Energy – Page 2 – The Burning Platform

SENIOR CITIZENS DOING BACK FLIPS OVER $22 MONTHLY SOCIAL SECURITY INCREASE

I’m sure my senior citizen mother is doing backflips today like the old guy in this video.

The government, out of the kindness of their hearts, and using the bastardized, manipulated and understated CPI, is giving all 64 million retired Americans a 1.7% raise in their Social Security checks in 2015. That amounts to about $22 per month for the average retiree. That’s $5 per week. I bet 64 million cranky old farts are headed out for the early bird special tonight to celebrate.

Think about the ridiculousness of the government telling a senior citizen their cost of living has only gone up 1.7% in the last year. Beef prices are up 20%. I do the grocery shopping and I can say for sure that my entire bill is up 20% over last year. Obamacare has pushed healthcare costs up by double digits in the last three years. Deductibles are twice as high and premiums are up 5% to 15%. Utility bills have been soaring by over 10% in the last year. Seniors are getting 0% on their savings due to the morally bankrupt Federal Reserve. That extra $22 per month will be gone in an instant.

Just when I think the MSM can’t sink any lower, the faux journalist mouthpieces for the oligarchs at Marketwatch put out the most outlandish piece of shit I’ve ever had to read without gagging.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/7-things-retirees-should-do-with-their-20-cost-of-living-increase-2014-10-22?link=MW_home_latest_news

These pitiful excuses for journalists actually had the balls to write an article recommending what seniors should do with this “extra” $20 per month. These blithering idiots actually are willing to perpetuate the lie that this miniscule pittance can be used for something other than keeping these seniors from freezing to death this winter because they can’t pay their heating bill.

Some of the brilliant ideas include:

Acting like a good muppet and investing it in the market. Brilliant. My mom can buy 1/20 of a share of Amazon per month with her windfall.
Buying a nice bottle of wine to go with their can of Friskies for dinner.
Paying down the debt they’ve accumulated over a lifetime. At $20 per month, they should have it paid off by the time they reach the age of 265.
Paying those utility bills so the big corporation doesn’t turn off their gas in January.
Hire an illegal alien housekeeper to clean up your cardboard box a couple times per month.
Treat yourself to a steak once per month as a change of pace from that Kibble and Ramen noodles.
Live it up and go to the movies once per month. You should go see Idiocracy so you will understand how the writers of this article got their University of Phoenix college degrees in journalism.

You think I’m joking, but these are the actual recommendations made by “journalists” working for Rupert Murdoch’s Marketwatch. There are just some things that push my buttons and make me lose my cool. This is one of them. Senior citizens have been thrown under the bus by Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen, Obama, and the rest of this corrupt cabal of oligarchs. Let them eat cake has been replace by let them eat cat food.

Ben Bernanke now gets $250,000 for an hour long speech where he takes credit for keeping bankers from experiencing a 2nd Great Depression. Too bad tens of millions of non-bankers are experiencing a 2nd Great Depression. If there is justice in this world, Bennie will swing from a lamppost before this episode in history concludes.

Via Christian Science Monitor

Social Security payments will increase 1.7 percent for retirees in 2015

Social Security payments for 64 million retired American workers will increase 1.7 percent in 2015. That means the typical retiree will get an extra $22 per month, receiving a $1,328 average monthly Social Security payment and $15,936 annually.

By Schuyler Velasco, Staff writer October 22, 2014

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Elaine Thompson/AP/File

Social Security isn’t going anywhere. Not yet, anyway.

Monthly payments for 64 million retired American workers will increase 1.7 percent in 2015, the Social Security Administration announced Wednesday. That means the typical retiree will get an extra $22 per month, receiving a $1,328 average monthly payment and $15,936 annually.

“The 1.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits that more than 58 million Social Security beneficiaries receive in January 2015,” The Social Security Administration said in the announcement. “Increased payments to more than 8 million SSI [Supplemental Security Income] beneficiaries will begin on December 31, 2014. The Social Security Act ties the annual COLA to the increase in the Consumer Price Index as determined by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

The increase coincides with the Labor Department’s monthly Consumer Price Index release for September. Thanks largely to falling energy costs, CPI increased just 0.1 percent last month and (you guessed it) 1.7 percent from last year. Food costs, however, jumped 3 percent, meaning the overall increase may be more acutely felt by seniors who don’t commute to work every day (thus getting less relief from the drop in gas prices).

This is the third straight COLA increase for Social Security recipients. This year’s cost of living increase was 1.5 percent; in 2012, it was a comparatively giant 3.2 percent. There were no benefits increases during the two previous years because consumer prices fell during the recession.

The SSA announced other changes as well. Based on wage increases, the maximum amount of earnings subjected to the Social Security taxes will increase to $118,500 from $117,000. The SSA estimates that out of 168 million workers who pay Social Security taxes, around 10 million will pay higher taxes because of the hike in the taxable minimum.

As in other years, this year’s increase comes amid worries about the long-term future of Social Security and Americans’ financial readiness for their retirement years. The Social Security Trust fund is projected to run out by 2033, according to an SSA Trustee report released this year, and the oncoming rush of retiring and aging Baby Boomers are expected to create steep budgetary problems in the coming years. Some 80 percent of Millennials and Gen-Xers don’t expect to receive anything from Social Security after their working years, according to a study released by the TransAmerica Center for Retirement Studies over the summer.

There are concerns in the short term as well. By at least one measure, retirees in 49 of 50 states aren’t replacing enough of their pre-retirement income. Social Security makes up about 38 percent of total income for the elderly, according to the SSA, and 52 percent of married couples and 74 percent of unmarried persons receive over half their income from Social Security.

For 1 in 3 retirees, it is their only income source. Basic costs of living, especially food prices, continue to balloon, and nearly 10 percent of retirees live in poverty, according to the Census Bureau.

Still, there is some cause for optimism. Perhaps because of their doubts, younger workers (at least the ones with access to employee-sponsored accounts) are shaping up to be excellent savers, and not all is lost with Social Security in general. Despite the trust fund depletion and funding shortfalls, the SSA still anticipates being able to pay 75 percent of scheduled benefits between 2033 and 2088.

THIS IS YOUR RECOVERY AND THIS IS YOUR RECOVERY WITHOUT DRUGS

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks…will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered…. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.” – Thomas Jefferson

Does this chart portray an economic recovery in any way? Wages have been stagnant since the START of the supposed recovery in 2010. Real median household income, even using the highly understated CPI, is on a glide path to oblivion. You just need to observe with your own two eyes the number of Space Available signs in front of office buildings, strip centers and malls across America to realize we have further to fall. Low paying, part-time burger flipping jobs aren’t going to revive this debt saturated economic system. But at least the .1% are enjoying their Federal Reserve created high. Fiat is a powerful drug when administered in large doses to addicts on Wall Street.

The S&P 500 has risen from 666 in March of 2009 to 1,972 today. That is a 196% increase in a little over five years. During this same time, real household income has fallen by 7%. There have been a few million jobs added, while 11 million people have left the labor market. According to Robert Shiller’s CAPE ratio, the stock market valuation has only been higher, three times in history – 1929, 1999, and 2007. He seems flabbergasted by why valuations are so high. Sometimes really smart people can act really dumb.

The Federal Reserve balance sheet was $900 billion before the 2008 financial crisis. Today it stands at $4.4 trillion. The Fed has increased their balance sheet by 220% since the March 2009 market lows. Do you think there is any correlation between the Fed puppets printing $2.4 trillion and handing it to their Wall Street puppeteers, who used their high frequency trading supercomputers and ability to rig the markets so they never lose, and the third stock bubble in the last 13 years? It’s so self evident that only an Ivy League economist or CNBC anchor wouldn’t be able to see it.

Let’s look at the amazing stock market recovery without Federal Reserve heroine pumped into the veins of Wall Street banker addicts. If you divide the S&P 500 Index by the size of the Federal reserve balance sheet, you see the true purpose of QE1, QE2, and QE3. It wasn’t to save Main Street. It was to save Wall Street. Without the Federal Reserve funneling fiat to the .1% banking cabal and creating inflation in energy, food, and other basic necessities for the 99.9%, there is no stock market recovery. The recovery has occurred in Manhattan and the Hamptons. It’s been non-existent for the vast majority of people in this country. The wealth effect and trickle down theory have been disproved in spades. The only thing trickling down on the former middle class from the Fed is warm and yellow.

The entire stock market advance has been created on record low trading volumes and record high levels of monetary manipulation. Even though the Federal Reserve has driven senior citizens further into poverty with 0% interest rates, those with common sense have refused to be lured back into the lion’s den. They have parked record levels of fiat in no interest bank and money market accounts. They are tired of being muppets led to slaughter.

Quantitative easing was supposed to force little old ladies into the stock market and consumers to spend their debased dollars before they lost more value. The spending would revive the dormant economy just as the Keynesian text books promised. It didn’t happen. The peasants haven’t cooperated. Quantitative easing and ZIRP sapped the life from the middle class as their wages have stagnated and their living expenses have skyrocketed. Mission Accomplished by the Fed. Of course, the CNBC bimbos and shills would declare this $10.8 trillion to be money on the sidelines ready to boost the stock market ever higher. I love that storyline. It never grows old.

The MSM, government and Wall Street continue to flog the story about a housing recovery. It’s been nothing but a confidence game based upon the Fed’s easy money and the Wall Street scheme to buy up foreclosed properties with the Fed’s money. The scheme was to artificially boost home prices by restricting home supply through foreclosure manipulation, in order to allow the insolvent Wall Street banks to get out from under their billions in toxic mortgage loans.

Shockingly, the Case Shiller home price index has soared by 25% since 2012 despite first time home buyers being virtually non-existent and mortgage applications plunging to 14 year lows. How could that be? Don’t people need mortgages to buy houses? Isn’t real demand necessary to drive prices higher? Not when Uncle Ben and Madam Yellen are in charge of the printing press. Housing bubble 2.0 has arrived. I wonder if the Federal Reserve balance sheet increase of 50% since 2012 has anything to do with the new housing bubble.

It seems a similar result is obtained when dividing the Case Shiller Index by the size of the Fed’s balance sheet. The real housing market for real people is worse than it was in 2009. The national home price increase has been centered in the usual speculative markets, aided and abetted by the Fed’s easy money, managed by the Wall Street hedge funds, and exacerbated by the late arriving flippers who will be left holding the bag again. The Fed/ Wall Street scheme has priced young people out of the market and has failed to ignite the desired Keynesian impact. Investors/flippers account for 34% of all home sales. Foreigners with no knowledge of value metrics account for 30% of all home sales. The lesson of history is that most people don’t learn the lessons of history. The 2nd housing bubble in seven years is seeking a pin.

If ever you needed proof of the confidence game in its full glory, the chart below from Zero Hedge says it all. Mortgage rates have been falling for the past year, home builders have been reporting soaring confidence about the future, and the National Association of Realtors keeps predicting a surge in home buying any minute now. One small problem. Mortgage applications are in free fall, new home sales are at 1991 levels, and existing home sales are falling. Home prices have peaked and are beginning to roll over. The Wall Street hedgies are all looking to exit stage left. Young people are saddled with over a trillion of government issued student loan debt and millions of older subprime borrowers have been lured into more auto loan debt. Home sales will be stagnant for the next decade.

Quantitative easing will cease come October, unless Yellen and Wall Street can create a new “crisis” to cure with more money printing. By every valuation measure used over the last 100 years, stocks are overvalued by at least 50%. By historical measures, home prices are overvalued by at least 30%. Ten year Treasuries are yielding 2.4%, while true inflation is north of 5%. With real interest rates deep in negative territory, the bond market is even more overvalued than stocks or houses. These simultaneous bubbles have been created by the Federal Reserve in a desperate attempt to keep this debt laden ship afloat. Their solution to a ship listing from too much debt was to load it down with trillions more in debt. The ship is taking on water rapidly.

We had a choice. We could have bitten the bullet in 2008 and accepted the consequences of decades of decadence, frivolity, materialism, delusion and debt accumulation. A steep sharp depression which would have purged the system of debt and punishment of those who created the disaster would have ensued. The masses would have suffered, but the rich and powerful bankers would have suffered the most. Today, the economy would be revived, saving and investing would be generating needed capital for expansion, and banks would be doing what they are supposed to do – lending money to businesses and individuals. Instead, the Wall Street bankers won the battle and continue to pillage and loot the national wealth while impoverishing the masses.

The arrogance, hubris and contempt for morality displayed by the ruling class is breathtaking to behold. They think they are untouchable and impervious to norms followed by the rest of society. They may have won the opening battle, but will lose the war. Discontent among the masses grows by the day. The critical thinking citizens are growing restless and angry. They are beginning to grasp the true enemy. The system has been captured by a few malevolent men. When the stock, bond and housing bubbles all implode simultaneously, all hell will break loose in this country. It will make Ferguson, Missouri look like a walk in the park. I wonder if the occupants of the Eccles building in Washington DC will get out alive.

“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and money system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” – Henry Ford

Charts provided by Confounded Interest

IGNORANT LYING BITCH

Do they send central bankers to a special school where they learn to lie without blinking an eye? Food prices are skyrocketing. Natural gas prices are skyrocketing. Oil prices are skyrocketing. Healthcare costs are skyrocketing. Tuition is skyrocketing. Rents are at all-time highs. At least wages are falling, so we got that going for us.

This lying bitch has the balls to stand in front of the American people and declare that inflation is evolving in line with her expectations. What a load of horseshit. Inflation is now running at 6% on an annual basis and over 8% in the last two months. The fucking stock market soars to new highs based on the lies of this bitch. What a warped fucked up country we live in.

Those Soaring Food And Gas Prices? The Fed Has A Name For Them: “Noise”

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/18/2014 15:30 -0400

Don’t worry about the surging food and gas prices you face each and every day… Janet Yellen says “it’s just noise” and is actually “evolving exactly as they expected.” It is this kind of mind-blowingly ignorant of the facts statement that has the central banks of the world losing more and more credibility (just take a look at the dot plot’s 0.5 to 4.25% rate expectations for 2015). The following exchange between Yellen and Liesman is simply priceless in its ignorance.

This looks like a trend to us…

But no – The Fed says its transitory and exactly what they expected…

LIESMAN:

There’s every reason to expect, Madam Chair, that the PCE inflation rate, which is followed by the Fed, looks likely to exceed your 2016 consensus forecast next week. Does this suggest that the Federal Reserve is behind the curve on inflation? And what tolerance is there for higher inflation at the Federal Reserve? And if it’s above the 2 percent target, then how is that not kind of blowing through a target the same way you blew through the 6.5 percent unemployment target, in that they become these soft targets? Thanks.

YELLEN:

So I think recent readings on, for example, the CPI index have been a bit on the high side, but I think it’s — the data that we’re seeing is noisy. [ZH: What noise?]

I think it’s important to remember that, broadly speaking, inflation is evolving in line with the committee’s expectations.

The committee has expected a gradual return in inflation toward its 2 percent objective. [ZH – It’s already there!!!!!] And I think the recent evidence we have seen, abstracting from the noise, suggests that we are moving back gradually over time toward our 2 percent objective and I see things roughly in line with where we expected inflation to be.

I think if you look at the SEP projections that were submitted this time, you see very little change in inflation projections of the committee. [ZH: Because you are all ignorant!!]

Still believe The Fed has inflation all under control?

WHERE’S THE BEEF?

Oh boy. The poor drones at the BLS are going to have to get really creative over the coming months and years to keep the no inflation scam going. With beef prices surging to all-time highs (supply and demand actually works in a non-rigged marketplace) and up 13% in the last year, I wonder how the BLS will figure out how to report 0% food inflation? Maybe they’ll assume little old cat ladies are substituting their cats for hamburger, resulting in free food.

In case you hadn’t noticed, oil prices hit a 3 year HIGH today over $104 per barrel. The last time I checked, oil was somewhat important in the transportation realm and might factor into every item of food we purchase and every Chinese made trinket we buy at Wally World. And once Obama successfully kills coal, our electricity and natural gas expenses should really take a turn for the better.

But don’t worry about those insignificant everyday expenses for food and energy. The stock market hit a new high today and the .01% suggest you eat your iPads if you can’t afford the beef.

AND YELLEN IS CONCERNED ABOUT DEFLATION

So yesterday we find that retail sales are FALLING. Today we find out that prices are SOARING. Sounds bullish to me. Buy stocks. Don’t miss the train to riches. We already know the government massages every data point to extract the best possible view, so when they report an inflation number like they did today, you know the shit is hitting the fan. They’ve run out of hedonistic adjustments and the other bullshit they use to fake the inflation numbers.

Even the number they reported today is a lie. Look at the supposed March and April PPI for Energy. The BLS drones are telling you that energy prices have fallen by 1.1% over that time period. Let’s add a little reality to their bullshit storyline of declining energy prices:

National gas prices rose from $3.52 per gallon on March 1 to $3.66 per gallon on April 30. That is a 4% increase in two months.
Oil prices were $101 per barrel on March 1, averaged about $102 per barrel over the two months and finished at $101 per barrel on April 30. No drop there.
Natural gas on March 1 was $4.60 and on April 30 was $4.85. Based on my years of financial training, I believe that is an increase.

What energy product fell? Oil, gasoline and natural gas supply the vast majority of energy in this country and the prices of those products rose from March 1 through April 30, but the government tells you the prices fell. Who do you believe?

It’s all good. Yellen assures us the 3.6% year to date PPI is an aberration and QE hasn’t had any negative impact on the lives of average Americans. Tell that to the 85 year old widows getting $0 on their savings and eating Alpo for dinner.

Producer Prices Surge Most In Over Four Years As BLS Discovers Food Inflation

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/14/2014 08:51 -0400

And just like that, the BLS is reacquainted with soaring food prices.

Moments ago the US government reported that producer prices, as part of a newly reindexed PPI series, spiked by 2.1% from a year ago, or a whopping 0.6% surge in April, the biggest monthly jump since January 2010, and up from the 0.5% increase in March.

So what caused this surge in producer prices? Why food costs of course, which in April soared by 2.7%.

Here is the explanation for the finished goods price surge:

Special grouping, Finished goods: The index for finished goods moved up 0.7 percent in April. (The finished goods index represents about two-thirds of final demand goods, through the exclusion of the weight for government purchases and exports. The finished goods index represents about one-quarter of overall final demand.) The broad-based increase was led by the index for finished consumer foods, which advanced 2.4 percent. Prices for finished goods less foods and energy and for finished consumer energy goods rose 0.3 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively. Within finished goods, higher prices for meats, gasoline, light motor trucks, residential electric power, processed poultry, and eggs for fresh use outweighed lower prices for residential natural gas, passenger cars, and soft drinks.

It wasn’t just finished goods that was burned by food prices. Processed goods by intermediate demand…

In April, the index for processed eggs jumped 25.3 percent. Prices for ethanol, meats, gasoline, and commercial electric power also increased. Conversely, the index for jet fuel declined 5.3 percent. Prices for diesel fuel, primary basic organic chemicals, natural gas to electric utilities, and soybean cake and meal also fell

Unprocessed goods too…

The index for unprocessed goods for intermediate demand rose 0.4 percent in April after edging down 0.1 percent a month earlier. Leading the advance, prices for unprocessed foodstuffs and feedstuffs moved up 3.6 percent.

In April, a 9.4-percent jump in prices for slaughter chickens led the advance in the index for unprocessed goods for intermediate demand. The indexes for slaughter hogs, corn, soybeans, carbon steel scrap, and crude petroleum also moved up.

And so on. The good news however is that as food prices soar, and as rents hit all time highs, wages are rising in lockstep. Oh wait, never mind.

What Food Inflation?

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/14/2014 08:51 -0400

Oh, this food inflation.

Incidentally, the last time food prices spiked by this much in one month, the resulting Arab Spring wave of revolutions tumbled governments across north Africa and the middle east.

Keep a close eye on those who are not exactly participating in the global central bank cartel’s “wealth transfer effect” , and suddenly find they can’t afford food again.

Source: BLS

WE’RE GOING THE WRONG WAY

“Electricity is the foundation of modern civilization.”

—-Me

As you read this article, you may wonder if I have factored in the continued advancements of electrical energy efficiency in homes, office buildings, retail establishments, and industrial plants. More efficient appliances, better building design and insulation, improved heating and air conditioning systems, and the like. I have not.

I hope the government estimates of how much electrical energy this nation will need in the future (see below) are on the high side, but one thing is clear for the present. When it comes to a sufficient supply of electrical energy, we’re going the wrong way.

“Considering this past winter’s severe cold and Polar Vortex,” Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski noted at a Senate hearing that the U.S. electrical system was at its limits. “Eight-nine percent of the coal electricity capacity that is due to go offline was utilized as that backup to meet the demand this winter,” Murkowski said. (Translation: the next time regions of the U.S. experience a bitterly cold winter such as occurred in the upper Midwest and Northeast in 2013-2014, it’s blackout and/or brownout time for tens of millions of people. Same rationale applies to an unseasonably hot summer.)

Not the time for a blackout.

Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken argues this is no laughing matter. “We need state flexibility in addressing those kind of issues, especially on the new rules that the EPA will make on existing coal fire plants,” he said. “We’re talking about grid security — it’s a serious issue.”

“Add the fact that EPA is proposing new source performance standard, what this is going to do will effectively ban the construction of any new coal plants,” West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said. “How do we keep the lights on so people’s lives will not be in danger?”

There you have it. Three U.S. senators, who sit on the liberal left (Franken), the center (Manchin), and the conservative right (Murkowski) in the political spectrum, are in lockstep agreement on the issue of electrical energy in this nation vis a vis the coal industry.

Let’s crunch some numbers. According to Reuters, since 2008, 15,000 megawatts of electricity has been lost from coal-fired power plants that shut down because they couldn’t afford to, or simply couldn’t, meet increasingly stringent EPA standards of air pollution. The damage doesn’t end there. According to the Associated Press, 204 more coal plants across 25 states are scheduled to be shut down by the end of 2015, and that will amount to an additional 31,000 megawatts of electrical power lost. That’s equivalent to shutting down the entire electricity supply of Ohio.

A grand total of 46,000 megawatts of base load power has, or soon will, disappear (base load power is available 24/7/365). Whoosh. Gone. To put that number in perspective, the LARGEST POWER PLANT IN THE UNITED STATES is the Palo Verde Nuclear Plant west of Phoenix, Arizona which has a capacity of 3,900 megawatts of power and serves millions of customers from California to Texas. Thus, the EPA has forced, through irrational policy, the elimination of the equivalent of more than 11 Palo Verde power plants.

The U.S. currently has a total electrical power output of ca 1,000,000 megawatts. In 2009, the Energy Information Agency estimated that, in the next 30 years, we will need to ADD 325,000 megawatts to the grid to satisfy demand from population and business growth. But if we already have or are about to SUBTRACT 46,000 megawatts, that figure has just jumped to 371,000 megawatts, which is approaching the power output of 100 Palo Verde nuclear power plants.

Let’s use another “green power” example, this time hydroelectric. The Grand Coulee Dam in Washington is the U.S.’s second largest power plant with a 3,600 megawatt output. So, we will need 100 MORE Grand Coulee Dams to meet future demand. One big problem. The U.S. has tapped out all of its useful sources of hydroelectric power. All major dams that can be built, have been built. Hydroelectric power if off the table. Not an option.

Not available anymore.

So, where is all that new electrical power going to come from? Most energy experts say natural gas, which produces 2/3 of the air pollutants of a coal-powered plant, and nuclear, which produces zero air pollutants. None. Just steam aka water vapor. However, there are glitches to both natural gas and nuclear.

The availability of natural gas in the U.S. is increasing rapidly, but mining it through fracking operations is still politically contentious. The state of Ohio just suspended fracking operations around the city of Youngstown for its “suspected” relationship to recent very minor (no damage) earthquakes in that area. Nuclear? The technology for building a super-safe nuclear reactor producing over 1,100 megawatts of power is on the table, approved by the Atomic Energy Commission, and ready to build (a few are being built in South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia). But let’s face reality. The nuclear disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima have created a huge negative public and political perception problem.

And here’s where any major source of future electrical power WON’T come from, at least in the foreseeable future: solar and wind. Currently, about 5% of the power (50,000 megawatts) produced in the U.S. is solar and wind, with wind turbines producing the vast majority. Solar is less than 1% of our national power and still hyper-expensive on a commercial scale. Example. The largest solar power plant in the U.S. is the newly-opened Ivanpah Solar System in California’s Mojave Desert. Output: ca 400 megawatts. Cost: $2.2 billion ($1.6 billion came from a government loan). Yikes. In addition to the fact that Ivanpah is functional only 31% of the time as opposed to a base load plant’s functionality of 100%, it sprawls out over 4,000 acres. Wind farms are cheaper and consume much less space, but they too have a huge problem when it comes to functionality. And it’s worse than solar. Wind farms are functional, on average, 25% of the time. The best science in the world can’t stop the sun from setting or winds calming down.

Sorry, solar is not ready for prime time.

Neither is wind.

Which brings us back to natural gas and nuclear as the only two viable options for power sources in the foreseeable future. Nothing else is on the table, including pipe dreams such as thorium salt reactors and tidal power, both theories of which have been around for decades and have gotten nowhere.

So where does that leave this nation? In three words, “natural gas, nuclear.” That’s it. You want the lights to come on when you flip the switch, then you have no other choice. You want cleaner air, then you have no other choice. You want clean water to come out of the faucet when you turn on the spigot, then you have no other choice (people tend to forget that water and waste treatment plants need a lot electrical power to operate, and so do water wells and water pumping stations). The only way to a reliable and secure supply of electrical energy is to build as many natural gas and nuclear power plants as fast as they are needed. And stop shutting down coal-fired plants until they’re fully replaced by one of those two sources.

We have about 30 years to come up with more than 370,000 megawatts of new electrical power. Let’s get started by slowing down the closure of coal plants while we build new and replacement plants. The next cold winter OR HOT SUMMER demands it. This is the last thing you want to see or experience on a regular basis.

WE’RE SURELY OUTSMARTING THE CHINESE

As the Federal Reserve, along with their Wall Street banker owners, in cooperation with Obama and his Treasury Dept., have been artificially suppressing the price of gold since 2011, someone has been taking advantage of the bargain prices. Do you think the brilliant Ivy League minds that caused two financial market crashes in the last 13 years have outsmarted those rubes in China? The fact that China ceased buying US Treasury bonds two years ago hasn’t worried the brain surgeons in the Eccles Building. They’ve got everything under control.

China wouldn’t be signing energy deals with Russia, buying up natural resources in Africa, making oil deals with Iran and buying up all the gold they can get their hands on because they are preparing for a dramatic change in the world currency regime. That’s silly. Those foolish Chinese don’t realize that gold is barbaric relic and that the fiat paper USD will always retain its value. Just because Janet prints $2.8 billion more of them per day doesn’t mean a thing. Faith in bankers will make everyone wealthy.

Those wily orientals don’t know what they are doing.

BLS LIES REVEALED IN A FEW CHARTS

The Bureau of Lies and Shams issued their latest Orwellian data report this morning. They declared that inflation was only up .1% in February, despite the massive jump in food prices. Here is the MSM regurgitation of the BLS bullshit propaganda. A real journalist might verify the numbers to see if they pass the smell test.

Consumer prices edge up in February as food prices jump

Last month’s 0.1% increase driven by biggest spike in food costs since 2011

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Consumer prices in the U.S. rose slightly in February because of higher food and housing costs, but overall inflation remained quiet, according to the latest government figures. The price of food jumped 0.4% — the largest gain since September 2011 — because of higher costs of meat, poultry, fish and vegetables. Still, food prices have only risen 1.4% over the past year.The cost of energy fell 0.5% as lower gasoline costs offset increases in fuel oil and natural gas. High demand for home heating fuels boosted prides during a very cold month.

The drones at the BLS declare that energy prices plummeted in February due to lower gasoline costs. Let’s look at a handy dandy chart of the actual price of gasoline over the last three months. Well looky here. The average price of a gallon of gasoline on February 1 was $3.26 per gallon. The average price of a gallon of gasoline on February 28 was $3.45 per gallon. And the trend was straight up during the entire month. My handy dandy calculator says that gasoline ROSE by 5.8% in February. The BLS says gasoline prices fell dramatically. Do you believe the BLS drones or your pocketbook? How can they get away with these blatant lies? Oil rose from $97 per barrel to $102 per barrel. That is a 5.1% increase. Natural gas prices spiked from $5 to over $6 during February before settling back around $5. The average price was easily up 10% over the prior month. How stupid do our government keepers think we are?

Even the BLS contention that food prices went up .4% in February is a lie. That is a 4.8% annualized rate. Let’s see the reality. Pork is up 43% since the beginning of the year. Beef is up 8%. Coffee is up 75%. Corn is up 13%. Wheat is up 12%. Soybeans are up 8%. Cocoa is up 12%.

These are the price changes in the real world, not in the BLS world of manipulation and deception.

The CPI is a fake number issued by the STATE and designed to keep the sheep docile and compliant. In reality true inflation is running above 5%. You know it and I know it. Will the faux journalists in the MSM report the truth? Hell no. They are paid to peddle lies and propaganda by their corporate bosses.

PORK

BEEF

COFFEE

CORN

WHEAT

SOYBEANS

COCOA

AND YELLEN IS WORRIED ABOUT DEFLATION

Don’t you just love the bullshit spin title to this MSM article. You’re not getting a fucking raise because the temperature is going up. The idiot writing this story can’t even pick up a calculator and realize the weighted average increase in heating the average home in the country was 9.8% higher than last year. The last time I checked you still need natural gas to power air conditioners in 49% of homes in the country. The price is currently 14% HIGHER than last year at this time. Where is the cost savings?

The MSM is nothing but a mouthpiece for the assholes running this country. Next week Yellen will get up in front of a bunch of paid off MSM faux journalists who will lob softball question at her. She will blather on about her fear of deflation. Meanwhile we are getting fucked up the ass with energy, food, health insurance, tax, and education inflation. But, at least our real wages are going down. We got that going for us.

You’re getting a raise in May — sort of

With spring’s arrival, Americans can shed layers — and spending

By Quentin Fottrell

Bloomberg

Nick Dykstra, a liquid fuels technician with Michlig Energy Ltd., delivers propane to a rural residence near Princeton, Illinois,

When spring arrives, many Americans might feel like they got a pay raise. That’s because the cold weather and a storm of other factors jacked up heating bills for many households, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Average prices for U.S. households heating primarily with propane are expected to end up 54% higher this winter than last year, while expenditures for homes using heating oil will be 7% higher, natural gas 10% higher, and electricity 5% higher, according to “ March Short-Term Energy Outlook ” by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Persistently cold weather east of the Rocky Mountains and along the northeast drove up demand for all heating fuels, depleted inventories, and helped raise prices, the report found, but household propane prices experienced an especially high spike.

The reason for the propane spike? Damp corn in the Midwest. “Propane is used to dry corn crops and, last year, the Midwest had a particularly large and wet corn harvest,” says Sean Hillen, economist at the U.S. Energy Information Administration. “It got cold and stayed cold. People couldn’t get enough propane into the region fast enough and prices went through the roof.” Propane prices more than doubled from $2.08 per gallon in September 2013 to $4.20 by the end of January. He estimates that Midwestern homes using propane had winter heating costs of around $2,212, which were $759 higher than October estimates.

The good news: Just 4.5% of the 116 million homes in the U.S. use propane and 7% of homes use propane in the Midwest, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, while 49% of homes use natural gas and 39% use electricity. But this winter has also been much longer for most households. Between October and the end of February, the number of heating days was 13% higher than last winter — and 10% above the 10-year average.

This winter has been the coldest in four years, according to data released Thursday by the government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In fact, the average temperature in the U.S. during the 2013/2014 winter season was 31.3 degrees, one degree below the 20th-century average, the NOAA found.

“Natural gas is almost always the cheapest form of heating,” says Jeff Rogers, president of the Energy Audit Institute, an energy-audit training and certification company in Springfield, N.J. That, he says, has a lot to do with its relatively small carbon footprint. Around 10% of natural gas is used up during the generation and transmission process before it reaches consumers versus a loss of 60% to 65% for electricity, according to the Alliance to Save Energy, a non-profit coalition of industrial, technological and energy corporations. “Consumers are effectively paying for all that wasted energy,” Rogers says. “Whenever you’re buying a piece of meat, you’re paying for the whole cow. The same is true for electricity and natural gas.”