Apr 08

Today’s News 8th April 2021

  • Mercedes Q1 Sales Rise By 22% After Demand Surges From China, North America
    Mercedes Q1 Sales Rise By 22% After Demand Surges From China, North America

    Mercedes looks like it is joining the cabal of automakers who have smashed expectations for Q1, as the auto industry posts its first YOY comps that are helped along by last year’s global Covid lockdown. 

    Sales were up 22% in Q1 thanks to not only easy comps, but also record demand out of China. Globally, Mercedes-Benz sold 581,270 cars and saw its China sales figures rise by 60%. China is the biggest market for the brand, according to Bloomberg. 

    The manufacturer also saw a slight tick up in Europe, where sales rose 1.8% to a total of 192,302 cars. The company’s global share of sales of plug in hybrids and full EVs was more than 25% in Europe. That number falls to about 10% worldwide. 

    The company also saw 20,000 orders for its compact EQA model and saw commercial van sales rise 18% to 76,328 vehicles.

    Finally, Mercedes saw a 12.5% pop in sales in passenger vehicles in North America, with sales figures rising to 88,318 vehicles sold. 

    The pop in North America shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. Recall, we wrote just days ago that most legacy automakers in the U.S. were posting fantastic Q1 comps. 

    What’s selling? “Everything,” said one Ford dealer.

    GM said its U.S. retail deliveries were up 19% in Q1, the company’s first number reported against pandemic-impacted comps. The automaker sold 642,250 vehicles in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2021. Toyota sold 603,066 vehicles in the quarter, a 22% rise from Q1 2020, according to IBD. Even more pronounced was the company’s numbers for March, which were up 87% against the first month of coronavirus lockdowns in 2020.

    Volkswagen also posted blowout comps, as sales rose 21% in Q1 to 90,853 vehicles sold. The company was helped along by robust SUV demand while also selling 474 units of its new ID.4, which only went on sale in the U.S. in late March. 

    Ford saw its sales rise 1% for the quarter, but sales were up 5% for trucks and 14% for SUVs. Even more notable, however, is the fact that Ford sold 6,613 Mustang Mach-E electric crossovers, up from just 3 sold in Q4. Ford said that “the fully electric Mustang Mach-E turning on dealer lots in just 7 days.”

    Both domestically and abroad, shoring up the supply chain has become crucial for all automakers heading into 2021. The auto industry, as a whole is rethinking its cost cutting measures in the midst of both the pandemic and the chip shortage, Reuters reported this week. Companies are stockpiling key commodities at higher inventory levels and using software to track the integrity of the supply chains that they order from. 

    Richard Barnett, chief marketing officer of Supplyframe, which provides market intelligence to companies across the global electronics sectors, told Reuters: “The whole issue is exposing the brittleness, the fragility of the automotive supply chain. We’re trying to dual-source whenever possible critical components.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/08/2021 – 02:45

  • Escobar: Bombshell Book In Germany Revives 9/11 As A Business Model
    Escobar: Bombshell Book In Germany Revives 9/11 As A Business Model

    Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Saker blog,

    Nearly 20 years after 9/11, Germany and the German-speaking world are being hit by a formidable one-two.

    A ground-breaking study by gifted independent financial journalist Lars Schall, Denken wie der Feind – 20 Jahre Ausnahmezustand 9/11 und die Geopolitik des Terrors.

    (“Thinking Like the Enemy – 20 Years State of Emergency, 9/11 and the Geopolitics of Terror”) is being published in Germany in two books.

    The first one – Das Erdöl, der Dollar und die Drogen (“The Oil, The Dollar and The Drugs”) – is out this week. Volume II will be out next week.

    Nomi Prins, formerly from Goldman Sachs, has described Schall’s “investigation of 9/11 insider trading” as “stunning”. Marshall Auerback, researcher at the Levy Institute in the U.S., noted how “most of the MSM still refuse to tackle the broader, more controversial aspects of the 9/11 tragedy”. Schall, he adds, “provides a healthy corrective”.

    A sample of Schall’s work, already published by The Saker blog, is this interview on 9/11 terror trading.

    I’ve had the pleasure to write the introduction for the German one-two. Here it is – hoping that such an extraordinary achievement may find its way in many other languages, especially across the Global South.

    9/11, or “The Owls Are Not What They Seem”

    Until COVID-19 showed up on the scene in the Spring of 2020, nearly two decades after the fact, the world remained hostage to 9/11. This was the ultimate geopolitical game-changer that set the tone for the young 21st century. The book you have in your hands asks the ultimate question: why 9/11 matters.

    Follow the money. It’s quite fitting that this meticulous investigation is conducted by a gifted, extremely serious financial journalist – and, in an unprecedented way, presents a mass of information previously unavailable in German.

    I’ve known Lars Schall, virtually, for years – exchanging correspondence on politics and economics. When we met in person in Berlin in 2015, we finally had time, live, to also indulge in our number one pop culture mutual passion: David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Lars may be a German incarnation of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper. Or, better yet, the compassionate version of Albert Rosenfield, the sarcastic pathologist in Twin Peaks.

    Take for instance this dialogue from Twin Peaks:

    Albert Rosenfield: We sent a portrait of your long-haired man to every agency from NASA to DEA and came up empty. This cat is in nobody’s database. 

     Special Agent Dale Cooper: A man that four of us have seen here in Twin Peaks. 

     Albert Rosenfield: [smiling] Sure. Oh, by the way, you were shot with a Walther PPK. It’s James Bond’s gun, did you know that?

    So what you have in your hands is 9/11 dissected by a thoroughly working pathologist, who had “a lot of cutting and pasting to do”. He was aware of myriad red lines from the start, as well as myriad vanishing acts and false non sequiturs. 9/11 may be the ultimate illustration of one of Twin Peaks’ legendary one-liners: “The owls are not what they seem”.

    Our pathologist had in fact to disassemble a humongous matryoshka to break it down into smaller dolls. This process had some surprises in store: by following-the-money approach regarding 9/11, for instance, our pathologist was in the end confronted with the case of an anal prolapse at Guantanamo Bay. You don’t believe it? Just wait and read the research.

    This journey will take you through hundreds of pages of text and myriads of endnotes, over 2,400 of them, quite a few dealing with many different sources, as well as selected sensitive documents treated by professional translators.

    The double volume details the interconnected implications of extremely complex dossiers:

    • the US national energy policy group chaired by former Vice-President Dick Cheney, in secrecy, only four days after the start of the Bush administration;

    • the ramifications of Peak Oil; the interest by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) on Middle East oil, especially Iraq;

    • the CIA’s major role in the drug trade business;

    • the Saudi-U.S. alliance related to the protection of al-Qaeda; what happened with the U.S. air defense on 9/11;

    • and last but not least, insider trading on 9/11, especially anomalies in the option and bond markets.

    The nearly mythical computer software program PROMIS, created in the 1970s by former NSA analyst Bill Hamilton, plays a sort of Rosebud role in this narrative – complete with a trail of unexplained deaths and disappearing files that renders some of its avatars, especially those containing backdoor eavesdropping capabilities enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI) almost impervious to investigation.

    As a matter of fact, Lars had been contacted by Bill Hamilton, who asked him if he could help in relation to the PROMIS affair. It was this request – which took place in the Spring of 2012 after Lars had just published a 9/11-Insider Trading article at Asia Times – that has been the spark which started the investigation you are about to read.

    For the German reader, one of the firsts of this sprawling analysis is to take what is considered in the U.S. as a “conspiracy theory” – Mike Ruppert’s seminal 2004 book “Crossing the Rubicon” – and, in Lars’s words, “figure out how far it can be proven correct, more than 15 years after it was published.”

    Lars shows in detail how 9/11 enabled a state of emergency, a permanent Continuity of Government (COG) in the U.S. and mass surveillance of U.S. citizens – connecting the dots all the way from missing trillions of dollars in the Pentagon to NSA data mining and leading U.S. neocons. The latter had been praying for a “Pearl Harbor” to reorient US foreign policy since 1997. Their prayers were answered beyond their wildest dreams.

    The investigation eventually displays a startling road map: the war on terror as a business model. However, as Lars also shows, in the end, much to the despair of U.S. neocons, all the combined sound and fury of 9/11 and the Global War on Terror, in nearly two decades, ended up bringing about a Russia-China strategic partnership in Eurasia.

    It’s fair to ask the author what did he learn as he juggled for years with this immense mass of information. Lars points to the familiarity he acquired with the work of Peter Dale Scott – author, among others of “The Road to 9/11”, and a specialist in the origins of the U.S. Deep State – which is diametrically opposed to the sanitized narrative privileged by the Beltway and U.S. corporate media. Lars presents information by Peter Dale Scott that had never been translated into German before.

    Special Agent Lars Cooper / Lars Rosenfield had in effect to kiss goodbye to a career as a journalist, because “I’ll be forever scorned as a ‘conspiracy theorist’,” as he told me. So a stark choice was in play; fearlessness, or a comfortable career as a corporate hack. In the end, Lars chose fearlessness.

    In Twin Peaks, Special Agent Dale Cooper has ultimately to confront himself. He knows he’s lost if he tries to run away from his dark self – who is “the dweller on the threshold.” Our Special Agent Lars Cooper definitely did not run away from the dweller on the threshold this time around. He dared to cross to the other side to stare at the abyss. And now he’s back to tell us in a book what it looks like.

    *  *  *

    Denken wie der Feind – 20 Jahre Ausnahmezustand 9/11 und die Geopolitik des Terrors 

    (“Thinking Like the Enemy – 20 Years State of Emergency, 9/11 and the Geopolitics of Terror”), by Lars Schall

    Book 1: Das Erdöl, der Dollar und die Drogen

    (The Oil, The Dollar and The Drugs)

    Via Books on Demand (BOD):

    ISBN for the book: 9783753442938. For the e-Book: 9783753414737

    Book 2:  Das “Pearl Harbor” des 21. Jahrhunderts (The “Pearl Harbor “ of the 21st Century)

    Via Books on Demand (BOD):

    ISBN for the book: 9783753460796. For the e-book:  9783753433882

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/08/2021 – 02:00

  • Germany Says It Will Buy Russia's Sputnik Vaccine, But EU Approving Agency To Likely Drag Its Feet
    Germany Says It Will Buy Russia’s Sputnik Vaccine, But EU Approving Agency To Likely Drag Its Feet

    At the moment over 50 countries across the globe have approved use of the “controversial” Sputnik V vaccine… controversial of course not with regards to science or effectiveness, but merely that it’s Russian-produced. 

    There continues to be huge demand particularly in Latin America, where Brazil is foremost among those getting hit hard, suffering its deadliest month throughout the pandemic in March. But of most “concern” to EU and US officials, however, is that parts of Europe continue to do separate deals to obtain the Sputnik vaccine.

    The European Medicines Agency (EMA) appears to be dragging its feet in what likely comes down to a political decision (as opposed to a health and scientific decision) – as Bloomberg writes: “EU leaders were told during a recent video conference that it could take three to four months before Sputnik receives EMA approval, according to a diplomatic cable seen by Bloomberg. Some leaders questioned whether the drug would still be needed at that point, the note said.”

    Via Fodors/Shutterstock

    The European Commission on Wednesday reportedly informed EU member states that Brussels does not intend to start talks with Russia for procuring Sputnik V, even as controversy continues over AstraZeneca and blood clots, and the ability of Europe to obtain enough jabs for herd immunity to the population. 

    This has prompted Germany to break step and start its own bilateral negotiations with Russia, as Reuters detailed Wednesday:

    That is why German Health Minister Jens Spahn announced during the virtual meeting that Germany would start preliminary negotiations with Russia on a bilateral agreement to secure the vaccine, the source added.

    In the preliminary talks, Germany first wants to determine which quantities Russia can deliver and when, the source said.

    But then German officials included the further key caveat that it will only purchase the vaccine once it meets EMA approval – again, which would likely extend the timeline for procurement far enough out to bring into question whether it would be needed by time of the belated EMA approval. Late last month Berlin signaled it would likely pursue talks with Russia even if other EU member countries chose not to.

    And within Germany, some regions/states are moving even faster: “Bavaria signed a preliminary agreement to secure as many as 2.5 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, some of which would be produced at a facility in the German state,” writes Bloomberg.

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    “The deal with the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund, which backed Sputnik V’s development and is in charge of its international roll-out, is contingent on the shot gaining European Union or German approval, Bavaria’s health ministry said in an emailed statement,” the report revealed. 

    Recall that US and in some cases EU officials have linked the Sputnik V vaccine with Russia’s “malign influence” and have further questioned the spread of the vaccine from a country that “has less than desirable values” – as the European Council president once put it.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/08/2021 – 01:00

  • Scenes From 2030
    Scenes From 2030

    Authored by TE Creus via Off-Guardian.org,

    “Hi, dude!”

    “Oh. Hi. How are you?”

    “I’m good. How do you like my shoes?”

    “Nice. Are those…”

    “Yeah. The original Nike Lil Nas X Satan’s Shoes, version 2030.”

    “Wow. But don’t those cost a fortune? How can you afford them, with just the Universal Basic Income?”

    “Well, duh. I didn’t buy them, dude. I’m just renting them from Amazon Prime, of course. All of my clothes are rented, including the original Calvin Klein underwear.”

    “Eew… Well, they did say that ‘you’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy’…”

    “What are you talking about?”

    “Nothing, just remembering an old joke here. So, what’s new? What are your plans for next week?”

    “Not sure. Maybe I’ll go to the City Hall Yearly Masked Ball. You want to come? The masks are all N95 compliant, so it’s safe.”

    “No, thanks. I thought you were travelling to Italy for the holidays?”

    “Nah, I can’t board a plane this month. I didn’t get my Moderna monthly booster shots. I wanted to, but the lines were so big, the next appointment available for me is only next month.”

    “This Covid-29 is really pesky, isn’t it?”

    “You bet. But I’m sure the vaccine is working. Just give it time. It takes a few years to achieve full immunization, but of course, with the new variants and viruses that appear every month, it’s always a game of catching up. We got to be patient. So, yeah, no travel this month for me.”

    “Well, you know, you could always travel around your own room.”

    “What?”

    “Oh. I just got reminded of an old 18th century novel. ‘Voyage around my room,’ by Xavier de Maistre.”

    “What it’s about?”

    “It’s about a guy who, well, travels around his room.”

    “18th century? Man, that’s like, old. When was that exactly? I guess that’s when the first lockdowns happened, right? In the first Covid era?”

    “Yeah, sort of… Anyway, forget it, you just reminded me of that book. But I guess reading is not really your thing.”

    “Nah. Is there a YouTube version? You are funny, you’re one of those guys who still read, right? You’re really old-fashioned. I bet you don’t even have a microchip in your brain, L.O.L.”

    “Thankfully not…”

    *  *  *

    “What’s wrong?”

    “Don’t get close to me.”

    “What? Why? Who are you calling?”

    “Who am I calling? Who am I calling? The police, dude. Not having a brain chip is a felony, and it’s my duty as a citizen to report you, sorry. I know you’re a friend and neighbour and all, but, that’s just sick, dude. That’s really fucked-up.”

    “No, No… Wait, stop! I meant that I don’t have the latest version of he chip. But I still have the 2029 model. As you said, I’m old-fashioned…”

    “Ah… Ok… But… I don’t see the scar in your head…”

    “Oh, it’s there, trust me. It’s just that I got a hair implant on top of it, so, it’s not visible.”

    “Ah, OK. That’s cool. You were starting to scare me, dude. I mean, not having a brain chip, in this day and age… I was starting to think you were a radical or something…”

    “Well…”

    “Oh man, it’s getting late. It was nice seeing you, but, sorry, I got to go now. I have a Zoom meeting with my family. But, see you another time, I guess. Should we do an elbow bump, or a foot shake?”

    *  *  *

    “What’s up dude? What’s wrong with you?”

    “Nothing, you know, memories. I’m kind of old now, and sometimes I get flashes of images from previous times. And now I was thinking of an old movie I saw once, long ago…“The Flowers of Saint Francis”, it was called. By Roberto Rossellini, about Saint Francis of Assisi. There is one scene in which a leper comes, ringing a bell… You know, at that time, in the Middle Ages, lepers were forced to wear bells on their clothes to announce their arrival… And so this leper comes, his little bell ringing, asking for some money, but all people move away from him, and he’s there all alone, looking so forlorn. So Saint Francis sees this, and he is so overcome with pity, that he approaches the leper and hugs him. A long hug, for several minutes. And when the poor leper goes away, he starts to cry.”

    “Eew… That’s sick, man. I mean, hugging someone. That’s just gross! What’s a leper?”

    “Oh… it’s a… Leprosy was a disease that existed a long time ago. I mean, it still exists, but it was more common then.”

    “Oh. I guess mRNA vaccines cured it, right? Man, viruses are evil. But thankfully we have those magic vaccines today.”

    “Sort of. It’s not really caused by a virus, and the treatment is not a vaccine. But anyway, I was just reminded of that scene, I don’t know why…”

    “OK. So, elbow bump or foot shake, then?”

    “Honestly, I prefer neither.”

    “Sure, that’s the safest way. See you around then, man. And get that 2030 brain chip, bro, for Satan’s sake. I mean, we’re in 2030, dude. We are not in the Middle Ages anymore.”

    “Yeah… We sure aren’t…”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 04/08/2021 – 00:00

  • Naval Mine Washes Ashore On South Florida Beach
    Naval Mine Washes Ashore On South Florida Beach

    An unusual discovery on a South Florida beach Sunday promoted local police, the bomb squad, and the military to investigate a gray spherical device, reported CBS Miami. 

    According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, a naval mine, measuring about four feet in diameter, washed ashore early Sunday morning near Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. 

    A deputy on patrol first spotted the naval mine around 0230 ET. Shortly after, the beach was closed, and the bomb squad and Air Force personnel were called in. 

    The sheriff’s office said a “possible explosive training device” had floated ashore near Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, next to the Plunge Beach Hotel.

    The world “INERT” was spray-painted on its side, and the device was likely used for military training purposes at one point.

    It was removed from the beach around 1045ET.

    So far, there no indication of where it came from. 

    A similar instance occurred on a beach in North Carolina in March 2020. The device was identified as a Mark 49 mine warfare target, a simulated mine designed to train mine-hunting teams.

    The device found in South Florida Sunday was likely a MK 49 though authorities have yet to confirm. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/07/2021 – 23:40

  • Major Fire At Pemex Refinery In Mexico Leaves Seven Injured 
    Major Fire At Pemex Refinery In Mexico Leaves Seven Injured 

    A massive fire erupted on Wednesday evening at an oil refinery operated by Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in the city of Minatitlan in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz, reported Reuters. 

    “Specialized staff of Pemex attends a fire in the transfer pump house of the Gral. Lázaro Cárdenas from Minatitlán,” Pemex tweeted. 

    Pemex went on to say that “seven were injured with minor injuries: a worker for burns and one for poisoning; and five firefighters who participated in controlling the incident.” 

    According to Mexican newspaper Reforma, the fire began around 5 pm and was “caused by a leak in the plant’s charge pump.”

    Reforma continued: “the pumps have a mechanical seal that in this case failed and there was a leak, which caused the fire. The plant receives gasoline to produce benzene, toluene, and xylenes, products known as aromatics.”

    Allegedly, someone snapped a picture of a Pemex oil worker closing values during the explosion. The picture has an unknown author and yet to be confirmed. 

    The executive director of Mexico’s safety, energy, and environment regulator ASEA, Angel Carrizales, tweeted:

    “The ASEA agency is tackling the incident that is currently ongoing at the Lazaro Cardenas oil refinery in Minatitlan, the state of Veracruz. The incident is associated with the inflammation of a fuel pump.”

    Footage posted on Twitter showed a massive column of black smoke rising from the refinery. 

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    Reuters notes the refinery is one of six operated by Pemex and has a capacity of around 285,000 barrels per day. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/07/2021 – 23:28

  • Biden Admin Plots Revenge On Russia For Alleged Hacking, Meddling
    Biden Admin Plots Revenge On Russia For Alleged Hacking, Meddling

    President Joe Biden – whose son Hunter received $3.5 million by the wife of the late Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov for reasons unknown – is preparing to retaliate for various Russian misdeeds, including the SolarWinds hack and election interference, according to Bloomberg.

    Retaliatory options may include sanctions on people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, agencies linked to alleged election meddling, and the expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in the US who are currently under diplomatic cover, according to anonymous officials – one of whom said that the US response ‘would likely comprise several elements.’

    The actions will be the outcome of the review President Joe Biden ordered on his first full day in office into four areas: Interference in the U.S. election, reports of Russian bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, the SolarWinds attack and the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

    The administration announced sanctions against Russian officials over Navalny last month but had so far held off on action in the other three areas. –Bloomberg

    Last month, Biden nodded in agreement when asked if he thought Putin was a “killer,” to which Putin said ‘takes one to know one.’

    Putin then challenged Biden to a live, televised debate to discuss geopolitical friction, which the US President promptly declined.

    According to the report, beyond sanctioning individuals, the Biden administration could expel diplomats or other measures designed to establish ‘effective deterrence against cyber attacks’ such as the SolarWinds exploit which affected several government agencies and private corporations.

     

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/07/2021 – 23:20

  • Hypersonic Weapon? Black Triangular Object Spotted Over Pasadena
    Hypersonic Weapon? Black Triangular Object Spotted Over Pasadena

    Self-professed extraterrestrial expert and conspiracy theorist Scott C. Warin uploaded a video on YouTube of an unexplainable phenomenon over the skies of Pasadena, California, last month. 

    Warin is a UFO hunter who manages the blog UFOSightingsDaily and wrote some commentary on the sighting. 

    He said the object floating over the Pasadena skies appeared to be a “black triangle object.” He said the object’s shape seems to resemble the United States Air Force’s hypersonic weapon, except the object was hovering, rotating, and stopping at times – something a hypersonic weapon isn’t capable of. 

    Warin’s conspiracy theorist side quickly comes out as he speculates the UFO might’ve been “monitoring the covid infections and immunizations of the humans below to assess future predictions of events.”

    In a world where deepfake technology can create convincing events – the authenticity of a video must always be questioned. 

    We must note Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Program, responsible for developing advanced aircraft, is about an hour away from Pasadena. 

    Some internet users were convinced the object was a balloon or even possibly a drone. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/07/2021 – 23:00

  • "We Found Something Better Than Gold": Rio Tinto Starts Lithium Production In The US
    “We Found Something Better Than Gold”: Rio Tinto Starts Lithium Production In The US

    By OilPrice.com,

    Rio Tinto has kicked off lithium production from waste rock at a plant located at a borates mine it controls in California. The demonstration facility is the next step in scaling up a breakthrough lithium production process developed at the Boron mine. The method allows Rio Tinto to recover the critical mineral and extract additional value out of waste piles from over 90 years of mining at the operation.

    An initial small-scale trial in 2019 successfully proved the process of roasting and leaching waste rock to recover high grades of the metal, vital in the production of batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs) and most high tech electronics. Rio’s discovery of lithium at Boron was a fluke. The miner was actually testing Boron’s tailings to see whether the presence of gold was significant and found instead traces of lithium at a concentration higher than domestic projects under development.

    “We were looking for gold… but we found something better than gold: battery-grade lithium – and the potential to produce a lot of it,” Alex Macdonald, senior engineer at the plant, said on the company’s website.

    The project comes at a time when the US is pushing to both encourage the electrification of vehicles and reduce the country’s dependence on China for rare earths, lithium and other minerals needed for EV batteries. The Biden administration has promised to convert the entire US government fleet — about 640,000 vehicles — to EVs. If the plan is successful, the total number of EVs in the US would increase by more than 50%.

    Major leagues

    Rio Tinto invested $10 million to build the pilot plant that will be able to produce 10 tonnes a year of lithium-carbonate. By the end of the year, and based on the trial’s results, it will decide whether or not to spend a further $50 million in an industrial-scale plant with annual capacity of 5,000 tonnes a year — enough for around 15,000 Tesla Model S batteries.

    The projected production would be roughly the same as the capacity of Albemarle’s Silver Peak mine in Nevada, which is currently the only lithium-carbonate producing asset in the country, according to the US Geological Survey. Until now, the global miner’s incursion in the lithium market has been mostly limited to its 100%-owned lithium and borates mineral project in Jadar, Serbia. A feasibility study for the proposed mine is expected to be complete by the end of 2021, Rio said.

    Rio has produced borates — a group of minerals used in soaps, cosmetics and other consumer goods — for nearly a century in the Mojave Desert, about 195 km (120 miles) north of Los Angeles. The world’s second-largest miner announced in March an agreement with renewable energy firm Heliogen to explore the deployment of solar technology at the mine.

    Rio Tinto is not alone in its quest to produce lithium in California. Lithium Americas is also advancing a major project that received final federal approval in January.  The Thacker Pass lithium mine is expected to generate 20,000 tonnes a year of the battery metal, once operational in 2023.

    The plant at Boron is one the company’s latest attempts latest to extract valuable materials from waste rock or by-products – including scandium from titanium dioxide production, as well as anhydrite and Alextra from its aluminum operations.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/07/2021 – 22:40

  • Veteran Intelligence Officials Issue Letter To Biden Urging To Avoid War In Ukraine
    Veteran Intelligence Officials Issue Letter To Biden Urging To Avoid War In Ukraine

    MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
    FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
    SUBJECT: Avoiding War in Ukraine

    Dear President Biden,

    We last communicated with you on December 20, 2020, when you were President-elect.

    At that time, we alerted you to the dangers inherent in formulating a policy toward Russia built on a foundation of Russia-bashing. While we continue to support the analysis contained in that memorandum, this new memo serves a far more pressing purpose. We wish to draw your attention to the dangerous situation that exists in Ukraine today, where there is growing risk of war unless you take steps to forestall such a conflict.

    At this juncture, we call to mind two basic realities that need particular emphasis amid growing tension between Ukraine and Russia.

    First, since Ukraine is not a member of NATO, Article 5 of the NATO Treaty of course would not apply in the case of an armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

    Second, Ukraine’s current military flexing, if allowed to transition into actual military action, could lead to hostilities with Russia.

    We think it crucial that your administration immediately seek to remove from the table, so to speak, any “solution” to the current impasse that has a military component. In short, there is, and can never be, a military solution to this problem.

    Your interim national security strategy guidance indicated that your administration would “make smart and disciplined choices regarding our national defense and the responsible use of our military, while elevating diplomacy as our tool of first resort.” Right now is the perfect time to put these words into action for all to see.

    File image via Reuters

    We strongly believe:

    1. It must be made clear to Ukrainian President Zelensky that there will be no military assistance from either the US or NATO if he does not restrain Ukrainian hawks itching to give Russia a bloody nose — hawks who may well expect the West to come to Ukraine’s aid in any conflict with Russia. (There must be no repeat of the fiasco of August 2008, when the Republic of Georgia initiated offensive military operations against South Ossetia in the mistaken belief that the US would come to its assistance if Russia responded militarily.)

    2. We recommend that you quickly get back in touch with Zelensky and insist that Kiev halt its current military buildup in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces have been lining up at the border ready to react if Zelensky’s loose talk of war becomes more than bravado. Washington should also put on hold all military training activity involving US and NATO troops in the region. This would lessen the chance that Ukraine would misinterpret these training missions as a de facto sign of support for Ukrainian military operations to regain control of either the Donbas or Crimea.

    3. It is equally imperative that the U.S. engage in high-level diplomatic talks with Russia to reduce tensions in the region and de-escalate the current rush toward military conflict. Untangling the complex web of issues that currently burden U.S.-Russia relations is a formidable task that will not be accomplished overnight. This would be an opportune time to work toward a joint goal of preventing armed hostilities in Ukraine and wider war.

    There is opportunity as well as risk in the current friction over Ukraine. This crisis offers your administration the opportunity to elevate the moral authority of the United States in the eyes of the international community. Leading with diplomacy will greatly enhance the stature of America in the world.

    For the Steering Group, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

    • William Binney, former Technical Director, World Geopolitical & Military Analysis, NSA; co-founder, SIGINT Automation Research Center (ret.)
    • Marshall Carter-Tripp, Foreign Service Officer & former Division Director in the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research (ret.)
    • Bogdan Dzakovic, former Team Leader of Federal Air Marshals and Red Team, FAA Security (ret.) (associate VIPS)
    • Graham E. Fuller,Vice-Chair, National Intelligence Council (ret.)
    • Robert M. Furukawa, Captain, Civil Engineer Corps, USNR (ret.)
    • Philip Giraldi, CIA, Operations Officer (ret.)
    • Mike Gravel, former Adjutant, top secret control officer, Communications Intelligence Service; special agent of the Counter Intelligence Corps and former United States Senator
    • John Kiriakou, former CIA Counterterrorism Officer and former Senior Investigator, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
    • Karen Kwiatkowski, former Lt. Col., US Air Force (ret.), at Office of Secretary of Defense watching the manufacture of lies on Iraq, 2001-2003
    • Edward Loomis, NSA Cryptologic Computer Scientist (ret.)
    • Ray McGovern, former US Army infantry/intelligence officer & CIA presidential briefer (ret.)
    • Elizabeth Murray, former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East & CIA political analyst (ret.)
    • Pedro Israel Orta, CIA Operations Officer & Analyst; Inspector with IG for the Intelligence Community (ret.)
    • Todd E. Pierce, MAJ, US Army Judge Advocate (ret.)
    • Scott Ritter, former MAJ., USMC, former UN Weapon Inspector, Iraq
    • Coleen Rowley, FBI Special Agent and former Minneapolis Division Legal Counsel (ret.)
    • Kirk Wiebe, former Senior Analyst, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA
    • Sarah G. Wilton, CDR, USNR, (ret.); Defense Intelligence Agency (ret.)
    • Robert Wing, U.S. Department of State, Foreign Service Officer (former) (associate VIPS)
    • Ann Wright, U.S. Army Reserve Colonel (ret) and former U.S. Diplomat who resigned in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq War

    Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPs) is made up of former intelligence officers, diplomats, military officers and congressional staffers. The organization, founded in 2002, was among the first critics of Washington’s justifications for launching a war against Iraq. VIPS advocates a US foreign and national security policy based on genuine national interests rather than contrived threats promoted for largely political reasons. An archive of VIPS memoranda is available at Consortiumnews.com.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/07/2021 – 22:20

  • "It's Class Warfare" – Protests, Tax Hikes Create "Hostile Environment" For Wealthy New Yorkers
    “It’s Class Warfare” – Protests, Tax Hikes Create “Hostile Environment” For Wealthy New Yorkers

    Richard Ravitch, the former lieutenant governor and elder statesman credited with helping to guide the city through the tumultuous 1970s, claims he has never seen the rich be so thoroughly demonized in New York City, a symbol of American class inequalities.

    “It bothers me because it gives a lot of nourishment to all the rightwing nuts I despise,” Ravitch says. There was once a sense of collegiality among business and labour leaders fighting to rescue the city, he laments. “None of that exists now.”

    As he struggles to beat back twin scandals, including allegations that he sexually harassed female aides, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pushing a progressive budget that would see New York’s millionaires pay the highest state income tax in the country, overtaking even massive California. Unfortunately for Cuomo, his latest plan to silence his progressive critics just might backfire. Because as the FT reports, NYC’s rich are starting to feel like they might be better off somewhere else – and the work-from-home revolution has helped to weaken NYC’s status as the “center of the universe” in the US. As we reported yesterday, NY legislators have been briefed on a plan under which income-tax rates would rise to 9.65% from 8.82% for single filers reporting more than $1 million of income and joint filers reporting more than $2 million, the people said. The plan would also add two new tax brackets. Income over $5 million would be taxed at 10.3% and income over $25 million would be taxed at 10.9%, the people said of the plan, and the new rates would expire in 2027.

    But it’s not just the tax hikes that are making the rich feel threatened: it’s the protest environment witnessed last summer as the rich are being blamed for perpetuating systems of racial, sexual and class repression.

    Even Terri Liftin, a Democratic lawyer and candidate for Comptroller felt emboldened – or rather, potentially risking political blowback in the process.

    Terri Liftin, a Democratic lawyer who is running for New York City comptroller, says it was to be expected that the inequality exacerbated by coronavirus would breed greater hostility towards the rich. But she worries about nascent “class warfare” that, she says, would ultimately leave New York City worse for everyone. “You can’t bring us all together if the emotional tide is against the wealthy,” she says. “I don’t think the rich mind paying a bit more but I don’t think they want to pay more if they’re being told they’re terrible people.”

    One society figure protested that the rich should feel like “partners”, not targets.

    Frederick Peters, chief executive of Warburg Realty — and a scion of the old-money Warburg family — echoes a complaint that is common among the wealthy: that the proposed tax increases are motivated less by fiscal needs than ideological ones. While forecasters were last year predicting a $15bn fiscal deficit for the state, that has since narrowed as tax revenues have beaten expectations and President Joe Biden’s stimulus plan has plugged many holes.

    “If you feel like your city is treating you like the enemy and you already own a place in Palm Beach, it seems a maladroit moment” to raise taxes on the wealthy, Peters says, adding: “The rich shouldn’t feel like the enemy. They should feel like partners.”

    Some might argue that the wealthy have a lot of nerve to complain about taxes after a year where more than 30K New Yorkers succumbed to COVID (deaths that, as the FT reminds us, were borne disproportionately by the poor). One Empire State lawmaker from Queens claimed that if the wealthy feel attacked, well, it’s their own fault.

    “We’re still dealing with the fact that Ronald Reagan won the political debate four decades ago – even though we don’t know if the data backs up the efficacy of that economic approach,” says Michael Gianaris, a state senator from Queens, setting out the broader stakes.

    Gianaris joined the progressive camp when he opposed Amazon’s 2019 attempt to build a second headquarters in his borough. He says it is absurd to believe that paying a few per cent more in tax in a time of “economic calamity” should tip the balance between whether people return to Manhattan or stay in Palm Beach.

    “If they’re feeling like the bad guy, it’s because they’re making themselves the bad guy by arguing that they shouldn’t contribute more to help us recover when they have done extremely well,” he says. “Let’s be clear: no matter what we do, the very rich will continue to be very rich.”

    Many of the wealthy are channeling this rage into the mayoral race, as they seek to push a business-friendly mayor, instead of another bumbling de Blasio-style progressive.

    The city is at a crossroads. This is truly the most important election of our lifetime and in NYC’s history,” Stephen Ross, chair of The Related Companies, and de facto king of the city’s developers, wrote to fellow business leaders last month as he urged them to join his effort to elect a business-friendly mayor. The race’s outcome, Ross wrote, will determine whether “NYC will rebound or languish”.

    Looming large for executives like Ross is the grim memory of the 1970s, when a fraying city ended up losing half its Fortune 500 companies – many fleeing to surrounding suburbs – and shedding more than 1m inhabitants. That era also birthed a civic movement.

    Of course, the roots of this recent anti-rich wave started long before the pandemic. Back in 2019, AOC helped scuttle Amazon’s plans to build its second headquarters in Queens after the Congresswoman complained about tax incentives from the state and city.

    And while many financial firms have already moved to Florida or Texas (or another Sun Belt state), Reuters reports that Cuomo’s budget has already pushed more financiers to start looking for an exit.

    But with plans afoot to raise rates as part of a New York state budget agreement, some financiers are exploring exits, emboldened by a pandemic that has illustrated how working on Wall Street may no longer mean working from Wall Street.

    “I’m already looking for an apartment in Florida,” said one highly paid person at a top-tier bank who asked not to be identified because his employer does not yet know of his plans to move.

    Others earning more than $1 million are considering still bolder steps such as moving not only themselves but also their entire investment firms out of the city, arguing higher taxes cut into their ability to pay staff.

    The state’s tax collectors would do well to remember: the more financial services firms move to Florida, the easier it will become for other firms to move there as well.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/07/2021 – 22:00

  • SPAC Bubble Pops: Flood Of New SPAC IPOs Hits A Brick Wall
    SPAC Bubble Pops: Flood Of New SPAC IPOs Hits A Brick Wall

    “3 SPAC IPOs this week after 2 last week after 276 in Q1 (vs 228 all of last yr vs 170 from 2013 – 2019 combined)”   – Goldman Sachs trader John Flood, April 7, 2021

    As Bloomberg’s Drew Singer writes, the days of special purpose acquisition companies debuting by the dozens on public exchanges appear to have come and gone, “spelling trouble for the broader market for initial public offerings.”

    After fueling a record first quarter for IPOs, SPACs have suddenly stopped going public at anything close to the same scale, as if they hit a brick wall in the second quarter.

    The plunge in deal making follows weak trading in these vehicles, slow progress in their search for acquisitions and outperformance by traditional listings, not to mention various warnings by the SEC itself.

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    Just three SPACs have listed this week, including two on Wednesday. This follows just a pair of IPOs by SPACs last week and compares to more than 20 deals a week during most of the year.

    Worse, according to Bloomberg data, public SPAC offerings are poised for their slowest two-week stretch since the end of 2020.  While a reversal remains possible as we get further from Easter weekend, investors have been signaling a growing distaste for these deals. More than 100 or about a third of SPACs that went public this year are trading below their IPO price as investors wait for news of an acquisition. In all, 2021’s SPACs are trading 0.8% above their debut levels, compared with an average 6.0% gain by the year’s traditional IPOs.

    The trouble in SPACs comes alongside other signs of weakness in the global IPO market even as the S&P 500 continues to trade near record highs. Stocks rose on Wednesday amid a surge in the Nasdaq 100.

    Postmarket launches of U.S. secondary offerings:

    Academy Sports (ASO)

    • Bookrunners: JPMorgan
    • Shares -3.5% postmarket
    • Seller unknown

    Identiv (INVE)

    • Bookrunners: B. Riley, Lake Street, Northland
    • Shares -2.2% postmarket
    • Seller: Company

    Otonomy (OTIC)

    • Bookrunners: Cowen, Piper Sandler
    • Shares -9.8% postmarket
    • Seller: Company

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/07/2021 – 21:40

  • "Clear Focus On Foreign Income": Full Breakdown Of The Treasury's Corporate Tax Proposal
    “Clear Focus On Foreign Income”: Full Breakdown Of The Treasury’s Corporate Tax Proposal

    As reported earlier, today the Treasury has released a new, more detailed description of its corporate tax proposals which will be the pay-for to fund Biden’s $2.25 trillion “Jobs”, aka infrastructure, plan. The proposals are in line with the outline from the White House last week, but include a few key details related to the treatment of foreign income and the minimum tax on book income.

    Below we lay out a summary of what was released, courtesy of Goldman’s political economist Alec Philips:

    • Overall, Treasury estimates the proposal would raise around $2 trillion over 10 years. Compared to the CBO’s projection of total corporate profits, this would represent an increase in the effective corporate tax rate of 7pp. The net increase by company would vary substantially from this for two reasons.
    • First, the White House is proposing substantial tax incentives for specific activities—manufacturing, R&D, infrastructure, housing, and clean energy to name a few—many of which would go to corporations.
    • Second, around 60% of the gross tax increase the Treasury proposes relates to more heavily taxing the foreign profits of multinationals at rates similar to the current 21% domestic tax rate. The proposals would also tax the US profits of foreign multinationals more heavily.
    • These details are very likely to change. Senate Democrats have already released their own proposal, though it follows the same general outline. More importantly, some centrist Democrats have already suggested they prefer a smaller corporate rate increase.
    • The Treasury’s report is silent on the timing of tax increases, but Goldman thinks a retroactive tax hike is very unlikely. Budget rules require long-term offsets to new spending, but not in the near-term, and we expect that retroactive tax increases would reduce political support for the next fiscal package.

    As Larry McDonald summarizes in his latest Bear Trap report, the plan (infrastructure bill) would raise the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, increase minimum taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign income and make it harder for foreign-owned companies with U.S. operations to benefit from shifting profits to low-tax countries, i.e., effectively blocking the inversion deals that were so prevalent under Obama… And, as Yellen revealed today, the US is working with G-20 nations to agree to a global minimum corporate tax rate that can stop the race to the bottom.

    “So the global minimum tax would be on US companies doing business abroad but they are ALSO trying to get the G20 to agree to a minimum… Keep in mind, some companies such as Ireland have corporate tax rates as low as 12.5%. Goldman’s 9% EPS-hit projection does not incorporate a potential hike on foreign profits.“

    “The infrastructure bill wants to raise the so-called GILTI tax 10ppt on US companies’ foreign income. Yellen is separately trying to negotiate countries raise their corporate tax BECAUSE US wants to raise GILTI tax and if other countries don’t raise their taxes, we get same thing that happened pre 2017, USA companies going abroad. But these countries are not going to play ball with Yellen…”

    What these considerations in mind, here are the full details from the Treasury’s description of its corporate tax proposal, which it has subbed the “Made in America Tax Plan“, courtesy of Goldman:

    There are no new proposals in today’s Treasury release. The proposals all appear to have been mentioned in the outline the White House released last week as part of its “American Jobs Plan.” However, the proposal includes some new details, particularly with regard to the replacement for the Base Erosion and Anti-Avoidance Tax (BEAT) (see below), which the prior release did not describe.

    Treasury’s proposals imply a 7pp gross increase in the effective corporate tax rate. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects corporate profits totaling $29.3 trillion over the next ten years. A $2 trillion rise in gross corporate taxes would represent a 7% increase off of that base. Looked at differently, CBO currently projects the Treasury will collect $3.5 trillion in corporate taxes, so a $2 trillion increase would increase corporate taxes by more than 60%. However, this is subject to two important caveats. First, the net tax increase would be smaller, as the Administration is also proposing new tax incentives (not detailed today) that some of these new revenues would pay for. Second, it would affect multinationals more heavily.

    The release highlights how much the Biden Administration plans to rely on taxing foreign profits for new tax revenue. Of the roughly $2 trillion over ten years the Treasury estimates the plan would raise, around $1.2 trillion appears to come from changing the tax treatment of foreign corporate income, primarily by tightening or replacing policies Congress first enacted in the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA). This would primarily affect US-based companies with foreign profits, though some provisions would also affect foreign-based multinationals with profits in the US.

    The main points of the proposal are as follows:

    • GILTI-related taxes would more than triple. The TCJA established a new tax on Global Intangible Low-Tax Income (GILTI), which taxed US-based companies on half of their foreign profits from intangible assets at the US rate (21%). Intangible income is defined as profits in excess of a 10% return on physical capital. The tax applies to aggregate foreign profits, net of tax credits worth 80% of taxes paid on those profits. The Administration proposes three changes: repeal the 10% return on capital; tax 75% of foreign profits rather than 50%; and apply the system on a country-by-country basis to better isolate profits in low-tax jurisdictions.  Treasury estimates this would raise $500bn in revenue in excess of the revenue from the current policy. For comparison, adjusted to today’s tax code and corporate profit projections, the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimated that the current GILTI provision would raise around $200bn. This is likely to increase the tax on GILTI that intellectual property-intensive industries already pay, but is also likely to affect other industries not currently affected by GILTI due to the exclusion of profits on physical capital and/or the aggregation of profits across countries.
    • BEAT would be replaced and increase by several times its current effect. The Base Erosion and Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) was also established by the 2017 law. It applies a tax on intra-company transactions, but exempts Cost of Goods Sold(COGS) and only applies if transactions exceed 3% of total deductions. The Treasury proposes to replace BEAT with SHIELD (Stopping Harmful Inversions and Ending Low-tax Developments). The proposal still lacks detail, but appears to tie treatment of related-party transactions to the tax rate of the related party. It would also seek to further limit corporate inversions. Adjusted for current profit projections and the 28%proposed tax rate, the original JCT estimate suggests BEAT should raise around$250bn over 10 years. However, Treasury data and projections suggest the IRS might collect only around $50bn in direct BEAT taxes over that period. Today’s Treasury release does not specify the exact amount of revenue SHIELD would raise, but the figures it mentions imply it would raise at least $200bn over 10 years.
    • FDII would be eliminated. The TCJA grants a deduction for the foreign profits of US companies that are derived from US-held intangible assets, known as Foreign Derived Intangible Income (FDII). This was intended to encourage companies to hold patents and other intangible assets in the US rather in low-tax jurisdictions and was meant to be complimentary to the GILTI regime. With a rise in the effective GILTI rate, Treasury appears to view the FDII policy as unnecessary. Treasury does not estimate the revenue repealing it would raise, but the 2017 JCT estimates, adjusted as above, suggest repeal might raise around $100bn.
    • The Treasury provides a few new details on the global minimum tax. The Biden campaign proposed a 15% tax on global income, applied to the figure companies report to shareholders rather than the figure reported to the IRS. The White House included this in the last week’s outline without new detail. The only new detail the Treasury now provides is that it would credit firms for extra taxes (above the 15% threshold) paid in prior years, general business tax credits, and foreign tax credits. Treasury does not provide an exact revenue estimate, but the figures it does mention suggest that it would be scored at around $175bn over 10 years.
    • Fossil fuel subsidies would end. The White House discussed this previously, and the Treasury estimates repeal to raise $35bn over 10 years.

    These details are very likely to change. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Wyden (D-Oreg.), along with two committee members, Sens. Brown (D-Ohio) and Warner (D-Va.), have already released their own proposal, which follows the same general outline but differs in a few specifics. More importantly, at least one centrist Democrat, Sen. Manchin (D-W. Va.) has already suggested that he would prefer to increase the rate to only 25%.

    Retroactive increases look unlikely. The Treasury release is silent on the timing of tax increases, but Goldman thinks a retroactive tax hike is very unlikely. There are two reasons the White House is proposing tax increases:

    • The first is to pay for some of the “Jobs Plan” over the next ten years. If the White House intended to cover the full cost of the bill using the 10-year window that Congress typically uses for scoring fiscal measures, there could be pressure to make the increases retroactive in order to generate enough revenue. But neither the White House nor Congressional Democrats are proposing to fully offset the cost of their spending plan over the next ten years, so an extra year of revenue is unlikely to be worth the political cost of making tax increases retroactive.
    • The second and more important reason for tax increases would be to fully offset the cost of new policies after 10 years. Assuming Democrats use the reconciliation process to circumvent Republican opposition, they will have to comply with a particular set of rules, including a prohibition on increasing the deficit after the ten-years Congress uses to consider fiscal policies (currently 2022-2031). This is less relevant for infrastructure, which would be a one-time spending boost, but would be critical to make permanent policies like expanded child care, health insurance subsidies, or the newly expanded child tax credit

    When Republicans wrote the TCJA in 2017, they allowed some policies to phase out after several years while delaying the full effect of some tax increases for several years. The effect was to produce a bill that JCT estimated to raise the deficit substantially in the first several years but not at all over the long run (i.e., after the 10-year period Congress uses). At the time, most observers imagined that a future Congress would extend the tax relief and delay the tax increases. Congressional Democrats will likely use a version of this strategy this year as well, with a net deficit increase in the near-term and a budget-neutral impact over the longer term as some tax policies become more restrictive.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/07/2021 – 21:20

  • Navalny "Seriously Ill" In Prison As Supporters Mount Protest At Penal Colony
    Navalny “Seriously Ill” In Prison As Supporters Mount Protest At Penal Colony

    Anti-Kremlin activists Alexei Navalny is said to be “seriously ill” and in “quite bad condition” according to this lawyer, and has been moved to a prison sick ward at the facility where he’s serving out a two-and-a-half year sentence east of Moscow. 

    He’s being treated for an as yet unknown respiratory illness, which has prompted a COVID-19 test (the results of which are still undisclosed), but also fears that he may have contracted tuberculosis, given there appears to be an ongoing outbreak of the disease at the penal colony.

    Over the past weeks Navalny and his legal team have complained of harsh conditions and further that prison doctors have refused to given him proper care related to a pinched nerve that’s causing severe leg problems. Prison authorities have countered that he’s in good condition and has access to the standard level of care all inmates receive. 

    The Kremlin has meanwhile charged that Navalny and his supporters are simply trying to keep up political pressure on Russian leaders during Navalny’s confinement stemming from parole violation from an earlier embezzlement conviction. 

    On Tuesday Navalny’s lawyer Olga Mikailova told a Moscow radio station that the 44-year old dissident remains “in rather bad condition.”

    Stillframe from new CCTV footage showing Navalny in prison interacting with a guard.

    “He has lost a lot of weight, plus he has a strong cough and a temperature of [100.6F],” Mikhailova said. 

    “This man is seriously ill. It’s a complete outrage that the IK-2 [prison] has driven him to this condition.”

    New video has since emerged from the end of March of Navalny inside the prison. He’s shown interacting with guards while drinking what appears to be a cup of coffee. CNN among others featured the CCTV footage to highlight his deteriorating health; however others pointed out he looks better than how his legal team is presenting the situation…

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    At the start of this month Navalny announced he would go on hunger strike in protest medical conditions at the prison facility and to highlight the unjustness of his plight.

    Supporters have been claiming that “the Kremlin may be slowly killing Alexei Navalny in prison” following his last August ordeal in which he said Putin ordered intelligence services to poison him with nerve agent, which led to a lengthy hospital stay and recovery in Berlin, Germany before he flew back to Moscow where he was arrested for violating parole. 

    All of this have prompted European leaders to once again chime in lately:

    Alarmed by reports of Navalny’s treatment, French President Emanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin during a videoconference last week to “preserve” Navalny’s health.  

    This week it’s being reported that groups of supporters are actually showing up to the prison to protest his conditions and confinement there.

    Meanwhile, the list of Navalny’s ailments and ill-health conditions keep getting more bizarre…

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/07/2021 – 21:00

  • Ketchup Can't Catch Up As Nationwide Shortage Fries Restaurants, Fast-Food Chains
    Ketchup Can’t Catch Up As Nationwide Shortage Fries Restaurants, Fast-Food Chains

    Ketchup packets are the next COVID-19-related nationwide shortage. 

    America’s most popular condiment, ketchup packets, are in short supply at restaurants across the country, according to The Wall Street Journal.

    The shortage materialized over the last year as public health orders forced restaurants to close or limit indoor dining, which resulted in a boom in takeout orders. There were also health and safety guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that advised restaurants to “avoid using or sharing items that are reusable such as menus, condiments and any other food containers” to prevent the spread of the virus. More specifically, the CDC recommended eateries to use “single-serving condiments,” such as individual packets. 

    Numerous regulations and or advisories sent ketchup packet prices surging, up more than 13% since the beginning of the pandemic. Heinz, the largest producer who controls 70% of the US condiment market, was overwhelmed by demand, and this is how the shortage was sparked. 

    Heinz told the Journal it would shortly increase production by a quarter, for a total of 12 billion packets per year. America’s most widely used ketchup brand confirmed it still couldn’t keep up with orders for its ketchup packets. 

    The shortage forced larger restaurant chains to find alternatives, the report said. From mom-and-pop eateries to large chains, restaurants nationwide have been scrambling to find alternative brands to fill the void.

    “We’ve been hunting high and low,” said Chris Fuselier, operator of a small Denver-based eatery called Blake Street Tavern, who has struggled to source ketchup packets in 2021. 

    Large chains like Texas Roadhouse and Long John Silvers have had to purchase other brands of ketchup. 

    “We feel like the bottom of the barrel,” Texas Roadhouse spokesperson Travis Doster told the paper.

    Texas Roadhouse used 55 million ounces of ketchup last year and has resorted to sourcing ketchup at Costco and other wholesalers. 

    Kraft Heinz said when restaurant demand collapsed at the beginning of the pandemic, it saw a monumental shift to takeout and delivery and pivoted production lines to meet those needs. Still, demand is greater than supply. 

    Other recent shortages include flour, aluminum cans as people consume beverages at home, plastics, lumber, steel, semiconductors, sofas, fitness equipment, hot tubs, electronics, and cookware. 

    Goldman Sachs told clients last month that supply chain woes might not be resolved until 2022. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/07/2021 – 20:40

  • US Agrees To Withdraw "Remaining Combat Troops" From Iraq In Joint Talks
    US Agrees To Withdraw “Remaining Combat Troops” From Iraq In Joint Talks

    Starting weeks ago the Iraqi government began putting pressure on the Biden administration to enter a new round of talks over withdrawing all remaining US troops from the country – a process previously stalled amid tit-for-tat strikes between American forces and Iran-backed Iraqi paramilitary groups.

    The new high level talks have started this week, which is the third round stretching back into the Trump administration, but the first under the Biden presidency. As part of demands for a total US forces exit, Baghdad is seeking to assure the White House that Iran-backed militias in the country will also stand down. However, it’s quite another question whether Baghdad will be able to deliver, and Washington has long used this as a prime excuse for staying with no firm exit date. 

    Via AP

    “Iraq’s prime minister asked Iran’s leaders to rein in Iran-backed militias in Iraq and in a strongly worded message to Tehran, suggested he would confront the factions, two Iraqi officials said Wednesday,” the Associated Press reports. 

    Already a major agreement has been reportedly reached during the virtual talks involving Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale representing the US side in the remote meeting with their Iraqi counterparts. 

    The AFP is reporting Wednesday afternoon that the US has agreed to move “remaining combat troops” out of Iraq.

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    However, the timing of this full pullout will continue to be negotiated as part of the ongoing talks. 

    The joint statement reads in part: “…The parties confirmed that the mission of US and Coalition forces has now transitioned to one focused on training and advisory tasks, thereby allowing for the redeployment of any remaining combat forces from Iraq, with the timing to be established in upcoming technical talk.”

    Will the some few thousand troops remaining in Iraq simply be “redeployed” to neighboring Syria where the US occupation of the country’s northeast controversially endures with no end in sight?

    If so this will do nothing to de-escalate the continuing proxy war with Iran in the region, which would likely only see American forces eventually redeploy once again inside Iraq as Iran tensions continue to spiral. Of course, much of this also depends on the fate of nuclear talks now being held in Vienna over restoration of the JCPOA, as well as the “wild card” that is Israel – and its attempts to sabotage any path back to US participation in the deal. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/07/2021 – 20:20

  • "It's A Biological Fukushima" – Brazil On Track To Pass US In COVID Deaths
    “It’s A Biological Fukushima” – Brazil On Track To Pass US In COVID Deaths

    A couple of months ago, Brazil surpassed the US as the country reporting the most new COVID cases per day. Now, the stricken Latin American country is reporting as many as 4K deaths per day (for context, the US reported fewer than 500 yesterday).

    The wide disparity in deaths between the US and Brazil has been attributed to mutant strains, some of which were first identified in Brazil, which researchers believe have lead to harsher symptoms, especially for younger people. Anyway, as the odds of Brazil overtaking the US in terms of total deaths grow (Brazil now has nearly 340K deaths compared with 555K in the US), its health-care system has been pushed to the breaking point.

    When adjusted for population, Brazil looks set to surpass the US by the end of the week.

    One Brazilian doctor suggested that Brazil’s outbreak seems like it’s powered by a nuclear reactor, according to Reuters. On Tuesday, the Health Ministry reported another 4,195 COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, well above the country’s prior single-day record.

    “It’s a nuclear reactor that has set off a chain reaction and is out of control. It’s a biological Fukushima,” said Miguel Nicolelis, a Brazilian doctor and professor at Duke University, who is closely tracking the virus.

    Brazil has set daily death records every week since late February, according to Reuters, which blamed the mutants and the country’s “meager” social distancing guidelines. A team of researchers, citing a widely used forecasting metric, quoted by the newswire said Brazil could reach 563K total deaths by July 1.

    Nicolelis and Christovam Barcellos, a researcher at Brazilian medical institute Fiocruz, are separately forecasting that Brazil could surpass the United States in both overall deaths and the record for average deaths per day.

    As soon as next week, Brazil may break the record U.S. seven-day average for COVID-19 deaths, according to a model by the influential Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. The U.S. average for daily deaths peaked at 3,285 in January.

    The IHME forecast does not currently extend beyond July 1, when it projects Brazil could reach 563,000 deaths, compared with 609,000 total U.S. fatalities expected by then.

    Despite the scourge of the virus, and the fact that Brazil is presently contributing one in every four deaths to the daily global tally, Brazilian officials insist they could soon return the country to some semblance of normal, even as President Jair Bolsonaro’s reluctance to secure supplies of foreign-made vaccines, and his resistance to social distancing efforts, have been blamed for exacerbating the crisis. To be sure, Bolsonaro has shifted his approach in response to the surge in deaths, shaking up his cabinet and imploring Brazilians to get vaccinated.

    But will it be enough? Only time will tell. While Brazil isn’t the only major emerging economy struggling with a surge in case (India is reporting the most new daily cases since last fall), Brazil is one of the few countries still reporting such large numbers of daily fatalities.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/07/2021 – 20:00

  • JPM: It Appears There Is A Worker Shortage
    JPM: It Appears There Is A Worker Shortage

    Yesterday’s JOLTS Job Openings printed 7.37mm vs. 6.90mm survey and 7.10mm prior.

    These February numbers preceded March’s large jobs gains. Combine this with reports from Bloomberg and Reuters, and – as JPMorgan writes today – “it appears that there is a worker shortage.”

    Irrespective of the cause (worker flight due to joblessness, or “robust” stimulus keeping lazy workers on the sidelines and in front of their TV, which as we will show shortly, is indeed the case) JPM then notes that “businesses are rapidly raising wages to attract workers; but most of where this phenomenon is seen is for lower-income workers within the Service segment.“

    As we saw last April with the combination of $600/week federal employment and $1,200/adult and $500/child stimulus checks, which had the effect of bringing the bottom 3-4 deciles income brackets toward the median income, the impact on spending was significant.

    While, these wage increases will not have as dramatic an impact as last year’s fiscal stimulus  the impact on spending should be material. Low-income workers have a higher marginal propensity to consume with a lower savings rate. This may be part of why Staples have outperformed recently; but, more generally, should continue to add support for the Consumer-led rally that JPM believes we will witness throughout 2021.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/07/2021 – 19:40

  • Joe Biden's Bait-And-Switch Presidency
    Joe Biden’s Bait-And-Switch Presidency

    Authored by Charles Lipson via RealClearPolitics.com,

    Joe Biden was elected as a moderate-left Democrat, but he is not governing as one. He pledged repeatedly to work across party lines, but he is ramming through the biggest, most expensive progressive agenda in American history without any Republican votes. He is almost certain to try it again with his next two spending proposals, the largest since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs. As the White House pushes these mammoth bills with only Democratic votes, Americans are realizing they got a very different president from the one they bargained for, the one they were promised during the campaign. What’s unclear is whether they will recoil from this new reality.

    Throughout the summer and fall, Biden ran as a unifier who could work across party lines. He wanted to do so, he said, and he reiterated that comforting message as late as his inaugural address. It was probably his most important policy message, and Americans believed it. They remembered his years in the Senate and his primary victory over socialist Bernie Sanders.

    The reality has been very different from the promises. Biden’s pledge of bipartisanship and unity turned out to be a cynical sleight-of-hand, raw partisanship masquerading as comity. In the general election, it worked well enough to defeat a divisive incumbent, whose impulsiveness, rancor, and personal attacks repulsed many Americans. Now that the election is over, so is the message. Despite razor-thin Democratic majorities on Capitol Hill, Biden is determined to pass an ambitious agenda with no support from Republicans.

    The clearest indication of Biden’s bait and switch came with the stimulus bill. Before signaling his final position, the president reached out to Republicans, who proposed a $600 billion package, focused on immediate needs plus some fiscal stimulus.

    The bipartisan meeting was all for show. Biden quickly rejected the Republicans’ proposal, made no effort to meet with them again or negotiate any compromise, and chose instead to push for a bill three times as large, much of it to be spent long after the COVID crisis has passed. The extra $1.3 trillion did not include the infrastructure and other programs he now considers essential.

    Those are coming in additional bills with huge price tags and associated tax hikes.

    President Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer knew their mammoth COVID bill would face unified Republican resistance. No matter. They pushed it through anyway, using the Senate’s arcane rule for budget reconciliation. They went big and unilateral, even though Republicans were eager to sign off on a large relief bill that would have commanded a Senate supermajority. This week, we learned Schumer has quietly asked the Senate parliamentarian if he can use the same 50-vote procedure for Biden’s latest spending bills, hoping to avoid any Republican filibuster.

    Will this ‘ram-it-through’ mentality characterize the remainder of Biden’s first two years? You don’t have to visit the Oracle at Delphi for an answer. The clearest indication is that the president, who ran for the Oval Office as a man of the Senate, now wants to smash long-standing Senate rules so he can pass the rest of his legislative agenda without Republican votes.

    The filibuster rules, Biden says, are nothing more than “relics of the Jim Crow era.” He’s relying on the distant memory that, more than half a century ago, Southern senators used the filibuster to oppose desegregation. Yet the huge civil rights and voting rights bills of the mid-1960s still passed. What’s more, they passed with enough debate and votes to buttress the statutes with a national political consensus.

    Since then, both parties have used the filibuster to oppose all sorts of bills, most of them far removed from race. The Democrats used the technique repeatedly last year, when they were in the minority. They used it, for instance, to stop a police reform bill proposed by Tim Scott, an African American representing the state that fired the first shots in the Civil War. But that’s only one example among many. When Joe Biden and Barack Obama served in the Senate, they not only used the filibuster, they explicitly defended it. So did Chuck Schumer. Were they defending Jim Crow? No. They were defending the historic role of the Senate, which grants some power to the minority party.

    Now, the same Democrats want to overturn those rules, and they are cynically deploying the sensitive issue of race to do it. But race is not the real issue here. It is whether the Senate wants to afford significant rights to the minority party, as it has for over two centuries, forcing either compromise solutions or stalemate. Put differently, do senators really want to turn their chamber into something like the House, where the minority is powerless and debate is meaningless? Once they do that, they can never turn back.

    Behind Biden’s choice to go big, progressive, and unilateral lie three basic calculations.

    • The first is that, if history is any guide, Democrats are likely to lose the House in 2022. The incumbent president’s party almost always suffers losses, often big ones, and the Democrats don’t have any seats to spare. That means Biden has only two years to pass his aggressive agenda.

    • Second is his judgment that voters really like big government spending. Recent polling suggests they do, for now.  The question is whether that support will last and whether it will outweigh voters’ concerns about tax hikes to pay for those programs.

    • Third, Biden is betting that voters in 2022 and 2024 will care a lot more about today’s practical results than about yesterday’s broken campaign promises. That’s probably true. The White House also knows it can blame Republicans for any resistance to its agenda. It has a bully pulpit and a compliant media to help.

    The result is a president determined to pass everything on the Democrats’ all-you-can-eat menu, even if he has to do it with strict party-line votes. As a candidate, Joe Biden promised voters a center-left agenda and bipartisanship. As a president, he is giving them neither. Biden’s deception is based on the oldest marketing technique in the book: bait and switch.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 04/07/2021 – 19:20

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