(FREE) PAINE IN THE MORNING: What you need to know this Monday – December 5, 2022

Here’s what you need to know today, Monday – December 5, 2022.

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‘Biden Blew It’: Unions Turn On POTUS After He Moves To Avert Railroad Strike –After President Joe Biden this week urged Congress to prevent rail worker unions from striking, unions turned against the president, accusing him of betraying his commitment to stand by labor.

“Joe Biden blew it,” Railroad Workers United treasurer Hugh Sawyer said Tuesday. “He had the opportunity to prove his labor-friendly pedigree to millions of workers by simply asking Congress for legislation to end the threat of a national strike on terms more favorable to workers. Sadly, he could not bring himself to advocate for a lousy handful of sick days.” – READ MORE


Next Week Will Be Critical For Oil Markets – The next few days will be one of the most crucial for the oil market in weeks as several events and factors at the same time could determine the trend in prices by the end of this year and beyond. While the Chinese zero-Covid policy and protests against that policy weigh negatively on market sentiment, the OPEC+ meeting on December 4 and the beginning of the EU embargo on Russian seaborne crude oil imports on the next day are likely to shape the course of the prices. Uncertainty is high, which would stoke further volatility in prices.

Oil slumped early on Monday to the lowest level in nearly a year – since December 2021, weighed down by risk aversion in commodity markets amid protests in China over the authorities’ strict Covid curbs policy. – READ MORE


The Labor Market Is Broken – Inflation is up. The stock market is down. Unemployment is just 3.5 percent. Yet labor force participation remains stubbornly low, with only 62.3 percent of the civilian population working or actively looking for work—well below pre-pandemic levels. And even before the pandemic, that figure had been steadily declining for years.

There are plenty of uncharitable theories about why the American work force is shrinking as a percentage of the population, resulting in 10 million unfilled jobs and a lot of well-wrung hands. The most common is simply that Kids These Days don’t want to work and it’ll be Gen Z’s fault when the U.S. is no longer a global economic superpower. – READ MORE


IMF Chief Says US Must Keep Raising Interest Rates Because “They Owe It” To The World – The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, has cautioned against the Federal Reserve slowing down with its interest rate hikes as it attempts to tame soaring inflation.

Speaking in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, the IMF Managing Director was asked for her thoughts on pausing interest amid concerns that a strengthening U.S. dollar is weakening other currencies around the world, particularly those in poorer nations, and contributing to a cost of living crisis in those countries. – READ MORE


D.C. Think Tank Urges America To “Invest” In Zelensky’s $1 Trillion Reconstruction Plan – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a video address on Tuesday estimated it will cost more than $1 trillion to rebuild his country following the Russian assault, now over nine months in. If this number sounds absolutely shocking and unrealistic… it is, given this would be five times Ukraine’s entire GDP.

“The reconstruction of our country will become the most momentous economic, technological, and humanitarian project of our time. Even now, we engage dozens of our partner countries to rebuild Ukraine,” Zelensky said during his nightly video address Tuesday, translated by Newsweek. “The total volume of work amounts to over a trillion dollars.” – READ MORE


Florida Pulls $2 Billion from BlackRock in Largest Anti-ESG Divestment – Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced on Thursday that the state would start to pull $2 billion in assets away from BlackRock due to the state’s opposition to the company’s major push into Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies.

The CFO’s $2 billion divestment is the most significant anti-ESG divestment to date, as Republican states have started to take a stand against this type of leftist activism in financial investing. – READ MORE


Swiss Prepare to Spend the Winter Bored, Cold, and Trapped at Home – The Swiss government announced its plan to deal with expected energy shortfalls this winter, and it sounds like a lot of fun — provided you’re a shut-in who likes reading by candlelight under multiple blankets.

The alpine country — one of the wealthiest in the world — will severely restrict electric vehicles from its roads, according to a Daily Mail report. If the country runs out of power, EVs won’t be allowed out for anything but “essential” travel. – READ MORE


France Could Suffer ‘Significant’ Food Spoilage Due to Power Cuts – A federation of French supermarket chains has warned of significant waste of fresh products in the event of possible power cuts in the country this winter, with those in rural areas much more likely to face outages.

Franck Charton, general delegate of Perifem, a French federation of supermarket chains, explained that companies are already preparing for power outages over the winter months and while they should be notified the day prior to any planned outages at 9:30 p.m., Charton said the time is too short for them to react. – READ MORE


New York City hiring new ‘rat czar’ to help with city’s long-running battle against rodents – Hate rats? Are you a “somewhat bloodthirsty” New Yorker with excellent communication skills and “a general aura of badassery”? Then you might have what it takes to be the city’s new rat czar.

Mayor Eric Adams’ administration posted a job listing this week seeking someone to lead the city’s long-running battle against rats. The official job title is “director of rodent mitigation,” although it was promptly dubbed the rat czar. Salary range is $120,000 to $170,000. – READ MORE


House Dem Praises ‘Candid’ Crypto Kingpin Ahead of Congressional Hearing – Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) heaped praise on Democratic megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried ahead of her committee’s hearing about the collapse of the crypto mogul’s firm.

Waters asserted Friday that Bankman-Fried has been “candid” about the demise of his company, FTX. Bankman-Fried has given a series of interviews this week as part of an apparent image rehabilitation tour after FTX declared bankruptcy, wiping out billions of dollars from customers’ portfolios. Bankman-Fried has said he mismanaged the company but has denied committing fraud. Waters invited the former billionaire to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Dec. 13. – READ MORE


Coverage of disgraced crypto honcho Sam Bankman-Fried’s shocking interview under microscope – Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried spoke out on Wednesday for the first since his crypto exchange crumbled in an interview that Vox described as “a mesmerizing spectacle,” adding intrigue to the way news outlets cover the man who has been accused of attempting to “buy influence” with various donations to media organizations.

Vox, one of the numerous media outlets that Bankman-Fried attempted to bestow large sums of cash, covered the interview with a piece that critics felt softened FTX founder’s swift fall from grace. The Vox story, “Sam Bankman-Fried’s first post-scandal public interview was a mesmerizing spectacle,” also noted he “had been seen as a rare billionaire serious about using his wealth to improve the world following a philosophy known as effective altruism.” – READ MORE


Dropping Like Coin Prices: 3 Crypto Billionaires Have Died in the Last Month –Three well-known cryptocurrency billionaires have died under mysterious circumstances over the past month, fueling conspiracy theories.

Over the course of the past month, multiple cryptocurrency billionaires have died under mysterious circumstances. All three had made their fortunes in the cryptocurrency industry, with one tweeting that he believed he was being targeted just days before his demise. – READ MORE

 

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Here’s what you need to know today, Monday – December 5, 2022. ‘Biden Blew It’: Unions Turn On POTUS After He Moves To Avert Railroad Strike –After President Joe Biden this week urged Congress to prevent rail worker unions from striking, unions turned against the president, accusing him of betraying his commitment to stand by…

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