Saturday 11 March 2023

Special Update 11/03/2023 Yet Another Bankster Crisis.

 Baltic Dry Index. 1424 +97      Brent Crude 82.78

Spot Gold 1868           U S 2 Year Yield 4.60 -0.30

Covid-19 cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000

Deaths 53,100

Covid-19 cases 11/03/23 World 681,419,103

Deaths 6,811,353

“What me worry?”

Mad Magazine.

After a decade or more of central bankster ZIRP or in Europe NIRP on fiat money, and entering year three of Magic Money Tree free money after the discovery of the Magic Money Tree forests in March 2020, our central bankster frauds and our bent politicians have managed to lead us into yet another inflation led bankster crisis.

Is life on the Great Nixonian Error of fiat money great or what?

Coming up next, the death of cryptoland or a cryptoland bailout by central banksters. But why bailout criminals and fraudsters with no product of any possible value to the rest of honest society?

Not to worry though, the US bond market is already betting on a cryptocurrency bailout from Chairman Powell’s Fed.

Inflation to infinity and beyond.

Payrolls rose 311,000 in February, more than expected, showing solid growth

Job creation decelerated in February but was still stronger than expected despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to slow the economy and bring down inflation.

Nonfarm payrolls rose by 311,000 for the month, the Labor Department reported Friday. That was above the 225,000 Dow Jones estimate and a sign that the employment market is still hot.

The unemployment rate rose to 3.6%, above the expectation for 3.4%, amid a tick higher in the labor force participation rate to 62.5%, its highest level since March 2020.

The survey of households, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses to compute the unemployment rate, showed a smaller 177,000 increase. A more encompassing unemployment measure that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons rose to 6.8%, an increase of 0.2 percentage point.

There also was some good news on the inflation side, as average hourly earnings climbed 4.6% from a year ago, below the estimate for 4.8%. The monthly increase of 0.2% also was below the 0.4% estimate.

Though the jobs number was stronger than expectations, February’s growth represented a deceleration from an unusually strong January. The year opened with a nonfarm payrolls gain of 504,000, a total that was revised down only slightly from the initially reported 517,000. December’s total also was taken down slightly, to 239,000, a decrease of 21,000 from the previous estimate.

Stocks were mixed after the release, while Treasury yields were mostly lower.

“Mixed is an apt descriptor. There’s something for everybody in there,” said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab. “We’re still in a recession for certain parts of the economy.”

The jobs report likely keeps the Fed on track on raise interest rates when it meets again March 21-22. But traders priced in less of a chance that the central bank will accelerate to a 0.5 percentage point increase, dropping the likelihood to 48.4%, or about a coin flip, according to a CME Group estimate.

----The jobs report comes at a critical time for the U.S. economy, and consequently for Fed policymakers.

Over the past year, the central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate eight times, taking the federal funds rate to a range of 4.5%-4.75%.

As inflation data appeared to cool toward the end of 2022, markets expected the Fed in turn to slow the pace of its rate hikes. That happened in February, when the Federal Open Market Committee approved a 0.25 percentage point increase and indicated that smaller hikes would be the case going forward.

However, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell this week told Congress that recent metrics show inflation is back on the rise, and if that continues to be the case, he expects rates to increase to a higher level than previously expected. Powell specifically noted the “extremely tight” labor market as a reason why rates are likely to continue rising and stay elevated.

More

Jobs report February 2023: Payrolls rose 311,000, more than expected (cnbc.com)

Finally, yet more bad news from fast disappearing cryptoland. On the premise of never do yourself what others can do far better, sadly for me that’s most things, this weekend the usually brilliant Joe Bloggs covers the shady fast disappearing sector. Approx. 27 minutes.

Note, this was made before Silly Con Valley Bank collapsed. That collapse just made everything in cryptoland very much worse.

CRYPTO Contagion Accelerating - Silvergate Bank Liquidation, SBF Bribes Charges & Binance Concerns

CRYPTO Contagion Accelerating - Silvergate Bank Liquidation, SBF Bribes Charges & Binance Concerns - YouTube

Silicon Valley Bank fails to find buyer as run on bank outpaced sale process

SVB Financial, parent of Silicon Valley Bank, was unable to find a buyer before a bank run caused regulators to shut it down.

Sources told CNBC’s David Faber earlier that deposit outflows were outpacing the sale process, making it very difficult for a realistic assessment of the bank by potential buyers to take place.

SVB was trying to find a buyer and hired advisors to do so after attempts by the bank to raise capital failed, the sources told Faber.

Shares of the bank fell 60% on Thursday after SVB announced a plan Wednesday evening to raise more than $2 billion in capital. The stock fell another 60% in premarket trading Friday before being halted. The shares never reopened for trading Friday.

More

Silicon Valley Bank fails to find buyer as run on bank outpaced sale process (cnbc.com)

Tucker Carlson: This is the largest bank failure since 2008

Tucker Carlson: This is the largest bank failure since 2008 - YouTube

More than $70 billion wiped off crypto market in 24 hours as bitcoin drops below $20,000

Bitcoin briefly fell 8% to below $20,000 on Friday, hitting a near-two-month low, after a stock market sell-off in the U.S. and the collapse of a crypto-focused lender.

The cryptocurrency market saw more than $70 billion wiped off its value over the course of the 24 hours.

Bitcoin was last trading lower by just 2.7% at $19,944.66, according to Coin Metrics. Ether was last down 2.6% at $1,414.21.

The crypto sell-off has been prompted by a number of factors. The movement of cryptocurrency prices is quite closely correlated to U.S. stock markets, in particular the tech-heavy Nasdaq

----“There is just little reason to buy bitcoin now as the market is saturated with negative developments, not just specifically for the crypto industry, but also for the wider financial market as well,” Yuya Hasegawa, an analyst at Japanese crypto firm Bitbank, told CNBC via email.

Another major factor weighing on crypto prices is the collapse of Silvergate Capital, a major lender to the crytpo industry. Silvergate said Wednesday it is winding down operations and liquidating its bank.

Silvergate’s fall is another example how the collapse of major cryptocurrency exchange FTX continues to have an impact on the industry. FTX was a big customer of Silvergate.

Separately, on Friday morning the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation closed Silicon Valley Bank and took control of its deposits, making it the largest U.S. bank failure since the global financial crisis. The bank’s parent company, SVB Financial, said late Wednesday that it sold off $21 billion worth of its holdings at a $1.8 billion loss. SVB was a major bank in the technology start-up space.

The sale of assets comes as SVB grapples with a weaker technology funding environment as VCs remain cautious amid a weaker macroeconomic situation and rising interest rates.

Both Silvergate and SVB put their money into U.S. Treasurys which have lost value as the Fed has raised rates. These banks have been forced to sell these bonds at a loss to shore up their capital position.

More

Bitcoin falls below $20,000; $70 billion wiped off crypto market (cnbc.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.

Europe's lenders sucked into global banks rout

LONDON/FRANKFURT, March 10 (Reuters) - A dramatic sell-off in U.S. bank stocks spilled over into Europe on Friday, as some of the region's biggest banks saw their shares tumble in their largest decline in nine months.

Europe's STOXX banking index (.SX7P) fell more than 4% and was set for its biggest one-day slide since early June, with declines for most major lenders, including HSBC (HSBA.L), down 4.5%, and Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), down 7.9%.


Shares in Italy's UniCredit (CRDI.MI) and Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI) also fell sharply.

 

The global rout in bank stocks was prompted by Silicon Valley Bank, a major banking partner for the U.S. tech sector, being forced to raise fresh capital after losing $1.8 billion selling a package of bonds to meet depositor demands for cash.

Neil Wilson, Chief Market Analyst at Markets.com, said that the episode could be the "straw that breaks the camel's back" for banks after worries about ever higher interest rates and a fragile U.S. economy.

The episode underscored the vulnerability of banks, many of which were propped up by taxpayers' cash following the global financial crisis more than a decade ago. That crash and the economic fallout from the pandemic led central banks and governments to print trillions to support the economy but they are now seeking to rein that in.

Investors in SVB's stock had fretted over whether the capital raise would be sufficient given the deteriorating fortunes of many technology startups that the bank serves.

SVB's CEO Gregory Becker had been calling clients to assure them their money with the bank is safe, according to two people familiar with the matter.

But some startups have been advising their founders to pull out their money from SVB as a precautionary measure, the sources added.

Europe's lenders sucked into global banks rout | Reuters

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

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/environmental-disaster-ev-battery-metals-crunch-horizon-industry-races-recycle

Covid-19 Corner

This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.

Hmm. Is this wise?

Deaths Can Be Counted as COVID-19 Years After Infection: CDC

March 9, 2023 Updated: March 9, 2023

So-called long COVID can be listed as a cause of death even if a deceased person had not tested positive for COVID-19 for months or even years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a new update.

“When completing the death certificate, certifiers should carefully review and consider the decedent’s medical history and records, laboratory test results, and autopsy report, if one is available. For decedents who had a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and were diagnosed with a post-COVID-19 condition, the certifier may consider the possibility that the death was due to long-term complications of COVID-19, even if the original infection occurred months or years before death,” the CDC said in updated guidance for certifying deaths due to COVID-19.

“Long COVID,” or post-acute sequelae of COVID-19, refers to long-term problems believed to stem from COVID-19.

Emerging evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, “can have lasting effects on nearly every organ and organ system of the body weeks, months, and potentially years after infection,” the CDC says in its update.

The agency pointed to several papers. One, published in its quasi-journal, found that some people reported problems two months after testing positive for COVID-19. Two others were round-ups of existing literature on “long COVID.” The CDC also referenced a U.S. National Institutes of Health webpage on the subject.

In one of four hypothetical scenarios presented by the agency, a healthy 48-year-old suffered respiratory problems, fatigue, and brain fog after COVID-19. The man gradually improved, but some symptoms persisted, and imaging revealed heart inflammation.

Several months later, the man died in the hospital after heart failure.

The certificate listed heart failure; cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disease; myocarditis, the heart inflammation; and post-acute sequelae of COVID-19. The chain of events started with the latter.

More

Deaths Can Be Counted as COVID-19 Years After Infection: CDC (theepochtimes.com)

World Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccineshttps://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines

NY Times Coronavirus Vaccine Trackerhttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html

Regulatory Focus COVID-19 vaccine trackerhttps://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

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.

Exclusive: Tesla taps Asian partners to address 4680 battery concerns

March 10 (Reuters) - It's crunch time at Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), where Elon Musk is looking to crack the code for making better, cheaper batteries.

The electric-vehicle maker is recruiting Chinese and Korean materials suppliers to help lower the cost and boost the energy of its newest battery cells, even as the company struggles with battery-related performance and production issues that have helped delay the launch of its futuristic Cybertruck, according to people familiar with the plans.

Tesla has tapped China's Ningbo Ronbay New Energy (688005.SS) and Suzhou Dongshan Precision Manufacturing (002384.SZ) to help trim materials costs as it ramps up production of 4680 battery cells in the United States, according to the sources, who asked not to be named.

The details of these arrangements have not previously been reported.

If the Austin, Texas-based EV maker is able to work out the performance and process kinks and meet its ambitious production targets, the 4680 ultimately could be the linchpin - rather than choke point - in CEO Musk's dream of building 20 million vehicles annually by 2030.

More

Exclusive: Tesla taps Asian partners to address 4680 battery concerns | Reuters

This weekend’s music diversion.  Herr Fasch again. My advice is to ignore the strange conductor, as most of the musicians seem to be doing.  Approx.  7 minutes.

FASCH - Ouverture for 2 orchestras – Kossenko

FASCH - Ouverture for 2 orchestras - Kossenko - YouTube

This weekend’s chess update. Approx. 11 minutes.

Chess Queen vs Chess King || Kosteniuk Faces Carlsen

Chess Queen vs Chess King || Kosteniuk Faces Carlsen - YouTube

This weekend math’s update.  Approx. 11 minutes

The fabulous Fibonacci flower formula

The fabulous Fibonacci flower formula - YouTube

"It's strange that men should take up crime when there are so many legal ways to be dishonest. “

Al Capone.

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