May 13

Today’s News 13th May 2022

  • UK On Verge Of Recession As Economy Unexpectedly Shrinks
    UK On Verge Of Recession As Economy Unexpectedly Shrinks

    The UK’s economy unexpectedly contracted in March due to high inflation and faltering growth, increasing the country’s odds of slipping into recession much faster than anticipated. 

    Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the economy contracted by .1% in March. For the quarter, growth printed below expectations at 0.8%. Economists widely expected 1% growth for the quarter, but some feared a recession could be just ahead after the miss. Now economists are wondering how deep will the downturn be. 

    “Suddenly, our forecasts that GDP will be flat in both the second quarter and the third quarter seem pretty optimistic. 

    “A contraction in GDP or a recession now feels a bit more likely,” Paul Dales, the chief UK economist at the consultancy Capital Economics, told The Guardian. 

    UK’s monthly GDP growth is slipping into the abyss. 

    In March alone, automobile sales plunged 15.1%, resulting in an overall 0.2% decline in services output. 

    UK recession threats come as stagnation and inflation have unleashed what some are saying is stagflation. 

    Last week, the Bank of England said a recession is likely to hit next year, while the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said earlier this week a recession would emerge in the second half of this year. 

    Paul Dales, the chief UK economist at Capital Economics, was quoted by the business newspaper City A.M. as saying new ONS figures suggest a recession by the third quarter. He said a slump in discretionary spending “is particularly ominous,” given household incomes have deteriorated at one of the fastest rates ever due to high inflation (now at 7% and could go much higher). 

    Bloomberg data shows the Bank of England is on an aggressive hiking path this summer to quell inflation. Hiking into a downturn will add even more pressure on households’ finances. The BoE current target interest rate is 1%, and rate traders believe the central bank will hike through year’s end to reach 2%. 

    Recession fears sent the pound to a two-year low. Meanwhile, the dollar hits two-decade highs and continues to benefit from bets of aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

    A combination of higher energy prices, a slumping pound, faltering economic growth, weak households, trade restrictions on Russia, and overall elevated inflation have produced a toxic environment for the UK economy that may suggest it’s on the verge of a nasty recession. 

    Summing it all up: UK is the ‘most miserable’ since 1994!

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/13/2022 – 02:45

  • Russia Prepares To Cut Gas Supplies To Finland On Friday: Local Media
    Russia Prepares To Cut Gas Supplies To Finland On Friday: Local Media

    Authored by Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com,

    Hours after Moscow warned there would be retaliation for Helsinki’s announcement that it is applying for NATO membership, Finnish media reports that the Kremlin threatened to cut the country off from Russian gas by Friday. Citing unnamed sources, Finland’s Iltalehti reported the Russian warning to politicians, who refrained from specific comment. 

    Prior to this warning, the local media outlet noted expectations that Finland would be cut off from Russian gas after May 23rd, when its next contract payment with Gazprom comes due and the country refuses to pay in rubles. In late April, Russia cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria for refusing to pay in accordance with the Kremlin’s ruble scheme.

    AFP via Getty images

    Speaking to Iltalehti on Thursday, Finnish Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen said he could not confirm the warning.

    Parliamentary group chairman Ville Tavio told Iltalehti that working groups had been informed of “various scenarios of Russia’s retaliation”, noting that preparations have already been made.  

    Between 60% and 70% of Finland’s natural gas comes from Russia, though the country’s main sources of energy are oil, biomass and nuclear power, with natural gas representing only 5% of the total consumption. According to the Finnish government, renewable energy surpassed fossil fuels and peat in total energy consumption in 2020, leaving the country less dependent on Russian energy sources.

    On Thursday, Finland announced their intention to apply for fast-tracked NATO membership due to Russian aggression in Ukraine. Sweden is expected to make its announcement in the coming days, according to the Associated Press. 

    “Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay,” President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said. “We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days.”

    Russia has also threatened “military-technical” retaliation against Finland if it joins NATO. 

    “Russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps, both of a military-technical and other nature, in order to stop the threats to its national security that arise in this regard,” the Russian foreign ministry said.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 05/13/2022 – 02:00

  • Chinese Officials More Willing To Betray The CCP, Leak Information: Australian Spy Chief
    Chinese Officials More Willing To Betray The CCP, Leak Information: Australian Spy Chief

    Authored by Daniel Y. Teng via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The head of Australia’s foreign spy agency has hinted that disgruntled officials in non-democratic societies, like China, are more likely to betray their government and leak information as the regimes tighten their control.

    Chinese police officers wearing masks stand in front of the Tiananmen Gate on January 26, 2020 in Beijing, China.(Betsy Joles/Getty Images)

    Paul Symon, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Service (ASIS)—the country’s equivalent to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency—revealed that the organisation benefited when authoritarian regimes are suppressing dissent within their borders.

    “When leaders abolish fixed political terms, for example, they become responsible and accountable for everything, including the disillusion that emerges from within. This provides us with an edge,” he told the Lowy Institute in Sydney on the 70th anniversary of the agency’s founding.

    “We noticed that in closed societies, top officials will always reinforce leaders’ biases and assumptions. That after all, is the safest career path for them, speaking truth to power is an enduring strength of our system,” he said in reference to democratic system.

    Symon then said he believed more and more officials “unhappy with the trajectory of closed societies” would start speaking out or “take risks” to do so.

    The spy chief said that while he was travelling in India he would reflect on the “diversity in the colour of the ancient culture which is India” and yet, in China, authorities have enforced a “monoculture.”

    “We don’t yet know exactly how that will play out, but what we’re seeing is more and more signs of officials and individuals interested in a relationship,” he said referring to the increasing number of people who are seeking to have a relationship with ASIS.

    “That is a very real concern about their culture, the lack of diversity in their culture, and the direction that they’re heading.”

    The revelations from the head of ASIS follow that of the 2019 defection of Wang Liqiang, a former Chinese military intelligence in Australia.

    Wang gave details of how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was funding efforts to undermine the democratic movement in Hong Kong, meddle in Taiwan’s elections, and infiltrate Australia’s political circles.

    His decision to defect came about after much consideration and when he gradually realised the “damage that the CCP’s authoritarianism was doing to democracy and human rights.”

    “My opposition to the Party and communism became ever-clearer, so I made plans to leave this organization,” he said, noting that his time in Australia allowed him to experience democratic freedoms, and become “more ashamed of what the CCP was doing to undermine democracy around the world.”

    “So I decided to completely abandon my work and make a clean break with the party.”

    Meanwhile, the head of ASIS also gave an insight into what type of intelligence (or gems) his agents try to obtain.

    “The intent of countries, the intentions of leaders, they’re the gems, they’re the edge that—in our national interest—our political leaders and policymakers need some context around,” he said.

    Symon also said there were two ways to obtain that sort of intel, and one was through the ill-discipline of a country or regime’s leaders in the way they communicate—pointing to how Russian media outlets have operated during the Ukraine War.

    The other was via a combination of human and signals intelligence.

    “[Human intelligence] is designed to provide that access to the intentions of leaders, and really that is the sort of edge that I’m talking about. It’s not the material that you will see in the open domain,” he added. “It’s something special for which we have to work very, very hard to find.”

    Symon also revealed that ASIS had dispatched a small team to assist with the evacuation of Australians in Kabul, Afghanistan when the Taliban were seizing control.

    The spy chief visited Honiara in the Solomon Islands last month with his counterpart from the Office of National Intelligence, Andrew Shearer, to discuss concerns around the security deal penned with the Chinese regime.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 23:40

  • 'Finland Will Be A NATO Backwater': Russia Threatens "Military & Technical" Measures If It Enters
    ‘Finland Will Be A NATO Backwater’: Russia Threatens “Military & Technical” Measures If It Enters

    A Kremlin spokesman earlier in the day warned that Finland joining NATO would “definitely” be a threat that would trigger “retaliatory steps” – but stopped short of identifying specific possible courses of action. “NATO is moving toward us. That’s of course why all of this will warrant a special analysis and the development of necessary measures needed to balance the situation and guarantee our security,” the initial Kremlin response stated.

    Later in the day Thursday – a number of hours after Finland’s president Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced the country will apply for NATO membership “without delay” – Russian Ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov elaborated on Moscow’s likely response in an interview with Sky News.

    “Russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps, both of military and other nature, in order to curtail the threats that arise to its national security in this regard,” Chizhov stressed in the interview when asked about its neighbor Finland as well as Sweden applying to NATO.

    Image: Sky News

    The two countries first sent strong signals regarding this complete U-turn in historic policy last month in response to Russia’s ongoing military aggression against Ukraine.

    The Russian ambassador said further in the UK television interview that he’s “deeply disappointed and saddened” by the development, while saying in a somewhat condescending tone that Finland has been “pushing above its weight, having become in the last few decades a major power in promoting European security architecture.”

    Further he said the Scandinavian neighbor which shares an 810-mile border with Russia would inevitably become a “NATO backwater” if it does move forward in entering the military alliance. Sky News also quoted Chizov as explaining the following possible change in defense posture:

    The ambassador said such a move would “certainly necessitate rethinking of Russian defence posture” but wouldn’t “necessarily [involve] troops and tanks, but certain preparations definitely… like radars, perhaps”.

    Russia’s UN ambassador also warned of military consequences in a Thursday statement:

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    And as for “technical measures” – it could begin here…

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    So now the Kremlin appears to be threatening the very thing that Finland fears that it says it must joint NATO to prevent in the first place… but Russia is doing so in response to the possibility that Finland will joint NATO, ironically enough in circular tit-for-tat.

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    “NATO membership would strengthen Finland’s security. As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defense alliance,” Finland’s leaders said in a joint Thursday morning statement.

    Another question now remains: will Americans or other lead NATO countries and their populations in the alliance be willing to go to war with nuclear-armed Russia in order to defend Finland?

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 23:20

  • Victor Davis Hanson: Imagine The Unimaginable
    Victor Davis Hanson: Imagine The Unimaginable

    Op-Ed authored by Victor Davis Hanson via The Epoch Times,

    Americans are now entering uncharted, revolutionary territory. They may witness things over the next five months that once would have seemed unimaginable.

    Haitian migrants, part of a group of over 10,000 people staying in an encampment on the U.S. side of the border, cross the Rio Grande river to get food and water in Mexico, after another crossing point was closed near the Acuna Del Rio International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 19, 2021. (Paul Ratje/AFP via Getty Images)

    Until the Ukrainian conflict, we had never witnessed a major land war inside Europe directly involving a nuclear power.

    In desperation, Russia’s impaired and unhinged leader, Russian President Vladimir Putin, now talks trash about the likelihood of nuclear war.

    A 79-year-old President Joe Biden bellows back that his war-losing nuclear adversary is a murderer, a war criminal, and a butcher who should be removed from power.

    After a year of politicizing the U.S. military and its self-induced catastrophe in Afghanistan, America has lost deterrence abroad. China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia are conniving how best to exploit this rare window of global military opportunity.

    The traditional bedrocks of the American system—a stable economy, energy independence, vast surpluses of food, hallowed universities, a professional judiciary, law enforcement, and a credible criminal justice system—are dissolving.

    Gas and diesel prices are hitting historic levels. Inflation is at a 40-year high. New cars and homes are unaffordable. The necessary remedy of high interest and tight money will be almost as bad as the disease of hyperinflation.

    There is no southern border.

    Expect over 1 million foreign nationals to swarm this summer into the United States without audit, COVID testing, or vaccination. None will have any worry of consequences for breaking U.S. immigration law.

    Police are underfunded and increasingly defunded. District attorneys deliberately release violent criminals without charges. (Literally 10,000 people witnessed a deranged man with a knife attack comedian Dave Chappelle on stage at the Hollywood Bowl last week, and the Los Angeles County D.A. refused to press felony charges.) Murder and assault are spiraling. Carjacking and smash-and-grab thefts are now normal big-city events.

    Crime is now mostly a political matter. Ideology, race, and politics determine whether the law is even applied.

    Supermarket shelves are thinning, and meats are now beyond the budgets of millions of Americans. An American president—in a first—casually warns of food shortages. Baby formula has disappeared from many shelves.

    Politics are resembling the violent last days of the Roman Republic. An illegal leak of a possible impending Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade that would allow state voters to set their own abortion laws has created a national hysteria.

    Never has a White House tacitly approved mobs of protesters showing up at Supreme Court justices’ homes to rant and bully them into altering their votes.

    There is no free speech any more on campuses.

    Merit is disappearing. Admissions, hiring, promotion, retention, grading, and advancement are predicated increasingly on mouthing the right orthodoxies or belonging to the proper racial, gender, or ethnic category.

    When the new campus commissariat finally finishes absorbing the last redoubts in science, math, engineering, medical, and professional schools, America will slide into permanent mediocrity and irreversible declining standards of living.

    What happened?

    Remember all these catastrophes are self-induced. They are choices, not fate. The United States has the largest combined gas, coal, and oil deposits in the world. It possesses the know-how to build the safest pipelines and to ensure the cleanest energy development on the planet.

    Inflation was a deliberate Biden choice. For short-term political advantage, he kept printing trillions of dollars, incentivizing labor non-participation, and keeping interest rates at historical lows—at a time of pent-up global demand.

    The administration wanted no border. Only that way can politicized, impoverished immigrants repay left-wing undermining of the entire legal immigration system with their fealty at the ballot box.

    Once esoteric, crack-pot academic theories—“modern monetary theory,” critical legal theory, critical race theory—now dominate policymaking in the Biden administration.

    The common denominator in all of this is ideology overruling empiricism, common sense, and pragmatism. Ruling elites would rather be politically correct failures and unpopular than politically incorrect, successful, and popular.

    Is it not the tired story of left-wing revolutionaries from 18th-century France to early 20th-century Russia to the contemporary disasters in Cuba and Venezuela?

    The American people reject the calamitous policies of 2021–2022. Yet the radical cadres surrounding a cognitively inert Biden still push them through by executive orders, bureaucratic directives, and deliberate cabinet nonperformance.

    Why? The Left has no confidence either in constitutional government or common sense.

    So as the public pushes back, expect at the ground level more doxxing, cancel culture, deplatforming, ministries of disinformation, swarming the private homes of officials they target for bullying, and likely violent demonstrations in our streets this summer.

    Meanwhile, left-wing elites will do their best to ignore Supreme Court decisions, illegally cancel student debts, and likely by the fall issue more COVID lockdowns. They will still dream of packing the Court, ending the filibuster, scrapping the Electoral College, adding more states, and flooding the November balloting with hundreds of millions more dollars of dark money from Silicon Valley.

    When revolutionaries undermine the system, earn the antipathy of the people, and face looming disaster at the polls, it is then they prove most dangerous—as we shall see over the next few months.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 23:00

  • US Casinos Have Best Month In History With $5.3 Billion Take
    US Casinos Have Best Month In History With $5.3 Billion Take

    In yet another sign that the pandemic is over (despite world leaders insisting it’s not), American casinos had their best month in history in March, with a $5.3 billion take. The numbers do not include tribal casinos which report income separately.

    According to the American Gaming Association, March was the best month ever for US commercial casinos, beating the previous record of $4.92 billion set in July 2021.

    Meanwhile, casinos also had their best first quarter ever, with three states setting revenue records to start the year; Arkansas ($147.4 million); Florida ($182 million), and New York ($996.6 million), according to ABC News.

    “Consumers continue to seek out gaming’s entertainment options in record numbers,” said AGA president Bill Miller, who says the strong performance came “despite continued headwinds from supply chain constraints, labor shortages and the impact of soaring inflation.”

    The trade group also released its annual State of the States report on Wednesday, examining gambling’s performance across the country.

    As previously reported, nationwide casino revenue set an all-time high in 2021 at $53.03 billion, up 21% from the previous best year, 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

    But the report includes new details, including that commercial casinos paid a record $11.69 billion in direct gambling tax revenue to state and local governments in 2021. That’s an increase of 75% from 2020 and 15 percent from 2019. This does not include the billions more paid in income, sales and other taxes, the association said.

    The top three casino markets in the US in terms of revenue for 2021 were: 

    Las Vegas: $7.05 billion

    Atlantic City: $2.57 billion

    Chicago $2.01 billion

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 22:40

  • How To Prepare For Food Shortages, Hard Times On A Shoestring Budget: Preppers' Advice
    How To Prepare For Food Shortages, Hard Times On A Shoestring Budget: Preppers’ Advice

    By Allan Stein of The Epoch Times,

    Most people don’t bother to prepare for uncertain times until it’s too late. It’s the “ant and the grasshopper” parable written on a human scale.

    “The problem is that while fear is a great motivator, it isn’t conducive to smart decisions,” said Diane Vukovic at Primalsurvivor.com, an online personal preparedness website.

    “No matter how terrified you are about a certain event happening, you still need to go about prepping in a calm, logical way,” Vukovic told The Epoch Times.

    A storage room stacked with food is seen at a preppers ranch in Mathias, West Virginia, on March 13, 2020.

    Once considered a fringe “conspiracy theory,” the idea of preparedness has gone mainstream as global events unfold. Many online “preppers” have said that only a small percentage of Americans prepare for potential food shortages and civil unrest. However, the concern among would-be preppers on a limited income is the cost of preparing in an inflationary environment.

    The good news is that prepping is still relatively inexpensive to do, Vukovic said.

    “Chances are you don’t need an expensive gas mask, bulletproof vest, or other hyped-up survival gear. You’ll see that most preparedness supplies are very cheap,” Vukovic said.

    Rule number one is don’t buy out of fear or panic.

    “I suggest writing a list of the most likely disasters for your area. For most people in the United States these will be earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and power outages. Then, make a list of what items you would need to be prepared for these disasters,” she said.

    What’s On The Menu?

    Prepperwebsite.com host Todd Sepulveda recommends budget-minded preppers start with a menu of necessary items such as dry food and canned goods, which are still plentiful at the grocery store.

    “People trying to prep their food storage sometimes go to the grocery store and start buying random items. Later, they have to try and figure out how it will all work together and put dinner together,” Sepulveda told The Epoch Times.

    “Starting from a menu takes out all the guesswork and ensures that you won’t buy unnecessary items at the grocery store.”

    Sepulveda advises making a one-week menu of breakfast, lunch, and dinner of what your family usually eats, making a grocery list, and keeping a clean copy for the following week.

    Empty shelves for pasta are seen at a supermarket on Jan. 13, 2022, in Monterey Park, California.

    “If you want to stock up a month’s worth of food at one time, just quadruple your list,” Sepulveda said. “You can bring more variety to your family food storage if you make a two-week menu and double that. That way, you are not eating the same foods every week.”

    Food storage isn’t hard and doesn’t have to be expensive—”you just need to plan it out,” Sepulveda said.

    Other websites that cater to preppers of all experience levels include Graywolf Survival, Apartment Prepper, Bioprepper, Mom With A Prepper, The Prepared, and many others.

    These sites cover a full range of topics on disaster preparedness—from creating emergency kits and bug-out bags, medical and first-aid supplies, water filtration, cooking without electricity, solar power, and living off-grid.

    “Even if you have zero money to spend, you still have a budget—it’s just zero. And, yes, it is possible to prepare with absolutely no money,” Vukovic said.

    She said once you have a list of everything you need, prioritize the items—trash bags and buckets, for example, are inexpensive or even free.

    “To make sure you don’t forget anything important, divide your list into categories. As you buy supplies, make sure you get items from each category.

    The critical supplies categories include food and water, water purification, health and hygiene, heating, lighting, electricity, disaster cleanup, personal safety, and emergency radio communications.

    Live Within Your Means

    Even if you have no money for prepping, you’ll need to know about wilderness survival and how to make supplies even on a shoestring budget.

    “For example, you can get free buckets from local stores. In an emergency, these buckets could then be used for things like collecting rainwater or making an emergency toiler, which is incredibly important but something a lot of people forget about,” Vukovic said.

    If you have a small budget, divide your list into expensive items: propane camp stove, propane heater, personal safety, and inexpensive items such as canned food, tarps, tape, and bleach.

    “Buy a few inexpensive items every week and set aside a certain amount of money each week or month to go towards pricier items,” Vukovic said. “Consider shopping at thrift stores, flea markets, and yard sales for lower prices on gently used items.”

    For those fortunate to have a large budget, Vukovic recommends that beginning preppers resist the urge to buy “fancy” or “cool” gear and supplies at the outset.

    “Instead, do your research and invest in quality items that have good reviews [or] come highly recommended by those who have used the item. Otherwise, you might find the item you bought is unsuitable for your needs and have to buy another,” Vukovic said.

    It’s also important to back up all essential documents in a significant life-altering event, she said.

    “Having backups of your important documents might not be a life-or-death issue, but it will make the aftermath of a disaster much less stressful,” Vukovic said.

    “For example, if your entire home is destroyed in a fire, knowing your insurance policy number and having a list of valuables in the home will make it easier to get a refund.

    “Likewise, if your children had to switch schools after a disaster, you’d be grateful you backed-up copies of their school records.”

    Backing up your documents can be done cheaply or at no cost, she added.

    “You can put them on an encrypted USB and keep this in a bank safe or other secure location. There are also some secure cloud storage platforms you can use,” Vukovic said.

    “While you are at it, back up all of your family photos. If your home is destroyed, at least you won’t lose all of your children’s baby photos and other memories.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 22:20

  • Vacation Canceled For Chicago PD After Nearly 1,000 Cops Quit Last Year
    Vacation Canceled For Chicago PD After Nearly 1,000 Cops Quit Last Year

    In anticipation of violence over memorial day weekend, Chicago has canceled vacation for all officers going into the holiday.

    According to ABC7 which obtained an internal CPD memo, all days off are being canceled for one full week between May 24 and 31. Officers may also be placed on 12-hour work shifts during that time “if operational needs arise.”

    CPD has increased staffing levels at times in recent years after especially high-crime weekends, but typically canceling just one day off across ranks. According to the police department order, the upcoming holiday will require that officers work straight through their regularly scheduled off days. -ABC7

    “The escape from this job and the tragic things we see on a daily basis, to be able to go on vacation or even just spend time with your family at a barbecue, it is decompression time that is sorely needed,” said John Catanzara, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police.

    The notice comes as data reveals more officers left CPD than joined in 2019 and 2020 – with 900 leaving last year vs. just 51 who joined the force.

    “In theory, we are probably 2,000-plus under our all-time high,” said Catanzara. “That doesn’t make anybody safe, that doesn’t make the streets safer which the last two years of homicide numbers show. That doesn’t make our officers any safer, it leads to exhaustion.”

    Joining the union in outrage is activist priest Father Michael Pfleger,

    “What are we going to do? We need more police,” he said. “Offer the good ones incentives. Yes, we have a shortage. My area, Englewood and Auburn Gresham, is in need. We need officers who are not exhausted. These are good officers who are exhausted.”

    And according to CPD Chief Brendan Deenihan, “We definitely need help, and I have no doubt that there are people out there that, they know exactly who these offenders are.”

    Last weekend, at least 24 people were shot and 6 died across Chicago.

     

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 22:00

  • Hong Kong's FX Move Spurs "Asymmetric" Rate Bet
    Hong Kong’s FX Move Spurs “Asymmetric” Rate Bet

    By Ye Xie, Bloomberg Markets Live commentator and reporter

    This week has been dominated by the turmoil in the cryptocurrency world where Tether, the top stablecoin, is struggling to defend its peg to the dollar. In contrast, in the traditional-finance world, Hong Kong’s first currency intervention in three years seems rather more mundane.

    As the peg-defending mechanism kicks in, Hong Kong’s borrowing costs rise to catch up with those in the US. Bank of America’s strategists see betting on a widening rate differential between the two as one way to profit from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s operation.

    While Hong Kong’s move to defend the weaker end of its 7.75-7.85-per-dollar peg Wednesday – the first such move since 2019 – sounds like a big deal, it’s not. It’s how a currency peg is supposed to work. When the local dollar falls to the weaker end of the trading band, the HKMA steps in as the buyer of the last resort. Meanwhile, it drains liquidity in the banking system, boosting borrowing costs to attract demand for local dollars until the currency supply-demand balance restores.

    Even if it’s routine, there are trading opportunities around. Bank of America’s strategists, for instance, see betting on higher local rates as an “asymmetric” play. The strategists, led by Chun Him Cheung, earlier this week recommended clients bet that the two-year Hong Kong swap rate will move higher relative to the U.S., targeting a move to 60 bps from 29 bps currently.

    Under the currency peg system, Hong Kong’s monetary policy is tied to the U.S. When the U.S. raises rates, the HKMA needs to follow. Compared with the previous tightening cycle in 2018-2019, the HKMA may have to boost rates at a faster pace, because its aggregate balance, a measure of excess liquidity in the interbank system, is much larger. Meanwhile, a fair amount of Fed rate hikes has already been priced in, meaning that the Hong Kong rates have more room to play catch-up.

    In addition, Hong Kong rates are also exposed to risks that can result in a spike, including the yuan weakness and potential financial sanctions stemming from U.S.-China tensions. Already, Hong Kong dollar volatility has started to move higher, like everywhere else. The currency volatility may well spill over to interest rates.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 21:39

  • RVs Recalled For Fire Risk, Though Manufacturers Have Yet To Alert Public  
    RVs Recalled For Fire Risk, Though Manufacturers Have Yet To Alert Public  

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a recall for 37 RV models built between 2021 and 2022 by eight RV manufacturers because faulty quick disconnect fittings in the LP gas system could increase fire risk. 

    RV Travel says the recall was “quietly announced” by NHTSA, and the affected RV factories have yet to alert dealers or owners. Letters to customers are expected to be mailed out by July 1. 

    The heart of the problem is gas fittings with contaminated brass that can easily crack when torqued down. This could result in a gas leak, and an ignition source, such as a campfire, could result in a fire, or worse, an explosion, leading to injury or death. 

    A total of eight manufacturers outfitted thousands of RVs with faulty quick disconnect LP fittings. They include KZRV, DRV, Cruiser, Heartland, Thor, Jayco, Starcraft, and Highland Ridge. 

    RV Travel says upwards of 22,000 RVs are affected (full list here). 

    So why are RV factories waiting nearly two months to announce the recall? The RV Show USA explains more about this startling development.  

     

     

     

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 21:20

  • Starbucks Union Scores First Wins In California, Organizers Say 'Floodgates Open'
    Starbucks Union Scores First Wins In California, Organizers Say ‘Floodgates Open’

    Authored by Jake Johnson via Common Dreams,

    Employees at two Starbucks locations in Santa Cruz, California won union elections on Wednesday, scoring the rapidly spreading movement’s first victories in the nation’s most populous state even as management intensifies its efforts to stamp out worker organizing.

    The groundbreaking victories, like many of the Starbucks union’s wins thus far, were nearly unanimous. The Ocean and Water location in Santa Cruz voted 13-1 in favor of joining Workers United—the national union representing Starbucks workers—and the Mission and Dufour shop voted 15-2 in support of unionization. “Let the floodgates open in California,” Casey Moore, a spokesperson and organizer with Workers United, said during a news conference.

    Image: AP

    Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) congratulated the Starbucks workers in a Twitter post, calling the union votes “a major victory.”

    “Unions are the counterweight to corporate power,” Khanna wrote. “It’s time for Starbucks to pay fair wages and treat every worker with dignity and respect.”

    The union wins in California signal that organizing momentum is still growing at a remarkable pace amid aggressive pushback from management: More than 60 Starbucks locations nationwide have voted to unionize since the first union wins in December, and hundreds more have filed representation petitions with the National Labor Relations Board.

    In an attempt to undercut the organizing wave, Starbucks in recent weeks has fired workers closely involved in unionization efforts, slashed hours at locations across the country, and threatened to deny new benefits and wage increases to employees who have voted or are in the process of voting to unionize.

    The company’s union-busting has drawn pushback from the NLRB. Last week, the labor board filed a massive complaint accusing Starbucks of unlawful intimidation and other offenses in Buffalo, New York.

    On Tuesday, the NLRB asked a federal court in Tennessee to order Starbucks to reinstate seven Memphis workers who were fired as they tried to unionize. The board also said the corporation must “cease its unlawful conduct immediately so that all Starbucks workers can fully and freely exercise their labor rights.”

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    Starbucks is now facing more than 50 formal complaints from the NLRB. In an analysis of NLRB data, Matt Bruenig of the People’s Policy Project projected Wednesday that the Starbucks union is “likely to have 6,384 workers at 228 locations in the next few months” if the current rate of organizing victories continues.

    Bruenig noted that the union has won 90% of the elections at Starbucks locations thus far, consistently receiving 70-80% of the vote. “If these same numbers hold for the 193 open cases where an election has not yet been administered,” Bruenig wrote, “then the Starbucks union will soon win an additional 174 elections and thereby add an additional 4,870 workers to their rolls.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 21:00

  • Chinese Passenger Jet Burst Into Flames After Aborting Takeoff 
    Chinese Passenger Jet Burst Into Flames After Aborting Takeoff 

    China suffered the second aviation accident in months on Thursday when a Tibet Airlines jet carrying 113 passengers plus nine crew aborted takeoff, then veered off the runway and burst into flames, according to Reuters. 

    There were no deaths, and all passengers and crew evacuated the plane as a fire erupted in the front of the aircraft. The airline said pilots observed an “abnormality” during takeoff and aborted.

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    Videos posted on Twitter show the front of the Airbus A319 plane engulfed in flames. 

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    The incident occurred at Chongqing Airport, located in the south-western city of Chongqing to Nyingchi, Tibet. 

    Reuters notes the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said 36 people were taken to the hospital after suffering bruises and sprains. 

    The incident comes almost two months after the deadly March 21 crash of China Eastern Airlines’s Boeing 737-800 that suddenly nosedived and crashed into the ground, killing all 132 people on board. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 20:40

  • Joe Biden Is Threatening Our Freedom Of Movement
    Joe Biden Is Threatening Our Freedom Of Movement

    Authored by Levi Russell via RealClear Energy (emphasis ours),

    The federal gov’t and silicon valley are looking to clamp down on your freedom of movement.

    Your ability to move about as you please does not fit with their goals for the future of our world. Automotive-related freedoms, including access to fuel, allow us to be free to move without the permission of silicon valley and the federal government.

    Automotive freedoms are not only hobby related; they are essential to preventing yet another step along the road to serfdom at the hands of woke corporations and federal bureaucrats.

    (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

    Biden recently signed into law a requirement that all vehicles produced after 2026 be fitted with a remote kill switch. Electric vehicles are already equipped with this capability via internet-connected “superchargers.” These corporations can sell you a product for tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, then prevent you from using them. Worse yet, if the law is not challenged or repealed, these kill switches will have a “back door” that allows government agencies to shut your vehicle off remotely as well.

    With conservatives slowly waking up to the reality that corporate managers are not on our side, this should be among our top concerns. Internal combustion vehicles, so far, are free of the sorts of nanny state controls that are standard on electric vehicles, so preserving our access to gasoline and diesel fuel is an absolute necessity

    Right to repair is also an important issue. It is not, as some techno-authoritarians claim, a simple matter for tinkerers. Rather, it is a critical component of our ability to maintain freedom of movement. Right to repair ensures that we are able to hire independent professionals to repair our vehicles and other products rather than being forced to pay astronomical prices to manufacturers.

    Now that the environmental superiority of electric vehicles is being called into question, the real agenda behind climate hysteria is clear: climate change fear mongers want us poorer and unable to travel and commute as we see fit. As the Biden administration’s intentional policy of high gas prices hits the average American in the pocket book, it’s important to note that the cost of EV batteries is also rising. Subsidized demand for these batteries has led to a massive increase in the prices of conflict minerals, such as lithium and cobalt, that make up these batteries.

    There is no evidence that the actual cost of electric vehicles will be dramatically lower than those of internal combustion vehicles. Currently the average price of an electric vehicle is $56,000. What does this say about your ability to travel freely in the coming years if the federal government effectively bans our use of internal combustion vehicles?

    Further, the left is turning a blind eye to the horrifying human rights record associated with cobalt and lithium mining. Child slavery, extremely poor working conditions, and poisoned rivers are just a few of the problems that plague the extraction of these minerals. One could reasonably ask the Biden administration why the American public is being forced to subsidize the horrifying human rights record associated with the mining of these resources.

    Though the near-magical power of innovation is an article of faith for many, technological change does not always benefit the average person. There is nothing inevitable about these so-called innovations or the politically-driven subsidies that enable them. There is nothing inevitable about the burdens that this technological change will put on the average person. We need only have the courage of our convictions, combined with the backing of knowledgeable groups like the SEMA Action Network, to ensure that we are not forced to subsidize real environmental hazards, human rights abuses, and the restriction of our own freedom of movement.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 20:20

  • Coffee Prices Jump As "Intense New Cold Front" Threatens Top-Producer Brazil
    Coffee Prices Jump As “Intense New Cold Front” Threatens Top-Producer Brazil

    Coffee futures in New York jumped Wednesday as new weather forecasts show the world’s largest producer has increased frost risks in top growing areas. 

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published new forecasts that show low temperatures in Cerrado, Parana state, and Mogiana could record below 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit) by May 16. In the south of Minas Gerais and Guaxupe, temperatures may trend even lower through May 19. All of the regions listed are top-producing areas for arabica beans. 

    Global coffee reporter & independent analyst Maja Wallengren said, “intense new cold front starting to move into all main 2022 Arabica coffee regions in Brazil this week with temp potentially as low as -5 C° from southern Parana, all SM + AM to NW Cerrado + NE Matas in Minas Gerais. R $JO buyers really going to stay short?”

    Arabica futures in New York jumped more than 6% to $2.16 per pound on the news. Prices are up 133% since the COVID-19 low of around $1 per pound and have faded from decade highs of $2.60 in March. 

    The International Coffee Organization (IOC) recently slashed its global 2020/21 supply estimate to a deficit of -3.13 million bags from a 1.2 million bag surplus. 

    Signs of tighter global coffee supplies have pushed prices to decade highs. Elevated coffee prices may not be immediately pushed to the consumer because of hedging by large US importers.

    Starbucks, which buys coffee “12-18 months” ahead, locked-in prices at the lows of early-2021 and are set to expire. This means a cup of coffee at the largest US retail coffee chain could rise further due to supply issues, among the other forms of inflation, such as labor, freight, etc…  

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 20:00

  • The Clean Energy Minerals Reform Act Is The Wrong Solution For American Mining
    The Clean Energy Minerals Reform Act Is The Wrong Solution For American Mining

    Authored by Pete Stauber via RealClear Energy (emphasis ours),

    Everything in this world is either grown or mined, and if we don’t grow it or mine it in America, we import it. Events from the past few years, namely the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have highlighted America’s hunger for metals, including copper, nickel, cobalt, platinum-group elements, and more. Therefore, Congress needs to boost domestic production. Instead, the majority is putting up more arbitrary hurdles, like the so-called Clean Energy Minerals Reform Act.

    (AP Photo/Wayne Parry, file)

    Don’t let the name fool you. This legislation, introduced by Chairman Grijalva (D-AZ) and being considered before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources this week, will make it even harder to access clean energy minerals domestically while furthering our reliance on Russia, China, and the Congo. The bill contains several provisions that contribute to longtime goals of the Left: dissuade investment in mining and choke projects to death with an unpredictable permitting process.

    Talk to any miner, member of the building trades, or industry expert and you’ll hear the same frustration about mining in America: permitting timelines are too long, too uncertain, and incentivize lawsuits and trial lawyers. Take, for example, the PolyMet project in my northern Minnesota District which is approaching two decades of permitting and litigation. PolyMet proposes to mine copper, nickel, cobalt, and more. It has won every lawsuit thrown its way but is still being targeted by the Biden Administration. We cannot wait 20 years to get the nickel we need; not while state-owned Russian companies are dominating the market.

    So, how does the Grijalva bill address our permitting timelines? By adding two more duplicative permit requirements. Adding these permits wouldn’t add just months or years, they could add decades to review. Every permit approval will be met with a lawsuit brought on by an activist group and met with a wink and a nod from a faceless bureaucrat in the Administration, dragging it out further and further. So, instead of PolyMet taking a mere 20 years, it’s a good possibility it could be 40 or 50 years under this Leftist dream.

    The Grijalva bill also puts hardrock mining squarely in the crosshairs by upending the claims system. Hardrock mineral rights are established through mining claims. Companies then drill thousands of exploratory holes to determine if the resource is even economical to develop. Only about 1 in every 1,000 discoveries results in a mine. For example, the Twin Metals project in my district has already invested just shy of $1 billion in a new mine, before even starting the permitting process. The bill considered this week would make it an oil and gas-style leasing system, treating copper like you would natural gas, making it even less economical for companies to invest in American resources.

    And finally, the bill imposes punitive royalties on hardrock mines in America. Every new mine that survives litigation would be subject to a 12.5% royalty. Meanwhile, existing mines aren’t immune either: a functioning mine would owe 8% of everything they extract to the federal government. Hardrock resources cover a wide variety of minerals, occur in unique geologic formations, and all have varying commodity prices. The one-size-fits-all royalty scheme proposed by Chairman Grijalva and President Biden in his Interagency Working Group Recommendations, like upending the claims system, is another bold attempt to shutter investment.

    It makes no sense to subject such a wide variety of minerals to the same, inelastic royalty. For example, lithium in Nevada is derived from a salt brine, while copper and nickel in northern Minnesota will be pulled out of the ground as a solid ore. Meanwhile, mining in Minnesota funds every single school district in the state. If we slap the Grijalva Tax on mines in America, it’ll push companies looking to invest in Minnesota overseas.

    America is facing a metals crisis. We can no longer rely on our foreign adversaries to supply us with the copper, nickel, cobalt, and other minerals we need for modern life. Instead of making it harder to mine American resources, as the Grijalva legislation does, there are steps Congress can take to make America an attractive place for mining.

    First, we need to update the permitting process. It should not take 20 years to develop our natural resources. Reviews should be timely, transparent, and reasonable. We also need to limit the President’s authority to arbitrarily kill projects with the stroke of a pen. Just this past February, Biden chose to cancel the federal leases held by the Twin Metals project that date back to the 1960’s. Legislation I introduced, the Accessing America’s Critical Minerals Act and the Saving America’s Mines Act, would update our permitting process and end the President’s authority to kill mining with the stroke of a pen.

    This week, as Congress considers the so-called Clean Energy Minerals Reform Act, don’t buy the rhetoric. Democrats proposed this legislation to make permitting more difficult and dissuade investment, making our supply chains even more crippled. Let’s instead consider serious proposals that grow mining in America and secure our domestic supply chains.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 19:40

  • Watch: Mansions Ablaze As Wildfire Sweeps Across Orange County Neighborhood
    Watch: Mansions Ablaze As Wildfire Sweeps Across Orange County Neighborhood

    A fast-moving wildfire that broke out Wednesday destroyed at least 20 homes in a ritzy Orange County neighborhood of Laguna Niguel, according to CBS News. 

    The wildfire began around 1444 local time near South Orange County Wastewater Authority’s Coastal Treatment Plant. The fire quickly spread and consumed a community with mansions. 

    As of 0600 local time Thursday, the fire burned 20 homes and scorched 200 acres with zero containment. 

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    Luxury neighborhoods were destroyed. 

    More pictures of mansions burning. 

    Mandatory evacuations were issued for residents of Coronado Pointe and Pacific Island Drive areas. 

    Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy said the fire was driven mostly by the wind in an area with “thick vegetation that has not burned in probably decades.” 

    The cause of the fire is still under investigation. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 19:20

  • No One Understands The Monetary System, And That's Not OK
    No One Understands The Monetary System, And That’s Not OK

    Authored by Joakim Book via BitcoinMagazine.com,

    Bitcoin is freedom money for a century of liberty. But to truly grasp why that is, you need to see what’s wrong with the system it attempts to overthrow…

    Understanding the monetary system is foundational to seeing what’s wrong with the current system and to have a true grasp of Bitcoin and its importance.

    “If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” 

    – Carl Sagan

    Among the first objections that arise for anyone who has just learned about Bitcoin is “this is too complicated to understand.” And it’s true; private keys, block times, difficulty adjustments, UTXOs, uncensorable CoinJoin transactions, hash-something — the learning curve is steep and, for most, the reasons to ascend it seem few and far between.

    The first time I was introduced to Bitcoin in practice (not in theory — techno-babbling libertarians had unsuccessfully pitched me the idea for years), the intimidatingly tech-savvy guy who did so botched the process.

    First, he had me download some shady-looking app — which I didn’t have space for on my phone, and so, ironically, I first had to remove a few podcasts on monetary economics. Second, he had the app generate some random words, and in the absence of pen and paper, had me type them into my phone’s (cloud-saved!) note-taking app. Third, he tried to send me 100,000 sats, but the spotty internet on his phone kept interrupting the process.

    Clearly, I wouldn’t become a convinced Bitcoiner that evening; the hardships of the process seemed altogether useless — the cure worse than the central banking disease it supposedly tried to solve.

    After he had gotten his shit together, and my polite patience having run out a half-dozen times, he finally managed to send the sats — and triumphantly expressed “See, see! This transaction happened without anybody knowing! And nobody could stop it!”

    Not impressed, I pulled out a $5 dollar bill, handed it to him and mockingly imitated his triumph: “See, see! That happened without anybody knowing, and nobody could stop us from doing it!”

    Bearer assets are nothing new in the history of money and all he had convinced me of was that bitcoin was some complicated digital way of doing that. But if the tech-raptured can’t effortlessly do it, what hope is there for you and me? And you’re disintermediating a banking system, the purpose of which is to efficiently and securely make payments, and to make lending and borrowing possible. Nobody was trying to stop anybody’s payments — what was this guy on about?

    It would be years before I would see those troubles of the current fiat payment networks. 

    WHAT’S AMAZING ABOUT BITCOIN IS NOT THAT IT’S DIGITAL

    On the Bitcoin 2021 stage, Alex Gladstein wanted to illustrate the simplicity of using bitcoin by sending sats in real time to Strike’s fundraising campaign for Bitcoin development. It was eerily similar to the Bitcoin zealot I described above:

    Gladstein: “So I’m on the Strike page, right here, and I’m going to go ahead and donate, you know, two dollars’ worth of bitcoin, to Strike … It is going to go … and it’s gone. That’s a bearer asset that has just moved instantly around the world. And, I didn’t ask permission from anybody.” 

    Gladstein succeeded much better in illustrating a (Lightning) payment than the guy who first tried to send me bitcoin all those years ago. Naturally, the audience “woah”-ed and applauded, but the informed critic could equally well have responded with “Yes, and? Venmo does that too.”

    In an episode for the “Bitcoin Magazine Podcast,” Mark Maraia explained his approach to “onboarding boomers” — that demographic with money, time and a healthy fear of government overreach, yet not exactly known for their advanced technological know-how. “Forget all the theory,” Maraia says, pointing to everyday items like computers or iPhones — do you honestly know how they work? “I have absolutely no clue,” he says, and adds crucially that “That’s OK!”

    His quip is nice and comforting: nobody understands technology X, and that’s fine, because we see what technology X does and we can use it. Similarly, if you don’t understand Bitcoin, that’s still OK.

    Except that it’s not.

    Understanding what Bitcoin can do for you — its use case — requires you to understand the incumbent monetary system. Unlike a phone, a car or a computer, there is no visible value-add in using bitcoin for a middle-of-the-road Westerner who has never been sanctioned, never done anything illegal, never tried to buy goods or services that a payment processor or government disapproves of, has their salaries (and savings!) indexed to inflation, don’t understand why recessions happen and (on a government payroll at least) don’t suffer from them, or what central banks do or where money comes from.

    I don’t need to understand any of the underlying tech in a phone to see how I might use it and how it could assist my life. In contrast, Bitcoin’s value-add is tied up with its “compared-to-what” alternative in the incumbent monetary system that 99% of us never think about, never cause us any payment-related troubles and we consequently pay no attention to.

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    A Visa card in Apple Pay can “instantly” pay for things halfway across the world too. For international transfers, Wise or Revolut or a plethora of fintechs can move bank money across the world in seconds.

    Tech is not the thing. Digital is not the value-add.

    Of course, most Bitcoiners know that the Visa-Wise-Apple-Pay analogy is faulty. And my guy could have made Saifedean Ammous’ argument that bitcoin has salability across space, which my $5 bill lacks. But to understand much of what sets bitcoin apart you need to go well into the monetary plumbing weeds. What happens when we make a bank payment? What is money?

    International transfers or bank-issued Visa cards require identification in a way bitcoin doesn’t; they don’t provide final settlement (payments can be revoked later); bank transfers are often deferred net settlements (though real-time gross settlement payments are rolled out in more and more central bank payment networks). Funds in Venmo or PayPal or other lower layers of the dollar banking system are permissioned, in the sense that any of the half-dozen entities required for a payment to be successful could block it — for innocent technical reasons or more malign control/authoritarian reasons.

    Thinking that an effortless Venmo payment is akin to an on-chain bitcoin transfer because they look and “feel” the same, is a rather elementary error to make. They’re both digital; they both involve “money,” whatever that means; they both allow for transfer of value from one place to another. But in order to understand why they are different, you — like the Carl Sagan quote above — must first explain the whole monetary system: where it can go wrong, what it relies on, how new money enters into it, what banks do, which entities have the power to block, delay, inspect or charge fees for transactions, what you’re risking by passively holding a constantly depreciating currency.

    To Gladstein’s credit, he has an understanding of the banking realities of the bottom billion that dwarfs any payment troubles that most Westerners have ever encountered. But the average nocoiner doesn’t. Which is why we routinely get news articles where some clever-by-half financial journalist lumps together bitcoin with stablecoins, with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Or when the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board says that CBDCs make the need for bitcoin or stablecoins obsolete: they’re all the same, really — new, hip, digital ways of storing and moving what seems to be valuable things.

    The Fed is here to help steward the dollar system, so once its own fancy-sounding technical solution is in place, there could be no need for private options. And “programmable money” sounds amazing — at least until the programming of the not-so-kind programmer stops you from purchasing what you require.

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    From Gita Gopinath at the IMF, we learn that the Russia-Ukraine debacle “would also spur the adoption of digital finance, from cryptocurrencies to stablecoins and central bank digital currencies.”

    What about the conflict could possibly spur anything but bitcoin? Finance is already digital. Fiat bank money is already digital. The Fed adjusts the monetary base, digitally, through purchases and sales of assets via its New York Fed branch. The dollar is already discretionary and permissioned, controlled, regulated and surveilled. What does a central bank digital currency (CBDC) bring to the table?

    If anything, it would make the politicization of banking-related problems on both sides of the Donetsk battlefield worse, with even more control by authoritarians who want to mandate what people may or may not do with “their” money. You don’t need a blockchain or a token to do 99% of what cryptocurrency projects attempt to do — and the ones that appear to do something useful, don’t do that better than Bitcoin.

    Beyond the first few hours and days, before international transfers could comfortably arrive to Ukraine’s banks in bulk, there was nothing that “cryptocurrencies” broadly speaking could do for Ukraine; its problem was real, not monetary. Help fleeing refugees smuggle out their savings against a hostile banking system? Sure, bitcoin always excelled at that, but how would a CBDC, issued and governed by the National Bank of Ukraine fare? Or worse, Ripple, whose CEO proudly stated:

    “To clear any confusion – RippleNet (while being able to do much more than just messaging a la SWIFT) abides by international law and OFAC sanctions. Period, full stop.” 

    Instead of being the permissionless, uncensorable, F-U money that bitcoin aspires to, its cryptocurrency “competitors” proudly uphold censorship and government sanctions: 

    “RippleNet, for example, has always been – and remains today – committed to NOT working with sanctioned banks or countries that are restricted counterparties. Ripple and our customers support and enforce OFAC laws and KYC/AML.”

    Complying with authoritarian sanctions is the opposite of what freedom money does.

    I repeat: Tech is not the thing. Digital is not the value-add.

    The value-add of Bitcoin is the liberty and independence that comes with holding your own money outright — unencumbered by a bank, a payment processor, a financial regulator or a tax man. It’s no longer being subject to the whimsical demands of your authoritarian ruler, democratically-elected or not. It’s to no longer suffer the asinine consequences of the monetary excesses that the dollar’s current stewards have so catastrophically botched.

    Bitcoin is freedom money for a century of liberty. But to truly grasp why that is, you need to see what’s wrong with the system it attempts to overthrow.

    Understanding how the fiat monetary system works is fundamental to understanding Bitcoin.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 19:00

  • CCP Calls Meeting Of Chinese Tech Giants As Investors Hope For End To Crackdown
    CCP Calls Meeting Of Chinese Tech Giants As Investors Hope For End To Crackdown

    As far as we know, President Xi has suspended his “common prosperity” crackdown on China’s biggest tech companies. And now, investors will be watching closely to see how the CCP reconciles collapsing domestic markets (hammered by its brutal lockdowns in Shanghai and other cities, and also by the weakening yuan which has revived fears about inflation and a domestic debt death-spiral) with its hopes to promote stability.

    Bloomberg reports that China’s top tech-sector regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, will join the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and business executives including Baidu founder Robin Li, as they plan to host a forum next week with some of the nation’s largest private-sector firms (including, as we mentioned, Baidu) in an event that will be closely scrutinized by investors as they look for indications about whether Beijing is planning to dial back its stimulus.

    Although officially the conference is focused on the broader theme of developing China’s digital economy, investors will likely watch for signs of whether Beijing intends to wind down its year-long crackdown on the tech sector.

    Shares in Chinese heavyweights Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba Group pared earlier losses on Thursday morning in Hong Kong.

    Sentiment toward the industry has swung wildly in recent weeks, with companies from Tencent to Jack Ma’s Alibaba surging April 29 after China’s top leaders issued a sweeping set of pledges to boost economic stimulus.

    To be sure, it’s unclear whether next week’s forum will trigger policy changes or easing, the people said. The timing could also shift, given the difficulty of organizing a major conference while cities from Beijing to Shanghai grapple with shifting COVID lockdowns. Delegates will attend virtually as well as in person, depending on role and location. Representatives for Baidu didn’t respond to requests for comment, while calls to the CPPCC’s news office weren’t returned.

    As we noted last year, this would be welcome news after a brutal 2021 that saw Beijing curb gaming time for minors, outlawed profits in swaths of the online education sector, forced companies from Alibaba and Meituan to – most infamously – Didi to make serious changes to their business or face serious punishments in a sector that had enjoyed mostly unfettered freedoms for years.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 18:40

  • The Gospel Of Nancy Pelosi
    The Gospel Of Nancy Pelosi

    As journalist and geopolitical pundit Dave DeCamp quipped of House Speaker Pelosi’s Tuesday night floor speech urging support for the $40 billion Ukraine aid bill that was later approved: “You know the story, when Jesus turned a few loaves of bread and a few fish into billions of dollars worth of Javelins, Stingers, and heavy artillery using US taxpayer dollars.”

    We too hope that no Raytheon or Lockheed Martin executives injure themselves laughing at this. This is the Gospel according to Nacy Pelosi…

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    Now for just two more quick clips.

    Currently, on the streets of Philly (or insert a number of other American cities and failing key infrastructure here)…

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    And now President Joe Biden’s fiery sermonizing on Wednesday at a labor union convention in Chicago—

    Insulting his predecessor Trump as the “Great MAGA king” – Biden began shouting about food shortages that are supposedly in the past while somehow oblivious to the current dire reality and fast ratcheting crisis under his administration…

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    As for the $40 billion in Ukraine aid, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky has appropriately blasted it, pointing out, “Congress has spent almost $500 per US family to support the war in Ukraine. The money isn’t being borrowed, it’s being printed, and the result will be more inflation.”

    “Wages can’t be increased enough to make up the difference because the money and goods are leaving our country.”

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    Welcome to the “Gospel of Nancy Pelosi”.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 05/12/2022 – 18:00

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