 100% clean energy by 2040. The 50% renewable energy target for 2030 matches the goal set by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the MI Healthy Climate Plan unveiled last year.

Also, can a political hack spew anymore cliches per minute than  Senator Geiss in this one short declaration:

“This legislation marks the beginning of taking bold action to address this urgent crisis, one that is a clear and present danger, and failure to tackle it meaningfully cannot be an option. In fact, the cost of doing nothing is dire and detrimental to the health and welfare of our state and her people,” said Sen. Erika Geiss, D-Taylor. 

Seriously, she only missed "the fierce urgency of now" from that world salad.

Meanwhile, global warming is perhaps not exactly caused by human activity, and going out of our way to  inevitably raise energy prices in Michigan while reducing reliability is a fool's errand.

Indeed, even the current love affair with electric cars seems to be coming upo against economic reality: Forget the UAW strike, the real crisis may be a lack of demand for EVs

Now add even more government-mandated EVs on the road trying to charge form the reduced reliability and more expensive renewable energy being mandated by Michigan Dems.

Why Michigan's Democrats seem hell-bent on making energy both less reliable and more expensive is anybody's guess.

Fudging The Numbers Biden Bureau of Labor Statistics Style

Every time the Biden Administration touts great numbers in employment, the numbers  trumpeted as signs of a great economy under Biden, but then are later quietly "revised"  -- meaning majorly reduced, often by astonishing amounts.

Mish Talk: BLS Job Revisions Show Every Job Report in 2021 Was Total Garbage

December 2022:  Biden administration overstated Q2 job growth by 1 million: Philadelphia Fed 

And today, via Instapundit:  UNEXPECTEDLY!  500,000 jobs could disappear in dramatic revision of US government data: report.

Funny, that.  Rather remarkable consistency in overstating the jobs created, and then quietly and without much, if any, coverage revising it downwards.

In short, under Biden, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports appears to have been consistently politicized to support the administration.  BLS reports initially depict a rosy and growing jobs market to support Bidenomics when the actual facts quietly once revised after the announcement has been made reveal it not to be true.

Michigan Democrat Crony Capitalism

In another part of the effort to spend down the budget to prevent the income tax cut (if she can),  our Governor is giving money away as fast as she can.

One might have used to believe (if you were the gullible sort) the Democrats when they said they were against big business. 

 Au contraire, they like big corporations just fine - especially when they toe the government's line, and even more so when the company in question has a nice symbiotic relationship with a Democrat-supporting union. The spending in this case is for an electric vehicle battery plant site, because, of course it is.

The Detroit News: Whitmer signs $1.3B spending plan, directing $630M toward private Ford development

"Today, I’m proud to sign a supplemental package that will create 2,500 good-paying jobs in Marshall, improve infrastructure, grow our healthcare workforce, and so much more!" Whitmer said on social media.

So for the 2,500 "good-paying jobs" she boasts about, the state of Michigan is giving, in this one extra appropriate alone, a $650 Million subsidy, which  equals $252,000 per job.

The total of $1.6 Billion in local and state subsidies for this project means each and every one of those "good-paying jobs" jobs is subsidized to the tune of $640,000.00 in tax dollars for each and every job.

You know, we could save the state some money by just giving $500,000 each to 2,500 people in Marshall and tell them to have a good time. Heck, let's instead  give $1 million of taxpayer money  to 1,250 random people in Marshall and announce how Michigan has gained over a thousand new millionaires this year - that'll make the news and make everyone think the Michigan economy is just rockin'.

Good-paying jobs indeed - if you mean the government paying a corporation for them, with your tax dollars.

Imagine what your own business could do with a subsidy of $640,000 for every job you have - or even just the latest appropriated amount of $252,000 - especially after weathering the storm of Whitmer shutting this state down and forcing small businesses to close.

When Good GFCIs Go Bad

A couple weeks ago after a big storm came through, I found a circuit breaker had popped on the panel.  Reset it and it did not fix the problem - the lights in the guest bathroom, laundry room, hallway, and garage were all non-functional, as were al the plugs on the other side of that wall including the printer, and cable modem. Much fun.

Happily, the fridge, washer, and dryer in the laundry room still worked as did the garage door itself.

Clearly beyond my limited capabilities, I moved the modem via an extension cord to a working plug, and I sought an electrician to further diagnose and fix the issue.

Sadly, finding an electrician willing to work was hard. 

Finally found one and had an appointment set for last Thursday at 9:15 am, about a week after the outage, but it was the earliest I could get someone there.

So last Thursday 9:15 rolled around; then 10:15; then 11:15, and  no call -- no show.  I then called and got voicemail followed by a text message that he would call me right back.

As you might guess, no, no, he did not bother calling back at all.

Nor was there any response to my follow-up text asking if maybe he was too busy to come that day and if we could reschedule.

Then, since he clearly didn't want the work, I started looking for an alternate electrician.  Hard to get people to want to work today I suppose. Got a name from another friend yesterday, called him today, and he came over this afternoon right after finishing another job.

He then started diagnosing it and traced the cause to the GFCI outlet in the garage.  

There were three hot wires connected to the GFCI. One had gotten just loose enough to knock out that part of the circuit while leaving the rest of the circuit on the same breaker, including the Garage door working.  Rather tricky.

So wires got stripped, re-connected, and re-wired, and as a precaution we installed a nice fresh GFCI there as the old one was looking kinda dodgy, and it all works now.

Since We're Already in One, I'd Say The Odds Are Pretty Good

The Detroit Free Press, ever covering for the Democrats had the following article: What are the odds of a U.S. recession in 2023?

Since we're already in one I'd say the odds are pretty much 100%.

Indeed, now Federal Reserve Chairman Powell is backing away from his statement of just 11 days ago that higher rates likely won't cause a deep recession, it doesn't look good.

Fox Business: Fed's Powell abandons promise of 'soft landing' amid inflation fight

Given Powell's previous wrong statements that inflation frrm his and Biden's monetary policies would be merely tranistory, and that he;s now abandoning his promise that he can controlinflation while creating a "soft landing", I'd say that economic reality that their actions are goign to cvause a deep recession is pretty much spot on.

Inflation and flooding the economy with dollars may make you feel pretty good initially, and Biden is trying to keep the bender going by continuing spending under the "Inflation Reduction Act" that will actually increase inflation, and spending over half a trillion in forgiving his supporters' student loans.  

But, the hangover is going to suck - and its going to hurt those of us who weren't even drinking the Democrat's Modern Monetary Theory Kool-Aid.

Well, That's Very Reassuring

The Detroit News: Powell: Higher rates won’t likely cause deep US recession

This statement is not reassuring, at all.

Remember, this is the same Powell that stated  in the not-so-distant past that the "Recent Rise in Inflation Is ‘Transitory - as inflation that proved it was not transitory at all.

Turns out it is not, in fact, transitory and it is still very much continuing.

You know, the same transitory inflation that he later admitted he was wrong about and has now been raising interest rates to try to beat down, even as the Biden administration continues to flood the economy with more government spending and more dollars into circulation?

Yes, him.

His current statement that raising rates now won't likely cause a deep US recession needs to be taken with a large block of salt, not to mention an expectation that we're about to hit a deep US recession considering his prognostication accuracy to date.

When is A Recession Not A Recession ?

“On the telescreens, almost all figures of production are grossly exaggerated or simply fabricated to indicate an ever-growing economy, even during times when the reality is the opposite.”   G. Orwell, 1984. 

Nota Bene Democrats, 1984 is not supposed to be a how-to guide, so quit using it as one, dammit.

Then one looks at a dictionary:

Why yes, two consecutive quarters of falling real GDP constitutes a recession after all.

 Although I halfway expect the dictionary definition of recession to change shortly in order to  better suit the needs of progressives much as how both racism and female have had their meanings changed recently.

And Here We Go: Fed Raises Interest Rates higher Than Expected

The Detroit News: Fed attacks inflation with its largest rate hike since 1994

The same Top Men (note that term is now being used in a gender-inclusive manner that includes all the economically illiterate bints in the Biden administration as well)  that brought you Bidenflation are about to drop us into stagflation and a recession - if we're lucky.

Top. Men.

Can Anyone In The Biden Administration Do Math Or Economics?

Biden has announced that the U.S. to sell up to 45 mln bbls oil from reserve as part of historic release (Reuters).

Here's why it's not going to be more than a blip in gas prices and is just plain dumb.

Prior to Covid, the U.S. field production of crude oil, wast 13 million barrels per day of crude oil before the pandemic, we are now only at 11.655 million barrels per day.

US production is now short about 1.3 million barrels per day, every day.  That means we're short about 39 million barrels per month in US production alone, so the 45 million barrel release doesn't do much at all for the worldwide market in oil, much less our own domestic market, and it just covers the shortfall in production for a month and a few days -- without addressing all the other demand factors involved nor the fact that demand isn't going to drop after that month.

The Biden administration, instead of flashily selling off a reserve meant for a national emergency, and instead of blocking oil and gas development at every turn in the US, should instead be encouraging production to ensure an actual longer term easing of prices and reduced reliance on foreign oil.

Unfortunately that goes against their greenie and Democrat policies and beliefs that oil production is bad and higher prices are a good thing, so they're not going to take steps that might actually improve the situation.

But, hey, aren't you glad there's no more mean tweets every time you fill your tank?

Those Pronouncements Really Didn't Age Well

Remember when Team Biden, and his media cheering section, verily the smartest people in the room, were buys telling us what we knew was happening wasn't happening, and what we knew would happen wouldn't happening? '

Their pronouncements sure haven't aged well.

Take gas prices:

Or how about on inflation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Certainly, neither pronouncement aged well at all.

And of course we have Biden who declares that the "economy in good shape".  I don't think that pronouncement is going to age well either, if it isn't false already.