GOP rep. exposes ‘underlying cause’ of SVB’s collapse~Biden admin is ‘built upon a lie’ causing ‘disasters everywhere’~Why The US Banking System Is BREAKING UP!!!~BANK Stocks COLLAPSE After Biden Says Banking System ‘Sound’

Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., discusses the impact of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse and slams President Biden’s response on ‘Mornings with Maria'.

Biden admin is 'built upon a lie' causing 'disasters everywhere'

DR. STEVE TURLEY: Why The US Banking System Is BREAKING UP!!!

BANK Stocks COLLAPSE After Biden Says Banking System 'Sound'

Biden To Sign Anti-2A Executive Order TODAY!

https://www.ammoland.com/2023/03/nssf-reaction-to-presidents-gun-control-executive-order/

FOX NEWS GOES LIBERAL & ANTI-GUN: 

"What Biden's executive order on gun control means" TO LIBERALS!

Michael Lawlor, associate professor of Criminal Justice at the University of New Haven in Connecticut, discusses how Biden's executive order is not new legislation, but rather works to enforce existing gun laws.

New Executive Action Against Gun Rights

China Brokers Deal Between Iran and Saudi Arabia. What’s Next?

China Brokers Deal Between Iran and Saudi Arabia. What’s Next?

BY ANGELINE TAN

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/china-brokers-deal-between-iran-and-saudi-arabia-whats-next/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

On March 10, Saudi Arabia and Iran reached a diplomatic milestone when they agreed to reboot normalized ties in a deal brokered by China.

The countries unveiled their plans in a joint statement confirming that the two largest Middle Eastern nations by area will restart diplomatic relations after severing ties in 2016 when protesters stormed the kingdom’s embassy in Teheran after Saudi Arabia’s execution of a key Saudi Shi’ite cleric. The ensuing conflict between the two Islamic nations, situated less than 240 kilometers away from each other across the Persian Gulf, has long influenced politics and trade in the Middle East.

Tensions reached an alarming high in 2019 when a missile and drone assault on a key Saudi oil installation impacted half of the kingdom’s crude production. U.S. officials claimed that Iran was directly responsible for the assault, though Iran denied involvement.

Besides, both countries have been fighting what is essentially a proxy war in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is targeting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

Saudi officials have also frequently voiced concerns over Iran’s nuclear program, saying that the kingdom would be Iran’s first target.

However, Friday’s deal would see a thaw in frosty ties, with each side reopening embassies in the other country within two months. Notably, this agreement was signed after four days of hitherto-classified talks in Beijing between top security officials from the two Middle Eastern powers. It was inked by Iran’s top security official, Ali Shamkhani, and Saudi Arabia’s national security advisor, Musaed bin Mohammed Al-Aiban. A third signatory was China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi.

Both Middle Eastern countries thanked China, as well as Iraq and Oman for arranging earlier talks in 2021 and 2022.

“Talks were advanced on the basis of the consensus of the leaders of China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran…. China will continue to play a constructive role in handling hot-spot issues, (and) demonstrate our responsibility as a major nation,” said Wang.

Wang also pointed out that the talks demonstrated that the Ukraine crisis is not the only problem in the world and that there were many issues revolving around peace and people’s livelihoods that need proper handling.

In turn, Iraq lauded the agreement, saying the move would signify a new chapter between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

“A new page has been opened in diplomatic relations between the two countries,” read a statement from the Foreign Ministry of Iraq, which has conducted various rounds of reconciliation talks for the Iranians and Saudis since 2021.

A senior Iranian security official said Friday’s agreement was backed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“That is why Shamkhani traveled to China as the supreme leader’s representative,” the official told Reuters. “The establishment wanted to show that the top authority in Iran backed this decision.”

Observers contend that this plan would most likely have far-reaching ramifications throughout the Middle East and the rest of the world.

For instance, Beijing’s involvement displays China’s rising clout in the region as well as the dwindling global influence of the United States, said Jon Alterman of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“The not-so-subtle message that China is sending is that while the United States is the preponderant military power in the Gulf, China is a powerful and arguably rising diplomatic presence,” he said.

China’s role in brokering the deal could have “significant implications” for Washington, said Daniel Russel, the U.S. diplomat for East Asia under former president Barack Obama.

Russel said it is rare for China to independently broker a diplomatic deal in a conflict with which it is not involved.

“The question is whether this is the shape of things to come,” he said. “Could it be a precursor to a Chinese mediation effort between Russia and Ukraine when [President Xi Jinping] visits Moscow?”

Media outlet AFP reported China as being the “godfather” of the agreement, as its influence over Iran was key to reassuring the Saudis, citing analysts.

“This may be a sign of [China’s] growing confidence in its regional presence, it may be a sign that it thinks there is space to challenge US preponderance in the Middle East. In any case, it looks like a diplomatic win for China and a significant departure from its regional approach up to this point,” senior resident Atlantic Council fellow Jonathan Fulton told AFP.

For years, China has been trying to rival America’s role as a global superpower. Friday’s agreement was a big diplomatic win for China, challenging America’s influence in the Middle East.

The mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, the Global Times, praised the deal as a major indicator of Beijing’s influence as a global power, and the corresponding decline of American influence under aging Democrat President Joe Biden.

The Global Times further quoted analysts who credited Beijing with working out a deal between the Saudis and Iranians and providing stability to counter the “impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”

Alluding to the deal, Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group said,

The White House has come out and said that it’s quite OK with the fact that they are reestablishing diplomatic relations, but it’s also clear that the United States could never have brokered this because it cannot speak to Iran directly. So if Iran and Saudi Arabia want to go ahead with this, they needed another intermediary, and that clearly was China. Now, is the United States happy that China is starting to present — profile itself in the Middle East as a potential broker of relations and with a history where it has had huge and growing economic and commercial investments and interests and is now starting to dabble in the political sphere? I’m sure that there are some concerns about the rising power of China that is starting to manifest itself in the Middle East as well on the political level.

Regarding America’s stance, White House spokesman John Kirby said that although Washington was not directly involved in Friday’s deal, Saudi Arabia informed U.S. officials of the talks.

Kirby seemed to minimize China’s role in Friday’s development, saying that internal and external pressure, including successful Saudi deterrence against attacks from Iran or its proxies, eventually convinced Teheran to normalize relations with the Saudis.

Nonetheless, former senior U.S. and UN official Jeffrey Feltman said China’s role, rather than the reopening of embassies after six years, is the most significant aspect of the agreement.

“This will be interpreted — probably accurately — as a slap at the Biden administration and as evidence that China is the rising power,” said Feltman, a fellow at the Brookings Institution.

“China doesn’t have the capacity to play a bigger security role in the region,” commented Sanam Vakil, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, a London think tank. But the deal to restore diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia “foreshadows its potential to be an appealing alternative to Washington.”

Indeed, this recent deal brokered by China further adds to the communist state’s influence in the Gulf region, after authoritarian leader Xi Jinping’s meeting the leaders of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations in December last year.

In December, Xi had urged the Gulf countries — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates — to conduct bilateral oil and gas transactions in the Chinese yuan rather than the U.S. dollar by using the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange as a platform.

Xi’s December trip marked “the birth of the petroyuan,” and China’s drive “to rewrite the rules of the global energy market,” according to Credit Suisse analyst Zoltan Pozsar, whose comments were published in a British newspaper.

Pozsar had previously said that China hoped to de-dollarize parts of the world since the U.S. dollar’s hegemonic status was used to undermine Russia. He acknowledged that Xi’s declaration was part of “a larger effort to de-dollarize” the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) “and many other parts of the world after the weaponization of dollar foreign exchange reserves” coinciding with the onset of the Ukraine-Russia crisis last year.

Dampening American influence in the region even further has been the tense relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia, particularly since the 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who had criticized the Saudi regime. Based on U.S. intelligence reports in 2021, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman authorized an operation to kill or capture Khashoggi.

Also, with the United States having strained ties with Iran for decades since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, it would be less able than China to arrange a deal such as last Friday’s between the Iranians and Saudis. In contrast, China has bought huge amounts of oil from Saudi Arabia and has maintained warm ties with Iran.

“It should be a warning to US policymakers: Leave the Middle East and abandon ties with sometimes frustrating, even barbarous, but long-standing allies, and you’ll simply be leaving a vacuum for China to fill,” said Jonathan Panikoff, the director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative for the Atlantic Council, in a Friday statement.

It could be said that this deal reflects a shift in Saudi foreign policy away from the United States. While the United States remains Saudi Arabia’s largest military supplier, recent years have shown that the desert kingdom has been wooing several powers, including Russia, China, and now, Iran.

With Washington increasingly preoccupied with sending Ukraine hundreds of billions of dollars in economic and military aid, the Middle East is trying to address its old divisions and ease tensions. Beijing’s ability to talk to all sides without lecturing them on human rights has thus far seemed to be a more appealing prospect for the region’s many authoritarian regimes.

Nevertheless, U.S. ally Israel lambasted last Friday’s announcement, stating it proved Washington’s and Israel’s “weakness” toward Tehran. “There was a feeling of US and Israeli weakness and this is why the Saudis started looking for new avenues. It was clear that this was going to happen,” a senior Israeli official told reporters traveling with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Axios.

This new development would make Israel’s goal to target Iranian nuclear facilities and Washington’s plans to destabilize the Iranian government even more challenging.

An unnamed senior Israeli political official accused former Prime Ministers Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett for Friday’s China-brokered deal, after criticism from the opposition to the Netanyahu government for missing an opportunity to boost ties with Arab states.

In a statement to the Israeli paper Ynet, the official said, “The contacts between the countries started a year ago, during the term of the previous government, because there was a feeling of Israeli and American weakness. Weakness brings rapprochement with Iran, while strength pushes rapprochement away.”

“It is important to form a strong position against Iran, both in the United States and in Europe. The Israeli policy of preventing Iran from arming itself does not depend on the support of any country,” he noted.

That being said, the official stated that efforts will continue for an Israeli reconciliation with Riyadh. “The contacts are frequent and the basic picture did not change. The stronger the Western position against Iran is, the less significant their relations with Saudi Arabia will be.”

Meanwhile, Lapid’s office dismissed the official’s remarks, responding, “These are delusional statements. During the period of our government, an aviation agreement was signed with Saudi Arabia and the tripartite security agreement with Saudi Arabia and Egypt.”

Lapid then proceeded to blame Netanyahu for straining relations with Washington, stating, “All of this came to a halt when the most extreme government in Israel’s history was established here, and it became clear to the Saudis that Netanyahu was weak and the Americans stopped listening to him. Apparently, the Italian wine blurred Mr. Netanyahu’s memory.”

Lapid added, “The [Saudi-Iran] agreement is a complete and dangerous failure of the Israeli government’s foreign policy.”

“This is what happens when you deal all day long with legal madness instead of doing what needs to be done vis-à-vis Iran and instead of strengthening relations with the United States.”

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett reinforced Lapid’s views, saying, “The renewal of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran is a serious and dangerous development for Israel, a political victory for Iran, and a fatal blow to the effort to build a regional coalition against Iran. It is a resounding failure of the Netanyahu government, stemming from a combination of diplomatic neglect with general weakness and internal conflict in the country.”

Bennett added, “The countries of the world and the region watch Israel and see a country in conflict, with a dysfunctional government. And so these countries choose a side. The Netanyahu government is a resounding economic, political, and security failure. Every day, its actions endanger the State of Israel.”

Senior opposition member Gideon Saar, who is also a member of the Knesset’s foreign affairs and security committee, tweeted, “Netanyahu promised peace with the Saudis. But eventually [the Saudis] made peace with Iran.”

Chair of the Knesset’s foreign affairs and security committee Yuli Edelstein said that the agreement “is very bad for Israel and for the entire free world,” adding, “The world does not stop while we are busy here with power struggles and clashes — certainly not our worst enemy.”

The news of the China-brokered deal came as Netanyahu was in Rome for his meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Speaking with Italian business people before the publication of the agreement, Netanyahu said, “I think the possibilities will grow beyond imagination if we are successful with another goal that I have, and that is to achieve normalization and peace with Saudi Arabia. One of my central goals is to achieve normalization with Saudi Arabia.”

The Israeli press pointed out that Netanyahu’s optimistic words before the publication of the Iran-Saudi agreement clearly showed he was out of touch with the Saudis’ intention that the Saudi deal showed that Riyadh does not think Israel has a feasible plan for curbing the Iranian nuclear program.

For years, Iran and Israel have been at loggerheads with each other, with Israel being one of the fiercest critics of Iran and its nuclear program. The Israeli government under Netanyahu had protested the 2015 nuclear deal that curtailed the program in exchange for the United States loosening sanctions on the Iranian regime.

In recent years, Israel has stepped up its diplomatic efforts with various Arab states, primarily via the 2019 Abraham Accords that saw Israel mending ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Subsequently, Sudan and Morocco also set up diplomatic relations with Israel.

The New York Times reported that Saudi Arabia has issued its conditions for recognizing Israel, which encompassed a security guarantee from the United States, the development of a civilian nuclear program, and reduced sanctions on U.S. arms sales.

President Biden appeared to express support for the Saudi-Iranian deal in a statement Friday, saying that “Better relations between Israel and their Arab neighbors are better for everybody.” Biden’s comments certainly hold true, but with his administration’s full-fledged support of the Ukraine conflict and reduced clout in the Middle East, it is not surprising if observers conclude that his words are mere rhetoric. After all, better relations between Ukraine and Russia, without further provocation of Russia by a U.S.-led NATO, would also be better for everybody.

Biden Sabotaging U.S. Energy Grid, Warns Expert

The Biden administration’s energy and climate policies are devastating American energy infrastructure and hurting U.S. consumers and the broader economy while doing nothing beneficial for the environment, explained President Frank Lasee of Truth in Energy and Climate in this interview with The New American magazine’s Alex Newman. Lasee, who served in the administration of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and also as president of the Heartland Institute, sounded the alarm about wind and solar “energy,” as well as the electric cars being forced on America by government policy. It does help Communist China, which is a major threat to America, and greedy cronies getting rich off the schemes, though, Lasee said. There are also many useful idiots who treat “green” as a sort of religion. Finally, Lasee breaks down some of the most outrageous propaganda and disinformation being put out by the government and amplified by establishment media.

Biden Limits Arctic Oil Drilling Project

Biden Limits Arctic Oil Drilling Project

BY DAVID KELLY

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/biden-limits-arctic-oil-drilling-project/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

President Biden approved a controversial oil project today in a compromise, a multistep decision affecting the Willow Master Development Plan in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A). The decision reduced the ConocoPhillips Willow project’s drill pads by 40 percent, while also “protecting” up to 16 million acres of land and sea in the U.S. Arctic Ocean from any future oil and gas leasing. 

Since before Biden took office, he has been at war with the oil and coal industries, seeking to reduce if not end their operations in the United States in deference to clean “green energy” wind and solar resources. Today’s decision supposedly was balanced to provide job opportunities and infrastructure for the nearby communities while protecting wildlife and the region’s unspoiled natural environment. It also helped to avoid a potential lawsuit over federal leases that ConocoPhillips has controlled on the NPR-A since 1999. 

The Willow project covers an area roughly the size of the state of Indiana. AP reported:

The project could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day, according to the company — about 1.5% of total U.S. oil production. The project is the largest proposed oil drilling on U.S. public land and the biggest oil field in Alaska in decades. Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said the development could be “one of the biggest, most important resource development projects in our state’s history.”

Today, following Biden’s announcement, the Interior Department (DOI) issued a Record of Decision substantially reducing the size of the Willow project by denying two of the five drill sites proposed by ConocoPhillips, including relinquishing “rights to approximately 68,000 acres of its existing leases in the NPR-A, including approximately 60,000 acres in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area.” The agreement also “reduces the project’s freshwater use and eliminates all infrastructure related to the two rejected drill sites, including approximately 11 miles of roads, 20 miles of pipelines, and 133 acres of gravel, all of which reduces potential impacts to caribou migration and subsistence users.” 

 

BLM.gov

Biden will still have to face the music over the new drilling agreement, as net-zero greenhouse-gas zealots will be greatly disappointed to learn the administration gave in to oil giant ConocoPhillips. “Extracting and using the oil from Willow would produce the equivalent of more than 278 million tons (306 million short tons) of greenhouse gases over the project’s 30-year life, roughly equal to the combined emissions from 2 million passenger cars over the same time period,” AP reported

The Willow agreement didn’t stop the administration from moving forward with their climate-change activism by taking important steps to limit future industrial development in the Beaufort Sea and NPR-A, securing indefinite “protection” to the area. The DOI has proposed a rule, which will be available for public comment in the coming months, to consider additional protections for the more than 13 million acres designated as “Special Areas” in the region. The land was recognized for its importance to wildlife and subsistence users.  

A DOI press release stated: “The rule would limit future oil and gas leasing and industrial development in the Teshekpuk Lake, Utukok Uplands, Colville River, Kasegaluk Lagoon, and Peard Bay Special Areas — places collectively known for their globally significant intact habitat for wildlife, including grizzly and polar bears, caribou, and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds.”  

Adding to the Willow project agreement, the DOI in another announcement said that “the Biden-Harris administration is taking sweeping action to complete protections of the entire U.S. Arctic Ocean from any future oil and gas leasing.” This includes the DOI “preparing new rules to provide maximum protection to millions of acres of lands in the western Arctic….”

 

BLM.gov

In today’s action, according to the DOI, Biden, using his authority under Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, made approximately 2.8 million acres of the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean nearshore in NPR-A indefinitely off limits for future oil and gas leasing. “Today’s withdrawal ensures this important habitat for whales, seals, polar bears, as well as for subsistence purposes, will be protected in perpetuity from extractive development.” 

These announcements and impending actions on controlling oil and gas leasing in the Arctic comprise yet another step in Biden’s goal of adhering to the UN’s Agenda 2030.

To prove Biden’s success in his ongoing climate-change agenda, the DOI closed its press release by stating, “With these actions, President Biden continues to deliver on the most aggressive climate agenda in American history. He has made the United States a magnet for clean energy manufacturing and jobs. He secured record investments in climate resilience and environmental justice. And his economic agenda has put the United States back on track to reach its climate goals for 2030 and 2050, all while reducing America’s reliance on oil and protecting American families from the impact of Putin’s war on global energy markets.” 

Chinese Communist Party Using Political and Biological Warfare on U.S. Warns Frank Gaffney

Frank Gaffney warns that the Chinese Communist Party is already at war with the United States, and they have promulgated this warfare in a variety of techniques, including economic warfare, political warfare, energy warfare, and now, biological warfare. Frank is the Executive Chairman of the Center for Security Policy, with a background in the Defense Department and NATO. China is wreaking havoc on America by attacking critical infrastructure, industrialism, and collecting our private data. Frank discusses the privacy concerns surrounding the infamous “TikTok” app and how it harvests users’ information. The CCP has been amassing power and strength, and perhaps their most useful asset is the man who occupies the Oval Office: Joe Biden.

Get Ready to Stink for Climate Change, Thanks to Biden’s New Washing Machine Rules

Get Ready to Stink for Climate Change, Thanks to Biden’s New Washing Machine Rules

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2023/03/13/get-ready-to-stink-for-climate-change-thanks-to-bidens-new-washing-machine-rules-n1677874;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

“No credible scientific body,” wrote energy and environmental researcher Michael Shellenberger in 2019, “has ever said climate change threatens the collapse of civilization much less the extinction of the human species.” In fact, the whole idea that temperatures are rising to catastrophic levels is based on circular reasoning. But the Biden regime is all in on the climate change myth, and as always, ordinary Americans are the ones who have to pay the price. The latest manifestation of this comes in the form of new regulations for washing machines that make them work less well. Ready to stink to save the planet? You may have no choice.

The Washington Free Beacon reported Monday that Old Joe Biden’s Energy Department “last month proposed new efficiency standards for washing machines that would require new appliances to use considerably less water, all in an effort to ‘confront the global climate crisis.’ Those mandates would force manufacturers to reduce cleaning performance to ensure their machines comply, leading industry giants such as Whirlpool said in public comments on the rule. They’ll also make the appliances more expensive and laundry day a headache—each cycle will take longer, the detergent will cost more, and in the end, the clothes will be less clean, the manufacturers say.” America, welcome to managed decline.

The idea that this is a sacrifice that we all have to make for a green future is preposterous, not only because the planet will not be saved by Americans suffering less efficient washing machines, but because many people are likely to deal with their new, poorly working machines by running the clothes through again. Thus washing clothes will not only take longer because the machines don’t work as well as older machines, but because people will wash their clothes twice. Thus more water will end up being used, and the net benefit to the climate will be less than zero. But all this really isn’t about saving energy anyway.

Washing machine manufacturers are apparently already implementing the Biden regime’s new regulations. The Free Beacon recounts that a firefighter in Cincinnati “bought a high-efficiency Whirlpool washing machine” but quickly discovered that “high efficiency” in 2023 doesn’t mean what it did even just a few years ago. He “came to regret the decision almost immediately,” because “the machine used less water,” in fact, so much less that his work clothes didn’t end up clean. “His colleagues at the firehouse quickly took notice. ‘I walked past my guys and they say, “Dude, you stink!” I smelled myself, and yeah, that’s me stinking.’” Truer words have rarely been spoken: “Dude, you stink!” could be the epitaph of the entire Biden administration.

Washing machines aren’t the only appliances that Biden’s handlers have targeted in their never-ending quest to make Americans’ lives miserable. The Free Beacon noted that “last month, the Energy Department published an analysis of its proposed cooking appliance efficiency regulations, which it found would effectively ban half of all gas stoves on the U.S. market from being sold.” That one gained widespread public notice and caused some controversy, but hardly anyone has noticed that “the department has also proposed new efficiency standards for refrigerators, which could come into effect in 2027.” So you’re going to be standing there in your stinking, half-washed clothes, looking into your refrigerator and seeing your spoiled meat and melted ice cream, courtesy of your green fridge that doesn’t keep anything cold.

The Energy Department, firmly committed to the climate mythology, actually wants us to believe that descending to Third-World living standards will change the climate sufficiently to allow for the continued existence of human life on this planet: “Collectively these energy efficiency actions … support President Biden’s ambitious clean energy agenda to combat the climate crisis.” Yeah, and if we just weigh down the accused witches with heavy stones and lower them into this pool of water, the ones who aren’t really witches will miraculously be prevented from sinking.

Related: Kamala Harris to Announce Plans to Help Americans Heat Their Homes by Burning Billions in Cash

Biden’s handlers are playing the usual shell game, trying to hoodwink Americans into thinking that these new, less efficient appliances will be just as good as the old ones that actually worked. The Energy Department admitted that “maintaining acceptable cleaning performance can be more difficult as energy and water levels are reduced,” but according to the Free Beacon, “it expressed confidence that Whirlpool and other appliance manufacturers can comply with its regulations without sacrificing stain removal and other performance standards.” Yeah, sure they can. What could be easier than reducing one’s resources and yet producing the same result?

In this, as in so much else regarding the Biden regime, you have to wonder: do they really believe their own nonsense, or do they just want to reduce America to Third-World status to satisfy some socialist, globalist imperative?

The Biden Economy Is Falling Apart, Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

BY STEPHEN GREEN

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2023/03/13/the-biden-economy-is-falling-apart-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-n1677787;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

The Biden Economy — hailed Monday morning by Presidentish Joe Biden as “strong” — seems like it’s falling apart, everything, everywhere all at once. NYSE halted trading of Charles Schwab, whose shares fell by more than 20%, and even a few Etsy sellers have been impacted by the fallout of Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) collapse.

Schwab’s fall was the firm’s “most ever on an intraday-basis,” even as company execs assured investors in a press release that “Schwab’s long-standing reputation as a safe port in a storm remains intact.”

Overall, trading of shares in over 30 banks was halted on Wall Street Monday morning, as the entire sector suddenly looks like risk investors aren’t willing to take. Almost everything banking was down, down, down in pre-market trades, which MarketWatch described as “panic-like activity.”

“Among some of those that have already been halted at least twice,” MarketWatch reported, “shares of Western Alliance Bancorp WAL, -51.05% plummeted 78.2%, Regions Financial Corp. RF, -5.33% sank 15.6%, First Republic Bank FRC, -64.05% plunged 65.5%, Comerica Inc. CMA, -21.24% tumbled 39.4% and PacWest Bancorp. PACW, -25.18% took a 47.7% dive.”

Signature Bank, “a key financial institution for the cryptocurrency industry,” according to the New York Post, was shut down on Sunday over a “similar systemic risk” to SVB.

SVB and Signature are the second-and third-largest bank failures in U.S. history, respectively, with combined assets in excess of $300 billion. Depositors will be made whole, even deposits greater than the $250,000 covered by FDIC insurance. “Federal Reserve also said it is creating a new Bank Term Funding Program aimed at safeguarding institutions affected by the market instability of the SVB failure,” according to CNBC.

Investment holdings at SVB, however, are wiped out. “When the risk didn’t pay off, investors lose their money. That’s how capitalism works,” Biden said in his national address on Monday.

That’s what happened with Lehman Brothers, too, in 2008, before bigger faults were discovered and Washington went into Bailout All the Things Mode. This new crisis might just be getting started.

What went wrong? In a word: Inflation. In a few more words: The higher interest rates needed to combat inflation smashed the cheap-money expectations that SVB’s bond portfolios required. Other sectors of the economy that have become addicted to historically low-interest rates include high-tech, particularly startup firms, and the housing market.

“I would be surprised if there weren’t other things that break. Maybe not directly related to the problems of SVB, but to some degree, we’re already seeing breakage in terms of things like weakness in the housing market, and other areas that are clearly in recession in the economy, even if we’re not in an overall recession,” warned Schwab’s chief investment strategist, Liz Ann Sonders, on Monday.

It’s been one helluva morning, and that’s just in the banking sector. Looks like it’s time to haul out the Chart of Doom that surfaced on the internet back in 2008.

Biden Economy

Laugh. It beats crying — unless you’re one of those Etsy sellers who hasn’t been paid in days.

On Sunday, Etsy reported that “a small group of sellers… had their payments delayed on Friday” due to impacts from SVB’s implosion. “We expect we will be able to begin processing these payments as soon as tomorrow, March 13,” but as of this writing, there haven’t been any updates. Some sellers have been forced to put their stores in “vacation mode” because, without any money coming in, they can’t afford to pay for shipping on wares going out to customers.

So it isn’t just the big players getting hurt in the Biden economy, but there could be worse to come.

Inflation remains stubbornly high, due in large part to the Fed being both slow and timid in its rate hikes. We have a dismal 1981 inflation rate (properly figured) and a good-times 1995 Federal funds rate. Something’s gotta give.

Nevertheless, Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in an investor’s letter on Sunday that “we no longer expect the FOMC to deliver a rate hike at its March 22 meeting with considerable uncertainty about the path beyond March.” If the problems we’re seeing in the banking system take a toll on consumer and investor confidence, then the Fed will do what it always does in that situation: easy money, baby!

But easy money during an inflationary period just adds fuel to the fire.

“We’ve made strong economic progress in the past two years,” Biden said Monday. The RNC Twitter account responded with a few inconvenient truths: “When Biden took office, inflation was at 1.4% and gas was $2.39/gal. Today, inflation is at 6.4% and gas is $3.47/gal.”

And that was before the big bills started coming due for three years spent shutting down and re-regulating the economy while printing up trillions in funny money.

I could say “I told you so,” gentle reader, but you were telling me, too.