- Escobar: The Greater Eurasia Project Will Replace The 'Rules-Based Order'
Escobar: The Greater Eurasia Project Will Replace The ‘Rules-Based Order’
Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,
If you’re counting on Asia’s many new power centers to compete and clash – don’t. The Greater Eurasia Partnership is set to integrate them all – from the SCO, EAEU, and BRICS, to emerging new currencies – in order to replace the ‘rules-based order.’
On July 4, at a New Delhi summit, Iran will finally become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
That will be one of the key decisions of the summit, held via video-conference, along with the signing of a memorandum on the path by Belarus to also become a member state.
In parallel, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk has confirmed that Iran and the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) should sign a free trade agreement (FTA) by the end of 2023.
The FTA will expand an interim deal that already lowers customs duties on hundreds of categories of goods.
Russia and Iran – two key poles of Eurasia integration – have been getting closer and closer geoeconomically since the west’s sanctions tsunami that followed Russia’s February 2022 Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine.
The EAEU – as much as the SCO and BRICS – is on a roll: FTAs are expected to be clinched, from middle to long term, with Egypt, India, Indonesia, and the UAE.
Overchuck admits negotiations may be “very difficult” and “take years,” considering “the interests of all five EAEU member states, their businesses, and their consumers.” Yet despite the obvious complexities, this high-speed rail geoeconomic train has already left the station.
This way for a SWIFT exit
In a parallel track, the members of the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), during a recent summit in Iran, decided to launch a new cross-border financial messaging system this month as a rival to the western-centric SWIFT.
The ACU comprises the Central Banks of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Iran: a healthy mix of West Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.
It was the Central Bank of Iran – still under harsh sanctions – that developed the new bank messaging system, so new it’s not yet known by its own acronym.
Crucially, the Governor of Russia’s Central Bank took part in the ACU summit as an observer, along with officials from Belarus, which applied for ACU membership two weeks ago.
Iranian Central Bank Governor Mohammad Reza Farzin confirmed not only the interest of potential members to join the ACU, but also the drive to set up a basket of currencies for payment of bilateral trade deals. Call it a de-dollarization fast track.
As Iran’s first Vice President, Mohammad Mokhber summed it up: “De-dollarization is not a voluntary choice by countries anymore; it is an inevitable response to the weaponization of the dollar.”
Iran is now at the heart of all things multipolar. The recent discovery of a massive lithium field holding roughly 10 percent of the world’s reserves, coupled with the quite possible admission of Iran into the expanded BRICS – or BRICS+ – as early as this year, has bolstered scenarios of an upcoming BRICS currency backed by commodities: gold, oil, gas and – inevitably – lithium.
All this frantic Global South-led activity stands in sharp contrast to the sputtering deceleration of the Empire of Sanctions.
The Global South has had enough of the US sanctioning and banning whoever, whatever, and whenever they like, in defense of a hazy, arbitrary “rules-based international order.”
Yet exceptions are always made when the US itself badly needs to buy, for instance, Chinese rare earth and EV batteries. And while China continues to be harassed and threatened non-stop, Washington quietly urges it to continue to buy American corn and low-end chips from Micron.
This is what’s called “free and fair” trade in the US today.
The BRICS have other ideas to escape this vicious circle. Much will rely on an enhanced role for its New Development Bank (NDB), which comprises the five BRICS members as well as Bangladesh, the UAE, and Egypt. Uruguay will be joining soon, and the membership requests of Argentina, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Zimbabwe have also been approved.
According to Brazil’s former head of state and current NDB President Dilma Rousseff, decisions on new members will officially be announced at the upcoming August BRICS summit in South Africa.
Meanwhile, in Astana, Kazakhstan, the 20th round of the interminable Syrian peace process took place, congregating the foreign vice-ministers of Russia, Syria, Turkey, and Iran.
That should be the defining step in a “normalization road map” proposed by Moscow last month to finally regulate the role of the Turkish Army operating inside Syrian territory. Russian Foreign Vice-Minister Mikhail Bogdanov once again confirmed that the US is going all out to prevent a normalization between Damascus and Ankara – by supporting oil-stealing Kurdish militias in northern Syria.
A “broad integrative configuration”
All interlinked developments concerning SCO, BRICS, EAEU, and other multilateral mechanisms – now happening at breakneck speed – are converging in practice into a concept formulated in Russia back in 2018: the Greater Eurasia Partnership.
And who better to define it than Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: “Our flagship foreign political project is to [build] support for the concept of the Greater Eurasian Partnership. What we’re talking about is facilitating the objective process of forming a broad integrative configuration that is open for all countries and associations across our vast continent.”
As Lavrov routinely explains now in all of his important meetings, this includes “interlinking the complementary development plans” of the EAEU and China’s BRI; expanding interaction “within the framework of the SCO with the involvement of SCO observer states and dialogue partners;” “strengthening the strategic partnership” between Russia and ASEAN; and “establishing working contacts” among the executive bodies of the EAEU, SCO, and ASEAN.
Add to it the crucial interaction between the upcoming BRICS+ and all of the above; literally, everybody and their neighbor all across the Global South is queuing up to enter Club BRICS.
Lavrov envisions a “mutually beneficial, interlinking infrastructure” and a “continent-wide architecture of peace, development, and cooperation throughout Greater Eurasia.” And that ought to be expanded to the whole Global South.
It will help to have other brand new institutions jumping in. That’s the case of a new Russian think tank, the Geopolitical Observatory for Russia’s Key Issues (GORKI), to be led by Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, and set as a division of St. Petersburg State University focusing on West Asia studies and energy issues.
All of these interpolations were discussed in detail during the St. Petersburg forum last week.
One of the key themes in that spectacularly successful Global South-oriented forum was, of course, the reindustrialization and reorientation of Russia’s export-import channels away from Europe and toward Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
The UAE had a strong presence in St. Petersburg, pointing to a West Asia emphasis, where Russia’s geoeconomic future is increasingly developing. The scope and breadth of Global South-led discussions only underlined how the self-marginalized collective west has alienated the Global Majority, perhaps irretrievably.
On Vladimir Solovyov’s immensely popular political talk show, Russian film director Karen Shakhnazarov may have found the best way to succinctly formulate such a complex process as the Greater Eurasia Partnership.
He said that Russia is now reassuming the role of global champion of a new world order that the Soviet Union held at the start of the 1920s. In such context, the rage and uncontrolled Russophobia by the collective west is just plain impotence: howling the frustration of having “lost” Russia, when it would have been a no-brainer to keep it on its side.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 23:40 - America's Two Largest Pension Funds Suffer Massive Third Party Data Breach
America’s Two Largest Pension Funds Suffer Massive Third Party Data Breach
As if CalPERS didn’t have enough of a problem simply with incompetent portfolio management and an incessant need to play “catch up” to try and meet its fund’s obligations, the nation’s largest public pension fund is now dealing with a massive data breach.
CalPERS saw the personal information of 769,000 of its retired members exposed in a third-party breach earlier this month, KCRA reported this week. The fund serves more than 2 million members in its retirement system and 1.5 million in its health system, the report says.
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the second largest pension fund in the U.S., also suffered from the breach. It has more than 947,000 members.
This week CalPERS said that its third party vendor, PBI Research Services, had notified it of a “vulnerability” with software used to identify member deaths and make sure payments are distributed correctly. It told CalPERS the issued had since been fixed.
The app contains identifying information, including full names, birth dates and social security numbers. This information was accessed by an “unauthorized third party” the report says, also noting that names of family members may have also been exposed.
The third party told CalPERS that it found the issue “at the end of May” and that it was “actively being exploited by cyber criminals.”
In a statement, PBI said: “PBI promptly patched its instance of MOVEit, assembled a team of cybersecurity and privacy specialists, notified federal law enforcement and contacted potentially impacted clients. The cyber criminals did not gain access to PBI’s other systems – access was only gained to the MOVEit administrative portal subject to the vulnerability. PBI is working directly with impacted clients to identify impacted consumers and develop notice plans.”
And it isn’t just CalPERS that was affected: “thousands” of other organizations have also been impacted, the report says, including the U.S. Department of Energy and other federal agencies. Over 9 million drivers in Oregon and Louisiana, Johns Hopkins University, the Ernst & Young accounting firm were also exposed.
Randy Cheek, legislative director for the Retired Public Employees’ Association of California, concluded: “I felt just… flabbergasted that they didn’t say anything to anybody before this. We should have known. We should have been able to check our accounts.”
CalSTRS said in a statement: “This incident did not involve unauthorized access to CalSTRS’ network. CalSTRS is working with PBI to identify the CalSTRS members whose information was involved in PBI’s incident. CalSTRS will provide notice to any members and beneficiaries whose personal information was involved in accordance with applicable law.”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 23:20 - The Endless Lies Democrats Tell In Defense Of Their Failed Californian Utopia
The Endless Lies Democrats Tell In Defense Of Their Failed Californian Utopia
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,
This past week California governor Gavin Newsom appeared on Fox News to debate Sean Hannity about the policies and governance of the “Golden State” as well as its obvious cultural and economic decline. To be clear, I don’t care for Hannity and obviously I find Newsom to be a reprehensible little weasel of a man, so I don’t really have a stake in which side comes out on top.
That said, the interview/dispute is being heralded by the political left as a “win” for Newsom as they claim he “destroyed” Hannity on his own show.
I have to examine this kind of rhetoric with some amusement because generally leftists don’t view debates the same way normal people do. They don’t care about being factually correct, they only care about winning by any means necessary. And winning can and often does include lying or misrepresenting statistics to confuse or deflect their opposition. Hannity just didn’t come prepared for the flurry of disinformation and cherry-picked data Newsom was armed with.
Democrats and the corporate media in general have invested an intense amount of energy into a propaganda campaign that paints California as the central pillar of the US economy and American governance. According to them, California is a socialist Utopia essentially holding the rest of the nation up on its shoulders, and without such blue states we would spiral into oblivion.
For the sake of focus, I will only break down California’s mismanagement here. Specifically, I think it’s important to debunk many of the false fiscal claims made by Gavin Newsom; the same claims which are spreading like a cancer into leftist talking points all over the internet.
Let’s begin, shall we?
Lie #1: High Tax Blue States Like California Subsidize Red States
This argument is false for a number of reason, but let’s start with how Democrats present the claim – They argue that red states are among the top states receiving federal welfare dollars and subsidies, and that blue states like California are paying high taxes into those subsidies. This is why you will often hear leftists say that “red states would not be able to survive without blue states.”
Here’s why this is nonsense – Out of the top ten most indebted states in the US, seven of them are Democrat controlled. California has the most debt by FAR with $519 billion in the red, around 60% more debt than New York and Texas which are #2 and #3 on the list. California also anticipates a $32 billion deficit in 2023. The state does not have the funds to support itself, let alone red states.
The bottom line? California takes far more money from the federal government that they pay out.
As of the most recent tax year for which figures are available, Californians paid $234 billion in federal income taxes. However, the state has already been allotted over $390 billion in funds from the federal government so far in 2023 and the year is only half done. Not only that, but CA took even MORE federal money from 2020 – 2022 ($400 billion to $500 billion) each year. Meaning, on average, CA is taking around $150-$200 billion more in federal money than it pays back in federal taxes every year.
Gavin Newsom often brags about California’s amazing budget surplus during covid, but the reality is that all of that cash was fed to the state by the federal government and the federal reserve printing press. For example, California defaulted on almost $19 billion in unemployment debt during their lockdowns, which they then had to borrow from the federal government to cover. They then passed that debt on to struggling business owners, forcing them to shoulder the burden through extra taxation while Newsom expanded deficit spending.
To be sure other states had to take federal funds as well to avoid unemployment default, many of them Democrat controlled because of their pointless extended mandates and business closures. Most states are in the hole when it comes to federal cash. But, the fact remains that California is a money pit; a prostitute for federal funds that creates exponential debt while leaching far more than their fair share. Blue states like California don’t foot the bill for red states. They can’t, because they are broke.
Lie #2: California’s GDP Is So Large That It Debunks All Economic Criticism
This was one of Newsom’s primary responses to Hannity during their debate over California’s decline – California has the 4th largest GDP in the world (over $3 trillion), therefore no criticism of its economy is valid. With that in mind, I’m going to tell you one of the biggest open secrets about how states like California, the federal government and the federal reserve calculate GDP:
They count a majority of government spending towards total GDP.
Yes, that’s right, California takes large amounts of tax dollars from citizens, takes hundreds of billions of dollars from the federal government, spends it all on numerous programs from welfare, to student loans to medicare/medicaid, then adds it all to their total GDP as if the government actually produces something other than debt.
Again, a lot of states do this in their calculations, but in blue nightmare states like California that have refined the art of GDP fraud down to a science. The CA government has found that all they have to do to drive up their GDP stats to record levels is keep borrowing and taxing and then spend as much as possible.
Another factor to consider is that CA’s real GDP adjusted for inflation is not generally cited by the media or by Democrats. With covid helicopter money triggering a 40-year spike in inflation in the past few years, California has some of the highest prices on goods and services in the country (3rd most expensive). In fact, prices are so high that many middle class workers have trouble surviving there. And, the higher the prices go, the higher GDP goes by extension.
If real GDP adjusted for inflation is not considered, then California’s economy might look much stronger than it actually is. If you want to know why CA supposedly about to become the 4th largest economy in the world, yet every major city in California is littered with homeless people and tent cities, it’s because their GDP is a shell game.
Lie #3: There Is No Citizen Exodus From California
Yes, there is. This is probably one of the more egregious lies that Newsom spreads in his Fox News interview as he cited “studies” out of institutions like UCLA to support his position that “more people are leaving red states per capita” than California.
First of all, the per capita argument is dishonest in this situation. What Newsom is trying to avoid is the fact that California has been losing its population to net domestic migration for around a decade.
In 2020 the state saw a loss of 725,000 people with 359,000 net losses in residents after gains are accounted. They lost 700,000 more people than they gained from April 2020 to July 2022. To put this in perspective, losing that many people is the same as a city the size of Seattle disappearing from the California map in the span of two years. California starting out with a larger population is irrelevant to the overall trend of population losses.
One of the best points Hannity made to counter Newsom’s disinformation was the fact that U-Haul had no trucks for Californian’s trying to leave the state because so many residents were relocating and no one was moving in. Newsom sneered at the data, likely because he knows it undermines his entire narrative.
U-Haul did indeed run out of trucks in CA because so many people were leaving. The top destination for U-Haul trucks was Texas followed by Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Arizona. One could argue over the potential reasons for the exodus from CA, but the exodus is a FACT (I believe Newsom’s draconian covid mandates were the biggest reason for the migration, but taxation and a hostile business environment are solid causes also).
Furthermore, California is a sanctuary state which protects illegal immigrants from deportation, and illegal immigrants are counted as part of the resident population in any census. Every surge in migrants can offset California’s total population decline caused by real citizens relocating. California has handed out at least 1 million state drivers licenses to illegal immigrants since 2015, and the state is estimated to have at least 2.7 million migrants within its borders.
Lie #4: California Provides Opportunities For The Middle And Lower Class
No. Let’s go through the list of reason why California is a hellscape for the middle and lower classes – The state has the 2nd highest housing prices in the nation, only under Hawaii. It is the most expensive state for rent in the US, surpassing Hawaii with an average monthly rental cost of $1900. CA also has the third highest food prices in the country.
The median household income in California is $78,000, or $6500 per month (before taxes). The average total cost of supporting a family of four in California including basic necessities is $6700 per month. This is why the Pacific state had the highest homeless rates in the US in 2022 (except for Washington DC). Living in CA is a net negative prospect for the average person, and forget about starting a small business and building something better – California is consistently rated one of the worst states for starting and maintaining a business, which is why companies have been leaving in droves over the past few years.
Why Do They Lie?
I can only theorize on this issue, but I suspect that leftists lie about California as a success story because they see the state as the culmination of their ideology. It’s the beta-test state for numerous socialist policies to fester and then spread to other parts of the US. It’s a symbol of their vision for the future, and it’s falling apart. So, instead of fixing what’s really wrong with it they fabricate a narrative of a state on the rise rather than on the decline and attack anyone who points out the obvious problems.
I also believe that looking at California is a lot like looking into a crystal ball that shows us America a couple years from now. The way California is run, with endless debt and a cycle of statistical fallacies to hide the growing fiscal cancer, is a lot like the way our federal government is run. When we see the crumbling of CA, we are seeing a glimpse of what will soon happen to the rest of the country.
They have to make it look as good as they can. They have to lie. Because if they don’t divert blame they could end up paying the price for their mismanagement later.
* * *
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Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 23:00 - Tracking Russia's Friends And Foes Around The World
Tracking Russia’s Friends And Foes Around The World
Over the course of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, beliefs about who is a friend and who is a foe of Russia have consolidated among its population.
However, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz notes, there is one surprising exception, however – Ukraine itself.
A survey among Russians shows that the country slid down in the ranking from the second biggest enemy of Russia in 2021 to its fifth biggest foe in 2023.
While previously, 40 percent of Russian had named the country as an enemy, only 26 percent listed it most recently when asked what Russia’s five biggest enemies were.
You will find more infographics at Statista
According to the reoccurring survey by the Levada Center, a Russian non-governmental organization, official Russian positions on its friends and enemies are generally echoed by its people.
Especially allies of Ukraine are seen increasingly negative in Russia.
The most disliked among them as of May 2023 were the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland. 72 percent of Russians currently consider the U.S. an enemy – up 8 percentage points from two years ago. Dislike of the latter three countries rose significantly faster, by between 21 and 32 percentage points – with the biggest increase hitting Russia’s former ally Germany.
The opposite picture emerges concerning the country’s biggest allies. Belarus, China and India gained between 18 and 20 percentage points in the ranking in two years, while Kazakhstan – having spoken out against the Ukraine war – lost some approval.
Yet, it isn’t always a majority who shares these beliefs. With Belarus and the U.S., a large majority of respondents considers the countries among the top 5 of friends and enemies of Russia, respectively. Concerning the country’s perceived as its second biggest friend and enemy, China and the United Kingdom, only small majorities of 58 percent and 51 percent could agree to place them among the countries major friends and foes.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 22:40 - US And China 'Drifting Into War': Former Joint Chiefs Chairman
US And China ‘Drifting Into War’: Former Joint Chiefs Chairman
Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The United States is drifting into a war with China’s communist regime that could upend the global order and shatter economies across the globe, according to two former military leaders.
Fishermen in a harbor on Pingtan island, opposite Taiwan, in China’s southeast Fujian Province on April 9, 2023. – China was conducting a second day of military drills around Taiwan on April 9, in what it has called a “stern warning” to the self-ruled island’s government following a meeting between its president and the U.S. House speaker. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images) A potential conflict between the United States and China over Taiwan would result in global catastrophe but is nevertheless becoming an increasingly likely scenario, according to former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen.
“I’m worried that we’re just drifting into war,” Mullen said during a June 20 talk with the Council on Foreign Relations think tank.
“[Taiwan] is an island that is at the center of four of the five top economies in the world.”
Mullen said that the United States’ efforts to deter an escalation toward conflict in the Taiwan Strait had been “failing over many years.”
Moreover, he said, given that Taiwan manufactures 90 percent of the world’s advanced semiconductors, used in everything from pickup trucks to hypersonic missiles, a conflict for the island would “devastate the globe.”
China ‘Building a Military to Confront the US’
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China as a single-party state, claims that Taiwan is part of its territory and must be united with the mainland by any means necessary. CCP officials have thus threatened to start a war to prevent Taiwan’s de facto independence from being recognized internationally.
Despite this, the regime has never controlled any part of the island, which is governed by a democratically-elected government.
The CCP has increased its aggression against both Taiwan and the United States in recent years, frequently sending fighter jets and military vessels to harass U.S. and Taiwanese forces in the region.
Ensuring Taiwan’s continued security is a “vital interest for the United States,” Mullen said. Deterring a CCP invasion of the island, however, will require the United States to take bold actions against the regime sooner rather than later.
“Clearly, China is much more aggressive, much more coercive on the military side, on the diplomatic side, on the economic side, and the political side,” Mullen said.
“Rebalancing that means we’re going to have to take pretty aggressive steps which, at a time of high tensions, could be read the wrong way.”
Such a state of affairs is made all the more volatile, given that U.S. military leadership has reported that the CCP is developing its military to overtake U.S. defenses in the region.
Retired Adm. Harry Harris, who previously served as commander for the United States Indo-Pacific Command, acknowledged as much during the Council on Foreign Relations event.
“They’re building a military to confront the United States, our military, and those of our friends, allies, and partners,” Harris said.
With that in mind, Harris said that preventing powers like the CCP from devouring smaller, democratic governments was vital to preventing the subversion of order throughout the globe.
“If we allow an autocratic, big country to have its way with smaller democratic countries, for example, Ukraine and Taiwan, the global world order as we know it is finished. Might will make right,” Harris said.
“There are 24 million Taiwanese who want to live their lives just like you and I do. They don’t want to live in a communist system governed by a country that is committing genocide against their own people and brutalizing Hong Kong to bring them under Chinese rule.”
Still, Harris said, defending Taiwan from CCP invasion would incur losses in life and treasure unseen since World War II. With that in mind, he said, Americans ought to consider to what extent they were willing to sacrifice to preserve democracy.
“The most important constituent is the American people because it’s your sons and daughters who are going to fight and die for Taiwan if we go to war against China,” Harris said.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 22:20 - Lab-Grown Meat Gets Green Light On US Menus
Lab-Grown Meat Gets Green Light On US Menus
The World Economic Forum’s dietary blueprint for the masses is becoming a reality as lab-grown meat, bugs, and plant-based foods are quickly being adopted under the guise of solving ‘climate change.’ The latest move by elites and governments to reset the global food supply chain is US regulators approving the sale of meat cultivated from Chicken cells. This makes the US the second country worldwide, besides Singapore, to approve the sale of lab-grown fake meat.
The Agriculture Department approved Upside Foods and Good Meat to begin selling “cell-cultivated” or “cultured” chicken meat from labs in supermarkets and restaurants.
“Today’s watershed moment for the burgeoning cultivated meat, poultry and seafood sector, and for the global food industry,” Good Meat said in a statement.
Upside Foods CEO Uma Valeti said cultured meat in the US will “fundamentally change how meat makes it to our table.”
“Instead of all of that land and all of that water that’s used to feed all of these animals that are slaughtered, we can do it in a different way,” said Josh Tetrick, co-founder and chief executive of Eat Just, which operates Good Meat.
WEF alarmists have made it clear they believe a reset of the global food supply chain is needed to solve climate change.
WEF stressed that “we urgently need sustainable technologies and methods to improve our current food systems and use of land for agriculture.” Their ultimate goal is to curb meat consumption from livestock on farms to lab-grown meat, bugs, and plant-based foods.
“The globalists are at it again,” Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) tweeted earlier this year.
The globalists are at it again – pushing their plans for shifting the world towards a vegan diet as they dream of ending meat production. https://t.co/MgabqplCqe
— Rep. Mike Flood (@USRepMikeFlood) January 19, 2023
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Good Meat’s products are set to hit an undisclosed restaurant in Washington, DC, while Upside’s chicken will be launched at a restaurant in San Francisco. It’s only a matter of time before the fake meat hits grocery stores.
As for gauging the popularity of lab-grown meat, look at the giant flop plant-based foods have been in the US:
“The bulls in the industry, I think, had a very wild, very optimistic estimate of how big the market could get.
“There was a lot of exuberance in this category. It was new, it was different, it was on trend.
“But the consumer environment is tough, and this stuff is not cheap… It’s going to take time to change cultural practices. It’s not going to happen overnight,” John Baumgartner, an analyst at Mizuho Securities, recently told clients.
WEF’s push to directly or indirectly ram through climate policy on the corporate and government level is happening while these elites who supposedly run the world fly around in luxury private jets and sail across oceans in superyachts.
And it remains uncertain what the health consequences might be 5-10 years into the future due to the consumption of artificial meat…
Oh yea, and there’s this: “Carbon Footprint Of Lab-Grown Beef “Orders Of Magnitude” Worse Than Traditionally Raised.”
So is fake meat really about saving the planet? Or is there another agenda?
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 22:00 - 3M Reaches $10.3 Billion Settlement Over US Allegations Of 'Forever Chemicals' Contamination
3M Reaches $10.3 Billion Settlement Over US Allegations Of ‘Forever Chemicals’ Contamination
Authored by Mimi Nguyen Ly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Chemical manufacturer 3M Co. has reached a $10.3 billion settlement with several U.S. public drinking water systems to resolve allegations of contamination of “forever chemicals.”
Illustration picture shows the 3M logo at the site of the 3M plant in Zwijndrecht, Netherlands, on 10 June 2021. (Eric Lalmand/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images) The company announced Thursday that the agreement “includes present value commitment of up to $10.3 billion payable over 13 years.”
The $10.3 billion agreement would settle a case that had been scheduled for trial earlier this month over a 2018 lawsuit brought by the city of Stuart, Florida. The judge overseeing the case delayed the trial the morning it was set to start.
The city alleged that 3M made or sold firefighting foams containing PFAS that polluted local soil and groundwater, and sought for more than $100 million for filtration and remediation.
Stuart is just one of about 300 communities that have filed similar suits against companies such as 3M that produced firefighting foam or the PFAS it contained.
3M itself is facing thousands of lawsuits alleging PFAS contamination that were not part of the latest settlement. Among the lawsuits are those filed by people with personal injury and property damage claims. U.S. states have also filed lawsuits citing damages to natural resources such as rivers and lakes.
‘Not An Admission of Liability’
3M said the money in the settlement will help “support PFAS remediation for public water suppliers that detect PFAS at any level or may do so in the future.”
The company noted the settlement is “not an admission of liability.”
“If the agreement is not approved by the court or certain agreed terms are not fulfilled, 3M is prepared to continue to defend itself in the litigation. 3M also will continue to address other PFAS litigation by defending itself in court or through negotiated resolutions, all as appropriate,” the company stated.
PFAS is an acronym for invisible man-made chemicals called per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, which are known for their resistance to grease, oil, water, and heat. They are colloquially referred as “forever chemicals” because they don’t easily break down in the human body or the environment.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 21:40 - San Francisco Ranked Worst-Run City In America
San Francisco Ranked Worst-Run City In America
It will hardly come as a surprise to readers, and indeed anyone, that San Francisco, plagued with shit-covered streets, a drug and homelessness crisis, out-of-control violent crime, and a commercial real estate downturn, has ranked as the worst-run city in the country, according to a new study by personal finance website WalletHub.
WalletHub researchers analyzed 149 cities via a “quality of services” score. They were able to find the score by using 36 metrics, like high school graduation rates, public hospital system quality, and crime rates, condensing those metrics into six categories, which were then measured against the city’s per-capita budget.
San Francisco scored 149 out of 149 cities. Across the six key categories, the city ranked 92 in the economy, 65 in safety, and 49 in financial stability. Even though the city ranked last on the overall list, there were some bright spots, number two in health and 12 in health.
Ranking last on WalletHub’s list comes as no surprise. Progressive city leadership under Mayor London Breed is running an ‘unsustainable’ budget deficit while the local economy falters. A commercial real estate crisis is unfolding in the downtown area as building owners are defaulting on properties. Crime is out of control, forcing businesses to flee. And Democrats who control the town appear to have no interest in enforcing law and order.
Wild Video from Oakland California sideshow street Takeover last night
(@ppv_tahoe) Video footage was filmed on the 100 block of 10th street overnight.#oakland #sideshow #california
📸 _okpatrick pic.twitter.com/Nc6laXxTEB— PPV-TAHOE – News Journalist (@ppv_tahoe) May 6, 2023
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And it seems like almost overnight. Democrats have transformed a once thriving city into a hellhole riddled with crime and drugs. Failed policies and no accountability from lawmakers are disgusting. Voters can save their city by voting in the next mayoral election in November 2024. But quite honestly, the city might not recover for years. It’s time to consider moving to an area where living expenses and crime are much lower.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 21:20 - The Stealth Student Loan Bailout
The Stealth Student Loan Bailout
Authored by Jonathan Pidluzny via Real Clear Education,
The Supreme Court is likely to strike down the Biden Administration’s borrower bailout in the coming weeks.
The administration’s plan to transfer up to $20,000 in student loan debt per borrower – from individuals who voluntarily took out loans to finance their college education to unsuspecting taxpayers – is one of the most audacious examples of executive overreach in American history.
Despite its $400 billion price tag, the action is only a small piece of the administration’s strategy to create a massive new public subsidy for higher education. A cynic might wonder whether the headline-grabbing but legally dubious bailout now before the Court was conceived as a decoy to distract public attention from the real centerpiece of the debt-transfer agenda.
With public attention focused on the blanket forgiveness plan (and the pleas of those demanding more), the Department of Education was busy crafting an ambitious plan to bail out future borrowers in perpetuity by changing the rules governing income-driven repayment.
Currently, multiple income-based repayment programs exist. All would cap the payments of enrollees at a percentage of their current income and then wipe away debt that remains after many years of repayment. When income-based repayment plans are designed properly, they align the timing of repayment with career earnings trajectory, such that borrowers pay the loans back faster as their incomes increase. (It is reasonable for doctors with very large loans to have smaller payments in their residency years when salaries are modest).
But the design principle should be that most loans are eventually paid off, including interest, except in cases of manifest hardship.
With its proposal to phase out several existing income-based repayment programs in favor of a much more generous version of a specific program called REPAYE (Revised Pay as You Earn), the Department of Education is abandoning this expectation to create an ongoing bailout.
REPAYE’s extravagant new terms are a bad deal for taxpayers. Undergraduate borrowers will be required to pay only 5% of their disposable income toward their student loan debt, with disposable income defined as income above 225% of the federal poverty line ($32,805 for an individual or $67,500 for a family of four). Balances will not grow when a borrower’s monthly payment is smaller than the interest accrued. (To accomplish this benefit, the Secretary of Education claims the power to cease charging interest owed to the U.S. Treasury.)
Outstanding balances will be forgiven under the program after 10 to 20 years depending on the size of the original balance. Forever.
The program will subsidize college attendance for borrowers across income levels. According to Department estimates, borrowers in the lowest 20% of lifetime earners will see the cost of college discounted by 90% relative to the status quo.
This means that on average, they will repay $873 for each $10,000 borrowed prior to the cancellation of the remaining principal. Borrowers in the second lifetime-income quintile will receive a 65% discount on the cost of college, and borrowers in the third and fourth income quintiles will receive 37% and 13% discounts, respectively. The Urban Institute estimates that under proposed changes to REPAYE, only 22% of those who complete a bachelor’s degree with typical levels of debt will repay their debt entirely (49% will repay less than half).
Concretely, a household of four earning $80,000 per year with $30,000 in student loan debt would be expected to pay approximately $291 per month under the current version of REPAYE. Under the new rule, that payment would drop to just $52 per month.
Of course, the debt does not disappear when the balance is ultimately canceled. It gets transferred onto the backs of taxpayers. In effect, the Department of Education is in the process of creating a new, permanent, social-welfare program that disproportionately benefits the highly educated—all without congressional authorization or appropriation.
If the program goes into effect, American taxpayers will be on the hook for a much larger proportion of higher education expenditures nationwide. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the action will cost $230 billion over the next decade, assuming the Supreme Court allows the first bailout to proceed. If it does not, much of the loan debt that would have been forgiven this year will be canceled in years to come under the Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) rule’s provisions.
The CBO estimate also does not fully account for the inflationary impact of the stealth bailout proposal. Research has shown that when the pool of financing available to students increases, colleges find it easier to raise tuition rates (they often “invest” in luxury facilities and armies of DEI administrators and pass the costs on to students and taxpayers). Families with the wherewithal to pay for college out of pocket will instead choose to borrow in order to access the potential subsidy. Who can blame them when government policy creates an incentive to leave their money in the stock market and use investment gains to pay down the loan at a discount in the decade following graduation?
Because the new program would artificially cap repayment below the cost of college for most borrowers, students will also have an incentive to overspend on college, comfortable in the knowledge that REPAYE’s cancellation provision effectively sets a repayment ceiling. Similarly, underprepared students will be recruited to enroll with the promise that their loans will be forgiven if they do not complete their degrees and secure remunerative employment. This destroys individual incentives to be budget-conscious and attentive to price when selecting an institution and area of study. In short, the regulation will drive up the cost of college in myriad ways and, with it, taxpayer-funded higher education spending.
All of which is to say that when the Supreme Court issues its judgment in Biden v. Nebraska later this month, the debate about student loan forgiveness will not be over. The coming IDR reforms are even more radical than blanket forgiveness—and very likely to provoke additional legal challenges and congressional scrutiny in the years ahead.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 21:00 - 91 Private Colleges Have Closed Or Merged Since 2016
91 Private Colleges Have Closed Or Merged Since 2016
A new analysis of data provided by Higher Ed Dive has revealed that since 2016, 91 separate private colleges have closed, merged with another school or announced plans to close.
The trend was helped along by the onset of Covid and the ensuing reaction that the country had to the virus. As CNBC reports, colleges that were already struggling heading into the pandemic found that lockdowns were the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back”.
Robert Franek, editor-in-chief of The Princeton Review, told CNBC: “There are two significant issues affecting higher education right now, specifically, through the admission and enrollment offices.”
He continued: “Number one, it is the admission cliff, and that is the impending decline [in the number of prospective students]. We’ll be graduating our lowest high school classes by population in 2025. And most enrollment professionals have been wringing their hands about this date of 2025, but many schools have seen those enrollment declines already.”
Roughly 95% of U.S,. colleges are reliant on tuition and funding from students to operate (others are reliant on things like public funding and/or endowments to help fund their operations).
Fitch Ratings Senior Director Emily Wadhwani added: “It’s a reflection of, I think, an unsustainable operating platform, meaning a heavy reliance on tuition, which can’t always keep up with inflation [or] with erosion in enrollment.”
Wadhwani said that schools “can’t keep hiking tuition sticker price in the hopes that the net residual once you account for scholarship and discounting and the like is going to be enough to offset your growing expense base.”
A video report provided by CNBC.com went into further depth on the issue, noting, in the case of colleges like Lincoln College, that cyberattacks also played a role in closures. The video profiled that 68% of for-profit schools also closed due to an enrollment cliff, due to simply “less people being born” during the generation of what would be new college students.
The video also looked at The King’s College, which announced it needed $2.6 million before warning students that it would have to close and they would have to begin looking elsewhere. They provided potential transfer schools to their student base, which is located in New York City.
Finally, the video focuses on how enrollment driving finances “is a given” for colleges.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 20:40 - People Need To Understand They’re 'Being Used Against Each Other': Filmmaker
People Need To Understand They’re ‘Being Used Against Each Other’: Filmmaker
Authored by Ella Kietlinska and Jan Jekielek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Most people do not realize that America has been at war for a long time, but it is not a conventional war—it is a psychological war, said a filmmaker who recently released a documentary directing people’s attention to this important issue.
“It’s a war of propaganda,” said Mikki Willis, filmmaker and creator of the “Plandemic” film series. The third installment, “Plandemic 3: The Great Awakening,” was released in June.
“It’s a war to divide the people and weaken the strength of our collaborative communities to do anything about these new ideologies being forced upon Americans,” Willis said in an interview for EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program.
Mikki Willis, filmmaker and creator of the Plandemic film series, including the third installment, “Plandemic 3: The Great Awakening,” in June 2023. (Screenshot/Epoch TV) The new film does not highlight much about COVID-19 or COVID vaccines as filmmakers stayed away from these topics, Willis said. Instead, the documentary illustrates “what all of those [COVID-related] crises were used to advance.”
To explain their point, the filmmakers drew a comparison to a couple of cultural revolutions in history—primarily Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution in China—to show that the only way for the past dictators to be able to commit atrocities and genocide was to lure the people into a hypnotic spell, to become their force for doing evil, Willis said.
Organizations, such as Mussolini’s Blackshirts, Hitler’s Youth, Lenin’s Red Army, and Mao’s Red Guards, were examples of such forces formed to accomplish dictators’ evil objectives, Willis added.
“It’s a real wake-up call to the people to understand that we’re being used against each other,” Willis said. “When we are united, that’s when we are literally unstoppable.”
In the 1960s, Mao Zedong, a Chinese Communist Party leader who then ruled communist China, launched the Cultural Revolution, carried out by fanatical youth encouraged to smash, beat, torture, and murder for the sake of destroying the so-called “four olds” of China—old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas.
The death toll of the Cultural Revolution in China was estimated by many researchers at a minimum of 2 million, while American professor R.J. Rummel, who researched the mass killing, wrote in his book that the Cultural Revolution claimed the lives of 7.73 million people.
Dictatorship Needs Complicity
None of the dictators of the past would have succeeded in committing atrocities or genocide without luring the people into their armies, Willis said.
“Most of [those people] are just citizens that were enlisted in to fight for the dictators and to fight against their own people, and in many cases, against their own families.”
There are people that were part of Mao’s Red Guards that are now coming out in deep remorse of turning their own parents in, Willis said, “but at the time, they were under such a spell that they celebrated the imprisonment, the torture, and execution of their own parents.”
“They thought they were doing something so righteous for the world.”
Former Red Guard Zhang Hongbing, who denounced his mother as a “counterrevolutionary” to the authorities—which led to her execution—later started a campaign to make his mother’s grave a Cultural Revolution landmark, according to a 2013 report by Beijing News.
Zhang, radicalized by the Cultural Revolution, was just 16 in 1970 when he reported his mother to the communist authorities for criticizing the political leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for promoting idol-worshipping, and for supporting Mao’s political opponent in a family argument.
Zhang’s mother was imprisoned and executed by firing squad upon his denouncement.
Later, Zhang deeply regretted his action and, since 2011, has appealed to the local authorities to have his mother’s grave marked and preserved as a historical landmark of the Cultural Revolution, hoping that people would learn from his tragic experience.
“Let people scorn me and condemn me. I want to serve as a negative example that they can all learn from,” Zhang said in 2013.
“It’s a scary idea to think that we’re capable of turning against our own loved ones, the people that gave us life itself,” Willis pointed out. “That’s what this wakeup call is about in ‘The Great Awakening.’”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 20:20 - Distraction? Questions Swirl Over Timing Of Sub Story As Biden Bombshells Hit Target
Distraction? Questions Swirl Over Timing Of Sub Story As Biden Bombshells Hit Target
As two IRS whistleblowers prepared to go public with more damning information implicating the Biden administration in a scheme to bury evidence of Hunter Biden’s tax crimes – as well as the revelation that Joe Biden was ‘in the room’ when Hunter shot a threatening message to a Chinese business associate demanding payment, a story which some have called “the biggest political scandal this country has ever seen”, another story captivated the nation: the deaths of missing submarine passengers who set off last weekend to see the Titanic, only to lose contact shortly into the trip.
Late Thursday the Wall Street Journal reported that “A top secret military acoustic detection system designed to spot enemy submarines first heard what the U.S. Navy suspected was the Titan submersible implosion hours after the submersible began its voyage,” and that “the U.S. system detected what it suspected was the sound of an implosion near the debris site discovered Thursday.”
What’s more, it’s not like the military took days to try and figure out what the sound was. “While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission.”
So, the Biden administration knew on Sunday (while not definitive), that the submarine sounded as if it had imploded hours into its journey. What’s more, they let everyone think the passengers were alive.
This has led many to wonder whether the Biden administration allowed people to think the sub passengers were still alive, despite information and belief that the sub had likely imploded early into the voyage, a story arc that would have fizzled out much sooner and turned the public’s attention to the far greater bombshell of a story surrounding the latest alleged crimes by the Bidens.
Furthermore, while an official death announcement from submersible company OceanGate was predicated on the discovery of a debris field, that may not be enough for those questioning how the sub story came to captivate the nation on the same day the most damning evidence to date against the president’s family emerges.
So let me get this straight …
The Biden regime knew the submarine imploded Sunday – but used their media propagandists to push the “they’re running out of oxygen” story all week to deflect from Hunter’s crimes?
God save us from these scumbags and lowlifes.
Sickening.
— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) June 23, 2023
Literally everything I’ve seen about this missing submarine is insane and sketchy AF… almost none of it makes any sense whatsoever. How long till we find other external factors making it even more so???
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 21, 2023
HOLY SHLIT
The WSJ is reporting the US Navy detected the Titan implosion on Sunday but Biden held the news until today’s whistleblower testimony on Hunter
The entire thing was a distraction op
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) June 22, 2023
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) June 22, 2023
Let’s see what the administration comes up with. Now that the story has served its purpose and the White House’s “historic” press secretary looks to move to even more dramatic geopolitical shocks, we are confident that it will be some variation of ‘out of respect for the families,’ or ‘at the company’s request.’
In the end, however, it’s not like a diversion was even needed: for those wondering how many minutes the mainstream media has devoted today to the IRS whistleblowers’ story, we have the answer: 0.
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Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 20:11 - Do I Sell My Corn And Just Forget About The Animal?
Do I Sell My Corn And Just Forget About The Animal?
The world’s top pork producer cautioned this week that US pig farmers are incurring severe losses on their livestock and that they might start reducing herd sizes and selling animal feed as a move to recoup losses.
Shane Smith, chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods, was quoted by Bloomberg on Wednesday while speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s Global Food Forum in Chicago. Smith said:
“There’s a concentration of people in the industry who grow their own corn, they grow their corn and they feed it to the animal.
“They’re going to have to make a decision. Do I sell my corn and just forget about the animal?”
Smith explained producers are losing as much as $80 per head as China’s pork demand wanes and feed costs skyrocket. A severe drought across the Midwest has sent corn prices soaring this month, squeezing producer profits. Also, the cost of farm equipment continues to rise, and inflation remains sticky — all of this is an indication, as the CEO explained, might lead to producers shrinking herd sizes.
“US growers usually only start shrinking herds when they face cash flow losses, and that is already happening,” Smith said. He made no mention if Smithfield, owned by Hong Kong-listed WH Group, has made any adjustments to its pig herd size.
Smith said the US meat industry is facing a glut that might take until 2025 to normalize. He noted:
“This industry is in an incredibly difficult cycle.”
And still, consumers are paying near record high levels for pork at the supermarket, with prices hovering around $4.189 per pound.
Meanwhile, the US beef industry is experiencing a shortage as the herd size plunges to levels not seen since the early 1960s.
Which has sent beef prices at the grocery store to near-record highs.
Some of the stickest inflation at the supermarket lingers in the meat department. But don’t fret because US regulators just approved fake meat for consumers.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 20:00 - Apocalypse FedNow
Apocalypse FedNow
Authored by Mark Goodwin via BitcoinMagazine.com,
Within Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s recent congressional appearance is regulatory signaling with large implications for stablecoins, the dollar, CBDCs, and bitcoin…
“It would be a mistake to leave the Fed with a weak role of stablecoins.”
– Jerome Powell, June 21, 2023
On the longest day of the year, Fed Chair Jerome Powell took to the podium to testify before Congress and the House Financial Services Committee. Last week, the Powell-led central bank had decided to temporarily pause rate hikes — the fastest and most aggressive interest rate increases in U.S. history — in their mission to battle the massive price inflation found downstream from the lockdown-induced monetary inflation via stimulus measures.
Less than a month away from the announced July launch of FedNow, an inter-bank communication platform, Powell finds himself at a crossroad of monetary policy, regulation and capital requirements before the formal founding of the digital dollar system.
THE NEW DOLLAR: FEDNOW & USTS, NOT RETAIL CBDCS
“The status of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency is very important.”
– Jerome Powell, June 21, 2023
The dollar has been digitized for a long time; be it the Zelle or Venmo credits in your retail account, or the dollar balance in your checking account at Bank of America. But generally speaking, the mechanisms behind the transfer of Treasuries and other reserve assets backing these numbers on a screen have remained at the technical agility of a fax machine. The dollar may be the world reserve currency, and can be transacted via intermediaries on obvious centralized banker rails, or less obviously on Ethereum rails via ERC-20 tokens in the form of popular retail stablecoins, but the U.S. Treasuries held by these novel credit creators remain the world reserve asset. These bonds are strictly issued by the U.S. Treasury to be sold to the private sector to create dollars, incentivized with yields dependent on the federal funding rate set by the Federal Reserve. The public has generally feared the direct issuance of some form of retail CBDC (central bank digital currency) due to surveillance concerns and currency seizure from a centralized issuer, but fewer realize both the level of financial surveillance already imposed by banks, never mind the ability for these trusted third parties to censor, blacklist and even expose retail to their counter-party risk. All of these actions are made increasingly possible via the digitization of the currency with an encroaching reliance on centralized payment rails, but up until next month, the communication network for interbank asset trades has remained lossy and slow.
FedNow, slated to launch next month, serves multiple purposes, but perhaps none as important as creating a much more efficient lever for the Fed to have 365/24/7 control on overnight banking rates, such as SOFR, effectively setting the cost of borrowing short-term liquidity between fractionalized private banks attempting to meet their depositors’ withdrawals. You have probably heard the phrase “reverse repo” once or twice, but the underlying mechanic is often misunderstood. The “repo” stands for a repurchasing agreement; essentially a contract between two entities in which Bank A, with excess dollar liquidity, agrees to lend cash to Bank B, with overnight liquidity needs, via a short-term loan collateralized by Bank B’s assets such as USTs, with the conditions that Bank B will repurchase their securities, usually the next morning (“overnight”), plus a percentage-based fee that Bank A gets to keep. A reverse repo is essentially the same behavior, except that Bank A is bond-rich, cash-poor and thus asking Bank B for dollar-denominated liquidity. This exact scenario came to fruition within the recent regional bank failures in the U.S., and the Fed created new mechanisms to backstop the liquidity needs of the depositors. In the case of the ever-growing reverse repo market, Bank B is routinely the largest American banks, and sometimes even the Fed directly. FedNow is a digital lever, made possible via the internet, for complete centralized control on the overnight rate of borrowing dollars, the necessary transferring of Treasuries between banks, and thus the reshoring of dollar-denominated activity away from the Eurodollar market, and back to the United States within the scope of the Fed and the Treasury.
PRIVATE-ENTITY DOLLAR ISSUANCE
“We would not support a central bank digital currency for individuals. If we did have a CBDC, it would be intermediated by banks.”
– Jerome Powell, June 21, 2023
Shortly after the fall of FTX last fall, the NY Fed launched their digital dollar pilot program, featuring BNY Mellon, PNC Bank, Citi, HSBC, Mastercard, TD Bank, Truist, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo, as well as cooperation with SWIFT. Notable within this quorum of too big to fail private sector banks is the inclusion of BNY Mellon, the largest U.S. bank, who holds treasuries for popular stablecoin USDC, and PNC Bank, the former 22.4% owner of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, who only earlier this week filed with the SEC for approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF. The SEC has recently made waves themselves by filing their own notices against Binance and the publicly listed Coinbase for brokering sales of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens. While BUSD, the Binance-issued USD stablecoin, was listed as being an unregistered security, USDC, the Circle-issued USD stablecoin, second in market cap value behind only Tether, was left off the notices, despite listings on both exchanges. Powell took the idea of stablecoins being important to the Fed and the greater U.S. dollar system a step further this morning when he insinuated that not only are stablecoins not a security, they are money. “We do see payment stablecoins as a form of money, and in all advanced economies, the ultimate source of credibility in money is the central bank…We believe it would be appropriate to have quite a robust federal role in what happens in stablecoins going forward.”
He went on to further articulate his views on not needing a direct-issued government dollar, and instead relying on the private sector banks to continue their role of government debt purchasing via USTs in order to create credit via dollars in retail accounts. “We would not support accounts at the Federal Reserve by individuals…such accounts would be managed through the banking system.” In February, the SEC served a Wells Notice to Paxos, the issuer of BUSD, directly limiting Binance’s ability to compete in the dollar creation industry. Via the signatures from the arms of regulation from the Fed, the Treasury, the SEC and even the Department of Justice, the entities allowed to make digital dollars are being hand selected in front of our eyes. In order to continue the cycle of needing to purchase government-issued debt to create dollars, the U.S. government has moved to direct policy, regulatory comment, and even disciplinary action on off-shore dollar creation, changing the landscape for stablecoins, and even the dollar itself, forever, mere moments before the founding of the digital Federal Reserve.
BASEL III
“Basel III is an international capital requirement we should go ahead and complete.”
– Jerome Powell, June 21, 2023
As American commercial banks begin to integrate digital assets such as bitcoin and dollar-derivatives such as stablecoins, the need to ensure the public that on-sheet liquidity for speculative action on commodities exists creates a unique opportunity to tilt regulation in the favor of the dollar. Basel III would require any bank wanting to hold bitcoin, other digital assets, or even gold, would also be required to hold an equal-part dollar to dollar-denominated valuation of their investments. This sudden comment on adoption of this international capital requirement would force a net-demand for dollars in the U.S banking system, despite a high monetary inflationary environment. For banks or registered investment vehicles looking to offset inflationary effects by purchasing alternative reserve assets such as bitcoin, this regulation would mean that an increase of valuation of bitcoin in a dollar-pair would also increase the need for dollar liabilities on their balance sheet. Want to run a responsible bank and meet capital requirements while also holding bitcoin on your balance sheet? Better be prepared to also hold a lot of dollars. The idea of the Bitcoin-Dollar is a parallel to the petro-dollar system, which was upheld from the gold window closing via the Nixon shock until only somewhat recently. By creating a monopoly on the in’s and out’s of oil to strictly U.S. dollars, the U.S. was essentially able to re-peg their inflating dollar to an ever-demanded energy commodity, and create a mass buyer of dollars. As the Fed and SEC circle the waters on both regional banks and private issuers of stablecoins, the downstream effect of Basel III will create permanent demand for dollars, even in a “hyperbitcoinization” environment. Powell mentioned the Fed doesn’t have specifics on proposals for capital requirements at this time, but that there will be a future proposal that comes to the Fed board later this summer.
BLACKROCK ETF
“Let me tell you, it’s not who the President is. It’s who’s controlling the wallet of the President.”
– Serge Varlay, BlackRock Recruiter
The recent application filing from BlackRock, an investment firm with assets under management totalling $10 trillion, has kicked off a filing spree from other institutional asset managers in the race for the first approved exchange-traded fund offering exposure to bitcoin. WisdomTree, Bitwise, and Invesco have all since filed to the SEC seeking to launch Bitcoin ETFs, despite a universal rejection of every spot Bitcoin ETF application previously filed, notably including NYDIG, CBOE, and Fidelity. The newly found resurgence in confidence of approval perhaps comes downstream of BlackRock’s near perfect record of getting ETFs approved, sitting at a 575 to 1 success rate. Within iSHARES Bitcoin Trust Form S-1 Registration Statement was their disclosure of using Coinbase for bitcoin custody, as well as a notice of potential conflict of interest within an affiliate of theirs acting as investment manager to a money market fund, the Circle Reserve Fund, which the issuer of USDC uses to “hold cash, U.S. Treasury bills, notes and other obligations insured or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. Treasury and repurchase agreements secured by such obligations or cash, which serves as reserves backing USDC stablecoins.” It later states that “an affiliate of the Sponsor [BlackRock] has a minority equity interest in the issuer of USDC.” The S-1 includes a line stating the “price of bitcoin may be affected due to stablecoins (including Tether and USDC), the activities of stablecoin issuers and their regulatory treatment.” The Cash Custodian and Trust Administrator of the BlackRock ETF is listed as the aforementioned digital dollar pilot program partner Bank of New York Mellon.
While ETFs are often used as a mechanism to short commodities by large financial institutions, the recent signaling from the most important U.S. regulatory bodies reveals a real possibility of increased digital dollar creation and an increased purchasing power of the demand-inelastic reserve asset, bitcoin. There is perhaps no larger investment firm than BlackRock, and no larger banking entity than Bank of New York Mellon. There are few government bodies more influential on the global economy than the Fed and the SEC.
Welcome to institutional adoption. Just don’t fucking dance.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 19:40 - Silicon Valley's Vacant Office Space Rises As Big Tech Dumps
Silicon Valley’s Vacant Office Space Rises As Big Tech Dumps
Vacant office buildings are piling up across the country as companies adopt remote or hybrid work models, slash headcount, and panic exit out of metro areas where Democrats are failing to enforce law and order.
The hybrid work model is becoming standard in corporate America. More troublesome is the exponential rate at which companies implement artificial intelligence systems that will displace hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of jobs in the coming years.
Silicon Valley companies, such as Google and Facebook parent Meta Platforms close, understand these change tides and have dumped office space at an increasing pace, reported The Wall Street Journal.
New data from CoStar Group shows office-vacancy rates in Silicon Valley, which includes the Northern California communities of San Jose, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale, increased in June to 17%, up from 11% in 2019. In some areas, such as Mountain View and Menlo Park, the rate exceeds 20%.
About 35 miles from Palo Alto is the crime-ridden and drug-infested area of downtown San Francisco where a recent Coldwell Banker report showed office vacancy rate hit a record high of 29.4%. The knock-on effects of a shrinking office worker population have devastated the local economy as businesses close their doors and building owners default on loans, unleashing a financial doom loop.
And then there’s progressive city leadership that has transformed the once thriving metro area into a hellhole with disastrous social justice reforms. Mayor London Breed admitted to her failed policies by reversing her decision to now fund the police after defunding.
… and there’s no accountability for Breed. Or the voters will ensure accountability is served in the next mayoral election.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 19:20 - New Wave Of COVID-19 Infections Hits China
New Wave Of COVID-19 Infections Hits China
Authored by Alex Wu via The Epoch Times,
COVID-19 has resurged in mainland China with the number of people testing positive for the virus rising significantly since April.
This follows mass infections and deaths from last December to January.
A Pudong, Shanghai resident told The Epoch Times on June 21 that his father recently developed white lungs from a COVID-19 infection and died.
Others reported COVID-19-related illness, deaths, and reinfections among family members.
Dr. Bai of Beijing Anzhen Hospital posted on Chinese social media that he had been reinfected with COVID-19, and the department director had also been infected and was suffering severe symptoms. They were both infected by patients.
In the southeastern city of Fuzhou, “the new wave of infections has been very serious in the past month or so,” A. Liang, a Fuzhou resident, told The Epoch Times.
Many people around him were infected.
“Although the symptoms are not as severe as the first wave, it’s very contagious,” he said.
A man wears a face shield as he assists a loved one on a stretcher in the hallway of a busy hospital in Shanghai, China on Jan. 14, 2023. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
Li Yu (pseudonym), a doctor in Jiamusi City of northeastern province Heilongjiang, told The Epoch Times that “there are a lot of people being reinfected with COVID-19 and hospitalized. Some elderly people died after being infected.”
Wang Yi (pseudonym) from Nantong, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, was infected with the virus for the first time.
She told The Epoch Times that her symptoms were severe, and she hadn’t recovered after more than 20 days. “I don’t know how I got infected,” she said.
Wang said that she started having headaches, bone pain, and body pain on May 25 and tested positive in the hospital the next day. Then she started to have a fever, sweating, insomnia, and diarrhea until she collapsed.
After being infected for 18 days, she had difficulty breathing.
Ms. Liao from Suzhou city in Jiangsu Province told The Epoch Times that she tested positive on June 12 in a hospital and has been suffering from severe symptoms, such as fever, dizziness, and nausea, and then developed pneumonia.
“Many COVID-19 patients are having intravenous treatment in the hospital,” she said. “This virus is terrifying, it is an invisible killer, and people are having lingering symptoms and sequelae after being infected.”
Dr. Yu at Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine posted an article online that stated the number of patients visiting fever clinics across the country has increased.
Patients with low immunity, older age, or serious underlying diseases are more likely to be infected and develop pneumonia, he said.
China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued an update on COVID-19 infection numbers in May on June 11, with 2,777 severe cases and 164 deaths. All the cases were caused by Omicron mutant strains, with the top three being XBB.1.9, XBB.1.16, and XBB.1.5.
The Chinese communist regime has consistently concealed the true scale of the COVID-19 outbreak in China. It’s unclear how many people have been infected in the new outbreak.
Zhong Nanshan, the communist regime’s top health advisor, predicted that there might be a peak of infections at the end of June, with as many as 65 million people infected weekly.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 19:00 - Silverstein Pushing To Build Casino In Manhattan's West Side
Silverstein Pushing To Build Casino In Manhattan’s West Side
New York has fallen a lot since the onset of the covid plandemic. It’s about to fall even more.
The cash-strapped city, which has seen an exodus of disgruntled residents head to Florida and other less-deadly and tax-burdened pastures, may soon have a casino.
According to Bloomberg, real estate giant Silverstein Properties is pitching a casino project on the far west side of Manhattan, joining a handful of developers vying for one of three downstate gaming licenses.
The New York-based developer, best known for his towers at the World Trade Center site, is teaming up with Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment to submit a proposal for the Avenir, a 1.8 million square foot (167,200 square meter) project that consists of a casino as well as a hotel and residences, according to a statement Friday.
The proposed casino would be built on undeveloped land at 41st Street and 11th Avenue, north of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, at a site which is currently fully-owned by Silverstein.
“Our city and state face a confluence of historic challenges right now,” Larry Silverstein, chairman of Silverstein Properties, said in the statement. “We need to work with state and local leaders to do everything we can to make New York the best place to live, work and visit. We’ve done it before, and I am confident we can do it again.”
It was not immediately clear how slapping a casino in the middle of the west side, not far from the Hudson dockyards where recently every hedge fund has migrated to, will help make New York “the best place to live” but we are confident generously bribed New York bureaucrats will come up with an answer.
The project would include two 46-story towers connected by a public sky bridge and an eight-story gaming, entertainment and restaurant complex at the base. Plans also call for 1,000 luxury hotel rooms and more than 100 units of affordable housing.
An artist’s rendering of what the proposed casino would look like. Silverstein will be competing against pitches from other developers including SL Green Realty Corp. and even hedge fund manager Steve Cohen for a lucrative license to build a casino in New York City. State officials haven’t set a deadline yet for the submission of bids.
SL Green has also pitched a casino in Times Square, while Related Cos. proposed anchoring the second phase of its $25 billion Hudson Yards project with a gaming and entertainment complex.
One can only hope that by the time the casinos are built, there are still be a handful of wealthy New Yorkers who haven’t split for Florida.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 18:40 - India Looks To Fund State Refiners' Net-Zero Operations Goals
India Looks To Fund State Refiners’ Net-Zero Operations Goals
By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com
India’s government this week asked some of the biggest state oil refiners to launch rights issues with which the authorities plan to help fund the firms’ net-zero and energy transition goals, Reuters reported on Friday, quoting sources with knowledge of the matter.
The government will be seeking equity in Indian Oil Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) via rights issues, and has asked Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) to issue preferential shares to the government. In exchange for the equity in the refiners, India plans to support their goals to achieve net-zero operational emissions in the 2040s.
Indian Oil, BPCL, and HPCL are looking to invest a combined up to $48.8 billion (4 trillion Indian rupees) to reach their net zero-emissions goals by 2040, Reuters’ sources said.
Indian Oil Corp, the country’s top refiner and fuel retailer, said earlier this year it would consolidate all its green energy businesses into a wholly-owned unit with the purpose of boosting its clean energy division.
The government aims to complete the multi-billion-dollar process for the rights and preferential issues by October this year, according to Reuters’ sources.
Earlier this year, India announced a $3.67 billion (300 billion rupees) support to state oil refiners to help them boost green energy projects and meet emission reduction targets. In the 2023/2024 budget, India also announced it would support battery storage systems.
India, the world’s third-largest carbon emitter after China and the U.S., has a net-zero target set for 2070, twenty years later than the 2050 target of most developed economies including the U.S.
Meanwhile, Indian state-held oil and gas explorer, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), the biggest oil and gas producer in the country, said last month it aims to boost its renewable energy portfolio and plans $12 billion in investment in green projects.
ONGC looks to have as much as 10,000 megawatts, or 10 GW, in its portfolio of operations by 2030, up from just 189 MW at the end of March, ONGC’s chairman Arun Kumar Singh said.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 18:20 - Military Deploys In Moscow As Wagner Chief Sought For 'Armed Mutiny'
Military Deploys In Moscow As Wagner Chief Sought For ‘Armed Mutiny’
Update(1815ET): There are now widespread reports and circulating footage of additional armored vehicles deployed by military police units in key parts of Russia, including in Moscow and Rostov regions, with TASS saying they have been ordered to protect government buildings, as speculation that Wagner’s Prigozhin is making real moves against Russian leadership tonight.
The Washington Post is meanwhile recapping the following of reports that authorities are seeking his arrest:
Russia’s Federal Security Service late Friday announced a criminal case against Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin, accusing him of “incitement to armed rebellion” after he declared an open conflict with Russia’s military leadership and called on Russians to join 25,000 Wagner fighters against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other top commanders.
Footage like the below is widely circulating as beefed up military security deployments have been observed in various places:
Armoured vehicles reported on streets of Moscow https://t.co/0zT2NxXx1l pic.twitter.com/UuwfNBqhsz
— Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) June 23, 2023
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BREAKING: Russia on high alert, military vehicles reportedly deployed in Rostov-on-Don pic.twitter.com/NjpO4ceTHy
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) June 23, 2023
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Russian media has confirmed–
“Security measures have been strengthened in Moscow, all the most important facilities, state authorities and transport infrastructure facilities have been taken under enhanced protection,” law enforcement agencies told TASS.
Locals in Moscow publish lots of clips of military equipment on the roads. pic.twitter.com/wTXIsvWsbz
— Mike (@Doranimated) June 23, 2023
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There are claims circulating that the FSB is even calling on Wagner Group’s own fighters to arrest Prigozhin and bring him in to authorities.
An FSB statement has urged Wagner forces to no longer follow his orders.
BREAKING: Russia’s FSB intelligence agency says statements by Wagner Group’s Prigozhin are calls for the start of an armed civil conflict in the country
— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) June 23, 2023
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And further confirmation of the seriousness of the overnight situation…
#Breaking Russian General Surovikin issues an appeal to Wagner fighters:
“We are of the same blood, we are warriors, the enemy is waiting for the internal political situation in the country to worsen, you can’t play into the hands of the enemy” pic.twitter.com/XFevidiXvh
— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) June 23, 2023
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* * *
Update(1641ET): After months of unchecked, ultra-provocative statements from Prigozhin aimed at both top military commanders as well as Kremlin decision-makers, it seems the Wagner chief may have finally crossed Putin’s lines. It’s being reported in Russian state sources that the Russian president has been briefed on the earlier audio tirade made by Prigozhin, which essentially declared war on the defense ministry. The Wagner statement had been circulated widely after it was posted on Telegram late at night local time.
And now Prigozhin finally appears to be in hot water, under formal investigation for mutiny, per the statement in TASS:
Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee on Friday demanded that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the private military company Wagner, stop unlawful actions and said the Russian Federal Security Service started a mutiny investigation in connection with his recent statements.
“The statements that are being spread on behalf of Yevgeny Prigozhin are absolutely unfounded. In connection with these statements, the Federal Security Service of Russia has started an investigation into a call for an armed mutiny. We demand that unlawful actions be stopped immediately,” the committee said in a statement.
He’s now saying the audio remarks were merely a call to justice and “march for justice”, denying it is a coup attempt targeting military leadership – so there may be a Wagner attempt underway to walk back the comments.
No, this is not likely to turn into a civil war. It is what in Russia is called ‘razborki’ (gangland warfare)
And it looks like one gang is about to get totally crushed because the other has all the weapons and the security services on their side https://t.co/ZiiiwNm7BK
— Dmitri Alperovitch (@DAlperovitch) June 23, 2023
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Earlier in the day, hours before the remarks saying the country’s military leadership “must be stopped” – Prigozhin had in a surprising turn gone after the very decision to go to war in the first place.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine were not going to attack Russia with the NATO bloc,” Prigozhin had said via his press service in words widely reported also in the West. “The Russian Defense Ministry is deceiving the public and the president.”
This latter part of Friday’s angry denunciations may prove to finally be Prigozhin’s downfall. There are now unverified reports that Moscow is taking extra measures to strengthen security and that the FSB is on high alert.
SECURITY SERVICES IN MOSCOW PUT ON HIGH ALERT: BBC
As for what happens next, at the very least the Kremlin will want to do something concerning the ongoing embarrassment and scandal, reflected in Western media headlines, which can present a narrative of a fracturing of Russian forces…
BREAKING: The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group appears to be threatening an armed rebellion against Russia’s military leadership. https://t.co/S2g5wOhKGh
— ABC News (@ABC) June 23, 2023
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* * *
There are breaking reports that Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has finally completely broken off relations with the Russian military, and essentially “declared war” on the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD).
According to a prominent translator who has examined freshly released audio of Prigozhin’s fiery message on Telegram, the Wagner leader begins with: “PMC Wagner Commanders’ Council made a decision: the evil brought by the military leadership of the country must be stopped. They neglect the lives of soldiers. They forgot the word “justice”, and we will bring it back.”
Audio. pic.twitter.com/hnuu42JhmY
— Dmitri (@wartranslated) June 23, 2023
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It comes amid unverified reports that the regular military launched an attack on a Wagner encampment after months of soaring tensions, which the Russian MoD has just denied.
All of this has quickly given way to reports from the region that Prigozhin is ready to lead a full-on “coup” against top leadership, military brass in particular.
The translation of the Wagner founder’s words continue as follows:
Those, who destroyed today our guys, who destroyed tens, tens of thousands of lives of Russian soldiers will be punished. I’m asking: no one resist. Everyone who will try to resist, we will consider them a danger and destroy them immediately, including any checkpoints on our way. And any aviation that we see above our heads.
I’m asking everyone to remain calm, do not succumb to provocations, and remain in their houses. Ideally, those along our way, do not go outside. After we finished what we started, we will return to the frontline to protect our motherland.
⚡️Prigozhin accuses Russian army of attacking Wagner, threatens to respond.
Wagner Group Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said Russian Defense Ministry attacked the group’s bases in the rear.
“We have 25,000 (soldiers), and we’re going to respond,” he said. https://t.co/1xk7oeGQBK
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 23, 2023
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And more from Prigozhin, suggesting he could indeed have his sights set on an actual political coup:
Presidential authority, Government, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rosgvardia, and other departments will continue operating as before. We will deal with those who destroy Russian soldiers. And we will return to the frontline. Justice in the Army will be restored. And after this, justice for the whole of Russia.”
One question remains after this: how long will he last?
Below is FT’s Moscow bureau chief on the shocking declaration…
We published this story about what Prigozhin accused the Russian MOD of this morning 40 minutes ago. In that time, he has now claimed the Russian army bombed a Wagner camp and appears to have declared war on the MOD. Just pure madnesshttps://t.co/oj11forhyR
— max seddon (@maxseddon) June 23, 2023
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At this point, the Wagner boss should certainly avoid staying in tall buildings and near windows.
Currently, Russian state-run RT has the following military statement pinned at the top of its homepage: Wagner chief spreads misinformation — MOD
“All messages and video distributed on social networks on behalf of [Yevgeny] Prigozhin about the alleged strike by the [Russian military] on the camps of PMC Wagner in the rear areas do not correspond to reality and are an informational provocation,” the defense ministry said in the statement.
“Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to carry out combat missions on the line of contact with the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of the special military operation,” the MoD added.
⚡️#BREAKING There are 25 thousand of us and we are going to figure out why there is chaos in the country — Prigozhin
“Everyone who wants to join. We need to end this mess.”
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) June 23, 2023
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developing…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/23/2023 – 18:15
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