again, has impacted by staffing shortages and all the airline industry is struggling to recover. holiday shopping has gone to its highest levels in nearly 2 decades. but how is inflation playing a role? we'll discuss what the energy crisis continues across europe, where prices are expected to remain high. we'll take a look at how the ne to pipeline could provide some much needed relief and why officials are saying it is still months away from being approved. then 2021 comes to a close, re take a look at the progress crypto current these have made and what regulation we can expect in the coming year. we have a lot to cover, so let's get started. we leave the program with a travel nightmare that is still ongoing for many thousands of flights were cancelled on monday, bringing the total for the holiday weekend to more than $10000.00 flight cancellations around the world. now more than a quarter of those flights involved the u. s. where airlines across the board cancelled hundreds of flights, leaving thousands of passengers stranded southwest airlines put the blame on

a variety of weather, an air traffic congestion challenges. while delta united and jet blue noted increase in stopping shortages due to stick calls as the latest coban 19 variance spreads across the country. and while americans have been traveling for the holidays, they have also been shopping and vac holiday sales road that they're fastest rate in 17 years in november and december, marking an 8.5 percent increase compared to 2020 and a 10.7 percent increase from the previous demik days in 2019, according to data from mastercard. now if you're wondering where that increase came from. well, the leaning categories were clothing, jewelry and electronics department stores also side 21 percent increase in traffic compared to last year. as more americans returned to shopping in person, but while they were spending more, they were actually getting less in return as inflation years 40 year highs and

supply chain shortages continue to impact businesses and consumers. so what does this mean for the u. s. economy going into the new year? well, joining us now to discuss is john paul, dean of the miami, herbert business school doing quality. it's great to have you on the show today. now, what do you make of the latest data? i mean, it's expected that americans will spend more during the holidays, but how are we seeing inflation really play a role this season? thank you, rachel. of course 20. 21. consumers were determined to have a good holiday season, having been short changed in 2020. so there was some pen top demand evidence and gift buying behavior. in addition, cash was readily available. things to the government, handouts and credit was readily available as well. i think another point that drove the sales were the fact that the supply chain shortages and fear of further

price increases brought forward some buying that might have taken place later as opposed to earlier all of this meant, as you said, there was a very significant percentage increase in dollars retail sales this year over last year based on the mazda cod forecast. ready and i think what we're seeing is therefore a, a consolidation of this pen top demand, evident in the last 3 months the christmas season. but let's not forget, but a lot of that was not necessarily an increase in the quantity of goods purchased. it was a combination of price increases as well as quantity. absolutely, you may be getting the same things that you got last year, but now you're paying even more for them. and we also remember those reports from just a couple of months ago, warning that they were going to be supply shortages, encouraging more americans to buy. and it looks like they did just that. now

another topic we have been talking a lot about over the last year has been the fact that companies have been offering more in an effort to secure employees. but now we've seen those increasing wages sort of be cancelled out by the fact that prices are soaring all around. what say, you know, one well as we know around about 4 to 5000000 people who were working pre cove it or not yet back in the workforce and may in fact never come back to full time work . and as a result of that, there is definitely a what work a shortage in many industries and many geographies. and that of course is driving demands for additional wages. and we're seeing a large number of strikes across the united states by workers who put out a lot of effort during coven, to keep manufacturing plants running and field. now,

they should be rewarded for those those efforts. but the fact of the matter is that the, the wage inflation that we're seeing is not keeping pace with the price inflation, but rail wages are actually declining that level. but even those nominal wages go up. and one of the issues here is whether or not employers are willing to bake and permanent adjustments the base salaries in response to what the federal reserve has consistently advertised until recently as temporary price inflation. so many employers are trying to adjust through, offering more flexibility in terms of remote work off at june days as opposed to baking in additional salary increases. or there certainly is a lot to juggle there. and i, you mentioned the ongoing inflation. we've seen it really across the board for the prices we're paying at the grocery store, to commodity prices and of course to the markets which have continued to hit record

highs. now going into the next year is the expectation that those prices will actually drop down, or is it just expected that they will start going up? inflation is something that many retailers, many manufacturers actually welcome. because it's an opportunity to increase prices. at a time when consumers see the inflation, they expect the prices to inquiries. and so in some cases it's possible to if i may say, so get away with a price increase that is more than the cost increase that the vendor can justify from the increase in input prices that the vendor is having to pay to make the product. so in a sense, inflation feeds on itself because it encourages consumer expectations for

an incremental prices and it encourages the sellers to boost those prices and try to get away with it. the other thing that's always important to remember, rachel, is that prices take the elevator on the way up and they take the staircase on the way down. so one slows price increases are locked in. it's hard to unravel them even though if the underlying forces driving inflation ameliorate. yeah, that's a great analogy and it really does seem like sort of the never ending cycle. now finally, we've got less than a minute here, but what is the long term impact of what the was calling me has under this year? i mean, when looking at how the federal reserve has worked really prop markets and they're now solely pulling back on those policies. why should americans look out for in the new year? it's easy to say that the fed overshot and that the congressional stimulus

packages were greater than they needed to be. but if you go back to 2008, you know that that was a time when there was considerable concerned. not enough action had been taken swiftly enough to deal with the then financial crisis. so early on the side of caution through a great, a monetary and fiscal stimulus could well have been justified. the fact of the matter is though, that the fed has lingered long on the temporary inflation argument. of course, the chairman took that off the table a few weeks ago and it is indeed the case that the asset pricing program, the asset purchase program that the fed has been running, that's going to be accelerated and it's withdrawals for march. now, as opposed to june, i would never last expect to see the necessity of at least one if not 2

federal reserve rate increases in 2022 because a lot of the inflation that we are seeing today is not related to supply chain difficulties. it's related to the underlying amount of money in circulation. yes, certainly a lot of lessons that can be learned from this year. and to be notable to see what all the federal reserve does going into the next year. dean john, quality of the miami, herbert business school. thank you for your time. thank you. and europe continues to suffer amid record high gas prices and the lack of energy flowing into the region. but at the center of that energy crisis is a political debate over the newly constructed nordstrom to pipeline which aims to deliver supplies from russia to germany. now russian president says the north dream 2 is expected to help lower europe's energy prices. while deputy prime minister, alexander novak says that certification of the pipeline will likely not happen

until the middle of next year. so where will this energy crisis go from here and is this just the beginning of a very long winter in europe? joining me now to break this all down our boom bus co host an investigative journalist, been swan, and hillary ford, which president of straw mark l l. c. then let's start with you here. now you recently told us that germany's regulator had previously stated the certification of north street to would not happen in the 1st part of 2022. now, russia's deputy prime minister has agreed. so the biggest question here is why is it taking so long? well, apparently the process is a fairly lengthy process. in order to make this happen though, russia's deputy prime minister also said that the process could be a lot faster than they're making it. it seems like politics is tied up in a lot of business. some of it has to do with russia having to set up a corporation inside of germany and everything has to be run through that cooperation. but that can happen rather quickly. the fact that it wasn't already set up, it's kind of surprising to me,

but i think what we're really looking at here is you're looking at a regulator that is somewhat taking their time because there's a lot of concern about kind of the political angle of the sanctions that the united states is talking about imposing in january, there's going to be a boat here in the house, in the senate, essentially looking at possibly issuing sanctions against anyone associate with nor stream to including by the way, anyone who's involved in certifying the pipeline not just those building that operating, but if you certify it so, i think there's a lot of fear that's attached to this right now. one important point here, europe is in a horrible state right now in terms of the cost of energy right now. they badly need increased amounts of energy across that continent. and one thing that russia could possibly do, because it's happened before in germany, is they could begin to operate, they operate the pipeline without certification, they would have to pay a fine of about a $1000000.00 euros. but they would make far more than that. so there is a possibility that that could happen, though no, neither side of the german side of the russian side is indicating that could happen at this point. interesting. and i know it's one of the things were politicians may

argue back and forth. but when you start seeing those energy bills and they start skyrocketing then it becomes very, very serious and is definitely felt at home. now, hillary, speaking of those rising bills in the u. k alone energy bills could rise by as much as 50 percent because of this ongoing energy crisis, which is even being referred to as a national crisis. so why is there such hesitation to allow nordstrom to, to go into operation? well, pleasure to be back with you, rachel, as to pass that question. one part of course, is there point about the crisis? i mean, is absolutely darcy in the u. k. audrey i gallagher, or i'll defer to him, he's a chief executive officer and the deputy actually there of the arm u. k. retail energy group, energy u k. and his, as the energy crisis is industry crisis is worse than it's ever been. he said the industry has never been more vulnerable on energy bills in the u. k. at the moment that for consumers are expected actually to leap army to over their cap. um for

from 2000 pounds, that's up from 120200000 pounds. so i mean, this is really a terrible situation with soaring prices, so it's absolutely ghastly on the wholesale market. now to the 2nd part of your question, i mean in terms of the likelihood of them letting not stream to operate. well, this trust at her 1st our foreign ministers meeting on when she was in riga back in november. he written that article for the telegraph and then she was pictured are writing along and a tank are emulating margaret thatcher, who she models us of after. and she took a very strong stance there in riga. and she said, she warned that she thought that moscow was using this to exploit the position of european nations and very sad that if any of your nations become reliant on this of energy, i'm is going to become a real issue because russia would be making a strategic mistake. if it invaded the ukraine and she's warning, nato would step in. so the u. k is taking

a really hard line on this. i think one of the major issues too is, you know, we saw caught 26. we saw all these, you know, move, renewable energy, et cetera, except for the windmills. don't blow, don't, don't move when wind is blowing up, the renewable energy sources is aren't dependable. and so what's happened is the you european union in general, and the u. k. of may a big push to move to renewable, renewable energy sources. meanwhile, they forgot that right logy. so there's no stream pipeline. could you soul that, but they're taking a hard line in terms of sticking to what pup. 26 lay down. and this slide about nato. busy basically stepping in, if it goes into effect, all right, and we continue to hear those same warnings. but ben, what does it sound like when it comes from what russia is saying about the warnings? and does it seem as though there is sort of this big, massive danger from russia, from this pipeline as the united states seems to think that there is. well, i think the problem is, is when you look at what's being said about ukraine, right?

the whole idea here is that if russia stopped paying transit fees to move natural gas through pipelines across ukraine, that ukraine loses out on billions of dollars every single year, and so it makes them vulnerable. and so the u. s. and european allies in nato have to try to make sure that russia keeps paying this fee. but the problem is that russia does it need to pay the fee, even though they said they would, by the way, if they are pumping this gas under the baltic and all the way to germany. but here's the other thing. you know, a hillary brought up call 26. what's interesting about the cutaway 6 meeting from, for viewers who don't know this, this huge climate change meeting. and one of the things that cops when the 6 was all about was how do we save the planet, right? because every government around the world is obsessed with this idea that we're on the verge of do when it comes to climate change. and yet, the number one dirtiest form of energy in the world, which is coal manufacturing for energy right, is skyrocketing because natural gas is so expensive right now. so here's where it drives me crazy, right? is that you have these, these political viewpoints that say, well, russia so bad,

we have to stop in with every costs. and yet we have to save the planet. let's not get more natural gas and let's use coal power, the dirtiest form of energy because we're so afraid of russia, a just it none of what they say ever lines up with anything in reality and it's, they're constantly contradicting themselves. absolutely. and this politicians live again, james days page, or to we're going to have to leave it right there. unfortunately out of time. but invest benson and hillary ford, which has strong arc inking both so much for your insight time now for a quick break. but when we come back, we've seen crypto currency skyrocket in 2021. so what can we expect in the year to come? and we'll include new government regulations. we'll discuss next. and as we go to break here in at the close. aah!

with there is no such thing as unilateral security. all real security is always collected. this is precisely how russia abuse, endless western hostility and nato expansion. moscow is presented ways to avoid conflict, to the sure all secure is the west suite at the switch with a bad though it was just my william like he's a genius that with

water with issue machine that i did with no, i mean, unless you put that amount with power to so on. you with a national don't we stand together? we'll continue to stand together against russia. media in germany did a veterans that we thought this made a note with chunky dawson about their ability to influence other nations, french u. k. and even latin america and other countries in future then maybe they were to

high wrong cycle alone with members of your household, please, please, please, please. we are to continue to fight with russia must not be allowed in germany. i want to call and leave it to show up today in our innovation, the father of the yes, actually ended up in office. this was guns until sunday. a welcome back. around 2021. you had heard us talk about the state of crypto currency regularly here. on boom bus, as we watched the leading players hit record highs again and again. but with that success has also come increasing scrutiny from governments around the world. and back this year we saw china and india and out sweeping crackdowns on the use of

crypto currencies. while countries like the u. s. and australia looked for ways to introduce new regulations, there's all kinds of governments around the world are looking to roll out digital currencies of their own. now we were joined earlier by boom, best co host and crypto analyst, benson and christy i to discuss. and i started out by asking how this fight for control is likely to play out in the next year. so the site is definitely going to continue on and it's just going to continuously be pat and mouse game when government started clamping down on i seos our initial coin offerings, for example, saying that everything was a security then a few things happened. one companies just didn't offer these, i seos to us citizens anymore and instead moved their headquarters to places like zurich, or malta or i c o. where actually embraced or 2 companies just got. * a lot more clever and were like okay, we're not gonna do a nice yeah. we're gonna do an i e o, an initial exchange offering. and then when the us started clamping down on the

centralized exchanges that we're doing these i. e. oh, there were like, okay, let's move on. let's do an idea and initial decks offering and start moving, trading all centralized over to decentralized trading platforms such as uni sushi pancake, poke it out, penguin, etc. and then when those started getting pushed back, they were like, okay, you know what, we're gonna start, stop doing these ideas, ideas. we're gonna do air drops, now send and contributions, and you'll get air drop tokens. so really it's going to be a very interesting battle because you have some of the smartest and cleverest people in the world now facing some of the most antiquated regulators who don't know anything about tech trying to make sense of it. of course, there's always going to be a couple steps behind, not to say that this won't get annoying and tiring for the industry. it's annoying to keep on trying to find loopholes around these things when they should just be embraced because it's going to happen anyways. so next year we're definitely going to see more regulations attempting to control the spread of crypto. possibly some more backlash about these kinds of environmental concerns. but all in all,

i see it really benefiting the entire d fi ecosystem because it just forces the space to innovate faster. you know, saying that regulators are just a couple of steps behind. might even be generally appealed. like sometimes they're miles behind what is actually happening now, but how big of a role is this push for cbd? see, is playing in the response we're seeing from governments around the world right now . and can we expect that to continue over the next year? well yes them before we do that, christy was missing an analogy. she needed a good analogy to make that point. here's how i went with it. created analogy, i would say it's like a bunch of cave men trying to figure out how to stop astronauts. right. astronaut, they go into space, indicate the field on fire, but they think they're going to regulate the astronauts. that's essentially what it is. and by the way that fits into your question, not cbd, sees because look, bottom line is government around the world. they love what digital money looks like . they love the portability of it. they love the fact that the world has moved on from feel currencies. they just want to control it. and so whenever there is an

advancement astronauts come along and advancement in terms of science or technology or finance, the antiquated regulators get left behind. and part of the reason they get left behind is because they don't want to move on the regulators and the banks, like the system as it is, they don't want to change government, see that they're way behind. what they think is we'll just adopt the same technology and we'll create a centralized currency with it and will force everyone to use it. the problem is, is that you can't just force this, this round peg into a square hole, right? it doesn't work that way. crypto currency is portable and it's easily maneuverable and it's easily usable. why people around the world is banks. the un bank cbc, don't bank the on bank? they are the bank, they are the central bank. and so what you find is that cdc, in theory, digital currency, which all these governments want china one, some russia wants venezuela has them right now in the united states. ultimately does. one is own cdc, even though it keeps pretending that it doesn't, even though they wanted. they also want to rid it of all the things they don't like

about it, right? the freedom that's associated with the ability of people to trade, peer to peer, and not be tracked in every transaction they make. they hate that part of it. so you can't really have one without the other. and i think that's what, what central banks around the world are learning. and that's why we're seeing them with one hand trying to mimic crypto currencies. and with the other hand, with a club, they're trying to smash it. and now christie, to all of these points we've, we really talked about those very real privacy concerns related to digital currencies and the power they give governments, do you see crypto currency increasing in popularity? that is a traditional crypto currency, even more as those cbd cs become a reality. absolutely. i love an analogy about how they're trying to like, embrace it at the same time trying to smash it that it's so true and it's so hypocritical of them. but exactly, they're trying to make c b c's as the current these, but to been point the be these, these are not crypto currencies and they're literally the antithesis of it. they're no different than a digital representation of the current dollar. so it's going to come with the

exact same problems as the current us dollar has, which right now, namely is inflation. so i hope that when it comes to that, people are going to be smart enough to recognize about the bdc and not just fall for the convenience of a digital dollar. because that's why people use pay pal coin based crackin robin hood because they are super convenient and they're amazing smooth you why and user experience people actually enjoy using them. robin hood is addicting, but they all have the same problem as in their centralized and you're sacrificing your privacy and your control for the convenience. so i hope that people don't become super complacent and just accept a cbc rather than the real thing. and cbs, those will actually start driving people towards the adoption of crypto currency. i hope that's the case. yeah, there's certainly a lot of 6 there now been, i will give you the final word here. we know that even if the government is acting like a bunch of men still has an impact on the american people,

how do you see it rolling out in the next year? it will definitely has an impact on the american people. and it also affects the industry, right, because the bottom line is it doesn't matter how much of a case, man, you are the big enough club and you can smash anything. and i think that's what the us government is able to lean back onto as well as other governments around the world. they know that if they're big enough and strong enough and they are. and if you have a military behind you and a law enforcement arm behind you and they do, you can weaponized anything. and so i think that what we're seeing and we've seen to the latter part of 2021 really has been a reaction to unclear regulation and where everything goes from here. and you know, christy laid out in the beginning a great example of all different ways with i seos and i e l s t o and all these different tools that have been used to try to get around regulation or the latest one is enough. t's and is going to be very interesting to me to see how enough tease play into all this. i'm partial, i was find a way to random face back into it. okay, falling this end of the new year. boom. buzz, benson and christie. i thank you both for your time and,

and that's all for now. we'll see you next time. ah with for is your media reflection of reality in the world transformed what will make you feel safer? isolation for community. are you going the right way or are you being that somewhere? which direction? what is true? walk this way. in the world corrupted, you need to descend a join us in the depths or remain in the

shallows. for special gas today, the only in the legend there and mich fire sign, author of planet ponds, 8 match nice to see happy holidays, a became a test bed for medical and then later recreational marijuana. and it started with something so innocent as wanting to socialize. everybody does it. so i cannot and then it just keeps going and going and going. i'm just going to do it one. yeah. and then it's, i'm just going to try this one and then you never do it again because they want life. one customers want to know i'm right on inside. ok. and you surround yourself with people who are encouraging you to do it not to stop or it's all my life is

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a 4 year old child as accidentally pappas bright at angie maxine, much in germany, countries across europe rolled out harsh new anti code with civilian death, destruction and afghan whistleblower lift the lid of the matter of his drone program and the world roy's accounting hiding from a ton of bands spoke so out he's on a hood voice is project brand new episode is available in full on our website with russia's foreign minister actually who's going to trying to grab eastern european territories and debunk claims from the alliance of russian aggression and ukraine. and leading belgian engineers. this made as the government decides to shut

out all the nuclear reactors within 3 years, even though plants generate almost.