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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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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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)
This is huge in the geopolitical world. China operated as a broker in the structurally unstable relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
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.
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.
Credit Suisse has gone from one crisis to the next. Last month alone, the bank reported that customers have withdrawn $120 billion. A rogue employee stole the names of people with $50 million or more and probably gave that to tax authorities for a bribe – the second time this has taken place in Switzerland.
The Swiss bank is telling some top clients with $50 million or more in the bank that sensitive personal information including social security identification, employment information, and contact details has been compromised. The leaked information came from a whistle-blower, for money, who shared his findings with the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, according to a press release. Credit Suisse wrote that a rogue employee has taken individuals’ data, “an individual employee, who has since left the firm and had legitimate access to your personal data at the time for their daily work, inappropriately copied this information without Credit Suisse’s authorization onto their personal device.”
The bank told clients that it would enroll them in an identity theft protection service, Identity Works, but wouldn’t pay for other fees, some as low as $20, associated with protecting their identity as a result of the theft, sources add. While Credit Suisse said clients can file a report with the Federal Trade Commission or a state Attorney General, the bank won’t cover any of those filing costs either.
While the major support lies at the 2.37 followed by extreme long-term support at the 1.60 level, it still appears that we should see a temporary low form here in 2023. We would need to rally and close above the 3.60 level for year-end to imply a 2023 low would hold.
After his review of the Twitter Files, Michael Shellenberger is beginning to take a big picture approach to each of the discoveries. {Direct Rumble Link}
Shellenberger, appears on Tucker Carlson tonight to discuss how in the big picture the U.S. government is conducting psychological warfare against domestic citizens through the auspices of Twitter and likely other social media platforms. He’s not wrong, we’ve been calling it out in real time. WATCH:
Semi-related. You might remember for several months CTH has been outlining the state of the issues between the United States and Mexico regarding energy policy. Within the dynamic I have said repeatedly to “watch Mexico” through the prism of: what would the USIC, specifically in this instance the CIA, do to turn American sentiment against Mexico?
Remember me repeatedly saying that? Within those questions, and from that baseline, you will discover why I have not been writing about a Mexican cartel kidnapping four American hostages, killing two.
CCTV video drives home the point of danger in Mexico.
Yes, Mexico is dangerous. Yes, drug cartels run a great deal of Mexico including significant control of the Mexican government, military and police. Yes, the cartels are bad people, and they commit horrible atrocities.
Yes, this well-known history of violence also provides a convenient cover for a U.S. intel operation…. if the U.S. government (CIA) was so inclined.
Unfortunately, in the current state of U.S. politics, one cannot rule out completely the latest story of Mexican kidnapping as a possible U.S. intelligence operation.
Would the U.S. government do, participate in, or stimulate to an outcome, something that horrific just because they were positioning an anti-Mexico narrative as a baseline for U.S. policy toward the Mexican government?
The well publicized CCTV video of the event certainly helped drive a point home. Can you rule out the CIA involvement?
Making tinfoil matters worse, I previously emphasized, “The U.S. and Canada are going to push every possible political pressure point in order to force Mexico to change energy policy. The stakes are high. It is going to be remarkable to watch what happens as this battle takes place. Watch Mexico in 2023.” {LINK} A few weeks later, with more data assembled, I added, “I’m not talking about little threats, or ordinary economic pressure points; watch closely how the U.S threats are established. The ideologues around Joe Biden will seek to destroy AMLO if he does not go along with the energy change effort. {LINK}
Within these psychological operations, one must always assess exactly where our feeling of outrage is coming from.
I did not get to watch the House Judiciary Subcommittee testimony in real time because, well, life interrupts. However, I am catching up this evening. I find myself needing to draw attention to a particular brand of familiar bullsh*t from former DOJ Lawyer and current New York Freshman Representative Daniel Goldman.
In the exchange below, prompted to 10:55, notice how weasel Goldman posits the Mueller/Weissmann Special Counsel Russian indictments as some form of evidence that Russia (a) interfered in the election, and that Russia (b) hacked and dumped the DNC emails in 2016; neither of which is factually accurate….. but he blathers on.
Unfortunately, Taibbi and Shellenberger were not deep enough in the weeds back in 2018 to appropriately skewer Dan Goldman with the verbal takedown he deserved. What Goldman is saying is ridiculous, and he counts on people not knowing the details of the Mueller/Weissmann schemes.
Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein held two big press conferences announcing indictments of Russian actors in 2018. One in February and one in July, both at critical moments for the fraudulent cover operation being done by Mueller. [Citation Here – And HERE – And Here]
These are the “indictments” Goldman cites. However, the indictments were sealed within the DOJ-National Security Division, specifically so that no one could deconstruct them. Goldman is asking Taibbi to read indictments that are not even possible to see. They never were. The only thing the public saw were Weissmann and team’s descriptions of the claims within the indictments we were never permitted to review…. because, well, national security. WATCH:
Insert the familiar and hilarious case of the Russian Concord Catering Company that was indicted. Yes, Mueller/Weissmann actually indicted a place that makes ham sandwiches. The correct “Concord” company eventually took the DOJ case to court and made fun of the stupid Amerikans so much the DOJ ended up dropping the case while claiming they would have to put national security at risk (sources and methods) if they took the case to trial.
In February 2018, they needed a big presser to get away from the Senator Warner texts with Adam Waldman (Oleg Deripaska, Dan Jones, Chris Steele et al), while simultaneously trying to run an operation to deflect attention from the FBI discovery of SSCI Security Director James Wolfe and his leaking of the FISA application. The February Russian indictments were intended to: (a) suck oxygen, (b) deflect from a collapsing Trump-Russia narrative (Nunes Memo), and (c) prop up the Mueller probe.
The July 2018 indictments of Russian Intelligence Officials, was even worse. This set [READ HERE] evaporated immediately following the press conference. The media ran with the narrative, yet there was nothing public that would ever support the indictments… because, national security. Seeing a pattern?
This is in the same July 2018 when the Mueller team publicly released the Carter Page FISA application, again another distraction and first ever release of a Top Secret Compartmented FISA warrant {eyeroll here}… that was already in the media hands from the soon to be made public James Wolfe indictment. This is the exact same time when the Mueller team told the FISA court that the predicate for the FISA warrant was structurally sound. It wasn’t.
Both the February and July 2018 Russian indictments were indictments (accusations) in name only. None of it was pursued except by the Russian Concord group who wanted to go to court to embarrass the Mueller probe… which was the real motive for the DOJ dropping it. Daniel Goldman knows all of this.
The great pretending continues….
I hate them all.
Last point. See what I mean about congress and their staffs being clueless about the details of events. Any of those Congress people could have mopped the floor with Goldman and made an epic moment for television sunlight… except they don’t know the background. They are genuinely clueless. Principals and Staff, totally clueless. Even on this House subcommittee.
Journalist Matt Taibbi released another Twitter File review today [#18 Available Here] showcasing how the opinion of government interests was pushed toward content censorship regardless of the truth within it.
File #18 release is a walk through all of government interests from COVID-19, Vaccination Compliance and maintenance of the Trump-Russia narrative.
I strongly suggest everyone to review the citations Taibbi presents from the documents contained within Twitter’s internal communication. SEE HERE.
One aspect that draws particular interest to those who spent years deconstructing the false Trump-Russia narrative, appears in the section beginning in Tweet #34 where Taibbi again visits the influence of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI).
At the epicenter of the SSCI effort we have always found then Vice-Chair Mark Warner manipulating events. Taibbi pulls this thread a little further with his review of how the SSCI contracted with outside government agencies to maintain the false premise of Russian interference in the 2016 election. A name that might be familiar to those who read the SSCI report on “Russian Active Measures and Disinformation in the 2016 Campaign” might be familiar to you. Taibbi notes:
Profiles portray [Renee] DiResta as a warrior against Russian bots and misinformation, but reporters never inquire about work with DARPA, GEC, and other agencies. In the video below from @MikeBenzCyber, Stamos introduces [Renee DiResta] as having “worked for the CIA.”
DiResta has become the public face of the Censorship-Industrial Complex, a name promoted everywhere as an unquestioned authority on truth, fact, and Internet hygiene, even though her former firm, New Knowledge, has been embroiled in two major disinformation scandals.
This, ultimately, is the most serious problem with the Censorship-Industrial Complex. Packaged as a bulwark against lies and falsehood, it is itself often a major source of disinformation, with American taxpayers funding their own estrangement from reality.
DiResta’s New Knowledge helped design the Hamilton 68 project exposed in the #TwitterFiles. Although it claimed to track “Russian influence,” Hamilton really followed Americans like “Ultra Maga Dog Mom,” “Right2Liberty,” even a British rugby player named Rod Bishop.
On page #3 of the SSCI report, you will note how Renee DiResta was a key player in helping Mark Warner and the Senate Intel Committee to maintain a false narrative against the presidency of Donald Trump. [pdf, page #3 – citation below]:
You can see how the legislative branch, the Senate Intelligence Committee, the same institution that created the weaponized intelligence apparatus where they held oversight, subcontracted the Trump-Russia evidence finding to partners of the intelligence community. This is a symbiotic relationship.
Taibbi is on the right trail in following the SSCI and HPSCI manipulation of the social media platforms, specifically Twitter. In addition to the SSCI creating the structure that supports the intelligence weaponization by DHS and FBI, Senate Intel Chair Richard Burr and then Senate Intel Vice-Chair Mark Warner are at the epicenter of it.
In 2016, Virginia’s Ken Cuccinelli was one of the lead voices behind the never-Trump pro-Cruz effort. Cuccinelli was the main floor voice trying to lead a revolt against Donald Trump at the 2016 GOP nomination convention.
After President Trump won the nomination, Cuccinelli became a fake MAGA supporter in order to retain influence in Republican politics; however, he was always of a never-Trump disposition despite President Trump letting bygones be bygones for the Cruz folks.
Now we enter 2024 and Ken Cuccinelli, a political grifter of the most extreme variant, goes back into never-Trump mode in support of Ron DeSantis and launches a Political Action Committee to support the Florida Governor. [LINK]
…[…] The Trump campaign isn’t alone in preparing for a delegate fight. Other prominent Republicans, including Ken Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general and a top delegate expert, have been discussing amendments to the delegate rules, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Cuccinelli declined to comment, saying only that he was not publicly committed to a candidate. (March 4, 2023)
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