MARCH 6/GOLD CLOSED UP $.55 TO $1849.05//SILVER CLOSED DOWN 13 CENTS TO $21.03//PLATINUM CLOSED DOWN $.75 TO $978.25//PALLADIUM CLOSED DOWN $8.65 TO $1447.50//COVID UPDATES///VACCINE IMPACT//VACCINE INJURY//DR PAUL ALEXANDER//DR PANDA//SLAY NEWS//UKRAINE VS RUSSIA UPDATES// DRS. IN MISSISSIPPI URGE STATE GOVERNMENT TO REMOVE THE HAREMULL COVID 19/JABS//JAPAN’S HUGE DEMOGRAPHIC PROBLEM UPDATED//UPDATES ON EAST PALESTINE DISASTER//ANOTHER TRAIN DERAILMENT COURTESY OF NORFOLK SOUTHERN AND AGAIN THIS OCCURS IN OHIO/SWAMP STORIES FOR YOU TONIGHT//
363 H WELLS FARGO SEC 6 624 C BOFA SECURITIES 1 624 H BOFA SECURITIES 6 657 C MORGAN STANLEY 22 661 C JP MORGAN 39 737 C ADVANTAGE 29 5 800 C MAREX SPEC 5 880 C CITIGROUP 2 905 C ADM 3
TOTAL: 59 59 MONTH TO DATE: 2,16
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GOLD: NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED FOR MAR/2023. CONTRACT: 59 NOTICES FOR 5900 OZ or 0.1835 TONNES
total notices so far: 2169 contracts for 216,900 oz (6.7465 tonnes)
SILVER NOTICES: 114 NOTICE(S) FILED FOR 570,000 OZ/
total number of notices filed so far this month : 2798 for 13,990,000 oz
END
GLD
WITH GOLD UP $0.55
INVESTORS SWITCHING TO SPROTT PHYSICAL (PHYS) INSTEAD OF THE FRAUDULENT GLD
/HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//// SMALL CHANGES TONNES OF GOLD OUT OF THE GLD/: A WITHDRAWAL OF .57 TONNES FROM THE GLD//
INVENTORY RESTS AT 912.12TONNES
Silver//SLV
WITH NO SILVER AROUND AND SILVER DOWN 13 CENTS
AT THE SLV// NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV:
INVESTORS ARE SWITCHING SLV TO SPROTT’S PSLV
CLOSING INVENTORY: 479.063. MILLION OZ
Let us have a look at the data for today
SILVER//OUTLINE
SILVER COMEX OI ROSE BY A STRONG SIZED 743 CONTRACTS TO 122,042 AND CLOSER TO THE RECORD HIGH OI OF 244,710, SET FEB 25/2020 AND THE STRONG SIZED GAIN IN COMEX OI WAS ACCOMPLISHED WITH OUR HUGE $0.67 GAIN IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX ON FRIDAY. OUR NEW LOW COMEX OI SILVER WAS SET AT 121,299 MARCH 3/2023. OUR BANKERS WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING THE PRICE OF SILVER DOWN (IT ROSE BY $0.67). AND WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING ANY SPEC LONGS, AS WE HAD A STRONG GAIN ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES 829 CONTRACTS. WE HAD 0 CRIMINAL NOTICES FILED IN THE CATEGORY OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK TRANSFER ( THE TOTAL ISSUED IN THIS CATEGORY SO FAR THIS MONTH TOTAL 1 MILLION OZ.) WE HAVE FINISHED WITH OUR SPECS BEING SHORT AS THEY COVERED WITH THE RISE IN PRICE IN JANUARY . WE HAVE NOW RETURNED TO OUR USUAL AND CUSTOMARY SCENARIO: BANKERS SHORT AND SPECS LONG.
WE MUST HAVE HAD: A TINY ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS( 25 CONTRACTS) iiii) AN INITIAL SILVER STANDING FOR COMEX SILVER MEASURING AT 15.58 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S QUEUE JUMP OF 130,000 OZ//NEW STANDING: 14.405 MILLION OZ + THE 1.0 MILLION OZ OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK//THUS TOTAL NEW STANDING 15.405 MILLION OZ/ //// V) STRONG SIZED COMEX OI GAIN/ TINY SIZED EFP ISSUANCE/
I AM NOW RECORDING THE DIFFERENTIAL IN OI FROM PRELIMINARY TO FINAL 61 CONTRACTS
HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS MAR. ACCUMULATION FOR EFP’S SILVER/JPMORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES/STARTING FROM FIRST DAY/MONTH OF MAR:
TOTAL CONTRACTS for 4 days, total 1451 contracts: OR 7.255 MILLION OZ . (363 CONTRACTS PER DAY)
TOTAL EFP’S FOR THE MONTH SO FAR: 7.255 MILLION OZ
.
LAST 23 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: 72.39 MILLION OZ//
MARCH: 207.430 MILLION OZ//A NEW RECORD FOR EFP ISSUANCE
APRIL: 114.52 MILLION OZ FINAL//LOW ISSUANCE
MAY: 105.635 MILLION OZ//
JUNE: 94.470 MILLION OZ
JULY : 87.110 MILLION OZ
AUGUST: 65.025 MILLION OZ
SEPT. 74.025 MILLION OZ///FINAL
OCT. 29.017 MILLION OZ FINAL
NOV: 134.290 MILLION OZ//FINAL
DEC, 61.395 MILLION OZ FINAL
JAN 2023/// 53.070 MILLION OZ //FINAL
FEB: 2023: 100.105/ MILLION OZ/FINAL//MUCH STRONGER ISSUANCE VS THE LATTER TWO MONTHS.
MARCH 2023: 7.255 MILLION OZ//INITIAL
RESULT: WE HAD A STRONG SIZED INCREASE IN COMEX OI SILVER COMEX CONTRACTS OF 743 WITH OUR $0.67 GAIN IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX//FRIDAY.,. THE CME NOTIFIED US THAT WE HAD A TINY SIZED EFP ISSUANCE CONTRACTS: 25 CONTRACTS ISSUED FOR MAY AND 0 CONTRACTS ISSUED FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS) WHICH EXITED OUT OF THE SILVER COMEX TO LONDON AS FORWARDS./ WE HAVE A GOOD INITIAL SILVER OZ STANDING FOR MAR OF 15.58 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 130,000 QUEUE JUMP (WHICH INCREASES THE AMOUNT OF SILVER STANDING) + 1.0 MILLION OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUED EARLY IN MARCH (INCREASES THE AMOUNT OF SILVER STANDING) //NEW STANDING 15.405 MILLION OZ .. WE HAVE A STRONG SIZED GAIN OF 829 OI CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES
WE HAD 114 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR 570,000 OZ
THE SILVER COMEX IS NOW BEING ATTACKED FOR METAL BY LONDONERS ET AL.
GOLD//OUTLINE
IN GOLD, THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST ROSE BY A FAIR SIZED 1528 CONTRACTS TO 437,990 AND CLOSER TO THE 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: REMOVED 791 CONTRACTS.
.
WE HAD A FAIR SIZED INCREASE IN COMEX OI ( 1528 CONTRACTS) DESPITE OUR STRONG $14.10 GAIN IN PRICE. WE ALSO HAD A SMALL INITIAL STANDING IN GOLD TONNAGE FOR MAR. AT 4.9953 TONNES ON FIRST DAY NOTICE FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S QUEUE JUMP OF 4,900 OZ (0.1524 TONNES) //(QUEUE JUMPING = EXERCISING LONDON BASED EFP’S ) (EFP is the transfer of contracts immediately to London for potential gold deliveries originating from London).
YET ALL OF..THIS HAPPENED WITH OUR $14.10 GAIN IN PRICEWITH RESPECT TO FRIDAY’S TRADING
WE HAD A GOOD SIZED GAIN OF 4830 OI CONTRACTS (15.023 PAPER TONNES) ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES
E.F.P. ISSUANCE
THE CME RELEASED THE DATA FOR EFP ISSUANCE AND IT TOTALED A FAIR SIZED 3302 CONTRACTS:
The NEW COMEX OI FOR THE GOLD COMPLEX RESTS AT 437,990
IN ESSENCE WE HAVE A GOOD INCREASE IN TOTAL CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 4830 CONTRACTS WITH 2319CONTRACTS INCREASED AT THE COMEX AND 3302 EFP OI CONTRACTS WHICH NAVIGATED OVER TO LONDON. THUS TOTAL OI GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 4830 CONTRACTS OR 15.023 TONNES.
CALCULATIONS ON GAIN/LOSS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES
WE HAD A FAIR SIZED ISSUANCE IN EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS (3302 CONTRACTS) ACCOMPANYING THE FAIR SIZED GAIN IN COMEX OI (1528) TOTAL GAIN IN THE TWO EXCHANGES 4830 CONTRACTS. WE HAVE ( 1) NOW RETURNED TO OUR NORMAL FORMAT OF BANKERS GOING SHORT AND SPECULATORS GOING LONG ,2.) FAIR INITIAL STANDING AT THE GOLD COMEX FOR MAR. AT 4.9953 TONNES FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 4900 OZ QUEUE JUMP//NEW STANDING 6.9611 TONNES // ///3) ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION //4) FAIR SIZED COMEX OPEN INTEREST GAIN// 5) FAIR ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL PAPER/
HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS IN 2023 INCLUDING TODAY
MAR
ACCUMULATION OF EFP’S GOLD AT J.P. MORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES: (EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL) FOR THE MONTH OF MAR :
TOTAL EFP CONTRACTS ISSUED: 11934 CONTRACTS OR 1,193,400 OZ OR 37.12 TONNES 4 TRADING DAY(S) AND THUS AVERAGING: 2984 EFP CONTRACTS PER TRADING DAY
TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE SIZE OF THESE EFP TRANSFERS : THIS MONTH IN 4 TRADING DAY(S) IN TONNES 37.12 TONNES
TOTAL ANNUAL GOLD PRODUCTION, 2022, THROUGHOUT THE WORLD EX CHINA EX RUSSIA: 3555 TONNES
THUS EFP TRANSFERS REPRESENTS 37.12/3550 x 100% TONNES 1.04% OF GLOBAL ANNUAL PRODUCTION
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. 175.62 TONNES//FINAL ISSUANCE//
JAN:2022 247.25 TONNES //FINAL
FEB: 196.04 TONNES//FINAL
MARCH: 409.30 TONNES INITIAL( THIS IS NOW A RECORD EFP ISSUANCE FOR MARCH AND FOR ANY MONTH.
APRIL: 169.55 TONNES (FINAL VERY LOW ISSUANCE MONTH)
MAY: 247,44 TONNES FINAL//
JUNE: 238.13 TONNES FINAL
JULY: 378.43 TONNES FINAL
AUGUST: 180.81 TONNES FINAL
SEPT. 193.16 TONNES FINAL
OCT: 177.57 TONNES FINAL ( MUCH SMALLER THAN LAST MONTH)
NOV. 223.98 TONNES//FINAL ( MUCH LARGER THAN PREVIOUS MONTHS//comex running out of physical)
DEC: 185.59 tonnes // FINAL
JAN 2023: 228.49 TONNES FINAL//HUGE AMOUNT OF EFP’S ISSUED THIS MONTH!!
FEB: 151.61 TONNES/FINAL
MARCH: 37.12 TONNES/INITIAL
SPREADING OPERATIONS
(/NOW SWITCHING TO GOLD) FOR NEWCOMERS, HERE ARE THE DETAILS
SPREADING LIQUIDATION HAS NOW COMMENCED AS WE HEAD TOWARDS THE NEW ACTIVE FRONT MONTH OF APRIL. WE ARE NOW INTO THE SPREADING OPERATION OF GOLD
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 MAR HEADING TOWARDS THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF APRIL., FOR BOTH 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 (NOV), 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.”
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 743 CONTRACTS OI TO 122,042 AND FURTHER FROM OUR COMEX HIGH 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 5 YEARS AGO. HOWEVER WE HAVE SET A RECORD LOW OF 121,299 CONTRACTS MARCH 3/2023.
EFP ISSUANCE 25 CONTRACTS
OUR CUSTOMARY MIGRATION OF COMEX LONGS CONTINUE TO MORPH INTO LONDON FORWARDS AS OUR BANKERS USED THEIR EMERGENCY PROCEDURE TO ISSUE:
MAY 25 and ALL OTHER MONTHS: ZERO. TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 25 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 743 CONTRACTS AND ADD TO THE 25 OI TRANSFERRED TO LONDON THROUGH EFP’S,
WE OBTAIN A HUGE GAIN OF 768 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS FROM OUR TWO EXCHANGES.
THUS IN OUNCES, THE GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES //3.840 MILLION OZ
OCCURRED WITH OUR $0.67 GAIN IN PRICE ….. OUR SPEC SHORTS HAVE NOWHERE TO HIDE!
4. Chris Powell of GATA provides to us very important physical commentaries
end
5. Other gold/silver commentaries
6. Commodity commentaries//
7/CRYPTOCURRENCIES/BITCOIN ETC
3. ASIAN AFFAIRS
i)MONDAY MORNING//SUNDAY NIGHT
SHANGHAI CLOSED DOWN 6.37 PTS OR 0.19% //Hang Seng CLOSED UP 35.65 PTS OR 0.17% /The Nikkei closed UP 310.31% PTS OR 1.11% //Australia’s all ordinaries CLOSED UP 0.56% /Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed DOWN 6.9350 //OFFSHORE CHINESE YUAN UP TO 6.9464// /Oil UP TO 78.55 dollars per barrel for WTI and BRENT AT 84.64 / Stocks in Europe OPENED MIXED// ONSHORE YUAN TRADING ABOVE LEVEL OF OFFSHORE YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST US DOLLAR/OFFSHORE WEAKER
a)NORTH KOREA/SOUTH KOREA
outline
b) REPORT ON JAPAN/
OUTLINE
3 C CHINA
OUTLINE
4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS
OUTLINE
5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS
OUTLINE
6.Global Issues//COVID ISSUES/VACCINE 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 A FAIR SIZED 1528 CONTRACTS UP TO 437,990 DESPITE OUR HUGE GAIN IN PRICE OF $14.10.
EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE
WE ARE NOW IN THE NON ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF MAR… THE CME REPORTS THAT THE BANKERS ISSUED A GOOD SIZED TRANSFER THROUGH THE EFP ROUTE AS THESE LONGS RECEIVED A DELIVERABLE LONDON FORWARD TOGETHER WITH A FIAT BONUS.,
THAT IS 3302 EFP CONTRACTS WERE ISSUED: : APRIL 3302 & ZERO FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS:
TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 3302 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: A GOOD SIZED TOTAL OF 4830 CONTRACTS IN THAT 3302LONGS WERE TRANSFERRED AS FORWARDS TO LONDON AND WE HAD A FAIR SIZED COMEX OI GAIN OF 1528CONTRACTS..AND THIS GOOD SIZED GAIN ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES HAPPENED WITH OUR HUGE GAIN IN PRICE OF $14.10. WE ARE NOW WITNESSING THE BANKERS GOING NET SHORT AND THE SPECS GOING NET LONG.
// WE HAVE A STRONG AMOUNT OF GOLD TONNAGE STANDING: MAR (6.9611) (NON ACTIVE MONTH)
TONNES),
HERE ARE THE AMOUNTS THAT STOOD FOR DELIVERY IN THE PRECEDING 12 MONTHS OF 2021-2022:
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 YEAR 2021 (JAN- DEC): 601.213 TONNES
YEAR 2022:
JANUARY 2022 17.79 TONNES
FEB 2022: 59.023 TONNES
MARCH: 36.678 TONNES
APRIL: 85.340 TONNES FINAL.
MAY: 20.11 TONNES FINAL
JUNE: 74.933 TONNES FINAL
JULY 29.987 TONNES FINAL
AUGUST:104.979 TONNES//FINAL
SEPT. 38.1158 TONNES
OCT: 77.390 TONNES/ FINAL
NOV 27.110 TONNES/FINAL
Dec. 64.541 tonnes (TOTAL YEAR 656.076 TONNES)
2003:
JAN/2023: 20.559 tonnes
FEB 2023: 47.744 tonnes
MAR: 6.9611 TONNES
THE SPECS/HFT WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN LOWERING GOLD’S PRICE( IT ROSE $14.10) //// AND WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING ANY SPECULATOR LONGS AS WE HAD A GOOD SIZED GAIN OF 5621 CONTRACTS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES
WE HAVE GAINED A TOTAL OI OF 15.023 PAPER TONNES OF TOTAL OI FROM OUR TWO EXCHANGES, ACCOMPANYING OUR INITIAL GOLD TONNAGE STANDING FOR MAR. (4.9953 TONNES) FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S HUGE QUEUE JUMP OF 4,900 OZ (0.1524 TONNES)… ALL OF THIS WAS ACCOMPLISHED WITH OUR RISE IN PRICE TO THE TUNE OF $14.10.
WE HAD -791 CONTRACTS REMOVED FROM COMEX TRADES TO OPEN INTEREST AFTER TRADING ENDED LAST NIGHT
NET GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES 4830 CONTRACTS OR 483,000 OZ OR 15.023 TONNES
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month
2169 notices 216,900 6.7465 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
x
i)Dealer deposits: 0
total dealer deposit: nil oz
No dealer withdrawals
Customer deposits: 0
total deposits: nil oz
customer withdrawals: 0
total withdrawals: nil oz
in tonnes: 0 tonnes
Adjustments; 0
CALCULATIONS FOR THE AMOUNT OF GOLD STANDING FOR MAR.
For the front month of MARCH we have an oi of 128 contracts having LOST 459 contracts. We had 508 notices filed on Friday so we
gained another 49 notices or an additional 4900 oz will stand for metal at the comex
April lost 3683 contracts down to 319,180 contracts
May gained 39 contracts to stand at 94
We had 59 notice(s) filed today for 5900 oz
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 equate to 59 contract(s) of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by j.P. Morgan dealer notice(s) was (were) stopped 39 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 MAR. /2023. contract month,
we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (2169 x 100 oz ), to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of (MAR. 128 CONTRACTS) minus the number of notices served upon today 59 x 100 oz per contract equals 223,800 OZ OR 6.9611 TONNES the number of TONNES standing in this active month of MARCH.
thus the INITIAL standings for gold for the MAR contract month:
No of notices filed so far (2169 x 100 oz+ 128 OI for the front month minus the number of notices served upon today (59)x 100 oz} which equals 223,800 oz standing OR 6.9611 TONNES in this active delivery month of MARCH..
To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in MARCH. we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at 2798 x 5,000 oz = 13,990,000 oz
to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of MAR(197) and the number of notices served upon today 114 x (5000 oz) equals the number of ounces standing.
Thus the standings for silver for the MAR./2023 contract month: 2798 (notices served so far) x 5000 oz + OI for the front month of MAR (197) – number of notices served upon today (114) x 500 oz of silver standing for the MAR. contract month equates 14.405 million oz +the 1.0 million oz of exchange for risk//new total standing 15.405 million oz
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
MARCH 6/WITH GOLD UP $0.55 TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF .57 TONNES FROM THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 912.12 TONNES
MARCH 3/WITH GOLD UP $14,10 TODAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 912.69 TONNES
MARCH 2/WITH GOLD DOWN $4.00 TODAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.61 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 912.69 TONNES
MARCH 1/WITH GOLD UP $18.90 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.31 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 915.30 TONNES
FEB 28/WITH GOLD UP $12.10 TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:A DEPOSIT OF .29 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 917.61 TONNES
FEB 27/WITH GOLD UP $6.95 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 917.32 TONNES
FEB 24/WITH GOLD DOWN $9.10 TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.6 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 917.32 TONNES
FEB 23/WITH GOLD DOWN $13.05 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY REST AT 919.92 TONNES
FEB 22/WITH GOLD DOWN 22 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 919.92 TONNES
FEB 21/WITH GOLD DOWN $7.45 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.16 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 919.92 TONNES
FEB 17/WITH GOLD DOWN $1.35 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 921.08 TONNES
FEB 16/WITH GOLD UP $6.80 TODAY; SMALL CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSITOF .29 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 921.08 TONNES
FEB 15/WITH GOLD DOWN $19.65 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 920.79 TONNES
FEB 14/WITH GOLD UP $1.40 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 920.79 TONNES
FEB 13/WITH GOLD DOWN $9.90 TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF .31 TONNES FORM THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 920.79 TONNES
FEB 10/WITH GOLD DOWN $4.05 TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//A WITHDRAWAL OF .0.38 TONNES/INVENTORY RESTS AT 920.79 TONNES
FEB 9/WITH GOLD DOWN $10.90 TODAY:SMALL CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD A DEPOSIT OF .38 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD./INVENTORY RESTS AT 921.10 TONNES
GLD INVENTORY: 912.12 TONNES
Now the SLV Inventory/( vehicle is a fraud as there is no physical metal behind them
MARCH 6/WITH SILVER DOWN 13 CENTS TODAY; NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 479.063 MILLION OZ//
MARCH 3/WITH SILVER UP 67 CENTS TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 1.369 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 479.063 MILLION OZ//
MARCH 2/WITH SILVER DOWN $.16 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 920,00 OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 477.694 MILLION OZ
MARCH 1/WITH SILVER UP 4 CENTS TODAY; HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.574 MILLION OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 478.614 MILLION OZ.
FEB 28/WITH SILVER UP 26 CENTS TODAY; HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.241 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 481.188
FEB 27/WITH SILVER DOWN 15 CENTS TODAY; HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.471 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV///INVENTORY RESTS AT 482.429 MILLION OZ
FEB 24/WITH SILVER DOWN 46 CENTS TODAY; HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.172 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 483.900 MILLION OZ//
FEB 23/WITH SILVER DOWN 32 CENTS TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 1.379 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 487.072 MILLION OZ//
FEB 22/WITH SILVER DOWN 22 CENTS TODAY:SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 689,000 OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 485.693 MILLION OZ
FEB 21/WITH SILVER UP 14 CENTS TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 1.5363 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 486.382 MILLION OZ//
FEB 17/WITH SILVER UP 2 CENTS TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 827,000 OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 484.819 MILLION OZ/
FEB 16/WITH SILVER UP 8 CENTS TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 690,000 OZ OF SILVER INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 483.992 MILLION OZ//
FEB 15/WITH SILVER DOWN $0.26 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 483.302 MILLION OZ//
FEB 14/WITH SILVER DOWN 1 CENT TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV” A WITHDRAWAL OF 460,000 OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 483.302 MILLION OZ//
FEB 13 WITH SILVER DOWN 17 CENTS TODAY; NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV// INVENTORY RESTS AT 483.762 MILLION OZ//
FEB 10/WITH SILVER DOWN 8 CENTS: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: //INVENTORY RESTS AT 483.762 MILLION OZ
FEB 9/WITH SILVER DOWN 14 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: INVENTORY RESTS AT 483.76 MILLION OZ (CORRECTED).//
CLOSING INVENTORY 479.063 MILLION OZ//
PHYSICAL GOLD/SILVER STORIES
1:Peter Schiff
2 Lawrie Williams//Pam and Russ Martens/Jim Rickards/Mathew Piepenburg/Von Greyerz//Rickards:
END
3. Chris Powell of GATA provides to us very important physical commentaries//
A good read..
(Robert Lambourne//GATA)
Robert Lambourne: German central banker notes that gold outperforms the euro
Submitted by admin on Fri, 2023-03-03 14:19Section: Daily Dispatches
By Robert Lambourne Friday, March 3, 2023
A powerful endorsement for gold as money came this week from a member of the Executive Board of Germany’s Bundesbank, Joachim Wuermeling, who spoke at the press conference in Frankfurt presenting the Bundesbank’s annual report for 2022.
Commenting on the central bank’s gold holdings, Wuermeling said:
“The revaluation reserve for gold rose by €10.2 billion to €176.1 billion. The price of gold in U.S. dollars as at the reporting date was down slightly on the previous year’s price, but the stronger dollar meant that the price of gold in euros was up 6% on the year.
“Viewed over the long term, there is still a sustained marked increase in the revaluation reserve for gold. Compared with its starting balance at the launch of monetary union (€21 billion), this revaluation reserve, with its current balance of €176.1 billion, is eight times as large as it was at the start of 1999.”
Here is a European central banker noting that gold steadily has outperformed the currency for which he shares responsibility, and suggesting that it is prudent to hold gold as a hedge against inflation and currency devaluation. Central bankers are seldom so candid about the ancient form of money that still competes with their own.
The English translation of Wuermeling’s presentation is posted at the internet site of the Bank for International Settlements here:
Robert Lambourne is a retired business executive in the United Kingdom who consults with GATA about the involvement of the Bank for International Settlements in the gold market.
END
These guys understand that only gold/silver is true money: they vote to authorize the purchase of gold and silver
(MMN)
Idaho House votes to authorize state gold and silver holdings
Submitted by admin on Fri, 2023-03-03 21:32Section: Daily Dispatches
From Money Metals News Service, Eagle, Idaho Thursday, March 2, 2023
BOISE, Idaho — The Idaho State House today approved a bill to enable the State Treasurer to protect state funds from inflation and other financial risks by holding some physical gold and and silver.
State representatives voted 40-29 to pass House Bill 180, the Idaho Sound Money Reserves Act, sending the measure — introduced by Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, and Sen. Phil Hart, R-Kellogg — to the Senate for a hearing.
Supported by Idahoans and groups such as the Sound Money Defense League, HB 180 would permit, but not require, the state treasurer to hold some portion of state funds in physical gold and silver to secure state assets against the risks of inflation and financial turmoil and/or to achieve capital gains as measured in devaluing Federal Reserve Notes. …
1. YOUR EARLY CURRENCY/GOLD AND SILVER PRICING/ASIAN AND EUROPEAN BOURSE MOVEMENTS/AND INTEREST RATE SETTINGS//MONDAY MORNING.7:30 AM
ONSHORE YUAN: CLOSED DOWN TO 6.9350
OFFSHORE YUAN: 6.9464
SHANGHAI CLOSED DOWN 6.37 PTS OR 0.19%
HANG SENG CLOSED UP 35.65 PTS OR 0.17%
2. Nikkei closed UP 310.31 PTS OR 1.11%
3. Europe stocks SO FAR: ALL MIXED
USA dollar INDEX UP TO 104.59 Euro RISES TO 1.0639 UP 7 BASIS PTS
3b Japan 10 YR bond yield: RISES TO. +.500!!(Japan buying 100% of bond issuance)/Japanese YEN vs USA cross now at 136.11/JAPANESE YEN FALLING AS WELL AS LONG TERM 10 YR. YIELDS RISING //EVENTUALLY THIS WILL BREAK THE JAPANESE CENTRAL BANK.
3c Nikkei now ABOVE 17,000
3d USA/Yen rate now well ABOVE the important 120 barrier this morning
3e Gold DOWN /JAPANESE Yen DOWN CHINESE YUAN: DOWN-// OFF- SHORE: DOWN
3f Japan is to buy INFINITE TRILLION YEN’S worth of BONDS. Japan’s GDP equals 5 trillion usa
Japan to buy 100% of all new Japanese debt and NOW they will have OVER 50% of all Japanese debt.
3g Oil UP for WTI and UP FOR Brent this morning
3h European bond buying continues to push yields lower on all fronts in the EMU. German 10yr bund DOWN TO +2.671%***/Italian 10 Yr bond yield FALLS to 4.587%*** /SPAIN 10 YR BOND YIELD FALLS TO 3.694…** DANGEROUS//
3i Greek 10 year bond yield FALLS TO 4.412//(ITALY WORSE THAN GREECE?)
3j Gold at $1851.90//silver at: 21.13 7 am est) SILVER NEXT RESISTANCE LEVEL AT $30.00
3k USA vs Russian rouble;// Russian rouble DOWN 0 AND 12/100 roubles/dollar; ROUBLE AT 75.51//
3m oil into the 78 dollar handle for WTI and 84 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 CONTINUES NIRP. THIS MORNING RAISES AMOUNT OF BONDS THAT THEY WILL PURCHASE UP TO .5% ON THE 10 YR BOND///YEN TRADES TO 136.11/10 YEAR YIELD AFTER BREAKING .54%, REMAINS AT .5000% STILL ON CENTRAL BANK (JAPAN) INTERVENTION
30 SNB (Swiss National Bank) still intervening again in the markets driving down the FRANC. It is not working: USA/SF this 0.9349–as the Swiss Franc is still rising against most currencies. Euro vs SF 0.9947well 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: 3.922% DOWN 4 BASIS PTS…GETTING DANGEROUS//
USA 30 YR BOND YIELD: 3.845 DOWN 4 BASIS PTS//INVERTED TO THE 10 YEAR!!
USA 2 YR BOND YIELD: 4.8504 DOWN 1 BASIS PT
USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 18,90…
GREAT BRITAIN/10 YEAR YIELD: 3.856% DOWN 4 BASIS PTS
end
i.b Overnight: Newsquawk and Zero hedge:
FIRST, ZEROHEDGE (PRE USA OPENING// MORNING
Futures Flat Ahead Of Event-Packed Week
MONDAY, MAR 06, 2023 – 08:07 AM
After a torrid two-day rally which took place as bears failed to push futures below the key 3,900 level, which sent spoos not only above 4,000 but back over key resistance levels, and which lifted the Nasdaq 100 to its best day since early February, US index futures were muted on Monday as investors awaited the latest jobs data for clues on the strength of the domestic economy (we get ADP, JOLTS and NFP this week) and comments from Fed Chair Powell on Tuesday. Contracts on the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 were little changed as of 7:45 am ET, after Chinese leaders set a lower-than-expected 5% economic growth goal, which implies Beijing is unlikely to deploy large-scale stimulus to shore up its economy as it emerges from Covid-era lockdowns. China’s tepid forecast also hit European stocks and commodities; the Bloomberg Dollar spot index reversed from the day’s lows, and was trading near session highs pressuring G-10 currencies. Treasuries eked out small gains, mirroring moves in global bond markets. Oil, gold and Bitcoin fell.
Among notable movers in premarket trading, Apple advanced as Goldman Sachs analysts initiated coverage with a buy rating, saying the iPhone maker’s growing installed base of users underpins the “Apple-as-a-Service” opportunity. Tesla swung between gains and losses after the automaker slashed the starting price of its Model X and Model S electric cars in the US for the second time this year, according to the company’s website: Model S price cut to $89,990 from $94,990; Model S Plaid cut to $109,990 from $114,990; Model X cut to $99,990 from $109,990; Model X Plaid cut to $109,990 from $119,990. Here are some other notable premarket movers:
NEXTracker rises 2% after being initiated at five brokerages, with the US solar power tracking provider’s market positioning and management team impressing analysts, but some noting that the benefits may now be priced in.
Silvergate falls 3.8% after the bank closed its flagship crypto payments network and Moody’s cut its ratings on the company.
Vir Biotechnology gains 4.7% after JPMorgan upgraded the biotech to overweight from neutral on the potential of the company’s flu shot and HBV therapies.
After a subdued February, the benchmark S&P 500 rallied on Friday to snap a three-week losing streak as investors bet on a slowdown in the pace of rate hikes. The index also bounced off a key support level at the 200-day moving average, setting it up to extend gains in the short term, according to Morgan Stanley strategists.
While the prevailing consensus emerging from the first day of China’s Two Sessions is that the lack of an ambitious GDP target (at 5%, it missed most estimates), meant that less stimulus would be injected, some analysts saw the unambitious target as positive if it prevents another bout of price growth stemming from the world’s No. 2 economy. Prices for iron ore, crude oil and copper fell, knocking a Bloomberg index of commodities as much as 1% lower.
“The inflation impulse may not be as extreme for the global economy,” Christian Mueller-Glissmann, head of asset allocation research at Goldman Sachs told Bloomberg Television. “Our biggest concern coming into this reopening was oil. A significant increase in oil prices would make the job for the Federal Reserve even more difficult.” Ironically, it has been Goldman’s commodities division that has been among the most vocal bulls on oil for 2023.
All eyes this week will be on Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s testimony to Capitol Hill before the monthly jobs report on Friday. In his address to lawmakers, Powell is expected to echo fellow central bankers in suggesting interest rates will go higher than policy makers anticipated just weeks ago if economic data continue to exceed expectations. Both events will be the next test for stock markets after “hotter-than-anticipated inflation caused some repricing as investors come to realize there’s more work to be done to bring inflation back down closer to target,” said Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor.
Elsewhere, and just as we predicted, after 10 consecutive weeks of bearishness with the S&P well above his “easy short at 3900” level, Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson, one of the biggest permabears on Wall Street, capitulated and said he’s expecting stocks to rally in the short term. Wilson pointed to the S&P 500’s resilience at the 200-day moving average last week, a widely-monitored technical indicator of an index’s momentum against its current price. The bounce off the line suggests it may now act as a support for the benchmark. Wilson said the index is likely to move higher if Treasury yields and the dollar continue to decline. “Equity markets survived a crucial test of support last week that suggests this bear market rally is not ready to end just yet,” the strategist wrote in a note Monday (more in a follow up note).
JPMorgan strategists, meanwhile, doubled down on their bearishness and said stock markets are set to come under pressure beyond the first quarter against the backdrop of “more normal” positioning, mixed corporate earnings, further policy tightening and the likely end of positive surprises in business activity.
“Powell could surprise markets this week with his testimony but they have already set it up so they hike in 25 basis-point increments,” Nikko Asset Management chief strategist John Vail said on Bloomberg Television. Vail predicted payrolls data to show a softer figure than the previous month, “and that may calm down some of the fears of the Fed.”
Europe’s Stoxx 600 index also retreated, with commodity and energy shares in particular feeling the heat from Beijing’s growth outlook; travel, retail and consumer products were best-performing sectors. The FTSE is down 0.4% as miners weigh. Over the weekend, we learned that Harris Associates, Credit Suisse’s biggest shareholder for many years, sold its entire stake in the lender. After cutting its 10% holding to 5% toward the end of last year, the firm exited its investment over the past three to four months, Chief Investment Officer David Herro said in an email. Separately, UBS cut employee bonuses for last year by 10% while simultaneously boosting pay for Chief Executive Officer Ralph Hamers. The bank’s compensation awards cap an uneven year, with a roughly 50% decline in advisory and capital markets offsetting gains in trading and inflows in wealth management. Here are some of the biggest movers on Monday:
Helvetia shares climbed as much as 4.4%, the most in almost a year, after results were better than expected, driven by a very strong performance for the Swiss insurer’s life business
Rheinmetall shares gain as much as 2.6% in Frankfurt on news the defense contractor will replace Fresenius Medical Care in Germany’s DAX Index effective March 20
GAM shares rise as much as 3.4% after the FT reported that the Switzerland-listed fund manager is trying to find a buyer ahead of results it has delayed by two months
Accor shares jump as much as 2.7% after the French hospitality group was upgraded to overweight from equal- weight at Barclays, which sees significant upside risks to consensus forecasts
Credit Suisse shares decline as much as 2.6% after one of the Swiss bank’s biggest backers, Harris Associates’ stock picker David Herro, sold his entire stake
Covestro shares decline 1.8% after Exane says recovery is now priced into the stock, downgrading its rating on the German chemicals producer
Pantheon Resources shares plunge as much as 53% after the oil and gas firm gave an update on reservoir performance for the Alkaid 2 well, which returned to production on 21 February
Belimo shares decline as much as 6.6% as the Swiss ventilation-equipment manufacturer’s capacity constraints due to a lack of qualified labor hampers its strong underlying growth drivers
Earlier in the session, Asia stocks were on track to reach their highest level in about two weeks as tech stocks climbed amid lower bond yields. Chinese equities lagged as Beijing’s modest economic growth target dampened hopes for stronger stimulus. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed as much as 1.1% to a level last seen on Feb. 21, with tech-heavy gauges in South Korea and Taiwan higher as the 10-year US Treasury yield slipped below 4%. Stocks in Hong Kong and China underperformed the region, whipsawing earlier as the country’s annual parliamentary meetings entered their second day. Meanwhile, Vietnam’s measure was higher after developers jumped on news that companies will be allowed to use other assets to make principal and interest payments on bonds. Thailand was closed for a holiday. Investors will watch Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s testimonies before Senate and House committees this week.
Expectations for US nonfarm payrolls data due Friday will also drive trading as market watchers assess the Fed’s policy path and the ability for the US to navigate a potential recession. If the payrolls print is strong “it is likely to cement market expectations of a 50bp hike in March,” said Nomura strategists including Chetan Seth in a note. “If the economic slowdown/recession is delayed to late-2023 (or even 2024),” Asian stocks might not face a significant selloff immediately as long as labor market conditions don’t deteriorate, they added. Other events to watch this week include monetary policy decisions in Australia, Japan and Malaysia. The MSCI Asia has rebounded this month from a near 6% selloff in February as declines in Chinese stocks slow and US economic data point to robust trends
Japanese stocks climbed, with the Topix reaching a fresh 14-month high, as traders dialed back concerns over US rate hikes. The Topix rose 0.8% to close at 2,036.49, while the Nikkei advanced 1.1% to 28,237.78. Sony Group Corp. contributed the most to the Topix gain, increasing 2.6%. Out of 2,160 stocks in the index, 1,381 rose and 675 fell, while 104 were unchanged. “The first half of this week will be relatively strong, and the second half is likely to be a wait-and-see mood ahead of the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy meeting and employment statistics near the weekend,” said Naoki Fujiwara, chief fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management.
Indian stocks posted their biggest two-day rally in more than four months as most peers in Asia advanced and a rebound in Adani Group shares boosted local investor sentiment. The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.7% to 60,224.46 in Mumbai, while the NSE Nifty 50 Index advanced by a similar measure. Their two-day rally was the biggest such move since Oct. 6. The gauges are down around 1% and 2.2% this year, respectively. Infosys contributed the most to the Sensex’s gain, increasing 1.9%. Out of 30 shares in the Sensex index, 24 rose and 6 fell.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.6% to close at 7,328.60, extending gains to a third day. The benchmark was boosted by strength in banks and consumer discretionary stocks. Australia’s central bank is set to raise interest rates for a 10th straight meeting on Tuesday, with policymakers facing a complex messaging task for an outlook of slower economic growth and still-elevated inflation. In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.4% to 11,912.48
In FX, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index inched up as the greenback traded higher against most of its Group-of-10 peers. The Swiss franc rallied and was the best G-10 performer while the sovereign yield curve twist-flattened after CPI surprisingly increased 3.4% in February from a year earlier. That contrasted with the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey, which predicted a slowdown to 3.1%.
The euro was steady at around $1.0630. Currency volatility traded in a sea of green in the front-end, yet the move higher in euro-dollar quickly met a fresh round of selling. Bunds and Italian bonds climbed for a second day and money markets trimmed ECB tightening wagers after policymaker Centeno highlighted slowing headline inflation instead of the rising core gauge
China’s yuan weakens after the outgoing Premier Li Keqiang announced a disappointing growth target for this year at the National People’s Congress on Sunday. The 10-year sovereign bond yield falls to the lowest level in two weeks. China set a modest economic growth target of around 5% for the year, with the nation’s top leaders avoiding any large stimulus to spur a consumer-driven recovery already underway, suggesting less of a growth boost to an ailing world economy.
The Australian dollar weakened and is in danger of hitting its lowest point this year as China’s growth target disappoints and weak local data may cause the central bank to temper its policy stance at Tuesday’s meeting. The Melbourne Institute’s measure of inflation rate rose 6.3% from a year earlier in February, following a record of 6.4% increase in the previous month, driven mainly by the price increases in private motoring and new dwellings
The yen was steady against the dollar and demand for protection against a yen surge climbed in the options market as BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s last policy meeting looms this week. The benchmark 10-year yield was flat just shy off the BOJ’s 0.5% policy ceiling
In rates, treasuries advance across the curve Monday, following wider gains across bunds while swap spreads tighten into the rally, suggesting receiving flows are occurring ahead of an expected busy week for IG credit issuance. Treasury yields remain richer by 0.5bp to 3bp across the curve with long-end-led gains flattening 2s10s, 5s30s spreads by 2bp and 1.2bp on the day; 10-year yields around 3.92% are richer by ~3bp vs Friday close with bunds slightly outperforming in the sector. German 10-year borrowing costs initially dropped 7bps after dovish remarks from ECB’s Mario Centeno; however comments from ECB’s Holzmann – who said he expects four or more half-point rate hikes – trimmed gains for bunds early in the session and dragged Treasury yields off richest levels of the day. Treasury auctions resume Tuesday with 3-year note sale, followed by 10- and 30-year sales Wednesday and Thursday. Of note, the the three-month LIBOR rate for dollars, a major global lending benchmark, surpassed 5% for the first time in more than 15 years on Monday.
In commodities, oil declined at the start of the week after China set a cautious growth target for this year and refrained from unveiling any major new stimulus, while concerns lingered over further monetary tightening by the US Federal Reserve. Gold also dipped on the news.
Looking at today’s calendar, at 10 a.m., we get factory orders and durable goods data. At 11:30 a.m., the US will sell $57 billion of 13-week bills and $48 billion of 26-week bills. The CERAWeek energy conference starts in Houston, while earnings include Nutanix and Trip.com. ADP employment change and February jobs report are ahead this week. Fed speakers this week include Chair Powell before of the Senate Banking panel Tuesday, and again before the House Financial Services committee Wednesday
Market Snapshot
S&P 500 futures little changed at 4,049.00
STOXX Europe 600 little changed at 464.62
MXAP up 0.7% to 162.36
MXAPJ up 0.5% to 526.22
Nikkei up 1.1% to 28,237.78
Topix up 0.8% to 2,036.49
Hang Seng Index up 0.2% to 20,603.19
Shanghai Composite down 0.2% to 3,322.03
Sensex up 0.7% to 60,209.39
Australia S&P/ASX 200 up 0.6% to 7,328.60
Kospi up 1.3% to 2,462.62
German 10Y yield little changed at 2.68%
Euro little changed at $1.0638
Brent Futures down 0.6% to $85.34/bbl
Gold spot down 0.2% to $1,852.11
U.S. Dollar Index little changed at 104.55
Top Overnight News from Bloomberg
The ECB is likely to continue tightening monetary policy by implementing “a fairly significant interest-rate increase,” according to Governing Council member Olli Rehn. The ECB will probably need to raise borrowing costs again after an increase already penciled in for next week, according to Chief Economist Philip Lane: BBG
Retailers in France have agreed to offer the lowest possible prices for essential food items to help households cope with surging inflation, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday: BBG
China set a 2023 GDP growth target of “around 5%”, an achievable outlook (remember they fall far short of the 2022 goal) that’s approximately consistent with expectations (the St is modeling +5.3%), although it was a bit less than some were hoping to hear (many felt it would be “above 5%”) and suggests the gov’t remains somewhat cautious about the economic outlook despite a signs of a robust rebound. WSJ
China adopted a relatively conciliatory tone toward Taiwan, talking about how it will work to restore exchanges and economic ties with the island. SCMP
The Biden administration is preparing a new program that could prohibit U.S. investment in certain sectors in China, a new step to guard U.S. technology advantages during a growing competition between the world’s two largest economies. WSJ
China has declared it won’t send weapons to Russia according to German Chancellor Scholz and the EU has seen no evidence so far of such a plan being considered. Politico
South Korea’s CPI for Feb undershoots the St consensus, coming in at +4.8% (down from +5.2% in Jan and below the St’s +5% estimate), taking pressure off the country’s central bank. BBG
Underlying inflation in the euro zone will stay high in the near term so a 50 basis point European Central Bank interest rate increase later this month is increasingly certain, ECB President Christine Lagarde told Spanish media group Vocento. Also, ECB’s Lane says further rate hikes beyond the March meeting will be appropriate. RTRS
Credit Suisse lost one of its biggest backers. Harris Associates stock picker David Herro sold the firm’s entire stake in the bank, severing ties after about two decades. Harris was the biggest shareholder for many years, but had cut its 10% holding to 5% toward the end of 2022. BBG
San Francisco Fed President Daly said the battle against inflation will require further rate increases with the cycle ceiling maintained for a longer period. FT
While Fundamental L/S managers’ Net exposure to the Market factor (proxy of Net leverage) has increased in the past few months, Net exposure on a beta adjusted basis (i.e., when including both the Market and Market Sensitivity factors) has been falling rapidly since mid-January. In percentile terms vs. the past five years, Fundamental L/S Net exposure to the Market factor is currently in the 51st percentile (vs. 35th percentile at the end of 2022). However, when including both the Market and Market Sensitivity factors, Fundamental L/S Managers’ Net exposure is now near five-year lows in the 4th percentile (vs. 27th percentile at the end of 2022). GS PB
On March 17, S&P Dow Jones and MSCI will dissolve the Data Processing & Outsourced Services group within Info Tech and reallocate its constituents to Financials and Industrials. The reclassification will add several growth stocks to the traditional value stocks in Financials. V, MA, and PYPL, the three largest stocks affected, will comprise 16% of Financials cap. Three takeaways: (1) The macro correlations of the sector will change modestly, but the sector will remain cyclical and positively correlated with rates. (2) Implied mechanical net ETF flows for stocks across affected sectors would represent less than 1% of market cap. (3) Mutual funds would become more overweight Financials and more underweight Tech. GS
A more detailed look at global markets courtesy of Newsquawk
APAC stocks were mostly positive as the majority of bourses took impetus from last Friday’s gains on Wall St where the Nasdaq outperformed amid a softer yield environment, although gains were capped after China announced a modest growth target of about 5% for 2023. ASX 200 was positive as strength in tech, financials and the consumer sector offset the weakness in the mining industry but with further upside limited heading into the RBA rate decision tomorrow where the central bank is widely expected to deliver a 10th consecutive rate hike. Nikkei 225 outperformed after topping the 28k level for the first time this year with SoftBank leading the advances following reports that its Arm unit is seeking to raise at least USD 8bln from a US IPO. KOSPI gained as softer-than-expected CPI data eased the pressure for the BoK to resume rate hikes and with South Korea unveiling a plan to ease tensions with Japan regarding wartime forced labour compensation. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp. traded mixed with early pressure after China set its slowest growth target in over two decades and with the PBoC’s operations resulting in a significant net liquidity drain of CNY 329bln, although some of the losses were pared given that China also made several support pledges and following the announcement of further inclusions to the Stock Connect.
Top Asian News
Chinese Premier Li announced at the National People’s Congress that China’s 2023 GDP growth target is about 5.0% (exp. 5.0%-5.5%), while the target for CPI is around 3% and the jobless rate at around 5.5% for 2023. Premier Li also stated that China aims to create 12mln urban jobs and that it is essential to prioritise the economic recovery, as well as reiterated to expand domestic demand and prioritise the consumption recovery. China will step up proactive fiscal policy and effectively boost investment, extend and further refine policies on tax and fee cuts, and will implement prudent monetary policy in a targeted way.
China will prevent and control the epidemic in a more scientific, precise and efficient way, according to the work report. China is to support financial institutions to meet the effective needs of the real economy and will increase the proportion of direct financing, while it will increase loans to small and micro businesses, as well as further enhance credit support to tech and innovative SMEs. Furthermore, China’s public expenditure will grow 5.7% this year and military spending will increase at a faster pace of 7.2%, according to Reuters and FT.
NDRC Vice Chairman said China’s economy is steadily improving and consumption will be the main driver for growth this year, while they will prudently tackle risks related to real estate, finance and local government debt.
Taiwan’s government said China should respect the Taiwanese people’s commitment to core concepts of sovereignty, democracy and freedom, while it added that China should deal with cross-strait affairs pragmatically in a rational, equal and mutually respectful manner, according to Reuters.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park announced a plan for South Korea to compensate victims of Japan’s forced labour through its public foundation in which companies will voluntarily donate to the fund and said that cooperation between the two nations is critical in the face of the serious international security situation. It was later reported that Japanese PM Kishida said they welcome the South Korean government’s measures on wartime labour compensation and will work closely with South Korean President Yoon, while Japan’s Foreign Minister noted that South Korea’s plan will help restore healthy ties.
Hong Kong’s stock market operator is expected to reduce the proposed listing threshold for “specialist” technology companies as it dials up its overtures to allow eligible start-ups to raise funds, according to SCMP sources.
European bourses are posting modest gains of circa. 0.3% in a continuation of the firmer APAC handover where the upside was capped by China’s GDP targets. Though, the SMI and FTSE 100 buck the trend slightly and are mostly softer, given pressure in Credit Suisse and Basic Resources following Harris Associates divestment and benchmark pricing respectively. US futures are essentially unchanged given the above and as participants await the week’s commentary from Fed officials, incl. Chair Powell, and Friday’s NFP report. Apple (AAPL) initiated with Buy at Goldman Sachs; price target USD 199/shr.
Top European News
ECB President Lagarde said underlying inflation will stay high in the near term and that a 50bp rate hike later this month is increasingly certain, while she added that they must continue to take whatever measures necessary to bring inflation back to 2%, according to Spanish media group Vocento cited by Reuters.
ECB’s Lane says current information on underlying inflation pressures suggests that it will be appropriate to raise rates further beyond our March meeting and “While there has been a clear turnaround in energy inflation and there are some signs of deceleration for food inflation, momentum for core inflation has not declined. In particular, momentum in the goods category remains strong.”. Click here for more detail.
ECB’s Centeno says “rates increased too quickly. Now patience, the prices go down”, via La Stampa; ECB targets headline not core inflation. Lower inflation forecasts should be heeded in March. Responded that the decision must be based on data, when asked about possible 50bps hikes after March.
French Finance Minister Le Maire says they have come to an agreement with retailers to contain food inflation, worth several-hundreds-of-millions.
FX
The DXY is softer on the session, but has found a foothold above 104.50 within 104.34-63 extremes as participants look to Chair Powell and data later in the week.
CHF is the current outperformer following unexpectedly hot Swiss CPI, with USD/CHF down to within reach of 0.9300 (vs 0.9373 peak) while EUR/CHF slipped to an eventual 0.9924 low.
The next best, but little changed overall, is the EUR; though, the single currency has recouped from soft Sentix to reside at the mid-point of 1.0616-57 parameters and proved largely unreactive to ECB’s Lane on inflation.
Antipodeans and the Yuan are the laggards, in the wake of China’s 5.0% (exp. 5.0-5.5) 2023 GDP target; AUD down to 0.6728 with attention also on the upcoming RBA meeting where 25bp is expected, but a pause cannot be outruled.
SEK failed to benefit from Q4 current account given dovish-impulses via a weekend interview from Riksbank’s Thedeen, in which he dismissed intra-meeting action and dialled down the importance of the SEK on mon pol.
PBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 6.8951 vs exp. 6.8932 (prev. 6.9117)
Norway’s government lowered its 2023 mainland GDP growth forecast to 0.9% from 1.7% and lowered the 2024 GDP growth forecast to 1.4% from 2.0%, while the government is to present a financially responsible budget which prioritises the expense imposed by the war in Ukraine, public services and helping those who are most in need, according to Reuters.
Fixed Income
Core benchmarks have managed to recover well from initial bouts of pressure, with yields softer across the curve in Europe and the US.
Specifically, Bunds and Gilts were pressured to 131.22 and 99.85 troughs respectively, but recording to around 131.50 and closer to 100.50.
Stateside, USTs are at the top-end of a 111.01+ to 111.13+ range, with the curve softer and action most pronounced in the long-end going into a relatively quiet US session before the week ramps up from Tuesday with the first of Chair Powell’s testimonies.
Commodities
Crude benchmarks are softer and at the lower-end of circa. USD 1/bbl parameters, following the underwhelming GDP targets set by the market’s largest buyer China.
Specifically, WTI Apr and Brent May are at the trough of USD 78.69-79.92/bbl and USD 84.71-85.83/bbl parameters respectively.
Saudi Arabia raised most of its official selling prices for April with the Arab light crude OSP to Asia set at Oman/Dubai + USD 2.50/bbl (prev. +2.00/bbl) and to Northwest Europe was set at ICE Brent + USD 1.00/bbl (prev. +0.50/bbl), while the OSP to the US was maintained at ASCI + USD 6.65/bbl, according to Reuters.
Goldman Sachs expects Brent to begin grinding higher this month and reach USD 100/bbl in December.
Spot gold is little changed above USD 1850/oz, and as such is between the 50- and 21-DMAs at USD 1869/oz and USD 1844/oz respectively; base metals are subdued given the aforementioned growth target from China.
Geopolitics
UK military intelligence said Ukrainian defence of the Donbas town of Bakhmut is under increasingly severe pressure with intense fighting taking place in and around the city, while regular Russian army and Wagner Group forces have made further advances into the suburbs of the city.
US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Milley made an unannounced visit to Syria to assess the mission, while the visit drew condemnation from Syria which stated that the visit was illegal and a flagrant violation of the country’s sovereignty, according to SANA.
IAEA report stated that Iran has given high-level assurances that it is open to resolving the safeguards issues and engaging in follow-up technical discussions. IAEA chief Grossi stated that he believes they can start implementing very concrete measures soon and that they agreed on access to information and places, according to Reuters.
North Korea said US-South Korea military drills are raising tensions to an extremely dangerous level and called on the UN to demand an immediate end to US-South Korea military drills. Furthermore, it said the US is causing the collapse of international arms control systems and the US, South Korea and Japan are crossing a dangerous line which cannot be tolerated, while North Korea said its nuclear weapons will ensure the balance of power in the region, according to KCNA.
US Event Calendar
10:00: Jan. Factory Orders, est. -1.8%, prior 1.8%
Jan. Factory Orders Ex Trans, est. 1.0%, prior -1.2%
10:00: Jan. Durable Goods Orders, est. -4.5%, prior -4.5%
Jan. -Less Transportation, est. 0.7%, prior 0.7%
Jan. Cap Goods Orders Nondef Ex Air, prior 0.8%
Jan. Cap Goods Ship Nondef Ex Air, prior 1.1%
DB’s Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap
We had a power cut yesterday morning at home and I’ve never seen such distress over something so trivial. The TV didn’t work, the internet was down, the kids were in hysterics, my wife couldn’t have porridge or a cup of tea, and soup plans for lunch were in chaos. I told them all that they needed to put it all into perspective and that we were all incredibly lucky and privileged to have electricity and we shouldn’t take it for granted. I smugly grabbed a yoghurt for breakfast and put a wooly hat on while the family moaned. The outage only eventually lasted an hour. However, fast forward 7 hours and the power suddenly went off again during the first half of the game between Liverpool and Man United. I cursed and swore at the TV and shouted something about what sort of country do we live in if we can’t have constant power. It’s fair to say my family seized at the opportunity to get their own back. However, the interruption was thankfully brief and Liverpool delivered Manchester United joint worst-ever defeat in their 145-year history and nearly 6,000 games. A 7-0 thrashing.
So there’s a sprint to my step as we start a busy 8 days for markets, culminating in the US CPI next Tuesday after payrolls this Friday. It’s fairly uncontroversial to say that the last payrolls report published on February 3rd was a huge moment, and one that started a series of events that has meant that the last month has been a struggle for most financial assets, especially bonds (the worst February on record for the Global Agg). Remember that 36 hours before that payroll print, the relatively “dovish” FOMC had led to 10yr US yields hitting 3.33%. Last week at their peak they hit 4.08% before closing out at 3.95% on Friday.
As such if you thought the relatively random number generator that is payrolls is usually overhyped, you’ve seen nothing yet as we approach Friday’s big number. For those who have been on a sabbatical to another planet, last month it came in at +517k against +223k expected with fairly substantial upward revisions from the previous year as part of the annual review.
Before we preview this, we should also say that other big highlights this week are the RBA (tomorrow), BoC (Wednesday) and BoJ meetings (Friday), and Powell’s semi-annual congressional testimony before House and Senate committees tomorrow and Wednesday. As we’ll discuss below the BoJ is unlikely to change tack at this stage but every meeting is potentially live given what they did in December. We’ll review this and the rest of the week ahead after a brief payrolls preview.
For Friday our economists expect +300k for both headline and private payrolls (consensus for both at +215k). As with January, February was also mild weather wise for the survey week (which can mean less leisure, hospitality and retail layoffs), although not as much as in the prior month. So the temperature will likely still be an influence. There was a reasonable question mark about seasonal distortions in the last report so who knows how that will impact this week’s report. Our economists acknowledge the seasonals but the revisions at the same time to last year’s payrolls data suggest the labour market was stronger going into 2023 than previously thought, which means a fair amount of the recent job gains was likely genuine. Unemployment is expected to stay at 54-year lows of 3.4% with the risks it ticks down a tenth. We’ll give a fuller preview of average hourly earnings and the work week on Friday.
Don’t forget the JOLTs report on Wednesday which we feel is a more accurate reflection of the tightness of the labour market with the main problem it always being a month behind the payroll report. Maybe it can help shed some light on how accurate January’s payrolls report was though. If it was accurate you should see an uptick in the hiring rate. Also important will be the job openings as usual to highlight the tightness in demand for labour.
Going back to the other highlights this week, Fed Chair Powell semi-annual testimony to the Senate Banking Committee tomorrow and to the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday will of course be pored over for every subtle policy nuance. As they come before payrolls and next week’s equally crucial CPI report, it’s hard to see how he can be too confident about where the Fed is going to land. He may provide clues as to what employment and inflation numbers need to do to make the Fed act in a particular way, especially how it pertains to whether 50bps hikes are back on the table. Staying with central banks the RBA is seen as hiking 25bps tomorrow but the BoC seen as holding to their planned policy pause on Wednesday.
Our Chief Japan economist previews the BoJ meeting here and expects the central bank to adhere to its present monetary policy, with YCC removal seen unlikely, although you can’t rule it out given December’s surprise. This will also be the last monetary policy meeting for Governor Kuroda.
Other notable economic data releases in the US this week include factory orders (DB forecast -0.5% vs +1.8% in December) today, consumer credit tomorrow and the ADP and trade balance on Wednesday.
Turning to Europe, the focus will be on the UK with the release of the monthly GDP report on Friday, ahead of the March 23 BoE meeting. Elsewhere in the region, key releases include factory orders (tomorrow), retail sales and industrial production (Wednesday) for Germany and trade balance data for France (Friday).
In Asia the highlight might be the Chinese CPI and PPI reports due on Thursday. These will be released after last week’s blockbuster PMI readings showed a robust recovery and thus will be important to assessing the path of economic stimulus going forward. Our economists expect a 1.3% reading for the CPI (vs 2.1% in January) and a further YoY decline of -1.0% for the PPI (vs -0.8% in January).
Staying with China, over the weekend the start of China’s 14th National People’s (annual) Congress (NPC), surprisingly set a modest growth target for this year of 5% rather than more than, or even 5.5%, that many economists had expected. Our economists’ have reviewed this surprise here.
Asian equity markets are advancing at the start of the week following Friday’s higher close on Wall Street. As I check my screens, the Nikkei (+1.28%) is leading gains across the region followed by the KOSPI (+1.07%) and the S&P/ASX 200 (+0.64%). However, Chinese stocks are lagging behind their peers this morning with the CSI (-0.56%) and the Shanghai Composite (-0.24%) edging lower on the lower-than-expected GDP target that reduced the probability of large stimulus injections. Meanwhile, the Hang Seng (+0.04%) is fluctuating between gains and losses in early trade. US equity futures are indicating a slight gain with those tied to the S&P 500 (+0.11%) and NASDAQ 100 (+0.24%) trading slightly higher.
Early morning data showed that South Korea’s consumer price index (CPI) rose +4.8% y/y in February, notching its slowest pace in 10 months (v/s +5.0% expected), down from January’s +5.2% increase, thus raising the possibility of no more hikes from the Bank of Korea (BOK).
Looking back on last week now. On Friday we saw the US ISM services index print above expectations at 55.1 (vs 54.5 expected). Looking at the release more closely, the subcomponents were very strong, with new orders up to 62.6 (vs. 60.4 in January), reaching its highest level since November 2021. The employment component hit its highest level since December 2021 at 54.0 (vs. 50.0 in January), adding to the still very strong US employment story, and the prices paid component was down to a two-year low of 65.6, albeit still well above the 50-mark and thus still indicating rising costs.
With evidence of a still-tight labour market and inflation stickiness over the course of the week, markets priced in further rate hikes by the Fed. The terminal rate (now September) was marginally lower (-0.5bps) on Friday, but up +4.2bps for the week to 5.444%. The rate priced in for the meeting at year-end was also up on the week, increasing +2.6bps to 5.307% (-1.8bps on Friday). This is up nearly 1pp from the lows just over a month ago.
Risk markets responded positively to the strong data on Friday, as equities posted a large gain with even fixed income trimming losses from earlier in the week. The S&P 500 was up +1.61% on Friday, and +1.90% on a weekly basis, whilst the NASDAQ Composite pushed ahead, climbing +1.97% on Friday and +2.58% over the week as big-ticket stocks like Apple (+2.94%) and Meta (+8.72%) outperformed (+3.35% and +6.14% on Friday, respectively). This price action was echoed in Europe, as the STOXX 600 rose +1.43% week-on-week (+0.92% on Friday).
10yr Treasuries gained on Friday as yields fell back -10.4bps, bringing the yield to 3.95%, leaving 10yr yields nearly unchanged (+0.9bps) on the week after closing at nearly 4.06% on Thursday as fixed income markets grappled with the prospect of higher Fed rates this policy cycle. 2yr Treasuries underperformed against this backdrop, as yields fell -2.9bps on Friday but were +4.3bps week-on-week, bringing the yield to 4.86%.
Looking across the Atlantic to Europe, German 10yr bund yields fell back –3.6bps on Friday to 2.72%. However, looking at yield movements on a week-on-week basis, 10yr bund yields were up +17.8bps, their largest weekly move higher so far this year.
Turning to commodity markets, with spring now here and a strong pace to European gas imports in the first week of March, European natural gas futures fell back last week, down -11.17% on a weekly basis (-3.51% on Friday). In contrast, oil posted gains last week, with WTI Crude up +4.40% to $79.68/bbl (+1.94% on Friday), and Brent Crude up +3.21% week-on-week (+1.27% on Friday).
end
AND NOW NEWSQUAWK (EUROPE/REPORT)
US futures are little changed with upside capped following China’s GDP target – Newsquawk US Market Open
MONDAY, MAR 06, 2023 – 06:26 AM
European bourses are posting modest gains of circa. 0.3% in a continuation of the firmer APAC handover where the upside was capped by China’s GDP targets.
US futures are essentially unchanged given the above and as participants await the week’s commentary from Fed officials, incl. Chair Powell, and Friday’s NFP report.
China set its 2023 GDP target at circa. 5.0% (exp. 5.0-5.5%), CPI target around 3%, jobless-rate around 5.5%.
The DXY is slightly softer with CHF outperforming post-CPI while the Yuan slides on the above with Antipodeans pressured alongside this.
Core fixed income has managed to recover well from initial bouts of pressure, with yields softer across the curve in Europe and the US.
Crude benchmarks are softer and at the lower-end of circa. USD 1/bbl parameters, following the underwhelming GDP targets set by the market’s largest buyer China.
Looking ahead, highlights include US Factory Orders.
Or why not try Newsquawk’s squawk box free for 7 days?
EUROPEAN TRADE
EQUITIES
European bourses are posting modest gains of circa. 0.3% in a continuation of the firmer APAC handover where the upside was capped by China’s GDP targets.
Though, the SMI and FTSE 100 buck the trend slightly and are mostly softer, given pressure in Credit Suisse and Basic Resources following Harris Associates divestment and benchmark pricing respectively.
US futures are essentially unchanged given the above and as participants await the week’s commentary from Fed officials, incl. Chair Powell, and Friday’s NFP report.
Apple (AAPL) initiated with Buy at Goldman Sachs; price target USD 199/shr.
The DXY is softer on the session, but has found a foothold above 104.50 within 104.34-63 extremes as participants look to Chair Powell and data later in the week.
CHF is the current outperformer following unexpectedly hot Swiss CPI, with USD/CHF down to within reach of 0.9300 (vs 0.9373 peak) while EUR/CHF slipped to an eventual 0.9924 low.
The next best, but little changed overall, is the EUR; though, the single currency has recouped from soft Sentix to reside at the mid-point of 1.0616-57 parameters and proved largely unreactive to ECB’s Lane on inflation.
Antipodeans and the Yuan are the laggards, in the wake of China’s 5.0% (exp. 5.0-5.5) 2023 GDP target; AUD down to 0.6728 with attention also on the upcoming RBA meeting where 25bp is expected, but a pause cannot be outruled.
SEK failed to benefit from Q4 current account given dovish-impulses via a weekend interview from Riksbank’s Thedeen, in which he dismissed intra-meeting action and dialled down the importance of the SEK on mon pol.
PBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 6.8951 vs exp. 6.8932 (prev. 6.9117)
Norway’s government lowered its 2023 mainland GDP growth forecast to 0.9% from 1.7% and lowered the 2024 GDP growth forecast to 1.4% from 2.0%, while the government is to present a financially responsible budget which prioritises the expense imposed by the war in Ukraine, public services and helping those who are most in need, according to Reuters.
Core benchmarks have managed to recover well from initial bouts of pressure, with yields softer across the curve in Europe and the US.
Specifically, Bunds and Gilts were pressured to 131.22 and 99.85 troughs respectively, but recording to around 131.50 and closer to 100.50.
Stateside, USTs are at the top-end of a 111.01+ to 111.13+ range, with the curve softer and action most pronounced in the long-end going into a relatively quiet US session before the week ramps up from Tuesday with the first of Chair Powell’s testimonies.
Crude benchmarks are softer and at the lower-end of circa. USD 1/bbl parameters, following the underwhelming GDP targets set by the market’s largest buyer China.
Specifically, WTI Apr and Brent May are at the trough of USD 78.69-79.92/bbl and USD 84.71-85.83/bbl parameters respectively.
Saudi Arabia raised most of its official selling prices for April with the Arab light crude OSP to Asia set at Oman/Dubai + USD 2.50/bbl (prev. +2.00/bbl) and to Northwest Europe was set at ICE Brent + USD 1.00/bbl (prev. +0.50/bbl), while the OSP to the US was maintained at ASCI + USD 6.65/bbl, according to Reuters.
Goldman Sachs expects Brent to begin grinding higher this month and reach USD 100/bbl in December.
Spot gold is little changed above USD 1850/oz, and as such is between the 50- and 21-DMAs at USD 1869/oz and USD 1844/oz respectively; base metals are subdued given the aforementioned growth target from China.
ECB President Lagarde said underlying inflation will stay high in the near term and that a 50bp rate hike later this month is increasingly certain, while she added that they must continue to take whatever measures necessary to bring inflation back to 2%, according to Spanish media group Vocento cited by Reuters.
ECB’s Lane says current information on underlying inflation pressures suggests that it will be appropriate to raise rates further beyond our March meeting and “While there has been a clear turnaround in energy inflation and there are some signs of deceleration for food inflation, momentum for core inflation has not declined. In particular, momentum in the goods category remains strong.”. Click here for more detail.
ECB’s Centeno says “rates increased too quickly. Now patience, the prices go down”, via La Stampa; ECB targets headline not core inflation. Lower inflation forecasts should be heeded in March. Responded that the decision must be based on data, when asked about possible 50bps hikes after March.
French Finance Minister Le Maire says they have come to an agreement with retailers to contain food inflation, worth several-hundreds-of-millions.
DATA RECAP
Swiss CPI YY (Feb) 3.4% vs. Exp. 3.1% (Prev. 3.3%); MM (Feb) 0.7% vs. Exp. 0.4% (Prev. 0.6%)
EU Sentix Index (Mar) -11.1 vs. Exp. -6.3 (Prev. -8.0)
EU S&P Global Construction PMI (Feb) 47.6 (Prev. 46.1); German S&P Global Construction PMI (Feb) 48.6 (Prev. 43.3)
UK S&P Global/CIPS Construction PMI (Feb) 54.6 vs. Exp. 49.1 (Prev. 48.4)
NOTABLE US HEADLINES
Fed’s Daly (non-voter) said they will continue policy tightening and hold rates for a longer time until the job on inflation is done. Daly added she would adjust her rate path higher and longer if inflation data comes in hot again and interest rates need to be higher if the labour market continues to accelerate. Furthermore, Daly said she would need to be certain about how high rates need to rise to support a 50bps hike but noted that she now has less certainty, while she also commented that the work on inflation is far from done and the disinflation momentum they need is far from certain, according to Reuters.
Fed’s Barkin (non-voter) says he could envisage rates going to 5.5-5.75% if inflation is persistent.
US Treasury Department is preparing new rules on investing in technology abroad which could prohibit US investment in certain sectors of adversary nations, according to WSJ.
US Republican Senator Hawley is expected to introduce legislation on Monday that would ban senior executive branch officials from owning or trading individual stocks, according to WSJ.
UK military intelligence said Ukrainian defence of the Donbas town of Bakhmut is under increasingly severe pressure with intense fighting taking place in and around the city, while regular Russian army and Wagner Group forces have made further advances into the suburbs of the city.
US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Milley made an unannounced visit to Syria to assess the mission, while the visit drew condemnation from Syria which stated that the visit was illegal and a flagrant violation of the country’s sovereignty, according to SANA.
IAEA report stated that Iran has given high-level assurances that it is open to resolving the safeguards issues and engaging in follow-up technical discussions.IAEA chief Grossi stated that he believes they can start implementing very concrete measures soon and that they agreed on access to information and places, according to Reuters.
North Korea said US-South Korea military drills are raising tensions to an extremely dangerous level and called on the UN to demand an immediate end to US-South Korea military drills. Furthermore, it said the US is causing the collapse of international arms control systems and the US, South Korea and Japan are crossing a dangerous line which cannot be tolerated, while North Korea said its nuclear weapons will ensure the balance of power in the region, according to KCNA.
CRYPTO
Crypto exchange Bybit has suspended Dollar payments via bank transfers, according to Bloomberg.
APAC TRADE
APAC stocks were mostly positive as the majority of bourses took impetus from last Friday’s gains on Wall St where the Nasdaq outperformed amid a softer yield environment, although gains were capped after China announced a modest growth target of about 5% for 2023.
ASX 200 was positive as strength in tech, financials and the consumer sector offset the weakness in the mining industry but with further upside limited heading into the RBA rate decision tomorrow where the central bank is widely expected to deliver a 10th consecutive rate hike.
Nikkei 225 outperformed after topping the 28k level for the first time this year with SoftBank leading the advances following reports that its Arm unit is seeking to raise at least USD 8bln from a US IPO.
KOSPI gained as softer-than-expected CPI data eased the pressure for the BoK to resume rate hikes and with South Korea unveiling a plan to ease tensions with Japan regarding wartime forced labour compensation.
Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp. traded mixed with early pressure after China set its slowest growth target in over two decades and with the PBoC’s operations resulting in a significant net liquidity drain of CNY 329bln, although some of the losses were pared given that China also made several support pledges and following the announcement of further inclusions to the Stock Connect.
NOTABLE ASIA-PAC HEADLINES
Chinese Premier Li announced at the National People’s Congress that China’s 2023 GDP growth target is about 5.0% (exp. 5.0%-5.5%), while the target for CPI is around 3% and the jobless rate at around 5.5% for 2023. Premier Li also stated that China aims to create 12mln urban jobs and that it is essential to prioritise the economic recovery, as well as reiterated to expand domestic demand and prioritise the consumption recovery. China will step up proactive fiscal policy and effectively boost investment, extend and further refine policies on tax and fee cuts, and will implement prudent monetary policy in a targeted way.
China will prevent and control the epidemic in a more scientific, precise and efficient way, according to the work report. China is to support financial institutions to meet the effective needs of the real economy and will increase the proportion of direct financing, while it will increase loans to small and micro businesses, as well as further enhance credit support to tech and innovative SMEs. Furthermore, China’s public expenditure will grow 5.7% this year and military spending will increase at a faster pace of 7.2%, according to Reuters and FT.
NDRC Vice Chairman said China’s economy is steadily improving and consumption will be the main driver for growth this year, while they will prudently tackle risks related to real estate, finance and local government debt.
Taiwan’s government said China should respect the Taiwanese people’s commitment to core concepts of sovereignty, democracy and freedom, while it added that China should deal with cross-strait affairs pragmatically in a rational, equal and mutually respectful manner, according to Reuters.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park announced a plan for South Korea to compensate victims of Japan’s forced labour through its public foundation in which companies will voluntarily donate to the fund and said that cooperation between the two nations is critical in the face of the serious international security situation. It was later reported that Japanese PM Kishida said they welcome the South Korean government’s measures on wartime labour compensation and will work closely with South Korean President Yoon, while Japan’s Foreign Minister noted that South Korea’s plan will help restore healthy ties.
Hong Kong’s stock market operator is expected to reduce the proposed listing threshold for “specialist” technology companies as it dials up its overtures to allow eligible start-ups to raise funds, according to SCMP sources.
CME to launch offshore Renminbi options on April 3rd, will be listed on and subject to the rules of CME.
DATA RECAP
South Korean CPI MM (Feb) 0.3% vs. Exp. 0.5% (Prev. 0.8%); YY (Feb) 4.8% vs. Exp. 5.1% (Prev. 5.2%)
MONDAY MORNING/SUNDAY NIGHT
SHANGHAI CLOSED DOWN 6.37 PTS OR 0.19% //Hang Seng CLOSED UP 35.65 PTS OR 0.17% /The Nikkei closed UP 310.31% PTS OR 1.11% //Australia’s all ordinaries CLOSED UP 0.56% /Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed DOWN 6.9350 //OFFSHORE CHINESE YUAN UP TO 6.9464// /Oil UP TO 78.55 dollars per barrel for WTI and BRENT AT 84.64 / Stocks in Europe OPENED MIXED// ONSHORE YUAN TRADING ABOVE LEVEL OF OFFSHORE YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST US DOLLAR/OFFSHORE WEAKER
2 a./NORTH KOREA/ SOUTH KOREA/
///NORTH KOREA/SOUTH KOREA/
2B JAPAN
JAPAN/DEMOGRAPHICS
Japan has a huge demographic problem: twice as many people die as are born
(zerohedge)
Japan’s Population In Freefall As Twice As Many People Die As Are Born
SUNDAY, MAR 05, 2023 – 09:00 PM
Japan’s population is in freefall.
In 2022, the number of births registered in Japan plummeted to another record low last year according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health – the latest worrying statistic in a decades-long decline that the country’s authorities have failed to reverse despite their extensive efforts.
The country saw just 799,728 births in 2022 – the lowest number on record and the first ever dip below 800,000 – and about half of the number of deaths, which at more than 1.58 million, was a record high. The number of births in Japan has nearly halved in the past 40 years: in 1982, Japan recorded more than 1.5 million births, a number which was then more than double the number of deaths. This ratio has since reversed.
As shown in the chart above, deaths have outpaced births in Japan for the past 15 years – a trend which is unlikely to reverse ever again – posing an existential problem for the (aged) leaders of the world’s third-largest economy. They now face a ballooning elderly population, along with a shrinking workforce to fund pensions and health care as demand from the aging population surges.
Japan’s population has been in steady decline since its economic boom of the 1980s and stood at 125.5 million in 2021, according to the most recent government figures.
According to CNN, Japan’s fertility rate of 1.3 is far below the rate of 2.1 required to maintain a stable population, in the absence of immigration.
The country also has one of the highest life expectancies in the world; in 2020, nearly one in 1,500 people in Japan were age 100 or older, according to government data.
These concerning trends prompted a warning in January from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that Japan is “on the brink of not being able to maintain social functions.”
“In thinking of the sustainability and inclusiveness of our nation’s economy and society, we place child-rearing support as our most important policy,” he said, adding that Japan “simply cannot wait any longer” in solving the problem of its low birth rate.
A new government agency will be set up in April to focus on the issue, with PM Kishida saying in January that he wants the government to double its spending on child-related programs. But money alone might not be able to solve the multi-pronged problem, with various social factors contributing to the low birth rate.
Japan’s high cost of living, limited space and lack of child care support in cities make it difficult to raise children, meaning fewer couples are having kids. Urban couples are also often far from extended family in other regions, who could help provide support.
In 2022, Japan was ranked one of the world’s most expensive places to raise a child, according to research from financial institution Jefferies. And yet, the country’s economy has stalled since the early 1990s, meaning frustratingly low wages and little upward mobility: the average real annual household income declined from 6.59 million yen ($50,600) in 1995 to 5.64 million yen ($43,300) in 2020, according to 2021 data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
Attitudes toward marriage and starting families have also shifted in recent years, with more couples putting off both during the pandemic — and young people feeling increasingly pessimistic about the future.
In 2022, Japan was ranked one of the world’s most expensive places to raise a child, according to research from financial institution Jefferies. And yet, the country’s economy has stalled since the early 1990s, meaning frustratingly low wages and little upward mobility.
The average real annual household income declined from 6.59 million yen ($50,600) in 1995 to 5.64 million yen ($43,300) in 2020, according to 2021 data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
Attitudes toward marriage and starting families have also shifted in recent years, with more couples putting off both during the pandemic — and young people feeling increasingly pessimistic about the future. Who can blame them for not feeling frisky.
It’s a familiar story throughout East Asia, where South Korea’s fertility rate — already the world’s lowest — dropped yet again last year in the latest setback to the country’s efforts to boost its declining population.
China Says ‘No Change’ In Banking Policies After Mobius Claims Money Trapped
MONDAY, MAR 06, 2023 – 10:32 AM
Update (1033ET): China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange says there’s been no changes in cross-border fund movement policies in response to Mark Mobius’ claim that he can’t withdraw funds from the country.
According to local media outlet Cailian (as noted by Bloomberg), Mobius’ issue has to do with the basic process and internal control requirements for banks to handle particular types of business.
The regulator will continue to advance opening-up of high level, and guide and urge commercial banks to optimize cross-border financial services and improve services, Cailian cites the official
An HSBC representative said the bank hasn’t received any request by Chinese regulators to restrict fund outflow, as well as not knowing any recent policy changes regarding cross-border funds remittance, Cailian reports
Emerging markets investment pioneer Mark Mobius says that China is blocking his ability to withdraw money from the world’s second-largest economy.
“I’m personally affected because I have an account with HSBC in Shanghai. I can’t get my money out. The government is restricting the flow of money out of the country,” Mobius told Fox Business on Thursday. “So I would be very, very careful investing in China.”
“It’s just amazing. They’re putting all kinds of barriers,” Mobius continued. “They don’t say, ‘No, you can’t get your money out,’ but they say, ‘Give us all the records from 20 years of how you’ve made this money,’ and so forth. It’s crazy.”
Mobius says that Hong Kong “seems to be a little more open,” and that he’s been able to get his money “in and out” of there.
According to Mobius, China under President Xi Jinping is operating “in a completely different direction” than the country’s former market-friendly leader Deng Xiaoping.
So where to invest? India or Brazil, according to Mobius.
“You’ve got a billion people, they can do the same thing that the Chinese do. They can do the same kind of manufacturing and so forth.”
“I’m now in Brazil, and Brazil, you’ve got 250 million-plus people. Very good people, open society. Hey, why not come here? It’s another alternative.”
4.EUROPEAN AND UK AFFAIRS
GERMANY//NATO
Robert H to us:
German defense minister says his military is incapable of defending the country, which means it’s worthless to NATO – NaturalNews.com
German reality comes home to roost. This is true of all of NATO which would last less than 2 weeks before running out of ammo. Who is kidding who? The Ukraine is an American Neocon proxy war with Russia that cannot be won and instead can bring NATO and America to a nuclear exchange. Neocon madness on full display with willing collaboration with the likes of Zelensky who lines his pocket over the death of Ukrainians.
It is a time to face reality not just of the ship of fools but the uselessness of the whole of the EU. Soon enough it will all collapse returning European sovereignty to the nation states one by one. And the First Nations to leave will likely be visible by year’s end.
According to Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, the Bundeswehr is understaffed and ill-equipped due to decades of neglect by the federal government, FirstPost reported this week.
“We have no armed forces that are capable of defending [Germany] that is, capable of defending [it] against an offensive, brutally waged aggressive war,” he said during a recent meeting with members of the ruling Social Democratic Party.
The Defense Minister asserted that the German military has been ignored by the federal government for several years, resulting in inadequate staffing and equipment. To meet NATO standards, he suggested that Germany must enhance its military investment.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, commonly known as NATO, is a military and political alliance of 30 member countries from North America and Europe. It was founded in 1949 with the goal of providing a collective defense against potential threats, promoting stability and security in the Euro-Atlantic region, and encouraging cooperation among its members.
The primary mission of NATO is to ensure the security of its member countries. This is accomplished through a variety of means, including maintaining a strong military presence in Europe, conducting military exercises and training, and engaging in intelligence sharing and cooperation. NATO also works to promote stability and security in regions outside of its member countries, including through peacekeeping missions and humanitarian aid efforts.
Another important role of NATO is to promote democratic values and institutions. This includes supporting the rule of law, human rights, and freedom of speech and the press. NATO also works to promote economic development and trade, and to encourage political cooperation among its members.
NATO has played a significant role in promoting peace and stability in Europe since its founding. During the Cold War, NATO served as a bulwark against the Soviet Union, and helped to prevent the outbreak of a major war in Europe. Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has continued to play an important role in promoting peace and stability in the region, including through its involvement in conflicts in the Balkans and its ongoing efforts to combat terrorism.
In recent years, NATO has faced a number of challenges. These include tensions between member countries, concerns over the role of NATO in the Middle East, and the rise of new threats such as cyber attacks and hybrid warfare. But clearly, according to German officials, the country’s military not only can’t contribute much to NATO, it cannot defend itself.
The commander and highest-ranking officer of the German army, Lieutenant General Alfons Mais, stated last week that the 100 billion euros pledged by Chancellor Olaf Scholz would be insufficient to ensure that the country’s armed forces are prepared for battle.
“The army that I have the duty to lead is more or less bare,” he was quoted as saying by a German media outlet.
Pistorius made the statement just hours after Colonel Andre Wustner, the chairman of the German Armed Forces Association, revealed in an interview with German outlet Bild that only 30 percent of the roughly 300 Leopard 2 tanks in Germany’s inventory are presently operational. Despite a concerning defense situation at home, Germany has been offering significant aid to war-torn Ukraine for more than a year as it fights against Russian aggression.
According to Armin Papperger, the CEO of Rheinmetall, the country’s leading defense contractor, the German government has given two cutting-edge air defense systems to Ukraine that were originally designed to safeguard Berlin. Papperger made this statement during a Tuesday episode of the Pioneer podcast.
More arms to Ukraine. But Bakhmut surrounded and will fall!
(zerohedge)
Blinken Unveils $400 Million More In Arms With Ukraine Against The Ropes In Bakhmut
FRIDAY, MAR 03, 2023 – 06:00 PM
As we reported earlier Ukrainian forces are nearly completely encircled in the key eastern city of Bakhmut, a dire situation which President Zelensky himself has increasingly acknowledged in a series of statements this week. Front line commanders have also said that Russian artillery has been relentless and “around the clock” in its sustainment.
As expected, Ukraine’s leadership has pleaded for more urgent weapons and ammo from its Western backers. On Friday Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new package of ammunition and other defense support, likely timed to give a mere symbolic answer to Ukrainians’ desperate appeals for more help from Bakhmut.
It’s valued at $400 million, and as international reports describe, “The package will be funded using Presidential Drawdown Authority, which authorizes the president to transfer articles and services from US stocks without congressional approval during an emergency,” according to Blinken’s description of the aid.Via Reuters
The package will include rockets for HIMARS systems, more Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles and other armored support, as well as howitzers.
Blinken said in a statement: “This military assistance package includes more ammunition for US-provided HIMARS and howitzers, which Ukraine is using so effectively to defend itself, as well as ammunition for Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, Armored Vehicle Launched Bridges, demolitions munitions and equipment, and other maintenance, training, and support.”
The NY Times too is currently acknowledging this is a largely symbolic response to Ukraine forces being up against the ropes in the single biggest battle in Donbas region right now. “NATO leaders have long warned of a looming artillery shortage for Ukraine as its troops burn through thousands of shells each day in trying to push back Russian forces,” the Times writes.
“That has been particularly clear in the monthslong battle for the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian troops are fighting to avoid encirclement by Russian forces,” it adds.
Revealingly, the report also includes the observation: “It was not clear if the new tranche of American ammunition would arrive in time to defend Bakhmut, if that is where commanders decide it should be sent.” Even as Ukraine is losing in Bakhmut, the administration is showing itself willing to pull from the Pentagon’s own already strained weapons stockpiles.
end
UKRAINE/RUSSIA/USA/NATO
This is a must read as Mises weighs in on the Ukraine=Russian war and how Washington and NATO got it wrong
(zerohedge)
One Year Later In Ukraine: Washington And NATO Got It Very Wrong
It’s been a year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In spite of claims from the regime and its media allies that Russia was the next Third Reich and would soon roll through half of Europe, it turns out that was never even remotely true.
In fact, things have unfolded more or less just like we predicted here at mises.org:
the Russians aren’t even close to occupying any place in Europe beyond eastern Ukraine.
It’s not Munich 1938. Economic sanctions have not crippled the Russian regime.
Most of the world remains ambivalent on the conflict.
The conflict will likely end with a negotiated settlement – contrary to what the Washington wants.
The fact is that in spite of the United States’ and North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) efforts to turn Ukraine into World War III, the war in Ukraine remains a regional conflict. It seems most of the world is uninterested in making sacrifices to carry out US policy in Ukraine and that many see the inherent hypocrisy behind US talk about respecting national sovereignty.
There’s also an important lesson here about listening to the war maximalists who incessantly promote full-scale war as the “solution” to every international crisis. The US clearly wants to fight the war to the last Ukrainian, in what the US is packaging as a global crusade in the style of World War II. But, it seems now that more pragmatic thinkers—i.e., the French and the Germans—recognize that negotiations are the more humane solution.
They Wanted a “Munich Moment”
Within days of the Russian invasion, the Western global hegemonists got to work claiming the invasion was essentially a war of global conquest. For instance, Matthew Kroenig in Foreign Policystated that Vladimir Putin had shown a clear interest in “resurrecting the former Russian Empire, and other vulnerable Eastern European countries—Poland, Romania, or the Baltic states—might be next.” Kroenig immediately concluded that the US’s military budget should be doubled.
Another writer insisted the Ukraine invasion contained “a whiff of Munich.” John Storey at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute claimed that “the forgotten lesson of Munich” had allowed “Putin is [to do] his best impression of German dictator Adolf Hitler.” Storey ominously asked, “Will the Baltic states and Eastern Europe be next?” dutifully repeating the party line that Russian tanks might soon roll into central Europe.
Yet the “lesson of Munich”—which is invoked incessantly and certainly not “forgotten”—has never been appropriate for conceptualizing the war in Ukraine. That sort of thing has even led some pundits to proclaim that global nuclear war is “worth it.” The real lesson to be learned here, however, is the lesson of 1914: that we should not allow military alliances to lead major powers into overreactions that lead to global disasters. The “Munich” crowd wanted mass mobilization against Russia in early 2022. They didn’t get it, and thank goodness.
Russia Was Never a Global Threat
It has been clear from the very beginning that Russia has never had the capability to sustain an occupation of any areas that do not already contain a sizable number of ethnic Russians or Russian sympathizers. This hardly mirrors the military capabilities of the Third Reich. Thus, it is not surprising that Russia’s occupation endures only in southeastern Ukraine and the Crimea. At this point, Russia is attempting to push the frontiers of its occupation zone as deeply as possible into areas with a sizable Russian minority. Even this has proven difficult for the Russian regime. Russia simply lacks the resources to take on anyone but its impoverished neighbors.
What’s more, bogging down Russia has required only a tiny portion of the war-making resources available to the NATO coalition. Europe’s NATO members have mostly pledged older weapons, and precious little state-of-the art equipment. The Washington Post recently noted, for example, that the West “is still short on pledges.” Recent promises of Leopard tanks from Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands turned out to be promises of “refurbished” tanks that are more than forty years old. Moreover, none of these tanks will even arrive before this summer. As of late November, contributions of military aid from Germany, the United Kingdom, and France combined totaled a paltry €5 billion. That’s 6.00 percent the size of Russia’s military budget, and a miniscule 0.05 percent of the combined gross domestic product (GDP) of $10 trillion that comes out of the UK, Germany, and France combined. But what of US military aid? Surely a huge amount is needed to counter the Russian juggernaut? Well, the US military aid totals no more than $50 billion as of early 2023. That’s 6.00 percent of the US military budget, and it’s 0.20 percent of the US’s GDP. In addition to this, the US regime now admits it doesn’t even know what happens to the weapons it sends to Ukraine. How much of that $50 billion actually goes to Ukraine’s defense? Not $50 billion.
If that’s all it takes to keep Russia slogging it out in eastern Ukraine, it’s hard to see how the Russian regime poses an existential threat to even western Ukraine, let alone any other state in Europe. This helps illustrate how unnecessary the US is to the conflict. Russia poses no threat to the US—unless the US escalates to the point of nuclear war. If the Europeans feel threatened, they can easily defend themselves given the huge size of their economic bloc, relative to Russia. The Europeans have more than enough resources to “stand with Ukraine” however they wish to define that. Yes, that might require Europeans to give up a bit of their government pensions and enormous welfare states in order to fund their own military defense. But there’s absolutely no reason why American taxpayers need be on the hook to subsidize Europeans as they’re swilling cappuccinos on month-long vacations.
The World Is Not United against Russia
Perhaps seeing that Russia presents no conventional military threat beyond its “near abroad,” most of the world has not signed off on starting a new cold war. Although NATO mouthpieces have been enthusiastic about the passage of United Nations resolutions condemning Russia, it’s notable how many countries chose to abstain from the vote. Last week, the UN general assembly voted again on a resolution condemning the Russian invasion and calling for Russia’s withdrawal. One hundred forty-one countries voted in favor, but, notably, thirty-two countries abstained from voting (seven states voted against the measure). Among those thirty-two countries were China, India, Pakistan, and South Africa. India, a US ally and the “world’s largest democracy,” was apparently uninterested in joining NATO on the resolution. South Africa, another major world economy and democracy, stayed out of the matter as well. In fact, the only member of the BRICS bloc to vote in favor of the resolution was Brazil.
This has partly been driven by practical matters. The political leadership in these countries is simply not prepared to impoverish its population in order to please Washington. But the resistance also comes from the fact that most of the world knows US pretensions toward respecting national sovereignty and international law are all an act. The US invasions and bombing campaigns against Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria have made it clear the United States is perfectly at ease with violating national sovereignty when it suits US ambitions. The so-called rules-based international order obviously means nothing to the US when it becomes inconvenient to Washington. (It should also be noted the Ukraine regime supported invading Iraq and sent at least five thousand troops to help the US occupy that supposedly sovereign nation.)
What does this all mean for Russia? It means that some of the world’s largest economies have signaled they have no plans to cut Russia off from the global economy and that they refuse to cut themselves off from Russian oil, gas, and foodstuffs.
Sanctions Didn’t Ruin Russia
The US has been unsuccessful in securing global compliance in isolating Russia economically. Thus, the US has been forced to rely on coercive sanctions—not just against Russia, but against those who choose to keep doing business with Russia. The US must now spend time and resources enforcing “secondary sanctions” designed to coerce countries that don’t play along, and now finds itself in the position of repeatedly threatening countries other than Russia with “consequences” for violating US sanctions.
But, for all the US bluster on this, US sanctions have clearly failed to ruin Russia economically. Recent numbers show that the US oil sanctions against Russia “have done little to curb the flow of Russia’s crude.” Or as this article as CNBC suggests, the oil sanctions “failed completely.”
This isn’t to say that the sanctions have had no effect. Yet it is clear that the sanctions—the harshest sanctions used since World War II—are not a “game-changer.”
Instead, the sanctions have created additional motivation for states to find ways to get around US sanctions in the future. As Agathe Demarais notes in Foreign Policy:
Russia, Iran, China, and other countries at odds with the United States are doubling down on efforts to vaccinate their economies against sanctions. These measures have little to do with sanctions circumvention: Instead, they represent preemptive steps to render potential financial sanctions entirely ineffective. Such mechanisms include de-dollarization efforts, the development of alternatives to SWIFT (the Belgian cooperative that connects all banks across the world), and the creation of central bank digital currencies.
That reference to “other countries” is key. The more the US employs its financial power as a weapon against other regimes, the further this will push the world’s regimes to find ways to break free of the US-centered financial world. Those efforts will put downward pressure on the dollar in coming years.
“Unconditional Surrender” was Never an Option
The US has generally saved its “regime change” rhetoric for small, dirt-poor countries that are unable to fight back. Yet, following the Russian invasion, many Western commentators began calling for regime change in Russia as well. Most notably, on March 26, President Joe Biden said Putin “cannot remain in power,” although he was later forced to backtrack. Not only are the prospects for regime change in a nuclear-armed country fraught with immense danger, but many observers recognize the fact that toppling Putin is easier said than done. Nor would such a move guarantee that Putin’s regime would be replaced with a regime opposed to Russian expansionism. In fact, the new government could easily be “worse” by NATO standards.
This is a hard pill to swallow for Americans who are wed to a long-standing obsession with “unconditional surrender” in every military conflict. The model here is the Japanese surrender in the Second World War. The reality, however, is that the overwhelming majority of military conflicts are ended through negotiated settlements.
Nevertheless, throughout the first half of 2022, those who called for negotiations to end the war—for purposes of ending the bloodshed sooner—were branded Russian apologists. Only total victory, we were told, was an acceptable outcome.
Those days are swiftly coming to a close. “Total victory” for Ukraine, defined as the total withdrawal of Russia, was never likely. The reality is more along the lines of what French diplomats are privately willing to admit. As the Wall Street Journalreported last week, French and German leaders are now telling the Ukrainian regime that it needs to consider peace talks:
“We keep repeating that Russia mustn’t win, but what does that mean? If the war goes on for long enough with this intensity, Ukraine’s losses will become unbearable,” a senior French official said. “And no one believes they will be able to retrieve Crimea.”
Gen. Petr Pavel, president-elect of the Czech Republic and a former NATO commander, said at the Munich conference [last week]: “We may end up in a situation where liberating some parts of Ukrainian territory may deliver more loss of lives than will be bearable by society. . . . There might be a point when Ukrainians can start thinking about another outcome.”
The endgame is coming into view, and it’s a negotiated settlement. Unfortunately, it’s a settlement that will come only after an immense loss of life for both Ukrainians and Russians, and at the price of enormous loss of capital and infrastructure. A settlement could have likely been achieved sooner, and with the same territorial losses in Ukraine that likely would have resulted in any case. The US could have given up its obsession with making Ukraine a NATO outpost. The Ukraine regime could have given up trying to turn Ukraine into an ethno-state where Russian-speakers are second-class citizens. The US and Ukraine could have admitted they’re not getting Crimea back. Instead, they chose to prolong the conflict, and the result has been perhaps hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths. The fact that the Russian regime is ultimately the aggressor here does not change this reality. Being a small, poor country next to Russia has always been just an unfortunate reality for some. Thus, responsible foreign policy for those states lies in taking positions that limit unnecessary bloodshed while finding ways to co-exist with the Russians. Instead, the US and Ukraine have chosen to wax philosophical about moral rectitude while NATO leaders recite their bullet points on regime change, total victory, Munich, and a “rules-based order.” None of this helps save lives.
Those who promoted a need for full-scale war and “no peace until total victory” have been stunningly wrong, and it has proven to be very costly.
END
This is an on going story: Russia is reducing her dollar dependence by relying on the Chinese yuan
(Moran/EpochTimes)
Russia Reducing Dollar Dependence By Relying On Chinese Yuan
Russia is easing its dependence on the U.S. dollar and quickly growing reliant on the Chinese yuan, which could turn out to be either a boon for Moscow or a substantial risk, experts warn.
Over the last year, the Russian economy has been restricted from Western financial networks and has faced economic and political sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia has also been prohibited from using the U.S. dollar, forcing the Kremlin to turn to the Chinese yuan as an alternative.
President Vladimir Putin has expanded his country’s relations with Beijing, particularly on the energy front.
Russia’s Exports to Beijing
“According to the results of this year, Russia has become one of the leaders in oil exports to China,” Putin said at the beginning of a video conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping in December.
Russia’s exports of discounted crude and fuel oil to China surged to record levels in January, topping the previous high established in April 2020. According to data intelligence firm Kpler, crude and fuel oil flows to China increased to 1.66 million barrels per day to kick off 2023. With the world’s second-largest economy reopening its markets after abandoning its COVID-Zero strategy, market experts anticipate that the energy trade could grow at a far more significant pace.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, China, on Feb. 4, 2022. (Sputnik/Aleksey Druzhinin/Kremlin via Reuters)
But while Russia is using the revenues from its sales of discounted energy products to China to fund its war in Ukraine, Beijing benefits in many ways.
The first is the $13-a-barrel savings on Russian Urals, which presently trade at around $60 per barrel.
The second is that another significant market is relying on the Chinese yuan.
Data compiled by The Wall Street Journal show that domestic energy exporters are being paid in yuan. The nation’s sovereign wealth fund, which is a war chest to ensure the Kremlin pays its bills, is utilizing the yuan to maintain its oil-driven revenues. Last summer, major companies, such as aluminum king Rusal, energy giant Rosneft, and lending firm Bistrodengi, began issuing yuan-denominated bonds inside Russia. In addition, a growing number of companies are borrowing capital in yuan, while households have deposited approximately $6 billion worth of Chinese currency in Russian banks.
With the ruble under attack by the international community and broader discussions about the end of the dollar hegemony, many consumers turned to the yuan for shelter.
Although dollars and euros still account for most of the Russian export settlements, the prevalence of payments in the yuan and even the ruble is increasing.
Sanctions on Russia
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance announced in February that it would sell more than 5 percent of its yuan stockpile. The Russian government is drawing down from its reserves to cover a budget shortfall driven by a 46 percent year-over-year decline in energy revenues in January.
Western governments have imposed tighter sanctions on Russia’s petroleum exports, while crude oil prices have slumped on global recession fears and central bank policy tightening. The Urals crude blend is down about 30 percent from a year ago.
Despite the latest developments, some estimates suggest that drawing down from its yuan reserves could allow Russia to cover its fiscal holes for as long as three years.
For now, this might be the only option for Putin and Russia. But observers warn that this could have ramifications for Moscow.
“Russia is swapping its dollar dependence for reliance on the yuan. Should relations with China deteriorate, Russia may face reserve losses and payment disruptions,”wrote Alexandra Prokopenko, an independent analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
At the same time, Putin may be attempting to improve the ruble’s standing and circumvent Western sanctions by rolling out a digital ruble in April. The Bank of Russia will be working with 13 financial institutions and pre-selected businesses to participate in a central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot project, local news media reported.
Officials say that Moscow is exploring a new digital format for international settlements as part of broader efforts to manufacture a new financial and monetary system for the post-invasion economy.
Rise of the Yuan
Russia’s yuan utilization could be considered progress for China’s greater objective of expanding the yuan’s reach in cross-border commerce.
In addition to Russia embracing the Chinese currency, more countries are considering settling their trade with China in yuan.
The Iraqi government confirmed to Reuters that it is taking steps to permit trade from China to be settled directly in yuan amid the nation’s U.S. dollar shortage.
“It is the first time imports would be financed from China in yuan, as Iraqi imports from China have been financed in [U.S.] dollars only,” said Mudhir Salih, the government’s economic adviser.
Last year, The Wall Street Journal published a report that stated Saudi Arabia had been considering accepting yuan instead of dollars for Chinese oil sales.
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum in January, a Saudi official revealed that the Kingdom is open to discussing trade in currencies other than the greenback.
“There are no issues with discussing how we settle our trade arrangements, whether it is in the U.S. dollar, whether it is the euro, whether it is the Saudi riyal,” Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said. “I don’t think we are waving away or ruling out any discussion that will help improve the trade around the world.”
The United Arab Emirates has bolstered bilateral commerce with China, with trade topping $75 billion in 2021.
This has experts wondering if the Middle East is preparing for a collapse of the petrodollar and is bracing for the rise of the petroyuan.
“China has shifted its investments into the Gulf. The level of project-based, economic, and military cooperation is surpassing cooperation with the U.S. on many levels, and trade is likewise being reoriented toward China from a balance towards a preferred system,” Irina Tsukerman, a geopolitical analyst and the president of security advisory firm Scarab Rising, told The Epoch Times.
New Basket Reserve Currency
But China is even planting a presence in South America after the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) announced last month that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on establishing yuan clearing arrangements in Brazil.
Trade between the two nations totaled $172 billion last year.
However, in June 2022, Putin announced that BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) members were designing a new basket reserve currency that would attempt to undermine the dollar’s dominance. This could be a more realistic option in the intensifying worldwide de-dollarization campaign, Tsukerman says.
“A mixture of BRICS currencies is a more likely candidate for de-dollarization than the Chinese yuan by itself due to inherent weaknesses in the yuan and China’s own economy. Most countries simply do not see the yuan as reliable enough to make the switch,” she stated.
ING global head of markets Chris Turner stated in a note that this is likely to “address the perceived U.S.-hegemony of the IMF,” adding that it would “allow BRICS to build their own sphere of influence and unit of currency within that sphere.”
But Nouriel Roubini, the chief economist at Atlas Capital Team, suggests that the global financial system will grapple with a “bipolar” currency regime that “will eventually replace the unipolar one.”
Writing in a Financial Times column last month, Roubini purported that the international economy is being fractured by American and Chinese influence. Although some experts aver that China’s rigid currency controls would prevent the yuan from ever surpassing the buck, Roubini believes the U.S. maintains its own unattractive features “among foes and relative friends.”
“These include financial sanctions against its rivals, restrictions to inward investment in many national security-sensitive sectors and firms, and even secondary sanctions against friends who violate the primary ones,” Roubini wrote.
According to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves (COFER), the yuan’s share of total foreign exchange reserves tumbled more than 7 percent year-over-year in the third quarter to below $298 billion. By comparison, the U.S. dollar representation also declined about 9 percent to $6.441 trillion.
The poisoning at girl’s schools….ISIS or the Iranians themselves?
(zerohedge)
Iran President Says Foreign Enemies Behind Poisonings At Girls’ Schools
FRIDAY, MAR 03, 2023 – 06:40 PM
The story of the alleged poison gas attacks targeting girls’ schools across Iran has just gotten even more bizarre, after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a Friday televised speech pointed the finger at foreign adversaries conducting a covert plot.
“This is a security project to cause chaos in the country whereby the enemy seeks to instill fear and insecurity among parents and students,” Raisi said, in what is typically code for Israel and the US.AFP/Getty Images
According to Al Jazeera, “He did not say who those enemies were, although Iranian leaders habitually accuse the United States and Israel, among others, of acting against it.”
Separately, a senior Iranian official said a fuel tanker found next to a school in a Tehran suburb and which had also been spotted in two other cities was probably involved in the poisonings.
Authorities seized the tanker and arrested its driver, said Reza Karimi Saleh, the deputy governor of the Pardis suburb.
Girls in up to 15 cities have been affected, Iranian authorities have said, in what are suspected to be mass poisonings. There’s been an estimated 30 incidents.
There’s currently speculation that an unknown entity, possibly hardline Islamists, may be throwing some type of poisonous gas mixture into schools and school yards, causing dozens of girls at a time to fall ill. The bizarre incidents began being reported back in November.
School girls have reported feeling headaches and nausea, and there have been some reports of individuals experiencing temporary paralysis of their limbs.
The incidents have lately begun to gain international media attention, with the United Nations weighing in at the end of this week. Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a briefing “We’re very concerned about these allegations that girls are being deliberately targeted under what appear to be mysterious circumstances” – and urged a thorough investigation.
As for Raisi’s newest allegations that it may be a foreign entity behind the poison attacks, Tehran has long had reason to be paranoid given the number of very real Israeli covert attacks inside the country, including everything from sabotage of nuclear facilities to assassinations of nuclear scientists in recent years.
However, Islamic hardliners have long been known to attack women either in the workplace or at school, given they believe that women should not have a visible place in the public sphere.
‘Justin Bieber has seemingly canceled his remaining “Justice World Tour” dates after postponing shows due to health concerns.
The dates were removed from Bieber’s official website as of Tuesday.
Several of the pop star’s upcoming shows listed on Ticketmaster — including stops in California, Connecticut and Washington, DC — have been taken down as well.’
send my American troops? our blood to shed for your sh*t? your fever? NEVER! Ukraine is a money laundering scheme, corrupt ruthless filth leaders & dems & repubs making money! selling us away!
Canadian doctors under 30 years dying at a rate 900% higher, takes life of vaccinated person in less than one year; Canadian doctors pretending it is not happening but it is! Expert testimony
The spike protein of the mRNA technology gene injection is the main culprit, causing devastating inflammation, trauma, death.
Seems too that vaccinated persons are revealing elevated rates of suicide and likely due to the crossing of the blood brain barrier by the spike protein via the mRNA/LNP complex. Remember too that the immune system constrains cancers from growing and metastasizing and the subversion of the immune system is placing people in a vulnerable cancer risk situation. Also, serious neurological impacts and the vaccine is causing very serious emotional and psychological and neurological impacts.
structural biologist Panagis Polykretis, and board-certified internist and cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough; the bottom line is the COVID gene injection is a killer, IMO works like a bioweapon
Problem is the young person does not know or suspect they have underlying serious heart damage post COVID shot; I plead, as do McCullough, Oskoui, Risch etc. to test your teen before taking field
Remember the study in Germany where many of the 25 persons who took the vaccine found dead at home. I recall 4-5 of the 25 so 16% or so it was ruled clear myocarditis and in 70% ruled the death had direct link to the vaccine.
SARS-CoV-2 infection was significantly more likely to occur in the first 13 days post-vaccine injection in those who received a single dose (48.9%) than two doses (27.4%, p< 10–3). Among 161 patients considered as fully vaccinated, i.e., >14 days after the completion of the vaccinal scheme (one dose for Johnson and Johnson and two doses for Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Sputnik vaccines), 10 (6.2%) required hospitalization and four (2.5%) died.’
Dr. Anthony Fauci continues to deny the lab leak theory. Speaking at a recent public event Fauci says, “We may never know” the origin of the Coronavirus. He stressed the importance in “keeping an open mind” in regard to the lab leak theory – noted other intelligence agencies don’t buy the lab leak theory.
But the narrative is shifting. The FBI Director recently sat down with Fox News and confirmed the origin of COVID-19 was most likely a “lab incident” in Wuhan.
The US Department of Energy also assesses that COVID-19 likely resulted from a lab leak. The report was based on new intelligence received but labeled as “low confidence.”
Now the question is what does low confidence mean? Is it a political statement to not upset the left? Or is it really based on low-confidence evidence? Regardless many agencies are still coming to the same conclusion – COVID was not natural.
Justin Bieber has just canceled his entire 2023 world tour due to his continuing struggle with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. Back in September 2022 he paused the tour, also due to his condition.
mRNA vaccines reactivates the varicella-zoster virus which is the same virus that causes chickenpox, shingles and Ramsay Hunt Syndrome.
What I would like to know is why Bieber won’t be straightforward about whether he has been ‘vaccinated’ for COVID-19? Which vaccine did he have? How many? Did he have any boosters and when?
VACCINE IMPACT//
Tacoma Woman Sent to County Jail for Refusing Health Department Advice on Treating her Alleged Illness
March 3, 2023 6:36 pm
Unelected medical doctors can weaponize local “health departments” to incarcerate sick people who choose to reject a doctor’s medical advice for their alleged illnesses, as a current case in Tacoma, Washington illustrates. Pierce County Superior Court Judge Philip Sorensen issued an arrest warrant for a Tacoma woman this week for allegedly refusing to take the advice of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department for the treatment of her illness, which they claim is “tuberculosis.” This case is a classic example of how a medical doctor, in this case Dr. Anthony L-T Chen, the Director of Health of Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, who is an unelected politician, can order citizens to take certain medical treatments for their alleged illnesses, and if they disobey, can get a local judge to order them to be arrested for the purpose of forced medical treatments. What is especially troubling about this particular case is that the woman in question does not even speak English, and was not only subject to the actions of the Health Department and County Judge, but had to also accept an interpreter only approved by the Health Department. Her attorney has stated that she does not have proper understanding of the situation, and is denying that she has a medical condition. The attorney has also stated that the County Jail is the wrong place to treat this woman. When are we as a society going to finally start resisting these medical doctors turned politicians and their alleged authority to incarcerate people, or take away their children, for simply not taking their medical advice?
Mississippi Today Investigation Exposes Dangers of One Doctor’s Reign Over Child Abuse Cases
March 3, 2023 7:04 pm
Congratulations to Mississippi Today and their investigation into the state’s only child abuse pediatrician, and this doctor’s reign of terror in destroying the lives of many families. We have been covering this very evil new pediatric sub-specialty among medical doctors for almost a decade now on our MedicalKidnap.com website, and we have published a book on the history and abuses these doctors cause, as the entire justification for their profession that employs them is to find “child abuse” and medically kidnap children to put them into the very lucrative child trafficking business. Please get this FREE e-book and read it so you can be informed about how this system operates and profits from medically kidnapping children, so that your family does not become one of the next victims.
Ukraine has Become the Model Worldwide for Digital IDs and the Complete Digital Transformation of Society
March 5, 2023 1:13 pm
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) have received a lot of attention in recent weeks, in both the alternative and corporate media, as pushback against them mounts. We reported last year that credit union and banking trade groups released a joint letter to the chair and ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, warning of “devastating consequences” if the Federal Reserve moves forward with a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Even the Wall Street Journal recently published an opinion piece warning against the implementation of CBDCs. China is further ahead than the U.S. in rolling out their Central Bank Digital Yuan, but they have had such a hard time getting people to use it, that they started giving it away during the recent Lunar New Year celebrations. Replacing a monetary system and convincing businesses and consumers to stop doing business and stop using cash, is not something that is going to be adopted overnight, and as we can see, there is going to be major pushback against this. However, the goal of a digitized society that requires a digital ID to participate in society and allows the government to pretty much track everything you do, can most certainly be accomplished without the full implementation of CBDCs, and in fact it is already happening in one country: Ukraine. Ukraine rolled out their digital ID and digital transformation program in 2014, which then kicked into high gear in 2020 when COVID was unleashed, and is now almost complete thanks to the war, and help from Elon Musk who provided satellites to connect all the Ukriane people to the Internet and the adoption of the Diia app. So while everyone has been worried about CBDCs and their loss of privacy in such an economic system, Ukraine has already developed a digital transformation of society that is now the example worldwide of how a government can track all of its citizens, even without a CBDC. About 9 years in development now, Ukraine is probably the model country on how to make a complete digital transformation of society. It is powered by American Big Tech companies, with Google services now providing the country’s infrastructure. Zelenskyy even wants to hold the next elections via the app. What could go wrong?
Bank Runs Quietly Continue to Increase Where Depositors Cannot Withdraw Their Funds
March 5, 2023 4:42 pm
While we have not seen a total collapse of the worldwide financial system yet, bank runs that began in 2022 with the collapse of FTX and the $billions that were lost when depositors were not able to withdraw their funds, continue to happen here in 2023, although they do not get headline news coverage. Last week, Pam Martens, writing for Wallstreet on Parade, reported that bank runs were happening at Silvergate Bank, a U.S. FDIC insured bank. Credit Suisse, the second largest bank in Switzerland, which saw bank runs begin last fall, continues to see a mass exodus of depositors as its stock continues to fall here in 2023. It was also reported last week that Blackstone had defaulted on a $562 million bond, and was blocking investors from cashing out their investments at its $71 billion real estate income trust (BREIT). Unfortunately, this is probably just the tip of the iceberg in terms of bank failures and bank runs that await depositors, and I am not the only one saying that, as the U.S. and many European countries are now preparing for bank runs.
(Natural News) Estimates suggest that the insurance industry has suffered nearly $1 trillion in losses due to the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) and Operation Warp Speed.
Between the claims that are being paid out for all those “excess deaths” and the investment portfolio losses, Peter Halligan suggests that the ballpark of losses across the insurance industry is around $911 billion.
“Average value of a Life policy is $168,000, extra deaths are around 560,000 for three years and half of Americans have some form of Life insurance,” Halligan writes about his figure estimates.
“Let’s make a simplifying assumption that half of the extra deaths were insured. $168,000 times 280,000 deaths times 3 years = around 141 billion dollars. I will take just one third of that number for calendar year 2022 policy pay-outs = 47 billion bucks.”
(Related: Life insurance giant OneAmerica says that death claims are up more than 40 percent since the launch of Operation Warp Speed.)
Will the life insurance industry survive the ongoing covid “vaccine” injury and death fallout?
Like any other well-run company, life insurance companies seek to match assets with liabilities.
“This means that maturity ladders of actuarially determined deaths by year, should be matched with, say fixed income (ideally zero coupon bonds) that at least match those annually expected deaths into the future,” Halligan says.
Based on this, the face value of life insurance policies in the United States is estimated to be around $3.29 trillion. There are some unknowns with the numbers, hence these estimates, but this is meant to be a ballpark assessment.
In 2019, the top 25 life insurance carriers in the U.S. held assets with a total value of around $5.2 trillion. These appreciated slightly in 2020 and 2021, followed by a much larger appreciation spike in 2022.
If life insurance companies held to the old 60 / 40 equity / bond portfolio split that year, then they lost 60 percent of their holdings, as well as 20 percent of their S&P 500 holdings, and 10 percent of their 40 percent bond portfolios, which amounts to around 16 percent, or one-sixth, of their investment portfolios.
“A sixth of 5.2 trillion representing assets of the top 25 US Life Insurance companies? Around 870 billion bucks,” Halligan explains. “Combine that with just one third of the three year estimate of extra Life policy pay-outs of 41 billion bucks and your get around 911 billion bucks.”
This is a massive amount of money that has been lost as a direct result of the chaos that came with the scamdemic, most notably Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) “vaccines.”
Numerous commenters on Halligan’s article about all this pointed out that life insurance companies by law are not invested in stock markets. If this is the case and there are no investments in real estate, either – just fixed income – than Halligan says the 16 percent loss figure should be reduced to around 10 percent losses, or roughly half a trillion dollars.
“Seems like I read this someplace … ‘Store not up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust corrupt, and thieves break in and steal …’” wrote another. “Make sure that your primary life insurance policy is not of, or dependent upon, this world.”
Another questioned why life insurance companies are “not raising alarm bells” about all this, to which someone else suggested that these alarm bells come with every quarterly earnings report.
“Also they very stealthily disguised the reason in gobbledygook so no one could understand. Of course, that doesn’t fool astute individuals that have been paying attention. The way the insurance companies will compensate is by simply raising their rates dramatically. The LAST thing they will do is charge more for people that got the clotshot.”
More related news about the ongoing covid “vaccine” genocide can be found at Genocide.news.
The USA/Yuan, CNY: closed ON SHORE (CLOSED DOWN ..(6.9301)
THE USA/YUAN OFFSHORE: (YUAN CLOSED (DOWN)…. 6.9425
TURKISH LIRA: 18.91 EXTREMELY DANGEROUS LEVEL/DEATH WISH/HYPERINFLATION TO BEGIN.
the 10 yr Japanese bond yield at +0.5000…VERY DANGEROUS
Your closing 10 yr US bond yield DOWN 1 IN basis points from FRIDAY at 3,966% //trading well ABOVE the resistance level of 2.27-2.32%) very problematic
USA 30 yr bond yield 3.886 DOWN 0 in basis points
USA 2 yr bond yield: 4.882DOWN 1 basis points
Your closing USA dollar index, 104.28 DOWN 21 BASIS PTS ON THE DAY/1.00 PM/
Your closing bourses for Europe and the Dow along with the USA dollar index closing and interest rates MONDAY: 12:00 PM
London: CLOSED DOWN 22.09 PTS OR 0.28%
German Dax : CLOSED UP 77.94 POINTS OR 0.54 %
Paris CAC CLOSED UP 26.87PTS OR 0.36%
Spain IBEX UP 109.01 POINTS OR 0.39%
Italian MIB: CLOSED UP 436.46PTS OR 1.59/%
WTI Oil price 79.90 12: EST
Brent Oil: 86.02 12:00 EST
USA /RUSSIAN /// UP TO: 75.45/ ROUBLE UP 0 AND 19/100 RUBLES/DOLLAR
GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD; +2.725
UK 10 YR YIELD: 3.884 UP 3BASIS PTS.
CLOSING NUMBERS: 4 PM
Euro vs USA: 1.0676 UP 0.0045 OR 45 BASIS POINTS
British Pound: 1.2017 UP .0017 or 94 basis pts
BRITISH 10 YR GILT BOND YIELD: 3.905% UP 4 BASIS PTS
USA dollar vs Japanese Yen: 135.99 UP .291////YEN DOWN 29 BASIS PTS//
USA dollar vs Canadian dollar: 1.3620 UP .0036 (CDN dollar, DOWN 36 basis pts)
West Texas intermediate oil: 80.58
Brent OIL: 86.26
USA 10 yr bond yield UP 2 BASIS pts to 3.991%
USA 30 yr bond yield UP 3 BASIS PTS to 3.914%
USA 2 YR BOND: UP 4 PTS AT 4.892%
USA dollar index: 104.29 DOWN 20 BASIS POINTS
USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 18.90
USA DOLLAR VS RUSSIA//// ROUBLE: 75.45 UP 0 AND 19/100 roubles
DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE: UP 40.47 PTS OR 0.12%
NASDAQ 100 UP 11.68 PTS OR 0.095%
VOLATILITY INDEX: 18.61 UP .12 PTS (0.65)%
GLD: $171.62 DOWN 0.87 OR 0.50%
SLV/ $19.55 DOWN 0,23 OR 1.18%
end)
1 a)USA TRADING TODAY IN GRAPH FORM
i b)EARLY MORNING TRADING//
II) USA DATA
Factory orders jump a little more than expected but Jan. aircraft order plunge
(zerohedge)
Core US Factory Orders Jump More Than Expected In Jan, Aircraft Orders Plunge
MONDAY, MAR 06, 2023 – 10:07 AM
Following the ugly flash durable goods print (de-bound from Boeing bounce in Dec), US Factory Orders for January were expected to drop 1.8% MoM (after a 1.8% MoM rise in Dec). In fact, the headline print fell 1.6% MoM (better than expected). That leaves US Factory order YoY growth at its weakest since Feb 2021.
Source: Bloomberg
Core factory orders (ex-transports) rose 1.2% MoM, better than the +1.0% MoM expected after a 1.2% decline in Dec…
Source: Bloomberg
The final US Durable Goods Orders print confirmed the 4.5% drop reported in the flash print, dragging the YoY rise down to +3.1% (its weakest since Mar 2021)…
Source: Bloomberg
The big swing factor was no Boeing orders as non-defense aircraft new orders tumbled 54.6% MoM…
Additionally, the value of core capital goods orders, a proxy for investment in equipment that excludes aircraft and military hardware, confirmed it increased 0.8% last month after a downwardly revised 0.3% decline in December, Commerce Department figures showed Monday.
So, all in all, this is ‘good’ news for the economy and thus ‘bad’ news for The Fed.
.
iii) USA ECONOMIC NEWS
Global food crisis intensifies
(Michael Snyder)
US Beef Herd Drops To Lowest Since 1962 As Global Food Crisis Intensifies
Americans need to be prepared to eat a lot less beef, because the size of the national cattle herd is steadily shrinking. And of course this is happening in the context of a much larger crisis. As I detailed in a previous article, even CNN is admitting that we are currently in the midst of “the worst food crisis in modern history”. But even though children are literally dropping dead from starvation on the other side of the planet, a lot of people here in the United States refuse to take this crisis seriously. As long as their stomachs are full they think that everything is just fine. But the truth is that conditions are also starting to get tight here in the United States.
According to the latest biannual report from the USDA, the number of beef cows in this country has fallen to the lowest level since 1962…
The USDA’s biannual cattle report showed that, as of Jan. 1, 2023, there is a 89.3 million head inventory — which is three percent lower than the total from a year ago and the lowest since 2015. Of that number, 38.3 million cows and heifers have calved.
Additionally, there are 28.9 million beef cows, which are those explicitly bred for slaughter and meat sales, as of the start of this year — which is down nearly four percent from last year and the lowest the agency has recorded since 1962.
In 1962, 184 million people lived in the United States.
Today, that number has risen to 331 million.
So we have a problem.
But even though beef prices have been soaring, most Americans don’t realize the gravity of this shortage yet because we are still eating cattle that were slaughtered some time ago.
University of Kentucky’s Kenny Burdine and James Mitchell, extension livestock economist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, recently explained that “There was no question that the beef cow herd had gotten smaller” and that the cattle production’s downward trend does not seem like it will reverse in 2023.”
“There is a pretty substantial biological lag in the beef supply chain,” Mitchell noted. “What consumers experience at the grocery store is a product of what cattle producers were going through a year or two ago. It takes about two years for a new calf to become the steak on your dinner plate.”
The corporate media is already calling beef “a luxury meat”, and prices are inevitably going to go a lot higher in the months ahead.
So if you love beef, you should stock up now.
Meanwhile, food shortages continue to intensify all over the globe.
The Global Hunger Index currently ranks Yemen the worst in the world for level of hunger. Millions of Yemeni children, in some areas as many as 95% according to doctors in those areas that I spoke to, suffer from acute malnutrition.
The resulting stunted physical development had me convinced that I was in a kindergarten classroom when in fact I was meeting with eight and nine-year-olds. And those children were, as a colleague unnervingly put it, “the lucky ones.”
THIS is the moment Kim Jong-un and his cronies gorged on popcorn and champagne as North Korea faces the worst famine in three decades.
Stockpiles of food are dwindling fast in the secretive state, and dozens of malnourished North Koreans are reportedly dropping dead on the streets every day.
In Somalia, the “longest and most severe” drought in that country’s history has produced unprecedented suffering…
About 1.3 million people, 80 percent women and children, have been internally displaced in Somalia by the drought sweeping the Horn of Africa. After five consecutive poor rainy seasons, the ongoing drought has already become the longest and most severe in Somalia’s recent history.
Close to 23 million people are thought to be highly food insecure in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, according to a food security working group chaired by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
Sadly, most of us in the western world don’t care about poor people on the other side of the globe.
So let me give you an example from the western world.
In the UK, the largest supermarkets are now strictly rationing many fruits and vegetables…
The UK’s largest supermarket, Tesco, and discounter Aldi have said they are putting limits of three per customer on sales of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
Asda has capped sales of lettuces, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflowers and raspberry punnets to three per customer, along with tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
And Morrisons has set limits of two on cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuces and peppers.
A British NGO has warned that as many as four million children are now in food poverty amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
The survey on behalf of the Food Foundation, an NGO which promotes healthy eating, found that 22 percent households said they had skipped meals or even fasted for a whole day in January this year, an increase on the 12 percent reporting the same at the start of last year.
This is really happening.
But it can be really easy for those that still have plenty of food to turn a blind eye to the suffering of others.
Sadly, this is just the beginning.
As I prove in my new book, global food production will drop precipitously in the years ahead no matter what our leaders do now.
We are running out of top soil, fertilizer supplies will become insanely tight in the years ahead, and trillions of extremely small particles of plastic are literally raining out of the sky on farms all over the planet.
Many of our leaders understand what is going to happen, but they don’t want to alarm the general public.
Those that are wise will see what is happening and will get prepared.
Unfortunately, most of the population continues to assume that everything will magically work out just fine somehow, and so they will not be ready for the horrors that are ahead of us.
* * *
It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.
end
Wow: all of Portland Oregon Walmart stores to permanently close amid a theft wave.
(zerohedge)
All Portland Walmart Stores To “Permanently Close” Amid Theft Wave
SATURDAY, MAR 04, 2023 – 06:00 PM
In order to address the issue of shoplifting and retail theft, the final two Walmart stores in the city of Portland will shutter their doors in late March.
FOX 12 Oregon reported that the Walmart locations at 1123 North Hayden Meadows Drive and 4200 Southeast 82nd Avenue at the Eastport Plaza would close on Mar. 24.
“The decision to close these stores was made after a careful review of their overall performance. We consider many factors, including current and projected financial performance, location, population, customer needs, and the proximity of other nearby stores when making these difficult decisions. After we decide to move forward, our focus is on our associates and their transition, which is the case here,” a spokesperson with Walmart told the local media outlet.
The announced closures come amid a wave of violent crime across the Portland metro area, which includes retail thefts, armed robberies, and homicides. The city has also seen a surge of violent protests from ANTIFA and BLM groups.
Oregon Live reported that in 2022, Portland set a new record for homicides with 101 cases, surpassing the previous year’s record of 92. Meanwhile, a National Retail Federation report revealed that retailers experienced an average surge of 26.5% in organized retail crime (ORC) incidents in 2021 compared to the previous year.
Data from the Portland Police Bureau indicated that between January 2022 and January 2023, the city witnessed more than 6,000 burglary incidents. Additionally, the data revealed over 27,000 larceny offenses.
The epic failure of progressive city leadership pushing a failed ‘woke agenda’ has resulted in lawlessness in some parts of the metro area. Companies are losing money as thefts soar, and a breaking point has been reached. An exodus of businesses will only hurt low-income residents who need the pricing power at discount stores.
Recall a similar exodus with other retailers is happening in other progressive cities across the US, such as San Francisco.
end
We got another one: Residents near Springfield Ohio told to shelter in place after another Norfolk Southern freight train derailment.
(zerohedge)
Residents Told To Shelter In Place After Norfolk Southern Freight Train Derails In Ohio
SATURDAY, MAR 04, 2023 – 08:15 PM
Another Norfolk Southern freight train has derailed in Ohio.
“The Clark County Emergency Management Agency is asking residents within 1,000 feet of a train derailment at Ohio 41 near the Prime Ohio Business Park to shelter-in-place out of an abundance of caution,” the county wrote in a Facebook post.
The post continued, “We ask that all residents in need of travel to Ohio 41 find alternate routes. Local and state officials are on scene, including the Springfield Fire Rescue Division and the Springfield Police Department.”
The Ohio State Highway Patrol reported 20 railcars of a 212-car Norfolk Southern freight train derailed while traveling southbound in Springfield.
A video shows the moment the freight train derailed.
PJM analysis shows that 40 gigawatts (GW) of existing power generation is at risk of retirement by 2030, accounting for 21 percent of its current installed capacity. Meanwhile, 290 GW worth of new power supply is seeking to connect to PJM’s grid. But 94 percent of this power supply is made up of renewable energy projects that tend to only have a completion rate of 5 percent. This casts doubt on the ability of new power supply to replace old supply. PJM covers 13 eastern states and the District of Columbia.
PJM also forecasts power demand growth of 1.4 percent annually over the next decade. Certain individual zones might even show demand growth as high as 7 percent per year due to the expansion of clusters of data centers as well as overall electrification.
The retirement of existing power generation combined with the growing demand for power will create a supply gap.
According to the report, the pace of new power generation addition will likely be “insufficient” to fill this supply gap by 2030. As such, the completion rates of upcoming projects will have to “increase significantly” to maintain necessary reserve margins, it said.
Decline in Reserve Margins
Reserve margin refers to the amount of unused available power capacity of an electric power system. A reserve margin of 10 percent would mean that an entity has excess capacity amounting to 10 percent of peak demand.
According to PJM projections, the reserve margin could fall from 26 percent in 2023 to 15 percent by 2030 even in the best-case scenario. Reserve margins are critical during times of adverse weather conditions and periods of high demand. A decline suggests less reliability of power.
“The lopsided energy transition is resulting mainly from Biden’s energy policies and state mandates driving fossil fuel generation to shut down as renewable and storage projects are being developed. These are policy choices by political leaders and utilities are responding as directed,” stated a Mar. 2nd analysis of the PJM report by the Institute for Energy Research (IER).
Since PJM usually generates a power surplus owing to its large fossil-fuel generation sources, the entity sells excess power to neighboring grids. As such, the retirement of 21 percent of the current installed capacity by 2030 might potentially affect the power situation in these regions as well, it stated.
Renewable Agenda Effects
In an article at The Epoch Times on Jan. 12, Kevin Stocklin, a film producer who made the documentary “The Shadow State,” which investigated the environmental, social, governance (ESG) industry, warned that government policies are pushing more Americans onto the U.S. grid at a time when the grid is becoming “increasingly unstable” due to climate change agenda.
The federal government is providing subsidies for electric vehicles and even contemplating banning gas stoves. Several state governments are passing laws limiting the use of oil and gas while constructing new homes while some have set dates when gasoline-powered cars would be banned.
In the corporate space, the ESG movement is pressuring companies to adhere to a zero-emissions agenda, he pointed out.
“All of this makes Americans more dependent on the electric grid at a time when utilities are accelerating the closure of coal and gas-fired plants, leaving the grid increasingly reliant on intermittent wind and solar power. This has sparked warnings from utility infrastructure experts that America’s dash toward renewables could be driving our electric grid toward instability,” Stocklin writes.
In its 10-year outlook (pdf) analyzing the impact on energy reliability during the energy transition phase, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), which seeks to ensure the reliability of bulk power systems in the region, warned of a “high risk of shortfall” in energy during peak conditions in some areas of America.
The Indiana-based Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. is projecting a shortfall of 1,300 megawatts this summer that will continue to grow over the next 10 years as coal, nuclear, and natural gas generation “retire faster than replacement resources are connecting.”
If the current power situation is not analyzed properly, and inadequate politically driven policies are adopted, the United States could soon be heading in a similar direction like that of Europe. Homemade bad decisions one after the other created a crisis that was partially averted due to favorable weather this year.
end
3c East Palestine train disaster//updates
EPA Head Admits Kids Should Be Nowhere Near East Palestine Water
FRIDAY, MAR 03, 2023 – 08:40 PM
The aftermath of the freight train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, persists, with residents and rail workers reporting illnesses and the Biden administration facing criticism regarding an inadequate federal response. The 38-car derailment occurred one month ago and resulted in the release of vinyl chloride into the air via a controlled burn, and questions swirl about why testing for dioxins wasn’t conducted immediately after the derailment.
Earlier this week, EPA Administrator Michael Regan visited East Palestine. He addressed reporters about the ongoing situation. Journalist Nick Sorter asked the commissioner:
“Mr. Commissioner, let me ask you really quick, would you allow your children to touch the water? We’ve seen the rainbow sheen, we’ve seen all of these chemicals popping up from the bottom of the streams that these kids used to play in. Would you allow your kids anywhere close to these streams right now?”
Regan’s response:
“I would not. I’m a father of a 9-year-old. I think we have to all agree we wish this accident didn’t occur, but the accident occurred and as a result some of our creeks and streams have pollution in them.”
Here’s the video:
On Thursday, environmental activist Erin Brockovich returned to East Palestine for the second time in less than a week. She met with people experiencing health issues after last month’s train derailment.
“I have been on a lot of environmental situations, and I have never seen anything in my life be so mismanaged ever,” Brockovich said.
During last night’s public meeting, about 200 residents showed up in the high school auditorium. Frustration quickly erupted when EPA regional administrator Debra Shore told residents:
“EPA monitors have not detected any volatile organic compounds above levels of health concerns in the community that are attributable to the train derailment.”
The situation worsened when Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw was a no-show again to the public meeting. Instead, Darrell Wilson, an official with Norfolk Southern, attended the meeting. He told concerned residents:
“We’re ready to start tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. … That is not our decision to make. We are no longer in control of the site.
“We’re going to do the right thing. We’re going to do the right thing. We’re going to clean up the site. We’re going to clean up the site.”
While Wilson was speaking, a woman in the crowd yelled:
“You should have done it right the first time.”
Another woman told local news WKBN that she experiences headaches inside her home and cannot sell her property due to fears that the next owner’s children may develop cancer. Other residents shared a similar story.
Despite residents and workers in the town getting sick and animals dying at surrounding state parks, the EPA only decided on Thursday to enforce Norfolk Southern to test the area for dioxins.
It is possible that both the EPA and Norfolk Southern understand the dissipation of dioxins over time, which could be the reason behind the one-month delay in testing for dioxins.
The decision to release and burn five tanker cars of vinyl chloride and other chemicals at the site of a 38-car derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, just over three weeks ago unleashed a gigantic cloud full of particulates that enveloped surrounding neighborhoods and farms in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
It is well documented that burning chlorinated chemicals like vinyl chloride will generate dioxins. “Dioxin” is the name given to a group of persistent, very toxic chemicals that share similar chemical structures. The most toxic form of dioxin is 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin or TCDD. TCDD is more commonly recognized as the toxic contaminant found in Agent Orange and at Love Canal, New York and Times Beach, Missouri, both sites of two of the most tragic environmental catastrophes in US history.
Dioxin is not deliberately manufactured. It is the unintended byproduct of industrial processes that use or burn chlorine. It is also produced when chemicals such as vinyl chloride are burned such as occurred in East Palestine.
The organization I work for, theCenter for Health, Environment & Justice, has worked with communities affected by dioxins for over 40 years. We have seen the impact of exposure to dioxins in communities from Love Canal and Times Beach to Pensacola, Florida. And now, we are asking, why isn’t EPA testing for dioxins in East Palestine, Ohio? Are dioxins present in the soil downwind from the site of the accident?
At a townhall meeting in East Palestine last week, people talked about what it was like when the black cloud reached their property. One person who lived 15 miles away described burned ash material from the fire that settled on her property. Another who lived 3 miles away described how the black cloud completely smothered his property. Repeatedly people asked: was it safe for my kids to play in the yard? Is it safe to grow a garden? What is going to happen to my farm animals?
These are important questions that deserve to be answered. Today there are no clear answers. Why? Because no one has done any testing for dioxins anywhere in East Palestine. No one. And, it seems, that the EPA is uninterested in testing for dioxins, behaving as though dioxin is no big deal.
This makes no sense. Testing for dioxin, a highly toxic substance, should have been one of the first things to look for, especially in the air once the decision was made to burn the vinyl chloride. There is no question that dioxins were formed in the vinyl chloride fire. They would have formed on the particulate matter – the black soot – in the cloud that was so clearly visible at the time of the burn. Now, the question is how much is in the soil where people live in and around East Palestine. Without testing, no one will know and the people who live there will remain in the dark, uncertain about their fate.
This is important because of the adverse health effects associated with exposure to dioxins. Exposure to dioxins can cause cancer, reproductive damage, developmental problems, type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease, infertility in adults, impairment of the immune system and skin lesions.
The EPA is very familiar with dioxins. For more than 25 years, the agency evaluated and assessed the risks posed by exposure to dioxins. They published multiple draft reports on the health effects caused by exposure to dioxins. They published an inventory of dioxin sources and devoted an enormous amount of time to studying dioxins. The agency knows this chemical very well.
So why is EPA unwilling to test for dioxins in the soil? My guess is because they know they will find it. And if they find it, they’ll have to address the many questions people are asking. It will not be easy to interpret the results of the testing for dioxins in soil, but to avoid testing is irresponsible. The EPA’s mission is to protect human health and the environment. Clearly the situation in East Palestine is the place where EPA should follow its mission and do right by the people who live in this town. EPA must test the soil in East Palestine for dioxins.
The people who live there need to know so they can make informed decisions about their future.
Also on Thursday, again a month later, President Biden said he would visit East Palestine “at some point.”
East Palestine is ‘Biden’s Katrina.’ That is poor timing on the administration’s part, considering the presidential election cycle is about to begin.
USA COVID//
The crook Fauci!
Fauci ‘Prompted’ Scientists To Fabricate ‘Proximal Origins’ Paper Ruling Out Lab-Leak: House GOP
SUNDAY, MAR 05, 2023 – 04:00 PM
Dr. Anthony Fauci – who offshored banned gain-of-function research to make bat coronaviruses more transmissible to humans – has been accused by Congressional investigators of having ‘prompted’ the fabrication of a paper by a cadre of scientists aimed at disproving the Covid-19 lab-leak theory.
On February 1, 2020, Fauci and his boss, NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins, and at least eleven other scientists participated in a conference call during which several of them warned that COVID-19 may have leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China – may have been intentionally genetically manipulated.
Three days after the call, four participants from the call (Scripps Research virologist Kristian Andersen, University of Sydney virologist Edward Holmes, Tulane School of Medicine virologist Robert Garry, University of Edinburgh virologist Andrew Rambaut and Columbia University virologist Ian Lipkin) seemingly discarded their concerns over a lab-leak, and drafted “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” which they sent to Fauci and Collins.
Also heavily involved (yet not credited) was Dr. Jeremy Farrar, the current Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization.
As a related aside – the Washington Examiner revealed last week that two authors of “Proximal Origin” who initially expressed concerns over a lab-leak and then changed their tune (Anderson and Garry), received millions in NIH grants under Fauci.
Now, according to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, Fauci ‘prompted’ the creation of the paper;
“New evidence released by the Select Subcommittee today suggests that Dr. Fauci “prompted” the drafting of a publication that would “disprove” the lab leak theory, the authors of this paper skewed available evidence to achieve that goal, and Dr. Jeremy Farrar went uncredited despite significant involvement.”
More:
So, for those following the bouncing ball…
The US was doing risky gain-of-function research on US soil until 2014, when the Obama administration banned it. Four months before the ban, Dr. Fauci offshored it to Wuhan, China through New York nonprofit, EcoHealth Alliance.
After Sars-CoV-2 broke out down the street from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Fauci engaged in a massive campaign to deny the possibility of a lab-leak from the lab he funded, and instead pin the blame on a yet-to-be discovered zoonotic intermediary species.
And if you’d like to dig even deeper, this is perhaps the best, most comprehensive summary of the “proximal origin” timeline.
end
Awful! 4 Americans kidnapped by armed gunmen just after crossing into Mexico in their minivan
(zerohedge)
Four Americans Kidnapped By Armed Gunmen From Minivan In Mexico
MONDAY, MAR 06, 2023 – 12:33 PM
President Biden’s disastrous border policies put the safety of the American people at risk, as an announcement by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said four Americans were kidnapped and assaulted upon crossing into northeastern Mexico from Texas.
On Friday, four Americans crossed into Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, driving a white minivan with North Carolina license plates. Shortly after crossing into Mexico, “unidentified gunmen fired upon the passengers in the vehicle… all four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men,” the FBI wrote in a statement.
CBS News’ Christina Ruffini reports a Twitter post shows the moment four Americans were kidnapped in Mexico. Ken Salazar, US ambassador to Mexico, said in a statement that “an innocent Mexican citizen was tragically killed” in the same incident.
According to Salazar, American law enforcement officials are collaborating with Mexican authorities to ensure the kidnapped Americans’ safe return.
After reports of the kidnapping began circulating on local media outlets, the US consulate in Matamoros issued an alert on Friday.
Event: The US Consulate Matamoros has received reports of police activity occurring in the vicinity of Calle Primera and Lauro Villar in connection to a shooting. Media reports indicate that one individual has been killed. US government employees have been instructed to avoid the area until further notice. The US Consulate General reminds US citizens that Tamaulipas is classified as Level 4: Do Not Travel in the State Department’s travel advisory for Mexico.
How long will it take for the Biden administration to acknowledge the missing Americans?
END
SWAMP STORIES
Flynn Sues DOJ, FBI For Malicious Prosecution, Wants $50 Million
Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ), FBI, and others, alleging he was maliciously prosecuted. He is demanding at least $50 million in compensation.
The former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) under the Obama administration was investigated by the FBI starting in August 2016 for supposed ties to Russia. In 2017, he was charged with lying to the FBI during an interview earlier that year.
The suit alleges that the FBI, and later prosecutors from the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, investigated and prosecuted him for political reasons, considering him a threat.
“General Flynn—who already had a reputation as a hands-on disruptor at DIA, who had publicly excoriated the politicization of the intelligence community, and who had made clear his desire to overhaul the national security structure and the ‘interagency process’—was a direct threat, not only to the self-interest of entrenched intelligence bureaucracies and the federal officials involved, but to exposing their prior and ongoing efforts to derail and discredit President Trump,” the suit says.
The case against Flynn was riddled with contradictions and inconsistencies. FBI agents had already decided to close his case by early January 2017, but higher-ups intervened to keep it open on the justification that Flynn may have violated an obscure and antiquated law called the Logan Act by discussing with a Russian ambassador the priorities of the incoming administration during the transition period. DOJ officials at the time rejected the legal theory. The 1799 Logan Act, which prohibits certain kinds of unauthorized diplomacy, may in fact be unconstitutional, several lawyers previously told The Epoch Times. It has never been successfully prosecuted, much less aimed at an incoming national security adviser.
The Flynn investigation, codenamed Crossfire Razor, continued “only because of Defendant’s agents and agencies’ malicious, partisan, and unethical intent to investigate their political opponents generally and to destroy General Flynn specifically,” the suit says.
Subsequent leaks to the media claimed that he may have violated the Logan Act by talking with the Russian ambassador, Sergei Kislyak, about sanctions imposed at the time on Russia by the outgoing Obama administration.
FBI top brass then meticulously prepared and arranged the interview to appear as “an informal meeting, just to put the Kislyak calls being discussed in the press to bed,” the suit says.
On Jan. 24, 2017, when two FBI agents interviewed Flynn, they asked him whether he talked with Kislyak about expulsions of Russian diplomats. He said no, which was not the truth. When asked again, he said he didn’t remember.
This exchange then formed the core of the charge brought against Flynn by Mueller, who took over his case in May 2017.
FBI agents and U.S. Capitol Police officers identified “credible threats” ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, electoral vote certification but did not properly disseminate the intelligence, a watchdog says in a new report.
The FBI obtained information from human informants, social media, and other agencies and tracked suspected domestic terrorists traveling to Washington, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report (pdf).
Capitol Police officials examined information developed from arrests and investigations, as well as open sources, and distributed a document three days before Jan. 6 that conveyed a subject of an investigation had said militia members planned to attend a Jan. 6 demonstration while armed, which would violate Washington law.
Both agencies assessed threats for credibility and reported that some of the threats were deemed credible.
But both failed to properly adhere to policies for processing or sharing information, the watchdog found.
FBI agents in San Antonio, Texas, for instance, received tips from the social media company Parler but did not develop reports based on the tips, as required.
“FBI officials noted that the FBI San Antonio Field Office did not develop any related reports on January 6 events as required by policy, such as Guardians, situational information reports, or intelligence information reports but did not indicate why not,” GAO said.
Such reports are distributed to state, local, and tribal law enforcement partners.
A U.S. Capitol Police officer monitors the crowd atop the east Rotunda steps on Jan. 6, 2021. (Bobby Powell/Special to The Epoch Times)
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said on “Just the News, No Noise” that the FBI “had a blueprint for what was going to happen, and they didn’t think about it and look at the consequences.”
The FBI did develop some reports, which it shared with partners, the GAO report noted.
‘Relevant Threat Information’ Omitted
Capitol Police officials, meanwhile, left out “relevant threat information” it received from other agencies in documents developed for Jan. 6, according to GAO.
“Capitol Police identified potential violence that could occur on January 6 in Washington, D.C. in advance of planned events. However, it did not consistently incorporate complete information into assessments of threats in its threat products, such as information obtained from other agencies regarding an individual traveling to Washington, D.C. to engage in violence at January 6 events,” the report said.
One example of information left out was a suspicious activity report from Washington Homeland Security officials that indicated an individual planned to travel to the nation’s capitol to engage in violence during Jan. 6 protests.
Capitol Police officials also failed to update a threat product to include important information, including information indicating violence might occur during the demonstrations, and did not consistently share relevant details across its agency, “resulting in some officers, agents and intelligence staff not having complete information,” the report stated.
Eight other agencies, including the National Park Service and the Secret Service, examined by GAO received information, but they either did not assess threats for credibility or did not identify any of the threats as credible.
The Department of Homeland Security Office of Intelligence & Analysis (DHS I&A) did not assess any reports or identify any credible threats before the department’s team charged with collecting information from open sources “did not share reports on January 6 open source threats with other DHS I&A divisions until after the Capitol attack occurred,” according to the watchdog.
Police officers set up barricades outside of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
DHS I&A also failed to share information with the Capitol Police “in a timely manner,” GAO said.
GAO made 10 recommendations, including advising FBI Director Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee, to assess why personnel did not adhere to policy in processing information related to Jan. 6 and, after an assessment, implement a plan for fixing what went wrong.
FBI Takes Note
Many of the agencies, including the FBI, agreed with the recommendations.
“We appreciate the GAO’s extensive fact gathering and thorough analysis in the report,” adding that “we will incorporate GAO’s conclusion that, despite collecting and sharing significant pieces of threat reporting, the FBI did not process all relevant information related to potential violence on January 6,” Larissa Knapp, an FBI official, said in a response to GAO.
“Our goal is always to disrupt and stay ahead of the threat, and we are constantly trying to learn and evaluate what we could have done better or differently, this is especially true of the attack on the Capitol,” Knapp also said.
The FBI declined to comment beyond Knapp’s letter. The Capitol Police and DHS did not respond to requests for comment.
U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger told GAO that it is taking steps to implement the watchdog’s recommendation that the Capitol Police Board should establish policies for sharing information on possible threats across the agency.
Manger said the department is drafting policy that “will provide guidance for sharing threat-related information agency-wide.”
GAO previously concluded that DHS should have designated the Jan. 6 demonstrations as special, which would have triggered heightened security.
Another previous report found that many agencies were aware of open source, or publicly available, information on potential violence planned for Jan. 6.
END
this ought to be good:
Special thanks to Robert H for sending this to us:
Treasury to Testify for Withholding Biden Family Suspicious Wire Transfers
The King Report March 6, 2023 Issue 6961Independent View of the NewsChina Feb services activity jumps sharply as demand recovers- Caixin PMI The Caixin/S&P Global services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to 55.0 in February from 52.9 in January (54.5 consensus)… https://t.co/ghVIxQPYtQ
US Economic data released on FridayFeb S&P Global US Services PMI 50.6; 50.5 expected and priorFeb ISM Services Index 55.1, 54.5 expected, 55.2 priorISM Services Prices Paid 65.6, 67.8 priorISM Services Employment 54, 50 priorISM Services New Orders 62.6, 60.4 prior February US ISM Services PMI Full Report: https://t.co/USr98c7Dgt
To Fight Inflation, Fed Tightening Should Go Faster and Further– Jason Furman, ex-Obama advisor The labor market and wage data call for a 50-basis-point increase and a terminal rate closer to 6%. The Federal Reserve has said repeatedly that it responds to data and doesn’t set interest rates on autopilot. The data have changed dramatically. The Fed should prove it means what it says by shifting from a 25-basis-point increase at its next meeting to a 50-point increase… The expectation that inflation would melt away on its own was always unjustified, but the latest economic data have been especially unkind to team transitory… https://www.wsj.com/articles/fed-tightening-should-go-faster-and-further-50-basis-points-rates-march-meeting-january-data-powell-e576d845
@jasonfurman: A year ago it was obvious the Fed was behind the curve. The Fed caught up with the curve. It is in danger of falling behind again, something that risks greatly increasing the cost of bringing inflation down.
Larry Summers Urges Fed’s Powell to Open Door to 50 Basis Points in March Former Treasury chief says Fed is again ‘behind the curve’ Summers lists six jolts in data that moved against FedSeasonal revisions to the consumer price index that took the downward trend of inflation out of the data for the last several months of 2022.The CPI for January showed an acceleration in inflation.The personal consumption expenditures price index also picked up.January economic indicators “read strong.”Wage figures “no longer show the kind of reductions that we had been expecting.”The jump in Treasury yields, with 10-year rates climbing past 4%https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-03/summers-urges-powell-to-open-door-to-50-basis-points-in-march
Fed’s Logan says financial system vulnerable to bond market stress Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Lorie Logan said Friday the U.S. government bond market remains vulnerable to significant shocks and that government authorities must push forward on creating a more formal system to help the market in times of trouble… http://reut.rs/3YrgAu4
Lorie Logan wants to be a Fed activist/interventionist. The Dallas Fed has greatly changed. Earth to Lorie, the Fed has been fixing the bond market for decades and rigging it for 15+ years!
It’s Now Impossible to Keep Politics Out of Central Banks – By Michael Every of Rabobank The new head of the Chicago Fed (Goolsbee) is a prominent Democrat and outspoken critic of the GOP… the executive search consultancy that helped select Goolsbee for the job employs his wife… none of this information was disclosed during the search or after the choice was made… Within his own party, Senator Warren has called for the appointment of a person who will balance some of Powell’s ‘extreme’ rate hikes… https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/its-now-impossible-keep-politics-out-central-banks
Tesla stock pops after China sales jump year-over-year (32%, 13% m/m) https://yhoo.it/3KY3KQH
ESHs declined modestly during Asian trading. Action was lackluster; ESHs traded within a 9-handle range. ESHs spiked higher just before the European opening. The rally persisted until ESHs and stocks vacillated in a wide range after the obligatory NYSE opening rally.
A modest rally materialized after the first hour of NYSE trading. ESHs and stocks then went inert until a modest Noon Balloon appeared. It ended within 12 minutes. ESHs and stocks flatlined until the expected Friday afternoon rally began at 14:07 ET. The modest rally quickly halted; ESHs and stocks again went inert. The last-hour upward manipulation began at 15:04 ET; it ended at 15:08 ET. ESHs and stocks retreated until 15:48 ET. ESHs and stocks then rallied modestly into the close.
Positive aspects of previous session Bonds and stocks rallied sharply
Negative aspects of previous session Commodities rallied sharply
Ambiguous aspects of previous session What’s the deal with Fed liberals/activists?
First Hour/Last Hour Action [S&P 500 Index]: 1st Hour from NYSE open: Up; Last Hour: Up
Pivot Point for S&P 500 Index [above/below indicates daily trend to traders]: 4029.70 Previous session High/Low: 4048.29; 3995.17
JPMorgan Chase ‘requires its tech workers give 6 months notice before they quit’https://trib.al/zxT6ynJ
@sentdefender: The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley and other U.S. Defense Officials will reportedly arrive in Israel later today in order to conduct High-Level Meetings with Israeli Military and Intelligence Officials on the Threat that Iran possess to the Region. The U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is also set to arrive on a 2 Day Visit to Israel on Wednesday next week to discuss the Iranian Nuclear Situation with Israeli PM Netanyahu and the IDF Chief of Staff. These meetings come after White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, CIA Director Bill Burns and Secretary of State Tony Blinken have all also conducted Visits to Israel in recent weeks to discuss the Iranian Threat with Israeli Officials. (Is the US trying to contain or help Israel?)
Ukrainians flee ‘hell on earth’ as Russian forces move to take Bakhmuthttps://t.co/TD5NCFnri0
Attorney General Merrick Garland makes unannounced trip to Ukraine (What’s the real reason?) Garland “held several meetings and reaffirmed our determination to hold Russia accountable for crimes committed in its unjust and unprovoked invasion against its sovereign neighbor.” https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/03/politics/merrick-garland-ukraine
Samantha Power Lets Slip the US Is at War with Russia, but “Ukrainians Doing the Fighting” “This isn’t just the United States and Russia, this in fact is Ukrainians on the front lines, Ukrainians doing the fighting…” https://t.co/5lzDzHAvib
China cites need to boost military spending as People’s Congress meetshttps://t.co/mPsbOt2ec4
Secretary of the Army Christine E. Wormuth @SecArmy:A priority for me and our @USArmy is resiliency in the face of climate change. At Fort Bragg, we have the largest floating solar array in the Southeast United States. This is just one of many examples of how our Army #LeadsFromTheFront in climate innovation and adaptation. (The US military is in deep, deep wokism/doodoo.)
Jim Jordan demands answers on COVID origins: Why was Dr. Fauci ‘so consumed’ with countering lab leak theory?https://t.co/QXdnAauUig
mRNA vax inventor @RWMaloneMD: The lab leak killed millions of people. Most likely, this research was done by the US Gov thru Ecohealth, with the CCP/WIV cooperating. Why is the USG/DTRA/NIH still funding WIV & Ecohealth? Why is The Int. Court of Justice at the Hague not investigating?…
Leaked audio reveals US rail workers were told to skip inspections as Ohio crash prompts scrutiny to industry – A spokesperson for Union Pacific said in an email: “Nothing is more important than the safety of Union Pacific employees and the communities we serve. Union Pacific does not have the alleged recording….”… https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/03/us-rail-workers-east-palestine-ohio-train-crash
Small and start-up business employment is in collapse. Employment at firms with 1-19 employees has turned negative and has plunged since the bounce on the massive Covid stimuli schemes. https://twitter.com/_BetBigOrGoHome/status/1632081109595963398
Fed’s Daly Says More Rate Hikes Likely Needed to Cool Inflation Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly said policymakers will likely need to raise interest rates higher and maintain them at elevated levels for a longer period of time.https://t.co/jb9P8f2xhW
Today – Impact events this week include Powell’s semiannual monetary policy testimony to the Senate Banking Com Tuesday and the House Financial Services Com on Wednesday, the February Employment Report on Friday. Another strong jobs report will ignite fear of a 50bp rate hike on March 22.
ESHs hit -7.75 at 19:24 ET on Daly’s rate hike remarks. Still, traders will play for the Monday rally.
Expected economic data: Jan Factory Orders -1.5% m/m, ex-Trans +1.0%; Jan Durable Goods -4.5% m/m, ex-Trans +0.7%
Hunter Biden advised Joe’s office on answering Burisma queries: emails The May 13, 2014, exchanges between Hunter and Kendra Barkoff, which have not been previously reported, form the basis of a complaint sent to the Justice Department on Friday alleging that the Biden scion, now 53, violated federal law by failing to register as a foreign agent… https://nypost.com/2023/03/03/hunter-biden-advised-joes-office-on-answering-burisma-queries-emails/
Biden’s new headache: Feinstein, Fetterman absences leave president with bumpy road in the Senate https://t.co/CqH7tXuVRm
@IrisTaoTV: President Biden was going to speak but turned away upon hearing my question on Covid origin and whether he’ll hold China accountable. https://t.co/jsbMTNPeYb
@RNCResearch: Another weekend vacation in Delaware for Joe Biden. Biden has spent 306 days — 40% of his presidency — on vacation.
Robert Kennedy Jr is considering challenging Biden for the 2024 Democrat Nomination for President.
DeSantis, addressing top donors, chastises Republicans who act like ‘potted plants’ in ‘woke ideology’ fighthttps://t.co/17bG3J3rxc
If only Trump had 5-point plans to drain the swamp, reform the FBI, build the wall, and lock her up!
House GOP unveils ‘Parents Bill of Rights,’ drawing criticism from teachers union House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik says the legislation ensures parents have the right to know what’s being taught to their children… https://t.co/zkSsgLsYQf
Reuters crushed for referring to Stalin’s legacy as ‘polarizing’: ‘What the h— is wrong with you?’https://t.co/54LlbfRUSg (Where are the adults, the serious people?)
Steven Spielberg warns ‘overt’ anti-Semitism in U.S. as bad as 1930s Nazi Germany “I’ve never experienced this in my entire life, especially in this country. Somehow in 2014, 2015, 2016, hate became a kind of membership to a club that has gotten more members than I ever thought was possible in America… hate and anti-Semitism go hand in hand; you can’t separate one from the other.” https://justthenews.com/nation/religion/steven-spielberg-warns-overt-antisemitism-us-bad-1930s-nazi-germany
“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” – Confucius
Catherine Austin Fitts (CAF), Publisher of The Solari Report, financial expert and former Assistant Secretary of Housing (Bush 41 Admin.), says the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is much easier said than done. There is a monster fight behind the scenes between commercial banks and central banks. CAF explains, “You have bubbled an entire economy, and now you are bringing out something (CBDC) that could shrink the bubble dramatically, and it can put a lot of banks out of the game and out of the business. If the central banks are going to compete directly for retail accounts, it’s going to shrink the fees and business for a lot of banks. You are talking about cutting their income or putting them out of business. So, CBDC is highly controversial. One reason is people are beginning to wake up and realize, oh, I am no longer an insider. CBDC is going to turn me into a slave, and they are going to be able to take all my assets. You think they could lock you down during the pandemic? The CBDC is the ultimate lockdown tool, and they can lock anyone down whenever they feel like it.”
The Fed’s biggest fear is losing control of the financial system. CAF says, “The Fed is scared to death of the global debt growth model, and they kept this model going by growing the debt more and more and more. Now, interest rates are accelerating in a way . . . it shrinks your productivity. So, the pie that is supporting the debt, is shrinking. . . . This is a coup model just like in Ukraine. You push all the people out or you kill them. You have war conditions so you can pick everything up cheap. You can do this with government money to ‘help’ Ukraine. No, it is government money to help the insiders to buy Ukraine, control Ukraine, own Ukraine.”
CAF says if you want to fight against the CBDC, then start spending cash every day instead of electronic payments. CAF started with “Spend cash on Friday,” and it took off. CAF says, “Cash Friday became cash every day. You know why? It was so successful. We get these incredible stories . . . hundreds and hundreds of stories of people starting to engage with their local businesses about what are we going to do about all of this? It starts with cash because businesses pay 3% on their credit card fees. . . . This can be the difference between making a profit or a loss if everybody pays cash.”
CAF also talks about more ways coming where you can pay in gold and silver coins. CAF tells us why gold and silver should be core investments and why she likes silver more than gold. CAF tells us why she is not worried about the threat of nuclear war, what the NATO plan is for Russia and why it’s backfiring. CAF also talks about why the Second Amendment is the biggest block to digital currency prison and why she thinks “2023 is a pivotal year for freedom and opportunity.”
There is much free information on Solari.com. You can search for all the free information CAF talked about by using the search box in the upper right-hand corner on the homepage of Solari.com.
The King Report March 6, 2023 Issue 6961Independent View of the NewsChina Feb services activity jumps sharply as demand recovers- Caixin PMI
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