I assess a great amount of information each week. I read and survey a number of general, economic and political news sites in addition to opinion and commentary materials.
The items that catch my attention are the outlier facts that often go against the standard reporting or narrative of the day. What I am most interested in are the facts that point away from what you might have been told, or what you may think, to be true.
My biggest goal in writing BeeLine is putting things in context. As I often write in these pages, context is everything when assessing anything. In the news bite era we live in today, context is often no where to be found. I try to provide it when I write about a subject.
Coming into contact with so much material I often find I don't have the time to go deeper with a factoid I have discovered. Sometimes not much else needs to be said. The factoid itself says enough.
Here are a few such items that I have seen recently that make me go Hmmmm.
Perhaps you will as well.
Electricity Rates in Europe
It could be a cold and dark winter in Europe as things now stand.
Forward-looking electricity rates per Megawatt hour in France are up 1,000% due to the Ukraine war where half of the nuclear reactors are also shut down for maintenance issues due to the discovery of cracked pipes.
 |
| Source: https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1557675782486597633 |
The Federal Reserve and Interest Rates
We hear that the Fed is aggressively moving to contain inflation by raising interest rates.
Compared to previous periods of inflation it is almost as if the Fed has done nothing thus far.
 |
| Source: https://twitter.com/NorthmanTrader/status/1559496612426162180/photo/1 |
Is the Fed so boxed-in with the massive money printing is has done that it can't really raise interest rates significantly without bringing the entire house of cards down?
The Fed owns $9 trillion in federal securities (printed money) from its quantitative easing program.
The Fed say that they are going to unwind this through a quantitative tightening program.
At the rate it is tightening so far, it is going to take a long, long, long time.
 |
| Source: https://twitter.com/NorthmanTrader/status/1559496916626456576/photo/1 |
Interest Rates and Homebuyers
It seems that high home prices and higher interest rates may be having an effect on the number of prospective buyers looking for a new house.
The good news is that it is not as bad as the first few months of the Covid pandemic...yet.
 |
| Credit: https://twitter.com/LizAnnSonders/status/1559479886288457728 |
Starbucks on Mail-In Voting---Then and Now
Starbucks was a huge advocate and supporter of mail-in voting in the 2020 general election.
They even developed an app to help employees vote by mail.
 |
| Source: https://www.krmsradio.com/starbucks-to-use-app-to-help-employees-vote-by-mail/ |
However, Starbucks is now asking that the National Labor Relations Board suspend mail-in voting regarding elections nationwide that involve attempts to unionize its employees.
Starbucks is concerned about misconduct in the mail-in balloting and wants future elections to be "in-person".
 |
| Source: https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/08/15/starbucks-asks-labor-board-to-suspend-mail-in-ballot-union-elections-alleging-misconduct-in-voting-process.html |
Who would have thought?
Covid Strikes Again
Jill Biden and Albert Boula (Pfizer's CEO) both announced this week that they have contracted Covid-19.
Both Mrs. Biden and Bourla were double-vaccinated and double-boosted.
Bourla is also on the record as stating that Pfizer's Covid vaccine was 100% effective in its South African clinical trials in April, 2021.
It was stated to be 95% effective in the U.S. trials.
Both are now being treated with a course of Pfizer's Paxlovid drug that is supposed to limit the chances of severe disease or hospitalization from Covid.
To recap.
They both got two doses of the Covid vaccine because it was supposed to be 95%-100% effective at preventing disease.
When that proved untrue the narrative was later amended to claim that the vaccines were not really meant to prevent disease but to keep Covid from becoming severe so that hospitalization was not required.
They then each took two more booster doses to prevent severe disease.
They still both got Covid.
Now they are taking another Pfizer drug after being infected (Paxlovid) to prevent the severe disease we were told the vaccines were for.
Paxlovid is supposed to be 88% effective in reducing severe disease, hospitalizations and deaths from Covid.
 |
| Source: https://www.scripps.org/news_items/7436-should-i-take-paxlovid-if-i-get-covid-19 |
Of course, Joe Biden and Tony Fauci, who were also double vaccinated and double boosted, also just recently recovered from bouts with Covid.
Four shots to prevent a disease and now another drug to stop the infection from becoming severe which, at a minimum, is what the four shots were supposed to do in the first place?
Do I have this right?
And to top it off, Joe Biden and Tony Fauci ended up with a second Covid rebound case after taking Paxlovid.
It is very confusing keeping everything straight when it comes to Covid.
How Times Have Changed
This man was billed as the "world's fattest man" at a circus side show in 1890.
 |
| Source: https://twitter.com/asIiceofhistory/status/1557076735077666816 |
People paid to see him.
Now you can see sights like this almost everywhere you go.
How about this colorized image of Daytona Beach, Florida in 1904 as well?
 |
| Source: https://twitter.com/syeda12857880/status/1554524186877407232/photo/1 |
How times have changed.
No comments:
Post a Comment