June 9, 2022

• Prices continue to be driven by energy costs.
• There is no indication that energy costs are going to be coming down any time soon.

UK Prices continue to beat expectations of the neoclassicals:

Inflation hurting wages continues to be a thing for the 99% only. Which means if there is any wage-price spiral (which is not a thing) it is being caused by the wealthy, not the rest of us.

And, with the economic growth predicted to be slowed—because of policies of the central banks around the world purposely doing that—it means nothing good for workers.

In the USA, the housing index continues to show how much housing is not affordable to the average American.

I have stated before that automation is an investment process that is a hard choice to make based on profits, wages, and access to cheaper labour making robots elsewhere.

Automation is continuing as inflation increases costs of debt because profit rates have outpaced this trend. This may well slow as the year goes on, but investment in new inorganic capital continues a pace right now.

The world is seeing just how hard it is to shift sources of energy never mind the shift to a different energy generation process.

(Dirty) energy prices and profits are soaring:

Because there is no alternative to Russian gas right now:

• But, there are bad things that can happen to make this even harder:

One of the biggest US liquefied natural gas plants will be closed for at least three weeks after an explosion, Freeport LNG said yesterday, dealing a blow to exports at a time when the industry is trying to boost supplies to Europe. US futures for July delivery were trading at about $8.28 per million British thermal units this morning, down 11 per cent from Tuesday’s settlement price, as traders contemplated domestic supplies being trapped onshore.

• Palantir is one of the most dangerous companies in the world controlled by one of the most dangerous capitalists in the world.
• A new contract is being bid on (starting in November) to become the underlying data and tech services in the NHS.
• It is shocking that the darling of socialist medicine is funding the darling of the far-right.

The secretive company, co-founded by Peter Thiel, an early investor in Facebook and prominent supporter of former US president Donald Trump, is now manoeuvring to expand its reach into the NHS over the next decade.

That push has prompted privacy activists and some within the NHS to voice concerns about Palantir’s suitability to run national health systems as well as the dangers of the NHS relying on a single private company for its key functions.

The company already processes sensitive national security data for UK public authorities, including the Ministry of Defence and cabinet office.

The lack of public alternatives to private technology companies is a problem. There is no reason that the public cannot hire people who can do this work as it is just basic database and artificial intelligence/algorithm coding.

This will come back to bite us. (pun intended)

• Canadian dirty oil is expanding again, but this time it is not coming with any even economic positives for anything except capital.

Even Canadian Natural Resources, the sector’s most aggressive producer, which raised its planned capital expenditure for 2022 by almost 25 per cent, is committing to invest much less than in the earlier boom years. Spending commitments from other operators are also well shy of peak years. Oil sands capex ran at about C$30bn annually before 2014, according to Alberta’s energy regulator. It was a period of high crude prices and a rush of inward investment.

By 2021, though, the figure was less than C$9bn. It is not expected to rise above C$15bn a year in the next decade.

• Canada is now providing the world it's sludge:

• Don't worry though, the public will pay for the idiotic "climate capture and storage" where they pretend they can offset CO2 emissions while pumping more dirty "humanity suicide by stupid" oil out of the ground.

It is still expensive to install and operate. Hall Findlay says the carbon capture element of the project could cost C$14bn in capital and operating costs. Pourbaix, at Cenovus, estimates the entire plan out to 2050 will run at a cost of C$2.5bn per year.

The federal government has offered an investment tax credit worth up to 50 per cent of the capital costs for the project.

• Canada's emission targets will basically be impossible to reach at this pace—and those targets were basically bullshit in the first place.

Sure, there is a rebound in some larger mammal species.

It shows that even some basic policy changes can have a significant impact on the planet that isn't terrible.