FEB 18

FEB17

· by harveyorgan · in Uncategorized · Leave a comment ·Edit

GOLD; $1899.30 DOWN $1.80

SILVER: $23.97 UP 7 CENTS

ACCESS MARKET: GOLD $1897.50

SILVER: $23.94

Bitcoin: morning price: $40,466 DOWN 562

Bitcoin: afternoon price: $40,035 DOWN 993

Platinum price: closing DOWN $17.65 to $1077.30

Palladium price; closing DOWN $20.55 at $2345.40

END

end

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comex notices//JPMorgan notices filed//comex notices//JPMorgan notices filed 11/32

COMEX//NOTICES:EXCHANGE: COMEX FILED:EXCHANGE: COMEX

EXCHANGE: COMEX
CONTRACT: FEBRUARY 2022 COMEX 100 GOLD FUTURES
SETTLEMENT: 1,900.700000000 USD
INTENT DATE: 02/17/2022 DELIVERY DATE: 02/22/2022
FIRM ORG FIRM NAME ISSUED STOPPED

118 C MACQUARIE FUT 1
332 H STANDARD CHARTE 1
363 H WELLS FARGO SEC 4
624 H BOFA SECURITIES 13
657 C MORGAN STANLEY 1
661 C JP MORGAN 32 5
661 H JP MORGAN 6
905 C ADM 1

TOTAL: 32 32
MONTH TO DATE: 17,510

NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED TODAY FOR FEB. CONTRACT: 32 NOTICE(S) FOR 3200 OZ (0.0995 TONNES)

total notices so far: 17,510 contracts for 1,751,000 oz (54.468 tonnes)

SILVER NOTICES:

0 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR nil OZ/

total number of notices filed so far this month 1278 : for 6,390,000 oz

GLD

WITH GOLD DOWN $1.80

WITH RESPECT TO GLD WITHDRAWALS: (OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS):

GOLD IS “RETURNED” TO THE BANK OF ENGLAND WHEN CALLING IN THEIR LEASES: THE GOLD NEVER LEAVES THE BANK OF ENGLAND IN THE FIRST PLACE. THE BANK IS PROTECTING ITSELF IN CASE OF COMMERCIAL FAILURE

ALSO INVESTORS SWITCHING TO SPROTT PHYSICAL (phys) INSTEAD OF THE FRAUDULENT GLD//

NO CHANGES AT THE GLD:

CLOSING INVENTORY :1019.44 TONNES

Silver//SLV

WITH NO SILVER AROUND AND SILVER UP 7 CENTS:/:

A HUGE DEPOSIT OF 1.107 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV//

CLOSING INVENTORY: 551.227 MILLION OZ

AT THE SLV//

INVESTORS ARE SWITCHING SLV TO SPROTT’S PSLV

Let us have a look at the data for today

SILVER//OUTLINE

SILVER COMEX OI ROSE BY A FAIR 320 CONTRACTS TO 161,344 AND RESTS CLOSER TO THE NEW RECORD OF 244,710, SET FEB 25/2020 AND WITH THIS STRONG GAIN IN OI, IT WAS ACCOMPANIED WITH OUR CONSIDERABLE $0.31 GAIN IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX ON THURSDAY. OUR BANKERS WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING THE PRICE OF SILVER DOWN (IT ROSE BY $0.31) AND WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING OUT ANY SILVER LONGS AS WE HAD A VERY STRONG GAIN OF 1760 CONTRACTS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES .

WE MUST HAVE HAD:
I) HUGE BANKER SHORT COVERING AS THEY ARE VERY ANXIOUS TO GET OUT OF DODGE!!/. II)WE ALSO HAD SOME REDDIT RAPTOR BUYING//. iii) A STRONG ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS iiii) A HUGE INITIAL SILVER STANDING FOR COMEX SILVER MEASURING AT 4.110 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 495,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP//NEW STANDING 8.340 MILLION OZ. V) STRONG SIZED COMEX OI GAIN.

I AM NOW RECORDING THE DIFFERENTIAL IN OI FROM PRELIMINARY TO FINAL:

THE DIFFERENTIAL FROM PRELIMINARY OI TO FINAL OI SILVER TODAY: CONTRACTS -475

HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS FEB. ACCUMULATION FOR EFP’S SILVER/JPMORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES/STARTING FROM FIRST DAY/MONTH OF FEB:

TOTAL CONTACTS for 14 days, total contracts: : 8133 contracts or 40.665 million oz OR 2.904 MILLION OZ PER DAY. (581 CONTRACTS PER DAY)

TOTAL NO OF OZ UNDERGOING EFP TO LONDON 8133 CONTRACTS X 5,000 PER CONTRACT:

EQUATES TO: 40.554 MILLION OZ

LAST 10 MONTHS TOTAL EFP CONTRACTS ISSUED IN MILLIONS OF OZ:

MAY 137.83 MILLION

JUNE 149.91 MILLION OZ

JULY 129.445 MILLION OZ

AUGUST: MILLION OZ 140.120

SEPT. 28.230 MILLION OZ//

OCT: 94.595 MILLION OZ

NOV: 131.925 MILLION OZ

DEC: 100.615 MILLION OZ

JAN 2022// 90.460 MILLION OZ

FEB 2022: 40.665 MILLION OZ//

SPREADING OPERATIONS

(/NOW SWITCHING TO SILVER) FOR NEWCOMERS, HERE ARE THE DETAILS

SPREADING LIQUIDATION HAS NOW COMMENCED AS WE HEAD TOWARDS THE NEW ACTIVE FRONT MONTH OF MAR.WE ARE NOW INTO THE SPREADING OPERATION OF SILVER

HERE IS A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF HOW THE CROOKS FLEECE UNSUSPECTING LONGS IN THE SPREADING ENDEAVOUR ;MODUS OPERANDI OF THE CORRUPT BANKERS AS TO HOW THEY HANDLE THEIR SPREAD OPEN INTERESTS:HERE IS HOW THE CROOKS USED SPREADING AS WE ARE NOW INTO THE NON ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF JAN HEADING TOWARDS THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF FEB, FOR GOLD:

YOU WILL ALSO NOTICE THAT THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST STARTS TO RISE BUT SO IS THE OPEN INTEREST OF SPREADERS. THE OPEN INTEREST IN WILL CONTINUE TO RISE UNTIL ONE WEEK BEFORE FIRST DAY NOTICE OF AN UPCOMING ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH (MAR), AND THAT IS WHEN THE CROOKS SELL THEIR SPREAD POSITIONS BUT NOT AT THE SAME TIME OF THE DAY. THEY WILL USE THE SELL SIDE OF THE EQUATION TO CREATE THE CASCADE (ALONG WITH THEIR COLLUSIVE FRIENDS) AND THEN COVER ON THE BUY SIDE OF THE SPREAD SITUATION AT THE END OF THE DAY. THEY DO THIS TO AVOID POSITION LIMIT DETECTION. THE LIQUIDATION OF THE SPREADING FORMATION CONTINUES FOR EXACTLY ONE WEEK AND ENDS ON FIRST DAY NOTICE.”

RESULT: WE HAD A FAIR SIZED INCREASE IN COMEX OI SILVER COMEX CONTRACTS OF 320 WITH OUR CONSIDERABLE $0.31 GAIN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX// THURSDAY THE CME NOTIFIED US THAT WE HAD A STRONG SIZED EFP ISSUANCE OF 965 CONTRACTS( 965 CONTRACTS ISSUED FOR MAR AND 0 CONTRACTS ISSUED FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS) WHICH EXITED OUT OF THE SILVER COMEX TO LONDON AS FORWARDS THE DOMINANT FEATURE TODAY: /HUGE BANKER SHORT COVERING AS THEY GET OUT OF DODGE//// WE HAVE A GOOD INITIAL SILVER OZ STANDING FOR FEB OF 4.1 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 495,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP //NEW STANDING 8.340, MILLION OZ// .. WE HAD A VERY STRONG SIZED GAIN OF 1285 OI CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES FOR 6.425 MILLION OZ//

WE HAD 0 NOTICES FILED TODAY FOR nil OZ

GOLD//OUTLINE

IN GOLD, THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST ROSE BY AN ATMOSPHERIC SIZED 29,491 TO 596,773 AND CLOSER TO OUR NEW RECORD (SET JAN 24/2020) AT 799,541 AND PREVIOUS TO THAT: (SET JAN 6/2020) AT 797,110.

THE DIFFERENTIAL FROM PRELIMINARY OI TO FINAL OI IN GOLD TODAY: —161 CONTRACTS.

THE BIS HAS ABANDONED THE GOLD COMEX TRADING!!!

THE HUMONGOUS SIZED INCREASE IN COMEX OI CAME WITH OUR GAIN IN PRICE OF $29.80//COMEX GOLD TRADING/THURSDAY/.AS IN SILVER WE MUST HAD HUGE BANKER/ALGO SHORT COVERING ACCOMPANYING OUR STRONG SIZED EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE. WE HAD ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION AS THE TOTAL GAIN ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES TOTALED 40,448 CONTRACTS…

WE ALSO HAD A HUGE INITIAL STANDING IN GOLD TONNAGE FOR FEB AT 64.3 TONNES FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 15,300 OZ QUEUE JUMP //NEW STANDING: 58.858 TONNES

YET ALL OF..THIS HAPPENED WITH OUR STRONG GAIN IN PRICE OF $29.80 WITH RESPECT TO THURSDAY’S TRADING

WE HAD AN UNBELIEVABLY SIZED GAIN OF 40,448 OI CONTRACTS (126.314 PAPER TONNES) ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES

E.F.P. ISSUANCE

THE CME RELEASED THE DATA FOR EFP ISSUANCE AND IT TOTALED A STRONG SIZED 10,957 CONTRACTS:

The NEW COMEX OI FOR THE GOLD COMPLEX RESTS AT 596,773.

IN ESSENCE WE HAVE A VERY STRONG SIZED INCREASE IN TOTAL CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 40,448, WITH 29,491 CONTRACTS INCREASED AT THE COMEX AND 10,957 EFP OI CONTRACTS WHICH NAVIGATED OVER TO LONDON. THUS TOTAL OI GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 40,610 CONTRACTS OR 125.810TONNES.

CALCULATIONS ON GAIN/LOSS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES

WE HAD A STRONG SIZED ISSUANCE IN EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS (10,957) ACCOMPANYING THE HUGE SIZED GAIN IN COMEX OI (29,491,): TOTAL GAIN IN THE TWO EXCHANGES 40,448 CONTRACTS. WE NO DOUBT HAD 1) HUGE BANKER SHORT COVERING ,2.) HUGE INITIAL STANDING AT THE GOLD COMEX FOR FEB. AT 64.30 TONNES WHICH FOLLOWS TODAY’S QUEUE. JUMP OF 15,300 OZ//NEW STANDING 58.858 TONNES// 3) ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION ,4) HUMONGOUS SIZED COMEX OI. GAIN 5) STRONG ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL

HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS IN 2022 INCLUDING TODAY

FEB

ACCUMULATION OF EFP’S GOLD AT J.P. MORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES: (EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL) FOR THE MONTH OF FEB :

43,244 CONTRACTS OR 4,324,400 OR 134.50 TONNES 14 TRADING DAY(S) AND THUS AVERAGING: 3088 EFP CONTRACTS PER TRADING DAY

TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE SIZE OF THESE EFP TRANSFERS : THIS MONTH IN 14 TRADING DAY(S) IN TONNES: 134.50 TONNES

TOTAL ANNUAL GOLD PRODUCTION, 2020, THROUGHOUT THE WORLD EX CHINA EX RUSSIA: 3555 TONNES

THUS EFP TRANSFERS REPRESENTS 134.50/3550 x 100% TONNES 3.78% OF GLOBAL ANNUAL PRODUCTION

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S YEAR 2021 TO 2022

JANUARY/2021: 265.26 TONNES (RAPIDLY INCREASING AGAIN)

FEB : 171.24 TONNES ( DEFINITELY SLOWING DOWN AGAIN)..

MARCH:. 276.50 TONNES (STRONG AGAIN/

APRIL: 189..44 TONNES ( DRAMATICALLY SLOWING DOWN AGAIN//GOLD IN BACKWARDATION)

MAY: 250.15 TONNES (NOW DRAMATICALLY INCREASING AGAIN)

JUNE: 247.54 TONNES (FINAL)

JULY: 188.73 TONNES FINAL

AUGUST: 217.89 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE.

SEPT 142.12 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE ( LOW ISSUANCE)_

OCT: 141.13 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE (LOW ISSUANCE)

NOV: 312.46 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE//NEW RECORD!! (INCREASING DRAMATICALLY)//SIGN OF REAL STRESS//SURPASSING THE MARCH 2021 RECORD OF 276.50 TONNES OF EFP

DEC. 145.12 TONNES//FINAL ISSUANCE//

JAN:2022 247.25 TONNES //FINAL

FEB: 134.50 TONNES//INITIAL

WHAT IS ALARMING TO ME, ACCORDING TO OUR LONDON EXPERT ANDREW MAGUIRE IS THAT THESE EFP’S ARE BEING TRANSFERRED TO WHAT ARE CALLED SERIAL FORWARD CONTRACT OBLIGATIONS AND THESE CONTRACTS ARE LESS THAN 14 DAYS. ANYTHING GREATER THAN 14 DAYS, THESE MUST BE RECORDED AND SENT TO THE COMPTROLLER, GREAT BRITAIN TO MONITOR RISK TO THE BANKING SYSTEM. IF THIS IS INDEED TRUE, THEN THIS IS A MASSIVE CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD AS WE NOW WITNESS A MONSTROUS TOTAL EFP’S ISSUANCE AS IT HEADS INTO THE STRATOSPHERE.

First, here is an outline of what will be discussed tonight:

1.Today, we had the open interest at the comex, in SILVER, ROSE BY A STRONG SIZED 320 CONTRACTS TO 161,344 AND CLOSER TO OUR COMEX RECORD //244,710(SET FEB 25/2020). THE LAST RECORDS WERE SET IN AUG.2018 AT 244,196 WITH A SILVER PRICE OF $14.78/(AUGUST 22/2018)..THE PREVIOUS RECORD TO THAT WAS SET ON APRIL 9/2018 AT 243,411 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS WITH THE SILVER PRICE AT THAT DAY: $16.53). AND PREVIOUS TO THAT, THE RECORD WAS ESTABLISHED AT: 234,787 CONTRACTS, SET ON APRIL 21.2017 OVER 4 1/2 YEARS AGO.

EFP ISSUANCE 965 CONTRACTS

OUR CUSTOMARY MIGRATION OF COMEX LONGS CONTINUE TO MORPH INTO LONDON FORWARDS AS OUR BANKERS USED THEIR EMERGENCY PROCEDURE TO ISSUE:

MAR 965 ALL OTHER MONTHS: ZERO. TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 965 CONTRACTS. EFP’S GIVE OUR COMEX LONGS A FIAT BONUS PLUS A DELIVERABLE PRODUCT OVER IN LONDON. IF WE TAKE THE COMEX OI GAIN OF 320 CONTRACTS AND ADD TO THE 965 OI TRANSFERRED TO LONDON THROUGH EFP’S,

WE OBTAIN A STRONG SIZED GAIN OF 1285 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACT FROM OUR TWO EXCHANGES.

THUS IN OUNCES, THE GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES 6.425 MILLION OZ,

OCCURRED WITH OUR $0.31 GAIN IN PRICE.

OUTLINE FOR TODAY’S COMMENTARY

1/COMEX GOLD AND SILVER REPORT

(report Harvey)

2 ) Gold/silver trading overnight Europe,

(Peter Schiff,

3. Egon von Greyerz///Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com,

4. Chris Powell of GATA provides to us very important physical commentaries

5. Other gold commentaries

6. Commodity commentaries/cryptocurrencies

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

i)FRIDAY MORNING// THURSDAY NIGHT

SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 22.72 PTS OR 0.66% //Hang Sang CLOSED DOWN 465.06 PTS OR 1.88% /The Nikkei closed DOWN 110.80 or 0.41% //Australia’s all ordinaires CLOSED DOWN .95% /Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed UP 6.3273 /Oil DOWN TO 89.95 dollars per barrel for WTI and DOWN TO 91.49 for Brent. Stocks in Europe OPENED ALL MIXED // ONSHORE YUAN CLOSED UP AGAINST THE DOLLAR AT 6.3273. OFFSHORE YUAN CLOSED UP ON THE DOLLAR AT 6.3223: /ONSHORE YUAN TRADING BELOW LEVEL OF OFFSHORE YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING STRONGER AGAINST USA DOLLAR/OFF SHORE STRONGER/

A)NORTH KOREA//USA/OUTLINE

b) REPORT ON JAPAN

OUTLINE

3 C CHINA

OUTLINE

4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

OUTLINE

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

OUTLINE

6.Global Issues

OUTLINE

7. OIL ISSUES

OUTLINE

8 EMERGING MARKET ISSUES

COMEX DATA//AMOUNTS STANDING//VOLUME OF TRADING/INVENTORY MOVEMENTS

GOLD

LET US BEGIN:

THE TOTAL COMEX GOLD OPEN INTEREST ROSE BY AN ASTONISHING ATMOSPHERIC SIZED 29,652 CONTRACTS AND CLOSER TO THE RECORD THAT WAS SET IN JANUARY/2020: {799,541 OI(SET JAN 16/2020)} AND PREVIOUS TO THAT: 797,110 (SET JAN 7/2020). AND THIS COMEX INCREASE OCCURRED DESPITE OUR GAIN OF $29.80 IN GOLD PRICING THURSDAY’S COMEX TRADING. WE ALSO HAD A FAIR SIZED EFP (2019 CONTRACTS). . THEY WERE PAID HANDSOMELY NOT TO TAKE DELIVERY AT THE COMEX AND SETTLE FOR CASH.

WE NORMALLY HAVE WITNESSED EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS ISSUED BEING SMALL AS IT JUST TOO COSTLY FOR THEM TO CONTINUE SERVICING THE COSTS OF SERIAL FORWARDS CIRCULATING IN LONDON. HOWEVER, MUCH TO THE ANNOYANCE OF OUR BANKERS, THE COMEX IS THE SCENE OF AN ASSAULT ON GOLD AS LONDONERS, NOT BEING ABLE TO FIND ANY PHYSICAL ON THAT SIDE OF THE POND, EXERCISE THESE CIRCULATING EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS IN LONDON AND FORCING DELIVERY OF REAL METAL OVER HERE AS THE OBLIGATION STILL RESTS WITH NEW YORK BANKERS. IT SEEMS THAT ARE BANKERS FRIENDS ARE EXERCISING EFP’S FROM LONDON AND NOW THEY ARE LOATHE TO ISSUE NEW ONES.

EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE

WE ARE NOW MOVING TO THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF FEB.. THE CME REPORTS THAT THE BANKERS ISSUED A STRONG SIZED TRANSFER THROUGH THE EFP ROUTE AS THESE LONGS RECEIVED A DELIVERABLE LONDON FORWARD TOGETHER WITH A FIAT BONUS.,

THAT IS 10,957 EFP CONTRACTS WERE ISSUED: ;: , & FEB. 0 APRIL: 10,957 & ZERO FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS:

TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 10,957 CONTRACTS

WHEN WE HAVE BACKWARDATION, EFP ISSUANCE IS VERY COSTLY BUT THE REAL PROBLEM IS THE SCARCITY OF METAL AND IT IS FAR BETTER FOR OUR BANKERS TO PAY OFF INDIVIDUALS THAN RISK INVESTORS ESPECIALLY FROM LONDON STANDING FOR DELIVERY. THE LOWER PRICES IN THE FUTURES MARKET IS A MAGNET FOR OUR LONDONERS SEEKING PHYSICAL METAL. BACKWARDATION ALWAYS EQUAL SCARCITY OF METAL!

ON A NET BASIS IN OPEN INTEREST WE GAINED THE FOLLOWING TODAY ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES: AN UNHEARD OF 40,448 TOTAL CONTRACTS IN THAT 10,957 LONGS WERE TRANSFERRED AS FORWARDS TO LONDON AND WE HAD AN ATMOSPHERIC SIZED COMEX OI GAIN OF 29,491 CONTRACTS..

// WE HAVE A STRONG AMOUNT OF GOLD TONNAGE STANDING FOR FEB (58.858),

HERE ARE THE AMOUNTS THAT STOOD FOR DELIVERY IN THE PRECEDING 12 MONTHS OF 2021:

DEC 2021: 112.217 TONNES

NOV. 8.074 TONNES

OCT. 57.707 TONNES

SEPT: 11.9160 TONNES

AUGUST: 80.489 TONNES

JULY: 7.2814 TONNES

JUNE: 72.289 TONNES

MAY 5.77 TONNES

APRIL 95.331 TONNES

MARCH 30.205 TONNES

FEB ’21. 113.424 TONNES

JAN ’21: 6.500 TONNES.

TOTAL SO FAR THIS YEAR (JAN- DEC): 601.213 TONNES

FEB 2022: 58.858 TONNES

THE BANKERS WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN LOWERING GOLD’S PRICE //// (IT ROSE $29.80) AND THEY WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN FLEECING ANY LONGS AS WE HAVE REGISTERED A GIGANTIC GAIN OF 126.314 TONNES OF TOTAL OI, ACCOMPANYING OUR HUGE GOLD TONNAGE STANDING FOR FEB (58.858 TONNES)…

WE HAD –161 CONTRACTS REMOVED FROM COMEX TRADES. THESE WERE REMOVED AFTER TRADING ENDED LAST NIGHT

NET GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES 40,448 CONTRACTS OR 4,044,800 OZ OR 125.810 TONNES

Estimated gold volume today: 150,850 /// poor

Confirmed volume yesterday: 282,759 contracts fair

INITIAL STANDINGS FOR FEB ’22 COMEX GOLD //FEB 18

Gold	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory in oz*	nil oz
Withdrawals from Customer* Inventory in oz*	4302.130 OZ jpmorgan
Deposit to the Dealer* Inventory in oz*	nilOZ
Deposits to the Customer* Inventory, in oz*	nil
No of oz served (contracts) today	32 notice(s) 3200 OZ 0.0995 TONNES
No of oz to be served (notices)	1413 contracts 141300 oz 4.395 TONNES
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month	17,510 notices 1,751,000 OZ 54.468 TONNES
Total accumulative withdrawals of gold from the Dealers* inventory this month*	NIL oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Customer* inventory this month*	xxx oz

For today:

No dealer deposit 0

No dealer withdrawal 0

0 customer deposit

total deposit: nil oz

1 customer withdrawal

i) Out of JPMorgan: 4,302.130 oz

total withdrawals: 4302.130 oz

ADJUSTMENTS: 1/dealer to customer//JPMorgan

10,132.25oz

CALCULATIONS FOR THE AMOUNT OF GOLD STANDING FOR FEBRUARY.

For the front month of FEBRUARY we have an oi of 1445 stand GAINING 153 contracts.

We had 0 contracts served upon yesterday, so we GAINED 153 contracts or an additional 15,300 oz will stand on this side of the pond looking for gold metal.

The month of March saw a GAIN OF 183 contracts and thus the OI standing is 4425.

April saw a GAIN of 26,630 contracts UP to 466,805.

June saw a gain of 1495 contracts up to 72,731 contracts

We had 0 notice(s) filed today for 1000 oz FOR THE FEB 2022 CONTRACT MONTH.

Today, 0 notice(s) were issued from J.P.Morgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 32 contract(s) of which 5 notices were stopped (received) by j.P. Morgan dealer and 6 notice(s) was (were) stopped/ Received) by J.P.Morgan//customer account and 0 notice(s) received (stopped) by the squid (Goldman Sachs)

To calculate the INITIAL total number of gold ounces standing for the FEB /2021. contract month,

we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (17,510) x 100 oz , to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of (FEB: 1445 CONTRACTS ) minus the number of notices served upon today 32 x 100 oz per contract equals 1,892,300 OZ OR 58.858 TONNES the number of TONNES standing in this active month of FEB.

thus the INITIAL standings for gold for the FEB contract month:

No of notices filed so far (17,510) x 100 oz+ (1445) OI for the front month minus the number of notices served upon today (32} x 100 oz} which equals 1,892,300 oz standing OR 58.858 TONNES in this active delivery month of FEB.

We GAINED 153 contracts or an additional 15300 oz will stand for gold over here

TOTAL COMEX GOLD STANDING: 58.858 TONNES (HUGE FOR A FEBRUARY DELIVERY MONTH)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

COMEX GOLD INVENTORIES/CLASSIFICATION

NEW PLEDGED GOLD:

157,392.690, oz NOW PLEDGED /HSBC 4.89 TONNES

125,410.592 PLEDGED MANFRA 2.90 TONNES

54,339.114oz PLEDGED JPMorgan no 1 1.690

278,349.354, oz JPM No 2 8.65 TONNES

898,821.330 oz pledged Brinks/27,96 TONNES

12,249,333 oz International Delaware: 0..3810 tonnes

Loomis: 18,615.429 oz

total pledged gold: 1,543,731.047 oz 48.01 tonnes

TOTAL REGISTERED AND ELIZ GOLD AT THE COMEX: 32,660,759.472 OZ (1015.87 TONNES)

TOTAL ELIGIBLE GOLD: 15,434,156.150 OZ (480.06 tonnes)

TOTAL OF ALL REGISTERED GOLD: 17,226,603.332 OZ (535.82 tonnes)

REGISTERED GOLD THAT CAN BE SERVED UPON: 15,682,872.0 OZ (REG GOLD- PLEDGED GOLD) 487.95 tonnes

END

FEBRUARY 2022 CONTRACT MONTH//SILVER

INITIAL STANDING FOR SILVER//FEB 18

Silver	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory*	NIL oz
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory	631,162.100 oz Delaware CNT JPMorgan
Deposits to the Dealer* Inventory*	nilOZ
Deposits to the Customer Inventory	503,501.320 oz Delaware
No of oz served today (contracts)	0 CONTRACT(S) (NIL OZ)
No of oz to be served (notices)	390 contracts (1,950,000 oz)
Total monthly oz silver served (contracts)	1278 contracts 6,390,000 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Dealers* inventory this month*	NIL oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Customer* inventory this month*

And now for the wild silver comex results

we had 0 deposits into the dealer

total dealer deposits: nil oz

i) We had 0 dealer withdrawal

total dealer withdrawals: nil oz

We have 1 deposits into the customer account

i) Into Delaware 503,501.320 oz

total deposit: 503,501.320 oz

JPMorgan has a total silver weight: 183.476 million oz/350.937 million =52.26% of comex

ii) Comex withdrawals: 3

a)Out of CNT 966.580 oz

b) Out of JPMorgan: 628,203.100 oz

c) Out of Delaware: 1992.405 oz

total withdrawal 631,162.100 oz

we had 0 adjustments

the silver comex is in stress!

TOTAL REGISTERED SILVER: 83.896 MILLION OZ

TOTAL REG + ELIG. 350.937 MILLION OZ

CALCULATION OF SILVER OZ STANDING FOR FEBRUARY

silver open interest data:

FRONT MONTH OF FEB//2022 OI: 390 CONTRACTS GAINING 99 contracts on the day. We had 0 contracts served upon yesterday.

So we gained 99 contracts or an additional 495,000 oz will stand for silver on this side of the pond.

FOR MARCH WE HAD A LOSS OF 4950 CONTRACTS DOWN TO 51,721 CONTRACTS.

APRIL HAD A 26 GAIN// CONTRACTS RISING TO 293

MAY HAD A GAIN OF 4594 CONTRACTS UP TO 88,411 contracts

TOTAL NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED FOR TODAY: 0 for NIL oz

Comex volumes: 67,272// est. volume today//fair

Comex volume: confirmed YESTERDAY: 77,966 contracts (FAIR)

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in FEB. we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at 1278 x 5,000 oz =. 6,390,000 oz

to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of FEB (390) and the number of notices served upon today 0 x (5000 oz) equals the number of ounces standing.

Thus the standings for silver for the FEB./2021 contract month: 1278 (notices served so far) x 5000 oz + OI for front month of FEB (390) – number of notices served upon today (0) x 5000 oz of silver standing for the FEB contract month equates 8,340,000 oz. .

We gained 99 CONTRACTS OR 495,000 ADDITIONAL oz of silver will stand at the comex.

the record level of silver open interest is 234,787 contracts set on April 21./2017 with the price on that day at $18.42. The previous record was 224,540 contracts with the price at that time of $20.44

END

GLD AND SLV INVENTORY LEVELS:

GLD

FEB 18/WITH GOLD DOWN $1.80: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1019.44 TONNES

FEB 17/WITH GOLD UP $29.50: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1019.44 TONNES

FEB 16/WITH GOLD UP 414.60 NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1019.44 TONNES

FEB 15/WITH GOLD DOWN $12.70 NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1019.44 TONNES

FEB 14/WITH GOLD UP $27.20 NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1019.44 TONNES

FEB 11/WITH GOLD UP $4.50 A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD IVNETORY AT THE GLD// A DEPOSIT OF 3.48 TONNES INTO THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1019.44 TONES

FEB 10/WITH GOLD UP $1.00: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 1015.96 TONNES

FEB 9/WITH GOLD UP $8.05//NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1015.96 TONNES

FEB 8/WITH GOLD UP $5.95 TODAY: A HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 4.36 TONNES INTO THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1015.96 TONNES

FEB 7/WITH GOLD UP $14.00 TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.24 TONNES FROM THE GLD/////INVENTORY RESTS AT 1011.60 TONNES//

FEB 4/WITH GOLD UP $3.40 TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.75 TONNES FROM THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 1014.84 TONNES

FEB 3/WITH GOLD DOWN $5.55: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.45 TONNES FROM THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 1016.59 TONNES

FEB 2/WITH GOLD UP $7.95//A HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 3.78 TONES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 1018.04 TONNES

FEB 1/WITH GOLD UP $5.40: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1014.26 TONNES

JAN 31/WITH GOLD UP $10.10//NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1014.26 TONNES

JAN 28/WITH GOLD DOWN $8.30//NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1014.26 TONNES

JAN 27/WITH GOLD DOWN $36.15//ANOTHER HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 1.16 TONNES INTO THE GLD.//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1014.26 TONNES

JAN 26/WITH GOLD DOWN $21.60 A HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 4.65 TONNES INTO THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 1013.10 TONNES

JAN 25/WITH GOLD UP $10.40 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1008.45 TONNES

JAN 24/WITH GOLD UP $10.10 TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: AN UNBELIEVABLE DEPOSIT OF 27.59 TONNES INTO THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1008.45 TONNES

JAN 21/WITH GOLD DOWN $10.80 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 980.86 TONNES

JAN 20/WITH GOLD UP $.20 TODAY: A SMALL CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF .58 TONNES FROM THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 980.86 TONNES

JAN 19/WITH GOLD UP $29.65 TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//A DEPOSIT OF 5.27 TONNES INTO THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 981.44 TONNES

JAN 18/WITH GOLD DOWN $3.25//NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 976.21 TONNES

JAN 14/ WITH GOLD DOWN $5.25/NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 976.21 TONNES

JAN 13/WITH GOLD DOWN $5.75: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 976.21 TONNES

JAN 12/WITH GOLD UP $8.65//NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 976.21 TONNES

JAN 11/WITH GOLD UP $19.25/A SMALL CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF .87 TONNES FROM THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 976.21 TONNES

JAN 10/WITH GOLD UP $2.00/NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 977.08 TONNES

CLOSING INVENTORY FOR THE GLD//1019.44 TONNES

Now the SLV Inventory/( vehicle is a fraud as there is no physical metal behind them

FEB 18/WITH SILVER UP 7 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 1.017 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 551.227 MILLION OZ

FEB 17/WITH SILVER UP 31 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 2.402 MILLION OZ//INVENTORY RESTS AT 550.210 MILLION OZ/

FEB 16/WITH SILVER UP 21 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 547.808 MILLIONOZ

FEB 15/WITH SILVER DOWN 46 CENTS TODAY : NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 547.808 MILLION OZ//

FEB 14/WITH SILVER UP 49 CENTS TODAY; A HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 3.235 MILLION OZ INTO THES LV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 547.808 MILLION OZ

FEB 11/WITH SILVER DOWN 18 CENTS TODAY:NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 544.573 MILLION OZ///

SLV/FEB 10/WITH SILVER UP 19 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 544.573 MILLION OZ//

FEB 9/WITH SILVER UP 14 CENTS TODAY; NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 544.573 MILLION OZ//

FEB 8/WITH SILVER UP 15 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 3.143 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 544.573 MILLION OZ//

FEB 7/WITH SILVER UP 52 CENTS TODAY: A BIG CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 2.218 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV///INVENTORY RESTS AT 541.430 MILLION OZ/

FEB 4/WITH SILVER UP 16 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 539.212 MILION OZ

FEB 3/WITH SILVER DOWN 35 CENTS: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT539.212 MILLION OZ//

FEB 2/WITH SILVER UP 15 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 5.411 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV.//INVENTORY RESTS AT 539.212 MILLION OZ/

FEB 1/WITH SILVER UP 18 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 533.801 MILLION OZ

JAN 31/WITH SILVER UP 7 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.202 MILLION OZ FORM THE SLV.//INVENTORY RESTS AT 533.801 MILLION OZ//

JAN 28/WITH SILVER DOWN 36 CENTS : NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 535.003 MILLION OZ//

JAN 27/WITH SILVER DOWN $1.13 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 535.003 MILLION OZ//

JAN 26/WITH SILVER DOWN 7 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 535.003 MILLION OZ//

JAN 25/WITH SILVER UP 10 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 2.311 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 535.003 MILLION OZ/

.JAN 24/WITH SILVER DOWN 48 CENTS TODAY: A MASSIVE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 4.8 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 532.692 MILLION OZ//.

JAN 21/WITH SILVER DOWN 41 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 527.792 MILLION OZ

JAN 20/WITH SILVER UP 52 CENTS TODAY: A BIG CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 1.998 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV///INVENTORY RESTS AT 527.792 MILLION OZ

JAN 19/WITH SILVER UP 71 CENTS TODAY: A BIG CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 1.942 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 525.804 MILLION OZ

JAN 18/WITH SILVER UP 51 CENTS TODAY: TWO HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: 2 WITHDRAWALS OF 1.11 MILLION OZ AND 1.424 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 527.246 MILLION OZ//

JAN 14/WITH SILVER DOWN 21 CENTS: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 529.780 MILLION OZ//

JAN 13/WITH SILVER DOWN 2 CENTS: A BIG CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV:A WITHDRAWAL OF 832,000 OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 529.780 MILLION OZ

JAN 12/WITH SILVER UP 38 CENTS TODAY : NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 530.612 MILLION OZ//

JAN 11/WITH SILVER UP 33 CENTS TODAY; NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 530.612 MILLION OZ/.

JAN 10/WITH SILVER UP 9 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 530.612 MILLION OZ//.

SLV FINAL INVENTORY FOR TODAY: 551.227 MILLION OZ//

PHYSICAL GOLD/SILVER STORIES

1.PETER SCHIFF

Peter Schiff: The Fed Is Running Out Of Minutes

FRIDAY, FEB 18, 2022 – 06:30 AM

Via SchiffGold.com,

The Federal Reserve released the minutes from its January FOMC meeting on Wednesday (Feb. 16). While there was some talk about taking on inflation, it doesn’t appear the central bank is really serious about an inflation fight. In his podcast, Peter Schiff talked about the most recent inflation data and the Fed’s response. He said the central bank is quickly running out of minutes.

Gold has rallied to 8-month highs, even with some selling after the situation in Ukraine seemed to deescalate. But as Peter noted, geopolitical tension was not the real driver of this gold rally. It’s the inflation freight train.

The underlying trend has nothing to do with that threat. The real threat is inflation. That’s why investors are buying gold. And that’s why they bought the dip on Tuesday, and we rose to new highs on Wednesday, because we got a lot more inflation data.”

Specifically, we got the producer price data for January. They doubled expectations, up a full 1%.

Initially, gold sold off on the news.

Traders still have that pavlovian dog type reflex to respond to any kind of higher than expected inflation data by selling gold. Why are they selling when they should be buying? Because they look at these high inflation numbers as a sign that the Fed is now going to do something about inflation. ‘Oh, the Fed wasn’t worried and now they’re going to do something, so we better sell gold because the Fed’s going to jack up rates.’ The Fed is not going to do anything. I mean, they may do something. But it’s not going to be enough to fight inflation. It’s not going to be enough to hurt gold.”

First, the Fed pretended there wasn’t any inflation. Then the Fed pretended inflation was transitory. Now the central bankers are pretending they’re going to fight it.

They’re not going to fight it. If they could have fought inflation, they would have started the fight a long time ago. They would never have allowed the inflation genie to get this far out of the bottle if they had a way of keeping it inside. The reason they didn’t fight inflation is because they can’t. Because fighting inflation would collapse the bubble economy. Well, if they couldn’t fight inflation when it was smaller, they sure as hell can’t fight it now when it’s much bigger.”

Peter said investors should be buying gold with both hands.

And they will when they actually understand the box that the Fed has placed us in.”

The Federal Reserve needs to pivot to a restrictive monetary policy. It needs to raise interest rates above the rate of inflation. But that’s not what the Fed is even talking about. It’s simply proposing a moderately less accommodative policy. But it’s still going to be accommodative. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard admitted as much.

With the release of the minutes from its January FOMC meeting, everybody is parsing through it trying to figure out of the central bank will hike rates by 25 or 50 basis points in March. Peter said it’s immaterial.

It doesn’t mean anything because even a 50 basis point hike is not nearly enough to do the job. The Fed needs to hike rates much more than 50 basis points. They should do it right now. They shouldn’t wait until March. The problem is they can’t and that’s why they won’t.”

The markets widely viewed the minutes as less hawkish than expected. One analyst told CNBC the minutes were “dovish relative to expectations.” Another called them “anti-climatic.”

Peter said the Fed is pretending that its policy is going to fight inflation.

And they’re hoping that it does, or that they can fool the markets into thinking that inflation is going to come down and will create some self-fulfilling prophecy that the Fed could fight inflation by talking about tightening so that they don’t even actually have to tighten. But the problem is they’re not even talking about tightening enough to really do anything about inflation, and the markets still don’t even understand that.”

Peter said it should be obvious that nobody can actually afford interest rates high enough to fight inflation. Last year, Jerome Powell admitted that the federal government’s fiscal path was “unsustainable.” But he said it was OK at the time because interest rates were low.

Since he knows that higher interest rates would be unsustainable for the federal government, he’s not willing to deliver those higher rates. But the problem is by keeping rates low, an unsustainable problem gets even worse.”

It’s not unlike what happened in the mortgage market in the runup to the 2008 financial crisis. Alan Greenspan pushed rates up a little at a time and allowed the housing bubble to get even bigger. Eventually, borrowers couldn’t pay the higher rates and we have the crash.

Well, when interest rates go up this time, the US government won’t be able to pay, and we’ll have a much bigger financial crisis. Because when we had the 2008 financial crisis, the government was able to bail out all the lenders. But when this crisis is about the government, and it’s the government that’s insolvent, there’s no one that can bail out the government. The government bailed everybody out by printing money. They won’t be able to bail anybody out by printing money next time because printing money is the problem. The dollar is crashing. They’ll be printing money that nobody wants. They’ll be printing money that won’t buy anything.”

Teddy Roosevelt said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” The Fed doesn’t have a stick at all. So, it just has to scream as loudly as it can and hope nobody notices that it doesn’t have a stick.

This is not a new problem. The inflation we’re seeing today is the result of decades of kicking the can down the road. And there’s no quick fix. This is the norm. When you print trillions of dollars out of thin air, you get high inflation.

This period of low inflation is over. And it’s not coming back.”

We were lulled into complacency because we didn’t immediately see the consequence of this reckless monetary policy.

Well, now the consequences are here, and there’s a lot more to it than we’ve already experienced. And in the meantime, we continue to make a problem we don’t understand worse. And as a result, nothing that the Fed is doing, nothing that the government is doing is going to reduce inflation. Everything that they’re doing is going to make it worse.”

end

2.LAWRIE WILLIAM//,//Egon von Greyerz///Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com, James RICKARD

-END-

3. Chris Powell of GATA provides to us very important physical commentaries

Your weekend reading material

a must read.

Alasdair Macleod…

Alasdair Macleod: Central banks are now insolvent

Submitted by admin on Thu, 2022-02-17 15:55Section: Daily Dispatches

By Alasdair Macleod
GoldMoney, Toronto
Thursday, February 17, 2022

Behind the battle to convince everyone that price inflation is not a lasting problem is the necessity to keep interest rates and bond yields suppressed. In the past, the interest rate cycle was entirely due to the expansion and contraction of commercial bank credit. But that was before central banks built up bond portfolios through quantitative easing.

Not only does this expose them to the interest rate cycle, but they have not increased their capital base to keep pace with the expansion of their balance sheets. Hence the problem with rising interest rates and bond yields: On a mark-to-market basis the major central banks are insolvent with balance sheet liabilities now exceeding their assets.

This article finds this condition true of the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve Board, the Bank of Japan, and the entire euro system. Other central banks are not examined.

Doubtless this will be resolved in the short term by governments investing more equity in their central banks. But there is one major exception, which is the European Central Bank and the euro system, with all its shareholders sinking into negative equity with the only minor exceptions of the Irish, Maltese, and Slovenian central banks.

Consequently, with the interconnectedness of the global financial system, the ability of central banks to guarantee the survival of their own commercial banking networks has almost certainly ended due to a collapse of the euro system. The precedent is the failure of a prototype central bank in 1720, John Law’s Banque Royale. That experience allows us to see how this is likely to play out. …

… For the remainder of the analysis:

https://www.goldmoney.com/research/goldmoney-insights/central-banks-are-now-insolvent?gmrefcode=gata

END

end

4.OTHER GOLD/SILVER COMMENTARIES

END

5.OTHER COMMODITIES/COFFEE

end

6.CRYPTOCURRENCIES

Revised on crypto

Inbox

May have sent this before?

But revised with video (Catherine Austin Fitts on bitcoin) :

Wall Street Cartel Pumps Billions into Crytpo

regards,

steve

Your early currency/gold and silver pricing/Asian and European bourse movements/ and interest rate settings FRIDAY morning 7:30 AM

ONSHORE YUAN: CLOSED UP 6.3273

OFFSHORE YUAN: 6.3223

HANG SANG CLOSED DOWN 465.06 PTS OR 1.88%

2. Nikkei closed DOWN 110.80 PTS OR 0.41%

3. Europe stocks ALL MIXED

USA dollar INDEX UP TO 95.84/Euro FALLS TO 1.1365-

3b Japan 10 YR bond yield: FALLS TO. +.22/ !!!!(Japan buying 100% of bond issuance)/Japanese yen vs usa cross now at 115.15/ THIS IS TROUBLESOME AS BANK OF JAPAN IS RUNNING OUT OF BONDS TO BUY./JAPAN 10 YR YIELD IS NOW TARGETED AT .11%/JAPAN LOSING CONTROL OF THEIR BOND MARKET//

3c Nikkei now ABOVE 17,000

3d USA/Yen rate now well below the important 120 barrier this morning

3e WTI:: 89.95 and Brent: 91/49–

3f Gold DOWN /JAPANESE Yen DOWN CHINESE YUAN: ON -SHORE CLOSED UP// OFF- SHORE UP

3g Japan is to buy the equivalent of 108 billion uSA dollars worth of bond per month or $1.3 trillion. Japan’s GDP equals 5 trillion usa./“HELICOPTER MONEY” OFF THE TABLE FOR NOW /REVERSE OPERATION TWIST ON THE BONDS: PURCHASE OF LONG BONDS AND SELLING THE SHORT END

Japan to buy 100% of all new Japanese debt and by 2018 they will have 25% of all Japanese debt. Fifty percent of Japanese budget financed with debt.

3h Oil DOWN for WTI and DOWN FOR Brent this morning

3i European bond buying continues to push yields lower on all fronts in the EMU. German 10yr bund FALLS TO +.0.230%/Italian 10 Yr bond yield FALLS to 1.85% /SPAIN 10 YR BOND YIELD FALLS TO 1.19%…ITALIAN 10 YR BOND YIELD/GERMAN BUND: 1.62: DANGEROUS FOR THE ITALIAN BANKING SYSTEM

3j Greek 10 year bond yield FALLS TO : 2.57

3k Gold at $1893.20 silver at: 23.84 7 am est) SILVER NEXT RESISTANCE LEVEL AT $30.00

3l USA vs Russian rouble;// Russian rouble UP 44/100 in roubles/dollar AT 75.82

3m oil into the 89 dollar handle for WTI and 91 handle for Brent/

3n Higher foreign deposits out of China sees huge risk of outflows and a currency depreciation. This can spell financial disaster for the rest of the world/

JAPAN ON JAN 29.2016 INITIATES NIRP. THIS MORNING THEY SIGNAL THEY MAY END NIRP. TODAY THE USA/YEN TRADES TO 115.15 DESTROYING JAPANESE CITIZENS WITH HIGHER FOOD INFLATION

30 SNB (Swiss National Bank) still intervening again in the markets driving down the FRANC. It is not working: USA/SF this morning .9203– as the Swiss Franc is still rising against most currencies. Euro vs SF 1.0458 well above the floor set by the Swiss Finance Minister. Thomas Jordan, chief of the Swiss National Bank continues to purchase euros trying to lower value of the Swiss Franc.

USA 10 YR BOND YIELD: 1.972 UP 1 BASIS PTS

USA 30 YR BOND YIELD: 2.300 UP 0 BASIS PTS

USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 13.63

Futures Flat As Traders Brace For Op-Ex Volatility, More Ukraine Headlines

FRIDAY, FEB 18, 2022 – 07:56 AM

U.S. stock index futures staged a modest bounce on Friday, recovering a portion of losses from Thursday’s rout after late news of a planned meeting between U.S. and Russian officials “late next week” spurred hopes of a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine standoff, signaling an upbeat end to a week in which investors shunned risky assets on geopolitical and tightening monetary policy concerns. Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.7%, while S&P 500 futures rose 0.5% by 7:15 a.m. in New York with traders bracing for a potentially volatile session due to option expirations. Both indexes are headed for a second straight week of declines with investors nervous about Moscow’s military buildup near Ukraine and prospects of sharp Federal Reserve rate hikes. Treasury yields were unchanged at 1.97%, gold and the dollar were flat and bitcoin traded just above 40,000 after plunging about 10% on Thursday.

In the latest geopolitical developments, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed to meet U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for talks in Europe next week; German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will host virtual talks with his Group of Seven counterparts. President Joe Biden has warned the probability of an invasion of Ukraine is still “very high,” although Russia has repeatedly denied it plans to do so.

“The market has got to grapple with the uncertainty in Ukraine and also this trade-off between the urgency to raise interest rates and the effect of that on growth,” said Peter Oppenheimer, chief global equity strategist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. “Our feeling is that we’re still going to see economic activity continuing through the course of this year so the pullback in markets is really about an adjustment to the cost of capital; it’s not going to turn into a bear market that’s reflective of a recession,” Oppenheimer said on Bloomberg TV.

The recent geopolitical gyrations “have taught us that we are likely to remain in this off-and-on tunnel, whipped around by news, hope and surprise actions,” said Wai Ho Leong, a strategist at Modular Asset Management in Singapore. “It will be like this until there is a fundamental breakthrough in the talks.”

Bets on a sharper Federal Reserve interest-rate liftoff in March have eased somewhat in light of Ukraine tension. But investors continue to be vexed by the question of how markets will cope as stimulus ebbs.

“Despite the recent volatility, it’s important to remember that we are still in an environment of robust economic and earnings growth, and in our base case we expect upside for equity markets over the balance of the year,” Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, said in a note.

In notable pre-market moves, shares of streaming-video platform Roku slumped 23% after its sales forecast fell short of estimates due to supply chain disruptions and weak advertising trends. Although the U.S. quarterly earnings season has been broadly better than expected, results from technology-related firms have underwhelmed, and any companies missing even slightly have been greatly punished. Here are some other notable premarket movers:

Inspirato (ISPO US) eases 6.1% in premarket trading a day after speculative investors drove the stock up 648%.
Redfin Corp. (RDFN US) shares drop 25% in premarket trading after the real estate technology company forecast a net loss for the first quarter of $115m to $122m. At least three analysts cut their price targets and don’t expect performance improvement in 1H.
Avita Medical Inc. (RCEL US) shares climbed 4% postmarket Thursday after the U.S. and Australian medical company said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted its premarket approval application for a cell-harvesting device used for burn victims.
Doma Holdings (DOMA US) shares dropped 22% in extended trading after the real estate technology company projected a wider-than-expected Ebitda loss for 2022.
Cognex (CGNX US) shares jumped 10% in postmarket trading after the maker of machine vision products forecast first-quarter revenue above the average analyst estimate.
Exelixis (EXEL US) shares rose 1.7% in postmarket trading after the company reported earnings per share for the fourth quarter that beat the average analyst estimate.
Shockwave Medical (SWAV US) gained 9% in postmarket trading after the devicemaker forecast 2022 revenue that beat the highest analyst estimate. Fourth-quarter earnings and sales also topped consensus forecasts.
Shake Shack (SHAK US) shares dropped 11% in extended trading after the company gave a quarterly revenue forecast that missed analysts’ estimates.
Appian (APPN US) shares gained 13% in extended trading on Thursday, after the application software company reported fourth-quarter results that beat expectations and gave a full- year forecast that is ahead of the consensus view.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index was up 0.2% though energy shares fell with oil. Personal-care, and food & beverage stocks outperformed, while travel & leisure and technology led declines. CAC 40 outperforms, adding 0.3%, DAX lags, dropping 0.1%. Personal care, food & beverages and real estate are the strongest performing sectors. Orion Oyj and Teleperformance shares rallied, while Allianz SE slumped and Hermes International dropped the most since 2016. The French state will inject about 2.1 billion euros ($2.4 billion) into Electricite de France SA as the combination of reactor shutdowns and a government power-price cap batters the utility’s finances. Here are some of the biggest European movers today:

Orion Oyj shares soar as much as 26%, most ever intraday, after the Finnish company’s collaboration partner Bayer estimated that peak global sales of the Nubeqa prostate-cancer drug could exceed EU3b, up from the previous estimate of EU1b. Bayer shares also gain, rising as much as 3.1% in Frankfurt.
Teleperformance jumps as much as 8.5%, the most since April 2020, after it reported adjusted Ebita ahead of analyst estimates, in what Morgan Stanley called a “solid beat,” while SocGen upgraded the stock to buy from hold.
Ubisoft rises as much as 6.3% with analysts noting potential for uplift potential M&A approach were to materialize, while downside for stock looks limited after recent weakness.
Gerresheimer gains as much as 4.6%, rebounding from Thursday’s initial losses following 4Q earnings report, with some analysts seeing a promising outlook despite “mixed” results.
Hermes falls as much as 8.4%, the most since Sept. 2016, after the French luxury-goods company reported a bigger-than- expected decline in sales at its crucial leather-goods division.
EDF declines as much as 5.2% after the French utility posted FY earnings, disclosed details on its outlook and action plan. Analysts flag that guidance for FY22 Ebitda implies further downside risk to current consensus, while visibility remains low.
Allianz drops as much as 1.8% as the insurer said it will take a 3.7 billion-euro charge tied to its hedge funds that collapsed at the start of the pandemic, and said more expenses are coming from the multiple lawsuits and regulatory probes spurred by the implosions.
Storytel falls as much as 23% to the lowest level since January 2019 after the Swedish audio book streaming company’s founder and CEO said he was leaving and following what DNB said was disappointing guidance.

Asian stocks fell as sentiment was eroded by renewed worries over China’s regulatory crackdown on industries, amid lingering tensions surrounding Russia and the Ukraine. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slid as much as 0.9%, dragged down by a slump in consumer-discretionary shares. Meituan led declines for the sector, plunging 15% after China issued new guidelines asking food-delivery platforms to cut fees for restaurants. Hong Kong was the region’s worst performer. “The government is trying to lower the burden of rising living costs and break monopolies via all of its regulatory actions so far,” said Justin Tang, the head of Asian Research at United First Partner. “Such initiatives will put investors on the alert once again, even as a peak in regulation has been achieved.” Russia, Ukraine-Exposed Stocks Pare Losses as U.S. Accepts Talks Asia’s benchmark is extending this year’s losses to about 2% following a 3.4% drop in 2021. The market’s mood has recently been dominated by uncertainty surrounding Ukraine and the prospective pace of U.S. monetary policy tightening. “Market folks don’t want to take on risk,”said Kazuhiro Miyake, a strategist at Rheos Capital Works in Tokyo. Still, if geopolitical tensions ease and inflation is contained, stocks may stage a turnaround in mid-March, he added.

Japanese equities fell, capping their first weekly loss since January, as investors continued to watch the developing standoff between Russia and Ukraine. Stocks pared declines to close far off their lows Friday however, and U.S. futures climbed after the State Department said Russian and American officials agreed to meet next week in Europe. Separately, growth in Japan’s consumer prices excluding fresh food slowed to 0.2% in January from a year earlier, compared with 0.5% in the previous month, according to ministry of internal affairs data. Electronics makers and banks were the biggest drags on the Topix, which fell 0.4%, paring an earlier drop of 1.3%. Tokyo Electron and Fanuc were the largest contributors to a 0.4% loss in the Nikkei 225, which had fallen as much as 1.6% earlier. The yen weakened 0.2% against the dollar after gaining 0.5% Thursday. The Topix shed 2% on the week, while the Nikkei 225 lost 2.1%.

India’s benchmark index posted its second week of declines after tensions on the Ukraine-Russia border and the prospects of higher U.S. interest rates led to volatile trading. The S&P BSE Sensex ended the week 0.6% lower. The measure closed 0.1% down at 57,832.97, after swinging between gains and losses several times throughout the session in Mumbai on Friday. The NSE Nifty 50 Index dropped 0.2%. Reliance Industries Ltd. declined 0.8% and was the biggest drag on key indexes. All but two of the 19 sector sub-indexes compiled by BSE Ltd. fell, led by a gauge of realty stocks. U.S. and Russian officials agreed to meet next week to discuss Ukraine, helping ease the price of crude oil, a major import for India. Minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting showed that officials plan to start raising rates soon. “We have observed that volatility in the market will persist till the announcement of the first rate hike by the Fed, post which it is likely to settle down and flows in equities resume,” Mitul Shah, head of research at Reliance Securities, wrote in a note

Australian stocks plunged the most in three weeks, with the S&P/ASX 200 index falling 1% to close at 7,221.70, posting its worst session since Jan. 27 amid Ukraine tensions and concerns over U.S. central bank policy. All sectors declined. QBE Insurance was the worst performer after its full-year results. Magellan was the biggest gainer after reporting an increase in 1H adjusted net and saying it’s considering a share buyback. In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 index fell 0.9% to 12,141.89.

In FX, the Bloomberg dollar spot index trades flat while JPY and NOK are the weakest performers in G-10 FX, NZD and SEK outperform. Leveraged funds pared bullish bets on Japan’s currency after the U.S. State Department announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will hold talks over Ukraine next week. Risk- sensitive currencies such as the Australian dollar were among the biggest gainers as U.S. equity futures advanced. Still, fluctuations in currencies and bonds were limited as traders avoided taking large positions before the three-day weekend in the U.S.

In rates, treasury futures traded off the worst levels of the Asia session, although yields remain slightly cheaper across the curve. U.S. stock futures hold gains after report of planned talks between Russia and the U.S. over Ukraine. U.S. yields were cheaper by as much as 1bp across front-end of the curve, flattening 2s10s by around 0.5bp; 10-year yields around 1.96%, little changed vs Thursday’s close, reached 1.993% during Asia session. Gilts outperform by ~3bp in 10-year sector, bunds by ~1bp. In front-end swaps, expectation of 50bp Fed rate hike in March continues to erode, with around 33bp priced in, equivalent to 1.3x hikes. Bunds gain, having given up earlier declines as the curve bull-flattens. German 10-year bonds outperform Treasuries but underperform gilts.

In commodities, oil fell while stocks mostly advance along with futures as the prospect of talks between the U.S. and Russia next week lifted sentiment. WTI drifts 1.9% lower to trade around $90 level. Brent falls 1.7% to ~$91. Spot gold falls roughly $6 to trade near $1,893/oz. Most base metals trade in the green; LME zinc rises 0.8%, outperforming peers. LME aluminum lags.

Looking at the day ahead, data releases include UK retail sales for January, US existing home sales for January, and the Euro Area’s advance consumer confidence reading for February. Central bank speakers include the Fed’s Evans, Waller, Williams and Brainard, as well as the ECB’s Vasle and Panetta. Finally, earnings releases include Deere & Company.

Market Snapshot

S&P 500 futures were up 0.5% to 4,396.75
STOXX Europe 600 up 0.1% to 465.11
MXAP down 0.7% to 189.06
MXAPJ down 0.7% to 622.57
Nikkei down 0.4% to 27,122.07
Topix down 0.4% to 1,924.31
Hang Seng Index down 1.9% to 24,327.71
Shanghai Composite up 0.7% to 3,490.76
Sensex little changed at 57,863.63
Australia S&P/ASX 200 down 1.0% to 7,221.72
Kospi little changed at 2,744.52
German 10Y yield little changed at 0.22%
Euro little changed at $1.1369
Brent Futures down 1.6% to $91.52/bbl
Brent Futures down 1.6% to $91.52/bbl
Gold spot down 0.2% to $1,894.05
U.S. Dollar Index little changed at 95.78

Top Overnight News from Bloomberg

The Senate cleared a three-week funding bill on a 65 to 27 vote, averting a U.S. government shutdown that loomed after Feb. 18 and giving lawmakers more time to finish a full-year spending plan
Just when investors were sensing that China’s policy crackdown on its tech sector was nearly over, new guidelines were issued that ask food-delivery platforms to reduce fees to ease the burden on restaurants and shops
Hong Kong is working on plans to test its 7.5 million residents and get its Covid Zero strategy on track, despite spiraling cases, business closures and a backlash against its policy decisions

A more detailed look at global markets courtesy of Newsquawk

APAC stocks traded with a mild downside bias but off worst levels amid confirmation of a meeting between the US Secretary of State and Russian Foreign Minister late next week. ASX 200 continued to be pressured by its tech and healthcare sectors, albeit gold miners saw a decent outperformance. Nikkei 225 saw losses across energy names but the recent weakening in the Yen kept the index underpinned. Hang Seng was pressured by EV names and some oil giants. Shanghai Comp. narrowly outperformed as hopes of monetary policy easing supports the index.

Top Asian News

Japan’s Slower Inflation Offers BOJ Support For Stimulus Stance
China Wipes $26 Billion Off Meituan’s Value With New Fee Policy
Singapore Raises Wealth Taxes, GST to Recover From Covid Hit
Support for Japan’s Kishida Slides as Virus Deaths Hit Record

European bourses are contained around the unchanged mark, Euro Stoxx 50 +0.2%, as an initially positive open on geopolitical developments waned as we await further drivers. US futures are deriving greater upside from the reported meeting of US-Russian officials today and next week; however, focus turns to Fed’s Williams & Brainard Sectors are mixed with upside performance on the back of equity specifics in the pre-market while Energy Names lag amid EDF updates and given benchmark pricing.

Top European News

ECB’s Kazimir Backs End of QE in August, Flexibility on Hikes
U.K. Retail Sales Rise 1.9% M/m in Jan.; Est. +1.2%
France to Inject $2.4 Billion Into EDF With Profit Set to Slump
Macquarie Said to Bid for Stake in National Grid’s Gas Unit

In fixed Income, core debt retains a decent underlying bid awaiting any positive news or progress from US-Russian dialogue. Gilts shrug off robust UK sales data as the next BoE hike is discounted already. Bunds respect near term resistance and support in the form or a 50% Fib retracement level at 165.61.

FX:

Greenback grinding awaiting more geopolitical developments and talks between top level Russian and US officials rather than data or Fed speakers, with the DXY hovering sub-96.00.
Kiwi continues to outperform on the 0.6700 handle pre-RBNZ amidst some speculation of a double consensus 50 bp OCR hike.
Aussie up in slipstream and acknowledging further Yuan appreciation instead of dovish RBA rhetoric and another slump in iron ore prices.
Sterling supported by solid UK consumption data, but confined by big option expiries alongside Euro and Yen – Eur/Gbp at 0.8350 strike, Eur/Usd either side of 1.1345-90 and Usd/Jpy from 114.70-15.
Rouble firm as Ukraine Defence Chief sees low risk of large scale Russian invasion.
Swedish Crown aloft as inflation tops expectations

In commodities, WTI and Brent have experienced a marked pullback amid the constructive geopolitical updates, causing the benchmarks to erode all of the week’s upside and approach last week’s troughs. Focus in Brent, for instance, now turns to the USD 90.00/bbl mark and levels just above the handle. Iron ore saw another session of pain with the futures lower by over 5% in early trade in a continuation of China’s crackdown on rising raw material prices. Spot Gold briefly eclipsed USD 1900/oz but has failed to retain the handle amid USD upside and the waning of geopolitical-premia. US officials spoke to Saudi regarding market pressures given the geopolitics with Russia, according to Reuters. China NDRC issues rules to promote steady industrial growth; will ensure supply and stabilise prices of key raw materials, including iron ore and fertilisers.

Central banks:

Fed’s Mester (2022 voter) reiterated support for a March hike. She said it will be appropriate to hike Fed Fund at a faster pace than after the GFC and can hasten H2 tightening pace if inflation doesn’t ease. She expects inflation above 2% and noted that risks tilted to the upside. She supports selling some MBS at some point during the balance sheet reduction process and suggested the pace will be data-driven.
ECB’s Kazmir backs QE end in August; is flexible on rate hikes, but says more data is needed to determine whether a 2022 rate rise is appropriate.
ECB’s Vasle favours a quicker adjustment of monetary policy.
RBA’s Harper said financial markets are misguided in thinking the RBA will follow the Fed when raising interest rates, and added that the RBA has good reasons to wait, via a WSJ interview

US Event Calendar

10am: Jan. Existing Home Sales MoM, est. -1.3%, prior -4.6%
10am: Jan. Leading Index, est. 0.2%, prior 0.8%
10am: Jan. Home Resales with Condos, est. 6.1m, prior 6.18m

Fed speakers

10:45am: Fed’s Evans and Waller take Part in Policy Panel
11am: Fed’s Williams Discusses Economic Outlook
1:30pm: Fed’s Brainard speaks on CBDC at Booth Forum

DB’s Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap

Survival is the name of the game here in the south of England today. We could be set for the biggest storm since 1990 if the upper end of the wind speed forecasts are correct. This could be a rare weekend where I’m glad I’m not able to play golf given I’m on crutches. If you’re looking for something to distract you from either the weather or from markets/newsflow you can do worse than watch the film CODA that we saw last weekend (Apple+ TV). It was one of the most enjoyable films I’ve seen in a while. Funny, heartwarming and nicely sentimental.

It seems it will be preferable watching a film to watching the news this weekend as geopolitics continues to be on a knife edge. This led to a sizeable risk-off in markets yesterday, with multiple asset classes reacting to the growing perception that a conflict in Ukraine could be imminent. However an olive branch has been handed out this morning as Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and US Secretary of State Blinken have agreed to meet late next week for talks. The US have said they’ll meet as long as there is no prior invasion. This may help avoid a de-risking ahead of the weekend as without it I suspect that few traders would have wanted to go home too long. S&P 500 (+0.73%) and DAX (+0.58%) futures are both up and Treasury yields have risen 1-2bps across the curve.

Prior to this the continued tensions proved very bad news for risk assets yesterday, with equities tumbling. The S&P 500 was down -2.12% in a broad-based decline that saw 431 companies in the index move lower on the day, with the sectors with the highest concentration of mega cap names leading the declines, with the FANG+ -3.10% lower, and the NASDAQ down -2.88%. Small caps were not spared, with the Russell 2000 lower by -2.46%. Those figures make it the second worst day of the year for the S&P 500, and the third worst for both the NASDAQ and Russell 2000. Meanwhile, the Dow had its worst day of the year, falling -1.78%. That helped the VIX index of volatility to gain +3.75pts to 28.04pts following two successive declines, and Bloomberg’s index of US financial conditions closed at the third tightest levels of the year so far. Europe closed before the last leg of the sell-off, but with the STOXX 600 down -0.69% as bourses across the continent all lost ground.

Let’s walk through the geopolitical developments that came before the slightly more positive news this morning. The mood was very jittery all day yesterday, with Ukraine’s military saying not long after the European open that a kindergarten in Luhansk had been hit by separatist shelling, with two civilians concussed. Then in the European afternoon, US President Biden said that the probability of an invasion was “very high”, and that “Every indication we have is that they are prepared to go into Ukraine”, adding that a “false-flag” operation that would give Russia an excuse to invade was underway. In Brussels, we then also had NATO’s Secretary General Stoltenberg and US Defence Secretary Austin both saying that they didn’t see signs of Russia withdrawing troops. On the Russian side, they moved to expel the Deputy Chief of Mission, the number 2 official, from the US Embassy, and at the United Nations they restated their claims that “war crimes” had been committed by Ukraine. Russian officials continued to deny that an invasion was planned let alone underway.

With geopolitical risk very much the dominant market theme right now, it’s worth highlighting a chart from a table from our equity strategists that I borrowed for my chart of the day earlier this week. It shows the declines in the S&P 500 around geopolitical events, and shows that typically the selloffs have been short-lived (the median selloff was -5.7%), with a duration of around 3 weeks to reach a bottom and another 3 weeks to recovery from their prior levels. Another pattern is that ultimately, the underlying economic context tends to dominate, so if you believe the template, much might depend on what you thought momentum was before the sell-off. Here’s a link to my chart of the day as well as Binky’s original piece (link here).

One of the effects of developments in Ukraine has been to make investors more cautious about the prospects of aggressive central bank action to tackle inflation. Immediately after the very strong CPI report from the US last week (+7.5% year-on-year), Fed funds futures were basically fully pricing in a 50bp move in March at the intraday peak. But since the Ukraine situation escalated last Friday, that’s almost continuously fallen back, with futures only seeing a 38% chance of a 50bp move next month. It’s a similar story for other central banks, with overnight index swaps for the next BoE meeting now “only” showing a 50% of a 50bp move, down from an intraday peak above 90% last week. It’s been a more subdued story for the ECB, who aren’t expected to hike for some months yet, but even there the amount of hikes being priced by year-end has fallen to 42bps, having been above 50bps just a week earlier.

The diminished odds of aggressive central bank action benefited sovereign bonds, and yields on 10yr Treasuries moved back beneath 2%, with a -7.5bps move to 1.96% (1.977% in Asia). The decline was almost entirely driven by lower real rates, which fell -6.2bps, and there was a flattening in the 2s10s yield curve by -2.2bps to 49.1bps, although that’s still above its recent intraday low beneath 40bps last week. As with equities, it was much the same story in Europe, and yields on 10yr bunds (-4.5bps), OATs (-4.6bps) and BTPs (-7.5bps) all declined as investors moved into safer assets.

Later in the session we also had some Fedspeak from St Louis Fed President Bullard and Cleveland Fed President Mester (both of whom are voters on the FOMC this year). Bullard stuck to his hawkish pronouncements of late, repeating his view that he wanted 100bps of rate hikes by July 1, and he also said that there was too much emphasis on the idea that inflation would ease, with the risk being that it won’t. Later on, Mester hit similar notes to recent comments, signaling that the Fed should raise rates in March followed by rate hikes in subsequent months. She went on to preserve optionality for the pace of hikes during the second half of the year, outlining the pace of rate hikes can be faster if inflation stays stubbornly high, or it can slow down if inflation moderates.

Looking at yesterday’s data, the US weekly initial jobless claims for the week through February 12 came in at 248k (vs. 218k expected), unexpectedly ending a run of 3 consecutive weekly declines. In addition, housing starts underwhelmed in January at an annualised rate of 1.638m (vs. 1.695m expected), marking their first decline in 4 months, but building permits outperformed at an annualised 1.899m (vs. 1.750m expected), the highest since 2006. Finally, the Philadelphia Fed’s manufacturing business outlook survey fell to 16.0 (vs. 20.0 expected).

Early morning data has showed that Japan’s national CPI inflation for January came in at +0.5% y/y down from +0.8% in December and lower than the +0.6% y/y expected. Additionally, growth in core consumer prices slowed to +0.2% y/y in Jan from +0.5% increase in December. Today’s soft inflation numbers do suggest that the BOJ’s stance on accommodative monetary policy won’t change despite global inflationary pressures.

To the day ahead now, and data releases include UK retail sales for January, US existing home sales for January, and the Euro Area’s advance consumer confidence reading for February. Central bank speakers include the Fed’s Evans, Waller, Williams and Brainard, as well as the ECB’s Vasle and Panetta. Finally, earnings releases include Deere & Company.

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

i)FRIDAY MORNING// THURSDAY NIGHT

3 a./NORTH KOREA/ SOUTH KOREA

///NORTH KOREA

3B JAPAN

3c CHINA

/HONG KONG/CHINA

The Omicron is proliferating in Hong Kong but hospitals are being overrun. Not sure if some Hong Kong citizens took the m RNA vacccines. If they did then their immune systems will be compromised and that would explain the huge hospitalizations

(zerohedge).

“Sick And Tired” – Elderly Patients Crowd Makeshift Tents As Hong Kong Hospitals Overrun

THURSDAY, FEB 17, 2022 – 05:20 PM

For years, Hong Kong has been praised as an oasis from COVID-19 – that is, until very recently.

Hong Kong’s stringent measures to combat the crisis have emerged only recently, as COVID cases have surged, crowding the city’s hospitals and paralyzing parts of the city’s critical workforce. New arrivals hoping to visit the city will be forced to quarantine for a week or two (especially if they’re from the US or UK).

Thanks in part to the city’s mandatory hospitalization policy for anybody and everybody who tests positive, it looks like the city government is resorting to a handful of new tactics, some of which are popular on the mainland: they include a testing “blitz” that will help governments “clear” large numbers of people, per Bloomberg.

The new policies are necessary to combat what has become a public relations nightmare for the city:

Unfortunately for Hong Kongers, the city’s intensely overcrowded hospitals have produced many heartbreaking images: elderly patients lying on gurneys in the hallways (and in some cases, outdoors outside the hospital). As the AFP reports, both nurses and patients are “sick and tired” of the status quo.

Just ask Ting Chan, a nurse in the city who has been working on the front lines of the pandemic since its beginning.

Ting Chan has seen Hong Kong’s pandemic situation lurch from over-the-top caution to outright chaos.
A nurse at one of the city’s public hospitals, she’s been a ground-level participant in the strict Covid Zero strategy that has kept the financial hub largely free of the virus for the past two years. Key to that has been Hong Kong’s mandatory hospitalization of all Covid-19 cases, regardless of whether they are mildly ill or even asymptomatic. While that’s helped keep the total death toll at a little over 200 for the entire pandemic, those elaborate defenses have collapsed in the face of the highly-transmissible omicron variant.

Hong Kong has reported 6,116 cases logged on Thursday during the city’s latest outbreak. But with just 17 COVID patients classed as in ‘critical’ condition on Wednesday, hospitals are already overwhelmed and the health infrastructure is crumbling, according to Bloomberg. Put another way, Hong Kong has “squandered” a great lead on the COvIDi

“We never expected things to end up like this,” Chan said.
Neither, it seems, did Hong Kong’s most senior officials.
The shuttered borders and weeks-long traveler quarantines that are the hallmark of China’s Covid Zero approach bought Hong Kong time to prepare, to watch and learn as other world capitals struggled with imploding outbreaks. Yet the government seemed to have no Plan B as omicron cases quickly scaled its hard-core virus controls.

So now, President Xi is demanding that all 7.5M Hong Kongers must be tested.

President Xi Jinping has called for the city of about 7.5 million people to take “all necessary measures” to contain Covid, as the widening outbreak – which came after months of being virus-free — undermines China’s zero-tolerance approach to keeping the pathogen out. While other parts of the world start to live alongside Covid, Beijing is continuing to pursue elimination, including testing as a key tool in an arsenal that also includes effectively closed borders and lengthy mandatory quarantines.

According to Bloomberg, Hong Kong’s leaders are being forced to make changes “on the fly” to make up for the fact that they didn’t prepare by readying more COVID quarantine facilities.

Government advisers and health experts who spoke to Bloomberg News say officials failed to prepare for the virus’s inevitable infiltration by increasing quarantine facilities, isolation wards and hospital capacity during the period of calm over the last year. Though examples of how omicron surges exponentially have been unfolding across the world since last November, Hong Kong seemed to have paid little attention.
Now, faced with no choice but to double down on the zero-tolerance strategy pushed by Beijing, they’re being forced to change policies on the fly and take ad-hoc measures in the middle of a raging outbreak.

Sound familiar?

This isn’t helping the city’s government burnish its already badly damaged credibility.

The chaos of the current outbreak – with hospitals overwhelmed and elderly patients housed in makeshift tents outside – has undermined already-damaged public confidence in the Hong Kong government’s abilities following unprecedented unrest in 2019, says Joseph Cheng, a retired political science professor and veteran democracy activist. Many may be dissuaded to participate in the testing drive by the long queues already being seen at testing sites, he said.
“There’s a lot of worry about the lack of competence, the lack of preparation of this government – there’s a lack of hospital beds, and people are having to wait up for days to be contacted if they’re positive,” said Cheng, who left the city for Australia when China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, adding that “the majority of the people are willing to cooperate.”
“They are pragmatic, they are practical,” he continued. “If tests are made compulsory, they’ll be willing to accept that. They just want to be able to go back to work. Hong Kong people will grumble a lot, but most people will still go and queue up.”

Aside from the mass testing (for which they will receive assistance from the mainland), authorities have another half-baked plan that involves securing 10K hotel rooms to hold the ill and those under quarantine, per Reuters.

end

4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

UK/COVID/VACCINE DEATHS

END

AUSTRIA/COVID/VACCINE MANDATE

end

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

RUSSIA//UKRAINE/DONBASS

Sirens are sounding in the Donbass. Separatists announce mass evacuation to Russia as Putin is seeing the situation deteriorating

(zerohedge)

Donbas Separatists Announce Mass Evacuation To Russia; Putin Sees “Situation Deteriorating”

FRIDAY, FEB 18, 2022 – 08:17 AM

Update (0845ET): During a press conference in Moscow with Belarus leader Lukashenko, Putin appeared to offer (perhaps) a slightly less rancorous tone…

*PUTIN: RUSSIA ISN’T AGAINST TALKS ON U.S. SECURITY PROPOSALS
*PUTIN: KYIV JUST NEEDS TO DISCUSS CONFLICT WITH SEPARATISTS
*PUTIN: BELARUS DRILLS ARE DEFENSIVE, DON’T THREATEN ANYONE

Meanwhile the narratives continue to duel:

U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE BLINKEN SAYS WE ARE SEEING SCENARIOS OF RUSSIA CREATING FALSE PROVOCATIONS IN UKRAINE
PUTIN SAYS WE ARE SEEING RISING TENSION IN DONBASS, NEED TO IMPLEMENT MINSK PEACE AGREEMENTS

Additionally Putin says:

“Right now we are seeing a deterioration of the situation” in eastern Ukraine.

While blame-scaping is obvious in the narratives, they both agree that ‘tensions are rising’.

* * *

As we detailed earlier, citing the risk of ‘conflict escalation’, separatists in Donbas (Eastern Ukraine) have announced the evacuation of women, children, and the elderly at the contact line to Russia, according to Interfax.

The leader of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin says, claims to have agreement with government of Russian Rostov region to host people.

Full letter (emphasis ours):

Dear residents of the Donetsk People’s Republic! Countrymen!
In recent months, we have been observing a daily increase in the number of military personnel and lethal weapons by Ukraine, including Smerch and Uragan multiple launch rocket systems, NLAW rocket launchers, as well as Javelins and Stingers along the entire line of contact.
Today their guns are aimed at civilians, at us and our children.
The armed forces of the enemy are in combat formations and are ready for the forceful capture of Donbass.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky will soon give an order to the military to go on the offensive, to implement a plan to invade the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
I appeal to all the inhabitants of our state.
The armed forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic, having experience in conducting military operations, are in constant combat readiness, fully capable of protecting the civilian population and infrastructure.
Nevertheless, when the enemy shells the settlements of the Republic, the life and health of our citizens may be endangered.
Therefore, from today, February 18, a mass centralized departure of the population to the Russian Federation has been organized.
First of all, women, children and the elderly are subject to evacuation.
We kindly ask you to listen and make the right decision. Temporary departure will save the life and health of you and your loved ones.
By agreement with the leadership of the Russian Federation, places for the reception and accommodation of our citizens are ready in the Rostov Region. The evacuees will be provided with everything necessary. All conditions have been created for a quick transition at checkpoints.
The heads of enterprises and institutions need to organize the departure of the families of employees. Headquarters of territorial defense – to provide transport for the evacuation of civilians.
Dear fellow countrymen, I ask you to remain calm and calm. Together we will stand and win!
Denis Pushilin,
Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic

It appears the evacuation is under way…

Sirens are reportedly sounding in Donetsk…

* * *

That headline triggered the algos into sell-mode and erased all of the Blinken-Lavrov spike gains…

US Treasury yields are sliding, along with the Ruble but oil is unimpressed.

Gold is spiking back above $1900…

Ahead of a long weekend, we suspect few will be willing to roll the dice long with both sides appearing to be escalating the words and actions.

end

Putin to take part in nuclear war drills — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union

Inbox

Sure to dial up the noise.

https://www.rt.com/russia/549813-putin-oversee-missile-launch-drills

END

RUSSIA/USA/Munich

Mentally challenged Kamala is sent to Munich to join security talks. Biden stays home!

(zerohedge)

Kamala To The Rescue: VP Harris Heads To Munich To Join Security Talks While Biden Stays Home

FRIDAY, FEB 18, 2022 – 09:35 AM

As Biden Administration continues to insist that a Russian attack on Ukrainian territory is just days away, the Biden Administration has decided to dispatch VP Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ real ‘power behind the thrown’, on a ‘peace mission’ to Europe.

Harris is traveling to attend the Munich Security Conference. But back home, Harris’s political rivals mocked her: with Rep. Tim Burchett, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, telling Newsmax: “I doubt [Putin’s] sitting back at the Kremlin right now shaking because Kamala Harris is over there.”

“She couldn’t pour something out of a boot if there were instructions written on the heel,” Burchett added. “She can’t even find our southern border, much less the Ukrainian border. This is a joke, this is a travesty.”

Read more below:

Since March, Harris has been in charge of overseeing another border crisis – with less-than-stellar results. As the NY Post points out, the illegal immigration crisis on America’s southern border has only gotten worse: with a record-breaking 1.9M arrests in 2021. Critics blame lax Biden Administration enforcement policies, with Sen. Marsha Blackburn tweeting the following.

After arriving in Europe, Harris will meet with the leaders of the three Baltic nations: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Then on Saturday, she’s expected to make a speech about the Ukraine crisis. At some point, she’s also expected to sit down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Meanwhile, White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed on Thursday that Biden’s trip to Ohio would not distract from his focus on Ukraine (not that it takes much time to repeat the same tired and unsupported allegations about ‘false flag attacks’).

Over in Ukraine, most denizens of the country’s east, close to two rebel-held border areas, told the AFP that they don’t expect Putin’s armies to invade, citing the deep and longstanding cultural and political ties between the two nations. If Putin was so dead-set on conquest, then why hasn’t he attacked already?

In other news, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will speak with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, next week – news that helped calm anxious US financial markets when it first broke last night.

END

SPECIAL THANKS TO ROBERT H FOR SENDING THIS TO US:

Disclose.tv on Twitter: “NOW – Sirens sound in #Donetsk after separatist leader announced the evacuation of civilians to Russia. https://t.co/fdMcHzt1mL” / Twitter

Inbox

Poor people .. 8 years of upheaval and all that want to do is live a life in peace.

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/149468193740290048

END

Пушилин эвакуация – YouTube all of the Donbas is being evacuated of civilians

Inbox

The whole of the Donbas is being evacuated!
This is brilliant move to counter the Ukrainian shelling and agitation. Who can fault a evacuation of civilians to escape potential death?
This also is coup for Russia on several levels. It will energize the patriotic atmosphere within the country. The West cannot fault evacuation nor can the Ukrainians be seen killing children and evacuees. It allows Russia to protect the people there.
There is about 4.2 MM people there that will be welcomed within Russia as the bulk of them speak better Russian than Ukraine. And the labor will be welcomed.
Russia can keep the Donbas as a dead zone while it waits for the Ukraine to implement the Minsk Accords. Should certain Azov Nazi units decide to interfere they can be eliminated without a single Russian soldier entering the Donbas. People do not realize the distance and projected power of Russian Artillery which exceeds 120 km. Let alone the might of various missile systems or electronic jamming capability.
Meanwhile the very structure of government will continue to crumble everywhere with very real upheavals. Between covid and this nonsense, Europe will likely break up as centralized power never lasts or works. And by late spring this will be talked about. I have suggested before that even certain countries in Europe will break up.
By mid March capital flow should accelerate into the US and Canada if Trudeau faces a no confidence vote in parliament. It is likely why he does not want a review or vote on current actions. And rumor suggest all parties are facing populace pressure.
Spring will bring more surprises than this ending winter.

end

Harris now states that there is up to 190,000 Russian troops on the border

(zerohedge)

As VP Harris “Warns” Putin, US Now Says Up To 190,000 Russian Troops Near Ukraine

FRIDAY, FEB 18, 2022 – 10:33 AM

Days ago President Joe Biden estimated that Russia has built up at leas 130,000 troops near the border with Ukraine. But despite the Kremlin early this week asserting it’s begun to draw down some units from near the border, the White House has disputed this, instead saying signs point to a continued addition of forces. Not only this, but the US and UK estimates keep climbing significantly higher, even at a moment that Ukraine’s government itself is sill downplaying the likelihood of a Russian invasion.

“We assess that Russia probably has massed between 169,000-190,000 personnel in and near Ukraine as compared with about 100,000 on January 30,” the US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Michael Carpenter, told a security meeting on Friday.

He stressed that “This is the most significant military mobilization in Europe since the Second World War.” He reiterated administration claims that Russia is plotting a “pretext to attack its neighbor.

Thus the official US estimate of Russian troops allegedly poised to invade Ukraine is now just under 200,000. Included in the estimate are Russian soldiers currently in Belarus participating in scheduled joint war games.

At the same time, at the opening of the Munich Security Conference, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in his opening speech called for immediate deescalation to the crisis. “With a concentration of Russian troops around Ukraine, I am deeply concerned about heightened tensions and increased speculation about a military conflict in Europe,” Guterres said. However, like many officials in Europe, he downplayed the possibility of major war.

“There is no alternative to diplomacy. All issues, including the most intractable, must be addressed through diplomatic frameworks. It is high time to seriously de-escalate,” he said addressing the assembly. “I still think it will not happen. But if it did, it would be catastrophic,” he underscored.

Meanwhile, also in attendance at the Munich Security Conference for her first bilateral meeting is Vice President Kamala Harris – an interesting choice for the White House to send in such a crisis to put it mildly, given we can’t imagine this will strike much fear into Moscow, or alternately much confidence in NATO allies.

She warned the Russians in her first bilateral meeting at the conference that any “aggressive action will met with “severe consequences” of economic sanctions:

“We remain, of course, open to and desire diplomacy as it relates to the dialogue and the discussions we’ve had with Russia. But we are also committed — if Russia takes aggressive action — to ensuring there will be severe consequence, in terms of the economic sanctions we have discussed,” Harris said in Munich Friday.

She said while alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that the alliance remains “strong” in the face of the threat.

“Right now, we are obviously dealing with the concern about what is happening in Ukraine. As a member of NATO, we feel very strongly and will always be committed to the principal of territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Harris said.

“I am here to ensure that through our discussions and the discussions I will have with other of our allies, that we continue as these hours and days progress to stay in close contact. We understand this is a dynamic moment in time. So the work we are doing on a daily basis — and sometimes on an hourly basis to strengthen the relationship — to check in, in terms of our strategic imperative, is critically important and it’s one of the reasons I’m here,” the Vice President added

INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Russia retains a significant military presence that can conduct an invasion without further warning. Below demonstrates President Putin’s possible axis of invasion. He still can choose to prevent conflict and preserve peace.

9:18 AM · Feb 17, 2022·Hootsuite Inc.

END

SPECIAL THANKS TO ROBERT h FOR SENDING THIS TO US:

Drums do. Beat

Not to be left behind the Brits have moved a Welsh tank group into Estonia … no winners only losers in a outbreak of war which will not be localized.

The head of the “Donetsk Republic” was clear as he said in an interview with Russian state media that “unfortunately we are going to war with Ukraine.

Kiev will attack, its forces have taken attack positions. “They will invade and try to occupy the area,” he stressed.

The Deputy Governor of Donetsk, Eduard Basurin, stressed that there have been three attempts at sabotage by Ukraine in Donbas, culminating in today’s explosion in the car of Donetsk security director Denis Sinenkov.

“What is happening in Donbas is a ‘genocide committed by Ukraine and its Western allies,'” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mikhail Zakharov said .

For his part, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister stressed that “Russia is concerned about the latest developments in Donbas, its people must stop suffering.”

“They want to kill the Russians”
Russian state media in their responses are preparing the Russian people for a large-scale military operation. Presenters and commentators say:

“The nationalist Ukrainians are psychotic and miserable people, they want to kill us, to kill the Russians. The Ukrainian people are sick, Ukraine is a cancer in Europe.

“Ukraine must know its position; it must be controlled from the outside.”

The United States has an official document in which Russia is considered an “enemy” and that “regular nuclear strikes against it are allowed.”

Why explain about military accumulation?

Why the US does not explain why the Pentagon operates biological laboratories near the border with Russia.

If the people of Russia are threatened, we will strike at NATO headquarters. Now let’s go to our reporter at one of these headquarters, which we will hit, in Washington.

Elsewhere a Russian presenter says:

“Ukraine has declared martial law, its police have been put on alert. “Anyone who openly disagrees will be executed without any discussion or legal process.”

Donetsk intelligence service steals (discovers and reveals to the public) “Ukraine plan” to invade “Republic”

B. Putin: 10,000 rubles to each refugee from Donbas
At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the Russian State Emergency Service (EMERCOM) to set up reception centers for refugees from Donbass, while at the same time he called the responsible Russian minister, Alexander Chupriyan, who is in charge of emergency management. to cross the border of Russia with eastern Ukraine.

At the same time, the Russian government decided to provide financial assistance of 10,000 rubles (116 euros) to each refugee arriving in the Rostov region.

Putin gave the order in response to a request from Rostov-on-Don governor Vassily Golubev, who asked him to provide emergency assistance due to the unexpected large influx of refugees.

“Putin spoke by telephone with the acting Minister of Emergency Situations, Alexander Tsupriyan, and instructed him to go urgently to the Rostov region to organize on-site work to create accommodation, provide hot meals and everything needed, including ” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said.

Finally, previous information from WarNews247 was confirmed as it was officially forbidden for men aged 18-60 to leave Donbas. Only children, women and the elderly leave.

Much more including several videos at Source:
https://warnews247.gr/rosiki-kratiki-tileorasi-odevoume-se-polemo-me-tin-oukrania-an-to-nato-eblakei-tha-chtypithei-to-archigeio-tou/

LATE THIS AFTERNOOON:

Watch Live: President Biden Addresses The Russia/Ukraine Situation

FRIDAY, FEB 18, 2022 – 04:55 PM

Update (1700ET): The president is an hour late… and the delay just happens to coincide with the timing of breaking news from Ukraine of gas pipeline explosion in Luhansk?

* * *

After an avalanche of escalating headlines – from exploding cars to mass graves and from shelling kindergartens to mass evacuations – President Biden stands ready to put the world straight on what narrative they should be paying attention to.

The White House’s official statement on the address is as follows:

President Biden gives an update on our continued efforts to pursue deterrence and diplomacy, and Russia’s buildup of military troops on the border of Ukraine.

The remarks will come after the president spoke with NATO leaders this afternoon as fears of an invasion are classified as “imminent” once again.

Watch President Biden’s address here (due to start at 1600ET):

6// GLOBAL COVID ISSUES/VACCINE MANDATE ISSUES/

CORONAVIRUS/UPDATE/VACCINE MANDATE/EMERGENCY ACT/CANADA

It begins: the final showdown!

Final Showdown: Canada Police Set To End Freedom Convoy “Unlawful Demonstration”

FRIDAY, FEB 18, 2022 – 07:30 AM

Days after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act to crack down on protesters nationwide, Canadian police are preparing to clear hundreds of truck drivers from Ottawa, according to Reuters.

‘Freedom Convoy’ demonstrators against the government’s medical tyranny have staged a three-week-long siege of Ottawa’s downtown district that prompted Trudeau on Monday to invoke the Emergencies Act to crack down on what he has described as an attack on democracy.

On Thursday evening, police began moving in on the downtown district, arresting protesters. We noted two key organizers were arrested, including Tamara Lich and Chris Barber. The two have been described as top leaders in the movement. Authorities are expected to unleash a wave of arrests on Friday.

“We absolutely are committed to end this unlawful demonstration. We have the plan, we have the commitment, we have the resources,” interim police chief Steve Bell told reporters on Thursday. To quell future protests at least 100 checkpoints will be erected in the downtown district. Anyone who doesn’t have a legitimate reason for entering the area will be barred.

“This weekend will look very different than the past three weekends,” Bell added.

Many of the truckers in the Freedom Convoy aren’t moving.

“I’m prepared to sit on my ass and watch them hit me with pepper spray,” Pat King, one of the leaders of the movement, told AP News.
“There are no tow trucks in Canada that will touch them.”

Amid the rising tensions outside Parliament, many demonstrators still refused to budge, and the use of federal emergencies law will give police the tools to end the occupation.

Some Canadians are outraged their government would even enact such powers (not seen in fifty years) on what has been described as ‘peaceful protests,’ However, the Trudeau administration sees things a little differently, calling truckers “fringe” and treating them as so-called ‘terrorists.’

Meanwhile, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association has announced its intention to sue the federal government for invoking the Emergencies Act in response, the CBC reports.

It remains to be seen if today’s move to end the capital’s siege will go smoothly. Trudeau’s use of emergency powers has already prohibited travel, banned protests, conducted widespread arrests, blocked donations, and frozen bank accounts of truckers and their supporters. People are getting angry, and there are even fears of a possible bank run.

end

CANADA/CONVOY/EMERGENCY MEASURES ACT

Citizens of Canada are second class when compared to refugees, immigrant and ethnic minorities

(Watson/SummitNews)

Why Does Trudeau’s Protest Prohibition Order Exempt Refugees, Immigrants, & Ethnic Minorities?

FRIDAY, FEB 18, 2022 – 08:31 AM

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

Justin Trudeau’s crackdown on protests under an Emergencies Act order specifically exempts refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants and other ethnic minorities.

Yes, really.

The Canadian government’s Emergency Measures Regulations: SOR/2022-21 order bans people from taking part “in a public assembly that may reasonably be expected to lead to a breach of the peace.”

However, the law does not apply to “any person in a class of persons whose presence in Canada, as determined by the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration or the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, is in the national interest.”

This includes Indians, refugees, immigrants, asylum seekers and ‘protected temporary residents’.

The exemptions have left some people asking if the prohibition order only applies to white people.

“Why are members of First Nations, refugees and temporary residents exempted from the prohibition to ‘participate in a public assembly that may reasonably be expected to lead to a breach of the peace’ as part of the Emergencies Act regulations?” People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier tweeted.

It appears as though the Canadian government views native Canadians as second class citizens who should have fewer rights than foreigners.

How can such brazen discrimination based on skin color and nationality be in any way legal?

END

A good commentary

(courtesy James Kunstler)

The Unmasking

We’re in the midst of a tremendous shift of public opinion. Winter is not over but the truth is budding now in a thousand places.

O Canada, the Great White North, hovering ominously above Niagara Falls somewhere, is a winter wonderland, and one of the great pleasures of the season there, apparently, for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is skating on thin ice. Why is that? Perhaps in all the hollering you have forgotten how Mr. T has kicked off a civil war: by forcing government-mandated shots on his country’s working class of an alleged “vaccine” that doesn’t work and harms people, at the dwindling end of a worldwide disease scare that scientists in Canadian labs may have helped to create.

The great truckers’ convoy that converged on Canada’s capital city, Ottawa, has exposed the ugly truth at the heart of this historic moment for Western Civ: that governments have declared war on their own citizens. It happens that PM Trudeau represents his country’s Liberal Party, which is suddenly the party of unchecked government power to interfere in the lives of citizens, the party of speech suppression, news management, forced unsafe vaccinations, and the seizure of citizens’ property outside due process of law.

Under the Emergencies Act, Mr. Trudeau’s police have now arrested the leaders of the trucker’s revolt, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, on charges of “counseling to commit mischief” (O, dear…!), and seized their bank accounts, while also freezing the bank accounts of anyone who donated money to the truckers’ cause. That action led, naturally, to runs on Canada’s major banks, leading to bank shut-downs on Wednesday — d’uh… what do you expect when the authorities send the message: your money is not safe in Canada’s banks, and might not even be your money if we say it’s not?

And now everybody — including alert citizens watching from many other countries — waits to see what the next moves are. Let’s also note that it’s not just the truckers in revolt against insane government mandates; it’s also at least half the population of Canada who stand behind the truckers and against the new fashion for tyranny in what used to be called the Free West. I’d venture to guess that the next move will be a general strike that paralyzes Canada and forces its parliament to overrule the Emergency Act and get rid of PM Trudeau.

Meanwhile, like a coronavirus itself, the trucker protest movement has infected America. A “People’s Convoy” is assembling around Barstow, California (the capital of the Mojave Desert, where there’s plenty of room to assemble), with a launch date of February 23, next Wednesday, destination: Washington DC. Won’t that be… interesting? What will the government of “Joe Biden” do? Likewise invoke some sort of emergency powers? Declare yet another “insurrection” as with January 6, 2021? Mess with the truckers’ bank accounts, and those of the people who support them? Do they want to inspire a run on US banks at a juncture where the extreme fragility of the global banking system threatens to blow up financial markets? Standing by on that.

The US government, like Canada’s, has likewise been at war with its citizens. At least half the country has awakened to this unappetizing reality — even while somewhat less than half the country still catatonically follows whatever idiotic diktat the despotic bureaucracy spews out. Why, for instance, do so many still go about in face masks even where local regulations are lifted? (And especially in light of the overwhelming evidence that masks don’t work?) Answer: to signify that they are still against Trump, the evil leviathan said to be responsible for all the woes and injustices in the world and who threatens their ”safety”— meaning, their status as oppressed victims of “white supremacy,” including the guilty-and-penitent self-oppressed white people of the Left themselves. Yeah, it’s just that simple because we are in an epic episode of human social hysteria.

Except that the hysteria is dissipating for all except the most psychotic or the most politically cornered due to their record of perfidy and bad faith — the David Frums, Max Boots, and Rachel Maddows of our world, the cable news outfits, the Democratic Party hierarchy, the criminally psychopathic swine running the US public health agencies, and the craven doctors who have fecklessly murdered patients at the behest of Dr. Anthony Fauci & Company. Despite the sedulous efforts to suppress the data (O, the sacred data!) about the failure of their “vaccines,” the real news is getting out: the “vaccines” don’t prevent transmission or infection of Covid-19, and they pose lethal side-effects for the vaxxed. There it is, in plain English. And yet, “Joe Biden,” putative president of the US, is still telling the country to “go out and get vaccinated, get boosted” — ???

The companies who produced the “vaccines’ are even on the run. Pfizer withdrew its application for an emergency use authorization in India, where the public health agency insisted on seeing the safety records Pfizer was obliged to furnish — and refused to. India is a big market for pharmaceuticals, some 1.39 billion. Pfizer’s stock has crashed nearly 10 percent the past two weeks. By the way, some of the states of India are notable for having battled Covid-19 with the mass distribution of early treatment kits containing cheap anti-virals such as ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, Vitamin D, etc. The program was famously successful in reducing deaths there.

The CEO of Moderna, Stéphane Bancel, has sold off $400-million of his own stock in the company and deleted his Twitter account on rumors that all-causes deaths reported by US life insurance companies show a shocking and mysterious rise in mortality that just may be attributed to the “vaccines” causing strokes, heart attacks, cancer cases, and immune system failures. (Moderna’s stock is also sinking.) Neither the mainstream news media nor the US public health agencies are making any effort to investigate this now well-documented occurrence.

We’re in the midst of a tremendous shift of public opinion. Winter is not over but the truth is budding now in a thousand places. The people are done kneeling docilly to be silenced and killed. They will not let this country, and many other nations in the Western Civ club, be destroyed without a fight. The unmasked are unmasking their masked antagonists. Stand by, now, to find out who has been behind all this deadly mischief. We will rip off their masks and the rule of law will be restored.

END

Dr. Charles Hoffe is a family physician in British Columbia.-Can you imagine you are threatened that you can’t exercise your job as family practician because some buffoons disagree with your opinion

Inbox

What they should do more is mention the name and address of people that dictatorially command people what to do or else….!!!

“I have been horrified to see what the COVID shots have done to my own patients. I have a small country practice with about 2,000 patients and amongst those people, I now have 12 in my own practice who are disabled since their COVID shots.” And this family practitioner is not the only one with these observations!!

https://www.globalresearch.ca/video-dr-charles-hoffe-speaks-out-world/5771073

end

FYI

This is from Senator Ron Johnson’s hearing on the harm caused by the vaccines. This was heard in early January.

Attachments area

Preview YouTube video 01 02 2022

01 02 2022

GLOBAL ISSUES//

END

Vaccine Impact

After Trudeau Freezes Protesters’ Bank Accounts a Run on Canadian Banks Shuts Down Services

February 17, 2022 3:29 pm

Banks in Canada started freezing accounts of those who allegedly were supporting the Trucker Freedom Convoy protests yesterday. As news of bank accounts being frozen spread, several major Canadian banks went offline in what appeared to be a bank run. Trudeau faced his critics in Ottawa earlier today at the House of Commons, and reportedly stated: “We understand that Canadians are frustrated with [COVID-19]. Some protesters came to Ottawa to express their frustrations and fatigue with public health measures. That’s their right. It’s a right that we’ll defend in this free and democratic country. But the illegal blockades and occupations are not peaceful protests. They have to stop.” According to Trudeau’s Justice Minister, apparently those “illegal blockades and occupations” include being a Trump supporter, which can result in your bank account being frozen. Protesters apparently are not backing down, and Dr. Byram Bridle reportedly called on all Canadians to now head to Ottawa to join the protests.

FDA Executive Officer: “Almost a Billion Dollars a Year Going into FDA’s Budget from the People we Regulate”

February 17, 2022 4:55 pm

Project Veritas published Part Two of its series on the FDA on Wednesday night which featured FDA Executive Officer, Christopher Cole, speaking about the inner workings of the agency including the FDA’s conflicts of interest, overspending, and why it’s hard for those within the agency to speak out on such abuses. The incendiary footage, which features Cole talking about how the additional money the FDA brings in “gets banked” to be spent on “whatever you can, whether it’s right or wrong,’’ also features Cole discussing reasons why it’s difficult for anyone in government to speak out about practices he sees as “probably excessive.” “I don’t think there’s enough people saying they’re, like, ‘Look, that’s fine, but that’s not right. So, we’re not going to charge that.’ You don’t want to be that person. You’re not going to have a long shelf life in the agency if you’re always that person,” Cole said. “There’s not an incentive to speak out in government, surprisingly. You would think there would be, but there’s not. It’s better just to just not say anything and just ignore it. The whistleblower, well, it’s high-profile whistleblower statutes and everything, that’s kind of ridiculous,” Cole said before adding “it’s better to just stay quiet and accept.”

Michael Every

on the major topics of the day

Michael Every…

Rabo: It’s Not Paranoia – The Illogic Of How We Have Built Things Is Out To Get You

FRIDAY, FEB 18, 2022 – 10:50 AM

By Michael Every of Rabobank

Just because you’re paranoid…

I’ve mentioned it before, but growing up one of the family friends where we spent a lot of our time had a poster on their kitchen door: “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.” That kind of messaging sticks with you as an impressionable child. It also comes in handy sometimes as an adult.

After all, we awake in Asia to markets having stumbled, US stocks down around 2%, and US 10-year yields back under 2% again. Risk is very much off. Part of that is the Fed’s Bullard having again backed 100bp of hikes by July, this time adding that the Fed may have to overshoot the Fed’s neutral target rate of 2%, implying more than 8 hikes from here. Part of it was markets noticing a note floating around yesterday from Wall Street analyst and ex-NY Fed liquidity specialist Zoltan Poszar, in which he stressed the Fed needs “a Volcker moment”, with emphasis on the “vol”, to push either short term or long-term rates higher in order to curb inflation, even if that comes at the cost of lower asset prices and growth. As the poster said, things are out to get markets.

I have been making the point for a long time here that our current economic paradigm doesn’t work because neoclassical and neoliberal economics are full of holes. That is why we were until recently in the “new normal” nobody saw coming, and lasting. This week I’ve shared a paper co-authored by Martin Wolf which argues global capital flows into the US –which mean global free trade with the US, because the current account deficit mirrors the capital account surplus– destroy first US, then global productivity, which is another puzzle nobody saw coming, and lasting. Even the US Trade Representative seems to tacitly agree in part. Yesterday then saw UK Professor Brian Bell, head of the government’s Migration Advisory Committee, argue current upwards pressure on wages at the bottom end of the jobs market suggests economists underestimated the downward pressure on wages from free movement; and that immigration in recent decades hasn’t made the UK richer, or made much economic difference.

So, some credentialled experts say free capital flows are bad; and free trade is bad; and free movement is bad. What is there left then? Free money!

As has also been explained here over and over, free money does not provide any solution to the structural problems described above: it papers over the cracks at best and exacerbates them at worst. We all agreed around 18 months ago, and ‘went fiscal’ again. Yet if you add ultra-loose fiscal policy on top of ultra-loose monetary policy you end up with inflation unless:

you are the only one doing it – and why should you be the only one doing it?; or,
you have excess physical capacity – which we off-shored according to neoclassical and neoliberal economic theory.

Logically, we stay where we unhappily are right now, with high inflation and fading growth; or rates stay ultra-low to finance the government boosting physical capacity via industrial policy, subsidies, and forced onshoring of supply chains – so MMT; or you have to raise rates to make it more attractive to invest in physical production and supply chains rather than speculation in financial assets. (The latter being a point made repeatedly by always interesting @ektrit, who combines liquidity and theology.) Yet MMT then means the need for protectionism/decoupling; and raising rates means your exchange rate soars if only you do it –and why should anyone else do it if you are?– so again implies the need for more protectionism/decoupling.

It’s not paranoia – the underlying illogic of how we have built things is out to get you.

The question I personally focus on is how many policymakers grasp this truth, and what they believe are the best solutions available. My suspicions are almost none and almost none. So, perhaps we can squeeze a few more years out of this failed paradigm yet, until someone has the intestinal fortitude to join the dots and offer an alternative model. Which *is* happening in geopolitics, which is also hitting markets.

Again, the US are accusing Russia of lying about its troop withdrawals and warning of an imminent invasion of Ukraine: The Times says the UK government has concluded Putin has decided to do so, and it will “be horrendous.” The US is even flagging potential false flag chemical weapons attack as a casus belli – and that may not be needed given Western media reports of shelling in eastern Ukraine, and Russian media reports of mass graves and Ukrainian invasion plans against Russian-backed regions.

It’s easy to look at the stumbling US military-industrial complex and conclude D.C. is trying to instigate something: some mutter a distraction from, or a fig leaf for, the mess the Fed is about to make. However, this denies agency to the stumbling Russian military-industrial complex, which also instigates things to change the global architecture to its benefit: and it is the one with 150,000 men on Ukraine’s border, and demanding the US remove all troops from central and eastern Europe or face a “military-technical measures” as a response, while knowing full-well the US and Europe cannot comply.

The parallel is with economics, where the neoliberals and the MMTers are wrong – perhaps the US and Russia are both wrong too. Regrettably, the parallel continues in that geopolitics is also unhappily stuck, its old policy solutions are failing, with risks of serious volatility ahead, and logically ending with decoupling. Markets are right to worry. (On which note, we just released a report looking at the potential impact of war/sanctions on the global economy, which even given the rigidities that macro models impose, produces some uncomfortable economic and geopolitical conclusions: see “How We Would Pay for the War”.)

Meanwhile, we see the same domestic dynamic in places one would not have imagined until recently. Despite pushback from a major civil liberties group, the Canadian government is moving ahead with arresting protestors and freezing their bank accounts, with the justice minister stating one’s political opinions have a bearing on the latter. The Guardian claims Canadian intelligence services believe the protests are “a trigger point and opportunity for potential lone actor attackers to conduct a terrorist attack,” and are “advocating civil war.”; the Prime Minister dubbed them swastika-wavers. In our deeply polarised times, people will read this as they do US warnings over the Russian threat – though not necessarily in the same way. Even The Economist, which says “Russian military build-up enters a more dangerous phase” and bashes Putin, also says “Justin Trudeau’s crackdown on protests could make things worse – By seeking to curb free speech, he will aggravate Canada’s divisions.”

In short, we can’t agree on how the economy, or monetary policy, or fiscal policy, or supply chains, or inflation actually work; geopolitics is impossible to ignore; and firms and banks –and physical supply chains– are being dragged into political (and geopolitical) issues they would never normally want to touch given the risk-reward for doing so. Worse, all these trends conflate and reflexively drive each other, with no clear indication of how it resolves – except towards protectionism/decoupling of sorts.

Happy Paranoid Friday. At least *I* am not out to get you!

7. OIL ISSUES

Californians now witness high gas prices. This sends Biden’s approval rating lower

(zerohedge)

Californians Pay Record High Gas Prices As Pump Pains Send Biden’s Approval Rating Lower

THURSDAY, FEB 17, 2022 – 10:40 PM

Expensive crude means more pain at the pump. With West Texas Intermediate (WTI) bouncing between $90/bbl – $95/bbl, crude products, such as gasoline and diesel, will remain in an upward trajectory.

According to American Automobile Association (AAA), the average price of a gallon of regular-grade gasoline in California stands around $4.719 per gallon on Wednesday, surpassing the previous record on Nov. 27. That’s higher than the national average, which stands around $3.52, an increase of more than 40% since the same time last year when it was $2.505 a gallon.

High pump prices are driven by a number of factors, from geopolitical risk premium over Russia-NATO tensions, to Biden admin energy policies, and globally tight supplies amid an emerging demand as COVID’s effects fade.

A terrified Biden administration has already orchestrated a crude dump from strategic reserves, an initiative joined by allies worldwide, but such a ploy has failed. Rising pump prices have become a liability for Biden as polling data slump to a new low ahead of midterms. Democrats are in panic mode as they pitch a “federal gas tax holiday” to alleviate pump prices.

To deflect pain at the pump, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told Americans this week that if Russia invades Ukraine, it would have “an impact on energy prices, which could have an impact on prices at the gas pump.”

Californians are paying the highest prices for several reasons, taxation and state regulators only allow cleaner-burning grades of fuel that only a handful of refiners in the country can process.

Doug Shupe of AAA California told Bloomberg that even with gas prices at record high levels in the state, it’s not going to stop consumers from filling up and driving. Though we should add, high prices will crimp the pocketbooks of millions of Americans as their wages are eaten away by inflationary forces — this will have a significant impact on polling numbers for Democrats.

Readers may recall in early January, we cited Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy head of petroleum analysis, who said Americans should prepare for an average price of $4 by spring. With average US prices already around $3.488 as supplies dwindle amid geopolitical tensions, prices will remain in an upward trend. There’s also the start of the “multi-month transition to summer gasoline, further adding to the rise at the pump,” de Haan added.

The Biden administration already botched the strategic reserve release. Their attempts to quell Ukraine’s conflict with Russia have yet to provide any meaningful impact on energy markets. Democrat’s attempt for a tax holiday at the pump is another gimmick that won’t work. So in the meantime, Californians, enjoy paying the highest gasoline prices ever.

end

8 EMERGING MARKET& AUSTRALIA ISSUES

Australia//// NEW ZEALAND/ SOUTH AFRICA/BRAZIL//COVID/VACCINES/LOCKDOWNS

END

Your early currency/gold and silver pricing/Asian and European bourse movements/ and interest rate settings FRIDAY morning 7:30 AM

Euro/USA 1.1365 UP .0001 /EUROPE BOURSES //ALL MIXED

USA/ YEN 115.15 UP 0.294 /NOW TARGETS INTEREST RATE AT .11% AS IT WILL BUY UNLIMITED BONDS TO GETS TO THAT LEVEL…

GBP/USA 1.3618 UP 0.0004

Last night Shanghai COMPOSITE CLOSED UP 22.72 PTS OR 0.66%

Hang Sang CLOSED DOWN 365/06 PTS OR 1.88%

AUSTRALIA CLOSED DOWN 0.95% // EUROPEAN BOURSES OPENED ALL MIXED

Trading from Europe and ASIA

I) EUROPEAN BOURSES ALL MIXED

2/ CHINESE BOURSES / :Hang SANG CLOSED DOWN 465.06 PTS OR 1.88%

/SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 22.72 PTS OR 0.66%

Australia BOURSE CLOSED DOWN 0.85%

(Nikkei (Japan) CLOSED DOWN 110.80 PTS OR 0.41%

INDIA’S SENSEX IN THE RED

Gold very early morning trading: 1891.95

silver:$23.81-

USA dollar index early FRIDAY morning: 95.84 UP 4 CENT(S) from THURSDAY’s close.

THIS ENDS FRIDAY MORNING NUMBERS

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And now your closing FRIDAY NUMBERS 1: 00 PM

Portuguese 10 year bond yield: 1.07% DOWN 3 in basis point(s) yield from YESTERDAY/

JAPANESE BOND YIELD: +0.220% DOWN 0 AND 3/10 BASIS POINTS from YESTERDAY/JAPAN losing control of its yield curve/

SPANISH 10 YR BOND YIELD: 1.19%// DOWN 0 in basis points yield from yesterday.

ITALIAN 10 YR BOND YIELD 1.85 DOWN 0 points in basis points yield from yesterday./

the Italian 10 yr bond yield is trading 66 points higher than Spain.

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD: FALLS TO +0.197% IN BASIS POINTS ON THE DAY//

THE IMPORTANT SPREAD BETWEEN ITALIAN 10 YR BOND AND GERMAN 10 YEAR BOND IS 1.65% AND NOW ABOVE THE 3.00% LEVEL WHICH WILL IMPLODE THE ENTIRE ITALIAN BANKING SYSTEM. AT 4% SPREAD THERE WILL BE A HUGE BANK RUN…

END

IMPORTANT CURRENCY CLOSES FOR FRIDAY

Closing currency crosses for FRIDAY /USA DOLLAR INDEX/USA 10 YR BOND YIELD/1:00 PM

Euro/USA 1.1329 DOWN .0034 or 34 basis points

USA/Japan: 115.14 UP 0.284 OR YEN DOWN 28 basis points/

Great Britain/USA 1.3585 DOWN 29 BASIS POINTS

Canadian dollar DOWN 38 pts to 1.2747

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The USA/Yuan, CNY: closed ON SHORE (CLOSED )..UP 6.3256

THE USA/YUAN OFFSHORE: (YUAN CLOSED (UP)..6.3273

TURKISH LIRA: 13.66 EXTREMELY DANGEROUS LEVEL/DEATH WISH/HYPERINFLATION TO BEGIN.

the 10 yr Japanese bond yield at +0.220

Your closing 10 yr US bond yield DOWN 3 IN basis points from THURSDAY at 1.932% //trading well ABOVE the resistance level of 2.27-2.32%) very problematic

USA 30 yr bond yield: 2.253 DOWN 3 in basis points

Your closing USA dollar index, 96.04 UP 24 CENT(S) ON THE DAY/1.00 PM/

Your closing bourses for Europe and the Dow along with the USA dollar index closing and interest rates for FRIDAY: 12:00 PM

London: CLOSED DOWN 75.41 PTS OR 0.42%

German Dax : CLOSED DOWN 230.06 points or 1.31%

Paris CAC CLOSED DOWN 23.86PTS OR 0.34%

Spain IBEX CLOSED DOWN 84.70PTS OR 0.98%

Italian MIB: CLOSED DOWN 171.57 PTS OR 0.64%

WTI Oil price 91.37 12: EST

Brent Oil: 92.81 12:00 EST

USA /RUSSIAN / RUBLE FALLS: 77.24 THE CROSS HIGHER BY 98 RUBLES/DOLLAR (RUBLE LOWER BY 98 BASIS PTS)

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD; +.19

CLOSING NUMBERS: 4 PM

Euro vs USA: 1.1327 DOWN .0036 OR 36 BASIS POINTS

British Pound: 1.3599 DOWN .0015 or 15 basis pts

USA dollar vs Japanese Yen: 115.07 UP .211

USA dollar vs Canadian dollar: 1.2754 UP .0049 (CDN dollar DOWN 49 basis pts)

West Texas intermediate oil: 91.66

Brent: 93.70

USA 10 yr bond yield: 1.924 DOWN 4 points

USA 30 yr bond yield: 2.238 DOWN 6 pts

USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 13.66

USA DOLLAR VS RUSSIAN ROUBLE: 77.35 UP 109 BASIS PTS (ROUBLE DOWN 109 PTS)

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE DOWN 232.85 PTS OR 0.68%

NASDAQ 100 DOWN 162.19 PTS OR 1.14%

VOLATILITY INDEX: 27.72 PTS DOWN 0.39 OR 1.39%

GLD: $177.12 DOWN $.13 OR 0.07%

SLV: $22.12 UP $.08 OR .36%

end)

USA trading day in Graph Form

Gold Soars, Credit Cracks, Stocks Sink As Putin, Powell, & The President Pontificate

FRIDAY, FEB 18, 2022 – 04:01 PM

Today was a microcosm of the week with headlines dominating the swings as traders focused on what Powell will do, what Putin has done (or not), and what the President will threaten to do, and what chaos they will unleash…

Somewhat predictably (ahead of a 3-day weekend), today was a chaotic mess of headline-chasing in US equity markets.

OVERNIGHT Rally: Lavrov Agrees to Meet Blinken, U.S. Says

Then:

0809ET *DONBAS SEPARATISTS SAY WOMEN, CHILDREN TO LEAVE FOR RUSSIA: IFX
0838ET *PUTIN: RUSSIA ISN’T AGAINST TALKS ON U.S. SECURITY PROPOSALS
0845ET Russia creating ‘false provocations’ in Ukraine in past 24-48 hours: Blinken
1040ET *FED’S EVANS: POLICY WRONG-FOOTED, NEEDS SUBSTANTIAL ADJUSTMENT
1049ET *ECB OFFICIALS EDGE TOWARD 2022 RATE HIKE TO STEM INFLATION
1100ET ITAR-TASS: Powerful explosion rocks downtown Donetsk — Donetsk News Agency
1107ET *BIDEN CALL WITH TRANSATLANTIC LEADERS SET FOR 2:30PM ET
1240ET *WILLIAMS: HAVE ROOM TO TRIM BAL SHEET MORE QUICKLY THAN BEFORE, SEES FED MOVING TO NORMAL RATES QUICKER THAN ’16, ’17
1256ET *DRAGHI: DISCUSSED WITH PUTIN INCREASING GAS SUPPLIES TO ITALY (just made us laugh)
1448ET *BELIEVE RUSSIA BEHIND CYBERATTACKS ON UKRAINE BANKS: NEUBERGER
1510ET *BRAINARD: I BELIEVE WE WILL TURN NEXT TO BALANCE SHEET RUNOFF
1515ET *U.S. BELIEVES RUSSIA POSITIONED FOR UKRAINE ATTACK: PSAKI
1555ET *SUBSTANTIAL PROGRESS BEING MADE IN IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS: PSAKI

All of which erased the Blinken bounce and sent stocks into the red for the week, before a mid-afternoon buying panic ensued to take stocks back perfectly to unchanged before selling off into the long weekend…

The Dow and Nasdaq were the week’s biggest losers…

Notably this week’s weakness took the S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq down to their YTD closing lows from Jan 27 – which is where everything bounced today…

ROKU crashed 22% on the day – with record volume – to its lowest since June 2020…

Source: Bloomberg

DraftKings was clubbed like a baby seal today to its lowest close since April 2020…

Source: Bloomberg

Interestingly, as stocks fell, so did rate-hike expectations with the market now pricing in less than 6 hikes by year-end and only a 25% chance of a 50bps hike in March…

Source: Bloomberg

Credit markets blew out further this week (HY spreads up for the 4th week of the last 5 to their widest since early Dec 2020)…

Source: Bloomberg

… as higher new issue concessions…

…and significant fund outflows and spreads popping above the five-year average are signs of stress.

All of which leaves credit risk notably decoupled from equity risk (as presumably investors still believe The Powell Put will rescue them)…

Source: Bloomberg

The week was a roller coaster for Treasury yields as early weakness gave way to an aggressive bid in the latter half of the week with the short-end outperforming and the long-end unch…

Source: Bloomberg

The 10Y yield tested above 2.00% again but could not hold it…

Source: Bloomberg

The Dollar ended the week marginally lower…

Source: Bloomberg

The Ruble was volatile this week with the last two days seeing the currency get hammered lower, near key support…

Source: Bloomberg

Crypto had another tough week as its correlation with big-tech continued to rise…

Source: Bloomberg

Gold rose for the 3rd straight week, rising over 3% – its best week since May 2021, rising back above $1900, its highest since June 2021…

Source: Bloomberg

This is the best 3-week jump in gold since Aug 2020.

Interestingly, amid all the chaos on the Ukrainian border, oil suffered its first weekly loss of the year as optimism over Iran nuclear talks (and the subsequent supply) sent prices lower. It was a chaotic week however as traders came to terms with the push/pull of Russia/Iran headlines…

Finally, consensus estimates provide a median probability of a recession in the next 12 months at 15%…

Source: Bloomberg

With quite a distribution (from Guerilla Capital’s 60% odds to SocGen’s 5% odds)…

Source: Bloomberg

JPM real-time recession tracker shows about an 18% chance of a recession over the next 12 months but rises to 40% over the next 2 years, 60% over the next 3 years, and almost 80% over the next 4 years.

Which may help explain why the market is already pricing in rate-cuts (even more shocking is the fact that the end 2024 rate is below the end 2022 rate!)…screaming recession…

Source: Bloomberg

What have you done Mr.Powell?!

I) /MORNING TRADING/

END

AFTERNOON

END

II) USA DATA

END

IIb) USA COVID/VACCINE MANDATE STORIES

Kids should not wear masks

(zerohedge)

“Don’t Want To Be Reckless” – Fauci Warns “Risky” To Lift Mask Mandates For Kids

FRIDAY, FEB 18, 2022 – 01:20 PM

White House COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci spoke with CNN on Thursday about masks in schools, saying that moves to lift mandates on children may be premature and “risky.”

“It’s understandable why people want to take masks off the kids. But, right now, given the level of activity that we have, it is risky,” Fauci said.

“Now we could get lucky, cause the trajectory right now is going way down,” Fauci added.

“And it very well may be that if you take masks off of kids in the next week or so, it’s going to keep going down. But you have to be careful.”

Let’s look at the data, shall we?

Overall cases have utterly collapsed and deaths have rolled over…

CDC Data has shown that children make up less than 0.1 percent of Covid deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.

Source

To date, 259 of around 860,000 recorded U.S. Covid deaths have been among children under the age of five.

And one final note, In looking at the grouping of the states (CA/OR/WA/IL/NY/DE/MA/CT/NJ/MD/NV/NM/VA/RI) with required masking in schools compared to those without mask mandates (UT/FL/AZ/TX/OK/MO/IA/AR/TN/SC), where very few students are wearing them, we see nearly identical trends, and those with little to no masking have lower current case rates:

As Ian Miller and Michael Betrus recently concluded, kids should be in class without masks, without plexiglass dividers, socializing while they eat lunch and participating in sports without face masks. Logic clearly tells us this, and this data overwhelmingly proves there is no health benefit to requiring kids to wear face masks in school.

But, that’s the “risk” that Fauci remains terrified of that is causing us to muzzle our kids?

As Fox News notes, research has shown that masks may have negative impacts on children’s social abilities. Even Fauci admitted it during his Reuters interview:

“Is the impact on mental health, is the impact on development of kids, is the impact on schools – is that balanced against trying to be totally pristine and protecting against infection? I don’t have the right answer to that,” he said.

The CDC’s insistence on pushing masks in schools, meanwhile, has been criticized for relying too heavily on flawed studies.

And in an interview with Reuters, Fauci did admit that we need to get back to normal (although, of course, he hedged his comments)…

“The fact that the world and the United States and particularly certain parts of the United States are just up to here with COVID – they just really need to somehow get their life back,” he said.

“You don’t want to be reckless and throw everything aside, but you’ve got to start inching towards that.”

Interestingly, Fauci’s comments come as some Democrat-led states have started to rescind mask or vaccine mandates, and officials in Philadelphia and Washington dropped vaccine passports to enter certain businesses.

Jack Phillips, at The Epoch Times, as many of those blue states suddenly started to pull back, Republicans questioned the timing and said that Democrats are fearful they will suffer significant losses during the 2022 midterm elections if they keep pushing COVID-19 rules. Currently, Democrats have slim majorities in the House and Senate, and historically, the party of the president tends to lose seats in midterm elections.

“I find it very disingenuous that all of a sudden, as we get closer to the elections and the midterms that they decide to follow the science. They’re following political science,” Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) told NTD’s “Capitol Report” on Feb. 10.

But in a recent interview, Fauci suggested that it’s not because of polling numbers.

“I wouldn’t say it’s the politics. I think it’s the different evaluation of what’s right for a particular community,” Fauci told MSNBC on Tuesday.

However, even some Democrat elected officials have sounded the alarm on COVID-19 politics. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), the head of the House Democrats’ campaign organization, said Thursday that members of the party shouldn’t “[fall] in love” with mandates.

“We as Democrats should not be, out of some sense of correctness, falling in love with mandates when they aren’t necessary,” he told MSNBC.
“We should get rid of them as quickly as we responsibly can.”

A recent poll from Monmouth University showed that around 70 percent of Americans agree with the statement: “It’s time we accept that COVID is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.”

Meanwhile, internal polling numbers obtained by SFGATE suggest that a majority of Americans believe Democrat officials have “taken things too far” in their pandemic response.

end

Rand Paul Vows To “Force A Repeal Of The Federal Regulation Mandating Masks”

FRIDAY, FEB 18, 2022 – 03:40 PM

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

Senator Rand Paul declared this week that he is already gathering signatures from lawmakers in an effort to force a vote to repeal federal mask mandates on planes.

In an Newsmax interview, Paul asserted that “what we’ve said [about] the vaccine mandates is, we’re sick and tired of the government mandating our behavior and taking our liberty away, and I’m as mad as the Canadian truckers are.”

“I want it to end,” Paul continued, adding “There’s no science behind these mask mandates, we’re just punishing our children, let’s end it.”

“It’s beginning to unravel,” Paul declared, saying that several Democratic governors are starting to “back away” from mask mandates.

“But we need to push from here in Washington,” the Senator added.

“You know, cloth masks don’t work, the virus goes through the cloth mask and around the cloth mask. It’s a joke, it’s theater, and there’s no reason to be wearing them on the planes. we are just punishing ourselves. And I, for one, I’m tired of paying the airlines to be treated like crap when I get on the plane,” Paul urged.

“I want to be treated like a paying customer, and I want them to bring me at least a glass of water and peanuts, and I don’t want somebody jammering at me to put my mask on in between peanuts,” Paul continued, adding “I mean, for goodness’ sakes, I’m paying you money, treat me like a customer. So I’m tired of it.”

“Then they hide behind this federal law, saying, ‘Oh the federal law makes us do this,’” he emphasised, adding “Only because the airlines begged the federal government for the federal law so they could hide behind.”

“So let’s get rid of it. I’m gonna force a vote on it, we’ll see where the Democrats are, but I think the people are like me, fed up and tired of all these regulations and mandates,” Paul concluded.

Watch:

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3NwYWNlX2NhcmQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib2ZmIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1493741890256060418&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Frand-paul-vows-force-repeal-federal-regulation-mandating-masks&sessionId=58cfe0185aa96c0078501403865acf4987a9d732&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2582c61%3A1645036219416&width=550px

The Senator’s comments come as Fauci continues to push for masking to be upheld, stating Thursday that it would be too”risky” to let people, and even kids in schools take masks off.

“There’s no reason for me to change now,” Fauci proclaimed referring to his opinion on masks, adding “It is risky. It is risky. You may get away with it very well, it’s possible you’ll get away with it, but you do have a risk when you pull back if you have a certain dynamic of infection that you’ll have a rebound.”

Watch:

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-1&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3NwYWNlX2NhcmQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib2ZmIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1494326775765110788&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Frand-paul-vows-force-repeal-federal-regulation-mandating-masks&sessionId=58cfe0185aa96c0078501403865acf4987a9d732&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2582c61%3A1645036219416&width=550px

* * *

iii) USA inflation commentaries//LOG JAMS//

iii) USA economic stories

Next week, the American freedom Convoy begins from Barstow California set to arrive in Washington DC days later.

(EpochTimes)

American Truckers Prepare To Drive From California To DC In “The People’s Convoy”

FRIDAY, FEB 18, 2022 – 10:15 AM

By Brad Jones of The Epoch Times

California truckers fed up with the federal government’s endless emergency powers mandating masks and vaccines are gearing up for what they hope will become a Canadian-style “freedom convoy” to Washington, D.C., and are set to roll on Interstate 40 heading east from Barstow on Feb. 23.

A national group, called The People’s Convoy, is organizing the truckers who will hit the road for the nation’s capital city to demand the Emergency Powers Act be lifted, ending the mandates, according to Chris Marston, chairman of the American Foundation for Civil Liberties, a non-profit that advocates for civil liberties issues and is helping coordinate the trucker’s protest.

Though previous news reports stated the convoy wouldn’t depart California until March 7, organizers now say the convoy will leave earlier than planned.

“Freedoms can’t wait,” Marston told The Epoch Times.

The group said it is calling on the American people to join the “call to freedom” in the spirit of “our brave and courageous neighbors to the north—our Canadian brothers and sisters who led the charge.”

The Freedom Convoy in Canada has captured international attention the last handful of weeks as hundreds of truckers have parked in protest outside Parliament in Ottawa, the nation’s capital, demanding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation and an end to mask and vaccine mandates.

A map of the convoy’s expected route will be posted to the group’s website, Maureen Steele, a The People’s Convoy organizer, said Feb. 16 on “War Room,” a streaming political talk show and podcast hosted by former Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon.

To ensure donations for the truckers won’t be frozen or routed to other causes—a problem the Canadian truckers encountered with the crowdsourcing platform GoFundMe—The People’s Convoy is taking donations directly on their website.

Peter Navarro, Trump’s former economic adviser—and a regular on Bannon’s show—praised Canadian truckers for leading the charge against what he called government tyranny.

“They are like the Boston Tea Party. They’re the fountainhead of a worldwide movement, which is basically on the right side of both science and economics. And we have to thank those Canadian truckers,” Navarro said.

Dr. Robert Malone, a virologist, immunologist, and inventor of mRNA vaccines, who has been an outspoken critic of the federal government’s handling of the pandemic and mandates, also suggested on the show that Washington may soon see a new kind of “woke”—that supporters have called an “awakening.”

“I think that the truckers, when they hit the Capitol, may well wake up a large number of our representatives and senators that are kind of a little bit asleep right now,” Malone said.

Joshua Yoder of the US Freedom Flyers, a recently formed group of American air, rail, and trucking professionals who believe in “the right to travel freely” regardless of one’s vaccination status, also appeared on the show to support the U.S. convoy.

“These are Americans who want their voices to be heard. We’ve been shut out for so long,” Yoder said. “There’s a lot of average people coming together, uniting … This is people speaking out and voicing their frustrations, and I think the government would do well to listen to us. It’s been far too long,”

Leigh Dundas, a civil rights attorney based in Orange County and known for her fight against vaccine passports in that county, told The Epoch Times she has been working to unite truckers.

“I’ve been keeping the communication channels open between groups … acting as a de facto clearing house between different truckers who wanted to get connected … and do something similar, but also different from what Canada did,” Dundas told The Epoch Times on Feb. 15.

Dundas said she is urging American truckers to keep the U.S. convoy lawful and peaceful like their northern neighbors and to organize in such a way to keep out any “infiltrators,” who could potentially undermine their goal.

“They’ve done a lot of things right in Canada and we should be taking their lead,” she said.

For those involved, they said they hope the planned American convoy will be a turning point.

“For me personally, it’s about our freedoms as Americans,” trucker Mike Landis said on a video posted on The People’s Convoy website. “This isn’t just about us as truck drivers, or a certain group of people or anything. It’s about Americans. … This is for the people.”

Greg Abdouch, who heads up a grassroots group opposed to mask mandates for school children in Southern California’s Inland Empire, which includes parts of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, said in an interview with The Epoch Times that he’s in full support and thinks other groups, like his, will be too.

Though he said he commends the Canadian truckers, he predicts it will be “small potatoes” compared to what could happen in the United States.

“I feel like this is the moment in time where we’re actually making history,” he said. “I think you’re going to have soccer moms … getting in their cars, slapping a flag on the back, and driving behind this convoy,” he said.

Bird flu detected in 3 USA states

(Phillips/EpochTimes)

Bird Flu Detected In Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana As Outbreak Spreads: Officials

THURSDAY, FEB 17, 2022 – 06:20 PM

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Authorities with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said bird influenza has now been detected in flocks of birds in Kentucky and Virginia, just days after the officials said that thousands of birds were sickened with the flu in Indiana.

According to the agency, bird flu was found in Fauquier County, Virginia; and in Fulton County, Kentucky, on Feb. 12, in non-poultry birds and commercial broiler chickens, respectively. On Feb. 8, bird influenza was detected in commercial turkeys in Dubois County, Indiana.

In a statement, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service did not say whether the outbreak involved H5N1, the same highly pathogenic virus found extensively in wild birds and on the Indiana turkey farm.

Citing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the USDA said that “these avian influenza detections do not present an immediate public health concern.”

“No human cases of these avian influenza viruses have been detected in the United States. As a reminder, the proper handling and cooking of poultry and eggs to an internal temperature of 165 [degrees] F kills bacteria and viruses,” the agency added.

The broiler chickens in Fulton County, located near the border with Tennessee, were infected with the same H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian flu as the turkeys in Indiana, Kentucky officials told Reuters. They said it is Kentucky’s first outbreak of the highly lethal bird flu, which killed more than 50 million U.S. chickens and turkeys in 2015.

Tyson Foods Inc. confirmed that a flock of about 240,000 chickens tested positive.

The disease is hitting the market as poultry supplies are down due to strong demand and labor shortages at meat plants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Government data showed U.S. frozen chicken supplies were down 14 percent from a year ago at the end of December while turkey inventories were down 23 percent.

The United States is the world’s largest producer and second-largest exporter of poultry meat, according to the U.S. government. Kentucky said it is the seventh biggest chicken meat-producing state. Almost 18 percent of U.S. poultry production is exported, and the industry is a major user of feed grains.

Human infections do occur after close contact with an infected animal, but they’re considered rare, CDC officials have previously said. No Americans are recorded to have contracted highly pathogenic avian flu viruses.

Around, 864 people have contracted it since 2003, causing 456 deaths, according to the World Health Organization and the CDC.

The first bird flu viruses are believed to have emerged in southern China before leading to large outbreaks in the late 1990s, according to the CDC, before the virus variants spread throughout the world.

Reuters contributed to this report.

END

Biden’s 770 Billion dollars of a Pentagon budget proposal denounced by the Progressive Democrats.

(Conley/CommonDreams)

Biden’s $770B Pentagon Budget Proposal Denounced As “Absurd” By Progressive Dems

THURSDAY, FEB 17, 2022 – 07:00 PM

Authored by Julia Conley via Common Dreams,

With legislation to reduce childhood poverty and advance renewable energy stalled in Congress, the Biden administration is expected to request more than $770 billion in Pentagon and related spending for the fiscal year beginning in October. “This is absurd,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said in response to the news.

The expected budget request, first reported by Reuters Wednesday, is tens of billions of dollars more than former Republican President Donald Trump ever requested and contrasts with widespread public demand for increased investment in middle- and lower-class Americans and an end to bloated military budgets.

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) pointed to recent polling by the organization which showed that 54% of adults in the U.S. want “the exact opposite” of increased military spending. “In the midst of a pandemic, the growing climate crisis, and ongoing issues nationwide, we need to invest in solutions instead of enriching defense contractors,” said the AFSC.

According to Reuters, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has been negotiating with the White House Office of Management and Budget, arriving at a proposed budget that far exceeds those requested by Trump. Modernization of the United States’ nuclear arsenal and development of weapons to “to fight any potential future wars against China and Russia” have been identified by the administration as “must pay[s],” according to Reuters. Shipbuilding, space defense capabilities, and spending on F-35 jets made by Lockheed Martin are also priorities in the requested budget.

Congress is likely to build on the proposed spending package and arrive at a number that exceeds the one suggested by Austin and President Joe Biden, as lawmakers did after Trump proposed nearly $753 billion for the Pentagon, Reuters reported.

The proposal is expected to be officially announced by the White House as negotiations over the Build Back Better Act, the president’s $1.75 trillion 10-year investment in anti-poverty measures and climate action, is still being debated by lawmakers.

That package was drastically reduced last year due to objections by right-wing Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to paid family and medical leave, an extension of the child tax credits that lifted millions of children out of poverty, and provisions to cut methane emissions and incentivize the use of renewable energy, before the senator ultimately announced he would not support what was left of the bill.

Calls to vaccinate the global population in order to keep new variants of Covid-19 from cropping up and reaching the U.S. have also been largely met with inaction on Capitol Hill. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has said the effort would cost a total of $50 billion.

“Devoting this enormous sum to the Pentagon at a time when the greatest challenges to our security—from pandemics to climate change—are not military in nature is both misguided and counterproductive,” said William Hartung, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute.

Hartung noted that the proposal includes increased spending on modernizing the Pentagon’s “nuclear triad”—nuclear armed bombers, land-based missiles, and ballistic missile submarines:

This buildup, which the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates will cost $634 billion over the next ten years, is dangerous and unnecessary. The continuing commitment to intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), which former Secretary of Defense William Perry has called ‘one of the most dangerous weapons in the world’ because it could be launched on a false alarm and trigger an accidental nuclear war, is particularly troubling. Eliminating ICBMs would enhance our security. And a much smaller nuclear arsenal would be more than adequate to dissuade any nation from launching an attack on the United States.

“It’s time to rethink U.S. military strategy to focus on the most urgent challenges we face and scale back capabilities for fighting unnecessary overseas wars and sustaining nuclear overkill,” Hartung added. “The Pentagon budget should be substantially reduced in keeping with such an approach.”

Biden’s massive defense spending has outraged the far Left…

In addition to the AFSC’s recent polling, Pew Research Center released a national survey Wednesday regarding the U.S. public’s top priorities for 2022. Strengthening the economy was by far the most common priority named by respondents, with 71% saying it was most important. Reducing healthcare costs followed at 61% and 60% of respondents said dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic was their highest priority.

Strengthening the military was named by just 37% of respondents and was a more popular response than only two others—dealing with global trade and dealing with drug addiction. “It’s time to stop pumping billions more each year into the bloated Pentagon budget,” said Jayapal. “We can and must cut defense spending and invest in our communities, families, and climate.”

iv)swamp stories

end

KING REPORT/SWAMP STORIES

U.S. says war appears imminent after shelling on Ukraine front line
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday there was now every indication Russia was planning to invade Ukraine, including signs Moscow was carrying out a false flag operation to justify it, after Ukrainian forces and pro-Moscow rebels traded fire.
    Moscow… ejected the number two official from the U.S. embassy and released a strongly worded letter accusing Washington of ignoring its security demands (promising never to allow Ukraine to join NATO) …Early morning exchanges of fire between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists raised alarm…
    Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels gave conflicting accounts of shelling across the front in the Donbass separatist region… https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/shelling-breaks-out-east-ukraine-west-moscow-dispute-troop-moves-2022-02-17/

Russia reiterates demand for NATO pullback, expels US embassy’s No. 2 https://t.co/q0kmOZhGug

UK says Russia attempting to fabricate pretext to invade Ukraine https://t.co/GVqyTpO7FR
Fed’s Bullard repeats call for 1 percentage point in rate increases by July 1 https://t.co/sRQmxXUABY

ESHs and stocks tumbled while bonds and gold soared (hit 1902) on renewed Russian invasion fears. Energy commodities declined sharply on reports that an Iran nuclear deal was nigh.

Iran nuclear deal draft puts prisoners, enrichment, cash first, oil comes later – diplomats
The broad objective is to return to the original bargain of lifting sanctions against Iran, including ones that have slashed its crucial oil sales, in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear activities that extend the time it would need to produce enough enriched uranium for an atomic bomb if it chose to.
    Iran has breached many of those restrictions and pushed well beyond them in response to the U.S. withdrawal from the deal in 2018 and its reimposition of sanctions under then-President Donald Trump. While the 2015 deal capped uranium enrichment at 3.67% fissile purity, Iran is now enriching to up to 60%, close to weapons grade…
https://www.reuters.com/world/exclusive-iran-nuclear-deal-draft-puts-prisoners-enrichment-cash-first-oil-comes-2022-02-17/

New U.S. jobless claims up by 23,000, ending weeks of declines https://t.co/ciDWSXXvyc

Supply chain showing signs ‘the worst is over’: Port of Long Beach director https://t.co/oY5ISVEUnx

Nearly 75% of all Americans are immune to the omicron variant of COVID-19
One scientific model for COVID-19 cases now estimates that some 73% of Americans are currently immune to Omicron, and that figure could jump to 80% by the middle of next month, according to a new report…. “We have changed,” Ali Mokdad, a professor at the University of Washington, told the wire service. “We have been exposed to this virus and we know how to deal with it.”…
https://notthebee.com/article/a-whopping-75-of-all-americans-are-immune-to-the-omicron-variant-of-covid-19-

DCCC chair says Democrats shouldn’t be ‘falling in love’ with mask mandates (Midterms beckon)
‘It’s not a pivot, it’s an inflection point,’ Rep. Sean Maloney says (It never was ‘the science’!)
https://www.foxnews.com/media/new-york-rep-says-dems-shouldnt-be-falling-in-love-with-mask-mandates-when-they-arent-necessary

@TaviCosta: In a rising cost of capital environment, the size of balance sheets matter. The median WACC for S&P 500 companies is now at its highest levels since 2008. The issue is: Corporations are significantly more indebted than they were back at the peak of the tech and housing bubble.
https://twitter.com/TaviCosta/status/1494339624361074702

@zerohedge: Rabobank: “Policy rates are at the zero bound and the Fed is still buying assets when GDP growth is 6.9%, CPI inflation is 7.5% and unemployment is 4.0%. Is this rational monetary policy or are the lunatics running the asylum?… All Fed choices are bad. There is no oasis ahead, as markets like to believe. There is no Fed ‘masterplan’ to stop inflation without stopping either the asset-price appreciation we’ve built markets on for decades or the faux appreciation for the working class we’ve built markets on the backs of for decades, or both.”

The Fed Balance Sheet INSANELY surged $33.024B on +$43.762B of MBS with -$15.503B of forex.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/20220217/

Today is February expiration – and a long holiday (Presidents’ Day) with a high probability of a horrible geopolitical event beckons. Who wants to be long over the 3-day US holiday weekend? Be very careful!

A $2.2 Trillion Crunch Time Looms for Traders Loaded with Hedges ($2.2T of options expire today)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-17/a-2-2-trillion-crunch-time-looms-for-traders-loaded-with-hedges

@ChuckCallesto: Tech Firm Used by Hillary to Spy on Trump’s Internet Activity – Also Found to be ON BIDEN’S CAMPAIGN PAYROLL in 2020… MEDIA SILENT…

Biden taps non-binary drag queen to look after nuclear waste https://t.co/50Yubg1Bvp

Biden Says Russia Can Invade Ukraine So Long as They Avoid Hunter’s Gas Company https://t.co/gsZcqchPzk

Jewish target, BLM suspect in Louisville assassination attempt: Media evading potential hate motive? – The attempted assassination of a mayoral candidate in Louisville, Ky., this week has shed new light on concern among some Jewish leaders that too many voices with large platforms are ignoring, downplaying and obfuscating antisemitism in America…
https://justthenews.com/nation/extremism/how-americas-no-1-hate-crime-swept-under-rug

@BarbieRed2024: Quintez Brown literally tried to assassinate a political candidate by shooting at him 4 times but he’s about to be set free by bail while Jan 6th prisoners are still rotting in jail for taking selfies inside the capital…

“To have justice administered promptly and without delay, is to gather the best fruits of a free and regular Government.” — Samuel Adams, 1795

@IAPolls2022: Stanley Greenberg (Dem Pollster): ‘Today, the Democrats’ working-class problem isn’t limited to white workers. The party is also losing support from working-class Blacks and Hispanics—a daunting 12 points off their margin since 2016′.  https://t.co/KpmCcjNPlF

@AndrewLawton: “We’re not limiting freedom of peaceful assembly,” Justin Trudeau said this morning in the House of Commons. Meanwhile, Ottawa police are telling people they can be arrested and charged if they don’t leave Parliament Hill, where they are peacefully assembling.

NFL, NBC made every Super Bowl 2022 wrong turn
To have begun the game with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson running around on the field screaming and yelling to juice the Super Bowl in a return to his WWF roots… was not just a waste of time but another clear signal that the NFL, before its largest audience, abandons all pretense of dignity.
    Annoying noise was produced throughout by NBC’s Cris Collinsworth, who seems inextricably stuck on himself and not shy to let us know… Not that anyone — including pandering, shameless sellout Roger Goodell — was surprised by this, but it did feed the stereotype that in order to be a genuine rapper one must grab at his crotch like a 2-year-old who needs to go potty…
    The best sounds once annually produced on Super Bowl Sunday have been largely lost to TV-money greed for more than half the U.S. population. Those were the sounds of Super Bowl parties as friends, families and their kids gathered in an emerging tradition not unlike Thanksgiving.  A smart, caring commissioner and team ownerships would have done nothing to mess with that…
https://nypost.com/2022/02/17/nfl-nbc-made-every-super-bowl-2022-wrong-turn/

END

Let us close out the week with this offering courtesy of Greg Hunter

Harvey: Biden Wants More Injections, Clinton Spied on Trump, Fed Inflation

Inbox

Biden Wants More Injections, Clinton Spied on Trump, Fed Inflation | Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog

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Weekly News Wrap-Ups

Biden Wants More Injections, Clinton Spied on Trump, Fed Inflation

By Greg Hunter On February 18, 2022 In Weekly News Wrap-Ups62 Comments

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com (5/18/22 WNW 516)

The Biden/Obama Administration wants more people to be jabbed with a worthless CV19 vax. That was revealed by a Project Veritas hidden camera sting on top FDA official Christopher Cole. Cole admitted that the injections were “a recurring fountain of revenue.” So, it’s not about helping to cure people or science. It’s all about making money, forcing and coercing dangerous crap on the public while enriching drug companies and government hacks. Thanks, Project Veritas, once again.

It’s official, complements of the Durham investigation. The Trump Campaign was spied on just like President Trump has long charged. Hillary, the CIA, FBI, DOJ and many others were involved. This makes the Watergate Break-in look like a squirt gun fight. Leslie Stahl mocked President Trump in a 60 Minutes interview just before the 2020 election. Stahl, her producers and top management at CBS should all be fired for being a propaganda mouthpiece for the Deep State CCP backed Democrat Party. Stahl is a fool and is now in hiding for her awful work. Trump gets the last laugh on the hack Stahl. For a real laugh, listen to the actual audio of the Stahl/Trump exchange about the spying lip-synced by comedian Rachele Maria.

As Rob Kirby recently said, all the global problems are tied to unpayable debt and massive money creation. The Canadian truckers are at the tip of the spear for freedom. There is much more than vax mandates at stake as Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò lays it all out in a 6:50 video. This is Freedom against the New World Order or good vs. evil.

The Fed is trapped. It can do two things and only two. It can keep it all going, print money and embrace the growing inflation or it can raise interest rates, stop the money printing and crash the economy and all the markets. In an election year with a failing Democrat Administration, what do you think they will do? History is the key. Greg Hunter will explain as he goes back to 1979.

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he talks about these stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up 2.18.22.

(To Donate to USAWatchdog.om Click Here)

After the Interview:

Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong will be the guest for the Saturday Night Post. In his last USAW interview, Armstrong said, “The system has come to an end.” We will get an update, and Armstrong will tell us what we can expect for the rest of the year.

Biden Wants More Injections, Clinton Spied on Trump, Fed Inflation

Well that is all for today. I will see you TUESDAY night

Greg Hunter via aweber.com	1:04 AM (8 hours ago)
to Harvey

Steve	1:35 PM (1 minute ago)
to me, Chris, chris

Robert Hryniak	10:11 AM (6 minutes ago)
to

Robert Hryniak	12:17 PM (6 minutes ago)
to

Robert Hryniak	1:17 PM (18 minutes ago)
to

FEB 18

DONATE

NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED TODAY FOR FEB. CONTRACT: 32 NOTICE(S) FOR 3200 OZ (0.0995 TONNES)

total notices so far: 17,510 contracts for 1,751,000 oz (54.468 tonnes)

1/COMEX GOLD AND SILVER REPORT

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

b) REPORT ON JAPAN

3 C CHINA

4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

6.Global Issues

7. OIL ISSUES

8 EMERGING MARKET ISSUES

Peter Schiff: The Fed Is Running Out Of Minutes

Alasdair Macleod: Central banks are now insolvent

Revised on crypto

Your early currency/gold and silver pricing/Asian and European bourse movements/ and interest rate settings FRIDAY morning 7:30 AM

Futures Flat As Traders Brace For Op-Ex Volatility, More Ukraine Headlines

3 a./NORTH KOREA/ SOUTH KOREA

3c CHINA

“Sick And Tired” – Elderly Patients Crowd Makeshift Tents As Hong Kong Hospitals Overrun

4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

Donbas Separatists Announce Mass Evacuation To Russia; Putin Sees “Situation Deteriorating”

Putin to take part in nuclear war drills — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union

Kamala To The Rescue: VP Harris Heads To Munich To Join Security Talks While Biden Stays Home

Disclose.tv on Twitter: “NOW – Sirens sound in #Donetsk after separatist leader announced the evacuation of civilians to Russia. https://t.co/fdMcHzt1mL&#8221; / Twitter

Пушилин эвакуация – YouTube all of the Donbas is being evacuated of civilians

As VP Harris “Warns” Putin, US Now Says Up To 190,000 Russian Troops Near Ukraine

Drums do. Beat

Watch Live: President Biden Addresses The Russia/Ukraine Situation

6// GLOBAL COVID ISSUES/VACCINE MANDATE ISSUES/

Final Showdown: Canada Police Set To End Freedom Convoy “Unlawful Demonstration”

Why Does Trudeau’s Protest Prohibition Order Exempt Refugees, Immigrants, & Ethnic Minorities?

The Unmasking

Dr. Charles Hoffe is a family physician in British Columbia.-Can you imagine you are threatened that you can’t exercise your job as family practician because some buffoons disagree with your opinion

FYI

Vaccine Impact

After Trudeau Freezes Protesters’ Bank Accounts a Run on Canadian Banks Shuts Down Services

February 17, 2022 3:29 pm

FDA Executive Officer: “Almost a Billion Dollars a Year Going into FDA’s Budget from the People we Regulate”

February 17, 2022 4:55 pm

Michael Every

Rabo: It’s Not Paranoia – The Illogic Of How We Have Built Things Is Out To Get You

Just because you’re paranoid…

It’s not paranoia – the underlying illogic of how we have built things is out to get you.

7. OIL ISSUES

Californians Pay Record High Gas Prices As Pump Pains Send Biden’s Approval Rating Lower

8 EMERGING MARKET& AUSTRALIA ISSUES

Your early currency/gold and silver pricing/Asian and European bourse movements/ and interest rate settings FRIDAY morning 7:30 AM

Gold Soars, Credit Cracks, Stocks Sink As Putin, Powell, & The President Pontificate

“Don’t Want To Be Reckless” – Fauci Warns “Risky” To Lift Mask Mandates For Kids

Rand Paul Vows To “Force A Repeal Of The Federal Regulation Mandating Masks”

American Truckers Prepare To Drive From California To DC In “The People’s Convoy”

Bird Flu Detected In Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana As Outbreak Spreads: Officials

Biden’s $770B Pentagon Budget Proposal Denounced As “Absurd” By Progressive Dems

Harvey: Biden Wants More Injections, Clinton Spied on Trump, Fed Inflation

Biden Wants More Injections, Clinton Spied on Trump, Fed Inflation

Disclose.tv on Twitter: “NOW – Sirens sound in #Donetsk after separatist leader announced the evacuation of civilians to Russia. https://t.co/fdMcHzt1mL” / Twitter