Today’s News 3rd June 2024

• Macron Gathering European Coalition To Send Military Trainers To Ukraine
  Macron Gathering European Coalition To Send Military Trainers To Ukraine

  French President Emmanuel Macron is busy working behind the scenes on a controversial new initiative to assemble an army of troops from NATO countries to be sent to Ukraine.

  For now, the plan is to send the Western soldiers in the capacity of trainers and military advisers for Ukraine’s armed forces, with the training likely to take place in the West of the war-ravaged country, or at least far from the front lines.

  

  “Paris has been working for a while now with the Ukrainians on this,” a person familiar with France’s initiative told The Financial Times. But the plan hasn’t been launched formally by NATO leadership.

  “The strong view is that it makes sense, technically… But it won’t be a Nato initiative,” the source explained. This as a number of NATO countries have voiced reluctance or even outright disapproval, fearing unnecessary confrontation with Russia and runaway escalation that would put Western troops directly in harm’s way.

  According to more details of Macron’s plan via FT:

  President Emmanuel Macron is expected to unveil France’s plan to send army trainers next Thursday when he hosts Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Normandy along with other leaders, including US President Joe Biden, on the 80th anniversary of the D-Day, according to people familiar with the matter.

  Macron’s proposal would entail French soldiers training Ukrainian personnel for tasks including demining operations or repairing and maintaining military equipment. It could end up involving dozens or hundreds of troops. 

  Already, the hawkish anti-Moscow Baltic states of Estonia and Lithuania appear to have signed onto Macron’s plan. As of a month ago, Estonia said it was “seriously” discussing sending troops to Ukraine.

  The French government has since said it is working with Kiev to try and understand their exact needs in terms of training and advisory operations.

  German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz was among the first who tried to caution against a ‘boots on the ground’ scenario starting back in February. “What was agreed among ourselves and with each other from the very beginning also applies to the future, namely that there will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil sent there by European countries or NATO states,” he had said.

  Meanwhile, some NATO states are busy abandoning all pretense…

  Here’s the reality: NATO never agreed it wouldn’t expand and has been open to new members since it was founded in 1949. Its job is keeping its members safe.
  #1NATO75 #WeAreNATO pic.twitter.com/cfesrclP8b

  — Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) May 31, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Interestingly, Russian state media is pointing to recent words of Kiev officials to claim that French troops area already en route to Ukraine. According to RT:

  The first group of French military instructors are on their way to Ukraine, senior Ukrainian MP Aleksey Goncharenko said on Friday. This comes just days after Ukraine’s top commander, Aleksandr Syrsky, announced that he had completed paperwork facilitating the presence of French personnel in the country.

  “My sources informed me that the first group of French instructors is already on its way to Ukraine,” Goncharenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday evening.

  Russia has warned it will target NATO personnel and equipment found in Ukraine, and so all of this brings with it the real risk of triggering the NATO Article 5 common defense treaty, which some hawkish Western leaders would argue requires going to war with Russia.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/03/2024 – 02:45

• Ruling Party 'Obliterated' In South Africa Election
  Ruling Party ‘Obliterated’ In South Africa Election

  Authored by Darren Taylor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  

  “South Africa’s a new country today, but I’m really afraid of that. We don’t know what that looks like,” Pieter Fourie, a middle-aged, middle-class man walking his shaggy Alsatian through autumn leaves on a street in Melville, Johannesburg, said.

  His younger companion, Sally Kruger, sighed.

  “For many years we prayed to get rid of the ANC [African National Congress]. We watched as it destroyed our beautiful country,” she said, gesturing toward a gaping pothole filled with muddy water.

  “But now that the ANC’s fallen so badly, so fast, in such a shocking way, I’m finding it hard to find a reason to celebrate.”

  Ms. Kruger’s voice trailed off, almost drowned out by screeches from a flock of African ibises.

  “I mean, look at what’s rising to replace it!” she exclaimed. “Something even worse. We were in trouble under the ANC. Now we’re in even bigger trouble.”

  The couple’s insightful musings reflect the concerns of many citizens in Africa’s largest economy, and its most developed democracy, as the implications of the May 29 election filter through the suburbs, townships, and villages of this “Rainbow Nation” of 62 million.

  The ANC, in power since Nelson Mandela led it to a sweeping victory in South Africa’s first multiracial, multiparty poll in 1994 to end white minority apartheid rule, has captured less than 40 percent of the vote, with almost all ballots counted.

  The stunning result is reverberating around the world and was predicted by only one survey in the runup to the election.

  Most polls had support for the ANC at about 45 to 48 percent.

  That outcome would’ve still pushed it into a coalition government, but one that would’ve enabled it to continue exerting dominance in terms of policy direction with support from a few small parties over which it could wield its authority.

  Now, if it’s to hold on to a semblance of power, the ANC will have to form a coalition with a larger opposition party, or parties, which it won’t be able to push around.

  By law, the new government must be announced within 14 days, so it doesn’t have much time to negotiate its way back into the Union Buildings.

  The ANC’s potential partners could not be more different.

  

  On the one side is the centrist Democratic Alliance (DA), which has won 22 percent of the vote and up until now has been the official opposition.

  The DA is led by a middle-aged white man, John Steenhuisen, who’s often accused by the ANC of wanting to preserve “white privilege.”

  The DA is pro-business and pro-West, and wants to end affirmative action and replace it with “merit-based” employment, privatize state-owned companies, and weaken the “untrammeled” power of ANC-affiliated labor unions.

  These policies are “poisonous,” to the ANC, the party’s secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, said in an interview with The Epoch Times shortly before the election.

  On the other side of the chasm are two radical leftist parties led by charismatic, allegedly corrupt black men who once vowed to “die for the ANC”: Umkhonto we Sizwe (MKP), whose figurehead is former President Jacob Zuma, 82, and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), whose “commander-in-chief” is Julius Malema, 43.

  Together, the MKP, with 15 percent, and the EFF, with a little less than 10 percent, have won almost a quarter of votes cast.

  If they form a coalition, they could replace the DA as the official opposition.

  The MKP and EFF are “natural bedfellows,” according to professor Dirk Kotze, governance expert at the University of South Africa in Pretoria.

  

  Both are “proudly Marxist” and, like the ANC, are fervent supporters of regimes in China, Russia, Iran, and Zimbabwe.

  Both accuse the ANC of “selling out” to white capitalists.

  Both advocate seizing white-owned land, including farms, and “nationalizing” mines and banks.

  MKP and EFF say all forms of private wealth must be “equally redistributed” among South Africa’s estimated 27 million poor people, mostly black.

  Both want to cut trade ties with Western countries in favor of closer cooperation with a “Multipolar World Order” led by Beijing.

  Both have made statements vilifying white citizens; Mr. Malema has twice been found guilty of racist hate speech against white people.

  Should the ANC choose to partner with one, or both, of these extremist parties to form a coalition government, financial experts say it’ll trigger taxpayer and investor flight and herald the collapse of South Africa’s economy, which is built on gold, platinum, an advanced banking system, and agriculture.

  “There’s a faction inside the ANC that remains pro-Zuma and actually admires Malema and agrees with EFF and MKP policies,” Melanie Verwoerd, an independent political analyst and former ANC member of parliament, said.

  

  “Then there’s a more moderate part of the ANC, under [current President] Cyril Ramaphosa, that realize the terrible implications of signing up with either MKP or EFF,” she told The Epoch Times. “This part will prefer to go into coalition with the DA, but they probably don’t have the upper hand at the moment because the ANC under Ramaphosa has performed so poorly in the election.”

  Mr. Steenhuisen told The Epoch Times the DA “remains willing to listen to the reasonable people still left” in the ANC.

  “We’ll do what’s best for all South Africans,” he said. “We must keep the country out of the hands of the extremists. We must believe them when they tell us exactly what they’ll do with power. They’ll sow racial hatred. They’ll steal private property. They’ll launch a pogrom against white people and legal and illegal African migrants. They’ll sell the country to the Chinese and Russians. They’ll sink more millions into poverty by antagonizing Western investors and trade partners. They’ll make the ANC’s corruption look like small change.”

  ANC’s implosion

  Mr. Kotze told The Epoch Times the ANC has been a “victim of its own folly and blindness.”

  “It’s still a political force in South Africa, but no longer a force to be reckoned with,” he said. “This election has obliterated it.”

  Mr. Kotze added that voters had “lambasted” the ANC for 20 years of “consistent failures” on almost all fronts, including governance, the economy, and law enforcement.

  “Things started well under Mandela, and things were quite good for a while under [President Thabo] Mbeki,“ he said. ”But when Mbeki started losing control of the ANC around the mid-2000s, to people who just wanted to steal and had no idea how to govern, that’s when South Africa’s downward trajectory began.”

  In the months leading up to the May 29 vote, political think-tanks, analysts, and experts branded it the most significant in 30 years.

  The ANC was badly wounded, they said, broken by a criminal class within its ranks that had stolen billions of rands, its corruption and mismanagement bankrupting state-owned enterprises to such a degree that ports and railways no longer work, electricity outages plunging South Africa into darkness and economic paralysis on a daily basis.

  

  “Entire towns have been wiped off the face of the earth by the maladministration of ANC municipalities,” Prince Mashele, of South Africa’s Centre for Politics and Research, said.

  Failure to curb violent crime, including a murder rate that now stands at 84 per day, also dealt it a “death blow,” he said.

  Mr. Kotze said the ANC’s black economic empowerment and “cadre deployment” policies have made people close to the ruling party extremely rich but failed to pull millions out of extreme poverty, reflected in the world’s highest “real” unemployment rate, 41 percent.

  Going into the election, though, Mr. Ramaphosa would only acknowledge that his party had made “a few mistakes,” never explaining exactly what those mistakes were, and never apologizing.

  “That was a huge miscalculation on his part,” Mr. Mashele said.

  As the election approached, the ANC remained confident, in public at least, that voters would elect it back into government by a “large majority,” in Mr. Ramaphosa’s words.

  “South Africans know we are the only ones who can improve their lives,” the president said at a rally in Soweto.

  Mr. Kotze said the ANC’s “arrogance harmed it immensely” in the election.

  Even when the scale of the destruction suffered by the party became clear on May 31, senior ANC official Gwede Mantashe, one of Mr. Ramaphosa’s closest aides, told journalists: “Leave predictions and polls aside. Votes are still flowing in. I’m optimistic we’ll easily reach more than 50 percent.”

  

  Amid the melee of the results hub of South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission near Johannesburg, analyst Wayne Sussman told The Epoch Times: “When counting began at pace on Thursday, I confidently projected the ANC would end on 45 percent. To have the ANC now at around 40 percent, with almost all results declared, tells you the tale of the damage suffered by Africa’s oldest former liberation movement. This is a party that got 70 percent of the national vote in 2004! Its implosion has been amazing. A historic new era of coalition governance has begun, and it’s probably going to be extremely volatile and chaotic.”

  That volatility and chaos has already begun: News that the ANC will have to form a coalition government, and the uncertainty this will bring, has caused prices of shares in major South African companies and the value of the rand to plummet.

  A week ago, the rand was trading at 18 to the United States dollar; now it’s at almost 19.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 06/03/2024 – 02:00

• Girls Are Getting Their Periods Earlier, And They’re More Irregular Than Past Generations
  Girls Are Getting Their Periods Earlier, And They’re More Irregular Than Past Generations

  Authored by Megan Redshaw, J.D. via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  

  Young girls are starting their first periods earlier than they have in previous decades—a shift associated with adverse health outcomes later in life.

  A new study published on May 29 in JAMA Network Open revealed that the median age at menarche has remained relatively stable at around 12 years, and the proportion of girls starting menstruation before age 11 has significantly increased over time.

  Menarche, or the first menstrual period, marks the beginning of the monthly hormonal cycle and reproductive lifespan. Additionally, it signifies the end of female puberty.

  Researchers with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Apple Women’s Health Study examined data from more than 71,000 U.S. women born between 1950 and 2005, encompassing various ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds. They aimed to determine the age at which these women experienced their first menstrual cycle and how long it took for their cycle to become regular.

  The study found that nearly 16 percent of women born between 2000 and 2005 started their menstrual cycles between ages 9 and 11, compared to almost 9 percent of those born between 1950 and 1969. Additionally, researchers observed an increase in the number of women experiencing irregular menstrual cycles for three years or more after menarche.

  When stratifying trends by race and ethnicity, participants who were Asian, Hispanic, non-Hispanic black, or of other or multiple races or ethnicities were consistently more likely to experience early menarche than non-Hispanic white participants.

  An exploratory analysis of a subset of 9,865 participants estimated that 46 percent of the trend could be attributed to body mass index—a measure of a person’s body fat based on height and weight. The authors noted that obesity is a risk factor for early-onset puberty and that childhood obesity is on the rise in the United States, which could explain the trend toward earlier menarche. However, it’s unknown to what extent changes in early BMI affect the trend. The underlying cause of the remaining 54 percent experiencing early menarche remains unclear.

  Menstrual Cycle Considered Vital Sign of Health

  The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) considers the menstrual cycle to be a vital sign of overall health, and irregularities can indicate underlying health issues, such as hormonal imbalances, thyroid disorders, or other medical conditions. The menstrual cycle also involves the immune system as uterine immune cells undergo substantial changes and facilitate the thickening and thinning of the uterine lining.

  According to ACOG, girls typically have their first period between 12 and 13 years of age, but it takes a few years for menstrual cycles to become regular. Until then, adolescents may experience irregular periods as their bodies adjust to new hormonal patterns.

  Early Periods May Cause Health Problems

  A growing body of evidence, including the current study, links early menarche and a longer time to regularity with an increased risk of health conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes, asthma, multiple sclerosis, metabolic conditions, and all-cause mortality.

  A 2021 study published in the Annals of Epidemiology found that earlier menarche in girls and a longer time to reach menstrual regularity were associated with an increased risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Girls who started their first period at age 11 or younger were at an increased risk of death from diabetes, breast cancer, and other cancers compared to those who had their first period at 13 years.

  A 2021 study in Cancer Research found that early exposure to sex hormones associated with early-onset menstruation is associated with an increased risk of seven cancers in middle-aged women.

  A 2020 systematic review and meta-analysis of 28 studies in PLOS Medicine found that girls who experience earlier menarche have an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance in adulthood.

  In a meta-analysis of eight prospective studies involving 4,553 subjects with endometrial cancer, researchers found that an earlier age of menarche is associated with an increased risk of endometrial cancer. Likewise, a previous study by the same authors found a “statistically significant inverse association” between ovarian cancer and later menarcheal age.

  Evidence also suggests early menarche may enhance multiple sclerosis disease activity in children. In a Canadian prospective study, researchers found a 36 percent decrease in the probability of having a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis for each year menarche was delayed, although a delayed-onset menstrual cycle accompanies its adverse health problems.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 23:20

• US Secret Service Reacts To Trump’s Criminal Conviction
  US Secret Service Reacts To Trump’s Criminal Conviction

  The US Secret Service on Friday said that Donald Trump’s conviction in his ‘hush money’ trial will have “no bearing” on whether the agency will protect him.

  

  According to the agency, “today’s outcome has no bearing on the manner in which the United States Secret Service carries out its protective mission,” adding that “our security measures will proceed unchanged,” the Epoch Times‘ Jack Phillips reports.

  Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records in connection with a 2016 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. He will face sentencing on July 11, during which Judge Juan Merchan could toss the former president in jail. Prosecutors have not indicated whether they will push for this, while Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg (who downgraded 60% of felonies in his district to misdemeanors, while elevating a an obscure, rarely prosecuted crime to a felony in Trump’s case).

  As the Epoch Times notes, several weeks ago, the Secret Service issued a similar statement to The Epoch Times regarding how it would handle the former president’s security if he were jailed, coming after Judge Merchan warned him that he would be prepared to send him to jail over comments that he said violated his earlier gag order.

  On May 8, the agency responded to questions about how the Secret Service would respond if President Trump were jailed, saying that “under federal law, the United States Secret Service must provide protection for current government leaders, former Presidents and First Ladies, visiting heads of state and other individuals designated by the President of the United States.”

  That comment also didn’t go into specifics about how it would handle security. At the time, the spokesperson did not respond to a question about whether a Secret Service agent could be stationed in a cell with the former president.

  “For all settings around the world, we study locations and develop comprehensive and layered protective models that incorporate state-of-the-art technology, protective intelligence, and advanced security tactics to safeguard our protectees,” the spokesperson said. “Beyond that, we do not comment on specific protective operations.”

  The lead attorney for President Trump, Todd Blanche, told CNN that he thinks the former president should not face prison time, in part due to his age. President Trump, 77, also has no prior convictions, he noted.

  “There’s a system in place where you rely on precedent, and somebody like President Trump should never, never face a jail sentence based on this conduct,” Mr. Blanche said.

  “And it would just kind of confirm what we’ve been saying all along,” he continued. “And a lot of people say that we’re wrong and that we’re missing key pieces. But if other 77-year-old, first-time offenders would never be sent to prison for this conduct.”

  

  The charge he was convicted of, falsifying business records, carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison. Others convicted of that crime often receive shorter sentences, fines, or probation, but the judge in the case said during jury selection that President Trump faces a potential jail sentence.

  After the conviction was handed down on Thursday evening, Judge Merchan set the sentencing date for July 11, or four days before the start of the Republican National Convention. President Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee for president.

  Incarceration would not prevent President Trump from campaigning or taking office if he were to win during the November election. He also will not be jailed ahead of his sentencing.

  After two days of deliberation, a jury of New Yorkers found President Trump guilty of all 34 criminal counts he faced for falsifying documents to cover up payments to Stormy Daniels in the final days of his successful 2016 campaign. The former president pleaded not guilty, denied allegations from Ms. Daniels about an affair, and said the payments were standard legal expenses.

  Falsifying business documents is normally a misdemeanor in New York, but prosecutors in District Attorney Bragg’s office elevated the case to a felony on the grounds that President Trump was concealing an illegal campaign contribution.

  He still faces three other criminal prosecutions, but the New York verdict could be the only one handed down before Americans vote, as the other cases have been tied up in legal wrangling. President Trump has pleaded not guilty in all four cases, which he says are politically motivated.

  “If this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone,” he posted on social media, describing the New York trial as “rigged.”

  National opinion polls show President Trump locked in a tight race with President Joe Biden, and one in four Republican respondents in an April Reuters-Ipsos poll said they would not vote for him if he were convicted of a felony by a jury.

  Allen Zhong and Reuters contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 22:45

• China Ramps Up Warning On Bond-Buying Frenzy With PBOC Selling in Focus
  China Ramps Up Warning On Bond-Buying Frenzy With PBOC Selling in Focus

  By John Liu and Zheng Wu, Bloomberg Markets Live reporters and strategists

  Three things we learned last week:

  1. China’s central bank gave its strongest warning yet against overheating in the government bond market. A paper backed by the People’s Bank of China said the monetary authority is ready to sell bonds if needed and suggested a reasonable range for the 10-year yield should be 2.5% to 3%.

  PBOC’s repeated warnings against what it deems as excessively low yields have largely been shrugged off by investors. Unconvinced by China’s economic recovery and housing rescue plans, bond bulls have been betting the central bank will have to do more, such as lowering interest rates and even turning to the controversial step of quantitative easing.

  

  Investors may have to take it more seriously this time. The PBOC has every reason to be concerned over falling interest rates. While cheaper borrowing costs have benefits, a yawning yield gap with the US is adding pressure on the yuan and fueling bearish sentiment toward Chinese assets — raising the risk of capital outflows.

  The central bank may want to root out expectations of aggressive monetary easing. Such speculations have led to an influx of money into the bond market, draining bank deposits and funds available for the real economy. It may perhaps be sending a subtle message to the Ministry of Finance that the the heavy-lifting of growth should come from the fiscal side.

  2. China’s factory activity unexpectedly contracted with the official manufacturing purchasing manager index falling to 49.5. While more focus was given to the sudden weakness, the non-manufacturing gauge also flashed a warning with a slower-than-expected expansion. Together, they put in doubt the ability of China to reach the growth target of around 5% this year.

  China’s recovery this year has largely been driven by export-oriented firms as domestic consumption is weighed down by the real estate slump. That pillar of strength is at risk of losing its mojo as trade tensions rise along with more protectionist measures against Chinese products. Persistent demand weakness may also be starting to erode production strength, according to Citi analysts.

  While stock market reaction was muted right after the PMI data release, key equity gauges ended Friday in the red while the yuan also slipped against the dollar. The weakness in eco data tends to draw mixed reaction among investors, with some seeing it as a positive signal for more policy support while others regard it as just another reason to sell Chinese assets.

  3. Last week started with renewed excitement over property support as top-tier cities joined the easing bandwagon, but the upbeat mood didn’t last long. A Bloomberg Intelligence index tracking China’s developer stocks slid around 6% in the five days through Friday, taking its loss since a May 17 high to roughly 19%.

  Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou lowered requirements for home downpayments and cut the minimum rates charged for mortgages, following through on the central government’s aid for the embattled property sector. The fact that property shares fell despite the easing measures from China’s biggest cities shows the bar to satisfy frustrated investors is getting higher and higher.

  

  The mood is more cautious among fixed-income managers, who pay closer attention to the developers’ credit risks. They say the sector is not out of the woods yet, with their refinancing options limited ahead of near-term maturity walls. As the chorus grows for even more policy support, it’s unclear how and when the property crisis can be solved. The country has the equivalent of 60 million unsold apartments, which will take more than four years to sell without government aid, according to Bloomberg Economics.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 22:37

• 5 Ways Fed Medicine Is Worse Than The Disease
  5 Ways Fed Medicine Is Worse Than The Disease

  Via SchiffGold.com,

  Central bank monetary tactics have proven to be a toxic remedy, amplifying rather than curing economic ailments. Like a surgeon whose operation only worsens the patient’s condition, central banks administer policies that do more harm than good. Here are five ways central banks leave a legacy of financial turmoil.

  

  The following article was originally published by the Mises Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.

  Central banks’ monetary policies are the most perverse government intervention. Their consequences are dire, last for a very long time, and people don’t perceive them as problems or don’t comprehend the damage they are doing. Monetary policy (monetary expansion and artificially low interest rates) has five main consequences that harm overall living standards.

  1. Price Inflation

  This is the most obvious consequence, and yet, it is very misunderstood by voters. If the money that is effectively circulating in the economy (i.e., M1 and M2, or for a better perspective, the true money supply) increases, price inflation tends to increase. The expansion of the money supply destroys consumer purchasing power and makes people poorer over time.

  2. Bigger Government

  Government spending and indebtedness are intensified due to expansionary monetary policies (since central banks buy government bonds). More resources are allocated to pay for politicians’ and bureaucrats’ luxurious lives and for government programs that, at their best, are more expensive compared to a free market solution. Governments don’t have an incentive to allocate the resources efficiently (since they can just raise taxes, go deeper into debt, or print money), so anything that it does ends up being more expensive than it would have been without monetary intervention.

  3. Financial Assets Become Overpriced

  Monetary policy is behind the major financial crisis and its precedent asset bubbles.

  The stock market is overpriced because artificially low interest rates raise the present value of corporations’ future earnings, making their stocks go higher without having sound fundamental indicators. Artificially low rates also incentivize people to go into debt to buy stocks, which raises their prices. Plus, some central banks (like the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank) have stocks on their balance sheets, which also appreciates their prices due to the artificial demand.

  Real estate prices are inflated as well. Houses and buildings are what Rothbard would call “higher order” goods due to their very long capital structure. He notes,

  The supply of funds for investment apparently increases, and the interest rate is lowered. Businessmen, in short, are misled by the bank inflation into believing that the supply of saved funds is greater than it really is. Now, when saved funds increase, businessmen invest in “longer processes of production,” i.e., the capital structure is lengthened, especially in the “higher orders” most remote from the consumer.

  Overpriced real estate assets also turn houses, apartments, and commercial properties into an asset class (something to invest in and, in theory, protect oneself from the very inflation that caused the real estate prices to go up in the first place) rather than what they would be if it wasn’t for the government’s meddling: houses and apartments for living, and commercial properties for economic activities, either by renting or buying.

  4. Economic Inequality

  This one is linked to our previous argument. Thanks to loose monetary policy, financial assets appreciate without being backed by proper fundamentals. Richer people (the ones who have the most financial assets) get even richer not because their investments are improving companies’ productivity (providing more or better goods and services), but because their assets are being inflated by monetary policy.

  The financial market turns out to be less accessible for the average Jane and Joe due to the following:

  • Stocks are more expensive and risky and therefore less attractive for one who can’t afford to lose a lot of money.

  • The bond market is also less attractive since their prices go higher due to the artificial demand from the new money supply; hence, its rates go lower. This makes the bonds attractive for people who want to buy them as a speculation on their price (if rates go even lower, their prices go up and the investor makes a profit). Alas, since bonds are expensive, average people can’t afford the risk.

  • Financial markets become more complex since there are a lot more tricky instruments (like derivatives) to deal with market volatility (which would be lower if not for government poking) or to increase returns (not without higher risks). And the use of such instruments by asset managers makes their expenses and fees go higher, which also increases their required minimal investments (excluding the less-fortunate people from the game). Side note: government regulations for financial markets, like the ones of agencies like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (yes, this is a private corporation, but it is a monopoly imposed by the government) and the Securities and Exchange Commission, also increase required minimal investments.

  So, the average Jane and Joe have fewer tools to get richer. And this keeps getting worse as long as central banks keep up with their dovish monetary policy.

  Housing also becomes less affordable, and average people must sacrifice a lot more (and for a much longer time) to save for buying a home. What would be a simple task turns into a long and tiresome effort. This diminished the number of first-time homebuyers, and young people had to delay it. But now, even people in their thirties are living with their parents or other relatives. And homelessness is increasing in major cities like Los Angeles and Lisbon (both foreigners and Portuguese people).

  5. Higher Time Preference Equals Less Economic Growth and More Indebtedness

  Artificially low interest rates destroy the incentive for savings. In many cases, even if price inflation is low, the return on savings does not compensate for the time that people didn’t use the money. The overall time preference gets higher. People are not willing to wait to spend their money. If there is no return, they might as well party right away.

  Indebtedness also increases for consumption instead of being used for investments that would increase productivity and economic growth. This also makes prices go higher than they would be because higher productivity tends to lower prices, and this process is, best-case scenario, delayed by lower savings. In other words, governments don’t let deflation (which would make prices go lower over time) happen.

  Price inflation itself also creates an incentive to spend right away (since the purchasing power gets lower every year), and artificially low interest rates make the money market (which would be an easy tool people could resort to for parking their savings) not attractive. And, since overall time preference is higher, most people don’t settle for just preserving their purchasing power (which sometimes can be achieved with gold). They want a fast and high return, a dangerous combination. So, they go to the stock market, which is overpriced thanks to a loose monetary policy, which was covered earlier.

  Conclusion

  Government interventions through central banks are the most destructive and yet the least understood by most people. It is a bad enough problem to deal with on its own, and even harder to do so when people fail to perceive its damage. Central banks are the source of most evils in the economy.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 21:00

• Nvidia CEO Nvidia's Jensen Huang Reveals New AI Chip Slated For 2026
  Nvidia CEO Nvidia’s Jensen Huang Reveals New AI Chip Slated For 2026

  At the 2024 Taipei International Information Technology Show, better known as Computex, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang highlighted the endless possibilities surrounding artificial intelligence. He unveiled plans for new AI accelerator chips, signaling the company’s shift from graphics cards to AI chips. 

  In March, Nvidia unveiled the $70,000 Blackwell B200 GPU chip, the “world’s most powerful AI chip.” On Sunday, Huang told the audience about the Rubin AI chip slated for 2026. He said the new chip would use HBM4, the next iteration of the essential high-bandwidth memory. 

  Wall Street DOES NOT understand what’s coming.$NVDA just changed everything we know about AI at COMPUTEX 2024.

  Don’t say I didn’t warn you: pic.twitter.com/x4tD00ubJ4

  — Alex (@TickerSymbolYOU) June 2, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Huang stressed that companies that fail to embrace AI will be left behind. He said companies can only manage the “computation inflation” of ever-expanding data needs through AI chips. 

  Combining two processors on a personal computer is already standard practice for increasing computational power, but try this at a data center…

  “We add a GPU, a $500 GPU, to a $1,000 PC, and the performance increases tremendously,” he said, adding, “We do this in a data center. A billion-dollar data center, we add $500 million worth of GPUs, and all of a sudden, it becomes an AI factory.”

  “The more you buy, the more you save. This is the CEO’s math. It is not accurate, but it is correct!” the executive told the audience. 

  Huang’s new chip unveiling comes ahead of Monday’s cash session in New York. The company’s shares are inching closer to the $3 trillion valuation mark.

  

  TechRadar’s John Loeffler had a running blog during Computex, commenting on Huang’s speech. One big takeaway from Loeffler is Nvidia’s transformation from a graphics card company to an AI chip company. 

  They [Nvidia] are no longer a graphics company, as Jensen reportedly told employees several months back, and every Nvidia keynote and live stream I’ve watched in the last year and a half really just reinforces that fact.

  Nvidia is absolutely, 100% going to become an AI chip company, and whatever gaming appendage sticks around for a few years will become less and less of a focus for the company.

  There’s nothing particularly wrong with that, to be honest. Nvidia is printing money hand over fist selling AI hardware to OpenAI, Google, and all the rest, so from a business perspective, it makes perfect sense. It’d be the height of madness not to position yourself at the center of an industry that’s giving you 10x better returns than what you were doing before.

  Its AI revenue, even if AMD and Intel eventually produce AI data center hardware that offers genuine competition to whatever Nvidia is producing down the road, is still going to dwarf whatever money its GeForce products bring in. GeForce might continue for some time, especially on mobile devices where RTX chips can be a way to interface with Nvidia’s broader AI ecosystem, but I think in the end, the consumer graphics market is going to come down the AMD and Intel. I just don’t see Nvidia’s heart being in the consumer graphics game any longer.

  Loeffler continued:

  If it helps Nvidia sleep better at night to call what its making now GPUs, they’re the ones with the $2 trillion valuation, they can do as they like. But there’s a part of me, the life-long PC gamer part of me, that feels like Nvidia has decided that the PC gamers that initially propelled the company to success two decades ago don’t really matter anymore.

  Huang didn’t offer many specifics on the new chip that will begin shipping in 2026. However, during an earnings call earlier this year, the exec said the chip giant will design new platforms annually, down from every two years. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 20:25

• Trump Campaign Raises Staggering $200 Million Since Thursday Conviction
  Trump Campaign Raises Staggering $200 Million Since Thursday Conviction

  If Democrats needed further confirmation that prosecuting Donald Trump on an obscure misdemeanor elevated to a felony just for him… (while the same DA reduced 60% of felonies to misdemeanors last year), the Trump campaign has raised over $200 million since Thursday’s verdict in the former president’s New York ‘hush money’ trial.

  

  Of that, $70 million was from small donors, and 30% of the total were first-time donors to a political campaign, Eric Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Sunday.

  “I mean, these are Americans who are p*ssed off, said the younger Trump. “They’re coming out of the woodwork and they want to support a guy that they just believe is getting bamboozled by a system.

  “We saw it with Impeachment one, we saw it with Impeachment two, we see it where they weaponize every liberal DA and AG across the country with one intent: To take him down, to slander him, to ruin his reputation, to try and divide his family, to try and bankrupt him, to throw him in jail, to do whatever the hell they can do,” he added.

  “America sees through it. They know exactly what’s going on.”

  Eric Trump says the campaign is over $200 million in donations since the verdict

  pic.twitter.com/BiwTUG6K0w

  — The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 2, 2024

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  As the Post Millennial notes further;

  The $200 million was raised in a matter of just three days, which far surpasses any amount raised by President Biden’s campaign in a similar time frame. Within 24 hours of President Trump’s guilty verdict, the Trump campaign received $53 million in donations. The Biden campaign raised a total of $51 million for all of April.

  According to a Friday statement by Trump campaign officials Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, “Biden and his Democrat allies have turned our legal system into a political tool, and Americans from every corner of the country have had enough,” adding “This momentum is just getting started and together, as President Trump stated perfectly, Americans will render the real verdict on November 5.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 19:15

• Good Thing Markets Don't Close At 2:30 pm
  Good Thing Markets Don’t Close At 2:30 pm

  By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

  Good Thing Markets Don’t Close at 2:30 pm

  Sometimes weeks shortened by holidays are painful to follow. It somehow seems difficult to get a good sense of flows and momentum. In addition, last week had a dearth of economic data, at least until Friday. Let’s be honest, when we are looking at Treasury auction results for direction, we are in a market devoid of much else going on.

  The market did seem to digest the news that a former president and presumptive nominee was found guilty of felonies. At some point, markets are likely to focus on the election. The one thing I’m reasonably sure about regarding the election is that as the campaigning begins in earnest, it will not be great for Treasuries. Neither candidate/party seems particularly interested in doing anything about the ballooning national debt and that will weigh on markets yet again.

  Other factors such as “okay” inflation data will also impact Treasuries. We crawled back into our 4.3% to 4.5% range, but largely on a simply atrocious Chicago PMI report. While we can all agree that neither Chicago, nor Manufacturing are as important to the nation as they once were, it is at least mildly disturbing that we surpassed the 2001 trough (though we are marginally higher than the 2008/2009 and COVID troughs).

  

  Which brings me to the chart of the day.

  The Nasdaq 100 dropped about 300 points on the week or about 1.5%. Not horrible, but late into the day on Tuesday and late into the day on Friday (which also happened to be month-end), the Nasdaq 100 gained about 470 points (about 2.5%). Now, maybe the “hockey stick” save into the close on Tuesday is explicable, but we saw those gains fade as the week progressed. However, Friday’s action seemed bizarre at best. Presumably, it was due to some sort of month-end rebalancing, but it was hardly something that a continued rally seems likely to be based on.

  

  That is in addition to some of the moves (up and down) highlighted in yellow, that seem almost random. Sure, some can be tied to a specific headline, but many just seem to be reactions to flows.

  I’m increasingly worried about a lack of “true” liquidity in the markets. Sure, algos create a perception of liquidity (one that can be used in reasonable size), but those pockets of liquidity seem to disperse more and more frequently.

  Without a doubt, in a quiet tape, the relentless buying from share repurchases has helped, but that didn’t seem to work last week.

  One thing that caught me somewhat by surprise was that going back to March 1st, the S&P 500 is up 2.4%. No, I’m not surprised that despite all the hype and relentless “all-time high” headlines, stocks are barely up over the last 3 months. What surprised me (a little) was that the utilities sector was by far the best performing sector in the S&P 500 (up a whopping 16.4% over that period).

  We have stretched the AI Deputization theme to its limit. Yes, data centers are being built. More and more computing power is also being built. They will need energy to run, but I suspect that will take time and the markets are “compressing” time. We’ve pulled forward lots and lots of expected cashflows and benefits from AI. NVDA remains strong and is up over 30% since March 1st, but even the AI leadership doesn’t seem broad and has relied on utilities. That all seems “stretched” to me.

  We continue to see large stocks react 10% (or far more) to earnings, which I interpret to be a function of options and a lack of true liquidity.

  Maybe we will grind higher again, but markets seem stretched, leadership is flagging, and we should get some interesting data this week. I care far less about the inflation data and far more about the data pointing to economic activity and the consumer.

  The May jobs data should be really interesting. From a “seasonal” perspective, it should pick up summer hiring in the Northeast. I continue to wonder if our “seasonal” adjustments no longer match the reality of a country where the demographic mix and manufacturing/service hubs have changed over time (away from the Northeast). Maybe the corollary of Chicago doesn’t matter, but is this why we’ve been overstating jobs due to seasonality, which is no longer accurate?

  Bottom Line

  I expect “American Exceptionalism” to be sorely tested this coming week with the onslaught of data (jobs in particular).

  I’m increasingly nervous that we are about to undergo another round of selling pressure in Treasuries. Foreign bond yields are getting more attractive, the deficit is concerning, and China (amongst others) needs to raise money to fund stimulus. However, I think the economic data will outweigh that and keep us drifting back towards 4.3% on 10s.

  Equities got the “stick save” on Friday, but I think that will fade and every attempt to rally on lower yields that are a result of weaker data will fade. I just don’t see a third “save” coming and it won’t matter that markets don’t close at 2:30 pm, because there won’t be the late day rally!

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 18:40

• German Policeman Dies After Intervening In Stabbing At Anti-Islam Rally
  German Policeman Dies After Intervening In Stabbing At Anti-Islam Rally

  Update (2000ET): A 29-year-old German police officer who was repeatedly stabbed during an attack at an anti-Islam rally in the city of Mannheim has died of his wounds after having been “stabbed several times in the area of the head.”

  

  The officer, identified as Rouven L in German media, underwent emergency surgery following the attack and was placed in an artificial coma, only to die of his injuries on Sunday, the Daily Mail reports.

  German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he was “deeply saddened” by the officer’s death.

  “His commitment to the safety of all of us deserves the highest recognition,” Scholz posted on X.

  *  *  *

  A shocking video has exploded across social media showing a man stabbing anti-Islam activist and politician, 59-year-old Michael Stürzenberger, during a campaign event in Mannheim.

  

  As Remix News’ John Cody reports, the bloody and chaotic video shows the man running amok among campaign staff, who are wearing blue jackets, while the man stabs any victim in his sight.

  The campaign workers scramble to stop the man, who also stabbed a police officer in the neck.

  Embedding the video has been blocked on X (click image for link):

  

  News reports indicate that the suspect has already been shot and killed by police, although the suspect’s death has not been confirmed by all news outlets. In one frame of the video, the man can clearly be seen plunging his knife into the neck of a police officer.

  Police say the victim was campaigning and providing “educational information” in the lead-up to the attack in the city square.

  Stürzenberger is an anti-Islamic political activist who is a member of the Citizens’ Movement Pax Europa, who earlier served in the Munich Christian Socialist Union (CSU) and as the chairman of the Freedom party, a small party which is now dissolved. He publishes an anti-Islamic blog.

  He is well known for producing a citizens’ petition against the construction of a mosque in Munich. He was convicted for “insulting an officer” and “denigration of religious teachings.”

  He has also been under surveillance in the past, with the Bavarian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) listing Stürzenberger in its report related to “Islamophobia relevant to the Protection of the Constitution.”

  The stabbing incident comes just one week before EU parliament elections.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 18:30

• A "Restaurant Apocalypse" Is Starting To Sweep Across America, And That Is Really Bad News For The U.S. Economy
  A “Restaurant Apocalypse” Is Starting To Sweep Across America, And That Is Really Bad News For The U.S. Economy

  Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

  You can get a really good idea how the U.S. economy is doing by watching restaurants in your area.  When the economy is booming, restaurant parking lots are full and chains are feverishly establishing new locations.  But when the economy is struggling, restaurants get a lot less traffic and poor performing locations get shut down.  Sadly, in 2024 it appears that a “restaurant apocalypse” has started to sweep across America.  Most people have very little discretionary income to spend as a result of our cost of living crisis, and that is particularly true for our young adults.  Americans under the age of 40 love to eat out, but these days most of them are experiencing financial stress, and this is having an enormous impact on the restaurant industry.

  

  In 2023, visits to sit-down restaurants dropped by about five percent compared to 2022…

  Americans are eating out less as inflation weakens the dollars in their pocket, which is leading to some harsh consequences for restaurants across the country.

  Visits to sit-down restaurants were down nearly five percent in 2023 from the year prior, according to location analytics firm Placer.ai.

  So this is a trend that has stretched on for over a year.

  People just aren’t eating out as much as they once did.

  As a result, we are seeing a wave of closures all over the country.  Even in the Big Apple, large numbers of restaurants are being shut down…

  Even big metropolitan areas in the US known for their great dining spots are struggling to maintain an environment where it’s profitable to run a restaurant.

  Eater NY reported that over 40 bars and restaurants closed in New York City from December 2023 to January 2024, with some of the owners saying business simply never picked up after the COVID lockdowns in 2020.

  When times get tough, difficult decisions need to be made.

  After closing 46 restaurants last year, Applebee’s has decided to close another 35 locations this year…

  Applebee’s is to close another 35 further locations this year, after shutting 46 in 2023.

  The restaurant chain has shut at least three locations so far this year and has plans to close even more, president Tony Moralejo said in an earnings call on Wednesday.

  Closing restaurants was ‘an incredibly difficult decision’ and a ‘last resort’ for the company, Moralejo said.

  And I am very saddened by what has happened to Boston Market.

  At one time they had almost 1,000 locations all over the United States, but now the entire chain is about to go belly up…

  In the case of Boston Market, a chain that once had nearly 1,000 locations nationwide, the company’s death has been slow, but the pace of its demise has picked up over the past few months.

  Now, with its store count continuing to dip, the chain seems to have reached the end even if it won’t confirm that given that there no longer appears to be anyone around to make that decision.

  Boston Market owner Jignesh “Jay” Pandya was recently denied Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time and has been barred from filing again for six months. That leaves his company, which faces massive financial obligations, unable to gain court protection from its creditors.

  Our ongoing inflation crisis is the primary reason why this is happening.

  Consumers simply have a lot less discretionary income now.

  Meanwhile, restaurants are facing much higher costs…

  Jessica Dunker, the president and CEO of the Iowa Restaurant Association, said the reason restaurants are shuttering is because the cost of goods is up 30 percent and they are having to shell out higher wages to keep staff on.

  Unfortunately, things aren’t going to get any better any time soon.

  For example, the cost of orange juice is expected to go up dramatically because of a very bad harvest in Brazil…

  Breakfast lovers are in for another jolt as orange juice prices surge to near-record levels. A new report released on Friday indicates that Brazil, the leading global exporter of OJ, is facing its worst harvest in over three decades. This alarming development compounds existing issues in Florida’s citrus groves, which have been plagued by disease and are experiencing collapsing production levels to the lowest in decades.

  Fundecitrus wrote in a note that Brazil will produce 232.4 million boxes—each weighing about 90 pounds—for the growing season this year. That’s a 24% collapse from a year earlier and the lowest production levels in 36 years.

  We have reached a point where the vast majority of Americans just can’t afford to eat out on a regular basis.

  Needless to say, that is really bad news for fast food chains like McDonald’s.

  At one time, serving middle class families was their core business.

  But now most middle class families just can’t afford to eat at McDonald’s very often.

  In a desperate attempt to lure them back, McDonald’s will soon introduce a five dollar meal deal…

  McDonald’s is looking to launch a $5 meal in the US in a move to bring back price-sensitive customers.

  The meal includes four items, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg and Restaurant Business. Customers would choose between two of the chain’s signature burgers — a McChicken or a McDouble — and get four-piece McNuggets, fries, and a drink. The $5 promotion would last for a month, Bloomberg reported.

  So they are going to bring back affordable food for one month.

  That’s just great.

  Unless they make the five dollar meal deal permanent, I don’t expect that it will make much of a difference.

  Consumers are really hurting right now.  In fact, consumer sentiment just fell to the lowest level in six months…

  Consumer sentiment plunged to the lowest level in six months as price increases reaccelerated, according to the latest University of Michigan survey of consumers, released Friday.

  Additionally, consumers are bracing for even higher price increases in the year ahead compared to readings from prior months, the survey found.

  The gauge, which is closely tracked by the Biden administration, plunged 13% from April’s 77.2% reading, to 67.4%. That’s the biggest one-month drop since mid-2021. Economists polled by FactSet were expecting consumer expectations to fall to just 76.9%.

  As I have discussed previously, the American people are deeply pessimistic about the economy at this stage.

  And they have good reason to be pessimistic, because even though our politicians in Washington are engaging in an unprecedented spending spree in a desperate attempt to keep the economy propped up, the truth is that the wheels are starting to come off and tremendous chaos is ahead.

  Ed Dowd agrees that big trouble is coming during the months ahead.  He just told Greg Hunter that he expects the U.S. economy “to take a nosedive sometime in the next 12 months”…

  What happens to the Biden economy? Dowd says, “The economy is going to take a nosedive sometime in the next 12 months. The real economy is not doing well. . . . The only thing that has been holding up the GDP growth is government spending. We are spending $1 trillion every 100 days. That’s adding $1 trillion to the deficit. The only job creation is government jobs, and they don’t actually add to the economy. . . . Reports are coming out now that the low-income consumer is getting absolutely hammered. McDonald’s talked about it in their most recent earnings call. . . . So, low-income and the middle-class are getting squeezed while the rich continue to plug along.”

  I agree.

  Of course we don’t have to wait for the economy to come apart at the seams, because that is already happening.

  At one time, the entire world marveled at the greatness of the mighty U.S. economy, but our leaders have completely wrecked it.

  There is no way that we are going to be able to avoid disaster, and so I would encourage you to prepare for very hard times while you still can.

  *  *  *

  Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 17:30

• Making Over $141K, Minneapolis Mayor Thanks Biden For Student Loan Forgiveness
  Making Over $141K, Minneapolis Mayor Thanks Biden For Student Loan Forgiveness

  If you weren’t already infuriated by Joe Biden’s exploitation of the federal student loan program as a means of buying votes and redistributing wealth, this should do the trick. 

  On Wednesday, Minneapolis Mayor Melvin Carter — who earns makes takes $140,814 a year before benefits — rushed to Twitter to thank President Biden for erasing his remaining student debt, sharing a screen shot showing his outstanding balance had turned to zero. 

  Thank you, Mr. President! https://t.co/SjaNekU3ra pic.twitter.com/mQeqm2nt9X

  — Melvin Carter (@melvincarter3) May 30, 2024

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  The latest drip in the fiscal Chinese water torture that’s being inflicted on responsible, productive Americans came earlier that day, with Biden announcing he was cancelling another $7.7 billion of debt. With that, the total such debt wiped away by his administration has reached $167 billion.  

  After emphasizing that the average beneficiary of Biden’s self-serving abuse of taxpayers has had $35,000 in debt forgiven, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre fielded a challenging question from, of all sources, NBC News. Correspondent Peter Alexander asked, “Why don’t those individuals who didn’t receive $35,000 in debt cancellation deserve a $35,000 check from other Americans for what other means they would want to use it?” 

  Jean-Pierre’s struggle to rationalize the debt-forgiveness fiesta resulted in a comical, leftist word-salad: 

  Karine Jean-Pierre gets a difficult question about student loans.

  “Why don’t those individuals who didn’t receive $35,000 in debt cancellation deserve a $35,000 check from other Americans for whatever means they would want to use it?”

  Listen to her attempt a reply 😂 pic.twitter.com/7snGH5PhjY

  — Julia 🇺🇸 (@Jules31415) May 22, 2024

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  Most notably, Jean-Pierre said, “We’re talking about folks who are in debt who are literally being crushed.” We doubt that characterization applies to Mayor Carter, who’s pulling in $141K by himself in a two-income household — not counting a city-taxpayer-furnished car, cell phone, pension and deferred compensation. 

  If he was being “literally” crushed, it’s safe to say it’s because he and his OB/GYN nurse wife made a series of poor financial decisions. Either way, he doesn’t deserve to have his net worth elevated by distributing the cost to other members of society — including future ones. And neither does anyone else. 

  In early April, Biden announced a five-pronged proposal for even more student debt forgiveness. A UPenn-Wharton analysis pegged the cost at $84 billion, and noted that the proposal would “relieve some longer-term student debt for about 750,000 households making over $312,000 in average household income.” 

  We’re guessing Team Biden might have mixed feelings about Mayor Melvin’s tin-eared, highly-public thank you. It’s not playing well in Peoria… 

  I’m so happy I didn’t go to school and learned a trade because I was realistic about my financial situation and didn’t want to take on loans. I was responsible and don’t get any help. Unbelievable

  — P4Pheadshot (@PFPheadshot1) May 31, 2024

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  Don’t thank him.

  Thank the American taxpayer who now gets saddled with YOUR debt.

  — YuriActual 🏴‍☠️GOLDCORP Logistics 🏴‍☠️ (@Yuri6Actual) June 1, 2024

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  This is called stealing from responsible to give to the irresponsible. Socialism.

  — Don Skelly ✝︎ 🇺🇸 (@DonSkelly10) May 30, 2024

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  Nothing like some good old bribery during an election year.

  — Atom (@Autolock) May 30, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Impeachable offenses. Buying votes – increasing inflation- shifting debt to responsible Americans who work hard and take accountability for their actions.

  — Sam (@SRA338) May 30, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  A politician without shame. Seems on-brand.

  — Andrew (@andrewfibonacci) June 1, 2024

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  So much for the rich paying their fair share.

  — AdamInHTownTX (Not a Neurologist) (@AdamInHTownTX) June 2, 2024

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  Pay your own bills, freeloader

  — Tim in VA (@MrNOVApolitico) June 1, 2024

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  You should be embarrassed the US Government has transferred your voluntary loans to the national debt. Nothing has been forgiven, just transferred to the rest of us who actually pay taxes.

  — Jeff Wright (@1991Wolfpack) June 2, 2024

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  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 16:55

• The Ideological Battle Behind The US Debt Crisis
  The Ideological Battle Behind The US Debt Crisis

  Via SchiffGold.com,

  The U.S. national debt is at 34.7 trillion dollars. If you laid that many dollar bills end-to-end, it would wrap around the Earth 134,599 times. That’s enough to travel to the sun and back 17 times. Suffice it to say, we’re in a pickle.

  

  America is slowly approaching the precipice of debt default. This is no minor dilemma. A default could cause approximately 8 million jobs to be lost. In other words, the bill would come due.

  For many politicians, the debt crisis is not a pressing concern. At least not enough to take measures to fix it. The Biden administration passed a 1.2 trillion-dollar infrastructure bill in 2021, adding 256 billion dollars to the budget deficit over the next ten years. Biden has also forgiven 167 billion dollars in student loans during his tenure, which was financed through increased government spending. Despite already being one of the most indebted countries in the world, politicians continue to dig the U.S. into an even deeper hole. The problem is not simply a monetary one.

  There is an ideological battle underlying our descent into debt.

  The ideas that have caused America’s current debt crisis were birthed during the Great Depression. In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a series of spending measures that were intended to stimulate economic activity in what was called the “New Deal.” FDR spent over 950 billion (inflation-adjusted) dollars on the program while being touted as an economic “savior.” The deal was promoted as what released America from the bonds of the recession. In reality, it made the problem worse.

  A study conducted by two UCLA economists found that the New Deal actually extended the Great Depression by seven years. By artificially increasing wages while unemployment remained rampant and below projected recovery rates, FDR’s program harmed economic health. Simply pumping money into the economy wasn’t the fix-all solution it was advertised to be.

  This is no surprise. Simply increasing the amount of money in the economy does not increase the total amount of goods and services. It only increases the demand for a stationary supply, which necessarily results in a price increase. Instead of stimulating true economic development, unrestricted government funding has led to an inflationary trap. And yet we keep spending, suppressing the symptoms while worsening the underlying problem.

  Another flaw of increasing government spending is its inefficiency relative to private markets. Look no further than the Pentagon’s $640 toilet seat. Government officials don’t have the proper incentives to spend money wisely. Instead, their wasteful spending is bankrolled by tax dollars, debt, and increases in the money supply. Between 2020 and 2022, the money supply alone increased by over 40%. Consequently, inflation burgeoned to 7% and 6.5% in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

  Government spending is a slippery slope. Once a private entity becomes dependent on a public sector paycheck, it will keep coming back for more. In return, politicians get more control over the lives of their constituents. The decision to increase taxes, the money supply, or the national debt to fund more spending is rooted in an ideology of increased government intervention.

  The thinkers who originated Western political philosophy believed that government was meant to protect life, liberty, and property, and nothing more. The modern American regime has drastically overstepped these bounds and instead spends trillions of dollars on niche issues while citizens pay the price in the form of inflation, higher taxes, and debt.

  At the heart of the issue is the belief that politicians can spend your money better than you can. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Political leaders only have to cater to the current populus to stay in power, and thus have a heavy tendency to overspend in the present and let future generations pick up the pieces. But the bill is coming due. Experts estimate the U.S. has approximately 20 years to change its spending policies or it will have to default on its debt. We are descending into an economic crisis of our political leaders’ design. While excessive spending appears beneficial in the present, the American people always pay the price.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 16:20

• Netanyahu Accepts Johnson's Invitation – First Foreign Leader To Address Congress A 4th Time
  Netanyahu Accepts Johnson’s Invitation – First Foreign Leader To Address Congress A 4th Time

  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted an invitation to address both houses of Congress, after House Speaker Mike Johnson issued a formal invitation on Friday, with the backing of fellow Democrat leaders. 

  Netanyahu boasted that he will be the first foreign leader in history to make four such appearances there. “I am moved by the privilege of representing Israel before both houses of Congress, and of presenting, to the representatives of the American people and the entire world, the truth about our righteous war against those who seek our destruction,” an acceptance statement by the Israeli prime minister’s office said.

  

  The invitation leader had also been signed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. They said “we join the State of Israel in your struggle against terror, especially as Hamas continues to hold American and Israeli citizens captive and its leaders jeopardize regional stability.”

  “For this reason, on behalf of the bipartisan leadership of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, we would like to invite you to address a Joint Meeting of Congress.”

  However, some House and Senate Progressives are expected to boycott Netanyahu’s address, including Senator Bernie Sanders.

  Sanders issued a statement saying “It is a very sad day for our country that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited – by leaders from both parties – to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress.”

  “Netanyahu is a war criminal. I certainly will not attend,” Sanders added. Indeed it is also the first time that a leader who has an arrest warrant out by the Hague-based ICC has addressed Congress and the American people.

  All of this is happening at a deeply strained moment for US-Israel relations. Israel’s military has plunged deep into Rafah, violating prior red lines issued by Biden. Also, Netanyahu appears to have slammed the door on Biden’s publicly backing the current ceasefire deal on the table.

  Other Progressive Congressional members say they will ask hard questions during his visit:

  I hope you will agree to sit down with Members of Congress & answer questions, @netanyahu. A number of us have great concerns how you’ve conducted the collective punishment of millions & possible war crimes. Also, I hear there may be an arrest warrant to deal with. See you soon? https://t.co/mnmQaMF1RG

  — Mark Pocan (@MarkPocan) June 2, 2024

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  The Israeli PM has vowed that the military operation in Gaza won’t stop until Hamas no longer has military or governing capacity. He has said he won’t withdraw troops until the group is eliminated.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 15:45

• Maher: If Trump Goes To Jail There Will Be A Racial Civil War
  Maher: If Trump Goes To Jail There Will Be A Racial Civil War

  Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

  HBO ‘Real Time’ host Bill Maher has predicted that if Donald Trump is sentenced to any prison time, there will be a civil war that will quickly evolve into a race war because of MAGA supporters.

  

  “Here’s the key question: Is he going to go to jail? Would this judge dare do that?” Maher said, adding “And should he? I heard some people say if his name wasn’t Donald Trump he would definitely get jail time.”

  “MAGA nation will go nuts. I don’t know if that’s a reason to or not to do something, but they will,” Maher continued during the discussion with former Obama chief strategist David Axelrod.

  Maher went on to suggest that “because the judge’s name was Juan,” putting Trump in jail would lead to racial political violence.

  “Everything becomes racial in this country. That’s partly because of our horrible, despicable racial past, partly because some of that racism lives on in the present and some of it because the far left makes everything racial. But that’s what it’s going to be.” Maher further posited.

  “A civil war in this country, I’m sorry to say, becomes a race war. That’s the sad truth about this country,” the host continued, adding “And if they put him in jail, I mean, the first thing his supporters are going to say is, ‘Oh, that’s what it is.’ A Black district attorney. You know, all these people who are the district attorneys, they’re black. The judge was not White. This is what it is.”

  Watch:

  HBO ‘Real Time’ host Bill Maher has predicted that if Donald Trump is sentenced to any prison time, there will be a civil war that will quickly evolve into a race war because of MAGA supporters. Full report here: https://t.co/BpSpHCoqoN pic.twitter.com/q3hBsQwh6S

  — m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) June 2, 2024

  As we highlighted earlier this week, former US Attorney for the District of Utah Brett L. Tolman is adament that Judge Merchan will give Trump jail time.

  “This judge has considerable power now, on July 11th he has the power to take Trump forthwith, he can take him, put him in custody right then and he can do it for whatever period of time,” said Tolman, warning that despite there being a range of sentencing, “the rules are out the window, who knows what this judge will do.”

  “I predict he will give him some jail time, I think he will fine him, he’ll give him a stern lecture and then he’ll promptly plan his retirement and a book deal,” concluded Tolman.

  *  *  *

  Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 15:10

• "Nothing To Do With World Events": Two Unarmed Minuteman III ICBMs Slated For Launch Next Week
  “Nothing To Do With World Events”: Two Unarmed Minuteman III ICBMs Slated For Launch Next Week

  The US Air Force Global Strike Command is preparing to conduct two separate tests of unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles from north Vandenberg Space Force Base in California next week. 

  

  “Consistent with previous test launches, this routine, unarmed ICBM test launch will validate and verify the effectiveness, readiness and accuracy of the weapon system,” Vandenberg Space Force Base wrote in a statement. 

  Here are the tests:

  • The first test is scheduled for June 4 from 12:01 a.m. to June 4, 2024, 6:01 a.m., Pacific Time from north Vandenberg.

  • The second test is scheduled for June 6 from 12:01 a.m. to June 6, 6:01 a.m., Pacific Time from north Vandenberg.

  Test re-entry vehicles are expected to travel approximately 4,200 miles southwest of California to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. 

  

  “A previous test launch slated for February 2024 had to be postponed due to some needed repairs at Reagan Test Site,” said Col. Chris Cruise, 377th Test and Evaluation Group commander.

  Cruise continued, “This summer’s test launch was already scheduled so it made sense to do them both while all the necessary personnel were in place. The launches were scheduled well in advance and have nothing to do with world events.”

  Late last year, America’s 450 ICBM silos across five states began a major $96 billion overhaul – part of a nuclear modernization effort. The military as a whole is being modernized as war rages on in Eastern Europe and is set to possibly expand with the Biden administration ‘green-lighting‘ Ukraine to strike inside Russia with US weapons. The conflict between Israel and Hamas is another concern, as well as instability in the South China Sea. 

  The rise of a multi-polar world signifies that the war cycle is accelerating.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 14:35

• Boeing Enters 'New Territory' With Federal Probe, Possible Criminal Charges
  Boeing Enters ‘New Territory’ With Federal Probe, Possible Criminal Charges

  Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  When a door panel ripped off an Alaskan Airlines flight after takeoff on Jan. 5, Boeing’s fortunes changed overnight.

  

  Had the company gone just two more days without an incident, it would have satisfied a settlement to avoid criminal prosecution by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

  Instead, the accident triggered investigations by federal agencies and congressional hearings. The incident also renewed public scrutiny of Boeing and the 737 MAX 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed everyone on board and led to criminal charges for the company.

  Boeing has since seen a significant financial fallout, reporting a $355 million loss and a near-50 percent drop in deliveries in the first quarter alone. The company also faces plummeting stock values and canceled orders from multiple airlines since the Jan. 5 incident.

  The DOJ ended months of speculation on May 14 with a court filing alleging that Boeing violated its 2021 deferred prosecution agreement. The company failed to “design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws.”

  The DOJ will meet with the crash victims’ families on May 31 before announcing its intentions with Boeing’s case by July 7.

  According to career pilots, aviation safety experts, and attorneys who spoke with The Epoch Times, how Boeing violated the agreement and the possible consequences are complicated.

  To stay competitive, Boeing needed to design a new plane that could fly to destinations such as Hawaii with less fuel. The company’s competitor, Airbus, was edging out the market with new, more fuel-efficient jets.

  Instead of designing a brand new plane, which would have required extensive pilot training from the airlines that buy them, raising the jet’s price, Boeing opted to release an upgraded version of its 737 jet, the 737 MAX. It has larger, more powerful engines that are installed farther forward on the plane’s wings, which causes the nose to push up higher during takeoff.

  Boeing compensated with a new flight control software called Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), which automatically lowers the nose to avoid midair stalling. Federal regulators said Boeing didn’t tell the airlines or the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) the extent of the software, how it controls the plane in the background, and how to disable it.

  Planes also use angle of attack vanes, or indicators, to tell the computer whether the jet is ascending or descending at the right pitch angle. Before the 737 MAX, these indicators were wired to two sensors in case one malfunctioned during flight—because of damage from a bird strike, for instance. On the original 737 MAXs, the angle of attack indicators were wired to a single sensor, causing the flight control software to assume that the plane was in critical danger if either indicator malfunctioned.

  

  During the 2018 and 2019 fatal flights, the MCAS system kept pitching the nose downward with faulty angle-of-attack data, likely from a damaged angle of attack vane. Because Boeing didn’t properly disclose the software nuances and how to disable it to the airlines, the pilots took more than 10 seconds to respond. Federal guidelines expect pilots to respond to such as situation in four seconds to avoid a catastrophe.

  Boeing also didn’t overhaul the flight control software until after the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash, which was five months after the 2018 Lion Air crash. The FAA responded by grounding all 737 MAX jets for nearly two years to ensure compliance with regulations.

  “The MCAS accidents were pure, 100 percent money accidents,” said Shawn Pruchnicki, aviation safety expert and assistant professor at Ohio State University’s Center for Aviation Studies.

  “They killed 346 people over money and nothing else.”

  Disclosing the flight control software would have forced airlines to order new training for their pilots before using the 737 MAX, thus raising the sales price.

  The DOJ, the FAA, and the House Transportation Committee initiated separate investigations into the crashes. All implicated the MAX’s flight control software and Boeing’s decision to withhold this information from regulators, airlines, and pilots, which meant that pilots didn’t respond in time in both fatal 737 MAX 8 crashes.

  Boeing didn’t respond to a request for comment.

  How Was Boeing Charged?

  The DOJ charged Boeing on Jan. 7, 2021, with conspiracy to defraud the United States, particularly the FAA’s Aircraft Evaluation Group.

  The U.S. government stated that Boeing deliberately withheld details of its flight control software from the FAA and airlines. Boeing maintained that two of its 737 MAX Flight technical pilots were responsible for deceiving federal regulators about the MCAS flight control software.

  The government then brokered a deferred prosecution agreement with Boeing, a form of criminal settlement in which charges can be dismissed if the defendant fulfills certain obligations within a stated timeframe.

  Boeing had to accept responsibility for the acts that led to criminal charges and pay a total of $2.5 billion, which included a $243.6 million penalty and a $500 million fund to compensate the families of the 2018 and 2019 737 MAX crash victims.

  However, Boeing also had to stay in compliance for three years from the day the agreement was signed, Jan. 7, 2021.

  During this period, the company had to avoid committing any federal felonies, could not deny responsibility for the charges, and was required to implement a “compliance and ethics program designed, implemented, and enforced to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.”

  Boeing was two days from the end of its probationary period when the Alaskan Airlines panel blew out.

  

  Alleged Violation

  The DOJ’s May 14 letter states that Boeing failed to “design, implement, and enforce” the compliance and ethics program required under the terms of the settlement. However, the agency did not explicitly say whether the Alaskan Airlines incident or any others from 2024 were linked to Boeing’s lack of a compliance and ethics program.

  Robert Clifford, lead attorney for the families of the 2018 and 2019 crash victims, told The Epoch Times that the DOJ hasn’t informed him or the families of the acts or incidents that led to Boeing’s breach of the agreement.

  “We hope to learn details of the investigation and government plans going forward,” he said.

  “Obviously, the events of 2024, such as Alaska Air, have caused greater focus on Boeing’s compliance and the scrutiny of the government, but we await word on the exact details that led to the finding of [the] breach.”

  The DOJ also wrote in the letter that it reserves the right to find Boeing in violation of other terms of the agreement until July 7, when it will announce how the agency intends to proceed with the case.

  Possible Criminal Charges

  The DOJ could pursue multiple pathways if it criminally prosecutes Boeing.

  Neama Rahmani is a former federal prosecutor who once worked for the aerospace company. He told The Epoch Times that the DOJ could issue a “massive fine,” require an independent monitor to “ensure that Boeing is complying with its obligations under the agreement,” or prosecute individuals in the company, such as CEO Dave Calhoun.

  Mr. Rahmani explained that going after individuals at the company requires a higher bar of proof. He said prosecutors could use a text message between high-level executives admitting to fraud, for example.

  Read more here..

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 14:00

• OPEC+ Agrees To Extend Collective Output Cuts Until End Of 2025
  OPEC+ Agrees To Extend Collective Output Cuts Until End Of 2025

  As we previewed last month, OPEC+ agreed to extend its oil production cuts well into 2025, while also setting a timeline for gradually winding down some of those curbs later this year.

  As reported by Bloomberg, the agreement reached in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Sunday exceeds market expectations in some ways, extending so-called “voluntary” cuts from key members including Saudi Arabia and Russia well into next year. However, it also begins rolling back those supply reductions in October, earlier than some OPEC-watchers had assumed.

  The OPEC+ agreement prolongs roughly 2 million barrels a day of cuts, which have played a key role in supporting crude prices above $80 a barrel this year but were set to expire at the end of June. The curbs will continue in full in the third quarter then be gradually phased out over the following 12 months, according to a statement from the Saudi Energy Ministry.

  This is how Energy Intel’s Amina Bakr summarizes the latest OPEC+ deal:

  1. The group will extend its collective cuts (a mix of voluntary and group cuts) which amount to around 3.6 million bpd until the end of 2025.

  2. The 8 states which offered the 2.2 million bpd voluntary cuts will extend those till q3 2024. After that they will start being back production gradually from October 2024 till September 2025, subject to market conditions.

  Highlights from the agreement: the UAE received an upward adjustment to 300k to its baseline which is now 3.5 million bpd

  Another highlight is that the baseline revisions have now been pushed back to 2026, and that’s because some countries like Russia are under embargo and the independent companies are not able to have access to data to support the assessment process.

  Do not underestimate the level of cohesion that is required to reach this complex policy which will be in place for the next year and a half.

  And this is what the phase out of the voluntary cuts will look like:

  

  Lets try to keep this simple. WHAT happens to the top layer of the pyramid (ie the voluntary cuts) after Q3 2024? production will be brought back gradually in October 2024 until September 2025, if the market can support the extra volumes. #OOTT #Opec pic.twitter.com/EwMPrwOwDU

  — Amena Bakr (@Amena__Bakr) June 2, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Prior to the meeting, traders and analysts had widely expected OPEC+ to prolong its supply reductions in order to offset soaring output from its rivals, with some predicting they would be maintained until the end of 2024. Under the new agreement, the eight nations participating in these additional curbs will have added about 750,000 barrels a day to the market by January.

  #OPEC+: The eight country with voluntary cuts agreed to extend these cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day, which were announced in November 2023, until the end of September 2024. The quantities of this reduction, amounting to 2.2 million barrels per day, will then be restored…

  — Giovanni Staunovo🛢 (@staunovo) June 2, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Crude prices had slumped in the past month as Middle East tensions faded and amid a fragile economic outlook in China and doubts about the pace of interest-rate reductions in major industrialized economies. Brent futures settled at $81.62 a barrel on May 31, a drop of 7.1% for the month.

  Those “voluntary” cuts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies were in addition to an earlier group-wide agreement capping crude output at about 39 million barrels a day, which ran until the end of this year. The alliance said in a statement that it also agreed to prolong that accord to the end of 2025.

  “It removes a significant chunk of oil from our balances both this year and next,” said Amrita Sen, director of research and co-founder of Energy Aspects Ltd. The deal “keeps OPEC+ in charge of the market.”

  Sunday’s deal suggests OPEC+ leader Saudi Arabia, which hosted the meeting in its capital after initial plans for a gathering in Vienna were canceled, is attempting to strike a balance between supporting crude markets and easing the production restraints against which some members have chafed repeatedly.

  Lower oil prices this year have improved the economic outlook by offering some relief to central banks grappling with persistent inflation. Yet they also threaten revenue for producers like Saudi Arabia, which needs prices close to $100 a barrel to fund the ambitious spending plans of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the International Monetary Fund estimates.

  In parallel to the OPEC+ meeting on Sunday, the Saudi government completed a $12 billion sale of shares in state oil giant Aramco, raising funds to help pay for a massive economic transformation plan.

  As Bloomberg notes, the agreement temporarily resolves “a potentially fraught debate on some nations’ oil capacity. The alliance had commissioned an external review of its members capabilities with the intention of resetting baseline production levels used to measure cuts in 2025.”

  Several major exporters were seeking to have their levels upgraded, possibly posing a risk to the group’s efforts to stabilize world markets. The deadline for completion of that process has now been pushed back by a year to November 2026. However, the UAE was given a 300,000 barrel-a-day boost to its production target for next year, making it the clear winner from Sunday’s negotiations.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 13:25

• The Deepfake Privilege? The Justice Department Makes Startling Claim To Withhold the Biden-Hur Audiotape
  The Deepfake Privilege? The Justice Department Makes Startling Claim To Withhold the Biden-Hur Audiotape

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  We have been discussing the dubious constitutional basis for President Joe Biden withholding the audio tapes of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur. I have previously written that the claim of privilege makes little sense when the transcript of the interview has already been released. It seems curious that Biden is claiming to be the president “who cannot be heard” in withholding the audio version.

  

  It just got wackier as the Justice Department seeks to create a new type of “Deepfake privilege” that would effectively blow away all existing limits on the use of the privilege when it comes to audio or visual records of a president.

  Multiple committees are investigating Biden for possible impeachment and conducting oversight on the handling of the investigation into his retention and mishandling of classified material over decades. Classified documents were found in various locations where Biden lived or worked, including his garage. The mishandling of classified material is uncontestable. Broken boxes, unprotected areas and lack of tracking are all obvious from the photos.

  Biden made the situation even worse with a disastrous press conference in which he attacked Hur and misrepresented his findings.

  Hur’s ultimate conclusion that Biden’s diminished cognitive abilities would undermine any prosecution left many dumbfounded. After all, the man who is too feeble to prosecute is not only running a superpower with a massive nuclear arsenal but running for reelection to add four more years in office.

  From impeachment to oversight to the 25th Amendment (allowing the removal of a president for incapacities), there are ample reasons for Congress to demand information and evidence from the government on these questions. Congress is also interested in looking at repeated omissions for “inaudible” statements. Under this sweeping theory that Biden can legitimately withhold these recordings under executive privilege, any president could withhold any evidence of incapacity or criminality.

  As previously explained, the claim that the audiotape but not the transcript remains privileged is hard to square with precedent or logic. However, now the Justice Department appears to be pivoting with a new claim with a late Friday filing.  The filing obtained by Politico states that the audiotape must be withheld due to the risk that it could be altered by artificial intelligence and passed off as authentic in a deepfake release: “The passage of time and advancements in audio, artificial intelligence, and ‘deep fake’ technologies only amplify concerns about malicious manipulation of audio files.”

  Consider the implications of that argument for a second. It would mean that any visual or audio recording of the President could be withheld due to the danger of digital or other manipulation. It would eviscerate any existing limits on privilege assertions.

  It is also absurd since you could create such fake recordings using the transcript and Biden’s voice from countless interviews through AI programs. The Justice Department acknowledges that obvious logical disconnect by noting that the release would make any fake version more credible.

  “To be sure, other raw material to create a deepfake of President Biden’s voice is already available, but release of the audio recording presents unique risks: if it were public knowledge that the audio recording has been released, it becomes easier for malicious actors to pass off an altered file as the true recording,.”

  The filing is logically and legally absurd. It is also dangerous.

  For a president who is already carefully insulated from questions and controlled in public appearances, the argument would allow staff to completely control any public or, more importantly, congressional review of his actual speech and discourse.

  In seeking to prevent “malicious actors” from altering reality, the government is claiming the right to frame reality as an inherent constitutional prerogative.

  The argument ignores that, if an audiotape is released, it is harder to pass off a fake as genuine. As it stands, actors can claim tapes as leaked or derived from other sources. In the absence of an official tape, such arguments can be difficult to refute.

  The fact that this spurious argument is being made by Merrick Garland’s Justice Department is another disappointing sign that he has abandoned his pledge to remain apolitical in office. This litigation is clearly designed for one overriding purpose: to delay any release until after the election when it cannot harm the President.

  It is the legal version of a deepfake — misrepresenting the law to mislead citizens into believing that they are better off with less information on the credibility and competence of their president.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/02/2024 – 12:50

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