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Grantham magnificent equity bubbles

“There are examples of large scale craziness and meme investing etc… for which there is simply no parallel in 1929 or 2000. 2000 had Pets.com’s and they were kind of glorious, but they were scores of millions or a few hundred millions (of dollars), but we have crazy things now that are billions and in some cases tens of billions…”

“The thing about the (economic) underpinnings is they always look terrific. In 1929, the market didn’t peak because when they thought the underpinnings were terrible. They peaked when the market’s enthusiasm for the underpinning was approximately the highest it had ever been in history. In 2000, in March, the world, including the boss of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, they all thought that the system had never been better. At the top of the Housing Bubble in 2007, Bernanke and the boys thought that the US Housing market had never declined… They have never gotten it right. The Federal Reserve in particular has never had a clue about asset bubbles. They don’t even address it. They act as if they don’t exist, expect on the upside they occasionally take credit for the wealth effect helping the economy along… What they never did was they never took dis-credit for the reverse side. The market is a mean reverting mechanism and eventually it goes back to a fair price…”

“This time we are really playing with fire because we have an overpriced bond market. Jim Grant would argue the most overpriced in 4,000 years. We have, in my opinion… the most overpriced US equity market in history. We have a US housing market that three weeks ago reached the same multiple of median family income as it did in 2006 at the peak of the housing bubble, and we have commodities that have recently run amuck such that the Goldman Sachs index of non-energy, which is food and metals…, has just equaled the peak of 2011 which is said to be one of those commodity super-cycle events. So, this is the first time we’ve ever risked three and a half asset classes bubbling at the same time. If and when we reach a period of pessimism, the potential unraveling in terms of perceived wealth is much greater this time than it will ever have been before…”

So long as the Federal Reserve is ‘printing’ $120 billion a month and buying financial assets, simultaneously increasing the supply of capital hungry for any yield it can get and removing the lowest risk yielding assets from financial markets, who knows how much more ridiculous this bubble can get?

Every single major bear market in the US since at least the 1920s has been preceded by a Fed tightening cycle. In 1989, the last year of the infamous Japanese Nikkei bubble, the Japanese central bank raised benchmark rates from 4% to over 6%, and they kept raising rates for over a year after the market peaked and then halved.

The Fed can’t even commit to a timeframe for developing a timeframe to slow the record pace of QE. For years, they’ve used low official inflation as an excuse for round after round of QE and accommodative policy. Now that the Fed itself has forecast that Core PCE inflation, the lowest of all inflation measures, will average 3.4% for all of 2021, well above their 2% target, they’ve decided they don’t care about inflation anymore.

This Fed doesn’t want to tighten. Someday that will change, if only momentarily. Presumably, Mr. Grantham will have the last laugh, but until then, the madness continues raging.  NN: I believe we are going to make so much money they will investigate us for the rest of our lives:

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US tumbles deeper into red, Dow down over 350 pts

Major stock indexes in the United States fell further below the flatline on Tuesday with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s testimony in focus. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.00%, losing 348 points at 10:11 am ET, while the Nasdaq 100 crashed 2.04% or 309 pts. The S&P 500 slid 1.43% at the same time, surrendering 63.64 pts. The euro was down 0.16% against the greenback at 10:13 am ET, selling for 1.16765 dollars.

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China energy crunch triggers shutdowns, pleas for more coal

https://youtu.be/bAfn0rQqu7g

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China faces mounting pressure to ramp up coal imports and ensure supplies to keep lights on, factories open and water flowing as a severe power crunch roils the northeastern industrial heartland.

With electricity shortages sparked by coal shortages crippling large sections of industry https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-power-crunch-begins-weigh-economic-outlook-2021-09-27, the governor of Jilin province, one of the hardest hit in the world’s no.2 economy, called for a surge in coal imports, while a power company association said supply was being expanded “at any cost”.

News organisations and social media carried reports and posts saying the lack of power in the northeast had shut down traffic lights, residential elevators and 3G mobile phone coverage as well as triggering factory shutdowns.

A utility in Jilin even warned power shortages could disrupt water supplies at any time, before apologising for causing alarm.

For the second straight day, the main state grid operator sought to reassure customers, saying it would work to guarantee coal supply and strictly control power use by high-energy consuming and polluting sectors, and ensure power supply to residents during the October holidays and winter heating season.

Cities such as Shenyang and Dalian – home to more than 13 million people – have been hit, with disruption at factories owned by suppliers to global companies like Apple and Tesla. Jilin is one of more than 10 provinces forced to ration power https://www.reuters.com/world/china/what-is-behind-chinas-power-crunch-2021-09-27 as generators feel the heat of soaring coal prices that they can’t pass on to consumers.

Speaking to power firms on Monday, Han Jun, the governor of Jilin province, home to nearly 25 million people, said “multiple channels” needed to be set up to guarantee coal supplies, and China should source more from Russia, Mongolia and Indonesia.

Han said the province would also urgently send teams to secure supply contracts in the neighbouring region of Inner Mongolia, according to Jilin’s official WeChat social media account.

Goldman Sachs estimated that as much as 44% of China’s industrial activity has been hit by power shortages, potentially causing a one-percentage-point decline in annualised GDP growth in the third quarter, and a two-percentage-point drop from October to December.

It said in a Tuesday note that it was cutting its 2021 GDP growth forecast for China to 7.8%, from the previous 8.2%.

‘AT ANY COST’

The power crunch has taken hold https://www.reuters.com/world/china/what-is-behind-chinas-power-crunch-2021-09-27 as a shortage of coal supplies, toughening greenhouse gas emissions standards and strong demand from industry have pushed coal prices to peaks.

China’s thermal coal futures hit a record high at 1,330 yuan ($205.68) per tonne on Tuesday.

Rationing has been implemented during peak hours in many parts of northeastern China since last week, triggering state media reports of power supply disruptions in many cities and stoking concern on social media.

As some shops in the northeast operated by candlelight and malls shut early, posts on China’s Twitter-like Weibo expressed concern about water after a utility in Jilin warned users that power shortages could hit supplies at any time.

Jilin governor Han urged companies to fulfil their “social responsibilities” and “overcome the difficulties” caused by coal price rises.

The China Electricity Council, which represents power suppliers, said on Monday that coal-fired power companies were now “expanding their procurement channels at any cost” in order to guarantee winter heat and electricity supplies.

It said China needed to increase production and supply of coal while guaranteeing safety and environmental protection. More medium- and long-term contracts needed to be signed to raise power plant inventories ahead of winter.

Coal traders said finding fresh import sources may be easier said than done.

“Russia has to first meet demand from Europe, Japan and South Korea,” said one northeast China based trader. “Indonesia’s export shipments have been curbed by rainy weather the last couple of months and Mongolia’s exports, mostly by trucks, are small.”

David Fishman, China energy policy researcher and manager at the Lantau Group consultancy, said flaws in China’s pricing system were ultimately to blame.

“In the short term, the only relief policies that make sense are digging more coal out of the ground, which is bound to be an unpopular idea, or make end-users pay more for their power,” Fishman said.

Policymakers had previously warned that China needed to build more coal plants in order to offset potential power shortages over the 2021-2025 period, but utilisation rates at existing plants remain low.

Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst with the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, said northeast China currently had 100 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity, which would be more than enough to meet demand if plants had the incentive to buy more coal.

“Not a single grid region has reported peak loads that would be even close to exhausting available generating capacity,” he said.

(Reporting by David Stanway; Additional reporting by Chen Aizhu in Singapore and Emily Chow in Shanghai; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Nick Macfie)

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OPEC: Oil to remain dominant fuel until 2045

Secretary General of the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, Mohammad Barkindo, yesterday, disclosed that despite its current anaemic outlook, crude oil would continue to be relevant in the foreseeable future, up to 2045. In his address at the Crescent Ideas Forum, Barkindo stated that in absolute terms, oil demand is expected to rise by almost 10 million barrels per day, bpd from 2019’s levels to around 109 million bpd in 2040, and then begin to plateau. According to him, non-member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, will be the growth powerhouse, accounting for around 68 per cent of overall oil demand by 2045, with the economic tigers of India and China leading this growth. He said: “In absolute terms, we expect oil demand in the developing and emerging economies rising by 22.5 million bpd to around 74 million bpd in 2045. “The outlook for crude oil may look anemic now, but we anticipate a gradual normalization of demand growth as the world recovers from the COVID-19 shock. Our analysts foresee global oil demand returning to relatively robust annual growth and reaching nearly 104 million bpd by 2025. “In the longer term, there are a number of factors that will drive consumption, such as population and economic growth, especially in developing and emerging economies. We expect the global economy to more than double from 2019 to 2045, to $258 trillion, and the population to grow by at least 20 per cent, to 9.5 billion. “Simply put, our world will continue to thirst for energy. The World Oil Outlook anticipates that oil will remain the dominant fuel in the global energy mix for the foreseeable future, accounting for a nearly 28 per cent share in 2045, followed by gas at around 25 per cent.

“It is important to point out that it is the mainstream consensus of the leading reporting agencies is that oil and gas will retain their prominence in the energy mix for the foreseeable future.”

He expressed optimism that the promising vaccine developments, apart from the hope that they can quickly be brought to market to save lives, first and foremost, can also help reboot the global economy. “Nonetheless, the oil market today is overshadowed by the resurgence of COVID-19 and a slower pace of economic recovery than we had envisioned in the second half of the year.  In this respect, our OPEC outlook for 2020 oil demand is now slightly above 90 million bpd,” he stated. Barkindo added that OPEC’s outlook showed that petrochemicals and transportation would drive demand for crude oil going forward, noting, however, that electricity generation is the only area expected to see a decline, as oil gives way to renewables and natural gas. He said: “Road transportation will be the real driver of oil needs, just as it is today, and will account for 43% of total demand by 2045. We again see the growth shift to emerging and  developing economies as the use of alternative powertrains rises in the OECD countries. “Aviation fuel consumption nosedived this year, falling by almost 50 per cent, but we expect it to recover and be a primary driver of oil demand going forward, growing by 2.8 million bpd by 2045. “On the supply side, non-OPEC liquids are likely to recover from pandemic-related shut-ins over the medium term. Further down the road, however, non-OPEC liquids are expected to decline from a peak of nearly 72 million bpd by the end of this decade to around 65 million bpd in 2045, similar to levels in 2019. “OPEC liquids will increase from nearly 34 million bpd in 2019 to 44 million bpd in 2045. By the end of our outlook period, OPEC member countries will account for 40 per cent of global liquids supply, up from 34 per cent last year.”  NN: Despite Thungburg Climate hysteria, reality is their are not enough greenieeewinniee renewable sources of energy to heat homes, lite up the grid and power transportation systems, That is the reality. Even the battery car “revolution” has a unfortunate reality. Its a ugly nasty coal fired car with a battery in the middle. Get this in Europe and England they are opening up COAL powered generation plants and delivering coal to heat homes this winter. Why coal? The answer is its cheap, burns hot, plentiful and England and Europe are sitting on mountains of the stuff. And its reliable and not weather reliant. OPEC is right their is no alternative to fossil fuels.  And the best alternative is clean burning abundant GODS GAS natural gas. If you stop fracking and pipelines you do not force grennieewinnieee renewables, You force people to use coal!!!  we they sit in their houses freezing and pay 30 cents a kilowatt for electricity and $10 a gallon for gasoline they will not be greenieewinniees anymore.

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Pfizer seeks FDA clearance for COVID-19 vaccine in younger children

 

On September 20, Pfizer announced that the COVID-19 vaccine it is designing to be administered to children has been proven to be safe — and moreover yielded a robust immune response in children between the ages of 5 and 11. The announcement came after the company released its Phase 2 and 3 results for children in this age group. Following this much-anticipated announcement, the company’s next step is to seek emergency authorization from the U.S. Federal Drug Administration and submit their findings. If authorization is given swiftly, children as young as five could be eligible for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine by Halloween. “We are eager to extend the protection afforded by the vaccine to this younger population, subject to regulatory authorization, especially as we track the spread of the Delta variant and the substantial threat it poses to children,” said Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer in a press release. “Since July, pediatric cases of COVID-19 have risen by about 240 percent in the U.S. – underscoring the public health need for vaccination. These trial results provide a strong foundation for seeking authorization of our vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old, and we plan to submit them to the FDA and other regulators with urgency.” The trial included data from 2,268 participants ages 5 to 11 who used a two-dose regimen of the vaccine administered 21 days apart, similar to the process for people who are 12 and older. Researchers measured the childrens’ immune response by looking at neutralizing antibody levels in their blood and comparing those levels to a control group of 16- to 25-year-olds who were given a two-dose regimen with a larger dose. There is one big difference between the vaccine for people over the age of 11, and those between five and 11: the amount of vaccine administered. Pfizer used a 10-microgram dose for 5 to 11-year-olds, which is far smaller than the 30-microgram dose that has been used for those 12 and older. Pfizer said this smaller dosage demonstrated a “strong immune response in this cohort of children one month after the second dose.” In the case of the Pfizer vaccine, researchers found that a lower dosage was best.”In this case, a decrease was effective because of the robust immune response that children have,” Blumberg said. “So, the 10 microgram dose, the 1/3 the dose seems to hit the sweet spot.” As far as reported side effects go, they are similar to those experienced by the 12 and older set. “The common side effects are soreness at the site of injection, fever, headache, fatigue,” Blumberg said. “These generally last for 24 to 48 hours and then resolve on their own. NN: This is good new BUT the question is the roll out. Children are now 25% of new infections, Thousands are hospitalized and we are still in the early stages. THE WORST IS YET TO COME. My concern is by the time we get enough school children immunized it will be UNTIL WELL AFTER the great super spreader time of the year… The holiday seasons] which starts from Halloween to New Year.  More and more schools are closing down,,, And deservedly so over 250 teachers who are not vaccinates are getting infected and paying the stupid tax… death. I can only hope they will close the schools until EVERYONE is vaccinated.
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Kaplan to step down from Dallas Fed president post…… Eric Rosengren, Boston Federal Reserve president, also announced he will retire.

https://youtu.be/vJLbHp1BLKE

omberg) — Two regional Federal Reserve presidents are retiring following embarrassing revelations of stock trading last year, removing a couple of the central bank’s more hawkish officials as it calibrates withdrawing pandemic policy aid. Boston Fed chief Eric Rosengren and Dallas’s Robert Kaplan on Monday separately announced plans to step down. Rosengren will depart later this week and Kapla “Unfortunately, the recent focus on my financial disclosure risks becoming a distraction to the Federal Reserve’s execution of that vital work,” Kaplan said in a statement emailed by the Dallas Fed. “For that reason, I have decided to retire.” Rosengren said he was taking early retirement due to a health condition and revealed he’d been eligible for a kidney transplant since June 2020.
“Their exit will take out two of the 9 more hawkish Fed officials who saw a 2022 rate hike,” Krishna Guha, head of central bank strategy at Evercore ISI, wrote in a note to clients.
The disclosures led Powell to announce that Fed staff would take a new look at the central bank’s internal ethics rules around financial holdings and activities by senior officials. Powell, asked about the trading during a press conference following a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on Sept. 22, didn’t disguise his frustration over the incident. “No one on the FOMC is happy to
The departures should also ease pressure on Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who testifies before a Senate panel Tuesday, and “reduces the risk that this controversy could torpedo his renomination as Fed chair,” Guha said. Powell’s term at the helm ends in February and President Joe Biden is expected to decide this fall whether to renominate him or pick someone else. Both Kaplan and Rosengren have come under criticism in the past few weeks after their 2020 financial disclosures, released recently, showed they held and traded financial assets while the Fed was actively supporting markets through the pandemic crisis. The disclosures brought widespread criticism of potential conflicts of interest. Kaplan, who has led the Dallas Fed for six years and was previously a senior executive at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., conducted multiple $1 million-plus transactions last year. Both Fed chiefs said earlier this month that they would sell all individual stock holdings by Sept. 30, even though they cleared Fed rules and ethical guidelines.

Meredith Black, currently first vice president of the Dallas Fed, will delay her retirement and serve as interim president. Boston’s Kenneth Montgomery, the bank’s first vice president and chief operating officer, will serve as interim president until a successor to Rosengren is chosen.  NN: By definition the Federal Reserve is the double dealing insider trading Vehicle for the big bankers… A private organization that has nothing but impoverish the masses, disguised by the massive debts they have created.  Prosperity based on debt that can never be repaid is the illusions of prosperity. This debt orgy will impoverish mankind and destroy America in the end. But this is not why Rosengren and Kaplan were forced to jump on their swords. War is raging at the FED. ITS a known fact that inflation is out of control. The conservative (hawks) governors know rates must be raised starting NOW 450 bases points. The problem is the liberal lefties of the Biden administration are holding Powell hostage to his reappointment. And Kaplin and Rosengren have gone public in recent months… So they are no more…. And everyone is watching….. and scared!
 
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US down premarket on debt ceiling uncertainty…Shares drop for third day, yields soar as markets brace for rate hikes

Equities on Wall Street traded lower in the premarket session on Tuesday, as investors were discouraged by the Federal Reserve’s Chair Jerome Powell announcing the possibility of the Fed increasing interest rates to decrease the rate of inflation and the US Senate failing to approve a measure to suspend the debt ceiling. Notably, Federal Reserve Bank of New York leadership warned that tapering the United States central bank’s bond-buying “may soon be warranted,”  The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 0.39% at 4:24 am ET, the Nasdaq 100 lost 1.34% at the same time. The S&P 500 traded 0.73% lower a minute later. The euro lost 0.14% against the dollar to trade for $1.16792 at 4:26 am ET.]

Shares drop for third day, yields soar as markets brace for rate hikes

LONDON (Reuters) – Global shares fell for a third successive day, while bond yields on both sides of the Atlantic soared on anxiety over when central banks might raise interest rates. MSCI’s All Country World Index, which tracks shares across 49 countries, was down 0.3% on the day after the start of trading in Europe. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield hit 1.5444%, its highest level since Jun. 17, pulling up euro zone bond yields in its wake. Two-year Treasury yields surged to 18-month highs. A market measure of euro zone inflation expectations jumped to 1.81%, its highest level in two weeks. Surging yields pressured high-growth technology shares at the start of trading in Europe while fresh signs of a slowdown in China’s economy also weighed on investor sentiment, pushing the pan-European STOXX 600 index down over 1%. [.EU] Britain’s FTSE 100 index fell 0.5%, while Germany’s DAX fell 0.8%. France’s CAC 40 fell 1.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB index slipped 0.6%. “The global equity market is having difficulties rising in a wall of worries as the energy crunch and re-pricing of the U.S. (and EU over the month) is potentially changing the timing and speed of future rate increases or at least tapering,” said Sebastien Galy, senior macro strategist at Nordea Asset Management. Rising yields also boosted the dollar, with the index that measures the greenback’s strength rising to a five-week high. The Japanese yen fell against the dollar and the euro as rising yields made the currencies more attractive to Japanese buyers. During Asian trade, Brent crude oil hit $80 a barrel for the first time in three years, driven by regional economies beginning to reopen from the COVID-19 pandemic and supply concerns. Gold prices fell to a 1-1/2-month low on Tuesday, with spot gold hitting its lowest level since Aug. 11 at $1,735.40 per ounce. London nickel and tin prices extended losses into a second session on Tuesday, as widening power cuts in top metals consumer China cause worries over downstream demand.

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Oil Extends Gains as WTI Jumps Above $75 on Global Energy Crunch…… Prepare yourself for the energy shock.

 

(Bloomberg) — Oil rallied at the start of the week’s trading on signs that the crude market is tightening amid a global energy crunch. West Texas Intermediate topped $75 a barrel after a run of five weekly gains, while Brent reached the highest level since October 2018. Prices are set to continue rallying as supply struggles to catch up with fast-rising demand, according to Trafigura Group’s co-head of oil trading Ben Luckock. His remarks came on the same day that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Brent could hit $90 a barrel by year-end as the market is in a bigger deficit than many realize.

Crude is rallying on signs that inventories globally are falling sharply, with demand hotting up ahead of winter and OPEC+ only slowly adding barrels back to the market.

As traders eye the prospect of large market deficits, Trafigura said longer-dated oil prices remain cheap at around $70 a barrel. So-called timespreads, which gauge market strength, have rallied sharply in recent weeks in another sign that traders are positive about the outlook.

“Observable inventory draws are the largest on record,” Goldman Sachs analysts including Damien Courvalin wrote in a note to clients. “This deficit will not be reversed in coming months, in our view, as its scale will overwhelm both the willingness and ability of OPEC+ to ramp up.”

OPEC+ is scheduled to meet on Oct. 4. to review output policy after sticking with supply increases of 400,000 a day for recent months. Internal documents from the group have already highlighted the risk of the natural gas crisis ramping up demand. Citigroup Inc. said it remained “outright bullish” on crude as well as gas, according to a commodities outlook. On Monday, U.S. natural gas futures rose for a third day as inventory levels stayed low ahead of the heating season. NN: This is simply OPEC  holding supplies back to create artificial shortages. The most treacherous markets i have ever seen, translation their is a hell of a lot of money to me made here. We now have a oil price shock (like in the seventies) to add to the run away inflationary pressures…… Its the whole inflationary enchilada. Wage inflation, wholesale inflation, embedded inflation, raw material inflation and consumed inflation. SO its to be expected that consumer inflationary expectations are soaring. We have now achieved embedded inflation. And the FED is trapped They will have to raise rates soon and a lot. And this oil/gas manipulation will not last much longer.

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Cars queue outside London fuel station as truck driver shortage bites….. Boris Johnson finally ready to relax UK visa restrictions to tackle truck driver shortage

LONDON (Reuters) – Lengthy queues of vehicles snaked their way to gas stations in Britain on Saturday where an acute shortage of truck drivers has led to fuel rationing and some pumps running dry, and prompted the government to consider issuing temporary work visas. Across the country, motorists waited in long lines to fill up their vehicles. One big distributor said it was rationing sales and a number of operators said they were having to close some forecourts, provoking panic-buying.

FILE PHOTO: Hand written signs are stuck to a petrol pump with no fuel available at a Shell filling station in Manchester © Reuters/PHIL NOBLE FILE PHOTO: Hand written signs are stuck to a petrol pump with no fuel available at a Shell filling station in Manchester  Government ministers and oil companies say there are ample stocks of petrol or diesel and there is no cause for alarm, but the lack of truck drivers is hampering transport of fuel from refineries to gas stations. With retailers also warning of significant disruption to their supplies in the run-up to Christmas, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office has said it is looking at a short-term fix to address the shortage of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers.

FILE PHOTO: Truck drivers wanted as UK supply chains buckle © Reuters/PETER CZIBORRA FILE PHOTO: Truck drivers wanted as UK supply chains buckle

“We’re looking at temporary measures to avoid any immediate problems, but any measures we introduce will be very strictly time limited,” a spokeswoman for Johnson’s Downing Street office said in a statement.”Like countries around the world we are suffering from a temporary COVID-related shortage of drivers needed to move supplies around the coun try.” NB: Bullshit, As part of the britexit war England refused to allow foreign truck drivers into England… Its called shooting yourself in the dick! The UK’s Road Haulage Association (RHA) says Britain is facing a shortage of some 100,000 drivers, a result of workers leaving the industry, Brexit and COVID-19, which put a stop to driver training and testing for about a year.

Boris Johnson ready to relax UK visa regime to tackle truck driver shortage

Boris Johnson has bowed to months of pressure from business by authorising a temporary visa scheme covering up to 10,000 foreign workers, in order to ease a shortage of lorry drivers that has caused widespread disruption. Ministers and officials met on Friday to sign off a package of measures, including issuing temporary visas to thousands of foreign truck drivers and meat processing workers following chaotic scenes at petrol stations and sporadic food shortages. Downing Street hopes to make a formal announcement as early as Saturday afternoon, according to Whitehall officials. The package is expected to “last three to six months, to see us through Christmas”, one said. Energy company BP announced on Thursday that a “handful” of petrol stations would temporarily close due to a shortage of drivers able to transport unleaded and diesel fuel. ExxonMobil also warned that a “small number” of its petrol stations had been affected. Johnson is expected to sign off approximately 5,000 visas for HGV drivers and a similar number for food processing workers, with a focus on the poultry industry.

Home secretary Priti Patel was previously the strongest opponent of giving temporary visas to foreign HGV drivers, arguing it would lead to a stampede of different industries demanding similar preferential treatment. She has since sided with transport secretary Grant Shapps to support the plan.

One person close to the situation said the prime minister was “completely fed up with bad headlines on this and wants it sorted and doesn’t care about visa limits any more”. An individual with knowledge of Friday’s meeting said “the PM indicated he would rather take the short-term hit on immigration as a trade off for not messing up Christmas”. The package will also include measures to reduce red tape for HGV drivers and a programme to encourage those who had left the industry to return. Lorry drivers currently do not meet the skills threshold to qualify for work visas in the UK under the government’s new points-based system. In recent months the government has resisted calls to offer temporary visas to foreign drivers in a bid to fill an estimated 100,000 vacancies.   5,000 highly conditional visas would not be enough. “Having admitted that immigrant labour is a part of the solution, why can’t we do it properly and give our exhausted food industry supply chain workers the reinforcements they desperately need?” Johnson’s move comes as Tory MPs worry about a broader “cost of living crisis” involving rising gas prices, inflation, an imminent national insurance increase, the end of the furlough scheme and cuts to universal credit.

The CBI business lobby group said its members had this week warned about “sharply increasing” material costs and shortages of key manufacturing components. Producers also faced “rocketing energy prices”, it added.

Tony Danker, CBI director-general, said: “This is now a major threat to our recovery, and the government needs to step up its response to a new level of both speed and boldness.” Transport secretary Grant Shapps said on Friday that the armed forces could be brought in to drive lorries if the situation worsened. He told the BBC there had been a “systematic shortage of drivers” for a “long time”, noting that many drivers had left the sector because of low wages caused in part by importing labour from abroad. About 20,000 EU drivers returned home during the pandemic, according to industry estimates, but a further 50,000 British drivers with HGV licences also stopped working during the past 18 months.  NN: You are seeing a global failure of leadership.They just no shit do not understand the crises and truly do not know what to do. In fact they do nothing until their silly ass decisions blow up in their incompetent faces.

 

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Chinese officials take control of Evergrande sales revenue

In a fresh update on China Evergrande story, the indebted property development giant is likely to be restructured into three separate entities, in a fresh deal that could be announced within days, Asia Markets reports on Wednesday, citing sources close to the Chinese government. The sources added that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is set to take control of Evergrande in an imminent deal. “The deal is being designed to protect Chinese nationals who have bought apartments from Evergrande, like the ones you see protesting on the streets and also those who have invested in Evergrande’s wealth management products.” “But the big thing is stemming any widespread economic flow-on effects that insolvency would cause on the China economy.” The risk sentiment remains elevated on the renewed optimism surrounding China Evergrande. Although the above report has little to no impact on the risk trades, so far. NN: My analysis is clear. Fireman to the rescue. The decision has been made from on high. China will restructure evergrande and it will not fail nor default. I was sure China would see a evergrande collapse  would bring down the house of cards the real estate market. Let me clear here the global bubble real estate market is an enormous house of cards and a 2008 style real estate crash will be soon upon us. No matter how many tent revivals real estate Donald Trump wanna be attend on bended knee praying Lord please make sure this time it different.  Its not!!