by harveyorgan · in Uncategorized · Leave a comment·Edit

GOLD PRICE CLOSED: DOWN $1.15 TO $1913.35

SILVER PRICE CLOSED: DOWN $0.02 AT $22.85

Access prices: closes 4: 15 PM

Gold ACCESS CLOSE 109.65

Silver ACCESS CLOSE: 22,72

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Bitcoin morning price:, $30,364 DOWN 347 Dollars

Bitcoin: afternoon price: $30,191 DOWN 520 dollars

Platinum price closing $918.05 DOWN $11.40

Palladium price; $1252.25 DOWN $45.90

END

Due to the huge rise in the dollar, we must look at gold and silver in currencies other than the dollar to understand where we are heading

I will now provide gold in Canadian dollars, British pounds and Euros/4: 15 PM ACCESS

CANADIAN GOLD: $2,531.00 UP 8.00 CDN dollars per oz (ALL TIME HIGH 2,775.35)

BRITISH GOLD: 1510.85 UP 8.12 pounds per oz//(ALL TIME HIGH//CLOSING///1630.29)

EURO GOLD: 1749.37 UP3.20 euros per oz //(ALL TIME HIGH/CLOSING//1861.21)//

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EXCHANGE: COMEX

EXCHANGE: COMEX
CONTRACT: JUNE 2023 COMEX 100 GOLD FUTURES
SETTLEMENT: 1,914.000000000 USD
INTENT DATE: 06/27/2023 DELIVERY DATE: 06/29/2023
FIRM ORG FIRM NAME ISSUED STOPPED

363 H WELLS FARGO SEC 1
435 H SCOTIA CAPITAL 2
661 C JP MORGAN 5 2

TOTAL: 5 5

JPMorgan stopped 2.5 contracts

FOR JUNE:

GOLD: NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED FOR JUNE/2023. CONTRACT: 5 NOTICES FOR 500 OZ or 0.0155 TONNES

total notices so far: 20,120 contracts for 2,012,000 oz (62.582 tonnes)

FOR JUNE:

SILVER NOTICES: 0 NOTICE(S) FILED FOR nil OZ/

total number of notices filed so far this month : 852 for 4,260,000 oz

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END

GLD

WITH GOLD DOWN $1.15

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

NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:////

INVENTORY RESTS AT 925.65 TONNES

Silver//

WITH NO SILVER AROUND AND SILVER DOWN 2 CENTS AT THE SLV// NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV:

INVESTORS ARE SWITCHING SLV TO SPROTT’S PSLV.

CLOSING INVENTORY: 470.527 MILLION OZ

Let us have a look at the data for today

SILVER//OUTLINE

SILVER COMEX OI FELL BY A RECORD SETTING ATMOSPHERIC SIZED 10,665 CONTRACTS TO 123,491 AND FURTHER FROM THE RECORD HIGH OI OF 244,710, SET FEB 25/2020 AND THIS HUGE SIZED LOSS IN COMEX OI WAS ACCOMPLISHED DESPITE OUR $0.07 GAIN IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX ON TUESDAY. TAS ISSUANCE WAS A FAIR SIZED 331 CONTRACTS. THESE WILL BE USED FOR MANIPULATION LATER THIS MONTH . CRAIG HEMKE HAS POINTED OUT THAT THE CROOKS USE THE MID MONTH FOR MANIPULATION AS THEY SELL THEIR BUY SIDE OF THE CALENDAR SPREAD FIRST AND THEN KEEP THE SELL SIDE TO LIQUIDATE AT A LATER DATE. THUS WE HAVE TWO VEHICLES THE CROOKS USE FOR MANIPULATION AND BOTH ARE SPREADERS: 1) AT MONTH’S END/SPREADERS COMEX AND 2/ TAS SPREADERS, MID MONTH. TOTAL TAS ISSUED ON TUESDAY NIGHT: 331 CONTRACTS. DESPITE MANY COMPLAINTS THAT THE CROOKS HAVE VIOLATED POSITION LIMITS DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE TAS ISSUED HAVE A VALUE OF ZERO (AS TO POSITION LIMITS FOR OUR CROOKED BANKERS). THE PROBLEM OF COURSE IS THAT THE CROOKS DO NOT LIQUIDATE THE TAS TOGETHER BUT SELL THE BUY SIDE FIRST AND THEN LIQUIDATE THE SELL SIDE TWO MONTHS HENCE. IT IS OBVIOUS MANIPULATION TO THE HIGHEST DEGREE BUT IT NATURALLY FELL ON DEAF EARS WITH OUR REGULATORS (OCC) WHEN THEY RECEIVED OUR COMPLAINTS. IT THUS LOOKS LIKE THE FED (GOV’T) IS BEHIND ALL OF THESE TRADES.

WE HAVE THIS YEAR SET ANOTHER RECORD LOW AT 117,395 CONTRACTS ///MARCH 29.2023// SO WE ARE WITHIN 6,000 CONTRACTS OF A RECORD LOW. OUR BANKERS WERE SUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING THE PRICE OF SILVER DOWN (IT ROSE BY $0.07). AND WERE SUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING SOME SPEC LONGS AS WE HAD A HUGE LOSS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES OF 10,016 CONTRACTS. WE HAD 0 CRIMINAL NOTICES FILED IN THE CATEGORY OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK TRANSFER FOR 0 MILLION OZ// ( THE TOTAL ISSUED IN THIS CATEGORY SO FAR THIS MONTH TOTAL 13.370 MILLION OZ.). WE HAVE NOW RETURNED TO OUR USUAL AND CUSTOMARY SCENARIO: BANKERS SHORT AND SPECS LONG WITH MANIPULATION NOW MID MONTH AND BEYOND, DUE TO (TAS) MANIPULATION. TODAY WE WITNESSED FOR THE SECOND STRAIGHT DAY: HUGE SPREADER LIQUIDATION ON THE COMEX

WE MUST HAVE HAD:

A STRONG ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS( 649 CONTRACTS) iiii) AN INITIAL SILVER STANDING FOR COMEX SILVER MEASURING AT 3.935 MILLION OZ(FIRST DAY NOTICE) FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 0 OZ QUEUE JUMP + 0 MILLION OZ EXCHANGE FOR RISK(ISSUED TODAY: TOTAL ISSUED SO FAR: 13.370 MILLION OZ)// TOTAL STANDING FOR THE MONTH 4.270 MILLION OZ + 13.370 MILLION EXCHANGE FOR RISK = 17,640 MILLION OZ// ) // HUGE SIZED COMEX OI LOSS/ STRONG SIZED EFP ISSUANCE/VI) SMALL NUMBER OF T.A.S. CONTRACT ISSUANCE (331 CONTRACTS)//HUGE COMEX SPREADER LIQUIDATION//

I AM NOW RECORDING THE DIFFERENTIAL IN OI FROM PRELIMINARY TO FINAL –246 CONTRACTS

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

TOTAL CONTRACTS for 17 days, total 20,879 contracts: OR 104.395 MILLION OZ (1228 CONTRACTS PER DAY)

TOTAL EFP’S FOR THE MONTH SO FAR: 104.395 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

YEAR 2022:

JAN 2022-DEC 2022

JAN 2022// 90.460 MILLION OZ

FEB 2022: 72.39 MILLION OZ//

MARCH: 207.140 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

TOTALS YR 2022: 1135.767 MILLION OZ (1.1356 BILLION OZ)

JAN 2023/// 53.070 MILLION OZ //FINAL

FEB: 2023: 100.105 MILLION OZ/FINAL//MUCH STRONGER ISSUANCE VS THE LATTER TWO MONTHS.

MARCH 2023: 112.58 MILLION OZ//FINAL//STRONG ISSUANCE

APRIL 118.035 MILLION OZ(SLIGHTLY GREATER THAN THAN LAST MONTH)

MAY 66.120 MILLION OZ/INITIAL (MUCH SMALLER THIS MONTH)

JUNE: 104.395 MILLION OZ//MUCH LARGER THAN LAST MONTH

RESULT: WE HAD A HUMONGOUS SIZED DECREASE IN COMEX OI SILVER COMEX CONTRACTS OF 10,665 CONTRACTS DESPITE OUR GAIN IN PRICE OF $0.07 IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX//TUESDAY.,. THE CME NOTIFIED US THAT WE HAD A STRONG EFP ISSUANCE CONTRACTS: 649 ISSUED FOR JULY 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 JUNE OF 3.935 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 0 OZ QUEUE JUMP+ 0 MILLION EXCHANGE FOR RISK TODAY + 13.37 MILLION EXCHANGE FOR RISK(PRIOR)//NEW TOTAL STANDING: 17.640 MILLION OZ////// .. WE HAVE A HUGE SIZED LOSS OF 10,016 OI CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES. THE TOTAL OF TAS INITIATED CONTRACTS TODAY: A FAIR 331//SOME FRONT END OF THE TAS CONTRACTS WERE LIQUIDATED DURING THE TUESDAY COMEX SESSION BUT THE REAL LIQUIDATION TODAY WAS THAT OF COMEX SPREADERS . THE NEW TAS ISSUANCE TODAY (311) WILL BE PUT INTO “THE BANK” TO BE COLLUSIVELY USED AT A LATER DATE.

WE HAD 0 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR 000 OZ

THE SILVER COMEX IS NOW BEING ATTACKED FOR METAL BY LONDONERS ET AL.

GOLD//OUTLINE

IN GOLD, THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST FELL BY A FAIR SIZED 3628 CONTRACTS TO 433,135 AND FURTHER FROM 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 –1274 CONTRACTS

WE HAD A FAIR SIZED DECREASE IN COMEX OI ( 3628 CONTRACTS) WITH OUR $9.15 LOSS IN PRICE. WE ALSO HAD A STRONG INITIAL STANDING IN GOLD TONNAGE FOR JUNE. AT 70.79 TONNES ON FIRST DAY NOTICE FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 0.0746 TONNE E.F.P JUMP TO LONDON: NEW TOTAL LOWERS TO 64.227 TONNES STANDING SO FAR // + /A STRONG ISSUANCE OF 1281 T.A.S. CONTRACTS ////YET ALL OF..THIS HAPPENED WITH A $9.15 LOSS IN PRICE WITH RESPECT TO TUESDAY’S TRADING.WE HAD A FAIR SIZED LOSS OF 1349 OI CONTRACTS (4.195 PAPER TONNES) ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES.

E.F.P. ISSUANCE

THE CME RELEASED THE DATA FOR EFP ISSUANCE AND IT TOTALED A FAIR SIZED 2279 CONTRACTS:

The NEW COMEX OI FOR THE GOLD COMPLEX RESTS AT 431,861

IN ESSENCE WE HAVE A FAIR SIZED DECREASE IN TOTAL CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 1349 CONTRACTS WITH 3628 CONTRACTS DECREASED AT THE COMEX//TAS CONTRACTS INITIATED (ISSUED): A STRONG 1281 CONTRACTS) AND 2279 EFP OI CONTRACTS WHICH NAVIGATED OVER TO LONDON. THUS TOTAL OI LOSS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 1349 CONTRACTS OR 4.195 TONNES.

CALCULATIONS ON GAIN/LOSS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES

WE HAD A FAIR SIZED ISSUANCE IN EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS (2279 CONTRACTS) ACCOMPANYING THE FAIR SIZED LOSS IN COMEX OI (3628) //TOTAL LOSS FOR OUR THE TWO EXCHANGES: 1349 CONTRACTS. WE HAVE ( 1) NOW RETURNED TO OUR NORMAL FORMAT OF BANKERS GOING SHORT AND SPECULATORS GOING LONG ,2.) GOOD INITIAL STANDING AT THE GOLD COMEX FOR JUNE AT 70.79 TONNES FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 2700 OZ E.F.P. JUMP TO LONDON //// NEW STANDING FALLS TO 64.227 TONNES// /3) NEGLIGIBLE LONG LIQUIDATION//4) FAIR SIZED COMEX OPEN INTEREST LOSS/ 5) FAIR ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL PAPER///6: SMALL T.A.S. ISSUANCE: 331 CONTRACTS

HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS IN 2023 INCLUDING TODAY

JUNE

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

TOTAL EFP CONTRACTS ISSUED: 43,326 CONTRACTS OR 4,332,600 OZ OR 134.76 TONNES IN 17 TRADING DAY(S) AND THUS AVERAGING: 2548 EFP CONTRACTS PER TRADING DAY

TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE SIZE OF THESE EFP TRANSFERS : THIS MONTH IN 17 TRADING DAY(S) IN TONNES 134.76 TONNES

TOTAL ANNUAL GOLD PRODUCTION, 2022, THROUGHOUT THE WORLD EX CHINA EX RUSSIA: 3555 TONNES

THUS EFP TRANSFERS REPRESENTS 134.76/3550 x 100% TONNES 3.80% OF GLOBAL ANNUAL PRODUCTION

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S YEAR 2021 TO 2023

JANUARY/2021: 265.26 TONNES (RAPIDLY INCREASING AGAIN)

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

MARCH:. 276.50 TONNES (STRONG AGAIN/

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

MAY: 250.15 TONNES (NOW DRAMATICALLY INCREASING AGAIN)

JUNE: 247.54 TONNES (FINAL)

JULY: 188.73 TONNES FINAL

AUGUST: 217.89 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE.

SEPT 142.12 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE ( LOW ISSUANCE)_

OCT: 141.13 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE (LOW ISSUANCE)

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

DEC. 175.62 TONNES//FINAL ISSUANCE//

TOTALS: 2,578.08 TONNES/2021

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

TOTAL: 2,847,25 TONNES/2022

JAN 2023: 228.49 TONNES FINAL//HUGE AMOUNT OF EFP’S ISSUED THIS MONTH!!

FEB: 151.61 TONNES/FINAL

MARCH: 280.09 TONNES/INITIAL (ANOTHER STRONG MONTH FOR EFP ISSUANCE)

APRIL: 197.42 TONNES

MAY: 236.67 TONNES (A VERY STRONG ISSUANCE FOR THIS MONTH)

JUNE: 134.76 TONNES

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 JUNE. 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 MAY HEADING TOWARDS THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF JUNE., 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 (JUNE), 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.

The crooks also use the spread in the TAS account (trade at settlement). They buy the spot TAS (e.g. June) and sell the future TAS two months out (e.g. August). Then they unload the front month (i.e. unload the buy side first so the price of gold/silver falls. This occurs in the middle of the front delivery month cycle. They unload the sell side of the equation, two months down the road. The crooks violate position limits as the OCC refuse to hear our complaints.

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

1.Today, we had the open interest at the comex, in SILVER FELL BY AN ATMOSPHERIC SIZED 10,665 CONTRACTS OI TO 123,491 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 NEW RECORD LOW OF 117,395 CONTRACTS MARCH 27/2022 AND THUS WE ARE AROUND 6,000 CONTRACTS ABOVE THAT RECORD LOW.

EFP ISSUANCE 649 CONTRACTS

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

JULY 649 and ALL OTHER MONTHS: ZERO. TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 649 CONTRACTS. EFP’S GIVE OUR COMEX LONGS A FIAT BONUS PLUS A DELIVERABLE PRODUCT OVER IN LONDON. IF WE TAKE THE COMEX OI LOSS OF 10,665 CONTRACTS AND ADD TO THE 649 OI TRANSFERRED TO LONDON THROUGH EFP’S,

WE OBTAIN A GIGANTIC SIZED LOSS OF OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS FROM OUR TWO EXCHANGES OF 10,016 CONTRACTS

THUS IN OUNCES, THE LOSS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES TOTAL 50.000 MILLION OZ

OCCURRED DESPITE OUR $0.07 GAIN IN PRICE …..

END

OUTLINE FOR TODAY’S COMMENTARY

1a/COMEX GOLD AND SILVER REPORT

(report Harvey)

b, ) Gold/silver trading overnight Europe,//GOLD COMMENTARIES

(Peter Schiff)

c) Commentaries from: Egon von Greyerz///Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com, Pam and Russ Martens

ii a) Chris Powell of GATA provides to us very important physical commentaries

b. Other gold/silver commentaries

c. Commodity commentaries//

d)/CRYPTOCURRENCIES/BITCOIN ETC

2.ASIAN AFFAIRS//

WEDNESDAY MORNING//TUESDAY NIGHT

SHANGHAI CLOSED DOWN 4.63 PTS OR 0.12% //Hang Seng CLOSED UP 23.92 PTS OR 0.12% /The Nikkei closed UP 655.66 OR 2.02% //Australia’s all ordinaries CLOSED UP 1.10 % /Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed DOWN 7.2445 /OFFSHORE CHINESE YUAN DOWN TO 7.2538 /Oil DOWN TO 67.70 dollars per barrel for WTI and BRENT DOWN AT 72.30 / Stocks in Europe OPENED ALL GREEN// 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 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

9. USA

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

GOLD

LET US BEGIN:

THE TOTAL COMEX GOLD OPEN INTEREST FELL BY A FAIR SIZED 3628 CONTRACTS DOWN TO 431,861 WITH OUR LOSS IN PRICE OF $9.15 ON TUESDAY,

EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE

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

THAT IS 2279 EFP CONTRACTS WERE ISSUED: : AUGUST 2279 & ZERO FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS:

TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 2279 CONTRACTS

ON A NET BASIS IN OPEN INTEREST WE LOST THE FOLLOWING TODAY ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES: A FAIR SIZED TOTAL OF 1349 CONTRACTS IN THAT 2279 LONGS WERE TRANSFERRED AS FORWARDS TO LONDON AND WE HAD A FAIR SIZED LOSS OF 3628 COMEX CONTRACTS..AND THIS FAIR SIZED LOSS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES HAPPENED WITH OUR LOSS IN PRICE OF $9.15//TUESDAY COMEX. AS PER OUR NEWBIE TRADE AT SETTLEMENT (TAS) MANIPULATION OPERATION (WHICH CRAIG HEMKE HAS POINTED OUT HAPPENS DURING MID MONTH IN THE DELIVERY CYCLE), THE CME REPORTS THAT THE TOTAL T.A.S. ISSUANCE FOR MONDAY NIGHT WAS A STRONG 1281 CONTRACTS. THROUGHOUT LAST WEEK, THE BANKERS SOLD OFF THE LONG SIDE OF THE SPREAD WHICH OF COURSE CONTINUES TO MANIPULATE THE PRICE OF GOLD SOUTHBOUND. (THEY KEEP THE SHORT SIDE OF THE CALENDAR SPREAD WHICH WILL BE LIQUIDATED TWO MONTHS HENCE)//THE HUGE NUMBER OF T.A.S. CONTRACTS INITIATED OVER THE PAST SEVERAL WEEKS SPELLS TROUBLE FOR THE GOLD/SILVER MARKET AS RAIDS WILL SURELY BE UPON US.

// WE HAVE A STRONG AMOUNT OF GOLD TONNAGE STANDING: JUNE (64.227) ( 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. 64.000 tonnes

(TOTAL YEAR 656.076 TONNES)

2023:

JAN/2023: 20.559 tonnes

FEB 2023: 47.744 tonnes

MAR: 19.0637 TONNES

APRIL: 75.676 tonnes

MAY: 19.094 TONNES + 1.244 tonnes of exchange for risk = 20.338

JUNE: 64.227 TONNES

THE SPECS/HFT WERE SUCCESSFUL IN LOWERING GOLD’S PRICE( IT FELL $9.15) //// AND WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING ANY SPECULATOR LONGS AS WE HAD OUR FAIR SIZED LOSS OF 1349 CONTRACTS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES. WE HAD CONSIDERABLE TAS LIQUIDATION THROUGHOUT THE TUESDAY COMEX SESSION . THE TAS ISSUED TUESDAY NIGHT, WILL BE “PUT INTO THE BANK” TO BE USED AT A LATER DATE AT THE COLLUSIVE CHOOSING OF OUR BANKERS.

WE HAVE LOST A TOTAL OI OF 4.195 PAPER TONNES OF TOTAL OI FROM OUR TWO EXCHANGES, ACCOMPANYING OUR INITIAL GOLD TONNAGE STANDING FOR JUNE. (70.709 TONNES) FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 2700 OZ E.F.P. JUMP TO LONDON..NEW STANDING FALLS TO 64.227 TONNES // ALL OF THIS WAS ACCOMPLISHED WITH OUR LOSS IN PRICE TO THE TUNE OF $9.15

WE HAD –REMOVED A WHOPPING 1274 CONTRACTS TO THE COMEX TRADES TO OPEN INTEREST AFTER TRADING ENDED LAST NIGHT

NET LOSS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES 1349 CONTRACTS OR 134900 OZ OR 4.195 TONNES.

Estimated gold volume today:// 157,949 poor

final gold volumes/yesterday 191,039 poor

//JUNE 28/ FOR THE JUNE 2023 CONTRACT

Gold	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory in oz*	nil
Withdrawals from Customer* Inventory in oz*	35.442/721 OZ Brinks ASAHI 204 KILOBARS BRINKS .
Deposit to the Dealer* Inventory in oz*	nil oz
Deposits to the Customer* Inventory, in oz*	nil
No of oz served (contracts) today	5 notice(s) 500 OZ 0.0435 TONNES
No of oz to be served (notices)	529 contracts 52,900 oz 1.6454 TONNES
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month	20,120 notices 2,012,000 OZ 62.582 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

No dealer withdrawals

Customer deposits: 0

total dealer deposits: nil oz

we had 0 customer deposit:

total deposits: nil oz

TOTAL Withdrawals: 2

i) out of Brinks: 6558.810 oz (204 KILOBARS)

ii) Out of ASAHI 28,883.911 oz

total 35,442.721 oz

Adjustments; 1

customer to the dealer ASAHI:

16,001.885 oz

CALCULATIONS FOR THE AMOUNT OF GOLD STANDING FOR JUNE.

For the front month of JUNE we have an oi of 536 contracts having LOST 38 contracts. We had 14 contracts served on Tuesday so we LOST 24 contracts or an additional 2400 oz will NOT stand for gold at the comex as these guys were EFP’d to London

The next front month after June is the non active delivery month of July. Here, July LOST 60 contracts to stand at 2005 contracts.

AUGUST LOST 5777 contracts DOWN to 347,052 contracts

We had 5 contracts filed for today representing 500 oz

Today, 0 notice(s) were issued from J.P.Morgan dealer account and 5 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equate to 5 contract(s) of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by j.P. Morgan dealer and 2 notice(s) was (were) stopped received by J.P.Morgan//customer account and 0 notice(s) received (stopped) by the squid (Goldman Sachs)

To calculate the INITIAL total number of gold ounces standing for the JUNE /2023. contract month,

we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (20,120 x 100 oz ), to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of JUNE (536 CONTRACT) minus the number of notices served upon today 5 x 100 oz per contract equals 2,064,900 OZ OR 64.227 TONNES the number of TONNES standing in this active month of June.

thus the INITIAL standings for gold for the JUNE contract month: No of notices filed so far (20,115) x 100 oz + (536) {OI for the front month} minus the number of notices served upon today (14) x 100 oz) which equals 2,064,900 oz standing OR 64.227 TONNES

TOTAL COMEX GOLD STANDING: 64.307 TONNES WHICH IS HUGE FOR AN ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

COMEX GOLD INVENTORIES/CLASSIFICATION

NEW PLEDGED GOLD:

241,794.285 oz NOW PLEDGED /HSBC 5.94 TONNES

204,937.290 PLEDGED MANFRA 3.08 TONNES

83,657.582 PLEDGED JPMorgan no 1 1.690 tonnes

265,999.054, oz JPM No 2

1,152,376.639 oz pledged Brinks/

Manfra: 33,758.550 oz

Delaware: 193.721 oz

International Delaware:: 11,188.542 oz

total pledged gold: 2,063,541.609 OZ 64.18 tonnes

TOTAL OF ALL GOLD ELIGIBLE AND REGISTERED: 22,341,345.979 OZ

TOTAL REGISTERED GOLD: 11,760,622.02 (365.80 tonnes)..

TOTAL OF ALL ELIGIBLE GOLD: 10,580,723.959 O Z

REGISTERED GOLD THAT CAN BE SERVED UPON: 9,697,081 OZ (REG GOLD- PLEDGED GOLD) 301.61 tonnes//

END

SILVER/COMEX

JUNE 28//2023// THE JUNE 2023 SILVER CONTRACT

Silver	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory*	NIL oz
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory	660,738.03 oz Delaware Int. Delaware JPMorgan .
Deposits to the Dealer* Inventory*	nil oz
Deposits to the Customer Inventory	3,081,862.270 oz Brinks Delaware JPMorgan Loomis
No of oz served today (contracts)	0 CONTRACT(S) (nil OZ)
No of oz to be served (notices)	2 contracts (10,000 oz)
Total monthly oz silver served (contracts)	852 Contracts (4,260,000 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Dealers* inventory this month*	NIL oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Customer* inventory this month*

i) 0 dealer deposits

total dealer deposit: nil oz

total dealer deposits: 0

i) We had 0 dealer withdrawal

total dealer withdrawals: oz

We had 4 deposits customer account:

i) Into Brinks: 1,880,923.854 oz

ii) Into Delaware 1008.300 oz

iii) Into JPMorgan: 579,196.596 oz

iv) Into Loomis: 620,733.470 oz

total customer deposits: 3,081,862.220 oz

JPMorgan has a total silver weight: 141.316 million oz/270.712 million =52.08% of comex .//dropping fast

Comex withdrawals 3

i) Out of Delaware 5345.130 oz

ii) Out of Int. Delaware 33,941.400 oz

iii) Out of JPMorgan: 621,451.500 oz

total withdrawals: 621,451.500 oz

adjustments: 2

dealer to customer:

a) Loomis 11,721.800 oz

b)Manfra: 5028.56 oz

TOTAL REGISTERED SILVER: 32.171 MILLION OZ//.TOTAL REG + ELIGIBLE. 270,712 million oz

CALCULATIONS FOR THE NEW STANDING FOR SILVER FOR JUNE:

silver open interest data:

FRONT MONTH OF JUNE /2023 OI: 2 CONTRACTS HAVING LOST 429 CONTRACT(S).

WE HAD 429 NOTICES FILED ON TUESDAY SO WE LOST 0 CONTRACTS OR AN ADDITIONAL NIL OZ WILL STAND FOR DELIVERY IN THIS NON ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF JUNE

JULY HAD A 11,260 CONTRACT LOSS TO 16,610 CONTRACTS. WE HAVE TWO MORE READING DAYS BEFORE F.DN.

AUGUST GAINED 40 CONTRACTS TO STAND AT 331

SEPT HAS A GAIN OF 781 CONTRACTS UP TO 93,472

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

Comex volumes// est. volume today 68,386 strong /

Comex volume: confirmed yesterday:88,716 extremely strong

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in JUNE. we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at 852 x 5,000 oz = 4,260,000 oz

to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of JUNE(2) and the number of notices served upon today 0 x (5000 oz) equals the number of ounces standing.

Thus the standings for silver for the JUNE/2023 contract month: 852 (notices served so far) x 5000 oz + OI for the front month of JUNE (2) – number of notices served upon today (0 )x 500 oz of silver standing for the JUNE contract month equates to 4.270 million oz + 2.935 EXCHANGE FOR RISK TODAY + 10.435MILLION OZ EXCHANGE FOR RISK (PRIOR)//NEW TOTAL: 17.640 MILLION OZ STANDING

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

JUNE 28/WITH GOLD DOWN $1.15 NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 925.65 TONNES

JUNE 27/WITH GOLD DOWN $9.15 TODAY HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.45 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD./INVENTORY RESTS AT 925.65 TONNES

JUNE 26/WITH GOLD UP $4.65 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.6 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD/////INVENTORY RESTS AT 927.10 TONNES

JUNE 23/WITH GOLD UP $5.15 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: WITHDRAWALS OF 4.33 TONNES OF GOLD OVER THE PAST TWO DAYS. /INVENTORY RESTS AT 929.70 TONNES

JUNE 21/WITH GOLD DOWN $2.45 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY REST AT 934.03 TONES

JUNE 20/WITH GOLD DOWN $22.40 TODAY: NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 934.03 TONNES

JUNE 16/WITH GOLD UP $0.70 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 4.33 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 934.03 TONNES

JUNE 15/WITH GOLD UP $2.80 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.74 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 929.70 TONNES

JUNE 14/WITH GOLD UP $10.30 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 931.44 TONNES

JUNE 13/WITH GOLD DOWN $10.30 TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.01 TONNES FORM THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 931.44

JUNE 12/WITH GOLD DOWN $7.10 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 934.65 TONNES

JUNE 9/WITH GOLD DOWN $1.00: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 934.65 TONNES

JUNE 8/WITH GOLD UP $20.45 TODAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.46 TONNES FROM THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 934.65 TONNES

JUNE 7 WITH GOLD DOWN $22.15 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.45 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 938.11 TONNES

JUNE 6/WITH GOLD UP $6.90 TODAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 1.45 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 939.56 TONNES

JUNE 5/WITH GOLD UP $5.00 TODAY : NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 938.11 TONNES

JUNE 2/WITH GOLD DOWN $24.40 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.45 TONNES FROM THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 938.11 TONNES

JUNE 1/WITH GOLD UP $14.10 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 939.56 TONNES

MAY 31/WITH GOLD UP $5.70 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.73 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 939.56 TONNES

MAY 30/WITH GOLD UP $14.55 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 941.29 TONNES

MAY 26/WITH GOLD UP $.90 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY REST AT 941.29 TONNES

MAY 25/WITH GOLD DOWN $19.70 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 941.29 TONNES

MAY 24/WITH GOLD DOWN $9.50 TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.45 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 941.29 TONNES

MAY 23/WITH GOLD $2.25 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 942.74 TONNES

MAY 22/WITH GOLD DOWN $4.70 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 5.83 TONES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD DESPITE THE L0SS IN PRICE//INVENTORY RESTS AT 942.74 TONNES

MAY 19/WITH GOLD UP $22.20 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 936.96 TONNES

MAY 18/WITH GOLD DOWN $23.80 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 2.02 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 936.96 TONNES

MAY 17/WITH GOLD DOWN $8.25 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF .87 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 934.94 TONNES

MAY 16/WITH GOLD DOWN 28.05 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.57 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 934,07

MAY 15/WITH GOLD UP $2.85 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 937.64 TONNES

MAY 12/WITH GOLD DOWN $.40 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 2.89 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 937.84 TONNES

MAY 11/WITH GOLD DOWN $15.15 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 934.95 TONNES

MAY 10/WITH GOLD DOWN $5.00 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.70 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 934.95 TONNES

GLD INVENTORY: 925.65 TONNES

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

JUNE 28/WITH SILVER DOWN 2 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 470.527 MILLION OZ//

JUNE 27/WILVER SILVER UP 7 CENTS TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 734,000 OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 470.527 MILLION OZ

JUNE 26/WITH SILVER UP 44 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY REST AT 469.793 MILLION OZ.

JUNE 23/WITH SILVER DOWN 9 CENTS TODAY HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A NET DEPOSIT OF 6.61 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV OVER THESE PAST TWO DAYS//INVENTORY RESTS AT 469.793 MILLION OZ//

JUNE 21/WITH SILVER DOWN $.40 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 5.784 MILLION OZ OF SILVER INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 463.183 MILLION OZ//

JUNE 20/WITH SILVER DOWN 89 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 463.183 MILLION OZ//

JUNE 16/WITH SILVER UP 23 CENTS TODAY :SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 459,000 OZ FROM THE SLV///INVENTORY RESTS AT 463.183 MILLION OZ

JUNE 15/WITH SILVER DOWN 17 CENTS TODAY; HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.377 MILLION OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 463.642 MILLION OZ//

JUNE 14/WITH SILVER UP 29 CENTS TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 735,000 OZ FROM THE SLV///INVENTORY RESTS AT 465.019 MILLION OZ//

JUNE 13/WITH SILVER DOWN 25 CENTS TODAY; HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.515 MILLION OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV///INVENTORY RESTS AT 465.754 MILLION OZ//

JUNE 12/WITH SILVER DOWN 26 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 467.269 MILLION OZ//

JUNE 9/WITH SILVER UP 7 CENTS TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF SILVER TO THE TUNE OF 550,000 OZ//INVENTORY RESTS AT 467.269 MILLION OZ

JUNE 8/WITH SILVER UP $0.63 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 467.819 MILLION OZ/

JUNE 7/WITH SILVER DOWN 17 CENTS TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 1.01 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 467.819 MILLION OZ/

JUNE 6/WITH SILVER UP 7 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 466.809 MILLION OZ//

JUNE 5/WITH SILVER DOWN $.13 TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 266,000 OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 466.809 MILLION OZ/

JUNE 2/WITH SILVER DOWN 23 CENTS TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 918,000 OZ FROM THE SLV./INVENTORY RESTS AT 467.015 MILLION OZ/

JUNE 1/WITH SILVER UP 49 CENTS TODAY; NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 467.933 MILLION OZ

MAY 31/WITH SILVER UP 37 CENTS TODAY:SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 367,000 OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 467.933 MILLION OZ//

MAY 30/WITH SILVER DOWN 9 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 468.300 MILLION OZ//

MAY 26/WITH SILVER UP $0.44 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.306 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 468.300 MILLION OZ//

MAY 25.WITH SILVER DOWN $0.32 TODAY; SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 276,000 OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 471.606 MILLION OZ//

MAY 24/WITH SILVER DOWN $.35 TODAY; NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 471.330 MILLION OZ//

MAY 23/WITH SILVER DOWN 22 CENTS TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 2.801 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV///INVENTORY RESTS AT 471.330 MILLION OZ//

MAY 22/WITH SILVER DOWN 19 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 468.529 MILLION OZ//

MAY 19/WITH SILVER UP 38 CENTS TODAY; NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 468.529 MILLION OZ

MAY 18/WITH SILVER DOWN 23 CENTS TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 919,000 OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 468.529 MILLION OZ/

MAY 17/WITH SILVER DOWN 2 CENTS TODAY; NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 469.448 MILLION OZ//

MAY 16/WITH SILVER DOWN 34 CENTS TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF .643 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 469.448 MILLION OZ.

MAY 15/WITH SILVER UP 13 CENTS TODAY; NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 470.091 MILLION OZ/

MAY 12/WITH SILVER DOWN $.26 TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV A DEPOSIT OF 3,123 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 470.091 MILLION OZ./

MAY 11/WITH SILVER DOWN $1.18 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 466.968 MILLION OZ

MAY 10/WITH SILVER DOWN 23 CENTS TODAY; HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 1.286 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 466.968 MILLION OZ//

CLOSING INVENTORY 470.527 MILLION OZ//

PHYSICAL GOLD/SILVER COMMENTARIES

1:Peter Schiff/Mike Maharrey

This is a very important read…

SchiffGold

Interest On The National Debt Poised To Rise At An Alarming Rate

WEDNESDAY, JUN 28, 2023 – 01:40 PM

Via SchiffGold.com,

Since the end of the fake debt ceiling fight on June 2, the Treasury has borrowed an additional $700 billion pushing the national debt over $32 trillion. Looking at the interest rates on this new debt, it becomes clear that the US government has a big problem.

The surge in borrowing in the wake of the debt ceiling deal was expected. The Treasury is playing catch-up after nearly six months up against its borrowing limit. But even after the Treasury replenishes the federal government’s checking account (called the Treasury General Account or TGA at the New York Federal Reserve Bank), borrowing won’t suddenly stop.

The debt ceiling deal supposedly cut spending, but we know actual spending will continue to rise. Given that the Biden administration is blowing through an average of $500 billion each month and running massive deficits month after month, it’s clear the misnamed “Fiscal Responsibility Act” did nothing to address the root problem.

The problem isn’t purely a function of more debt. The bigger issue is that this new debt comes with a much steeper price tag. Interest on the national debt is rising at an alarming clip.

The trailing 12-month (TTM) interest on the debt clocked in at just under $600 billion in May. This was up from $350 billion at the start of 2022, less than 18 months ago. The government has added an extra $250 billion in expenses per year on just debt service.

This is just the beginning of an upward trend. Based on the current interest payments, the Treasury is paying less than 2% interest on the total debt. But a lot of the debt currently on the books was financed at very low rates before the Federal Reserve started its hiking cycle. Every month, some of that super-low-yielding paper matures and has to be replaced by bills, notes and bonds yielding much higher rates. That means interest payments will quickly climb much higher unless rates fall.

Looking at the Treasury sale on June 26 reveals the extent of the problem. The Treasury sold $162 billion in securities, with $120 billion in short-term Treasury bills with high yields.

$58 billion in six-month bills at an investment yield of 5.45%
$62 billion in three-month bills at an investment yield of 5.34%.
$42 billion in two-year notes at a high yield of 4.67%, amid very strong demand. Longer-term yields are still far below short-term yields.

With this flood of Treasury bills, the share of short-term paper underpinning the debt is approaching 20%. That’s considered the upper limit, meaning the Treasury will soon have to turn to issuing longer-term notes and bonds. That means the Treasury will be locking in higher interest rates for the long term.

An analyst cited by Bloomberg projects a $600 billion rise in notes and bonds beginning in August through the end of the year. Issuance will likely ramp up further in 2024 with a projected additional $1.7 trillion in notes and bonds.

WHO WILL BUY ALL THIS PAPER?

This raises another important question: who is going to buy all of these notes and bonds?

Some of the biggest buyers are in the process of reducing their holdings.

According to the Treasury Department’s TIC data, foreign buyers shed $140 billion in holdings in April compared to 2022.
US banks shed $210 billion in Treasury securities and $332 billion in mortgage-backed securities in May compared to a year ago, according to Federal Reserve data. This is continuing fallout from the financial crisis as banks struggle with unrealized losses from holdings they bought when yields were artificially low.
As it tightens monetary policy to fight inflation, the Fed has been unloading Treasury securities at a rate of around $60 billion a month to shrink its balance sheet.

In effect, the US Treasury is increasing the supply of Treasury securities even as demand is falling.

As WolfStreet summed up:

It could result in a ‘demand vacuum’ that would be resolved by higher yields for longer maturity securities, according to Bank of America, cited by Bloomberg. Yield solves all demand problems, and long-term yields have been much lower than shorter-term yields, with the 10-year Treasury currently at 3.71%.

The only way demand will rise to absorb this supply is if yields on the upper end of the curve rise. And that means additional interest expenses for the federal government locked in over many years.

If interest rates continue to rise and remain elevated for an extended amount of time, interest expenses could climb rapidly into the top three federal expenses. (You can read a more in-depth analysis of the national debt HERE.)

This calls into question the Fed’s ability to stay in the inflation fight. Eventually, it could be forced to cut rates in order to keep the US government solvent. And it also may need to go back to quantitative easing in order to artificially boost demand for Treasury securities.

end

2 Commentaries from: Egon von Greyerz///Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com, Pam and Russ Martens//JAMES RICKARDS//JOHN RUBINO

MATHEW PIEPENBERG…..

Modern Currency Policy: Nations Compete, Citizens Suffer

WEDNESDAY, JUN 28, 2023 – 07:20 AM

Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com,

Below we consider how modern currency policy may not be so good for, well, the people…

This is why gold inevitably enters the conversation, for unlike policy makers, this old pet rock garners more trust.

Gold, of course, loves chaos, tanking currencies and cornered, debt-soaked nations, the numbers of which rise with each passing day.

We see currency debasement as mathematically and historically inevitable, though we have no clue (no one really does) as to the precise date, trigger or time the already teetering fiat money systems fall over the global debt cliff.

We only know that the $300+T cliff is here, and that nations are racing toward it at historical speed, with equally historical consequences.

Physical gold holders, however, enjoy a certain and calm advantage: They don’t need to be precise timers; simply patient owners.

As for more signs of the move toward weakening currencies in general, and a weakening USD in particular, let’s look at some more history and current facts.

Hot vs. Financial Wars: Today’s Evidence, Tomorrow’s Polices

As headlines change with daily Western biases regarding the military war in Ukraine, America’s financial war with the East (i.e., China) will continue into the next generation.

It’s no secret to me, or many others, moreover, that the war in the Ukraine is a US proxy war against Russia, in which Ukraine (and its citizens) are merely a convenient battering ram against Putin.

That’s just my opinion, but we’ve seen this “freedom” movie before. Many times, and in many countries, none of which ended with much “freedom” …

But as to financial wars, they too are just an extension of politics by another means, and with the growing waves of de-dollarization rising in speed and height following the predictable ripple of effects of the 2022 sanctions against Russia, there is much which can be deduced today about the Realpolitik of the USD and its weakening future.

Is the Fed Watching China? Yep.

DC, of course, may not admit to the rise of China (growth and trade) and the slow decline of USD hegemony, but the facts and trends I’ve recently described are not escaping them.

So how will the USA fight its financial war with Beijing?

If history and math are any guides, much will hinge upon the USD, which means we can expect it to get weaker over time, despite inevitable peaks along the way.

Again, let’s consider the past as prologue.

The Rising Sun

I was playing little league baseball when Japan made its slow and steady rise into the 1980’s. But even I noticed more things, from Michael Douglas films to pop music, were “turning Japanese” in that decade of MTV fashions.

Japan’s rising sun seemed to have no end as Tokyo-based financiers were buying up everything from California real estate to the Rockefeller Center in NYC.

The Setting Sun

But fast-forward to 1989 and the Nikkei implosion, and that same Japanese sun was beginning to set.

By the mid-90’s, I was a young law student in Boston (never made the Red Sox roster) reviewing lease modifications in a Rockefeller Center which the Japanese could no longer afford.

In short: Things can change quite fast in the rise and fall of financial empires.

But it wasn’t just exuberant market bubbles which brought Japan down.

During the 90’s, the US was deliberately weakening the USD to reduce the warp speed of Japanese trade and economic growth.

At the acme of this hidden financial war, the yen had appreciated 46% against an intentionally devalued Greenback.

In short: Uncle Sam squeezed Japan.

The Rising China

China is clearly the next target (or “Japan”) for US financial war-gamers.

And it’s my strong opinion that among the many advantages and realities of a falling USD ahead, the hidden planners in DC are adding the desire to cripple Chinese growth as yet another reason (besides inflating away debt or combatting a denied recession) to weaken the USD.

In the 1980’s, for example, nations like Japan and Germany (whom, ironically, the USA helped defeat in a prior world war) had slowly and steadily emerged from the dust of the 1940’s with current account surpluses and hence rising domestic demand, which meant rising local currencies.

The Fed, at that time, saw an opportunity to end its “war on inflation” narrative and commence weakening the USD in the name of “growth,” but it was no coincidence that such measures (and narratives) also sealed the fate of a rising Japan whose yen was made too strong to compete on the global stage.

Today, I see a similar pattern emerging between the US and China.

Although the Fed has yet to officially abandon its “war” on an inflation disaster which they had previously (i.e., wrongly/dishonestly) described as “transitory,” they know the USD is and was too strong for its own good, and they also know that China and Russia are making deals which threaten US trade and settlement superiority.

In short: The US needs to fight ugly again, and to do, they need an uglier/weaker dollar.

Thus, in the coming months, quarters and years, when the rate hikes of late (paused for now, but promised for later?) keep on breaking things (see below), the inevitable pretext for an otherwise bad habit of debasing, printing and weakening the USD will become too tempting for the mouse-click-money-addicted central planners in Washington to ignore.

Stated even more simply: The pivot to easy money is only a matter of time, for in addition to needing an inflationary money-printer to stay alive (and print-away debt), DC also needs a weaker USD to beat a rising East.

Of course, in such a war, the greatest casualties will come from a Main Street earning weaker dollars…

US Bonds: The First to Fall in a Financial Cold War

On a real basis, that is to say, when measured against inflation (which will rise and fall, but ultimately stick around for years to come), the US reality will thus involve one in which bonds, in an inflation-adjusted context, will be sacrificed (vs. the CNY) if the US intends to engage in any kind of plausible financial war with China and others.

Or stated more simply, US bonds, having enjoyed an artificial, Fed-tailwind for over 40 years, will be the first troops (along with investors, IRAs and 401Ks) sacrificed in the financial combat of nations now firing their cannons on a world stage changing faster than the German Blitzkrieg through France or Ney’s calvary charge at Waterloo…

When one adds weaker bonds to a debased currency, the net result is bad for the average citizen as Uncle Sam plays its financial war games with China.

Hot War?

Of course, there is also the omni-present risk of a financial war turning into a hot war with China.

Though unthinkable in a nuclear era, such risks change the entire argument, and at such points, financial forecasting and planning (or reports like this) will be less of a priority than simply finding drinkable water.

Perhaps I’m naive, but I believe that such worst-case scenarios are too insane and stupid even for the policy makers and neocons in DC.

Besides, and as Michael Mullen said over a decade ago from the Joint Chiefs of Staff: How could America, who borrows money from China, which it then uses to build weapons to potentially fight China, actually go to war with China, where the vast majority of the components necessary for those very same weapons are made?

Ahhhh. We do love in interesting times, don’t we?

Waiting for the Pivot as More Things Break

For now, and assuming no nuclear Armageddon (which I don’t wish to consider), we can only sit back and wait as a totally fork-tongued and cornered Powell plays with markets, currencies and interest rates like a child playing with matches.

As for Capitalism, it died long ago. Instead, the Fed IS the market.

Powell’s far too fast and too-high rate hikes of 2022-23 (made far too late) have done a modest bit to “fight” inflation, but have been far more effective in murdering US bond demand and regional banks—as well as ensuring a recession, which I suppose, is one crazy way to “beat” inflation…

Big Trouble for Little Britain

In addition to prompting the world to turn away from the USD and Uncle Sam’s USTs, Powell’s hikes also forced the UK (BOE) to follow the rate-hike trend, which caused an implosion in their gilt market in October of 2022.

As I’ve said many times, with financial allies like the US, who needs enemies?

But the pain in the UK goes beyond just 2022 gilt markets or a Royal Duchess seeking photo opps at US polo tournamentsin 2023.

The Bank of England, chasing its tale as well as Fed policy, has just been forced to raise rates to 5% in what the BBC and Bloomberg prompt-readers recently described as a 50 bp “surprise move.”

In more honest reporting, or at least more blunt reporting, my view on the “surprise” rate hike is that it is (and was) no “surprise” at all.

In fact, such sudden, frequent and steepening rate hikes are nothing new or “surprising” to over-indebted emerging market nations, of which the UK, and the US, are no exception.

That is, the US and UK are just glorified banana republics once one looks honestly at their national balance sheets.

Thus, the UK is simply raising rates higher and faster to save an otherwise dying currency, and in doing so, are breaking everything else in their current path.

Already, over 1.2 million UK households have been made insolvent this year due to higher mortgage payments.

As BOE rates rise, bond prices fall and hence gilt yields (like mortgage payments) are now rising like shark fins toward scary levels seen last autumn.

In short, and as we warned of the US, you folks in the UK are going to need a bigger boat very soon…

Keep It Simple

The foregoing geopolitical, currency, and policy facts all suggest a world leaning further and further toward deliberate tweaking (strengthening and then debasing) of their fiat currencies to stay alive as well as “competitive” in a race to the fiat finish line in which all the horses are effectively cantering toward a glue factory.

As such trends continue, the question will not be about which currency you hold, but how much of it is backed by gold.

If nations won’t back that paper money in something precious, then investors can do it for themselves by owning physical gold.

It’s just that simple.

END

JAMES RICKARDS

Rickards: “This Is Actually Terrifying”

BY TYLER DURDEN

WEDNESDAY, JUN 28, 2023 – 04:20 PM

Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

The “coup” in Russia is over but there’s a very worrying development going on in Ukraine right now that should frighten everyone.

That’s the growing risk of a nuclear war. I’m not being hyperbolic.

Let’s break it all down…

President Biden is accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of preparing to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

The theory is that if Russia is in danger of military collapse in Ukraine, Putin will resort to the use of tactical nuclear weapons out of desperation.

But you can basically rule that out because Russia isn’t losing the war in Ukraine. In fact, it’s winning the war and continues to gain momentum.

Russia is crushing the much-anticipated Ukrainian offensive and is either advancing or holding the line in other sectors.

Meanwhile, Russian arms factories are churning out massive amounts of weapons and ammunition while the West is scraping the bottom of the barrel to find enough weapons and ammo to send to Ukraine.

It’s a war of attrition and there’s no practical way that Ukraine can win that war.

So why would Putin need to use nuclear weapons?

The answer, of course, is that he wouldn’t. He’s winning the war.

Nuclear Swordsmanship

But such warnings about Putin using nuclear weapons are not new. Biden has been accusing Russia of threatening to use nuclear weapons since the start of the war last February.

Some perspective is needed to assess this claim. For the record, the United States is the first and only country to conduct a nuclear war, which it did between Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945, killing about a quarter-million civilians.

Putin has made it clear that Russia will not use nuclear weapons unless the U.S. or NATO allies do so first.

The U.S. has not made a similar pledge.

Biden based his threat assessment on the fact that Putin recently moved tactical nuclear weapons to its ally, Belarus, which is closer to Kyiv.

That’s true, but it conveniently ignores the facts that the U.S. has placed nuclear weapons in Germany, that the U.K. and France are nuclear powers in their own rights and that U.S. Navy submarines and destroyers with nuclear missiles are deployed around Russia.

Belarus also had nuclear weapons when it was part of the Soviet Union prior to 1991. In short, there was nothing particularly provocative about Putin’s move relative to prior positioning and the U.S. deployment of nukes.

MADness!

What is provocative is a recent article by Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official and now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

Rubin recommended that the U.S. should provide tactical nuclear weapons to the Ukrainians themselves.

The rationale is a version of the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, MAD, that maintained stability between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union (really Russia) during the Cold War.

The idea is if each side has enough nuclear weapons to survive a first strike by the other and launch a second strike of its own, then neither side will start a nuclear war because it would be destroyed in turn.

There’s merit to the MAD doctrine subject to a long list of conditions including large arsenals, secure command-and-control procedures, good communication between the protagonists (such as the “hot line”) and rational leadership on both sides.

None of those conditions applies to Ukraine. It would have a modest arsenal (not enough to survive a first strike), has weak command-and-control, has almost no communication with Russia and has desperate and insecure leadership.

It’s almost as if Rubin’s proposal is designed to force Putin to attack any Ukrainian nuclear capacity as a way to justify escalation by the U.S. and get U.S. and NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine.

That’s a short path to World War III. Any talk of giving Ukraine nuclear weapons is reckless.

Rubin’s idea could be behind Putin’s plan to move nuclear weapons to Belarus as a way to dissuade the U.S. from going further.

Of course, Putin’s actions in Belarus are an example of escalation, which may be exactly what Rubin and the other warmongers in the U.S. wanted.

Simply put, Rubin’s idea is reckless and moves the world closer to nuclear war.

When you hear Biden talk about Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons, it’s critical to bear in mind that the U.S. is the real threat and is acting with a view to escalating the war and dragging NATO into a direct war with Russia.

Will Ukraine Conduct a “False Flag” Attack on a Nuclear Power Plant?

But that’s not all.

There’s the possibility that an increasingly desperate Ukraine could try to stage a “false flag” attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) in the Kherson region and blame it on Russia.

Both Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and the head of Ukrainian intelligence services have warned recently about a possible Russian attack on the plant.

In other words, they could be putting the conditions in place for a false flag attack.

“See, we warned you this would happen!”

Such an attack could potentially spread nuclear radiation throughout the region and possibly beyond.

It wouldn’t be on the level of Chernobyl because the plant is operating at a much smaller capacity than Chernobyl.

But still, it would be seen as an unacceptable war crime by Russia, which would spark international outrage and set the stage for direct NATO intervention.

Incidentally, ZNPP is currently under Russian control, but much of the surrounding territory is still held by the Ukrainians.

How might an attack on the plant go down? Here’s some more detail:

Ukraine (under direction of the U.S. and with U.S. help) could send a commando team to the facility, plant heavy explosives and then detonate them in a way intended to cause a partial meltdown and release of radiation.
Prevailing winds would carry the radiation in the direction of Romania, Poland and Slovakia, all of whom are members of NATO.
Once the radiation reaches those countries it will be regarded as an “attack” on NATO members.
This will trigger Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which says that an attack on one is an attack on all.

Sens. Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal, in fact, just proposed legislation stating that Russian nuclear weapons use in Ukraine would be considered a direct attack on NATO.

Bombing a nuclear power plant isn’t the same as employing tactical nuclear weapons, but do you really think they’d draw that distinction?

The Article 5 trigger would provide legal cover to the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany and the rest of the coalition to send troops to Ukraine to prop up the failing offensive.

The next step would be direct combat between U.S. and Russian troops. And that’s a direct gateway to World War III.

Is This Really Just Conspiratorial Nonsense?

You might dismiss all this talk as conspiratorial nonsense. After all, why would Ukraine want to create a serious nuclear incident on its own soil?

I’d just remind you that there’s credible evidence (according to German intelligence) that Ukrainian security agencies were responsible for the destruction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the largest act of eco-terrrorism ever conducted.

In fairness, there’s also credible evidence that the U.S. carried out the attack, so it might not have been Ukraine. But it remains a legitimate possibility.

It’s also probable that Ukraine destroyed the Nova Kakhovka Hydroelectric Dam earlier this month in an effort to undermine Russia’s position in the area.

The result was an environmental disaster.

As with Nord Stream 2, there’s no definitive proof that Ukraine was responsible. Of course, as with the pipeline, Ukraine blamed Russia.

While it’s possible Russia did it, Russia stood to lose much more than Ukraine from the dam’s destruction and the subsequent flooding.

If you were a detective, Ukraine would be your prime suspect.

Assuming Ukraine was responsible for both the pipeline and dam incidents, would it be out of the question for it to stage a nuclear incident if that meant bringing NATO directly into the war?

I don’t think it would be.

Again, I have no proof that Ukraine was actually responsible for the destruction of the pipeline or the dam. But it is a reasonable possibility.

That’s why you shouldn’t rule out the possibility of a false flag attack on the nuclear power plant.

Again, Ukraine is getting desperate and desperate times call for desperate measures.

So if there is an attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in the days to come, you’ll know who was responsible.

You’ll also know that the world is one step closer to nuclear war.

END

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

END

4, OTHER IMPORTANT GOLD/SILVER COMMENTARIES/

5 a. IMPORTANT COMMENTARIES ON COMMODITIES:

end

5 B GLOBAL COMMODITY ISSUES/FOOD IN GENERAL

6.CRYPTOCURRENCY//DIGITAL CURRENCY// COMMENTARIES/

END

1.YOUR EARLY CURRENCY VALUES/GOLD AND SILVER PRICING/ASIAN AND EUROPEAN BOURSE MOVEMENTS/AND INTEREST RATE SETTINGS/WEDNESDAY MORNING.7:30 AM

ONSHORE YUAN: CLOSED DOWN TO 7.2445

OFFSHORE YUAN: DOWN TO 7.2538

SHANGHAI CLOSED DOWN 4.63 PTS OR 0.12%

HANG SENG CLOSED UP 23.92 PTS OR 0.12%

2. Nikkei closed DOWN 655.66 PTS OR 2.02%

3. Europe stocks SO FAR: ALL GREEN

USA dollar INDEX DOWN TO 102.28 EURO FALLS TO 1.0947 DOWN 9 BASIS PTS

3b Japan 10 YR bond yield: RISES TO. +.380 Japan buying 100% of bond issuance)/Japanese YEN vs USA cross now at 144.11/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 ON SHORE 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 DOWN for WTI and DOWN FOR Brent this morning

3h European bond buying continues to push yields lower on all fronts in the EMU. German 10yr bund UP TO +2.3095***/Italian 10 Yr bond yield RISES to 3.954*** /SPAIN 10 YR BOND YIELD RISES TO 3.276…** DANGEROUS//

3i Greek 10 year bond yield FALLS TO 3.548

3j Gold at $1906.80 silver at: 22.65 1 am est) SILVER NEXT RESISTANCE LEVEL AT $30.00

3k USA vs Russian rouble;// Russian rouble DOWN 0 AND 72 /100 roubles/dollar; ROUBLE AT 85.78//

3m oil into the 67 dollar handle for WTI and 72 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 144.11// 10 YEAR YIELD AFTER BREAKING .54%, RISES TO .38-% 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 0.8967 as the Swiss Franc is still rising against most currencies. Euro vs SF 0.9817 well above the floor set by the Swiss Finance Minister. Thomas Jordan, chief of the Swiss National Bank continues to purchase euros trying to lower value of the Swiss Franc.

USA 10 YR BOND YIELD: 3.742 DOWN 3 BASIS PTS…

USA 30 YR BOND YIELD: 3.814 DOWN 3 BASIS PTS/

USA 2 YR BOND YIELD: 4.740 DOWN 4 BASIS PTS

USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 26.03…(TURKEY SET TO BLOW UP FINANCIALLY)

GREAT BRITAIN/10 YEAR YIELD: UP 0 BASIS PTS AT 4.366

end

2. Overnight: Newsquawk and Zero hedge:

end

2 b) NOW NEWSQUAWK (EUROPE/REPORT)/ASIA REPORT

Equities firmer, Bonds bid, Antipodeans slip & NQ lags following chip restrictions – Newsquawk US Market Open

WEDNESDAY, JUN 28, 2023 – 05:55 AM

European bourses trade on the front foot as the region plays catch up to the afternoon gains on Wall Street.
DXY defies gravity given negative rebalancing signals on spot month, Q1 and H1-end, as the index continued to pivot 102.50.
Debt futures overcame several wobbles before establishing a more solid base to mount a firmer recovery from sub-par lows.
WTI and Brent whipsawed between gains and losses this morning despite a lack of newsflow, but in the grander scheme, prices are choppy within tight ranges.
US considers new curbs on AI chip exports to China amid some concerns China could use AI chips from Nvidia (-4% pre-market) and others for weapon development and hacking, according to WSJ.
Looking ahead highlights include US Mortgage Applications, Speeches from ECB’s Lagarde, Lane & Enria, BoE’s Pill, Panel Participation by BoE’s Bailey, ECB’s Lagarde, Fed’s Powell & BoJ’s Ueda, Supply from the US.

Click here for the Newsquawk Week Ahead preview.

More Newsquawk in 3 steps:

1. Subscribe to the free premarket movers reports

2. Listen to this report in the market open podcast (available on Apple and Spotify)

3. Trial Newsquawk’s premium real-time audio news squawk box for 7 days

EUROPEAN TRADE

EQUITIES

European bourses trade on the front-foot as the region plays catch up to the afternoon gains on Wall Street.
US equity futures are flat/lower after the upside seen Tuesday, which was underpinned by solid economic data that pushed back against recession narratives, showing an economy that is resilient in the face of Fed rate hikes.
Equity sectors in Europe are firmer with the exception of Basic Resource names which are being hampered by softness in underlying metals prices. To the upside, Tech is among the top of the leaderboard following yesterday’s solid showing on Wall Street with other gainers including Construction, Industrial Goods and Autos.
Click here for more detail.
Click here and here for a recap of the main European updates.

FX

DXY defies gravity given negative rebalancing signals on spot month, Q1 and H1-end, as the index continued to pivot 102.500.
Yen largely ignored commentary from Japanese Finance Minister Suzuki with USD/JPY bulls encouraged by the ongoing lack of actual action to stem the currency weakness.
NZD underperforms for no obvious reason other than consolidation, retracement and corrective price action having fared better of late, whilst AUD is hit by softer-than-expected monthly CPI.
EUR remains underpinned amidst more hawkish-sounding ECB vibes from Sintra and beyond, plus mega option expiry interest at 1.0900-10 (3.2 bn) on top of RHS demand in EUR/GBP.
CNH is on the backfoot following more downbeat Chinese data overnight, with USD/CNH topping 7.2500 during the European morning.
Click here for more detail.
Click here for the major FX option expiries.

FIXED INCOME

Debt futures overcame several wobbles before establishing a more solid base to mount a firmer recovery from sub-par lows, and soft Italian inflation data gave them another push.
Bunds, Gilts and US Treasuries extend gains on positional grounds approaching the end of the month, quarter and half one of the year.
Click here for more detail.

COMMODITIES

WTI and Brent whipsawed between gains and losses this morning despite a lack of newsflow, but in the grander scheme, prices are choppy within tight ranges
Spot gold looks heavy as DXY recovers some of its recent losses while participants look ahead to more central bank commentary from the ECB Sintra Forum.
Base metals are mostly lower – in part due to the dollar, but also as Chinese markets lagged overnight after reports suggested the US is to impose more chip restrictions on China.
US Private Inventory Report: Crude -2.4mln (exp. -1.8mln), Distillates +0.8mln (exp. +0.8mln), Gasoline -2.9mln (exp. -0.1mln), Cushing +1.5mln.
Russian Energy Ministry said Russia’s gasoline exports fell 30% in June from May and Russian refineries’ gasoline production was up 3.1% Y/Y as of the last week of June, while diesel production rose 2% Y/Y with reserves at a historical high, according to Reuters.
Chile’s Codelco said it is still evaluating the impact on operations from stoppages caused by rains in the central-south region, while it also noted that some operations were still halted at the El Teniente mine after rains, according to Reuters.
Probability of Russia’s withdrawal from Black Sea Grain Deal in July remains higher, according to Ria citing sources.
Click here for more detail.

NOTABLE US HEADLINES

Apple (AAPL) has no plan to transfer its supply chain out of China, according to Foxconn (2317 TT) CEO – the largest iPhone manufacturer – cited by Global Times.
Google (GOOG) is having “productive conversations” with EU regulators about bringing in regulations for artificial intelligence, the company’s head of cloud Thomas Kurian told CNBC.

NOTABLE EUROPEAN HEADLINES

Two-fifths of UK sellers are accepting discounts of more than 5% on property asking prices as rising mortgage costs spook buyers, according to property website Zoopla cited by FT.
Some ECB officials are reportedly mulling a faster reduction of bond portfolio, according to Bloomberg sources.
ECB’s de Guindos said there is still more ground to be covered on rates; the September move will depend on data and the July rate hike is set, according to Bloomberg.
ECB’s Centeno said rates will remain in restrictive territory, not seeing clear second round effects, according to CNBC.
ECB’s Muller said must get inflation down to much lower levels; too early to say where rates will end up; need to look at data for rate hikes beyond July, according to CNBC.
ECB’s Vujcic said there is no reason to say now what we are going to do in September, though there is a good chance of a hike in September, according to CNBC.
ECB’s Scicluna said we will see on rates after July meeting; must be mindful of impact of rate hikes, according to Bloomberg.
ECB’s Vasle said he needs convincing that rate hike beyond July is not needed, not that it is needed, according to Reuters.

EUROPEAN DATA RECAP

EU Money-M3 Annual Growth* (May) 1.4% vs. Exp. 1.5% (Prev. 1.9%)
EU Loans to Non-Fin* (May) 4.0% (Prev. 4.6%)
EU Loans to Households* (May) 2.1% (Prev. 2.5%)
Swiss Investor Sentiment (Jun) -30.8 (Prev. -32.2)
Italian Consumer Price Prelim YY (Jun) 6.4% vs. Exp. 6.8% (Prev. 7.6%)
Italian Consumer Price Prelim MM (Jun) 0.0% vs. Exp. 0.1% (Prev. 0.3%)
Italian CPI (EU Norm) Prelim YY (Jun) 6.7% vs. Exp. 6.8% (Prev. 8.0%)
Italian CPI (EU Norm) Prelim MM (Jun) 0.1% vs. Exp. 0.1% (Prev. 0.3%)

CRYPTO

Bitcoin is on a slightly softer footing intraday but holds onto the USD 30k handle.
Speculation is mounting that the BlackRock Bitcoin ETF will get the green light, according to FT.
FTX is moving ahead with efforts to revive its flagship international cryptocurrency exchange, according to WSJ.

GEOPOLITICS

RUSSIA/UKRAINE

Ukraine said the main event in its counteroffensive is still to come and its main troop reserves have yet to be used in the operation, while Defence Minister Reznikov said their forces made gains that were not made public to avoid exposing troops, according to FT.
NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg said NATO is ready to defend itself against Russia or Belarus, according to Sky News Arabia.
US officials said a senior Russian general had advanced knowledge of the Wagner Group chief’s plans to rebel against Russia’s military leadership and they are trying to learn if former top Russian commander in Ukraine General Surovikin helped plan Prigozhin’s actions. Furthermore, there are signs that other Russian generals may also have supported Prigozhin’s attempt to change the leadership of the Defense Ministry by force, according to the New York Times.
South Korea designated new sanctions on 2 individuals and 2 entities over North Korea’s weapons programme.

APAC TRADE

APAC stocks traded mixed and only partially sustained the momentum from Wall St where risk appetite was lifted and the NDX outperformed amid strong data and a tech rebound.
ASX 200 was positive with nearly all sectors in the green after softer-than-expected monthly CPI data from Australia added to the bets for the RBA to keep rates unchanged at next week’s meeting.
Nikkei 225 gained amid tailwinds from recent currency weakness and with Japan leaning towards extending support measures for gas and electricity bills set to expire at the end of September as it seeks to underpin the economy.
Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp were subdued after Chinese Industrial Profits remained at a steep contraction and with the US considering new curbs on AI chip exports to China amid some concerns China could use AI chips from Nvidia and others for weapons development and hacking.

NOTABLE APAC HEADLINES

US considers new curbs on AI chip exports to China amid some concerns China could use AI chips from Nvidia (NVDA) and others for weapon development and hacking, according to WSJ.
Japanese Finance Minister Suzuki said they will respond appropriately to excessive FX moves if necessary. He offered no comment on FX levels but says FX should move stably, and said one-sided moves seen in current FX market., according to Reuters.

DATA RECAP

Chinese Industrial Profit YY (May) -12.6% (-18.2%)
Chinese Industrial Profit YTD (May) -18.8% (Prev. -20.6%)
Australian Weighted CPI YY (May) 5.6% vs. Exp. 6.1% (Prev. 6.8%)

2 c. ASIAN AFFAIRS

ASIAN AND AUSTRALIAN CLOSINGS//EUROPE OPENING TRADING:

WEDNESDAY MORNING/TUESDAY NIGHT

2 d./NORTH KOREA/ SOUTH KOREA/

///NORTH KOREA/SOUTH KOREA/

2e) JAPAN

JAPAN

END

3 CHINA /

CHINA/TAIWAN

end

4.EUROPEAN AFFAIRS//UK /SCANDAVIAN AFFAIRS

SWITZERLAND

The carnage begins: UBS to slash half of Credit Suisse’s workforce

(zerohedge)

UBS To Slash Half Of Credit Suisse’s Workforce As Bank Layoff Tsunami Worsens

TUESDAY, JUN 27, 2023 – 05:45 PM

Earlier this month, UBS Group AG successfully “completed” the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse. With the merger completed, UBS plans to begin the first phase of a massive headcount reduction of Credit Suisse’s workforce in July.

The upcoming layoffs should not be a surprise to readers. We have detailed “Massive Layoffs On Deck At Credit Suisse“ and “UBS Reportedly Re-Starts Layoffs” following a $3 billion deal, first announced in March and brokered by the Swiss regulators that allowed UBS to purchase the struggling Swiss lender.

As previously noted, UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti has been hush-hush about what’s on the chopping block at Credit Suisse. He was recently brought back to ensure the integration of the two banks, which could take several years, will go smoothly.

A person familiar with the upcoming layoffs told Bloomberg that half of Credit Suisse’s workforce, including bankers, traders, and support staff across New York, London, and Asia offices, will be fired. There will be three rounds, with the first expected next month and two other rounds between September and October.

The person stated the headcount at Credit Suisse stands approximately at 45,000. When UBS took over the troubled lender, its workforce jumped to about 120,000. It plans to cut jobs to save $6 billion. Two people said UBS would reduce its headcount by 30%, or 35,000 people.

The people said UBS hopes to keep most of Credit Suisse’s private bankers. However, many have departed from the bank.

The people said that the first round of job cuts is related to the “extensive overlap” in both banks’ domestic operations.

Ermotti has stated that the “base case scenario” for UBS is to keep Credit Suisse’s domestic unit. The people expect businesses to be fully merged.

An incoming tsunami of bank layoffs at Credit Suisse will add to the thousands of firings this year and last. Bloomberg Vonnie Quinn said Monday that bank layoffs are mounting and quite possibly the worst since the financial crisis.

END

This is big: France and Germany want to end the veto rights in the EU this year. Expect many nations then will leave the EU, but it will be a mess.!

(Remix/)

Enormous Power Grab: France, Germany Want To End Veto Rights In The EU This Year

WEDNESDAY, JUN 28, 2023 – 05:00 AM

Via Remix News,

Smaller nations fear an end of sovereignty as the EU races to centralize powers away from nation states…

In what may be the beginning of the end for European nations, Germany and France are determined to reform national rights, including the EU right of veto, this year. The debate has caused a stir in recent months, and in recent weeks, the measure has been put back on the agenda.

France and Germany are convinced that a large-scale institutional reform of the European Union, including the abolition of the veto on European Council votes, could be achieved this year, French EU Affairs Minister Laurence Boone and German Minister of State Anna Lührmann told Euractiv.

“This is one of the options we want to explore in order to maintain our position as a global player with the EU’s common foreign and security policy,” Lührmann said.

He added that “it would be an important signal in other policy areas if we were to move to qualified majority voting already this year” and expressed confidence that this would happen.

The two ministers said that both countries consider it important to abolish unanimous voting in the European Council in areas such as foreign policy and taxation before the enlargement of the European Union. This could mean, for example, that Brussels would be able to implement a flat tax rate across the EU or even involve itself more deeply in the war, both moves that Hungary has rejected and in some cases even deployed its veto to stop.

Paris and Berlin claim abolishing the veto is a change that is possible without amending the EU treaties, a point hotly contested by a number of European parties, as it would not only give Brussels enormous power but also the largest states, such as Germany and France. This would subsequently allow for the EU to enact a liberal immigration policy, green rules and various other progressive goals without any hindrance from Hungary and other smaller, conservative nations.

The introduction of qualified majority voting would remove the veto on foreign policy issues, which would mean that only 15 of the 27 member states — representing 65 percent of the EU’s population — would have to agree to make particularly important foreign and defense policy decisions affecting the EU as a whole.

Laurence Boone told Euractiv that this would be “an important step toward greater integration and efficiency.”

However, the nature of such a system would favor countries with larger populations, such as France or Germany, while smaller states, such as Hungary, would lose the opportunity to have a say in EU decision-making.

Abolishing the principle of unanimity — in those areas where it still exists — for votes in the European Council would be tantamount to taking away the sovereignty of Poland and other smaller states. Ryszard Legutko, a member of the European Parliament from Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, has previously spoken about this. However, Polish President Andrzej Duda has also been a scathing critic of the proposal. He stated that “it would be wrong for any member state to blackmail the others, including the EU candidate countries, by blocking further enlargement of the community if its hegemonic demands are not met.”

The Polish president noted that the founding principle of the EU was brotherhood and cooperation to ensure peace and economic development. For this to be possible, Duda said, “All countries must have a say on key issues affecting the development of the Community so that they feel that there is justice within the Community and that no country imposes its will at the expense of others by using institutional means.”

Herbert Kickl, president of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), currently the most popular party in Austria, believes that Brussels’ aim is to create a centralist superstate in which member states increasingly lose their importance and self-determination

“They want to take more and more powers away from the nation states and transfer them to Brussels to create a United States of Europe over the heads of its citizens,” said Kickl.

END

EU/VW

Volkswagen curbs EV production due to low demand and this paints a much gloomier economic picture in Europe as well as the States.

(zerohedge)

VW Curbs EV Production As EU Demand Falters Amid Gloomier Economic Picture

WEDNESDAY, JUN 28, 2023 – 02:45 AM

German newspaper Nordwest-Zeitung reports Volkswagen has temporarily reduced the production of electric vehicles at one of its plants.

Volkswagen’s Emden plant in Lower Saxony has reduced production of the electric ID.4 compact SUV and ID.7 sedan for the next two weeks because of weakening sales.

Industry blog Autocar reported Manfred Wulff, head of the works council for the Emden plant, told German Press Agency in an earlier article published by the North West newspaper that while EV production was being reduced, production of combustion-engine models, including the Volkswagen Passat, are unaffected.

Wulff said 300 of the current 1,500 temporary workers employed at the plant would not have their contracts renewed in August. And he noted EV demand is 30% below planned production figures.

“We are experiencing strong customer reluctance in the electric vehicle sector,” he told the North West.

Wulff noted that the ID 7 saloon, planned to start production in July, would be delayed to “later this year.”

North West interviewed the minister of economic affairs for Lower Saxony, Olaf Lies, who said, “Registration numbers of electric vehicles continue to be high, but what concerns us is the current dip in demand – not only at Volkswagen but across all manufacturers.”

The timing of this news comes as the eurozone economy was in a technical recession in the first three months of 2023.

The contraction was due to a downward revised second estimate from Germany’s statistics office showing that the eurozone’s largest economy was in recession in early 2023.

A downturn in the euro area economy is weighing on demand for large ticket items, like fancy EVs. Many on the continent have been dealing with the highest energy and food inflation in a generation as living standards plunge.

Stifel analyst Daniel Schwarz commented on the news. He said, “Reducing the number of temps and canceling a shift signals that VW is not expecting this to improve in the short term.”

Could we be witnessing the beginning innings of EV demand cracking?

END

GERMANY //AFD PARTY

Here is a good picture of the Germany’s ultra right party. Many ethnic groups, especially the Jews and Turks will leave. The party’s main platform is anti immigration but it is much more than this.

a good read…

(/Szocs/Remix)

AfD’s Success Is A Warning Sign To Europe’s Mainstream Parties

WEDNESDAY, JUN 28, 2023 – 02:00 AM

Authored by László Szőcs via Remix News,

AfD’s recent successes are a warning to politicians that Europe is not being led as people want it to be…

All politics is local politics — this time, the lessons of this established axiom in America are being learned in Germany. On Sunday, the most right-wing party in the German parliament, the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), achieved its first electoral breakthrough in 10 years: Its victory in the Sonneberg district of Thuringia marked the first time it has become part of a local executive.

The significance of this should neither be overestimated nor underestimated. The AfD continues to be seen as a pariah in the German political system. It’s a party with which neither the center-right CDU/CSU alliance nor the parties to its left are willing to form a coalition, neither at the federal nor state level. At the same time, according to newspaper reports on Monday, the AfD’s breakthrough has caused serious unease and fear among Jewish and Turkish organizations in Germany. Some are claiming a general crisis of democracy.

Although the AfD is often described simply as anti-immigration, it is much more than that. Thuringia has the fifth-lowest proportion of immigrants of the 16 federal states, just a few percent, which is in line with the overall picture in east Germany, even if the proportion has risen sharply in recent years. And Thuringia is not a backward, underdeveloped region either. Sonneberg on the Bavarian border, for example, is part of the European metropolitan region of Nuremberg. When my photographer colleague and I were there on a reporting trip ahead of the 2021 Bundestag elections, traveling from Gera to Erfurt and Mühlhausen, we encountered many signs of discontent with the Merkel era in a province where the greats of German culture — Bach, Schiller, Herder, Goethe — all made their mark.

“Today, Germany is unfortunately far from being a democracy. In a democracy, other voices, including conservative ones, should be heard,” said Günter Oßwald, who, contrary to the stereotype, is not a marginalized, beer-swilling, unemployed man on a housing estate, but someone who employs 150 people in his car parts business in Mühlhausen.

Angela Merkel was — at least on paper — a conservative head of government. However, the supposedly center-right CDU/CSU coalition, the leading opposition force in Germany, has not yet overcome Merkel’s turn to the left and is unable to capture a large enough share of the right-wing electorate. The AfD is polling at 19 percent of the vote nationwide, overtaking the leading government party, the Social Democrats, and is in second place behind the Christian Union parties.

The forthcoming east German state elections could also confirm that dissatisfaction with the mainstream is making the AfD the most popular party in the eastern federal states — the former communist GDR. There is no communist nostalgia in this. As Timothy Garton Ash, who has been traveling in Germany, wrote 30 years ago, the Americanization of the GDR was more visibly successful than the Sovietization of GDR society. The far left in the east has an obvious upper limit, despite the fact that post-communists have manifested themselves in Bodo Ramelow, who is the prime minister of Thuringia.

Although it is only one district in Thuringia, the AfD’s victory in Germany is the latest warning sign for the European mainstream — which despises ordinary citizens — ahead of next year’s EU elections.

In Austria, the like-minded Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) is the most popular, while in France the National Rally is gaining strength. Sunday saw a conservative election victory in Greece, and in July, the ball is set to continue in Spain. Citizens in more and more places are openly fed up with the way Europe is being run today.

END

What a bunch of horse@$#^^

(zerohedge)

SWITZERLAND

Nestlé Backtracks On KitKat Carbon Neutral Pledge As Tree Planting Comes Into Question

WEDNESDAY, JUN 28, 2023 – 08:50 AM

Multinationals have been making all sorts of carbon neutrality claims in recent years. Take, for instance, Nestlé’s well-known chocolate bar brand, KitKat, which stated in 2021 that the candy bar would “become carbon neutral by 2025.” But the offset was partially based on tree planting, which is unreliable and difficult to measure, with very little transparency about the level of emissions reduced or offset. In other words, Nestlé made sustainability claims without concrete evidence (some call this a ‘greenwashing’ scam).

“To support this, KitKat will help farmers plant five million shade trees where it sources its cocoa by 2025,” Nestlé wrote in a press release in April 2021. They stated very little information about upgrading supply chain operations with direct carbon emission reductions, instead focused on shady claims like “restoring forests.”

Nestlé, who sees the whole ESG, or Environmental, Social, and Governance, movement backfiring, as BlackRock CEO Larry Fink abandoned the term “ESG” just days ago, has dropped plans for a carbon-neutral KitKat bar by 2025, according to Bloomberg.

A spokesman for the Swiss food giant said the company is “shifting toward in-house programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in its operations and supply chain.” So no more planting trees in third-world countries?

Besides Nestlé, other companies such as airline EasyJet Plc and Gucci owner Kering are backing away from their carbon-neutral claims to avoid ‘greenwashing’ controversies. Consumer groups have alleged that many of these companies have misled customers into believing their products are better for the environment.

“If you’re a consumer in the supermarket, you have no way to know how much of a carbon neutral claim is from actual emissions reductions and how much is from these dubious carbon-offsetting projects,” said Emma Calvert, a food-policy officer at European consumer-rights organization BEUC. Her organization wants to ban “carbon neutral” claims on food.

Nestlé abandoning its “net zero climate footprint” KitKat claim through tree planting is yet another sign of virtue signaling by corporations in their efforts to save the planet is backfiring.

END

NORWAY

This is why a wealth tax will never work

(zerohedge)

Norway’s Wealth Tax Is Backfiring. Are Americans Paying Attention?

WEDNESDAY, JUN 28, 2023 – 06:30 AM

By John Miltimore of the American Institute for Economic Research

In 2022 Norway’s third richest man, Kjell Inge Røkke, announced in an open letter to shareholders he was moving to Lugano, Switzerland.

“My capital will continue working in Norway,” wrote the fishing magnate turned industrialist who launched his empire four decades ago with a 69-foot trawler he bought while saving money working on ships off the coast of Alaska.

Røkke, who Forbes estimates has a fortune of $5.1 billion, will cost the Norwegian government an estimated 175,000,000 kroner annually (roughly $16 million) with his departure. That might not sound like a lot of money, but Røkke is not the only wealthy entrepreneur leaving Norway, The Guardian notes.

“More than 30 Norwegian billionaires and multimillionaires left Norway in 2022, according to research by the newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv,” reports wealth correspondent Rupert Neate. “This was more than the total number of super-rich people who left the country during the previous 13 years, [the paper] added.”

Did you catch that? More “super rich” Norwegians left Norway in 2022 than during the previous 13 years combined. The reason wealthy Norwegians are fleeing the country is not a secret.

Following its 2021 electoral victory, the Nordic nation’s Labor Party made good on its promise to soak the rich. Norway is one of just a handful of OECD countries that still taxes net wealth, and the Labor Party increased the country’s wealth tax to 1.1 percent despite warnings that such a move would “trigger capital flight and threaten job creation.”

Capital flight is exactly what happened, and it has left the Norwegian government with less revenue.

Norwegian Business School professor emeritus Ole Gjems-Onstad estimated that the wealthy Norwegians took with them a total fortune of $54 billion when they left. This means that the wealth tax, which was projected to increase revenue by nearly $150 million annually, will result in about 40 percent less revenue than it currently generates. Luca Dellanna, a management advisor and author, points out that Norway collected about $1.46 billion on its wealth tax in 2019. But the exodus of the wealthy will result in an estimated $594 million in lost revenue.

Those trying to understand how Norway’s policy could backfire so badly should look to the work of the late Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Lucas. Lucas, a longtime professor at the University of Chicago, received the top prize in economics for research that became known as the Lucas Critique, which exposed various problems with macroeconomic modeling.

Lucas believed that to predict policy outcomes it was essential to first grasp that all action is individual behavior, and humans are rational creatures who will respond to policies in rational ways — even to policies designed to fool them.

“Microeconomics assumed people were rational,” economist David R. Henderson pointed out in a recent Wall Street Journal article following Lucas’s death. “Why shouldn’t macroeconomics make the same assumption?”

This insight helped Lucas win the Nobel Prize, and it helps explain why Norway’s wealth tax backfired so badly. It was always naive to assume wealthy individuals would continue to bear Norway’s wealth tax. After all, one needn’t have a PhD in economics to realize that wealthy people are unlikely to sit idly by as lawmakers take more and more of their wealth (not income, mind you, wealth). As early as the 17th century, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the finance minister to France’s Louis XIV, observed the delicate nature of taxation.

“The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing,” wrote Colbert.

Norwegian lawmakers forgot this simple lesson, and now they can do little but watch as the wealth creators in their country depart, taking with them their capital, ingenuity, and taxable income.

“Atlas shrugs in Norway,” observed economist Peter St Onge.

Indeed.

As it happens, Norway’s unfortunate lack of foresight comes at an opportune time for those living in the United States, where many are pushing wealth taxes.

Earlier this year, the Washington Post reported on the creative methods federal and state lawmakers are devising to separate “the rich” from their wealth. These include no fewer than four states attempting to tax unrealized capital gains, including a California proposal that would impose a 1.5 percent wealth tax (even higher than Norway’s).

“If it’s an annual wealth tax, it’s taking a fraction of your wealth every year,” Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez, who helped design Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax proposal, told the Post. “Almost by definition, you’re going to have less wealth after you pay the tax.”

If professor Saez believes California’s wealthiest people will allow lawmakers to tax their wealth and make them sell shares to cover unrealized capital gains, he hasn’t learned Colbert’s lesson on taxation.

Such a policy wouldn’t just result in a great deal of hissing. It would lead to a mass exodus of wealth creators. Anyone who doubts this need only look to Norway.

END

5 RUSSIA//UKRAINE AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

RUSSIA/WAGNER

Lukashenko confirms Prighozin is in Belarus. He urges Putin not to kill him

Let us see how this saga progresses

(zerohedge)

Lukashenko Confirms Wagner Leader’s Arrival In Belarus, Urged Putin Not To Kill Him

TUESDAY, JUN 27, 2023 – 05:05 PM

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed Tuesday that Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has arrived in Belarus three days following the armed uprising he led against Russia’s defense ministry, which has grabbed world headlines.

“Yes, today he’s in Belarus,” Lukashenko was cited in state-run Belta news agency as saying. “We’ll help you if you want to stay with us for a while at [Wagner’s] expense of course,” the Belarusian leader said. Ironically the words came the same day President Putin revealed in a speech that the Russian government paid Wagner group about $1 billion in contracts over the past year of conflict in Ukraine.Image: SN7756/Jetphotos

“The upkeep of the entire Wagner Group was fully provided for by the state,” Putin had said while also thanking soldiers and security services for their part in “stopping civil war”.

The Minsk government has also batted down rumors that Wagner could play a role in guarding the Russian tactical nukes now stationed on Belarusian territory.

And yet Lukashenko still said of Wagner in the Tuesday statements, “But I could use such a unit in the army,” and revealed that he instructed his defense minister to explore such a possibility as assisting the armed forces.

It was Lukashenko who mediated a ceasefire deal between the Russian military and Wagner on Saturday. He said that he personally urged Putin not to kill Prigozhin amid the uprising.

“I said to Putin: we could waste (Prigozhin), no problem. If not on the first try, then on the second. I told him: don’t do this,” Lukashenko said.

As for Putin, he said that he will uphold his word in giving Prigozhin and his mercenaries pardon, and allow the Wagner chief’s safe departure to Belarus, despite also calling them traitors.

Prigozhin is widely believed to have exited Russia in his private jet, an Embraer Legacy 600. Regional media reported that “An Embraer Legacy 600 — which investigative journalists have previously linked to the Russian businessman — landed southwest of the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Tuesday at 07:37 a.m. local time, flight tracking data showed.”

Putin also on Tuesday teased the possibility of future corruption charges against Wagner, or possible members of the defense ministry. But so far the expected shake-up of top brass hasn’t materialized, and Defense Ministry Shoigu has been present at all major events of the past days.

END

RUSSIA/UKRAINE//USA

This is interesting: the uSA sanctions anybody dealing with the Wagner group especially in the gold for weapons operation

(zerohedge)

US Treasury Sanctions Wagner’s ‘Gold & Weapons Dealing’ Operations In Africa

TUESDAY, JUN 27, 2023 – 06:25 PM

The US Treasury Department on Tuesday has announced new anti-Wagner sanctions in a belated attempt to cut off the group’s weapons funding, at a moment the Russian government has essentially pardoned the mercenary outfit for treasonous actions. It remains unclear what role Wagner will play inside Russia, if any, as its founder Yevegny Prigozhin sets up shop in neighboring Belarus after President Lukashenko mediated a deal on his behalf.

The fresh sanctions, announced Tuesday, target four companies accused of “gold dealing” on Wagner’s behalf as well as an individual Washington says made “weapons deals” tied to Wagner.

Companies in Russia, the UAE, and Central African Republic “have engaged in illicit gold dealings to fund the Wagner Group to sustain and expand its armed forces, including in Ukraine and Africa,” according to the Treasury statement. Wagner in Africa is essentially a foreign policy arm of the Kremlin, which might explain why Moscow sees the group as somewhat indispensable.

Africa has lately been known as a place with the largest Wagner mercenary presence outside of the Ukraine conflict, which has deeply alarmed Washington and West. The US and its allies have long hoped to thwart and dismantle Wagner’s presence there, and deal-making with multiple African governments.

Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement, “The Wagner Group funds its brutal operations in part by exploiting natural resources in countries like the Central African Republic and Mali.”

“The United States will continue to target the Wagner Group’s revenue streams to degrade its expansion and violence in Africa, Ukraine, and anywhere else.”

And the individual listed, identified as Andrey Nikolayevich Ivanov (Ivanov), is a Russian executive of Wagner Group who “worked closely with Prigozhin’s entity Africa Politology and senior Malian government officials on weapons deals, mining concerns, and other Wagner Group activities in Mali,” the Treasury statement alleged.

The Treasury announcement further says action is being taken against a gold mine directly owned by Prigozhin:

Diamville SAU (Diamville) is a gold and diamond purchasing company based in the CAR and controlled by Prigozhin. Diamville is one of several Prigozhin-connected entities that is intimately involved in the CAR mining sector. In 2022, Diamville participated in a gold selling scheme that entailed converting CAR-origin gold into U.S. dollars. Following the imposition of U.S. sanctions on several Russian financial institutions, participants in the scheme planned to move the proceeds by transferring cash by hand. Additionally, Diamville shipped diamonds mined in the CAR to buyers in the UAE and in Europe.

The Treasury statement identifies Mali as a major base of Wagner’s illicit activities in Africa.

Going back years, the Malian government has contracted with Wagner to assist its national armed forces in rooting out al-Qaeda affiliated groups which are active there. Wagner has recently come under allegations of massacring civilians in the context of its large firefights with Islamist insurgents.

end

Escobar weighs in on the Prighozin affiar

Pepe Escobar….

Escobar On Russia’s Coup-Gate: Putin Wins… On All Counts

TUESDAY, JUN 27, 2023 – 11:45 PM

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

When the lightning of History strikes, better cut to the chase in our first draft…

Here we go.

After the extraordinary events in Russia during The Longest Day, President Putin wins on all counts.

Among other feats, he has made an absolute, inter-galactic ass of the whole collective West MSM – all over again.

He rallied virtually every Russian to end the Special Military Operation (SMO) – or “almost war” (according to some business circles) quicker.

He – and the FSB – amassed a formidable list of traitors and 5th and 6th columnists, which will be properly dealt with.

And he now enjoys unlimited freedom to deploy de facto Counter-Terrorist Operation (CTO) martial law powers.

As much as Putin helped perennial Lukashenko in August 2020, preventing regime change in Belarus, good ol’ Luka prevented Russia from sliding into civil war in June 2023.

A complex wide-ranging counter-terror op is now in effect in Moscow and beyond, while assorted Western sub-zoology specimens are stunned, dazed and confused: wasn’t that supposed to be Putin meeting his Czar Nicholas II moment?

A first glance at the chessboard tells us that all the pieces seem to be falling in their right places.

Prighozin gets a golden parachute in Belarus.
Shoigu may be about to be sacked, perhaps even Gerasimov (yes, there are deeply dysfunctional layers inside the Ministry of Defense).
The Wagner musicians will be incorporated as a regular Army Corps.
They may keep doing business in Africa: demand is huge.

So what really happened after The Longest Day?

Hefty CIA funds may have changed hands. But in the end the “coup” could turn out to be the Greatest Russian Trolling of the West Ever.

The Mother of All Maskirovkas

Once again, facts on the ground prove Putin is the undisputed champion of Russia. After keeping a strategic silence for a few hours, his intervention gathered full support from the civilian population, the FSB, the Chechens, the Army, the Communists, everyone.

The exact terms of the deal between Luka and Prighozin, with help from the governor of the Tula region, Alexey Dyumin, are still unclear.

Prighozin said he was satisfied with the terms. Peskov confirmed on the record that a criminal case against Prigozhin would be dropped. A key Prighozin demand was the twin resignation of Defense Minister Shoigu and Chief of Staff Gerasimov. That may – or may not – happen in the immediate future.

And that brings us to the still fascinating possibility this was the Mother of All Maskirovkas. Prigozhin sets up all this circus just to get a meeting in Moscow with Shoigu and Gerasimov.

Talk about an overkill just to go out on a date.

The Mother of All Maskirovkas scenario also implies a move worthy of 5D chess.

On Saturday, Wagner was 200 km away from Moscow.

Yet on Sunday, Wagner was 100 km away from Kiev.

Next level Sun Tzu Art of War, anyone?

Between sovereignty and betrayal

Alexander Dugin correctly points out how this was also an exercise in Sovereignty: “Only Sovereign Lukashenko, together with Sovereign Putin himself, confronted [Prighozin]…It turned out that many can frame the President and the people, acting in the shadows and apparently on his behalf, but saving the Fatherland in a critical situation is not their specialty.”

The corollary is that Russia needs “a sovereign elite, otherwise everything will repeat itself.”

As for the dazed and confused collective West, especially the NATO-Kiev junta, with everyone instantly rebranding Wagner from “terrorists” to “freedom fighters”, getting bogged down in their own swamp is the art they excel in.

Mainstream media spun that the proverbial “Western officials” were “taken by surprise” by the mutiny. That depends on the amount of funds that changed hands, and in which direction, during the preparation.

The SMO, now CTO keeps rolling along. The Russian Army continues to fight, undisturbed. The “counter-offensive” remains teetering over the edge of a cliff, ready to kiss the black void.

Putin winning on all counts implies the whole civilian population – and the military – engaged into preserving him and the Russian institutions, as well as perfecting them. There’s absolutely no nation anywhere across the collective West where we find this level of citizen support.

Russian politics is a special animal. It works at the highest level and also at grassroots level – unlike in the West, where the norm is deep hatred between the elites and the people.

Of course it should always be stressed it’s the less patriotic Russian oligarchs who run away every time something approaching The Longest Day takes place.

For a few hours, the West was betting heavily on the dismemberment of Russia. Not now. And not in the foreseeable future.

The succession is already being prepared, by Team Putin and selected patriotic oligarchs. Among the contenders, there’s a secret name that will stun everyone when it pops up. He’s still invisible in terms of public opinion, and works in the shadows. His name should remain secret for the time being.

As it stands, what matters is that Russia as whole emerged even stronger out of The Longest Day. The man and woman in the street showed himself and herself, once again, as a true patriot, ready to defend the Motherland whatever it takes.

There was no confrontation between those who are pro-Russian institutions and those who are pro-Wagner. People actually support both. People regarded Wagner like the “polite green men” who helped to peacefully retake Crimea in 2014. Facing them, there was not a single policeman or military.

So Putin is stronger than ever. But everyone should always keep this in mind: the one thing he can’t forgive is betrayal.

END

UKRAINE/RUSSIA/USA

After Ukraine Failed To Capitalize On Wagner Turmoil, US Sends $500 Million More In Weapons

WEDNESDAY, JUN 28, 2023 – 09:55 AM

Just on the heels of the New York Times’ observation that Ukrainian forces failed to capitalize on the weekend turmoil in Russia of the Wagner uprising, the Biden administration announced a new $500 million military aid package on Tuesday.

First, in a Sunday report the NYT cited anonymous “American officials and independent analysts” as acknowledging that “there did not seem to be any immediate defensive gaps to exploit” in Russian lines. They said that “according to a preliminary analysis” no Russian units were pushed back or abandoned their positions in the east and south, despite the Wagner rebellion having been a major distraction for Russian command Friday and Saturday. The US officials went on to say that at least for the near future, the “front lines in Ukraine are likely to remain unchanged.”AFP/Getty Images

Strangely, one of the arguments that could be heard from Western pundits over the last days is that the Wagner mutiny episode shows that Washington must keep up its support for a “weakened” Russia. On Wednesday, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda commented of Wagner’s leader being exiled to Belarus: “If Wagner deploys its serial killers in Belarus, all neighboring countries face even bigger danger of instability,” he said after meeting with some NATO allies.

As for the new US aid, it comes after The New York Times tallied that some 17% of the Bradley fighting vehicles already given to Ukraine had been damaged or destroyed thus far. This new half-billion in assistance comes via the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), meaning the new shipments will be taken directly from Pentagon stockpiles.

Ukraine will surely look to take advantage of the chaos caused by Mr. Prigozhin, but there did not seem to be any immediate defensive gaps to exploit, according to American officials and independent analysts.

And Mr. Prigozhin’s march, at least according to a preliminary analysis, did not cause any Russian units on Friday or Saturday to leave their positions in southern or eastern Ukraine to come to Moscow’s defense, American officials said. While the drama was unfolding, there was no letup in the war: Russian forces fired more than 50 missiles across Ukraine before dawn on Saturday. — NY Times

Below is the State Department’s new talking point of more aid being vital in light of events centered on Wagner:

The state department comes to the conclusion that the attempted coup by Prigozhyn “demonstrates the need to support Ukraine” … is there any event that would not demonstrate that?
— State Department grilled by Liam Cosgrove pic.twitter.com/zwFln1Fy07— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) June 27, 2023

A Pentagon announcement this week indicated the fresh package will include:

Additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems
Stinger anti-aircraft systems
Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS)
Demolitions munitions and systems for obstacle clearing
Mine clearing equipment
155mm and 105mm artillery rounds
30 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles
25 Stryker Armored Personnel Carriers
Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles
Javelin anti-armor systems
AT-4 anti-armor systems
Anti-armor rockets
High-speed Anti-radiation missiles (HARMs)
Precision aerial munitions
Small arms and over 22 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades
Thermal imagery systems and night vision devices
Testing and diagnostic equipment to support vehicle maintenance and repair
Spare parts, generators, and other field equipment//
end

What happens in Russia after The Longest Day?

“Yet what the majority of Russian public opinion really seems to expect is not another farcical Ride of the Valkyrie. They expect a serious draining of the Soviet-style bureaucratic swamp, and a real commitment to get this “almost war” to its logical conclusion as quickly as possible. “Dates for action in Ukraine have already been established many weeks ago and so far it is following a timeline set. Ukraine does its part to kill the last Ukrainian in a pathetic display of senseless slaughter and a waste of money to keep a faltering narrative in play. Routinely now 10 Ukrainians die for every 1 Russian killed. This is your reason for mass mobilization to replace the dead and wounded in current failing offensives. Sadly the political intellectual mindset in the West is geared to senseless expenditures while the wind blows through their pockets in an inability to have performing economies to afford such luxury. And to produce similar tools of conflict to those being destroyed daily in Ukraine is plain dumb. Why? Because it has no combat advantage. While attention is diverted to the killing fields of Ukraine little acknowledgement exists of how far behind the West really is in combat systems. Recently, a Russian Corvette ( Rezky) on factory sea trials shot down a anti ship cruise missile called “ Moskit” also known as SS-N-22 Sunburn ( also used by India in a joint manufacturing agreement). This was a Mach 3 missile shot from a distance of over 90 km. It was shot down with the Zaslon Radar Complex and a Redut Air Defense system; in its’ land based version called S-350 Vityaz. The West cannot stop a Sunburn at Mach3. So why bother thinking that freedom of naval navigation really exists? And why think that one stands a chance at beating systems that are infinitely better? Most thinking people understand that in any situation where a conflict arises having superior tools to bring to the conflict often are required to win. Sadly, in the West no such acknowledgment or comprehension exists. So senseless production of inferior weapons and slaughter continues in a pointless dispute to repeat historical failure. The West lost the weapons game some time ago and it is obvious to those who can see. And no amount of threats or bluster from wannabes matters. Western economies really have no choice but to rebuild with new igneous technologies to create wealth and demand and leave war alone or risk complete economic destruction. This will likely result in more chaos as political change will have to make way for growth. Otherwise the entire Western economy risks a severe decline resulting in a wealth rebalance to the new emerging Global South. https://thecradle.co/article-view/26461/what-happens-in-russia-after-the-longest-day
end
Surovikin plan in action: Wagner to attack Lutsk-Lviv and Kiev – Deployment of thousands of troops along Belarus- Western Ukraine – WarNews247
https://warnews247.gr/se-efarmogi-to-schedio-sourovikin-tha-epitethoun-se-lutsk-lviv-kai-kievo-anaptyxi-chiliadon-stratioton-tis-vagkner-kata-mikos-lefkorosias-dytikis-oukranias/
SUrovikin is brilliant in strategy and execution. He is one of the best Field Generals out there today. //end

GLOBAL ISSUES//MEDICAL ISSUES

Due to lack of immunity because of the COVID vaccines, cruise ships are becoming a breeding ground for Norovirus. It has just hit a decade high in outbreaks

(zerohedge)

Cruise Ships Become “Breeding Ground” For Norovirus As Outbreaks Hit Decade-High

WEDNESDAY, JUN 28, 2023 – 06:55 AM

Vacation-starved Americans have flocked back to cruise ships after shunning this form of travel during the virus pandemic. Some cruise lines, such as Royal Caribbean Group, have reported occupancy rates around 100% capacity in the first quarter of 2023. The surge in popularity also means the rise of norovirus incidents on ships.

The Wall Street Journal said 13 outbreaks of the ‘cruise ship virus’ have been reported this year. The data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows this is the largest number of norovirus incidents on cruise ships in a single year since 2012. And still, the year is only halfway over.

Norovirus can quickly spread in a cruise ship via particles from poop, vomit, and contaminated surfaces from people who have contracted the sickness.

“If you get norovirus illness, you can shed billions of norovirus particles that you can’t see without a microscope.

“It only takes a few norovirus particles to make you and other people sick,” according to the CDC.

The latest incident occurred last Tuesday when a Viking North American Cruise vessel docked in New Jersey had more than 100 passengers who contracted the virus. A cruise ship operated by Celebrity Cruises had more than 175 people contract the virus in May.

A spokeswoman for the Cruise Lines International Association said cruise ships have to report illnesses to CDC, which has provided ” visibility and faster reporting to health authorities” about outbreaks.

The rebound of the cruise industry this year coincides with a surge in norovirus outbreaks on ships that causes people to vomit violently and have diarrhea.

end

GLOBAL ISSUES//GENERAL

CLIMATE CHANGE

Are they for real? Just take a quick look at the costs that they want for climate change and income inequality

(MishShedlock)

The Ever Growing Demands For Trillions Of Dollars Per Year To Fight Climate Change

TUESDAY, JUN 27, 2023 – 04:45 PM

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Heads of state and various organizations gathered in Europe the past two weeks for climate change summits. Let’s discuss the demands.

Bonn Climate Conference

Image from United Nations press release

The Bonn Climate summit ended on June 15. On Thursday, June 22 and 23, another conference started in Paris, discussed below.

Call for New Global Financial System

France24 reports Paris summit aims to overhaul global financial system for ‘climate solidarity’ with South

Around 50 heads of state, along with representatives from international institutions and civil society, will attend a summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday and Friday in Paris. Their objective is to develop a new global financial system so the most vulnerable countries will be better equipped to combat both poverty and climate change.

The world’s wealthiest nations are demonstrating a “surge of solidarity” with those most vulnerable to climate change, said Cécile Duflot, president of the NGO Oxfam. Some 50 heads of state and government, representatives from international financial institutions, members of the private sector, climate experts and members of civil society will be attending the summit in Paris hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron on June 22 and 23. The objective of this ambitious conference is to “build a new contract between [the global] North and South”, according to the Élysée Palace.

Solidarity

13 political leaders – including Macron, US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – wrote that they are “urgently working to fight poverty and inequalities” in a contribution to French daily newspaper Le Monde.

A Just and Inclusive Transition

Le Monde reports Biden, Macron, von der Leyen, Lula, and more: ‘We must prioritize a just and inclusive transition’

On the occasion of the Paris Summit for a new global financial pact, which opens on Thursday, 13 world leaders, including Rishi Sunak, Mia Mottley, Macky Sall and Olaf Scholz, affirm their commitment ‘to improving the well-being of people everywhere on the planet.’

We are urgently working to fight poverty and inequalities. An estimated 120 million people have been pushed into extreme poverty in the last three years and we are still far from achieving our United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. We should thus place people at the center of our strategy to increase human welfare everywhere on the globe.

We want a system that better addresses development needs and vulnerabilities, now heightened by climate risks, which could further weaken countries’ ability to eliminate poverty and achieve inclusive economic growth. Climate change will generate larger and more frequent disasters, and disproportionately affect the poorest, most vulnerable populations around the world. These challenges cross borders and pose existential risks to societies and economies.

Eurointelligence goes off the deep end with a claim “the case to financially support developing countries to develop green economies is easy to make.”

Whether you call it more solidarity with the South or the self-interest of the North, the case to financially support developing countries to develop green economies is easy to make.

Decarbonisation, biodiversity, and the fight against poverty are inextricably linked. A gathering with 50 heads of states alongside representatives from international institutions, private sector, and civil society will discuss how to adapt the IMF and the World Bank to today’s world. They will also discuss new financial resources, and how to deal with the plight of over-indebted countries. Last November, COP23 agreed to compensate for the effects of climate change on developing countries. But the money is not flowing just yet.

The Cost of Solidarity

An expert group under the auspice of the UN estimates that investments have to reach the order of $1 trillion per year until 2030 to respond to the climate and biodiversity crisis.
Oxfam estimated that $3.9 trillion per year will be needed over the same time period to fight poverty, inequality and climate change.
The World bank estimated that it takes $4 trillion per year to build the infrastructure for this.

The cost of this “easy to make” vision is $1 trillion per year for the biodiversity crisis, plus $3.9 trillion per year to fight poverty and inequality, plus $4 trillion per year for the infrastructure. That’s a mere $8.9 million per per year until 2030, a 7-year cost of $62.3 trillion.

I assure you it will not stop there. How are we doing?

Money Not Flowing Yet, Fortunately

Eurointelligence notes that G7 countries considered reallocating $100 billion in special drawing rights to developing countries, but the measure is still blocked in the euro area.

“Developed countries also pledged 0.7% of their wealth in support, though the funds were only partially released. There will be discussions about new sources of financing, like new taxes. Ahead of the summit, the only consensus that could emerge is a tax on maritime transport that could yield $60-$80bn per year, according to the World Bank.”

Excuse me for pointing out Team Biden may have made this pledge but it is not constitutional. Precisely when did Congress pledge 0.7 percent of US wealth for this colossal boondoggle?

Eurointelligence moans “Rich countries are used to giving money mostly as loans, and only 26% of the committed climate funding are currently grants. This logic needs to change.”

Yes, the logic needs to change. Let’s start by throwing $62.3 trillion worth of climate demands straight into the ash bin of looney ideas.

Energy Policy Madness

In the US, Biden’s Energy Policy Mandates Cause Severe Shortage of Electrical Steel and Transformers

In California, California Utilities Seek to Charge People Based On Income, Not Energy Usage

Also in California, Oakland Teachers Strike in 5th Day Over Climate Justice, Homeless Housing, Reparations

Finally please consider Ford Gets a $9.2 Billion Cheap Government Loan With Inflationary Strings Attached

In response, a friend just pinged me with this comment: “This is colossally, stupid public policy. The government should not get involved in determining what is the best approach to electric vehicles. It should set standards and let the free enterprise system work it out.”

Unfortunately, it appears Biden pledged 0.7 percent of US wealth for global inequities.

Fortunately, the money isn’t flowing. But it would have if Democrats held the House, Senate, and White House.

* * *

Subscribe to MishTalk Email Alerts.

END

VACCINE/COVID ISSUES

Robert H to us:

KanekoaTheGreat on Twitter: “Why do five publications funded by Dr. Peter Hotez’s R01AI098775 grant list Dr. Zhou Yusen as a co-author? “Dr. Peter Hotez was deeply enmeshed with Chinese military scientists at the Wuhan lab. Read this article. Just… wow.” -@RobertKennedyJr https://t.co/z1oR9EyOgh https://t.co/aA3cIdrsCU” / Twitter

Good question

Why do five publications funded by Dr. Peter Hotez's R01AI098775 grant list Dr. Zhou Yusen as a co-author?

"Dr. Peter Hotez was deeply enmeshed with Chinese military scientists at the Wuhan lab. Read this article. Just… wow."

–@RobertKennedyJr https://t.co/z1oR9EyOgh pic.twitter.com/aA3cIdrsCU
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) June 27, 2023

DR PANDA

DR PAUL ALEXANDER

Senator Ron Johnson reads FOX & Friends the RIOT act! striking fear into their hearts, deep into enemy territory, over the target, brilliant as usual on fraud COVID vaccine & pandemic & response!

love Senator Johnson, what a terrific American! real hero! see facial expressions of hosts, could it be they are concerned about vaccine their took & their shilling for they did shill the death shot

DR. PAUL ALEXANDERJUN 27

Senator @SenRonJohnson nails it…denial and body count. https://t.co/uxWnxSQ7nY
— Edward Dowd (@DowdEdward) June 27, 2023

para ‘they are realizing now there may be some issues here’….

who the bell tolls?

end

Why is the media covering up the 12 infant deaths reported in clinical trials for FDA-endorsed RSV (respiratory synctial virus) drug? SHARYL ATTKISSON sheds needed sunlight to sanitize the cover up

Excellent reporting by Sharyl as usual! Top notch!

DR. PAUL ALEXANDERJUN 27

On June 8, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee (AMDAC) voted unanimously (21-0) in favor of AstraZeneca and Sanofi’s new nirsevimab (Beyfortus) monoclonal antibody drug believed to provide protection for infants from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease and other lower respiratory tract infections during their first year of life.

The path to pharmaceutical RSV protection spans several decades, with clinical trials for an RSV vaccine ending abruptly in the 1960s after the shot unexpectedly sickened and hospitalized 80 percent of children in the trial.

end

As in Canada, billions of dollars $ stolen from COVID relief money in United States (200 to 400 billion $ missing from PPP, COVID relief); How $400 billion in COVID-19 aid was stolen or wasted

DR. PAUL ALEXANDERJUN 28

SOURCE:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/27/fraudsters-stole-200-billion-in-covid-loans-watchdog.html

More than $200 billion in Covid aid disbursed by the Small Business Administration may have been stolen by fraudsters, according a federal watchdog.
This would represent 17% of the $1.2 trillion disbursed by SBA through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and the Paycheck Protection Program.
The inspector general said an overwhelming number of fraudsters were able to take advantage of the program due to weak internal controls as the loans were rushed out.
end

SLAY NEWS

The latest reports from Slay News

Obama’s Intelligence Advisor Killed in ‘Car Accident’Biden Whistleblower with ‘Smoking Gun’ Evidence Dies in ‘Suspicious Circumstances’
READ MORE

Mysterious Gaps & Missing Names Emerge in Biden’s White House Visitor Logs Mysterious discrepancies have been discovered in Democrat President Joe Biden’s White House visitor logs.
READ MORE

Investigation Reveals Every Living President Except Trump Is Descendent of Slaveholders A new investigation by Reuters has found that of the six living U.S. presidents, five are descendants of slaveholders.
READ MORE

Kamala Harris Scores Worst VP Favorability Rating in Poll History Democrat Vice President Kamala can now officially refer to herself as a “historic figure” in the Biden administration, for all the wrong reasons.
READ MORE

Biden Donor Comes Clean, Says FBI Asked Him to Wear Wire over Scheme by Biden Campaign to Solicit Illegal Donations A former high-level donor to Joe Biden has revealed that authorities at the FBI asked him to wear a wire and interact with the Democrat president’s campaign team.
READ MORE

Trump Gets Huge Victory in Classified Docs Case as Judge Rejects Motion by Special Counsel to Keep Witness List Secret President Donald Trump just scored a huge victory in his classified documents case as U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon denied special counsel Jack Smith’s request to keep secret a list of 84 potential witnesses in the case.
READ MORE

Supreme Court: State Lawmakers Do Not Have Exclusive Control over Elections The United States Supreme Court has ruled that state lawmakers do not have exclusive control when it comes to how federal elections are carried out.
READ MORE

Congressional Report: Biden Admin ‘Colluded’ with Big Tech to Censor Americans A new congressional report has concluded that Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration violated American citizens’ First Amendment rights by colluding with Big Tech companies to censor people online.
READ MORE

Biden: ‘I Sold a Lot of State Secrets, Very Important Things’Democrat President Joe Biden stated during a White House meeting that he “sold a lot of state secrets,” video of the comments shows.
READ MORE

American Children’s Reading and Math Skills Plummet American 13-year-olds’ reading and math scores are rapidly declining, a new report has revealed.
READ MORE

Whistleblower: FBI Knew Hunter Biden Laptop Was Real Months before It Became Public A federal investigator has blown the whistle to reveal that the FBI knew Hunter Biden’s “Laptop from Hell” was real months before it was first reported by the New York Post in 2020.
READ MORE

Migrants Chant ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ While Crossing Southern Border A group of migrants crossing the southern border took the time to talk to a reporter and hilarity ensued.
READ MORE

Buffalo Bills Star Forced to Cancel Charity Golf Event Because He Chose to Play at Trump Doral Buffalo Bills’ star strong safety Jordan Poyer has been forced to cancel his charity golf tournament because he chose to hold the event at the Blue Monster at Trump National Doral Miami.
READ MORE

EVOL NEWS

WEF: Public Must Consume ‘Human Waste’ to Fight ‘Climate Change
’READ MORE…

LATEST NEWS:

Florida murderer punches his lawyer as he is sentenced to death

Read more.
..Malaria found in US for first time in 20 years, alarming officials

Read more
…Anger in Italy as tourist filmed carving initials into the Colosseum

Read more
…Judge Cannon Smacks Down Jack Smith, Denies Government’s Motion to Keep List of 84 Witnesses Under Wraps in Classified Docs Case | by Cristina Laila

Read more
…Judge in Trump Documents Case Denies Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Request to Seal Witness List

Read more
…LEAK: Secret Service Agents Forced to Testify Before January 6 Grand Jury in Jack Smith’s DC Case

Read more..
.BREAKING: Jack Smith’s ‘Smoking Gun’ Audio Of Trump Conversation Has Been Leaked To CNN

Read more.
..House Will Subpoena DOJ Officials Accused Of Meddling In Hunter Biden Probe, Jordan Says

Read more…

VACCINE IMPACT//

Arizona Whistleblowers Expose the Human Sex Trafficking Business at the U.S. Border

June 27, 2023 5:13 pm

A new documentary titled “Cages – Epic Human Trafficking Truth” has just been published featuring whistleblowers from Arizona revealing the horrors of human sex trafficking that are happening every day at the U.S. Mexican border, where the U.S. Government is working together with Mexican drug cartels to allow this horrible sex trafficking enterprise to flourish inside the United States. This business of human sex trafficking, and specifically pedophile child sex trafficking, is today one of the most lucrative businesses, if not THE MOST lucrative business, in the U.S. economy. The money that is brought in through human sex trafficking buys lawyers, judges, law enforcement agencies like the FBI, and elections. And this documentary, which I have annotated down to just under 17 minutes, just deals with the sex trafficking by America’s wealthy with women and children coming across the border, and does not even address the larger exposure of child sex trafficking being exposed today from Jeffrey Epstein’s network which has been documented by Whitney Webb’s work, and the current U.S. Virgin Islands case involving Epstein and the U.S. financial system.

MICHAEL EVERY/MAREY

7//OIL ISSUES//NATURAL GAS ISSUES/USA AND GLOBE

end

8. EMERGING MARKETS//AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND ISSUES

END

YOUR EARLY CURRENCY/GOLD AND SILVER PRICING/ASIAN CLOSING MARKETS AND EUROPEAN BOURSE OPENING AND CLOSING/ INTEREST RATE SETTINGS WEDNESDAY MORNING 7;30AM//OPENING AND CLOSINGS

EURO VS USA DOLLAR:1.0947 DOWN 0.0009

USA/ YEN 144.11 UP 0.231 NOW TARGETS INTEREST RATE AT .50% AS IT WILL BUY UNLIMITED BONDS TO GETS TO THAT LEVEL…//YEN STILL FALLS//

GBP/USA 1.2687 UP 0.0059

USA/CAN DOLLAR: 1.3226 UP .0030 (CDN DOLLAR DOWN 30 BASIS PTS)

Last night Shanghai COMPOSITE CLOSED DOWN 4.63 PTS OR 0.12%

Hang Seng CLOSED UP 23.92 PTS OR 0.12%

AUSTRALIA CLOSED UP 1.10% // EUROPEAN BOURSE: ALL GREEN

Trading from Europe and ASIA

I) EUROPEAN BOURSES ALL GREEN

2/ CHINESE BOURSES / :Hang SENG CLOSED UP 23.92 PTS OR 0.12%

/SHANGHAI CLOSED DOWN 4.63 PTS OR 0.12%

AUSTRALIA BOURSE CLOSED UP 1.10%

(Nikkei (Japan) CLOSED UP 655.66 PTS OR 2.02%

INDIA’S SENSEX IN THE GREEN

Gold very early morning trading: 1906.66

silver:$22.63

USA dollar index early WEDNESDAY morning: 102.28 UP 15 BASIS POINTS FROM TUESDAY’s close.

WEDNESDAY MORNING NUMBERS ENDS

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And now your closing WEDNESDAY NUMBERS 11: 30 AM

Portuguese 10 year bond yield: 3.0005% DOWN 4 in basis point(s) yield

JAPANESE BOND YIELD: +0.381 % UP 1 AND 0//100 BASIS POINTS /JAPAN losing control of its yield curve/

SPANISH 10 YR BOND YIELD: 3.290 DOWN 4 in basis points yield

ITALIAN 10 YR BOND YIELD 3.963 DOWN 4 points in basis points yield ./ THE ECB IS QE’ ING ITALIAN BONDS (BUYING ITALIAN BONDS/SELLING GERMAN BUNDS)

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD: 2.3135 DOWN 5 BASIS PTS

END

IMPORTANT CURRENCY CLOSES FOR WEDNESDAY

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

Euro/USA 1.0912 DOWN 0.0050 or 50 basis points

USA/Japan: 144.27 UP 0.397 OR YEN DOWN 59 basis points/

Great Britain/USA 1.2638 DOWN 0.0108 OR 108 BASIS POINTS //

Canadian dollar DOWN .0048 OR 48 BASIS pts to 1.3245

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The USA/Yuan, CNY: closed ON SHORE CLOSED (DOWN) …7.2504

THE USA/YUAN OFFSHORE: (YUAN CLOSED (DOWN)…. (7.2531)

TURKISH LIRA: 26.06 EXTREMELY DANGEROUS LEVEL/DEATH WATCH/HYPERINFLATION TO BEGIN.//ON DEATH WATCH

the 10 yr Japanese bond yield at +0.381…VERY DANGEROUS

Your closing 10 yr US bond yield DOWN 3 in basis points from TUESDAY at 3.741% //trading well ABOVE the resistance level of 2.27-2.32%) very problematic

USA 30 yr bond yield 3.824 DOWN 2 in basis points ON THE DAY/12.00 PM

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

London: CLOSED UP 40,10 points or 0.54%

German Dax : CLOSED UP 104.13 PTS OR 0.66%

Paris CAC CLOSED UP 73.39 PTS OR 1.02%

Spain IBEX UP 88.00 PTS OR 0.94%

Italian MIB: CLOSED UP 224.29PTS OR 0.82%

WTI Oil price 69.48 12: EST

Brent Oil: 73.90 12:00 EST

USA /RUSSIAN /// AT: 86.27 ROUBLE DOWN 1 AND 21//100 RUBLES/DOLLAR

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD; +2.3135 DOWN 5 BASIS PTS

UK 10 YR YIELD: 4.3635 DOWN 1 BASIS PTS

CLOSING NUMBERS: 4 PM

Euro vs USA: 1.0918 DOWN 0.0039 OR 39 BASIS POINTS

British Pound: 1.2645 DOWN .01003 or 100 basis pts

BRITISH 10 YR GILT BOND YIELD: 4.350% UP 3 BASIS PTS//

USA dollar vs Japanese Yen: 144.34 UP 0.470 //YEN DOWN 47 BASIS PTS//

USA dollar vs Canadian dollar: 1.3249 UP .0053 CDN dollar, UP 53 basis pts)

West Texas intermediate oil: 69.31

Brent OIL: 73.72

USA 10 yr bond yield DOWN 6 BASIS pts to 3.715%

USA 30 yr bond yield DOWN 5 BASIS PTS to 3.800%

USA 2 YR BOND: DOWN 5 PTS AT 4.719%

USA dollar index: 102.94 UP 41 BASIS POINTS

USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 26.045 (GETTING QUITE CLOSE TO BLOWING UP/

USA DOLLAR VS RUSSIA//// ROUBLE: 86.38 DOWN 1 AND 31/100 roubles

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE: DOWN 74.08 PTS OR 0.22%

NASDAQ 100 UP 18.67 PTS OR 0.12%

VOLATILITY INDEX: 13.48 DOWN 0.26 PTS (1.89)%

GLD: $177.28 DOWN 0.41 OR 0.23%

SLV/ $20.84 DOWN .14 OR 0.67%

end

USA AFFAIRS

TODAY’S TRADING IN GRAPH FORM

Bonds & The Dollar Pop, Banks & Tech Drop As Powell Flexes Hawkishly

WEDNESDAY, JUN 28, 2023 – 04:02 PM

A quiet day for macro but all eyes were glued to The ECB’s panel with the ‘Big Four’ Central Bankers.

The persistence of inflation was a major theme for Bailey, Lagarde and Powell, who all pointed to the strength of underlying prices so far, and how they are adapting policy to that.

Powell reiterated that more tightening is what the Fed expects, saying that he didn’t see US core inflation getting to 2% this year or next.

Lagarde’s view on current fiscal policy suggested don’t expect any dovish help there:

“A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.”

…but now it’s time to roll back the measures that have been decided to deal with Covid and the energy crisis.

All-in-all, hawkish without a drop of dovish (despite the ‘data-dependent’ bullshit), which sent Fed rate-trajectory higher...

Source: Bloomberg

Stocks were very choppy on the day with The Dow lagging and Small Caps leading. Nasdaq and S&P toyed with unch all day. We note there was an odd panic bid in futs right as the cash market closed and after likely thanks to Micron.

Banks were lower ahead of tonight’s stress test results…

Tech was weighed down by some selling in chip stocks (AI) after NVDA was hit on headlines about increased crackdowns by Biden admin on chip exports to China. But the machines battled to keep NVDA above the critical $400 level…

0-DTE traders were actively supporting NVDA on the day…

Source: SpotGamma

A strong 7Y auction helped support bonds further but yields were lower across the curve by 4-6bps (belly outperformed). This dragged all yields lower on the week…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar ramped higher today again to 3-week highs…

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin was pressured back below $30,000…

Source: Bloomberg

Another lower high and lower low today in gold…

Oil rebounded off the recent rang lows

Finally, Apple inches ever closer to the $3 trillion market cap level…

Source: Bloomberg

Will that be the top… again?

Source: Bloomberg

Is a new more aggressive crackdown on chip exports to China the end of this boom?

b) THIS AFTERNOON TRADING/

end

END

i c Morning/

end

II) USA DATA/

III) USA ECONOMIC STORIES

General Mills Becomes Latest Company To Warn About Faltering Consumers

WEDNESDAY, JUN 28, 2023 – 02:00 PM

Shares of Cheerios maker General Mills plunged the most in a year after new annual guidance indicated price hikes on ready-to-eat cereals and meal kits would no longer offset slowing sales as consumers pull back on spending.

General Mills expects fiscal year adjusted profit growth at the mid-single-digits percentage for the fiscal year 2023, which ended on May 28 and totaled $4.30 per share, up about 10% in constant currency.

Even though price hikes fueled top-line growth, volumes have sunk in recent quarters, a clear indication soaring prices have hit a wall of resistance among inflation-weary customers.

“We’ll see some (more hikes in) pricing this year because we still see inflation in the marketplace,” General Mills CEO Jeffrey Harmening said.

Volumes have dropped 6%, with the most significant decline in its international and North American retail markets. General Mills said inventory reductions by North American retailers were also a headwind in the fiscal fourth quarter.

Harmening noted that mounting financial pressure affects consumer spending habits and warned it could hit sales in the year ahead.

“This caution could have an impact on their at-home versus away-from-home choices, the channels they shop, and the brands they choose, making it even more important for us to continue to invest in remarkable products, innovation and marketing that keep our brands relevant for consumers,” the CEO said in prepared remarks.

Bloomberg said sales missed its average estimates while adjusted profit exceeded expectations. As a result, shares of the food producer slid nearly 5.5% around 1100 ET, the largest decline since May 18, 2022. For the month, shares have tumbled 9%, the most since early 2018.

Add General Mills to the growing list of retailers who have voiced concerns about a weakening consumer.

On Tuesday, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. shares plunged to the lowest in a decade after it reported “a more cautious and value-driven consumer.”

Goldman’s Rich Privorosky told clients, “Something is not quite adding up on the consumer” and asked, “Have we just run out of excess savings and are we returning to replenishing savings?”

In a note to clients earlier this month, Privorosky pointed to three excerpts from recent corporate transcripts (from Target, Walmart, and Costco) revealing consumers buckling under financial stress. So add General Mills and Walgreens to the ever-expanding list.

The consumer’s health is cracking after more than two years of negative real wage growth, soaring credit card debt, depleted personal savings, and the highest interest rates in a generation.

USA// COVID

end

SWAMP STORIES

TUCKER CARLSON no 7

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/tucker-carlson-dares-ask-why-exactly-are-we-war-russia

Tucker Carlson Dares To Ask “Why Exactly Are We At War With Russia?”

TUESDAY, JUN 27, 2023 – 11:38 PM

“Why exactly are we at war with Russia?”

Those are the verboten words that Tucker Carlson to utter at the start of Episode 7 Of his Tucker on Twitter series where he highlights the irony that the so-called ‘war for democracy’ is actually enabling dictatorship and tyranny.

With nuclear extinction a possibility and 1000s of lives and billions of dollars already wasted, “what’s the point” he asks, “are we really doing this so that the Biden family can repay its debts to the oligarchs that financed their beachhouse.”

“Thankfully” the former Fox News star explains, “we have an answer.”

“The war against Putin and for Ukraine is in fact a war for democracy.”

Sounds familiar?

“Democracy must prevail” exclaims Nancy Pelosi as Carlson offers bipartisan examples of warmongers pushing for ‘democracy’ and all the military-industrial complex enrichment that comes with it.

Carlson further mocks the rhetoric surrounding the war as a fight for democracy, highlighting the irony of supporting Ukrainian President Zelensky, who suspended democracy in his own country.

“we are currently fighting a war for democracy on behalf of a leader who just casually announced he’s happy to end democracy and our democracy and supporting leaders have no problem with that“

In fact, the Biden administration continual support for Ukraine despite Zelensky’s disregard for democracy, implies that their motives are questionable.

He argues that during wartime, politicians become powerful and can justify any action, including silencing political opponents, leading to a potential erosion of democracy.

Carlson suggests that those in Washington, including Republicans, support Biden’s stance on Ukraine because ending the war would threaten their power.

He concludes by speculating on the future of Joe Biden, pointing out his age-related decline and potential implications for the Democratic Party, suggesting that Gavin Newsom may be a potential successor.

Watch the full episode below:https://www.zerohedge.com/political/tucker-carlson-dares-ask-why-exactly-are-we-war-russia

Full transcript below:

Hey it’s Tucker Carlson, you may have found yourself wondering recently as the world slides closer to nuclear Annihilation than any time in human history why exactly are we at war with Russia.

It seems like there’s a pretty significant downside to this particular foreign policy decision, starting with economic collapse and ending potentially with Extinction so is there a good reason we’re doing it so many innocent young people have been killed so many hundreds of billions of dollars have been wasted some of them from the U.S treasury so what’s the point are we really doing this so the Biden family can repay its debts to the oligarchs who finance their beach house in Rehoboth.

We’re doing it so our government can continue to lie about its illicit bio labs in Eastern Europe so that flabby losers like Toria Newland and Tony Blinken can feel like they’re doing something important with their sad empty lives.

Really honestly there’s got to be a better reason for waging this the most pointless war of all.

What is it.

Well thankfully we have an answer: the war against Russia ladies and gentlemen the war against Putin and for Ukraine is in fact a war for democracy.

Watch and recall the motive the president has said many times “we’re focused on what we can do to support Ukraine’s effort to fight for their democracy”.

“Democracy must prevail. The Ukrainian people are fighting the fight for their democracy and in doing so for ours as well.”

“Assisting and helping Ukraine win this fight for democracy and freedom and of course Ukrainian president zielinski understand that what’s at stake in Ukraine is bigger than just his Nation it is literally a battle for freedom and democracy themselves.”

“They are showing the world what an existential fight for democracy looks like.”

“President Zelenky and the Ukrainians have changed the course of history for the better and we unequivocally are with the Ukrainian people in their fight to remain a sovereign democracy.“

Unequivocally with the Ukrainian people to remain in democracy it’s a bipartisan view democracy must Prevail.

You just heard noted democracy expert Nancy Pelosi say the daughter of the mobbed up mayor of Baltimore as Pelosi puts it the Ukrainian people are fighting the fight for their democracy and for ours as well that’s right for ours as well without Ukrainian democracy in other words we can have no democracy here if the ukrainians aren’t free.

Neither are we we must make sure they can vote in Kiev so we can continue to vote in Kansas City.

It’s really that simple and yet tonight we regret to tell you that we have a problem it looks like they’re not going to be able to vote in Kiev anymore and no for once it’s not Putin’s fault.

Democracy in Ukraine seems to be suspended by the world’s foremost democracy Advocate himself Field Marshal zielinski.

Watch:

“If we win” he says “we’ll let people vote otherwise no you vote” and we feel like it because ultimately we’re completely in charge and make all the rules.

Your job is to obey or be punished.

That’s our version of self-government.

Self means me – I’m the government now.

That’s not just any autocrat that’s our chief Ally in the war for democracy.

This is the guy who just announced he’s like did you cancel next year’s elections.

So you’ve got to wonder what the Biden Administration thinks of this – we can’t possibly continue to support zielinski, that guy, after he said that can we because in a clip less than 30 seconds long he just blew up our entire rationale for supporting his side in the war.

So we can’t support him.

Oh of course we can and we will.

Here’s Joe Biden from yesterday reaffirming America’s unequivocal support for Ukraine no matter what happened in Russia “we the United States should continue to support Ukraine’s defense and its sovereignty and its territorial integrity”.

So to recap we are currently fighting a war for democracy on behalf of a leader who just casually announced he’s happy to end democracy and our democracy and supporting leaders have no problem with that in fact they’re strongly for it.

Shocked?

You shouldn’t be.

Of course they’re for it. You should have seen this coming.

Wars for democracy always cancel democracy in the process – that’s why our leaders love them and they all do it – even The Virtuous leaders Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, the British government under Winston Churchill through an entire opposition party into prison and let them rot for the duration – in some cases with their families.

So in a war for democracy you can do anything.

Imagine what a man might do who has fewer principles.

If that man say ran Ukraine he might seize churches arrest priests ban all criticism of himself disappear his political opponents and that’s happening.

Just last month zelinski threw a man called Gonzalo Lira into prison indefinitely for the crime of daring to write about the Ukrainian government in unflattering ways.

Now what’s interesting what separates this from other such cases is that lira is an American citizen, so Joe Biden who was quite a bit of SWAT as they say in Ukraine could have freed Gonzalo Lira within hours, but he didn’t. He didn’t want to – he didn’t say a word about it – he remains in prison tonight.

So that makes you wonder what’s the real motive here when normal people see War they see death and destruction, sadness and suffering; but that’s not what demagogues see – they understand it differently they know that War means power mostly for them.

During wartime everything they do can be justified – war is the gravest of all emergencies – imagine the coveted lockdowns times a thousand plus drones.

Once War breaks out politicians become Gods with the power of life and death. So in a peaceful democracy you have to debate your political opponents in public and that’s tiresome but in a war for democracy you can just throw them in jail or have them executed. You can see that many in Washington are looking forward to that moment and that may be why they so fervently support Joe Biden – even many Republicans – against a potential opponent – the only opponent who opposes the war in Ukraine.

If you were to end the war their power would evaporate.

Last week a whistleblower produced WhatsApp messages from Hunter Biden proving that at the very least his father knew about his influence peddling businesses abroad and probably participated in them “I’m sitting here with my father” Hunter Biden wrote to his Chinese Partners demanding money as much as anything reported about the bidens over the last several years this was The Smoking Gun.

There it is right there in the message that would have been enough to a normal president it would have been more than enough to keep a normal president from running for office again but had virtually no effect on Joe Biden.

Most media Outlets ignored it completely or tried to spin Biden’s relationship with his son as some kind of moral Victory “the real meaning of the hunter Biden Saga as I see it” wrote Nick Kristoff of the New York Times “isn’t about presidential corruption but is about how widespread addiction is and about how a determined parent with unconditional love can sometimes reel a child back.”

He actually wrote that and if you doubt it you should know that view was common.Here’s the take from ABC “the hunter Biden story, the Scandal, the this, that, it’s also the story of a Father’s Love and Joe Biden has never and will never give up on his son Hunter and will never treat him lesser than and so he is a father first take it or leave it.“

So whistleblower produces a text message showing that Joe Biden was in the room with his son when his son was selling influence to an enemy power the Chinese government and ABC’s take on it Joe Biden is a father first take it or leave it.

What accounts for a response like that?

Well that’s the way you talk when you’ve got nothing to fear from an upcoming presidential election – you don’t even bother to think of an excuse for your candidate because you don’t need to. Your country has electronic voting machines – Joe Biden got 81 million votes in 2020 and you’re pretty sure he can do it again.

In fact you know he can you’re not worried but actually they should be a little worried

The people who control Joe Biden – Susan Rice and the rest – know they can continue to run our government, writing the press releases, formulating the policies, and they can do it effectively forever, as long as Joe Biden gets dressed in the morning, and of course that’s their strong preference.

These are fervent opponents of change but the one thing these people cannot control is aging.

Joe Biden is old he’s 80 now he will be 85 at the end of the next term.

People imagine that old age is a long predictable progression from Acuity to permanent unconsciousness but often that’s not at all how it actually works.

When old people start to slide they tend to Slide fast.

Joe Biden has begun that descent.

Here he was yesterday and here’s what she wrote to me and I quote you can imagine my joy she called them right away and the next day they sent someone out to survey her yard as Beth wrote this is the best thing that’s happened in Rural America since the rural electrification act for electricity to farms in the 30s and 40s end of quote.”

End of quote you weren’t supposed to hear that – Joe Biden read the stage directions out loud – that’s like eating the garnish that comes with your entree you’re supposed to know not to do that.

Joe Biden no longer does in a year or two he will be gone completely and there will be no hiding it at that point the Democratic party will face a secession problem.

If Joe Biden is re-elected next year and then forced to leave office during his term due to disability or death that means Kamala Harris will become president of the United States and nobody wants that not even her husband.

In real life nobody likes Kamala Harris.

That’s not an attack on her in fact it’s possible to feel pity for someone who’s so universally reviled. It is instead an observation of unchanging physical reality like gravity or photosynthesis nobody wants Kamala Harris to be president no one will benefit if she becomes president so logic suggests there’s going to be a change.

It’s going to have to be somebody else and whoever that person is is going to have to enter the race soon before the election after Biden drops out.

Who could that person be? We don’t know obviously this is all just guessing but we do know whoever that is we’ll have to have two essential criteria he’ll have to be as shallow ruthless and transactional as Joe Biden is and he’ll need to have flattery skills that are so polished and advanced they’d be considered Superior even in the Saudi Royal Court and there’s only one man in modern America who fits that description Gavin Newsom the governor of California and perhaps not coincidentally Joe Biden’s new closest friend.

“I am here Mr President” Newsom told Biden at an event that they did together last week. “I am here as a proud American as a proud Californian mesmerized by not just your faith and your Devotion to this country and the world we’re trying to build but by your results by your action by your passion by Your Capacity to deliver.”

I get mesmerized by you Joe Biden – imagine saying that as a compliment you couldn’t do it.

Few human beings could do it but Gavin Newsom had no problem at all those words rolled right off his Fork tongue. He never stopped smiling so if you’re looking for the leader of the coup there he is right there she’s in Kennedy’s motorcade.

END

Judge In Trump Documents Case Denies Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Request To Seal Witness List

TUESDAY, JUN 27, 2023 – 07:25 PM

Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A federal judge on June 26 denied special counsel Jack Smith’s request to file a confidential list of 84 witnesses in the classified documents case involving former President Donald Trump and co-defendant Walt Nauta.Former President Donald Trump is introduced at the Oakland County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day dinner at Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, Mich., on June 25, 2023. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Smith’s motion, filed on June 23, sought to keep the list of witnesses a secret from Trump and forbid him from communicating directly with them about the case.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, said in her order that prosecutors failed to explain why it was necessary to keep the names under seal or why redacting or partially sealing the document would be inadequate.

According to Cannon’s order, Trump’s attorneys took “no position” on Smith’s motion but reserved the right to object to aspects of it, such as implementation. Cannon also said that “numerous news organizations” opposed Smith’s motion in court filings citing the First Amendment and related legal principles.

“Upon review of the foregoing materials, the Government’s Motion is denied without prejudice, and the Motion to Intervene and accompanying Motions to Appear Pro Hac Vice are denied as moot,” Cannon wrote in her ruling.

“The Government’s Motion does not explain why filing the list with the Court is necessary; it does not offer a particularized basis to justify sealing the list from public view; it does not explain why partial sealing, redaction, or means other than sealing are unavailable or unsatisfactory; and it does not specify the duration of any proposed seal.”

In Smith’s June 23 motion, he said the government provided Trump’s legal team with the list of witnesses they wished to remain under seal. The court had previously instructed Trump at his June 13 arraignment, at which he pleaded not guilty, not to engage in any communication with Nauta or the witnesses involved in the case.

Security Clearances

Trump was indicted on 37 counts related to sensitive and classified documents retained beyond his term in office. The documents were seized during an FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August 2022.

Smith presented evidence during the June 13 proceeding indicating that Trump violated federal law by allegedly retaining the documents, sharing them with individuals who were not authorized to access such information, and obstructing the investigation by directing Nauta to relocate boxes at Mar-a-Lago instead of surrendering all the materials to the authorities.

Trump has maintained his innocence. In various remarks to the media and to his supporters, Trump has labeled the prosecution and raid as the “weaponization” of the Department of Justice under his chief 2024 presidential rival, incumbent President Joe Biden.

Last week, Cannon initially set the trial date for Aug. 14, which is about seven weeks away. Smith filed a separate motion requesting to delay the start date by four months, pushing it to December.

He stressed that proceeding with the trial on the originally scheduled date would not allow enough time for adequate preparation, which would negatively affect both the defense and the government’s interests.

The case involves classified information, so Trump’s lawyers need to seek and receive final security clearances to access a few classified documents, which can take up to 60 days. The process for his lawyers to receive interim security clearances was already underway.

Smith filed a separate motion on June 23 requesting a classified information security officer under the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA). The motion clarified that CIPA has implications for the trial proceedings, as it introduces additional time requirements specific to cases involving classified information.

Under CIPA, parties can request a pretrial conference to discuss any possible issues related to the prosecution of the case concerning classified information. Cannon set a July 14 hearing to discuss how classified materials will be handled in the case in a separate order on June 26.

The appointment of a classified information security officer also was granted.

end

Trump Lawyer Rages Over Leaked Classified Doc Tape… Which Drew No Charges

WEDNESDAY, JUN 28, 2023 – 11:45 AM

An attorney for former President Donald Trump slammed the Biden DOJ for leaking a tape to CNN featuring Trump allegedly discussing a classified document with an author and publisher working on Mark Meadows’ memoir, in front of two Trump staffers, at his Bedminster, New Jersey club in July 2021. The document pertains to the US military’s war plans against Iran.

CNN aired the two minute clip on Monday, during which Trump joked about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s server in her Westchester, NY home.

“I can tell you who hasn’t done any leaks and who has been listening to everything the judge said and that’s Donald Trump. President Trump was told by a judge he can’t talk about any of the evidence, so explain to me how then, evidence is being leaked the week that Hunter Biden is getting indicted … misdemeanor charges for things that he should have been going to jail for, let’s be honest and if it was a Trumper, would have gone to jail for, but nobody talks about that,” said Habba, adding “What do they want to talk about? ‘Trump, Trump, Trump, submarine,’ oh, I know, release a tape. Release a tape saying what? The presidential record act allows a president to declassify documents.”

“He is the only person who has the power to single-handedly do that. That’s what the tape says.”

“There better be some consequences” for the leak, she added.

Meanwhile, CBS‘s Catherine Herridge notes that the classified documents in question, regarding the Iran plans, weren’t among the charges levied against the former president by special counsel Jack Smith earlier this month (fast fwd to the last 15 seconds for the buried lead!).

END

Was Garland Lying? New York Times Confirms Weiss Was Blocked From Bringing Additional Charges

WEDNESDAY, JUN 28, 2023 – 12:05 PM

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

I recently wrote a column entitled “Who is Lying? Merrick Garland or the Whistleblowers?” after the allegations of IRS whistleblowers and the categorical denial of Attorney General Merrick Garland on the Hunter Biden investigation.

I noted that it would not be a difficult question to answer given the highly specific account of the whistleblowers of meetings, including witnesses.

Now the New York Times has confirmed one of the key allegations. While the newspaper buried the major fact in the 21st paragraph of the story, it confirmed that U.S. Attorney David Weiss did attempt to bring additional charges in California and D.C. but was blocked.

Many have observed that the placement of the disclosure in the Times is a classic example of “burying the lede.” If this were Bill Barr, the confirmation of the story would have been a banner headline. Instead, the confirmation is found in with the baggage 21 cars down the train. That is where you will find this bombshell:

“But in mid-2022, Mr. Weiss reached out to the top federal prosecutor in Washington, Matthew Graves, to ask his office to pursue charges and was rebuffed, according to Mr. Shapley’s testimony. A similar request to prosecutors in the Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles, was also rejected, Mr. Shapley testified. A second former I.R.S. official, who has not been identified, told House Republicans the same story. That episode was confirmed independently to The New York Times by a person with knowledge of the situation.”

If the New York Times is confirming that the “episode” was the repeated blocking of Weiss, Garland stands contradicted in statements that he has made for months, including just days ago. Garland appeared irate at the suggestion that Weiss was denied any opportunity to bring charges anywhere:

He stated

“As I said at the outset, Mr. Weiss, who was appointed by President Trump as the U.S Attorney in Delaware and assigned this matter during the previous administration, would be permitted to continue his investigation and to make a decision to prosecute any way in which he wanted to and in any district in which he wanted to… I don’t know how it would be possible for anybody to block him from bringing a prosecution, given that he has this authority.”

He also denied the allegation that Weiss asked for special counsel status.

I am not sure what is worse: that Garland was clueless or duplicitous. Despite my support for his nomination, Garland has not been a success at Justice. Indeed, from the start, he seemed to shrink from view.

There is also a danger of willful blindness on the part of Garland in avoiding such knowledge as underlings undermined Weiss. We simply do not know, but we need to know.

In speaking with people at Justice, Garland does not appear to be a hands-on manager in the model of Bill Barr. While he cannot be called a figurehead, he is certainly not someone who conveys operational or active control of the department.

If Weiss was refused the ability to charge in two other jurisdictions, the key question is whether he did in fact ask for special counsel status. If so, Garland could be facing serious consequences, even an impeachment effort.

The coverage by the New York Times suggests that the media may be forced to cover this story albeit reluctantly. For Democratic members, it is now becoming even more embarrassing. Democrats unanimously opposed the release of the recent evidence and have opposed efforts to investigate the Biden corruption scandal.

What is clear is that Congress now has ample basis to pursue these answers fully and aggressively. With both potential criminal and impeachable questions, the authority of Congress is at its apex in using subpoenas to get to the bottom of this scandal.

END

This should stop Biden’s clowns from terrorizing gun owners.

(EpochTim es)

Gaetz, Greene Announce Move To Defund Director Of ATF

WEDNESDAY, JUN 28, 2023 – 01:00 PM

Authored by Samantha Flom via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) will seek to defund the Office of the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) under a little-used House rule.

In a June 26 letter (pdf) to House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-Texas), the lawmakers announced their plans, holding that the ATF had been “weaponized” against U.S. citizens by the Biden administration.

“The leadership at the ATF has proven unable or unwilling to see that the ATF respect the rule of law and not act where Congress has not legislated,” they wrote. “Instead, the ATF abuses its rulemaking authority, legislating through the executive and making a mockery of the separation of powers mandated by the Constitution.”

In February, internal documents outlining the ATF’s federal firearms licensee (FFL) inspection guidance were leaked to the press. The documents revealed that the Biden administration’s “zero tolerance” policy had made it easier to revoke the licenses of gun store owners.

In their letter, Gaetz and Green noted that under the policy mere “clerical errors” could result in such revocation.

“The ATF has even made it a matter of official policy to shut down gun stores by making perfection the standard in record keeping—a standard the ATF itself could not meet,” they wrote. “Since the Biden Administration has announced its new ‘zero tolerance’ policy in 2021, Federal Firearms Licensees have faced the highest revocation rate in 16 years.”

They continued: “The ATF has shown itself incapable of operating within the confines of its statutory authority, and we must force a change. Hence, I write to inform you that I intend to use the Holman Rule to defund the Office of the Director of the ATF in the next available appropriations period.”

Zero Tolerance

In a previous statement provided to The Epoch Times, Erik Longnecker, deputy chief of ATF Public Affairs Division, downplayed the Biden administration’s policy to revoke federal firearms licenses for “willful violations” of the law.

“A willful violation occurs when a federal firearms licensee commits the violation with an intentional disregard of a known legal duty or with plain indifference to their legal obligations,” Longnecker said. “Most federal firearms licensees operate in compliance with federal laws and regulations. In Fiscal Year 2022, only 90 federal firearms licenses were revoked out of almost 7,000 compliance inspections.”

However, at a June 26 field hearing in Shalimar, Florida, Gaetz and Greene further criticized the policy and the ATF, which they castigated as a “clown show,” holding that the administration was trying to circumvent the Second Amendment.

“They want to make it impossible to exercise Second Amendment rights, and what better way to do this than to make it difficult to purchase a firearm?” Gaetz noted. “Make no mistake, the ATF is going after Americans and FFLs are just in the way.”

During the hearing, local gun store owners and manufacturers testified as to how they had personally been affected by the Biden administration’s policies.

Chris Smith, the owner of Gulf Coast Gun and Outdoors, noted that his business was recently inspected after his business posted pictures on social media of staff members dressed up as ATF and FBI agents for Halloween.

“It seemed that the intent was to shut me down from the moment that they walked in,” Smith said, noting that his staff overheard an agent saying, “I bet they aren’t laughing at us on Facebook now.”

Smith also said that an agent cited his business for a form they said had been improperly filled out by a customer when it was supposed to be filled out by staff.

“One of my employees confirmed that the portion [the agent] was referring to was his own handwriting, but the ATF agent still cited us for the form.”

THE KING REPORT

The King Report June 28, 2023 Issue 7021

Independent View of the News

Bundesbank denies it may need recapitalisation on bond-buying losses
Germany’s Bundesbank denied on Monday a report that it might need a bailout to cover losses arising from the European Central Bank’s bond-buying scheme. Earlier, the Financial Times had cited a report by Germany’s federal audit office as saying possible Bundesbank losses were substantial and could require recapitalisation of the bank with budgetary funds…
https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/bundesbank-may-need-recapitalisation-cover-bond-buying-losses-ft-2023-06-26/

China Tightens Grip on Markets after Selloff in Currency, Stocks
The central bank stepped up support for China’s slumping currency on Tuesday, setting the daily reference rate far stronger than estimates… The yuan traded up 0.45% at 7.21 against the greenback at 2:32 p.m. local time, after tumbling 1% on Monday. The Chinese currency has slumped almost 5% this quarter, making it one of the worst performers among 31 major peers…
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-extends-fight-against-weak-023451415.html

US economic data released on Tuesday was much stronger and more inflationary than expectedUS May Durable Goods orders 1.7% m/m, -0.8% expected 1.2% prior revised from 1.1%Durables Ex-Transports 0.6% m/m, 0.0% consensus -0.6% prior revised from -0.3%Cap Goods Orders Nondefense Ex-Air 0.7% m/m, 0.0% expected 0.6% prior revised from 1.3%Cap Goods Nondefense Ex-Air Shipments 0.2% as expectedApril FHFA House Price Index 0.7% m/m, 0.5% expected, prior 0.5% from 0.6%April S&P CoreLogic 20-city house prices 0.91% m/m, 0.4% exp, 0.5% priorMay New Home Sales 763k, 675k expected, 680k priorJune Conference Board Consumer Confidence 109.7, 104 exp, 102.5 prior from 102.3June Conference Board Present Conditions 155.3, 148.9 priorJune Conference Board Expectations 79.3, 71.5 priorJune Richmond Fed Mfg. Index -7; -12 expected, -15 priorJune Dallas Fed Services Index -8.2, -17.3 prior; 6-month outlook -1.6, -13.2 prior
Goldman hiked its Q2 GDP forecast by 0.4 to 2.2% on the strong US economic data.

@StealthQE4: Home prices are rising again month on month.  This will start pressuring the services component of CPI. This has been fueled by the 10 year yield pulling back and staying relatively stable in the 3.7% range.  Inflation is going to remain sticky.

ESUs rallied sharply during Asian trading on China’s yuan intervention, hitting a peak of 4387.75 at 3:13 ET. They then headed south because ECB Governing Council member Martins Kazaks said further rate hikes are needed to tame inflation. Kazaks also said the markets are making a mistake by predicting rate cuts. The usual buying for the 3 ET European opening created a delayed reaction to Kazaks’ remarks, which hit the tape about 45 minutes before the decline began.

At 4:01 ET, ECB chief Lagarde said, “It is unlikely that in the near future the central bank will be able to sate with full confidence that the peak rates have been reached… Barring a material change to the outlook, we will continue to increase rates, July.”

ESUs and stocks tumbled until the US bond market opening at 8 ET. ESUs jumped 10 handles by 8:35 ET. After a 6-handle retrenchment, ESUs exploded higher, hitting 4389.00 at 9:39 ET. Professional traders then dumped ESUs into conditioned traders. ESUs sank to 4374.50 at 10:12 ET. However, the usual suspects juiced ESUs to a daily high of 4390.25 at 10:51 ET, abetted by the strong US economic data. Fangs and trading sardines, of course, led the rally.

The strong and inflationary US economic data thwarted pattern traders and bulls in early NYSE trading.   Some traders sold equities on fear of new Fed rate hikes. However, ESUs and stocks soared into the European close. Bonds declined smartly while stocks soared in morning trading in the US. Obviously defensive asset allocators were trying to unwind some of their long bonds and short stocks exposure.

There was no stopping the rally after Europe closed. ESUs plodded higher until the rally accelerated near 12:30 ET. The manic buying smelled like short covering and momentum buying. The Fed once again has gone soft and has unleashed rabid buying of equities because there is no US recession on the horizon – and US economic data, particularly housing, is strengthening.

The economically-sensitive DJTA soared again. JetBlue was +9.81%, Old Dominion + 6.23%, DAL +5.84%, AA +5.78%, UAL +5.%, Fed Ex +4.78%, and ALK +4.16% at 13:20 ET. BofA Securities maintained a neutral rating on JetBlue but hiked its price target to 10 from 9. Once again, the least provocation sends a stock, and its group soaring!

Tuesday’s King Report: Traders will try to affect a Turnaround Tuesday to the upside… Bulls need a rally; technical damage is occurring on equity indices. The DJIA’s 50-day and 100-day moving averages have turned down. MACD for the S&P 500 Index has turned negative on a daily basis.

The equity surge ended at 14:30 ET. ESUs and stocks then went inert until the late manipulation began at 15:25 ET. The rally lasted only one minute and produced only a 2-handle spike. ESUs and stocks went inert again. An 8-handle ESU drop occurred from 15:46 ET to the NYSE close.

Delta CEO Tells Investors Recessions Aren’t What They Used to Be – BBG 15:46 ET
“We know how to handle recessions,” Ed Bastian said during an investor day the carrier staged in Atlanta. “We feel very comfortable saying this surge you’re seeing has got multi years to go, certainly to carry through any kind of near-normal recession climate that will continue.”..

Corporate chutzpah is making a new high. When this happens, you know what will eventually occur.

@revishvilig: Sources claim that the Russian Armed Forces has taken control on the Wagner PMC in Syria. The commanders & the officers have been arrested. If true, this truly a HUGE development.

Prof. @PhillipsPOBrien: These reports are circulating–Wagner might be about to undergo the Beria treatment. (Stalin’s brutal security chief & enforcer; Stalin died 3/5/53; Beria executed on 12/23/53)

WSJ Chief Foreign-Affairs Correspondent @yarotrof: Wagner disbanded, Shoigu/Gerasimov in place and Russia down 7 aircraft sounds like a win all around for Ukraine.

Positive aspects of previous session
The DJTA soared again; equities roared higher on manic short covering on strong US economic data
Fangs surged on Q2 performance gaming because they are over-owned.

Negative aspects of previous session
The Fed screwed up royally again! Manic stock speculation has returned; stocks are breaking out!

Ambiguous aspects of previous session
What impact will Q2 rebalancing have of the markets later his week?

First Hour/Last Hour Action [S&P 500 Index]: 1st Hour from NYSE Open: Up; Last Hour: Down

Pivot Point for S&P 500 Index [above/below indicates daily trend to traders]: 4365.94
Previous session High/Low: 4384.42; 4335.00

WSJ: Ford Plans to Lay Off at Least 1,000 Contract and Salaried Workers
Cuts expected to significantly affect engineers in North America
    Many automakers are focused on areas where they can cut costs to offset their heavy investments in EV development… Ford has said it expects to lose $3 billion in operating profit on its EVs business this year… Last week, the Energy Department said it would loan a Ford joint venture $9.2 billion to support production of EV batteries across three factories in the U.S…
    UAW President Shawn Fain criticized the federal loan, pointing out that Ford is receiving support on top of its already-sizable profit and that this influx of cash isn’t necessarily benefiting its workforce…
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ford-plans-to-lay-off-at-least-1-000-contract-salaried-workers-bf4f5ef3

More than 100 U.S. political leaders have ancestors who were slaveholders
President Joe Biden and every living former U.S. president except Donald Trump are direct descendants of slaveholders: Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama….
    The group includes Republican senators Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton and James Lankford, and Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan…
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/more-than-100-us-political-leaders-have-ancestors-who-were-slaveholders-2023-06-27/

Blackstone Weighing Offers for Bellagio Casino Stake
Blackstone had bought Bellagio from MGM Resorts International for $4.25 billion in 2019.
   New York-based Blackstone has been cashing out of its real-estate positions. On Monday, it said it would sell industrial properties for $3.1 billion to Prologis Inc…
https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2023-06-26/blackstone-weighing-offers-for-bellagio-casino-stake-bloomberg-news

FT: Putin admits Russian state paid billions to Wagner paramilitaries (Plus the looting!)
President Vladimir Putin admitted for the first time on Tuesday — after years of Kremlin denials — that the Wagner paramilitary group had been “completely financed” by the Russian state, with Rbs86bn ($1bn) in payments made from May 2022 to May 2023 and a further Rbs110bn in insurance payouts…
https://www.ft.com/content/1835b957-6854-4435-8b02-f0cc49e8a5a2

FT: US warns of Wagner risk in sub-Saharan Africa’s gold sector – Washington on Tuesday blacklisted four gold companies it said have helped Wagner to fund its operations in Africa and its forces in Ukraine… https://www.ft.com/content/589d8428-79b3-413c-9232-1f73bc0a5357

What Wagner’s Mutiny Means for Its Sprawling Business Empire (in Central African Republic)
Wagner controls CAR’s biggest gold mine – capable of producing as much as $290 million of gold annually – and a timber concession twice the size of New York City. Its beer business is coupled with on that produces cheap vodka… Wagner and Russia built this presence by capturing CAR’s state institutions… along with security-services contracts and lucrative mining licenses in a half dozen African countries… (BBG, pay wall) https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-wagner-presence-in-central-african-republic/

Vladimir Osechkin’s great account of why Prigozhin led a mutiny and why it failed:
(Prigozhin made beaucoup bucks for top generals and state officials but they abandoned him.)
https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1673789171369119744

@igorsushko: After last weekend, probably the largest external threat facing Russia is a gradual takeover by China without a single shot fired.
    Structural Currency Shock in Russia: China begins the takeover of the Russian economy. Moscow Times reports Chinese yuan-denominated imports rose to 31%, exports to 23% in April. Equivalent to $7.9 billion in imports and $7.2 billion in exports for the month.

Today – Barring unexpected negative news, there should be more momentum buying and short covering in equities. The window for this rally could close tomorrow when machinations for the Q2 rebalancing begin.  Nvidia is down 1.3% on reports of possible AI chip export curbs.

ESUs are -8.50 and NQUs (Naz 100) are -57.70 at 20:20 ET on Nvidia. We’ve all seen this movie before. ESUs decline on a negative fundamental during Asian and/or European trading; they rally into the NYSE open; get hammered, and they then rally sharply on trader buying.

Expected economic data: May Wholesale Inventories -0.1% m/m, Retail Inventories 0.0%; May Advance Goods Trade -$93.6B; Powell, ECB’s Lagarde, BoJ’s Ueda, BoE’s Bailey 9:30 ET in Sintra, Portugal

S&P 500 Index 50-day MA: 4211; 100-day MA: 4122; 150-day MA: 4065; 200-day MA: 3997
DJIA 50-day MA: 33,614; 100-day MA: 33,358; 150-day MA: 33,457; 200-day MA: 32,880
(Green is positive slope; Red is negative slope)

S&P 500 Index – Trender trading model and MACD for key time frames
Monthly: Trender and MACD are negative – a close above 4514.50 triggers a buy signal
Weekly: Trender and MACD are positive – a close below 4155.73 triggers a sell signal
Daily: Trender is positive; MACD is negative – a close below 4322.91 triggers a sell signal
Hourly: Trender and MACD are positive – a close below 4156.76 triggers a sell signal

@CBSEveningNews (Turns on Biden): IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, a lead investigator in the Hunter Biden case, said he felt the president’s son received preferential treatment, and claims he was blocked from pursuing leads that could have led to the president. The DOJ and Biden’s attorney deny special treatment.   “There were certain investigative steps we 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐝 to take that could have led us to President Biden.” – IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley
https://twitter.com/CBSEveningNews/status/1673840455404998657

@bennyjohnson: Ex-Biden donor blows the Whistle, offered to wear a wire for the FBI after the Bidens approached him and encouraged him to make illegal campaign donations. “Once it got to Dennis [campaign mgr] and Joe, the investigation was called off…”
https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1673479291315814401

@GOP: Professor Jonathan Turley: “We have photos … emails … there’s an audio tape of [Joe Biden] leaving a message for Hunter talking about a story about his business dealings.” “It is a very serious corruption scandal whether the media wants to cover it or not.” https://t.co/wRC66rXTZN

GOP Rep Issa slams White House for shift in messaging on whether Biden knew of Hunter’s business dealings – The White House says Biden was ‘never in business’ with his son Hunter
    “For months and months, both the president and, on his behalf, spokespeople, have been saying the president did not have business communications with his son Hunter Biden,” Issa said. “It switched just a couple of days ago now—it switched to he was ‘never in business’ with his son.” “Huge difference,” Issa continued… https://www.foxnews.com/politics/issa-slams-white-house-shift-messaging-whether-biden-knew-hunters-business-dealings

Fox’s @EdwardLawrence: A White House Official says POTUS will be hosting Former President Obama for lunch today at the White House. There will be no cameras in the room though

Who’s Visiting the White House? The Logs Include 300,000 Names and Are Still Incomplete
President Joe Biden promised greater transparency about who was visiting his White House, yet a review of visitor logs from his first two years in office reveals notable gaps in disclosure…
    However, a Bloomberg News analysis of the data found duplications, anomalies and missing names. The results raise questions about the accuracy and completeness of the logs that record business meetings, social functions and receptions with Biden and other officials at the White House complex, which includes adjacent office buildings.
   For example, the records posted on the White House website show just five visits from Nancy Pelosi when she was House Speaker, despite at least 20 known instances when she was there. And Biden’s former Chief of Staff Ron Klain, whose job would have made him one of the most sought-after people in the complex, is shown hosting only six visitors over two years…
https://news.yahoo.com/visiting-white-house-logs-300-093005488.html

Audio tape of Trump appears to contain classified docs conversation that may shape DOJ indictment https://t.co/7ESenauWEi

@SchmittNYC: With extreme heat on Biden for influence peddling, bribery, and corruption and the DOJ for covering his tracks – DOJ leaks Trump talking about a classified document…

Iran memo not among the 31 records underlying charges in Trump federal indictment
The Defense Department memo on Iran — at the heart of the now-public audio recording that captured a July 2021 meeting with former President Donald Trump — is not part of the 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information charged in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of the former president, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News… (Leaked for political/jury reasons)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-memo-not-among-the-31-records-underlying-charges-in-trump-federal-indictment/

@DeSantisWarRoom: New Hampshire voter asks @RonDeSantis about Trump’s failure to Drain the Swamp. “I remember these rallies in 2016. It was exciting … ‘DRAIN THE SWAMP!’ I also remember ‘Lock her up! Lock her up!’ then two weeks after the election [Trump said] ‘oh forget about it. Forget I ever said that.’ No no no. One thing you’ll get from me: If I tell you I’m going to do something I’m not just saying that for an election … [But] I think the idea of Draining the Swamp misses it a little bit because … even if you’re successful at draining it, the next guy can just refill it. I want to Break the Swamp.”  https://twitter.com/DeSantisWarRoom/status/1673710257854349319

@DeSantisWarRoom: “Catastrophic mistake”: DeSantis on Trump “turning over the reins” to Fauci in 2020 and turning him into a media sensation. “[Fauci’s] pronouncements were basically governing.” Every action DeSantis took corporate media would say “‘Fauci says you’re wrong. Fauci says you’re wrong.’ He opposed us opening schools. He opposed us having businesses open. He opposed us not having mask mandates. He opposed us on everything.“
https://twitter.com/DeSantisWarRoom/status/1673736194180489217

@ChuckRossDC: NYT buries in the 21st paragraph that it has an independent source who confirms the two IRS whistleblowers’ claim that David Weiss said he was blocked from bringing charges against Hunter Biden in California. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/27/us/politics/irs-official-justice-dept-hunter-biden.html

@DeSantisWarRoom: Granite Stater says her health “has not been the same since” the mRNA COVID shot. @RonDeSantis responds: “The FDA is captured by the pharmaceutical companies. FDA approved for emergency use an mRNA COVID shot for six-month-old babies. There was NO DATA to support giving a child of that age that shot. So are we doing this for people’s health, or are we doing it for Big Pharma’s profits? … If you want to do it, I think you should have the right to do it. But as information comes out about possible pitfalls, you’ve got to level with the public. And the fact is there has been an increase in myocarditis, particularly for men under the age of 50.”
https://twitter.com/DeSantisWarRoom/status/1673739350272622611

@MarinaMedvin: DeSantis: “We have 49 Republican senators, we should have 55 Republican senators right now; we’ve squandered so many of these easy races over the last few election cycles.”

Harris scores lowest net approval rating of any VP in history of NBC poll (-17 net) https://t.co/cTrpCAsffZ

Babylon Bee: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Move to Florida to Escape New York Pizza Oven Ban https://buff.ly/3Jvdctp

GREG HUNTER INTERVIEWING MARTIN ARMSTRONG

Living in a Coup with Massive Election Rigging & War – Martin Armstrong

Living in a Coup with Massive Election Rigging & War – Martin Armstrong

By Greg Hunter On June 27, 2023 In Political Analysis2 Comments

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong was forecasting “chaos” in 2023, and that’s exactly what we got. His cycle work says don’t look for it to get better anytime soon. Armstrong explains, “We are in the midst of a coup. We have all these people who have been neocons for 30 years. Even Ron Paul said recently that the neocons have been waging war for 30 years and have not won a one single one. This is what they live for. Look at the clip of Lindsey Graham saying this is the best money we ever spent killing Russians. How can you take pleasure in that statement that this is the best money we ever spent killing Russians. This is not defense. These are the words of a psychopath in my mind. . . . They are not about to accept anybody who is going to be against war. The neocons are in full control of the government—period. We are living in the time of a coup. The United States is not the free country you thought it was. . . .”

Armstrong also predicts that the neocons will rig the 2024 election so Biden (or some other neocon) gets a second term. Is there any way to stop this election rigging and fraud in 2024? Armstrong says, “I don’t believe so. Our computers show that holy hell breaks loose starting in 2025. I think the problem will be the cheating will be in everybody’s face this time.”

Armstrong also says the neocons will try to start a war before the 2024 election so Biden will win because a wartime president has never lost an election. Armstrong says the cheating will be necessary because the real poll numbers for Biden are in the single digits and not the 40% approval ratings the Lying Legacy Media tells you. Armstrong contends Biden’s approval number is still stuck at 9.5% with his deadly accurate Socrates computer program, but the big reason for Biden and his crew to worry is the real inflation number. Armstrong says, “Inflation is subsiding a little bit, but it is basically still over 26%.”

Armstrong says Biden’s approval numbers are so low and inflation is so high that they have to have war with Russia. War is the reason they had to remove Trump out of the White House because Trump was against constant war. Armstrong adds, “No way they are going to allow a free election. It you think the CIA cannot rig the vote, I don’t know what planet you live on.”

Don’t expect Fed Head Jay Powell to lower interest rates. It will be just the opposite. Armstrong explains, “What is Powell looking at? War is the number one cause of inflation. He can’t say because you people are dumping all this money into Ukraine, inflation is only going to go higher because then he is criticizing the government. So, he just says he’s looking at ‘international considerations.’ Look what the Vietnam war did. It broke the back of Bretton Woods. War is always the number one problem. The neocons only care about winning, and they do not care about the country. The do not care about your 401-k or your retirement. They could care less.”

In closing, Armstrong warns, “Russia is like a wild animal, and if it is cornered, it will attack.” This means the whole thing in Ukraine could go nuclear if Russia is pushed into a corner. And what about all that debt the western world has built up? Armstrong says, “They intend to default on all the sovereign debt. . . .I don’t see this succeeding. I think it’s all going to collapse. The reason why they are doing this is they realize they are losing power. They feel it slipping out of their fingers. The more that happens, the more they become aggressive. That’s what this is all about.”

There is much more in the 53-minute interview.

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with Martin Armstrong, cycle expert and author of the new book “The Plot to Seize Russia” for 6.27.23.

(https://usawatchdog.com/living-in-a-coup-with-massive-election-rigging-war-martin-armstrong)

After the Interview:

There is lots of free information, analysis and articles on ArmstrongEconomics.com.

If you want to read any of Armstrong’s current and past subscription reports, including the recent “NATO 2030″ paper,” click here.

To get a copy of Armstrong’s books including his latest called “The Plot to Seize Russia,” click here. (You can register for free updates in the upper right-hand corner of this post.)

There are hard cover and Kindle editions for most of his books.

Armstrong’s next conference is coming up later this year in November. It is called “2023 World Economic Conference.”

It will be held in Orlando, Florida November 17, 18, and 19, and tickets go on sale on July 27th!

There will also be a streaming video option for the 2023 conference, but details have yet to be worked out.

I will see you on THURSDAY