Thursday, January 04, 2018

The Plutocrats are creating a permanent underclass. It has been occurring since 2006.

Housing, the bastion of the USA Middle Class, has been falling in sales since 2006.

Number of new houses (click here) sold in the United States from 1995 to 2016 (in thousands)

Below is the history of the DOW. The wealth class has been taking the wealth of the middle class. The new tax law makes it permanent.

So while the populous of the USA is transfixed by the media on an "Alpha Dog Fight" the country is heading into poverty.


The New Tax Plan attacks the Consumer Price Index used for increases in SSI payments.

For tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2017 (click here) (Dec. 31, 2018 for figures that are newly provided under the Act for 2018 and thus won't be reset until after that year, e.g., the tax brackets set out above), dollar amounts that were previously indexed using CPI-U will instead be indexed using chained CPI-U (C-CPI-U). (Code Sec. 1(f), as amended by Act Sec. 11002(a)) This change, unlike many provisions in the Act, is permanent

It is plutocratic through and through.

December 18, 2017

Over 12 months (click here) ended November 2017, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 2.2 percent. The indexes for food and energy both increased...
The new tax law attacks specifically the urban rate. It is racist. The CPI has a history. The reason the tax rates don't change for the wealthy and they change over 10 years to return to old levels for the poor and middle class is to take back any wealth the underclasses have gained.

CPI-U vs CPI-W

With the fast increase in prices during World War I, (click here) the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was created in order to efficiently calculate adjustments in the cost-of-living of workers. It measures the price level changes of goods and services that are bought by a household.

The prices of the samples of each item are collected regularly in order to come up with the CPI. It consists of the prices of the different categories of goods and services that show how consumers spend their income. The Consumer Price Index has experienced several changes as the world entered World War II and as there were huge changes in buying patterns after it ended. In the late 1970s, the CPI-U and the CPI-W were introduced.

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) was introduced in 1978. It includes all urban households within an area that have inhabitants of 2,500 or more. It does not include rural consumers and those that are in military and other institutions. It represents the buying habits of more than 80 percent of the population of the United States including those that are self employed, retired workers, professional workers, clerical, and part-time workers, and even those who are unemployed. It is more of a general index and traces how retail prices affect urban consumers of goods....
Steve Mnuchen absolutely hates the USA's social programs. Seething hate. Seething hate for the Democratic demographic.

6.Both the CPI-U and the CPI-W do not include rural consumers and those in the military and other institutions.


Fracking becomes more dangerous. Look for increased seismic activity in states that engage in this practice.

Human health is meaningless to these people, including Tillerson. Imagine the dangers opening up around the world now.

December 28, 2017
By Mead Gruver

Cheyenne, Wyo. (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration (click here) is rescinding proposed rules for hydraulic fracturing and other oil- and gas-drilling practices on government lands, government officials announced Thursday.

The rules developed under President Barack Obama would have applied mainly in the West, where most federal lands are located. Companies would have had to disclose the chemicals used in fracking, which pumps pressurized water underground to break open hydrocarbon deposits.

The rules to be rescinded Friday were supposed to take effect in 2015 but a federal judge in Wyoming blocked them at the last minute. In September, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver declined to rule in that case because the Trump administration intended to rescind the rules....             

Can 2008 happen again? It is a matter of when, not if. This is Trump's Wall Street. HIstorically wagering more.

December 29, 2017
By Kevin Crowley

At least 60% of 2018 Output hedged against falling price fears (click here)

Anadarko, EOG, Continental are potential winners: Cowen Says


As the price of oil rises, heavily-hedged shale drillers may find it harder to meet investor demands for payback, boosting the value of producers that haven’t locked in returns for future production.
When West Texas Intermediate breached $60 a barrel, it was good news generally for U.S. shale producers. But the higher the price, the less gain will come to companies that hedged their production as crude held below $55 for 10 months of the year.
At least 60 percent of next year’s crude output has been hedged, more than in previous years, according to RBC Capital Markets LLC. The result: Rising crude prices will boost the profile of companies with fewer hedges, according to a report by Cowen & Co. Among the winners: EOG Resources Inc., Anadarko Petroleum Corp.,  and Continental Resources Inc., the note said....

US Market export has nothing to do with the hurricanes. The hurricanes curbed production as they swept through offshore oil fields. The market surge is due to the underhanded amendment the Republican Congress passed allowing for the first time the open market export of American produced oil.

The USA has always exported oil, to allies and those that needed it. American oil is not in abundance. It is not as in the day of Spindletop. The oil the USA exported were to country that were part of our strategic national security as they requested it.

Now, the USA is exporting oil with complete abandon and OPEC is contemplating it's next policy change. The USA is creating a glut again.

Think Tillerson.

December 29, 2017
New York - U.S. crude oil production in October (click here) rose to the highest in more than 46 years, while natural gas production leaped to a new record, U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed on Friday.

The production increases in October compared to a year ago come on the heels of higher energy prices, with U.S. crude futures recently touching $60 a barrel for the first time since mid 2015.

Natural gas futures hit near four-week highs on Friday and were poised for their best weekly gain since July last year on higher demand expectations.

Production was expected to continue rising through 2017 and into 2018, analysts and traders said, driven by rising exports and growing oil demand....

October crude production rose 167,000 barrels per day to 9.64 million bpd,...

OPEC production fell by 60,000 barrels. Saudi Arabia has been cutting exports while Libya increased theirs. OPEC and Russia have planned a big meeting. 

January 4, 2017
By Irina Slay

OPEC’s crude oil production (click here) remained largely unchanged from November in December, but that was mostly thanks to a 50,000-bpd decline in Venezuela’s production, as well as further cuts in Saudi Arabia, a Bloomberg survey of ship-tracking data, analyst opinions, and  data, analyst opinions, and company information has suggested....

The day traders are reeling in cash by the fist fulls. Oil is a liquid commodity. It is as good as cash. One can dump it any day of the week for the pure reason of needing ready cash.

Oil is not an investment, it is liquidity. Falling oil prices are meaningless to many. Loss isn't really a thing. One can always replace oil futures with cheap oil that will rise as the productions fluctuate. It is a mess.

The nation's farmers are in trouble. No one listens and now the emergency funds are sucked up by the $1.5 trillion new addition to the national debt.

January 3, 2018
By Dan Mika

The ongoing cold snap (click here) is causing problems for the county’s farmers as they try to bring animals to market and could leave farm soil compacted before planting season.
The frost depth, or the depth of the soil below freezing, reached a full foot at the National Weather Service’s frost depth measuring station in Marshalltown Wednesday morning. Frost depth was measured at 10 inches just north of Des Moines.
Dennis Todey, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Midwest Climate Hub, said the lack of snow cover and drought conditions in the second half of 2017 allowed the soil to freeze over faster.
Todey said the frost isn’t a major concern for crop producers since the ground will thaw out by the time planting season begins, but it could freeze shallow water pipes (Irrigation systems could be lost). If the cold temperatures persist, he said it could get deeper into the ground and reach deeper pipes and cause damage,
“I don’t think there was too much of a problem in Iowa, but the further north you went into Minnesota and the Dakotas, we had some cities that were starting to have some water lines freezing because the cold was getting deep enough to freeze water lines,” he said....

Some farmers manage to grow enough corn for their herds. Corn is not the only food beef cows eat, but, it contains energy and would be added to the feed in the bitter cold. 

Corn Price Commodity today is $3.53 per bushel. (click here) Farmers have a difficult time with their products and the costs to maintain them when the temperatures are this low.

...ISU Extension beef specialist Joe Sellers said many of the state’s cattlemen are giving their cattle more feed with higher energy densities to help them generate the heat they lose to the cold. He said most producers are set up to protect their cattle from the elements, but they might need to restock on feed if the cold weather stays....

West Virginia Mountains

I recently traveled Route 77, a somewhat dangerous road for the mountains and tractor trailers that require it. I passed through two tunnels there and saw the same phenomena in each.

At the ends of the tunnels, the entrance and exit, there was water drainage pipes frozen solid. Those drainage pipes carry water runoff from the mountain itself to drainage below the road, so the road doesn't flood. 

In the center of the mountain tunnel there were no frozen pipes. I assumed they were working well because the cold didn't reach into the ground that deep. It is prudent for every state to be aw...

Sorry, had to take a call.

prudent for every state to be assessing the condition of their roads, bridges and tunnels in relation to water and freezing. 

Water is necessary for life, but, right now the condition of water in relation to Earth has changed. There are droughts in one place while at the same time there are floods in another. The place where water is and isn't is very important. But, it is the PROPERTIES of water that is most important when it comes to infrastructure and freezing.

Water runs according to gravity. So, it will SEEP into places, especially in mountains, that defies the imagination. When water seeps into areas either in tiny amounts or large amounts and is then exposed to cold and extremely cold temperatures it will freeze. Water expands when it freezes.

So when water is running off a mountain and an engineer at some point in the past (before the polar vortex displaced) arranged for safe drainage of that mountain water, all was well. Even in the winter there were not issues that we face today. Today, prolonged frigid temperatures and deep temperatures in the the range of NEGATIVE Fahrenheit (realizing freezing for Fahrenheit is 32 degrees) there will be structural problems NO MATTER WHERE there is water seepage.

Water will break rock. Just that simple. In the natural world where cars and trucks travel engineers do an excellent job of building good sturdy infrastructure, but, with the level of climate change we are experiencing now, where temperatures from the north pole visit the lower 48, there is just no way of knowing exactly how this shakes out.

The farmers have a handle on their property and how best to protect their livelihood, but, engineers were not prepared for such drastic and rapid changes in climate. So, it is my suggestion, cities and states take a good look at their infrastructure and put their engineers to work to ESTIMATE where trouble could start. At this point tunnels have to be inspected at the very least where water that should be running is not and appears as frozen. There could be insidious damage done that will perpetuate more and larger infrastructure failure. 

If possible (and with taxes and funding going to hell, who knows?) hire more geologists and/or engineers AND have Senators and House Reps. write into the budget for project funding by the US Army Corp. to assist the states with this (I consider it an emergency) priority.

It is unfortunate the Blue States were targeted by the Republican Tax Strategy. They have a lot of people to provide infrastructure for and they need every break they can get. So, with complete empathy for every citizen in the country, EVERYONE WAS TOLD and now we have to face the music of calling the climate crisis a hoax.

One other thing. Many US Army Corp are assisting Puerto Rico. I think the Governors and Mayors need to look to hiring their own geologists and engineers OR several cities in the same region can form a group to share the skills of new hires WITH EXPERIENCE in knowledge about water and the damage it can do. Don't leave out the possibility of spring floods that become ICE DAMS and increase the flood level all that much more. THEY HAVE TO HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF HYDROLOGY.

WATER IS FLUID.

FLUID MECHANICS and volume and the power of water.