Baltic Dry Index. 1560 -43 Brent Crude 75.33
Spot Gold 1929 US 2 Year Yield 4.14 +0.21
Coronavirus
Cases 01/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,103
Coronavirus Cases 17/03/23 World 682,189,863
Deaths 6,817,022
No one can forecast the economy with certainty.
Jamie Dimon, CEO JP Morgan Chase.
In better news for banksters, both Credit Swiss and California’s First Republic got bailouts. Trouble over for now, but how long is “for now?”
Almost as important, why does America need badly run, poorly regulated, regional banks at all? Why rescue badly run banksters and their shareholders from their own folly?
With the new Biden rescue regime, banksters are now incentivised to engage in even more reckless gambling in a bid to push up the share price, secure in the knowledge that if it all blows up, the depositors, even up to billionaire level, are fully protected.
On
the principle that bad money drives out good, US banksterism has just
incentivised bad banksters to drive out good banksters.
“With fears high that customers who exceeded the
$250,000 Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. guarantee could lose their money,
regulators stepped in to back all deposits.
The programs ramped
up the totals on the Fed balance sheet, escalating the total by some $297
billion.”
With some $297 billion of nearly free money pouring into US dodgy banks in less than a week, with more to come next week and the week after as the laggards and lazy catch up, expect a great boost to US inflation shortly ahead.
In collateral damage, the US Treasury market has rocketed into dangerous volatility.
More
trouble ahead in a few months, I think.
First
Republic Gets a $30 Billion Lifeline
16 March 2023
at 22:17 GMT
Here are today’s top stories
But then again, maybe not. Banks borrowed heavily over the last week from two Fed
backstop facilities. Data published by the central bank showed $152.85
billion in borrowing from the discount window—the traditional liquidity backstop
for banks—in the week ended March 15. It was a record high and a staggering
increase from the $4.58 billion borrowed the previous week. The prior
all-time high? It was $111 billion during the 2008
financial crisis.
Meanwhile in Switzerland, Credit Suisse closed Thursday with a lifesaving $54
billion credit line from the
Swiss National Bank. But on Friday, the lender awoke to rumblings of
an arranged
marriage with UBS. The Swiss government and lenders have
been running through a range of scenarios beyond the liquidity backstop,
including a breakup, while some on Wall Street see a takeover as the only way
it all ends. Both banks see a takeover as a last resort. And for those who
like charts, here are some showing just how Credit Suisse got here in the
first place.
US stocks ended the day higher after First Republic’s rescue package was secured,
sparking a rebound in shares of embattled regional lenders. Treasuries fell
after the European Central Bank delivered a rate hike that added to bets the US
central bank will also raise rates next week, despite the banking crisis.
More
Bloomberg
Evening Briefing: First Republic Bank Gets a $30 Billion Lifeline - Bloomberg
Banks take
advantage of Fed crisis lending programs
Financial
institutions took billions in short-term loans this week from the Federal
Reserve as the industry copes with a serious crisis of confidence and
liquidity, the central bank reported Thursday.
Utilizing tools the
Fed rolled out Sunday, banks looking for cash infusions borrowed $11.9 billion
from the Bank Term Funding Program. Under that facility, banks can take
one-year loans under favorable terms in exchange for high-quality collateral.
Most banks took the more traditional route, using the Fed’s
discount window under terms slightly less favorable, with borrowing totaling
nearly $153 billion. The discount window provides loans of up to just 90 days,
while the BTFP term is for one year. However, the Fed eased conditions at the
discount window to make it more attractive for borrowers in need of operating
funds.
There also was a
large uptick in offered bridge loans, also done over short terms, totaling
$142.8 billion, made primarily to now-shuttered institutions so they could meet
obligations regarding depositors and other expenses.
The data comes just
days after regulators shut Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, two
institutions favored by the high-tech community.
With fears high that
customers who exceeded the $250,000 Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. guarantee
could lose their money, regulators stepped in to back all deposits.
The programs ramped
up the totals on the Fed balance sheet, escalating the total by some $297
billion.
Banks
take advantage of Fed crisis lending programs (cnbc.com)
Bank
rescues ease crisis fears but investors worry it's not enough
March
17, 2023 5:31 AM GMT
March 17
(Reuters) - A $30 billion lifeline for First Republic Bank (FRC.N) hosed down market fears about an
imminent banking collapse on Friday, but a late tumble in the troubled U.S. lender's
shares showed investors were still worried about cracks in the sector.
Large
U.S. banks injected the funds into San Francisco-based bank
on Thursday, swooping in to rescue the lender caught up in a widening crisis
triggered by the collapse of two other mid-size U.S. lenders over the past
week.
The deal was put together by top power brokers
including U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome
Powell and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who had discussed the package this
week, according to a source familiar with the situation.
The
package came less than a day after Swiss bank Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) clinched an emergency central
bank loan of up to $54 billion to shore up its
liquidity.
Those deals
helped restore calm to global markets on Thursday and
Friday, following a torrid week for banking stocks.
However,
while First Republic's stock closed up 10% on news of the rescue, its shares
fell 18% in after-market trading after the bank said it would suspend its
dividend and disclosed its cash position and just how much emergency liquidity
it needed.
Analysts
say authorities appear eager to quickly deal with systemic risks, but worry the
potential for a banking crisis is far from over.
"They
will keep the money in First Republic to keep it alive for self interest ... to
stop the run on banks. Then they will take it away gradually and the bank will
play out a slow death," said Mathan Somasundaram, founder at research firm
Deep Data Analytics in Sydney.
---- While the
support has prevented an imminent collapse, investors were startled by late
disclosures about First Republic's cash position, even after the injection, and
just how much it and others leaned on the Fed this month for support.
Data
on Thursday showed banks in the United States sought record amounts of emergency
liquidity from the Fed in recent days, driving up the size of the central bank's
balance sheet after months of contraction.
More
Bank
rescues ease crisis fears but investors worry it's not enough | Reuters
Asia markets rise
as Wall Street banks move to shore up banking system
UPDATED FRI, MAR 17 2023 1:21 AM
EDT
Asia-Pacific markets were higher Friday after
major Wall Street banks pledged a
deposit of $30 billion in First Republic Bank in an attempt to bolster
confidence in the banking system. The group of 11 banks, included Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed
1.85%, leading gains in the region and the Hang Seng Tech jumped 4.35%.
Notably, shares of search engine company Baidu surged over 15%.
In mainland China, the Shenzhen Component was
1.25% higher, with the Shanghai
Composite up 1.58%.
Japanese markets were higher with
the Nikkei 225 up
1.2% and the Topix higher at 1.18%.
South Korea’s Kospi was also up
0.73%, while the Kosdaq saw a larger gain at 2.03%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 inched
up 0.45% with banks seeing minor gains to reverse Thursday’s losses.
Overnight in the U.S., stocks rallied in late in
the trading day after news of the banking rescue deal, with all three major
indexes closing up.
The Nasdaq Composite made
the largest gains, advancing 2.48% as investors bought technology stocks on
hopes that the crisis could push the Federal Reserve to shift its outlook on
monetary policy at its meeting next week.
Asia markets, banks, Europe, U.S., rescue plans (cnbc.com)
Finally,
in cryptoland news another illegal site gets its comeuppance. Are there any
legal sites/uses with crypto?
Int'l
operation takes down ChipMixer money laundering service
MARCH 16, 2023 / 5:29 AM
March 16 (UPI) -- International authorities
have conducted a takedown of ChipMixer, a darknet cryptocurrency mixing service
that they accuse of laundering and hiding the origins of billions of dollars in
bitcoin for criminal organizations, North Korean hackers and the Russian
Intelligence Service.
The Justice Department announced the coordinated
law enforcement action Wednesday, stating they seized of two domains that
directed users to the ChipMixer service and a Github Internet hosting service
account, while German police took down the ChipMixer back-end servers and more
than $46 million in cryptocurrency.
"This morning, working with partners at home and
abroad, the Department of Justice disabled a prolific cryptocurrency mixer,
which has fueled ransomware attacks, state-sponsored crypto-heists and darknet
purchases across the globe," Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said
in a statement.
A cryptocurrency mixing service obfuscates the origins of
cryptocurrency by commingling the illicitly earned funds with other streams of
cryptocurrency, and ChipMixer is one of the most widely used by bad actors to
launder their funds, authorities said.
Federal prosecutors said ChipMixer
offered its clients numerous other services to conceal their bitcoin deposits
from law enforcement and is responsible for laundering more than $3 billion
worth of digital monies since 2017.
They also charged Minh Quoc Nguyen in a criminal complaint on Wednesday as the 49-year-old Vietnamese
operator of ChipMixer with money laundering, operating an unlicensed money transmitting
business and identity theft.
Prosecutors accuse the service of processing some $17
million in bitcoin connected to 37 ransomware strains and more than $700
million in bitcoin associated with stolen digital wallets, some which were
thieved in heists by North Korean cyberactors from online video game network
Axie Infinity last year and in 2020.
More
International operation takes down ChipMixer money laundering service - UPI.com
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.
BlackRock CEO Fink warns of financial risks, persistent inflation
March
15, 2023
(Reuters) -
BlackRock Inc Chief Executive Laurence Fink warned on Wednesday the U.S.
regional banking sector remains at risk after the collapse of Silicon Valley
Bank and that inflation will persist and rates would continue to rise.
In an annual
letter, Fink described the current financial situation as the "price of
easy money" after the Federal Reserve had to hike rates nearly 500 basis
points to fight inflation, and that he expects more Fed rate increases.
Fink wrote
that after the regional banking crisis, the financial industry could see what
he termed "liquidity mismatches." That is because the low rates have
driven some asset owners to raise their exposure to higher-yielding investments
that are not easy to sell.
“Bond markets
were down 15% last year, but it still seemed, as they say in those old Western
movies, ‘quiet, too quiet,’” Fink said in his letter, which was seen by
Reuters. “Something else had to give as the fastest pace of rate hikes since
the 1980s exposed cracks in the financial system."
Fink said that
quick regulatory action helped stave off a wider crisis. He wrote that he
expects a more divided world will interrupt supply chains and make inflation
persistent and "more likely to stay closer to 3.5% or 4% in the next few
years."
Fink's annual letters to CEOs and investors, traditionally sent in January, have become a touchstone for corporate leaders as the New York firm he co-founded grew into the world's largest asset manager. It had $8.6 trillion under management as of Dec. 31.
This year Fink
combined both letters into one wide-ranging, 20-page document touching on
everything from the benefits of working in-person to his affinity for the 1980s
pop music bank Talk Talk.
He did not
directly address the often-personal criticism he has received from U.S.
Republicans who say BlackRock has put too much attention on environmental,
social and governance (ESG) issues.
But he cited
what he called the "once unthinkable figure" of $120 billion that
insurers had to cover for natural catastrophes in 2022, which he said showed
why climate risk amounts to investment risk.
He added that
is "why BlackRock has been so vocal in recent years in advocating for
disclosures and asking questions about how companies plan to navigate the
energy transition," although it is not BlackRock's place to tell companies
what to do.
MARKETS ON
EDGE
Fink said it
was not clear yet whether the banking crisis precipitated by rising interest
rates would claim more victims, but it seemed inevitable that some banks will
now pull back on lending to shore up their balance sheets.
That will lead
bank clients to turn more to capital markets for their financing in the face of
what Fink called the "asset-liability mismatches" that doomed Silicon
Valley Bank and several smaller institutions.
“It’s too
early to know how widespread the damage is,” Fink wrote. “The regulatory
response has so far been swift, and decisive actions have helped stave off
contagion risks. But markets remain on edge.”
He did not
refer to BlackRock's own exposure to the regional banks. Reuters reported this
week that, based on Morningstar data, mutual funds managed by BlackRock and
some others appear to be among the most exposed to the collapse of Silicon
Valley Bank and Signature Bank. BlackRock has previously said its diversified
products "have limited exposure to Silicon Valley Bank."
More
BlackRock CEO Fink warns of financial risks, persistent inflation (msn.com)
Goldman boosts US recession odds after slashing GDP
forecast
Goldman
Sachs is becoming more pessimistic about the economy.
Thu, March 16, 2023 at 10:37 AM GMT
Goldman
Sachs (GS)
continues to lead the charge in sounding the economic alarm bells as a
fresh banking
crisis rolls through markets and the economy.
The
investment bank's chief economist, Jan Hatzius, said Thursday he now sees a 35%
chance of a U.S. recession in the next 12-months, up from 25% previously. The
increase in odds reflects "increased near-term uncertainty" around
the economic effects of small bank stress.
A day
earlier, Hatzius cut his
2023 GDP forecast by 0.3 percentage points to 1.2% in a new note out Wednesday
afternoon.
The
closely watched economist stands alone on Wall Street at the moment in revising
forecasts down for GDP, while also raising the odds of a recession amid
the banking turmoil.
Recent
news flow underscores why Hatzius is trying to get out in front of the
potential economic downshift.
Silicon
Valley Bank's (SIVB) collapse
last Friday marked the second-largest bank failure in the U.S., behind
only Washington Mutual during the Great Recession. Signature Bank's (SBNY)
demise was the third-largest bank failure in history.
The
turbulent situation caused regulators to spring into action to prevent a
banking crisis and mass tech layoffs, which is what likely would have happened
if left unaddressed, sources have told Yahoo Finance.
Credit
Suisse (CS)
shares have seen two days of extreme volatility on rising fears of its
survival. The investment bank said late Wednesday it would borrow up to $54 billion from the Swiss central
bank to shore up investor confidence.
Hatzius
thinks that while the banking crisis is a concern, it will not trigger a rate
cut from the Federal Reserve. In turn, a recession may unfold as lending
standards are tightened and consumers pull back while becoming more jittery
about the economy.
More
Goldman boosts US recession odds after slashing GDP forecast (yahoo.com)
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
FDA Authorizes Updated COVID-19
Vaccine for Children as Young as 6 Months Old
Mar 15 2023
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) has granted emergency authorization to the updated Pfizer-BioNTech
COVID-19 vaccine as a booster for children as young as 6 months old, even
though Pfizer has produced no clinical efficacy data for any age group.
FDA officials on March 14 said the emergency clearance was based on trial data
that showed 60 children had “an immune response” after receiving the updated
bivalent booster, and trial data that found 60 young children experienced side
effects such as fatigue, diarrhea, and vomiting after bivalent vaccination.
None of the trial data has been
released to the public.
The authorization means children
aged 6 months to 5 years will be encouraged to get a booster dose just two
months after the final dose of a three-dose Pfizer primary series.
The bivalent vaccines protected
well against symptomatic infection for children aged 5 and older initially, but
the protection waned to close to 50 percent after several
months, according to federal data. There were no estimates for protection
against severe illness.
Children are less likely to
experience severe COVID-19 and many have already been infected, giving them protection
that’s similar to or superior to vaccination.
The authorization provides parents
“an opportunity to update their children’s protection by receiving a booster
dose” of the updated vaccine, Dr. Peter Marks, an FDA official, said in a
statement. “Currently available data show that vaccination remains the
best defense against severe disease, hospitalization and death caused by
COVID-19 across all age groups, and we encourage all eligible individuals to
make sure that their vaccinations are up to date with a bivalent COVID-19
vaccine.”
Regulators were more cautious in
their formal letter to Pfizer updating the emergency
authorization. They said that, based on the scientific evidence available, “it
is reasonable to believe” the bivalent “may be effective” and that it “is
reasonable to conclude” the known and potential benefits outweigh the known and
potential risks.
More
FDA Authorizes Updated COVID-19 Vaccine for Children
as Young as 6 Months Old (theepochtimes.com)
Compensation denied
to hundreds of Covid vaccine victims suffering 'severe' side effects
EXCLUSIVE:
More than 800 Covid-19 vaccine claims have been rejected by the Vaccine Damage
Payment Scheme (VDPS), most of them on the grounds of causation.
22:01,
Wed, Mar 15, 2023 |
UPDATED: 08:12, Thu, Mar 16, 2023
URGENT research is
needed to investigate adverse vaccine reactions but institutions fear rocking
the boat, say scientists. They believe the issue has become so politicised they
are increasingly reluctant to ask questions. It comes as hundreds of people who
became seriously ill after having the Covid-19 jab have found themselves locked
out of the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme. They are backed by the Daily Express
Justice for Jab Victims campaign and politicians including Tory MP Danny
Kruger.
Immunologists and
virologists say more should be done to aid the forgotten victims.
One expert insisted:
"We need to figure out how we make [future vaccinations] better."
It comes as those
adversely affected by side effects of the Covid jab rapped the VDPS as
"unfit for purpose".
If claims are successful
it provides a one-off payment of £120,000 to families or individuals left
bereaved or at least 60 per cent disabled by vaccines.
But campaigners say the
disability threshold is too high and the 44-year-old scheme
"outdated".
The VDPS has also been
hampered by a huge backlog - with just 878 cases out of 4,000 Covid claims
settled by assessors on behalf of the Department of Health.
Dr William Murphy, an
immunologist at the University of California, says more experiments and data
are needed on vaccines to help those suffering from rare serious side-effects.
He said: "They will
give us insights into how the immune system is working not only as a
preventative [measure]. [But] there seems to be, within the scientific
community, a reluctance to really question all the different pathways - either
with the vaccine or with the infection itself."
The hurdles researchers
are having to negotiate were highlighted by Professor Michael Lunn, clinical
lead in neuroimmunology at University College London. He and his team
identified a "small but significant" rise in cases of Guillain-Barre
Syndrome after an AstraZeneca vaccine was given.
GBS is a rare debilitating
neurological condition that can cause paralysis, severe pain and numbness.
Prof Lunn pinpointed an
"unusual spike" in cases between March and April 2021 compared with
historical rates for the same months.
More
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.
HAYDALE WORKS ON GRAPHENE UNDERFLOOR HEATING
16 Mar 2023
Advanced
materials group Haydale Graphene Industries is working with two firms on
developing and distributing its graphene underfloor heating.
The ink heater
technology applied to clothing worn by British athletes at the Tokyo Games has
been applied in an initial prototype for domestic UFH.
It has the
potential to replace gas central heating and link into other energy efficient
technologies.
The
development, which is being supported by Cardiff-based City Energy, will
produce a further prototype that will lead towards a market-ready CE product
that can be tested in a home environment.
When fully
certified, Stockton Heath-based plumbing supplier Plumbase intends to
distribute the product through ITS nationwide branches with installation
through City Energy's installer network.
Graphene UFH offers
an energy efficient way to heat homes with the UK commitment to reducing
emissions to Net Zero by 2050 and the likely ban on domestic gas boilers in new
houses in two years' time.
Keith Broadbent, chief
executive of Ammanford-based Haydale, said: "Haydale has been working
closely with City Energy to look at new technologies aimed at net zero.
More
Haydale works on
graphene underfloor heating | Wales Business News (insidermedia.com)
Another weekend and will any more US/Swiss
banks blow up? Not now that Uncle Scam and the District of Crooks has
nationalised and insured all bank deposits up to any amount. Of course, that
creates many new big problems down the road, but that will be a big future
story for another day. Have a great weekend everyone.
You read constantly that banks are lobbying regulators and elected officials as if this is inappropriate. We don't look at it that way.
Jamie Dimon, CEO JP Morgan Chase.
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