Puppet MastersS


Stock Down

JPM CEO says 'system is very, very sound' after second largest US bank failure in history

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 01 May 2023 21:51 UTC
first republic
Update (0835ET): After another massive bank failure - and taxpayer-funded bailout - JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told listeners on an investor call this morning that "The system is very, very sound."

Doesn't seem like it Jamie, old chap? But hey, whatever you say now as the CEO of a bank that holds over 10% of America's deposits. "We need large, successful banks in the largest economy," Dimon continued, proclaiming that "this is nothing like '08 or '09."

Well he is right, in so much as this is far larger... and we really don't know where the CRE holes on bank balance sheets are (even as Charlie Munger warns they are everywhere).

The good news, Dimon declares regarding bank failures, "this is getting near the end of it." Though how he would know that is hard to comprehend?
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Arrow Down

Dollar being 'gradually abandoned' - IMF boss


RT
Tue, 02 May 2023 20:13 UTC
Kristalina Georgieva
© AFP / Patrick T. FallonKristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on May 1, 2023.
The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said the US dollar is gradually losing its status as the world's main reserve currency.

Speaking on Monday, Kristalina Georgieva noted that there is no viable alternative among global currencies to replace the greenback in the near future.

"There has been gradual shift away from the dollar, it was 70% of reserves, now it is slightly under 60%," Georgieva stated at the 2023 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California.

According to the IMF chief, the euro can be viewed as the biggest competitor to the dollar, while the British pound, the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan "play a very modest role."

Comment: Check out Pepe Escobar's analysis for a more insightful commentary than the soud bites offered by Georgieva: Escobar: De-dollarization kicks into high gear. He states the dollar share of global reserves is actually at 47% in 2022 (probably from Stephen Jen, head of Eurizon SLJ Capital), which is likely more in line with the massive geopolitical shifts we have seen over the last years.

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Alarm Clock

The economy is a powder keg, boiling over and ready to blow

Quoth the Raven
QTR's Fringe Finance
Mon, 01 May 2023 00:00 UTC
tea kettle
Since March, five major banks have collapsed. Pressure is building up in the economic system while our government crosses the Rubicon with how they handle policy. Something's going to blow.

A long time ago, in a different lifetime, I used to work at an industrial plant that operated several 20-ton chemical processes. Our processes operated using a closed-loop system, in the absence of oxygen, and were not pressurized.

We monitored each aspect of our processes using an array of gauges, pressure sensors, thermocouples, and other devices to make sure things were running smoothly at any given point.

Near the midpoint of each process, we had a blowoff valve — a long piece of piping that led to the outside of the building, fitted with a seal that was set to blow out when it reached a certain pounds per square inch (PSI) threshold. The valve was meant to be a safety mechanism so that if, inadvertently, pressure started to build up inside of the process, it would "blow off" outside the building, instead of turning our process into a 20-ton pressure bomb waiting to explode. It's the same principle that causes a kettle to scream when the steam reaches a certain pressure inside: the whistle only goes off once the water gets hot enough to create enough steam.
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Oil Well

Europe pays more for banned Russian oil, resold by India - as EU wages tumble

Ben Norton
Geopolitical Economy Report
Sun, 30 Apr 2023 15:02 UTC
putin russian oil van der leyen oil imports
Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Union leader Ursula van der Leyen
The EU sanctioned Russia and boycotted its oil, yet is still buying it indirectly from India, at a higher price. This is fueling both de-dollarization and inflation in the Eurozone, where workers' real wages dropped 6.5% from 2020 to 2022.

The European Union heavily sanctioned Russia and pledged to boycott its oil, yet continues to buy it, and at an even higher price, albeit indirectly.

India is importing record levels of discounted Russian crude, purchasing it in currencies other than the dollar. India then refines the Russian oil and exports fuel to Europe at a profit.

Meanwhile, increasing energy costs in Europe have stoked inflation, causing workers' wages to significantly decline.The real wages of workers in the Eurozone fell by 6.5% between 2020 and 2022.

As of April, Bloomberg reported, European imports of refined fuel from India are approaching 360,000 barrels per day.

Comment: The collective West is committing suicide at the behest of neocon ideology.

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Eye 1

The World Economic Forum says it will 'accelerate' implementation of globalist agenda 2030

Jake Welch
National Pulse
Wed, 26 Apr 2023 00:01 UTC
klaus schwab davos
World leaders will be gathering together later this year to "accelerate the implementation of Agenda 2030," according to an announcement made by the unaccountable, corporate-led World Economic Forum (WEF) earlier this week.

The United Nations (UN) and the WEF appear frustrated by a lack of progress made towards their 'Great Reset' ideology, alongside Agenda 2030, the socialist, ideological successor to the failed "Millennium Development Goals".

The WEF - led by German engineer Klaus Schwab, whose father once worked for the Nazi Party apparatus - has said previous efforts to implement their plans "suffered unforeseen setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, major negative impacts of climate change, and the rising cost of food and fuel everywhere due to the conflict in Ukraine."

Comment: See also:

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Info

The British are showing signs of goodwill to China, but they aren't the ones calling the shots

Timur Fomenko
RT
Sun, 30 Apr 2023 01:05 UTC
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly
© Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesBritish Foreign Secretary James Cleverly leaves 10 Downing Street after attending the weekly Cabinet meeting in London, United Kingdom on April 25, 2023.
The UK foreign secretary says antagonizing Beijing goes against London's 'national interests', but Washington has other ideas.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly claimed in a recent keynote speech that trying to "isolate China" would constitute a "betrayal of [the UK's] national interests." He also spoke out against a "new Cold War."

Although he denounced Beijing on a range of issues, including Hong Kong and the alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang, Cleverly's underlying message was: "No significant global problem - from climate change to pandemic prevention, from economic stability to nuclear proliferation - can be solved without China."

Comment: See also:

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Cow Skull

Why are so many COVID authoritarians suddenly shifting their narratives?


Zerohedge
Mon, 01 May 2023 13:40 UTC
Fauci
In February of 2019, the White House under Trump established the position of Chief Medical Advisor to the President. The fist person to occupy that position was a physician by the name of Ronnie Jackson and his job was to advise Donald Trump on public health policy. Right before the initial outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Jackson left the post and it remained vacant for a year; instead the role was filled for the most part by Anthony Fauci, who did not become the next Chief Medical Advisor officially until Joe Biden entered office.

After numerous conflicts with Trump on policies and mandates, Fauci transitioned seamlessly into the new Democrat controlled White House. Biden and Fauci were like two peas in a pod.

Fauci is a figure with a controversial career in virology and medicine and the key official best known for spreading false claims that created nationwide hysteria over the HIV/AIDS virus. Why Trump brought him in as an adviser and who recommended him is not widely known and opinions vary. What we do know is that the elevation of Fauci as a primary point of contact for covid rules was disastrous for the country as a whole. Specifically, his prominence within the Biden Administration brought America to the brink of medical authoritarianism on a scale that could have erased the Bill of Rights for good.
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Snakes in Suits

Antony Blinken and the 'made men' of the Biden administration

Jonathan Turley
The Hill
Sat, 22 Apr 2023 23:17 UTC
joe biden blinken evan ryan burisma hunter laptop
Emails from Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop show Tony Blinken (center) and his wife Evan Ryan (right) were both embroiled in an alleged improper attempt to influence government officials
Secretary of State Antony Blinken would really, really prefer to talk about grain in Ukraine this week. But many people are less interested in what Blinken is doing as secretary of state than in what he did to become secretary of state.

This week, Blinken was implicated in a political coverup that could well have made the difference in the 2020 election. According to the sworn testimony of former acting CIA Director Michael Morrell, Blinken - then a high-ranking Biden campaign official - was "the impetus" of the false claim that the Hunter Biden laptop story was really Russian disinformation. Morrell then organized dozens of ex-national security officials to sign the letter claiming that the Hunter laptop story had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."


Comment: Anyone who believed that at the time--or gave it any support as a remotely plausible suggestion--should be barred for life from any position of social influence whatsoever.


Morrell further admitted that the Biden campaign "helped to strategize about the public release of the statement."

Finally, he admitted that one of his goals was not just to warn about Russian influence but "to help then-Vice President Biden in the debate and to assist him in winning the election."

Help it did. Biden claimed in a presidential debate that the laptop story was "garbage" and part of a "Russian plan." Biden used the letter to say "nobody believes" that the laptop is real.


Comment: In other words, the POTUS is a mendacious liar. His senility alone should bar him from his position. His mendacity deserves somewhat harsher consequences.


In reality, the letter was part of a political plan with the direct involvement of his campaign, but Biden never revealed their involvement. Indeed, over years of controversy surrounding this debunked letter, no one in the Biden campaign or White House (including Blinken) revealed their involvement.
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Black Cat

The net widens: US Secretary of State Blinken embroiled in alleged attempt to influence US officials on Burisma

Josh Boswell
The Daily Mail
Mon, 01 May 2023 21:15 UTC
joe biden blinken evan ryan burisma hunter laptop
Emails from Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop show Tony Blinken (center) and his wife Evan Ryan (right) were both embroiled in an alleged improper attempt to influence government officials
Secretary of State Tony Blinken and his wife, Joe Biden's cabinet secretary Evan Ryan, were both embroiled in an alleged attempt to influence US government officials on behalf of Ukrainian gas firm Burisma, emails show.

Blinken told Senate investigators under oath in 2020 that he had 'no knowledge of Hunter Biden's service on the board' of Burisma, and didn't know about Blue Star Strategies, a Democrat consultancy hired by the firm in 2015 to improve its image in Washington DC.

But State Department emails show he spoke with Blue Star's CEO Karen Tramontano at a political event around July 2016 while he was Deputy Secretary of State, and agreed to have a coffee with her to discuss 'some troubling events we are seeing in Ukraine'.

And July 14, 2016 emails from Hunter's laptop show the First Son checked in with Blinken's wife to try to make sure he took a call from Tramontano and her chief operating officer Sally Painter - as well as meeting with Blinken himself at his State Department office in July 2015.

Comment: A raft of reports at the time of the 2016 election, although, as mentioned, Blinken's involvement was not apparent at the time. Ms. Tramantano had many connections:

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Light Sabers

Russia launches large-scale attack on Ukraine's military-industrial facilities


RT
Mon, 01 May 2023 18:48 UTC
missile
© Sputnik / The Russian Defense Ministry
The Russian military has launched a large-scale missile attack against Ukraine's military industry, disrupting production of weaponry and munitions, the Defense Ministry said on Monday.

"Tonight, the Russian Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a group missile attack with long-range precision weapons, air and sea based, on the military-industrial complex of Ukraine," the ministry said during its daily media briefing, adding that "all assigned targets were hit."

While the Russian military did not specify which locations had been targeted exactly, Ukrainian media reported strikes in Kiev, Sumy and Dnepropetrovsk regions. The latter has apparently experienced the worst, with a massive explosion reported on the outskirts of the city of Pavlograd.

Unverified footage circulating online shows the aftermath of the strikes near the city. The attack apparently also caused a massive secondary explosion, followed by multiple lesser blasts. Available footage shows numerous columns of white smoke at the location, typically caused by the detonation of solid-fuel projectiles such as anti-aircraft missiles.
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