Baltic Dry Index. 1149 -28 Brent Crude 88.26
Spot Gold 1737 US 2 Year Yield 4.47 -0.01
Coronavirus
Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,100
Coronavirus Cases 23/11/22 World 643,912,454
Deaths 6,629,186
“But it [the boom] could not last forever
even if inflation and credit expansion were to go on endlessly. It would then
encounter the barriers which prevent the boundless expansion of circulation
credit. It would lead to the crack-up boom and the breakdown of the whole
monetary system.”
Ludwig
von Mises.
In the stock casinos, fading hopes for a Santa Claus rally. Hope now depends on some miracle good news in today’s release of the Fed’s minutes of their last meeting.
In the real world, winter returns to much of Europe just as LNG supplies and diesel fuel supplies get tight.
An ice age hits most of crypto-land. The FTX fraud gets bigger and bigger. Who’s next to fail?
Americans take off early today for and
inflation hit Thanksgiving holiday.
New Zealand
delivers its biggest rate hike ever; Asia-Pacific stocks mixed ahead of Fed
minutes
UPDATED WED, NOV 23 2022 12:30 AM
EST
Shares in
the Asia-Pacific are mixed Wednesday after U.S. stocks rose overnight and New
Zealand’s central bank delivered a 75 basis point hike, the biggest rate hike
ever in the central bank’s history.
The NZX 50 index in New
Zealand fell 0.92%. The S&P/ASX
200 was up 0.61% despite the Reserve Bank of Australia governor
Philip Lowe on Tuesday hinting at more rate hikes ahead.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.68%,
while the Kosdaq climbed 1.74%. Japanese markets are closed for a public
holiday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index traded
0.57% higher. In Mainland China, the Shanghai Composite declined
0.19% and the Shenzhen
Component was down 1.22%.
Singapore will release its
inflation data, while Australia is expected to post its manufacturing data.
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is scheduled to report earnings later in the
day.
Cleveland Fed President Loretta
Mester also said recent
inflation data is promising and that she’d support reduced interest rate hikes
going forward.
Asia-Pacific
markets: New Zealand interest rate hikes, inflation data (cnbc.com)
Stock futures are
little changed as investors look ahead to Fed meeting minutes
UPDATED TUE, NOV 22 2022 9:26 PM
EST
U.S. stock
futures were little changed on Tuesday night, as investors looked ahead to
Federal Reserve meeting minutes for clues into the pace of future interest rate
hikes.
Dow Jones Industrial Average
futures rose by 14 points, or 0.05%. S&P 500 futures gained 0.03%, while
Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.06%.
Shares of Nordstrom fell
more than 8% in extended trading after the department store chain
reaffirmed its forecast. However, Nordstrom beat profit and sales expectations
in its latest results, according to consensus expectations on Refinitiv.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
rallied nearly 400 points, or about 1.2%, during the regular session Tuesday.
The S&P 500 rose 1.36%, closing above the 4,000 level for the first time
since September. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.36%.
Investors shrugged off fears of
further lockdowns in China after the country reported its first Covid deaths
since May. Instead, traders focused on some strong earnings reports, and bet on
the likelihood for an easing in monetary policy from the Fed going forward.
“Investor psychology remaining
optimistic is driving the rally in this market,” Eugene Profit, CEO at Profit
Investments, said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.”
“Going into the next Fed meeting,
I think the Fed will probably moderate their language a little bit, and I think
investors want to remain optimistic, and ignore a lot of headwinds in this
market,” he added.
On the economic front, investors
will review the latest Fed meeting minutes on Wednesday for insight into the
central bank’s approach on monetary policy ahead of the December meeting.
Earlier in November, the central
bank approved
a fourth consecutive 0.75 percentage point hike that brought
rates to their highest level since 2008. Economists are forecasting a half
percentage point increase in December, and smaller rate hikes next year.
Additionally, investors will
parse through the latest jobless claims data. Economists polled by Dow Jones
are forecasting claims of 225,000 for the week ending Nov. 19, a slight
increase from the 222,000 initial claims the prior week.
They’re also expecting the latest
data on durable goods and new home sales in October. Durable goods in October
are expected to have risen 0.5% from the prior month, according to estimates
from Dow Jones.
Markets will be closed on
Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and will close early on Friday.
Stock futures are little changed as investors look ahead to Fed meeting minutes (cnbc.com)
Finally, more crypto disaster to still to come.
Will Biden and the Democrats have to return the stolen money? But would a Biden
Department of Justice really act against President Biden and the Democrat Party?
FTX lawyer calls
this case ‘a different sort of animal’ in first bankruptcy hearing
Lawyers for collapsed
crypto exchange FTX said in the company’s first bankruptcy
hearing on Tuesday that regulators from the Bahamas, where FTX was
headquartered, have agreed to consolidate proceedings in Delaware.
FTX’s lawyers, who were brought in
by new leadership to handle restructuring, filed an emergency motion last week
to secure the move to the U.S. The hearing on Tuesday was the initial step in
the resolution of the largest cryptocurrency bankruptcy on record.
“What we are dealing with is a different sort of animal,” said FTX
counsel James Bromley. “Unfortunately, the FTX debtors were not particularly
well run, and that is an understatement.”
Regarding FTX’s founder, this was an organization
that was “effectively run as a personal fiefdom of Sam Bankman-Fried,” an FTX
attorney told the court.
FTX lawyers confirmed earlier
reports that the Southern District of New York’s Cyber Crimes unit has begun an
investigation into the matter. FTX lawyers have also made reference to
cyberattacks, suggesting there were multiple attacks beyond the $477 million
hack that occurred shortly after the company entered bankruptcy on Nov. 11. In
that attack, hackers extracted ether out of FTX wallets.
The central challenge for the new
team is “working to bring order to disorder,” Bromley told the court. After
introducing his fellow counsel, Bromley dove into what FTX has been doing to
understand the complex morass of data and finances left behind by FTX and
Bankman-Fried, who was replaced by restructuring
expert John Ray III.
Bankman-Fried exercised a level of
control over the business that “none of us have ever seen,” Bromley said,
referring to the bankruptcy experts and attorneys the company has employed as
part of the restucturing process.
FTX had been valued by private investors at $32 billion earlier this year,
and Bankman-Fried was making himself out to be an industry savior during the
crypto winter.
“The FTX situation is the latest
and the largest failure in this space,” Bromley said. “There was effectively a
run on the bank, both with respect to the international exchange [...] as well
as the U.S. exchange. At the same time that the run on the bank was occurring,
there was a leadership crisis [...] The FTX companies were controlled by a very
small group of people, led by Mr. Sam-Bankman-Fried. During the run on the
bank, Mr. Fried’s leadership frayed, and that led to resignations.”
FTX has just begun to implement
“standard” risk and data management practices, he said. As part of the process,
lawyers had earlier to approve roughly $1 million in salary expenses for
existing FTX employees.
The process is designed to get as
much as possible for creditors, Bromley said.
“It is essential that
we first maximize the value of the assets we have, whether that means selling
assets, selling businesses or restructuring businesses,” he said. “All of that
is on the table.”
FTX customers had a
global presence, but many were based in tax havens. The largest geographic
areas represented included:
- Cayman Islands — 22% of
registered customers.
- U.S. Virgin Islands — 11% of
registered customers.
- China — 8% of registered
customers.
“We will be before
you quite quickly with an attempt to sell certain of the business that we
understand [...] are self-sufficient and robust [with] interest from others,”
Bromley added.
More
FTX
lawyer says in first bankruptcy hearing this is different 'animal' (cnbc.com)
Crypto Analyst Who
Accurately Predicted Bitcoin Collapse Says 'I'm 100% Out Of Market'
November
21, 2022
Popular cryptocurrency analyst ‘Capo of Crypto’ on Twitter said
that market capitulation has started and the “coming week is going to be
decisive.”
What Happened: Capo tweeted,
“I'm 100% out of the market" amid the FTX (CRYPTO: FTT)
collapse. This comes as apex crypto Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC)
dropped 4.21%, trading at $16,010. Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) declined as much as
8%, trading at $1,121 in the last 24-hours.
It should be noted that Capo
predicted this year’s Bitcoin collapse and said it is likely heading to new
bear market lows.
On
Sunday, the trader tweeted that it is “going to be a big week.” The
pseudonymous analyst reiterated that “altcoins could drop 40-50% from here.”
Capo
believes that the current rally in the crypto market is meant to trap bulls, and a Bitcoin drop to lower levels will happen in the near
term. In a Twitter post, he shared how BTC has flipped support at $17,600 into
resistance.
Read Next: FTX Owes 50 Biggest Unsecured Creditors $3B, Over 1M
Creditors May Be Involved
Crypto Analyst Who
Accurately Predicted Bitcoin Collapse Says 'I'm 100% Out Of Market' (msn.com)
Charities funded by
Sam Bankman-Fried may be asked to return donations: ‘I had assumed FTX to be a
reputable company’
Last Updated: Nov. 21, 2022 at 8:38 p.m. ET First Published:
Nov. 21, 2022 at 2:56 p.m. ET
Charities that benefited from Sam
Bankman-Fried’s ‘effective altruism’ are facing an ‘unfortunate reality,’
according to one expert
FTX founder Sam
Bankman-Fried’s aggressive embrace of “effective altruism” spewed donations at
dozens of nonprofits, but now those groups are facing the possibility that they
may be asked to give the money back.
The
crypto exchange’s collapse and bankruptcy means groups that received funding
from FTX’s philanthropic entities could be asked to return that money — a legal
move known as a clawback — so FTX’s account holders and creditors can be repaid.
“The unfortunate
reality is that charities are vulnerable to clawback claims when a funder
enters bankruptcy,” said Jason Lilien, a partner at the law firm Loeb &
Loeb, LLP, who was speaking generally about nonprofits and clawback claims, not
about the FTX case specifically. While there can be some exceptions in certain
circumstances, Lilien said, generally speaking, the law does not let nonprofits
avoid clawback attempts.
That’s potentially bad
news for nonprofits swept up in FTX’s orbit. Bankman-Fried has made charitable
giving a central piece of his public image and FTX’s. The company’s website
states that it was “founded with the goal of donating to the world’s most
effective charities.”
Bankman-Fried
has championed “effective altruism,” a
philosophy of giving which attempts to make evidence-based decisions about how
to do the most good for humanity. FTX reportedly donated 1% of “net fees” to
charity and both employees and account holders were encouraged to donate to the
FTX Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm.
The
leaders of the FTX Foundation’s Future Fund, which launched in February
with plans to give out $100 million “to ambitious projects in order to improve
humanity’s long-term prospects,” resigned en masse as FTX unraveled. They said
in a public post that the fund was halting new donations amid “fundamental
questions about the legitimacy and integrity of the business operations that
were funding the FTX Foundation and the Future Fund.” Groups that received
Future Fund and FTX Foundation grants are now in limbo, waiting to see how the
bankruptcy could affect them.
More
Charities funded
by FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried may be asked to return donations - MarketWatch
Digital
Currency Group owes $575 million to Genesis Trading's crypto lending arm
November
22, 2022 8:38 PM GMT
Nov 22 (Reuters)
- Venture capital company Digital Currency Group, which owns Genesis Trading
and cryptocurrency asset manager Grayscale, owes $575 million to Genesis'
crypto lending arm, Chief Executive Barry Silbert said in a letter to
shareholders on Tuesday afternoon.
Loans
from Genesis Global Capital, which suspended customer withdrawals last week,
were used to "fund investment opportunities" and repurchase stock
from non-employee shareholders, Silbert said in the letter, which was seen by
Reuters. That debt is due in May 2023, he added.
Aside from the
money owed to Genesis, Digital Currency Group's only debt is a $350 million
credit facility from "a small group of lenders" led by investment
firm Eldridge, as well as a $1.2 billion claim it filed in July against
bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. Digital Currency Group (DCG)
had assumed that liability from Genesis.
DCG
is still on pace to do $800 million in revenue this year, Silbert said.
In suspending redemptions and pausing new
loans, Genesis Global Capital cited the "unprecedented market
turmoil" that rippled through the market after crypto exchange FTX filed
for bankruptcy. At the time, DCG said the halted withdrawals at Genesis had no
impact on its operations or subsidiaries.
Silbert also told
shareholders he appreciated words of support "along with offers to invest
in DCG" and that he would notify investors if the company decides to do a
funding round. Genesis is seeking to raise as much as $1 billion, and has
approached crypto exchange Binance and asset manager Apollo Global Management
for assistance, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Digital
Currency Group owes $575 million to Genesis Trading's crypto lending arm |
Reuters
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians,
inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Leading gas importer Japan says LNG is sold out until 2026, as
energy-squeezed countries battle over dwindling supplies
Zahra Tayeb Nov 21, 2022, 10:42 AM
Japan, the leading
importer of liquefied natural gas, has said supplies of LNG are sold out for
the next three years, setting the stage for battle royale between countries
fighting to secure deliveries amid a global shortage.
There are no long-term
contracts available for LNG shipments before 2026, Japanese companies told the
country's trade ministry in a survey published Monday.
"The LNG
procurement environment has changed completely. Procurement can also be said to
be in a state of war," they told the ministry.
A dwindling supply of
natural gas worldwide has sent countries racing to secure shipments of the key
fuel. The squeeze is due to a lack of investment in LNG export projects,
according to the trade ministry.
At the same time,
European buyers are set to step up their imports of LNG from next year after
Moscow cut off pipeline-borne gas flows to the continent in retaliation to
Western sanctions. They have already been in "huge competition" with Asian buyers for exports from Qatar to replace the Russian supplies.
"The global 'LNG
competition' is likely to heat up further," the ministry said. Japan is
the world's top importer of LNG, but China is set to overtake it, according to the IEA.
China, which initially
provided Europe with additional supply, has halted LNG shipments to the region to make sure its own households have
enough gas for the colder months.
On Monday, QatarEnergy agreed a 27-year deal to provide
China's Sinopec with LNG — the longest-term contract ever, Reuters reported.
Europe stands to face
shortages in the years ahead, if Russia completely turns off the gas tap,
according to Japan's trade ministry. Should that happen, there will be a global
shortage of 7.6 million tons of LNG in January 2025, it predicted.
The gap between global
LNG demand and supply is expected to ease in 2026, when planned projects
in the US and Qatar are expected to come online.
Until then, given the
lack of long-term contracts, importers will be forced to buy natural gas from
the spot market at much higher prices. The spot market is currently trading
three times higher than long-term contracts, per Bloomberg.
Japan Says LNG
Sold Out Until 2026 As Countries Battle for Supply (businessinsider.com)
Nov 21,
2022, 10:42
Germany's DB Cargo to
increases freight rates up to 45% / Criticism from trade associations
The DB Cargo freight transport
division of German national railway operator Deutsche Bahn (Berlin; www.deutschebahn.com) is making a drastic move right before Christmas: as
reported by the German news magazine Der Spiegel, the state-owned company is
increasing its freight rates for rail transport by up to 45%, citing increased
energy costs and inflation.
According to the report, DB Cargo CEO Sigrid
Nikutta confirmed the rate increase. However, only customers who pay
the list price are to be affected by the price hike. According to reporting
information, these customers account for only 0.06% of DB Cargo’s total
turnover of EUR 4.5 bn. For customers with framework contracts, the price
increase is to be smaller.
Nevertheless, the announcement sparked displeasure within the
industry: “Such a pricing policy is absolutely out of the question and sends a
completely wrong signal to the market,” said Eric Rehbock, chief
executive of the German association for secondary raw materials and waste
disposal, bvse (Bonn; www.bvse.de): “At
a time when attempts should be made to shift freight transport to rail as much
as possible, this price increase is pure poison.”
The BDI (Berlin; www.bdi.eu),
Germany’s federation of industries, also criticised that the higher prices for
transporting goods by rail impede the achievement of climate targets and
encourage a shift back to the roads.
Published on 21.11.2022
Below, why a “green energy” economy may not be possible, 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.
With Covid-19 starting to become only endemic,
this section is close to coming to its end.
Today,
did big pharma put profits before people? Is big pharma still doing so? The
answer to both seems to be yes.
The Truth
About Ivermectin
Medical miracle or
notorious lynchpin of misinformation?
Nov 21 2022
Ivermectin has been hailed as a “wonder drug”
and, according to the UNESCO World Science Report, a critical component of “one of the most triumphant
public health campaigns ever waged in the developing world.”
However, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
and affiliated health authorities have vociferously recommended against
ivermectin as a potential treatment for the virus.
Though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ivermectin for human use in
treating conditions caused by parasites, it has also insisted that ivermectin “has not been shown to be safe or effective” when it comes to treating COVID-19.
In a social media message that has gone viral, the FDA
labeled it as a drug for horses and not fit for human consumption: “You are not
a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”
The post made headlines and was one of the FDA’s most successful social media
campaigns. Yet, research findings seem to contradict the public health
organization’s recommendations.
A growing body of research shows that ivermectin is an essential treatment for COVID-19. Many doctors have praised the drug for its broad yet effective antiparasitic, antiviral, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and autophagic properties.
Ivermectin: Antiparasitic Beginnings
Ivermectin made its name through its significant benefits
in treating parasitic infections.
In 1973, Satoshi Omura and William C. Campbell, working
with the Kitasato Institute in Tokyo, found an unusual type of Streptomyces
bacteria in Japanese soil near a golf course.
In laboratory studies, Omura and Campbell discovered that
this Streptomyces bacteria could cure mice infected with the roundworm Heligmosomoides polygyrus. Campbell isolated the
bacteria’s active compounds, naming them avermectins, and the bacteria was thus
called S. avermitilis.
Despite decades of searching worldwide, researchers have
yet to find another microorganism that can produce avermectin.
It was changing one of the bonds of avermectin through a
chemical process that produced ivermectin, which was proven successful in
treating onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis, both of which are
debilitating diseases common in the developing world.
More. Much, much, more.
The Truth About Ivermectin (theepochtimes.com)
Pfizer
CEO Claims COVID Vaccine Will Be ‘Free for All Americans,’ Critics Push Back
By November 21, 2022 Updated: November 21, 2022
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the company’s COVID-19 vaccine will be “free for all Americans” because
insurance companies and other groups will pay the cost, although critics have
said his claims aren’t true.
“Americans
will see no difference,” Bourla told STAT Summit last week. STAT is a health care
publication. The vaccine, he added, will “be free for them to get,
regardless of the insurance they have.”
However,
Bourla did not mention whether uninsured Americans would have to pay for the
vaccine. Currently, the federal government is paying Pfizer $30 per dose of the
mRNA vaccine and has been distributing it to the public.
The
drug giant announced in October that it would raise the price of its vaccine to
$130 per dose after the federal government uses up the vials it has purchased
and the vaccine goes on the open market in 2023 when the U.S. public health
emergency expires.
David
Mitchell, co-founder of advocacy group Patients for Affordable Drugs, said in a
recent interview that Bourla’s comments were not truthful. Speaking to the
Daily Mail, he said that taxpayers, patients, consumers, and others would
eventually foot the bill for the vaccine.
Bourla
“knows it’s not true,” he said, referring
to claims of the vaccine being free. “The vaccine is not going to be free. He
is going to charge $120 list price for the vaccine and it will be paid. The
questions is who will pay it.”
Bourla’s
recent comment at the STAT Summit is “more … pharma double talk,”
Mitchell wrote on
Twitter. He previously stated that the higher cost of the Pfizer vaccine
absorbed by insurance companies will be passed on in the form of higher
insurance premiums.
Price Hike
In
announcing the price hike, Pfizer executive Angela Lukin said that the
firm will expect to quadruple the cost of the COVID-19 vaccine to about $110 to
$130 per dose.
“We
are confident that the U.S. price point of the COVID-19 vaccine reflects its
overall cost effectiveness and ensures the price will not be a barrier for
access for patients,” Lukin said in mid-October. Meanwhile, it is
currently unclear what kind of access people without health insurance will have
to the vaccine
Lukin said
she does not expect purchasing of the vaccines to transfer to the private
sector until the first quarter of 2023 “at the earliest.” The move is dependent
on the government-contracted supply being depleted.
----On Nov.
1, Pfizer raised its forecast on 2022 sales of its COVID-19 vaccine by $2
billion to $34 billion, and stated new deals and drugs in development should
help replace future declining vaccine sales and lost revenue from patent
expirations. Sales of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine are down from
pandemic highs as many countries have neared the end of their primary
vaccination campaigns.
More
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 other useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus
resource centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Centers for Disease Control
Coronavirus
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
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, among other things, I’ve added this section.
Updates as they get reported.
New
technique allows circuits to be printed right onto curved surfaces
Ben Coxworth November 21, 2022
While the
field of printable electronics holds a great deal of promise, the printing of
circuits onto curved surfaces is still very challenging. A new technique
greatly simplifies the process of doing so, potentially allowing for new types
of electronic devices.
The
procedure was developed at North Carolina State University, by a team led by
Yuxuan Liu, Yong Zhu, Brendan O’Connor, Michael Zheng and Jingyan Dong. It
addresses two shortcomings of existing techniques for printing circuits onto
existing surfaces.
First of all, the
conductive inks used in such circuits typically have polymer binding agents
added to them, to help them initially stick to the substrate material. Those
agents impair conductivity, however, so an extra step is required to remove
them once the circuit has been printed.
Additionally, such
circuits can usually only be printed directly onto flat
surfaces. That's where the new technique comes in.
It begins with the
creation of a template, which incorporates a pattern of microchannels – these
make up the pattern of the desired circuit. That template is used to create a
thin elastomer membrane, in which the same microchannel pattern is reproduced.
The flexible membrane is subsequently applied to the curved target surface,
channel-side-down.
A liquid solution
containing silver nanowires and ethanol – but no binding agent
– is then drawn into the membrane by capillary action, filling the cavities
formed by the microchannels. After the solution dries, the membrane is removed,
leaving behind a functional silver-nanowire circuit that conforms to the
contours of the surface.
In proof-of-concept
tests performed so far, the scientists have created a contact lens that could
be used to measure fluid pressure in the eye; a latex glove with integrated
pressure sensors that could give robots or prosthetics a sense of touch; and a
flexible transparent electrode that might find use in solar cells or
touch-sensitive panels.
"We think this could be
scaled up pretty easily, in terms of manufacturing," said Zhu. "We’re
open to talking with industries who are interested in exploring this
technique’s potential."
A paper on the research was
recently published in the journal Science
Advances.
Source: North Carolina State University
New technique
allows circuits to be printed right onto curved surfaces (newatlas.com)
“Once the principle is admitted that it is the duty of the
government to protect the individual against his own foolishness, no serious
objections can be advanced against further encroachments.”
Ludwig
von Mises.
No comments:
Post a Comment