Baltic Dry Index. 4651 +91 Brent Crude 77.34
Spot Gold 1754
This weekend, if you only have time for one section, make that section the Covid-19 section. How America recklessly helped China unleash Covid-19 on to the unsuspecting world, with no one yet held to account. How to protect the children. Please help disseminate the Covid-19 section.
Finally, as if confirmation were needed, confirmation Friday of the new cold war between the USA and China. Third countries are fair game in this new cold war.
Though it lacked the drama of a political hostage swap at a bridge in Berlin connecting East and West, Friday’s political prisoner swap between America, Canada and China sets a new low for rule of law in all three countries.
Three lives were just used as pawns for over two years in the new game of cat and mouse between the USA and China. And for what? An outcome that could nave been reached in the first month.
I suspect that China will not forgive and will not forget, to use the language of President Biden.
Westerners in China, including Hong Kong, need to tread very carefully now. All are walking on eggshells.
Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou to be released after agreement with U.S. in wire fraud case
The chief financial officer of Chinese tech firm Huawei will be released and allowed to return to China after reaching an agreement with the U.S. government on fraud charges, prosecutors said Friday in a Brooklyn, New York, federal court.
A U.S. district judge accepted the deferred prosecution agreement, which will last until Dec. 1, 2022. Under the deal, the executive, Meng Wanzhou, affirmed the accuracy of a statement of facts and agreed not to commit other crimes, or risk prosecution.
Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, was arrested in Canada in December 2018. The U.S. sought to extradite her on bank and wire fraud charges, claiming she misled a financial institution to violate American sanctions on Iran. The U.S. said Friday it plans to withdraw its extradition request.
Following Meng’s arrest in 2018, Chinese authorities detained Canadian businessman Michael Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig. Beijing has repeatedly denied that the cases are connected to Meng’s, saying they are “entirely different in nature.”
Late Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the two men had been released and were on their way home from China.
Meng pleaded not guilty to the charges on Friday. As part of the agreement, however, she took “responsibility for her principal role in perpetrating a scheme to defraud a global financial institution,” acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Nicole Boeckmann said in a statement.
According to Boeckmann, Meng admitted to making “multiple material misrepresentations” while CFO of Huawei about the company’s business in Iran, in conversations with the senior executive of a financial institution. The government claimed she did this to continue Huawei’s business relationship with the firm.
Boeckmann said the admission confirms the core allegations against Meng. Media reports have linked Hong Kong-based HSBC to the case, though the bank has previously said the U.S. Department of Justice has confirmed it is not under investigation in the case.
A Huawei spokesperson declined to comment.
A lawyer representing Meng said he was “pleased” with the agreement.
“She has not pleaded guilty and we fully expect the indictment will be dismissed with prejudice after fourteen months,”
More
In other China news, was China Evergrande just another propped up Chinese fraud all along? If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck. Evergrande was quacking for a long, long time. Still, where/who were the auditors? PWC comes to mind.
Evergrande’s crisis was ‘a long time coming,’ says banned short-seller Andrew Left
Published Fri, Sep 24 2021 3:49 AM EDT
Andrew Left, an American short-seller banned from trading in Hong Kong for a damning report he wrote on Evergrande years ago, says the Chinese property developer’s debt crisis was “a long time coming.”
But he told CNBC he doesn’t think Evergrande’s situation indicates a widespread problem for China.
“The Evergrande situation was a long time coming and China needed to rid this from their system. This is not a Lehman moment and this is not systemic,” Left told CNBC in an email.
He was referring to the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 — the world’s fourth-largest investment bank at that time, which filed the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history. That bankruptcy spilled over to other banks, triggering the global financial crisis.
Left, the founder of Citron Research, was banned from trading in the Hong Kong markets after he published a 2012 report predicting that Evergrande would soon be insolvent.
His five-year ban ends next month.
In an email interview with CNBC, Left said: “Everything I discussed from leverage to corporate governance turned out to be true, and instead of considering my report the SFC ... forced me to spend millions defending myself.”
He was referring to Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), which alleged that Left published a report with “false and misleading” information on Evergrande, including his accusation at the time that the property developer was engaging in accounting fraud.
Following the SFC’s allegations, Hong Kong’s Market Misconduct Tribunal concluded that Left was guilty. The tribunal is an independent body that looks into cases of market misconduct, including insider trading and stock market manipulation.
Left’s accusations — that Evergrande was insolvent and committing accounting fraud — appear to have never been proven. The tribunal in 2015 rejected his application to produce records and documents from Evergrande.
Evergrande was not available for comment when contacted by CNBC. CNBC reached out to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, which declined to comment for this report.
The escalating crisis at Evergrande — the world’s most indebted developer, with liabilities of $300 billion —roiled global markets this week. The firm is China’s second-largest developer by sales and has a huge presence in the country, dabbling in industries ranging from real estate to electric vehicles and health-care services.
More
Finally, with a possible SDP government coming Sunday, or worse, an SDP-Green coalition coming next week, when the prospective taxation going gets tough, the German millionaires get going (to Switzerland naturally.)
German millionaires rush assets to Switzerland ahead of election
September 24, 20218:49 AM BST
ZURICH, Sept 24 (Reuters) - A potential lurch to the left in Germany's election on Sunday is scaring millionaires into moving assets into Switzerland, bankers and tax lawyers say.
If the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), hard-left Linke and environmentalist Greens come to power, the reintroduction of a wealth tax and a tightening of inheritance tax could be on the political agenda. read more
"For the super-rich, this is red hot," said a German-based tax lawyer with extensive Swiss operations. "Entrepreneurial families are highly alarmed."
The move shows how many rich people still see Switzerland as an attractive place to park wealth, despite its efforts to abolish its image as a billionaires' safe haven.
No country has more offshore assets than Switzerland and inflows accelerated in 2020, to the benefit of big banks such as UBS (UBSG.S), Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) and Julius Baer (BAER.S). Geopolitical tensions and fears of the COVID-19 pandemic's economic fallout made Switzerland's political stability attractive.
Bank for International Settlements data show deposits of German households and companies at banks in Switzerland climbed almost $5 billion to $37.5 billion in the first quarter of 2021, and this does not include shares, bonds or financial products.
More recent figures are not available, but insiders say the inflows have continued. "I have booked an above-average amount of new money as in the past three months," said a veteran client adviser at a large Swiss bank who deals mainly with Germans.
"Many wealthy people, especially entrepreneurs, fear that there will be a lurch to the left in Germany - no matter how the elections turn out," says Florian Dürselen, head of Europe at wealth manager LGT Switzerland.
One top Swiss banker said: "I know a number of German entrepreneurs who want to have a foothold outside Germany if things get too red (leftist) there."
More
“Money has no nationality, only people do, and generally speaking those are people who have nothing else.”
Global Inflation Watch.
Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Enough with inflation this weekend,
inflation is only just starting anyway. There’s plenty more time for much more
on that. Though remember to fill up the car.
This weekend, Byron King, one of the best economic writers anywhere covers the Evergrande/Nevergrande beat for the always interesting and often first, investorintel.com.
Evergrande: What to Do as the Body Floats Down the River
Byron King | September 23, 2021
If you wait by the river long enough,” said the ancient Chinese scholar Sun Tzu, “the bodies of your enemies will float by.”
Sun Tzu’s quip came to mind this week as a drama unfolded in China with Evergrande. The firm has massive debt – well over $300 billion – and minimal money to pay interest, let alone repay principal.
Indeed, as the week progressed, Evergrande offered excuses and a mere few, token payouts. These included offers of title to real estate in lieu of cash. While many Evergrande employees learned that they are not going to be paid. Definite cash flow problems on display here, right?
It’s more than that though. Evergrande highlights how we’re deep into a global liquidity crisis, coming at the end of a ridiculously expansive period of worldwide money creation. Yet despite all the currency issued by central banks across, many big players are broke, if not insolvent.
Media are filled with forecasts of how an Evergrande crash will lead to a major global meltdown, the “next Lehman Brothers” as many have phrased it. Evergrande will smack the global economy like a big asteroid.
Well, there’s no extinction-level event just yet. Everything is playing out day by day, and as the matter comes into better focus it’s evident that the whole affair is not unexpected.
Evergrande has long been known for its growth-by-debt approach to business. It overpaid for land, labor and materials. It overbuilt hundreds of major projects across China, many becoming those infamous empty, “see through” cities out of some science fiction movie.
Many wondered how this could go on, because it didn’t make sense. And guess what… it was pretty much a fake form of business and development.
Ponzi-like (or to use a more recent analogy, Madoff-like), Evergrande remained afloat for as long as the company could raise cash from sales, from deposits for new projects and a revenue stream of new, gullible investors.
----Meanwhile, something even more important is afoot. Evergrande’s collapse is a clear sign that many other overextended plays across the world are about to hit their own brick walls. They may be smaller than Evergrande, but cumulatively they add up to more asteroids raining down on the global economy, one after another.
More.
Below, why a “green energy” economy may not be possible anyway, and if it is, it won’t be quick and it will be very inflationary, setting off a new long-term commodity Supercycle. Probably the largest seen so far.
The “New Energy Economy”: An Exercise in Magical Thinking
https://media4.manhattan-institute.org/sites/default/files/R-0319-MM.pdf
Mines, Minerals, and "Green" Energy: A Reality Check
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/mines-minerals-and-green-energy-reality-check
"An Environmental Disaster": An EV Battery Metals Crunch Is On The Horizon As The Industry Races To Recycle
by Tyler Durden Monday, Aug 02, 2021 - 08:40 PM
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Today’s most important section, repeating an earlier truth.
If we’re going to start vaccinating children as young as 5 with a non-immunising short-lived vaccine, shouldn’t we have the long-term studies data first, rather than use the children, the most vulnerable to adverse long-term effects/problems, as expendable guinea pigs?
Shouldn’t Pfizer be on the financial hook for coverage down the road if this blows up like Thalidomide or the Cutter polio disaster?
Since there are no long-term studies on these vaccines at all, neither in animals, adults nor children, why not treat children prophylactically with vitamin D boosters, Ivermectin child dosages, and zinc boosters, rather than semi-tested vaccines?
Up first, all you need to know about how America helped China to unleash SARS-CoV-2 and Covid-19 on an unsuspecting world. Approx. 43 amazing minutes.
Odds Increase that SARS CoV-2 was Lab Made
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfoZHX-BJzQ
Finally, because it’s so important, we repeat last weekend’s testimony to the Italian Senate, that very few will die if we treat Covid-19 early with readily available repurposed drugs.
Feel free to share this section with your local MP or other elected representative. We need to protect the 5 to 11 year olds from an unknown long term adverse vaccine risk, given that effective Covid-19 treatments exist.
Dr. Fareed addresses Italian Senate at COVID summit
Sep 16, 2021
The following is Dr. Fareed's speech to the Italian Senate, Rome, and Italy at the International COVID Summit Monday, Sept. 13.
You can watch part of the speech here. Closing remarks can be viewed here.
Thank you for that kind introduction.
Distinguished Senators and Dear colleagues, friends, ladies and gentlemen, it’s a great honor for me to address you today.
My name is Dr. George Fareed. I practice medicine in a rural town called Brawley California that sits on the Mexican border. This small community became the epicenter of COVID 19 in California, and I, who continue to treat patients in both the outpatient and hospital setting, found myself in the “eye of the storm,” treating very sick and contagious patients----not a place I thought I would be at age 76.
However, my training in biochemistry and virology, along with my degree from Harvard Medical School, prepared me well for the battle ahead, a battle that I have been fighting now for the past 18 months.
I, along with my colleague Dr. Brian Tyson, are winning the battle against COVID-19 for one simple reason: we follow the science!
COVID-19 is a disease that can be easily treated in its early stage, but comes very difficult to treat as the disease progresses.
---- The standard “wait and see” approach to COVID-19 has been the greatest medical failure I have seen in my long career because deaths are preventable- but you must treat early!
NO ONE NEEDS TO DIE FROM COVID-19
Eighteen months ago, in March 2020, I, along with my colleague Dr. Brian Tyson, began treating COVID-19 patients early in the course of the disease with a combination of medications, initially primarily hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin or doxycylcine, and nutraceuticals including zinc, vitamin D and C.
As Dr. McCullough explains, medications such as hydroxychloroquine act as ionophores to allow zinc into the cell to interfere with viral replication.
As time progressed, so did our treatment, and we added drugs such as ivermectin, fluvoxamine, and monoclonal antibodies, as well as aspirin and budesonide (steroid) to treat the other aspects of the disease.
We became part of an international network of physicians, including groups such as the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons led by Dr. McCullough and leaders such as Dr. Jean-Pierre Kiekens from Covexit.com---all engaged in one singular goal- saving lives through early treatment.
I developed my own protocols which vary slightly from patient to patient- depending on their clinical situation.
So- what do our results look like?
We have now treated over 7,000 patients, and there has not been a single death in patients treated within the first 5 to 7 days of the onset of symptoms. NOT A SINGLE DEATH. This includes patients with multiple co-morbidities as well as patients in their 90s!
More
J R Soc Med. 2006 Mar; 99(3): 156.
PMCID: PMC1383764
The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to a Growing Vaccine Crisis
Reviewed by Michael Fitzpatrick
In April 1955 more than 200 000 children in five Western and mid-Western USA states received a polio vaccine in which the process of inactivating the live virus proved to be defective. Within days there were reports of paralysis and within a month the first mass vaccination programme against polio had to be abandoned. Subsequent investigations revealed that the vaccine, manufactured by the California-based family firm of Cutter Laboratories, had caused 40 000 cases of polio, leaving 200 children with varying degrees of paralysis and killing 10.
More
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1383764/
Next, some very useful vaccine links kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.
World Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines
NY Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Regulatory Focus COVID-19 vaccine tracker. https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some more useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus resource centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
The Spectator Covid-19 data tracker (UK)
https://data.spectator.co.uk/city/national
Technology Update.
With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section. Updates as they get reported.
A new solid-state battery surprises the researchers who created it
Date: September 23, 2021
Source: University of California - San Diego
Summary: Engineers created a new type of battery that weaves two promising battery sub-fields into a single battery. The battery uses both a solid state electrolyte and an all-silicon anode, making it a silicon all-solid-state battery. The initial rounds of tests show that the new battery is safe, long lasting, and energy dense. It holds promise for a wide range of applications from grid storage to electric vehicles.
The battery technology is described in the 24 September, 2021 issue of the journal Science. University of California San Diego nanoengineers led the research, in collaboration with researchers at LG Energy Solution.
Silicon anodes are famous for their energy density, which is 10 times greater than the graphite anodes most often used in today's commercial lithium ion batteries. On the other hand, silicon anodes are infamous for how they expand and contract as the battery charges and discharges, and for how they degrade with liquid electrolytes. These challenges have kept all-silicon anodes out of commercial lithium ion batteries despite the tantalizing energy density. The new work published in Science provides a promising path forward for all-silicon-anodes, thanks to the right electrolyte.
"With this battery configuration, we are opening a new territory for solid-state batteries using alloy anodes such as silicon," said Darren H. S. Tan, the lead author on the paper. He recently completed his chemical engineering PhD at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and co-founded a startup UNIGRID Battery that has licensed this technology.
More
This weekend’s musical diversion. Vivaldi again. Approx. 8 minutes.
Concerto Con molti Istromenti Del Vivaldi / RV 555 in C major (Autograph score)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltavr8Ptdxs
This weekend’s chess update. Approx. 15 minutes.
7 Years Ago Fabi Performed a Miracle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib05HINpMsI
This weekend’s maths update/trick. Approx. 7 minutes.
Stacked Dice Trick – Numberphile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGkwG8c0__E
No comments:
Post a Comment