(FREE) PAINE IN THE MORNING: What you need to know this Wednesday – August 17, 2022

Here’s what you need to know today, Wednesday – August 17, 2022.

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‘The Big Short’ Investor Who Famously Predicted 2008 Recession Sells All But One Of His Stocks – Scion Asset Management founder Michael Burry — whose story was featured in the film “The Big Short” after he predicted the 2008 housing crisis — has sold all of his firm’s stocks except for one, according to a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

After holding stock in firms such as Meta and Alphabet by its previous filing submitted at the end of March, the firm has cut its holdings from $165 million to $3.3 million. Scion reported holding no stocks save 500,000 shares of GEO Group by the end of June, which invests in private prisons and mental health systems. – READ MORE

Rep. Jason Smith: Inflation Reduction Act Includes ‘$27 Billion for a Climate Slush Fund for the EPA’ – 3 Times Its Annual Funding – The $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed by Congress last week, includes a $27 billion climate slush fund for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is three times as much as what the EPA gets a year in funding, Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said on Sunday.

“There’s hundreds of millions of dollars to pay big, woke corporations to make their buildings green. That does zero for the supply chain crisis. There’s $27 billion for a climate slush fund for the EPA. That is three times the amount of what EPA has a year in funding. That does zero to lower interest rates,” he told Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” – READ MORE

Ford, GM Raise Electric Vehicle Prices, Offsetting Tax Credits in Biden’s ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ – Ford and General Motors have announced price increases for their electric vehicles, essentially offsetting the electric vehicle tax credits contained in Democrats’ “Inflation Reduction Act.”

The price hikes effectively negate the potential tax benefit of buying one of the manufacturers’ new electric vehicles – READ MORE

Newsom Proposes Plan to Keep Nuclear Plant Open, Legislature Has Weeks To Decide – Democratic Governor of California Gavin Newsom is proposing an extension of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant after it was set to completely close by 2025.

The California state legislature now has a few weeks to consider the plan. The session is set to end at the end of this month, meaning unless a special session is called afterwards, the lawmakers must decide soon. – READ MORE

UK Average Electricity Cost Will Soar To $5,370 Per Year By 2023 – Households are likely to see the average bill for electricity and natural gas climb to £4,400 ($5,370) a year in the first half of 2023, according to a report this week from Cornwall Insight, a consulting firm. This is after the regulatory price cap shot up 54% to about £2,000 in April with another 40%-plus increase due in October and further increases after that.

Britain’s median income after direct taxes is £31,400. Skyrocketing fuel prices could push 10.5 million households, or one-third, into fuel poverty next year, says the End Fuel Poverty Coalition. Fuel poverty is when energy costs drag household disposable income below the government’s official poverty line. – READ MORE

Private Jet Usage “Flies” To Record Highs, Even Among Climate Outrage – As concern about the climate, or at least virtue signaling about the climate, ramps higher each day, so does private jet use. Especially among celebrities.

Funny how that happens, right?

And now thanks to the Twitter accounts over at @CelebJets and @ElonJet, we are well aware when people like Kylie Jenner, Taylor Swift or Elon Musk take flight in their private jets. Such was the topic of a new Wall Street Journal report out over the weekend that looked at the backlash to private jet use. – READ MORE

Landlord Problems: Illinois Dem Pays Thousands in Rent to Cocaine-Pushing Butcher –  Rep. Danny K. Davis (D., Ill.) rents his district office from a convicted cocaine dealer who was once affiliated with a Chicago drug ring, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Since January 2017, Davis’s campaign account has cut regular $600 checks for “office rent” to Mario’s Butcher Shop, FEC records show. The shop, which is registered as a corporation with the state, lists Mariano “Mario” Lettieri and his wife as the sole members of its board of directors and was at the center of Lettieri’s 1990 conviction for drug trafficking. – READ MORE

Healthcare Workers Denied Religious Exemptions to Receive $10 Million in Vaccine Mandate Settlement – Healthcare workers at NorthShore University Health System in Illinois are expected to receive $10.3 million in a “first-of-its-kind” class action settlement over the hospital’s coronavirus vaccine mandate, the Washington Examiner reported Monday.

The lawsuit was brought by 13 employees because the hospital “unlawfully discriminated against and denied religious exemptions from the COVID shot mandate, according to Liberty Counsel, which represented the employees. Liberty Counsel says it works to advance “religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the family through strategic litigation.” – READ MORE

‘Woke’ Military Policies To Blame For Recruitment Crisis, Servicemembers Say – The U.S. Army is expected to fall nearly 40,000 troops short of its recruiting goals over the next two years. Fiscal year 2022 is expected to miss the mark by 10,000 troops, while the number in fiscal year 2023 could reach 28,000. These figures mean that this year is on track to be the Army’s worst recruiting year in almost 50 years.

The Army plans to circumvent the problem by offering $1 billion for its recruiting program and placing more emphasis on the use of its reserve units. – READ MORE

WEF’s “Global Intelligence Collecting AI” To Erase Ideas From The Internet – The World Economic Forum is becoming a little concerned. Unapproved opinions are becoming more popular, and online censors cannot keep up with millions of people becoming more aware and more vocal. The censorship engines employed by Internet platforms, turned out to be quite stupid and incapable. People are even daring to complain about the World Economic Forum, which is obviously completely unacceptable.

So, WEF author Inbal Goldberger came up with a solution: she proposes to collect off-platform intelligence from “millions of sources” to spy on people and new ideas, and then merge this information together for “content removal decisions” sent down to “Internet platforms”. – READ MORE

Why Is The UN Promoting A Kind Of Food Production Proven To Reduce Yields, Raise Prices, And Topple Governments? – The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) describes itself as “the global authority that sets the environmental agenda… and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.” Through its “Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Agriculture and Food” program launched in 2014, the UNEP advocates that nations “steer away from the prevailing focus on per hectare productivity.”

But today the world is in its worst food crisis since 2008. The number of people suffering acute food insecurity increased by 25% since January 2022 to 345 million, according to the United Nations World Food Programme. Why, then, is the UNEP trying to steer nations away from fertilizers that increase food production? – READ MORE