Making sense of the world through data
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What happens when people stop believing? Every single religion has to face this daunting risk. "Green" is no different.
Ecology is about respecting the world around you and understanding that we are part of it. Nature doesn't need to be saved, just not to be systematically destroyed for a quick profit.
Unfortunately "quick profit" is very much what our modern civilization is all about. So that part cannot change. What can change is green washing our activities and that is very much what "green" is all about.
You create fanciful enemies, CO2 for example, against which "war" is completely meaningless since carbon is THE essential element for life and on you go. Producing "less" carbon, even though the new processes usually consist in exporting carbon production to China (or other countries) and creating new cycles with elements which are far more polluting: Lithium, rare earths and a litany of metallic compounds all worse than what they replace.
What we need is a paradigm shift but the definition is not compatible with changing nothing which is more or less how people understand "green". What about product cycle instead of production and consumption? We're not there yet to put it mildly.
Most investors with supposedly sustainable ISAs unknowingly support banks funding fossil fuels.
Many believe sustainable funds cannot include fossil fuel companies, highlighting a lack of understanding.
Young investors are more skeptical of greenwashing practices by financial institutions.
A
majority of investors that picked their ISA based on sustainability
credentials actually have their cash in providers classified as ‘worst’
for their environmental impact, new research has revealed.
Analysis from Triodos Bank UK found that investors were failing to understand the sustainability implications of where they put their money.
The
research found that a majority of people (55 percent) who have a stocks
and shares ISA with a provider classified as the worst on
sustainability, according to Ethical Consumer rankings, actually think
that their money is in a ‘green‘ ISA.
Investors
are also not fully informed about the extent of what labels can be
applied to ISAs, especially if they seem counter-intuitive.
For example, half of consumers don’t believe a fund or savings account can be classed as ‘sustainable’ if it includes fossil fuel companies – even those that also invest in renewable energy.
However,
a sustainable label can still be slapped on a fund that invests in
fossil fuels, especially if the fund claims it is working on engaging
with the polluter to pressure it to cut its emissions.
Meanwhile,
55 percent of investors said they didn’t even know if their ISA was
using their money in an environmentally friendly way.
Investors
are clearly pushing for more sustainable investment, as 47 percent of
people said that banks should not be investing in fossil fuel expansion,
rising to 57 percent of 18–34 year olds.
Young investors are also
more sceptical of the claims made by financial institutions, with 36
percent thinking their ISA providers are likely to be engaging in
greenwashing, compared to just 10 percent of over 55s.
Roger Hattam, director of retail banking at Triodos Bank UK, said that
the findings demonstrated “the worrying truth about how
well-intentioned consumers are being misled about how their money is
being invested”.
The Financial Conduct Authority is set
to bring in new anti-greenwashing rules later this year, but the
research found only 10 percent of investors were aware of the new rules.
However,
Hattam described the new rules as “desperately needed”, and more than
half (59 percent) of investors said they were concerned about greenwashing in the financial services industry,
“There
are millions of consumers wanting their money to align with their
values, but this is not yet matched with real industry commitment to
clearly signpost what causes their money is actually supporting,” added Hattam.
“As
well as actively screening out negatives – such as never investing in
fossil fuel companies – to truly invest in people and the planet, banks
need to actively fund areas that are changing the world for the better.”
Haven't seen articles from Michael Every at Rabobank for quite some time.
Here's one below. Plenty to worry about. (And that's from an investment banker, not from a nuts survivalist going off rails!)
By Michael Every of Rabobank
I start today with a reference to yesterday's Seinfeld focused Global Daily: a reader reminded me of the most appropriate George Costanza quote for our present times, which I had missed: "It's not a lie if you believe it." There is a lot of that about.
Of
course, shills aside, a strategist should try not to lie to themself
about what's going on in order to best predict what may happen. And how
does one best look at what's going on? As I stress, start with precepts (how does the world work?), then look at logistics (how is the world working?). After all, as a US general once said, "amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics."
What's true in war is true in peace, and more so as we dive deeper into
an undeclared and, for markets, unrecognised economic war.
So let's look at some of the logistical dots that have just been plotted for us. (There a lot, so don't stop after just a few, or risk missing some of the best at the end!).
In the Middle East, the Red Sea crisis is getting worse: even if few are paying attention.
Try to juice demand with large rate cuts into a supply squeeze and see
what happens. The maritime aid flow from Cyprus to Gaza is now starting,
but won't resolve distributional issues on the ground, and experts
remain sceptical about the naval pier the United States has promised.
President Biden just confirmed a $10bn sanctions waiver for Iran, who is
backing the Houthis, weeks after making token military strikes on its
regional forces (supposedly still ongoing) as payback for killing three
US soldiers. In short, peace seems a long way off.
Russia reiterated it will use a nuclear weapon if threatened,
even as Ukrainian drones destroy more Russian military factories deep
into the latter's territory. Ukraine is also taking out Russian oil
refineries: how many more of those before markets react? Yet the larger
question is "where is Russia?" given various maps of it going round.
In Europe, the ECB launched an operational review which Bas van Geffen covers in detail here.
There are lots of wonkish tweaks: one is the ECB will retain a
strategic bond portfolio that includes SSA bonds issued by the European
Investment Bank (EIB). At the same time, the EIB will soon consider
investing in the EU defense sector.
As our SSA expert Matt Cairns
notes, this comes post-Ukraine, pre-Trump, and mid German rejections of
joint Eurobonds to fund arms spending. The use of the EIB may prove a
path of ‘less resistance' given it already lends for dual use equipment
like drones or helicopters. Agreement is likely to take time, and
funding will only be raised gradually at first, but the EIB’s funding
target is €60bn for 2024, with authorization of up to €65bn, allowing
for upside flexibility. Going even higher would be a technical
formality, although Matt considers this to be some way off politically. Yet the geopolitical backdrop is as urgent as Covid, which triggered past rapid action, given the long lag times to get defence goods flowing.
What one can also say is that such a development potentially looks like part of the radical European 'strategic autonomy' policy-shift framework we proposed back in December.
In
the US, the BTFP bank support scheme has ended: and nothing bad has
happened (yet). At the same time, the Fed overnight reverse repo balance
has risen from $445bn back up to $522bn in two days. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Yellen stated she does not expect US rates to decline back to their pre-COVID lows.
Indeed, as Bloomberg puts it: “The three-month rate, for example, will
average 5.1% this year, up from the 3.8% projected last March, White
House officials said. The 10-year yield projection rose to 4.4% from 3.6%. The
latter projection might have been even higher but for the intervention
of Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council, according
to people familiar with the matter prior to the release.”
If so,
how are real term cuts in Pentagon spending going to be reversed ahead?
Where or what is the US version of the EIB? Or are others globally going
to have to do far more to stay safe in a world in which the US
deliberately does far less, as it looks more to itself first?
That’s
as the TikTok divestment bill passed the US House of Representatives
with a huge bipartisan majority and has key backing in the Senate from
some quarters, even if the body as a whole is more conservative (read:
has different lobbyists) than the House; and if it passes there,
President Biden has said he will sign it.
So, China is livid. So are those who worry what happens next to social media.
This all seemingly swelled up 'from nothing', but didn't, and where
this impetus might be directed next introduces further uncertainty into
some markets.
In which, Trump is reported as floating various
hedge fund billionaires as potential future Treasury Secretary should he
win in 2024; but also former USTR Lighthizer, who is now an avowed
Hamiltonian mercantilist. Ever heard of bait and switch? Or Hamilton? Or
mercantilism?
There is more than enough acronymic-financial
logistics action here than I can cover in detail today. But the
underlying direction of travel seems to be fairly clear, unless you are
an amateur, have something to sell, or are George Costanza.
3 years later, people still do not understand what really happened at the social level during Covid. We, the people, were played like a fiddle and there was simply no force in the world able to resist "the players".
In order to do something about "it", you first need to understand what really happened. But most people don't and therefore "we" as a society do not understand the game which was played. This discrepancy between what "the players" understand and what the people as a society understand gives a huge advantage to "the players".
Do you really believe "they" will squander this advantage and renounce to use it again?
But first here are some of the techniques:
The “covid experiment” was a masterclass in the use of authority to
coerce, intimidate, and compel the ignorant masses into conforming to
made up rules and regulations regarding lockdowns, masks, social
distancing, the use of safe and effective medicines like ivermectin and
hydroxychloroquine, and ultimately forcing an unsafe, untested,
dangerous gene altering toxin to be injected into their bodies.
The totalitarian regime which inflicted this global horror show upon
humanity has no hesitation in faking data in order to further their evil
agenda, so their statistics showing 81% of Americans received at least
one jab seem suspect. Overestimating the number who have submitted is a
method for convincing more sheep to do so. I would estimate that closer
to 60% of adults got the jab, under threat of sanctions, loss of job,
and/or loss of privileges.
The Venn Diagram below is an accurate portrayal of the techniques
used by the “authorities” in conducting this worldwide experiment in how
far they could push people before they pushed back. From the
perspective of our overlords, this experiment was a tremendous success,
setting the stage for their next planned existential threat exercise to
abscond with more of our wealth, while increasing their power and
control over our lives. Continued submission to their demands will
result in continued loss of our liberties, freedoms, and civil rights.
“The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.” ― Stanley Milgram
“Control the manner in which a man
interprets his world, and you have gone a long way toward controlling
his behavior. That is why ideology, an attempt to interpret the
condition of man, is always a prominent feature of revolutions, wars,
and other circumstances in which individuals are called upon to perform
extraordinary action.” ― Stanley Milgram, Obedience to Authority
The only thing missing from the Venn Diagram is an overlay of Edward Bernays’ Propaganda,
providing the blueprint of how to utilize the regime media propaganda
outlets to enforce whatever message was needed to support the particular
authoritarian narrative of the day. Key aspects of all three
experiments were utilized during the covid plandemic to achieve the
desired outcomes of the ruling class, in using authoritarian measures to
force the masses to do as they were told, or else. Fear and loathing
toward our government has been the outcome of this covid experiment. I
steadfastly stand on the loathing side. The brief descriptions below
capture the gist of the experiments:
A series of social psychology experiments
were conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, who
intended to measure the willingness of study participants to obey an
authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with
their personal conscience. Participants were led to believe that they
were assisting an unrelated experiment, in which they had to administer
electric shocks to a “learner”. These sham or fake electric shocks
gradually increased to levels that would have been fatal had they been
real.
The Stanford Prison Experiment
set out to examine the psychological effects of authority and
powerlessness in a prison environment. The study, led by psychology
professor Philip G. Zimbardo, recruited Stanford students using a local
newspaper ad. Twenty-four students were carefully screened and randomly
assigned into groups of prisoners and guards. The experiment, which was
scheduled to last 1-2 weeks, ultimately had to be terminated on only the
6th day as the experiment escalated out of hand when the prisoners were
forced to endure cruel and dehumanizing abuse at the hands of their
peers. The experiment showed, in Dr. Zimbardo’s words, how “ordinary
college students could do terrible things.”
The Asch conformity experiments were a
series of psychological experiments conducted by Solomon Asch in the
1950s. The experiments revealed the degree to which a person’s own
opinions are influenced by those of a group. Asch found that people were
willing to ignore reality and give an incorrect answer in order to
conform to the rest of the group.
Various adaptations of the Milgram Authority experiment
were used during the “covid experiment” to further their aims. We’ve
seen the videos of covid authoritarians inflicting pain upon average
Americans, forcefully arresting them for swimming alone in the ocean,
surfing, sitting in a public park, jogging, and having a catch in their
yard with their kids. Inflicting pain upon those not following the
“covid rules” was embraced by the Karens and Chads across the land. They
wanted the non-conformists (aka critical thinkers) to be fired from
their jobs, censored on social media, fined, imprisoned, and made into
social pariahs. They wished death upon the un-vaxxed and did victory
dances when an un-vaxxed person died. Milgram would have been proud of
these petty tyrant psychopaths.
The Stanford Prison experiment
showed ordinary people could become cruel fascistic sociopaths almost
upon command, inflicting pain and torture upon those they have been told
deserve to be treated inhumanely. Authoritarian governors like Cuomo,
Murphy, Whitmer, Wolf, and Newsom murdered senior citizens by putting
infected patients into the senior living centers. Doctors, hospital
administrators, and nurses murdered patients by putting them on
ventilators, administering Remdesivir, and denying patients ivermectin
and hydroxychloroquine. Biden, Fauci, Trump, Walensky and the Big Pharma
industrial complex have murdered and injured millions through the
roll-out of their multi-billion dollar jab of death. The ongoing
imprisonment of January 6 Capital tourists in the dungeons of DC without
trial is cruel and inhuman punishment as a message for all critical
thinkers exercising their First Amendment rights.
The Asch Conformity experiment
was clearly borne out during the covid scamdemic. People conform to the
will of the crowd, even though their brain tells them the crowd is
wrong. They don’t want to be the disruptive black sheep in a flock of
submissive white sheep. Virtually every person, when told to wear a
mask, did so with no push back, even though scientific studies proved
masks DO NOT WORK. The masses conformed because they believed Fauci (aka
The Science), Biden, Trump, fake experts on their boob tubes, low IQ
Hollywood shills, lower IQ athletes paid by Big Pharma, and the talking
heads/bimbos spouting the covid propaganda narrative on the regime media
outlets. Rather than do their own research, the intellectually lazy,
igadget distracted, social media addicted, government school
indoctrinated dumbasses decided to conform, obey, and believe everything
they were told.
If you didn’t believe we were ruled by an invisible government (aka
Deep State) of men who pull the strings of society and manipulate the
minds of the masses to achieve whatever outcome benefits themselves,
then the “covid experiment” should remove all doubt. The entire covid
episode was planned beforehand (Event 201) with multiple objectives, all
to the benefit of those conducting this experiment, with us as the
disposable test subjects in their diabolical plot. The hubris of these
tyrants has grown to epic proportions, as they see their “experiment” as
an unmitigated triumph of authoritarian measures.
We know maybe 20% to 30% of the population resisted the measures
imposed by the Deep State ruling class, therefore distinguishing
themselves as the sole fly in the ointment of the “covid experiment”.
There is no doubt they will be introducing their next “experiment” in
totalitarianism within the next nine months, as the presidential
election potentially derails their ongoing efforts to pillage and
plunder the remaining wealth accumulated by the plebs. Will it be an
engineered financial collapse, an invasion of Haitian cannibals, another
lab created disease, activation of the millions of illegal invaders to
create chaos, a coordinated takedown of the electrical grid/internet,
assassinating Trump and initiating civil war, or finally crossing
Putin’s red line in Ukraine and triggering global conflict?
Resistance
during the “covid experiment” meant not going along with their
narrative and directives. It was more of a passive resistance. It didn’t
stop them from accomplishing their aims. They used the experiment to
ramp Federal spending from $4.4 trillion to over $7 trillion, with most
of the increase going directly into their Deep State pockets, while
leaving the plebs with raging inflation, an enormous increase in their
debt load, and a drastically reduced standard of living.
And sure enough although we're still in the take off stage, the EV souffle is already deflating.
Except for their low range, high insurance cost, low resale value and high repair cost EV are great cars.They of course cost too much but if all you need is a small second car to do some urban shopping on a Saturday afternoon, their are almost perfect.
On thing we are starting to understand though is that in spite of all the hype they are not green. Far from it. Too bad, so many people were feeling so good doing their part saving the planet (while doing absolutely nothing but what they would have done otherwise!) Well, we'll have to think about something else, then...
It’s
almost like there’s something wrong with the idea of EVs. I can’t put
my finger on it. Maybe it’s the fact that when you trot down to your
neighbourhood EV dealer, stopping for a soy latte and some tofu, you’re
buying an expensive iPhone on wheels (and we all know what the resale
value of a 5 or 10-year old iPhone is like).
You tell yourself
you’re excited to be saving the planet as you power the bad boy up with
some vegan electricity subsidised by the pronoun compliant guvmint, but
now those subsidies are now being pulled (governments are bankrupt —
surprise), and your vegan electricity is being imported from Indonesian
coal mines and it’s costing a lot more than your old planet killing V8
supercharged testosterone-boosting muscle car and you’re pissed. Or
maybe it’s the cost? Or maybe most people just don’t appreciate being
forced to switch their car because the alphabet people say so?
It
could be any of these things, but you know what? If you ask me, it’s
quite simple. It is this very simple metric by which so much of human
behaviour can be deduced. When it comes to buying isht, what folks want
is a high quality item at a reasonable price and one that is more
competitive than alternatives. The fact is that when it comes to their
wallet nobody gives a pig’s arse about saving the planet. And THAT, my
friends, is where the EV fraud stumbles, trips, and then jarringly
smashes its face into a brick wall of reality.
And this brings us
to our beer-drinking, bratwurst-eating friends — some of the best
designers and manufacturers of cars ever. The Germans, specifically,
Audi, who are doing a massive U-turn on electric vehicles. DROPPING
their earlier goal of producing only electric vehicles by 2026. And
they’re not the only ones.
CEO Gernot Döllner told Bloomberg. “In the end, we decided to spread it out to not overwhelm the team and the dealerships.
Hahaha!
That’s what he actually said to Bloomberg, but you know what he’d say
to his mates down at the local beer hall? He’d tell them what an insider
in the European automotive industry told us over a year ago — that
there is bugger all demand for these stupid things and that many of the
European auto manufacturers were going to land up being stuck with
unwanted inventory… and some would probably “not make it through.”
Speaking
of “others.” Mercedes Benz are also doing the same. They are bailing on
EVs and instead are ramping up production of ICEs.
The
company now expects sales of electrified vehicles, including hybrids,
to account for up to 50% of the total by 2030 – five years later than
its forecast from 2021, when it aimed to hit the 50% milestone by 2025
with mostly all-electric cars.
And perhaps most
curious of the bunch: Apple. After 16 years of teasing entry into the EV
market, Apple just bailed on their long-awaited electric car.
One
other thing worth mentioning is that Apple sits on a gobsmacking $162
billion in cash. And even with all that cash, they decided to pass on
the “EV revolution.”
What to make of all this? As we like to say
around here, everyone is a greenie until it hits their pocket. It seems
to me that maybe, just maybe, Audi, Mercedes, and Apple have figured out
that EVs are not the silver bullet they were promised to be.
And speaking of Apple, guess what they’re focusing on instead…
Many
employees from the Special Projects Group (SPG), responsible for the
car, will transition to the artificial intelligence division led by
executive John Giannandrea. Their focus will shift to generative AI
projects, aligning with the company’s evolving priorities.
It is easy to become desperate in the West if you listen to the current light weight politicians. Some are truly imbeciles (A former UK prime minister comes to mind!), others like Macron, the president of France conspicuously put the interest of the Globalists ahead of those of the countries they are supposed to represent.
So obviously when you listen to the analysis of someone like Douglas Macgregor, it is easy to be stunned by the depth of knowledge and analysis.
But conversely, shouldn't it be the minimum to expect from a politician? Nowadays, you need a license to practice almost any job in the West from driving a car to cutting hairs. But to manage a country, one of the most complex endeavor you can tackle in the modern world: Nothing! In fact the stupider you are the better. Don't think, just read what the teleprompter is telling you to say, even poorly, that's OK, the Medias will correct and amplify the message!
Here Douglas Macgregor is tackling competently complex issues. You can agree or disagree but at least you get the elements to give the problems a thought. A breath of fresh air in a bleak ideological landscape!
Among the very earliest articles on this blog were warnings about Social Credit and CBDC. Both technologies being extremely liberticide (extremely dangerous for freedom) and democracy.
Now 6 years later, democracy has become some kind of Kabuki, we still do the dancing but behind the curtain everything is more or less under tight control as we are starting to find out.
Social Credit has been successfully introduced in China in 2020 with the immediate effect of crashing the economy. Why work or do anything at all in a system where everything is under tight control? (They call it laying flat.) Most people don't do the connection but about 30% of illegal immigration to the US at the Mexican border is Chinese? Can this really be a coincidence? (It cost a lot of money to be a Chinese illegal immigrant and the risks are huge. That's not for poor people. Why do it then? Think about it.)
As for CBDC, it has been tried in a few countries like India and Nigeria with rather nasty consequences in both countries although in India the combination with other economic measures has for now resulted in a higher growth rate but at enormous social costs.
The intention to introduce CBDC globally is there both in the BRICS and in advanced economies. The need is more and more urgent. Almost every large economy is teetering on the brink of insolvency. They MUST take control of your money. The only obstacle left is smothering a few technical issues... and acceptability.
But once this is done, you are little more than a slave from a financial perspective as every single transaction you do can and will be monitored, can and will be allowed or rejected. Your location, status, actions, relations... you name it, is known. Privacy is gone FOREVER!
We were until recently protected by the sheer number of people, transactions and data points. This is over. AI will solve the problem and monitor each of us at the individual level! Unbelievable but true.
Most people worry about distant and mostly absurd risks like Global Warming. This one is real and much, much closer than they realize. We are in an emergency!
Some very important issues about the Internet that we'll soon have to solve. Who is human? How can you prove it? Who can do what? Great food for thoughts although most ideas are unfortunately dystopian.
