Inflation: The Real Source

As we near our 2024 U.S. federal-state elections and their ramping up political campaigns of patent rhetoric, of misdirected, or even audacious lies and disinformation, one primary target radical MAGA Republicans are obsessed with and annoyingly screaming about is …inflation. Inflation that technically began on February 24, 2022. They place all blame for this current hyper-inflation on President Biden and his political party. This is no surprise, of course, considering the next reasonable target they might have, and I use “reasonable” very loosely here, would be Hunter Biden’s laptop. HAH!

But let’s use our better, mature judgement and our critical-thinking and analysis skills we learned from middle- to high-school to perhaps under-grad to determine the true source of this inflation.

The above diagram basically illustrates the distribution chain of goods and services from crude or basic materials from Earth, to production, refining, or manufacturing, to transportation, to more distribution or delivery-transportation, to retailers, then finally to consumers or us average Americans. Study the diagram closely. What processes or stages make up the bulk of the distribution chain?

Take a moment to consider carefully.

Do you think you have it? It isn’t obvious with a Nano-second first glance like most super busy Americans do when listening to or reading about political campaigns or propaganda packed with deception, disinformation, diversion, or blatant lies. What is it that makes up the bulk of the world-wide distribution chain?

Movement.

It is the movement of these raw materials to production, refining, or manufacturing facilities, then movement to transportation hubs like sea ports, cargo trains and planes, or truck loading bays, then typically to large warehouses everywhere for (temporary) storage before those goods/materials are again loaded onto regional or local transportation-delivery vehicles or vessels to be unloaded at retail stores for us buying consumers. Now, how is all of this “movement” of materials and goods accomplished? What drives all this distribution forward from start to finish or from supply to demand?

Energy.

What type of energy for 21st-century transportation, typically?

You guessed it… fuel, gasoline, petrol.

Where does most of the world’s “energy” come from?

Ding, ding, ding! 🛎 Yep, you guessed it, crude oil. And what nations produce the most crude oil, oil-refining, and distribution or export of fuel, natural gas, and petroleum byproducts? Let’s take a look.

Investing News Network (INN) provides independent, trusted news and education for financial investors in over 40 targeted categories, including oil and petroleum production and export. According to their March 2023 update, the Top 10 Oil Producing Countries are as follows:

nationallied or cozy in trade with russiabarrels per day
1. USA18,875,000 bpd
2. Saudi Arabia🇷🇺10,835,000 bpd
3. Russia10,778,000 bpd
4. Canada5,558,000 bpd
5. China🇷🇺4,993,000 bpd
6. Iraq🤝4,149,000 bpd
7. UAE🇷🇺3,786,000 bpd
8. Brazil🤝❓3,689,000 bpd
9. Iran🇷🇺3,458,000 bpd
10. Kuwait🤝2,717,000 bpd
———————
TOTAL68,838,000 bpd
🇷🇺 = Allies, 🤝 = Drawing closer, ❓ = Domestic gov’t TBD

To further clarify the Brazilian question above in the table, the ❓ means: how will the newly elected President of Brazil align himself and how their government aligns itself with the U.S. and Western alliances against Russia’s war in Ukraine, will all determine their production, export, and prices of their 3,689,000 bpd for the West. It doesn’t require a lot of deduction and analytics from the above diagram to determine that the majority of energy production/export, which heavily influences the distribution chain of transported goods/fuel around the world, is squarely in the hands of Russian allies or closely tied nations to Russia, specifically Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin regime. Do the math for yourself from the above BPD numbers. Five of the top ten oil/fuel production countries are allied with Putin/Russia. Seven of the top ten are in increased close relations with Putin/Russia. These foreign economic and energy facts do not bode well for decreasing or relaxed (hyper?) inflation for Americans in 2022, much less for 2023.

But one undeniable fact remains true and steadfast. Our current inflation rate has NOTHING to do with President Biden or his political party and agenda. Period! Current and persistent (hyper?) inflation has everything to do with Vladimir Putin, Russia warring in Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, China, the UAE, and Iran. And it is no stretch to include Iraq—after how we shit on them during two deadly, destructive wars, the second war an illegal invasion and occupation—Kuwait who has become more friendly to Russia, and perhaps Brazil. These are the REAL factors behind our insane inflation rates, in addition to mega wealthy corporations just passing on (the buck) high-prices to average middle-class and poor-class Americans who cannot weather a full 2-3 years of hyper-inflation.

But one undeniable fact remains true and steadfast. Our current inflation rate has NOTHING to do with President Biden or his political party and agenda. Period!

Do not believe any of the increased political propaganda, disinformation, diversions, or blatant lies from radical MAGA Republicans screaming about who is responsible for this debilitating inflation we are in. It simply is not true, nor can it be justified. It’s simply wrong.

The numbers and facts above show clearly who is to blame. And on a side note and endnote, consider too the OPEC nations, who further drive the price of distribution chain fuel costs, effecting everything in the global economies and especially in the U.S. Besides, why would Joe Biden intentionally drive us into these hard, expensive times? There is no political gain for him to do so. No, get real and reasonable voting Americans. These hard times since February 24, 2022 have very, very little to do with the White House or one political party. They have everything to do with one man in Moscow and his oil producing allies.

The Professor’s Convatorium © 2023 by Professor Taboo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

America’s Corporate Shame-List

My fellow bloggers and any visiting this blog-post, whether American citizens or not, this is a list of the U.S. corporations still doing business in Russia despite the dire need for unified, complete and extensive embargos and sanctions against Putin’s Russia and the obvious war crimes he and the Russian military, under his orders, have committed and are committing daily since February 24, 2022. This exhaustive list compiled by Yale University’s School of Management gives all the American company names that have 1) withdrawn from Russia halting all operations, 2) suspended operations temporarily, 3) scaled back operations while continuing other operations there, 4) buying time postponing future development and/or investments while continuing substantive operations, and 5) defying all demands to exit or implement any reductions.

If you have any moral sense of WHY the sanctions, embargos, and restrictions upon the entire infrastructure and economy of Russia and Putin are not only a must, but the West must also be totally unified in these measures so as to quickly bleed-out and bankrupt Putin’s war machine in Ukraine! This has to include ordinary Americans at home and being acutely cognizant of what we purchase in stores or online or support directly and indirectly with these companies. The list of Category 3, 4, and 5 international corporations is disturbing, and shamefully large. I beg you, let us Americans boycott these American corporations by not giving them one cent of our money, our time, or speak positively of their despicable business in Russia until they do the right thing: STOP, and fast.

To save page-space and time, I am listing here only the well-known American companies in Categories #3, #4, and #5, the ones with seemingly no moral compass. Please go to Yale University’s School of Management (here) for the entire list and detailed descriptions of each category:

Category Three – Scaled Back

  • Bacardi (rum, liquors)
  • Bosch
  • Carlsberg Group (beer)
  • Dow Chemical
  • GE (General Electric)
  • Goldman Sachs
  • HSBC (banking)
  • ING NV (banking)
  • JP Morgan
  • Michelin Tire
  • Pepsi
  • Whirlpool

Category Four – Buying Time

  • ADM Labs (livestock feeds)
  • Barilla (pastas)
  • BASF SE (chemicals)
  • Bayer (aspirin)
  • Cargill (foods)
  • Colgate-Palmolive
  • Dunkin Donuts
  • Focus Brands – Cinnabon
  • General Mills
  • Halliburton
  • Hilton (lodging)
  • Hyatt (lodging)
  • Intercontinental Hotels
  • Johnson & Johnson
  • Kellogg
  • Kraft Heinz – JBS
  • Marriott
  • Mars (candy)
  • Merck
  • Mondelez – Nabisco
  • Nestle
  • Pfizer (pharma)
  • Philip Morris (cigarettes & tobacco)
  • Pirelli (tires)
  • Procter & Gamble
  • Siemens USA
  • Subway (food)
  • Yum Brands (fast foods, e.g. KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and WingStreet to name only four)

Category Five – Defying All Demands

  • AstraZeneca (pharma)
  • ASUS (computers)
  • Ball Corporation (home & kitchen products)
  • Emerson Electric
  • Emirates Airlines
  • International Paper
  • Koch Industries
  • Ralph Lauren
  • Renault USA (automotive)
  • SC Johnson (household goods)
  • Young Living (marketing)

Please, let’s do everything we can right now to pressure these corporations and their CEO’s and top executives to take not only the moral high-road, but the humane course as well. Let us be unrelenting until they relent and join a world of civilized, peace-loving humanity.

Let’s choke and strangle Putin and his top-brass so they can no longer wage War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity! Then, when it has completely stopped in Ukraine and they’ve returned to Moscow, help bring Vladimir Putin to the Haag’s International Court of Justice as a war criminal. This will only happen if America, NATO, the EU, and G7, and all other allies complete this to the very end firmly unified, including all ordinary American consumers.

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