Economics

SEC releases proposed rules for public company emissions disclosures. Will create full employment for CPAs.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued proposed rules for emissions risk accounting and disclosures by public companies. After the 60 day comment window the SEC will work on final rules.

(Discussion from my other blog, Attestation Update, is posted here because of the impact these rules will have on economic freedom and prosperity. You can ponder the impact for yourself.)

The proposal creates three areas for measurement and disclosure. Scope 1 is emissions from a company’s own operations, whether it is manufacturing cars, producing coal, or running a bank. Scope 2 is emissions generated from the energy consumed by company as an input to their operations. This could be the electricity to operate the branches and computers of a bank or it could be all of the coal consumed to produce steel.

As if that does not stretch your brain far enough, there is Scope 3. Those are the missions of all of the vendors to a company and all the consumers of its products. This is not just immediate vendors and direct consumers. This includes the emissions of the vendors’ vendors and their vendors, all the way back to when raw materials were first pulled out of the ground.

This includes emissions generated by your customers as they use your products and also your customers’ customers’ emissions. This goes all the way to the end consumer. Furthermore, this is life cycle costs.

As a brain stretcher, for a utility providing natural gas to consumers Scope 3 would include the emissions generated as consumers heat their home. The lifecycle is very short since the gas will be used as soon as it arrives at the houses.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Producer Price Index up 0.8% in February 2022 with January revised upward from 1.0% to 1.2%.

The Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 0.8% in February.   The previously reported 1.0% rise in January was revised to 1.2%. So that is actually a cumulative increase of 1.0% in February

Keep in mind the prior monthly increases PPI are revised as needed. This is in contrast to CPI which is not revised.

In February, core PPI, without food, energy, & trade, was up 0.2% in February with January revised downward from 0.9% to 0.8%.

For background, the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a description of PPI:

“The Producer Price Index (PPI) is a family of indexes that measures the average change over time in selling prices received by domestic producers of goods and services. PPIs measure price change from the perspective of the seller. This contrasts with other measures, such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI), that measure price change from the purchaser’s perspective. Sellers’ and purchasers’ prices may differ due to government subsidies, sales and excise taxes, and distribution costs.”

So the PPI measures prices received by producers for their goods and services. Those costs roll into the goods and services you and I buy as end consumers.

This means the increases in wholesale prices, which show a lot of inflation, are heading our way as those increases work themselves into the CPI.

Graph at the top of this post shows the monthly price change for total demand with separate line for total demand goods and total demand services.

With revisions, the year over year increase in PPI is 10.0% in February and January, which is only a slight increase from 9.9% in December and November and the increases were just under 9.0% for October back to August.

Take a look at the year over year change in final demand and core change which means without food, energy, and trade.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

High inflation rates likely to continue for remainder of 2022.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

It is looking like we are going to see high inflation numbers for a while, probably least all of 2022.

Mentioned yesterday the CPI increase of 7.9% in a year hit a 40 year record.

Treasure Secretary’s expectations.

In an interview on 3/10/22, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the inflation numbers are going to be uncomfortable for the rest of 2022.

Fox Business is one source that covered her comments on 3/10/22: Treasury Sec. Yellen contradicts Psaki: Likely to see another year of ‘very uncomfortable’ inflation.

The money quote:

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Consumer Price Index increases 0.8% in February 2022. One year increase highest since January 1982.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 0.8% in February 2022 after increasing 0.6% in January, 0.5% in December 2021, and 0.8% in November.

That is 1.9 % for the last three months.

Graph at top of this post shows the monthly increase in the all-items index along with the core change, which excludes food and energy. Graph also shows an average of the preceding 12 months for the all-items indicator.

The 12 month cumulative change continues to skyrocket. The monthly change in all items index and the cumulative change for 12 months looks as follows:

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Final comments on predictions:  Damage caused by government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

This is a visual illustration of what we will eventually conclude the federal and state governments accomplished by their policies during the pandemic. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Now is the time to put these prediction into print.

Introduction to this series is here.

The predictions are here.

Why now?

I’ve been writing about the devastation caused by the shutdowns for just under 2 years. Have been mulling over these predictions for well over a year.

Why didn’t I post these thoughts a year ago?

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

In spite of what you see with your own eyes, the Department of Agriculture says food inflation in 2021 was the same as 2020. Don’t hurt yourself laughing.

Yeah, the research wizards at the Ag Department concluded food inflation in 2021 was exact same as 2020. We will see even smaller price increases in 2022.

US Department of Agriculture – 1/28/22 – 2021 retail food price inflation continued at the same pace as 2020, but varied among food categories – In a clever disinformation effort, the alleged economists at the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture claim food prices increase of 3.5% during 2021 was the same rate of increase as in 2020. The mere 3.5% during 2021 is only slightly higher than the historical average of 2% from 2000 through 2019.

In newsflash to everyone who actually buys groceries or goes to a restaurant, food prices barely increased in 2021.

Because of the pushback this article is already receiving, it will likely be memory-holed momentarily so I will quote a few parts of the article. Will quote the entire article at the end of this post.

The headline information:

“Retail food prices increased by 3.5 percent in 2021, equal to the rate in 2020 and greater than the historical annual average of 2.0 percent from 2000 to 2019. Of the 12 food categories depicted in the chart, six showed slower price increases in 2021 compared with 2020.”

Prices for half the food you buy are coming down. Cool, huh?

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

The narrative is collapsing, part 2. Leaders in business world are backpedaling before more people catch on to their failure as leaders.

Visualization of the Covid narrative. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Those people who tried so hard and for so long to crush me, you, our children, the economy, and our freedoms are backpedaling as fast as they can.

Those alleged leaders who put so much effort into grinding the heel of their boot into your face and mine are positioning themselves to evade the accountability they so richly deserve.

Do not forget who tried to take away your health, wealth, and freedom.

Forgive, but do not ever forget.

DIscussion for today:

  • Starbucks drops vaccination requirement for their 349K staff.
  • GE drops vaccination requirement for their 174k staff.
  • Boeing drops vaccination requirement for their 141k staff.
  • Amtrak, Union Pacific, and BNSF all drop vaccination requirement for their staff.

Previously in part 1.

  • A year ago this would have gotten your on-line accounts banned and gotten you cancelled:  CDC acknowledges prior infection provides more protection than vaccinations.
  • England lifts ALL covid restrictions. Yes, all.
  • WHO recommends all international travel be resumed and no more checking of vaccination status before international travel.

It would appear that a growing number of alleged leaders in the business world have slowly come to the conclusion that killing their company is not a bright idea. Corporate suicide is not a promising strategy to increase value of those juicy stock options.

As mentioned in part 1, if you find lots of sarcasm along with point-and-laugh-out-loud ridicule in these two posts, my apologies.  I really wish I had the ability to pour on the heads of our supposed leaders the full dose of ridicule these ‘leaders’ have so richly earned.

When you read below of the about-face by GE, keep in mind how harshly they dealt with staff who filed for a religious exemption.

At issue is all the covid vaccines were either developed or produced using fetal stem cells somewhere in the process. This is deeply offensive for some people of faith.

For anyone who requested a religious accommodation, GE gave the person a list of about 20 medicines and asked if the person had ever used any of them. The handout asserted all those items were either developed, tested, or produced using fetal stem cell tissue. The handout then asked the applicant to provide a theological explanation for the distinction between using any one of those meds and getting a covid vaccination.

That is some serious hardball.

Now?

GE says never mind – don’t get a shot if you don’t feel like it for any reason. No further questions will be asked.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago