Remaining Sane In A World Gone Insane

How does one remain sane in a world gone insane?

It is a question I ask myself more each day.

A few examples.

ACLU Position on Mask Mandates

The American Civil Liberties Union stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country."

On its website the ACLU uses this graphic to explain why people should support that mission.

Source: https://www.aclu.org/about-aclu

Based on its mission, and its stated stance on principle, wouldn't a sane person expect the ACLU to take a stand to protect the individual rights of children to have the CHOICE to wear a face mask in school or not?

After all, there is no mask mandate that I am aware of anywhere in the country that has been authorized legislatively at the state or federal level.

Shouldn't that be an individual right that is protected?

Not the way the ACLU sees it. 

It is on the side that wants to infringe on individual rights and liberties.

Insanity rules.

New Biden Appointee at Department of Energy

Sam Brinton is the new Biden administration appointed deputy assistant secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy. 

This position is second in command for overseeing all of the nation's nuclear waste and disposal issues.

The person standing in this picture is Sam Brinton.

Brinton does have dual Master's degrees from MIT in nuclear science and engineering systems.

However, he has also performed as a drag queen appropriately named (for him) "Sister Ray Dee O'Active".

Here is Sam Brinton at the Oscar's in 2018.

Source: https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1491879638389309442

What position did Sam Brinton have immediately before his appointment by Joe Biden that prepared him to oversee the nation's nuclear waste disposal?

Brinton has been the Vice President of Advocacy and Government Affairs for the Trevor Project which has as its primary mission providing support for LGBTQ young people in crisis.

That might be worthwhile work but how does it qualify as preparation to handle nuclear waste?

Did Brinton get this appointment because of his MIT degree or because he is a non-binary LGBTQ activist?

At one time, someone with Sam Brinton's background could not have gotten a security clearance for a government job much beyond dog catcher let alone overseeing the nation's nuclear waste.

That is clearly not the case today.

Insane.

National Archives Contains Harmful Content

The National Archives houses the most important founding and historical documents of the United States.

These include the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution. and the Bill of Rights among other important documents.

Last summer the National Archives Record Administration (NARA) decided they needed to place a blanket warning on the content of the Archives.

Our National Archives contain "harmful content".

Source: https://thefederalist.com/2021/09/08/national-archives-issues-harmful-content-warning-on-constitution-all-other-founding-documents/

This is the webpage with the "warning".

What types of "harmful content" can be found in the National Archives?

This is taken directly from the NARA statement.

What harmful or difficult content may be found in the National Archives Catalog and our web pages?

Some items may:

reflect racist, sexist, ableist, misogynistic/misogynoir, and xenophobic opinions and attitudes;

be discriminatory towards or exclude diverse views on sexuality, gender, religion, and more;

include graphic content of historical events such as violent death, medical procedures, crime, wars/terrorist acts, natural disasters and more;

demonstrate bias and exclusion in institutional collecting and digitization policies.

Harmful content warnings on documents in the National Archives?

Insane.  

The "Highly Effective" Covid Vaccines

We also hear every day about how "highly effective" the Covid vaccines are.

There seems to be no one that is claiming that the vaccines will prevent you from becoming infected with Covid anymore.

The gigantic surge in cases we saw in December and January destroyed that narrative.

Source: The New York Times

Although cases are down 85% from their peak in mid-January, cases are still higher this year than they were last year.

On February 16, 2022 there were more than double the number of new cases than there were on that date last year. The 7-day average was +53% compared to the same period last year.

We are told that cases might be higher but the vaccines are "highly effective" at preventing serious disease, hospitalizations and deaths.

However, deaths are higher right now than they were last year at the same time.

This is after almost 550 million doses of the Covid vaccines have been administered.

Source: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccination-trends_vacctrends-total-cum

There were 3,306 deaths reported on February 16, 2022. A year ago on the same date there were 1,707. The 7-day average was 5% higher this year than in 2021.

2022

Source: The New York Times

2021

Source: The New York Times

In a sane world, people would look at this data and question that there is something wrong with the narrative. 

Can the vaccines even be considered "effective" in looking at the data in which cases and deaths are higher now than they were last year?

We live in a world that has gone insane.

Education?

There is no place that insanity rules more so in the world than in education today---especially in so-called "elite" private schools.

For example, consider this listing for an open position as Dean of Faculty at Milton Academy in Massachusetts.

To be qualified an applicant should have: 

A demonstrated and ongoing commitment to dismantling institutional, interpersonal, and internalized marginalization.

What does that even mean?

Source: https://twitter.com/WokePrivate/status/1490855834032947202

How about this listing for a teacher of percussion at The Brearly School in New York City?

What is the quality that the ideal candidate must possess above everything else in order to teach students how to use those drums and cymbals?

Competence in anti-racist pedagogy.

Credit:https://twitter.com/WokePrivate/status/1490857861324623872/photo/2

After all, no one wants to listen to a racist drum beat.

Insane does not begin to describe this.

Remain sane and pray that sanity will once again reign supreme.

Peaks and Valleys

On January 17 I wrote a blog post predicting that we were at or very close to the peak in Covid cases in the winter surge we were dealing with in the United States.

I don't like making predictions in BeeLine. I focus my efforts in this blog on data and facts. These are tangible, real and objective. Predictions entail a forecast that requires subjective judgment. It it too easy to be wrong.

However, in analyzing the data and patterns of Covid in these pages over the last two years, I had noticed a consistent pattern in which case surges seemed to only advance for no more than 45 days followed by a fall in cases at the same speed they had advanced,

These were examples of surges in the UK, India and Florida where I noticed that pattern.

Based on my analysis of prior Covid patterns I predicted that daily cases should plummet and be down by as much as 90% by early March.

I also predicted this would occur irrespective of any vaccine and mask mandates and other so-called public health interventions.

If the full pattern holds this indicates that we should see daily cases declining by as much as 90% in early March from the peaks that will be reached this month.

This decrease will be reached irrespective of vaccine passports, mask mandates, booster uptake or anything else. The pattern is almost surely to be the same in free Florida as it is in restricted and mandated California.

At the same time that I was predicting we were at the peak several of President Biden's advisers stated that we should expect more pain from the pandemic.

For example, Biden's Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy said this on January 18.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/17/health/us-coronavirus-monday/index.html

How does my prediction look in hindsight?

The national peak in cases was actually reached on January 14.

The 7-day average of daily cases in the United States is down 78% from the peak in mid-January.

7-day average of new daily Covid cases-United States

Source: The New York Times

In my home state of Ohio, cases peaked on January 17, the exact date that I wrote my blog post predicting the peak.

Cases in Ohio are down 88% since then.

7-day average of new daily Covid cases-Ohio

Source: The New York Times

This was not the result of additional lockdowns, mask mandates or other restrictions.

It also was not the result of many more people being vaccinated in Ohio. In fact, the last month has seen the smallest number of people receiving jabs since the vaccines or boosters were introduced.

New Daily First Doses of Vaccine
Source: https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/dashboards/covid-19-vaccine/covid-19-vaccination-dashboard

Cases actually went down dramatically as vaccinations and booster doses went down.

Daily Booster Doses in Ohio 

I am not saying that there is a correlation.

However, doesn't it at least raise a question about the narrative?

Have all of the restrictions, mask mandates, vaccine passports. masked school children and the like in California resulted in cases coming down any faster in that state compared to Florida which has eschewed the restrictions on those within its borders?

There is essentially no difference in the advance or decline of the cases involving the recent surge in these two states.

Florida is down 76% from its peak.

7-day average of new daily Covid cases-Florida

Source: The New York Times

Cases in California have declined by 78% from the peak.

7-day average of new daily Covid cases-California

Source: The New York Times

My prediction seems to be on target right now.

If the current trend continues the 7-day average of new daily Covid cases will be down 90% from the peak by March 1.

Let's hope the trend continues.

The biggest concern is that we will see other variants emerge.

Geert Vanden Bossche believes that the more we vaccinate the greater the risk that new variants will emerge.

Hopefully, as the Omicron surge subsides there will be less interest in deploying an Omicron specific booster which Vanden Bossche believes would be the absolute worst thing we could do beyond vaccinating our children.

Seasonality will also be on our side soon in the Northern Hemisphere. It will be interesting to see how the pandemic evolves in the Southern Hemisphere as they enter their winter season. 

That may tell us whether 2022 has brought us from highest the peak of the pandemic to a valley of endemicity that will allow life to return to something resembling normalcy soon.

Let's hope and pray that the valley ahead leads to a long, long plain.

Photo Credit: David Layne
Source: https://thetexan.news/push-for-ports-to-plains-interstate-corridor-moves-to-u-s-senate/

How REAL are Real Estate Prices?

It seems that wherever you live you have undoubtedly seen real estate values soar.

Home prices in the United States increased an average of 17% in 2021.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/20/homes/us-nar-home-sales-december-and-2021/index.html

Three metro areas had increases that exceeded 30% in 2021 (from Oct, 2020 to Oct 2021) to lead the nation.

Austin/Round Rock, TX    +33.5%

Naples/Marco Island, FL   +32%

Boise, Nampa, ID   +31.5%

If you take a step back there is no other asset class that is more responsible for global wealth than real estate values.

This color graph gives you a sense of the relative values of the major global asset groups as of the end of 2021.

Source: https://twitter.com/MacroAlf/status/1489980931662352390/photo/1

The actual global values as of 12/31/21.

Real estate---$326 trillion ($256 trillion residential, $35 trillion agricultural, $32 trillion commercial)

Bonds---$124 trillion

Equities---$109 trillion 

Gold---$12 trillion

Crypto---<$2 trillion 

In other words, a 10% loss in real estate values carries 3 times the pain to global wealth compared to a similar loss in equities or bonds.

Most real estate is also leveraged with mortgage debt making valuations particularly sensitive to changes in interest costs.

We saw what can happen in 2008-2010 when cracks in the foundation start to appear.

30-year mortgage rates have risen almost one percentage point since a year ago.

@MacroAlf fills in the blanks.

What goes up can come down.

Global real estate values increased by about $100 trillion (43%) in the last four years. Almost all of that has been in the value of residential real estate. Commercial real estate values have not changed over that period as the internet economy and Covid restrictions have adversely affected this sector.

Leverage is great on the way up. There is hell to pay on the way down.

Global equities are up 56% since 2017. Of course, equity prices have also been supported by low interest rates that have made interest-bearing securities and accounts unattractive for a number of investors.

However, in 2021 in the United States, you actually made more money owning a used car than owning the S&P 500 Index.

Credit: https://twitter.com/NorthmanTrader/status/1490994031387885568/photo/1

All of this seems to have been heavily affected by the pumping of the money supply and printing of money by the Federal Reserve and others around the world.

M1 is defined by economists as the money supply which includes currency in circulation, demand deposit bank accounts, savings accounts and other liquid accounts that can quickly be converted to cash. It does not include bonds.

Money quickly goes to where it is treated best. Real estate and equities have been much more attractive than bonds the last several years. A lot of cash has flowed into real estate and stocks.

How many want to invest money in a 30-year T-bond yielding 2.25% when inflation is running at 7%? 

Does any of this look normal in any way?

How REAL are current real estate prices (or stock prices for that matter)?

What do things look like with anything close to historical interest rates?

Credit: https://advisor.visualcapitalist.com/us-interest-rates/

Some argue that due to these facts the world's central bankers are boxed in. They cannot allow real interest yields to increase without risking a  monumental crash of the entire world's financial system.

Can they defy gravity and reality forever?

Stay tuned.

This may be a good time to consider what Will Rogers once said.

33 Years of Misinformation?

The Cincinnati Bengals are in the Super Bowl for the first time since 1989.

That is a long time ago.

What hasn't changed since 1989?

We are hearing the same dire warnings about climate change in 2022 that we did in 1989.

Environmental officials at the United Nations were warning us in 1989 that entire nations could be wiped off the face of the earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend was not reversed in the next decade.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/bd45c372caf118ec99964ea547880cd0

UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ A senior U.N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000.

Coastal flooding and crop failures would create an exodus of ″eco- refugees,′ ′ threatening political chaos, said Noel Brown, director of the New York office of the U.N. Environment Program, or UNEP.

He said governments have a 10-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effect before it goes beyond human control.

As the warming melts polar icecaps, ocean levels will rise by up to three feet, enough to cover the Maldives and other flat island nations, Brown told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday.

The most conservative scientific estimate that the Earth’s temperature will rise 1 to 7 degrees in the next 30 years, said Brown.

Does anyone else think it is curious that in 2020 the top expert at the United Nations was saying the exact same thing that was being said in 1989?

Source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/climate-change-christiana-figueres-paris-agreement_n_5e4e6e10c5b6a7bfb4c1827c

Or that Al Gore said the same thing in 2006 when he was promoting his movie, "An Inconvenient Truth".

 "...unless drastic measures to reduce greenhouse gases are taken within the next 10 years, the world will reach a point of no return,"

Greta Thunberg, Time's Person of the Year in 2019 at age 16, has been saying essentially the same thing since 2018.

She actually told the UK Parliament that "we probably don't even have a future anymore" when she addressed that body in 2019 because they had not already acted to eliminate all carbon emissions.

Source: https://time.com/5577251/greta-thunberg-uk-mp-speech-climate/

“We probably don’t even have a future anymore,” she said. “That future was sold so that a small number of people could make unimaginable amounts of money. It was stolen from us every time you said that the sky was the limit, and that you only live once.”

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez was "more conservative" in 2019. She said the world would end in 12 years if climate change was not addressed immediately.

Since that was three years ago I guess that means we now are down to less than a decade.

Joe Biden, AOC and the Democrats want to pass a "Green New Deal" today with trillions of dollars in new spending because climate disaster looms in 10 years (9 years?) if we don't act NOW!

Do you see a pattern here?

Why have we always been ten years away from climate disaster for the last 33 years?

At the same time, the elites want to censor and de-platform Joe Rogan for "misinformation" about Covid but they have not noticed that we have been hearing the same climate change nonsense since at least 1989? 

Why is this not considered misinformation about now?

The Narrative Doesn't Compute

 How often have you heard something like this over the last year?

"99% of those who have died from Covid are unvaccinated."

"There is almost no one hospitalized with Covid that is vaccinated."

"The Covid vaccines are overwhelmingly safe and effective at preventing severe disease and death."

I have stated in these pages before that I believe there is evidence that vaccines have prevented deaths, especially in those age 75+.

However, statements such as the ones above VASTLY OVERSTATE the benefits of the vaccines.

I have not understood why the CDC and others have felt it necessary to hype the benefits of the vaccine to such outlandish levels while downplaying the risks. However, there is little question they chose that narrative early and have not deviated from it despite what the data has revealed over time.

For example, the CDC recently released a study in which they claimed that the death rate for those unvaccinated was 13 times greater than someone who was fully vaccinated and 78 times greater than someone who was fully vaccinated with a booster.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/briefing/boosters-cdc-covid-effectiveness.html

Let's take a step back and apply some reason and logic to this claim and see if we can validate it.

There have been 10 billion doses of Covid vaccines administered globally in the last year.

Cumulative Covid Vaccine Doses Administered-World

Let's first look at this in the simplest terms possible.

I am not even going to consider the explosion of cases around the world since the vaccines have been introduced. Any claim that the vaccines are effective at limiting transmission or preventing infection is simply no longer credible by anyone making it.

The narrative that "this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated" has completely fallen apart.

Exhibit A below.

Daily New Covid Cases-World

Let's just focus on the issue of deaths.

In that 10 billon vaccines have been given over the last year it would seem logical that we should have seen some reduction or slowing of Covid deaths if the vaccines were really effective.

The reality of the data is that deaths from Covid have actually increased over the trend line we were seeing globally before the vaccines were introduced.

This does not look "effective" to me.

Yes, but you might be thinking the United States must be better. 

It has had access to the best vaccines. You might also believe that we have learned more about treating Covid and have had the advantage of utilizing monoclonal antibodies and other therapeutics over the last year or so. 

Deaths surely should have been trending down from the prior trend line before the vaccines were introduced in the United States.

No.

Covid deaths have averaged 30% higher per month since the vaccines were introduced in the United States than they were before.

Therefore, how is it that with 68% of every man, woman and child over the age of 5, and 88% of all those age 65+ fully vaccinated, that deaths are trending up rather than down?

Source: CDC

In addition, about half of those eligible for the booster dose have taken that jab. That number is nearly 2/3 with those age 65+.

Let's use my home state of Ohio to test the narrative of the CDC compared to real data.

CDC data indicates that 76% all Covid deaths are in those age 65+. That percentage holds true in my home state of Ohio as well.

87% of all those age 65+ in Ohio have been fully vaccinated. That is also consistent with the overall U.S. data.

On January 31, 2021 the 7-day average of Covid deaths in Ohio was 67.

On January 31, 2022 the 7-day average of Covid deaths in Ohio was 155.

New Reported Deaths in Ohio-7 day average
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/ohio-covid-cases.html

Deaths more than doubled from last year but we are supposed to believe that almost all of them were unvaccinated?

How is this possible with vaccines which are "highly effective" at preventing death?

Let's do some math around that.

Last year 469 (67 x 7 ) died in the last week of January all of which were unvaccinated based on the CDC definition used today. (To be fully vaccinated you have to be at least 14 days beyond the second dose). 

This year 1,085 (155 x 7) died in the last week of January. That is more than double what it was last year.

How does the math work if 87% of age 65+ are fully vaccinated, 76% of deaths are in those age 65+, deaths have more than doubled but we are told that almost all are among the unvaccinated?

The only way it does compute is if the current variant is many, many times deadlier compared to the virus we were experiencing last year.

To get the numbers to work you have to believe that 15-20% of the population is causing twice as many deaths as last year.

However, to get there you have to also be concluding that the introduction of the vaccines somehow made the virus many times more deadly to the unvaccinated than it was before.

Does any of this makes sense based on what we know and see around us?

The CDC has never even come to the conclusion that the Delta variant results in greater mortality than the original Wuhan strain although the CDC did conclude it was 2x more contagious. Omicron is obviously more infectious than Delta. However, early indications are it is far less lethal,

This simple graphic might explain it better.

If you assume deaths don't change over time, while the number of those unvaccinated decreases from 100% to 80%, that means that the risk factor of the unvaccinated has to increase by 5-fold in order to maintain a level death count if those vaccinated are not contributing to deaths.

In Ohio, the recent 7-day average death count is not level with last year. It is double what it was the same time last year.

You can do the math. The numbers don't work.

The narrative doesn't compute.

The narrative seemingly also doesn't compute when it is stated that the vaccines are highly effective at preventing severe disease and hospitalization.

Effective? Perhaps. Highly effective? You be the judge.

Let's look at hospitalization data from the most vaccinated state---Vermont.

95% of the age 5+ population in Vermont has had at least one dose of the vaccine. 83% are fully vaccinated. Among the age 65+ in Vermont, 95% are fully vaccinated.

Overall, hospitalizations have increased from 2.9/100,000 to 4.6/100,000---a 59% increases---from the peak last year compared to today in Vermont.

For the age 70+ age group, hospitalizations have increased from 14.4/100,000 to 18.1/100,000----a 27% increase---despite 95% of this age group being fully vaccinated.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/vermont-covid-cases.html

How can it be said that the vaccines are protecting against severe disease if hospitalizations are up 27% in a group with a 95% vaccination rate?

Are we to believe that 5% of this group is flooding the hospitals at higher numbers than 100% of the same group were doing last year when all were unvaccinated?

Again, the narrative doesn't compute when measured against against any semblance of logic.

What is most telling about the CDC data is that it is simply not supported by data from other countries in the world.

It is as if the CDC wants us to believe that Americans are a completely different species than the humans that inhabit the UK, Scotland or Israel. 

For example, in the UK 74% of the deaths for the last reported four week period were in those fully vaccinated. 

Source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1049160/Vaccine-surveillance-report-week-3-2022.pdf

In the age 70+ age group in the UK, 82% of those who died were vaccinated.

In the UK, 95% of those in this age group are vaccinated so it does appear that the vaccine is conferring some benefit against death. However, it certainly cannot be said that the vaccines are highly effective if 82% of deaths are coming from those who are vaccinated.

87% of Covid deaths in Scotland in the most recent reporting week were among the vaccinated.

The rate per 100,000 (population and age adjusted) is actually higher in those who are fully vaccinated than those who are unvaccinated.

The booster does appear to be providing protection against death right now but will that benefit fade over time as it appears it has for those fully vaccinated?

Source: https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/11318/22-01-26-covid19-winter_publication_report.pdf

Highly vaccinated Israel just recorded its highest death total of the entire pandemic this week.

Daily new Covid deaths per million in Israel

Israel is in the midst of administering a fourth shot to a large portion of their population. 

70% of Covid deaths last week were in those who are vaccinated.

Blue are deaths in the vaccinated. Orange represents deaths in the unvaccinated.

Notice as well that the deaths in the vaccinated have been climbing sharply in Israel in recent weeks.

Israel also has high vaccination rates (90%+ with those over age 60) so this is evidence of some benefit from the vaccines. (The vaccination rate is higher than the death rate for those vaccinated). However, it  is not in the same universe of benefit that the CDC is claiming in the United States.

How can the narrative be correct that that hospitalizations and deaths in the United States are overwhelmingly among the unvaccinated when that clearly is not the case in these other countries?

There are only two possible answers.

The data from the UK, Scotland, Israel and other countries is wrong

or

The CDC and others in the United States with an agenda are manipulating the numbers to fit their narrative

I don't know what the real truth is.

However, the data is telling me that the narrative doesn't compute.

What A Month It Was

January, 2022. 

What a month it was.

A year ago the vaccines were beginning to go into people's arms and we were told that normalcy was just around the corner.

The vaccines were the answer.

In the last year over 10 billion doses of Covid vaccines have been administered around the world.

Cumulative Covid vaccines doses administered worldwide

What a month it wasn't in January for anyone who was still claiming that this was a pandemic of the unvaccinated.

In Australia there were 6 times more Covid cases in January, 2022 than in the previous two years of the pandemic combined.

Cumulative confirmed Covid cases in Australia

There were also more Covid deaths in Australia in January than in the first 18 months of the pandemic in total.

In Israel, there were more Covid cases in January than in the previous two years of the pandemic.

Cumulative confirmed Covid cases in Israel

Again, all of this took place in one month compared to the previous two years.

There have been 88% more deaths from Covid in Israel since the vaccines were introduced compared to the period when they were not available. A surge in deaths in January contributed to this total.

Cumulative confirmed Covid cases in Israel

You get a sense of what a month it was by looking at this chart of global Covid cases.

Daily Global New Covid Cases

This is after 10 billion doses of "highly effective" vaccines?

In the United States there were over 20.2 million confirmed cases of Covid reported in January alone.

That is equal to the total number of cases in the entire year of 2020 and is almost 60% of the entire amount of confirmed cases for the full year of 2021.

Cumulative confirmed Covid cases- United States

It wasn't all bad news in January in the United States.

New York saw Covid cases go down in January almost as quickly as they increased in December.

New Reported Cases in New York
Credit: The New York Times

New daily cases in New York dropped from 81,077 on January 1 to 9,688 on January 31---an 88% reduction in one month.

Wisconsin saw the 7-day average in new cases increase 3.5x between January 1 and January 18. Cases then dropped 72% over the next 13 days ending January 31.

New Reported Cases in Wisconsin
Source: The New York Times

It was almost an Omicron rocket roundtrip in Wisconsin during the 31 days of January.

Having money in the stock market proved to be a rough ride in January.

The NASDAQ narrowly avoided its worst January in history. It finished down 8.99% after a closing rally on January 31 that kept the month from going in the record books.

The S&P 500 and Dow both had their worst performing months sine the pandemic began.

Do you also remember all of the hullabaloo back in November when Joe Biden stated that he was going to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to drive down oil prices and gas prices at the pump?

I wrote at the time that this action was nothing but political theater. It would have no impact on prices. All it would do would deplete the oil reserve and require us to replenish it at higher prices and/or put us at risk when we had a real emergency,

When Biden implemented this policy WTI crude oil was selling at $75.50/ barrel.

It was priced at $74.88 on December 31, 2021.

The price advanced to $86.84 on January 31, 2022---a 16% increase in the month of January alone.

It was trading at $88.28 on February 2.

January, 2022 was clearly not a good month for Joe Biden.

Source: https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/crude-oil

We still don't know what January's inflation numbers (to be released February 10) will look like but the increase in oil prices will not help.

We also await January's unemployment numbers that are due out on Friday.

The numbers we will see will most likely not look good as Biden's Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, claimed on Monday that 9 million people were out sick with Covid the week of the job survey, and many of these will be considered as unemployed as a result.

Psaki suggests in the press briefing remarks that if someone is out with illness and does not receive sick pay from their employer they are considered "unemployed."

Credit: https://twitter.com/mrctv/status/1488218347883933698

If you are sick you are now considered unemployed? 

However, this is not how the Bureau of Labor Statistics technical documentation states how an ill employee is supposed to be counted.

An employee who is ill, whether of not being they are being paid, are to be counted as employed if they have a job whether or not they worked that week due to illness.

This is an excerpt from the BLS Technical Documentation.

If BLS is not following this standard, they are violating their own rules and the precedent for prior years.

In any event, considering how the White House is trying to front run the employment numbers, you can expect that there is more bad news coming about January, 2022 when the unemployment numbers are released. 

January, 2022.

...What a month it was.