President Biden’s top spokesperson was accused of lying on Wednesday in a tweet touting “0% inflation in July” — even as federal data indicated that the consumer price index rose by 8.5% year over year.
“We just received news that our economy had 0% inflation in July,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted on Wednesday.
“While the price of some things went up, the price of others, like gas, clothing, and more, dropped.”
Jean-Pierre also hailed the dip in gasoline prices, which she called “the fastest in a decade” which was “saving American families with two cars $106 per month on average.”
In the same tweet thread, Jean-Pierre wrote that “real wages went up for the first time in almost a year.” She also urged the House to pass the Inflation Reduction Act “as soon as possible” in order to “lower health care, prescription drug, and energy costs.”
But Twitter users pushed back against Jean-Pierre’s claims.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre toed the administration line that the country saw “0% inflation in July.”REUTERSTwitter users pushed back on Jean-Pierre’s tweets on Wednesday.
“Great. No need for the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ anymore…” tweeted Yossi Gestetner.
Another Twitter user, Kevin Dalton, posted a link to a news article indicating that inflation was 8.5% in July, writing: “Other than the complete lie you just told, I totally believe you…”
Joel Griffith, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, posted a tweet showing the increased prices of key goods.
“Inflation this past year of 8.5% is near a 40-yr high,” he noted.
The rate of inflation was 8.5% in July — hovering around record levels not seen in four decades.
Supporters of the administration, however, tried to clarify Jean-Pierre’s tweet. One noted that the press secretary meant that “inflation over the last month has been 0%” and that it “hasn’t increased in the past month.”
But another Twitter user responded: “You don’t compare inflation month to month. It is compared year to year. But you wouldn’t know that.”
Last month, Jean-Pierre was widely mocked for claiming that “we are stronger economically than we have been in history.”
Americans continue to be saddled with higher-than-usual food prices.Levine-Roberts/Sipa USA
She cited low unemployment as well as “more than 8.7 million new jobs created” — though critics noted that it was due to the end of pandemic-related lockdown measures and Americans returning en masse to the workforce after the vaccination drive.
The 8.5% rise in inflation last month was lower than the sharp, 9.1% increase in June, but still hovering at a high not seen since four decades ago.
Core inflation, which excludes food and gas prices, rose by 5.9% annually and by 0.3% compared to June.
Analysts said that a drop in demand has led to falling gas and energy prices, though that trend can easily reverse itself given volatile geopolitical conditions, including the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as possible hurricanes in the US.
As weddings make a comeback post-Covid and cost-of-living pressures bite, couples are getting savvy about that all-important thing – the engagement ring.
Before the pandemic, many women set their sights on the idea of the perfect ring, typically a big rock with an expensive price tag.
However, as couples look to break social norms and rein in spending, they are seeking an alternative.
Fake rings are making a comeback not just for fashion purposes but also to symbolize the promise of marriage as more people propose with them.
Jewelery company Sterling Forever posted a reel to Instagram explaining why more men and women are now proposing with fake rings.
The video outlined how more couples were jumping on the trend to avoid mistakes such as sizing issues and the receiver not liking the ring, as returning or exchanging it can be costly and difficult.
The reel concluded with the idea that once engaged, couples could go out and buy the perfect ring together.
While it may seem controversial, particularly for some unsatisfied receivers who were proposed to with a fake engagement ring, there’s plenty of support for the practice.
“I think this (idea) is so much better but honestly the fake ring could be like a ring pop or even a paper ring with a love note hidden in it, much cheaper and super cute,” one commenter said in response to the post .
Another replied: “I’d rather have a ‘fake’ and then we can save the money for something more important,”
And a third responded: “Why buy me an expensive engagement ring and an expensive wedding ring? Y’all see them (petrol) prices and the price for bread, just give me one ring.”
Other viewers of the video came up with their own suggestions as to why women may prefer fake rings over the real deal, including for practicality, for not losing an expensive ring and to avoid feeling guilty after a proposal “accident”.
“I feel like people also do it in case they lose it at the proposal sites, lots of them being at beaches or hiking spots,” one Instagram user suggested.
While the trend may be more popular now, some commenters said their parents used a similar approach in the past for personal reasons.
“My dad got my mom a garnet ring. It’s her favorite de ella and her birthstone de ella, with ‘will you marry me’ and the date engraved. They went shopping for her ring de ella together and I think it’s pretty. I always wanted to inherit it,” one young woman commented.
“My dad proposed to my mum with a minnie mouse ring so she wouldn’t feel pressured and I think it’s the cutest thing,” said another.
But not everyone saw the convenient nature of the fake ring trend, with some saying it goes against the purpose of an engagement ring as a symbol of everlasting commitment.
“If she doesn’t like the ring, she isn’t the one,” one commenter said.
“That’s stupid, a real man should know what his wife likes and what kind of jewelery she wears,” posted another.
“There’s no such thing as a fake engagement ring, there is only a fake stone,” a third said.
But a fake engagement ring isn’t necessarily a sign of lesser commitment, as some proposers purchase a ‘promise ring’ or cheaper alternative, with the goal of buying a better one that meets their partner’s wishes later on. Other fake rings are homemade.
No matter the ring choice, couples who have already jumped on the buying a ring together trend said the experience is one they highly recommend.
“Choosing the engagement ring together is a whole amazing experience and shows a very high level of commitment, that’s what me and my fiance did,” one commenter said.
Another said: “My fiance and I shopped for my ring together and it was the best thing ever. We fell in love with (the) ring together.”
The Senate parliamentarian on Saturday dealt a blow to Democrats’ plan for curbing drug prices but left the rest of their sprawling economic bill largely intact as party leaders prepared for the first votes on a package containing many of President Joe Biden’s top domestic goals.
Elizabeth MacDonough, the chamber’s nonpartisan rules arbitrator, said lawmakers must remove language imposing hefty penalties on drugmakers that increase their prices beyond inflation in the private insurance market. Those were the bill’s chief pricing protections for the roughly 180 million people whose health coverage comes from private insurance, either through work or bought on their own.
Other major provisions were left intact, including giving Medicare the power to negotiate what it pays for pharmaceuticals for its 64 million elderly recipients, a longtime goal for Democrats. Penalties on manufacturers for exceeding inflation would apply to drugs sold to Medicare, and there is a $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap on drug costs and free vaccines for Medicare beneficiaries.
Her rulings came as Democrats planned to begin Senate votes Saturday on their wide-ranging package addressing climate change, energy, health care costs, taxes and even deficit reduction. Party leaders have said they believe they have the unity they will need to move the legislation through the 50-50 Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris expected to cast votes to break ties, since all of the Republicans are expected to oppose the bill.
“This is a major win for the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said of the bill, which both parties are using in their election-year campaigns to assign blame for the worst period of inflation in four decades.
“At a time of seemingly impenetrable gridlock, the inflation reduction act will show the American people that when the moment demands it, Congress is still capable of taking big steps to solve big challenges,” Schumer said. “We will show the American people that, yes, we are capable of passing a historic climate package and rein in drug companies and make our tax code fairer.”
In response, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Democrats “are misreading the American people’s outrage as a mandate for yet another reckless taxing and spending spree.” He said Democrats “have already robbed American families once through inflation and now their solution is to rob American families yet a second time.”
Dropping penalties on drugmakers reduces incentives on pharmaceutical companies to restrain what they charge, increasing costs for patients.
Erasing that language will cut the $288 billion in 10-year savings that the Democrats’ overall drug curbs were estimated to generate — a reduction of perhaps tens of billions of dollars, analysts have said.
Schumer said MacDonough’s decision about the price cap for private insurance was “one unfortunate ruling.” But he said the surviving drug pricing language represented “a major victory for the American people” and that the overall bill “remains largely intact.”
The ruling followed a 10-day period that saw Democrats resurrect top components of Biden’s agenda that had seemed dead. In rapid-fire deals with Democrats’ two most unpredictable senators — first conservative Joe Manchin of West Virginia, then Arizona centrist Kyrsten Sinema — Schumer pieced together a broad package that, while a fraction of earlier, larger versions that Manchin derailed, would give the party an achievement against the backdrop of this fall’s congressional elections.
The parliamentarian also signed off on a fee on excess emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas contributor, from oil and gas drilling. She also let stand environmental grants to minority communities and other initiatives for reducing carbon emissions, said Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Thomas Carper, D-Del.
She approved a provision requiring union-scale wages to be paid if energy efficiency projects are to qualify for tax credits, and another that would limit electric vehicle tax credits to those cars and trucks assembled in the United States.
The overall measure faces unanimous Republican opposition. But assuming Democrats fight off a nonstop “vote-a-rama” of amendments — many designed by Republicans to derail the measure — they should be able to muscle the measure through the Senate.
The House is returning Friday to vote on the bill.
“What will vote-a-rama be like. It will be like hell,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said Friday of the approaching GOP amendments. He said that in supporting the Democratic bill, Manchin and Sinema “are empowering legislation that will make the average person’s life more difficult” by forcing up energy costs with tax increases and making it harder for companies to hire workers.
The bill offers spending and tax incentives for moving toward cleaner fuels and supporting coal with assistance for reducing carbon emissions. Expiring subsidies that help millions of people afford private insurance premiums would be extended for three years, and there is $4 billion to help Western states combat drought.
There would be a new 15% minimum tax on some corporations that earn over $1 billion annually but pay far less than the current 21% corporate tax. There would also be a 1% tax on companies that buy back their own stock, swapped in after Sinema refused to support higher taxes on private equity firm executives and hedge fund managers. The IRS budget would be pumped up to strengthen its tax collections.
While the bill’s final costs are still being determined, it overall would spend more than $300 billion over 10 years to slow climate change, which analysts say would be the country’s largest investment in that effort, and billions more on health care. It would raise more than $700 billion in taxes and from government drug cost savings, leaving about $300 billion for deficit reduction — a modest bite out of projected 10-year shortfalls of many trillions of dollars.
Democrats are using special procedures that would let them pass the measure without having to reach the 60-vote majority that legislation often needs in the Senate.
It is the parliamentarian’s job to decide whether parts of legislation must be dropped for violating those rules, which include a requirement that provisions be chiefly aimed at affecting the federal budget, not imposing new policy.
Slowly but surely, the story of the greatest rip-off in Aussie history is coming out. It’s not a great train robbery. Not a Sydney wealth management fraud. It is an investment boom that miraculously turned east Australian resources bounty into a pair of concrete boots for the broader economy.
This is the sorry tale of how foreign cartels stole Australian gas reserves and fed them to China while the local economy was starved of it.
It began during the GFC-period when advances in unconventional gas extraction (fracking, shale, coal seam etc) made huge reserves in Queensland viable for extraction. Three conglomerates of largely multinational firms built infrastructure systems across the east of the state to extract, pipe and freeze that gas for export.
They spent some $80 billion doing so, in a mad race that duplicated everything, over-invested in production and crashed the global gas price, forcing them to write off tens of billions on their investment.
Meanwhile, in poor little Australia, which actually owned the gas, the moment the export trains opened the price began to rise because there was not enough left over for locals.
The price rose from $4Gj relentlessly until we were paying $20Gj in 2017 – more for our own gas than our Asian customers.
Worse, because gas sets the marginal cost of electricity on the east coast, whenever its cost rises, power prices go mad as well, hugely multiplying the negative impacts on the economy.
The Turnbull government recognized the folly of this in 2017 and installed the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism (ADGSM). That crashed the gas price back under $10Gj, though it remained much higher than it had been traditionally.
But that was not the end of it. Whenever there has been cold weather, or coal or other outages in the power market, or international shortages, the gas cartel has popped up again to squeeze local prices higher.
This serial debacle most recently came to a head with the war in Ukraine and Russian sanctions which have left the world short of gas and Australian prices have gone to as high as $65Gj, the market has been suspended and electricity prices have been driven up by 600 per cent to boot.
This is a $50 billion gouge by the energy cartels that are effectively war-profiteering at every Australian’s expense. Soon, these price rises will deliver an extra 6 per cent CPI inflation, ensuring the RBA has to drive interest rates higher than many households can bear.
And for what? The gas cartel will not invest anymore. There’ll be no jobs created. Governments will receive no tax dividend owing to broken laws and the massive writedowns on the projects.
Indeed, this episode will be recounted by economic historians as the worst case of the “resources curse” ever. (It’s sometimes called Dutch Disease after the Netherlands’ broader economy suffered in the ’70s with the development of North Sea oil resources that lifted its currency and falling competitiveness hollowed out the industry.)
If Dutch Disease is a national cold, then Australian Disease is like an inoperable brain tumour. It has allowed miners to steal the resource, pay no tax, force scarcity pricing on the extractive nation, and raise the currency. All of which have already decimated industry, hobbled national income, and will soon begin to deflate household wealth as well.
how to fix it
The new Labor Government has been forced to confront this reality to some extent. Untenable energy prices have triggered a review of the Turnbull domestic reservation mechanism. This is all to the good, but what should it look like?
First, the reformed ADGSM must include a price trigger. As it stands, it is a volume measure that is too unwieldy to be effective. The ADGSM should automatically divert gas from export the moment the price goes over $7Gj. This is plenty high enough for the gas cartel to make money out of it. The reserves are quite cheap and since they’ve written off so much investment, the gas has become even cheaper on a cash basis.
The new ADGSM should apply to all three conglomerates. Although it is the Santos-led GLNG that has come to be most short of gas and openly lied about it, all three joint ventures knew what they were doing when they overinvested to leave Australia short of gas. Besides, as Bass Strait gas bleeds out, the shortage will only get worse and the future will require as much as 15 per cent of the gas currently exported to remain at home. That’s a burden best shared by all three projects.
A second option is to use export levies. If we set a baseline for profits at pre-Ukraine war prices around $7Gj, then levy the gas cartel for every export dollar above that price, then the local price of gas would collapse and Australians collect the war windfall instead of firms that have no right to it.
Third, we could install a super-profits tax on the cartel and recycle that revenue as energy subsidies for everybody else. That is a pretty clunky solution but it delivers the same end.
With any and all of these solutions, the cartel will scream “sovereign risk”. But so what? It was its mistakes that created this untenable situation. Australians should not have to pay for them.
Moreover, export gas contracts are renegotiated all the time. Just a few weeks ago, one member of the gas cartel, Shell, declared force majeur (that is undelivered but contracted gas) over something as trivial as a maritime labor dispute.
The larger truth is that the cartel is a risk to the sovereign and everyone within it.
When Finland recently unveiled the world’s first “sand battery”, there was speculation that Australian manufacturers would soon be rolling out their own versions, as they looked to burn less gas.
Key points:
Australia’s first commercial thermal energy storage system will be installed later this year
It will run on renewable electricity and help a pet food factory cut its use of gas, saving money and reducing emissions
Similar systems will be rolled out around the country in coming years, experts say
Now, a pet food factory in Wodonga has announced it’s doing just that.
The Mars Petcare facility, one of the largest pet-food makers in the country, will take delivery of a “graphite battery” later this year, as part of a trial to reduce emissions and ultimately save money.
From the outside, the orange container won’t look like much, but experts say the system’s installation is an important moment in the country’s clean energy transition, and such thermal energy storage (TES) facilities will become a common sight over the next decade.
“It will be the first major commercial application of thermal energy storage to displace gas in Australia, so it’s a big deal,” said Dominic Zaal, director of the Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute (ASTRI), which is funded through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
“It will be the first of many. Within 10 years this will be widespread.”
So, how does it work, and what can it be used for?
Water goes in, steam comes out
Like the Finnish sand battery, the Wodonga TES system purchases renewable electricity from the grid when it’s cheapest and converts this to heat through resistive heating (like an electric bar-heater).
This heat is then stored in the graphite blocks at temperatures of up to 900C.
The modular design can be scaled up. A single container has a capacity of about 3 megawatt-hours of thermal energy, which is equivalent to the amount of electrical energy stored by a large neighborhood chemical battery.
In practice, the battery is designed to be charged and discharged at the same time, which means that over the course of a day it can process up to 8MWh of thermal energy.
When heat is needed, water is run through pipes within the seacrate, and converted to high-pressure steam, at temperatures of 150-250C.
This heat is then used wherever it’s needed. In the case of the Wodonga factory, it will cook pet food.
The Wodonga factory is one of the largest pet food manufacturing sites in Australia.(Supplied: Mars Petcare)
The clean energy system will reduce the factory’s gas consumption by 20 per cent, said Paul Matuschka, its head of sustainability.
The system is scheduled to begin operation early next year, and more batteries may be installed.
“We’ve got a metric to be 100 per cent renewable from direct operations by 2040,” Mr Matuschka said.
The struggle to get off gas
About 16 per cent of Australia’s emissions are due to the burning of gas in industry for processes needing high temperatures (anything above 100C).
Cutting these emissions requires more than installing solar panels and batteries, as electricity on its own can’t generate high enough temperatures.
Heat pumps (the same technology used by reverse cycle air-conditioners), which can be powered by renewables, max out at about 100C.
TES is seen by many as the solution to this problem.
Mars Petcare Wodonga is a case in point: gas accounts for three-quarters of its energy consumption.
“Over 90 per cent of the natural gas usage is used for cooking,” Mr Matuschka said.
Without TES, the factory can’t get off gas, he said.
“We’re looking at thermal energy storage as a critical component to help us achieve getting to 100 per cent net zero from direct operations.”
Other large manufacturers investigating thermal storage
While the Wodonga project has been in the pipeline for more than two years, interest in TES has tracked the recent hike in gas prices.
Wholesale gas prices have more than doubled since last year, and are forecast to stay high in 2023.
The Wodonga TES system is being made by an Australian company, Graphite Energy, based at Lake Cargelligo in Central NSW.
The Australian company 1414 is also developing TES systems, using silicon instead of graphite or sand.(Supplied: 1414)
It’s seen sudden demand in recent months, said CEO Peter Lemmich.
“Now that we’ve seen these increases in price, there’s obviously an enormous amount of interest from people,” he said.
The price increase, he said, has “eliminated the green premium” for TES.
“So going green is no longer a cost impost to the business.”
ASTRI’s Dominic Zaal said he was currently advising some of the largest food and paper manufacturers in the country about TES systems and getting off gas.
“We’ve had interest for a good year or two but in the last three months, since Russia’s excursion into Ukraine… the imperative has been significant.”
“I’ve got at least 10 fairly large firms who are interested in this technology.”
Wodonga trial being watched closely
The time it takes for TES units to pay for themselves through gas savings depended on where a business was getting its electricity, Mr Zaal said.
If they’re buying from the grid, it might take 10 years, but if they’re generating their own it could take as little as five, he said.
“These systems are 30-year systems. Once paid back, it’s pretty much free,” he said.
Mars Petcare had calculated a payback period of 10-12 years, Mr Matushcka said.
Other businesses were closely watching the Wodonga factory trial, Graphite Energy’s Peter Lemmich said.
“Everyone that we speak to knows that this project is going ahead and they’re all sort of kind of sitting back going, let’s have a look at that.
“And if that does what you said it’s going to do, then, you know, we want to talk.”
China has branded Australia “laughable”, mocking the Government and former prime minister Scott Morrison in the wake of a “damning” gas report.
The comments were made as part of a scornful article published by the CCP-controlled Global Times.
The piece mocks a suggestion that Australia could step in and help with supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to European allies impacted by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
At the start of 2022, the then-prime minister Mr Morrison said his government was looking at options that would allow Australia to fill international demand for gas if Russia stops exporting to Europe.
“Awkwardly, some in Australia are now warning of a potential shortage in the country and urging to set aside gas for Australia’s own electricity network before selling to the rest of the world,” the Global Times article noted.
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On Monday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) gas inquiry 2017-2025 interim report warned businesses could shut down and there could be a record shortage of gas in the southern states next year unless something is done about the nation’s energy crisis.
The ACCC predicted a 56 petajoule shortfall in east coast gas supply by 2023, a figure it called a “significant risk to energy security” that was equivalent to 10 per cent of expected domestic demand.
China said the situation currently facing Australia was both “laughable and serious”.
“Laughable, because this reflects Australian officials’ overconfidence and arrogance in making empty promises it cannot deliver; serious, because a potential move could significantly affect already disrupted global energy supplies, given that Australia is known as one of the world’s top LNG exporters,” the newspaper noted.
Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has seen international demand for LNG soar, with Beijing claiming a decision from Australia to impose export restrictions could “hurt some of its European and Asian allies the most”.
The article blasted Mr Morrison for his “empty promises” for saying Australia will help its allies when they are in need.
“It is clear that a possible reduction in Australia’s LNG exports would further exacerbate the global energy crisis and push up prices, while increasing the energy anxiety in countries that used to see Australia as a reliable source of supplies,” the Global Times said.
“Some of its allies may also be annoyed by Australia’s inability to actually offer help in areas where it apparently has an advantage.”
The article noted that China has recently made efforts to diversify its energy imports following recent tensions with Australia, with Beijing last year signing new LNG contracts with the US instead.
However, the outlet assured readers that any decision by Australia would not “fundamentally undermine” China’s energy security.
Government reacts to ‘damning’ gas report
Australia’s Resources Minister Madeleine King branded the new ACCC report as “damning” of gas exporters after it found they were not engaging locally “in the spirit” of the heads of agreement.
“We remain concerned that some (liquefied) natural gas LNG exporters are not engaging with the domestic market in the spirit in which the heads of agreement was signed,” the report said.
“LNG producers will need to divert a significant proportion of their excess gas into the domestic market.”
Ms King said gas producers “know” the report is “damning for them”.
“The ACCC report is damning, no doubt about it,” she said.
“It sets out patterns and instances of behavior that are clearly not acceptable in an environment where we do have an international and domestic energy supply crisis.”
The ACCC described the outlook for 2023 as “very concerning” with gas prices likely to increase.
“The outlook for 2023 is very concerning and is likely to place further upward pressure on prices, which could result in some commercial and industry users no longer being able to operate,” the report said.
“It could also lead to demand having to be curtailed.”
This shortfall will mainly affect NSW, Victoria, South Australia, the ACT and Tasmania, where “resources have been diminishing for some time”, though Queensland may also be impacted.
