International
What Is Stagflation & Why Does It Matter For Penny Stocks?
Here’s What Stagflation Is & Why It Matters Whether You’re Trading Penny Stocks Or Investing In Blue Chip Stocks.
The post What Is Stagflation &…

What Is Stagflation?
Stagflation is an economic term to describe a situation where economic growth is slower, inflation is higher, and unemployment is relatively high. In simpler terms, stagflation is when inflation is high and GDP (gross domestic product) declines.
The latter of the two definitions of stagflation may be more relevant in 2022 and possibly 2023. High prices, lower growth, and a stagnant economy were something experienced decades ago during the 1970s. Companies reduced hiring initiatives as rising energy costs directly impacted operating & production costs.
When unemployment is high, consumers generally have less income and spend less. But during stagflation, unemployment might not be a factor, as in 2022. The July read-out for nonfarm payrolls came in at 528,000, with unemployment dropping to 3.5%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among these figures, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27+weeks) fell to 1.1 million and accounted for 18.9% of all unemployed people in March 2022. Now we await the next round of jobs data coming up.
What Is Inflation?
You might want to know what inflation is to understand stagflation better. Inflation is a measure of how much more expensive goods and services have become over a period of time. According to the International Monetary Fund, “To measure the average consumer’s cost of living, government agencies conduct household surveys to identify a basket of commonly purchased items and track over time the cost of purchasing this basket.” These housing expenses also include rent and mortgages.

What Is CPI?
The cost of this “basket” at any one time relative to a specific base year is the Consumer Price Index or CPI. The percent change in CPI over a period of time is known as Consumer Price Inflation and is the measure that most use to identify actual Inflation. One example that the IMF gives is this:
If Base Year CPI is 100 and the current CPI is 110, inflation is 10% over that period
Is there a difference between consumer price inflation and consumer price inflation? Core focuses on more static trends in inflation. It removes prices set by the government and is watched closely by policymakers.
Why Does Stagflation Matter?
Whether we’re talking about penny stocks or stocks over $100, inflation and stagflation matter in the longer term. Sure, you’ve got individual companies that go against the broader trend. But when there are sweeping economic trends, you’ll want to know the factors in play if the trend is your friend. Stagflation can be attributed to several things that result in rising costs and, in turn, lower production rates.
Oil prices are one of the core points of interest when economists view stagflation. As we’ve seen, due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, international sanctions on Russian oil have strained the oil market. Looking back at the 70s, OPEC (the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) put embargos on Western countries, causing a rise in global energy prices. This created a snowball effect that hurt transportation thanks to rising fuel costs, which made consumer goods cost more to stock shelves. Ultimately, this led to layoffs, further contributing to the economic theory.
In the 1970s, factors related to monetary and fiscal policies added to the situation. The Fed Chairman at the time, Arthur Burns, eased monetary policy in response to higher commodity prices. This allowed inflation to continue.
Stagflation can also put pressure on bond prices while also muting valuations. Households earn less money. Yet another snowball effect comes to light as slower spending can impact corporate revenue and expand the overall impact across global economies.
Example of Stagflation: The Nixon Shock
The best example of stagflation came during the Nixon era, which saw the U.S. remove itself from the gold standard. It also saw a 90-day freeze on waves and prices and a 10% tariff on imports. Attempting to combat stagflation, the Federal Reserve raised the Fed Funds Rate to fight inflation but lowered it to combat a recession. This start-stop policy strategy didn’t help the overall economy and ultimately increased inflation altogether. In addition, OPEC’s oil embargo on the US triggered price spikes in energy. Businesses passed this cost along to consumers while also curbing production. A recession ensued in the early 1980s to reduce the spiraling inflation.
As you’ll see on the S&P Index chart below, the period between the end of 1971 through 1982 saw declining market prices. Since the S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY), Nasdaq ETF (NASDAQ: QQQ), and Dow ETF (NYSE: DIA) weren’t “born” yet, we’ll go directly off of the SPX:

The hope right now is that those in charge of economic policy have a better handle on current conditions than the case 4 decades ago.
Will We See Stagflation In 2022?
Excessive money printing, rising energy prices, economies still recovering from the pandemic, supply chain constraints, sanctions on Russian products, geopolitical unrest, and more are now commanding headlines. Is the world in for another recession? Will inflation turn into stagflation? What comes next?
The latest CPI and economic data are causing significant uncertainty in already fragile stock market conditions. CPI rose 8.5%. Month-over-month, CPI was also up 1.3%. Peeling back the data, food prices jumped 1.1% MoM and was the 7th consecutive monthly increase of 0.9% or more. The food at home index jumped double-digits by 13.1% YoY and the most significant 12-month jump since 1979. The index for “other food at home” jumped 15.8%, with the index for cereals and baking products climbing 15% over the year. Ironically, energy prices fell 4.6% in July after rising 7.7% in June. However, year-over-year, the energy index jumped 32.9%, with the fuel oil index climbing 75.6% over the same period.
Now the question is: Have we reached peak inflation, and is there any chance of stagflation?
The August Jackson Hole meeting sent a shockwave across markets recently following comments from Fed Chair Jarome Powell.
“While the lower inflation readings for July are welcome, a single month’s improvement falls far short of what the Committee will need to see before we are confident that inflation is moving down…In current circumstances, with inflation running far above 2 percent and the labor market extremely tight, estimates of longer-run neutral are not a place to stop or pause…Our aim is to avoid that outcome by acting with resolve now,” Powell said.
Meanwhile, other Fed members expressed a more hawkish tone. The Fed’s John Williams told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, “I do think with demand far exceeding supply, we do need to get real interest rates…above zero. We need to have somewhat restrictive policy to slow demand, and we’re not there yet.”
This latest Fed speak sets the stage for what’s to come later this year.
Should You Worry About Stagflation?
As the Federal Reserve increases rates in a high inflationary environment and supply chain issues persist, it presents a unique situation. “Bond king” Bill Gross recently told CNBC that he thinks the Federal Reserve is “sort of handcuffed in terms of what they can do” because of prior monetary policy decisions. He explained that he sees a possibility of stagflation. Will Gross be correct in this hypothesis?
Whether it’s inflation, stagflation, or something else, any negative impact on economic growth is concerning. The critical part is understanding what factors are in play during periods like this and knowing how to navigate the stock market effectively.
Even in a stock market crash, there are ways to continue making money. You need to have an idea of where to look for opportunities. Now that you have a basic understanding of stagflationary metrics, is it something that concerns you, or do you know how to plan for it and profit from it? Leave us a comment below.
If you enjoyed this article and you’re interested in learning how to trade so you can have the best chance to profit consistently then you need to checkout this YouTube channel. CLICK HERE RIGHT NOW!!
The post What Is Stagflation & Why Does It Matter For Penny Stocks? appeared first on Penny Stocks to Buy, Picks, News and Information | PennyStocks.com.
recession unemployment pandemic economic growth yield curve sp 500 nasdaq stocks monetary policy fed federal reserve etf penny stocks recession gdp interest rates unemployment gold oil russia ukraineGovernment
Who Can You Trust?
Who Can You Trust?
Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,
“I’m sick and tired of hearing Democrats whining about Joe Biden’s…

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,
“I’m sick and tired of hearing Democrats whining about Joe Biden’s age. The man knows how to govern. Just shut up and vote to save Democracy.”
- Rob Reiner, Hollywood savant
Perhaps you’re aware that the World Health Organization (WHO) is cooking up a plan to impose its will over all the sovereign nations on this planet in the event of future pandemics.
That means, for instance, that the WHO would issue orders to the USA about lockdowns, vaccines, and vaccine passports and we US citizens supposedly would be compelled to follow them.
Why the “Joe Biden” regime would go along with this globalist fuckery is one of the abiding mysteries of our time - except that they go along with everything else that the cabal of Geneva cooks up, such as attacks on farmers, and on oil production, and on relations between men and women, and on personal privacy, and on economic liberty throughout Western Civ, as if they’re working overtime to kill it off. And all of us with it.
I think they are working overtime at that because the sore-beset citizens of Western Civ are onto their game, and getting restless about it. So, the Geneva cabal is in a race against time before the center pole of their circus tent collapses and the nations of the world are compelled to follow the zeitgeist in the direction of de-centralizing, foiling all their grand plans.
The “Joe Biden” regime is pretending to ignore the reality that this WHO deal is actually a treaty that would require ratification by a two-thirds vote in the senate, an unlikely outcome. In any case, handing over authority to the WHO — in effect, to its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus — to push around American citizens like a giant herd of cattle would be patently unlawful.
That center pole of the circus tent is the wobbling global economy. It’s barely holding up the canvas over the three rings of the circus. In the center ring, the death-defying spectacle of the Biden Family crime case is playing out before a huge audience (us). This week, a gun went off at the FBI and smoke is curling out of the barrel. FBI Director Christopher Wray was forced to verify that he’s been sitting on an incriminating document for three years from a “trusted” confidential human source, i.e., an informant, stating that the Biden Family received a $5-million bribe from a foreign entity when “JB” was vice-president.
That’s only one bribe of many others, of course, as documented in the Hunter Biden laptop, and it must be obvious it represents treasonous behavior that will demand resignation or impeachment. As this spools out in the weeks and months ahead, do you think Americans will be in the mood to accept further insults such as “Joe Biden” surrendering our national sovereignty to the WHO?
Anyway, you must ask yourself: why on earth should I trust the WHO about anything? Did they not participate in laying a trip on the world with Covid-19? How did those lockdowns work out? Do you think they destroyed enough businesses and ruined enough households? How’s the vaccination program doing? Effective? Safe? Yeah, maybe not so much. Maybe killing a lot of people, wrecking immune systems, sterilizing reproductive organs, causing gross disabilities, shattering lives.
Of course, in over three years neither the WHO nor the US medical authorities showed the slightest interest in helping to figure out how the Covid-19 virus was made in a lab, and exactly how it got loose in the world. Lately, Dr. Ghebreyesus has warned the world about much worse future pandemics supposedly coming down at us. Oh? Really? What does he know that we don’t? That possibly new efforts to concoct chimeric diseases are ongoing in labs around the world? (You know that dozens of such labs were discovered in Ukraine as the war got underway there in 2022.) What’s Dr. Ghebreyesus doing to stop that?
If US orgs and citizens are involved in this “research,” why doesn’t the WHO alert our government leaders so they can stop it? (Would they? I’m not so sure.) And, who is behind it this time? The Eco-Health Alliance again, like with Covid-19? By the way, that outfit got another whopping grant last fall from the NIH to “study” bat viruses — right after the NIH terminated a previous grant on account of The Eco-Health Alliance failing to turn over notebooks and other records.
No, you cannot trust the WHO about anything. The “trust horizon” (a concept introduced by the great Nicole Foss, late of The Automatic Earth dot com) is shrinking. You can no longer trust any distant authorities. You also cannot trust the US federal government (especially the executive branch behind “Joe Biden”). And notice: the trust horizon is shrinking just as the world is de-centralizing. This, you see, is the main contradiction behind all the Globalists’ twisted ambitions to control everything, including you. They are working against the current tide of human history which is pushing everything toward down-scaling, re-localization, and re-assertion of the sovereign individual person.
That trend will become increasingly evident as things organized at the giant scale start to implode — giant retail chains, medical behemoths, hedge funds, big banks, you name it. The world no longer has the mojo for globalism. There’s reason to wonder these days whether the USA has the mojo to remain a unified national polity of states. Our federal government is not only financially bankrupt beyond any coherent reckoning, it is also morally bankrupt, and it has decided to make war against its own people. None of this is satisfactory and none of this is working. It’s time to figure out who and what you can trust and act accordingly.
Spread & Containment
Removing antimicrobial resistance from the WHO’s ‘pandemic treaty’ will leave humanity extremely vulnerable to future pandemics
Drug-resistant microbes are a serious threat for future pandemics, but the new draft of the WHO’s international pandemic agreement may not include provisions…

In late May, the latest version of the draft Pandemic Instrument, also referred to as the “pandemic treaty,” was shared with Member States at the World Health Assembly. The text was made available online via Health Policy Watch and it quickly became apparent that all mentions of addressing antimicrobial resistance in the Pandemic Instrument were at risk of removal.
Work on the Pandemic Instrument began in December 2021 after the World Health Assembly agreed to a global process to draft and negotiate an international instrument — under the Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO) — to protect nations and communities from future pandemic emergencies.
Read more: Drug-resistant superbugs: A global threat intensified by the fight against coronavirus
Since the beginning of negotiations on the Pandemic Instrument, there have been calls from civil society and leading experts, including the Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, to include the so-called “silent” pandemic of antimicrobial resistance in the instrument.
Just three years after the onset of a global pandemic, it is understandable why Member States negotiating the Pandemic Instrument have focused on preventing pandemics that resemble COVID-19. But not all pandemics in the past have been caused by viruses and not all pandemics in the future will be caused by viruses. Devastating past pandemics of bacterial diseases have included plague and cholera. The next pandemic could be caused by bacteria or other microbes.
Antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the process by which infections caused by microbes become resistant to the medicines developed to treat them. Microbes include bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites. Bacterial infections alone cause one in eight deaths globally.
AMR is fueling the rise of drug-resistant infections, including drug-resistant tuberculosis, drug-resistant pneumonia and drug-resistant Staph infections such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). These infections are killing and debilitating millions of people annually, and AMR is now a leading cause of death worldwide.
Without knowing what the next pandemic will be, the “pandemic treaty” must plan, prepare and develop effective tools to respond to a wider range of pandemic threats, not solely viruses.
Even if the world faces another viral pandemic, secondary bacterial infections will be a serious issue. During the COVID-19 pandemic for instance, large percentages of those hospitalized with COVID-19 required treatment for secondary bacterial infections.
New research from Northwestern University suggests that many of the deaths among hospitalized COVID-19 patients were associated with pneumonia — a secondary bacterial infection that must be treated with antibiotics.

Treating these bacterial infections requires effective antibiotics, and with AMR increasing, effective antibiotics are becoming a scarce resource. Essentially, safeguarding the remaining effective antibiotics we have is critical to responding to any pandemic.
That’s why the potential removal of measures that would help mitigate AMR and better safeguard antimicrobial effectiveness is so concerning. Sections of the text which may be removed include measures to prevent infections (caused by bacteria, viruses and other microbes), such as:
- better access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene;
- higher standards of infection prevention and control;
- integrated surveillance of infectious disease threats from human, animals and the environment; and
- strengthening antimicrobial stewardship efforts to optimize how antimicrobial drugs are used and prevent the development of AMR.
The exclusion of these measures would hinder efforts to protect people from future pandemics, and appears to be part of a broader shift to water-down the language in the Pandemic Instrument, making it easier for countries to opt-out of taking recommended actions to prevent future pandemics.
Making the ‘pandemic treaty’ more robust
Measures to address AMR could be easily included and addressed in the “pandemic treaty.”
In September 2022, I was part of a group of civil society and research organizations that specialize in mitigating AMR who were invited the WHO’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) to provide an analysis on how AMR should be addressed, within the then-draft text.
They outlined that including bacterial pathogens in the definition of “pandemics” was critical. They also identified specific provisions that should be tweaked to track and address both viral and bacterial threats. These included AMR and recommended harmonizing national AMR stewardship rules.
In March 2023, I joined other leading academic researchers and experts from various fields in publishing a special edition of the Journal of Medicine, Law and Ethics, outlining why the Pandemic Instrument must address AMR.
The researchers of this special issue argued that the Pandemic Instrument was overly focused on viral threats and ignored AMR and bacterial threats, including the need to manage antibiotics as a common-pool resource and revitalize research and development of novel antimicrobial drugs.
Next steps
While earlier drafts of the Pandemic Instrument drew on guidance from AMR policy researchers and civil society organizations, after the first round of closed-door negotiations by Member States, all of these insertions, are now at risk for removal.
The Pandemic Instrument is the best option to mitigate AMR and safeguard lifesaving antimicrobials to treat secondary infections in pandemics. AMR exceeds the capacity of any single country or sector to solve. Global political action is needed to ensure the international community works together to collectively mitigate AMR and support the conservation, development and equitable distribution of safe and effective antimicrobials.
By missing this opportunity to address AMR and safeguard antimicrobials in the Pandemic Instrument, we severely undermine the broader goals of the instrument: to protect nations and communities from future pandemic emergencies.
It is important going forward that Member States recognize the core infrastructural role that antimicrobials play in pandemic response and strengthen, rather than weaken, measures meant to safeguard antimicrobials.
Antimicrobials are an essential resource for responding to pandemic emergencies that must be protected. If governments are serious about pandemic preparedness, they must support bold measures to conserve the effectiveness of antimicrobials within the Pandemic Instrument.
Susan Rogers Van Katwyk is a member of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Global Governance of Antimicrobial Resistance at York University. She receives funding from the Wellcome Trust and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
treatment pandemic coronavirus covid-19 deaths canada world health organizationSpread & Containment
Repeated COVID-19 Vaccination Weakens Immune System: Study
Repeated COVID-19 Vaccination Weakens Immune System: Study
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Repeated COVID-19…

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Repeated COVID-19 vaccination weakens the immune system, potentially making people susceptible to life-threatening conditions such as cancer, according to a new study.
Multiple doses of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines lead to higher levels of antibodies called IgG4, which can provide a protective effect. But a growing body of evidence indicates that the “abnormally high levels” of the immunoglobulin subclass actually make the immune system more susceptible to the COVID-19 spike protein in the vaccines, researchers said in the paper.
They pointed to experiments performed on mice that found multiple boosters on top of the initial COVID-19 vaccination “significantly decreased” protection against both the Delta and Omicron virus variants and testing that found a spike in IgG4 levels after repeat Pfizer vaccination, suggesting immune exhaustion.
Studies have detected higher levels of IgG4 in people who died with COVID-19 when compared to those who recovered and linked the levels with another known determinant of COVID-19-related mortality, the researchers also noted.
A review of the literature also showed that vaccines against HIV, malaria, and pertussis also induce the production of IgG4.
“In sum, COVID-19 epidemiological studies cited in our work plus the failure of HIV, Malaria, and Pertussis vaccines constitute irrefutable evidence demonstrating that an increase in IgG4 levels impairs immune responses,” Alberto Rubio Casillas, a researcher with the biology laboratory at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico and one of the authors of the new paper, told The Epoch Times via email.
The paper was published by the journal Vaccines in May.
Pfizer and Moderna officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Both companies utilize messenger RNA (mRNA) technology in their vaccines.
Dr. Robert Malone, who helped invent the technology, said the paper illustrates why he’s been warning about the negative effects of repeated vaccination.
“I warned that more jabs can result in what’s called high zone tolerance, of which the switch to IgG4 is one of the mechanisms. And now we have data that clearly demonstrate that’s occurring in the case of this as well as some other vaccines,” Malone, who wasn’t involved with the study, told The Epoch Times.
“So it’s basically validating that this rush to administer and re-administer without having solid data to back those decisions was highly counterproductive and appears to have resulted in a cohort of people that are actually more susceptible to the disease.”
Possible Problems
The weakened immune systems brought about by repeated vaccination could lead to serious problems, including cancer, the researchers said.
Read more here...
-
Spread & Containment16 hours ago
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Banned By Major Social Media Site, Campaign Pages Blocked
-
Spread & Containment19 hours ago
Study Falsely Linking Hydroxychloroquine To Increased Deaths Frequently Cited Even After Retraction
-
Spread & Containment15 hours ago
Repeated COVID-19 Vaccination Weakens Immune System: Study
-
Government22 hours ago
Biden Signs Debt Ceiling Bill, Ending Monthslong Political Battle
-
Uncategorized19 hours ago
Warren Buffett’s Advice on Stocks vs. Bonds
-
Spread & Containment23 hours ago
Mark Zuckerberg Makes a Bold Move
-
Spread & Containment7 hours ago
Removing antimicrobial resistance from the WHO’s ‘pandemic treaty’ will leave humanity extremely vulnerable to future pandemics
-
Government4 hours ago
Who Can You Trust?