FOX NEWS
"Biden climate czar quietly met with flailing EV company dependent on taxpayer handouts"
Story by Joe Schoffstall, Thomas Catenacci
28 OCTOBER 2023
John Podesta, President Biden's clean energy czar, quietly assembled with the head of an electric vehicle (EV) company that relies heavily on taxpayer handouts and has floundered financially since its inception, White House visitor logs reviewed by Fox News Digital show.
According to the records, Podesta privately met with Rivian Automotive CEO Robert "RJ" Scaringe; the company's senior policy director, Chris Nevers; its senior public policy manager, Corey Ershow; and Izzy Klein, a lobbyist for the EV maker, at the White House in June.
It is unclear what Rivian officials discussed with Podesta, and both the company and the White House didn't respond to requests for comment.
"Well, Podesta has the largest slush fund, un-appropriated, probably in American history."
"As soon as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed, Biden and company announced it was actually an investment in green energy and yet it's not appropriated to anything," Daniel Turner, the executive director of Power the Future, told Fox News Digital.
"So, it makes sense that Rivian and other failing green energy companies are knocking on John Podesta's door."
"The problem is that it will be sold to the American people as investment, it will be sold to the American people as combating the climate crisis," Turner added.
"But it is just another example of corrupt government paying off people who fund their campaigns and deciding winners and losers when, at the end of the day, the real losers are the American people who are paying astronomical amounts for basic necessities because of this Biden economy."
Biden appointed Podesta in September 2022 to lead the White House Office of Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation.
Among its main tasks, Podesta's office has begun implementing programs in the IRA, Democrats' $739 billion climate and tax bill which enables the government to distribute more than $350 billion worth of loans and grants to green energy projects nationwide.
Department of Energy Inspector General Teri Donaldson warned during a Senate hearing last week that the IRA's unprecedented level of green energy funding brings "tremendous risk to the taxpayers" and was ripe for abuse and exploitation by foreign adversaries.
"You have massive amounts of money moving quickly," Donaldson said.
"All of these things happening at once create a level of risk that may, candidly, be unprecedented in terms of amounts of federal money moving in such a complicated landscape."
Meanwhile, Podesta's gathering with Rivian, which has gone unreported, occurred as the California-based company has hemorrhaged money on its zero-carbon vehicle production and turned to government entities for financial support in the form of credits and subsidies.
Financial filings reviewed by Fox News Digital show the company, which was founded in 2009, has lost billions of dollars since it went public in 2021.
In 2022, Rivian lost a staggering $6.8 billion; in 2021, it lost $4.7 billion; and in 2020, it shed another $1 billion, according to the filings.
And the company reported it produced 24,337 vehicles and delivered 20,332 vehicles last year, meaning the company lost $33,087 per car delivered over the course of the entire year.
Overall, Rivian's share price has nosedived more than 87% since its initial public offering in late 2021.
While the company continues to struggle financially, in recent years, it has continued to rake in considerable government subsidies, including a $49 million tax credit from Illinois to build a factory estimated to create 1,000 jobs over 10 years.
In late 2021, Georgia extended an incentive package that could reach as high as $1.5 billion to build a plant in the state.
The EV maker also enjoys considerable federal tax incentives.
The IRA, for example, extended a substantial $7,500 tax credit for EV buyers, a policy loudly supported by Rivian and clean energy interest groups.
And despite its issues, Rivian has secured partnerships with large corporations.
Amazon, for example, linked up with the automaker to produce 100,000 electric delivery vans by 2030.
The e-commerce giant recently announced it now has 10,000 of the vans on the road across the U.S. and Europe.
Rivian has also caught the eye of financial magnate George Soros, whose nonprofits have donated millions of dollars to the Podesta-founded Center for American Progress.
Soros is a notable investor in the company through his hedge funds.
"John Podesta spent years having his salary paid by the generous donations of George Soros, and now, as the gatekeeper of billions in IRA climate tax credits, he seems to be in a prime position to repay Mr. Soros for his many years of generosity by helping to bail out the single worst investment Soros has ever made," said the Capital Research Center's Parker Thayer, who discovered the meeting and alerted Fox News Digital.
Still, as part of his climate agenda, President Biden has routinely touted electric vehicle companies such as Rivian and Proterra, an electric bus maker, since taking office.
Proterra, like Rivian, has experienced negative financial performance and filed for bankruptcy in August.
"Since 2021, companies have announced investments totaling more than $200 billion in domestic manufacturing here in America, from iconic companies like GM and Ford building out new electric vehicle production; to Tesla, our nation’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer; to innovative younger companies like Rivian, building electric trucks, or Proterra, building electric buses, which I saw at a virtual tour last year when I met with the CEO virtually," Biden said during a speech last year.
"And they really impressed me."
Shortly after taking office, President Biden previously set a goal of ensuring 50% of all car purchases nationwide are zero-emissions by 2030.
Since then, his administration has issued a number of tailpipe and fuel efficiency regulations that consumer advocates argue will drive the price of traditional gas-powered cars higher.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... 2ac2&ei=29
On BIDE-O-NOMICS
Re: On BIDE-O-NOMICS
Bloomberg
"Slump in Big Purchases Clashes With Government’s Strong Consumer Data"
Story by Leslie Patton and Michael Sasso
28 OCTOBER 2023
(Bloomberg) -- Makers of refrigerators, boats and teeth straighteners say US consumers are shunning big-ticket items, defying the macro economic reports on spending.
Shoppers think long and hard before buying a motorized vehicle or washing machine, and they are increasingly reconsidering them.
That’s a bad sign for a US economy that has been kept afloat — and out of recession — by the willingness of Americans to keep spending despite high inflation and interest rates.
Take Whirlpool Corp., the maker of Maytag appliances.
The company said consumers continue to replace machines that break, but spending on new ones for renovations or new homes — what the company dubs discretionary purchases — has been weaker than expected, Chief Executive Officer Marc Bitzer said Thursday on a call with analysts.
The softening demand, which includes customers trading down to cheaper models, has sparked discounting across the industry.
Now promotions are back to pre-pandemic levels after waning the past three years because Covid-19 upended supply chains and limited production.
“Being back to a pre-Covid promotional environment is not surprising,” Bitzer said.
“However, we expected this to occur one or two quarters later.”
Getting orthodontics is also a highly considered purchase because it costs thousands of dollars and takes months to complete.
Joe Hogan, CEO of Align Technology Inc. told analysts Thursday that demand for its Invisalign brand of teeth straighteners was lower than expected.
Americans continue to spend on dental work for their children, but are pushing off teeth straightening for themselves, according to the company.
Hogan blamed a “more difficult macro environment than we experienced” in the first half of the year.
The softness in big-ticket items can also be seen at pharmaceutical companies.
At Abbvie Inc., sales of Botox missed estimates last quarter and other facial treatments, such as fillers, declined.
For Harley-Davidson Inc., higher borrowing rates hurt sales of motorcycles, which tumbled 15% in North America.
The company has rolled out generous new incentives to stimulate demand, but even then, sales were weak in the third quarter, according to dealerships and research from UBS Group AG.
‘Been a Challenge’
“It is clear that the macroeconomic backdrop has been a challenge,” CEO Jochen Zeitz said on Thursday during a call with analysts.
Inflationary pressures and high interest rates are making it harder for consumers to afford its vehicles, he said.
What these companies are saying counters economic data that continues to paint a rosy picture of the consumer economy.
Also on Thursday, the US reported that gross domestic product rose 4.9% in the third quarter, the biggest advance in nearly two years.
That growth was fueled by a 4% jump in personal spending, highlighted by big gains in car parts, luggage and sporting goods.
The results prompted Jefferies US economist Thomas Simons to say in a note that US consumers “went nuts” in the third quarter, which runs through September.
One explanation for the divergence is that Americans are souring on the future.
Polls show waning confidence in the economy.
There’s also the threat of a government shutdown and a wider war in the Middle East.
Plus, nearly three years of surging price increases, including one inflation reading hitting a four-month high on Friday, may finally be taking a bigger toll on their propensity to spend.
That looks to be the case in boating, another high-consideration sector.
Marine Products Corp., which makes Robalo boats, reported a 22% drop in revenue last quarter.
Brunswick Corp. had a 16% decline in its boat segment.
And revenue at Polaris Inc., maker of a wide range of snowmobiles, motorcycles and pontoon boats, fell 4% last quarter.
“Even though the talk of recession had come down, it’s kind of bounced up just a little bit,” Polaris CEO Michael Speetzen said this week on an earnings call.
“We do think consumers are going to continue to have a cautious mindset given everything that’s going on.”
--With assistance from Reade Pickert, Molly Smith, Gabrielle Coppola and Madison Muller.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/s ... 7707&ei=14
"Slump in Big Purchases Clashes With Government’s Strong Consumer Data"
Story by Leslie Patton and Michael Sasso
28 OCTOBER 2023
(Bloomberg) -- Makers of refrigerators, boats and teeth straighteners say US consumers are shunning big-ticket items, defying the macro economic reports on spending.
Shoppers think long and hard before buying a motorized vehicle or washing machine, and they are increasingly reconsidering them.
That’s a bad sign for a US economy that has been kept afloat — and out of recession — by the willingness of Americans to keep spending despite high inflation and interest rates.
Take Whirlpool Corp., the maker of Maytag appliances.
The company said consumers continue to replace machines that break, but spending on new ones for renovations or new homes — what the company dubs discretionary purchases — has been weaker than expected, Chief Executive Officer Marc Bitzer said Thursday on a call with analysts.
The softening demand, which includes customers trading down to cheaper models, has sparked discounting across the industry.
Now promotions are back to pre-pandemic levels after waning the past three years because Covid-19 upended supply chains and limited production.
“Being back to a pre-Covid promotional environment is not surprising,” Bitzer said.
“However, we expected this to occur one or two quarters later.”
Getting orthodontics is also a highly considered purchase because it costs thousands of dollars and takes months to complete.
Joe Hogan, CEO of Align Technology Inc. told analysts Thursday that demand for its Invisalign brand of teeth straighteners was lower than expected.
Americans continue to spend on dental work for their children, but are pushing off teeth straightening for themselves, according to the company.
Hogan blamed a “more difficult macro environment than we experienced” in the first half of the year.
The softness in big-ticket items can also be seen at pharmaceutical companies.
At Abbvie Inc., sales of Botox missed estimates last quarter and other facial treatments, such as fillers, declined.
For Harley-Davidson Inc., higher borrowing rates hurt sales of motorcycles, which tumbled 15% in North America.
The company has rolled out generous new incentives to stimulate demand, but even then, sales were weak in the third quarter, according to dealerships and research from UBS Group AG.
‘Been a Challenge’
“It is clear that the macroeconomic backdrop has been a challenge,” CEO Jochen Zeitz said on Thursday during a call with analysts.
Inflationary pressures and high interest rates are making it harder for consumers to afford its vehicles, he said.
What these companies are saying counters economic data that continues to paint a rosy picture of the consumer economy.
Also on Thursday, the US reported that gross domestic product rose 4.9% in the third quarter, the biggest advance in nearly two years.
That growth was fueled by a 4% jump in personal spending, highlighted by big gains in car parts, luggage and sporting goods.
The results prompted Jefferies US economist Thomas Simons to say in a note that US consumers “went nuts” in the third quarter, which runs through September.
One explanation for the divergence is that Americans are souring on the future.
Polls show waning confidence in the economy.
There’s also the threat of a government shutdown and a wider war in the Middle East.
Plus, nearly three years of surging price increases, including one inflation reading hitting a four-month high on Friday, may finally be taking a bigger toll on their propensity to spend.
That looks to be the case in boating, another high-consideration sector.
Marine Products Corp., which makes Robalo boats, reported a 22% drop in revenue last quarter.
Brunswick Corp. had a 16% decline in its boat segment.
And revenue at Polaris Inc., maker of a wide range of snowmobiles, motorcycles and pontoon boats, fell 4% last quarter.
“Even though the talk of recession had come down, it’s kind of bounced up just a little bit,” Polaris CEO Michael Speetzen said this week on an earnings call.
“We do think consumers are going to continue to have a cautious mindset given everything that’s going on.”
--With assistance from Reade Pickert, Molly Smith, Gabrielle Coppola and Madison Muller.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/s ... 7707&ei=14