thelibertybeacon--2020-10-10--The Devastating Economic Impact of Covid-19 Shutdowns

To this point , the destruction caused by state and Federal Covid-19 lockdowns has largely been expressed in aggregates .
Yet along the same line as a popular critique of Keynesianism , economic aggregates present a greatly truncated story by smoothing over minute but revealing evidence at lower levels .
Looking at the policy impact on a smaller scale – regionally , and in terms of industries/sectors – exposes the impact of mandated shutdowns in greater detail .
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic , widespread lockdown restrictions were imposed , ostensibly to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed and medical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Whether policymakers purposely or out of ignorance disregarded them , the tradeoffs of stay-at-home orders were immediate and severe : a massive spike in unemployment , rivaling the Great Depression ; similarly historic drops in GDP , and others .
By looking at disaggregated data , though , the devastation of lockdowns becomes all the more apparent .
We examined the US economy in the period leading up to the Covid-19 policy implementations in two ways : regionally and in terms of industries .
For our analysis , U.S. geographic regions are broken @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Mideast ( Midatlantic ) , Great Lakes , Plains , Southeast , Southwest , Rocky Mountain , and the Far West .
These were compared using data on GDP , imports , exports , business formations , and unemployment .
In the second section , industries are grouped and analyzed in a two-fold manner , by specific sector , and by location on the vertical supply chain .
The following metrics were used : Industrial Production Index : This index ( IPI ) represents the output of industrial sectors , specifically : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and mining .
As an index , industrial production is measured against the baseline , which is that 2012 levels were set to 100 , and subsequent years compared against it .
Capacity utilization : Capacity utilization ( CU ) is denoted as the percentage maximum potential output that is actually utilized .
Functionally , this is Needless to say the United States as a whole suffered economically from the lockdown measures ; the degree of economic loss , however , varied widely between regions and their constituent states .
Gross Domestic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the finished goods and services in a given place and time .
Although NBER dated a recession as having begun during or just after February 2020 , Q1 2020 GDP shows only small declines for each region .
Yet with the start of the lockdowns , the Great Lakes saw the largest drop in seasonally adjusted annualized rate of GDP by 6.6 % between Q4 2019 and Q1 2020 .
Within the Great Lakes , durable goods and manufacturing GDP contribution dropped furthest negative compared to other US regions : by -0.76 % @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Manufacturing is the region ’ s top industry as it serves as home to a disproportionate number of the top auto and aerospace companies : Ford , Chrysler , GM , Bombardier , Magna International , GE Aviation , and others .
The Rocky Mountain region , comparatively , saw the smallest decrease in GDP of 2.8 % from Q4 2019 to Q1 2020 : that probably owes to its dominant industry , mining , being substantially distanced from the direct impact of lockdowns .
It contracted by only 0.05 % in Q1 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ among all regions , with Mideast GDP plummeting the most ( 34 % ) and Rocky Mountains the least ( 27.6 % ) .
Among Mideast states , New York ’ s GDP declined the most : 39.3 % .
This owes not only to the presence of manufacturing within the Empire State , but the singularly detrimental and long-lasting nature of lockdowns on New York City .
Yet compared against all other U.S. states , Hawaii and Nevada ’ s GDP plummeted the most : both by 42.2 % .
Hawaii and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tourism industry , which in turn rely heavily upon the accommodation , recreation , and food service sectors .
This was exacerbated by widespread flight and route cancellations among the major airlines ( Delta cut flights by 85 % in Q2 ) as well as suspended services to specific airports – one of which , notably , was Las Vegas McCarran International Airport .
Delaware ’ s GDP dropped the least of any U.S. state between Q1 and Q2 2020 with a decline of 21.9 % .
One explanation is the prevalence of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jobs in Delaware , a large percentage of which can easily shift to a work from home basis .
The Southwest , Great Lakes , and Rocky Mountains experienced traumatic shocks to imports between Q1 and Q2 2020 .
Within these regions , the greatest effects were experienced by Oklahoma ( -29.85 % ) , Michigan ( -46.83 % ) , and Hawaii ( -63.98 % ) .
A number of extremely uncommon events in the global oil industry as lockdown policies were being imposed exacerbated the declines in several of these areas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Basin , and depends disproportionately upon the oil drilling and processing industries ; Michigan depends , as previously mentioned , upon the automotive industry and other heavy manufacturing operations ( which in turn is sensitive to trucking ) .
Hawaii , as also mentioned , depends upon air and sea transportation .
One other state not included in these regions , Rhode Island , had a 46.83 % drop in imports as well .
The steep drop is due to less imports of passenger and commercial vehicles , gasoline , petroleum , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As for best-performing states , New York saw imports vault by 61.93 % between Q1 and Q2 2020 ; this , however , had everything to do with massive shipments of medical supplies to New York City and Long Island hospitals and medical facilities .
( Despite an initial , taxing spike in novel coronavirus cases , the greatly feared torrent of desperately ill New Yorkers never materialized . )
Alongside New York State , Idaho ’ s state imports increased by 19.98 % and South Dakota ’ s by 7.82 % @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exports are comprised of goods and services leaving the state for both domestic and international destinations .
The Great Lakes , Southwest , and Southeast U.S. regions saw the biggest drops in the number of exports ; within those regions , Michigan , Texas , and South Carolina suffered the most .
For each of those states , their major exports are derived from several of the sectors hardest hit by lockdowns : plummeting output in Michigan ’ s automotive industry ; the extreme conditions which erupted in the oil sector roiled firms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ below ; as was aircraft/aerospace production in South Carolina .
Conversely , the Rocky Mountain and New England regions experienced less of a decline in exports from April 2019 to April 2020 when compared to other regions despite all still having generally large negative impacts .
Although not in these regions , the only state to see a slight increase in exports was Alaska .
According to the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation , the Anchorage Airport was the “ busiest airport on the globe on some days over the past few months ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ US-Asia cargo trade .
Additionally , when comparing manufactured versus non-manufactured imports and exports , we can glean a few insights .
The Mideast performed well for manufactured imports with a 15.73 % increase over the previous quarter , but this is likely due to medical supplies shipped to New York .
Non-manufactured imports , such as farm products or other raw materials , contain the lowest drops .
The Great Lakes and Southwest , however , appear to have experienced the greatest blows to overall trade ( imports and exports ) .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ majority of US-Canada trade , which has been suppressed by lockdowns .
The chart below details the percent change in manufactured and non-manufactured imports and exports between May 2019 and May 2020 .
Manufactured goods are products that were mechanically , chemically , or physically transformed , while non-manufactured refers to raw materials .
In early spring 2020 , Oil Producing and Exporting Countries ( OPEC ) , Russia and Saudi Arabia found themselves at an impasse , unable to agree upon production levels .
Without delving into the minutia of their contention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ entering into unlimited production of oil , driving world oil prices down .
In an effort to maintain market share , Saudi Arabia and soon thereafter other OPEC nations “ opened the spigots , ” so to speak , flooding world markets with oil , sending prices on commodities , futures , forwards , and other markets plunging .
At this point , worldwide demand for oil was plunging due to lockdowns ; in April of 2020 more people worldwide were under some form of lockdown than there were people on Earth at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A large portion of Americans were either at home , unemployed , or working from home ; business and vacation travel evaporated .
The combination of nonexistent demand and skyrocketing supply led to a spectacle unseen in financial market history : on April 20 , 2020 , the May 2020 West Texas Intermediate futures contract plummeted 300 % to close at - $ 37.63 .
The crude oil industry which had since the 1950s developed as an oligopoly ( and thus only had to bear supply within predetermined , agreed-upon price ranges ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and storage disappeared .
WTI crude oil , for a limited time , was not only “ free , ” but traders would pay $ 37 per barrel to buyers to take physical delivery as the glut filled tank farms and sea tankers .
At the intersection of historically low interest rates and high variable costs of extraction , transportation , refining , and marketing of each barrel , oil firms assumed copious amounts of debt throughout the post-9/11 era .
A working assumption is that oil prices would stay above $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at least near the long-term norm .
With the colossal collapse in oil prices , many such firms were suddenly unable to service debt obligations .
In addition to the immediate damage of the lockdowns , CNN estimates that the second-order effects will result in 100 firms in the oil industry declaring bankruptcy in subsequent quarters .
British Petroleum has already pledged to lay off 10,000 employees by the end of 2020 and Marathon Petroleum has announced that 12 % of its staff will be laid off .
Chesapeake Energy , long a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the New York Stock Exchange .
Oasis Petroleum , only a few years back trading at roughly $ 16 per share on NASDAQ , lost 90 % of its value ; it currently trades at 18 cents per share .
Oil firms Noble Energy , Halliburton , Marathon Oil and Occidental Petroleum all lost over 2/3 of their value .
Many more jobs , and the jobs that depend upon those , will likely be lost .
Curiously , business applications have actually risen in some regions ; notably in the Southeast where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Q2 2020 has occurred .
The Great Lakes , Plains , Southwest , and Rocky Mountain regions have seen increases as well .
The Mideast region evinced a decrease in business applications by 5.85 % between Q1 and Q2 2020 .
Some explanations for this heartening ( if counterintuitive ) spike include the following : delays in processing previously-submitted applications once lockdowns went into effect ; opportunistic purchases of existing businesses ; increased entrepreneurship in the wake of massive regional layoffs ; a response to shifting demand in certain products and services @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; or , most likely , some combination of all of the aforementioned .
In April , the Great Lakes region experienced the highest levels of unemployment ( 18.24 % ) while the Plains region saw the lowest : 9.99 % .
Within the Great Lakes between March and April 2020 , Michigan saw the greatest increase in unemployment rates ( 19.75 % ) .
Other Great Lakes states also significantly increased between March and April : Illinois by 12.95 % , Indiana by 14.48 % , Ohio by 11.82 % , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s construction , manufacturing , and leisure and hospitality industries experienced the deepest impact .
In the Plains region , Nebraska and Minnesota ’ s unemployment rates increased to 8.7 % .
Overall , the highest unemployment rate in the US in April was in Nevada at an estimated 30 % , with the leisure , recreation , and hospitality-intensive economies of Las Vegas and Reno utterly devastated through Q2 2020 .
While some regions ’ unemployment rates have been falling since their peak in April , several have stayed somewhat level ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is likely that where small and service-oriented businesses are dominant ( such as in New York City and certain cities in Florida and California ) , unemployment rates rose steadily as time drew on .
Overall , the Great Lakes and Southwest regions appear to be struggling the most in terms of imports and exports .
As previously mentioned , Michigan , Oklahoma , and Texas rely to a large extent upon industries which are being hammered – manufacturing , auto , and petroleum .
Further , though , the proximity of these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with whom trade also slowed to a near-standstill ) also contributes to explaining the commercial decline .
Although the lockdown has had a negative impact on all industries , the magnitude of the damage is not universal .
In evaluating the disparity between respective impacts on various industries in the United States , we will use two sets of measures : industrial production & capacity utilization and sales & inventory .
As previously noted , the Industrial Production Index ( IPI ) measures the supply of manufactured goods , and is therefore a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Industrial Production Index ( IPI ) measures the supply of industrial products , Capacity Utilization ( CU ) is a measure of demand for goods .
Although influenced by consumer sentiment , both industrial production and capacity utilization are influenced by real interest rates .
On March 15 , 2020 , the Federal Reserve , in response to the coronavirus pandemic , cut the Fed Funds Rate to 0 % and initiated a number of 2008-era liquidity programs , in addition to a $ 700B quantitative easing facility .
With tremendous liquidity entering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ expect both IPI and capacity utilization to increase commensurate with a reduction in the opportunity cost of saving , thus making investments in capital goods , expanded production capacity , and inventories more appealing .
And yet beginning in March and at an increasing pace throughout April , both metrics saw sizable declines ( see below ) .
This highlights both the overwhelming degree of uncertainty and the withdrawal of consumers , retail and institutional , from markets as the simultaneous and sudden destruction of both supply ( lockdowns forcing the shutdown of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lockdowns resulting both in mass layoffs and widespread sheltering at home , reducing both discretionary spending and overall consumption ) collided in the U.S. economy .
Yet not all sectors were damaged equally : business equipment and final products ( consumer goods ) took the biggest hit whereas the effect on mining , materials , and utilities ( capital goods ) was milder .
With respect to the IPI , between the months of February and April 2020 , though business equipment declined a staggering 29.3 % , the damage to the utilities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lost 8.9 % and materials 13.7 % .
What is most interesting and unique about this specific recession is that the lockdown impact created a significant ‘ kink ’ in both IPI and capacity utilization trends .
In fact , this sort of disjoint movement in Q2 2020 is vastly and visually different , and more importantly more severe , than even that of the Great Recession between 2007 and 2009 .
This comparison suggests that a simple , artificial economic slowdown imposed by government policy can have a broader , more devastating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over one decade ago : the greatest financial collapse in nearly one century .
So much for Wall Street and its alleged financial “ weapons of mass destruction : ” a seemingly innocuous , ‘ temporary ’ lockdown , even if successful in suppressing the daily case curve , will quickly permeate and destroy the economy in ways that even the riskiest derivatives couldn ’ t come close to .
Regarding the Value-Add of the Gross Domestic Product , although the aggregate U.S. GDP grew 3.4 % from Q1 2019 to Q1 2020 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Of 14 private industries tracked by the Bureau of Economic Analysis ( BEA ) , four declined .
While the agriculture , forestry , fishing , and hunting sectors enjoyed a 12.0 % growth within this period , the mining industry actually declined 20.3 % .
However , in Q2 2020 , net value-add/loss by sector became more grim .
Agriculture , forestry , fishing , and hunting sectors endured a 36.4 % loss of on its GDP value-add ( which is to say , those sectors ’ contributions to GDP decreased ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that same time period the mining sector continued its downward trend , losing 40.7 % of its value-add to GDP .
Despite that , the hardest hit sectors were the arts , entertainment , accommodation , and food services – unsurprisingly , due to the strict stay-at-home orders – which lost a staggering 91.5 % of contribution to GDP versus Q1 2020 .
This is particularly noteworthy considering the overwhelming predominance of small , thinly-capitalized and narrowly financed firms within these sectors .
Indeed , Yelp estimates that a staggering 61 % of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ result of lockdown policies .
The finance and insurance industry did well , increasing the value generated from Q1 2020 by 11.9 % – in no small part , likely , due to the ability of most financial industry employees to work from home .
Industry sales and inventory provide another angle to gauge both consumer spending habits and supply-side production .
Sales data is perhaps the most clearcut way of determining demand ; in a strong economy , sales ought to also be high .
Inventory is a signal of both supply @ @ @ @ @ @ @ production and inversely with sales .
Normally , in a recession , one would expect sales to decline , and with it inventories too , as businesses respond to the lack of latent demand , for all industries .
Yet , this recession is different in a major way ; although both inventories and sales stayed relatively constant upstream ( e.g .
in manufacturing and wholesale sectors ) , this was not the case downstream ( e.g .
retailers ) .
Regarding retailers , inventories tended to decrease significantly during the lockdown whereas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ slightly increased .
This phenomenon can be directly attributed to the lockdown .
ABCT and the Term Structure of Production An interesting contrast can be made between the Austrian Business Cycle Theory ( ABCT ) explanation of recessions and the “ artificial ” nature of the policy-driven lockdown recession .
To summarize , ABCT demonstrates that sustained periods of artificially low interest rates and credit creation lead to a distortion in the balance between savings and investment .
Lower rates drive borrowing and tend to lead to spending on capital goods ; which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ term structures of production that are used to produce other goods .
Examples of these are mining , resources , heavy manufacturing , financial markets , and other such goods which tend to be capital intensive and durable , used in the production of other goods .
Less affected by the credit expansion , typically , are consumer goods : those which are usually nondurable have no future use after production : food , clothing , and other nondurables typically intended for immediate or near-immediate consumption .
The shift to longer-term production processes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ end of the credit expansion , no further investments can be found which provide sufficient returns at the prevailing rates of interest .
A sharp contraction follows in which malinvestment is liquidated : a cluster of error realized , with firms filing for bankruptcy , projects being abandoned , and assets moving from overly extended concerns to more financially solid enterprises .
Unemployment tends to rise as well .
The classic case is depicted in the Great Recession ( 2007 – 2009 ) .
After years of progressively lower interest rates starting not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a credit bubble concentrated in mortgages , financial assets , and other sectors had grown , as demonstrated here in the Fed ’ s “ Changes in Monthly Industrial Production by Process Stage ” from x to y , the Crude/Processing stage – representing capital goods with the longest term structures of production fell the most when the credit bubble popped .
Other stages fell as well , but the degree of distortion driven by low rates and ease of credit is seen to be less severe as the term structure associated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The red periods in the following table depict that shift : Changes in Monthly Industrial Production Index by Process Stage ( 2007-2009 ) Whereas , in the present case , the deep and sudden recession ( and by some measures economic depression ) were caused not by the collapse of credit expansion but by policy-dictated business closures , a near total cessation of trade , and the immobilization of the population-at-large .
Sudden skyrocketing levels of unemployment fell immediately upon consumers and , with historically low savings rates the opposite pattern materialized ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fell the most , with less of an impact on progressively longer term structures of production as seen here in red : Changes in Monthly Industrial Production Index by Process Stage ( 2019-2020 ) Even broken down from the aggregate economic statistics into which they are usually combined , these disaggregated economic measures nevertheless gloss over the massive damage caused to the majority of firms that aren ’ t captured in government data : the Small Business Administration states that 99.7 % of all US businesses are small businesses ( less than 500 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American workers are employed by a small business .
State-enforced lockdowns create uncertainty , which impacts business investment , winnows savings , and destroys consumption at every point along the term structure of production .
With the additional factors of price volatility and reduction of resources ( e.g .
less retained earnings ) , business owners are likely to become more averse to risk and withdraw from the market , reducing their expenses ( reducing headcount and expenditures , cancelling planned investments , etc ) as well .
Lockdowns – a policy implementation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ – have essentially induced an artificial economic recession ( and by some measures , a depression ) .
Virtually every business concern , from the much-celebrated “ mom and pop ” shops to multinational corporations were at some point , and often at several , forced to contemplate and plan for the cessation of business activities , fully or in part .
The lockdown , imposed at various levels , has had a profound impact on every aspect of commerce .
Unlike models and other popular representations of business activity , the economy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be ‘ shut down ’ and ‘ restarted ’ at will ; many of the firms which have closed will never reopen , and for uncountable others reacquiring former levels of productivity will be a daunting task , if even possible .
So too will many of the unemployed see an inexorable change in the lifetime trajectory of their earnings and wealth .
Although the pandemic itself may have caused some degree of economic retrenchment , the U.S. policy response at all levels tended to emulate the policies of vastly less market–oriented economies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
U.S. states with brief or no lockdown measures ( e.g .
South Dakota and Nebraska ) experienced the smallest degrees of economic damage .
And predictably , in industries that are most sensitive to lockdown – small firms generally , where most job creation takes place ; service industries , which now dominate the US economy ; and more broadly any company with jobs that don ’ t readily convert to a work-from-home basis – the result is wanton destruction and loss .
Since January , AIER has been at the forefront @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ruinous government health initiatives .
Regrettably even as job growth is beginning to falter again there are calls to reimpose the coercive shutdown policies which have generated so much wreckage and dealt costs far beyond what can even be seen .
Join us .
Read and sign the Great Barrington Declaration .

The Devastating Economic Impact of Covid-19 Shutdowns
By: Amelia Janaskie & Peter C. Earle
To this point, the destruction caused by state and Federal Covid-19 lockdowns has largely been expressed in aggregates. Yet along the same line as a popular critique of Keynesianism, economic aggregates present a greatly truncated story by smoothing over minute but revealing evidence at lower levels. Looking at the policy impact on a smaller scale – regionally, and in terms of industries/sectors – exposes the impact of mandated shutdowns in greater detail.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, widespread lockdown restrictions were imposed, ostensibly to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed and medical resources from being consumed to exhaustion. Whether policymakers purposely or out of ignorance disregarded them, the tradeoffs of stay-at-home orders were immediate and severe: a massive spike in unemployment, rivaling the Great Depression; similarly historic drops in GDP, and others. By looking at disaggregated data, though, the devastation of lockdowns becomes all the more apparent.
Organization
We examined the US economy in the period leading up to the Covid-19 policy implementations in two ways: regionally and in terms of industries.
For our analysis, U.S. geographic regions are broken into the following areas: New England, Mideast (Midatlantic), Great Lakes, Plains, Southeast, Southwest, Rocky Mountain, and the Far West. These were compared using data on GDP, imports, exports, business formations, and unemployment.
In the second section, industries are grouped and analyzed in a two-fold manner, by specific sector, and by location on the vertical supply chain. The following metrics were used:
Industrial Production Index: This index (IPI) represents the output of industrial sectors, specifically: consumer goods, non-industrial supplies, materials, and mining. As an index, industrial production is measured against the baseline, which is that 2012 levels were set to 100, and subsequent years compared against it.
Capacity utilization: Capacity utilization (CU) is denoted as the percentage maximum potential output that is actually utilized. Functionally, this is
Sales/inventory: Sales figures represent, as a dollar figure, the operating revenue of goods sold or services rendered. Inventory is, as a dollar figure, the amount of product that has been produced and stored, but not yet sold. GDP Value-Add: This metric is the dollar amount that a certain sector/region has on the United States’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Change in employment: This value represents the number of jobs gained/lost in a particular measuring period compared with that of the preceding period. Although the lockdown clearly and incontrovertibly damaged industries in aggregate, the breakdown shows clearly that the effects were by no means universal.
GDP by Region
Needless to say the United States as a whole suffered economically from the lockdown measures; the degree of economic loss, however, varied widely between regions and their constituent states.
Gross Domestic Product measures the monetary value of all the finished goods and services in a given place and time.
Although NBER dated a recession as having begun during or just after February 2020, Q1 2020 GDP shows only small declines for each region. Yet with the start of the lockdowns, the Great Lakes saw the largest drop in seasonally adjusted annualized rate of GDP by 6.6% between Q4 2019 and Q1 2020. Within the Great Lakes, durable goods and manufacturing GDP contribution dropped furthest negative compared to other US regions: by -0.76% between Q4 2019 and Q1 2020.
Manufacturing is the region’s top industry as it serves as home to a disproportionate number of the top auto and aerospace companies: Ford, Chrysler, GM, Bombardier, Magna International, GE Aviation, and others. The Rocky Mountain region, comparatively, saw the smallest decrease in GDP of 2.8% from Q4 2019 to Q1 2020: that probably owes to its dominant industry, mining, being substantially distanced from the direct impact of lockdowns. It contracted by only 0.05% in Q1 2020.
Q2 2020 reveals massive damage among all regions, with Mideast GDP plummeting the most (34%) and Rocky Mountains the least (27.6%). Among Mideast states, New York’s GDP declined the most: 39.3%. This owes not only to the presence of manufacturing within the Empire State, but the singularly detrimental and long-lasting nature of lockdowns on New York City.
Yet compared against all other U.S. states, Hawaii and Nevada’s GDP plummeted the most: both by 42.2%. Hawaii and Nevada are both heavily dependent on the tourism industry, which in turn rely heavily upon the accommodation, recreation, and food service sectors. This was exacerbated by widespread flight and route cancellations among the major airlines (Delta cut flights by 85% in Q2) as well as suspended services to specific airports – one of which, notably, was Las Vegas McCarran International Airport.
Delaware’s GDP dropped the least of any U.S. state between Q1 and Q2 2020 with a decline of 21.9%. One explanation is the prevalence of financial, insurance, and other administrative jobs in Delaware, a large percentage of which can easily shift to a work from home basis.
Imports by Region
The Southwest, Great Lakes, and Rocky Mountains experienced traumatic shocks to imports between Q1 and Q2 2020. Within these regions, the greatest effects were experienced by Oklahoma (-29.85%), Michigan (-46.83%), and Hawaii (-63.98%).
A number of extremely uncommon events in the global oil industry as lockdown policies were being imposed exacerbated the declines in several of these areas. Oklahoma is part of the Permian Basin, and depends disproportionately upon the oil drilling and processing industries; Michigan depends, as previously mentioned, upon the automotive industry and other heavy manufacturing operations (which in turn is sensitive to trucking). Hawaii, as also mentioned, depends upon air and sea transportation.
One other state not included in these regions, Rhode Island, had a 46.83% drop in imports as well. The steep drop is due to less imports of passenger and commercial vehicles, gasoline, petroleum, and motorboats at the Providence, RI port.
As for best-performing states, New York saw imports vault by 61.93% between Q1 and Q2 2020; this, however, had everything to do with massive shipments of medical supplies to New York City and Long Island hospitals and medical facilities. (Despite an initial, taxing spike in novel coronavirus cases, the greatly feared torrent of desperately ill New Yorkers never materialized.)
Alongside New York State, Idaho’s state imports increased by 19.98% and South Dakota’s by 7.82% between Q1 and Q2 2020.
Exports by Region
State exports are comprised of goods and services leaving the state for both domestic and international destinations. The Great Lakes, Southwest, and Southeast U.S. regions saw the biggest drops in the number of exports; within those regions, Michigan, Texas, and South Carolina suffered the most. For each of those states, their major exports are derived from several of the sectors hardest hit by lockdowns: plummeting output in Michigan’s automotive industry; the extreme conditions which erupted in the oil sector roiled firms in Texas, described in further detail below; as was aircraft/aerospace production in South Carolina.
Conversely, the Rocky Mountain and New England regions experienced less of a decline in exports from April 2019 to April 2020 when compared to other regions despite all still having generally large negative impacts. Although not in these regions, the only state to see a slight increase in exports was Alaska. According to the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, the Anchorage Airport was the “busiest airport on the globe on some days over the past few months” of 2020 due to the reliance on US-Asia cargo trade.
Additionally, when comparing manufactured versus non-manufactured imports and exports, we can glean a few insights. The Mideast performed well for manufactured imports with a 15.73% increase over the previous quarter, but this is likely due to medical supplies shipped to New York. Non-manufactured imports, such as farm products or other raw materials, contain the lowest drops. The Great Lakes and Southwest, however, appear to have experienced the greatest blows to overall trade (imports and exports). The Great Lakes accounts for a large majority of US-Canada trade, which has been suppressed by lockdowns. The chart below details the percent change in manufactured and non-manufactured imports and exports between May 2019 and May 2020. Manufactured goods are products that were mechanically, chemically, or physically transformed, while non-manufactured refers to raw materials.
Imports, Exports, and the Oil Factor
In early spring 2020, Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and Saudi Arabia found themselves at an impasse, unable to agree upon production levels. Without delving into the minutia of their contention, Russia initiated a price war by entering into unlimited production of oil, driving world oil prices down. In an effort to maintain market share, Saudi Arabia and soon thereafter other OPEC nations “opened the spigots,” so to speak, flooding world markets with oil, sending prices on commodities, futures, forwards, and other markets plunging.
At this point, worldwide demand for oil was plunging due to lockdowns; in April of 2020 more people worldwide were under some form of lockdown than there were people on Earth at the end of World War II. A large portion of Americans were either at home, unemployed, or working from home; business and vacation travel evaporated.
The combination of nonexistent demand and skyrocketing supply led to a spectacle unseen in financial market history: on April 20, 2020, the May 2020 West Texas Intermediate futures contract plummeted 300% to close at -$37.63. The crude oil industry which had since the 1950s developed as an oligopoly (and thus only had to bear supply within predetermined, agreed-upon price ranges) overnight became a de facto free market, and storage disappeared. WTI crude oil, for a limited time, was not only “free,” but traders would pay $37 per barrel to buyers to take physical delivery as the glut filled tank farms and sea tankers.
At the intersection of historically low interest rates and high variable costs of extraction, transportation, refining, and marketing of each barrel, oil firms assumed copious amounts of debt throughout the post-9/11 era. A working assumption is that oil prices would stay above $30 or $40/bbl indefinitely, or at least near the long-term norm. With the colossal collapse in oil prices, many such firms were suddenly unable to service debt obligations.
In addition to the immediate damage of the lockdowns, CNN estimates that the second-order effects will result in 100 firms in the oil industry declaring bankruptcy in subsequent quarters. British Petroleum has already pledged to lay off 10,000 employees by the end of 2020 and Marathon Petroleum has announced that 12% of its staff will be laid off. Chesapeake Energy, long a Fortune 500 company, was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Oasis Petroleum, only a few years back trading at roughly $16 per share on NASDAQ, lost 90% of its value; it currently trades at 18 cents per share. Oil firms Noble Energy, Halliburton, Marathon Oil and Occidental Petroleum all lost over 2/3 of their value. Many more jobs, and the jobs that depend upon those, will likely be lost.
Business Applications by Region
Curiously, business applications have actually risen in some regions; notably in the Southeast where an increase of 14.90% between Q1 and Q2 2020 has occurred. The Great Lakes, Plains, Southwest, and Rocky Mountain regions have seen increases as well. The Mideast region evinced a decrease in business applications by 5.85% between Q1 and Q2 2020.
Some explanations for this heartening (if counterintuitive) spike include the following: delays in processing previously-submitted applications once lockdowns went into effect; opportunistic purchases of existing businesses; increased entrepreneurship in the wake of massive regional layoffs; a response to shifting demand in certain products and services owing to Covid-19 and/or the policy responses; or, most likely, some combination of all of the aforementioned.
Unemployment by Region
In April, the Great Lakes region experienced the highest levels of unemployment (18.24%) while the Plains region saw the lowest: 9.99%. Within the Great Lakes between March and April 2020, Michigan saw the greatest increase in unemployment rates (19.75%). Other Great Lakes states also significantly increased between March and April: Illinois by 12.95%, Indiana by 14.48%, Ohio by 11.82%, and Wisconsin by 10.5%. Michigan’s construction, manufacturing, and leisure and hospitality industries experienced the deepest impact.
In the Plains region, Nebraska and Minnesota’s unemployment rates increased to 8.7%. Overall, the highest unemployment rate in the US in April was in Nevada at an estimated 30%, with the leisure, recreation, and hospitality-intensive economies of Las Vegas and Reno utterly devastated through Q2 2020.
While some regions’ unemployment rates have been falling since their peak in April, several have stayed somewhat level; the Mideast, for example. It is likely that where small and service-oriented businesses are dominant (such as in New York City and certain cities in Florida and California), unemployment rates rose steadily as time drew on.
Overall, the Great Lakes and Southwest regions appear to be struggling the most in terms of imports and exports. As previously mentioned, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Texas rely to a large extent upon industries which are being hammered – manufacturing, auto, and petroleum. Further, though, the proximity of these states to Canada and Mexico (nations with whom trade also slowed to a near-standstill) also contributes to explaining the commercial decline.
Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
Although the lockdown has had a negative impact on all industries, the magnitude of the damage is not universal. In evaluating the disparity between respective impacts on various industries in the United States, we will use two sets of measures: industrial production & capacity utilization and sales & inventory. As previously noted, the Industrial Production Index (IPI) measures the supply of manufactured goods, and is therefore a strong predictor of GDP.
While the Industrial Production Index (IPI) measures the supply of industrial products, Capacity Utilization (CU) is a measure of demand for goods. Although influenced by consumer sentiment, both industrial production and capacity utilization are influenced by real interest rates.
On March 15, 2020, the Federal Reserve, in response to the coronavirus pandemic, cut the Fed Funds Rate to 0% and initiated a number of 2008-era liquidity programs, in addition to a $700B quantitative easing facility. With tremendous liquidity entering world money and financial markets one would expect both IPI and capacity utilization to increase commensurate with a reduction in the opportunity cost of saving, thus making investments in capital goods, expanded production capacity, and inventories more appealing. And yet beginning in March and at an increasing pace throughout April, both metrics saw sizable declines (see below).
This highlights both the overwhelming degree of uncertainty and the withdrawal of consumers, retail and institutional, from markets as the simultaneous and sudden destruction of both supply (lockdowns forcing the shutdown of plants, etc) and demand (lockdowns resulting both in mass layoffs and widespread sheltering at home, reducing both discretionary spending and overall consumption) collided in the U.S. economy.
Yet not all sectors were damaged equally: business equipment and final products (consumer goods) took the biggest hit whereas the effect on mining, materials, and utilities (capital goods) was milder. With respect to the IPI, between the months of February and April 2020, though business equipment declined a staggering 29.3%, the damage to the utilities sector was just 1.2%; mining lost 8.9% and materials 13.7%.
What is most interesting and unique about this specific recession is that the lockdown impact created a significant ‘kink’ in both IPI and capacity utilization trends. In fact, this sort of disjoint movement in Q2 2020 is vastly and visually different, and more importantly more severe, than even that of the Great Recession between 2007 and 2009. This comparison suggests that a simple, artificial economic slowdown imposed by government policy can have a broader, more devastating effect than what the US endured just over one decade ago: the greatest financial collapse in nearly one century.
So much for Wall Street and its alleged financial “weapons of mass destruction:” a seemingly innocuous, ‘temporary’ lockdown, even if successful in suppressing the daily case curve, will quickly permeate and destroy the economy in ways that even the riskiest derivatives couldn’t come close to.
Industrial Value-Add
Regarding the Value-Add of the Gross Domestic Product, although the aggregate U.S. GDP grew 3.4% from Q1 2019 to Q1 2020, not all industries saw growth.
Of 14 private industries tracked by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), four declined. While the agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting sectors enjoyed a 12.0% growth within this period, the mining industry actually declined 20.3%. However, in Q2 2020, net value-add/loss by sector became more grim. Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting sectors endured a 36.4% loss of on its GDP value-add (which is to say, those sectors’ contributions to GDP decreased) compared to the preceding period; in that same time period the mining sector continued its downward trend, losing 40.7% of its value-add to GDP.
Despite that, the hardest hit sectors were the arts, entertainment, accommodation, and food services – unsurprisingly, due to the strict stay-at-home orders – which lost a staggering 91.5% of contribution to GDP versus Q1 2020. This is particularly noteworthy considering the overwhelming predominance of small, thinly-capitalized and narrowly financed firms within these sectors. Indeed, Yelp estimates that a staggering 61% of restaurants will ultimately close permanently as a result of lockdown policies.
The finance and insurance industry did well, increasing the value generated from Q1 2020 by 11.9% – in no small part, likely, due to the ability of most financial industry employees to work from home.
Industrial Sales and Inventories
Industry sales and inventory provide another angle to gauge both consumer spending habits and supply-side production. Sales data is perhaps the most clearcut way of determining demand; in a strong economy, sales ought to also be high. Inventory is a signal of both supply and demand; it moves directly with production and inversely with sales. Normally, in a recession, one would expect sales to decline, and with it inventories too, as businesses respond to the lack of latent demand, for all industries. Yet, this recession is different in a major way; although both inventories and sales stayed relatively constant upstream (e.g. in manufacturing and wholesale sectors), this was not the case downstream (e.g. retailers). Regarding retailers, inventories tended to decrease significantly during the lockdown whereas sales had little movement, if not slightly increased. This phenomenon can be directly attributed to the lockdown.
ABCT and the Term Structure of Production
An interesting contrast can be made between the Austrian Business Cycle Theory (ABCT) explanation of recessions and the “artificial” nature of the policy-driven lockdown recession. To summarize, ABCT demonstrates that sustained periods of artificially low interest rates and credit creation lead to a distortion in the balance between savings and investment. Lower rates drive borrowing and tend to lead to spending on capital goods; which is to say, goods with longer term structures of production that are used to produce other goods. Examples of these are mining, resources, heavy manufacturing, financial markets, and other such goods which tend to be capital intensive and durable, used in the production of other goods. Less affected by the credit expansion, typically, are consumer goods: those which are usually nondurable have no future use after production: food, clothing, and other nondurables typically intended for immediate or near-immediate consumption.
The shift to longer-term production processes is ultimately unsustainable, and with the end of the credit expansion, no further investments can be found which provide sufficient returns at the prevailing rates of interest. A sharp contraction follows in which malinvestment is liquidated: a cluster of error realized, with firms filing for bankruptcy, projects being abandoned, and assets moving from overly extended concerns to more financially solid enterprises. Unemployment tends to rise as well.
The classic case is depicted in the Great Recession (2007 – 2009). After years of progressively lower interest rates starting not long after the dot-com bust and 9/11, a credit bubble concentrated in mortgages, financial assets, and other sectors had grown, as demonstrated here in the Fed’s “Changes in Monthly Industrial Production by Process Stage” from x to y, the Crude/Processing stage – representing capital goods with the longest term structures of production fell the most when the credit bubble popped. Other stages fell as well, but the degree of distortion driven by low rates and ease of credit is seen to be less severe as the term structure associated with the category of goods decreases. The red periods in the following table depict that shift:
Changes in Monthly Industrial Production Index by Process Stage (2007-2009)
Whereas, in the present case, the deep and sudden recession (and by some measures economic depression) were caused not by the collapse of credit expansion but by policy-dictated business closures, a near total cessation of trade, and the immobilization of the population-at-large. Sudden skyrocketing levels of unemployment fell immediately upon consumers and, with historically low savings rates the opposite pattern materialized (at least initially): consumer goods fell the most, with less of an impact on progressively longer term structures of production as seen here in red:
Changes in Monthly Industrial Production Index by Process Stage (2019-2020)
Conclusion
Even broken down from the aggregate economic statistics into which they are usually combined, these disaggregated economic measures nevertheless gloss over the massive damage caused to the majority of firms that aren’t captured in government data: the Small Business Administration states that 99.7% of all US businesses are small businesses (less than 500 employees) and that 48% of American workers are employed by a small business.
State-enforced lockdowns create uncertainty, which impacts business investment, winnows savings, and destroys consumption at every point along the term structure of production. With the additional factors of price volatility and reduction of resources (e.g. less retained earnings), business owners are likely to become more averse to risk and withdraw from the market, reducing their expenses (reducing headcount and expenditures, cancelling planned investments, etc) as well. Lockdowns – a policy implementation with virtually no precedent throughout American history – have essentially induced an artificial economic recession (and by some measures, a depression). Virtually every business concern, from the much-celebrated “mom and pop” shops to multinational corporations were at some point, and often at several, forced to contemplate and plan for the cessation of business activities, fully or in part.
The lockdown, imposed at various levels, has had a profound impact on every aspect of commerce. Unlike models and other popular representations of business activity, the economy is not a machine and cannot be ‘shut down’ and ‘restarted’ at will; many of the firms which have closed will never reopen, and for uncountable others reacquiring former levels of productivity will be a daunting task, if even possible. So too will many of the unemployed see an inexorable change in the lifetime trajectory of their earnings and wealth.
Although the pandemic itself may have caused some degree of economic retrenchment, the U.S. policy response at all levels tended to emulate the policies of vastly less market–oriented economies although far better examples were readily available. U.S. states with brief or no lockdown measures (e.g. South Dakota and Nebraska) experienced the smallest degrees of economic damage. And predictably, in industries that are most sensitive to lockdown – small firms generally, where most job creation takes place; service industries, which now dominate the US economy; and more broadly any company with jobs that don’t readily convert to a work-from-home basis – the result is wanton destruction and loss.
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Since January, AIER has been at the forefront of the intellectual battle against scientistic, ruinous government health initiatives. Regrettably even as job growth is beginning to falter again there are calls to reimpose the coercive shutdown policies which have generated so much wreckage and dealt costs far beyond what can even be seen.
Join us. Read and sign the Great Barrington Declaration.
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About the Author: Amelia Janaskie is an intern at the American Institute for Economic Research. She graduated from the College of Charleston Honors College in May 2020 with a B.S. in Economics and minor in English. During her time in college, she was a member of the Market Process Scholars with the Center for Public Choice and Market Process. •••• About the Author: Peter C. Earle is an economist and writer who joined AIER in 2018 and prior to that spent over 20 years as a trader and analyst in global financial markets on Wall Street. His research focuses on financial markets, monetary issues, and economic history. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, NPR, and in numerous other publications. Pete holds an MA in Applied Economics from American University, an MBA (Finance), and a BS in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point. Follow him on Twitter. •••• This article (The Devastating Economic Impact of Covid-19 Shutdowns) was originally created and published by AMERICAN INSTITUTE for ECONOMIC RESEARCH and is republished here with permission and attribution to the authors Amelia Janaskie & Peter C. Earle and aier.org. •••• •••• Stay tuned to …
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The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)
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thelibertybeacon--2020-10-10--Democrats ‘Planning a Coup’ if Trump Wins in November [Video]

by Ralph Ely | TLB Editor-at-large : The Dems and Far Left in America have a ‘ play book ’ written , published and ready to go for use with a Donald Trump 2020 Victory .
The bottom line/planned result is to make sure President Trump does not get a second go around in the Oval Office by hook or crook .
PERIOD !
!
!
If you have been just setting around waiting for “ things to get back to normal ” … It Ain ’ t Happening .
It is time for everyone to get off their butts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Electoral Process… be it City , County , State or Federal… and make sure it works .
This Country is BY THE PEOPLE , FOR THE PEOPLE .
We The People are in charge .
We are The Boss .
It is my job , it is your job , to make that fact known to anyone who would like us to think otherwise .
( TLB ) It ’ s now an open secret that if Donald Trump is declared winner on November 3rd , then the Democrats will be automatically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stated that if Trump wins , they will refuse to accept the results until all of the alleged postal votes are counted ( and recounted , and then recounted again ) , potentially delaying a result to the 2020 Presidential Election for weeks or months .
During this void of uncertainty , chaos could easily engulf the country .
At that point , anything could happen .
The whole idea for the partisan postal vote plot was initiated by Democrats and allied mainstream media who put out the idea this summer that in-person @ @ @ @ @ @ @ due to COVID-19 .
Therefore , Nancy Pelosi and other party leaders have been pressing hard for universal postal voting – all under the guise of the Coronavirus ‘ pandemic.
’ If this disruptive scenario is allowed to happen , then it ’ s very likely that the 2020 Election ( much like the 2000 Bush v Gore election ) will not be decided by voters , but rather by lawyers , or possibly the Supreme Court .
In addition to this , there is a second Democrat plan for a contingent election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the reins of control and decide the presidency in a close race .
This is a desperate outlying possibility and has never happened in modern history .
Recently , former Hillary Clinton adviser John Podesta has said that the military ‘ could be used ’ in order to deal with the ‘ national emergency ’ ( a problem they are busy engineering ) .
Also , Pelosi has already admitted she has been in contact with military over the subject of succession , stating recently that , “ But that is an ongoing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the military , quite frankly , in terms of the — some officials in the government.
” This means that there are now at least three Democrat plots afoot to try and remove President Trump from the White House .
Host Tucker Carlson speaks about some of the coup plots on the table in 2020 .
[ This video has been around since Sept 3rd , but is just as timely now as it was then . ]
Watch… ( TLB ) published this report from 21Wire with our appreciation for this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 21WIRE ’ S WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate , and for this we are grateful and excited !
But we must also be practical .
For 7 years we have not asked for any donations , and have built this project with our own funds as we grew .
We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent .
So we have just installed donation buttons on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this when you visit them .
Nothing is too small .
We thank you for all your support and your considerations … ( TLB ) Comment Policy : As a privately owned web site , we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam , advertising , vulgarity , threats of violence , racism , or personal/abusive attacks on other users .
This also applies to trolling , the use of more than one alias , or just intentional mischief .
Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or permanently banned without prior warning .
Disclaimer : TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner .
We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “ fair use ” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political , health , economic and social issues .
The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes .
If you wish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than “ fair use ” you must request permission from the copyright owner .

by Ralph Ely | TLB Editor-at-large : The Dems and Far Left in America have a ‘play book’ written, published and ready to go for use with a Donald Trump 2020 Victory. The bottom line/planned result is to make sure President Trump does not get a second go around in the Oval Office by hook or crook. PERIOD!!!
Twitter screen grab
If you have been just setting around waiting for “things to get back to normal”… It Ain’t Happening. It is time for everyone to get off their butts and get involved at all levels of the Electoral Process… be it City, County, State or Federal… and make sure it works. This Country is BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE. We The People are in charge. We are The Boss. It is my job, it is your job, to make that fact known to anyone who would like us to think otherwise. (TLB)
Democrats ‘Planning a Coup’ if Trump Wins in November
BY
It’s now an open secret that if Donald Trump is declared winner on November 3rd, then the Democrats will be automatically contesting the result. Party luminaries have stated that if Trump wins, they will refuse to accept the results until all of the alleged postal votes are counted (and recounted, and then recounted again), potentially delaying a result to the 2020 Presidential Election for weeks or months. During this void of uncertainty, chaos could easily engulf the country. At that point, anything could happen.
The whole idea for the partisan postal vote plot was initiated by Democrats and allied mainstream media who put out the idea this summer that in-person polls were no longer “safe” due to COVID-19. Therefore, Nancy Pelosi and other party leaders have been pressing hard for universal postal voting – all under the guise of the Coronavirus ‘pandemic.’ If this disruptive scenario is allowed to happen, then it’s very likely that the 2020 Election (much like the 2000 Bush v Gore election) will not be decided by voters, but rather by lawyers, or possibly the Supreme Court.
In addition to this, there is a second Democrat plan for a contingent election, where a Democrat-controlled House would seize the reins of control and decide the presidency in a close race. This is a desperate outlying possibility and has never happened in modern history.
Recently, former Hillary Clinton adviser John Podesta has said that the military ‘could be used’ in order to deal with the ‘national emergency’ (a problem they are busy engineering). Also, Pelosi has already admitted she has been in contact with military over the subject of succession, stating recently that, “But that is an ongoing, not with the White House but with the military, quite frankly, in terms of the — some officials in the government.”
This means that there are now at least three Democrat plots afoot to try and remove President Trump from the White House.
Host Tucker Carlson speaks about some of the coup plots on the table in 2020. [This video has been around since Sept 3rd, but is just as timely now as it was then.] Watch…
((https://youtu.be/XuTcW-67JLU
*********
(TLB) published this report from 21Wire with our appreciation for this most important perspective.
READ MORE 2020 ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Election 2020 Files
YOU CAN SUPPORT 21WIRE’S WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
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Stay tuned to …
••••
The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)
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Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.
••••
Disclaimer: TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.
••••
Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.


thelibertybeacon--2020-10-11--Documentary Series Explores Facts & Challenges of Vaccine Debate

Documentary Series Explores Facts and Challenges of the Vaccine Debate With mandatory vaccines on the horizon and health freedom hanging in the balance , people are more hungry than ever for the uncensored facts about vaccines .
“ The Truth About Vaccines 2020 ” is a 10-episode documentary series , launching Oct. 13 , that takes viewers on a profound and informative journey through the fact-based history and science of vaccines and the industry that has grown up around them .
The series features health freedom activists Ty and Charlene Bollinger , who bring together more than 60 of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weigh in on the most pressing issues surrounding the vaccine debate , including some of the known risks inherent in vaccines , and how special interests have shaped the modern vaccine debate .
New episodes address the censorship and suppression affecting our information stream , and include information on vaccine alternatives .
New titles include : “ WHO ’ s Not Telling the Truth ?
” and “ Vaccines 101 ( Vanquishing the ‘ Vaccinati ’ with Veracity ) .
” Register now to watch on Oct. 13 .
Watch the trailer here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ World Mercury Project on steroids !
TLB highly recommends you click on the image below , visit this great website , and do whatever you can to help see this vital forum succeed … for the sake of our children !
!
!
Sign up for free news and updates from Robert F. Kennedy , Jr. and the Children ’ s Health Defense .
CHD is planning many strategies , including legal , in an effort to defend the health of our children and obtain justice for those already injured .
Your support @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mission .
The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate , and for this we are grateful and excited !
But we must also be practical .
For 7 years we have not asked for any donations , and have built this project with our own funds as we grew .
We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent .
So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We thank you for all your support and your considerations … ( TLB ) Comment Policy : As a privately owned web site , we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam , advertising , vulgarity , threats of violence , racism , or personal/abusive attacks on other users .
This also applies to trolling , the use of more than one alias , or just intentional mischief .
Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators .
Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner .
We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “ fair use ” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political , health , economic and social issues .
The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes .
If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “ fair @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the copyright owner .

Documentary Series Explores Facts and Challenges of the Vaccine Debate
By Children’s Health Defense Team
With mandatory vaccines on the horizon and health freedom hanging in the balance, people are more hungry than ever for the uncensored facts about vaccines.
“The Truth About Vaccines 2020” is a 10-episode documentary series, launching Oct. 13, that takes viewers on a profound and informative journey through the fact-based history and science of vaccines and the industry that has grown up around them.
The series features health freedom activists Ty and Charlene Bollinger, who bring together more than 60 of the world’s foremost health experts to weigh in on the most pressing issues surrounding the vaccine debate, including some of the known risks inherent in vaccines, and how special interests have shaped the modern vaccine debate.
New episodes address the censorship and suppression affecting our information stream, and include information on vaccine alternatives. New titles include: “WHO’s Not Telling the Truth?” and “Vaccines 101 (Vanquishing the ‘Vaccinati’ with Veracity).”
Register now to watch on Oct. 13. Watch the trailer here:

••••
••••
TLB Editors Note: This is World Mercury Project on steroids! TLB highly recommends you click on the image below, visit this great website, and do whatever you can to help see this vital forum succeed … for the sake of our children !!! Sign up for free news and updates from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Children’s Health Defense. CHD is planning many strategies, including legal, in an effort to defend the health of our children and obtain justice for those already injured. Your support is essential to CHD’s successful mission.
••••
••••
Stay tuned to …
••••
The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)
••••
Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.
••••
Disclaimer: TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.
••••
Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.


thelibertybeacon--2020-10-11--High Treason in UK Destroys Democratic Governance Producing Totalitarianism

On the subject of MPs NOT doing their job in a representative democracy , as demonstrated by the massive non-participation in two recent key votes , here is something to ensure their continued mutism – a pay increase of over 3,000 pounds , rightly raising people ’ s hackles .
See this Daily Mail piece from yesterday , Fury as MPs get £3,300 pay rise to £85,291 while thousands lose jobs to Covid – as business minister Nadhim Zahawi says ‘ inappropriate ’ increase should go to charity .
The UK Column team has long been calling the UK Government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as forces behind it push through a nation-destroying agenda leading to technocratic fascism or ‘ rule by robot ’ .
Julian Rose outlines the development of this state of affairs below .
See this article for almost 300 MPs ( 292 ) not bothering to vote in a recent KEY Parliamentary vote ( September 30 ) to renew the notorious Coronavirus Bill , responsible for destroying civil liberties and employment in the UK : UK Column : Where were the Missing 300 MPs in Wednesday ’ s CV Vote ?
[ VIDEO ] @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there are 650 sitting MPs in the UK Parliament .
The arbitrary Rule of Six ( that no more than six people can get together ) was , just this past week , voted in with the entire segment of Labour party MPs abstaining .
See Labour abstained on rule of six as “ government has majority of 80.
” On what grounds ?
Appearing on the BBC ’ s Politics Live , shadow minister Stephen Doughty similarly explained : “ We support the rule of six .
They can get their own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same lobby as them at a particular time.
” The Labour leader confirmed that he did support the ‘ rule of six ’ , but added that those living in communities under local coronavirus restrictions are concerned about rising infection rates in their area .
( ER : Aren ’ t they more concerned about their jobs and inability to move around freely ? )
At Prime Minister ’ s Questions , Boris Johnson pressed Keir Starmer ( pictured ) on why Labour MPs abstained on the vote and whether the Labour @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was backed by 287 to 17 votes on Tuesday .
Labour has revealed that it abstained on the ‘ rule of six ’ vote in the House of Commons last night – despite supporting the Covid rule – because the government has an overwhelming 80-seat majority .
This line of reasoning is surreal .
The number of sitting Conservative MPs is 364 , with 201 for Labour – that ’ s a total of 565 MPs out of 650 .
Control is being exerted over these Labour MPs to muzzle dissent .
Reading @ @ @ @ @ @ @ above ) , it appears that not all Labour MPs agree with every decision being taken by the Labour leadership ( would ‘ dictatorship ’ be a better term ? )
nor do the Unions which back them .
It is clear that dissenting Labour MPs are being sidelined , as was evidenced over a controversial bill recently presented by the Conservative government to exempt serving British soldiers from criminal charges for torture and war crimes perpetrated overseas .
It seems that arguments are being orally presented in Parliament against proposed government bills @ @ @ @ @ @ @ muzzled when it comes to a vote .
My home country , the United Kingdom , once known for its promotion of libertarian causes , has been taken-over and its citizens utterly betrayed .
The last vestiges of parliamentary democracy have been buried , so that the Prime Minister , members of the Cabinet Office and senior civil servants can operate via ‘ rule by decree ’ , effectively taking over the levers of governance with little or no recourse to parliamentary debate or public consultation .
These are dangerous times .
This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ overnight , but has been steadily poisoning the arteries of government for decades .
It took the chimera of Covid-19 to act as the tailor-made alibi to enforce the final act of treason .
A move taken in the name of ‘ protecting the health and welfare of British citizens ’ “ against the biggest threat this country has faced in peace time history.
” ( Matt Hancock , Minister of Health ) .
In reality , ‘ the biggest threat in peace time history ’ is coming from the government itself .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ take-over by fake leaders ’ who have mastered the art of the lie .
The British media is fully complicit , ever ready to ram the fear doctrine down peoples ’ throats and abandon any attempt at investigative journalism .
It has been recognised by those with a keen eye that the UK has long since housed a devious seam of schematic criminality within its higher echelons of state , furtively open to selling the country to the highest bidder , or for favours of rank .
The corporation of the City of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of almost any tax evasion and money laundering exploit it is asked to undertake , provided the reward is not less than six figure .
For decades , plans have been honed to install a cabal within the halls of Westminster that would appear to be operating according to constitutional practice , but would actually wrest the reins of power away from the practice of public consultation and parliamentary debate .
With the advent of Tony Blair as Prime Minister in 1997 , this process was greatly speeded-up .
It exploited already existing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ collusion centred around the Bush family and the 9/11 trigger point for invasion of the Middle East .
Gordon Brown kept this line going throughout the financial crash , and with the arrival of David Cameron as Prime Minister , the seal was set for the publicly announced introduction of “ chaos ” as a leading policy position of the ruling Conservative party .
The ‘ chaos ’ from which a new ‘ order ’ can be imposed , neatly dressed-up as a saviour from the organised anarchy .
Ominously , and in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it failed to engender any significant kick-back from the electorate .
An electorate already seduced by the long standing deluge of half-truths and outright lies fed to it by a highly sophisticated and doctrinaire PR system , closely aligned with the secret service and leading media moguls .
So when Cameron announced that his government was going to introduce “ chaos ” into the management systems of the country , most simply ignored the pronouncement or wrote it off as typical ‘ politician ’ s craziness ’ .
But it was nothing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what it said .
Theresa May , next in line to take over from Cameron – who was ditched after having called the referendum on Brexit whose result went against many insider expectations – took the reins , having served in the Home Office and-up built close affiliations with MI5 .
May ’ s appointment coincided with Mark Carney ( pictured ) taking over as director of the Bank of England , a post carrying very significant powers to shape what is now called ‘ The Great Reset ’ .
By then ‘ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gullible minds as “ The biggest ever threat to the future of the planet , ” and Carney clearly demonstrated which way the cards were falling by brutally announcing that any business not conforming to the strictures of a united push for ‘ Zero Carbon ’ “ would be bankrupted ” .
The Green New Deal/Fourth Industrial Revolution – was looming large and Extinction Rebellion was assigned the role of conditioning young peoples ’ minds to become accustomed to living under a permanent pall of fear concerning Global Warming .
Fake green arguments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gore were now proclaimed by Greta Thunberg and most Green NGO ’ s ; all repeating – ad nauseam – the same siren-like mantra concerning the ‘ cataclysmic effects ’ of CO2 emissions .
Let us briefly remind ourselves : carbon is what enables plant life to grow and humans and animals to breathe the oxygen they emit .
‘ Zero Carbon ’ means zero life .
Scientific data reveals that the volume of anthropogenic CO2 in the upper atmosphere measures just 0.0379 % of total atmospheric components .
Weirdly , this percentage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the world ’ s population deemed to have died form CV-19 .
The masters of deception have managed to alter the direction of the entire planet based on evidence that reveals the presence of a distinctly minor atmospheric and human ailment – and sold it as a major disaster for mankind and the biosphere .
A piece of egregious spin never likely be surpassed .
In spite of the exceptionally high profile awarded to the CO2 hoax in the UK , its progress was thwarted by an equally high level of contradictions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fact that climate scientists at the University of East Anglia were caught fixing the emission figures .
Theresa May was ordered – by her hidden masters – to put her attention to getting the Brexit affair sorted , and public opinion was suitably divided on what this should mean in practice .
This division – pro and anti Brexit camps – eroded the cohesion of family life across the country by setting one segment of society against another , thus engendering a distraction from the rapid erosion of civil liberties and responsible statesmanship @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ever-watchful UK Column News noted , this was “ a Brexit without the exit ” , and while May scuttled to and fro to Brussels supposedly negotiating the exit , the cabal was actually engaged in the selling-off of the British military to the ‘ EU Defence Army ’ – answering the predominantly French and German call to build ‘ military union ’ and a rapid deployment force to provide for international hegemonic ambitions under the label of ‘ peace missions ’ .
This covert betrayal of the people of Great Britain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of nationhood itself , something that used to be called ‘ high treason ’ .
A country unable to defend its shores can not be described as an independent nation state , and Britain is rapidly approaching this state of demise .
The sense of abdication of statehood was heightened when , on December 19th 2019 , the Queen opened the new parliament not wearing her crown or any ceremonial clothes .
One could almost smell the betrayal in the air .
Queen Elizabeth ’ s 1953 Coronation Oath , in which she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ formal commitment to uphold various moral protocols , appeared to have been severed – at least symbolically .
Was this a barely disguised admission that the United Kingdom was no longer a nation state under the leadership of those committed to some form of democratic rule of law , or ‘ constitutional monarchy ’ as it is known in more formal terms ?
May was soon displaced .
The hidden cabal needed a Prime Minister of a different calibre to “ get Brexit done ” and take the country into uncharted territory where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ throne ’ leaving a parliamentary democracy and royal tradition to be sidelined into the annals of history .
Already the traditional non-partisan values of the civil service were being eroded as a more corporate influence started exerting itself .
What ’ s more , the head of the civil service , Sir Mark Sedwill , was also put in charge of national security and a number of other key posts , giving him large powers of leverage within the state control agenda of the day .
By the time Boris Johnson was selected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ base was already in place and an EU style bureaucrat was shaping the political course of the country , closely linked to a powerful Brussels based lobby of EU technocrats .
Ordinary members of parliament have found themselves taking an increasingly back seat with all key decision making taking place outside the halls of Westminster , in special meetings involving private ‘ advisors ’ , social engineering agencies , behavioural psychologist insight teams and a few senior cabinet ministers .
An almost complete shield has been formed between the general public and those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ members of the electorate to get an answer to questions concerning political decisions – is now met with complete silence .
I have personally sent formal letters to local authority leaders and parliamentarians on urgent concerns – and have been greeted with a stony silence .
Not even a note to confirm receipt of the letter .
Johnson , with his a fake Churchillian style of delivery , sports an exaggerated rhetoric that makes “ beating covid ” sound sound like an urgent call to arms in defence of the realm .
Ironic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ realm is being dismantled in front of his eyes and with his tacit agreement .
I never expected to witness my country of birth being taken-over by a government of occupation .
Powerful interests in the banking and corporate sector , tied-in with US and other international power brokers , have colluded with political leaders to usurp power while other supposedly ‘ responsible parties ’ have resorted to an eerie and arrogant silence .
A refusal to engage with humanity .
Covid-19 ’ s arrival on the scene was not by chance , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of draconian rules and regulations concerning its supposed containment – accompanied by intense media fear mongering – has simply capped the inescapable truth that a treasonous regime change is at hand .
A change that is laying the ground for the establishment of a New World Order under the title World Economic Forum ’ s planned ‘ Great Reset ’ .
A plan whose coordinated clamp-downs on human civil liberties are happening simultaneously in almost every country of the world , accompanied by the lauding of ‘ rule by robot ’ with its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what one might believe , this does not mean that all is lost for the British Isles : resistance is real and is growing .
Rising up through the enforced chaos are the seeds of a fresh vision of what constitutes genuine governance ; and it starts with ‘ self governance ’ .
The ability to overcome fear and nurture belief in one ’ s self as an agent of higher spiritual calling .
England will not die , the deeper , older spirit of the country will hold firm – and will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the sickly fake governance that has stultified their true expression for far too long .
A phoenix will rise from the ashes and overcome the present gross imposition of tyranny .
It will not be a purely national phoenix , but a joined-up pan-planetary unfolding of the wings of truth , justice and emancipation , in which all who hold reverence for life uppermost in their hearts and minds , will be in the vanguard .
No , it will not be a New World Order – it will be a True World @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pioneer of UK organic farming , writer , international activist , entrepreneur and teacher .
His latest book ‘ Overcoming the Robotic Mind – Why Humanity Must Come Through ’ is particularly prescient reading for this time : see www.julianrose.info Published to The Liberty Beacon from EuropeReloaded.com

On the subject of MPs NOT doing their job in a representative democracy , as demonstrated by the massive non-participation in two recent key votes, here is something to ensure their continued mutism – a pay increase of over 3,000 pounds, rightly raising people’s hackles. See this Daily Mail piece from yesterday, Fury as MPs get £3,300 pay rise to £85,291 while thousands lose jobs to Covid – as business minister Nadhim Zahawi says ‘inappropriate’ increase should go to charity .
The UK Column team has long been calling the UK Government a ‘government of occupation’, as forces behind it push through a nation-destroying agenda leading to technocratic fascism or ‘rule by robot’ . Julian Rose outlines the development of this state of affairs below.
See this article for almost 300 MPs (292) not bothering to vote in a recent KEY Parliamentary vote (September 30) to renew the notorious Coronavirus Bill, responsible for destroying civil liberties and employment in the UK: UK Column: Where were the Missing 300 MPs in Wednesday’s CV Vote? [VIDEO].
We need to remind ourselves that there are 650 sitting MPs in the UK Parliament.
The arbitrary Rule of Six (that no more than six people can get together) was, just this past week, voted in with the entire segment of Labour party MPs abstaining. See Labour abstained on rule of six as “government has majority of 80.” On what grounds?
Appearing on the BBC’s Politics Live, shadow minister Stephen Doughty similarly explained : “We support the rule of six. They can get their own legislation through without us trooping through exactly the same lobby as them at a particular time.”
The Labour leader confirmed that he did support the ‘rule of six’, but added that those living in communities under local coronavirus restrictions are concerned about rising infection rates in their area. (ER: Aren’t they more concerned about their jobs and inability to move around freely?)
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson pressed Keir Starmer (pictured) on why Labour MPs abstained on the vote and whether the Labour leader agreed with the rule, which was backed by 287 to 17 votes on Tuesday.
Labour has revealed that it abstained on the ‘rule of six’ vote in the House of Commons last night – despite supporting the Covid rule – because the government has an overwhelming 80-seat majority.
This line of reasoning is surreal.
The number of sitting Conservative MPs is 364, with 201 for Labour – that’s a total of 565 MPs out of 650.
Control is being exerted over these Labour MPs to muzzle dissent. Reading further through this article (quoted from above), it appears that not all Labour MPs agree with every decision being taken by the Labour leadership (would ‘dictatorship’ be a better term?) nor do the Unions which back them. It is clear that dissenting Labour MPs are being sidelined, as was evidenced over a controversial bill recently presented by the Conservative government to exempt serving British soldiers from criminal charges for torture and war crimes perpetrated overseas. It seems that arguments are being orally presented in Parliament against proposed government bills, but then Labour MPs are subsequently muzzled when it comes to a vote.
********
High Treason in UK Suffocates Democratic Governance The Treacherous Trail to Totalitarian Dictatorship
My home country, the United Kingdom, once known for its promotion of libertarian causes, has been taken-over and its citizens utterly betrayed. The last vestiges of parliamentary democracy have been buried, so that the Prime Minister, members of the Cabinet Office and senior civil servants can operate via ‘rule by decree’, effectively taking over the levers of governance with little or no recourse to parliamentary debate or public consultation. These are dangerous times.
This ‘putsch’ has not taken place overnight, but has been steadily poisoning the arteries of government for decades. It took the chimera of Covid-19 to act as the tailor-made alibi to enforce the final act of treason. A move taken in the name of ‘protecting the health and welfare of British citizens’ “against the biggest threat this country has faced in peace time history.” (Matt Hancock, Minister of Health).
In reality, ‘the biggest threat in peace time history’ is coming from the government itself. The threat of a despotic, totalitarian take-over by fake leaders’ who have mastered the art of the lie.
The British media is fully complicit, ever ready to ram the fear doctrine down peoples’ throats and abandon any attempt at investigative journalism.
It has been recognised by those with a keen eye that the UK has long since housed a devious seam of schematic criminality within its higher echelons of state, furtively open to selling the country to the highest bidder, or for favours of rank.
The corporation of the City of London leads the world in surreptitious arrangements of almost any tax evasion and money laundering exploit it is asked to undertake, provided the reward is not less than six figure.
For decades, plans have been honed to install a cabal within the halls of Westminster that would appear to be operating according to constitutional practice, but would actually wrest the reins of power away from the practice of public consultation and parliamentary debate.
With the advent of Tony Blair as Prime Minister in 1997, this process was greatly speeded-up. It exploited already existing strong links to international criminal syndicates and collusion centred around the Bush family and the 9/11 trigger point for invasion of the Middle East. Gordon Brown kept this line going throughout the financial crash, and with the arrival of David Cameron as Prime Minister, the seal was set for the publicly announced introduction of “chaos” as a leading policy position of the ruling Conservative party.
The ‘chaos’ from which a new ‘order’ can be imposed, neatly dressed-up as a saviour from the organised anarchy.
Ominously, and in spite of the bizarreness of this announcement, it failed to engender any significant kick-back from the electorate. An electorate already seduced by the long standing deluge of half-truths and outright lies fed to it by a highly sophisticated and doctrinaire PR system, closely aligned with the secret service and leading media moguls.
So when Cameron announced that his government was going to introduce “chaos” into the management systems of the country, most simply ignored the pronouncement or wrote it off as typical ‘politician’s craziness’. But it was nothing of the kind – it meant exactly what it said.
Theresa May, next in line to take over from Cameron – who was ditched after having called the referendum on Brexit whose result went against many insider expectations – took the reins, having served in the Home Office and-up built close affiliations with MI5.
May’s appointment coincided with Mark Carney (pictured) taking over as director of the Bank of England, a post carrying very significant powers to shape what is now called ‘The Great Reset’.
By then ‘Global Warming’ had become entrenched in gullible minds as “The biggest ever threat to the future of the planet,” and Carney clearly demonstrated which way the cards were falling by brutally announcing that any business not conforming to the strictures of a united push for ‘Zero Carbon’ “would be bankrupted”.
The Green New Deal/Fourth Industrial Revolution – was looming large and Extinction Rebellion was assigned the role of conditioning young peoples’ minds to become accustomed to living under a permanent pall of fear concerning Global Warming. Fake green arguments emanating from the United Nations and Al Gore were now proclaimed by Greta Thunberg and most Green NGO’s; all repeating – ad nauseam – the same siren-like mantra concerning the ‘cataclysmic effects’ of CO2 emissions.
Let us briefly remind ourselves: carbon is what enables plant life to grow and humans and animals to breathe the oxygen they emit. ‘Zero Carbon’ means zero life. Scientific data reveals that the volume of anthropogenic CO2 in the upper atmosphere measures just 0.0379% of total atmospheric components. Weirdly, this percentage figure is almost identical to the percentage of the world’s population deemed to have died form CV-19. The masters of deception have managed to alter the direction of the entire planet based on evidence that reveals the presence of a distinctly minor atmospheric and human ailment – and sold it as a major disaster for mankind and the biosphere. A piece of egregious spin never likely be surpassed.
In spite of the exceptionally high profile awarded to the CO2 hoax in the UK, its progress was thwarted by an equally high level of contradictions inherent in its phony science and the fact that climate scientists at the University of East Anglia were caught fixing the emission figures.
Theresa May was ordered – by her hidden masters – to put her attention to getting the Brexit affair sorted, and public opinion was suitably divided on what this should mean in practice. This division – pro and anti Brexit camps – eroded the cohesion of family life across the country by setting one segment of society against another, thus engendering a distraction from the rapid erosion of civil liberties and responsible statesmanship going on behind the headlines.
As the ever-watchful UK Column News noted, this was “a Brexit without the exit”, and while May scuttled to and fro to Brussels supposedly negotiating the exit, the cabal was actually engaged in the selling-off of the British military to the ‘EU Defence Army’ – answering the predominantly French and German call to build ‘military union’ and a rapid deployment force to provide for international hegemonic ambitions under the label of ‘peace missions’.
This covert betrayal of the people of Great Britain has therefore been extended into a betrayal of nationhood itself, something that used to be called ‘high treason’. A country unable to defend its shores cannot be described as an independent nation state, and Britain is rapidly approaching this state of demise.
The sense of abdication of statehood was heightened when, on December 19th 2019, the Queen opened the new parliament not wearing her crown or any ceremonial clothes. One could almost smell the betrayal in the air. Queen Elizabeth’s 1953 Coronation Oath, in which she swears allegiance to the nation via a formal commitment to uphold various moral protocols, appeared to have been severed – at least symbolically. Was this a barely disguised admission that the United Kingdom was no longer a nation state under the leadership of those committed to some form of democratic rule of law, or ‘constitutional monarchy’ as it is known in more formal terms?
May was soon displaced. The hidden cabal needed a Prime Minister of a different calibre to “get Brexit done” and take the country into uncharted territory where a totalitarian technocracy could ‘occupy the throne’ leaving a parliamentary democracy and royal tradition to be sidelined into the annals of history.
Already the traditional non-partisan values of the civil service were being eroded as a more corporate influence started exerting itself. What’s more, the head of the civil service, Sir Mark Sedwill, was also put in charge of national security and a number of other key posts, giving him large powers of leverage within the state control agenda of the day.
By the time Boris Johnson was selected as Prime Minister, the new power base was already in place and an EU style bureaucrat was shaping the political course of the country, closely linked to a powerful Brussels based lobby of EU technocrats.
Ordinary members of parliament have found themselves taking an increasingly back seat with all key decision making taking place outside the halls of Westminster, in special meetings involving private ‘advisors’, social engineering agencies, behavioural psychologist insight teams and a few senior cabinet ministers. An almost complete shield has been formed between the general public and those running the country.
Any attempt by members of the electorate to get an answer to questions concerning political decisions – is now met with complete silence. I have personally sent formal letters to local authority leaders and parliamentarians on urgent concerns – and have been greeted with a stony silence. Not even a note to confirm receipt of the letter.
Johnson, with his a fake Churchillian style of delivery, sports an exaggerated rhetoric that makes “beating covid” sound sound like an urgent call to arms in defence of the realm. Ironic, when the actual defence of the realm is being dismantled in front of his eyes and with his tacit agreement.
I never expected to witness my country of birth being taken-over by a government of occupation. Powerful interests in the banking and corporate sector, tied-in with US and other international power brokers, have colluded with political leaders to usurp power while other supposedly ‘responsible parties’ have resorted to an eerie and arrogant silence. A refusal to engage with humanity.
Covid-19’s arrival on the scene was not by chance, and the criminal imposition of a plethora of draconian rules and regulations concerning its supposed containment – accompanied by intense media fear mongering – has simply capped the inescapable truth that a treasonous regime change is at hand. A change that is laying the ground for the establishment of a New World Order under the title World Economic Forum’s planned ‘Great Reset’.
A plan whose coordinated clamp-downs on human civil liberties are happening simultaneously in almost every country of the world, accompanied by the lauding of ‘rule by robot’ with its deeply sinister techno-fascist undertones.
Contrary to what one might believe, this does not mean that all is lost for the British Isles: resistance is real and is growing. Rising up through the enforced chaos are the seeds of a fresh vision of what constitutes genuine governance; and it starts with ‘self governance’. The ability to overcome fear and nurture belief in one’s self as an agent of higher spiritual calling.
England will not die, the deeper, older spirit of the country will hold firm – and will rise again – ridding these islands of the sickly fake governance that has stultified their true expression for far too long. A phoenix will rise from the ashes and overcome the present gross imposition of tyranny.
It will not be a purely national phoenix, but a joined-up pan-planetary unfolding of the wings of truth, justice and emancipation, in which all who hold reverence for life uppermost in their hearts and minds, will be in the vanguard.
No, it will not be a New World Order – it will be a True World Order.
************
Julian Rose is an early pioneer of UK organic farming, writer, international activist, entrepreneur and teacher. His latest book ‘Overcoming the Robotic Mind – Why Humanity Must Come Through’ is particularly prescient reading for this time: see www.julianrose.info
Published to The Liberty Beacon from EuropeReloaded.com