Month: March 2023

“It’s Not Rocket Science” – RH CEO Warns “This Is Not Normal, This Is Dangerous”

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– “It’s Not Rocket Science” – RH CEO Warns “This Is Not Normal, This Is Dangerous”:

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And now, in Q1, the comfortably outspoken Friedman turns up the threat amplifier to ’11’…

As the Q&A began, a question about a lower margin outlook prompted this:

“It’s not rocket science to know this is a really bad time,” according to a transcript from Bloomberg.

“The fact is, we’ve been in a massive housing recession for the past year,” Friedman continued.

“The data points to business in our sector likely getting worse before it gets better,” Friedman said, signaling additional headwinds from bank credit contraction ahead.

“I’ve been on the planet for long enough to know this is not normal, and this is dangerous,” he said.

He worries about the consumer (which is important given the high-end nature of his company’s products might suggest some insulation from that threat)…

“…the unsettling feeling as being a person on a Saturday afternoon is watching Warriors basketball game at the news cut to align formed around your local bank while the bank was sending hourly e-mails trying to tell you that they committed to serving you. It’s very unsettling…“

And more pointedly, he exclaimed that:

“Anybody that thinks it’s not a big deal, the three banks went down… is living in a — with a euphoric view of the world.”

Finally, Friedman offered some advice to policymakers:

“Just land the plane on the other side, whether it’s hard, whether it’s bumpy,” Friedman said.

“Just don’t completely crash. A complete crash would look like the ’70s and the ’80s. That will take over a decade to recover from.”

Subtle, and scary, as ever… but hey, just keep listening to the MSM and the Biden admin about how strong the consumer is… (remember how ‘sound’ the US financial system was a month ago too?)

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SEC’s Gensler Seeks $2.4 Billion In Funding To Chase Down Crypto ‘Misconduct’

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– SEC’s Gensler Seeks $2.4 Billion In Funding To Chase Down Crypto ‘Misconduct’:

United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler says the regulator is spread thin and needs additional funding to keep up with the “increased complexity in the capital markets.”

United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler has thrown his support behind U.S. President Joe Biden’s request to allocate a record $2.4 billion in funding for the regulator, highlighting the ongoing need to crack down on “misconduct” in the cryptocurrency industry.

In prepared testimony for the March 29 budget hearing with the House Appropriations Committee, Gensler said the additional funding was needed to keep up the pace of innovation, adding:

“Rapid technological innovation in the financial markets has led to misconduct in emerging and new areas, not least in the crypto space. Addressing this requires new tools, expertise, and resources.”

The additional funding would allow the SEC to hire 170 additional staff, most of whom would work within its enforcement and examination divisions, said Gensler.

The SEC chair said that the prior year’s budget increase allowed it to bring staffing levels above what it was in 2016 for the first time, but said the regulatory agency was still stretched thin, adding:

“As the cop on the beat, we must be able to meet the match of bad actors. Thus, it makes sense for the SEC to grow along with the expansion and increased complexity in the capital markets.”

Gensler again described crypto as the wild west, suggesting the nascent industry is “rife with noncompliance,” and that crypto investors were putting their “hard-earned assets at risk in a highly speculative asset class.”

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Barclays strategist: The first wave of deposit outflows is nearly over. A second wave has already started.

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– The first wave of deposit outflows is nearly over. A second wave has already started, this strategist says:

The federal government’s efforts to backstop the banking system, and deals found to put SVB Financial and Signature Bank in new ownership, seems to have stabilized the financial sector, and calmed markets.

Joseph Abate, an interest-rate strategist at Barclays, says the Federal Reserve’s establishment of the Bank Term Funding Program as well as the abundant cash raised from advances borrowed from Federal Home Loan Banks has allowed banks to accumulate large buffers to meet deposit outflows. “And while market psychology is still fragile, our sense is that deposit outflows from small to large banks will fade as depositors recognize they can access and transfer their balances without any hitches,” says Abate.

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But Abate says a second wave of deposit departures has started — to money-market funds. Depositors generally have kept their money in banks despite paltry returns, usually thanks to the broad array of services that banks provide, as well as what Abate calls “deposit rate inattentiveness.”

“It is too hard to shift balances or to establish a new relationship with another institution unless there is a large, convincing yield pickup. But some of it could reflect the fact that after 15 years of near-zero rates, depositors are not in the habit of paying much attention to the yield on their cash balances,” he says.

Whatever the reason, depositors now see they can earn more yield in a money market fund with potentially less risk, Abate says.

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KGB Defector Yuri Bezmenov reveals Russian Subversion Tactics (G. Edward Griffin – Full Interview – 1984) – Yuri Bezmenov REACTION By The Man Who Created The Video! G.Edward Griffin: The Story Behind Yuri (Video)

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Short video:

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Full interview:

– KGB Defector Yuri Bezmenov reveals Russian Subversion Tactics (G. Edward Griffin – Full Interview – 1984)

More:

– Yuri Bezmenov REACTION By The Man Who Created The Video! G.Edward Griffin: The Story Behind Yuri (Video)

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Denver’s Coldest Start To A Year Since 1979; There Will Be Skiing On 4th Of July; + “Once In A Generation Snow” Hits North America’s Hottest Desert

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#GrandSolarMinimum, #GlobalCooling…

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Musk, Wozniak Call For Pause In Developing ‘More Powerful’ AI Than GPT-4

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– Musk, Wozniak Call For Pause In Developing ‘More Powerful’ AI Than GPT-4:

Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio and others have signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause in developing new AI tools more powerful than GPT-4, the technology released earlier this month by Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks, and we must ask ourselves: Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization? Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders. Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable. –futureoflife.org

“We’ve reached the point where these systems are smart enough that they can be used in ways that are dangerous for society,” said Bengio, director of the University of Montreal’s Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms, adding “And we don’t yet understand.”

Read moreMusk, Wozniak Call For Pause In Developing ‘More Powerful’ AI Than GPT-4

Zelensky Admits Fear Of Waning Support In US: “If They Stop Helping Us, We Will Not Win”

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– Zelensky Admits Fear Of Waning Support In US: “If They Stop Helping Us, We Will Not Win”:

President Volodymyr Zelensky is deeply concerned over ‘Ukraine fatigue’ taking over the West, and especially among the populace of his government’s biggest supporter, funder, and weapons supplier – the United States.

“The United States really understands that if they stop helping us, we will not win,” he told the AP in a fresh interview published Wednesday. Waning support has been especially noticeable among Republican voters, according to recent polls, and as we recently reviewed in an article, “The Trump, DeSantis, Tucker Effect: New Polls Show Republicans Increasingly Done With Ukraine.”

He issued the words specifically in reference to the still raging battle for the strategic city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. Russian forces have it nearly surrounded, even as Kiev has continued to throw additional manpower and weaponry into the city’s defense at a huge cost and amid mounting casualties.

Zelensky described that the capture of Bakhmut will mean that Putin will smell weakness. According to the Ukrainian leader’s words:

Read moreZelensky Admits Fear Of Waning Support In US: “If They Stop Helping Us, We Will Not Win”

Peter Schiff: Bank Bailouts Will Devalue The Dollar (Video)

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– Peter Schiff: Bank Bailouts Will Devalue The Dollar:

Peter Schiff appeared on NTD News to talk about the bank bailout and the March Federal Reserve meeting. During the conversation, Peter explained that everybody is going to pay for these bailouts because they will ultimately devalue the dollar as inflation skyrockets.

During his press conference after the March FOMC meeting, Jerome Powell said the banking system is “sound and resilient.” Peter said it’s not sound at all.

It’s a house of cards that is starting to collapse.”

Peter explained how the banking system became so unsound.

First, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates at zero for over a decade. During that time, banks loaded up on low-yielding, long-term Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. With interest rates so low, they had to go out further on the yield curve. And the reason they were able to take so much risk is because the government guarantees bank accounts. That created a moral hazard. Customers didn’t care what the banks did with their money because they knew the government would bail them out.

Read morePeter Schiff: Bank Bailouts Will Devalue The Dollar (Video)

EU To End Sales Of New Gasoline And Diesel Cars In 2035

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#Agenda21, #NWO…

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– EU To End Sales Of New Gasoline And Diesel Cars In 2035:

The European Union member states on Tuesday approved an emissions regulation under which the bloc will end sales of new carbon dioxide-emitting cars and vans in 2035.

The new rules target 55% CO2 emission reductions for new cars and 50% for new vans from 2030 to 2034 compared to 2021 levels, as well as 100% CO2 emission reductions for both new cars and vans from 2035, the EU said today.

The landmark deal was made possible after Germany – the biggest economy, the biggest car market, and the biggest car manufacturer – sought and won an exemption for e-fuels. Germany wanted sales of new cars with internal combustion engines if they run on e-fuels to continue beyond 2035, and it got it late last week. 

Read moreEU To End Sales Of New Gasoline And Diesel Cars In 2035

World Bank Warns Of ‘Lost Economic Decade’ As Turmoil Spreads

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Translation: The Greatest Depression has arrived.

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– World Bank Warns Of ‘Lost Economic Decade’ As Turmoil Spreads:

The world is in a precarious situation, with the potential for nuclear conflict. Central banks are taking aggressive measures to address decades-high inflation by raising interest rates, which in turn is causing a banking crisis in the Western world. As recession risks surge worldwide and international trade fractures, the future of the global economy appears to be heading down a dark path.

“A lost decade could be in the making for the global economy,” Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics, warned in a new report.

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