Today’s News 11th March 2023

• Escobar: Moveable Multipolarity In Moscow – Ridin' The "Newcoin" Train
  Escobar: Moveable Multipolarity In Moscow – Ridin’ The “Newcoin” Train

  Authored by Pepe Escobar,

  The new currency should be able to become an “external money” storage of capital and reserves down the road, not just a settlement unit…

  

  Ah, the joys of the Big Circle Line (BKL, in Cyrillic): circumnavigating the whole of Moscow for 71 km and 31 stations: from Tekstilshchiki – in the old textile quarter – to Sokolniki – a suprematist/constructivist gallery (Malevich lives!); from Rizhskaya – with its gorgeous steel arches – to Maryina Roscha – with its 130 meter-long escalator.

  The BKL is like a living, breathin’, runnin’ metaphor of the capital of the multipolar world: a crash course in art, architecture, history, urban design, tech transportation, and of course “people to people’s exchanges”, to quote our Chinese New Silk Road friends.

  President Xi Jinping, by the way, will be ridin’ the BKL with President Putin when he comes to Moscow on March 21.

  So it’s no wonder that when a savvy investor at the top of global financial markets, with decades of experience, agreed to share some of his key insights on the global financial system, I proposed a ride on the BKL – and he immediately accepted it. Let’s call him Mr. S. Tzu. This is the minimally edited transcript of our moveable conversation.

  Thank you for finding the time to meet – in such a gorgeous setting. With the current market volatility, it must be hard for you to step away from the screens.

  S. Tzu: Yes, markets are currently very challenging. The last few months remind me of 2007-8, except instead of money-market funds and subprime mortgages, these days it is pipelines and government bond markets that blow up. We live in interesting times.

  The reason I reached out to you is to hear your insights on the “Bretton Woods 3” concept introduced by Zoltan Poszar. You’re definitely on top of it.

  S. Tzu: Thank you for getting straight to the point. There are very few opportunities to witness the emergence of a new global financial order, and we are living through one of those episodes. Since the 1970s, perhaps only the arrival of bitcoin just over fourteen years ago came close in terms of impact to what we are about to see in the next few years. And just as the timing of bitcoin was not a coincidence, the conditions for the current tectonic shifts in the world financial system have been brewing for decades. Zoltan’s insight that “after this war is over, ‘money’ will never be the same again…” was perfectly timed.

  Understanding “external money”

  You mentioned bitcoin. What was so revolutionary about it at the time?

  S. Tzu: If we leave aside the crypto side of things, the promise and the reason for bitcoin’s initial success was that bitcoin was an attempt to create “external” money (using Mr. Zoltan’s excellent terminology) that was not a liability of a Central Bank. One of the key features of this new unit was the limit of 21 million coins that could be mined, which resonated well with those who could see the problems of the current system. It sounds trivial today, but the idea that a modern monetary unit can exist without backing of any centralized authority, effectively becoming “external” money in digital form, was revolutionary in 2008. Needless to say, Euro government bond crisis, quantitative easing, and the recent global inflationary spiral only amplified the dissonance that many felt for decades. The credibility of the current “internal money” system (again, using Mr. Poszar’s elegant terminology) has been destroyed long before we got to the Central Bank reserve freezes and disruptive economic sanctions that are playing out currently. Unfortunately, there is no better way to destroy credibility of the system based on trust than to freeze and confiscate foreign currency reserves held in Central Bank custody accounts. The cognitive dissonance behind the creation of bitcoin was validated — the “internal money” system was fully weaponized in 2022. The implications are profound.

  Now we are getting to the nitty-gritty. As you know, Zoltan argues that a new “Bretton Woods 3” system will emerge at the next stage. What exactly does he mean by that?

  S. Tzu: I am also not clear on whether Mr. Poszar refers to the transformation of the current Western “internal money” system into something else, or whether he hints at the emergence of the “Bretton Woods 3” as an alternative, outside of the current financial system. I am convinced that a new iteration of the “external money” is unlikely to be successful in the West at this stage, due to the lack of political will and to the excessive government debt that has been building up for some time and grew exponentially in recent years.

  Before the current Western financial order can move to the next evolutionary stage, some of these outstanding liabilities need to be reduced in real terms. If history is any guide, it typically happens via default or inflation, or some combination of the two. What seems highly likely is that the Western governments will rely on financial repression in order to keep the boat afloat and to tackle the debt problem. I expect there will be many initiatives to increase control over the “internal money” system that will likely be increasingly unpopular. Introduction of CDBC’s, for example, could be one such initiative. There is no doubt in my mind that we are in for eventful times ahead in this respect. At the same time, it also seems inevitable at this stage that some sort of an alternative “external money” system will emerge that will compete with the current “internal money” global financial order.

  And why is that?

  S. Tzu: The global economy can no longer rely on the “internal money” system in its current weaponized state for all its trade, reserve, and investment needs. If sanctions and reserve freezes are the new instruments of regime change, every government out there must be thinking about alternatives to using someone else’s currency for trade and reserves. What is not obvious, however, is what the alternative to the current flawed global financial order should be. History does not have many examples of successful “external money” approaches that could not be reduced to some version of the gold standard. And there are many reasons why gold alone, or a currency fully convertible into gold, is too restrictive as a foundation of a modern monetary system.

  At the same time, recent increases in trade in local currencies unfortunately have a limited potential as well, as local currencies are simply a different instance of “internal money.” There are obvious reasons why many countries would not want to accept other’s local currencies (or even their own, for that matter) in exchange for exports. On that I fully agree with Michael Hudson. Since “internal money” is a liability of a country’s Central Bank, the lower the credit standing of the country, the more it needs investable capital, and the less willing other parties become to hold its liabilities. That is one of the reasons why a typical set of “structural reforms” that IMF demands, for example, is aimed at improving credit quality of the borrower government. “External money” is badly needed precisely by the countries and the governments that feel they are hostages to the IMF and to the current “internal money” financial system.

  Enter the “newcoin”

  A lot of experts seem to be looking into it. Sergey Glazyev, for instance.

  S. Tzu: Yes, there were some indications of that in recent publications. While I am not privy to these discussions, I certainly have been thinking how this alternative system could work as well. Mr. Pozsar’s concepts of “internal” and “external” money are a very important part of this discussion. However, the duality of these terms is misleading. Neither option is fully adequate for the problems that the new monetary unit – let’s call it “newcoin” for convenience – needs to solve.

  Please allow me to explain. With the weaponization of the current US dollar “internal money” system and a simultaneous escalation of sanctions, the world has effectively split into the “Global South” and the “Global North,” slightly more precise terms than East and West. What is important here, and what Mr. Pozsar immediately noticed, is that the supply chains and commodities are also getting weaponized to some extent. Friend-shoring is here to stay. The implication is that the newcoin’s first priority would be facilitating intra-South trade, without relying on currencies of the Global North.

  If this were the only objective, there would have been a choice of relatively simple solutions, ranging from using renminbi/yuan for trade, creating a new shared currency (fashioned after euro, ECU, or even Central African CFA franc), creating a new currency based on the basket of participating local currencies (similar to the SDR of IMF), potentially creating a new gold-pegged currency, or even pegging existing local currencies to gold. Unfortunately, history is full of examples of how each one of these approaches creates their own host of new problems.

  Of course, there are other parallel objectives for the new currency unit that neither of these possibilities can fully address. For example, I expect that all participants would hope that the new currency strengthens their sovereignty, not dilutes it. Next, the challenges with the Euro and previously gold standard demonstrated the broader problem with “fixed” exchange rates, especially if the initial “fix” was not optimal for some members of the currency zone. The problems only accumulate over time, until the rate is “re-fixed,” often through a violent devaluation. There needs to remain flexibility in adjusting relative competitiveness inside the Global South over time for participants to remain sovereign in their monetary decisions. Another requirement would be that the new currency needs to be “stable,” if it were to become successful unit of pricing for volatile things like commodities.

  Most importantly, the new currency should be able to become an “external money” storage of capital and reserves down the road, not just a settlement unit. In fact, my conviction that the new monetary unit will emerge comes primarily from the current lack of viable alternatives for reserves and investment outside of the compromised “internal money” financial system.

  So considering all these problems, what do you propose as a solution?

  S.  Tzu: First allow me to state the obvious: the technical solution to this problem is a lot easier to find than to arrive at the political consensus among the countries which might want to join the newcoin zone. However, the current need is so acute, in my opinion, that the required political compromises will be found in due course.

  That said, please allow me to introduce one such technical blueprint for the newcoin. Let me start by saying that it should be partially (I suggest a share of at least 40% of value) backed by gold, for reasons that will soon become clear. The remaining 60% of the newcoin would be composed of the basket of currencies of the participating countries. Gold would provide the “external money” anchor to the structure and the basket of currencies element would allow the participants to retain their sovereignty and monetary flexibility. There would clearly be a need to create a Central Bank for the newcoin, which would emit new currency. This Central Bank could become a counterparty to cross-swaps, as well as provide clearing functions for the system and enforce the regulations. Any country would be free to join the newcoin on several conditions.

  First, the candidate country needs to demonstrate that it has physical unencumbered gold in its domestic storage and pledge a certain amount in exchange for receiving corresponding amount of newcoin (using the 40% ratio mentioned above). Economic equivalent of this initial transaction would be a sale of the gold to the “gold pool” backing the newcoin in exchange for proportional amount of the newcoin backed by the pool. The actual legal form of this transaction is less important, as it is necessary simply to guarantee that the newcoin that is being emitted is always backed by at least 40% in gold. There is no need to even publicly disclose the gold reserves of each country, as long as all participants can be satisfied that sufficient reserves are always present. An annual joint audit and monitoring mechanism may be sufficient.

  Second, a candidate country would need to establish a gold price discovery mechanism in its domestic currency. Most likely, one of the participating precious metals exchanges would start physical gold trading in each of the local currencies. This would establish a fair cross-rate for the local currencies using “external money” mechanism to set and adjust them over time. The gold price of the local currencies would drive their value in the basket for the newly-emitted newcoins. Each country would remain sovereign and be free to emit as much of local currency as they choose to, but this would eventually adjust the share of their currency in the newcoin’s value. At the same time, a country would only be able to obtain additional newcoin from the central bank in exchange for a pledge of additional gold. The net result is that the value of each component of newcoin in gold terms would be transparent and fair, which would translate into the transparency of newcoin’s value as well.

  Finally, emissions or sales of newcoin by the central bank would be allowed only in exchange for gold for anyone outside the newcoin zone. In other words, the only two ways external parties can obtain large amounts of newcoin is either receiving it in exchange for physical gold or as a payment for goods and services provided. At the same time, the central bank would not be obliged to purchase newcoin in exchange for gold, removing the risk of the “run on the bank.”

  Correct me if I’m wrong: this proposal seems to anchor all trade inside the newcoin zone and all external trade to gold. In this case, what about the stability of newcoin? After all, gold has been volatile in the past.

  S. Tzu: I think what you are asking is what could be the impact if, for example, the dollar price of gold were to decline dramatically. In this case, as there would be no direct cross-rate between newcoin and the dollar, and as the central bank of the Global South would be only buying, not selling gold in exchange for newcoin, you can immediately see that arbitrage would be extremely difficult. As a result, the volatility of the currency basket expressed in newcoin (or gold) would be quite low. And this is exactly the intended positive impact of the “external money” anchoring of this new currency unit on trade and investment. Clearly, some key export commodities would be priced by the Global South in gold and newcoin only, making the “run on the bank” or speculative attacks on newcoin even less likely.

  Over time, if gold is undervalued in the Global North, it would gradually, or perhaps rapidly, gravitate to the Global South in exchange for exports or newcoin, which would not be a bad outcome for the “external money” system and accelerate the broad acceptance of newcoin as reserve currency. Importantly, as physical gold reserves are finite outside of the newcoin zone, the imbalances would inevitably correct themselves, as the Global South will remain a net exporter of key commodities.

  What you just said is packed with precious info. Perhaps we should revisit the whole thing in the near future and discuss the feedback to your ideas. Now we’ve arrived at Maryina Roscha, it’s time to get off!

  S. Tzu: It would be my pleasure to continue our dialogue. Looking forward to another loop!

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 23:40

• List Reveals US Cities With Most Ultra-High-Net Worth Homeowners
  List Reveals US Cities With Most Ultra-High-Net Worth Homeowners

  A new report by data firm Altrata revealed the top ten cities worldwide with the most homeowners worth at least $30 million, and six of them were located in the United States. At the very top of the list was New York City. 

  The report found 21,714 individuals classified as ultra-high-net-worth (worth at least $30 million) owned a primary or secondary residence in the Northeast metro area. 

  London and Hong Kong ranked second and third on the list. As for the rest of the US cities that made the list, they include:

  #4 Los Angeles

  #5 Miami 

  #6 San Francisco

  #9 Chicago 

  #10 Washington, DC

  Here’s the full list:

  

  The list is primarily dominated by US cities, with Aspen having the highest concentration of superrich residents. In fact, the ratio in Aspen is one in 67, making the density of superrich individuals in this Colorado mountain resort town 15 times greater than that of New York City.

  “These qualities offer considerable scope for wealthy individuals in search of a secondary home to stay in the country rather than look abroad,” the report said.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 23:20

• Florida RINO's Refuse To Amend Pro-Gun Bill In Defiance Of DeSantis
  Florida RINO’s Refuse To Amend Pro-Gun Bill In Defiance Of DeSantis

  Submitted by Gun Owners of America,

  The Republican supermajority in Florida is against legalizing open carry.

  Even after repeated statements in favor of the law change by Governor Ron DeSantis this week, the Republicans in Florida’s legislative branch don’t seem too keen on adding the legalization of open carry to their constitutional carry bill.

  To make matters worse, Republican leadership is openly dismissive of the idea of legalizing open carry, something that is legal in 47 other states. Only Florida, Illinois, and New York have total bans on open carry.

  GOA’s Florida State Director, Luis Valdes, brought the debate on open carry to the forefront this week when he asked Governor DeSantis if he would support adding open carry to the current constitutional carry bill, to which the Governor confirmed he would. 

  In the same statement, DeSantis expressed his doubt about the Republican Legislature legalizing open carry in the new bill, saying, “I don’t think they’re gonna do it.”

  DeSantis may be correct.

  When asked about open carry being added to the current bill, sponsor Chuck Brannan apathetically stated that the bill “is what it is as filed,” indicating that he has no intention of legalizing open carry. Senate President Kathleen Passidomo shared similar sentiments with Rep. Brannan.

  Thirty-six years after Janet Reno, as Miami-Dade County State Attorney, worked to pass a ban on open carry, Republicans are still working to defend this unconstitutional law.

  Now is the chance for Governor DeSantis to demand that the Republican Supermajority in Florida add open carry to the bill and finally remove Florida from the company of New York and Illinois on the issue of open carry.

  Gun Owners of America has been working diligently in Florida to not only pass Constitutional Carry, but get open carry added to the current bill. It’s time to pressure Republican leadership, and we need your help!

  Please call the Florida Legislature at (850) 717-5019 & (850) 487-5028 and let them know you want open carry added to the bill.

  *   *   *

  Gun Owners for America is the only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington. Join us! 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 23:00

• Jon Stewart Skewers Military-Industrial Complex: Lost Wars & 'Pentagon Got A Raise'
  Jon Stewart Skewers Military-Industrial Complex: Lost Wars & ‘Pentagon Got A Raise’

  In a rare interview Jon Stewart skewered the military-industrial complex and Washington policymakers behind the last two decades of failed wars in the Middle East.

  The well-known comedian pressed former US Army General and CIA Director David Petraeus in particular on the fact that repeat failures, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, have only led to the Pentagon receiving a “raise”. 

  “It looks to me like we lost 20 years in Afghanistan, 20 years in Iraq, and the Pentagon got a raise,” Stewart said on “The Problem with Jon Stewart.”

  Petraeus while on the defensive admitted that the decades of ‘nation-building’ in the Middle East “tempered enthusiasm” among the population for interventionist action abroad.

  But Stewart pressed him further on the constant record-breaking defense budgets of the past years and this year’s.

  “They got 50 billion more dollars than they even asked for,” he said in reference to the Defense Department getting approved for an additional $58 billion beyond what it even requested.

  Petraeus then claimed it is all necessary due to “a return of great power rivalries and the need to transform the force” – an particularly China. “Look, if we don’t do it, someone else will,” Petraeus said.

  Watch the tense exchange below:

  Has our military industry given us a complex? We ask Gen. David Petraeus. to talk about what, if anything, we have learned from our often cavalier approach to foreign policy. Watch the full interview in our latest episode, “The Military Industrial Excess,” on @appletvplus. pic.twitter.com/VONLIGyFyL

  — The Problem With Jon Stewart (@TheProblem) March 10, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 22:40

• These Are The US Cities With The Most Homeless People
  These Are The US Cities With The Most Homeless People

  Over half a million Americans are currently homeless.

  As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, after a period of progress and decline, the U.S. homeless population has increased slightly in 2020 and 2022, according to a report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The 2021 numbers were affected by shelters lowering capacity due to the Covid-19 pandemic during the count that takes places in the first month(s) of every year.

  It now stands at 582,462 individuals with two thirds living in shelters. While the number of sheltered individuals in 2022 approached the 2020 pre-pandemic level again, the increase in the nation’s homeless is primarily due to a rise in the unsheltered homeless population.

  

  Around half of all unsheltered homeless people in the U.S. are located in California. The rates of unsheltered homeless populations are also high in other states on the West Coast. Tent cities are common occurrences in these states, and this very visible symptom of homelessness has proven divisive, and while some cities have embraced designated areas for camping as a solution for unsheltered people, others have recently cracked down on encampments, for example Sacramento, San Jose and Oakland.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Half of the U.S. homeless population is scattered across the country’s 50 biggest cities and their surrounding areas. 22 percent of them live in just two cities – New York and Los Angeles. Despite its considerable homeless population, New York has a very low rate of unsheltered individuals: only 5.4 percent lived on the streets in early 2022, which is in part due to the two cities opposing climates.

  In California 67.3 percent of homeless people were listed as unsheltered at the same time.

  The CoCs for New York and Los Angeles – so-called Continuums of Care or local planning bodies coordinating the response to homelessness – saw around 62,000 and 65,000 homeless people in the early 2022 count. Other CoCs in the U.S. experiencing a high level of homelessness are Seattle/King County with around 13,3000 homeless people registered as part of the count, and San Jose and Santa Clara in California with more than 10,000.

  Out of the 10 CoCs with the biggest homeless populations registered in 2022, six were located in California.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 22:00

• Defendant Moves To Dismiss Jan. 6 Case Based On Newly Disclosed Footage, FBI Testimony
  Defendant Moves To Dismiss Jan. 6 Case Based On Newly Disclosed Footage, FBI Testimony

  Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A defendant in the Proud Boys trial over Jan. 6, 2021, charges moved March 9 to dismiss the case, after some footage from the day of the breach was shown for the first time.

  

  Dominic Pezzola is one of the Proud Boys members on trial for obstruction of an official proceeding and other charges. The newly disclosed footage, shown on Fox News this week, “is plainly exculpatory,” Pezzola’s lawyers said in the new motion.

  “It establishes that the Senate chamber was never violently breached, and—in fact—was treated respectfully by January 6 protestors,” they said.

  Among the clips Fox’s Tucker Carlson broadcast were moments where Jacob Chansley, another defendant who is serving a jail sentence after pleading guilty, was walking around accompanied by police officers. The officers did not stop Chansley and even tried opening doors for him. Chansley eventually made it into the Senate chamber, where he and others later knelt and prayed. Chansley, during the prayer, gave thanks to the officers for “letting us into the building.”

  Pezzola also entered the Capitol, and prosecutors have argued that he and others being inside forced Congress, which was certifying electoral votes from the 2020 election, to go into recess.

  The new footage, though, shows that members “could have continued proceedings,” Pezzola’s attorneys said. “It was not Pezzola or codefendants who caused the Congress to recess. Congress interrupted its own proceedings.”

  The lawyers are asking U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee overseeing the case, to dismiss it. If Kelly rejects that request, he is asked in the motion to declare a mistrial.

  

  Brady Violations

  Prosecutors must provide defendants with evidence that can be exculpatory, or help defendants prove their innocence. The rule was crystallized in Brady v. Maryland, a 1963 Supreme Court decision. “Suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused who has requested it violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution,” the decision states.

  Zachary Rehl, another Proud Boys defendant, requested all information regarding Congress going into recess on Jan. 6 as early as late 2021.

  “While Brady obligations do not extend to the entirety of the government, they do include investigative agencies or agencies closely related who knew or should have known that information would be material to a prosecution arising from their direct involvement. Here the U.S. Capitol Police are directly related and fully aware of the events of January 6, 2021,” lawyers for the defendants said.

  They cited previous court decisions, including one that found a prosecutor “has a duty to learn of any favorable evidence known to the others acting on the government’s behalf in the case, including the police.”

  “We will respond through the court,” a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia told The Epoch Times via email.

  The U.S. Capitol Police did not return a request for comment.

  Albert Watkins, who represented Chansley, said on Fox on Wednesday night that the footage the outlet aired this week had not been provided to him.

  “The government knew that Jake had walked around with all of these police officers. They had that video footage. I didn’t get it. It wasn’t disclosed to me. It wasn’t provided to me,” Watkins said. “They had a duty, an absolute duty, with zero discretion to provide it to me so I could share it with my client.”

  

  Justice Requires Dismissal: Motion

  Another development supports a dismissal, according to the new motion.

  FBI special agent Nicole Miller is being accused of hiding a tab in a spreadsheet that showed some of her emails.

  Miller was testifying on March 8 when Nick Smith, a lawyer representing Proud Boys member Ethan Nordean, revealed the secret tab, leaving over one thousand hidden Excel rows of messages, Nordean’s attorneys said in a separate filing.

  Miller said in one email that “my boss assigned me 338 items of evidence i have to destroy” and in another that colleagues should go into a confidential human source report and “edit out that I was present,” according to the filing.

  The hidden emails featured Miller “admitted fabricating evidence and following orders to destroy hundreds of items of evidence,” Pezzola’s lawyers said, adding, “If justice means anything, it requires this case to be dismissed.”

  The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.

  Erik Kenerson, an assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case, said in court Wednesday that even if there were missing messages, the defense could have asked the government to produce them. He said that prosecutors decide which messages to provide to the defense, so it was not appropriate to imply the agent hid them.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 21:40

• China Foresees End Of Ukraine War This Summer: Report
  China Foresees End Of Ukraine War This Summer: Report

  A fascinating new report in Nikkei Asia has unearthed and detailed the findings of an elite Chinese state-linked think tank which reports directly to the People’s Liberation Army. Nikkei in the context of examining the timing and motives behind China’s 12-point peace plan said that Chinese military experts are predicting the Russia-Ukraine war will end this summer.

  To review, the 12-point plan urged implementation of a ceasefire and the resumption of negotiations toward a permanent peaceful settlement, and was unveiled on the one-year Feb.24 anniversary of the war. But the Nikkei report asserts there’s specific rationale driving Beijing: “The reason for China’s sudden change can be traced back to a report issued two months earlier by a top think tank in Beijing.”

  “The Academy of Military Sciences [AMS] reports directly to the People’s Liberation Army,” Nikkei continues. “Although it cannot be found on a map, the institution is located in Beijing’s Haidian district, which itself is home to the ruins of Yuanmingyuan, a palace destroyed by Western armies in the 19th century.”

  

  The report goes on the detail how central and important the AMS is as a military think tank (a kind of ‘Chinese Rand Corporation’ in terms of influence), issuing recommendations directly to the Communist Party’s Central Military Commission, which is the PLA’s top decision-making body.

  And here’s where the Nikkei report gets most interesting…

  In December, the AMS completed a simulation on the Ukraine conflict, resulting in an astonishing finding, according to sources close to the Chinese government. The war will draw to a close around summer 2023, the simulation indicated, with Russia having the upper hand.

  Both the Russian and Ukrainian economies would be too exhausted to sustain the war past the summer, the report said.

  It is possible that the results were skewed in favor of Russia to please China’s Moscow-leaning leadership. But coincidentally, the $45 billion aid package passed last December in the U.S. is set to expire this summer too.

  It should also be noted that Republican leadership in the GOP-dominated House has vowed to reign in the “blank check” approach to Ukraine, also amid even the Biden administration recently giving signals that the aid won’t last forever. But, the consensus among Pentagon leadership has been that the Ukraine war could drag on for years.

  Nikkei says that the think tank simulation led to the peace proposal gaining momentum in the halls of power in Beijing. “After hearing the AMS’ prediction, Beijing crafted a peace proposal in time for the one-year anniversary of the war,” the report reads. “It aims to achieve three goals, including the restoration of relations with Europe.” These can be briefly summarized as follows:

  • improved and closer Chinese political and economic relations with Europe
  • preservation of friendly relations with Ukraine
  • China emerging as the prime peacemaker between Moscow and Kiev

  Should President Xi Jinping accept Putin’s recent invitation to travel to Moscow, all of these things will be in play in what will be a highly watched visit, with Western governments closely scrutinizing every word to come out of it.

  Some pundits have seen a major power like China getting involved in dialogue as crucial to kicking off real momentum…

  The gruesome war continues unabated with huge numbers of young Ukrainian and Russian men dead. Yet, no calls for peace negotiations from our leaders! Only China has put forward a proposal for starting negotiations, which the US and EU immediately shot downhttps://t.co/LtImXuOXoD

  — Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) March 10, 2023

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  Even though Washington quickly rejected that Beijing is honest player when it comes to peace, the most surprising reaction came from Kiev itself, it should be recalled:

  Volodymyr Zelenskiy has cautiously welcomed China’s peace plan to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but said it would be acceptable only if it led to Vladimir Putin pulling his troops out from all occupied Ukrainian territory.

  Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv to mark the first anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale attack, the Ukrainian president said he “wanted to believe” Beijing was interested in a “fair peace”. That meant not “supplying weapons to Russia”, he said, adding: “I’m doing my best to prevent that from happening. This is priority number one.”

  Moscow, as well as a few analysts in the West, have accused the United States and United Kingdom of seeking to sabotage peace. This is why the US and UK will likely remain cold regarding any Chinese efforts at a serious and lasting peace.

  And Nikkei too comments, “If China fails at becoming a peacemaker, the ramifications would undermine Xi’s authority and prestige. It remains to be seen if the current leadership filled with Xi loyalists will be capable of a feat that requires complex negotiating skills and tenacious fortitude.” Again, this is all the more reason for Washington hawks to want to quash Beijing’s efforts before they even get off the ground. But another prime question will be is how much sway will Xi hold with Putin when it comes to Ukraine?

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 21:20

• TikTok Whistleblower Says US Data Can Easily Be Accessed From China: Sen. Hawley
  TikTok Whistleblower Says US Data Can Easily Be Accessed From China: Sen. Hawley

  Authored by Eva Fu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is pressing the Treasury Department to conduct a thorough review of new whistleblower allegations regarding the Chinese-owned short video app TikTok that were recently brought to his attention.

  

  Writing to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on March 8, Hawley said that a TikTok whistleblower has come to him with direct knowledge of the app’s operating practices. His allegations, Hawley said, are “deeply concerning” and appear to contradict with public statements from senior executives of TikTok and its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance over the handling of U.S. users’ data.

  Revelations from leaked recordings that engineers in China had repeatedly accessed the platform’s U.S. data as of last January have raised bipartisan concerns in Congress.

  While TikTok’s chief operating officer Vanessa Pappas in September 2022 testified to senators that they have “strict controls in terms of who and how our data is accessed,” and vowed that “under no circumstances would we give that data to China,” the whistleblower described the access controls as “superficial” at best, if they exist at all, according to Hawley.

  TikTok and ByteDance employees can “switch between Chinese and U.S. data with nothing more than the click of a button using a proprietary tool called Dorado,” Hawley said, quoting the whistleblower who likened it to a “light switch.”

  Another tool the whistleblower cited is called Aeolus, which he said will allow a China-based employee access to U.S. data with authorization from a manager and a dataset owner.

  “I have seen first-hand China-based engineers flipping over to non-China datasets and creating scheduled tasks to backup, aggregate, and analyze data.”

  The whistleblower also described close coordination between TikTok and ByteDance, both of which he said “rely on proprietary software they engineered in China, thereby reducing foreign scrutiny and enabling Chinese engineers to insert software backdoors,” Hawley wrote in the letter.

  “TikTok and ByteDance are functionally the same company. They use the same data analysis tools and chat apps, and managers are in constant contact,” Hawley cited the whistleblower as saying.

  ‘Highly Disturbing Allegations’

  

  Hawley sees the “highly disturbing allegations” as the latest reason for a complete purge of TikTok from the United States, which is most popular among American teens.

  “Despite TikTok’s many reassurances that members of the Chinese Communist Party do not have access to U.S. data, it seems more and more likely that they do,” he wrote. He requested Yellen provide information on what TikTok has shared with the foreign transaction review panel—the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)—that she chairs regarding its software tools, dataset facilities, internal products, the declared access ability for TikTok staff in China through these tools, and the internal approval process that CFIUS is aware of.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 21:00

• Flipping The Bird A 'God-Given Right' Rules Canadian Judge
  Flipping The Bird A ‘God-Given Right’ Rules Canadian Judge

  Giving someone the middle finger is a God-given right according to a Canadian judge.

  

  In a 26-page decision reported by The Guardian, judge Dennis Galiatsatos dismissed a case against a man who allegedly harassed his neighbor in a Montreal suburb.

  “To be abundantly clear, it is not a crime to give someone the finger,” he said in the Feb. 24 ruling. “Flipping the proverbial bird is a God-given, charter-enshrined right that belongs to every red-blooded Canadian.”

  

  In May 2021, Neall Epstein was arrested by police for uttering death threats and “criminal harassment” against his neighbor, Michael Naccache, in Beaconsfield, Quebec.

  But judge Galiatsatos instead laid into Naccache, whose complaints were “nothing more than mundane, petty neighborhood trivialities.”

  “It is deplorable that the complainants have weaponized the criminal justice system in an attempt to exert revenge on an innocent man for some perceived slights that are, at best, trivial peeves,” reads the ruling.

  Naccache had previously accused Epstein of assaulting his parents in March 2021, a claim the judge dismissed outright.

  The focus of the case happened later that year, however. In May, Epstein testified his neighbour held up a handheld drill and said: “You fucking crazy neighbour; you dipshit,” adding: “You’re fucking dead.”

  In response, Epstein told him to “fuck off” and proceeded to give Naccache the finger as he walked away, court documents showed. Video evidence, taken from CCTV footage, “clearly shows that Epstein is looking in the complainant’s direction and giving him the finger, sometimes with both hands”. -The Guardian

  According to Galiatsatos, “being told to ‘fuck off’ should not prompt a call to 911.“

  “The complainants are free to clutch their pearls in the face of such an insult. However, the police department and the 911 dispatching service have more important priorities to address.”

  And while the middle finger “may not be civil, it may not be polite, it may not be gentlemanly … Nevertheless, it does not trigger criminal liability.”

  In the judge’s conclusion, he wished he could throw the case’s files out of a window to express his outrage about Epstein’s charges. 

  *   *   *

  Read the decision here:

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 20:40

• Farmers Fear Contamination At Start of Growing Season Near Train Derailment
  Farmers Fear Contamination At Start of Growing Season Near Train Derailment

  Authored by Beth Berlje via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  With spring planting just around the corner, Ohio and Pennsylvania farmers near the Norfolk Southern train derailment are worried about the effect spilled chemicals will have on their crops and livestock.

  

  In a joint letter on Wednesday, Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), and John Fetterman (D-Pa.) asked Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Thomas Vilsack and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Michael Regan to address the concerns of farmers and agricultural producers in the affected areas around East Palestine, Ohio, and Darlington Township, Pennsylvania.

  The letter asks the USDA and EPA to send resources to the region to help farmers test soils, plant tissue, and livestock to determine their safety and marketability.

  It also asks for a review of what disaster assistance could be offered to farmers.

  So far, the letter says, no agency has provided clear guidance to farmers about the safety of their crops and livestock and whether they will be able to safely sell them.

  “Farmers in the region are already reporting receiving requests to cancel orders due to health concerns,” the letter said. “Farmers and food producers in East Palestine and Darlington Township need assistance in responding to this manmade disaster.”

  Despite testing results, the letter said, some consumers will still be apprehensive and refuse to purchase agricultural products from the region because of the contamination. That is why farmers have specifically asked for disaster assistance.

  “Senators Casey and Fetterman have worked tirelessly to support Pennsylvanians and Ohioans impacted by this disaster in the short term, namely advocating for resources and holding Norfolk Southern accountable for the harm the derailment has inflicted, in addition to working to prevent similar disasters from happening in the future,” a press release about the letter said.

  Fetterman’s Health

  Fetterman’s work has been interrupted by health issues. The train derailed on Feb. 3 and four days later, on Feb. 7, Fetterman went to George Washington University Hospital because he was lightheaded. This was a concern because he suffered a stroke on the campaign trail and has cardiac problems. He was released on Feb. 10.

  Fetterman then checked into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment of clinical depression on Feb. 15, where he is expected to stay for weeks. At first, there were no signs of his working from the hospital, but on March 6, his staff posted photos on Twitter of him sitting with an aide in a lavender room at the hospital.

  Productive morning with Senator Fetterman at Walter Reed discussing the rail safety legislation, Farm Bill and other Senate business. John is well on his way to recovery and wanted me to say how grateful he is for all the well wishes. He’s laser focused on PA & will be back soon. pic.twitter.com/143uAhoQRx

  — Adam Jentleson (@AJentleson) March 6, 2023

   “Productive morning with Senator Fetterman at Walter Reed discussing the rail safety legislation, Farm Bill, and other Senate business. John is well on his way to recovery and wanted me to say how grateful he is for all the well wishes. He’s laser-focused on PA & will be back soon,” the Twitter post from Chief of Staff Adam Jentleson said. Fetterman remains unavailable to constituents.

  But now, he has signed this and another joint letter.

  Questions for Norfolk Southern

  Another letter was sent to Alan Shaw, president and CEO of Norfolk Southern Corporation. It was signed by Fetterman, Casey, Brown, and U.S. Representatives Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), and J. D. Vance (R-Ohio).

  In it, they asked the following questions:

  • How does the company plan to assist individuals or municipalities with short-term water needs? What will be done in the long-term if water sources are contaminated by the hazardous materials that leaked out of tanker cars or that were created during the explosion and subsequent fires?
  • What is the company’s plan to reimburse local farmers if their crops, soil, or livestock are found to be injured, killed, contaminated, or in any way rendered less valuable by the derailment or its effects?
  • How will the company determine the amount of direct financial compensation it will provide to municipalities affected by this derailment, including East Palestine, Ohio, and Darlington Township, Pennsylvania?
  • What steps will the company take to make information regarding reimbursements and financial assistance available to local residents, organizations, businesses, and relevant public officials? Following the emergency phase of the clean-up, what subsurface remediation activities are anticipated being needed and what is the anticipated length of time required for those activities?
  • What are the company’s plans for remediation and disposal of impacted soils? Will any of the materials need to be transported off-site for treatment and disposal? And how will the company ensure communities are protected along the transportation route?
  • Since the adoption of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR), how has Norfolk Southern’s staffing changed? Can you confirm that Norfolk Southern’s workforce has reduced by approximately 40 percent due to PSR? Further, please provide data on the size of the Norfolk Southern workforce that conducts inspections of trains since adoption of PSR.
  • How much has Norfolk Southern expended on stock buybacks and dividends in the past 10 years? And during that period how much has Norfolk Southern expended on maintenance and repair of infrastructure and rolling stock?

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 20:20

• US Cattle Prices Hit Nine-Year High As National Herd Drops To Half-Century Low
  US Cattle Prices Hit Nine-Year High As National Herd Drops To Half-Century Low

  If you’ve been to your local butcher or checked out the meat section in a supermarket, you’re aware that beef prices are still high, and in some instances, are continuing to rise. 

  Readers have been well informed about “beeflation” and why it’s happening:

  • Dwindling US Cattle Herd Implies Supermarket Beef Prices May Rise Even More

  • Hamburger Prices Might Continue To Rise As US Cattle Herd Shrinks

  • US Beef Herd Drops To Lowest Since 1962 As Global Food Crisis Intensifies

  Due to the continued scarcity of beef cattle supplies, there appears to be no relief in sight, and as a result, cash markets have risen this week to $165 per 100 pounds – the highest level since the record peaks of 2014. At this point nine years ago, ranchers resorted to reducing their herds to combat the high feed prices and drought.

  

  As we noted the other day, “Americans need to be prepared to eat a lot less beef, because the size of the national cattle herd is steadily shrinking.” 

  According to the latest report from the USDA, the number of beef cows in this country has fallen to the lowest level since 1962…

  

  Don Roose, the founder of US Commodities, a grain and livestock investment and management firm, recently warned:

  “We’re still in the contraction phase.

  “It takes a long time to build a herd back up again.”

  Meaning beef prices at the supermarket might go much higher until demand destruction hits. 

  

  However, there is some good news. Global food prices have slid for the eleventh consecutive month. And it gets better: wholesale egg prices collapsed in early February. 

  The ongoing supply woes could result in a potential continuation of the rise in beef prices — unleashing an affordability crisis in meat. It’s important to remember unelected officials on a global scale are attempting to reshape diets. 

  

  Ah, yes, Bloomberg… 

  

  The most practical step to avoid eating insects is to become your own producer of food — or buy local. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 20:00

• Rep. Greene To Lead GOP Visit To Jan. 6 Defendants In DC Jail
  Rep. Greene To Lead GOP Visit To Jan. 6 Defendants In DC Jail

  Authored by Gary Bai via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Republican lawmakers sitting on the House Oversight Committee are planning to visit the jail holding Jan. 6 defendants in Washington, D.C., multiple media outlets confirmed.

  

  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Rep. James Comer (Ky.), who both sit on the committee, told media outlets on Wednesday that they are intending to organize a trip to the Central Detention Facility to visit defendants who were criminally charged for their involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach.

  A spokesperson for Comer confirmed with Fox News that Greene is leading the effort.

  Greene told ABC that she would send a letter this week to congressional lawmakers to begin the scheduling process for the visit.

  Comer told The Hill that the visit is “not high on [his] list” and he will see what his schedule looks like.

  The Epoch Times contacted Greene’s and Comer’s offices for comment.

  Tucker Carlson Airs Footage

  It comes two days after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) released more than 40,000 hours of Jan. 6 footage to Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, who then aired some of the footage on his show on Monday and Tuesday.

  One tape aired Monday showed Capitol Police officers walking alongside Jacob Chansley, a Jan. 6 defendant serving a 41-month sentence after pleading guilty to an obstruction charge. Chansley was unarmed and walked past several Capitol police officers.

  

  Another showed Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick giving directions inside the Capitol apparently after clashing with protestors, which Carlson said casted doubt on the mainstream narrative that Sicknick died of a head injury.

  The aired tapes have caused an uproar in the media and in Congress. Republicans have had mixed reactions to the tape release, while virtually all Democrats condemned the release and Fox News’s coverage of the tapes.

  Greene said in reaction to the tapes’ airing that Democrats had lied to the American people and that they “had people in place to make” the Capitol breach happen.

  “The Democrats that support Antifa terrorism, lied about Covid and locked down America, ripped our borders wide open to Mexican Cartel terrorism and daily fentanyl murder of Americans, were the ones who did not place the National Guard at the Capital on J6 when they knew the intelligence because they had people in place to make it happen,” Greene wrote in a Twitter post on March 7, citing Tucker Carlson’s Monday Segment. “Then they blamed all of us for the breach of the Capital and have tortured American citizens as political prisoners.”

  “You don’t get to ignore Antifa anarchists and terrorism on one hand and be all about justice for J6 on the other,” she said in another post.

  Since Jan. 6, 2021, more than a thousand Americans have been arrested and charged with crimes related to the Capitol breach, according to a March 8 statement published by the U.S. Attorney’s office in D.C. These include more than 320 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, the statement reads.

  

  ‘Human Rights Abuse’

  The visit is partially to see the conditions of the Washington facility, Greene told The Hill.

  “They’re pretrial, and they haven’t even been convicted, and they’re not allowed to see their families, many times are not allowed to see their attorneys. The food has been a major complaint,” Greene told the outlet. “There’s been complaints of it tasting like cleaner.”

  “We’re going to be addressing the human rights abuse, such as the fact that they’ve been held in solitary confinement up to 23 hours a day, denied the ability to see their families,” Greene said.

  A November 2021 inspection report published by U.S. Marshals Service found “systematic failures” in the conditions of confinement at the Washington jail. Observed violations of civil rights include “overpowering” smells of urine and sewage, punitive withholding of food and water, lack of attentiveness to “observable injuries” on prisoners, and intentional antagonization of prisoners, U.S. Marshal Lamont Ruffin wrote in the report.

  The Epoch Times has contacted the Washington Central Detention Facility for comment.

  “As prisoners of this Jail, we have witnessed the horrendous treatment and have been personally afflicted by the hellacious conditions this Jail insists on tormenting its traumatized guests with,” reads a letter written by some of the Jan. 6 defendants in prison. “A more accurate terminology to describe the facility … would be to call this location an ‘evisceration facility,’ of the body, mind, and soul.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 19:40

• Record Bank Run Drained A Quarter, Or $42BN, Of SVB's Deposits In Hours, Leaving It With Negative $1BN In Cash
  Record Bank Run Drained A Quarter, Or $42BN, Of SVB’s Deposits In Hours, Leaving It With Negative $1BN In Cash

  For much of the day, anyone doing analysis on the now-liquidated Silicon Valley Bank was confined to using stale financial data as of Dec. 31… we certainly were when analyzing the impact of SVB’s contagion (see here) as excerpted below:

  For those who slept through yesterday, here is what you missed and why the US banking system is suffering its worst crisis since 2020. Silicon Valley Bank, aka SIVB, the 18th largest bank in the US with $212 billion in assets of which $120 billion are securities (of which most or $57.7BN are Held to Maturity (HTM) Mortgage Backed Securities and another $10.5BN are CMO, while $26BN are Available for Sale, more on that later )…

  

  … funded by over $173 billion in deposits (of which $151.5 billion are uninsured), has long been viewed as the bank at the heart of the US startup industry due to its singular focus on venture-capital firms. In many ways it echoes the issues we saw at Silvergate, which banked crypto firms almost exclusively.

  The big question, of course, is what happened in the past 24 hours to not only snuff the bank’s proposed equity offering, but to push the bank into insolvency.

  So how many deposits were pulled from SIVB in the past 24 hours. Everyone going off the Dec 31 number

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 10, 2023

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  We got the answer just a few moments after that tweet, when the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation reported that shortly after the Bank announced a loss of approximately $1.8 billion from a sale of investments and was conducting a capital raise (which we now know failed), and despite the bank being in sound financial condition prior to March 9, 2023, “investors and depositors reacted by initiating withdrawals of $42 billion in deposits from the Bank on March 9, 2023, causing a run on the Bank.“

  As a result of this furious drain, as of the close of business on Thursday, March 9, “the bank had a negative cash balance of approximately $958 million.”

  At this point, despite attempts from the Bank, with the assistance of regulators, “to transfer collateral from various sources, the Bank did not meet its cash letter with the Federal Reserve. The precipitous deposit withdrawal has caused the Bank to be incapable of paying its obligations as they come due, and the bank is now insolvent.”

  Some context: as a reminder, SIVB had $173 billion in deposits as of Dec 31., which means that in just a few hours a historic bank run drained a quarter of the bank’s funding!

  

  But not everyone got out in time obviously, there is a long line of depositors who are over the $250,000 FDIC insured limit (in fact only somewhere between 3 and 7% of total deposits are insured). The following list, while incomplete, is approximately sorted by size of exposure:

  • USDC – Crypto Stablecoin run by Circle – Silicon Valley Bank is one of six banking partners Circle uses for managing the ~25% portion of USDC reserves held in cash. While we await clarity on how the FDIC receivership of SVB will impact its depositors, Circle & USDC continue to operate normally.

  • ROKU – Roku had 26% of its cash, $487 million with Silicon Valley Bank

  • BLOCKFI – BlockFi has $227 million in “unprotected” funds in Silicon Valley Bank, according to a bankruptcy document, and may be in violation of U.S. bankruptcy law.

  • RBLX – Roblox said 5% of its $3b cash and securities balance is held at SVB.

  • DNA – Gingko Bioworks: Only the cash balance of the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Zymergen Inc. is held in deposit accounts at SVB, representing approximately $74M or 6% of the company’s cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2022

  • RKLB – RocketLab USA had about $38 million in its accounts with the bank, representing about 7.9% of the startup’s cash and equivalents

  • LC – Lending Club warned about potentially losing funds on deposit at SVB of $21 million, said amount isn’t material to its liquidity position or capital levels, and doesn’t pose a risk to the group’s business or operations.

  • PAYO – Payoneer: Of the company’s approximately $6.4B in total cash balances as of December 31, 2022, less than $20M is held at SVB

  • PTGX – Protagonist Therapeutics considers its exposure to any liquidity concern at SVB to be limited, given that cash held at SVB is approximately $13 million as of March 9, 2023. 

  • ACHR – Archer Aviation entered into a $20 million loan with SVB in 2021, $10 million of which is due for repayment in 2023

  • COHU – Cohu announced that it has deposit accounts with SVB with an aggregate balance of approximately $12.3M, which is approximately 3.8% of the company’s total cash and investments.

  • IGMS – IMG Biosciences: ‘As of March 10, 2023, the Company holds less than $5.0 million in deposits at SVB. Therefore, the Company believes it does not have any material exposure to any liquidity concerns at SVB.’

  • RYTM – Rhythm Pharmaceuticals announced that it has deposit accounts with SVB with an aggregate balance of approximately $3.4 million, which is approximately 1.1% of the Company’s total cash and cash equivalents.’

  • SYRS – Syros Pharmaceuticals discloses that, as of March 10, 2023, it has two deposit accounts at Silicon Valley Bank. One of these accounts has a balance of less than $250,000, and the other has a balance of approximately $3.1 million pursuant to a letter of credit that the Company was required to provide to its landlord in connection with the execution of the lease for its corporate headquarters…

  • EYPT – EyePoint Pharmaceuticals currently maintains a de minimis amount of cash, in the single digit millions of U.S. dollars, with Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB)

  • ATRA – Atara Biotherapeutics currently maintains an account at Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) holding cash deposits of approximately $2 million, which amount the Company considers to be immaterial to its liquidity.’

  • ISEE – Iveric Bio currently maintains a de minimis amount of cash and cash equivalents, in the low single digit millions of U.S. dollars, with Silicon Valley Bank (“SVe”).’

  • VERA – Vera Therapeutics currently holds approximately 1.2% of its cash and investments with SVB. Accordingly, the Company considers its risk exposure relating to SVB to be minimal.

  • XFOR – X4 Pharmaceuticals had approximately 2.5% of its cash deposits with SVB.

  • CTMX – CytomX Therapeutics does not consider its exposure to any liquidity concern at SVB to be significant. The cash held at SVB in CytomX’s operating CTMX account is at or near the FDIC-insured limit of $250,000. CytomX also maintains a deposit account at SVB under a standby letter of credit issued pursuant to its office lease for approximately $917,000.’

  • AXSM – Axsome Therapeutics has material cash deposits with SVB. 

  • WVE – Wave Life Sciences aggregate amount of the company’s cash and restricted cash held at SVB is approximately $1.5M.

  • JNPR – Juniper Networks maintains operating accounts at SVB with a minimal cash balance of less than 1% of the company’s total cash

  • QS – QuantumScape has very limited exposure to SVB, with only a low single digit percentage exposure relative to both the Company’s total liquidity and total assets.

  And now the 64 trillion dollar question: was the bank run sparked by the bank’s attempted capital raise – which followed a modest $1.8 billion in losses as the bank sold off its AfS holdings to boost its liquidity – or was it the result of an external influence? What we mean by this is that as reported yesterday, several prominent venture capitalists – such as Peter Thiel – advised their tech startups to withdraw money from Silicon Valley Bank on Thursday.  Would the bank run have happened if it wasn’t for their urging? Or another question: why would some of the VC luminaries actively encourage a bank run? Yesterday we proposed one possible answer.

  Why are VC icons ganging up and Lehmaning SVB? If your business model relied on QE wouldn’t you try to trigger the next QE too https://t.co/7teJlObiji

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 9, 2023

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  And while such a course of action by venture capitalists would be understandable, if ethically questionable, what is perhaps more notable is what Bloomberg reported earlier, citing The Infromation: it wasn’t just the Peter Thiels of the world:

  Prominent venture capitalists advised their tech startups to withdraw money from Silicon Valley Bank, while mega institutions such as JP Morgan Chase & Co sought to convince some SVB customers to move their funds Thursday by touting the safety of their assets.

  Let us get this straight: the largest US commercial bank was actively soliciting the clients of one of its biggest competitors, and the 16th largest US bank, knowing full well deposit flight would almost certainly lead to the collapse of a bank which courtesy of fractional reserve banking, had only modest cash to satisfy deposit demands: certainly not enough to meet $42 billion in deposit outflows.

  Of course, Jamie, who has suddenly emerged as a key figure in the Jeff Epstein scandal alongside Jes Staley, knows this, and would be delighted with an outcome that kills two birds with one stone: take his name off the front pages and also make JPMorgan even bigger. Actually three birds: remember it was JPM that started that “Not QE” Fed liquidity injection in Sept 2019 when the bank “suddenly” found itself reserve constrained. We doubt that JPM would mind greatly if Powell ended his rate hikes and eased/launched QE as a result of a bank crisis, a bank crisis that Jamie helped precipitate. 

  And while we wait to see if Dimon’s participation in the Epstein scandal will now fade from media coverage, and whether Powell will launch QE, we know one thing for sure: JPM was a clear and immediate benefactor of SIVB’s collapse because in a day when everything crashed, JPM stock was one of the handful that were up.

  

   

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 19:21

• "Worst Since Lehman": Banks Break The World Again
  “Worst Since Lehman”: Banks Break The World Again

  Last week we detailed BofA’s Michael Hartnett’s warning that “The Fed will tighten until something breaks”.

  Well, something just broke…

  

  SVB’s collapse – the second biggest US bank failure in history – dominated any reaction to this morning’s mixed bag from the BLS (hotter than expected earnings growth, rising unemployment (especially for Latinos), better than expected payrolls gains).

  Things started off badly as SVB crashed 65% in the pre-market before being halted. SVB bonds were puking hard and when the FDIC headline hit, the bonds collapsed further…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  A number of small/medium sized banks were clubbed like a baby seal…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  And the KBW regional bank index crashed (down 9 of the last 10 days and 20% in that period). The 18% drop this week was the index’s worst drop since Lehman (Sept 2008)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  And as you’ll see below, that started to have some notable impacts on the most arcane of global systemic risk red flag signals…

  • TED Spread at YTD highs (systemic risk rising)

  • Global USD Liquidity tightest in 2023 (foreigners paying up for USDollars)

  • Global Bank Credit Risk rising

  The worst week for stocks in 2023… On the week, all the US majors were down hard with Small Caps crashing 9%, S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq over 4% lower…

  

  The Dow has been underwater on the year for over a week and is now down 4% in 2023. Today’s ugliness smashed the S&P 500 and Russell 2000 down to unchanged on the year…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  All the US Majors are now back below their 200DMAs…

  

  Unsurprisingly, financials were the week’s biggest sector laggards but all were red on the week…

  

  VIX exploded higher on the day, back above 28 and recoupling with equity weakness…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  On the week, Treasuries saw a wild ride but yields ended dramatically lower across the curve with the shorter-end outperforming (down almost 30bps on the week)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The 2Y yield is down over 50bps in the last two days, the biggest 2-day drop since Lehman (Sept 2008)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The 2Y Yield is back below the Fed Funds rate once again, and will likely be considerably further below it after the next Fed meeting…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The 10Y yield puked back to 3.70% – one month lows – after testing 4.00% for two weeks…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Notably, Specs are practically still at their most short ever in bonds – so this week’s plunge in yields was hurting a lot of people…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  No extreme moves in the TED spread yet (although its back YTD highs as systemic risk increases)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Global bank credit risk is on the rise too…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The dollar ended higher against its fist peers on the week – after major ups (hawkish Powell) and downs (SVB sparking dovishness)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Global dollar liquidity tightened dramatically this week as the world reached for USDs at much more aggressive costs…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Bitcoin puked back down to $20,000 – 2 month lows – and found support…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Solana and Litecoin were hit really hard this week with BTC and ETH down about 10% and Ripple holding close to unch…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Against all the carnage, bullion joined bonds in the safe-haven camp, with gold spiking back above $1870 – one month highs…

  

  While oil was up today, WTI ended lower on the week back to a $76 handle…

  

  The ‘panic’ across markets had a dramatic effect on Fed rate trajectory expectations with the Fed’s terminal rate expectations plunging over 55bps since the post-Powell spike earlier in the week, and 40bps of rate-cuts are now priced-in by year-end…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Additionally, expectations for The Fed’s action in March are hawkishly higher on the week (but down today) with around a 40-50% chance of 50bps hike priced in…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  To put that shift in context, the term structure has dropped and twisted significantly since Wednesday…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Just to really rub in what the fuck just happened… the market was pricing in over 3 25bps rate-hikes to Jan 2024 on Wednesday… and now its pricing in around half of one rate-hike…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Finally, we give the last word to Eric Johnston at Cantor Fitzgerald:

  “Three days ago the view in the market was that economy was teflon vs the rate hikes and that there were not going to be any financial accidents because we have made it this far without much damage,” he wrote.

  “What has now changed is that people now realize that we are not teflon and there can be impact and very negative impact at that from these hikes. It is not about which bank is next, or who has similar exposure, or will depositors be made whole. It is about there likely being more time bombs out there that we have no idea about right now. That is what has changed, people no longer believe we are teflon…finally.”

  Maybe keep your eyes out for other bank CEOs dumping millions in their own stock…

  

  Makes you wonder eh?

  Returning full circle to the start of today’s market summary, we are reminded of Michael Hartnett’s closing remarks: “The market stops panicking when central banks start panicking.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 19:20

• "Expect Mass Layoffs…" – The Real-World Impact Of SVB's Failure
  “Expect Mass Layoffs…” – The Real-World Impact Of SVB’s Failure

  For most people in America, the news that a ‘bank in Silicon Valley’ has failed will be forgotten quicker than a story about soaring shoplifting in their local supermarket.

  It shouldn’t.

  Reality is that the contagion of the shuttering of the 18th largest bank in the US are widespread.

  SVB is in fact the second largest (by assets) bank failure in US history after WaMu.

  

  First things first, there is a long line of depositors who are over the $250,000 FDIC insured limit (in fact only somewhere between 3 and 7% of total deposits are insured). The following list, while incomplete, is approximately sorted by size of exposure:

  • USDC – Crypto Stablecoin run by Circle – Silicon Valley Bank is one of six banking partners Circle uses for managing the ~25% portion of USDC reserves held in cash. While we await clarity on how the FDIC receivership of SVB will impact its depositors, Circle & USDC continue to operate normally.

  • ROKU – Roku had 26% of its cash, $487 million with Silicon Valley Bank

  • BLOCKFI – BlockFi has $227 million in “unprotected” funds in Silicon Valley Bank, according to a bankruptcy document, and may be in violation of U.S. bankruptcy law.

  • RBLX – Roblox said 5% of its $3b cash and securities balance is held at SVB.

  • DNA – Gingko Bioworks: Only the cash balance of the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Zymergen Inc. is held in deposit accounts at SVB, representing approximately $74M or 6% of the company’s cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2022

  • RKLB – RocketLab USA had about $38 million in its accounts with the bank, representing about 7.9% of the startup’s cash and equivalents

  • LC – Lending Club warned about potentially losing funds on deposit at SVB of $21 million, said amount isn’t material to its liquidity position or capital levels, and doesn’t pose a risk to the group’s business or operations.

  • PAYO – Payoneer: Of the company’s approximately $6.4B in total cash balances as of December 31, 2022, less than $20M is held at SVB

  • PTGX – Protagonist Therapeutics considers its exposure to any liquidity concern at SVB to be limited, given that cash held at SVB is approximately $13 million as of March 9, 2023. 

  • ACHR – Archer Aviation entered into a $20 million loan with SVB in 2021, $10 million of which is due for repayment in 2023

  • COHU – Cohu announced that it has deposit accounts with SVB with an aggregate balance of approximately $12.3M, which is approximately 3.8% of the company’s total cash and investments.

  • IGMS – IMG Biosciences: ‘As of March 10, 2023, the Company holds less than $5.0 million in deposits at SVB. Therefore, the Company believes it does not have any material exposure to any liquidity concerns at SVB.’

  • RYTM – Rhythm Pharmaceuticals announced that it has deposit accounts with SVB with an aggregate balance of approximately $3.4 million, which is approximately 1.1% of the Company’s total cash and cash equivalents.’

  • SYRS – Syros Pharmaceuticals discloses that, as of March 10, 2023, it has two deposit accounts at Silicon Valley Bank. One of these accounts has a balance of less than $250,000, and the other has a balance of approximately $3.1 million pursuant to a letter of credit that the Company was required to provide to its landlord in connection with the execution of the lease for its corporate headquarters…

  • EYPT – EyePoint Pharmaceuticals currently maintains a de minimis amount of cash, in the single digit millions of U.S. dollars, with Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB)

  • ATRA – Atara Biotherapeutics currently maintains an account at Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) holding cash deposits of approximately $2 million, which amount the Company considers to be immaterial to its liquidity.’

  • ISEE – Iveric Bio currently maintains a de minimis amount of cash and cash equivalents, in the low single digit millions of U.S. dollars, with Silicon Valley Bank (“SVe”).’

  • VERA – Vera Therapeutics currently holds approximately 1.2% of its cash and investments with SVB. Accordingly, the Company considers its risk exposure relating to SVB to be minimal.

  • XFOR – X4 Pharmaceuticals had approximately 2.5% of its cash deposits with SVB.

  • CTMX – CytomX Therapeutics does not consider its exposure to any liquidity concern at SVB to be significant. The cash held at SVB in CytomX’s operating CTMX account is at or near the FDIC-insured limit of $250,000. CytomX also maintains a deposit account at SVB under a standby letter of credit issued pursuant to its office lease for approximately $917,000.’

  • AXSM – Axsome Therapeutics has material cash deposits with SVB. 

  • WVE – Wave Life Sciences aggregate amount of the company’s cash and restricted cash held at SVB is approximately $1.5M.

  • JNPR – Juniper Networks maintains operating accounts at SVB with a minimal cash balance of less than 1% of the company’s total cash

  • QS – QuantumScape has very limited exposure to SVB, with only a low single digit percentage exposure relative to both the Company’s total liquidity and total assets.

  And, investors are out a lot…

  Spoiler alert: it wasn’t a very compelling situation https://t.co/R5IFz2mrFe

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 10, 2023

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  Whenever a company stumbles, shareholder lawsuits become pretty common. As Bloomberg reports, already this morning, law firms including Faruqi & Faruqi LLP, Schall Law Firm, Pomerantz LLP and Girard Sharp LLP have put out press releases saying they’re looking into SVB and that investors who’ve suffered losses as the bank’s shares slumped can contact the firms’ attorneys.

  Brad Hargreaves explains in a brief thread how SVB’s closure & receivership is going to have a massive impact on the tech ecosystem.

  SVB was not just a dominant player in tech but were highly integrated in some nontraditional ways.

  A few things we’ll see in the coming days / weeks…

  One, SVB was incredibly integrated into the lives of many founders. Not just their startup’s bank & lender, but also provided personal mortgages and other financial services. A whole mess for FDIC (or the eventual buyer) to unwind.

  Two, any “uninsured” balances at SVB – those above $250K – are in jeopardy. FDIC plans to pay them out “as it sells the assets of SVB”. Lots of startups exclusively banked with SVB as *this was a covenant of their debt*!

  CEOs yesterday faced a hard choice: Pull your deposits and go into default on your venture debt or risk losing everything if the bank failed. Many chose to hold tight as SVB’s outright failure seemed outlandish.

  Now they may not be able to make payroll next week.

  Unpaid wages pierce the corporate veil, so boards are *incredibly* sensitive to employing workers they may not be able to pay.

  Expect mass layoffs later today, Monday at latest.

  And given the weak fundraising environment, a number of startups have been reliant on venture lenders – e.g., SVB – not aggressively pursuing amortization of debt or triggering default for covenant foot faults (e.g., cash balances). How will the FDIC handle this? Mass defaults?

  Having run a startup through the GFC, this is the first thing I’ve seen since that is even vaguely reminiscent of that time. Total clusterfuck.

  One more thing: SVB also offered *wealth management services* to many of its founders. So your corporate lender, corporate bank, personal mortgage lender, and family’s wealth manager is… all one bank, which is now in FDIC receivership. Fun.

  JPow got his fucking debt crisis alright

  Launchpad Capital founder Ryan Gilbert explained the impact of this mainstay of the VC market‘s failure…

  Launchpad Capital Founder Ryan Gilbert had money in Silicon Valley Bank. He joins us to discuss the bank’s closure, what it means for his company, and to the Silicon Valley venture capital market. pic.twitter.com/VNyJ9E4Qpb

  — CNBC Halftime Report (@HalftimeReport) March 10, 2023

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  Garry Tan, the CEO of YCombinator echoes what we said just two days ago, namely that “this is an *extinction level event* for startups and will set startups and innovation back by 10 years or more” and warns that “30% of YC companies exposed through SVB can’t make payroll in the next 30 days.”

  The most important thing the FDIC and the US Government can do right now is *make the receivership as short as possible*

  There are thousands of US startups that banked at SVB, often as their *sole bank*. $250K per account is not going to last long.

  The #1 pressing issue for these startups is *payroll* – you can’t have people work if you can’t pay them.

  This means mass furlough.

  It might mean thousands of startups die before the FDIC gets through its receivership process and releases the funds.

   From what I hear, there are venture debt options coming from providers like Brex, but we’re going to need *a lot* of options in order to avoid a mass shutdown of all American startups in the next few weeks.
  This is an *extinction level event* for startups and will set startups and innovation back by 10 years or more.

  BIG TECH will not care about this. They have cash elsewhere.

  All little startups, tomorrow’s Google’s and Facebooks, will be extinguished if we don’t find a fix.

  30% of YC companies exposed through SVB can’t make payroll in the next 30 days.

  If you or your company are affected, I recommend that you reach out to your local congressman to get this on their radar TODAY.

  Now.

  So bail out Silicon Valley now, or something.

  Another example of a firm directly impacted (and its staff and clients), comes from Parker Conrad, CEO of HR/IT/Finance firm Rippling, facing payrolls problems:

  We (Rippling) discovered yesterday that Silicon Valley Bank had unexpected solvency challenges. Just now, we learned that the FDIC had stepped in and effectively shut down SVB.

  Rippling has historically relied on SVB for payments rails for our payroll and other products. In light of yesterday’s news, we immediately accelerated a planned switch to JPMorgan Chase.

  Effective immediately & going forward, Rippling payroll runs will process through JPMC. However, pay runs in flight for today out of SVB have not been paid. The latest we heard from SVB this morning was that this was an operational delay and funds will be released.

  However, FDIC involvement makes us skeptical of the assurances we are getting from SVB.

  Our top priority is to get our customers’ employees paid as soon as we possibly can, and we’re working diligently toward that on all available channels, and trying to learn what the FDIC takeover means for today’s payments.

  We have contacted customers with a configuration change they need to make for us to successfully process their payroll, going forward, via JPMorgan Chase & Co.

  Going forward, payroll runs through Rippling will have no exposure to SVB. But today’s payment delay is a result of pay runs initiated early this week, with funds in-flight through SVB. Our full focus is on getting these employees paid as quickly as possible.

  So, it’s not just ‘rich’ venture capitalist ‘folks’ who could be suffering.

  It’s real world businesses and their clients and employees who are feeling the direct pinch of SVB’s failure today.

  Additionally, as @WallStCynic notes, public companies with uninsured deposits at SVB will have to start making some very uncomfortable disclosures soon.

  

  Finally, we note that the well known problem with bank failure is that they are always non-linear… and we are far from seeing the final fallout from this one.

  Furthermore, the shift in what flows they have available to JPMorgan is noteworthy since the hope, once again, becomes, that these mega banks are ‘too big to fail’.

  Oh and one person not to shed any tears for is the CEO…

  

  ..who dumped $3.5 million of his stock just last week – good timing eh?

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 19:06

• Student Debt Forgiveness Won’t Cure Higher Ed’s Disease
  Student Debt Forgiveness Won’t Cure Higher Ed’s Disease

  Authored by Bruce Abramson via RealClear Wire,

  On February 28th, the Supreme Court heard arguments on President Biden’s plan to extinguish an estimated $400 billion in student debt. Biden deserves credit for highlighting a debilitating federal program in desperate need of reform. His proposal, however, would make the problem far worse, not better. Any serious reform would force academic institutions to take some responsibility for the education they provide—and to show some responsibility to the many young Americans they induce to go deeply into debt. 

  

  The problems run deep. American higher education has become a hollow bubble of an industry coasting on brand equity and past glory. 

  Notwithstanding pockets of world-class excellence, the industry does little well. Universities are top-heavy and inefficient. Their complex products bundle education, research, and campus life for many students who need—and can afford—only the first of the three. On campus, classrooms teach neither critical thinking nor employable skills. The return on research dollars is pitiful. Antisemitism and segregation thrive at levels unseen elsewhere in American society. Internal procedures fail to provide due process or equal protection. 

  American academia is a sham suffering from disastrously flawed structures and incentive systems.

  Costs have risen uncontrollably. Forty-three years ago, my freshman tuition at Columbia (including mandatory fees, excluding residential costs) ran between $20,000 and $25,000 in today’s dollars. Ivy League schools today charge about $70,000—nearly triple in real terms. The 1980 price tag associated with America’s most expensive colleges—affordable to many like me only with the help of student loans—will now hardly cover in-state tuition at a top public university like Berkeley or Michigan. 

  The federal student loan programs have mushroomed to obscure the real costs. Free federal dollars flow through students who can’t fathom the burden of future repayment into university coffers. Colleges have taken advantage of this federal money to pad their payrolls with administrators—now employed in greater numbers than faculty, nationwide—most charged with little more than regulatory compliance and a desire to promote ideological purity.

  From there, things get worse. All decisions concerning faculty hiring, promotion, tenure, publication, grants, awards, and prestige are made by the faculty. The key to professional success thus lies entirely in impressing senior colleagues. The vaunted peer review process means that other faculty members agree that your work furthers the ideas upon which they have based their own careers. Not exactly a recipe for innovation.

  Why challenge conventional wisdom when doing so can create only ostracism, criticism, and career setbacks? It’s far safer to add your voice to the “consensus of experts” that already defines your field.

  As to the students themselves—and recent graduates—they have little recourse. Prestigious faculty highlighted in promotional materials fade into the background as underpaid adjuncts and graduate students teach most of the classes. Implications about the value of a degree, perhaps accurate when applied to students who excel in engineering but way off the mark for most students, are never binding. Universities have zero liability for mislabeling their offerings, for bait-and-switch tactics, or for providing an unsatisfactory education. The entire system insulates colleges and universities from consumer displeasure.

  Today’s wealthiest universities are blissfully protected from external economic pressures, external assessments of quality, external customer complaints, and external liability for unacceptable performance. Many take matters even further, providing their own security and internal adjudication procedures—minimizing their exposure to the police and the courts that govern the rest of us. 

  With that intense structural insulation in place, the rest is unsurprising. An industry handed an unlimited budget, unassailable prestige, tax benefits, liability shields, and autonomous policing and courts behaves precisely as you’d expect it to behave: It is committed to draining outside resources for the benefit of insiders. That the resulting institutions are woke and leftist is almost coincidental. The entire industry structure is designed to promote inefficiency, absurdity, self-adulation, and contempt for others. It is delivering on that design.

  The current system saddles young adults with crushing debt, empowers the worst instincts of corrupt academic administrators, and tightens the control of government bureaucrats over education. America’s institutions of higher learning will never again produce informed citizens and talented leaders unless we address their deep structural flaws and corrupt incentive systems.

  Student loan programs are overdue for reform. Debt relief for past loans, however, would make things worse rather than better. It would reward problematic behavior of the past and motivate worse behavior in the future. 

  Proper reform would make the institutions accountable for the debt they induce America’s youth to incur. Loan guarantees—even if conditional and partial—would force them to consider efficiency, economics, and program quality for the first time in decades. 

  Reforming the student loan system wouldn’t fix many of the problems plaguing American academia. It would, however, go a long way toward realigning institutional incentives with the needs of a healthy industry. Let the universities scream that forcing them to assume responsibility would mark the end of American education as we know it. It would mark the beginning of American education as we need it.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 19:00

• Fluoride Lawsuit Against EPA Prompts Pending Release Of Potentially Damaging Report
  Fluoride Lawsuit Against EPA Prompts Pending Release Of Potentially Damaging Report

  Authored by Christy Prais via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to oppose and delay a lawsuit filed against them by the Fluoride Action Network (FAN) to ban the use of fluoride in public water supplies in the United States.

  

  The case has revealed government attempts to limit available evidence and avoid having the facts of water fluoridation reviewed in court. A spokesperson with FAN told The Epoch Times in an email, “this represents a major reversal in the federal agencies’ position, and will ensure that the public has access to these critical documents that would have otherwise remained buried forever.”

  Fluoride exposure has been linked to an increased risk of hypothyroidism in pregnant women and brain-based disorders in their offspring. There are also findings that higher fluoride exposure is associated with reduced IQ in children.

  From Petition to Lawsuit

  The lawsuit began in 2017 after a petition filed in November 2016 called on the EPA to “protect the public and susceptible subpopulations from the neurotoxic risks of fluoride by banning the addition of fluoridation chemicals to water.”

  The petition referenced more than 2,500 pages of scientific documentation detailing the risks of water fluoridation to human health, including more than 180 published studies showing fluoride is linked to reduced IQ and neurotoxic harm.

  In its Feb. 27, 2017 response, the EPA claimed the petition had failed to “set forth a scientifically defensible basis to conclude that any persons have suffered neurotoxic harm as a result of exposure to fluoride,” and denied the claim.

  The Toxic Substances Control Act passed in 2016 includes statutes that provide citizens the ability to challenge an EPA denial in federal court. Thus, in 2017, FAN, Food & Water Watch, and Organic Consumers Association filed a lawsuit against the EPA challenging the denial.

  …

  Government Agency Interference 

  Internal CDC emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by plaintiff attorney Michael Connett showed discussion and comments related to the NTP’s unreleased Fluoride Toxicity Report.

  The emails seem to indicate the NTP report was not made public due to interference from Levine and Tabak.

  One email from the CDC dated June 3, 2022, specifically stated, “ASH [Assistant Secretary of Health] Levine has put the report on hold until further notice.”

  In the submitted notice Connett stated, “These emails confirm that the NTP considered the May 2022 monograph to be the NTP’s final report. They also confirm that the CDC was opposed to the NTP releasing the report, and that leadership at the top levels of the Department of Health and Human Services intervened to stop the report from being released.”

  Harmful Effects of Fluoride

  In the past, fluoridation chemicals were obtained from the wet scrubbing systems of the phosphate fertilizer industry and added to many public water supplies in the United States to reduce tooth decay. It is now recognized by dental researchers that fluoride’s primary benefit comes from topical application and does not need to be swallowed to prevent tooth decay.

  The FAN states that “in recent years, however, an increasing number of water departments have begun purchasing their fluoride chemicals from China. Based on recent incidents, it appears that the quality control of the Chinese chemicals is even more lax, and variable, than the U.S.-produced chemicals.”

  The NTP’s 2019 Systematic Review of Fluoride Exposure and Neurodevelopment and Cognitive Health Effects concluded that “ … fluoride is presumed to be a cognitive neurodevelopmental hazard to humans.” They state that “This conclusion is based on a consistent pattern of findings in human studies across several different populations showing that higher fluoride exposure is associated with decreased IQ or other cognitive impairments in children.” 

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 18:20

• Putin Congratulates Xi On Securing Unprecedented 3rd Term, Hails 'Strategic Cooperation'
  Putin Congratulates Xi On Securing Unprecedented 3rd Term, Hails ‘Strategic Cooperation’

  In what was widely seen as a purely ceremonial vote, Xi Jinping secured an unprecedented third term as China’s president on Friday by approval of the country’s rubber-stamp legislature in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Friday. It was unanimous, at 2,952 votes, and this was followed by a standing ovation. 

  This makes the 69-year old the longest-serving head of state that Communist China has ever seen going back to 1949, and comes after he already broke precedent in gaining a third term as head of the Chinese Communist party last fall. He’s also head of the nation’s armed forces, and thus has unrivaled authority even compared to predecessors of past decades.

  

  CNBC previews that a new premier will be chosen by delegates on Saturday. And “Xi is scheduled to speak at the parliamentary meeting’s closing ceremony on Monday. The new premier is set to speak with the press later that day.” It’s expected to be one of Xi’s most loyal protégés, Li Qiang.

  Russian President Vladimir Putin was among the first world leaders to congratulate Xi on his third term, and hailed the two countries’ strategic partnership.

  “Dear friend, please accept sincere congratulations on the occasion of your reelection,” Putin said in a statement published by the Kremlin. “Russia highly values your personal contribution toward the strengthening of ties … and strategic cooperation between our nations,” he added. 

  “I am certain that working together, we will ensure the development of fruitful Russian-Chinese cooperation in all sorts of different areas,”  the letter continues. “We will continue to coordinate joint work on the most important regional and international issues.”

  This comes at a moment the US intelligence community is warning of “complex” threats from both China and Russia – as their coordination grows while finding a common enemy in Washington, as well as outlier states like North Korea.

  The standing ovation after Xi secured his third 5-year term as president of China…

  🇨🇳🗳️✅Xi Jinping was unanimously elected President of the People’s Republic of China and head of the Central Military Commission. pic.twitter.com/7FdtjPgdjo

  — AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎 (@AZgeopolitics) March 10, 2023

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  The US administration has also repeatedly warned Beijing against arming Russia for use in the war in Ukraine. Biden officials have not said they believe this has been done yet, but have cited intelligence which shows Beijing is mulling it. Xi is also planning an upcoming trip to Russia to meet with Putin, which the West will greet as a huge provocation.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 18:00

• Kelly: A Handy January 6 Fact Sheet
  Kelly: A Handy January 6 Fact Sheet

  Authored by Julie Kelly via American Greatness,

  In another example of Washington’s inexorable slide into banana republic territory, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) took to the floor of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday to call for the removal of an American journalist. 

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anchor treat the American people, and American democracy, with such disdain,” Schumer said during his seven-minute authoritarian tirade.

  “And he’s going to come back tonight with another segment. Fox News should tell him not to. Fox News, Rupert Murdoch—tell Mr. Carlson not to run a second segment of lies. You know it’s a lie.”

  

  Schumer later reiterated his demand to a group of journalists who, rather than denounce one of the most powerful government officials in the country attempting to silence an influential member of the media, dutifully reported Schumer’s bleating without question.

  Republican senators including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) joined the fray, echoing Schumer’s faux concerns over “national security.”

  Clearly, it’s panic time. The White House, Congress, and the Democratic Party propaganda arm that is the corporate media realize their carefully engineered narrative about January 6 is imploding in real time. Which is why they’re accusing Carlson of “whitewashing” and “rewriting” the events of January 6. Anything less than total fealty to regime-approved talking points about what happened before and after that day now is considered a “threat to democracy.”

  But facts are facts. And no amount of pearl-clutching by the hags on “The View” or threats made by U.S. senators can alter the reality of January 6. Between video recordings, witness testimony, court filings, and news reporting, the undeniable truth about January 6 cannot be willfully wished away even by the most skilled spinmeisters.

  Here’s what we know:

  • Some people acted badly. A handful came ready for a fight while others admit they were caught up in a mob mentality that unfolded over the course of the afternoon.

  • The overwhelming majority of protesters did not act badly or violently. Not only do security footage and other video sources demonstrate that is indeed true, the Justice Department’s own data supports it. “Parading” in the Capitol, a class B misdemeanor, is by far the most common charge in the Justice Department’s sweeping investigation. According to an update published this week, 919 out of 1,000 defendants face trespassing charges. Of the 518 who accepted plea agreements, 385 pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and 133 pleaded guilty to a felony.

  • The most common felony is not “insurrection” but rather obstruction of an official proceeding. Fewer than 20 people face seditious conspiracy charges.

  • Roughly 100 defendants are accused of attacking police officers with a dangerous weapon. No one is charged with carrying or using a firearm inside the building.

  • Speaking of police, body-worn camera and independent video show outrageous misconduct by law enforcement. D.C. Metropolitan Police launched an aggressive and unnecessary offensive against the crowd assembled on the west lawn. Even though protesters were respecting police lines at the time, footage shows officers throwing stun grenades into and other devices containing rubber bullets into the crowd beginning shortly after 1:00 p.m.

  • Video and testimony by Capitol police officers at trial confirmed how that activity enraged the crowd. Other officers shoved women down stairs and shoved one man off the upper terrace balcony.

  • This conduct continued inside the building. Some officers shoved and hit individuals inside the Rotunda and other areas. A brutal scene in the lower west terrace tunnel unfolded as police used their batons to beat at least two women on the head resulting in bleeding and injuries.

  • Excessive force caused the deaths of four Trump supporters: Ashli Babbitt, Rosanne Boyland, Kevin Greeson, and Benjamin Phillips.

  • On the flip side, despite persistent claims even by Attorney General Merrick Garland and White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre as recently as this week, no police officers died as a result of injuries sustained on January 6. Officer Brian Sicknick is on video walking around after he suffered a pepper spray attack; he died of a stroke the next day. There’s no evidence the reported suicides of other officers after January 6 were related to the protest.

  • Further, the responsibility of sufficiently protecting the Capitol with enough officers fell to the Capitol Police board—staffed by the sergeant-at-arms for then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund repeatedly testified that he requested additional help including National Guardsmen days before January 6. Even as the chaos unfolded that day, House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving and Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger delayed pursuing the proper authorization of the National Guard.

  • Irving told House Republicans that his staff as well as members of the House Administration committee began planning for January 6 weeks before the protest. Jamie Fleet, a security staffer for both Pelosi and the committee overseeing Capitol functions, told the January 6 select committee that he started preparations for January 6 in the summer of 2020.

  • When the building was breached at around 2:15 p.m., Congress was not voting to certify the electoral college results at the time, a common misperception. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) were in the process of disputing the election outcome in Gosar’s home state, a process permitted under the Electoral Count Act. The joint session of Congress technically had been adjourned an hour earlier so debate could begin.

  • For all the wasted energy spent over the past two years that democracy almost died on January 6, the chaotic protest only delayed the certification ceremony for seven hours. Joe Biden officially was declared president at 3:00 a.m. the next day.

  • The surveillance video viewed by Carlson’s team has not been made available to defense attorneys, arguably in violation of defendants’ constitutional rights.

  • A separate trove of tapes that captured activity from the hours between noon and 8:00 p.m. was turned over to the FBI in early 2021 to use in its investigation. With few exceptions, all footage remains under protective orders. Defense attorneys consistently have complained that access to the full archive is constrained by the protective orders.

  Plenty of other falsehoods and misrepresentations animate the fable of January 6. But for those honestly seeking the truth, consider this a cheat sheet for future use.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 03/10/2023 – 17:40

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