[An Nahar] The Federal Reserve is facing stinging criticism for missing what observers say were clear signs that Silicon Valley Bank was at high risk of collapsing into the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history.
Critics point to many red flags surrounding the bank, including its rapid growth since the pandemic, its unusually high level of uninsured deposits and its many investments in long-term government bonds and mortgage-backed securities, which tumbled in value as interest rates rose.
"It's inexplicable how the Federal Reserve supervisors could not see this clear threat to the safety and soundness of banks and to financial stability," said Dennis Kelleher, chief executive of Better Markets, an advocacy group.
Wall Street traders and industry analysts "have been publicly screaming about these very issues for many, many months going back to last fall," Kelleher added.
The Fed was the primary federal supervisor of the bank based in Santa Clara, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, that failed last week. The bank was also overseen by the Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Department of Financial Protection and Innovation.
Now the consequences of the fall of Silicon Valley Bank, along with New York-based Signature Bank, which failed over the weekend, are complicating the Fed's upcoming decisions about how high to raise its benchmark interest rate in the fight against chronically high inflation.
Many economists say the central bank would likely have raised rates by an aggressive half-point next week at its meeting, which would amount to a step up in its inflation fight, after the Fed implemented a quarter-point hike in February. Its rate currently stands at about 4.6%, the highest level in 15 years.
Last week, many economists suggested that Fed policymakers would raise their projection for future rates next week to 5.6%. Now it's suddenly unclear how many additional rate increases the Fed will forecast.
With the collapse of the two large banks fueling anxiety about other regional banks, the Fed may focus more on boosting confidence in the financial system than on its long-term drive to tame inflation.
The latest government report on inflation, released Tuesday, shows that price increases remain far higher than the Fed prefers, putting Chair Jerome Powell in a tougher spot. Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy costs and are seen as a better gauge of longer-run inflation, jumped 0.5% from January to February — the most since September. That is far higher than is consistent with the Fed's 2% annual target.
"Absent the fallout from the bank failure, it may have been a close call, but I think it would have tipped them towards a half-point (rate hike) at this meeting," said Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2023 00:17 ||
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#1
My wife says it’s all on purpose, to open the way to a mandatory national digital currency. I have now started seeing others agree with her.
#2
Funny how nobody blames the bank for this abject failure. Gov't bonds had been in a bull market for, some say, hundreds of years. Did they really think interest rates would remain low forever? They must have.
Interest rates (remember when we called it the Prime Rate?) were 0.5% barely a year ago. I mean, really?
#5
The Fed was justified as a solution to the 'crashes' of the 19th Century. It's now presided over just as many in its existence. Like so many other bureaucracies of the Swamp, they now are more of a threat to what was the old republic than any enemy (cause they're already in the wire).
#12
Biden's gonna make good on all those uninsured accounts? That means no risk whatsoever for the unnamed entities who had their money there. They didn't have to worry about investing it like normal folks, where there is always some risk. That's a sweet deal. No wonder they call him Uncle Sugar.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/16/2023 12:20 Comments ||
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[NYPOST] Shares of Credit Suisse plunged to all-time lows on Wednesday after its top shareholder said he would not plow more cash into the struggling Swiss banking giant — sparking fears that a global banking contagion is spreading.
Credit Suisse reportedly has asked the Swiss National Bank for a “public show of support” as its shaky balance sheet — crippled by withdrawals from skittish customers in recent months — has sparked speculation that a government rescue is coming.
The beleaguered bank has also turned to Swiss regulator Finma, but neither institution has yet decided to intervene publicly — with some sources citing fears of sparking a panic, according to the Financial Times, which cited unnamed sources close to the situation.
Credit Suisse Chairman Axel Lehmann told CNBC on Wednesday that the bank was working to emphasize “de-risking” its balance sheet. Asked if the bank would accept government assistance, Lehmann replied: “That’s not the topic.”
“We are regulated, we have strong capital ratios, very strong balance sheet,” he told CNBC. “We are all hands on deck. So that’s not the topic whatsoever.”
Earlier, financial commentator and bestselling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, said that the next bank to fail after the bankruptcy of the American Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) will be one of the largest Swiss banks Credit Suisse. He had previously accurately predicted the collapse of US banking giant Lehman Brothers in 2008. Credit Suisse Group's main shareholder, Saudi National Bank, later ruled out bailing out the Swiss bank, citing regulatory concerns.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2023 00:00 ||
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#1
There goes the price of chocolate.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/16/2023 11:53 Comments ||
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[Free Beacon] American intelligence officials warned last month that the Chinese Communist Party is directing its influence operations at "more pliable" local officials. That could explain why the head of Beijing’s top influence outfit just met with the Democratic mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass.
Lin Songtian, the president of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, met with Bass, California treasurer Fiona Ma, and several pro-China think tanks during a 10-day stateside tour last month, according to Chinese state media. Lin said he had "extensive, candid, and friendly exchanges" about the "stabilization and improvement of Sino-U.S. relations."
The meeting came just weeks after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a report warning that China has adjusted its influence activities, aiming them at local and state officials because of growing bipartisan skepticism of China in Washington. "Beijing has adjusted by redoubling its efforts to build influence at the state and local level to shift U.S. policy in China’s favor because of Beijing’s belief that local officials are more pliable than their federal counterparts," the intelligence report said. The office had issued a similar warning in July 2022.
#2
www.politico.com/news/2020/08/04/karen...
“Karen Bass says she is not a communist,” Amandi said, “but she clearly has no qualms associating with or praising communists...."
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/16/2023 12:01 Comments ||
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#4
Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries...that's a good one.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/16/2023 12:23 Comments ||
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#5
Gee willikers peoples, whatever shall be done? (Gaulic shrug)
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/16/2023 16:29 Comments ||
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#6
Vile woman, hr entire career has been about power and socialism. The problem for her is the people/businesses who make the money she wants to control are leaving. LA is rapidly become a vast complex of Compton and Boyle Heights neighborhoods. And even the chance to visit Tommies again has passed from sane behavior when driving up the 101.
[NYPOST] Controversial Queens Assemblyman Juan Ardila is facing calls for him to resign after two women came forward this week accusing him of sexual assault.
"Allegations made against Assembly member Ardila are deeply troubling and require a full and thorough investigation," said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr.
"If these disturbing accusations against him are found to be true, Assembly member Ardila should resign," Richards said.
Ardila, 29, is accused of forcibly touching two women at a 2015 party while they were intoxicated, with the Queens Chronicle reporting Monday that he had also allegedly kissed and exposed himself to one of them.
The women, who asked the paper to withhold their identities, said they came forward after finding out that Ardila had been elected to the Legislature in 2022.
The politician did not deny their allegations — which have not been independently confirmed by The Post — in a statement released Tuesday, but he did appear to apologize for his past actions.
"I want the public to know that I am deeply apologetic for my past behavior and acknowledge that my actions have caused great harm," Ardila said.
"I recognize that this harm was not only to the individuals who came forward, but extends beyond these victims, and impacts survivors everywhere."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2023 00:00 ||
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He is not resigning. Isn’t it mandatory for Gloria Allred to begin shakedown operations?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/16/2023 11:58 Comments ||
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No party mentioned, so I'm assuming he's a Democrat?
Sort of surprising that the media would report this about a Democrat...unless I missed something.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/16/2023 13:51 Comments ||
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[NYPOST] Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. I'm not working for you. Don't be such a horse's ass. Don't say he didn't warn us... ’s 2020 presidential campaign had "surreptitious involvement" in organizing a letter written by 51 former intelligence officials that falsely claimed the New York Post’s story about Hunter Biden ...son of President Joe: cashiered from the Navy, a crackhead, wheeler dealer, leg humper, horn dog, and general all around ne'er do well. We're supposed to feel sorry for him... ’s laptop was Russian disinformation, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday.
The complaint, from lawyers for former President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... , asks the FEC to record the infamous "Dirty 51" letter as an "in-kind contribution" to Biden’s campaign because it allegedly was used to influence the outcome of the election.
The Oct. 19, 2020, letter was signed by 51 ex-spooks, including five former or acting CIA directors — John Brennan ...director of the CIA under the Obama administration. One of the deeper dwelling denizens of the Deep State, probably the guy who lit the match that launched the Russiagate coup attempt... , Leon Panetta ...former SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... , Mike Hayden, John McLoughlin and Mike Morell — as well as James Clapper, the one-time director of national intelligence.
It was delivered to Politico five days after The Post ran its exposé, and three days before the final presidential debate of the election campaign, where Biden cited the letter to discredit evidence from the laptop showing he met his son’s overseas business partners while he was vice president.
"The speed with which this letter was written, and the number of Individual Respondents involved, points directly to the surreptitious involvement of the Biden Campaign in soliciting or organizing the drafters of the letter in a clear violation of [the Federal Election Campaign Act]," claims the FEC complaint to be filed this week by attorney Timothy Parlatore.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2023 00:00 ||
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Certainly, the letter was an in kind donation, but the government itself seemed to organize the response including coordinating the suppression of the story across all social media. It will be interesting to see what the FEC does with this complaint. With the FBI being demonstrably compromised, I can’t imagine a world where the FEC is not also politicized.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/16/2023 11:51 Comments ||
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"Surreptitious involvement" is a Latin phrase meaning "up to their ears in it".
[FoxNews] The decision will 'deprive Alaskans of the life-saving services the road would provide access to,' Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy says
Alaska is a red state, so the Biden administration counts annoying and impeding them as a win.
The Biden administration announced late Tuesday that it would reverse a Trump-era land swap deal facilitating the construction, in an Alaska wilderness area, of a potentially life-saving road opposed by environmental groups.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) withdrew the land exchange — which had been finalized by former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt in 2019 and aggressively defended in court by the Biden administration — and explained that it contained procedural flaws and wasn't consistent with agency policy. DOI Secretary Deb Haaland said the agency would initiate another environmental analysis of the proposal as part of President Biden’s conservation agenda.
"The debate around approving the construction of a road to connect the people of King Cove to life-saving resources has created a false choice, seeded over many years, between valuing conservation and wildlife or upholding our commitments to Indigenous communities," Haaland said in a statement. "I reject that binary choice."
"I am a lifelong conservationist, and I believe deeply in the need to protect our lands and waters and honor our obligations to Tribal Nations," she added.
#1
What does Murkowski have to say about the policy change?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/16/2023 11:37 Comments ||
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"the need to protect our lands and waters and honor our obligations to Tribal Nations," she added."
I had been under the impression that Alaska was actually fairly large in size and could accommodate some construction and still remain largely in its state of nature?
Posted by: Tom ||
03/16/2023 13:53 Comments ||
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#3
The real message is to the 'native' populations, "Stay on your rez and do what we tell you or else."
#4
Lots of "indigenous" are happy to stay on the rez, long as the checks show up.
It's pathetic that they don't mind being used that way.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/16/2023 16:11 Comments ||
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#5
Looking at from a different angle.
The Fed's own 222,666,580 ac of the 365,481,600 ac that make up Alaska in short the DC Swamp owns 60.9% of Alaska now.
Given that much land, the DC SWAMP could settle a good hunk of the national debt, selling off Federally UNUSED Lands and % royalty based drilling rights.
Suggestions: NOT allowing Elite / super rich mass purchasers, NOT allowing Non-citizens or political family relations to purchase. Limiting purchases to 100 ac per US family. Plus restricted to related family only sales for 20 years.
#1
It is mysterious to me how they thought that the natural origin theory would fly if COVID is synthetic. Like a famous Supreme Court Justice, I am not a biologist, but there are many biologists in the world. While it is possible to silence and/or kill 5 to 10 people keep a lid on a Clinton Shenanigan or an Epstein accident, the origin of a pandemic leaves too much genetic evidence spread across a worldwide crime scene.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/16/2023 11:35 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[An Nahar] The Federal Reserve is facing stinging criticism for missing what observers say were clear signs that Silicon Valley Bank was at high risk of collapsing into the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history.
[Free Beacon] American intelligence officials warned last month that the Chinese Communist Party is directing its influence operations at "more pliable" local officials. That could explain why the head of Beijing’s top influence outfit just met with the Democratic mayor of Los Angeles 
[NYPOST] Controversial Queens Assemblyman Juan Ardila is facing calls for him to resign after two women came forward this week accusing him of sexual assault.
...son of President Joe: cashiered from the Navy, a crackhead, wheeler dealer, leg humper, horn dog, and general all around ne'er do well. We're supposed to feel sorry for him...
[BioRxIV] 
