Cascading Trouble for FTX Crypto Exchange Leads to Inquiries of Campaign Donations to Democrats and Regulators


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on November 12, 2022 | sundance

FTX crypto currency exchange CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is a major donor to multiple progressive causes and politicians. This week as FTX starts to collapse, the financial system underneath the exchange looks more like a Ponzi scheme falling apart.

The CEO had been a major donor to regulators on Capitol Hill, and the tentacles of FTX extend to Ukraine where Sam Bankman-Fried was operating to support the Ukraine government with crypto currency collections and donations. The FTX corporation and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is now under multiple investigations.  Here’s the 90-second recap of the current dynamic. WATCH:

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(Via Daily Caller) Sam Bankman-Fried, prolific Democratic donor and ex-CEO of now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, funded the campaigns of members of Congress overseeing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), one of the key bodies tasked with regulating the crypto industry and the subject of Bankman-Fried’s aggressive lobbying.

Bankman-Fried’s FTX is currently under investigation by the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after Bankman-Fried allegedly moved $10 billion in client assets from his crypto exchange to his trading firm Alameda Research, and a liquidity crisis at his exchange which prompted the company to file for bankruptcy. However, prior to the agency’s probe, Bankman-Fried aggressively courted the CFTC – and funded several key lawmakers charged with overseeing the agency, pouring cash into their campaign coffers. (read more)

(Via CoinDesk) The past week has seen a dizzying downward spiral for Sam Bankman-Fried’s huge crypto empire. Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange has paused withdrawals, and a tentative bailout from rival Binance appears to be kaput. That could put depositor funds at risk, and certainly spells a major setback for not only Bankman-Fried but for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole.

These downfalls aren’t rare in crypto, which is subject to extreme boom-bust cycles. But FTX and Bankman-Fried are unique in the stature they achieved before self-immolating. Over the past three years, FTX has come to be widely regarded as a reputable exchange, despite not submitting to U.S. regulation. Bankman-Fried has himself become globally influential, thanks to his thoughts on cryptocurrency regulation and his financial support for U.S. electoral candidates – not necessarily in that order.

These narratives about both FTX and Bankman-Fried are now clearly dead in the water, given recent evidence that everything was not as it seemed at the exchange, or at Bankman-Fried’s other firm, Alameda Research. (read more)

With Elections Over U.S. Multinationals Begin Announcing Job Cuts


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on November 12, 2022 

There was always a strong suspicion the woke corporations were holding back negative employment intentions until after the midterm elections.

Well, as expected, the U.S. multinationals are starting to announce advanced downsizing.

(CNBC) – Tens of thousands of tech workers have been laid off within days, as tech giants including MetaTwitterSalesforce and others shed headcount going into the final stretch of the year. At least 20,300 U.S. tech workers were let go from their jobs in November, and more than 100,000 since the beginning of the year, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks layoffs in the field.

Tech workers reported huge drops in confidence in their job security through the summer, as news of layoffs, hiring freezes and rescinded offers put a damper on what’s so far been a worker-driven Covid pandemic recovery.

But the latest headlines are all converging at once as businesses course-correct on over-hiring and acknowledge how rising interest rates are thwarting their growth plans, says ZipRecruiter chief economist Julia Pollak. (more)

Nov 11 (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) is planning to freeze hiring and cut some jobs as it strives to move the Disney+ streaming service to profitability against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, according to a memo seen by Reuters on Friday.

Chief Executive Bob Chapek sent the memo to Disney’s leaders, saying the company is instituting a targeted hiring freeze and anticipates “some small staff reductions” as it looks to manage costs. (read more)

As noted by Yahoo News, a “wave of layoffs” has begun that encompasses dozens of medium and large corporations [SEE HERE].

The layoffs, outlined in Yahoo, cover real estate, tech companies, banking, finance, automakers, EV startups, and brick and mortar stores like 7-11 and GAP.   It should not come as a surprise, but it is sad to see, nonetheless.

Within the economy, a great pretending can only last so long… then reality hits.

The skilled trades should likely end up in the best employment situation, with the tech sector the worst.  Service industries are also one of the first sectors hit when employment becomes an issue.

With rising interest rates, high inflation, excessive inventories, a shrinking production economy, extreme energy costs and diminished disposable income as a result of inflation and gas prices, there was going to come a time when it all starts to congregate.   2023 looks to be the year when economic pretenses collapse under the weight of having to admit a recession exists.

CPI Report – Inflation on Food, Fuel, Home Heating and Essentials Continues Growing – Overall Inflation Moderation Now Claimed as Calendar Cycles


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on November 10, 2022 | Sundance

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) provides the latest data on consumer prices (inflation) [DATA HERE].  We explained in 2021 how inflation would grow on a month-over-month and year-over-year basis until the calendar became more friendly and the government officials could claim “diminished inflation growth.”  Well, we are now entering that phase of economic parseltongue.

October consumer prices increased 0.4% over September.  However, we are now comparing year-over-year (Y0Y) inflation to the period where last year’s prices had already skyrocketed, so YoY inflation seems to be moderating at 7.7%, it’s a false premise. {Go Deep}

As expected, the energy-driven consumer inflation in the food sector has arrived.  The proverbial field inflation is arriving at the fork, and the October CPI now shows the third wave of food price increases we had previously discussed.

Table 2 Details: Egg prices increased +10.1% last month and now 43% higher than last year.  Butter +1.9% last month, 26.7% for year.  Margarine +1.3% for month, 47.1% for year.  Coffee +1.3% for the month, 15.6% for the year.

Heading into baking season we find flour +0.2% for the month, +24.6% for year.  Essentially, as expected, all of the holiday foodstuffs are now rising in price as the increased field and commodity prices hit the store shelves.

Some row crops are starting to moderate in price growth, while dairy products continue rising throughout the fall season.  It is going to be painful on the checkbook grocery shopping this holiday season.

On the energy front, home heating oil increased 19.8% in October and is now a whopping 68.5% higher than last October.  Unleaded gasoline increased another 3.5% and now is now 20.9% higher than last year (Oct ’21), which was already 40% higher than January 2021.

Food, fuel, electricity, home heating and housing costs continue growing monthly, but give the illusion of moderating when compared to last year.

Food away from home (restaurants etc.) are starting to show the cumulative price impacts for restaurants, hotels and cafeterias.  Additionally, as the kids returned to school the lunchroom prices have skyrocketed a jaw-dropping +3.8% for October and +95% compared to last year [Table 2].  Packing lunches for kids is going to become an even more important aspect for the family food budget.

The stock market is happy with the news because the lowered 7.7% (YoY) inflation number, a product of the calendar and nothing else, gives optimism the Fed may moderate the increased federal reserve rate hikes.  However, don’t count on it because inflation is easily identified as embedded now.  Lemons at the grocery store are now $0.99/each.

Think about that.  $1 for a single lemon and roughly 50¢ per egg at the supermarket.  A full shopping cart of groceries now easily exceeding $200.  This is devastating for those on fixed incomes and blue-collar workers.

Wages are nowhere near keeping up with this level of price increase.

(CNBC) The consumer price index rose less than expected in October, an indication that while inflation is still a threat to the U.S. economy, pressures could be starting to cool.

The index, a broad-based measure of goods and services costs, increased 0.4% for the month and 7.7% from a year ago, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics release Thursday. Respective estimates from Dow Jones were for rises of 0.6% and 7.9%.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core CPI increased 0.3% for the month and 6.3% on an annual basis, compared with respective estimates of 0.5% and 6.5%.

A 2.4% decline in used vehicle prices helped bring down the inflation figures. Apparel prices fell 0.7% and medical care services were lower by 0.6%.

“The report overstates the case that inflation is coming in, but it makes a case inflation is coming in,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “It’s pretty clear that inflation has definitely peaked and is rolling over. All the trend lines suggest that it will continue to moderate going forward, assuming that nothing goes off the rails.” (read more)

The Biden energy policy is the root of the consumer inflation. Nothing will happen to moderate overall consumer inflation on Main Street until energy policy changes.

Additionally, with the 2022 election in the rear-view mirror, we should start to see layoffs and unemployment increasing now.  The bureaucrats will now let the recession become evident.

In Politics – People Want to Believe on What They Want to Hear


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Nov 9, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: The post dealing with the mid-terms had this gem: “This is why all the Greek philosophers from Socrates to Plato were against democracy. It allowed a thin majority to become tyrannical.”
What then is the alternative, for there will never come a time when we all agree about anything, let alone everything? The unstated alternative is that a minority becomes tyrannical and enforces their vision on everyone. Those are the two choices. There aren’t others just waiting to be discovered. Either the majority has it or the minority has it and as this is supposed to be a battle between ideas, the idea getting the most support should be the one chosen. Otherwise, candidates would try to lose the election so as that their plans would be enacted. Sorry, but that is just too stupid to be taken seriously by anyone with a still functioning brain in their head.
As Churchill noted, “Democracy is the worst form of government there is, except for all the others.” And he was absolutely correct. If you don’t like what the majority is doing, change the minds of those who are persuadable; don’t bitch about not getting your way because your ideas were not popular. That is what infants do!

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REPLY: A friend invited me to dinner. There was another there who was a major programmer for Microsoft. He was a Biden supporter and convinced that climate change may have always existed, but we are the cause right now. There are people among the Democrats who have just been brainwashed with sophistry. If they were not being mentally manipulated by a small group of elites with an agenda they would never agree with if the truth were told, then there would be perhaps a more reasonable world.

Then you have egos. Trump felt his endorsing power was not what he and others thought it was. So he told the WSJ he knew some dit on DeSantis. This is the problem. Trump was on the right track and he was what the people rallied behind – term limits and draining the swamp. But now his personal ego is surfacing and that becomes a problem in politics. It is hard to resist when everyone says you control the power.

The best form of government I have ever seen was that of Genoa where the Doge (president) rotated annually amount the wealthy families. This was before Marxism. There was no social warfare. They ran Genoa more like a company competing against Venice and Florence. Because the Doge rotated, nobody would pass a law that was draconian since they would have to live under that law the following years and it would be more than a decade before the wheel would return to their family.

Marxist Socialism has been highly destructive. It has begun the division that undermines the purpose of civilization – that we all come together because we all benefit. When one group targets another, that is it. You begin the process of economic suicide. The Democrats no longer know how to run for office without promising to rob one group for the benefit of another.

Republics are always the worst form of government because they can be bribed. Look at the bankers. They have blown up the world economy countless times and NEVER has a single banker ever been charged. They own the SEC and CFTC – the case is closed for they will never be held accountable – EVER! 

I tried to warn the Republicans, but they too want to hear what they prefer to believe. I warned them that they would NOT be able to reverse what Biden has set in motion.

Elon Musk Recommends Voters Choose a Republican Congress Tomorrow


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on November 7, 2022 | sundance

At 10:22am today, billionaire businessman and new Owner/CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk, has recommended that voters choose republican candidates for congress this midterm election cycle.  [Source]

Democrats and left-wing political activist groups are going bananas.

Bolsonaro Hands Over Power to Lula             


Armstrong Economics Blog/South America Re-Posted Nov 7, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Jair Bolsonaro did not immediately concede to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after the close election of 49.1%-50.9%. This is the closest presidential race in Brazil since 1985 and marks Bolsonaro’s first defeat in his political career. Bolsonaro supporters held mass protests across the nation to protest Lula’s victory and blocked hundreds of major roadways. Bolsonaro first sided with the protestors, saying they felt “indignation and a sense of injustice.”

As our computer warned, there would be intense politically motivated civil unrest worldwide this November.

The intense backlash from across the globe caused Bolsonaro to change course. “I know you are upset… Me too. But we have to keep our heads straight,” Bolsonaro said in a video posted online. “I will make an appeal to you: clear the highways.” Bolsonaro confirmed with Brazil’s Supreme Court that he will hand over power to Lula. “I have always played within the four lines of the constitution,” he said, without declaring defeat.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is a member of the World Economic Forum. World leaders also affiliated with the “elite” group have congratulated him on his win. His policies will align with other WEF leaders and is a glimpse into what to expect from Brazil going forward. Bolsonaro’s words to the people will not eliminate the anger they feel nor will it prevent the people from continuing to protest.