Another Republican President, Another Recession.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will announce the release of 15 million barrels of oil from the U.S. strategic reserve Wednesday as part of a response to recent production cuts announced by OPEC+ nations, and he will say more drawdowns are possible this winter, as his administration rushes to be seen as pulling out all the stops ahead of next month’s midterm elections.

Biden will deliver remarks Wednesday to announce the drawdown from the strategic reserve, senior administration officials said Tuesday on the condition of anonymity to outline Biden’s plans. It completes the release of 180 million barrels authorized by Biden in March that was initially supposed to occur over six months. That has sent the strategic reserve to its lowest level since 1984 in what the administration called a “bridge” until domestic production could be increased. The reserve now contains roughly 400 million barrels of oil.

Biden will also open the door to additional releases this winter in an effort to keep prices down. But administration officials would not detail how much the president would be willing to tap, nor how much they want domestic and production to increase by to end the withdrawals.

Biden will also say that the U.S. government will restock the strategic reserve when oil prices are at or lower than $67 to $72 a barrel, an offer that administration officials argue will support domestic production by guaranteeing a baseline level of demand. Yet the president is also expected to renew his criticism of the profits reaped by oil companies — repeating a bet made this summer that public condemnation would matter more to these companies than shareholders’ focus on returns.

It marks the continuation of an about-face by Biden, who has tried to move the U.S. past fossil fuels to identify additional sources of energy to satisfy U.S. and global supply as a result of disruptions from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and production cuts announced by the Saudi Arabia-led oil cartel.

The prospective loss of 2 million barrels a day — 2% of global supply — has had the White House saying Saudi Arabia sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin and pledging there will be consequences for supply cuts that could prop up energy prices. The 15 million-barrel release would not cover even one full day’s use of oil in the U.S., according to the Energy Information Administration.

The administration could make a decision on future releases a month from now, as it requires a month and a half for the government to notify would-be buyers.

Biden still faces political headwinds because of gas prices. AAA reports that gas is averaging $3.87 a gallon. That’s down slightly over the past week, but it’s up from a month ago. The recent increase in prices stalled the momentum that the president and his fellow Democrats had been seeing in the polls ahead of the November elections.

An analysis Monday by ClearView Energy Partners, an independent energy research firm based in Washington, suggested that two states that could decide control of the evenly split Senate — Nevada and Pennsylvania — are sensitive to energy prices. The analysis noted that gas prices over the past month rose above the national average in 18 states, which are home to 29 potentially “at risk” House seats.

Even if voters want cheaper gasoline, expected gains in supply are not materializing because of a weaker global economy. The U.S. government last week revised downward its forecasts, saying that domestic firms would produce 270,000 fewer barrels a day in 2023 than was forecast in September. Global production would be 600,000 barrels a day lower than forecast in September.

The hard math for Biden is that oil production has yet to return to its pre-pandemic level of roughly 13 million barrels a day. It’s about a million barrels a day shy of that level. The oil industry would like the administration to open up more federal lands for drilling, approve pipeline construction and reverse its recent changes to raise corporate taxes. The administration counters that the oil industry is sitting on thousands of unused federal leases and says new permits would take years to produce oil with no impact on current gas prices. Environmental groups, meanwhile, have asked Biden to keep a campaign promise to block new drilling on federal lands.

Biden has resisted the policies favored by U.S. oil producers. Instead, he’s sought to reduce prices by releasing oil from the U.S. reserve, shaming oil companies for their profits and calling on greater production from countries in OPEC+ that have different geopolitical interests, said Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs at the American Petroleum Institute.

“If they continue to offer the same old so-called solutions, they’ll continue to get the same old results,” Macchiarola said.

Because fossil fuels lead to carbon emissions, Biden has sought to move away from them entirely with a commitment to zero emissions by 2050. When discussing that commitment nearly a year ago after the G-20 leading rich and developing nations met in Rome, the president said he still wanted to also lower gas prices because at “$3.35 a gallon, it has profound impact on working-class families just to get back and forth to work.”

Since Biden spoke of the pain of gas at $3.35 a gallon and his hopes to reduce costs, the price has on balance risen another 15.5%.

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garybo said:

"The hard math for Biden is that oil production has yet to return to its pre-pandemic level of roughly 13 million barrels a day. It’s about a million barrels a day shy of that level. The oil industry would like the administration to open up more federal lands for drilling, approve pipeline construction and reverse its recent changes to raise corporate taxes. The administration counters that the oil industry is sitting on thousands of unused federal leases and says new permits would take years to produce oil with no impact on current gas prices. Environmental groups, meanwhile, have asked Biden to keep a campaign promise to block new drilling on federal lands."

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garybo said:

Shipping produces more carbon than most nations - it must go green

Shipping produces more carbon emissions than most countries and pollutes the oceans. Will slowing vessels or making them electric do enough?

inews.co.uk

Cargo ships are the world’s worst polluters, so how can they be made to go green?

Maritime shipping transports 90 percent of the goods traded around the world by volume. Moving large amounts of goods such as oil, computers, blue jeans and wheat across oceans drives the global economy, making it cheaper and easier to buy almost anything.
But hauling goods around by sea requires roughly 300 million tons of very dirty fuel, producing nearly 3 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, giving the international maritime shipping industry roughly the same carbon footprint as Germany.
At summits like the COP24 meeting held in Poland in December of 2018 and in agreements such as the one struck in Paris in 2015, national governments have largely ignored the carbon dioxide emissions from international shipping entering the atmosphere.
This is a real problem because if no country is held responsible for emissions, no government will try to reduce them. We believe as scholars of global environmental cooperation that one way forward is to make international maritime shipping emissions the responsibility of specific countries with the goal of increasing pressure to encourage emission reductions.

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garybo said:

"The hard math for Biden is that oil production has yet to return to its pre-pandemic level of roughly 13 million barrels a day. It’s about a million barrels a day shy of that level. The oil industry would like the administration to open up more federal lands for drilling, approve pipeline construction and reverse its recent changes to raise corporate taxes. The administration counters that the oil industry is sitting on thousands of unused federal leases and says new permits would take years to produce oil with no impact on current gas prices. Environmental groups, meanwhile, have asked Biden to keep a campaign promise to block new drilling on federal lands."

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garybo said:

Shipping produces more carbon than most nations - it must go green

Shipping produces more carbon emissions than most countries and pollutes the oceans. Will slowing vessels or making them electric do enough?

inews.co.uk

Cargo ships are the world’s worst polluters, so how can they be made to go green?

Maritime shipping transports 90 percent of the goods traded around the world by volume. Moving large amounts of goods such as oil, computers, blue jeans and wheat across oceans drives the global economy, making it cheaper and easier to buy almost anything.
But hauling goods around by sea requires roughly 300 million tons of very dirty fuel, producing nearly 3 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, giving the international maritime shipping industry roughly the same carbon footprint as Germany.
At summits like the COP24 meeting held in Poland in December of 2018 and in agreements such as the one struck in Paris in 2015, national governments have largely ignored the carbon dioxide emissions from international shipping entering the atmosphere.
This is a real problem because if no country is held responsible for emissions, no government will try to reduce them. We believe as scholars of global environmental cooperation that one way forward is to make international maritime shipping emissions the responsibility of specific countries with the goal of increasing pressure to encourage emission reductions.

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hanimmal said:

A whole lot more local production to reduce the traffic as much as feasible would be one way to reduce the problem of cargo ships.

Solves a few major problems.

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cannabineer said:

for some resources, especially specialty crops and minerals, that will be less practical.

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hanimmal said:

The key word is 'some'. Reducing it, not to zero, but to as low as feasible. Cut out almost all of stupid shit like making Rubber Duckies in China and shipping them across the planet would add up at the end of the day.

Trade is still really important, but we also learned a tough lesson during the pandemic and the aftermath of Putin's war.

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During a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday, United States Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-California) showed up with whiteboard ready with charts ready to interrogate Mike Konczal, a director at the progressive Roosevelt Institute.

Porter pointed out that the primary driver of inflation – 54% of it – has been corporate profits. In a video that has now gone viral, Porter gives one of her classic whiteboard presentations to illustrate:

'Over half of the increased prices people are paying come from increases in corporate profits': Katie Porter grills macroeconomics expert | RawStory.TV'Over half of the increased prices people are paying come from increases in corporate profits': Katie Porter grills macroeconomics expert | RawStory.TV

The Congresswoman does not mess around, she gets to the point quickly and effectively. She came with her charts pointing out that corporate profits/greed is responsible for more than half our inflation rate.

The underlying economic problem is profit-price inflation. It’s caused by corporations raising their prices above their increasing costs.

Corporations are using those increasing costs – of materials, components and labor – as excuses to increase their prices even higher, resulting in bigger profits. This is why corporate profits are close to levels not seen in over half a century.

Corporations have the power to raise prices without losing customers because they face so little competition. Since the 1980s, two-thirds of all American industries have become more concentrated.

The Fed is doing a full frontal assault on those who are hurt most by inflation while letting the robber barons who rule Wall Street run wild. This is the government preferring fictitious citizens — otherwise known as corporations — over actual citizens — otherwise known as people.

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently endorsed a report by Consumer Watchdog which calls for an excess profits tax on oil refiners in that state after they reported record profits. Gasoline in California currently cost about $2.50 a gallon more than in the rest of the US. Consumer Watchdog reports that the state’s five major refiners made between three and ten times more in profits per gallon off their West Coast operations from April through June than they did in the same period last year.

Wall Street has consolidated into five giant banks, raking in record profits on the spreads between the interest they pay on deposits and what they charge on loans.

Broadband is dominated by three giant cable companies, all raising their prices.

Automobile dealers are enjoying record profits as they raise the retail prices of automobiles.

Gas prices have started to drop but big oil still has the power to raise prices at the pump far higher than the costs of crude.

This is why Congress and the administration need to take direct action against profit-price inflation, rather than rely solely on the Fed to raise interest rates and put the burden of fighting inflation on average working people who are not responsible for it.

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hanimmal said:

https://www.rawstory.com/over-half-of-the-increased-prices-people-are-paying-come-from-increases-in-corporate-profits-katie-porter-grills-macroeconomics-expert/?cx_testId=4&cx_testVariant=cx_undefined&cx_artPos=9&cx_experienceId=EXC93HV4HK4I#cxrecs_sView attachment 5215409

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hanimmal said:

https://www.rawstory.com/over-half-of-the-increased-prices-people-are-paying-come-from-increases-in-corporate-profits-katie-porter-grills-macroeconomics-expert/?cx_testId=4&cx_testVariant=cx_undefined&cx_artPos=9&cx_experienceId=EXC93HV4HK4I#cxrecs_sView attachment 5215409

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This fiscal year’s budget deficit shrunk in half from last year, but the red ink soared on a monthly basis in September largely because of President Joe Biden’s plans to forgive student debt, as three decades’ worth of costs were compressed into a single month.

The budget figures released Friday by the Treasury Department reveal dueling visions about what it means to be financially responsible: Biden can rightly claim that the budget deficit for fiscal 2022 plunged $1.4 trillion from the prior year; critics can use the same report to say that forgiving education loans pushed up the federal debt by roughly $400 billion as the government booked the full expense.

Buried in the numbers is a deeper battle between Democrats and Republicans about what it means to be good financial stewards. The federal budget deficit totaled $1.38 trillion this year. That’s down from $2.78 trillion in fiscal 2021 —and it’s a message that Biden wants to sell to voters going into the midterm elections.

“Today we have further proof that we’re rebuilding the economy in a responsible way,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. “Republicans in Congress are doubling down on a commitment to explode the deficit again.”

The annual deficit roughly halved in size because of the end of spending tied to coronavirus pandemic relief and higher tax revenues as more Americans found jobs — an improvement that Biden credits to his policies.

Republicans counter that Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan that helped fuel those job gains also helped to trigger high inflation, a key concern of voters going into the midterms. They also want to reverse his recent 15% minimum tax on corporations and expanded funding for the IRS, even though both could reduce forecasted deficits.

The government will likely need to raise its legal capacity to borrow and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has signaled that he would push for spending cuts if the GOP gains a majority in the Nov. 8 vote.

“You can’t just continue down the path to keep spending and adding to the debt,” McCarthy said in an interview this week with Punchbowl News. “There comes a point in time where, okay, we’ll provide you more money, but you got to change your current behavior. We’re not just going to keep lifting your credit card limit, right?”

Biden interpreted those comments as a threat to hold U.S. government funding hostage and possibly make it impossible for the government to repay its debt.

“They will crash the economy next year by threatening the full faith and credit of the United States, for the first time in our history putting the United States in default unless unless we yield to their demand to cut Social Security, Medicare,” Biden said.

Noting that momentum in recent months has swung between the two parties, Biden said he expects voter energy will shift back to Democrats because gasoline prices have fallen in the past two weeks and the unemployment rate has stayed low.

He also went on the offensive with his economic message, saying Republican plans to undo his policies and preserve expiring tax cuts that favor the wealthy would ultimately push up budget deficits.

“Put it all together and the Republican plan would add about $3 trillion to the deficit -- $3 trillion,” the president said. “Adding another $3 trillion to the deficit is reckless, it’s irresponsible, and it would make inflation worse.”

Administration officials have argued that the forgiveness of student debt will allow borrowers to achieve life milestones such as buying a home and starting a family. Republican lawmakers counter that the forgiveness is a giveaway that disadvantages blue collar workers and those who did not attend college.

The monthly report added to those tensions, as much of the cost of debt forgiveness was booked in September, even though the repayment of the loans would have likely occurred over 30 years.

Biden in August announced $10,000 in federal student debt cancellation for those with incomes below $125,000 a year, or households that make less than $250,000 a year. Those who received federal Pell Grants to attend college are eligible for an additional $10,000 in forgiveness.

Biden’s plan makes 20 million people eligible to get their federal student debt erased entirely.

States and groups affiliated with Republicans have filed lawsuits to try to block the forgiveness. A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a suit from six GOP-led states, saying the states lacked legal standing, a decision that the states intend to appeal.

Federal finances improved over the past 12 months as the unemployment rate dropped to 3.5% from 4.7% in September 2021. The job gains enabled tax revenues to jump 21% from a year ago, while overall spending fell 8% as the government’s coronavirus-related aid has faded.

In May, the Congressional Budget Office expected the federal deficit to fall in 2023 and then start to rise in the years ahead to $2.25 trillion a decade from now.

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Roger A. Shrubber said:

This is why Congress and the administration need to take direct action against profit-price inflation, rather than rely solely on the Fed to raise interest rates and put the burden of fighting inflation on average working people who are not responsible for it.

A-FUCKING-MEN

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As of last week, Americans can now walk into a pharmacy and purchase hearing aids over the counter. This amazing development is just one of many benefits that Democrats have handed working-class Americans over the past two years — and that they should spend the final weeks before the midterm elections loudly reminding voters about.

Experts have called over-the-counter hearing aids a “game-changer” for public health. About 30 million Americans older than 12 have hearing loss, a condition that can lead to increased risk for accidents, depression and dementia. Hearing aids can lower such risks, but given an average out-of-pocket cost of $4,000 per pair until now, most Americans with hearing loss have never worn them. Now, thanks to a recent FDA rule change made possible by an executive orderPresident Biden signed last year, lower prices and greater market competitionwill make more options available to millions.

With this move, the Biden administration has found a strategy for a winning politics: pursuing practical policies that tangibly benefit working-class Americans. The administration started by sending out $1,400 stimulus checks — money they’re still working to get to eligible families — and has gone on to ease the burden of medical debt, forgive student loans and pardon people with federal convictions for simple marijuana possession.

But these serious (and popular!) victories for working people haven’t necessarily boosted Democrats’ electoral prospects. On the campaign trail, Democrats have failed to offer a clear message about what they’ve done while in power to improve Americans’ quality of life. Instead, they find themselves playing defense on problems largely beyond their control — gas prices, inflation, crime — which leads to candidates looking for scapegoats for what’s going wrong instead of making an affirmative case for what’s going right. And if the old adage that people vote their pocketbooks is true, voters won’t accept excuses; they’ll want results.

But Democrats have bolstered people’s bank accounts. It’s just that it won’t do them any good unless they remind people where that windfall came from — and unless they keep those benefits coming. A recent Data for Progress report indicated that the child tax credit led to a surge in support for Democrats among parents who received it — but that bump evaporated as soon as the program expired. Research has also found that even though wages are up and unemployment is down, voters perceive that the economy is poor. A majority of Americans believe we’re in a recession, though we are not. And when people don’t realize that the government is helping them, anti-government conservatives benefit.

Republicans, for their part, are more than willing to take credit for the few instances they’ve backed direct relief. In an unprecedented move, Donald Trump pushed to get his name printed on the stimulus checks sent early in the pandemic. “I’m sure people will be very happy to get a big, fat, beautiful check and my name is on it,” he sagely noted. Republicans don’t let details stop them from taking credit for a policy — including whether they supported it. Throughout this election cycle, GOP senators and representatives alike have boasted to their constituents about infrastructure projects they voted against.

Democrats ought to be just as aggressive in touting the direct discounts, credits and services they’ve secured for working people. And they can start by reminding voters how far their policies reach. Take over-the-counter hearing aids. Hearing loss affects nearly two-thirds of those over 70. Even if someone doesn’t have hearing loss now, they might later in life. That means, in effect, that this is a universally beneficial policy — just like Medicare and Social Security, which anyone who lives into old age stands to benefit from. Democrats should constantly remind voters how they and the people they love will benefit from progressive policies.

And once they’ve reminded voters what they’ve done, Democrats ought to preview what they can deliver in the future. A smart memo to Democrats in the American Prospect proposed that candidates can directly address voters’ concerns about inflation by pledging to crack down on price gouging by corporations, reinstate the child tax credit and lower more drug prices — the last being especially popular. And why wouldn’t it be? A study released last week found that more than 1 million American adults ration insulin because of the cost — a cost that could have been dramatically reduced if Republicans hadn’t blocked comprehensive price relief in the Inflation Reduction Act. Meanwhile, in a recent debate, Georgia GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker suggested that people with diabetes should just “eat right.”

As midterm voting begins, Democrats are right to warn about the threats Republicans pose on such sweeping issues as abortion, climate and democracy. But they shouldn’t refrain from zooming in on practical wins they’ve already secured. Democrats have made it easier for people to pay bills, care for their kids and literally hear. They need to turn up the volume on that.

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CannaOnerStar said:

They could do tons, but they only use this an excuse like i said. If DNC would only talk about these issues properly that would be a lot.

Yea they modified their game with changing the laws a bit, so that they could do it again and again and again in a way that allows them to continue doing it.

Obama was mostly serving the walls street and look at what he did at standing rock. Thats not much better than what trump is doing with his task forces right now. Sure thing shave gotten out of control more now with trump, so there has been more force. But when the protests were equivalent to stadning rock in size, they used equal amount of oppression etc even tho obama was sweet talking all the time.

Do you know that obama could had made it much much harder for the standing rock thing to go through, instead he jsut talsked shit and waited it out until, while oppressing protestors till trump got to control.

Luckily it seems that through court cases people have started to maybe win in the case, but much damage has already been done and its been 4 years when obama could had stopped it immediately if he wanted to. But it would had gone against his donors and friends, so he didnt do anything about it, just left the mess for trum to handle, because then obama would not lose his face and his donors would be happy.




They could do tons of things all the time, instead they feed lies through media and brainwash people. And no its not just DNC, its also RNC.

Im not sure if i should put the text in my signature that says; "go vote for biden and demand stuff from him, because he wont give you them, just because he is not trump, but even if you dont demand anything from him, he is better than trump". So that retards would not think im some ruski troll trying to get people to vote for trump.

Its funny you dont see that the way you are being manipulated is that you are driven against your own side. Im just lucky im not an american brainwashed fool who believes either what DNC or RNC says. Ever heard of divide and conquer? These people feeding you the story of good DNC and bad RNC or good RNC and bad DNC are the world best manipulators and bullshitters. Its funny to see how fucked people are looking at them from the outsiders perspective, when the people who are fucked dont see anything weird but only what they perceive as normal..

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With a Friday deadline approaching, savers trying to buy inflation-protected I bonds — which pay a guaranteed 9.62 percent — are crashing a Treasury Department website.

You can put up to $10,000 per calendar year in a Series I Savings Bond, created as a hedge against inflation. To buy and own an electronic I bond, you must establish an account on the TreasuryDirect website.

To ensure people get a confirmation email, the Treasury Department has been informing buyers that they have until 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern time on Friday to make their purchase and lock in the rate.

Get inflation-proof bonds paying 9.62 percent while there is still time

So many people are scrambling to make the deadline the website, at treasurydirect.gov, is failing to load, leaving buyers frustrated.
“After 3 hours, I was able to create an account and log in,” one commenter wrote on the IsItDownRightNow? website. “Got my emails right away (1:04 and 1:09 PT). Now having a hard time with getting the buying page to load.”

This isn’t the first time the site has crashed. It happened in May when the nearly 10 percent rate was announced. The Treasury Department has also had problems keeping up with the volume of calls from people having trouble buying I bonds.
6 key things to know about inflation-indexed bonds paying 9.62 percent

“Due to high traffic, the TreasuryDirect website has experienced intermittent service issues today,” a Treasury Department spokesman said in an email Wednesday. “We are in the process of adding to the system’s capacity and taking other steps in the hopes of resolving the issues quickly.”

There are two components to the return for an I bond: a fixed rate and an inflation-adjusted rate. The fixed rate of return and the semiannual inflation rate are announced annually by the Treasury Department at the start of May and November. While the fixed rate stays the same for the life of the 30-year bond (and is zero right now), the inflation rate adjusts every six months.

Although inflation is still at historically high levels, the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows a slight slowdown. So the inflation-index part of the I bond could see a rate drop in November.

But investors who buy I bonds before Nov. 1 will still get the 9.62 percent rate for the first six months they hold the bonds.

“We encourage customers to continue to use the website, and we’re hopeful to have the issues addressed shortly,” the Treasury spokesman said.

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