Tag Archives: Bill Gates

Mar 12 2023

Fallout from SVB Collapse Begins Sending Twitches Through Tech Sector, While Congress Meets With Treasury


Posted originally on the CTH on March 11, 2023 | Sundance

The 44-hour collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is having some reverberations amid the tech sector as companies who carried unsecured deposits with the bank are facing an uncertain future.

Tech company Roku streaming services holds $487 million in cash reserves at SVB representing 26% of their liquid holdings. Those unsecured funds are now tenuous, depending on what steps are taken next.  Additionally, Etsy an online brokering retailer for mostly independent sellers, has also run into a snag with processing disbursement payments to those same sellers.  Etsy used SVB as a depository and payment transfer provider to the merchant accounts.

According to Axios, “Circle’s usd coin (USDC), the second largest stablecoin in the world” is also in a tough position “because a portion of its cash reserves were held at SVB, which the U.S. government took control of on Friday.”  These and other ancillary issues are now part of a larger conversation about whether SVB is representative of a weakness that may impact other banks.   However, current consensus is that a contagion effect is not expected.

SVB was exclusively a tech sector bank.  Small to mid-size tech companies who relied on SVB may have some immediate issues; but the larger banking sector seems much more solid and less exposed to the long-term treasuries that SVB was holding. “People are used to having zero interest rates and easy money, and it’s gone. And there are people who will manage that well and people who will not,” former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Holtz-Eakin said during an interview on “Cavuto Coast-to-Coast” Friday. {link}

Meanwhile, congress is meeting with treasury and FDIC officials to discuss if taxpayer intervention is needed.  {insert eyeroll here}:

March 11 (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers met with the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Friday to discuss the collapse of SVB Financial Group (SIVB.O), Coindesk reported on Saturday citing a source.

Democratic U.S. Representative Maxine Waters held briefings with officials from the two regulators and the Treasury Department, hours after the startup-focused SVB’s collapse, the report said.

[…] Separately, Representative Ro Khanna said in a tweet on Friday that he reached out to both the White House and the Treasury Department to discuss the situation with the bank.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday met with banking regulators on the collapse of SVB, as she and the White House expressed confidence in their abilities to respond to the bank failure. (more)

Nothing makes the Nope Meter peg with greater emphasis than hearing the name Maxine Waters and bank bailout in the same sentence.

I already made my position pretty clear yesterday.  NO BAILOUTS!

The tech sector has a tremendous amount of capital at hand.  Let the tech companies who used SVB as a launch vehicle sell some of their own stock holdings and backstop the bank as an investment mechanism.  There is no need for the U.S. taxpayer to get involved.

I am more concerned about this failure being used as a tool to initiate a conversation about digital currencies.  The ‘never let a crisis go to waste‘ team, are likely chomping at the proverbial bit….

Mar 11 2023

Moderna Never Had a Sample of the Virus


Armstrong Economics Blog/Vaccine Re-Posted Mar 11, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

This video clip shows that Moderna never even has a sample of the virus to make a vaccine. It was all just theoretical computer science.

Mar 11 2023

Week in Review: Bipartisan Populists Unite Against War in Syria, China Brokers Historic Iran/Saudi Arabia Peace, & More, w/ Michael Tracey | SYSTEM UPDATE #53


By Glenn Greenwald Posted originally on Rumble on: March 8, 2023 at 7:01 pm EST

Mar 11 2023

The Insufferable Samantha Power Now Focuses on Georgia, Bordering Russia


Posted originally on the CTH on March 10, 2023 | Sundance 

Having planted the seed for color revolution in Hungary, a European country that doesn’t want expanded war with Russia – therefore the U.S. needs to change the democracy, now Samantha Power moves to another European country for the same reason.  This time it’s Georgia.

Georgia legislature recently passed a bill saying all funding for foreign intervention in the country’s politics, via Non-Governmental Agencies (NGO’s), needs to be made public and the funding registered as foreign agent lobbying.  Essentially, the proposed Georgia law would mirror the U.S. Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA).

However, because the U.S. is the funding mechanism for the anti-government agencies that operate within the country, the United States is against the effort.  To make sure the U.S. can continue to covertly manipulate the political outcomes, the groups supported by Samantha Power attacked Parliament. [Power Tweet]

To highlight what Power is celebrating…. “Georgian protesters in their tens of thousands have gathered in the capital, smashing the windows of the Parliamentary headquarters and fighting local enforcement officers as the country erupts into chaos. The nation’s ruling party, Georgian Dream, rushed through its first reading of a “Kremlin-inspired” bill on Tuesday two days before the debate was scheduled to take place, causing carnage in Tbilisi as citizens fear their government is severing links to the West at a time of increased tensions with Russia.” (more)

So why is Samantha Power targeting Georgia now?   Well, like Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili does not want expanded war with Russia. Therefore, just like Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Georgia must now be removed and replaced with a pro-war leader.

The U.S. has already installed a pro-war President in Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili.  Now Samantha Power has the responsibility to replace the anti-war Prime Minister.

The ruling Georgian Dream party has insisted it remains committed to Georgia’s EU and NATO membership.  But a “foreign agent” bill reminiscent of Russian legislation used to silence critics has in recent days sparked demonstrations, to which authorities have responded with water cannons and tear gas.

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili on Thursday congratulated protesters in the Caucasus country after the government said it would drop the bill.  […] worry has grown since Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili’s party tried to introduce the “foreign agent” law, even if for now they have withdrawn it. (link)

Yes, if you want to have a Foreign Agent Registration Act in a nation where the United States is the foreign actor, then you must be a Kremlin stooge. So goes the argument.  It would be a lot more difficult for the U.S. to meddle in foreign countries if the people receiving the money from the U.S. had to disclose it to their citizens.

Hypocrisy thy name is…

This guy nails it in this Tweet/Video.

Mar 11 2023

Director Wray Brags the FBI Broke the Law 84% Fewer Times Last Year – Rep Darin LaHood Outlines Personal Targeting by FBI Analysts Unlawfully Searching NSA Databases


Posted originally on the CTH on March 10, 2023 | Sundance

Drawing attention to the testimony of FBI Director Christopher Wray in his responses to Representative Darin LaHood.

Representative LaHood is leading an internal congressional review of the FISA “702” reauthorization.  During the testimony, LaHood waxes philosophically about the importance of FISA-702 targeting as a tool for the FBI while simultaneously outlining how the FBI is weaponizing the tool.  At 06:24 of the video below, LaHood goes on to outline the details of the NSA noncompliance report showing how the FBI intentionally targeted him, likely because he is leading the 702 reauthorization group.

The irony here is thick.  The FBI illegally uses 702 search queries, and in the example of LaHood, it is demonstrable targeting because the search query was only for his name, so there can be no claim of “inadvertent” search result.  Simultaneously, FBI Director Chris Wray states the number of illegal FBI searches of the database is 84% improved year-over-year. In essence, the FBI is saying they are breaking the law 84% fewer times.  WATCH:

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Well beyond the “cell phone metadata,” in the era of your portable transponder having internet and social media connection, just about everyone has metadata connected to a foreign person or entity.  Use the Twitter app on your phone, you are connected to foreign entities.  Use Instagram or Facebook, WhatsApp or Telegram, same/same/same/same.

TicTok? Fughetaboudit.  The auspices of only looking at U.S. persons engaged in foreign contacts is totally moot.

The “702 authorities,” which is an innocuous term for a “U.S. Person“, permit DHS, DOJ, FBI and any national security apparatchik to open up your data and check you out. This is the reality of the modern era.  This total surveillance reauthorization is what the SSCI wants to permit.  It must be stopped completely.  It cannot be “reformed.”

4th Amendment – “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Either you are secure from federal search of your “private papers,” as outlined in the United States Constitution, or you are not.

There is no aspect of this “702” nonsense, where a secret court grants a secret authorization, to engage in secret surveillance, by some secret entity of government – which might be a contractor, just to “see if” you might be doing something suspicious, or against the interests of the federal government.  The premise behind “702” reauthorization is unconstitutional.

Mar 11 2023

Tucker Carlson Outlines SVB Collapse and Ponders Impact of Cultural Marxism on Outcome


Posted originally on the CTH on March 10, 2023 

For his opening monologue Friday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson outlined the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and ponders the deeper story that lay underneath the sudden failure. WATCH:

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Mar 11 2023

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) Fails, Now the Idiots Are Considering a Taxpayer Bailout


Posted originally on the CTH on March 10, 2023 | Sundance

SVB is Silicon Valley Bank, the almost exclusive banking network for Venture Capitalists (VC), tech sector start-ups and tech industry holding accounts.  48 hours ago, SVB was a “grade A” Moodys rating. As of tonight, they are insolvent.

“All told, customers withdrew a staggering $42 billion of deposits by the end of Thursday, according to a California regulatory filing. […] “The precipitous deposit withdrawal has caused the Bank to be incapable of paying its obligations as they come due,” the California financial regulator stated. “The bank is now insolvent.” (link)

Now, as ridiculous as this sounds outside Silicon Valley, the powers that be are concerned about a ‘contagion‘ effect, and openly discussing the need for a taxpayer funded bailout.  Blood-boiling doesn’t even begin to describe the sensation.

Let the Silicon Valley companies who started with the funds from the bank sell some of their capitalization on the market and finance the bailout themselves.  After all, this is one interconnected system of lenders, borrowers and investors.  This is not a crisis for the guy making their catered lunches, mowing their lawns, or washing their clothes.

♦The system.  A tech guy/gal has an idea or product.  Venture Capitalists (VC) organize the funding for the idea/product and go to SVB for money to start the company.  The bank funds the startup and takes an equity position in the company.  The VC brokers the deal, takes payment and also takes an equity position.  The company launches and if successful builds a multi-billion enterprise.  If they IPO (most do) then shares of the company are sold and the value of the company rises with the increased stock purchasing.

The shares of the company are capital. The shares can be sold to create funds that can support SVB.  If SVB needs funds, let the networked companies sell some of their capital and fund the bank that generated their venture.  They do not need outside ‘bailouts’.   That’s just the way I look at it.

Listening to some voices saying the guy who mows the lawn of the tech company executive has a responsibility to ‘bailout’ the bank that created the wealth for the tech company executive, is just, well, another absurd example of how corrupt this entire financial system has become.  Sorry, but this beyond annoys me.

CALIFORNIA – Regulators shuttered SVB Friday and seized its deposits in the largest U.S. banking failure since the 2008 financial crisis and the second-largest ever. The company’s downward spiral began late Wednesday, when it surprised investors with news that it needed to raise $2.25 billion to shore up its balance sheet. What followed was the rapid collapse of a highly-respected bank that had grown alongside its technology clients.

Even now, as the dust begins to settle on the second bank wind-down announced this week, members of the VC community are lamenting the role that other investors played in SVB’s demise.

“This was a hysteria-induced bank run caused by VCs,” Ryan Falvey, a fintech investor at Restive Ventures, told CNBC. “This is going to go down as one of the ultimate cases of an industry cutting its nose off to spite its face.”

The episode is the latest fallout from the Federal Reserve’s actions to stem inflation with its most aggressive rate hiking campaign in four decades. The ramifications could be far-reaching, with concerns that startups may be unable to pay employees in coming days, venture investors may struggle to raise funds, and an already-battered sector could face a deeper malaise.

The roots of SVB’s collapse stem from dislocations spurred by higher rates. As startup clients withdrew deposits to keep their companies afloat in a chilly environment for IPOs and private fundraising, SVB found itself short on capital. It had been forced to sell all of its available-for-sale bonds at a $1.8 billion loss, the bank said late Wednesday.

The sudden need for fresh capital, coming on the heels of the collapse of crypto-focused Silvergate bank, sparked another wave of deposit withdrawals Thursday as VCs instructed their portfolio companies to move funds, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The concern: a bank run at SVB could pose an existential threat to startups who couldn’t tap their deposits. (read more)

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Mar 11 2023

DeSantis Appears in Iowa as Campaign Manager and PACs Begin Positioning for Likely May Announcement


Posted originally on the CTH on March 10, 2023 | Sundance

The question of Ron DeSantis entering the race for the 2024 GOP nomination is an issue of ‘when’ not ‘if’.  Anyone who is still holding the opinion that nothing is certain until everything is certain are simply being obtuse in the extreme.

Before getting to the current status of the Florida governor appearing in Iowa, the context for the appearance needs some background.

With former Cruz Crew leader Ken Cuccinelli coordinating the latest Political Action Committee (PAC) “Never Back Down”, the motives clarify when you consider the need to transfer the excess DeSantis 2022 campaign money into a federal race.  The best mechanism to accomplish the transfer legally is through a PAC that is prepositioned to defer initial campaign expenses and launch the effort.

The campaign doesn’t need to coordinate closely with the PAC, because the larger goals are unified. This is where Cuccinelli’s disposition as a political grifter makes him the perfectly corrupt insider vessel to use the opportunity.  Transferring approximately $100 million from the governor state account into the PAC is a lucrative incentive for a character like Cuccinelli.

The second PAC, a SuperPAC called “Ready for Ron,” has been positioned as a data mining operation, registering names, phone numbers, etc. in a preposition status for the 2024 launch.   A nonprofit called “And to the Republic,” run by Republican operative Tori Sachs, has been picking up the expenses for DeSantis’ cross country tour under the auspices of a Rupert Murdoch funded book launch (Harper Collins).  All of this activity is being managed by the same team that launched after the 5 days in the bunker in early August 2022.

At this point, anyone claiming the 2024 Ron DeSantis campaign has not been a long time carefully planned operation, really needs to be laughed out of the conversation.

The footprints of the groundwork for this campaign are visible going back to the late fall of 2021. Yes, this means the 2022 reelection campaign was a complete fraud, and Ron DeSantis never intended to fulfill a four year term as Florida governor.

The fraud behind him, not necessarily DeSantis himself, has been my biggest issue with his political leadership since the summer of last year.

By my back of the envelope math, Desantis Inc. has secure financing of around $500 million currently.  Based on the known assembly of constructs that have been positioned in the past four to six months, I would say there’s easily another $500 million that will be directly inbound to the campaign within the first week of the official launch itself – likely to happen in May.

This is the time frame, immediately after the legislative session, when Florida will be abandoned by the DeSantis management team and Ron DeSantis himself.

$500 million in current secured financing, and $500 million in immediate launch financing, explains the intoxicating allure of the grift currently being used to entice the “influencer” crowd.  Lots of conservatives will make money from this DeSantis national launch.

Use this scale of financial context to explain how The Daily Wire business model can afford to offer podcasters $50 to $100 million for four year contracts.   A thousand million on the table buys a lot of influencers – who feed like a frenzied swarm as fed by the Cuccinelli types.

Last year, based on the visible assembly, I saw DeSantis entry into the 2024 contest as the last entrant.  Meaning all other enlisted GOPe foot soldiers would precede a DeSantis entry. This looks to still be the plan; however, fewer political operatives are now projected to be in the DeSantis strategy.  Everyone in the race, sans Trump, is only in the race to advance Ron DeSantis.  This is just how the professional GOPe Sea Island assembly and professional donor class roll.

In Republican politics everything is an illusion.  Everything is preordained and the entirety of their effort is about creating the illusion of choice or outcome.  Remember, Republicans care about money; Democrats care about ideology.  Republicans use power to get money; Democrats use money to get power.  This is why the ideology of the Democrats continues forward; they have no ideological opposition.  As long as Republicans are getting paid, “we good” is the mantra.

The billionaire class paying both wings of the UniParty doesn’t care if the presidency is held by Gavin Newsom or Ron DeSantis, as long as the system that affords them the influence and affluence is maintained.  The only thing the billionaire class are against is any entity that would disrupt the system; ergo, Donald Trump is horrible.

In the biggest of big pictures, Ron DeSantis is in the race (paid to play the role) to ensure Donald Trump doesn’t get the nomination and present as the alternative to the UniParty outcome.  It is Trump’s America First economic policies that must be avoided by the insurance policy that DeSantis represents.

From this baseline of globalist thought, if DeSantis wins – great.  If DeSantis doesn’t win the primary, then all the money backing him will support the Democrat.  It is the MAGA agenda that must be eliminated.  It doesn’t really matter who eliminates it.  This is the core dynamic in the background of the 2024 election.

(Via Washington Post) -DAVENPORT, Iowa — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has indicated privately that he intends to run for president, according to two people familiar with his comments.

A political committee that seeks to draft DeSantis into the race launched Thursday and is likely to serve as an approved outside spending vehicle for his campaign, three people familiar with the planning said.

And DeSantis will visit the early nominating states of Iowa on Friday and Nevada on Saturday as he tours the country promoting his memoir.

The public and private movements underline how far along DeSantis and his allies are in their preparation for the 2024 campaign, even as the Florida governor has not said publicly that he will enter the race.

Allies do not expect him to announce a run until after the Florida state legislative session ends in May. But in recent conversations, DeSantis has described his presidential plans without any caveats that would suggest he’s still deciding, according to the two people familiar with his comments who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private remarks. (read more)

Mar 11 2023

Huge – Iran and Saudi Arabia Agree to Resume Diplomatic and Trade Relations During Talks Negotiated by China


Posted originally on the CTH on March 10, 2023 | Sundance


This is huge in the geopolitical world.  China operated as a broker in the structurally unstable relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

  • From the Iranian perspective – With a visibly weak U.S. president, and a strengthening Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping forming a close bond with Saudi Arabia, it makes sense for Iran to move toward diplomatic relations.
  • From the Saudi Arabia perspective – With a visibly weak U.S. president, the prior assurances from Washington DC diminish, trust is tenuous, and a stronger hedge-based relationship with Chairman Xi is formed.
  • From the Chinese perspective – With a visibly weak U.S. president, and a western alliance intended to destroy itself to fulfill the desires of the WEF climate change and cultural agenda, the opportunity to expand influence is teed up.

It will be intensely interesting to see how Israel positions itself w/ this new dynamic.

BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia and Iran announced an agreement in China on Friday to resume relations more than seven years after severing ties, a major breakthrough in a bitter rivalry that has long divided the Middle East.

The agreement was a result of talks in Beijing that began Monday as part of an initiative by Chinese President Xi Jinping aimed at “developing good neighborly relations” between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the three countries said in a joint statement. The agreement, which was signed by top Iranian security official Ali Shamkhani and Saudi national security adviser Musaed bin Mohammed al-Aiban, said embassies would be reopened within two months.

Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran in 2016 after the Saudi Embassy in Tehran was attacked and burned by Iranian protesters, angered by the kingdom’s execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr. The cleric had emerged as a leading figure in protests in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, a Shiite-majority region in the Sunni-majority nation.

[…] On Friday, John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said the United States welcomed the agreement but noted that Washington was not “directly involved.”

Kirby said it was too early to tell whether the deal would hold. “It really does remain to be seen whether the Iranians are going to honor their side,” he said. “This is not a regime that typically does honor its word. So we hope that they do. We’d like to see this war in Yemen end.”

Yemen has enjoyed a rare reprieve from fighting since April, when a truce sponsored by the United Nations went into effect. (more)

With the western alliance nations destroying their economies while simultaneously meddling around in European cultural and political affairs, the dynamic of the BRICS economic alliance also opens up within a Saudi-Iran peace process.  Economics is the oil that lubricates against geopolitical friction.

China is gaining influence, and Russia is gaining breathing room from WEF sanctions.

This will be very interesting to keep watching.

Mar 10 2023

Hoards -Even Gold


Armstrong Economics Blog/Hoards Re-Posted Mar 10, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

In times of economic distress, people will hoard their wealth. This is as true in ancient times as it is in modern times. I was called in about a hoard of gold – one thousand $20 St Gaudians gold coins all dated 1924 – uncirculated. As you see, I have a reputation for buying hoards as well as funding major archaeological digs. This was a hoard of US$20 gold coins. So I took the lot. As for those who say I hate gold, no, I have always loved the $20 st Gaudens.

Obviously, this was a stash. It was the year of a Presidential election and in 1925, Calvin Coolidge was the first President to have his inauguration broadcasted on radio. In 1921 the Chinese Communist movement began and in 1924 Stalin came to power after poisoning Lenin and his wife. The flight from Russia began in 1917, but it escalated by 1919. It is hard to say why this hoard was stashed away. But they are all dated 1924 and may have been connected to the upheaval in Russia. By the end of 1919, it was clear to almost everyone that the Bolsheviks had won the Civil War. The White armies were defeated on all fronts: Siberia, the Russian North, and Petrograd (as St Petersburg was then called).  Pravda on Aug. 31, 1918:

“Our cities must be mercilessly cleansed of the bourgeois rot. All these gentlemen will be put on file, and those who pose a danger to the revolutionary class will be destroyed … Henceforth, the hymn of the working class will be a song of hatred and revenge! ”

It was the White Russians who fled. It was estimated that at least 2 million fled Russia at the time. That was about 2%-3% of the surviving population by 1919. Given the date of this hoard and the condition, they were tucked away and never saw circulation. They may have been related to the turmoil in Russia.

A number of people have asked if I could put together sets of the 12 Caesars because I had mentioned I thought that could be done for half the price of the set being offered elsewhere. I am trying to get a small hoard of Caligula denarii. They are very difficult to find. I believe because he was so hated,  they may have just melted down his coinage.

It all depends on quality. I have purchased a small hoard of Julius Caesar coinage. I will try to see If I get these Caligula denarii. If I do, I will try to see if I can put together some sets with much more realistic prices.

I have purchased a hoard of late Constantine bronze. They are very reasonable.

I have purchased an early hoard of Gallic coinage of Postumus which is silver. I also have purchased a hoard of Victorinus which are bronze. This is the period of both the split in the Roman Empire as well as the collapse of the monetary system.

Others have asked if I can put together a progression of the coinage showing the debasement. I will try. Here is a photo showing the stark difference between the beginning of the region of Gallienus (253-268AD) and its end.