Global Supply Chain Crisis Bigger than 2020
Last year the world suffered a huge supply chain meltdown over the COVID-19 virus. Events have now conspired to create a supply chain snag for the later part of 2022 that will easily surpass the mess that occurred in 2020.
China is in lockdown over fresh COVID-19 outbreaks, and we also have the supply breakdowns from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s still not clear what will be the impact of the war in central Europe. Russia and Ukraine have been major exports of several key commodities.
The is no way Ukraine is going to produce various crops while fighting a war. With its southern ports locked up, the country can’t even export grain from previous years. Right after the invasion, wheat got up $13 per bushel, and it has leveled off at around $11 per bushel. This still leaves the price of wheat nearly double what it was at the beginning of the year.
The war has resulted in the loss of many key commodities. Russia and Ukraine account for about 80% of the global sunflower oil market, 25% of the production of coal, 30% of the petroleum supply, and 20% of iron ore.
Because food is vital to a nation’s stability, many counties have banned the export of several products. Indonesia banned the export of palm oil, which amounts to 30% of global cooking oil demand. The Indonesian government made this move to lower the cost of palm oil for the domestic market. With local farmers unable to export their palm oil to a global market, they have no incentive to increase their production. The export ban could backfire as some local marketers are showing a shortage of cooking oil.
The biggest supply problem is Europe’s dependency on Russian natural gas. Germany gets 40% of its gas supply from Russia. If the war had taken place 20 years ago, Germany would be in a far better place. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Germany became fixated on closing all of its nuclear plants.
At a peak in the early 2000s, nuclear power generated 40% percent of German electricity. Today only 20% of electricity comes from nuclear. The current plan is to close all nuclear plants by 2025.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seemed initially to prompt a rethinking of Berlin’s nuclear policy, with Green economics minister Robert Habeck saying he would not stand in the way on ideological grounds of any decision to keep nuclear power plants running for longer.
The CEO of Eon, Germany’s largest electrical utility, has ruled out extending the life of its nuclear power plants in Germany, even as Europe’s largest economy prepares for the rationing of energy supplies and to wean itself off Russian hydrocarbons.
“There is no future for nuclear in Germany, period,” said chief executive Leo Birnbaum. “It is too emotional. There will be no change in legislation and opinion.” The company has three remaining nuclear sites in the country, near Munich.
China’s COVID-19 lockdown is just pure insanity. Media outlets around the world, from the Chinese Ministry of Propaganda to the New York Times, were quick to declare that China had “won” the pandemic, having decisively defeated the virus and demonstrated the virtues of unbridled autocracy. Xi Jinping was set to use China’s apparent COVID success as a central argument for enshrining himself at the upcoming Communist Party Congress in October 2022 as emperor for life.
Beijing’s zero-COVID policy has resulted in the shutdown of huge portions of the Chinese economy. In Shanghai, hundreds of factories have been closed, and all shipping traffic is on hold. At Shanghai’s port, 344 ships are dead in the water. Shipping something from a warehouse in China to one in the United States now takes 74 days longer than usual.
Authorities are now enforcing a full or partial lockdown in at least 27 cities across the country, with these restrictions affecting up to 180 million people. This level of monetary restraint could be economic suicide for the nation.
Another reason why the supply chains are becoming unstable is that we are using exchanges to over-manage various commodities. One recent example is nickel. Last month, shortly after the war in Ukraine began, nickel futures on the London Metal Exchange popped by 250%, jumping from about $29,000 to $100,000 per metric ton in a matter of days. The LME halted trading for a week and retroactively canceled about 9,000 trades worth nearly $4 billion.
The metal is chiefly used in alloys; about 68% of the world’s production is used in stainless steel. We can create all the paper nickel we want, but when steelmakers need the physical metal, the monetary games come to an end.
Over the past 12 years, I have become very fascinated by the endless parade of financial panics that have come our way. Each one seems to have the power to destroy our economy, but none have been able to trigger a crash. Because the rapture will occur during a time of “think not” tranquility, I think we have an explanation for why we have a historic ability to avoid a major recession. If we manage to traverse the Supply Chain Crisis of 2022 without harm, it will be one more indication that the forthcoming rapture is holding up the global economy.
“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:44).
–Todd
Awaiting the Ultimate Crisis
The incessant push to produce the platform from which Satan’s Antichrist will be launched becomes clearer every day.
With apologies for the lengthy excerpt, I think that its information is important to help us understand what is planned. And, make no mistake: It is a part of the “Reset” we’ve heard so much about.
Without ever saying so, or even intimating the fact, it involves movement almost identical to the China dictatorship’s social credit score system that, of course, has locked the Chinese people into a permanent governmental slave state.
Some of America’s most well-known politicians are now urging Europe to adopt this system aimed at bringing all speech in America, and apparently the Western world, under the new Biden-produced agency, the Disinformation Governance Board (DGB). They are setting the stage for bringing Europe into compliance next with locking down anti-free speech.
The following, I hope, will explain further.
Under pressure applied by both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the European Union is working to expand online censorship to an extreme Orwellian level, as well as strictly regulate speech during what authorities deem to be times of crisis (we always seem to be in the middle of a “crisis”), and remove online anonymity by forcing the public to have a digital identity…
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both lobbied for the EU to back the censorship bill known as the “Digital Services Act” on Thursday, April 21st, 2022:
For too long, tech platforms have amplified disinformation and extremism with no accountability. The EU is poised to do something about it.
“I urge our transatlantic allies to push the Digital Services Act across the finish line and bolster global democracy before it’s too late.”
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 21, 2022…
Under the plan pushed by the Chancellor Rishi Sunak, cash in people’s pockets would be superseded by a new “Britcoin” digital currency. It is being framed as “giving the economy a boost in times of financial crisis”…
The UK Government has been working in tandem with other world leaders and the EU to introduce a social credit system and digital identity right under your nose.
In January 2022 the Department of Health and Social Care, currently led by Sajid Javid, launched a new app that allegedly “helps people to make positive changes to their diet and physical activity.”
The pilot scheme has seen users wear wrist-worn devices that can generate personalised health recommendations, such as increasing their step count, eating more fruit and vegetables, and decreasing portion sizes.
Users allegedly collect points for behaviours deemed healthy by the Government, which unlock “rewards.” The Government says these rewards include “gym passes, clothes or food vouchers, discounts for shops, and cinema or theme park tickets”…
Now Italy is about to launch the same scheme.
On 28 March Matteo Lepore, Mayor of Bologna, and Massimo Bugani, councillor for the digital agenda and civic use of data, announced the City’s digital innovation plan 2022-2024.
“We will start with a pilot project for the city: at the center is the virtuous citizen, the one who, for example, separates waste well or does not waste energy, or uses public transport and does not take fines, or is still active with the Bologna Welcome Card. The Municipality says to these people ‘we will assign you a score’, as part of a circular reward with economic benefits to individual users.”…
National Identity Number registration involves the recording of an individual’s demographic data and capturing their fingerprints, photo, and digital signature. The number is required for all transactions requiring identity verification, such as opening a bank account, applying for a driver’s licence, voting, obtaining health insurance, and filing tax returns.
This is in essence a war, and many of you may not even realise you are in it. All the evidence is there, it just needs piecing together. There is a coordinated effort worldwide to bring in a digital identity and social credit system right under your nose. (“Governments worldwide are working in Lockstep to bring in Digital I.D. & Social Credit System as EU agrees to expand online censorship with ‘Digital Services Act’,” by The Exposé, April 29, 2022)
We remember what Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama’s chief of staff, once said about never wasting a crisis—meaning the Democrat Party would always use a crisis to advance a political agenda. It looks like his boss and one-time Secretary of State under Mr. Obama, still look at crises in the same way.
They will get their crisis, I am of the studied opinion, when Jesus Christ steps onto the clouds of glory and shouts for all believers to join Him for the wondrous journey back to the Heavenly Father’s house.
Those left behind will face things much worse than the Chinese digital social credit system. They will eventually be forced to take Antichrist’s version of mandatory injections, or tattoos, or whatever he deems. Either those tragic souls will take the mark or starve—or even have their heads removed. All of this awaits the ultimate crisis—the Rapture of the Church.
But you don’t have to be in that massive throng of the left behind. God has provided the way to escape—both the coming crisis that is the Tribulation and the lake of fire that awaits all unbelievers. Here is that Way of escape.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
—Terry