Sagging Productivity Will Fuel Stagflation

For years businesses shouted they were seeing huge gains in productivity but the truth is that productivity can be difficult to measure. Before long, that will bring front and center the issue of how sagging productivity can help fuel stagflation. Covid-19 may shine a bit of light on this with many people now working at home, do not be surprised if companies are forced to ask, what are these employees really doing?

While it is easy to recognize places where huge gains are being made, productivity can suffer from something akin to the leaky bucket syndrome. I contend that over the last few years society, in general, has seen overall efficiency drop in many areas. This has been papered over by a slew of claims about how this and that are being handled much better.

The hype we hear often ignores the reality that many of the new systems touted as gains carry with them a lot of negatives. With the onslaught of computers and word processing the garbage in garbage out pipeline has exploded. This has resulted in a simple search for information dropping the person searching into a loop that circles back upon itself at the same time it renders little in the way of helpful information. The effect of this is evident in government, it is not uncommon for laws and bills flowing from Washington to run thousands of pages in length. In hindsight, while the old way of typing and copying was inefficient compared to modern methods, it did limit the number of pages a person could create.

The truth be told, many of us have wasted a full day or more on a machine that is malfunctioning or simply refuses to do our bidding. The idea we save time by not fixing something discounts the cost and waste created when we are forced to throw away an item that still has a great deal of useful value. Sometimes I have to wonder whether people will ever look up from their cell phones long enough to realize a lot of things are not working.

Saving a few dimes by outsourcing the payment of our local utility bills means those jobs no longer remain in our community. Also, getting answers takes longer for the consumer that ends up paying more in both time and effort. Public transportation based on tax-supported empty buses crisscrossing town on the half-hour does more damage to the environment than many of its supporters are willing to admit.

Another example is continuing to have the money-losing United States Postal Service rush to every mailing address in America six days a week delivering junk mail that people often don’t want. Industries have grown up around this so-called public service. Advertisers exploit this. Where I live, even our tax-funded entities such as the park department, public school system, and state university feed into the waste by putting out glossy notices and thick books touting all that they are offering as a “public service.”

The fact is in our current easy money economy a company’s value is often no longer being closely linked to productivity. Stock buybacks using low-cost loans and bonds have both led to driving the stock market higher. Still, this is more about how big companies often exhibit a lack of skin in the game mentality. This is also being fueled by employees that don’t expect to be with a company for very long in a society where many people move from company to company. These people seldom care if a job holds up over time or what happens after they move on.

In some ways, society has moved toward a nonchalant attitude towards companies that simply fail to impress. This can also be seen in non-profit concerns and quasi-government agencies, both seem to be having a difficult time finding good leaders to carry out their missions. The one thing most are able to do, however, is to pay these figureheads far more than they are worth.

The market may be a little bit soggy when it comes to the importance of productivity because so much of what the talking heads are focused on is tapering, tapering, and tapering. The recent flow of free easy money from the Fed has washed away much of the common sense of which Main Street was originally based. Having employees that are, productive, responsible, and knowledgeable has a great deal of merit.

The huge problem before us is that tapering is easier said than done and politically unpopular. QE has made the wealthy and powerful much richer and they “control the strings.” Risk can build slowly and while some people predict a massive deflationary cycle may happen in the future as defaults surge, it is just as likely inflation is being baked into the whole financial system. This makes stagflation the most probable scenario we face in the future.

Photo by Tamba Budiarsana from Pexels. Article cross-posted from Bruce’s blog.

The Dangers of Speaking the Truth Diminish If We Work Together

It’s becoming harder and harder for patriots to ignore the deep suppression of truth that’s happening in America today.

In all of my years in journalism, I have never received as many threats or been attacked by big companies like Google and Facebook as I have in 2021. I’d say that ever since we started covering widespread voter fraud, government-endorsed Pandemic Panic Theater, vaccine cover-ups, Critical Race Theory, and the various Neo-Marxist and Satanic agendas at play, I’ve been targeted more in months than the entirety of my life prior.

Speaking the truth is getting harder with so much censorship and suppression rampant. Prior to 2020, I was not a “conspiracy theorist” or an “anti-vaxxer,” but if there’s one thing the onslaught of exposed lies have taught us in the last 18 months, it’s that we cannot take what we’re told by the “arbiters of truth” at face value. There’s an agenda behind every message, a narrative driving every story, and a series of gigantic cover-ups designed to keep the masses in the dark.

This is why we’re building a network of news outlets that are willing to go against the narrative and expose the truth. We need help. We’re establishing strong partnerships with like-minded news outlets and courageous journalists. Even as Big Tech suppresses us, the honest messages they’re trying to quash are finding their way to the eyes and ears of patriots across the nation. With the help of new content partners like The Epoch Times and The Liberty Daily, we’re starting to see a real impact.

Our network is currently comprised of nine sites:

• NOQ Report
• Conservative Playlist
• Truth. Based. Media.
• Freedom First Network
• Based Underground
• Uncanceled News
• American Conservative Movement
• Conservative Playbook
• Our Gold Guy

Some of our content is spread across all of these sites. Other pieces of content are unique. We write most of what we post but we also draw from those willing to allow us to share their quality articles, videos, and podcasts. We collect the best content from fellow conservative sites that give us permission to republish them. We’re not ego-driven; I’d much rather post a properly attributed story written by experts like Dr. Joseph Mercola or Natural News than rewrite it like so many outlets like to do. We’re not here to take credit. We’re here to spread the truth.

I’ve said much of this before. From time to time I reframe this request for assistance by taking the most relevant message of the day and adjusting the story accordingly. We’ve discussed this network in previous articles. Now, it’s time to talk about help. First and foremost, we need financial assistance detailed below. But we could also use more writers who are willing to volunteer their thoughts for the sake of spreading the message. Those who are interested should contact me directly.

As far as money, we’re looking better than we have in the recent past, but we are currently experiencing a gap between revenue and expenses that cannot be overcome by click-ads and MyPillow promos alone (promo code “NOQ” by the way).

To overcome our revenue gap and keep these sites running, our needs fluctuate between $2200-$7800 per month. May, 2021, for example, was amazing and we almost broke even. June, revenue was sluggish at best and we had to make up a big difference out of our pockets. But we’re not just trying to get out of the red. If and when we start getting enough contributions to expand, we will do just that. Very few get into journalism to try to get rich and we’re definitely not among those who do. Our success is driven by spreading the truth, profitable or not.

The best way you can help us grow and continue to bring proper news and opinions to the people is by donating. We appreciate everything, whether a dollar or $10,000. Anything brings us closer to a point of stability when we can hire writers, editors, and support staff to make the America First message louder. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal or Bitcoin as well. Bitcoin: 3A1ELVhGgrwrypwTJhPwnaTVGmuqyQrMB8

Time is short. As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report and the other sites in the network going. Our promise is this: We will never sell out America. If that means we’re going to struggle for a while or even indefinitely, so be it. Integrity first. Truth first. America first.

Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker

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