[Red State] As RedState’s Joe Cunningham reported, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was taken over and shut down by federal regulators Friday in one of the biggest financial failures in history, and the largest since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. The bank’s collapse sent stocks tumbling and ignited worries about "contagion"—in other words, more bank failures.
Multiple reports describe people lining up outside SVB branches hoping to get their money out; the NYPD was even dispatched in New York City to calm things down.
But now the plot thickens, as Fortune reports:
Silicon Valley Bank Chief Executive Officer Greg Becker sold $3.6 million of company stock under a trading plan less than two weeks before the firm disclosed extensive losses that led to its failure.
The sale of 12,451 shares on Feb. 27 was the first time in more than a year that Becker had sold shares in parent company SVB Financial Group, according to regulatory filings. He filed the plan that allowed him to sell the shares on Jan. 26.
[MAIL] I'm in the 'Club Car' for breakfast and I've brought a spy thriller book to read, but there's no chance of me reading a single sentence.
Not with scenery as spectacular as this.
I'm at a particularly nailbiting moment in the tome, too, but the breathtaking Scottish wilderness rolling past the north-bound Caledonian Sleeper I'm on keeps my eyes glued to the window.
The notion of 'world's greatest train journey' comes to mind as cloud-crowned mountains loom all around. Cliched. Yes. But this part of the journey along the West Highland Line, north of Glasgow — which includes Britain's highest and remotest railway station — Corrour - is most certainly a contender. This is, mark my very words, a far cry from my commuter service from Denmark Hill to London Victoria.
The Scottish odyssey begins on a dank February Friday night at London Euston. I'm giddy with excitement - I'm a huge fan of train travel and the Caledonian Sleeper is, by reputation, one of the best railway journeys Britain has to offer.
[ZeroHedge] The city of Newark, New Jersey fell victim to a humiliating scam in which its mayor signed a "sister city" agreement with a nonexistent Hindu nation called 'The United States of Kailasa.'
...
Kailasa reportedly springs from the imagination of Swami Nithyananda, an accused scam artist and sex fiend.
The oddest things turn up in Rantburg’s archives — in this case, the Swami. Twice. Check out the Related links, below.
Nithyananda, who portrays himself as a "God-Man," is wanted in India for "child abduction and sexual assault, forcing children to collect donations [for] fake enterprises, and sexual assaults against an Indian actress and an American woman," according to Tap Into Newark."
[NYPOST] China needs to call Rihanna for some umbrellas to weather this phenomenon of nature.
Citizens of the Chinese province of Liaoning were told to find shelter after it looked like it started to rain worms.
A viral clip showed the area apparently being showered with little worms, which were splattered all over cars.
The video showed residents covering themselves with umbrellas as they go along with their routines and wander past.
While the cause of the slimy creature calamity has yet to be uncovered, the scientific journal Mother Nature Network suggested that the animals were dropped after being swept up by heavy winds.
The periodical also noted that this type of occurrence happens after a storm when insects are caught up in a whirlpool.
Another theory suggested that the worms were actually poplar flowers — a tulip tree whose blooms resemble the squirmy beasts.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/12/2023 00:00 ||
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[TGP] Grand Marais, Minn.- A Minnesota man confessed to beating a convicted pedophile with a shovel before "finishing him off" with a moose antler according to a criminal complaint filed Friday.
27-year-old Levi William Axtell was charged with second degree murder in the death of 77-year-old Lawrence V. Scully, who was killed in his Grand Marais home Wednesday.
According to the complaint, Axtell was covered in blood as he walked into the lobby, put his hands on his head, and said he had just murdered Scully.
Cook County Judge Michael Cuzzo set Axtell’s bail at $1 million after a Friday hearing. + 250 XP for using local resources
[ShabelleMedia] The Somaliland military again bombed Las Anod, after losing the key city to local tribal militia last month after 15 years of full control.
The SSC fighters responded with artillery before engaging in a brief gunfire with the breakaway regional forces outside the town on Saturday, according to the residents.
It’s still unclear the exact figures of the casualties as result of the shelling and the subsequent battle which came days after precarious calm and mediation efforts.
The Federal Government of Æthiopia has been making attempts to mediate the warring sides in Las Anod with Addis Ababa dispatching a team to Hargeisa and Garowe last week.
Since it shares land border, Æthiopia is worried about the conflict in Las Anod which can harm its security as the country is facing internal civil war raging among communities.
Reports from Somaliland indicate that regional leader Muse Bihi Abdi was summoned in Addis Ababa for talks with Abiy’s Govt officials on the pull out of his troops from frontlines.
No date has been set for Bihi’s trip to Æthiopia.
The battle for Las Anod control which began in Feb 6 left over 200 people dead and nearly 1,000 were maimed, including women and kiddies, according to medics in the city.
[ShabelleMedia] A night-time curfew was imposed in Las Anod on Friday after weeks of deadly festivities in the contested city on the Somaliland-Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... border, officials said.
The stabilization division of SSC-Khatumo announced the indefinite curfew which starts at 9:00PM local time following a consultations on city’s security, according to Ali Gowrac.
SSC-Khatumo took swift action to bring the situation under control after taking over the city from Somaliland forces last month after a bloody battle that left over 200 dead.
Gowrac who is the Commander of the new stabilization force asked the people to comply with the curfew and help troops enforce it, which he said was aimed at stabilizing Lasanood.
The fighting erupted in the town on Feb 6 after Somaliland forces faced a popular uprising against their presence in SSC — Sool, Sanaag and Cayn regions before pulled out of bases.
Somaliland’s troops have since been stationed outside the city, which has since remained under the control of a local fighters under a committee of 33 elders from Dhulbahante clan.
After condemnation by international human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... organizations and the United States, Somaliland declared an unconditional ceasefire on February 10 and it did not take affect.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Residents of Tyrnyauz Larisa Baragunova and Irina Vorozhbenko sent a complaint to the presidential envoy in the North Caucasus Federal District about searches in their apartments. Security officials confiscated phones and documents, explaining this by investigating a case of extremism, they said.
Larisa Baragunova and Irina Vorozhbenko, who live in Tyrnyauz, on March 10 visited the reception of the plenipotentiary representative of the President of Russia in the North Caucasus Federal District. There they filed statements that on March 7 police officers had searched their apartments, both women told the " Caucasian Knot " correspondent.
Larisa Baragunova said that at seven o'clock in the morning on March 7 security officials came to her with a decision of the Nalchik City Court to conduct a home inspection.
“A group of men came to my house and introduced themselves as police officers. They showed their IDs and immediately hid them. city court to inspect my apartment. When asked what they would look for, one of the employees explained that I was suspected of extremism," Baragunova said.
The woman explained that four years ago she created a branch of the public organization Trade Union Union SSR, which, according to Baragunova, is engaged in protecting the rights of citizens. The organization consists of about 100 residents of Tyrnauz and adjacent villages, while the organization is not registered with the tax authorities.
According to Larisa Baragunova, 95 people have drawn up notarized powers of attorney, according to which she represents their interests in courts and authorities. During the search, they seized her computer, telephone, as well as documents of the organization, including powers of attorney from members of the organization.
Irina Vorozhbenko told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that she is also a member of this public organization and believes that she remains a citizen of the USSR, since she was born in this country, and "no one asked her consent to the destruction of the Soviet Union."
According to Irina Vorozhbenko, she did not want to let the security forces into the apartment for a long time and tried to film what was happening on the phone, but one of the officers took her phone, which was later seized during the search. In addition to the phone, a certificate of citizenship was confiscated from Vorozhbenko, she said.
The woman noted that, despite persistent requests, she did not receive a copy of the court order, she was only given the opportunity to familiarize herself with it. The ruling, according to Irina Vorozhbenko, indicated that she was suspected under articles on extremism using the Internet, in fraud by a group of persons by prior agreement and in the creation of a non-profit organization or a structural subdivision of an organization whose activities are associated with inciting citizens to refuse to perform civil duties (Part 2 of Article 239 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
Part 2 of Article 239 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Creation of a non-profit organization that infringes on the personality and rights of citizens) provides for up to six years in prison.
Larisa Baragunova suggested that she could attract the attention of the police by standing up for an 80-year-old grandmother, whom neighbors are trying to evict from her apartment to a nursing home. According to Baragunova, having learned about this situation, she "immediately wrote" a statement to the prosecutor's office.
In turn, Irina Vorozhbenko said that she contacted the police in connection with a conflict with the leadership of the kindergarten where her child goes, because of her refusal to pay the parental fee. As a result of the conflict, she was forbidden to take her child to the institution. “On this occasion, I wrote a statement to the police,” Vorozhbenko said.
On the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Kabardino-Balkaria, as of 19.40 Moscow time, there is no information about the criminal case, which was told by residents of Tyrnyauz. On the website of the Nalchik City Court in the sections "Criminal cases" and "Proceedings on the basis of materials" there is also no information about the criminal case.
Recall that people who consider themselves citizens of the USSR are an informal community, they unite in various organizations , human rights activist Alexander Verkhovsky told the "Caucasian Knot" on March 6. "These are different people who believe that the USSR continues to legally exist, while the Russian Federation, on the contrary, does not. They unite in different organizations. From time to time, these organizations are also divided into parts," he said.
According to the human rights activist, several organizations of those who consider themselves citizens of the USSR have already been banned in Russia, but the abbreviation USSR is not always present in them. Most of the participants in these organizations are not communists, and their "magical USSR" sometimes has little in common with the real one," Verkhovsky explained.
[NYPOST] A head of risk management at Silicon Valley Bank spent considerable time spearheading multiple "woke" LGBTQ+ programs, including a "safe space" for coming out stories, as the firm catapulted toward collapse.
Jay Ersapah, the boss of Financial Risk Management at SVB’s UK branch, launched initiatives such as the company’s first month-long Pride campaign and a new blog emphasizing mental health awareness for LGBTQ+ youth.
"The phrase ’you can’t be what you can’t see’ resonates with me,’" Ersapah was quoted as saying on the company website.
"As a queer person of color and a first-generation immigrant from a working-class background, there were not many role models for me to ’see’ growing up."
Her efforts as the company’s European LGBTQIA+ Employee Resource Group co-chair earned her a spot on SVB’s "outstanding LGBT+ Role Model Lists 2022," a list shared in a company post just four months before the bank was shut down by federal authorities over liquidity fears.
In addition to instituting SVB’s first "safe space catch-up" — which encouraged employees to share their coming out stories — and serving on LGBTQ+ panels around the world, Ersapah also spent time over the last year serving as a director for Diversity Role Models and volunteering as a mentor for Migrant Leaders.
"I feel privileged to co-chair the LGBTQ+ ERG and help spread awareness of lived queer experiences, partner with charitable organizations, and above all, create a sense of community for our LGBTQ+ employees and allies."
Ersapah couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
SVB was abruptly shut down Friday by the Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Department of Financial Protection and Innovation shortly after it disclosed it had taken a $1.8 billion hit from a $21 billion fire sale of its bond holdings.
It faced a cash crunch due to surging interest rates, and a recent meltdown in the tech sector led many customers to pare their deposits.
#2
Risk management, which used more accurately to be called "Credit," is actually the most important department in a bank. Who is and is not going to pay back a loan? How do you manage duration risk (which apparently was a big problem at SVB)?
Paradoxically, in my experience, Risk Management is also the department that is the most useless in today's banks because it is staffed with people who are most out of touch with reality and with what they are supposed to do.
If you wanted to destroy America's banking system, you would do exactly what America's banks have done with their Risk Management departments.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/12/2023 13:36 Comments ||
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[GEO.TV] The cryptocurrency known as USDC, which was believed to be a stable coin, experienced a significant decrease in value after Circle, the company that created it, revealed that it held $3.3 billion in the now-failed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and could no longer maintain its peg to the US dollar.
Circle said late Friday it had been unable to withdraw its reserves from SVB, whose sudden collapse rattled financial markets.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Friday took over SVB, a major lender to the tech world, in the second-largest bank failure in US history.
SVB is expected to reopen on Monday under a new name, with billions in customer deposits now under FDIC control.
The FDIC guarantees deposits -- but only up to $250,000 per client and per bank.
The agency said Friday it would provide certificates to customers with uninsured funds -- those above the $250,000 limit -- so that they would be the first to receive funds eventually recovered while the bank is in receivership.
But the process of liquidating the bank’s assets can be long, with no certainty of just how much will be recovered.
The USD Coin, or USDC, was launched in 2018 as a "stablecoin," meaning it was indexed to a currency backed by a central bank, in this case the US dollar.
It is listed as the second largest "stable" currency worldwide, based on its volume in circulation (around $40 billion), behind Tether.
Stablecoins are supposed to be backed by equivalent reserves in immediately available assets, either cash or readily convertible financial securities.
Overnight Friday to Saturday, the USDC fell to its lowest level ever, dropping to 87 cents before recovering to around 94 cents.
Other stablecoins have also suffered.
The Dai, the fourth-largest stablecoin by volume in circulation, fell to 95 cents, while the Frax (sixth largest) fell to 94 cents, its lowest ever.
The Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange platform said it was suspending USDC-dollar conversions until Monday, given its exceptionally high activity.
More than $25 billion in USDC had been exchanged on the Coinbase platform in 24 hours, an enormous volume compared to overall holdings.
Meantime, Binance, the largest cryptocurrency transaction site, said it was suspending conversions of USDC into BUSD -- Binance USD, the platform’s own "stable" currency.
"Like other customers and depositors who relied on SVB for banking services, Circle joins calls for continuity of this important bank in the US economy and will follow guidance provided by state and Federal regulators," Circle said in a statement.
Withdrawal orders from SVB reached a breathtaking $42 billion in a single day on Thursday, according to the Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Department of Financial Protection and Innovation.
When the bank was unable to honor all those requests, the FDIC stepped in to take control. That word I'll bet you're looking for right now is "depression."
#3
As for Tether: "The Wall Street Journal said Friday that the stablecoin issuer and its partner exchange Bitfinex falsified documents and opened accounts under different names in a bid to gain access to the global banking system... Tether and Bitfinex turned to false documents and shell companies after Wells Fargo stopped processing transactions from its Taiwanese bank account in 2017, the report said."
Tether is a key player in crypto because of its USDT stablecoin, which traders turn to as a place to park their cash in times of high volatility because its value is fixed at $1.
#6
A very close friend lost her job on March 2nd because the bitcoin company she worked for was raided by the FBI. They raided the owner's home and the home of his attorney. Seems they had a bunch of unlicensed kiosks in Ohio and were keeping this operation off the books. She was an account but had no knowledge of the illicit kiosks. Thank God she is in the clear. Now we are in the same unemployed boat.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/12/2023 17:53 Comments ||
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#7
Accountant. I need more coffee, the time change messes me up.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/12/2023 17:56 Comments ||
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[CNBC] Silicon Valley Bank employees received their annual bonuses Friday just hours before regulators seized the failing bank, according to people with knowledge of the payments.
The payments were for work done in 2022 and had been in process days before the bank’s collapse, these people said.
On Friday, SVB CEO Greg Becker addressed workers in a two-minute video in which he said that he no longer made decisions at the 40-year-old bank, according to the sources.
In this article
Silicon Valley Bank employees received their annual bonuses Friday just hours before regulators seized the failing bank, according to people with knowledge of the payments.
The Santa Clara, California-based bank has historically paid employee bonuses on the second Friday of March, said the people, who declined to be identified speaking about the awards. The payments were for work done in 2022 and had been in process days before the bank’s collapse, the sources said. Read the rest at the link
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[REGNUM] After the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), other US banks may also face serious problems, according to the New York Times on March 10.
After the California Department of Financial Protection declared bankruptcy of SVB, it transferred $175 billion of bank assets under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. To store them, the Federal Corporation urgently created a new bank - the National Bank of Santa Clara. He will begin work on the morning of March 13. It is claimed that the checks issued by the SVB will continue to be paid.
SVB, which profited from high-margin startups, bought a huge amount of bonds over a year ago. Like other banks, SVB kept a small part of the deposits in its accounts and invested the rest in the hope of making a significant profit.
This policy worked well until the US Federal Reserve began raising interest rates last year in an attempt to reduce inflation. At the same time, start-up revenues began to fall. Therefore, many clients began to urgently withdraw their money from SVB. The bank, trying to cope with the situation, was forced to sell some of its securities just at the moment when their value dropped significantly. This resulted in a rapid loss of nearly $2 billion.
A similar situation may repeat itself with other banks, as frightened depositors and investors may begin to urgently withdraw their funds from bank accounts. Thus, the shares of First Republic Bank, located in San Francisco, and Signature Bank in New York fell by more than 20% in one day.
Recall that Silicon Valley Bank, established in 1983, specialized in lending to high-tech companies in Silicon Valley, financing private investment funds investing in high technology, and organizations conducting venture business. SVB was the 16th largest bank in the US.
[MAIL] Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is forecasting 'economic meltdown' within hours of the banks opening up on Monday morning following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank.
Ackman is urging for the U.S. government to finally step in and protect all of the bank's depositors, warning inaction could lead to a ripple effect across other smaller banks within the industry.
The worry is that customers will rush to withdraw cash from their accounts fearing instability across the banking system with the very real possibility of a domino effect.
Ackman is urging the government to take action and fix a 'a-soon-to-be-irreversible mistake' by Monday morning, to prevent such a bleak scenario from occurring.
His ominous warning came hours after Greg Becker, the chief executive of SVB Financial Group, sent a video message to employees of the bank acknowledging the 'incredibly difficult' 48 hours leading up to its collapse on Friday.
#6
"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millionsthousands hundreds of voices millionaires suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.." Obi-Wanker Ackman
#7
We’re out of bailout money. Check with Zelensky.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/12/2023 14:29 Comments ||
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#8
They don't need bailed out. They have a lot of assets that need to be liquidated to cover the loss and the FDIC is working on that. They just didn't have enough liquid capital on hand to support a bank run, which is what happened.
#10
It's like this, Bill: the depositors are covered, the market is already queasy, and the layoffs are well underway. The taxpayers are already tired of covering losses. Sorry if you got money invested, pretty sure you did. Suck it up, buttercup, that's why it's called gambling.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/12/2023 19:52 Comments ||
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#11
So this is why the Fed jacked the interest rate.
U.S. drugmaker Pfizer is ready to launch its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine for both older adults and pregnant women in the United States and Europe later this year, executives said on Thursday.
Both Pfizer and British drugmaker GSK have RSV vaccines they hope to launch in the United States and Europe this year, pending regulators’ approval. [emphasis added]
"We are anticipating approval in both the U.S. and Europe in time for rollout in the fall," Kena Swanson, Pfizer head of viral vaccines research & development, told a media briefing at the company’s biggest manufacturing and packaging site globally.
"Pending regulators’ approval" — haha! As if there is any doubt about which way the FDA’s decision will go, as if the agency is anything more than a ceremonial rubber-stamping formality.
Is Pfizer’s new concoction medically necessary, strictly speaking, or perhaps are there alternate motives at play?
#1
RSV? Whazzat? Wikpedia sez - RSV is the single most common cause of respiratory hospitalization in infants, and reinfection remains common in later life: it is a notable pathogen in all age groups. Infection rates are typically higher during the cold winter months, causing bronchiolitis in infants, common colds in adults, and more serious respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia in the elderly and immunocompromised.
Most children will experience at least one RSV infection by age 2. Reinfection with RSV remains common throughout life. Reinfection in adulthood often produces only mild to moderate symptoms indistinguishable from the common cold or sinus infection.
So a vaccine for some common colds, but you won't be sure if your vax worked or you caught the other kind. Wotta deal for Pfizer!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/12/2023 9:02 Comments ||
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#2
What could possible go wrong? Hey, Pfizer - thanks for thinking of us- but I'll pass...
[NPASyria] The number of Syrian going home about a month after cross-border procedures were relaxed for Syrian residents in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... has reached about 50.000. Syrians passed through four border crossings into their country after the earthquake that struck south Turkey and northwest Syria on February 6.
Recently, Turkey eased border-crossing regulations for Syrians holding the Temporary Protection Identity Card (Kimlik) from any of the earthquake-stricken provinces.
The new law, passed in the wake of the February 6 earthquake, allows Syrians holding the Kimlik from one of the ten quake-hit Ottoman Turkish provinces to return to their country for three to six months. Until recently, the government had followed a populist policy of expelling Syrian refugees and barring their re-entry into Turkey. 50.000 Syrians were returned from Turkey in 2022 alone. Accusations that Ottoman Turkish authorities are forcefully expelling them abound.
The Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, north of Idlib, announced that the number of Syrians arriving to northwestern Syria from the affected Ottoman Turkish areas through Bab al-Hawa reached 17.487.
The number of arrivals through Bab al-Salama border crossing, north of Aleppo, reached 11,410 as of Friday evening. 13.829 entered through Jarabulus border crossing, northeast of Aleppo, according to statistics published by the Crossings’ Administration on its official accounts.
The Tel Abyad border crossing, north of Raqqa, said that 7.860 Syrians entered the region through its crossing.
These numbers have been on the decline after recent Ottoman Turkish government statements hinting that those who crossed would not have the opportunity to return.
On February 19, Ottoman Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said that 10.633 Syrians returned to their country "voluntarily" after the earthquake, sparking fear among Syrians that they would not be allowed to return to Turkey and that the new law is only the government’s new anti-refugee scheme.
A sources in the Bab al-Hawa crossing management told North Press that the number of arrivals at the crossings has declined to less than a third lately after the recent Ottoman Turkish statements. "Bab al-Hawa received nearly 1.000 people per day in the first days of the exemption. Now, however, the number of arrivals does not exceed 300."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/12/2023 03:10 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[15 views]
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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.
[Red State] As RedState’s Joe Cunningham reported, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was taken over and shut down by federal regulators Friday in one of the biggest financial failures in history, and the largest since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. The bank’s collapse sent stocks tumbling and ignited worries about "contagion"—in other words, more bank failures.
[MAIL] I'm in the 'Club Car' for breakfast and I've brought a spy thriller book to read, but there's no chance of me reading a single sentence.
[TGP] Grand Marais, Minn.- A Minnesota man confessed to beating a 
[ShabelleMedia] The Somaliland military again bombed Las Anod, after losing the key city to local tribal militia last month after 15 years of full control.
[NYPOST] A head of risk management at 
[GEO.TV] The 
Via Yahoo! Finance:
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
