During today’s Senate Finance Committee hearing, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) questioned Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen about Social Security and the immediate cuts that take place in nine years if the current plan goes bankrupt. The confrontation was professional, but also very focused. WATCH:
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The House Oversight Committee released records today outlining how the Biden family was paid by a Chinese energy company [House Link Here]. The bank records indicate payments to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden; Joe Biden’s brother, James Biden; Joe Biden’s daughter-in-law, Hallie Biden, and an unknown “Biden;” likely the principal, “big guy”, Joe Biden himself.
WASHINGTON—Today, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability issued a memorandum revealing new evidence resulting from the investigation into the Biden family’s influence peddling and business schemes. Subpoenaed financial records show that from 2015 to 2017, Biden family members – Hunter Biden, James Biden, Hallie Biden, and an unknown “Biden” – and their companies collectively received $1.3 million in payments from accounts related to Rob Walker, a Biden family associate.
Notably, on March 1, 2017, less than two months after Vice President Joe Biden left public office, State Energy HK Limited, a Chinese company, wired $3 million to Rob Walker’s company. The next day, the company wired $1,065,000 to a company associated with James Gilliar, another Biden family associate. Afterwards, the Biden family received approximately $1,065,000 in payments over a three-month period in different bank accounts. From the bank records, it appears that the Biden family received approximately one-third of the money obtained from the China wire. (read more)
Before getting to the details of the Credit Suisse issue, it is worth taking a bigger geopolitical context to the dynamic. The initial backstop sought by Credit Suisse was from the Saudi National Bank; however, SNB Chairman Ammar Abdul Wahed Al Khudairy refused more lending {LINK}.
This is where we need to keep the BRICS -vs- WEF dynamic in mind and consider that ideologically there is a conflict between the current agenda of the ‘western financial system’ (climate change) and the traditional energy developers. This conflict has been playing out not only in the energy sector, but also the dynamic of support for Russia (an OPEC+ member) against the western sanction regime. Ultimately, supporting Russia’s battle against NATO encroachments.
Russia, Saudi Arabia and China are geopolitically aligned in interest against the western financial system. As a consequence, when western banks find themselves in need of capital and cash, there is a layered geopolitical dynamic in the background to Saudi refusal that must be considered.
With multiple western banks now in trouble, Credit Suisse is also exposed, and, like U.S. Treasury/Fed intervention in America, the Swiss central bank has stepped in to backstop the looming collapse.
In the big picture, we are seeing the ramifications of the ‘Build Back Better‘ agenda impacting the banking and finance sector which spearheaded it. I am not seeing this discussed anywhere, as the western governments of the collapsing banks are being forced to intervene.
For his opening monologue Wednesday night Fox News host Tucker Carlson revisited the status of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and the disconnect between Washington DC and American voters. WATCH:
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This is so far beyond hubris, the gaslight from where hubris emanates would take a year to reach it.
Joe Biden spikes the football on the Twitter claiming to have lessened inflation he created. [LINK]
I try not to hold negative sentiments, but I cannot help but loathe this man.
Senator Lindsey Graham (U-DC) is trying to get the Libyan band back together as part of the effort to escalate a NATO war against Russia. In the latest development, according to the U.S. version of events, Russia took down a Reaper drone over the Black Sea:
The MQ-9 Reaper drone was making a routine flight before it was intercepted by two Russian Su-27 fighter jets on Tuesday. The warplanes dumped jet fuel on the drone and flew in front of it in a “reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” according to a statement from U.S. European Command.
One of the Russian aircraft then struck the drone’s propeller, rendering it unflyable and prompting U.S. operators to ditch it in the Black Sea. (link)
The Russian version of events outlines something akin to Russian pilots throwing a Pepsi at it. As relayed by Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov:
[…] “I explained the position of the Russian Federation,” Antonov said. “I stressed that the American UAV that was moving deliberately and provocatively towards the Russian territory with its transponders turned off violated the boundaries of the temporary airspace regime established for the special military operation, which was communicated to all concerned users of international airspace in accordance with international norms.”
Knowing, not predicting – knowing – the Biden economic policies were going to create massive U.S. inflation in the years to follow, in 2021 I pinned a tweet thread to the top of my timeline on the CTH Twitter account that could be used as a reference. [You Can Read Here] Not a single month of statistical data has come in the past two years that was not entirely predictable. Today’s report from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) [DATA HERE] is no different.
Inflation is a measure of the change in a price. It is usually presented in terms of a percentage of change. When inflation starts to lessen, what that means is the rate of the price increase slows down. The price is still going up, but at a slower pace.
February prices overall increased 0.4% for the month, putting the current rate of annual inflation at 6.0%. Meaning prices (on aggregate) are 6% higher than this exact same time last year.
Meanwhile, wages increased 0.2% for the month, and hours worked dropped 0.3% [DATA]. Wages only rising by half the rate of prices, and hours worked dropping, means the net ‘real wages’ declined, yet again, by 0.4%.
Workers are going backwards.
The very real impact on the working class is getting worse. The blue collar team, who works for a living and does not take Instagram pictures of their lunches, are getting crushed in the Biden economy. The divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ is getting wider.
Put another way, Team MAGA, the entire continuum of normally apolitical working class, is watching the rust growing and feeling the worst part of the Biden economic outcome. I have often spoken in my immediate circle of influence with the phrase, “financial anxiety is a very real concern the closer you get to the laundromat,” and many people have no idea what that means.
The biggest BS statement of the day goes to CNBC with this sentence:
I challenge you to find a more encapsulating pile of horsepucky that represents the financial media era of great pretending. When I read stuff like this, I begin to think the next great eruption of a violent war is getting even closer, and this war will have nothing to do with nations.
Last week, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem broadcast a warning on the Tucker Carlson show about a bill that passed her State House and Senate that she was forced to veto because it changed the definition of money and banned non-govt-issued cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. {Broadcast Warning Here}
The bill stems from the generally innocuous Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), which Daniel Horowitz describes as, “a set of standards to facilitate interstate sales and commercial transactions such that all definitions pertaining to such commerce are uniform and clearly understood.” It looks like Horowitz was the first to transmit the public warning, as identified by two members of the South Dakota House Freedom Caucus, and then Kristi Noem became aware – thus the veto.
Governor Noem warned that the bill was already passing through several states, and if you look at the UCC Amendment tracking page [DATA HERE], she is correct. The states in green on the map below are states where the UCC revision bill has already been introduced.
As Daniel Horowitz notes in his initial warning dated March 2, 2023:
“The revisions to Article I are very clear now that Bitcoin will not be money, because even though the definition provides for electronic money … it says that an asset that is adopted by a government as its medium of exchange will not qualify as money … if the electronic asset, such as Bitcoin, existed before it was adopted by the government. So Bitcoin, of course, exists today; it existed before El Salvador adopted it as its currency … so it will never be money for UCC purposes. The same for other kinds of crypto currencies.” So there you have it. Officials clearly mean to pave the way for CBDC while explicitly barring all competition. (more)
The CNN panel was jaw-agape as Kevin O’Leary appeared earlier today to inform them the decision by Joe Biden to guarantee every deposit in U.S. regional banks is akin to “Joe Biden just nationalized the U.S. banking system.”
O’Leary is correct, and anyone who is holding assets like stocks or bonds in U.S. banks now needs to reconsider the disappeared line between government and the bank assets. If the government can assume, control and backstop every single account balance within the bank, the government can assume and control all activity of the bank. WATCH:
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Downstream…. think about the consequences. Remember the frozen bank accounts in Canada as a result of defining truck protest supporting Canadian citizens as domestic extremists?
Now think about the government no longer needing to ask the bank to take action, the govt has a regulatory ability to demand the bank to take action. This takes “debanking” to an entire new level. People are wondering why cryptocurrencies went up in value today. There’s your answer.
Comrade citizens, at the end of this rainbow of bank nudges, we will find ourselves at the footsteps of a government controlled central bank digital currency.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Moldova yesterday, wanting to express their opinion that NATO escalating hostilities against Russia is only going to mean further regional crisis, conflict and likely bloodshed.
There is a significant amount of support for Russia within the country of Moldova, but that presents a problem for the western alliance, specifically NATO, as the peace demand runs against their interests. As a result, Russia is blamed for inspiring the street protests against NATO escalation.
When the U.S. activates NGOs in European countries (Moldova, Hungary, Georgia) the media call it “spreading democracy.” However, when the people who live in the country organically rise up in the opposite direction against the government outcomes from the NGO pressure, the media call it “Russian interference.” NBC pushes the NATO message:
(Via NBC) – Police in Moldova said they foiled a plot by groups of Russia-backed actors who were trained to cause mass unrest during a Sunday protest against the country’s new pro-Western government.
The head of Moldova’s police, Viorel Cernauteanu, said in a news conference that an undercover agent had infiltrated groups of “diversionists,” some Russian citizens, who allegedly were promised $10,000 to organize “mass disorder” during the protest in the capital, Chisinau. Seven people were detained, he said.
Separately, police said they arrested 54 protesters, including 21 minors, who exhibited “questionable behavior” or were found to be carrying prohibited items, including at least one knife.